Christmas Time Part 1

Marilyn awoke on the 24th of December as she usually did; late and in Jake's arms- or rather, cuddled up to Jake, holding one of his arms around her in a sleep-fueled attempt to keep him from getting up. In fairness, his resistence was more playful than anything else, and it always brought a smile to her lips when he relented and let himself be pulled in to another kiss and another cuddle.

This morning was no difference, "Merry Christmas, Jake," she murmured, eyes still closed but awakening, "For my culture, anyhow." Mari added in afterthought, rolling onto her back and rubbing her eyes to wake up more. Taking a deep breath she opened her eyes with what she hoped wasn't a too disgruntled expression.

Marilyn didn't like Christmas. She could no longer associate anything pleasant with the holiday and now that she'd fought so with her grandparents she wouldn't be spending Christmas with them either. Since her birthday Gwen had written, formally apologizing to both her and Jake and saying that she was still trying to get Evan to come around, that Marilyns happiness came first and that she had no reservations against Jake. But also that coming around the house wouldn't be wise now. Not, yet.

Marilyn had been overwhelmed with mixed feelings; relief that she shared with Jake, that Gwen accepted him, but also dread and a terrible knot in her stomach that Evan was still shutting everyone out. Gwen was openly appalled at his behavior and accused him of abandoning her when she needed them so much still, but this Marilyn didn't know about. She simply dreaded the oncoming holiday and the inevitable displays of family affection that would be all over London, leaving her holed up in her flat, unable to properly cope with them.

She'd gotten gifts for the Newburys, despite not telling Jake for sure if she'd join him or not, but giving him very specific orders to give them her gifts when she wasn't there. That little cause of anxiety she very much wanted to avoid. But there were good things, she supposed, Jake was spending the day with her, they'd picked up a tree for the flat and some decorations so they'd be doing that, and they also wanted to try baking christmas cookies despite limited kitchen abilities on both parts. It would be fun, Jake had said, so Marilyn just went along with it. There were worse things, she thought with a smile as she stretched her legs along the bed.

"Slept great." she murmered, kissing him back and playfully swatting at him as he teased her about her sleeping habits, missing because she still didn't want to open her eyes. "I'll see you in ten, no going back to sleep!" A soft groan was her only response as she sighed and crawled out of bed, fixing her hair into a half-updo with a pink bow and slipping on a comfortable dress and slippers, walking into the kitchen with a creased brow, following the rather cheerful christmas music that was blaring through the apartment and raised an eyebrow at Jake, who was singing along to 'All I want for Christmas'.

"You're so cheesy," she grinned, pushing her sleeves up to her elbows, the glint of her bracelet catching the sunlight, and hopping up to sit on the counter, applying her nail polish after leaning down for a kiss, quickly magically drying it and setting the bottle down and looking at him from where she sat, swinging her legs slightly.

(Mari)

Smiling as he sang to her Marilyn rolled her eyes, but enjoyed the kiss happily, trying to keep him there but unsuccessfully, as he had to finish breakfast. Which consisted of breakfast rolls that, while delicious, were also messy. Marilyn being the lady she was flicked her wand to levitate napkins, a knife and fork and proceeded to enjoy her breakfast in a cleanly manner, still sat on the counter.

The witch did have to set it down to laugh at Jake's muffled praise of the food. It was very good, indeed, but of course Marilyn could only eat half. Chuckling at Jake's messy face she pulled him closer, napkin in hand, "Come here, you big goof." Marilyn dabbed at the egg on the corner of his mouth and then 'cleaned' his bottom lip with her tongue. "There, much better." The witch chuckled, taking a drink from her glass but keeping Jake where he was with her legs.

It was so difficult to be in a bad mood or grumpy when Jake was like this, his joy was simply contagious. Speaking of grumpy...

"Jagger!" she called, the bear of a dog happily trotting in, "Close your eye, love." Jagger stared unblinking,"Oh nothing's going to happen to be if you close it for a second, come on." The dog complied and Marilyn accio'd his gift. A grumpy cat doll with a red bow around the neck, holding it out for him she told him to open his eyes, "Something to play with when we're busy today, happy christmas, boy." Jagger lit up and nuzzled against her waist on the counter before carrying off his new toy gently to his spot on the couch.

"Are you going to eat that?"

"Nope, but it was great." she kissed his cheek, "Thank you, my master chef." the witch teased lightly, but genuinly smiling, meaning the compliment. Jake was certainly better at cooking than she was, Marilyn had to admit that to be honest, he also seemed to like it more than she did. So that would probably be a contributing factor towards the differences in their domestic capabilities.

Kissing the top of his head when he pulled her close Marilyn gently lifted his chin with two fingers to give him a soft, slow kiss. "Tree first, or baking?" Mari thought for a moment, her hands playing through his hair as she mulled it over, "Hmm...tree. Tree first. Haven't done that in years." she remarked, kissing him again, her legs still not letting him go though, enjoying the embrace too much to go just yet.

"You've got to let go to decorate the tree though."

"Mhm." The witch kissed him back and let him set her back on her feet, smiling up at him before looking at the boxes of decoration, "Do whatever you like, really, like I said I haven't done this in ages. I think the lights go first and then the ornaments." she remarked, bending over to fish out a string of lights out of the box and trying not to get tangled in them, handing him half and starting to wind it up the tree, letting him do the top because he was, slightly, taller.

Decorating the tree was fun, even Marilyn was swaying slightly to the christmas music, tucking the lights in and eventually adding little dark green and gold ornaments, the couple exchanging kisses here and there. And when the garlands were fished out Marilyn had used a red one to pull over Jakes head to pull him closer and plant a sweet kiss on his lips. Which was also a great photo opportunity so she flicked her wand towards the camera on the table so it would take pictures of them, laughing and kissing and fooling around with the decorations. Creating happy memories.

The small, sweet kisses turned into one long one and Mari heard the camera click a few times, sighing happily, foreheads close together, smirking at his mumbled words and humming contently, pressing a last kiss to his lips before they finished off the tree, cuddling up to him when they admired their work.
"Happy Christmas."

"Feliz Navidad," she murmured, smiling at the kiss he pressed to her forehead, nodding in answer to his question when they walked up to the kitchen, Marilyn one step ahead, perched on her seat on the countertop flicking through the cookbook. "Hmm, gingerbread men?" she asked with a grin. "We'll need to make frosting, too, ah there's a recipe here for that, too."

"I can start on the icing and then help you with what still needs doing, how's that sound?" Marilyn grinned and gathered the ingredients to make different colours of frosting, making one bowl dark green, dark red and white frosting. Luckily, it didn't take much skill to make frosting, nor much time, so soon the witch had three bowls of frosting, taste testing one on the tip of her finger and mhm'ing at the sweetness.

'It's not unusual' starting to play on the radio and Marilyn danced around to it, still holding one of the frosting bowls in her hand, taking some on another finger and sneaking up on Jake, dabbing it on his nose and laughing at how cute it looked, slowly but playfully backing away.

"You'll lose!"

"I never!" She laughed, letting him move to tidy, not letting the bowl out of her hand. What took her by surprise was the flour attack, well, 'took her by surprise' she could see him moving for it but a)she was holding the bowl she didn't want to drop and b) there'd be no plausible explanation for her quick reaction. So the white powder collided with her chest with a squeak, dusting her neck and shoulders as well.

Quick to fight back she grabbed a handful of sugar and throwing it into his hair, grabbing a spoon and flicking red icing at him, laughing and trying to evade his antics until, to save icing, she made a dash for the sink to splash him, semi-successfully, since she succeeded in turning the water on but he caught up to her and she ended up splashing them both.

Another shriek of laughter left the witch as her boyfriend pinned her to the sink, and the baking soda reacted with the water and started foaming in her hair and her dress and she decided to hold him close as well to get some of the foam on him, laughing too hard to want to do much else and also to keep herself from slipping in the mess they'd made.

"You win!"
"I always do," Marilyn chuckled fondly, wiping some flour from her face with a kitchen towel before walking up to him and gently wiping across his mouth before kissing him deeply, her hands resting where his chest and shoulders met, gently massaging him. "You could win a wet Tshirt contest" she murmured. Of course, she couldn't really talk, her dress was light pink and clinging to her, not much better. But the witch could still appreciate the view, always did.