14006/Thanksgiving with Olympians

Thanksgiving with Olympians
Date of Scene:	03 December 2021
Location:	Eastchester, The Bronx
Synopsis:	Alexander and Natasha recover after Thanksgiving with friends and family.
Cast of Characters:	Phobos, Black Widow (Romanoff)

---

Phobos has posed:
    The last of the handful of people who had visited for the Turkey Holiday had finally left there almost at ten at night. It had taken some doing, to be fair. Alexander's father lingered and snooped and asked various questions, which often led to conversations starting up again that had apparently been dropped some time ago. Old arguments not just with son, but with Natasha as well.
    Then, of course, there was the other clash of personalities between some of the visitors which made for some tension during the evening. But thankfully... turkey solves all woes.
    Just afterward, with people out the door, one must still deal with the aftermath. Which right now is just the two of them wandering around the house, picking stuff up, and tossing dirty dishes into the sink.
    "This was crazy," Alexander's voice is heard from the living room as he scoops up errant drinks here and there. "Glad we went with fancy schmancy disposable plates and all. Would hate to wash all this stuff."

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
How many beer bottles can a single person carry at once? Natasha is testing the theory as she hooks the neck of a bottle between each of her fingers on her left hand. She has a couple of plates in her left.

"I know people prefer to do the traditional fancy setup. Yet now, I truly appreciate your suggestion we make things easier on ourselves." THe bottles are dropped into the recycling bin. The trash goes in the correct one as well.

"I didn't think that many of your family would show up. It was...educational in that aspect."

She grins as she moves over to slip an arm around his waist, standing in tiptoe to try and steal a quick kiss. "I think it was a wonderful day though. Thank you."

Phobos has posed:
    It's a kiss en passant, a light thing and coupled with a second smooch to the top of her head since it's right there. But he's still moving around gathering plates and once he's in the kitchen he pulls open the cabinet under the sink to pull out the garbage and scrape some leftovers into it. "Very few of them got the whole 'what are you thankful for' thing, but yeah..."
    He then steps to the side, pulling open the refrigerator door and just /looking/ at it all as he frowns. "We have... like way too many leftovers." Which is true, as the young Olympian stands there in his socks and jeans with a black t-shirt over his chest, perhaps a little tight, definitely not the way he usually wears it so loose. Perhaps she's rubbing off on his fashion sense that way.
    "I do not think my green bean casserole went over well, nobody took some home."

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
"Which leaves more for us. For some reason, the sides are always better as leftovers." It's one of those weird things that makes no sense in the world. They are delicious the day of but sweet potato and green bean casseroles were to die for the day after.

Or maybe she was biased.

"The turkey is good as a leftover but best day of. Yet some of the sides, you just need to make extra so you have the leftovers." Not that she generally cooked for holidays. She usually was working. This was the first Thanksgiving in a while she'd had off entirely.

"I think your father enjoyed it. He didn't seem upset we have basically taken over one of his houses. And everything in it." Like those t-shirts.

Phobos has posed:
    "He probably has forgotten," Alexander says then closes the fridge, taking a step to the side and leaning against the counter. Clearly he's slacking as she continues to clean a bit, but he's just lounging there hands in his pockets and that smile on his handsome features.
    "If he knew he'd have given us a hard time about paying rent or helping him get back his investment. Sometimes he can be so skinflinty." Which might not entirely be the truth, but then again Alexander has a unique experience with the man, or perhaps hasn't forgiven the time he didn't get the legos he wanted for Christmas when he was five.
    "Though yah, this could be a habit I suppose. Also I think Sharon kept asking you for coffee if only to be a pill and make you be all hostess like."
    Which is a mild form of vengeance from her perhaps.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
"She's the one that will deal with the physical consequences of it for the rest of the night," Natasha said with a faint laugh as she brought the last of the plates from the living area. Most of the guests had cleaned up after themselves, outside beer bottles. Seemed she could carry five of those at one time in one hand. Not that there was a test coming later or anything. Just interesting to know.

"I really didn't mind though. It was something I never really had or did. If that makes sense? Guessing it was the same for you?"

Phobos has posed:
    "Did you..." Alex asks as he gives Natasha a side-eye, since really he wouldn't put it past her to mildly drug the coffee a little out of reprisal for the hassle Sharon put her through.
    But then he chuckles and shakes his head, "Yah it was sort of... like I felt like it was a thing that I should do. Or know how to do. To key into those traditions and all." He pushes off of the counter and continues to putter around idly, though less cleaning and more rearranging things back to where they should be since they had to move a bunch of chairs for the table. He nudges the sofa into place, then one of the end tables.
    I also ate way too much, I'm stuffed." He lightly thump thumps his belly, and though it doesn't show it he says, "Look, I'm all fat now."

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
"I refuse to answer that not-quite-asked question," Natasha replied with a smirk. She moved back into the main room and looked around a bit, making sure she didn't miss anything. Beer bottle on the windowsill. Why was it there? There wasn't even a seat near there! She added it to the collection in the bin under the sink. Which was full now and needed to go outside until collection day.

At mention of his status, she looked over to his stomach. "I believe we may define that term differently. You are not even close to fat. Though you are likely full because that was a lot of food. I feel the same way. Seems sitting and letting the tryptophan do it's thing might be nice."

Phobos has posed:
    A chortle is given as Alexander shakes his head, finishing nudging and shifting the furniture around with bumps of his hips. Now, with some semblance of completion and normalcy returned to their home, Alex did what so many other people were doing right then and there during the evening of Thanksgiving...
    And that was dropping onto the couch and groaning. "Nope, totally fat, gonna have to roll me around wherever we go. This is your life now." That said he curls up and then reaches out with his be stockinged foot with toes parting as he triiiies to grab the edge of the comforter that's just out of reach just with his toes...
    He makes a few passes at it, failing each time, until finally he gets a hold of it and pulls it up over his chest.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
She could have helped. She really could have. But watching his continued efforts to get that comforter was too amusing as she watched from the kitchen area. She had been finishing up a couple of things there but got distracted at the sight.

Finally she moves to the couch as well, settling onto the cushion next to him and adjusting the comforter so she got some coverage as well. Though she did slip out a foot to capture the remote from the coffee table with her toes. First try.

She pulled it under the covers and, after a bit of shifting around, brought up her arm with the remote in hand.

"I refuse to roll you around. You will just stay in one place and die of starvation."

Phobos has posed:
    "Harsh," Alexander says then adds, "But fair."
    There's a token kerfluffle as he tries to get the remote control from her but likely is defeated by the ever so clever move it slightly out of range strategy. So he hunkers down and settles in for whatever she wants to watch. "I'll remember this though, you know. Some day it'll be like the trend to get your earlobes enlarged and just one nostril lengthened and being the slave to fashion you are you'll ask me, 'do you think I'm still pretty?' And I'll shake my head and be all, 'no babe, sorry. You're outta here. To the curb.' Boot."
    Though as he says those horrible mean things he's slowly pulling the comforter up over his chin until the last word he's mostly hidden save for those hazel eyes dancing with amusement.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
"As I have avoided having multiple piercings or tattoos despite the world thinking they are the norm, I think I'll be safe from that fate. Not going to be enlarging or lengthening anything."

She gave a mock shudder at the very thought of what he was describing. The tv was turned on and it seemed most channels were airing football tames. Natasha frowned a bit and began clicking until she came across the bane of the season. A Christmas special. This one was the Grinch Who Stole Christmas, the original animated version. She stopped there, set the remote down on her lap (which gave him an opening if he wanted to grab it and change the selection), then leaned her head on his shoulder. "Though I will need to workout extra to recover from that meal."

Phobos has posed:
    "Don't think about that," Alexander says as he rests his cheek on the top of her head, lying there and curled up close. "Tonight we are just lazy slackers relaxing and recovering and taking long deep breaths after all the crazy." Which really it had been its own slice of madness.
    He does slip his arm around behind her and pull her closer, the other arm helping her draw her legs up so they're comfy together. Though he crinkles his nose as he watches the show and says, "You have cold feet."

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
"I do."

Being snuggled against him seems the perfect ending to what was, all-in-all, a good day. There had been no brawls that had to be broken up. Even a lack of actually high level arguing.

Maybe they should make this a thing for holidays? Course, that would require a lot of cooking every single time. They'd have to talk about that idea later. For now, she was content.

"Which is why I have you." And she put those feet right on his legs to start warming them up.

Phobos has posed:
    A chortles comes from him as he pulls the comforter in to tuck it under her feet and gives a squeeze to hold it closer. So hopefully that should help, not even to mention that her paramour is a furnace when it comes down to it, and under a cover... so very toasty.
    "Do we have any plans for Christmas?" He asks sidelong toward her, eyebrows lifting as he watches the Grinch sneaking around Hooville. He cuddles in closer with his head resting on that red mop of her hair, blowing a few puffs of air over her bangs as one or two stick up into his face.
    "Should get a tree at least."

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
"Christmas?"

They hadn't really talked about this subject and she was a little surprised. Neither of them was extremely religious in the Christian faith. After all, he was a god himself so it was kind of hard to wrap one's head around. Natasha had been raised without religion though she knew what she must about them for cover when necessary. There had been more holiday related things as she had come to the hero side of the fence. The Avengers enjoyed their celebrations. SHIELD did as well. But they weren't the same as having those celebrations with family.

She shifted her head so she could look up at him, dislodging his comfortable position in the process. "A tree. Some decorations maybe? Are you thinking small or going insane? We aren't going to end up in the press for the number of exterior lights, right?"

Phobos has posed:
    Laughing a little, "Nothing too crazy, just interior. Outside nah. Just... I dunno, not exactly my faith as it were. But I still have fond memories of the time of the year, like it didn't matter that my family was all Greco-Roman inclined. Was just nice to be involved with that stuff."
    Then there's a small shrug. "Just a thought." Then he snuggles down into the cover again and grins a touch as he murmurs, "Besides I was gonna make you do all the work while I direct you. Since clearly I have more experience with it, so I'm the boss."

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
"Phew." At the fact they are talking interior. Her mind is wandering to possibilities as she glances around the room. Her mind want to the banister and the thought of garland along it made her smile a little.

Which faded as he continued and she shook her head. "Oh hell no. You are not going to be making me do all the work. You are a participant or we will just sit here with the same four walls and no festive Christmas spirit."

Phobos has posed:
    She can feel his chest vibrate as he stifles a laugh at her reaction, then at a glance she'll see him biting his lower lip, giggling under his breath but he nuzzles her cheek a little. "Ok fiiiiine, I suppose I'll help. A little." But he lifts a hand from beneath the cover and brushes fingertips lightly across her cheek. "But hey. Happy Thanksgiving, Natasha."
    As he says that his eyes soften a little, then he steals another soft kiss. Just gentle upon her lips even as in the background the Grinch smiles oh so wickedly.