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Post by Megan on Nov 9, 2017 22:42:04 GMT -5
Megan smiled in a particularly pained way.
The song on the radio seemed to end, but then immediately struck up again in a slightly lower key. This time, a new singer was bragging, by contrast, of his preference for heat. This changed her expression for the better; she pressed her lips together, trying to hide her smile again,
“Hey. Hey Thor.”
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Post by Thor on Nov 9, 2017 22:42:53 GMT -5
"Hm?"
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Post by Megan on Nov 9, 2017 22:47:28 GMT -5
She held up her hands, each fingertip ablaze, and waggled them, rolling her shoulders in a sort of discount Fosse way as she started singing along with the radio.
“He’s mister green Christmas, he’s mister sun, he’s mister heat blister, he’s mister hundred and one...”
The flames danced over the backs of her hands without hitting her sleeves- she’d had a lot of time to practice lately, after all.
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Post by Thor on Nov 9, 2017 22:48:46 GMT -5
Thor chuckled, trying to watch her while keeping his eye on the road.
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Post by Megan on Nov 9, 2017 22:56:24 GMT -5
“Sorry,” she said, pulling the fire back into her palms. “Hey, maybe we could do this as a double act, me and your brother.”
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Post by Thor on Nov 9, 2017 23:13:46 GMT -5
"Haha. Good luck."
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Post by Megan on Nov 10, 2017 11:43:13 GMT -5
The tree lot wasn't far from the bridge- in fact, it had been set up partially beneath one of the ramps up to it, probably to give the management an excuse to spread fairy lights overhead even by day. For all that the surroundings were grungy, effort had been made to make it seem as magical as possible, which wasn't much, but it was charming in its own kitschy way. A toasted nut vendor had set up just inside the lot, and Megan bought a packet of freshly cinnamon toasted coconut meat to eat while they inspected the trees.
"I know you don't know much about Christmas, but I'm going to trust your opinion on trees," she teased. "I would prefer one with a decent trunk we can use after the season for firewood so we don't have to just throw it out, but you'll have to tell me which one looks the most impressive by your hall-decorating standards."
It smelled wonderfully piney, enough to overwhelm the faint saltwater smell from the river and the exhaust from the bridge, mingled with the cinnamon praline aroma from the toasted coconut. Megan's fit of melancholy seemed to have passed, and she was beaming up at him, a little pink-faced, every so often.
The only thing really throwing off the ambiance was that, for all the radio in the car had provided an onslaught of Christmas music, the lot manager in his booth was bobbing his head to Journey.
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Post by Thor on Nov 10, 2017 20:39:50 GMT -5
"Right. O-K," Thor said agreeably, having had no input in hall-decorating at any point in time, and in fact having teased his brother Loki for that sort of thing in the past, which was one of the many anecdotes from growing up in Asgard he would have found funny to recount until recently. He'd better really put some effort into it, then, he thought, as they wandered around and he occasionally looked at Megan, who seemed to watch him expectantly, with a little confident smile.
At what seemed to be the best moment in time to do so, he stopped, glanced around and settled upon the tallest of the symmetrical trees in their vicinity, with a decently thick enough trunk to show he had listened to her, and squinted a bit and pointed at it. "Thhhat one."
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Post by Megan on Nov 10, 2017 20:59:22 GMT -5
Megan alerted the attendant, who managed to summon a second seemingly from nowhere, and between the two of them they got the tree in the wrapping chute while she watched.
"This was almost too easy," she said. "Thor- Thor, I don't want to go home yet."
She grabbed his arm excitedly.
"Let's go do something- the tree will be okay on the jeep for a while-"
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Post by Thor on Nov 10, 2017 21:25:31 GMT -5
"What do you want to do?"
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Post by Megan on Nov 10, 2017 21:44:38 GMT -5
"I want to- I don't know. I want to do dumb tourist crap or, or something. I want to go see Santa at Macy's or the tree at Rockefeller Center. I want to go on the ferry-"
She hugged his arm a little.
"I want to drive around Queens until we get lost looking at Christmas lights in people's yards- I want to just do normal holiday things, like somebody with a normal life-"
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Post by Thor on Nov 10, 2017 21:47:21 GMT -5
"Uh, you want to do all of those things?"
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Post by Megan on Nov 10, 2017 21:49:02 GMT -5
She beamed without meaning to.
“How up to getting lost do you feel?”
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Post by Thor on Nov 10, 2017 21:50:46 GMT -5
Centuries of being the first to rush into anything were hard to shake off, even in a strange land. Thor smirked off into the evergreen distance. "Well, he who knows himself is never truly lost, even if he does not know his whereabouts..."
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Post by Megan on Nov 10, 2017 21:53:01 GMT -5
"We should get more gas," she cautioned him. "But also hot chocolate!"
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