xp_logs | Log: Nathan and Jane, Thanksgiving Day fluff (Reply)

Jane runs into Nathan on the way to the art room immediately after this log and drags him along with her to make decorations. Pure fluff.

Jane headed over to the art room, her talk with Angelo having cheered her up considerably. She was going to make some decorations for the dinner. Add some cheer to the mansion. Some paper turkeys for the walls, a cornocopia, maybe some streamers, and special notes of thanks for everyone at the table? Hmmm.

Nathan, heading up from the medlab, decided to cut through the classroom wing on his way back upstairs. He'd left a book in the Hindi classroom that he wanted to look at this weekend. Bella, draped over his shoulder, was cooing softly. He had taken her down to the medlab to cheer Amanda up. Hadn't been a smashing success, but he had gotten a smile out of her.

Jane rounded a corner and almost ran into Nathan. "Woopsie!" She steadied herself by grabbing his arm and then let go so she wouldn't dislodge Bella. "Oh, hi Nathan! Sorry about that. How is Amanda doing?"

Nathan straightened, smiling without thinking at Jane, despite the various worries chasing each other around in his mind. "Better," he said firmly. "She's resting, so she's healing. It's what she needs to do."

"Yeah." Jane sighed. It sucked that her friends were always being hurt. But! She could always try to help, to put a smile on their faces. Thus the decorations. Speaking of which... "Nathan! You're not doing anything right now, right? Good. Come help me make Thanksgiving decorations!" She grabbed his hand and started pulling him along with her towards the art room.

"Whee!" Bella chirped happily, holding onto Nathan's shoulder firmly.

"Thanksgiving decorations?" Nathan asked, sounding a bit bewildered. "What did you have in mind? And I'm not very, uh, crafty, Janie..."

Jane rolled her eyes. "If you can wield a gun, then you can wield a glue-stick, Nathan." She glanced back at him. "And Bella wants to, don't you, darling? C'mon, it'll be fun! And I think it will cheer everyone up, really I do."

Nathan chuckled softly, letting himself be pulled along. He, along with most of the rest of the population of the mansion, had a very hard time saying no to Jane. "I'll just follow your lead, then," he said lightly.

"Whee! Fun!" Bella added.

"Yay!" They reached the art room. Jane turned on the lights and pulled up the shades, then went rummaging around in the various drawers and cabinets. Some sparkly pipecleaners caught her eye. "Here we go! Here, you and Bella make some pretties out of these," she said, handing him a handfull of metalic gold and red and orange and yellow pipecleaners, "and I'll go find some other stuff." She skipped off to look in another drawer.

Pretties. Staring rather blankly at the pipecleaners, Nathan sat down at one of the big tables. Bella immediately hopped down off his shoulder and grabbed at one of the golden pipecleaners, cackling.

"Mine! Pretty!"

Jane finally found the construction paper and pulled it out. She glanced over her shoulder at Nathan. "She won't try to eat that, right?"

"She may." Nathan tried to take it away from her, experimentally, and Bella immediately dropped it and tried to bite him. "Stop that!" He didn't not grab the pipecleaner when she let go of it, though.

Jane laughed. That bird had him wrapped around her little claws. "Okay, you, get to work on those pretties!" she ordered him. For herself, she started cutting up the paper.

He really had no clue what he was supposed to do with them. Very tentatively, he started to braid some of the different colors together. Bella kept grabbing at the extras, ignoring his growled warnings. Maybe he could make... a vase, maybe? And Jane was cutting paper. Paper flowers? Oh, he felt like an idiot.

Jane chattered away as she cut up the paper. "I'm going to make paper turkeys for the walls. I don't really know much about turkeys, but they're birds, so they probably look like Bella, except fatter, right? And brown and stuff. I've seen pictures. And we'll hang your pretties from the chairs, so make them nice! Or maybe we should put them on the table? I dunno, how much are Jamie and Rahne cooking, anyway? The table might be too full. But I want to put a cornocopia on the table, surely it won't be too full for that! Do you know how to make a cornocopia? Maybe you can use the pipecleaners. I dunno."

Not a vase, then. "I think I could give it my best shot," Nathan said, pulling more of the pipecleaners away from Bella, who shrieked at him.

"MINE! Bad Nate!"

"Yes, I know. I'm very, very bad." Nathan gave Jane a wry grin. "Turkeys are much better-tempered than Bella."

"Really? I've never met a turkey. I don't know why one would want to cross the road, either, although I've been asked several times. But they taste good!"

She was impossibly cute. She really was. Bella lost interest in the pipecleaners and wandered around the table to Jane, trilling.

"Snipsnip! Play? Snipsnip!" The bird darted forward, grabbing at a piece of scrap paper and then shredding it happily.

"Play later, silly birdy! Actually, keep doing that" she said, addressing Bella, "we'll use the shredded paper to fill out the cornocopia. How is it coming, Nathan?"

"It's, uh, coming?" he offered, and made a face at the cornucopia. It really wasn't that hard a shape to achieve... Casting a very furtive look at Jane, who was deeply engrossed in cutting out the pieces for her paper turkey, Nathan set the pipecleaners down and concentrated. They unwound themselves, rising into the air and into a horn-shape. Hmm. Maybe the braiding would work after all, he thought, trying to figure out how to join them together.

"Good, good. This is going to be great!! My first real Thanksgiving! I just hope we finish the decorations in time, dinner is soon. Angelo should be along to help out in a bit, too, but I still think we're cutting it close."

Nathan caught himself smiling again. "We'll get it done," he told her. "And I'll let everyone know you were the brains behind the operation."

She stuck her tongue out at him and then smiled. She was glad to have friends like Nathan, they made her world so much brighter. She had a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.