[PRP] Eve of the Holiday

[Blood_Goddess]

It was Christmas eve, that fact was hard to miss for most people, but it would be especially obvious to someone who had taken up a temporary service of running personal packages for fellow members.
Jerome's team had been one of the few to volunteer to take on Christmas gifts from team mates who had friends or family at the outposts around the island.
It didn't take the teams very long either, not when they had the jobs split up pretty perfectly, so by the time Jerome had returned to the base, he still had time to relax before Zacharie had asked to come over and visit.

Jerome's room was plain, with a few personal belongings that he had managed to gather since they had moved in. what he missed most was the windows, it was snowing pretty heavily outside, and Jerome found himself wishing he could watch that from the comfort of his room and his gathered pokemon, rather than a cold metal wall.

"Jingle bells jingle bells jingle all th' way!" Tremain was singing absently, swaying back and forth to let the light jingling of his crystal body accentuate his song. drifting around and over the long bowed head of the team's water type, the massive mutated Feraligatr hissing lowly and watching the joyful little legendary flop onto her head and roll down it like a slide, only to float up and repeat the action.

Bro- not seeming interested in anything at all lounged on Jerome's bed with a remote in his hand, head propped up on his arm and flipping through the channels. only pausing when he saw something interested or Boss voiced any interest in what was playing.  

[insidiousEnigma]

He'd had never really been a big fan of holidays.
They were meant to be spent with family. Opening gifts and enjoying big, tasty meals and all of the stuff that Christmas specials were made of.
Zacharie more often then not spent them in the oppressive silence of the apartment when his parents deigned to come home or left alone entirely.
But this year...he had family. Family that actually wanted to spend time with him. Family that he was very excited to be with.

With those rather sappy thoughts in mind, the teen shuffled as quickly as he could with his arms full of various shaped boxes towards his best friend's room. He'd spent quite a lot of time thinking about what to get Jerome and his pokemon for Christmas but he was fairly certain that the group would enjoy his purchases. "Jerome." He called when he stood just outside the door, kicking the door gently since he couldn't knock normally. "I would appreciate it if you opened the door...my arms are a bit full." He could only pray that the older man was actually in there since he wasn't entirely sure how much longer he could hold all of this.  

[Blood_Goddess]

A few moments of silence after Zacharie's request and kick at the door, the younger grunt would find the door sliding open, and the lead frame of the darker man standing just inside the doorway.
Contrasting eyes widened slightly at the load that Zacharie was ********, Twitch" Jerome grunted, stepping forward and reaching his arms out to help take some of the boxes that Zacharie was burdening himself with.

"Z-MAAAAIN" Tremain let out a cheer, rolling off of Hirss' head once more and dashing across the room, zipping under Jerome's arm and right onto the grunt's purple head.  

[insidiousEnigma]

"Hello and happy Christmas eve, Jerome." Zacharie greeted with a small smile and a slight nod of thanks as Jerome took some of the packages from his arms. He staggered back a bit as Tremain came at him but his smile grew all the same as he reached up to hold his fist up for the Jirachi to bump with his own. "I'll be going to spend Christmas day with my brother and so I figured it would nice to spend Christmas eve together." He explained, fully entering the room and giving Hriss a nod of greeting. "I got all of you presents...which is what is in the boxes." The teen said awkwardly.  

[Blood_Goddess]

Tremain laughed, reaching a tiny hand out to bump it against Zacharie's, riding on the boy's head as he walked into the room, Jerome closing the door behind them and waking over to the bed to place the gifts down.
"Man no kiddin' y'got gifts."
Reaching a hand up to rub it over the shaved side of his head he turned to Zacharie, "Y'know ya didn't have t'"

He made a gesture to the desk anyway, where a package what was clearly very messily wrapped was sitting "Got y'somethin' too."

Bro' who seemed delighted at the idea of gifts, instantly abandoned the remote and hovered up over the pile of gifts, poking around thought them with a broad grin over his teeth.  

[insidiousEnigma]

"I know, but I wanted to." Zacharie said simply, setting the last, large box in his arms carefully on the bed. "This one is for all of your pokemon. I wasn't entirely sure what to get for them...but I got enough that everyone should be able to have some." He eyed Bro from the corner of his eye even as he tugged the lid to the box off to reveal a plethora of brightly coloured pokepuffs. "Not particularly imaginative, I'm afraid..." The teen muttered as he reached for a package wrapped in blue, shiny wrapping paper. "I put this together for Tremain though." He held the present up for the legendary pokemon to take. It was just a notebook full of copies of his notes from the experiments that they worked on together. He wasn't sure if the Jirachi would enjoy it, but he'd made sure to put in a lot of pictures so Tremain could at least flip through it.

"Oh, you didn't need to...but I really do appreciate it." He said, a bright smile lighting up his face as he turned to take up his present. "Feel free to go ahead and open yours." Holding his present carefully in his lap as he settled comfortably in the chair beside the desk to watch them all open their presents.  

[Blood_Goddess]

As Zacharie opened up the gift that was for them, Bro's face lit up, and with a deep cackle he drifted forward, ruffling the boys hair in a thanks.
Hirss too, taking a deep and noisy whiff of the pokepuffs pushed her heavy form up and lumbered over the beautiful treats, tilting her head in interest while her tail swayed gently.

Tremain however, opned his gift, and with a delighted "HOLY ********" toppled off of Zacharie's head, and into his lap clinging to the book that Zacharie had made for him,
The tiny bright face in awe as he flipped through the pages "Yo I know this one!" he exclaimed pointing to one of the pictures along with the notes.

Jerome reached out to take the one that was for him as Boss brought it over, the large emboar already chewing on one of the pokepuffs that Zacharie had brought them.
Leaning against his desk, the gangster unwrapped the gift quietly.  

[insidiousEnigma]

The grunt watched everyone open their gifts with a small, pleased smile, only looking away to peer down at the pokemon now sitting in his lap. "I compiled all of our notes from our experiments so you'd be able to go over them whenever you wanted." He explained, pleased that Tremain seemed to enjoy his present. The other pokemon too, really seemed to like the pokepuffs that he had picked out. He'd taken Peldes, Meana, and Jabari with him to go pick them out so he'd had high hopes that they would be tasty.

Zacharie turned his attention to where Jerome was opening his present. "That one is just something I got for everyone." He said by way of explanation as Jerome unwrapped a blue and white Cherrim plushie. "It's a bit silly but...I thought they were cute and they weren't too expensive to get custom made." He smiled in an embarrassed manner before motioning over towards the other present on the bed. "That one is your real present."  

[Blood_Goddess]

Tremain sat up, pulling the book close and hugging it as he looked up at Zacharie "S'the best I'mma read all a'it all the time!"

Jerome chuckled "wouldn't put it' past em," the reading part might be hard, but Jerome could see that Zacharie had put pictures in there, knew that would be more than helpful.
As he opened his own gift Jerome let out a chuckle, picking up the flower pokemon plushy and holding it in both hands. "******** cute man. Thanks." He said, shaking it a little to cause it to flop around before placing it on the counter top.

Looking surprised that he got a second gift, Jerome reached out and took it, "Naw man y'open yers next." He said "I just opened one."  

[insidiousEnigma]

"I'm glad that you like it." Zacharie gave a little huff of a laugh, more than relieved that his present was well received. "I left blank pages in the back so we can always add more to it, if you want." He offered, gently patting the top of the legendary's shiny head. The teen blushed lightly at Jerome's 'cute' comment. He'd thought exactly the same thing when he'd seen them in the window of some random shop in town. "Yes...I thought so too. It was a bit hard to not buy them." He admitted with a sheepish laugh.

At the others prompting he turned his attention to the gift in his laugh, ripping the wrapping paper away and setting it carefully down at his feet.  

[Blood_Goddess]

<******** yea!" tremain cheered, holding the book up again and letting it fall over his head, turning to let his bright blue eyes fall onto Zacharie's face "Thank you!"

Jerome glanced over at the plushy once more, it certainly looked out of place in the room, but it added a little more color and softness to the mostly bare and tasteless room. Jerome appreciated the gesture and the gift, especially since it was very Zacharie too, the kid who loved making dangerous things with flowers.

As Zacharie opened his gift, he would find a nice wooden frame, with two thick layers of glass clamping tightly and preserving very carefully a beautiful display of dried Jade Vine flowers.  

[insidiousEnigma]

Once Zacharie got a peek of what the wrapping paper had been hiding, his careful unwrapping became a thing of the past. The teen tore the rest of the paper away and stared in awe at the flower neatly pressed between the clean planes of glass. "You..." He started before his mouth snapped shut and his bottom lip began to tremble. He wondered if Jerome knew the meaning behind these flowers or if it was just something that he picked out because they were flowers. Either way, his best friend had thought of him while picking it out and he felt embarrassingly emotional about it. "Thank you very much, Jerome." He clutched the frame tightly to his chest and smiled widely up at his friend. "I-I hope you didn't go through too much trouble to get it."  

[Blood_Goddess]

Jerome had put as much research into the kind of flower they were by something he though would look good in Zacharie's room, as well as something rare and beautiful, what the meaning of those flowers were were still unknown to him.
the reaction from Zacharie wasn't something that Jerome really expected, but it at least told Jerome that he had done good this year.

"naw." Jerome said waving a hand "Just had t'bust a couple a' heads, threaten this one dude-" He shrugged a shoulder, wearing a straight face as he told Zacharie this. "N'biggie."  

[insidiousEnigma]

Zacharie's rather sappy expression slowly morphed into one of mild panic as he looked down at the frame clutched against his chest. Jerome was kidding...right?
The teen looked back up and tried to read the older man's rather neutral expression...but he had never been particularly good at reading people from their expressions alone. "You're...." He paused, unsure if he really wanted to know. "Are you just trying to 'pull my leg', as the saying goes?" He asked slowly, a slight pout pushing at his lips. He didn't like being teased!  

[Blood_Goddess]

Jerome blinked once, slowly at Zacharie before a small apologetic smile flashed his teeth. "Dude, M'kiddin'" He reassured "I bought it all legit- ain't no one got hurt."
A part of him knew Zacharie would take it seriously, but he certainly didn't mean for it to, he was going to have to work on his humor a bit more so he didn't go freaking his partner out.