The First Annual Adopted Family Thanksgiving

[smartass_captain]

It's not that Jim forgot about the second present he gave Verity way back a month ago on her birthday. How could he forget, when he'd had to dig out the key to the house to get it replicated? It's sat out on his desk in his quarters every day since, a bold reminder that Jim Kirk was seriously doing this.

Jim Kirk was going to try to have a normal family. A family who celebrated (some) holidays. A family who came together. Not a relationship. Hell no. But...you know..siblings? A family? He almost worried Sam or his mother would try to reach out to him. Thankfully no such messages yet. Which means Jim is free to spend time with the people he actually wants in his life.

And that means getting Thanksgiving put together.

He'll call Clint later. First things first. Calling Big Sister.

"Verity? It's Jim. You busy?"

Comments

[aw_hawkguy]

"Circus tramps?! Aw, c'mon, Ver, I know that life's not for you," Clint protests. "I didn't choose the tent life, the tent life chose--actually, yeah, I did run away and join the circus. Scratch that, totally chose it."

Looking up at Jim's direction, Clint grins. "Wow. That's gorgeous, and I grew up around here."

[brave_heart_verity]

"We're going to blow her mind, I guess. Maybe not a bad thing for her to be confronted with the idea you do sometimes know how to keep your clothes on." The teasing is nonjudgmental. His lifestyle is what works for him. Anything else she may or may not have heard doesn't need to be discussed right now. When he's really ready to share these thoughts, he will.

"Yeah, and I chose you, so don't get any ideas I'm choosing the tent life by proxy or something. I'm the wrong kind of freak for the sideshow." So much teasing. It's almost like she likes these two goofs.

The view she definitely likes. So many lights, some moving in the sky and some dancing more slowly than she can perceive. She's lived most of her life with the sky hidden from her and right now she can't imagine how she survived. "Wow."

[smartass_captain]

"She just wants me to 'find a nice girl' and settle down at the house. Like that's gonna happen." Now that he's left, Jim can't imagine being grounded from space travel. He'd lose his mind. The nice girl part he could take or leave.

"She'll like you guys. Go for it." Jim gives them both a grin. "Just don't blame me if she gets all up in your business too." It's funny when it's not happening to him.

[aw_hawkguy]

"You could be the dancing gypsy, or the snake-handler lady," Clint points out with a grin.

"Ah, she's sorta the well-meaning nosy granny type?" Clint's had people in his business. It is, he has to admit, much funnier happening to someone else.

[brave_heart_verity]

"I could do the dancing gypsy," she agrees. "But how would a couple of carnies get into a high-stakes poker game in Monte Carlo?"

Doesn't Jim have a nice boy waiting for him? Don't make her wingwoman work for naught, Jim!

"I don't really have any business for her to get into, so, I think I'm safe."

[smartass_captain]

If Felix is a 'nice boy' then Verity's definitions are sorely out of whack. Besides, they're not a thing. They slept together like once. Thank you, hawkskirt, which means thank you Clint by proxy. And of course thanks to Verity, as he wouldn't have met the guy otherwise.

"She totally is." Jim agrees, before leaning on Verity a bit more. "You guys ready for some dessert? I don't want to spoil a moment but I really want to dig into that mountain of apples."

[aw_hawkguy]

Once so far. Who knows what the future holds? Not Clint, he doesn't even know what his wardrobe holds, apparently. So long as Jim isn't swiping Clint's work togs for hot and heavy hero cosplay, he's welcome to borrow the occasional costume.

"Gotta admit, I'm ready for Apple Tower when everyone else is," he agrees.

[brave_heart_verity]

Felix is very nice, and he chooses to present as male. That's good enough for her.

They are going to be a thing. She will not stop trying to make this happen.

"Sounds like we're ready for dessert," she agrees. "Give me a few minutes to make the whipped cream." Because it is not coming out of a can. Not in her kitchen!

[smartass_captain]

"...Probably for the best she wouldn't let us by the canned stuff." Jim exchanges a glance with Clint. It's like she knows if Clint and Jim had can's of pressurized whipped cream it would end up literally everywhere the first time they got into an argument.

Or they'd have a competition to see who could fit more into their mouth at once and choke.

How are they heroes again?

[aw_hawkguy]

They're really good at faking it during a crisis.

"You can make whipped cream? Like, fast?" Oh god Clint you're supposed to have experience with classy stuff you've been all over the world how do you not know this? "Well, hell, let's get back!"

[brave_heart_verity]

"Mine will taste better, trust me." She won't tell them where the fake vanilla flavor comes from. Nobody needs to know that.

"Okay, but you two need to help. Someone needs to organize plates and forks. Someone else needs to find an ice-cream scoop and get the ice cream ready. I'll make the whipped cream and coffee."

Mm tree bark. Or cellulose. You know. Wood pulp.

[smartass_captain]

"Guess so. Verity says she can do it--I'm inclined to believe her."

The hike back to the house isn't long, but they're all breathing little puffs of clouds when they do make it to the door. The temperature definitely dropped with the sun.

"I didn't forget the chocolate crust pumpkin pie either, but apples are my weakness."

If *only* that was where artificial-but-technically-natural vanilla flavor came from.

[aw_hawkguy]

"Well, I'm sold on it. Dibs on Operation: Blue Bunny." Beat. "Hey, do they still have Blue Bunny ice cream anymore?"

Oh, I wish.

[brave_heart_verity]

"Well there may have been a reason I made a tower of apples... what's Blue Bunny?"

She got gelato. She's from New York. Of course she got gelato. It's the best thing she can find since there's no hipster milk bar in the Nexus.

Bugs? Is it corn? Everything else is corn.

[smartass_captain]

"And believe you me, I appreciate it." Jim doesn't know what a Blue Bunny is either, but it ended with ice cream so it can't be bad.

"I don't think she can make ice cream that fast. Whipped cream sure. Apparently." He doesn't know how, but he's not arguing.

"Okay so--the eternal question. Vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry?"

Nnnope. It comes from beavers.

[brave_heart_verity]

"No, ice cream takes a while, and seriously, can't do it all in one day." She has her limits, guys. "Whipped cream is really just cream, a sweetener, whatever flavoring you want, a cool bowl and a whisk. Trust me, you'll find it worthwhile."

Once they're back inside and her coat is hung up again, she will demonstrate. Measuring cups? Those are for chumps.

The back ends of beavers, specifically.

[aw_hawkguy]

"Blue Bunny's a dairy company, they do ice cream an' frozen treats in the Midwest. It's good stuff, I grew up on it."

"Seriously? That's all it takes? Man, I been doin' Cool Whip way too long," he groans, stealing a view of Verity's magic as he gets the ice cream ready.

I wonder if it works with nutria or capybara too since they eat wood and vanillins are in wood.

[smartass_captain]

They don't have Cool Whip in the future either, so Jim's content to shrug out of his coat and then lean in the doorway with his arms folded watching Verity work her culinary magic.

"Sorry, not a thing I've heard of. Must have rebranded or gone out of business by the 2200s."

I don't really want to find out.

[brave_heart_verity]

"I wouldn't be disappointed if plastic food has gone out of style."

Since they're both watching she'll lean against the counter and shift her hold on the bowl so they can see what she's doing. The way she holds the bowl is how some women hold babies. The whisk moves like an extension of her arm; she's done this enough to be comfortable with every part of the process. It isn't long before the cream starts to turn fluffy and cling in small peaks to the whisk when she lifts it away.

"There. Real whipped cream. Now someone start slicing the pies so we have somewhere to put it."

[aw_hawkguy]

"Aww, yeah," Clint murmurs, watching the whipped cream come together. As for Blue Bunny, "I admit, I'm nostalgic, and I wish they coulda made it, but we've got pie."

And what pie they have! The ice cream stands ready, so Clint gets to slicing. Did Jim organize plates and forks like Verity asked, or should he get those, too?

[smartass_captain]

Jim's got the plates and forks, not to worry. It's only right considering it's his place and he knows best where everything goes and is kept. They will get set on the counter all lined up to be laden with deliciousness and passed out.

Both of them will be even more impressed by this feat of whipping cream the first time they decide to try it out. It's like magic in a bowl. That gives you whipped cream. What other kind of magic do you even need?

"What kind of ice cream is that Ver?" Jim's resisting the urge to poke at it and see, but only just.

[brave_heart_verity]

"Maybe they were named something else in this universe, like Pink Penguin." Penguins make more sense for ice cream, after all.

"Tahitian vanilla. Just little slices for me, please, Clint." She's not being 'missish' about her portions. It's just. That's a lot of apples, soon to be topped with a scoop of very good ice cream; the whipped cream is for the pumpkin. Unless someone has some very wrong ideas other arrangement they'd like.

"Someone take my plate? I'll bring in the coffee."

[aw_hawkguy]

Fud magic is gud magic.

"Maybe," Clint admits. "Oooh, Tahitian, sounds fancy. Vanilla that spends its days on beaches, and its nights at all the best clubs. If you listen close, you can hear the thump of the bass."

He'll be having ice cream between his slices of pie, with whipped cream on both okay okay on the pumpkin. He'll also get Verity's plate, bringing it in to the dining room for her.

[smartass_captain]

Jim will stick to the apple tower but he does get a bigger bit than the rest of them and ice cream. Plus a little bit of whipped cream just to try it.

You can't stop him! He plays by his own rules. Unless Verity smacks him with a spoon.

[brave_heart_verity]

"Tahitian is considered the subtler type of vanilla bean. Madagascar doesn't have the gentle floral notes." Like they know or care what she's talking about at this point. "You know, they say plants grow better if you play music for them. I'm surprised that there isn't some kind of fancy local-grown non-GMO organic music-raised foodie movement. People could get all snobby about what kind of music their food was raised on."

No smacking, with a spoon or without. They can do what they want. They're adults. There's plenty of whipped cream so Clint can bury both his pieces of pie in it if he wants. She gathers up what they'll need for coffee and takes it out to the table so they can sit and eat that pie already. Because pie.