littleorphanalien | for rapunzel

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rapunzel

for rapunzel

The holidays feel like the time when he misses Isobel the most.

Every time he sees decorations or cookies or hears carols, he thinks of her in all her ridiculous overblown holiday arranging glory. It had all been about appearances and making the town think she was the perfect wife, but the bottom line was that Isobel knew how to do Christmas and Michael was lucky if he threw up a few string-lights around the Airstream. Now that he had a family, he was struggling to figure out how to pack the holidays full of joy, even if he was trying his best.

The difference between most years and now is that Michael can call in the cavalry. It's why he'd gone for the next-best thing to Isobel, calling up Rapunzel and asking her to meet him by the shops, with a list of things he needs to get (and a lot of question marks beside them), because he's determined to give Alex and Luke the best first Christmas in their new house.

He's just missing, you know...help on how to do that.

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Rapunzel loves Christmas. It's something unique to Darrow, for her, because Gothel never told her about it. She isn't even sure if it's something celebrated in Corona at all. But she had arrived during Christmas time, and the twinkling lights and cheerful decorations helped lessen the stress of her adjustment.

So, when Michael asked for her help, she was more than ready. She skips up to the shop in a dark red sweater dress and black tights, with a Santa hat perched cheerfully on her head. Her hair is braided and slung over one shoulder, and Pascal sits on the other shoulder, also wearing his own tiny Santa hat.

"The cavalry has arrived!" She says happily, bouncing up to Michael to stretch up and kiss his cheek before reaching up to pull an elf hat onto his head.

It's like putting a sweater on a cat. He doesn't exactly collapse to the ground and go unmoving, but it's close, and he gives Rapunzel a look like he's not moving until that hat comes off. "I mean, I know I can rock a cowboy hat, but until they invent cowboy elves, no," is his opinion about the hat.

Unless, is that what good Dads do? Do they wear elf hats and play along? He definitely doesn't pull it off like she does, but then, hey, Disney princess.

"Ugh, boys always hate fun hats," Rapunzel says with a huffing pout, reaching out to snatch it from his head. She ruffles his hair to mess it up and then stuffs it into her bag before clapping her hands together.

"So, where do we begin?" She looks up at him and clasps her hands together under her chin. "Do you just need presents? Or decorations too?"

Her eyes get a little wide, enough to reflect the twinkling lights in the shop window behind Michael. "I love decorations."

"Yup, I'm Sheriff of hating fun things," he announces with a smug smirk, but he endures the ruffling of his curls and doesn't even reach up to fix them, though that says more about his innate laziness when it comes to his hair than anything else.

"I put up a tree. That's a decoration," he says helpfully. "So, yeah," he admits, hearing how sad that sounds in his head. "Decorations, but a gift for Alex is where I'm freaking out. He helped me figure one out for Luke, but that leaves him and I don't know what to get him."

"You should have more than just a tree!" Rapunzel tells him. Christmas is different for everyone, she knows, and some people don't celebrate it all, but decorations are just so fun. "Did you put up a stocking for Luke?"

Rapunzel tilts her head to listen as Michael speaks, and then reaches up to tap her chin with the tip of her finger. She doesn't know Alex very well, so nothing immediately springs to mind. "Well, what does he like?"

He hadn't thought about a stocking. Honestly, he figured he'd definitely do lights, and there'd be a tree, but he's kind of blanking on the other stuff because he never had it for himself. "Like, the kind in shows and movies?" he asks, in a way that implies he hadn't thought that was real.

Him and Alex aren't exactly batting a hundred when it comes to being normal kids.

"Alex? He loves music," he admits. "He asked if I could build a guitar out of ship pieces, but I don't know enough about craftsmanship to do that. Maybe something else, though?"

"I guess? All I know about Christmas, I learned here. I'm not sure that it was a thing in Corona. It definitely wasn't for me," Rapunzel tells him. "But kids love stockings, right? You fill it with candy and little toys."

Okay, music. That's a good start. Rapunzel also loves music, and so does Peter. A guitar built out of spaceship pieces does seem like quite a big ask, so she tries to think smaller.

"Maybe you can start by making him a few guitar picks from the ship pieces?" She suggests hopefully. "You could engrave them with something special?"

He doesn't point out that she's still got enthusiastic youth on her side, whereas Michael feels fucking old most days. Sure, his body has lived for over seventy-years, but he's not supposed to feel like that.

"I can do that," he says with a nod, mentally taking notes to get a stocking and candy and toys. "I feel like Luke's the easy one, but fuck, Alex is harder. I did guitar picks from the ship last year," he explains. "I could wrap my brain around that one. It helped inspire my business idea, actually, figuring out how to manipulate the substance."

"Oh, did you? Must have been a good idea then." She grins up at him and then reaches out to take his hand and drag him into the store, because maybe the festive music and everything will help get the creative juices flowing.

"So, you're thinking that you want to make him something?" Rapunzel asks as she looks around the department store, smiling at all the decorations as she reaches out to hold onto Michael by the elbow. "How does that work, anyway? Can you only do it with your ship?"

He likes that about Rapunzel. She doesn't get thrown off when Michael basically knocks her back and destroys her ideas. Well, maybe not destroys, but definitely knocked down a peg or so. "I've got a couple spare parts from the ship, but most of them go to the business," he admits. "Drones," he reminds her. "Photography and surveillance only, no weapons."

He would never let anyone do that with his ship.

"I can build pretty much anything, though," he boasts. "I'm pretty good in that department. Genius, and all," he says, smugly.

"And so humble, too," she says dryly, cutting him an amused look before turning her attention back to a decorated tree in the middle of the space. She bounces over to it to inspect the shining ornaments, and then looks over at Michael again.

"What about a guitar case?" She asks curiously, thinking of her birthday gift to Peter. "Could you make a guitar case?"

"Hey, if you're something, you should be something," he defends his confidence (and okay, yeah, a little bit of arrogance), but he's never wanted to hide any part of who he is. Even hiding his alien nature had been difficult, straining against his seams, especially with the people he loved.

Of course, then Rapunzel had to go and fucking puncture his own high and mighty feeling by having the best idea. "That's an amazing idea," he admits. "He could decorate it with sharpie or stickers or whatever." So maybe it shouldn't be made of the ship, but he could do something for that. "Maybe with some lyrics engraved on the inside."

"Perfect!" She claps her hands together and bounces on her toes a few times as she turns to face Michael, happy to have helped. "Could you make the buckles out of the ship? Just little accents?"

She goes over to pick up a big red bow from a wrapping display, and goes to press it against Michael's chest. "Will you have time to make it? Maybe we should leave here and get supplies. Ooh! Are you going to use leather? I have a good leather guy."

See, and now she's showing him up with even better ideas. He doesn't exactly say out loud how genius it is, but he still narrows his eyes, lips quirking up almost like he knows that it's genius.

She probably does too, which is why he's okay with it.

"I mean," he says, bracing under the weight of her hurricane of enthusiasm, "I could use leather. I pretty much figured I'd pay a guy. You got a guy? I'll pay him."

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