Ships Adrift in a Strong Tide

Mistletoe

Of course she wouldn't skip a beat from the transition from Thanksgiving to Christmas. It wasn't in the nature of people like her - cheery people who got excited at the prospect of family gathering and gift giving.

Overnight, the Manor transformed from its usual neat grandness into the back of a Christmas postcard. Wreathes ornamented nearly every door in the mansion, garland wrapped around stair banisters, kitschy decorations of pale dolls with glassy eyes and wide smiles around every corner. She even went so far as to hang rows of soft yellow Christmas lights on the walls.

It was all very annoying.

What was undoubtedly the worst part of all this, however, was the mistletoe hung on doorframes and places in the hallways that were susceptible to traffic.

Of all the pointless holiday rituals - and there were many - mistletoe ground against the Wayne heir's nerves the most.

This shrub was the cause for annoying displays, romantic in nature, among the more idiotic members of his family. That included, of course, Drake and Brown, Grayson and the alien woman, and, to his immense chagrin, his own father and Kyle. Even Wilkes used it as an opportunity to engage in flirtations with Little.

Everywhere he turned he was surrounded by sanctimonious idiots, nowadays.

One of the things Grayson had not done on her own was the Christmas tree, as that was to be done by the entire family. Even Todd was allowed in the house to participate. As annoyed as Damian was by Mar'i's pathological need to excessively decorate for Christmas, he would have preferred she embraced her pathology wholly and put up the tree by herself, as well.

As it was, Damian was interrupted while polishing his sword, usually an unforgivable offense. Pennyworth did seem somewhat apologetic, although of course he would not take no for an answer.

When Damian pushed open one of the doors, he found himself in the obnoxiously decorated family room, where a huge evergreen had already been placed in a stand. Pine needles littered the ground in a trail that led from what he assumed had to be the front door, and Damian silently cursed his habit of not wearing shoes inside.

"Hey!" the youngest Grayson greeted him, smiling widely and wearing a knitted sweater. "Glad you decided to surface from your cave."

It was not a decision on his part as much as it was Pennyworth's decision, but there was no need to correct her. "Yes," he said dryly. "I see you've turned the place into a hazard for electrical fires. Well done."

"Thanks!" was her genuine response as she beamed at him.

"Uh oh, kiddies, don't look now," the familiar voice of Jason Todd warned them, laughter beneath its grave surface.

"What are you drivelling about now?" Damian demanded, bored.

Shooting him a toothy smirk, Todd leaned back against a portion of the wall that was not covered in Mar'i's handiwork a d pointed casually at the ceiling.

Mistletoe dangled from the vaulted ceiling above Damian's head.

Mar'i was giggling as though this were a well intentioned joke rather than borderline sexual harassment.

"Touch me," he growled at her, "and you'll have a fresh puncture wound to nurse."

"Oh, relax," she said between giggles. "It's supposed to be fun! You don't have to do it if you don't want to."

"What's the problem, Wayne? Not your type? Should I find Wilkes for ya?"

Damian turned his best glare on Jason and silently contemplated tearing the string of lights from the wall and strangling him with them.