Gunderkeen one-shots

Happy Thanksgiving

Mallory's POV:

     Valhalla  had been doing Thanksgiving dinners since it became a national holiday back in TJ's time. They made a huge meal -well larger than usual-, with all the traditional food of the holiday. There was turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, buns, pumpkin pie, apple pie, pecan pie, rhubarb pie, and many more. The halls were filled with cornucopias stuffed with knives, mini battle axes, and some popuri. Today for combat practice they even had giant deadly turkeys for hunting.

       I smiled at the turkey trying to bite by head off, and cut off it's head. My current ex-boyfriend was in the middle of dissecting a turkey of his own, while also being pecked at by other turkeys trying to save their brethren. Magnus was trying desperately to   not look guilty as he was fighting off his poultry. Alex, who was having way too much fun with this, was grabbing the neck of one turkey and waving it above he-his, head. He then used the still live turkey to hit other advancing turkeys. Everyone was in the holiday spirit.

     "Keen, how does it feel killing your fellow turkeys?" Halfborn shouted at me. We were currently not on good terms. He had been irritated at me for 'accidentally' setting fire to his room. I was not happy with him for ignoring me for weeks while working on a thesis or some shit like that. TJ and Magnus were not pleased with our lack of giving of thanks toward each other.

      "Probably the same as you feel when killing smelly giants." I call back.

"Guys, seriously it's Thanksgiving, give it up!" TJ said, spearing a turkey with his bayonet.

"I'm not even American, we don't have this stupid holiday in Ireland." This was true, there wasn't Thanksgiving in Ireland; however, I didn't think it was stupid. Floor 19 and Sam planned on going to Blitz and Hearth's after the battle for dinner. I was looking forward to the food.

Slowly people slowly died around us. Magnus went first, some guy's spear had missed a turkey and hit the blond.

Alex was next, he was killed by an angry vengeful flock of turkeys.
"Curse you turkeys! I'm being beaten by turkeys!" The green haired boy shouted before the poultry ripped out his jugular.

        I laughed, then was 'mysteriously' killed by someone's battle axe -after a few years one learns to identify the weapons that kill you- in my head.

       "Damn you Gunderson!" I snapped before blackness took over.

     When I woke up two hours later, I took thirty seconds to curse a certain hairy oaf's existence before getting up.

     For dinner I pulled on a pair of jeans and a sweater. I almost pulled on a red,' yellow and wine purple sweater Halfborn had made for me and chose instead a maroon one on with a gray scarf.

     I left my room and saw only Halfborn was there. A groan left my lips and I helped myself to some apple cider pitcher that was sitting in all the hallways.

     As I sipped my cider I noticed Halfborn looked...nice. He has looked nice before, but he seemed to have put actual effort in his appearance.

His hair was pulled back into a nice man bun, and his beard was combed. He had one of his hand knit sweaters, orange with a battle axe stitched onto the front. Underneath his sweater seemed to be a gray collared shirt, the collar folded over the collar of his sweater. The sleeves were rolled up to his elbows with dress sleeves rolled over the sweater ones.

I didn't notice my subtle glance had turned into a raised eyebrow with a stare. I only noticed when I finally noticed Halfborn giving me an over exaggerated version of my face.

"What?" He finally asked after a few super awkward moments.

"Just trying to figure out why you were cursed with such a ugly face." I recover.

"Right." He said skeptically.

We stood a few minutes in awkward silence until Alex finally woke up. I thanked the gods for the girl who ranted about the turkeys and breaking the awkward lack of conversation.

I may have zoned out a bit while Alex was ranting because next thing I know Magnus and TJ joined us and they were walking to the elevator. I quickly join them and we make our way to our to our elf and dwarf friends who lived in an apartment above Blitzen's Best .

We knocked on the door of the store and Hearth quickly answered it.

Thank the gods you are here. B is going crazy. Hearth signed frantically.

"What do mean?" Magnus asked.

"I didn't know he could cook." Alex said thoughtfully.

Do not try to help. Or say anything about the food. Just do not. The elf quickly signed and lead us through the store and up the stairs.

The apartment had been rearranged to host their table with the extension in. The table was being filled with the most perfect looking food by Blitz. Sam, who had been sitting in a corner, leap to her feet to join us.

"Oh, thank goodness. You couldn't have gotten here sooner." She hissed at us. Sam was dressed in a red t-shirt with a cream colored cardigan. She had also switched out her green hijab for a deep purple one with fall leaves on it.

"Blitz wouldn't let me me help at all. I set the napkins 'wrong' and was banished to the corner." She hissed.

"Happy Thanksgiving everyone." Blitz greeted hanging up his arpon and joining us. "Let's eat!"

Floor 19 along with the others, sat down and began eating. There was small talk and laughter between the friends.

Once everyone was filled they all chipped in to wash the dishes and put them away. Afterwards we pulled out the pumpkin and apple pie.

While we were finishing up our dessert Blitz stood, and clinked his glass to grab our attention.

"Thank you for joining us for dinner on this holiday. I for one, am grateful for all of you, and the fact that we are still here together in good health. And Magnus no, I don't regret nor am I ever going to make falafel for Thanksgiving." Magnus groaned in disappoint, while the rest of his snicker.

While everyone was still quiet, I decided to also say something; though, I stayed seated. "I am thankful for some of you." I had forcefully kept my attention off Halfborn unless necessary, but now I make direct eye contact with him. "Others more than others." I said giving him a small smile. He returned it.

"Finally." TJ sighed. "I am thankful that those two finally got over their stupid pride."

I made a V with my fingers and flicked it in TJ's direction. The conversation drifted around a more. Sam was the first to leave, saying she wanted to get home and spent time with her grandparents.

At about ten-thirty, floor 19 left Blitz and Hearth's house with arm fulls of leftovers; having of course promised to return the tupperware. Halfborn and I brought up the rear of the group.

"Perhaps I should have talked to you instead of set fire to your room." I said after a few minutes of reflection.

"So you admit that you did it on purpose." He said, placing his free arm that wasn't holding a container of turkey slices around me.

"Yes, of course I did it on purpose." I rolled my eyes. He kissed my curls and we kept walking.

Once we got to the hotel everyone parted ways with mutterings of "happy holiday"s. Halfborn followed me to my room, placing the leftovers on the counter in the kitchen. He stayed in their while I quickly changed into some pajamas. Halfborn pulled off his sweater and dress shirt. Then we collapsed onto the bed, fat and happy.

"I'm thankful for you, Mallory." He muttered into my hair.

"I'm semi thankful for you, oaf." I said, before falling asleep.

A/N

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I am extremely grateful for all my amazing readers. I did the math and looked at my demographics and 38% of my readers aren't in the US. To you guys I wish you a good day and am grateful for you. Have a great holiday and stay insane fellow fan-humans!