Head Above The Water|Arthur Curry

0.8 Merry Shitmas

The group had settled into the condo for two months now, waiting for the egg to show signs of cracking. For two months they had been together not much happening, after everything that had happened. Every once in a while popping into Metropolis or Gotham to see what's up.  Two months for everyone to bond and really get to know each other, two months for them to get to know each other. 

"GUYS!!! Guess what!?!" Tempest yells, her voice ringing through the condo. They all groaned at her sudden increase in volume.

"We reached the record of your silence?" Bruce says, lifting his eyes from the newspaper in his hands.

"What? No? Wait, you time that?" She asked suddenly curious.

"Yup, you broke your record today by a minute." Barry chimes as he serves himself a whisking bowl of cereal. 

"Really! How much?" She asks excitedly. Barry looks up from his bowl, loud crunching stopping.

"Twenty-seven minutes." He informs. She frowns sticking her tongue out.

"No dumbasses! It's Christmas time!!!!!!!!!!!!! Or Hanukkah whichever y'all celebrate, it's December baby!" Tempest informs, her arms flailing in excitement.

"Christmas? Huh, I haven't celebrated that in years." Bruce comments, Tempest stood frozen, her mouth wide.

"Okay, we really need to have a Christmas here then...." Breath tickled the back of her neck, as someone stood oddly close to her.

"What if you prefer the naughty list?" A gruff voice asked chills ran through the silverette's porcelain skin.

"Then you get something else..." She said softly as she bit her lip.

"Oh? And what might that be?" Arthur challenges. She turns to meet a pair of ombre eyes. She hums, biting her lip again taping her chin lightly. Her eyes filled with mischevious.

"Oh, you know the usual things bad boys get..." She teased. Arthur smirked.

"And what might that be?" He asked leaning in.

"...Coal!" She joked running off and grabbing her keys.

"Alright, see ya later! Bye!" And with that, she shut the door and left.

"Oh man, she's got you caught like a fish!  Hook, line and sinker!" Barry states. Arthur glared, piercing stare making Barry uncomfortable.  He gave Arthur a smile and racing towards Tempest. 

"I have a feeling he's not wrong," Diana says walking into the living room. 

...

Twelve thousand dollars, four tubes of wrapping paper and twenty-four rolls of tape later― she was done, Tempest had wrapped one hundred and two gifts for everyone mostly for Barry. He had gone along with her so he would grab things and throw them into the cart.  Although she had received a couple dozen paper cuts, she was content puffing silver strands of her hair away from her face.

"Hey, dinner will be ready in- damn! That's a fuck load of presents!" Victor exclaims as he walks into her room, holding a tablet with the tree's progress. She gives a toothy grin, as she looks at a very impressed Victor.

"I know huh! I feel like I could have bought more but it didn't fit in my car. I was debating on letting Barry run his ass home, but I'm not a complete monster." She says as she looks back at her masterpiece. Laughter erupted through him.

"You never fail to impress me blondie, like honestly wow." He said staring at the mountain of presents.

"Keep calm, Terminator, keep calm." She jokes, earning a snicker from him. Victor turned on his heel and began to walk out.

"Lemme guess, you'll be back?" She continues her joke.

"Not funny!" He chimes from the hallways. 

"Yes, it was..." she says to herself.  

Somehow she hauled all of the presents into the living room, where Barry was decorating the tree and the rest of the house. The air smelled like pot roast and ham, Diana being assigned culinary and well the rest of the men doing what men do, watch sports. 

"Alright everyone into the living room! Present time!" She announced. Barry cheered racing into the living room landing onto the couch. Tempest sat on her knees near the tree ready to start handing presents.

The entire evening was filled with laughter and joy, the team having fun for once not worrying about a world-threatening antagonist. Hell even Clark had joined them, they were sipping egg nog with white rum.

"Alright, last present goes to Bruce! Open it!" She said enthusiastically. He chuckled and began to unwrap the gift. Every one started howling with laughter including Bruce himself.

"Why would I need chafeing cream?" Bruce laughed. Tempest laughed silenced, her laughter rendering her speechless.

"Because....of all..the... SPANDEX!" She returned to laughing with the rest of the group.

"Come on, this ruins my pride. How am I suppose to get a date when Batman smells like baby ointment?" He cackled.

"Ha! You get less ass than a preist!" Everyone erupted into laughter again.

Soon it died down, everyone parting ways to their rooms or confiding conversations. Tempest fiddled with her amulet, watching the fire dance licking the interior of the fireplace with its flames.

She smiled to herself, she felt accomplished. She had brought joy to people around her, she had succeeded in giving them a good Christmas. That made her content. A smile plagued her pierced lips.

"Hey there doll face, care to join me on the patio?" A husky voice snapped her from her thoughts. She looked and saw Arthur standing by the sliding door. She smiled and got up with her blanket wrapped around her shoulders.

"Did you like your new jacket? Oh! How about the new brac-" she was interrupted by a sudden kiss. The kiss was hard, like Arthur had pent up all his feelings into one kiss. The feeling of her smooth and cool lip ring against his lips calmed him.

They pulled away their eyes meeting. Tempest was confused but satisfied.

"Sorry, you blabber too much." He spoke. Her eyes soften as she threw her head back and laughed.

"I've been told, although I doubt it was the only reason you brought me here Arthur." She said, her eyebrow arching in a questioning manner.

"Yeah well, you also kept me waiting someone or something always interrupts." He says. She smiles and hums in agreement. He pulls out a small wooden box, elegant engraving swirling in different symbols and graphics, all Atlantean.

"I actually wanted to give you a gift." He mumbles opening the box revealing a necklace. It had a single pearl tied to a leather bound. It was simple but beautiful. She gasped as she picked up the necklace, she fiddled with it her hand and watched it as it gleamed.

"It's beautiful." She awed, Arthur smiled as he motioned for her to turn around. As she turned she moved her hair to reveal another tattoo on her neck. Arthur smiled as he tied the necklace, placing a tender kiss on her shoulder. Tempest smiled even more as she turned to display her necklace. There it was, the pearl Arthur struggled to get for the past four days, and it was displayed perfectly as it nestled between her breast.

The pearl was special it wasn't white but instead an iridescent black color. It was collected from the depths of the   Red Sea, only formed by a rare species if clam, but Arthur didn't give up until he had found it and he did.

Before they could say anything else they were interrupted by Bruce.

"Hurry, the egg is cracking." And with that a Merry Christmas turned into a Merry Shitmas.

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Hello! Hope you enjoy this chapter it's a bit shorter. And I am sooo sorry for being MIA I had finals the past couple of weeks and now it's summer!!! I actually submitted this story into the Wattys so fingers crossed!! Okay love y'all bye! ~S.C.