Another Invidia Short (For the Holidays)
by AMI MEITSU
A/N: This is before the Yamato 5 story line so it’s December
2219
It was the middle of the afternoon on a cold day in
December. Arty seemed to be getting ready for something and Invidia lay asleep
on the couch, she had been reading earlier when she fell asleep, and Arty
didn’t want to move her so he just threw a blanket over her and let her sleep.
He needed her now though.
“Invidia?” Arty said as he knelt next to her.
Invidia just turned away from him.
“Princess, get up I need to talk to you…”
“Hm?” Invidia looked at him.
“I want to know, where are the car keys? I need to go out.”
“I don’t know…” Invidia whined, she was still tired and
hated it when Arty woke her up from her naps.
“But you were the last one to go out, weren’t you?”
“No! You were! Find your own damn keys!” Invidia said as
she turned the other way and snuggled back into her blanket.
Arty decided to leave her alone, he just walked off and
went back to search his room, where he found them on the dresser. He then
headed out, but where was he going? First he was going to the mall, he and
Homer had volunteered to help there year. Afterwards he was going his parent’s
house; they kept all of his Christmas stuff there, since they had nowhere to
store it in their apartment. He drove for a bit and picked up Homer before they
arrived at the mall, where they met up with a woman that they had talked to
couple days ago.
“Hey!” She said. “I was getting worried that you wouldn’t
show up, you’re ten minutes late.”
“Well we’re here now.” Artysaid.
“Well then, here’s your suit.” She handed Arty a Santa
suit. This year he and Homer had volunteered to be ‘Santa’s helpers’ at the
mall in an attempt to make some extra money. Homer wanted the money to get
Wendy a charm bracelet that she wanted and he couldn’t afford on his own for
the time being.Arty wanted extra money for somethings for his family, and
something for Invidia’s mother. He had planned to find some of those black
painted roses for when they visited her memorial in a couple days, and even
though Invidia had a lot of money, it was shared with her Father and Arty
didn’t like using her money, so he had a separate account of his own, and saved
up the extra money separately for the flowers, as a little surprise for Invidia
too.
“Wait a minute! I thought I was going to be Santa!” Homer
said.
“No, I have a job for you.” The woman said.
A couple moments later Arty sat in a chair at the Santa
display and Homer was next to him as a little girl came up.
“Hi, Santa!” She said, and then she looked at Homer. “What are you
supposed to be?”
“I’m Santa’s sack of toys…” Homer said glumly.
“Hi, sack!” The girl said.
Homer sighed and she climbed up on Arty’s lap, this became
a pattern with a few kids for the next two hours, then Arty got an unexpected
surprise.
“Arty, look.” Homer told him, nudging his head to the side.
Arty looked, and walking with two familiar looking kids
was…Invidia! “Invidia!” he called.
“Huh?” Invidia looked around and went over, Akira and Ryou
went in separate directions. “Who are you and why’d you call me?!” Invidia
asked, then she looked at Homer. “And what the hell
are you supposed to be?”
“Santa’s sack.”
Invidia laughed. “I wish I had a camera…,” she said.
“Invidia, knock it off…”
Invidia turned. “I know that voice…Arty?”
“Surprise.”
“So this is where you were going! Why didn’t you tell me? I
would have come earlier to humiliate you!”
“You are so mean…” Arty said.
“I’m only kidding!” Invidia hugged him.
Arty grabbed her and pulled her up in his lap, just like at
home. “I know, and since I have a job to do, what do you want for
Christmas?”
“You know…” Invidia purred. “I want you.” She then
moved his fake beard and kissed him.
He returned it and deepened it. After they were done they
kissed again and again, and it turned into some kind of passionate make-out
session. They didn’t care who saw as they fell into it, after awhile it got too
weird to watch, and halfway through Homer swore he saw Arty’s hand go up so he
could caress her breasts.
“Santa!” Homer said.
Arty didn’t hear him.
“Santa!” He said again in a half-yell.
“Oh!” He snapped back and their kiss broke. “Sorry.”
“Hey! I wasn’t done!” Invidia said. “No, I have a job to
do, go back to shopping.”
“Fine, but we are going to continue this at home in bed.”
Invidia whispered.
“No.”
“Oh, come on, it’s been what? Two months since we’ve been
together? And every time I wanted to something came up! You’re free tonight and
the kids are going to their friend’s, so we’ll have the whole house to
ourselves, and a clear living room…”
“I’ll talk to you later.” Arty put her down. “We don’t want
to corrupt the little kids, do we?”
“Yes.”
“Just go!” Arty said.
Invidia sighed but she did leave, and Arty stayed for
another four hours or so before he left. Afterwards he headed over to his
parents house to get the tree and the ornaments for it, it was an artificial
tree that they had for years, since Akira and Ryou were ten. They never got
real trees because of the mess it would make and the work to keep it healthy.
This was decided the first time they got a ‘real tree’ as Invidia had said
since it was her first true Christmas tree…
December fifteenth, 2207
“What are we doing here?” Invidia asked as she Arty and
Akira and Ryou walked through the department store. “I told you, we have to get
a Christmas tree.”
“Why?” Invidia whined.
“’Cause it’s Christmas!” Akira, who was only four at the time, said.
“Yes, but Invidia-Mama doesn’t do Christmas!” Invidia
snapped.
“Well get used to it, this is what happens when you have
Christmas-celebrating kids.”
Invidia groaned and kept walking. They spent about an hour
and a half looking at Christmas trees before they found a nice pre-lit one that
would fit in their apartment perfectly. Invidia liked it because they didn’t
have to fiddle with long strands of always-burnt-out lights, as Arty said his
parents used to do.
They took it back with a bunch of stuff Invidia found
useless, ornaments, wreaths, stockings, and Christmas lights for their balcony.
At home, when Arty found a place for the tree, Akira and
Ryou went almost crazy putting the ornaments on the tree, Invidia just sat on
the couch, watching.
“You’re putting them all in the same place,” Invidia said.
“Huh?” The kids looked at her.
“There’s a whole tree to cover!”
Invidia went over and took some of the ornaments from the
spot that they were all in and spread them around.
“See?” She said. “Now it looks nice.” Invidia wasn’t too
into Christmas but she knew how to decorate and she helped them the whole time,
showing them how to spread things out. Arty just watched, it looked like she
was actually having fun, and she was showing a motherly demeanor, more than she
had ever shown before.
2219…
He thought of things like that almost the whole way to his
parents’ house and back, but when he got back he didn’t have time to set
everything up, Invidia was waiting with dinner, a fancy dinner, with candles
and everything, she even wore a black dinner dress…a very showy black dinner
dress, one that Arty had only seen once, when she had cooked a fancy dinner
before.
“Early Christmas dinner?” Arty said.
“Yes…” Invidia said, then she went
over to him. “And after we clean up after dinner I wanna get dirty again…”
“You have very interesting puns, my Princess…” Arty said,
and then he kissed her and held her for a minute.“Invidia…”
he said. “You’re dress it’s…”
“Yes, it cuts up my leg, and you can touch me later! Let’s
just eat…” Invidia said, hoping that they’d have the same kind of evening,
maybe better, on Christmas Eve. The evening they had was
good enough though…
About two hours later, with counting in time for cleaning,
they lay together on a blanket on the floor with their clothes thrown off to
the side and the tree still not up.
“Are we ever going to take care of that?” Arty asked.
“We’ll do it tomorrow, when the kids are home.” Invidia
said.
“So they can do most of the work?”
“Yes.”
“Well, we have to find something to do until then…”
“I have an idea…” Invidia purred.
“Oh, you do now…?”
Invidia got on top of him. “Guess.”
They then spent the rest of the night together, deciding to
save the decorating for another night…
That night came the next week, mostly because of Sabera’s
birthday. Invidia put off the decorating so that they could prepare and visit
her mother’s memorial; she felt that it was a lot more important than just
decorating. The decorating was a bit hectic when they did it though, since they
had to go to a party the same night. Derek and Nova had a Christmas party
almost every year, so they worked as fast as they could to get at least half of
the decorating done, given the time that Invidia ditched them so that she could
take her bath and get ready.
“And she ditched us because…?” Akira asked.
“She likes to take time to get ready.” Arty said as he
strung some garland across the rim of the top of the entertainment center.
“Well it’s been almost an hour and a half, we have to ready
too.”
“Well it only takes us about ten minutes to a half hour to
get ready.” Ryou said.
“So, it’s a crime to want to look decent?” Invidia said as she
came down the hallway.
“No.” Arty said. “But…wow.” he stooped when he saw her.
Invidia wore a short red dress that went a little past her knees; it had a
layer with little silver sparkles on it and parts of it clung to her, showing
off her curves. She wore it with a pair of red sandals and a rose in her hair.
“You like?” Invidia said.
“Oh I don’t like, I love.”
“I picked it up at on sale last week, just for the party.”
“But isn’t it a little too sexy for your taste?” Arty
asked.
“No, it’s fine, and a few stares
won’t hurt.” Invidia said. ‘Besides, it’s fun to watch you get jealous!’
And get jealous he did, but just a little bit. Once they
arrived at the party half the people in the room stared at her.
“Arty…” Homer said when he came up to him.
“What?”
“She’s hot! Are you sure you can keep her after tonight?”
“Homer!” Wendy said as she dragged him off. “Leave him
alone, sorry Arty.”
“It’s okay…” Arty said. ‘I wonder that myself now…I mean Nova’s got half the Star Force here…and
most of them are guys!’ It was then that he realized Invidia wasn’t next to
him anymore.
“Where is she?” he muttered. He walked around until he
found her sitting on the kitchen table, a bunch of guys surrounded her and she
sat there enjoying it!
“Invidia!” Arty said.
“What?” Invidia asked as Arty moved through and grabbed her
arm. He dragged her way from the guys.
“Don’t do that! I know you’re showing off to make me
jealous.”
“Fine, I won’t talk to guys anymore, I’m going to find
Nova…”
At that moment Derek walked by and Invidia got an idea.
“Derek!” She called, then she grabbed onto his arm and
walked off with him, Arty heard her say “what do you think of my dress?”
‘She’s doing this on purpose…’ He thought as he walked off.
He didn’t see her again until later, near the buffet table,
she stood there analyzing every part of it.
“Princess, just eat it.” Arty said.
She looked at him. “No, you know I don’t eat sweets.”
“Yes you do, on rare occasion.”
“Well not now, I can’t…it might ruin the effect of the
dress…”
“Nothing can! They’re all staring at you, and hitting on
you…”
“Oh, you’re just jealous…” She sauntered off again, but
this time she didn’t watch where she was going and ran into Derek.
She fell and he dropped the plate of cookies he was
carrying for Nova.
“Invidia, are you okay?” He helped her up.
“Yeah I’m fine, I just…” She looked up. “Derek, look…” She
said sweetly with a cute look on her face.
“What…?” He looked up, they were under the entrance arc to
the kitchen, and hanging there was something Nova put up, hoping to get Derek and
a few other couples underneath it…a small sprig of mistletoe.
“Oh, no…I am not kissing you.”
“But you have to…” Invidia said in a sweet voice.
“But…”
“Shush…It’s the rule,” Invidia placed her finger over his
lips and he looked at her, she looked very, very cute under the faint light.
“I guess it is…” Derek said.
Invidia looked up at him, staring into his eyes, finding
that he too, looked cute under the light.
They stared for a minute before their lips met, it was
meant to be nothing but a small kiss, but Invidia soon fell into it. She
deepened it, and Derek somehow obliged, while everyone watched (Some taking
pictures with cell phones) and he pushed her off.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, that’s a little too much don’t you
think?”
“But you’re good at it, and you didn’t try and stop me…”
Invidia whispered the last part to only him as she left to find Arty and Nova
came up to Derek.
“So…” she said. “Who’s the better kisser?”
“Nova!”
“Answer me…”
“You’re actually about equal.”
“Derek! You’re supposed to say I’m better!” Nova said. They continued talking, but Arty saved his
talk for at home.
“I can’t believe you did that! I can understand a small
kiss, but why’d you deepen it? I saw the look on your face! You liked it! And
he did too!”
“He’s good at it!” Invidia said.
“Yeah, well…who’s better?”
Invidia blushed. “Well…I…uh…don’t know, you’re both good,
but you can do things that he can’t…”
“I know that, you’ll see that soon, very soon…” Arty said.
Invidia sighed, for very soon meant Christmas…which wasn’t
until the next week!
The week was slow for Invidia, but she learned to be
patient until the day finally came. Akira and Ryou had outgrown the waking up
their parents early thing, so Arty and Invidia were
able to sleep in, but only until about seven o’clock when Arty got up.
“What are you up so early?” Invidia asked.
“Force of habit, come on, let’s get breakfast started and
we’ll open our presents.”
Invidia nodded and got up with him and followed him into
the kitchen, where, they found that they were the only ones up.
“They’ll get up later,” Arty said as he turned on the
coffee pot and got some water for Invidia’s tea.
“I hope it’s way later.” Invidia
said as she fiddled with the sash on her robe, under it she wore a long black
spaghetti strap nightgown, it fell to her feet and had a small bit of black
lace at the bottom of it and around her breast, but it looked more cute then
sexy, and it also made her a bit cold since her shoulders were practically
bare. Arty just wore pajama pants and a white shirt; he didn’t care about the
cold.
“No, we’re not going to play around.”
“Not that! You can do that tonight; I just like spending
quiet time with you…” Invidia said as she came over and hugged him.
“Please move,” he said.
Invidia let go and went into the living room, where, she
sat on the couch and waited for Arty to bring her some tea, she didn’t drink
coffee.
After a couple minutes Arty came over and they sat together
until Akira and Ryou got up, but instead of just opening presents they helped
for Arty’s holiday party, which was just a dinner, with his parents and
a few friends. The party wasn’t until the evening, but they worked throughout
the day to get everything set up, and at dinner Invidia wore her red dress
again. This time, Arty did not mind because it was people he knew really well.
The dinner went well too, but halfway through Arty and
Invidia went out on the balcony, as, they got tired of his family.
“I like them, I really do.” Invidia told him.“But they get tiring after awhile…”
“Well, we’re alone now.”
“But it’s cold!”
Arty then took off his coat and put it around Invidia’s
shoulders. “Better?” He asked.
“Yes, much better.” Invidia said as she went over and held
onto the railing, she looked out at the Christmas lights around her; it made
the city look beautiful.
“It’s beautiful, huh?” Arty said.
Invidia nodded, and they stood for a couple minutes,
enjoying each other’s company as a light snow began to fall.
“Arty, look…” Invidia breathed.
“Yup, almost like our first Christmas together, of course
then the snow has already been on the ground…”
“Well, if you remember that, then you should remember
this…” Invidia slipped her hand in his and he looked at her, as she leaned up
and kissed him. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer as the
kiss deepened.
The perfect end to a wonderful evening…