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Peter stood tall and dusted his hands off, looking at his handiwork.
He'd re-set the Christmas tree– ornaments and all– after his '⃣Children' had knocked it over for the third time since he put it up that says. The star that was supposed to be on the tree's top lay discarded on the floor. Peter wasn't tall enough to reach the tree top, so he'd save it for Ronan to place on top later. It was nothing extraordinary, a pine-like tree with different decorations placed on it (though it seemed to get shabbier each time he had to pull it up off the floor and put everything back where it goes, minus the broken ornaments), and a basic gold star to top it off. Peter had taken a marker and drawn two black ovular shaped eyes on the front of the star, excitedly babbling to an uninterested Ronan about how it was very "super Mario as fuck!"
Ronan had just nodded along, pretending to care. He had no real interest for this Terran holiday that Peter had insisted on celebrating. So far, Peter had not mentioned celebrating with fun bedroom festivities all night long, so he did not look forward to it. Unlike the holiday of St. Valentine, or, as Peter called it, Valentine's Day. On the night of that day, Ronan had found himself sending a silent thanks to St. Valentine as Peter shoved him into the bedroom as pounced on him.
This was not at all like that, the blue-skinned warrior decided, as he watched Blue, Delta, and Echo scarf down their food from color coded bowls. Blue for Blue (of course), green for Delta, red for Echo, and black for Charlie, who was currently tucked up in Ronan's arms. He kneeled down to place her on the floor, then stood up and smirked. He'd finally mastered getting them fed without having a large mess to be cleaned, or a wrestling match that needed to be broken up. That was a first!
This holiday was a bit strange. Bright lights and shiny tinsel and glitter everywhere. It was new. Different. And Peter seemed to be overly excited about it, so he figured he could at least tolerate it.
"Babe! Look!" Peter strode in to the room. "I have a mistletoe!"
Ronan raised an eyebrow, moving his leg out of the way so Blue could rush over and nuzzle Peter's legs.
"A what?"
"A mistletoe!" Peter said. "And when I go like this–" he stepped forward and held it up above their heads, "–it means you have to kiss me!"
Ronan's eyes flicked up to look look at the green and white bundle dangling from Peter's hand, and then down at Peter. "Why?"
"Because that's the rule," Peter stood on his toes to make himself taller, and planted a kiss on Ronan's lips.
"That rule is stupid. Why does the plant have rules and why are you following them?"
Peter rolled his eyes, gave Ronan another quick kiss, and pushed his way in to the kitchen.
"Whatever. You're so lame. And...I lost a bet to Rocket last week, and now I have to make 150 cookies. So, you can either help me with that, or you can go watch tv or something," Peter said with a shrug. "It's honestly up to you."
"Do I get to taste-test?"
"No." Peter shook his head. "You'll just end up eating all of them and then Rocket would kill us both."
"Then I am not helping. I will go wrap the rest of the presents," Ronan said, leaving the kitchen.
Finishing their food, the velociraptors trailed out of the kitchen after him, then broke off to go do their own thing.
Peter grinned to himself, fished out the most festive apron he owned, and set to work baking cookies for his fuzzy friend.
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"Blue, no!" Peter scolded from where he was standing in the livingroom.
In one arm, he held Echo, and in the other arm, Charlie. He was using one foot to hold Delta back, away from the tree. That left Blue unguarded, and she way eyeing the Christmas tree down like it had offended her.
She bunched up her muscles ready to pounce.
"Blue!" Peter called out again. "Babe, help!" He turned to Ronan, who was entering the room. "I have to go check on the cookies but they won't stop trying to destroy the tree! Blue--don't you dare!"
She looked over at him, testing him.
"Blue!"
With a defiant screech, she launched herself forward in to the tree, knocking it back in to the wall and causing several ornaments to fall and clatter to the floor. Happily, she tiny dino popped her head out from between some of the branches and chirped happily.
"Wooowwww. You're in so much trouble, young lady." Peter scolded. She honked at him in retaliation. "Don't backsass me!"
"I told you they think it's hideous," Ronan said, setting the few boxes on the floor with the others and plucking Blue out of the tree, setting it up right. "It's probably the horrible color scheme."
"It's not horrible! There is no color scheme! It's every color!"
"And it's ugly," Ronan said, placing Blue down on the sofa. Peter followed suit and set the others down around her.
"It's not ugly. It's a Christmas tree! It's impossible for a Christmas tree to be ugly!"
Ronan glanced over his shoulder at the tree behind them, a brow raised.
"Ugh, whatever! Shut up! Keep an eye on them, and keep them away from the tree before they tear it up even more than before. It was hard to get and I don't want it to get so banged up that it doesn't even survive until Christmas!"
Ronan nodded, nudging Peter toward the kitchen.
Once he'd gotten the cookies taken care of, he returned to the livingroom, smiling at the sight before him.
There, Ronan was down on the floor, hunched over on his hands and knees, engaging in a playful wrestling match with the four overgrown lizard babies. He was chuckling lightly, pinning Echo down with a hand while Delta perched on his back, hopping up and down in an attempt to push him downward while Blue and Charlie head butted his sides and nipped at him lightly, jumping circles around him.
"There are far too many of them," Ronan said, laying down on the floor. The raptors began to go head to head in a game of Queen-of-the-Hill, clambering on top of Ronan's back and attempting to shove each other off. Beneath them, the Kree warrior rumbled with low laughter. Their claws weren't big enough to hurt him. Instead, they tickled his skin though his shirt as they scrambled about his back.
"That's cute," Peter commented.
Ronan pushed himself upward, causing the lizards to tumble off of him and resume their playing on the floor.
"I am a warrior. Warriors are not cute. I was, Uh...testing their strength! They are getting stronger," he said, standing up. "And their teeth sharper. Pretty soon, they're going to outgrow our home. They'll be too big and powerful to sleep in our bed, and run around inside. They need more space."
"Yeah," Peter nodded, sitting down on the couch. Ronan sat beside him. "But let's enjoy it while we can." He took Ronan's hand in his own.
"Who say we aren't?"
Peter leaned on the taller man and smiled. "Can you believe it? Our first Christmas as a family!"
"No."
Peter frowned.
"I am only kidding," Ronan said, nudging Peter. "I don't know what Christmas is, but it is...enjoyable. And the, um, children...they seem to be enjoying it, also."
"What?" Peter looked up, "Shit! Hey! Leave the tree alone, dammit!" He jumped out of his seat and ran over to keep the raptors from mauling the tree for the hundredth time that week.