Chapter Text
Christmas was one of Kate’s both favorite and least favorite times of the year. She had reasons for loving it, but an equal number of reasons for hating it. Since entering into her new living arrangement, however, she’d been determined to transform it into simply a good time of the year.
Max had picked out the tree. It was a weirdly tall and skinny thing, and Kate loved it. As soon as they set it up in the apartment they realized that the very top of it brushed the ceiling. They didn’t want to cut it – it felt strangely cruel somehow – so the tree remained bent at the top, squished against the low ceiling. They sat the decorative angel tree topper between some high branches.
Chloe’s specialty was tacky ornaments. She had a whole box of them, ranging from a screaming gingerbread man with a bite taken out of his head, to two humping reindeer, to a bulb that said “Hohohos before bros”. She took great delight in peppering the beautiful tree with her awful adornments. Kate and Max reluctantly allowed it. That was the only thing they let Chloe decorate around the apartment.
Once the tree was set up and the apartment was decorated, Max insisted on taking cheesy Christmas pictures of the three of them in front of their weird, skinny tree covered in tacky ornaments. She’d joked about sending them out to their families as a Christmas card, but upon seeing Kate’s horrified reaction she quickly reassured her she was only teasing. Kate had sighed with relief. She had enough family struggles without cluing them in that she was living in a polyamorous three-girl relationship situation.
The pictures came out about exactly as one would expect. Max smiled that small, awkward smile of hers as she held the camera out as far as she could to take the picture. Kate, who had years of posing for family portraits and photographs under her belt, wore a serene little smile as she sat, spine straight and hands folded in her lap, beside Max in front of the tree. Neither of them noticed until the photos developed that Chloe had leaned in close to Kate in every picture and had her tongue lolling out, as if she were going to lick the side of her face.
Max immediately placed the pictures in their already-stuffed photo album.
#
Christmas in the Marsh family had always been very meager present-wise. Kate and her sister would each receive one gift, usually something practical and inexpensive. Their parents wanted them to be humble, and believed that the real focus of the holiday should be on Jesus. Because of that, Kate wasn’t quite sure how to “Christmas shop”. She’d tried wandering through the local mall, but it was so crowded, and the never-ending swaths of people gnawed constantly at her anxiety. She couldn’t concentrate enough to pick anything out.
That was when an idea struck her. She was in a three-person relationship. Could she not enlist the aid of one of her partners to help her shop for the other one? And then ask the other for help shopping for the first partner? It was a foolproof plan.
Two days later she was back at the mall, +1 rowdy punk girlfriend. She hadn’t spent all that much alone time with Chloe – she’d always considered her more “Max’s other girlfriend”. Truthfully, Chloe intimidated her a bit. Kate liked calmness and predictability. Chloe was neither of those things. Although she had to admit it was a little exciting – and Chloe was very attractive – Kate had always found herself shying away from dates that didn’t include Max as a sort of buffer.
But this time, Max could not be there.
“I would say we should get her some rad new camera equipment,” Chloe said as she pulled her beaten pickup into a parking space right by the mall entrance, “But her camera’s like, so damn old. I don’t know if any of the new stuff would work with it. Maybe we could ask someone…”
Kate cleared her throat. “Um, should we be parking in a handicapped spot…?”
Chloe shrugged and continued pulling into said spot.
“Chloe,” Kate persisted, attempting as stern a tone as she could muster.
Chloe swung her gaze over at Kate. “Seriously? The next spot is probably so far-”
As much as it unnerved her to do so, Kate kept her chin high and maintained eye contact. A few long seconds of her scornful stare was apparently all it took to dissolve Chloe’s stubborn defiance. Without another word she backed out of the parking spot. They resumed circling the crowded lot.
Not a moment later, an elderly man with a handicapped placard on his mirror pulled slowly and carefully into Chloe’s abandoned space. Kate smiled. “See? We did something good. I’m sure we’ll be blessed today.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Chloe’s annoyance seemed half-hearted. Kate knew that she wasn’t a bad person, though she acted like one sometimes. Intimidating as she could be, there was a reason Max was so dedicated to her.
After parking approximately two thousand miles from the mall entrance and walking the entire length of the lot, Kate and Chloe were finally inside the mall. The crowds then were even worse than a few days ago. It didn’t seem to bother Chloe, who simply elbowed her way through. Kate scurried after her. Every time someone bumped into her she quickly apologized, but her words were lost in the crowd.
Kate was following Chloe so closely that when Chloe abruptly stopped Kate bounced off of her and stumbled backward. Chloe didn’t even seem to notice. “Okay,” she said, gazing out at the endless sprawl of stores on either side of them, “…We probably should’ve brainstormed a few ideas before we got here.”
“Actually, I did.” Kate pulled a tiny scrap of paper from her pocket.
Chloe snatched it up and unfolded it. Her eyes scanned Kate’s rough, handwritten list. “Candles?”
“Max likes candles.” Kate smiled. “I thought maybe that could be one small gift out of a few.”
“…I didn’t know Max liked candles,” Chloe murmured. Continuing down the list, she eventually read aloud, “Fancy photo album. Yeah, that could be cool. Max has one but it’s hella bland.” She glanced down the rest of the list. “Novelty t-shirt. Yeah, Max def needs more of those.”
Kate sheepishly shrugged. “I know she likes them.”
“We could get her one of those super gay shirts from Spencer’s.” A slow grin spread across Chloe’s face. “Yeah, she’ll love it. She’s totally too embarrassed to buy one for herself…but if we buy it…”
#
Half an hour later they emerged from Spencer’s with a small black bag in tow. “That store was awful!” Kate practically gasped once they were safely outside. “So sinful! I never want to go back in there!”
“Okay. But you gotta admit Max is gonna love this.” Chloe shook the bag, still grinning.
Kate tried to match Chloe’s enthusiasm. “I hope so.” She wasn’t used to giving silly things like funny t-shirts as presents. Since Max did already have a lot of them, it wasn’t a very practical or useful gift. Was she going to be mad at them?
Seemingly satisfied with that response, Chloe resumed pushing their way through the crowd of mallgoers. “Now let’s see if we can find her any of the stuff you thought of.”
“All right.” Kate clung to her as Chloe carved them a path. “But, um, Chloe?”
Chloe paused. “Hm?”
Kate fidgeted a little. “You don’t think it’s wrong to buy people more than one present right? Or to expect more than one in return?”
Chloe looked as if she were about to laugh, but she caught herself, perhaps when she noticed Kate’s lips pulled into a slight frown. “Uh, no. It’s not wrong. Why would it be?”
“It’s not…gluttonous, or anything?”
“I mean, the way I see it, as long as you give other people about as much as you get, then there’s no problem.” Chloe shrugged. “If you were to, like, buy nothing for anyone and get a ton of shit in return, then I guess maybe that’d be kinda shitty. But you don’t have to worry about that, Mouse.”
Despite its familiarity, Kate felt her cheeks warm at the nickname. She much preferred this shortened version to the original “Church Mouse” Chloe had once stuck her with.
“Okay.” Kate’s frown slowly lifted into something close to a smile. “Thank you, Chloe.”