“Is it too much?” Iris asked, biting down on her bottom lip nervously. After the Valentine’s dance had been a total disaster, she’d wanted to give things some time, to see if Flynn wanted to cut her out as a way of making things up to Bobbie... But when it seemed that he still wanted to talk to her, Iris had decided to take things into her own hands and plan a sort of Valentine’s Day re-do for him. Mostly, she just couldn’t get him out of her head and wanted a chance to see him for real, and not just to talk to him through letters... but she also wanted to replace that memory of icing his eye all night with something maybe just a teeny tiny bit more romantic. 

Not that anything was that romantic in the loft of a barn. Well, not for other people -- for Iris, this was one of her favorite places in the entire world. Surrounded by her favorite things, and she didn’t often share it with someone... but she wanted to share it with Flynn. Her cheeks still flushed, she reached out to take his hand, steering him over towards the picnic that she’d set up, smiling softly at him. “I just thought... you know, maybe we could have a Valentine’s Day redo. One where you don’t get punched this time.”

“I’m not failing,” Briar huffed, shuffling the papers around on her makeshift desk as she frantically searched for her radio. She had a show to shoot and zero actors to do so (something about them all being late to hair and makeup because of a car mixup) and Lucky was standing over her, gloating for some unknown reason. “This affects you too, you know.” She finally found her radio buried under all her other work and held it up triumphantly, “Ha!” She felt an odd sense of pride for something that never should’ve been misplaced in the first place. “Now, if you’ll excuse me I’m going to save your ass and mine. ‘Kay?” She brought her radio up to her lips, speaking quickly and sharply, “Whichever PA is closest to the trailers, I need whoever’s ready on set five minutes ago. Oh, and bring our beloved director some laxatives-” She shot a smirk over at Lucky, who looked like he was beginning to regret taunting her “-he’s a little backed up.” 

Hanging out with Pari was still weird now, but Monty was so grateful for her wanting to be around him at all that he’d have done anything. Even spend time out in the dumb, cold snow, bundled up but still freezing, as he helped her with making her snowman. He’d thought they were going to make something grand and beautiful, like her, but by the time they patted the last mount of snow on top and stuck his coal eyes on, he noticed that she was giggling. Her laugh made his stomach do flips, but Monty wasn’t sure if they were the good or the bad kind -- what was so funny? Had he done something wrong again?

Relief coursed through him as he realized Pari’s smile met her eyes. A happy laugh. He couldn’t help but grin too, even though he wanted to tap his foot and impatiently and ask what was so hilarious. He couldn’t be annoyed with Pari, though; he never had been, no matter how different they were. She made coming out of his hermit hole almost easy. And definitely fun. And she kind of got him, in her own weird way -- like right now, when she said, “It’s because the snowman ended up looking like you,” answering his unspoken question. Monty squinted at it, trying to see it, and then he was laughing, too, a short chuckle compared to her continued fit of giggles. “Kinda does,” he agreed, wrinkling his nose. “Hey, do you want to punch it? Since you know, you never got to punch the real me for being a jerk? Because uh...”

Why had he brought that up? It was so stupid, reminding her about the date auction fiasco when she was acting so normal and happy around him right now. But still, his words -- usually so scarce -- seemed to just pour out of him now. “Because I mean, I totally get your friends defending you like that and stuff, but I don’t know -- the only one I care about what they think about me that much is you. So if you think I deserved to get punched, then I don’t know, you should have been the one who got to do it. If you wanted to.” Monty swallowed the lump in his throat; he couldn’t read the look on Pari’s face, and he definitely didn’t know what to say about the silence.

Punch a snowman. So fucking stupid, he told himself again, wondering if Pari wouldn’t rather just leave now. He held his breath, waiting for her answer, and then she surprised him again -- she flashed him one of those stomach-swooping smiles, and said, “Nah. Let’s just try to make one that looks like me now, so they can hang out.” Monty could have hugged her, or maybe even kissed her again... but instead, he just smiled, the heaviness leaving his chest as he knelt down in the snow again and immediately started working on Snow-Pari.

It had been utter chaos because of the holidays. All of their families got together, which made things even more chaotic. And chaos? Wasn’t her thing. She’d stayed in her room most of the day -- her headphones in and diving into the dark side of the internet. She’d somehow managed to find the weird side of youtube, a place where she’d always ended up, when suddenly the stupid little dinosaur popped up saying that she wasn’t connected to the internet. Her eyebrows pressed together, licking her lips as she reconnected and disconnected from the internet several times -- even restarted her computer. She looked up when she heard her cousins beginning to all yell about the internet being down, letting out a soft breath of air and pushing herself up, pressing her laptop against her chest as she braced herself for the onslaught of her family. 

She kept her laptop clutched to her chest as she appeared out of her room, watching as they all frantically tried to figure out what was wrong. Her eyes flicked over to the brunette, Izzie. The one who was probably the most level headed of them all. She watched as the brunette made her way to the router, her fingers curling into the screen as she watched as she unplugged it and plugged it back in again. Of course, the “smart” one would be the one to take things into her own hands. She could appreciate her, something that she’d never announce publicly but she knew that  Izzie probably could tell how much Selina appreciated her.  She watched from her door frame as Izzie made her way toward her own laptop and retested the connection -- and the wide smile that was on the brunette’s face just proved that it had been fixed.“Good news; we have internet again!”Selina was surprised when the rest of her family didn’t hoist the brunette up onto their shoulders and practically parade her around the house. Dark eyes followed Izzie as the brunette passed her, the slightest smile growing on her lips. Her eyebrows rose when she met her cousin’s face, immediately forcing the smile down but she knew that it was too late. Izzie had already seen it -- she knew from the way the smile grew on the other brunette’s face. She immediately turned and stepped back into her room, closing the door behind her. 

“I’m sorry, I just can’t.” Dagny backed up from Fab, holding her hands up in protest. “You want me to just forget that a few weeks after we-” She tried her best to come up with a motion for kissed that wasn’t totally lame and failed miserably, “-you kissed Kally on Halloween?” She scoffed, “Look, I know she’s your ex-girlfriend and I’m just the best friend, but I can’t even look at you right now, let alone just get over it and move on.” She kicked the edge of the curb with her boot, the cement making scuff marks on the otherwise smooth material. “Remember when you said that if things didn’t work out between us, we could still be friends? Yeah, I don’t think that’s gonna happen,” She finished, and turned her back on Fab, walking away from him as quickly as possible. 

Choses the pumpkin: Posey

Carves the pumpkin: Orion

Gets scared and clings the other in a haunted house: Both

Matching costume idea: Juno and Bleeker

Makes a cozy bed-fort to cuddle in: Orion

Steal’s the other’s candy: Posey

Accidentally gets lost in a corn maze: Posey

Tells spooky stories to scare the other: Orion