Verity Alice Price

So, with the past week, Liam had had plenty of time to experience being around blanket forts, but Verity was pretty sure he'd still never had the fun of building one. So she'd sent him out to the store for some snacks, citing a long-overdue call with Sarah for why she couldn't accompany him and after said call (in which she harangued her cousin to at least talk to Artie, for god's sake, and also to come back to Baltimore), she stripped all the linens off their bed and grabbed everything from the closet and left it all in a giant pile on the floor for Liam to spot when he came home.

Shut up, this was totally for Liam's benefit and not at all because the past week had Verity feeling nostalgic or anything.

The had finished fighting evil - or maybe just misguided - snowpeople and as soon as the roads were clear enough to get off the island, Liam and Verity had grabbed her mice, grabbed her cousin, and flown back to Portland for a Very Merry Price Christmas. Normally they had to drive when they were bringing the mice, but flying with cuckoos made things like 'security' and 'regulations' afterthoughts at best.

The last few days had been wild and chaotic; her Aunt Jane and Uncle Theo were there, along with their kids, Elsie and Artie. Elsie was immediately charmed by Liam because he hadn't been charmed by her. Uncle Theo was an incubus and his children had inherited his nature, which meant Elsie spent a lot of time fending off male attention while attempting to hit on their girlfriends. She didn't know why Liam was immune to her lilu nature - and Verity wasn't telling, no matter how many speculative looks were shot in their direction - but she appreciated interacting with a guy she wasn't related to without spending the first few minutes awkwardly getting hit on until the pheromones wore off.

Grandma and Grandpa Baker had decided to stay home since Uncle Drew was visiting Ohio, but several other friends of the family had stopped by at various times for dinner and presents. It was loud and hectic and where there weren't mice to watch out for underfoot there was rat casserole to avoid (a treat for the neighbors), or Crow, Alex's church griffin, dovebombing from the ceiling, or Antimony's traps to dodge around.

By the time all the gifts had been opened and dinner eaten, Verity was glad to escape the madness with Liam for awhile, bundling up against Portland's cool and rainy weather, and wandering out into their yard. Or, more accurately, 'grounds' since the property line was measured in square acres, not feet, and included a fair bit of forest.

"How you holding up?" Verity asked, turning to smile at Liam. "Ready to run screaming back to Fandom?"

[NFB, NFI, and for him who was lightly modded with permission. SP!]