What’s Your Flavor // 1. Gift

Time: Christmas / Kinsey: Age 26 / Post-YIM
Rating: It’s Just A Little Swearing

Kinsey sat in the passenger seat of the rental car, staring ahead at the garage door. They’d been sitting there for close to five minutes trying to muster up the courage to go inside. Taylor was dreading the visit far more than she was.

Having gotten married in October the year before, they’d been married for over a year and the dreaded question had started to come up more and more: “When are you two going to have kids?

It wasn’t something they’d talked about much, both of them knowing that they just weren’t ready yet. But now that Isaac and Tif were expecting their first child in a few months, the pressure was increasing even more. Kinsey understood why people were asking them so often, but the constant questioning was driving Taylor to his breaking point. Especially now that his brothers had started in on the ribbing just to further irritate him.

“I’m having Nam flashbacks!” Taylor said out of nowhere, prompting Kinsey to look over at him in surprise.

“What do you mean?”

“Remember when Isaac and Zac were egging our parents on when all of them thought we were dating, even though they knew we weren’t. Assholes,” Taylor grumbled, finally turning off the car. Kinsey reached over and grabbed his gloved hand in hers.

“We’re not having any kids until we’re ready. Just ignore them. I do,” she said, leaning over to give him a kiss, “Now let’s go. We can’t sit out here for forever.”

“Fine,” he huffed, getting out with Kinsey following suit. After dragging their suitcases and bags of gifts up onto the porch, they finally let themselves in to announce their arrival.

They’d spent the last two days with Kinsey’s family, including Brenna’s serious boyfriend Max, and the entire time had been calm, relaxed, and completely void of baby questioning. Kinsey had confided in her mom that they were in no rush, and even though she was more than ready for grandkids, she’d been good about not pressuring them.

“Merry Christmas!” Kinsey called out. The sound of pounding footsteps started sounding from the back of the house, and Zac emerged at the end of the hall wearing a Santa hat and beaming. He ran towards them, sliding in his sock-clad feet on the hardwood until he was right in front of them. Kinsey was lifted off the ground and into a hug so fast she hadn’t been at all prepared for it.

“Merry Christmas!” he exclaimed, giving her a final squeeze before setting her down.

“You just saw me two days ago,” Kinsey laughed, readjusting her clothes while looking up at him.

“You know how he gets,” Taylor sighed, rolling his eyes.

“I like Christmas, and I’m excited to spend it with my best friend. So sue me.”

“What about me?” Taylor asked.

“Yeah, I don’t care so much about you,” Zac said, punching Taylor in the shoulder before grabbing Kinsey’s suitcase and taking it upstairs.

“You’re finally here,” Isaac said from the end of the hallway. Taylor took his own suitcase upstairs while Kinsey headed back to the kitchen to give Isaac a hug.

“How’s Preggo?”

“Don’t I have a name anymore?” Tif asked, giving Kinsey a sassy look as she came in from the dining room.

“Of course not,” Kinsey shrugged before bounding over to press her hands against Tif’s big belly, “How’s he doing today?”

She’s doing fine,” Tif snapped, “It’s a girl.”

“Sure it is,” Kinsey winked.

“Just think, this will be you sometime soon,” Diana said, coming up and giving her a hug. Kinsey tried to grin and bear it as Diana lightly patted Kinsey’s flat stomach, but was mostly just relieved that Taylor hadn’t been there to see it.

“If you don’t get pregnant soon, I think her head’s going to explode,” Tif said, shaking her head and taking another bite of the sugar cookie in her hand. Kinsey just glared at her before yanking the cookie from her hand and eating the rest of it.

“I need booze,” Kinsey grumbled, walking towards the fridge in hopes of finding the spiked eggnog Walker had surely prepared that morning, just like he did every year.

They spent the next hour munching on snacks and catching up in the living room. Then it came time to exchange gifts before dinner, the Hanson family tradition. It had started out as necessary because growing up, the boys wouldn’t settle down to eat dinner until they’d ripped through the huge stack of presents under the tree.

“Youngest first!” Zac yelled, readjusting his Santa hat before snagging a gift from the pile in front of him.

“You’re twenty-five years old,” Walker said, shaking his head bemusedly.

“What’s your point?”

“Just open them, Zac,” Kinsey laughed, settling into Taylor’s side as he put an arm around her. It was her fourth Christmas with the Hanson family as a part of Taylor’s life.

The first had been strange. Their relationship had been so new at that point, and the shock of everyone finding out about them had only been a month old. Even though she’d been close with the family their entire lives, she still hadn’t felt a hundred percent comfortable sharing in their Christmas with them.

But from that Christmas on, everything had been good. They’d either been engaged or married, Tif was a part of the family, too, and Kinsey now looked forward to it as much as she looked forward to spending time with her own family.

Watching Zac tear through his gifts with the enthusiasm of a five year old was infectious, and Kinsey and Tif did the same. Once the couch cushion beside Kinsey was adorned with a cute new sweater dress from Tif and Isaac, a gift card from Walker and Diana, and tickets to see Jim Gaffigan live with Zac, the attention turned to Taylor.

He opened the new computer speakers he’d asked for from his parents, and several boxes remained—one each from Tif, Isaac, and Zac, and a fourth without a tag. The first contained a thick tan plaid scarf with red and black accents.

“This is great, Tif. Thanks,” Taylor said while Kinsey wound it around his neck.

“Yeah, because we don’t already have an entire closet devoted to them in our apartment,” Kinsey rolled her eyes.

“I do not have a whole closet of them,” Taylor replied before ripping the paper off the present from Isaac.

This one contained a white aviator style scarf which Kinsey also put on Taylor to entertain herself while he opened the next one.

“Another scarf,” Taylor said, no longer pretending to sound excited about it. Instead, he balled up the hot pink knit scarf that Zac had obviously bought at Claire’s or something and threw it at Zac’s head.

“Hey, there’s a gift card in there, too, so just shove it,” Zac laughed before throwing it back. Taylor just pulled out the Best Buy gift card and set it on top of the actually nice scarves from Tif and Isaac, glaring at Zac the entire time.

“Do I even want to know what’s in this one?” he asked, picking up the last gift.

“Of course you do,” Tif said, both hands on her belly, “It’s from the baby.”

It, of course, also contained a scarf, this one in a nice red and black hounds tooth pattern. But even the niceness of the scarf obviously couldn’t erase Taylor’s annoyance at their clearly intentionally coordinated gifts.

“Great, even my unborn nephew got me a scarf,” he said, batting Kinsey’s hands away as she tried to put this one on him, too, the bright pink scarf already wrapped around her own neck.

Niece,” Tif corrected with a frown.

“Whatever. You’re all assholes,” he countered, leaning back. Kinsey elbowed him hard in the ribs and shot him a look. “I mean, thanks for the gifts.”

“You’re welcome,” Walker said. And with that, they continued on with the gift openings.

That night, when Taylor and Kinsey were in Taylor’s bedroom packing away their gifts in their suitcases, Kinsey unfolded the hounds tooth scarf and ran a hand over it.

“I don’t know what you got so pissy about. These are nice scarves,” she said.

“Well, I obviously know how much it annoys them that I wear them so much,” he grumbled. She rolled her eyes at him and pushed him to a sitting position on the edge of the mattress. Still toying with the scarf in her hands, she climbed onto his lap and seated herself on his thighs.

“It doesn’t annoy me, and I think you’re really looking at this situation in the wrong way.”

“And how should I be looking at it?”

Her gaze drifts to the slatted headboard on his bed and her eyebrows raised.

“With a little creativity. Now lie back, be quiet, and Merry Christmas.”

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