Welcome to the Advent Calendar Story Train, where you can read through 24 stories under the theme The Gift. Thank you for reading today’s story. The next one will be available to read on December 23rd, titled “My Dearest Ellie“. The link will be active tomorrow when the post goes live.
If you missed yesterday’s you can go and read it here.
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
“Okay, but why is it so big?”
It was the indignation in the question that had Daphne setting down the shaved roots. Her head cocked in the direction of the swinging doors leading into the diner, ears perked. She ran stained fingers up the rough grain of her jeans absently while her mind replayed the question.
“Some women like it big,” Gideon argued, lifting Daphne’s eyebrows and her curiosity.
Abandoning her task, Daphne edged closer, careful to stay on her tiptoes as she crossed the hardwood.
Riley made a choking sound of disbelief. “How? You can’t even get your fingers around it.”
“Valkyrie never complained.”
“Valkyrie would also like to know why you’re standing there like that?” the woman in question interrupted.
Daphne attempted to peek through the fishbowl window cut into the doors without touching the barrier and alerting the small group on the other side to her eavesdropping.
“Riley wanted to see it,” Gideon blamed.
The redhead gasped. “I did not! You were already in here, twirling the thing when I walked in.”
Gideon ignored her. “I was minding my business, admiring the size of my beautiful tool when she waltzed in and demanded I let her see it like some weirdo.”
“Liar!” Riley hissed.
“I still have no idea what’s going on.” Octavian sighed. “I definitely don’t understand why you’re holding it like that. You’re choking it.”
Gideon made a grunting noise. “Valkyrie does it better, honestly. She has the magical touch. Gets it right up without trying.”
“It’s a gift,” Valkyrie boasted. “You have to show it who’s boss.”
“You should probably stop before you embarrass yourself … and us,” Octavian muttered.
“The only thing embarrassing about this situation is how impressed your wife was—”
“Your brother seems to think it’s acceptable to just walk around the house looking like that.” Riley exclaimed, cutting Gideon off. “You’re the one standing there, playing with it where anyone could walk in on you. What if the boys came down and saw you like that?”
Daphne edged closer, teetering slightly as she fought not to sway straight into the door. The damn thing had clearly been made for giants. All she could make out through the round window was the rafters, and part of Valkyrie’s back. The Harvester stood with her hands on her hips, feet apart in her ice pick heels.
Daphne drew back, blowing out a frustrated breath. She turned to scan the kitchen, searching for something she could drag over without anyone noticing.
“And you seem to think it’s acceptable to compliment random men on their packages.”
“I was not complimenting … when did you become some random man?”
“Oh, Gideon, it’s so big,” Gideon mimicked in a mockery of Riley’s voice. “Why is it so big?”
“I didn’t say it like that!” Her outrage fumbled into something weak and small. “I’ve just never seen one that big. That’s all.”
“It is quite impressive,” Valkyrie agreed, pride in her tone.
Daphne paused to consider what she was hearing. Odds were she had misunderstood something because there was no way they were discussing what she thought they were discussing, but also, there was a level of eyebrow raising information there that she doubted was accurate.
There was also the small possibility that she was hearing everything correctly and by pushing to see, she would see something she didn’t want to see; while she thought Gideon and Octavian were ridiculously attractive, she really did not want the wrong image in her head.
However, … she was a hot-blooded, human female and … who was she kidding?
“You should show him yours,” Riley was saying when Daphne tuned in once more. “That might shut him up.”
“Unlikely. Not all men can handle such an impressive weapon,” Valkyrie insisted in what she probably thought was reassurance. “Octavian would only be humiliated. Gideon, you should put it away. Teasing your brother this way is cruel.”
“Mine is fine!” Octavian snapped. “It’s a perfectly good, average size.”
“Of course,” Valkyrie soothed gently, but with a hint of pity that had Daphne grimacing. “Gideon, enough. Stop doing helicopters.”
“What are you doing?”
The voice from behind her nearly sent Daphne out of her skin. Her strangled yelp was crushed behind clammy, root stained palms as she whirled to face the newcomer.
“Holy shit!” Daphne hissed, lowering her hands. “You scared the tar out of me.”
Magnus raised an eyebrow. “Why are you seducing the door?”
“I wasn’t!” Her outrage earned the swing of both eyebrows towards his hairline. “Okay, but I can’t explain it. You need to come here.”
He hesitated, but like her, his curiosity got the better of him and he ambled over to stand with her at the doors.
“I will get the tape measure,” Riley was threatening. “I have no problem proving Octavian’s is much bigger.”
“Will you also bring tweezers to hold it up so we can measure it?” Valkyrie challenged.
Magnus reared back, face bunched into one of disgust and bewilderment.
“Right?” Daphne mouthed.
Not answering, he pressed his ear back to the door.
“I really don’t want to prove anything,” Octavian protested.
“Because you can’t.” Gideon laughed. “It’s okay. You can just say it — mine is superiorly larger.”
“The only thing superiorly larger in this room is your head,” Octavian shot back. “A real man doesn’t have to prove himself to idiots.”
“Well, when a real man walks in, he won’t have to,” Gideon retorted. “Hey! Don’t grab him! Ow! Stop it. Stop manhandling my—”
“Okay, that’s enough.” Without waiting for Daphne, Magnus kicked open the doors and stormed in, Daphne right on his heels. “What the hell is going on in here?”
Four sets of eyes bolted in their direction, wide and startled, but it was nothing to the sight of tangled bodies frozen in an awkward battle. It was impossible to tell who started where, when everyone seemed to be wrapped around Gideon and the sword he held out of their reach.
