Xcom: Coiled with Torque Ch. 02

"I'll keep that in mind. I could easily throw another one at you after I got you close, but I feel merciful. Tie?" the viper said, her long tongue flickering close to David's face.

"Tie. How about we get up? Before either someone sees us or we get cold."

She nodded and removed her tail from his body, getting up to brush the cold off her thermal suit. "Wouldn't want my reputation to suffer."

He thought of what other snow activities the two could try, and as much as he wanted to do something like go on a sled, that might prove difficult to do with a long tail. And it wasn't like they had one just laying around.

While he was busy thinking, Torque slithered up and bopped him on the nose, leaving him surprised.

"You were looking rather serious for a moment there. You didn't lose, remember? To think I could have been unpleasantly relaxing all this time." Her normally straight face turned into a genuine smile. "I'm starting to see why Christmas is such a popular holiday."

Just in time, David felt his phone buzz in his pocket. The reason the two are in this chill weather finally arrived, or was soon about to.

"I think you're getting sick. You, changing your mind?" David laughed for a moment before the annoyed Torque turned him over on the snow.

"You really make it difficult not to bite you," Torque said, her tone neutral, but her face showed it crystal clear that she was just kidding. "Do we actually have a reason to be out there? Or was this an excuse to throw stuff at me?"

"That we do. Before you ask—patience! And follow me," David answered, amusing himself with withholding the information from his snake.

CHAPTER 3

After a few minutes of waiting, a delivery truck pulled up, Torque's interest piquing even further. That could only mean a package. She was about to tease David over making both of them stand in the cold for so long, but with the possibility of something ordered, that idea was long gone.

The driver got out with a tablet and walked over to the pair. "I've got a package for..." He looked back down at the tablet again. "David?"

David nodded, watching as the driver wrote something down on the tablet. After a few moments, the driver handed the tablet, along with an electronic pen to the agent. He signed the confirmation of pickup and followed the driver to the back of the truck, getting there as soon as the rear doors were open.

"I didn't want to put anything on the snow. This, this and that one's for you sir," the delivery man said, and with a nod he went back to the driver's seat.

Torque looked at the three boxes and then back at David, quickly connecting the dots. "Did you really bring me way out there to be a pack mule for you?"

"Mhm. Now, you take the big one while I take the two smaller ones," David said, not giving much of a chance for her to react to all of this.

With a roll of her eyes, the snake sighed and went to grab her box. She shook it near her inner ear, doing her best to guess what was inside. There was light clanging as larger pieces of something hit against each other, followed by rustling and scraping against the packaging. The sounds made Torque hold her breath, her tongue tasting the air to make out what was in the package. Silence fell between the two. Torque's eyes fixated on David as she wondered how angry he would be if she took a peek inside.

As if on cue, she heard him call out her name, "Tooooooorque."

"Fine." A few more minutes wouldn't hurt. She hoped it would only take that long. If David didn't plan on showing her what he ordered, there would be dire consequences.

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The viper was too busy wondering what was inside the boxes to entertain David with a conversation on their way to the agency. The two enjoyed each other's presence, even without a single word spoken. It was only after a few moments that she realized they had been passing several doors. She slithered past Cherub's, then Blueblood's, but when David didn't even look at the door of his own room, Torque spoke up.

"We're going to my room, aren't we? David, what is inside of these?" she asked, her voice stoic, but he knew better. She slithered close to David, her chest bumping into his back as she stared at him from over his shoulder for a response.

"Okay, you got me—yeah, we're going to your place. For no reason at all, what's the most interaction you've had with a plant before, Torque?"

She paused, staring at the box she was carrying, and then back at David. The curiosity in her eyes vanished. She raised a brow and narrowed her eyes at him. "I'm not carrying cannabis, am I? You better have a license for the amount in this box or I'd have to report you for that." Her tone was surprisingly serious, everything considered.

"And how do you know, by feeling, what the legal limit of cannabis for intent to distribute is?"

The staring contest between them lasted for an entire minute before Torque gave in and giggled at the absurd situation. There she was, assisting in carrying strange boxes to her own room with a human she could call her mate at this point. It wasn't long ago that a reality like this would be unthinkable to her.

"You got me there. Now let's hurry it up, my arms are getting tired." Torque made her way to her door, shifting the weight of the box to one arm while she undid the lock. "You had to give me the heaviest one, didn't you?"

"I gave you the one that would be damaged the least if dropped," David commented as he entered her room. He never had time to take a proper look around the place, considering last time's events.

He was fully prepared to say how a little mess in her room was fine, considering Torque had no way of knowing she would have guests today.

David couldn't be more wrong. Her room was pristine and if it wasn't for a few personal items scattered around—such as a hologram photo of her and Kelly laying on top of a small table, it would be as if nobody was living there. The room reminded him of how his room was like moving in; since then, he's made it more comfortable and less factory new. There were other clues of Torque living there—an ancient-looking plasma weapon mounted on a wall, a tablet laying on an enormous bed he was familiar with before.

His eyes went back to the hologram picture that was set to go through a gallery. The next one was recent, a selfie she must have taken when he wasn't looking; on it was Torque, smiling in front of the bowling scoreboard.

"First you have me help you smuggle stuff into the agency, and now you look for other nefarious ways to break the law in my room?"

He placed the two boxes on her bed before helping her with the third, letting it down on the floor.

"You're great at smuggling, anyone ever tell you that?" David said and pulled a small knife out of his pocket, crouching to cut the tape around the box.

"You're really not going to tell me what you brought before you open it," Torque said, slouching and blowing a breath of defeat soon thereafter. She sat on her bed to finish getting her warm clothes off, the bed creaking during the process. The viper unlocked the tail cover around her waist and then pulled on the end, the fabric gradually gliding over each and every individual scale before coming off with a proper tug. After pulling it off her tail, Torque laid back and sprawled her limbs across the bed, relishing in newfound comfort.

That is, until she noticed David staring at her, clearly enjoying the show.

"Less staring and more cutting. I want to see what you made me carry," she said with a flick of her long tongue.

David chuckled to himself and made the last cut to get the box open. With that out of the way, he pulled the mysterious object out, watching Torque and her reaction.

"David, I was only kidding about sneaking in a plant here," she said, tilting her head at the sight of a little tree. Her tongue flicked and caught its distinct smell in the air. It was a real one, and it reminded her of the times where she had to move through a forest on one of the scouting runs. Torque furrowed her brow at David; if it was going to be a decoration of sorts, a fake one made no sense.

He kept her in the dark for a while longer as he had to hold off his laugh. Once he found the screws for the tree's stand, he placed it on the ground and looked through instructions on how to put it together.

"Could you help me out? Hold it steady so I can adjust the stand so it holds," David said, still not satisfying her curiosity.

"Oh, need more of my help? Not before you explain yourself first." Torque rolled onto her stomach and pulled herself to the edge of the bed to watch David work, letting out a series of hisses all the meanwhile. She rested her head in her palms, transfixed and unable to avert her eyes away from the assembly. What was in the other boxes was a wonder now with the sound they made on the way to her room.

He looked up at her from the floor, holding the tree haphazardly and staring at the instruction manual in a vain attempt to figure out the next step. Guess he deserved it for keeping it a secret for so long. "Have you noticed the town being more lit up lately? Colorful lights, decorations, maybe a tree or two along with." Torque nodded with haste, leaning over the edge of the bed to the point where any more would have her plummeting. "Do you know why people do that?"

"To give more light during a season with long nights?"

"I'll give you that, that was a good guess. It's all for Christmas." He paused for it to sink in. "Me and you are going to decorate this tree together."

Torque widened her eyes at the prospect. She didn't understand why humans would ever decide to dress up a tree and bring them home instead of keeping them outside. It would die out eventually, and it was already dropping needles everywhere.

"Oh. Alright."

"I love the enthusiasm. Now get your fat tail over here and hold this tree in place so I can adjust the stand."

Torque slid off the bed and struck his behind with the end of her tail. It then curled around his leg and squeezed, threatening to tighten further.

"Vipers don't have the luxury of getting fat, considering all the muscle we use just to move around," she said and held the top of the tree straight up, allowing him to perfectly adjust it. "Call me fat again and you'll regret it."

David knew better than to challenge her on that by now, and if he wanted to follow the plan of decorating the tree, he decided against teasing her further. He adjusted each bolt of the stand, tweaking it and making sure it was steady and straight.

"I have to know. Why are we decorating a tree?" Torque asked and looked down, curious to see him work.

"Considering I'll have to put you through this hard task, it's only right I tell you. Prepare for my first human history lesson." He paused to finish tightening up the screw. "A very long time ago, different cultures noticed how some trees were green for the entire year. Very comforting during long winters. Far more difficult to survive those back then. And so, people used evergreens as decorations, as a reminder, and to gain favor with the Gods they worshipped. A few centuries passed with the evergreens embedded in our culture, and a person called Martin Luther wanted to capture the beauty of the winter sky for his family, so he used a tree with candles on it. That's about it." Just as he finished, the last screw was in place, the tree ready to stand on its own.

"Wow. I never took you for a historian, David," Torque said, slack-jawed. "I expected you to give a lame excuse, or babble like an idiot for a few seconds before telling me you didn't know."

"I figured you would ask, so I ended up looking it up before I even asked for your help." He chuckled, ruining her short-lived view of him.

"Less impressive, gotta admit. At least now I know why I have a tree in my room, so thank you for that. Let's open the other boxes then."

As Torque moved over to the box that was near him, David's eyes opened wide. "Whoa, whoa, hold on there." He got up and damn nearly tripped over the tree in order to take the box before she could examine it further. "Torque, no offense, but there's a bit of an order to this. The one you should open first is over there, I'll take care of this one." Without waiting for her reply or reaction to the weak excuse, he lugged the box away from her prying eyes to open it himself.

Torque shrugged and used her claw to take care of the tape of the remaining box. When she finally opened it, her eyes were met with glitter and various objects shining from the light in her room.

She picked up a golden tinsel pulling more and more out of the box. She wondered if it would ever end, but then finally the whole decoration was out. Torque ran her hand through it with a smile on her face she didn't even realize she had. This object had no practical purpose other than to look pretty. Something Advent would never allow. It felt so very... well, impractical. Yet a part of her was glad at the thought of doing something just for the sake of it.

While she was busy, David pulled out an extra item from the box and hid it between her furniture. She didn't seem to notice, so before she could question what he was doing to her desk, he returned to her with the other box.

Torque placed the tinsel next to the tree, looking at David for help with how to put it on. With him still busy, she returned to her little box, looking for what else it had in store. She carefully lifted the ball from the box, hearing the shape knock against another to give a clinking noise. The red-colored glass ball seemed to be empty inside, reflecting her face like a small mirror.

"These seem rather light to be made of metal. Are they plastic... or?"

"Not metal, they're ac—" The sound of shattering interrupted his sentence. Torque stared wide-eyed at the floor with her tongue hanging out and her arm in an underhand tossing motion. She had thrown the ornament on the tinsel, the unfortunate ball bouncing off it, breaking, and leaving a mess across the floor.

"Glass. They're made out of glass."

"Oh." She looked down at all the little pieces, worried that moving an inch could get shards embedded between her scales.

David walked over the pieces and picked up the bigger ones with just two fingers, placing them in his palm before tossing them into the trash bin. He then started scanning the room, looking for something. "Hey, where is your—"

"The vacuum?" asked Torque. David nodded in response, looking at where her finger pointed. "It's in the closet over there. Don't mess with my clothes, I have them set out the way I like them."

David nodded once more and headed over, sliding open the door and taking the device out. He looked at the clothes, examining Torque's fashion or the lack thereof. "Wow Torque, you're lucky I'm a fan of tactical gray. You have a lot of that in here."

"I have more ornaments."

"Right, cleaning up." The threat of more to clean up was clear as day.

David shut the door before turning on the vacuum, sweeping over the area that had shards of glass. He made sure there weren't any more specks, not a single one for good measure. Once he was satisfied, he took the vacuum back.

With nothing else to do, Torque went over other decorations with much needed caution this time. There were some more of those glass balls she found, some smaller decorations that reminded her of snowflakes and other ornaments she had never seen before.

"David? How do I put these on the tree?" she asked, eyebrows raised and the tip of her tail swaying back and forth. She wouldn't admit to it, but this whole Christmas thing wasn't too bad so far.

"They have a little hook on them, use that on one of the branches. I would recommend using tinsel first though, it makes it easier on us." He returned with his own decorations, one of which was one of the most important ones—Christmas lights.

The two worked together, putting the tinsel and lights all around the little tree until it was covered in a dazzling array of both.

"Are there any rules to what the tree should look like?"

"Nah, we just decorate it so it looks nice to us. There's one thing I can think of, but we will get to it at the end," he reassured her, and that was all she needed to begin.

The pair added various ornaments, hooking them as they saw fit. While David was relaxed and humming to himself, Torque was trying to achieve perfection way too hard with a task like this, eyebrows furrowed and a look of determination upon her face. A distraction for her would be perfect.

"There is another tradition for Christmas, but I don't think it will work out in your case," David said as he put a lovely snowflake decoration in a spot that was far too green.

"I already don't like where this is going." She knew David well enough at this point to know where a joke or his teasing was coming.

"You hang an empty Christmas sock somewhere, so that Santa can fill it up with candy."

"Santa?" David paused before putting on the next decoration. He forgot a very crucial part of Christmas.

"I keep forgetting that you are not familiar with Christmas. With how quickly you are going through decorations, you could easily fool me. Santa is this big mysterious person living on the North Pole that flies around the entire world in a single night to give everyone a present," David said, grinning at the look Torque threw at him.

"If that's a joke about me being from New Arctic, I'm still waiting for the punchline."

"I'm totally serious, Torque. He also leaves gifts under the Christmas tree. That's an extra reason we dress it up so nicely. To show him our appreciation, we should leave some milk and cookies—he loves those."

With how little she knew about Christmas and all the odd traditions that came with it, she wasn't so sure if David was pulling her tail or if he was being serious. Someone like Santa existing made little sense to her, but she played along.

"Too bad we don't have any of those around." Torque put the last ornament she could fit on the Christmas tree. Every branch had at least one decoration, and with mostly white and red colors, it looked charming. Having worked with it certainly helped her appreciate it, but even without that, she wouldn't mind having it in her room for a while.

"We might just have everything in the kitchen to make them. But first, we finish the tree. The most important part, the honor... is yours," he said, finishing with a dramatic bow. He handed her a big star with an opening at the bottom. After Torque stared at it and wondered where to put it, it became clear—there was only one spot with no decoration.

Torque shimmied over to the Christmas tree while David sneaked off for the power supply. Just as she put the last ornament on, he flipped a switch, the whole tree coming to life with an assortment of colors that left a sparkle in the room and Torque's eyes. The lights left her unable to do anything but watch, colors reflecting off her scales and painting her prettier than a picture. For all the questionable things humans do, they knew how to make decorations.

"Hopefully that gives you that extra Christmas spirit in your room. Want to join me in the kitchen?"

Torque looked away from her new tree and nodded with a smile. To David, she looked the prettiest when happy, and giving her a reason to be just that was one of his goals. There others were boring, such as not having his ribs crushed by her coils. When she left the room, he scurried over to her desk, making sure she didn't go rummaging through it. His plan had worked out—with something planted under her tree, nothing was stopping him from going to the kitchen with her.