Tom Kazansky: My Snowman

Night Fourteen

A/N: Mature topics are mentioned for setup. Also in honor of Miles officially being outed as a Swiftie... Enjoy the Taylor songs I'll begin to include in the next few parts. 

Tom was over to pick me up exactly on time. I had noticed that he was a very punctual man. 

"This is unusual" I chuckle nervously, wringing my hands together. 

Tom moves his hand from the shifter to my thigh, "It is, but no reason to worry Rose. I'm here, it'll be alright" 

I put my hand atop of his, "Thank you Snowman." I intertwined our fingers. I gave him the address with my other hand. 

Surprisingly, well not really. Viper's home wasn't too far from my own. We were there with almost fifteen minutes to spare. Tom and I walked hand in hand to the front door. Where two young women - about twelve or thirteen maybe, opened the door inviting us in. 

"You must be Hal and Iceman." The eldest said, "I'm Sarah and this is my sister Anna. Dad's in his office" She pointed to the right of the door, "And Mom is in the kitchen" She pointed to the left. 

I turned to Tom, resting my arm on his, "You go see Viper, and I'll go see if Mrs.Metcalf needs any help finishing up dinner." He sadly let go of my hand and walked into his bosses office. 

I thanked the girls for letting us in and went to the kitchen, "Hello, Mrs.Metcalf. Is there anything I can do to help you finish up here?" 

"Actually, if you don't mind helping me set up the table that would be very helpful. I asked the girls - but they were too excited to be having company to remember. Also hun, Linda is okay - no need for formalities here." She pointed to the cabinets, "Plates are in there, glasses are on the top shelf and the silverware is in the drawer below." 

"Alright, Linda can do!" I began counting out plates, "Six people?" I asked. 

She nodded and I sat out six plates along with six sets of silverware. I tried to reach up for six glasses. However, even on my tiptoes the glasses were just out of reach. 

"Here, let me" I heard Tom from behind me. I stepped to the side, he grabbed three glasses in each hand and sat them down on the counter. "There ya go, Hal" He smiled at me. 

"thanks Tom." I smiled as I took the glasses and moved them to sir on the table. 

"Alright, let's begin to plate this beautiful dinner." Viper called as he clapped his hands walking into the kitchen with his daughters. 

Linda began by plating the steaks Viper had just finished making on the grill outside. I plated some corn on each plate, along with mashed potatoes as Linda grabbed some warm dinner rolls from the oven. 

I also poured lemonade for everyone. Viper said a quick prayer over the food as we joined hands, then we all dug in. 

Damn could Viper grill - I'd have to make sure Tom learned to grill one day... Screw it, I'm going to learn to grill one day. Between bites I stated, "This is a wonderful dinner, thank you for inviting us." 

Linda smiled at me, "Thank you for insuring that my husband got to work safely. Although - fighter pilot and safe don't often fall in the same sentence." I chuckled at this statement and nodded. 

"Can our next class at Top Gun be about grilling?!" Tom exclaimed as he visibly melted from the tenderness of the meat. I noticed Sarah staring at Tom, she blushed when I made eye contact with her. She then looked away.