Chapter Text
Christmas had been a wonderful day.
Seth couldn’t sleep the night before, so he was groggy when Kendra woke him up, but they still both cheerfully ran downstairs. It was nothing at all like the bleak Christmas they’d had the year before. The old record player in the living room was playing music, and the tree had a pile of gifts under it. The air smelled like pine needles when they rushed past it.
Notably, under the tree were six messily wrapped balls of crinkled wrapping paper with a piece of white tape and the sharpie-written names of: Stan, Ruth, Gloria, Hank, Mom and Dad. Seth had only barely managed to fit the ‘a’ of Gloria on the piece of tape and was glad nobody had a longer name. It felt weird using his grandparents’ names, but he didn’t really have the room for more. The balls were resting at the foot of the well packaged canvas Kendra had been working on - just finished the night before.
The Larsons pulled up in the driveway as Seth was helping make breakfast - he was in charge of the eggs - and Kendra was helping set up the table. There was a series of cheerful greetings. A few minutes later, Bracken walked over from the naiad pond and joined them, much to Kendra’s joy. He was invited in with good cheer.
They had a great breakfast filled with laughter and high spirits. Several people congratulated Seth on the eggs, saying he’d made them perfectly. He beamed at them.
After cleaning up, they moved to the living room, still chatting cheerfully away, and got to opening gifts.
There was much joy and laughter as people opened their gifts. It was about halfway through the pile when Warren, who had taken on the job of handing out the gifts, took the first of the balls Seth had wrapped. “Alrighty, and looks like we have a mystery gift for Stan!”
“I made it,” Seth said, wiping his hands nervously. “Actually, can you give them to everyone so they can open them at the same time?”
“Sure. Safe to toss?” At Seth’s nod, Warren said, “Stan! Catch!”
His grandfather only slightly fumbled the catch. Everyone else Seth had made them for each got theirs and then opened them at once. Seth shivered and swung his feet restlessly.
His Mom got hers open first and pulled out the necklace, with a smile. She grinned at him, “This looks great, bud.”
He blushed and stammered a thanks.
“A necklace?” Grandpa Hank asked, looking his over. “Did you make this, Seth?”
“Y-yeah. It’ll keep you warm. I was going to try and make scarves, but Bracken and Kendra gave me a better idea. I hope you guys like it.”
Stan and Ruth seemed to catch on immediately, looking surprised at first, then smiling. They put them on. “Any advice on how to use them?” Ruth asked.
“Oh. Uh, yeah. Against your skin is better if you want them to work. And uhh, the string doesn’t do great with water. You can also adjust the length by pulling on it, but Mom said you shouldn’t pull sideways when you do. Try to pull up and away, so the cord lasts longer.” He shifted uncomfortably, aware his other grandparents were trying to understand, but not willing to explain in front of everyone. “That’s it I think.”
Stan tucked his under his sweater and so did Ruth. They thanked him and gave him hugs, as did his parents and other grandparents. They had all put on the necklaces. Seth’s blush only started to fade once they moved on to the next gift - Kendra’s paintings. She had made a series of little paintings with scenes of Fablehaven, one for every person present.
Seth was surprised at the one she gave him - it was one he hadn’t seen before. When had she made it? It had him riding on one of Hugo’s shoulders, talking to a blobby shape he knew to be Grandpa Stan. He had his wings in the image, two thin white streaks beside his shoulders, blending in with the snow around them.
He gave Kendra a tight hug. “When did you have the time to do this? I thought you weren’t making me a gift!”
He had secretly made her a simple necklace too, with three longer feathers, but he was planning on giving it to her later. He’d managed to do it while hanging out with Newell and Doren, watching TV in their hut.
“Of course I made you one! And you’re not always in the house, I had time to hide it before you could see it. In fact, you almost did see it! But you just came up to grab something and left right after, so I didn’t think you noticed it.”
He hadn’t. He’d gotten used to not looking at them after Kendra had complained he was pointing out every little flaw. He had only been admiring them, but he wasn’t going to say that.
Bracken also got a gift from Kendra, as well as a few other people, to his surprise. The former unicorn was now the proud owner of a bright snowflake-themed sweater with a zipper (which he put on immediately); a pair of wool socks that looked suspiciously like the same socks everyone else had received from Warren; a painting of the naiad pond from Kendra; a cool round rock Seth had found and painted ‘You rock!” on it; and a blue and purple checkered scarf from their parents. He said he didn’t have anything to give back, and mumbled something about not even celebrating Christmas, but everyone just told him they were glad he was there and he didn’t need to give anything.
“It doesn’t have to be religious, you know. It’s really more of a consumer’s holiday anyway these days. I’m not sure about the grandparents, but for our family it’s more of a family tradition kind of deal than a religious one. We do it because it’s fun and it’s an excuse to do something special, but I’m sorry if it’s making you uncomfortable.” Seth told him, when the conversation had moved to the other side of the room.
“Oh. It’s fine - it isn’t the first time I’ve participated in some variation of the holiday. But that does make me feel a little better, thank you.” Bracken said, looking over at Kendra hugging Vanessa for her gift. “It’s an odd time to be in. I had noticed there were less and less religious humans in the Sphinx’s prison in recent years, but I suppose I didn’t think much of it beyond that.”
“You guys celebrated Christmas in the prison?”
Bracken laughed. “We celebrated all the holidays there! We - I mean my family and I - we celebrate the phases of the sun. The Solstice, the Equinox. There were plenty of us in the prison who did as well. I wasn’t the only non-human there. Either way, humans have celebrated the turning of the year for millenia as well. But there were people of a great many religions there over the years too. And keeping celebrations alive was one of the ways of staying sane. Usually we’d all end up invited to participate in some parts here or there, the stuff you could do if you weren’t part of the faith. But sometimes people didn’t mind, they’d share and explain things and talk about memories of doing these things with their loved ones. There are so many rituals out there. And we’d try to find creative ways to allow them to do the things they wanted.”
“That sounds really nice of you guys.”
“You find whatever ways you can to keep on going. Some of it was selfless, but some of it was selfish. If you helped someone, you hoped they would help you in turn.” Bracken sighed and leaned back into the sofa. “I’m glad those days are over. I’m glad we’re all free now.”
“Yeah.”
It began to snow again outside, thousands of tiny snowflakes dancing in the bright daylight. Fairies played games, turning some snowflakes to glass and bursting others into bright colorful sparkles. One fairy flying by the window was catching a trail of snowflakes like a long veil flowing behind her.
Marla walked over and asked if she could swap with Bracken. He agreed and went to sit next to Scott. They began to talk and Seth raised an eyebrow at his mom.
“Is dad giving him the Speech now?”
“No,” she laughed. “He wanted to know more about what it’s like in the fairy kingdom, but you know how shy he is. We’ll see if he ever gets there, but he’s trying.” She sat down next to her son. “Are you having a good time?”
“Yes.” He hesitated, not wanting to appear like a little kid anymore, before deciding it didn’t matter. He scooted closer and leaned into her one-armed hug. She was wearing the same fancy perfume she always wore on special occasions - the one he’d always dramatically complained about choking to death by. Even though it still smelled terribly strong, he didn’t really care right now. He only wrinkled his nose a little.
He had his mom back. He had his dad back.
He had fixed his relationships with just about everyone he cared about right now. He was less scared to face forward and be alright with who he was. And he felt better than he had in so, so long. In his chest, almost exactly where he had found that well of darkness the summer before, now he felt a bright warmth that had absolutely nothing magical about it. It was such a corny thought that he would never admit it out loud to anyone, but he thought it was love.
He really, really loved his family. And all the close friends they had here today and all those who were celebrating elsewhere.
He closed his eyes, shutting out the warm lights of the living room, and leaned against his mom, feeling like a little kid again. “Love you,” he mumbled to her.
She kissed him on the head and said, “I love you too, bud.”
And, at least for now, everything was perfect.