Christmas at the Lang's: Book Four

5

Scott jumped out of bed at the sound of his alarm at six the following morning. Who cared if the sun hadn't come up? It was Christmas! Christmas Day itself! And he wanted to open presents the second he got up, so that meant right now.

Scott wasted no time putting on his jeans and crazy Christmas jumper and even a Santa hat before he ran around the house like a little kid, switching on all the Christmas lights, even the ones outside. Snow. There was snow outside! It must have snowed overnight!

The red carpet. Damn. Now the red carpet was ruined beyond repair.

He tried to wait as long as possible before he had to wake the others, but he only found enough things to do until quarter past six, and was now faced with the task of waiting. That was torturous. He couldn't wait any longer.

So he went to Cassie's room first, threw open the door and said, "Rise and shine!" happily, a huge smile on his face.

Cassie mumbled into her pillow. "Give me five minutes and I'll be with you Dad." She had long since given up arguing with Scott. Even as a ten year old, she'd known not to argue with him about waking up early. She must've enjoyed the lie-ins while he'd been in the Quantum Realm for the last five Christmases.

Scott went to Loki and Stephen's guest room and threw open their door before he could rethink this pretty terrible idea. "Merry Christmas!" he said, smiling.

Loki hadn't even been asleep – he was sitting up in bed reading a book in the dark – but Stephen fell out of bed and shouted something indistinct, stood up and waved his arms around a bit, still shouting, his cloak even coming to his rescue, thinking he'd gone crazy, until he calmed down enough to see it was Scott. Loki laughed his head off at him.

"Why so early, Scott?" he grumbled, sitting back down on the bed. "Couldn't it have waited?"

"No," Scott said, grinning. The magic attack he'd expected hadn't come, which was always a good sign. "I've already been waiting exactly sixteen minutes and forty one seconds since I got up, and I need to know about my presents now."

So Scott was the awake and cheerful one at waking up early on Christmas Day. Loki was the indifferent one. Cassie was the one who didn't like it but didn't argue. Stephen was the grumpy one. And Stephen's cloak was the crazy one.

Neither Cassie nor Stephen seemed able to function properly in the morning, so Loki made them both some extremely strong and sugary coffee and they perked right up, and Scott was surprised they weren't bouncing off the walls. Stephen's cloak was enjoy racing up and down the hall for no reason, and while Loki and Stephen seemed to view this as completely ordinary behaviour, Scott and Cassie exchanged a very bemused glance. But then finally, finally, at twenty eight minutes and three seconds past six, Scott entered the living room for the first time, and, after the lights were on, noticed a very interesting-looking letter on the mantlepiece...

"Guys look!" he said, walking over to it excitedly. "OMG, OMG, OMG, guys!"

"What?" Loki asked, confused. Out of sight of Scott, Cassie smiled.

"I've finally got a letter! From Santa Claus himself!" Scott enthused, dancing on the spot.

Stephen just blinked, clearly still tired despite the massive amount of caffeine, but Cassie looked excited. "Well, what does it say?"

Scott opened the envelope, and pulled out the letter. "This is amazing hand-writing," was his first comment. It definitely looked like the sort of hand-writing he envisioned Santa would have. "OK, it says: Dear Scott Lang. I want to personally congratulate you on being the official record holder for the best behaved kid (and adult) I have ever had the privilege of delivering presents to. It is astounding how amazingly long you have believed in me also. The last few decades must not have been easy for you, with everyone you know and love trying to convince you I don't exist. I know it's been tough, but now you have proof I am here, and I can confidently say you are my favourite adult in the world (and as Santa Claus, I really shouldn't be biased!). Well done for everything, from being the new Ant-Man, to taking care of your daughter even when things were hard, and everything since! Keep it up, and remember, to always, and forever, believe. From Santa Claus himself. PS: from now on, if you want to make my job easier, please feel free to put your presents under the tree yourself. Because I am Santa Claus after all, and I have a lot of people to get to!"