Duet: an Avi Kaplan fanfic

Holidays are Crazy

A/N: Hey, just one last update for tonight, because I’m feeling generous. Ready for a bit of holiday craziness? You better be. Comments and votes are very much welcome. Any one-shot ideas are also welcome, if you have any you want me to write in my one-shot collection. Love y’all.

-Emmi

Christmas eve comes too early and I still haven’t finished the drawings. By 9, I have the group photo done. But it takes until 4am for the one of me and Avi to be finished.

Christmas Day dawns cool and crisp. It’s about 8:30 when a small someone with long, almost black hair tackles me, yelling, “WAKE UP! IT’S TIME FOR PRESENTS!!!!!”

“Mel, get off, and I’ll come. Okay?” I mumble into my pillow. She climbs off, throws my blankets across the room and drags me down the hall to where our tree is set up.  Under it are half a dozen boxes and bags for each of us give or take a few.

We open our presents all at once. I got a new set of colored pencils, a few outfits, yes my mother and siblings still buy me entire new outfits for Christmas, a few gift cards and a pair of earrings from Pentatonix (minus Avi), and a t-shirt from Sean that I swore I would wear today, until I remembered I’m meeting the rest of the Kaplans today. It would not make the best first impression if I were to be wearing a shirt that said “Hello, I’m the EVIL twin”.

Mel goes silent when she opens her last present.

“Melani, honey, is something wrong?” Mom asks, seeing her start to cry.

“It’s from my parents and Andrew. This is the first time they’ve sent me anything since I was in high school. It was like, well, now we’re in Italy, you don’t matter as much because you wouldn’t come with us. All that’s in here is a simple card and $200. Like, they couldn’t even make an effort to give me something special. This is why y’all are my real family,” she whispers. We all hug her and tell her that they just don’t really get her.

After we have breakfast, I go upstairs to change into the dark green sweater and light colored jeans that Mel gave me. I also put in the earrings, which were from the queen himself, Mitch. I let my wavy hair fall loosely over my left shoulder. I feel like this should be perfect to meet Avi’s family in. I look nice, but not formal.

By the time I finally get there, I was supposed to have been there half an hour earlier. I walk in, like usual and suddenly, there are five pairs of green eyes on me. “Hey, I was wondering when you would get here.” Avi says, getting up to hug me. He gives me a quick peck on the lips and we sit down next to each other.

“Sorry about that, between my crazy family and the traffic, things got a bit delayed. Nice to finally meet you all. I’m Arya.” I say lamely.

“Nice to meet you as well, Arya.” Avi’s brother, Daniel, I believe his name is, says.

We all just sit and talk for a while. It was certainly nice to have Avi and Esther there for comfort. After a while, people start to disperse to other rooms, leaving Avi and I alone in the front room. I take out the small-ish flat box that holds Avi’s present. I hand it to him without a word.