First Snowfall

Christmas Eve

Delphi grinned as she peered out the window, her breath frosting the glass in front of her. The first snowfall of the season on Christmas Eve which was sort of perfect. It made her second Christmas without her parents or brother bearable and a little more magical. Amparo City got cold during the winter, but it rarely snowed, so to get to wake up to the snowflakes blanketing everything in sight felt like a good omen.

She got ready, pulling on a pair of jeans and a festive turtleneck with little snowflakes and Christmas trees on it. Christmas was her favorite time of year and nothing was going to ruin that for her. Not the fact that she wouldn't get to see her parents or brother. Not the Shadows. Not the Protectors or her former friends. Nothing. Delphi was determined to make this the best Christmas ever. She practically skipped down the stairs of the team's safehouse and into the kitchen but stopped short when she surveyed the miserableness in front of her. Tomorrow was Christmas Eve and there was no tree up, no stockings, no decorations of any kind. Just Blizzard hunched over his mug of coffee like any other morning and Riley yawning and flipping through the newspaper, his black hair uncombed and messy.

Delphi could feel her smile begin to fall, but she refused to let this sorry scene in front of her ruin her Christmas cheer. Sure, they'd been really busy the past few weeks and Delphi still wanted to take down the Shadows more than ever. But she was willing to take a break for Christmas.

Riley lazily glanced up from his paper and flashed her a grin that normally would have made her heart flutter and her heart melt. Today though except seeing this place decorated properly for Christmas day would make her heart melt or flutter or anything. She gave him her biggest smile back though and walked around the counter to kiss his cheek.

"Did you see it's snowing outside?" she asked, leaving Riley to make herself some cereal.

He nodded not even bothering to look out the window. "Yep."

"Isn't that fun?" she pressed. "A white Christmas! The last time I had a wait Christmas was when I was like twelve."

He shrugged. "Sure, it's... cool."

Delphi's smile began to slip and this time, her Christmas cheer could do nothing to save it. She frowned, setting her bowl of cereal down hard enough on the counter to make the milk slosh over the sides. Blizzard and Riley both looked up in surprise. "Do you not like Christmas or something? Don't tell me you're a Grinch."

Riley scratched his temple, a grin kicking up his lips. Delphi didn't return it. She glanced between him and Blizzard waiting for one of them to reply. Blizzard's icy blue eyes widened after a minute of silence. "Oh, you wanted us to answer that?"

"Yes!"

"I thought it was a rhetorical question," Riley said, shrugging.

"Well it's not," Delphi shouted, hands on hips. Her cereal bowl sat forgotten in front of her. "So, do you?"

"Do we what?" Riley asked, going back to staring at his paper.

Delphi blew out a breath of impatience. "Do you not like Christmas?"

"It's Okay."

Delphi's jaw dropped, and she turned to Blizzard, hoping for him to redeem Riley's nonchalant answer with an enthusiastic reply. But then he just gave her an indulgent smile, lacing his fingers around his coffee cup. "I enjoy Christmas."

"That's... that's it... That's all you two are going to say? Does no one here have the Christmas cheer?"

Just then a gust of snowy wind blew in with Kitty, who slammed the door shut behind her and pulled her coat off. Her green cat eyes scanned the scene in front of them and she grinned, probably noticing the scowl on Delphi's face.

"What did they do?"

"They're ruining my Christmas cheer," Delphi pouted. "Do you like Christmas?"

Kitty snorted as she threw her coat onto the back of the couch and loped past Riley into the kitchen. "Now I understand why you look like someone ran over your puppy. We don't celebrate Christmas in this house."

Delphi had never felt so horror-struck in her life. She felt like someone had punched her in the gut. "What?"

"You heard me. It's not that we hate the holiday or whatever. We just... never do anything for it. We don't even exchange gifts."

"Well... well..." Delphi was at a loss for words. She pinned all three of them with a disgusted look. That was... unacceptable. Delphi refused to live in a house that had no Christmas cheer and if none of them were going to lift a finger to make this holiday special, then she would have to do it herself. An idea formed in her mind and her frown turned up into a grin. "Well," she repeated, "that isn't going to happen this year. This year we're celebrating Christmas. All of us."

Blizzard raised his eyebrows at her. "Are we now?"

"Yes," Delphi said, suddenly swiping the newspaper from under Riley's nose. Riley's head snapped up. "Hey."

"Don't hey me. You don't have time to read the paper today."

"Why not?" He seemed genuinely dismayed and any other time Delphi would have thought it was cute, but with everything she now had planned she didn't have time to fawn over Riley's cuteness.

"Because you and Blizzard and Kitty are going out shopping today."

Kitty clapped her hands behind her and when Delphi turned to glance at her, she found Kitty beaming at her. "Yay! I love shopping," she squealed.

"Good. You three are going shopping for gifts."

Blizzard and Riley shared a look and Blizzard opened his mouth, looking like he was going to disagree, but Delphi held up a finger, shushing him. "You are going shopping today whether you like it or not. And while you all are looking for presents, which I've already done, I'm going to be decorating!"

"We don't have any decorations in the house," Kitty cut in.

"Not even in the garage?"

"Nope."

Delphi shrugged. "That's Okay. I can buy some."

"So we're all going shopping today?" Kitty asked.

Delphi nodded, sharing her smile. "Yep! So go get ready you two. We leave in ten minutes."

For a second neither Riley or Blizzard moved and then they seemed to realize she wasn't messing around because they quickly jumped up and went upstairs to get ready. Delphi grinned. She was going to make this the best Christmas they'd ever had.