Life, Death, and Time - A Books Of Beginning Collection

Oneshot: One Snowy Night

Background: Vaguely takes place after Time's Tragedies but that doesn't really matter. What does matter is that it's Eternity's first Christmas with the Wibberlys. Rafe is alive because duh and Gabriel is alive too because we love him and he deserves to be a grandpa to the next generation.

Content: Wholesomeness, Family, Lili x Eternity, Humor, Fluff. Time skips. TBH it's rare that I write something both decent sized and fluffy so treasure this.

"What the heck are you all doing?" Lili asked. She leaned against the door frame and crossed her arms, taking in the scene before her. 

Her four young cousins, Wallace, Hugo, Rob, and Tony, were all sprawled in various positions around the room. Wallace and Hugh were tying what looked to be two large fishing nets together. Rob was flipping through a picture book with all the diligence his father would have with a science journal. Tony was sitting on a beanbag chair, happily singing along to the holiday music - Jingle Bell Rock - coming from the radio. (He was three after all, there wasn't much more he could do.) In addition to the boys, Lili's siblings were also performing their own odd tasks. Abby had a miniature cauldron out and was mixing what looked to be a hot pink potion. Jake was studying two spellbooks at once and writing in a notepad. All six of the youngsters had expressions of concentration on their faces - it was clear that whatever they were doing, it was serious to them.

"I'm gonna see Santa!" Tony exclaimed brightly.

Lili blinked once. Twice. Then she said, "Didn't you already see Santa a few weeks ago, when you sat on his lap and told him what you want for Christmas?"

"Yes," Hugh cut in, "Mom and Dad took us. But that was at the mall, not when he was doing magic. We want to see him do magic."

"And see the reindeer!" Tony cheered.

"And the sleigh," Rob added.

Wallace nodded, "Seeing him at the mall is one thing, but my brothers and I want to see Santa's magic in action. Mom's told us so many stories about how talented he is, after all."

"I wanna pet a reindeer!" Tony said stubbornly.

Oh fuck. Lili had a bad feeling about this. Nothing good had ever come from a group of Wibberlys with a somewhat chaotic goal, a lot of determination, and what looked to be an off the cuff hairbrained scheme. A scheme that seemed to include her youngest cousin trying to get himself gored to death - and that was only one possible bad outcome.

(Oddly enough, it wasn't the worst or weirdest scheme the Wibberly family had engaged in. That honor went to the hazy but infamous circumstances that got Emma banned from the entire state of South Carolina. Gabriel still cringed every time it was brought up.)

"Okay..." She said slowly, so as not to encourage anything dumb. "So you're trying to see Santa's magic?"

"Yep!" Rob exclaimed.

Wallace added, "We're going to set up traps. Nothing harmful, just stuff that will make him slow down when he visits, so we have time to get a good look at him. Oh, and alarms so we know when he's here. Abby and Jake are helping set it up. Wanna join?"

Lili sighed and internally counted to three. She turned to her brother and sister and said, "Can I talk to you both in the hall for a half a sec?"

Jake looked about to protest, but Lili fixed him with her meanest death stare - the one that she had learned from her mother, perfect for using on unruly children and enemies of the family alike. Compounded with Rafe's intense eyes, it fit on Lili's face with a naturalness that was startling. Well, to everyone except Lili's girlfriend, that was. Eternity loved nothing more than to joke that she was immune to Lili's death glare, or at least used to it.