Choices Imagines

Día de Los Reyes - Méndez & Day Families (Part Two)

The next morning Luz and Zoey burst into Thomas' room and jumped over their parents "It's snowed again! Come and see!" They exclaimed as Tara and Thomas groaned, sitting up and rubbed their eyes groggily. "Luz." Thomas whined "Zoey" Tara said in the same way as they yawned "It's snowed! It's snowed! Come on! You have to see!" They carried on insistently, tugging at their parents arms. Tara and Thomas groaned as they dragged themselves out of bed sliding their feet into their slippers and throwing on their robes, before following an excited pair of girls the the big window in the living room. "It's so beautiful!" Luz gasped as she stared at the fresh blanket of snow in the backyard "Can we go and play mom? Please?" Zoey begged with puppy dog eyes "yeah. Please dad, can we!?" Luz begged too, "Let's have breakfast first" Thomas chuckled and made his way to the kitchen. As he set the coffee to brew and looked what to cook for breakfast, Tara took the children to get washed and dressed for the day.

After breakfast had been finished, all four bundled up and went out into the backyard "let's make snow angels!" Zoey exclaimed as she fell backwards into the snow and Luz joined her. Giggling happily the two made snow angels as their parents took pictures. Next they built snowmen and used mini cucumbers and an ear of sweetcorn for the noses. For the buttons and mouth they used leftover raisins. Then Luz ran to get her old hats, scarves and gloves to use on the snowmen. Thomas and Tara took more pictures as they watched the girls run around the garden enthusiastically. "You know.

This is the happiest I've seen Luz in a long time. After Soledad..." he trails off, Tara puts a comforting hand over his and smiled sweetly "it's okay Thomas. You guys are still allowed to be sad and grieve. She was your wife, best friend and mother of your child. I'm not going to expect you to forget her." She said calmly, Thomas smiled at her brightly "thank you Tara. That's... that's kind of you" he pecks her cheek as Luz comes bounding over "ew dad!" She says and pushes him teasingly, he chuckles and picks her up "what's up my little champion?" He said, suddenly POOF! snow exploded on his shoulder and Zoey came out from her hiding place giggling "your faces were hilarious!" She laughed as she clutched her sides, doubling over from laughing so much. "Oh... I see how it is" Tara spoke in a challenging tone. "You guys want a snowball fight" she continued as she eyed them suspiciously. "Uh oh." Luz said as she jumped down from Thomas' arms and sprinted the the opposite end of the garden. Soon chaos had erupted as a snowball fight took place, children versus adults. The crisp winter air was filled with the sound of happy laughter as they played until they couldn't no more.

Soon Thomas was cooking the food he had prepared the day before as Tara was keeping Luz and Zoey busy with colouring activities and board games. A few hours later they were playing uno in Luz's room as Thomas shouted "The food is ready!" ,throwing their cards on the floor the two girls ran off "fooooooooooooooooood!" The shouted as the ran down the stairs. Tara packed the cards away and placed the pack on the desk in Luz's room then headed downstairs. As she reached the bottom she heard a chuckle, she turned round as saw Thomas in a full suit. "Wow." She said completely stunned, the fact he was wearing a tie didn't startle her, but it was how completely handsome he looked as he stood there in a navy blue suit, white shirt and a pair of his best shoes. She completely zoned out just staring at him that she didn't realise he was now right in front of her ".... um, earth to Tara... heeelllllooooo???" He spoke teasingly as he waved a hand in front of her face. "Yes! I love you! I mean... I'm awake. I'm here! I uh...." she stumbled over her words as he smiled at her "well, well, well. It seems the lawyer has the girl who saved him speechless for once" he teased further, slapping him playfully they shared a passionate but loving kiss before heading to the dining room and sitting down.

As they sat down Luz slid a small box over to her dad, "What's this?" He asked as he picked it up & opened it. "I made a magnet for the fridge!" Luz chimed "It's beautiful darling, we'll put it on there after dinner" Thomas said and hugged Luz tight. "Can we say a prayer for mom? I know it's probably not-" Tara stopped her mid-sentence and got down to her height "Luz... if you wish to say a prayer to your mom and include her in today you can. It was tradition for her too, I'm sure she'd be thrilled to know you still want to have her included" she said with a gentle hand placed on her shoulder. Tara looked up at Thomas and smiled as he mouthed a quick "thank you"

They said their prayer and afterwards they finished Zoey and Luz asked their parents to wait and ran to the craft room. They came back wearing crowns and carrying 2 more "we need our crowns!" Luz told everyone and placed Thomas' on his head. "Thank you" he said and soon they were sharing food. "What the bread thing?" Zoey asked looking at Thomas curiously. He swallowed his food then cleared his throat "it's a special dish called Roscón de Reyes." He explains, "Inside we put a figure of baby Jesus to represent the hiding of him from King Herod's men. And then whoever gets the slice with the figure has to thrown a party on Día de la Candelaria, next month" Luz adds and shares a smile with her dad. The continued their conversation over food and teach Tara and Zoey about a number of different traditional things that are done on Día de los Reyes.

Later on around 10pm they all changed into their pyjamas & Zoey and Tara gathered in a side room discussing their surprise for Thomas and Luz. "But what if it makes them really sad mom? I don't want to upset Luz or make you and Thomas argue like you used to with dad. Tara looked at her daughter affectionately and took her in her arms "Sweetie. Sometimes... sometimes we do things we think other people will like and it upsets them a bit at first. So if that happens tonight, we'll let them cool off a bit and then talk to them and smooth things out okay?" She asked. Zoey stared at the floor for a moment in thought, then nodded "okay." She smiled. Together they made their way to the kitchen were Thomas and Luz were waiting with four mugs of Mexican hot chocolate. "Hey! There you guys are!" Thomas said cheerily, "Um Thomas...." Tara said lingering in the door way holding a present behind her back, shuffling on her feet nervously. Thomas' brow creased with worry "what's wrong sunshine?" He asked turning in his chair "Me and Zoey. We um.. we got you... and Luz, a.... joint gift. And um... we don't want to upset you with it but....." she speaks quieter and more nervously than she ever has. She steps forwards and hands Thomas the gift, he spins round and opens it with Luz. As he turns back from throwing the paper in the bin, his breath catches in his throat. Reading the tension Tara starts stuttering nervously "you don't like it do you? God, you hate it. Damn it I knew I should've jus-" she rants to herself but is cut off feeling small arms wrap around her and hears a little sniffle. Turning she sees Luz, clinging to her crying "oh no. Sweetie I didn't mean to-" she starts to apologise but Liz shakes her head "these are good tears" she whispers and hugs Tara tighter as she picks her up. She lets her go after a moment and then looks at Thomas, "Are you...?" She asks tentatively and is met with another embrace but this time it's stronger and filled with emotion. As they hug Thomas sobs into Tara's shoulder. Zoey and Luz look at each other as their parents stand in the corner of the kitchen hugging and mumbling to each other.

"I thought I lost that picture forever. I never thought I would be able to look at-" he sobs, his voice thick with emotion. Luz leans her head on Zoey's shoulder "you're the best sister ever Zoey" she mumbles "you're pretty great too" Zoey replies with a smile. "You know... as gross as kissing is. Our parents are pretty cute together" Luz said casually as the two girls continued watching their parents. After they had finished their drinks, Tara helped to hang the picture of Thomas and a younger Luz with Soledad in a mall with people dressed as The Three King's, all smiling and looking happy. As they took a step back they all admired the picture, "Front and centre. Just as it deserves" Tara said confidently and smiled at Thomas and Luz, who still had tears in their eyes as the looked at it. After a few moments of the comfortable silence Luz turned to her dad "Please stay with Tara dad. She's cool" she told him and he chuckled. "I never plan on doing so kid" he assured her, then turned to Tara. "Feliz Día de Los Reyes" she said fluently. Thomas smiled sincerely "Feliz Día de Los Reyes" he said back.

That night they tucked the children into bed and spent the night in bed talking before they finally fell asleep. Thomas feeling the happiest he had ever felt since his wife's passing. He held Tara close all night, knowing that he had a good thing and would never ever let her go and would protect her with all he had.