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

Oneshot: So This Is Christmas

Background: Gabriel and Rafe are alive because I say so.

Content: Holiday shenanigans, family, fluff, humor, wholesomeness, slight romance with the usual couples, obligatory warning for Emma with access to duct tape. (I actually wrote something happy for once, be proud of me.)

"Emma, what in the name of all things magic are you doing?"

Emma rolled her eyes, "wrapping Dena's Christmas present, obviously. I got her a dart board. I bet she'll love it."

Rafe bit his tongue and decided not to mention that while Dena would most certainly love the dartboard, everyone else in her village would probably not be so excited about the already reckless warrior with more access to weaponry and competitive games. Of course, that was not what he had been talking about in the first place. He had been mentioning Emma's wrapping of the dart board - if it could even be called wrapping.

Emma had, naturally, chosen penguin printed wrapping paper to decorate the gifts that she was giving to her closest friends and family. Unfortunately, she seemed to be unable to cut or wrap neatly, so the paper was wrinkled and clumped in some spots and torn in others. An obscene amount of duct tape had been used to secure the wrapping paper to the box, and no less than three of those little stick on bows - one orange, one purple, and one blue - had been stuck on at random to try to make the whole thing presentable. The three decorations were failing miserably in their task. 

Gabriel, who was staying with the Wibberly family for the holidays, and who had just entered the room after making himself a cup of hot cocoa, took in this scene and sighed, "you do know that bags are a thing, right?"

Emma shot him a glare, "I will not lose a battle against wrapping paper!"

"You already have," Rafe quipped, a smirk on his face.

Gabriel looked between them with a mix of annoyance and acceptance of their sharp tongues. He asked, "where are the others? I thought that we were going to put on a movie together? Also, do I even want to know why neither of you have finished wrapping presents despite the fact that it's Christmas Eve?"

"Last minute panic," Emma offered up.

"I've wrapped most of mine," Rafe protested, "I just completed Abigail's, and so now I just have to finish Jake and Beetles."

"What'd you get them, anyways?" Emma asked. 

Rafe said, "these are joint gifts from Kate and I. She picked out a sweater for Abigail. I picked out the gift for Jake and Beetles - they're getting life jackets, because they insist on continuing their foolhardy treasure hunting, and they're getting too old to swim to shore every time they fall in the water or their boat sinks."

"Does that happen often?" Gabriel wondered. 

"With Jake and Beetles," Rafe said, "anything is possible, and not in a good way."

"I got the Christmas movies!" The excited voice of Wilamena (she had arranged to spend Christmas Eve with the Wibberlys, before returning to her father for Christmas morning) filled the room as the elf princess skipped in, with Michael following after her. She had convinced him to wear a sweater printed with reindeer and Santa Hats, something that had Michael blushing in embarrassment any time Emma looked at him and started snickering.

"We have A Charlie Brown Christmas, A Christmas Story, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Grinch, a lot of good ones," Michael said, nodding to the stack of DVDs in Wilamena's hands, "apparently mom loves holiday movies, so we have plenty."

"I certainly do," Clare chuckled, walking in to take a seat on the couch. Richard followed, holding two cups of cocoa, one for himself and one for his wife. He sat next to Clare, and Gabriel took a seat on the other side of Richard. Michael and Wilamena arranged themselves on the love seat, and Emma was sprawled on top of a beanbag chair, attempting to wrap her next present, which seemed to be going about as well as Dena's.