Title: New Traditions
Author: lilyme (aka. redslilstories aka me ;))
Summary: Set sometime in the future. Arizona loves to decorate her home for Easter. The house then looking even more Easter-basket-y than it normally does. But what happens when she comes up with something new for this holiday? How will this be perceived by her visitor?
Pairing: Callie/Arizona
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters in this story, nor do I own any rights to the television show "Grey's Anatomy". They were created by Shonda Rhimes and belong to her and the ABC network. No copyright infringement intended!All mistakes are mine.
New traditions
Arizona found herself confronted with the task of wrestling a heavy piece of luggage from her car's trunk by herself.
But not for too long since, "Hang on," a brunette rushed over immediately and helped her with it. "There," she announced, when they finally managed to get it out of the car and onto the ground.
"Thanks," Arizona grinned, patting her helper's arm affectionately. "Say, how much stuff did you actually pack?" she wondered, considering that monster of a suitcase they had just unloaded.
"Only enough to last a week," the other woman replied, feeling only mildly accused by the blonde's probable implication of having packed way too much for that time span. "And considering it's April, you never know how the weather turns out. Best to be prepared for anything," she justified with a shrug and went to produce the other, smaller suitcase from the depths of Arizona's car. "Plus... Sofia insisted on bringing along little Easter presents for each and every single one of her friends".
As on cue, the little girl in question came running towards them from Arizona's Seattle home where she had already deposited her backpack in her room. "Mommy, Momma, can I go see Kara?" she asked expectantly, giving Arizona and Callie her most sugary, 'Please, please, please' look.
The mothers briefly checked with each other, one quick eye contact still enough for them to know what the other was thinking. "Yes, okay," Arizona consented, "but listen to Kara's mom, okay?" she stressed.
"And home by six," Callie added, "We're having a pizza party tonight".
"Yes!" the girl rejoiced and lunged forward, hugging each of her mothers before running off to Arizona's next door neighbors' house.
The two moms waited until they saw the door of the house open and Kara's mom Jenny stick her head out. She waved over to them in greeting and let Sofia enter right away.
"Soo... pizza dinner, huh?" Arizona queried, casually grabbed the handle of the lighter suitcase – even though it had not been the one nearest to her - and started to pull it along the walkway to the house.
Callie smirked at the antics, but readily took care of the heavier one. Part of her regretting having packed so much. The way the weather looked now - all bright and sunny - she probably wouldn't even need a third of the clothes. And she already dreaded dragging all that back to New York. But she was almost certain Arizona would let her store some of her and Sofia's stuff here. For the next time...
"Uh, yeah, pizza," the brunette finally replied. "I figured, since it's the first day of spring recess and all... a good start into a few days off".
"Right," Arizona agreed. "I just thought we could have something with a few more eggs in it?" she argued and Callie frowned a little in puzzlement.
Catching the look, the blonde elaborated, "I'm just looking for a reason to blow out some more eggs. To paint them and decorate things with them...?"
"Oh, I see," Callie grinned. She knew Arizona was heavy into Easter-y things. Always had been. There was a reason she used to refer to the blonde's style of home decoration as something along the lines of Easter basket-y. And during the holiday itself it used to be even more Easter-y. With little bunnies and eggs everywhere. She was almost certain this hadn't really changed over the years. "Well, we can easily make pancakes tomorrow for breakfast," Callie interjected, "that'd give you plenty of eggs. Or maybe omelets".
"That's also a valid option," Arizona readily agreed, as they finally reached the house. "Okay, after you," she motioned for Callie to step inside.
The brunette mentally prepared herself to set foot into Easter basket paradise. Ready for all the frillyness this holiday brought for Arizona. She didn't really count on being surprised by anything she would see, but soon found herself mistaken.
Because barely into the foyer Callie stopped with a smirk slowly creeping into her features. "Um... what's that supposed to be?" she coyly asked, pointing towards the construct hanging in the doorway to the living room area.
Arizona raised her eyebrows at the question, since from the looks of of it alone it was pretty clear. A couple of small willow branches, adorned with self-decorated eggs... "Well, obviously an Easter branch...," she returned, giving Callie an amused look.
"I figured that," the brunette nodded, the grin on Arizona's face already confirming her suspicion that there was more to it. "But... why exactly is it dangling from the ceiling?"
"Oh, that...," Arizona pretended to only now realize what Callie was actually referring to. Okay, normally you'd put them in a vase ideally filled with water to help the buds grow into beautiful blossoms. But if there were ulterior motives in play, one might consider doing it a little differently. "I just thought it could be an incentive to get my extra special loved one an impulse to kiss me. You know, like a mistletoe...," she glanced at her counterpart with hopeful eyes.
Callie laughed out loud and reached forward to grab Arizona by the belt loops of her jeans, bringing her to actually stand underneath the easterly mistletoe egg branch thing. "You do know I'm always willing to kiss you, right?" she cooed and immediately followed through with her annoucement, planting the sweetest of kisses on her blonde lover.
"Really?" Arizona replied in mock astonishment, "Oh, damn, now I already put those up eeeeverywhere in the house," she said and went for a second treat.
"Well, then leave them," Callie hummed into the peck. "And you know what?" she continued, looking into the eyes of the woman she never really fell out of love with and was so falling for all over.
"What?" the blonde smiled.
"Once we move back in together... we could, um...," she played with the strings of Arizona sweater, "hang those up all year".
"I thought you didn't need an incentive to kiss me," the other woman jokingly argued.
"Well, nope, but I still like the idea of it. And since I wanna kiss you all day anyway, those things would just be one more excuse to do so. It could be our very own new tradition".
"I'd love that," Arizona smiled. She could not wait to have her two girls live in Seattle again. For them to permanently live together as a family and as a couple again. They were just waiting out the end of the school year, and then Callie and Sofia would be back. Forever.