Title: This Christmas
Author: A. Windsor
Pairing: Callie/Arizona
Rating: PG-13. Kissin', swearin', and flirtin'.
Disclaimer: All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. My one and a half years of law school could allow me to legalese this a little more, but it also tells me it's pretty useless. So please don't sue; it's not mine, I'm just playing!
Series: Standalone, Speculation.
Summary: "Yes, it's Christmas, but something is new, because this Christmas, I spend with you." - "This Christmas" as performed by Robert Goulet
Author's Note: Written for LJ Comm Callie_Arizona's Secret Santa for usofcalzona who requested "Callie and Arizona rediscover Christmas magic." This might not be what you imagined, but I hope it still makes you feel nice and Christmas-y! Beta'd by the wonderful weirdy reindeer-panda roughian. Merry Christmas, usofcalzona! (or whichever holiday you prefer.)
Arizona hears Callie before she sees her. Her wife is cursing up a storm as she trips her way out of the guest room-turned-Santa's workshop.
"Goddammit."
"Well you're just delightful this Christmas Eve," Arizona says dryly, setting down the crossword she's been too blue to finish for the last hour. She cleared her schedule for the next three days in anticipation of Christmas with her two girls, but the weather in Colorado turned Scrooge on them, and both are still depressed after the phone call they received this morning.
"Oh yeah, my daughter being snowed in in Aspen with her dad makes me really freaking delightful."
"Well, I hate it, too, but short of a freak heat wave to melt them out, we're screwed."
"I want my baby! She's never spent a Christmas away from us. She's too little! You didn't hear her on the phone. She was so sad."
"I heard you the first eight times you told me that."
"Well, excuse me if I'm having trouble making small talk about anything else, Arizona."
Arizona sighs and stands.
"Maybe we should just give each other space to process, hmm?"
"Yeah, whatever," Callie huffs, standing in the living room, arms crossed over her chest.
Arizona mimics her stance, staring at her, unwilling to leave it like this. If she can't spend the holiday with her beloved baby girl, she definitely doesn't want to spend it fighting with her wife.
"We've never spent a Christmas alone together," Arizona suddenly epiphanies.
"What?" grumps Callie, arms still in place. "We've been together for eight Christmases, Arizona."
"But not alone. First one? You were working; I was at Meredith's. Second? Well..."
"Door, face, yep," Callie ticks off, discomfort crossing her face at the mention of one of the hardest nights of her life, even all these years later.
"And after that? Sofia, Sofia, Sofia."
"Yeah, I guess you're right."
"Don't choke on those words, baby," Arizona snarks, earning an eye roll from her wife.
"Well, what's your point?"
"That instead of being mad at the world for keeping Sofia from us today, maybe we should embrace what we've been given."
"Our six-year-old is celebrating Christmas without us, Arizona. We've been given a nightmare."
"Hey! I'm devastated, too."
"But you always have to be Miss Silver Lining, every damn time."
"Excuse me for trying to see a bright side."
"There is not bright-"
"Calliope."
Arizona crosses their living room in a few wide strides and gives her wife a gentle push back.
"Hey! What are you-?" Callie objects with a huff.
"Calliope. Look up."
Callie's brow wrinkles as she looks up, and then her shoulders slump with realization. She brings her eyes down to see her wife beaming at her playfully. She's annoyed even as she melts under that super magic smile.
"Really? Right now? In the middle of this fight?"
"Our daughter left us mistletoe."
It's true: Sofia and Ryan, her twenty-year-old sometimes-manny, had spent the last week before her departure for Aspen decorating the house and planting surprise mistletoe, which her mothers keep unexpectedly finding.
"Come on. You can't be a Grinch under our baby girl's mistletoe, Callie."
Callie lets out a frustrated growl and pulls her wife forward to her a little roughly, immediately finding her lips in a searing kiss. Arizona's hands disappear into the back pockets of Callie's dark pants as Callie's fingers seek out the soft skin of Arizona's stomach.
"Merry Christmas to me," Arizona giggles.
"I miss her," Callie whispers, resting her forehead against Arizona's.
"Oh, me too. So much I can barely breathe. But she will be with us again in two days. Safe and happy and home, and we'll have the exact Christmas we planned. For now, though, can't we just be us, wife and wife, not Mami and Momma? For just a little bit."
Callie sighs a little more, hands coming to rest on Arizona's hips.
"And what does our grown up, wife and wife, Christmas mean?"
"Well, first off, less clothes and more alcohol."
"Is this College Christmas? Booze and sex?"
"We'll do other stuff, too, but yes, that is the general idea. My college Christmases weren't really like that, though."
"Yeah?"
"Laundry, hours of sleep, and usually a post-finals cold," Arizona frowns, and Callie laughs despite herself at the visual.
"I wish I'd known you back then."
Arizona chuckles. "No, you don't. I was neurotic."
"Was, baby?"
"Okay, so, step one of our plan," Arizona ignores her with an eye roll. "Off with your pants."
"Right here?"
"No Sofia: we can get naked wherever we want."
"You brought me gingerbread men in bed?"
"I did!" Arizona grins. "And then I want to move this party to the living room."
"The couch again, Arizona? We're getting too old for this, and I just got comfy in bed."
"Oh my goodness, you are so whiny this week. Making up for the missing kindergartner?"
Callie shakes her head and kisses her wife warmly before brushing the gingerbread crumbs from Arizona's chin.
"Can't we just stay here and snuggle? I'm exhausted."
Arizona laughs. "We are such old ladies. I want to watch these."
She produces their DVD copies of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Santa Claus is Coming to Town from behind her back
"I thought this was grown up Christmas."
"It is when we add this and make it a drinking game," Arizona announces, grabbing the bottle of wine she snuck in with the gingerbread men.
"Who are you? When was my wife replaced with a coed?"
"That sounds like you're projecting your fantasy onto me."
Callie growls playfully this time and pulls her wife down beside her.
"Not so exhausted now, are you?"
Forty-five minutes later, they're cuddled on the couch, passing the bottle between them and not bothering with glasses.
"I still miss Sof, but this is pretty great," Callie admits as the Misfit Toys sing. "What is wrong with that dolly?"
"Maybe she's a lesbian," Arizona suggests tipsily.
"O-kay," Callie laughs, taking another swig of the wine and getting lost in the way the multi-colored lights of the tree and television play off of Arizona's curls. She giggles: "Well, whatever it is, they're all definitely creepy. Take another drink!"
"How are we going to explain it to Sofia when her moms are hung-over tomorrow when she calls to say Merry Christmas?" Arizona muses, cradling the wine.
"Well, I don't know what you're going to tell her, but I am going to blame it on you."
"Calliope!"
Callie grins and plants a big, wet kiss on her cheek.
"It's true!"
"Shut up and snuggle me," Arizona demands, and Callie laughs again. Her wife is such a lightweight.
"Merry Christmas, Mami!"
"Merry Christmas, m'ija," Callie says into the phone, praying that she sounds as excited as Sofia does, despite her raging headache.
"Did Santa come? Daddy promised Santa would still come even though we're stuck skiing."
"He came, Sof," Callie reassures her, wincing when she remembers that she and Arizona forgot to put out all the presents last night. "Did you and Daddy have a good morning?"
"Mhmm. We sang Christmas carols and had hot chocolate with as many marshmallows as we wanted."
Callie grins at the visual.
"But I miss you and Momma."
"We miss you, too, mi vida, but we'll see you tomorrow, and we'll have Christmas all over again, just the three of us. Won't that be special?"
"Yeah! Can I talk to Momma?"
Arizona groans beside her in bed: "Darn you, Kris Kringle."
"Yes, baby, of course, but you have to be extra super gentle, okay? Cause Momma's not feeling very good."
"Oh no! Is she sick on Christmas? Will she be better tomorrow?"
"I know she will," Callie grins. "I'll make sure of it."
"Your kisses make everything better, Mami."
"Thanks, m'ija. One sec. Let me get your mom."
Callie nudges Arizona with her elbow, and then pokes her fingers between her ribs.
"It's your daughter. She wants to speak to you on Christmas morning."
"I know," Arizona moans, rolling over and accepting the phone before managing a bright exclamation: "Merry Christmas, big girl! I miss you so much."
"Oh, I miss you, too, Momma, and Mami said you're sick. Did you drink lots of juice to feel better?"
"Not yet, baby, but I will, thanks. How's skiing?"
"Great! Daddy got me..."
As Arizona's face spreads into a grimace-smile hybrid, Callie slips from bed to whip up pancakes and a few hangover remedies.
"Merry Christmas," Arizona grins. "Our baby comes home tomorrow. We survived."
"We more than survived," Callie promises, opening the front door and holding it for her wife. "I had an amazing day, Arizona, thank you."
They've just returned from a nighttime walk around their suburban neighborhood, all aglow with Christmas lights. Callie can't remember the last time she got to stroll around, hand in hand with Arizona, with nowhere to be and nothing and everything to talk about. It's magical: Christmas magical.
"I had a great time, too," Arizona says, stripping off her coat and handing it to Callie. "I'm ready to get some Sofia cuddles again, though."
Callie opens the hall closet to stow their coats, laughing as she looks upward. Arizona gives her a curious look before following her eyes.
"Oh."
"Surprise," Callie grins, even as she's tugging her wife closer. "Mistletoe."
"Thank you, Sofia," Arizona sings, backing Callie against the closet door, knee tucking between both of her wife's.
"Merry Christmas to me," Callie cheekily mimics Arizona from the day before as she presses her lips to hers and hums a little "Jingle Bells" into the kiss.
el fin