White, fluffy snowflakes pour from the dark night sky, and delicately they descend, swirling around like ballerinas. Matthew gazes at them in awe, his eyes tracing each snowflake down until he was not able to view them any longer.
It is terribly noisy this evening as pa and ma are rushing about, pa looking for his shirt studs and ma looking for the fancy earrings pa gave her for her birthday. Matthew and his brother, Alfred, sit in the living room with the tall Christmas tree that has been decorated by the twins, but it was mainly Matthew who decorated it, as Alfred's only interest was to shatter the ornaments or burn the branches of the green tree. So Alfred was fired from decorating ever again until he became a responsible adult… Which Matthew doubt his brother would ever become.
It is just like any other Christmas in this household of four… except this year pa and ma would not be joining the twins in the celebration of Christmas. Apparently his pa's reputation at work is more important than being home for Christmas with your family.
"Do not sulk like that, Matthew, it's only for this year. Next Christmas your mother and I will be home," Pa comment's on Matthew's sulking by the window. "You'll have Elizabeta here if something will go south,"
Matthew does not utter a single word and goes back to gazing at the snowflakes.
The sky grows darker and darker, and soon it's time for Matthew's and Alfred's parents to leave for the ball. "We must head out now, do not open this door for strangers, all right?" Pa says, pointing his fingers at the two boys, they both nod understanding their pa completely. They both were out of the door when Alfred dashes back into the living room and takes up a box wrapped in a blue bow.
Alfred stares pleadingly at his brother "Can I just open one? Please, please, pleeeease?" He whines, Matthew nods his head, not bothering going against his brothers will this evening. Matthew sits down beside his brother and picks his own gift. It is a strange one, as the name of the giver is not written on it. It only says 'Matthew'. Not being able to contain his curiosity, Matthew opens the gift. There it is a nutcracker in all its glory, it kind of strikes Matthew in a weird manner. It has snow white hair and eyes in the shade of blood. It's strangely beautiful.
"That nutcracker is eerie," Alfred hisses from behind his brother like a snake. Matthew sighs and puts the wooden doll back down into the box. "It is not eerie," Matthew responds protectively. "It's not eerie at all!" he mumbles.
Alfred shrugs and carries on looking through the presents sprawled under the tree. Matthew is too focused on the nutcracker to care what Alfred is doing with his evening.
Elizabeta soon called them for dinner where they ate a roast turkey. Matthew put his nutcracker on the black piano that is now only a decoration, he went into the dining room, leaving Alfred by himself. It wasn't long until Alfred's eyes were fixed on the nutcracker standing high and mighty on the piano. 'I wonder how many nuts he can crack!'
One nut.
Two nuts.
Three nuts.
Four nuts.
Crack!
Alfred frowns at the nutcracker, its wooden jaw is now dislocated! 'What a piece of trash!' He thinks and harshly puts it back to where Matthew had placed it. He better get to the dining hall before Matthew noticed something wrong with his beloved nutcracker.
"Alfred! What have you done?!"
Alfred did not get far.
Matthew strolls angrily towards his twin brother, who is only merely fewseconds older than him and shoves the broken nutcracker towards his face. A pang of guilt shot through Alfred, but not long after he hid it behind an insolent façade.
"It's a piece of trash, Matthew! Only broke because of four nuts!" Alfred says trying to reassure himself that it was not his fault, but that the nutcracker was of bad excellence. Matthew glares at his brother before handing the poor nutcracker into the care of Elizabeta who is, by Matthew and Alfred's surprise, extremely handy.
After moments of irritating waiting and hoping his nutcracker is all right, Matthew finally receives his beloved nutcracker in one piece. Matthew thanks Elizabeta and the three of them dine.
The dinner is marvelous, but Alfred found it rather amusing to throw his peas at Arthur, a butler that begun to work here few weeks ago. Alfred has taken a liking to the blond fellow. They unwrap their gifts after dinner.
Night rolls in and the two twins are tucked up in bed. "I'm sorry for breaking your doll, Matt," Alfred mumbles into his pillow. Matthew smiles slightly at his brother and responds. "It's quite all right,"
A/N: I don't know why I ever came up with this... Someone else probably has... oh well. I don't know if I'll be done with this 'project' before Christmas, so whoever enjoys this will have some late Christmas presents!
So yeah, like every other person on this site, I do not own any of these great characters.
Bye!