Christmas was finally here. The day everyone in the Farron-Yun family was afraid of due to the close proximity of the members deciding to be on a ground-war for the past two weeks was finally here. Serah was hosting the party once more since she had thought that spending Christmas at either Fang's or Lightning's would become too uncomfortable for anyone to be in since no one in the family had spoken to each other.
Serah was currently working her own magic in the kitchen, annoyed by her husband and child running around like they were both five year old, screaming and yelling about being a pirate or a prisoner, everything only making the girl more angry than before.
She had woken up in a hurry at 7AM and had rushed to the shop to buy the necessary food she had ordered the previous weeks. She had been under an amazing amount of stress ever since she had woken up, and sensed that this feeling wouldn't go away in the blink of an eye.
Annoyed, Serah buried her face inside her hands in despair, breathing in and out as slowly as she could to calm herself down before clenching her jaw roughly at the sound of screams next to her. Sharply, she placed the palm of her hands on the counter and glared at the two men, glad to see that the effect was to make them both shush faster than the speed of light. "Snow, Dan. Can you please, please go somewhere else like the garden to play? I need to focus; I'm cooking for nine people so get out."
She pointed at the door aggressively with a frown, observing the two men slowly and quietly leaving the house to give her the necessary space she needed to be focused. She shook her head in despair, face-palming herself as the same screams appeared again but felt glad that the walls were effectively covering them. She sighed, quickly focusing her attention on the recipe in front of her face before listening to a knock on the door, cursing between her teeth. I will never, ever have time to cook! Darn!
She quickly walked to the door, her feet slamming the parquet in anger before sharply opening the door to reveal Lightning and Vanille with boxes and bags in their hands, the two women arching the same brow in confusion at the sight of the pinky looking –for once- so riled up. "Serah, are you alright?"
"Yes! Sorry guys! Just Snow and Dan drove me crazy, I'm late this is a nightmare." Lightning chuckled and gave her sister a quick kiss on the cheek as she stumbled inside the living room, quickly placing the presents on the ground under the tree Snow had picked up the exact same morning.
"Nice tree Serah. Need help in the kitchen?" Vanille asked as she stood still next to Lightning, both women crossing their arms on their chest and waiting for any kind of instructions.
"I do! Please help me" Serah begged, quickly going back inside the kitchen to finally get this over with. "Light, you can work on the meal, the recipe is right there" she said, pointing at the fridge where a blue note was hanging. "Van', you can help me with the appetizers?" She smiled at the bob of the head before gazing at her sister's hand unintentionally, but couldn't help but to freeze sharply.
It was gone. The ring, the only thing Lightning had been clinging on to for the past twenty years had vanished from her finger. She kept on staring at the ringless hand, her mouth opening in shock and confusion while Lightning was arching a severe brow at the sudden facial expression.
"Serah? What's going on?" Serah lifted her head up to lock her eyes with her sister's, unable to say a single word under her consternation. "Alright…"
"No, I was just thinking. I hope everything will be alright tonight…" Serah and Vanille both exchanged a worried smile as Lightning's shoulders tensed, quickly focusing both their attention on the recipe in front of their faces, the younger pink headed darting at her sister's hand. She took it off…when? How? Why? Shit… "Alright, so we have to…do what?"
"Really Serah? You know you have the recipe in front of your eyes right?" she stuck her tongue out in her best-friend's direction, swiftly turning around to open the fridge in order to take the ingredients for her appetizers. She didn't wanted to do something to fancy but knew the appetite of both her man and her sister's two daughters and had decided to make at least twenty mini-quiches, tapas and snails that she had bought already prepared, not feeling the strength required to touch something so icky. "Can I put some music, please, pretty please?"
"Sure go ahead! I think the stereo's next to the TV." Serah darted in the living room, quickly spotting the object while her redhead friend was swiftly moving towards the living room to grab the object. She placed it on the counter in front of the three of them before plugging her phone and pressed on her playlist. As soon as the music resonated in the kitchen, the pink-haired sister's looked at each other confused, brows arched and pinched lip before both their hips began to shake from left to right in amusement. "Great choice Vanille! At least I'm having fun now."
"Say you weren't before even if we're here Serah!" Lightning amusingly said, quickly snatching the knife from the knife rest to cut the piece of beef in slices as explained on her piece of paper. She unconsciously placed her thumb on her ring-finger, screwing up her entire face as she couldn't feel the object on it. Why the fuck did I take it away? she asked herself with a pinched nose, shaking her head from left to right at her own mistake. She sighed heavily, glad that the music was able to cover her sounds before feeling a hand clutching at her hip, her eyes narrowing to observe Daniel looking at with shiny eyes. "What's up kiddo?"
"Where is your ring Auntie Light? You lost it?" Lightning opened her mouth in order to speak but quickly stopped, squatting in front of the child to brush his hair with the palm if her hand. "Auntie Fang gave it to you. Did you lose it on purpose?"
"Dan', stop asking Lightning questions and go play with Dad." The little boy shook his head in annoyance, crossing his arms on his chest as he began to pout while Lightning was casting her sister a small smile.
"No, I can answer. Actually Daniel, I left the ring at Fang's place. It belongs to her, since she gave it to me." The boy opened wide eyes and placed a hand on the pinky's hand before rushing inside her arms.
"I'm sorry Lightning" he simply answered as he put his head against his aunt's shoulder. Lightning chuckled and locked eyes with her sister, noticing the pain in the pinky's eyes before standing back up. She looked at Daniel with a broken smile before focusing her attention back on the meat. She nibbled on her lip, trying to forget about the stupid ring but could feel two insistent stares on her back, quickly glancing over her shoulder to observe Vanille and Serah look at her concerned.
"What is it ladies?" she softly asked with the knife still in hand.
"Nothing Light. Don't worry." Serah threw her sister a reassuring smile before observing her living the kitchen with her phone at her ear, already knowing who the person on the other line was. She sighed heavily and shook her head in disappointment before looking at the redhead ducking and shaking her head in despair. "I think…I think Lightning and Fang will never be together again. But for the sake of their family, I'll still try. Vanille, can you please help me?"
Vanille nibbled on her lip and turned around to lean against the counter. She crossed her arms on her chest and ducked her head to look at the ground, thinking deeply about what her best-friend was asking her to do. She had seen Fang a few days ago, her sight being enough to make her suffer. It was like she had given up on life itself and not only her failed marriage. It may seem cruel, but she couldn't help but to blame Lightning for it. She was the reason they had divorced, wasn't she?
"I don't know Serah. I have mixed feelings. I think that Fang would be happier without Lightning in her life. At least, not anymore." Serah gawked. She looked at Vanille with judging eyes and shook her head in contempt.
"I can't believe you're saying that. For all we know, it's because of Fang they got a divorce!" Serah snapped, sharply cutting the cucumber with her knife with an aggressive scowl.
"That's the thing, we don't know anything Serah. All I know is that Fang had enough." They both looked at each other with condescension, protecting their respective sisters already putting them in difficult situations but now, it was even worse.
Everything was starting to crumble, and even their unbreakable bond was slowly fading away. "Fine. Protect Fang, I'll protect Lightning." And without saying another word, the two girls began to prepare the dinner again, in a complete and heavy silence.
######
"Rhea, I bought this for ya to give to your mother since I'm guessin' ya didn't bother to buy anythin'?" Rhea shook her head with a pinched nose as she walked inside the car, glancing at the back seat to look at Elia scratching her forehead but also to stare at all the boxes spread on the seat. "I got her a case for her phone."
"Alright." Fang sighed heavily as she turned the engine on. She hated Christmas in LA, since it was nothing Christmassy at all. It was 80°, it was sunny and not snowing at all, where the hell was the charm in all this? The Aussie glanced through the window, observing the landscape disappearing in front of her eyes before stopping at the red light.
Squeezing the wheel tightly, Fang furrowed her brows. But the look she was throwing at the light standing before her had nothing nice in it. It was a look filled with rage and contention, disappointment and annoyance. She was dreading this dinner, afraid of everything that could come up, and since Vanille had texted her about the argument between her and Serah, she was now sure that clans had formed to defend the two person that had created this situation.
If she had to be honest, she didn't even know if Lightning had bought her anything for Christmas, not that it mattered, but since she had been through the trouble to find something, she could only hope that Lightning had had the decency to do the same. "Mum, it's green."
"Uh?" Fang looked at her older daughter before pressing on the pedal at a honk coming from behind her, quickly waving to excuse herself. She discreetly growled, gripping the wheel even tighter in her hands. Fuckin' hell. She glanced at Rhea, watching the girl taking picture of herself with a stupid smile on her lips and arched a confused brow in her direction. "Rhea, what are ya doin'?"
"I'm sending a Snapchat to Charlotte to wish her a Merry Christmas!" Confusion grew on Fang's face, frowning as she turned to the right to reach the main street.
"Why can't ya just call, ya know like normal people do?" Rhea slightly opened her mouth before positioning her phone in front of her mother's face to take a picture, giggling like a child at the different effects she was swapping to choose the perfect one. "Rhea?"
"This is so fun, you're kinda disgustin'." She stopped talking instantly with a small headshake, amused by the accent rushing back once again but knew that her mother was, for once, less than amused. She looked at her with worriedness, observing the brow slanted in anger and the lip quivering from time to time, and couldn't help but notice that her mum had been in this exact state for the past week.
She had been moody all the seven days, wandering around the apartment when she wasn't working or wasn't at the tattoo shop, staying in a complete and frankly disturbing silence all the time. And it was even worse when you were even trying to engage a conversation with her, since the only answers you were to get were a grunting sound or a sharp 'I'm fine'.
Of course, it hadn't taken a long time for Rhea to understand that her mother had messed up yet again, but had this time, managed to break her mum all together. But the reason remained unknown. For now, at least, but it was Christmas time and broaching this subject now would be, or so she thought, her death sentence. So, to avoid any kind of altercation, Rhea kept her focus on her smartphone, looking at the different snap chats she had received from her friends and her girlfriend with a beam drawn on her lips, darting in the rear-view mirror from time to time to observe her younger sister looking through the window.
Elia too, had been proven more distant these past days. But that time, Rhea hadn't hesitated to ask what was wrong, trying to get into that annoyingly thick head of hers and had only received a shrug in return. A shrug, meaning that her mom had managed to get under her skin to get her on her side, toying with the sister/sister relationship they had built for the past fifteen years. Of course, Elia had told her it had nothing to do with that and that she only had other problems in high school, but Rhea wasn't stupid enough to believe the big fat lie.
And now, it was Christmas day. The only day where everyone was supposed to be together, as social convention was telling them. She had cherished this moment ever since her mum had walked out the door but this time, she was resentful and reluctant. No, today was going to be one of the worst nights of her life and had no idea if everyone would make it alive by the time the clock would reach the last toll.
"Rhea? Ya know we're here yeah?" The blondie lifted her head up from her screen to look at her vicinity, observing her house's aunt with a small smile on her lips, smile that vanished instantly at the sight of the SUV nicely parked next to the house. She growled in anger as she opened the door to leave the car, grabbing a few bags from the trunk that her mum was handing her with slumped shoulders, darting at the house to observe shadows behind the windows while inhaling deeply to prepare herself for this.
Slowly but surely, Rhea began to walk towards the house with a steady head and waited for her mum to knock three times on the door. It didn't take Serah long to open the door, but in her mind, it seemed like decades. Decades of wondering, creating scenarios in her brain without having one ending in a nice way and fought the urge to grunt as soon as the door opened.
"Hey girls! Rhea, it's been a while!" Rhea nodded with a pinched nose before going inside her aunt's arms to give her a quick hug, waving at Vanille and Snow standing still and chatting in the middle of the living room as she walked inside the house.
Instinctively, she placed the presents under the big tree, observing the decoration Serah and probably, by the looks of it, Daniel with an amused smile before turning around to look at her mother. She observed her with anger, looking at her figure, her attitude but could also see her sadness, thing she had seen in a long time, or at least not like that. But, stubborn being her attitude, Rhea only huffed before going towards Daniel playing with Lego's, observing the death star that was having trouble being built for the past year.
As she walked towards it, Rhea listened to a throat clearing and knew for a fact that this precise sound could only come from her mother trying to catch her attention and glanced in her direction to watch her with her arms crossed on her chest. She sighed heavily but went towards her nonetheless to give her a quick kiss on the cheek without speaking a single word before heading back to Daniel in a hurry.
Fang had observed the scene from afar, barely listening to whatever Vanille was telling her and was now realizing she had been staring at her daughter and ex-wife's interaction. It's only when she saw fingers clicking in front of her face that the brunette focused her attention back on the redhead looking at her with a broken smile, narrowing her look to stare at the ground in defeat. "What were ya sayin' Van'?" she asked as she moved towards the kitchen to grab a glass of red wine.
"I was saying that Hope and I were leaving in two days. We're going to Hawaii for New Year's…" Fang nodded slowly, biting the flesh in her cheek but wasn't completely sure if she heard it right, and knowing her sister's temper, pretending to understand was actually the best thing to do in this situation. "Will you be okay? Do you know how you'll be spending New Year's Fang?"
"Uh, no I don't know. I'll see, I guess." She faked a smile before turning around, looking at Lightning talking with Serah in something close to disdain before toying with her neckless. She felt her own ring dangling between her breasts, wondering why she hadn't taken the ring away before looking at Lightning now ring-less hand with a pinched nose. I'm freakin' stupid.
"Fang? You're whispering, and I can hear you. Why are you stupid?" sharply turning around, Fang arched a brow as she looked in her sister's direction, wondering how she could've spoken out loud before shaking her head in despair.
"Nothin', Vanille. I'll be fine eh? So, where's the wine?" she asked as she skirted around the counter to grab a glass in one of the cupboards while Vanille was grabbing the already opened bottle. She grabbed it quickly and poured half a drink, observing the red color filling the glass with a sigh of relief before placing the glass at her lips to finally relax, her stare pinned onto the pink-haired girl.
Lightning was standing away from everyone with a hand on Elia's shoulder, nodding at what Serah was telling her while feeling the insistent stare coming from the kitchen. She was darting in that direction occasionally, faking the fact to be looking for Daniel or Snow only to stumble under Fang's stare. As a knock occurred on the door, the doctor observed both Serah and Vanille going towards it but couldn't help but to arch a brow at the distance put between the two of them.
She followed them with her stare, furrowing her brows more and more as no words were spoken and couldn't help but notice that it had been like this ever since she had been on the phone with Alex, the two younger women ignoring each other and never speaking a word. Even Lightning had tried to start a conversation but had quickly abandoned on that task as she had received only a glance from Serah and a glare from Vanille.
As Hope entered the house, she smiled at him and quickly realized that the team was now complete. Everyone was here, and it was nearly 8PM, meaning that soon they would all start with the appetizers and wondered in what atmosphere everything would happen. As the blond man greeted everyone, Lightning slowly made her way towards the kitchen and walked next to Fang to grab the bottles of Champagne from the fridge and turned around to look at her back.
She stayed there, bottles in hand in front of the fridge for a few seconds while looking at Fang's messy hair with a narrowing look and shook her head. With a sigh, she pushed herself from the fridge and made her way back inside the living room, handing one of the bottles to Snow with a small smile. "Alright, Serah, did you bring all the glasses?"
"How many do we need again?" Lightning chuckled and began to count in her head.
"6, since Rhea won't fool me twice anymore" she answered as she glanced in her daughter's direction, observing the scowling look being thrown in her direction. "Yes, six, Serah."
The younger Farron nodded as she placed the required glasses on the coffee table while Snow was already waiting patiently above the table with the bottle in his hand. As the glasses were all poured, everyone was asked to come closer to take their drinks, three glasses of brown liquid standing next to the others for the kids. Lightning didn't hesitate to snatch hers from the table and looked at the other people coming closer to her and her sister, observing yet again the distance put between Vanille and Serah and wondered what could've happened between them both again.
"Well…" Serah started as she nibbled on her lip, her hand slightly shaking as she was gripping her glass. "Merry Christmas everyone…"
"Can I say something?" Lightning arched a brow and observed everyone focusing their attention on Snow placing himself in the middle of everyone. "I just want to say something, and this is for everyone. I know that some people in this room had troubles during the past weeks, disagreements, fighting and so on" she frowned, wondering where this was all going as she crossed her arms on her chest. "But this is Christmas. And I would really like if just for one night we could all put our differences aside and enjoy the night as a family. Just think about it please? I'm not targeting anyone but please…just try. Merry Christmas."
Silence spread across the entire room while glances were thrown in every direction. Serah was intensively looking at Vanille with a faint smile while Lightning and Fang were glancing at each other. The pink-haired girl cleared her throat and raised her glass in the air with a small smile and took a big deep breath. "Snow, I think this is the first smart thing I've heard you say…and I've known you for fifteen years. Miracles do happen at Christmas!"
Laughter. Lightning chuckled and winked in the blond man's direction to click her drink with his own before making her way towards him to pat him on the back. She leaned at his ear and began to whisper. "Thank you Snow." He smiled and nodded while Lightning was observing Rhea ducking her head to look at the ground. Of course, she wasn't surprised to see that her daughter didn't listen to a word Snow had said but wasn't going to let that ruin the good night they were probably going to spend together.
"When do you guys want to open the presents actually? Waiting on midnight?" Lightning lifted her head up to look at Hope with a smile and nodded with almost everyone in the room, Daniel being the only one pouting as he sat down on the sofa under Serah's amused gaze.
"What's the matter sweetie?" she asked as she squatted to brush his hair.
"I want to open them now mommy! I don't want to wait!" Daniel replied with a sad look in his eyes, desperately trying to get this to work.
"Sure, but you will be even happier when you open them later, don't you think?"
Lightning chuckled as she walked next to the boy with her glass at her lips, sighing with relief at this taste she had always loved. Champagne was just like white wine, but only a thousand times better. Sparkly, light, what was there not to like in the drink of the gods? "Hey Light?"
She flinched at the voice before sharply turning around to look at Fang coming her way with a hand on her nape, her eyes darting in every direction to avoid the painful eye-contact. "What's up Fang?"
"Can I talk to ya?" she nodded, pointing at the door to her sister before grabbing her packet of cigarettes from her bag and followed Fang outside the house, discreetly closing the door back behind them both. They both lighted their respective fags and looked up to the sky to observe the stars shining in the night sky.
"Alright, what is it, Fang?" Lightning nibbled on her lip as she observed Fang turning around to turn her back at her, her head still looking up to the sky with slumped shoulders. "Fang?"
"I've been offered a position." The pink-haired girl arched a brow, wondering why this had to sound so melodramatic since she could only see the good news in this, but quickly understood why they were away from everyone. "It's in Sydney."
"In Sydney?" she asked as she narrowed her look to stare at the ground.
"Yeah. I have to give 'em my answer next week. If I say yes, I'll be gone on the 1st." she nodded as Fang turned around to look inside her eyes but kept her stare on the ground while turning her thumb on the edge of her glass. "I just wanted to let ya know because we'll have to talk 'bout this with the girls."
"Are you going to take it?" Lightning asked, fighting to keep her voice from breaking.
"I'm not entirely sure yet. But I think that I'm goin' to take it." Why was this hurting her so much? All she could do was to stare, unable to understand how Fang could seriously leave the USA to go on the other side of the planet. "Anyway, that's all I wanted to tell ya. I'm goin' back inside."
She moved to the side as Fang crashed her fag against the wall and listened to the door opening to be closed back. Going back inside after such news wasn't something Lightning could handle, not right now. She simply began to walk a little further away with her eyes staring at the stars, stars becoming almost indistinguishable as her vision was becoming blurry. But she couldn't understand her own reaction. Why was this affecting her so much? She was the one deciding to bury their love once and for all, she shouldn't be that touched by the news. What if… She shook her head.
What would happen with Rhea and Elia, then? Where would they go, where would they stay? Lightning knew the law well and knew that the two girls would stay here since Lighting was making more money and especially since they had both lived here their entire life. But she couldn't picture Fang leaving alone too. And now, they only had a week to settle all this.
After a few deep breaths and a last few drags on her cigarette, the pink-haired girl sharply made her way back towards the house with her glass still in hand and pushed the door softly to be back inside the living room. She looked at Rhea, Elia and Fang talking and laughing on the couch with a smile and did her best to keep it on for the rest of the evening.
######
The presents had almost all been given. Elia was already playing with her computer while Rhea was plugging her phone on the stereo with a grin on her lips under Lightning's amused gaze. She had received some things she could use but realized that the only two presents remaining under the tree were the one she had bought for Fang and another one she had no idea who it belonged to. So as Daniel pointed at them both, the two women slowly made their way towards it with arched brows.
"This is one is for you Fang" Lightning said as she bent down to grab the heavy box from under the tree to hand it to her.
"And this is for ya, Light" the brunette replied as she handed the bag with a slight frown drawn on her face.
They both took the respective objects and went together on the sofa to open them at the same time, Lightning's nifty hand carefully tearing the paper to reveal the present. She chuckled at the sight of it and glanced in Fang's direction, the woman winking at her in amusement. She tore the entire paper away to look at the collection of six extremely expensive bottles of white wine, her hand sliding on the wooden box with a small headshake. "It's great Fang, thank you…"
"Shit Light, are ya serious?" she glanced at the box being opened to look at the present she had bought for Fang, ten disks of artists she loved with the turntable looking like a suitcase under them. "This is great. Really. Thank ya so much."
A smile crossed both their faces as they stood back up from the sofa to stand still in front of each other. Lightning drowned in Fang's eyes, unsure of how to proceed from here since her brain was telling her to stay still while her body was pushing her towards her to grab her in her arms. It was like a positive and a negative reaction, as if protons and electrons were fighting around each other but, in this situation, what would turn out to be the neutron? Every solution seemed terrible and staring inside fang's green eyes was becoming uncomfortable. More than planned, in fact. "Well…I'm gonna go take a drink, want one Light?"
Lightning slightly opened her mouth and gave Fang a quick bob of the head before watching her disappearing from her sight. She clenched her fists and her jaw in anger before looking at her hand in resent but quickly grabbed the glass handed to her to click it with the brunette's before turning around to look at her two daughters giggling with each other, Fang staying still next to her and looking in the exact same direction. "We did a good job, eh?"
"That we did Fang" she answered with a smile, Elia now looking at them both with an amused gaze. "Yeah, we really did a great job."
Before they knew it –or could realize anything- an uncomfortable silence settled between the both, an electric and unnerving feeling building up inside both of their hearts. What had happened to the time, a few weeks ago when they had been talking and had even been able to laugh?
Lightning nibbled on her upper lip as the tension begin to grow harder, her gaze dropping on the ground until it landed on the ring less hand, her saliva becoming difficult for her to swallow and almost had the feeling that paste had replaced the original liquid. "Well, I'm gonna go check on Van. Merry Christmas Light."
Lost in her thoughts, Lightning was only able to answer with a feeble 'hmm' before staggering away from the living room in order to go towards the bathroom, only being able to see a blurry hallway that didn't seem to have an end.