Chapter 36

Wow, guys! Sorry it's been like two weeks! I've been really busy with a lot of stuff at school. Anyway, here's a long fluffy chapter that will hopefully make up for it. –E.B.

"Erik Destler!" Christine squealed as she ran around the kitchen table.

"Just one little kiss!" Erik begged. "Don't make me chase you! I'm not as young as I used to be."

"I happen to be very busy," she said with her hands on her hips. "We have a son coming home any minute, and he might like a hot, homemade meal."

He rolled his eyes. "Which do you think would take longer – just giving me a kiss, or making me chase you around the house?"

She smiled. "Oh, if you want to interrupt my cooking, you're definitely going to have to earn it." She darted out of the kitchen and around Erik's chair in the living room. He laughed as he took off after her. She ran up the stair case and around Erik's piano. He finally got her in his grasp, and grabbed the back of her skirt. He pulled her close and dipped her down in a passionate kiss as he held a bundle of mistletoe above their heads.

"My, my," a voice spoke from downstairs, "is this what poor Angeletta has to put up with when I'm away?"

Christine squealed and practically jumped from the top step to the bottom to end up in Gustave's embrace.

"Oh, my precious baby is home!" she said happily.

Gustave rolled his eyes. "Mother, I'm eighteen years old."

She wrapped her arms around his waist, her head barely reaching his shoulders. "Well, no matter how big you get, you'll always be my baby."

He smiled and embraced his mother.

She reached up to touch his cheek and found the cold radiating from his face before her fingertips could even make contact with the skin.

"My goodness, you're freezing!" she exclaimed. "Erik, go grab a blanket, will you, dear?"

He nodded and did as he was told as Christine led Gustave closer to the fireplace. She frantically began asking him an assortment of questions about his school and his new friends.

Erik laughed light heartedly as he wrapped a quilt around Gustave's shoulders and handed him a hot drink. "Christine, leave the poor boy alone. He's had a long trip here, and I'm sure he can tell you everything at dinner."

Christine folded her arms and pouted. "Well I'm sorry that I'm a concerned mother."

Erik turned around and wrinkled his nose. "Do you smell a burning smell?"

She gasped as she ran off into the kitchen. "The cake!"

Gustave chuckled and leaned back against the couch. "I don't smell anything."

Erik shrugged. "To be fair, it probably saved that cake. She's been working on it all day. Besides, I thought you might want a little rest before all of the questions came rolling in."

He smiled. "Thank you." He pulled the quilt tighter around his shoulders and took a sip of his drink. Wrinkling his nose, he gulped down his drink and gagged. "Papa what is in this?"

Erik sat down and took a sip of his drink as well. "Brandy."

He set his cup down on the table beside him. "Papa! Why are you drinking that? It's disgusting."

He shrugged. "Your mother liked it."

"Of course she did."

"It's strange having this much snow," Erik said in attempt to change the subject. "We usually don't get any until January."

"Well to be fair, it's only eight days until it's January."

"Is it really Christmas Eve?" Erik said sitting up.

Gustave nodded.

"What about Lotte? Did you get her something?"

Gustave's eyes suddenly widened. He huffed and buried his face in his hands. "I did, but I left it in my apartment! Papa, what am I going to do?"

"Tell her the truth."

"What? I can't tell her the truth! She'd hate me!"

"Well, you can't lie to her."

"But I can't tell her the truth either."

He shrugged. "Lie and be dishonest. Tell the truth and risk her feelings, or find her something else."

"I can't afford something else."

Erik pulled his wallet out of his back pocket. "I'll take care of it. It's alright."

"No, Papa. I can't do that. You're paying for my education. Besides, if you did that, it wouldn't really be from me."

He sighed. "Do what you want to. I'm out of ideas."

"What if I made her something? Don't we have some spare wood in the workshop?"

"I don't know. I haven't been up there."

"Then it's still there?"

"Gustave, I understand you're in a bit of a dilemma," he said sighing, "but your mother's so excited about having you home. You need to spend time here with your family."

Gustave stood and kissed his father's exposed cheek. "I'll stay for dinner. Then I'll go out to the workshop. It might take all night, but I'll figure something out."

He sighed and nodded. "Alright."

"Come on. Let's go to dinner."

The little family spent the next three hours laughing and catching up. Angeletta refused to leave Gustave's lap, and he refused to let go of his mother's hand. Gustave told all of his stories and descriptions from Philadelphia, and Erik returned with news from home.

When Angeletta had fallen asleep with her head leaned back on Gustave's shoulder, they all agreed that it was time to retire for the night. Erik tried to pick up his little girl and take her to bed, but Gustave beat him to it. Leaving his father to pout and go to bed, Gustave went to tuck his little sister into bed. He turned off the gas lamp on her nightstand and kissed her head. As he went to close the door, he heard her mutter.

"Gustave?" she whispered.

He turned around. "Yes?"

"I wanted to stay up and see Santa."

He gently laughed and sat on her bedside. "He won't come if you stay awake."

She looked at him wide-eyed. "Really?"

He shook his head and began singing Santa Clause Is Coming to Town. Her eyes grew heavy again as she lay back on her pillow. When she was asleep again, he tucked her favorite teddy bear under her arms and went to the living room. He grabbed his coat and hat and slipped out the front door to go to his workshop.

He walked through the snow with his scarf around his face. When he came to his shop, he immediately started a fire and went to work. After a while, he finished and fell asleep at his work table. The next thing he knew, his father was shaking him trying to wake him up.

The fire from the night had died, and it was cold in the room.

Gustave shivered as Erik wrapped his coat around the boy's shoulders. "What time is it?" Gustave muttered as he rubbed his tired eyes.

"Seven in the morning."

"Really? I was out here all night?"

Erik simply nodded and helped his son up. "Come on. Let's go home. Lotte will be by tonight, and we don't want her to think you aren't well."

"Is Angeletta Rose up yet?'

Erik grinned. "No, but you might want to get some peace and quiet before she does. Young children are hyper on Christmas morning."

Gustave nodded. "Then I guess we better go."

Gustave tucked a little box wrapped in red shiny paper in his coat pocket as they began walking back to the house. Snow crunched under their feet, but other than that, the park was completely quiet. It was still early for too many people to be up, but the people that were, were clearly spending time with their families on a white Christmas morning. Gustave listened as Erik quietly hummed a Christmas carol to the beat of their footsteps.

When they returned, Gustave fell back on the couch and immediately went back to sleep. Christine was making her way downstairs as Erik hung up his coat.

She eyed Gustave on the couch. "Is he alright?"

Erik laughed and nodded. "He was just up late."

"Why on earth? He's not sick from travel is he?"

"No no, dear. He'll be fine. Don't worry about him."

She sighed and nodded. "I'm sure Angeletta will be up soon."

"Yes, I can't wait to see her eyes light up."

She gently smiled. "You spoil her rotten you know?"

He shrugged. "That's my job."

"I thought your job was to run Phantasma."

"Well, I have that job too, but first and foremost, I must make sure that I am a good husband and father."

She smiled softly and gently rubbed his shoulders. "I'm so proud of you, Erik."

He raised an eyebrow. "Why's that?"

She gently kissed his shoulder. "You've become the most wonderful man in this entire world, and I'm so proud of you for that."

He sighed and shook his head. His memories still played back in his mind. "You know I want to argue, but I can't." He leaned down and left a lingering kiss on her lips. "Merry Christmas, my Christine."

She grinned. "Merry Christmas, my dear Erik."

Soon, the sound of Angeletta's dragging feet echoed through the house. Erik gently laughed as she stumbled into the living room. She yawned and rubbed her eyes as she held her teddy bear at her side. He went over and picked her up. She yawned again and buried her face in the curve of his neck.

He gently bounced her in his arms. "Don't you know what day it is?"

She shook her head. "No, Papa…"

"Why, it's Christmas, my little angel!"

She suddenly perked up. "It is?"

"Of course it is! Have you lost track of the days?"

She smiled as she saw the presents under the tree. "Santa came!"

He nodded and set her down. She immediately ran to the tree and sat under it. "Can I open one, Papa?"

He smiled and gently laughed. "Let me get some coffee for your brother and myself. Then you can open them."

She pouted slightly as Erik went to the kitchen.

Christine sat down next to Angeletta by the tree and softly stroked her hair trying to fix the strands that were out of place. Erik came back swiftly. He gently shook Gustave's shoulder so he would wake and handed him the cup of coffee. He nodded at Angeletta, and she quickly sprung for one of the gifts and tore at the paper. Christine gently laughed and went to go sit by Erik on the couch.

When Angeletta was done opening her gifts, there was a small tapping on the door.

Christine stood. "Oh, that must be Lotte."

Gustave jumped up. "I've got it, Mother."

She sat back down and shook her head. "He probably missed her more than us," she whispered to Erik.

He shrugged and laughed. "That's okay."

They both stood and greeted Lotte as Gustave led her inside. Gustave invited her to sit down beside him.

"Papa, can you help me put this together?" Angeletta suddenly said.

Erik gently laughed and went to help her set up a toy train and its tracks.

Christine smiled as she looked over at Gustave and Lotte. He was gently playing with her fingers on her hand as they were quietly whispering about something. She turned her attention to where Erik was meticulously putting together all of the train tracks for Angeletta. She took the opportunity to go get the presents she got for her family.

She came back a short time later and placed a box in Gustave's lap before she went up behind Erik and kissed his cheek. She leaned over and placed a gift in his hand.

"I thought we agreed that we weren't getting anything for each other," he said standing up so he could see her.

She shrugged and blushed. "I know. I wanted to."

He sighed and pulled at the ribbon. When he opened the box, he set his eyes on a shiny new pocket watch. "Christine, why did you do this? This is no small gift. Watches like this are very expensive."

She went over and opened the cover of the watch. It softly began to play a familiar tune from Erik's favorite opera. "See. I couldn't resist."

He leaned over and kissed her. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," she said grinning.

She looked over to where Gustave was showing Lotte his new set of paintbrushes. He grinned and put them back in the box. "Thank you, Mother, and so long as we're doing gifts," he said pulling out a little gift from his jacket pocket, "this is for you, Lotte."

She gently blushed and took the gift from his hand. She opened a small jewelry box to reveal a very pretty gold ring set with little red and white stones. She gasped. "Gustave… I don't know what to say."

He took the ring and slid it on her finger. "I made it for you."

"You… you made this?"

He nodded. "It's a promise ring."

She looked up at him and smiled. "It's beautiful."

Erik picked up Angeletta and grinned at the couple. "I think we can all agree that we've all had a very merry Christmas."

Lotte smiled and rested head on Gustave's shoulder. "And there will be plenty more to come."

"Now, if you'll excuse me," Erik interrupted, "I think it's time for a little music."

They all laughed as Erik sat down at the piano and Christine stood behind him ready to sing.

Lotte glanced at the snow outside as she held Gustave's hand in her own. "Promise me something?" she asked looking up at Gustave.

"What is it?"

"Promise me that we can spend every Christmas like this."

He smiled and kissed her temple. "We can try."

They watched as Christine rested her head on Erik's shoulder as he played piano. Her voice gently floated over the words to the carols. Gustave's head flopped over onto Lotte's shoulder as he began to fall asleep. She gently smiled and took in the feeling of the warmth in the air. It was a very merry Christmas indeed.