H2O: New Tides

by Cerulaen

After Daquiri Laurens finds herself thrust into a new underwater world, she discovers she must turn to making new friends to cope with having one foot on land and one fin in the sea. But with a turbulent home life and a distrustfully withdrawn demeanor, learning to let her walls down becomes even harder than keeping a magical secret.

15. Chapter 14

A/N: What the fricken-frack snick-snack it's been ALMOST TWO YEARS? Okay, okay, but guys, I knew it had been over a year since I last updated—but almost two?! I...I'm sorry. But I guess in my defense, it's been some rough times the past (almost) two years. I got diagnosed with ADHD...went to Czech Republic (which was 97% amazing)...had to come to terms with the idea that I wasn't going to be graduating when I had originally intended to...battled with the worst crippling anxiety that I've never, ever had to deal with before...started a new job...realized I needed to take a year off of school due to being mentally, emotionally, and creatively burnt out...

And...that's honestly not even all of it. Maybe not even half. I've had to do a lot of growing, and trusting, and learning patience—and, honestly, I really have changed a lot (for the better, thankfully). I'm still figuring things out in my life, but I'm in so much better of a place than I was even a year ago, and I'm grateful for where I am now (even if it's not quite where I thought I'd be). So, for those of you who are still following this story, thank you so, so, SO much for sticking around. I know I haven't been the most consistent person when it comes to updating as a general rule, but I truly am still in love with writing this and am fully committed to finishing it literally no matter what. We're a little over halfway to finishing it now, and I'm hoping the remaining chapters won't take nearly as long as this one did.

Though if it helps at all, this chapter is also twice as long as basically every other one. Lol. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the ideas that belong to the H2O: Just Add Water franchise that are not my own.

---

CHAPTER 14| MERRY FISH-MAS, PT. 2

"Would you quit it with the drinking?" Daquiri snatched up the 12-pack her dad was making his way through as he lounged aimlessly in the living room recliner. She didn't look to see how much of the box was left, but it couldn't have been many just based on the number of crushed cans littering the floor. "I need you to be sober while I'm gone. Fox needs dinner at six, and he can watch TV until he goes to bed at eight-thirty. Do you think you can handle that?"

She didn't have the patience to add a more forgiving tone to her voice. The county had finally established a new bus route with a stop by their neighborhood, which meant walking and waiting around for Arak were no longer her only options for transportation. However, it did mean she needed to be there on time if she wanted to actually ride it.

Her dad's response to her barely concealed jab was to grab at her arm so he could fish out another beer. "What time will you be home," he asked, his voice terse as he popped the tab open.

"Dad—" She reached for the offending can but her father quickly held it back, holding out his other arm to ward off any further attempts.

He scowled at her. "I get to relax when I'm off work," he retorted. He took a swig from his drink.

"You can't be drunk and watch a seven-year-old!" she snapped.

"I am hardly drunk," her dad scoffed. "I've had a few drinks, Daquiri."

"You are almost through an entire box." She wrinkled her nose. "And it doesn't help that you've barely been acting mature enough for someone of age."

"Were you looking for another beating?" her father demanded sharply. "Because you're working your way very close to one."

She looked away.

"Can you just...hold off on any more drinking? For one night?" She closed her eyes for a moment and took a breath. "Please."

Her dad paused a moment, and she thought that he might actually manage to be reasonable for once.

Then he dug a hand into his pocket and pulled out his Marlboro Reds. Daquiri's stomach sank as he slipped one from the box and stuck it in his mouth. "Grab me my other pack of beer from the fridge before you leave," he grunted around the cigarette as he lit up.

"Dad," she protested. "You'd only have to watch him for three—"

"Why don't you just take the goddamn kid with you?" her father snapped. "You think you know what's best for him anyways, or whatever the hell you're always bitching on about."

Daquiri ran a hand back through her hair in frustration. "Dad, I just want one night. Please."

"He's your responsibility." He jabbed the glowing butt of his cigarette in her direction. "I do damn-near enough for this family." He returned the cig to his mouth to take another drag from it before releasing the smoke with a sharp huff. "The least you can do is pull your weight."

She stared at him for a moment, the beer box clenched in a fist at her side. For just a moment, her focus switched to the cigarette in his hand. She imagined it getting a little hotter than he was used to. All she had to do…

"I'm gonna be late," she muttered abruptly, turning away so her dad couldn't see the stress of the argument getting to her. She stiffly strode off to her room, plunking down the mostly-empty box of beer onto the floor. With a scowl, she kicked it under the bed before kneeling down to shove the rest of her things into her overnight bag. Already in a rush, she didn't even take the time to remove the SD card from Christopher's laptop, merely stuffing the entire device in with the rest of her stuff. She swiped the back of a hand across her cheek, sniffing once before standing back up. She went across the hall to her brothers' room.

"Fox, c'mon," she said, her voice coming out stiff and short.

Her brother looked up from his Legos strewn across the floor. "Dinner?" he asked hopefully.

"No. You're catching the bus with me." She motioned with a hand. "Put on your shoes and take your jacket, there's a breeze."

Fox looked confused. "But I thought Daddy—"

"Fox!" she snapped. "Now."

With wide eyes, her brother scrambled to his feet and hurried over to the closet.

She checked the time on her phone while she waited. They might be able to just make the bus, if they hurried.

"Can I bring a game?" Fox asked as he appeared next to her again, shifting from foot to foot.

She took a breath. "Yes." She tried to soften her voice. "Just be quick."

Her brother ran over to rummage through his toy bins, and the moment he'd grabbed one and run back, Daquiri firmly took his hand and marched them back down the hallway.

A thin haze of smoke clouded the room on the way to the front door. "We're leaving," she called behind her without so much as a glance.

"Don't be home late!"

She didn't answer.

"Daquiri!"

She slammed the door shut behind them.

---

"Yay, you're here!" Gypsy exclaimed the moment she opened the door. Her eyes flickered down to Daquiri's side. "Oh! And you...brought your brother?"

"Sorry," Daquiri said, genuinely apologetic. "I thought my dad could watch him, but he ended up being…busy. Do you, um, mind if he's here for a bit? I didn't mean to—"

"It's totally fine, don't worry 'bout it!" Gypsy interrupted, her voice bright. She bent down a bit towards her brother, who was still holding onto her hand. "Hey, Fox! Nice to finally meet you!"

"Are we having dinner here?" Fox asked, cocking his head a bit at Gypsy.

"Fox!" Daquiri scolded. "Don't be rude."

"But I'm hungry," he complained, tugging his hand away from hers grumpily.

Daquiri opened her mouth to reprimand him again, but Gypsy laughed. "Of course you're having dinner here, silly. Ma's still in the kitchen making it, but I think she's almost done. Why don't you go and see?" Gypsy shifted and gestured Fox past her, who immediately took off inside.

"Don't run!" Daquiri called after him. She put a hand lightly on Gypsy's arm as her friend started back inside. "I already texted Arak to work it out, and he said he can swing by to pick Fox up after work. It'll be pretty late, unfortunately, which is why he wasn't going to be able to watch him in the first place…" She trailed off as her thoughts suddenly shifted back to her dad's parting words, throwing her off. She hesitated a moment. "Actually, I…I should probably just go home with them. It'd make most sense, with him already coming out here, and then we don't have to worry about someone picking me up tomorrow, or spending more bus tabs—"

"Ri, no!" Gypsy cut her off while grabbing her wrist, like she thought Daquiri was already getting ready to bolt. "We've never had a sleepover with all of us before! You gotta stay! My mom can just take you home tomorrow!"

Daquiri wavered a little. It wasn't like she really wanted to leave…

As if to argue, her thoughts flitted to her dad again, yelling from his chair not to be home late. He normally pretty much didn't care where she was or when, so long as it didn't inconvenience him, but after the conversation they'd had…

"Pleeeeease?" Gypsy begged, cutting back into Daquiri's indecision. "I'm making breakfast tomorrow! Pumpkin pancakes!"

Trying to say no to Gypsy's pleading face and giant hazel eyes might as well have been the equivalent of puppy-kicking.

She let out a breath. "Alright," she finally relented, pushing down her own misgivings with a small smile.

Gypsy immediately latched onto her in a hug. "Yay!" Then she tugged Daquiri the rest of the way inside.

"Daquiri!" Gypsy's mom greeted her warmly as she walked further into the house, splitting away from Gypsy in the direction Fox had run off to. "It's good to see you over here again."

Daquiri couldn't help but smile at the vivacious auburn-haired woman. "Hi, Mrs. Venir." She walked up behind Fox, who was standing near Gyp's mom with his most innocent of puppy-dog begging faces. She wrapped her arms lightly around his shoulders in a backwards hug. "Sorry to give you another mouth to feed."

"Oh, please," Mrs. Venir said with a small scoff and a wave of her hand. "I've learned since just about the moment Gyp set foot in this house to always prepare for extra dinner guests." Her eyes twinkled in amusement at Daquiri. "And the two of you are twigs compared to Christopher. There's barely anything there on you."

Slightly embarrassed by the comment, Daquiri glanced away.

"Can I have a cookie?" Fox suddenly piped up, apparently finally getting up the nerve to ask.

Daquiri started to apologize for his outburst, but Mrs. Venir waved her off once more. "I don't mind—that's why I make them." The woman eyed her little brother with an exaggerated serious look, however. "So long as your sister says it's okay, that is. You were going to ask her as well—right, young man?"

Daquiri tried hard not to smile as Fox suddenly looked up to her with wide, pleading eyes. "Please, Ri? Can I?"

She had to smother a small laugh at his desperate sincerity so she could give him her own go-ahead with a small nod, and was further pleased when she didn't have to remind him to thank Gypsy's mom after grabbing one of the treats. He wriggled out of her arms and trotted to the other side of the counter to sit on one of the high, swiveling stools.

"How is your dad doing?" Mrs. Venir asked as she returned to her cooking. "And your other brother—what was his name?"

"Arak," she supplied. "And they're both good." She sat down at the table, setting her bag by the chair.

"Are you having a nice break so far?"

"Yeah, it's been...pretty interesting." Daquiri peered over to the living room, where Christopher, Gypsy and Suzi were all piled on the couch, watching some show by the looks of it. "Gypsy has definitely made it more exciting than it would've been otherwise, " she added.

"She does have a way of keeping you occupied," Mrs. Venir said with some amusement in her voice. "She's kept us on our toes ever since she came to us."

Daquiri looked back over to the woman and hesitated for a moment. "Gypsy said she was...seven when you started fostering her?" she asked carefully, not wanting to be rude, but a little curious.

Mrs. Venir nodded thoughtfully, however. "Not long after her seventh birthday, yes. Though we weren't able to officially adopt until almost three years later."

"Oh," Daquiri said, a bit surprised. "I didn't realize—"

"Ri!" Fox was suddenly next to her again. "Can I go watch TV?"

"Oh, uh, yes, Fox." Then she remembered something. "Fox," she said again suddenly when he was nearly out of the room. She went digging into her bag for Christopher's laptop, angling it so she could remove his SD card. "Will you take this to Christopher, please?"

Fox perked up. "Wait, you mean Indy? Indy's here?"

Daquiri gave him a small but amused smile. "Yes, he's right over there in the living room, with Gypsy and Suzi. Please?" She bobbed her hand again so her brother would take the card. Fox happily grabbed it and ran off to the living room.

"Sorry," Daquiri apologized, turning back to Mrs. Venir. "What were we saying?"

Gypsy's mom looked up from what she was stirring on the stove. "We were talking about Gypsy, hon."

Daquiri nodded, recalling. Then she hesitated. "I...didn't know adoption of fosters took so long."

Mrs. Venir gave her a bit of a questioning look. "Are you familiar with the process?"

"Well, not really," she said hastily. "I just...sorta knew someone. Back in Oregon. His fosters were able to adopt him after just over a year." Abruptly realizing she sounded a bit presumptuous, though, she hurriedly added, "Not that it's an easy decision that's always made right away, so of course it could take longer."

Mrs. Venir chuckled a bit. "Your friend was lucky—some adoptions do only take a year." The woman's face suddenly softened into a sort of faraway look, a smile on her face. "We couldn't stop ourselves from falling in love with Gyp from just about the moment she got to come stay with us. But, the preferred goal of foster care is to reunite a child with their biological parents if possible, and in Gypsy's case…" Her friend's mom seemed to pause at a thought for a moment, but she brought herself back with a light shake of her head. "Her situation was just more...complicated."

"I really didn't mean to pry," Daquiri apologized.

"It's alright," the woman said with a reassuring smile. "Actually, Christopher knows most of what happened himself by now. He probably helped Gypsy more than anyone during that time, even as kids."

"And…ever since," Daquiri finished quietly.

There was suddenly a very loud, very sharp word from across the room that contained a certain four letters and was most definitely not PG.

"Christopher!" Daquiri and Mrs. Venir both snapped the boy's name in unison.

Christopher—who was still on the couch with Gyp, Sue, and now her little brother—slowly sank down below the cushions to hide from view.

"What have we discussed about your language in this household?" Mrs. Venir asked sharply, all traces of humor in her voice gone.

Christopher peeked back out from behind the couch. "...to use more than four letters?"

Being across the room didn't stop Gyp's mom from delivering him an absolutely scalding look.

Daquiri heard Suzi's quiet snicker of, "Busted," from where the girl was next to him.

"Sorry, Mrs. V," Christopher said a bit sheepishly.

"Ma!" Gypsy also turned around on the couch, though she looked much more distraught than Christopher looked sorry. "Tell Indy he needs to have his camera free for Christmas!"

Although clearly not quite over the apparent issue of Christopher's sailor mouth, Mrs. Venir gave her daughter a look of mild amusement. "Indy. You are now morally obligated to have your camera free for Christmas. Or I'll string you up by your toes."

"I could if Sue's rules weren't so specific," Christopher said with a scowl, shooting a look at Suzi. The girl stuck her tongue out at him.

Mrs. Venir frowned slightly. "Her rules?" she repeated, raising an eyebrow.

Christopher suddenly looked like a deer caught in headlights. "Uh, nothing," he said quickly. "Just this project we have to do for school."

Gypsy's mom looked like she wanted to question further, but all three of them ducked lower behind the couch, seeming to pretend to be engaged in the TV once more. Daquiri sent a strange look in their direction.

"Excuse me, Mrs. Venir," she said as she got up and finally headed toward the living room.

"Fox, c'mere," she said, and she reached to pick him up, but he scrambled onto Christopher's lap instead. He gave her an innocent look, but with another begging undertone in his blue eyes. Christopher looked amused. Daquiri just shook her head and sat down.

"What was that all about?" she asked, electing to keep her voice low.

Gypsy stole a glance over her shoulder. "Ma doesn't like when they make bets," she whispered.

"I can't imagine why," Daquiri said dryly. She looked at Christopher with a frown. "Why did you scream?"

Christopher made a face. "I didn't scream, it was more of a ye—"

"Christopher."

"His other card is still full," Suzi answered for him, her voice smug.

The frown didn't leave Daquiri's face. "You...know you can just delete the contents off those from the camera...right?"

Christopher let out a short huff through his nose. "Yes, I know that, but I don't have them loaded up anywhere. So I'd just be losing all of them."

"Can't you just buy a new card?" Gypsy pleaded.

That seemed to give Christopher a bit of pause. "Uh, I'm a little short on funds at the moment. Already did Christmas shopping."

Suzi raised a single brow at him. "I find it hard to believe you spent all your money on presents this year. You don't even have that many people to buy for."

Christopher opened his mouth but didn't get a chance to protest.

"I have a card you could use, Indy!"

Everyone, including Daquiri, looked over at the red-haired boy still sitting on Christopher's lap when he suddenly piped up.

"The card you gave him was already filled up with pictures stored in it, Fox," she explained to her brother. "It doesn't have enough space left to hold any more."

"No," Fox insisted, "I have a different card." He scrambled down from Christopher's lap and ran off back to the kitchen. Daquiri just shrugged when Suzi looked at her with a question on her face, no more enlightened than the rest of them could have been.

Fox proudly returned moments later, his DS Lite in hand.

"Here," he offered Christopher, holding out the small game card he'd brought with him in the flat of his palm. "I'm using one game slot, but the other two have space!"

Daquiri's eyes flickered toward Christopher, gauging his response. If he even showed a hint of annoyance at her brother over something as stupid as this...

Christopher, however, had a small but genuine smile on his face. "Hey, thanks." He carefully picked up the card from the boy's hand, turning it over with his fingers a few times. "This is a similar kind of card to the one I need, but it works a little different. This one you have here is a bit more special, made just for your games. The ones I use are just plain and boring." He handed the chip back to Fox with another smile. "I appreciate it, though."

Daquiri stared at Christopher. Had he just...acted like a normal human being? And not even just that—but one that was good with kids?

Blinking, she straightened herself onto the edge of the Venir's couch. "Is it possible we could do something other than talk about the you-know-what and sit in front of the TV doing nothing?"

"As intriguing the prospect of learning the meaning behind 'you-know-what' is, it's time for everyone to get their butts to the dinner table before I decide to change my mind."

The heads of everyone on the couch whirled around to see Gyp's mom standing over all of them on the other side of the couch. Fox, on the other hand, immediately raced off to the table, eager as ever to finally eat.

The four exchanged a myriad of looks before Gyp and Christopher led a hasty scramble for the kitchen.

---

"Da—agnh." Daquiri reflexively put a hand to her stinging cheek, flinching away from her father's slap.

"What did I say?!" he demanded, his voice raucous as he lashed out with another blow to follow the first. "What were the damn words you heard come from my damn mouth last night?"

Her senses swam and her head reeled wildly, but all Daquiri could concentrate on was the trickle of blood sluggishly oozing from her lip. She slowly shook her head back and forth and just squeezed her eyes shut. "Dad, please, I—"

"I told you not to be home late!" he exploded. "Literally one. Damned. Simple. Thing."

She struggled, disoriented, as her dad dragged her across the room with him, feeling like she was trying to move underwater and think when she couldn't breathe. It was that awful, suffocating feeling of drowning all over again.

She tripped and suddenly found herself on the floor. Her vision faltered in and out, black and white, at a heavy kick given to her side.

It was a painful, drudging effort just to turn herself over again, and yet only to be welcomed with the sight of her father reeling back for another—

Daquiri jolted awake with so forceful a gasp that she bolted completely upright with her eyes wide open, blindly jerking herself back so far that she nearly lost her balance over her pillow. Her heart pounded loudly against her chest as she frantically looked to where her father had been, only to see Christopher next to her on the floor instead.

Right.

The sleepover.

She wasn't at home.

"Sorry," the boy mumbled in quiet apology. "It sounded like you were having a bad dream." It was only then that she realized he must have shaken her awake from her nightmare—the actual arm she had recoiled from so violently.

Daquiri's eyes widened slightly, all at once alarmed. "Did—" She faltered a moment, cutting herself off from sounding so urgent. "Um, was I...saying things?" It took an effort not to sound as anxious as she felt.

Christopher shook his head, though. "You were just moving around a lot." He paused a moment. "And sort of…making noises, I guess."

"Oh." She was relieved to hear she hadn't accidentally said something incriminating in the fit of her nightmare. Glancing around, she was suddenly reminded of the fact that Suzi and Gypsy were asleep on the floor only a couple feet away—and that up until a few minutes ago, that was probably exactly what Christopher had been doing.

"Sorry for waking you," she whispered quietly and, now that the moment of panic had passed, a touch embarrassed. "I'm not normally so…loud."

"No, you weren't, really. I was just already awake." Christopher made a brief huff that maybe sounded semi-amused. "Gyp can be a bit of a restless sleeper." He glanced over at the mound of blankets piled a couple feet away that was, in fact, the sleeping Gypsy. "She kicked me awake like, half an hour ago." He gave a wry smile. "I moved over here, but apparently can't get back to sleep."

Daquiri gave a nod in response, though her eyes had lost focus as the details of her dream were gradually seeping back to her. She slowly pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them under the blanket.

Christopher seemed to sense her unease. "Did, um…you want to talk about it, or…anything?"

She glanced over at him. "Not really."

There was an empty noise as Christopher opened his mouth almost reflexively only to immediately close it again, leaving an awkward bout of silence between them.

Daquiri abruptly moved to dig through her overnight bag next to her, looking for her phone. She was probably just being paranoid, but at the chance that Arak or her dad might have texted her…

"You brought that with you?"

Daquiri glanced over her arm at Christopher, confused as to why he'd find the idea of bringing her phone with her to a sleepover as strange…until she realized his eyes weren't on the cell in her hand. Glancing back down at her stuff, it took her a second to realize Christopher's laptop had gotten jostled around in her search and was now sticking halfway out of her bag.

"Oh. Um, yeah." She awkwardly tried to rearrange the contents of her overnight to fit the laptop back in better, without looking too hasty about it. "I was kind of in a rush on my way out of the house coming here, and just ended up grabbing the whole thing."

Christopher nodded slowly in acknowledgment, though it looked like his mind was on something else. He made a side glance over at Gyp and Suzi, who were both still very clearly asleep. The gesture made Daquiri mildly suspicious.

"Hey, uh, since you…y'know, um, have it with you, and…everything… Well, uh, do you think I could maybe just, um…look at it? For a sec?"

Daquiri eyed him in disbelief. "You're letting Suzi win?"

"Ah, well…" Christopher rubbed the back of his neck a bit sheepishly. "I was actually kind of hoping…to…maybe strike this one from the record?"

She pressed her lips together. "You want me to help you cheat," she said flatly.

"I mean—"

"No."

Christopher made a conceding shrug. "Worth a shot anyway." He made another one of his soft huffing noises. "Alright well I lose, give me the laptop."

Daquiri blinked. "Wait—you're really serious?"

Christopher nodded. "I literally haven't been able to get anything done all week. It's just getting ridiculous, annoying, and boring now." He shrugged again. "And besides, I really can't let Gyp down for Christmas."

Although there really shouldn't have been any reason to, Daquiri found herself slightly hesitant to give up the laptop so simply, just like that. A mental shake and half-moment later, though, she pulled the laptop back out of her bag and wordlessly handed it over to the boy. It was, after all, his.

Daquiri silently watched as Christopher shifted positions so he could set the PC on his lap, the bluish-white glow of his computer screen softly illuminating his face as it started up a moment later. His focus immediately seemed to home in on something.

She sat there without a word for what was probably at least a minute, not really sure what she was expecting. She supposed some part of her had thought it would be…polite?...to wait until he was done? But now that he'd officially caved the bet, he no longer seemed tied to his initial promise of only taking a moment to check the device.

"Um, I think I'm gonna go back to sleep," she finally spoke up in a whisper.

Christopher glanced up at her over his screen. "Oh, yeah," he said hastily. "Sorry, didn't mean to keep you up. I can do this in another room."

"Don't worry about it. It's fine."

Daquiri slid herself back under the covers and rolled onto her side. Honestly, the only thing she was worried about right now was whether she'd be waking back up into the middle of her nightmare.

She heard Christopher's hushed voice from behind her: "Goodnight."

A few seconds ticked past.

"Goodnight," she whispered back.

---

"You cheating little skank, Indy, I knew you'd break!"

The next morning was…not exactly how Daquiri had pictured her day starting.

Christopher looked up from his second plate with wide eyes and a mouthful of pancakes, a startled expression on his face. "Wha'..?" he mumbled through his food, sounding confused.

"You asked for the laptop back!" Suzi crowed. "And used it while we were asleep! You talked a big game, cretin, but I knew I could last longer than you! Knew it!" The taller girl sauntered triumphantly—or perhaps 'smugly' was the better descriptor—around the Venirs' kitchen table to park herself right next to Christopher's chair. She leaned her arms down onto his shoulder. "Better say goodbye to your jacket, because you two won't be seeing each other for a while. Hopefully your relationship can survive the upcoming trials." Suzi's dark eyes were dancing with a probably concerning amount of wicked enjoyment. "Because guess what happens tonight."

Daquiri, on the contrary, was standing awkwardly beneath the arched entryway to the kitchen with her arms folded over her chest as she looked on in any other direction. She had pulled Suzi aside after they'd both finished their breakfasts several minutes before, and it wasn't a moment sooner than Daquiri had caught her up on last night that the other girl had immediately charged back to the kitchen to gloat.

The redhead had literally been given the job to monitor Christopher and report back if he violated the terms of the bet's contract (idiotic as all of it still was)...so Daquiri wasn't sure why she still felt like some kind of dirty snitch for telling on the boy.

Perhaps it was just because Suzi being bitchily-triumphant was even more grating to endure than the Latina's already abrasive personality.

Moments like these were ones that made Daquiri especially long for the distraction that Gypsy's hyperactive bubbliness always provided—and were continuous reminders of why the rainbow-haired girl was the only real reason Daquiri chose to keep sticking around the group. Though she supposed the underwater secret the three girls shared was at least in part a contributor...

Still, it was incredibly unfortunate that Gyp, upon inhaling a few of her own pancakes, disappeared some fifteen or twenty minutes ago and had yet to show back up.

Christopher, taking his time, was washing down the rest of his pancakes with a long draught of juice. He coolly set the empty glass back down on the table. "How many guesses do I get?"

Suzi made a deriding face at the boy. "You are such a poor loser, you loser." She twisted a chair out to sit down herself. "You can't even acknowledge actually losing to me without pouting."

Christopher tilted his head a mere fraction of an inch in what seemed like a barely acknowledging shrug. "Maybe I'd just be more impressed if you'd waited longer than two-point-five seconds to cave your own end of the deal after learning that I had. Hard to call it winning, honestly."

For just how insanely heated the two had been the day of creating the bet, and downright stupidly invested in the damn playing-out of the thing for the past week, Daquiri was finding Christopher's apparent unconcern and complete lack of frustration to losing the whole ordeal a little…strange.

And somehow vaguely unsettling.

Suzi, on the other hand, was in the middle of rolling her eyes to the ceiling. "Says the boy who couldn't even wait for the honest light of day to lose his half of the bet."

Christopher shrugged. "At least I had time to concentrate on getting stuff done before having to deal with you—well, doing this." He motioned between himself and Suzi. "It's a very distracting environment. Not great for productivity. Two out of ten."

The Latina gave him a squinty look. "What exactly was so important you needed the dead of night to 'concentrate' on it?"

Christopher slowly gave another shrug, this time in a more blatantly nonchalant way. "I needed to have use of my camera. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to get quality footage of you asking Clayne out."

Suzi immediately snorted. "I think you've got your alternate timelines a bit screwed up there, Indy."

Christopher raised a single eyebrow. "Do I, though?"

Suzi narrowed her eyes. "I'm not asking anyone out."

"…Aren't you, though?"

"The hell are you talking about, Braddock." Suzi's voice had flattened to a tone somewhere between unamused but begrudgingly wary.

Christopher, on the other hand, looked like he was starting to actually enjoy himself. "What I'm talking about is that you lost our bet."

Even Daquiri was confused now and, despite her resolution to stay out of this entire mess, she cleared her throat. "Uh, Christopher," she said carefully. "You lost the bet. Last night. At like, three AM."

Christopher shrugged again. "I know. I'm not discounting that." He turned back to Suzi. "I'm just saying that she also lost."

Suzi stared at him for several long, speechless moments. "Indy," she began slowly, "I think you've finally, officially lost it." There was a lengthy pause as she leaned in towards him on the table. "Because that's not how bets work!"

Daquiri winced at the sudden spike in volume of Suzi's voice, though Christopher didn't seem put off by it.

"Not normally, sure," he agreed. "But—that's how our contract says it works."

Suzi quickly opened her mouth like she was about to argue, only to close it a moment later when she seemed to fully register what Christopher had said. Her eyes narrowed into dark slits. "What?" she growled through gritted teeth.

Christopher was full-on grinning now.

Daquiri was getting that bad feeling again.

"Shall I walk you through the terms of our officially binding contract again?" he asked Suzi with mocking extravagance as he pulled something out of his back pocket. As he unfolded the slightly rumpled piece of paper, Daquiri realized it was one of the printed copies of the contract she'd made up for each of them. Christopher cleared his throat before reading aloud an excerpt:

"'…These aforementioned terms are subject to remain for up to two weeks, beginning from the signature date below. Whomsoever caves within this timeframe must comply to the other's demands, as they are stated above, as soon as is reasonably deemed possible. In the case that neither caves within the originally set parameters (two weeks), a "sudden death" phase will commence, and both parties must continue with the terms of the bet described herein until the other either caves or folds.'"

Christopher looked up from his reading already looking incredibly more pleased with himself. "Now, I'd like to put a special emphasis on the phrases 'whomsoever caves' and 'within this timeframe'. That 'timeframe,' you may remember, refers to these first two weeks, the expiration date of which iiiss…" Christopher drew out the last word as he paused to check his phone. "A week from tomorrow. And that pesky little 'whomsoever,' well, that just so happens to define itself as…" He looked back up at Suzi with a slow, satisfied smile. "You and me. Not either or."

If Mrs. Venir had been angry about Christopher's language last night, she probably would've had an aneurysm had she been in range to hear Suzi's transition from absolute dead silence to the explosion of foul language and insults that hurled from her mouth in the minutes that followed Christopher's unveiled loophole. Christopher, on the other hand, had completely lost it and was laughing near-hysterically, which was clearly only making Suzi angrier.

With Daquiri beginning to worry that Suzi was only mere seconds away from choking the boy out, it was a godsend that Gypsy finally and suddenly returned.

"MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE EVE!"

As if by some kind of magic, Christopher and Sue both immediately shut up at the sound of Gypsy's voice and the girl came bursting back into the room a moment later, arms loaded with various bags and gift-wrapped packages. Daquiri, who nearly startled at Gyp hurtling right past her, eyed all the gifts with mild alarm.

"Guys!" Gypsy announced, stopping in front of Christopher and Suzi. "It's PRESENTS time!" The girl raised her arms like she was trying to christen the Lion King, but only succeeded in making most of her assortment tumble down onto the tabletop. She looked down at them. "Oops."

Christopher was quicker to react than Suzi.

"Is that where you've been this whole time?" he mused, leaning away from the table and against his chair, as casually as if they'd just been in the middle of one of their usual good-natured banterings.

Gypsy made a sheepish look as she re-straightened all the gifts. "I maaay have not gotten around to wrapping…some…of my presents…"

Christopher raised his brows at Gyp. "Some of them?"

"Y-yes!" Gypsy sputtered, followed by an abrupt pffft. "Obviously I wouldn't have forgotten all of them… Um. Duh."

Christopher nodded seriously. "Right. Obviously."

Gypsy's gaze lingered waveringly on the boy for a moment longer, like she wasn't sure if he was being genuine or not; then she abruptly snapped back to her current mission mode. "C'mon, guys, presents—go get them!"

Daquiri glanced to either side of her as Christopher and Suzi both got up at Gypsy's bidding—Suzi, noticeably, grumbling a tad more about it. The redhead shifted her weight uncomfortably in the meantime.

She glanced over at Gypsy when they'd gone. "I, um, didn't realize you guys were doing this today," she said, uncertain.

"Yeahhh, I kinda forgot to mention it to you—that's my bad," Gypsy said a bit sheepishly. "We usually all exchange presents on this day every year, just to avoid running into family stuff."

This being said, Daquiri was trying to figure out the best way to excuse herself without being rude, but the other two returned with their own offerings before the redhead could come up with anything and next thing she knew, she was sitting at the kitchen table with all of them.

God.

Daquiri had the feeling that this morning, which had already begun to drag into an agonizing direction, was just about to get longer.

---

"For Indy—your usual." The wrapped box tossed to Christopher only barely missed hitting him directly in the face, compliments of Suzi. "Try to make them last this time."

Daquiri tried not to be mildly curious, just as much as she was trying not to feel completely awkward during this exchange that she wasn't really a part of, as Christopher tore away the pristinely folded wrapping paper with the same tinge of a smile that he'd been wearing ever since he got back to the kitchen. Even though all talk of the bet had been taken off the table since Gyp reappeared, it hadn't stopped the two feuding parties from making underhanded remarks and comments the whole time, all of which somehow went right over Gypsy's head. The fact that Daquiri was finding it impossible to miss any of them was not making this whole gift exchange go by any less awkwardly, either.

"Wow I love them," Christopher said in a perfect mock-voice of robotically-fake and completely ungenuine enthusiasm, meanwhile holding up a light green soft-blend t-shirt at arm's length. Daquiri could only just see a pair of dark wash jeans poking out from beneath the rest of the tissue paper in the box. Christopher looked over to Suzi. "Maybe I should wear them tonight." His voice held the same inflections as before, but now there was a fairly distinct tone of innocence added into the mix.

The way Suzi was eyeing him was giving Daquiri the impression that the Latina would very much prefer to strangle him with the new blue jeans. The redhead, however, was still more interested by this apparent annual gifting of clothes to Christopher. It could be some sort of strange, running joke, perhaps, but seemed like a rather weird riff for the two of them…

"Okay, okay, Indy gets new clothes, whatever—that finishes up everyone's gifts then, right?" Gypsy looked around the table brightly, namely at Suzi and Christopher, the ones who had actually been participating in the presents powwow. "We can move on to the last presents?"

"I'm offended you don't care more about my quality new t-shirt." Christopher tossed his new shirt over Gypsy's head. "You're not being very supportive of my interests."

Gyp swatted his shirt away. "Handing out these presents is your new interest!" She forged on before Christopher could say anything else. "And I'll go first since y'all are slow as molasses."

Daquiri didn't have any idea what they were talking about until Gypsy plunked down a gift bag overflowing with tissue paper on the table in front of her. She blinked at it.

"...What is this?"

"What are you, Jewish? It's a Christmas present." Suzi gave an exasperated eye roll. "Gyp gives them to everyone so just shut up and open it."

The girl clearly wasn't containing her bad mood to just Christopher. With a brief side-eye at the Latina, Daquiri tentatively pulled away the layers of crepe paper before lifting what looked to be a medium-sized throw pillow out of the bag. It was absolutely covered in glittering emerald sequins and, truth be told, wasn't something Daquiri would've normally picked up for herself; she wasn't much of a glitter person.

"It's a mermaid pillow!" Gypsy burst out, leaning forward in excitement. Both Daquiri and Suzi looked up a bit sharply at the use of 'mermaid,' but Gypsy brushed a hand across the pillow, leaving behind a fuchsia streak. With a small frown, Daquiri lightly ran her fingers along the pillow the same direction Gypsy had, watching the sequins flip from green to pink. Huh.

"That's gotta be the most stimmy thing I've ever seen," Suzi commented wryly. "Are you sure you didn't buy that for yourself, Gyp?"

A blue dreadlock had suspiciously found its way above Gypsy's lip into a makeshift mustache as the girl sunk back against her chair. "Ma's getting me a purple one for Christmas," she mumbled, sounding a tad sheepish.

Suzi snickered a bit and Christopher gave an amused snort while Daquiri let the pillow drop softly back into its bag. "It's really neat, Gyp. Thank you."

"Welcome!" Gypsy beamed. Then she poked Christopher. "Indy," she prompted.

A smaller, wrapped rectangle was fumbled out of the boy's lap and onto the table. He didn't quite meet gazes with Daquiri as he awkwardly pushed the gift towards her a little.

Glancing at him, Daquiri hesitated before picking it up. She peeled back a strip of the paper. "A book?"

"Uh, yeah. I know you like to—er, I mean it seems like you do—uh, like reading."

Daquiri ignored Christopher's rambling, frowning down at the fully unwrapped title cover. "'The Dresden Files'?"

"Uh, yeah. Have you heard of them before? Good series. Uh, they're about a wizard, named Harry—but not that one. Good series. Er, I—said that. Already. Didn't I."

Suzi leaned forward on her arms. "Yes. You did."

Christopher sent Suzi a rather unappreciative look, which only prompted Suzi to smile back serenely.

"Uh, thanks," Daquiri said. She set the book to the side a bit. She didn't really know what else to say.

A moment of silence tripped on by.

Gypsy nudged Suzi. "It's your turn."

Suzi huffed a sigh, perhaps a little more dramatically than was necessary. "Here." A small bag was unceremoniously shoved in front of Daquiri, nearly falling over before Daquiri reached out to steady it. Removing the single piece of tissue paper, Daquiri pulled out what looked like a…spray bottle? Frowning, she turned the bottle to read the script on the front.

"Leave-in conditioner. It's for split ends." Suzi's blunt explanation interrupted Daquiri's investigation. "You need it."

Daquiri had no idea how to respond to that.

"Suuue," Gypsy protested. "Give her your real present!"

Suzi's eyes rolled up to ceiling. "Fine." Suzi reached down to something out of view from Daquiri, pulling up a much larger package that, despite its odd shape, was somehow pristinely wrapped. Suzi dropped this one on the table with a crinkly thump. "Gyp made me get this for you. And mostly picked it out. In fact, it's basically from Gyp."

Daquiri gave the gift a wary look, starting to wish more and more that she wasn't still here right now, the middle of attention. A bit reluctantly, she tore into a fold of the new gift.

She lifted a deep turquoise-colored bag up out of the paper. Daquiri surveyed it silently, though she didn't look much further than the glittering triangle of the designer brand logo. She set the purse back down.

"Um. I think it's time I...headed home," she said, her voice on the quieter side. She paused an awkward moment longer before abruptly getting up to get her things from the living room.

Daquiri was finishing up packing her overnight when Gypsy came into the room. The redhead glanced at her for a split of a second but only continued on with what she was doing without saying anything. Gypsy sat down on the couch, pulling her legs up crisscross-applesauce style.

"You okay?" Gypsy asked her after a few seconds.

Daquiri glanced at her briefly again. "Yeah."

A few more seconds of silence. "Did Sue upset you?"

"No."

Gypsy played with one of her dreads, her eyes not leaving Daquiri thoughtfully. "Well you seem upset."

Daquiri finished up gathering her things. She paused. Slowly, she stood up, shouldering her bag. Her hand twisted around one of the straps, and she looked off to the side. "I don't have anything to give you guys."

"That's okay. That's not why we got you presents."

Daquiri looked down at her shoes. She tapped her fingers against the strap. She was quiet. "I don't know." Several more beats passed. "I...just feel weird taking them."

"Well, they're yours now. So they won't go anywhere else."

Daquiri shifted a bit uncomfortably.

Gypsy tilted her head. "You don't get gifts much, do you?" There was a tiny smile on the girl's face.

Daquiri crossed her arms, uncertain. "Um. No. Not exactly."

Gypsy's smile widened and she shrugged. "I'll just get you presents more then, until you get used to it."

Feeling embarrassed, Daquiri just awkwardly looked away again.

"I'll go get Ma," Gypsy said cheerily. "She can take you home."

Daquiri just nodded. Gypsy skipped by her on the way to the stairs, and Daquiri caught her by the arm. "Thanks for having me over, Gypsy," she said quietly, but genuinely.

Gypsy beamed at her. Then she raced the rest of the way to the stairs, taking them up two at a time. When the girl had disappeared, Daquiri closed her eyes and finally smiled, just to herself.

---

Daquiri awoke Christmas morning to the sound of her door banging open.

She rolled over onto her other side, wanting to continue sleeping, but Fox jumping on top of her made that a little more difficult.

"Riiiiii! Gettup—gettup—GETTUP!" Daquiri grunted as every 'get up' was punctuated by an exuberant bounce to her side. "SANTA CAME!"

Daquiri suppressed her sigh. "Oh yeah, buddy?" Reluctantly, she finally turned over onto her back to give her brother a tired smile. "Did you get Arak up too?"

"He was already up!" Fox bounced off the bed and ran back to the door. "I'm gonna go get Daddy!"

And just as quickly as he had appeared, Fox was gone again.

Daquiri stared up at the ceiling for a few moments that slowly ticked into minutes, fighting the urge to roll over and go back to sleep. She let out the sigh she'd been holding in.

Forcing herself to sit up and swing her legs out of bed, she idly wondered what level of effort their father would be putting forth this Christmas. With his track record in recent years it could be anywhere from drunken idiot to completely vanished. Though, as an afterthought, perhaps the latter option was the best scenario that could happen.

Daquiri interrupted her own thoughts to frown for a brief moment, remembering Fox had said Arak was already up. She was normally the one up before everyone else Christmas morning.

Slipping into her robe and slippers, she made her way out into the kitchen. She found her older brother there, humming to the radio while washing dishes in the sink.

"Arak," she said, walking over to him with her brow furrowed, "what are you doing?"

"Well good morning and Merry Christmas to you, too," he said, though his voice was good-humored.

Daquiri gave a brief smile. "Merry Christmas." She let him give her a small side hug, though stayed wary of his wet hands, making sure they only touched her robe. She glanced at the dish-filled sink. "I thought I did these last night?"

"You did," Arak agreed, "but I made breakfast."

"You didn't have to do that," she protested. "I always make Christmas breakfast."

"You always make Christmas everything," Arak countered. "I wanted to give you a break. Besides," Arak added with a smile, "you seemed kinda tired."

Daquiri frowned at that, but before she could say anything else, Fox entered the room, dragging their dad behind him.

"C'mon, Daddy, the faster we eat breakfast the faster we can get to presents!"

Daquiri leaned against the counter, passively watching as their dad rubbed a hand over his face, his dark blond scruff not yet having been shaved for the day. He looked haggard and half out of it, but much more so than he should have for a normal morning. She narrowed her eyes.

"I'll be right back," she muttered to Arak. She grabbed a clean mug from the cupboard and poured out a cup of black coffee before making her way over to her dad and brother.

"Fox," she said, keeping her voice light, "can you help Arak set the table? I want to talk to Daddy for a minute."

When her little brother did as he was told, Daquiri grabbed her dad by the arm and pulled him back into the dark hallway.

"What do you think you're doing?" she said angrily, her voice hushed.

"It is way too early for this, Daquiri," her dad muttered, blearily rubbing some crust out of his eyes with one hand as he fumbled in the pocket of his old police department sweatpants with the other. Daquiri was no happier to see him pulling out his cig pack and lighter.

"It is Christmas," she snapped in a loud whisper. "You were binge-drinking last night, weren't you? Weren't you?!"

A frown found its way onto her dad's face. "Now just hold on, young lady, you—"

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" she interrupted. "Can you not hold off for one night? Why do you have to ruin everything?"

For once, her dad didn't seem to have much of a reply. His eyes lowered as he stuck a cigarette in his mouth to light it.

She shoved the cup of coffee at him, not bothering to avoid it sloshing over the lip and onto his shirt. "Sober up," she said coldly, "and try to act like a real father for once in your life. For just a day, smile, and laugh, and act like you're having a good time, so I don't have to explain to Fox why his dad is unconscious in a chair for half of Christmas Day." Then she scowled. "And for God's sake, take those damn things outside."

With one last severe look of disgust at her excuse for a father, Daquiri turned on her heel and strode back to the kitchen.

---

"Alright, Fox, which do you want first?" Daquiri sat down with her little brother in the big recliner after a mildly awkward family breakfast, leaving Arak and their dad to the couch. "Family presents? Or Santa's?"

Fox seriously thought this over for a moment. "Yours," he finally decided.

She smiled, then looked at Arak with a slight sparkle in her eyes. "Santa's elf?"

"You know it." Her other brother seemed to pull an elf's hat out of nowhere as he got up to pass out presents. He looked ridiculous with the giant felt elf ears coming out the side of his head, and Daquiri couldn't quite smother her grin at the sight of it.

"Their presents" for Fox were mostly clothes, including a pair of almost-new-looking sneakers that they'd managed to find in Fox's size at a secondhand shop. They went straight to "Santa presents" after that, and Fox looked thrilled at the unwrapping of the new Lego Batman set, a few Hot Wheels cars to add to his collection, and a new game for his Nintendo DS Lite.

Daquiri and Arak had managed to pool together her saved money from old babysitting jobs in Oregon and as much as he could spare from his work paychecks to splurge on getting Fox the couple pricier toys as well as the necessities. Their dad only ever put money towards things like the Christmas groceries, insisting that if they wanted so-called impractical things like gifts bought, they had to come up with the funds on their own. Ergo, she and Arak had been doing their best to take on buying Fox's presents themselves for the past several years. Even though she usually stressed about saving for it all year long, it was always worth it to see the looks of total excitement on Fox's face come Christmas day.

"Hmm, what do we have here..."

Daquiri watched as Arak reached far under the tree down on his hands and knees and pulled out a flat box wrapped in blue snowman paper. She smiled in anticipation as Arak brought it over.

Fox perked up at the sight of it. "There's more?" he asked excitedly, forgetting about the attempted unboxing of his Lego set to focus on this new mystery gift.

"I almost missed it!" Arak told him with a grin as he handed the last present to their little brother.

Fox ripped the paper off and lifted the lid from the box to reveal a bright orange zip-up hoodie. He held it up and noticed the ears attached to the hood.

"It's a fox!" he exclaimed. He was so thrilled, he didn't quite have the patience to fit into it properly so Daquiri took over helping him put it on. The moment she finished zipping it up he flipped the hood over his spiky red hair, so the pointed fox ears stuck straight up off his head. "This is so COOL!" he yelled gleefully, before immediately beginning to zip and jump around the room in his new get-up.

"Fox."

Daquiri and her brothers looked over at their father's voice. There was a grimace on his face, and his fingers were massaging his temples. "Keep your voice down. And for God's sake, calm down."

Daquiri frowned at their dad but didn't say anything. She could only choose so many battles in a day.

"It suits you perfectly, Fox," she said, ignoring their father and keeping her voice warm as she addressed her little brother. "Do you like it?"

Fox merely nodded exuberantly, seeming to take their father's words to heart. Daquiri tried to brush off the idea.

"Hold just a second—it looks like we've got ooone more..."

Fox looked back over to the Christmas tree curiously, while Daquiri frowned in confusion as she watched Arak nearly disappear under the fake branches once more. She was sure they had gone through every present of Fox's already. Had Arak gotten another surprise one?

Arak examined the "one" present he pulled out, which really looked more like several items, wrapped and stacked on top of each other. He made a show of furrowing his brow at it like he was perplexed. "It says it's for Ri." He lifted his head then, seemingly unable to hide the grin on his face. "From Santa."

Daquiri gave him a cautionary look as he jauntily closed the distance between them, Fox looking almost more excited for this gift than his own surprise one.

"Santa's never gotten you a present before, Ri!" Fox noted excitedly, shaking one of her arms that were eased against the rests of the recliner. "It must be really, really, really—"

The three of them were momentarily distracted by their dad abruptly rising from his spot on the couch. Daquiri tensed instinctively, but, instead of moving towards any of them, he headed for the back door in the corner of the living room without a word. She saw him reaching into his pocket again as he slung open the door, its slam shut behind him resounding throughout the rest of the house.

Even Fox seemed at a loss for words in the moment of silence that followed, either forgetting or simply not finishing what he'd been in the middle of saying. Daquiri's gaze stayed fixed on the door where her father had vanished.

It was only Arak gently setting the present stack in her lap that brought her back to the rest of her surroundings. She stared down at the packages with a prickling uncomfortableness.

"Open it," her older brother urged. "See what it is."

She glanced back and forth between the wrapped stack and her older brother a few more times before she slowly began peeling the festive paper away. She stayed quiet as she unwrapped each item one by one: a large box of oil paints...a package of assorted brush types with a pallet knife...a small bottle of linseed oil…a clear paint-mixing palette...and several square canvases.

She stared silently at the unveiled pile in her lap.

"What are they?" Fox asked, breaking the dampening silence.

"They're for painting," she told him softly, running her fingers lightly across the edge of the boxed paint tubes.

"What're you gonna paint?" her little brother asked curiously, hanging over the armrest to look more closely at the supplies.

"I'm not sure, bud," she said, still in a place somewhere between dazed and detached. How had…Arak…?

"You might need this, too."

Daquiri finally broke away from her stunned marveling to look back up at Arak. He was holding out a long and skinny wrapped box, a soft smile on his lips as he looked down at her.

Unable to fathom the thought of there being still another gift, Daquiri wordlessly took the present and tore the paper away, her brow furrowed.

"It's an easel," she observed quietly as she held up the box, studying the picture on the front of it. It was a retractable metal one, the kind that could be just as easily stored as carried around.

"Can't start your own studio without having somewhere to paint," her older brother said with a light grin. "Merry Christmas, Ri."

"Merry Christmas!" Fox piped back up in an echo as he threw himself over the armrest further to hug her. Daquiri put an arm around him, a subtle smile only barely tugging at her mouth.

"Merry Christmas, buddy." She planted a kiss on his head. "I hope you had a good one."

"It was great!" Fox scrambled down off the chair and back over to his collection of gifts, still surrounded by their scatterings of crinkled and ripped wrapping paper. He pounced on his Lego Batman box set and started trying to pry it open again.

"Let me get you something to open that with, buddy," Arak said with a bit of a chuckle. He headed over to the kitchen.

Setting her pile of new art supplies aside, Daquiri stood up and followed her older brother. She stopped by him as he stood over one of the kitchen drawers, sifting through the assortment of junk and kitchen trinkets for something that would cut through the packaging tape more easily. She did nothing but stand there for a moment.

"Arak," she said quietly.

Her brother looked over at her with a questioning look.

"How…?" She searched his face, trying to find an answer for the questions written across her own. But she shook her head. "Where did you…?"

Arak smiled. "I've been saving up for a while, Ri."

"But…" She looked over her shoulder. "All of it...it must have cost you a fortune." She looked back to him, a frown creasing her face. "Painting—oil painting—there's hardly anything more expensive—"

"Ri." Arak put a hand on her arm. "I got them for you because I know you." Smiling, he gave her arm a squeeze. "You can't get better and do everything you want with it if you don't have your own paints to practice with outside of school. The money's not important."

All she could do for several long moments was stare at her older brother.

Then she up and hugged him.

"Thank you," she said, her voice low and quiet.

He hugged her back. "Merry Christmas, Ri." He pulled back and smiled at her. "I want this new year to be a good one for you. A fresh start."

Daquiri slowly pulled her arms away, all at once retracting back into herself more than just literally. "Yeah, well…" She cradled one of her shoulders with a hand almost without thinking about it, self-conscious. "I...wouldn't hope too much for that one." Though they didn't really hurt hardly at all by now, the bruises and marks on her back still hadn't faded completely away.

Arak started to lift a hand to her arm, but seemed to think better of it, letting it fall back to his side. "C'mon," he urged. "Don't think like that today. It's Christmas. If nothing else, at least put it out of your mind right now." He lowered his voice even more. "Don't let Dad get to you. Who knows why he does what he does, but it doesn't have anything to do with you."

She was silent a moment, taking a brief glance over to the back door. Then, sucking in a breath, she gave herself a sharp shake. "Yeah. You're right." She steeled her gaze once more. "We don't need him here."

As if on cue, the comfortable quiet of the household was once more broken by the sound of the back door opening and their dad coming back inside. Daquiri straightened up as he headed directly toward her and Arak, all but ready to swallow back the words she'd claimed just a moment ago.

Their dad walked right on past them into the hallway without so much as a word or a glance.

She slowly let her shoulders drop back down, and she glanced over when her brother lightly put a hand to her back, steering her back to the living room and Fox, still obliviously exploring his new toys.

"Why don't you go out and check for the mail?" he suggested quietly to her. "Clear your head a bit."

Daquiri held back a bit of a sigh. "I guess," she muttered.

Normally, the mail was a short distance of a walk away at a central station that held everyone's boxes, lined up in a row and locked with keys. It had taken her and Arak a while to get used to, coming from having a mailbox at the end of their own driveway back at their house in Oregon. Most days, it wasn't Daquiri's absolute favorite chore to get saddled with—considering Arak could drive to pick it up, when she had no choice but to walk. Times like this, though, Arak knew her well enough to know it was usually beneficial to give her some space to herself—away from everything, if possible.

Today, however, Daquiri didn't even get past opening the front door.

She frowned down at their porch, where what appeared to be a huge, black garbage bag tied with an overly large red bow was sitting, innocuous and disarming.

Um..?

"Arak?" she called over her shoulder. "Can you...come here? For a sec?"

It was a few moments before Arak appeared behind her.

"What's up, did yo—" Her brother trailed off when he came up next to her. A frown also muddled his expression. "What's that?"

"I don't know," she said slowly.

"Well…open it."

She gave him a look. "That thing looks sketchy as hell."

Arak gave her his own look right back. "What do you think it is, a bomb?" Without giving any further reasoning, he tugged the bow off and pulled apart the bag.

He stared down at the mystery contents inside.

"What is it?" she asked, still standing near the doorway. After a moment of Arak not immediately responding, though, her curiosity got the better of her and she leaned forward, albeit still a tad warily.

"Well. It's definitely not a bomb. Or at least, I don't think it is." Arak pulled out what appeared to be a gift-wrapped box. "There's a bunch of them."

Reaching into the bag herself, Daquiri pulled out another colorfully wrapped present. She frowned at it. "These can't be meant for us."

"Uh." Arak tapped the paper. "Actually, I think that's exactly who they're for." He showed her the tag stuck to his, which was addressed to Fox.

Daquiri carefully set the present she'd grabbed back with the others. "Who would've even left these here? We don't know anyone in this neighborhood," she pointed out, her tone dubious as she crossed her arms and glanced around at the empty street.

"Well, maybe they weren't from the neighborhood," Arak suggested mildly.

Daquiri shot him a look. "And just who would they be from then?"

Arak shrugged, then smirked at her a bit. "Maybe that church you went to is into the whole 'secret Santa charity' kinda thing. That's a thing they do in movies, right?"

Daquiri wrinkled her nose at his joke, loathe at the idea of charity from anyone, joking or not. But then, what else would this be called?

"So… what do we do with them then?" she asked, still giving them a rather distrustful look.

Her brother, on the other hand, looked at her like she'd gone daft in the head. "Um, take them inside and open them?"

"We don't even know who left them!"

"Who cares? It's Christmas. And besides, most of these look like they're for Fox—he'll be psyched." Before she could say anything else, Arak hefted up the whole bag and loaded it on inside.

The mail forgotten, Daquiri trailed after him.

"Guess what, Fox!" Arak announced cheerfully. "You must've been real good this year, 'cause it looks like Santa made an extra trip!"

"What?" Fox bounced up excitedly, jumping around Arak and the bag. "Really?!"

Daquiri stood at the end of the small foyer walkway, keeping to the wall's corner as she watched Arak and Fox start digging through the bag's assortment. She stole a glance to the dimmed hallway across the room from her, half-expecting to see her father lurking in the shadows of the archway, leaned up against the wall stoically observing.

But the hallway was empty.

She shifted her position a bit, trying not to feel so uneasy about all of this. She may have still had her own misgivings about them, but she couldn't ignore how happy and excited Fox looked rifling through all the mysterious new gifts; his eyes were almost literally shining.

And it was truly unbelievable just how many toys came out of that bag. Daquiri had literally never seen so many presents in her life—even back when things had still been normal in their family.

"What are these?"

Fox had torn open an envelope he'd found attached to one of the wrapped boxes. He was peering inside, but instead of pulling out the kind of written card one would normally find in an envelope, he revealed a handful of colorful plastic.

Arak took them from their little brother and examined them with a slightly furrowed brow. Then those sandy blond brows slowly arched up in interest.

"Ri, get over here," he said with a short incline of his head. "Your name's on some of these."

Frowning, Daquiri finally joined her brothers in the living room. She silently accepted the cards Arak handed over to her and took a moment to study them. She blinked upon realizing just what they were.

"Gift cards," she mused. As she shuffled through them, she saw that Arak hadn't been exaggerating: she spotted her name printed in neat letters on at least three of the cards. She shifted one slightly away from the rest, narrowing her eyes down at it.

Arak plucked the singled-out card away from her and, much to Daquiri's chagrin, quirked another eyebrow at it. "Is this to a spa? Who the heck thought to get you a gift card to a spa?!"

"How should I know?" Daquiri retorted smartly. "That's why it's anonymous, genius."

Arak merely snorted at her. "Guess they really don't know you then."

Daquiri opened her mouth to respond, but Fox beat her to it.

"What's a non-Nemus?" Their little brother was looking back and forth between the two of them, his face slightly crinkled in confusion. "Didn't Santa get the card for Ri?"

Arak and Daquiri exchanged glances.

"'Anonymous' means you don't know who someone is," she responded almost automatically, accustomed to being the one usually clarifying meanings for their much younger brother.

"Though obviously we know most of the presents are from Santa," Arak cut in emphatically, side-eyeing her as Daquiri bit her lip a bit. He continued on. "But sometimes Santa delivers presents from other people, if they can't deliver it themselves." Arak's lips twitched almost imperceptibly as he glanced over at Daquiri once more. "Or if they want it to be a secret gift."

It was all Daquiri could do not to roll her eyes at her older brother while Fox was standing there, looking up at Arak with wide eyes now.

"Woah, really?" Fox made a thoughtful look for a moment. "Maybe I'll do that for next Christmas!"

As Fox went back to excavating to the bottom of the presents bag, this time it was Daquiri's turn to give Arak a simpering look. "Good luck fixing that one next year," she muttered to him quietly, but with a dry laugh to her voice. Arak made a face back at her, though it ultimately turned into a good-humored smirk.

"Maybe we'll get lucky and this year will be Santa's last," Arak murmured as they both watched their little brother.

Daquiri wrinkled her nose at the thought, though. "Why would you want that?" Looking at Fox, a whisper of a smile appeared on her lips. "Looking forward to Santa every Christmas is one of the best parts about being a kid." She elbowed Arak in the side as her expression turned impishly mischievous. "Don't tell me you don't remember getting up at the crack of dawn to start scoping out what Santa brought us."

Arak's eyes crinkled in a smile. "Yeah, I think I might remember something like that. Didn't think I'd manage to actually get you looking happy like that again, though. I must be good."

She gave him another shove. "Shut up." The effect was ruined by her smile coming back, however. "Merry Christmas, or whatever."

---

The only reason Daquiri was even at Jetsteam getting hot chocolate the following Friday afternoon was because her brothers, loving and thoughtful as they were, had pestered her for the last fifteen minutes of the drive back from their day trip to downtown Santa Barbara.

Okay, so technically the first five minutes had just been Fox, who'd been complaining that, despite the mild weather, it didn't feel like Christmas Time without hot chocolate. But then, because he was an incorrigible jackass, Arak had chimed in for the next ten—mostly just to be obnoxious and bother her. Because unspoken sibling obligations, or whatever.

Then, of course, because Arak insisted it was always the passenger's job, since obviously the driver did enough work already, she'd somehow been roped into going inside to order for all of them.

Brothers.

Daquiri hastily made her way into the moderately busy café, keen on making this as in-and-out of a trip as possible. If they could get home soon enough, they'd still have some time left together, just the three of them, before their dad got off work.

She then came to an abrupt stop upon catching immediate sight of a certain someone, sitting alone at one of the café tables. He hadn't looked up at her coming in through the door, and she had half a mind to walk straight back out of it.

It had been a couple days since Christmas. Those days had given her some time to really think over her family's Mystery Gift Offering, and just who the identity of the giving culprit might belong to.

...And it hadn't taken her long to realize that there really could have only been one other person that knew where to park a bagful of presents for the Laurens family. Presents that just so happened to include one bonafide gift card for an all-inclusive day off to a spa addressed especially to her.

Daquiri's half a mind really almost did take her back out the door, out to the car to convince Arak and Fox of some BS excuse that the café was out of hot chocolate. But the other half of it…

Well, it wanted to know if her suspicions were correct, and it very much wanted to know right now.

Christopher finally glanced up and caught sight of her before she reached his table, and he smiled a little bit.

"Hey—"

"Was it you?" Daquiri cut off his friendly greeting, coming to an abrupt stop in front of him.

The boy gave her a slightly bewildered look. "What—?"

"It was you, wasn't it?" she interrupted again, pressing her hands onto the table between them. "Wasn't it?"

Christopher blinked a few times in apparent stunned silence. "U-um…wh-what—?"

The steady glare didn't leave Daquiri's face. She leaned in a little closer.

"Christmas. Presents," she growled through her teeth.

"Oh… U-um, er…"

Daquiri straightened back up with a shake of her head at his response. "I knew it. Of course it was you." She scoffed. "It's not like anyone else knows where I live." She silently brewed over this to herself a few moments, her focus askew as her gaze fell away from Christopher. Then she snapped back to attention.

"I mean, who does that? That's just…creepy, and...and weird, and—for God's sake, I still barely know you! And I literally just told you—my family does not need any charity!" Daquiri let out a sharp breath before briefly rubbing her temples. "Just—please stay the hell away from my family and our personal business. Okay?"

She turned her back on him before he could give any kind of a proper answer, briskly making her way up towards the front counter. If this were some kind of soap opera-esque TV show, this would've been the moment where she was supposed to dramatically storm out of the café.

Instead, she coolly and casually waited in line to make her orders of hot chocolate, ignoring looks that other customers nearby were trying to be covert about sending her way. Her fingers were itching to clench themselves into a fist with just how wound up she'd gotten, but she forced herself to relax. She didn't need every drink in the café exploding on her today.

She maintained her composure all through ordering and back out to the car with the drinks, and neither of her brothers were the wiser about her unseemly outburst. The entire rest of the way home, however, the only thing running down Daquiri's throat was the incessant, sinking feeling of her own nagging misgivings.

---

The cave of the Moonpool was dappled in the soft light of dusk, the sunset's colors mixing into the glowing lapis of the water and refracting off the shimmering columns and dripstone scattered throughout the cavern like a strange crystallized forest. The only element that could have managed to add more magic to the scene was the single mermaid floating amidst the tranquility of it all.

Daquiri had been lost in thought there for nearly an hour, but she lifted her head at a sound from behind her that wasn't the muffled rumbling of the waterfall from the other side of the cavern wall. Suzi's head parted the water, her long inky hair slicked back from her face. Daquiri watched the depths for another head to appear, but, to her surprise, Gypsy didn't seem to be with the other mermaid.

"Hey," Suzi greeted, gliding over to join Daquiri by the pool's edge.

Daquiri returned to her original posture, resting her chin on her arms. "Hey." She had come here to be alone away from her house, so socializing hadn't exactly been at the top of her agenda for the night.

This did nothing to deter Suzi, of course.

"It's been a minute since I've seen you out here," the Latina commented. "Or much of anywhere in the water, for that matter."

Daquiri chose not to meet Suzi's gaze. "I guess."

"When was the last time you came swimming with me and Gyp, like—when the bet started?" Daquiri wouldn't have responded, but the girl continued on anyway. "Mm, actually, no; it was before that. Like a couple weeks ago."

The redhead gave a sudden sharp intake of breath, tired of Suzi's speculating. "Yeah, it's been a while. Just been busy with the holidays and everything."

Of course, the truth was, Daquiri had been purposefully avoiding going out on swims with the girls, dodging or getting out of every and all of Gyp's attempted invitations to fit in some mermaid diving with them.

Even though the tenderness of her bruised back had become more bearable as the first week passed on, the unmistakable dark stripes left behind from her dad's belt hadn't been so easily concealed. Even now faint, yellowed discolorations could still be made out across the skin if anyone were to really look closely, but Daquiri was making sure the majority of her thick wet hair stayed plastered behind her, just in case.

Suzi rolled her eyes in apparent agreement with her fib. "Tell me about it. Christmas in my family is always in-sane. Sometimes I think it might almost be worth the effort to just skip." After a pause, however, a smile slowly spread across the girl's face. "Then again, I'd suffer through fifty consecutive Vargas get-togethers if it meant I got another chance to sling crap at Indy with no repercussions."

Daquiri finally glanced over to the girl at her last remark. She raised an eyebrow. "No repercussions?"

That made Suzi's face sour again, of course.

"To speak semantically, mudslinging Indy was not why I was screwed into asking Clayne out—trusting the stupid bastard was what got me into that boat." The Latina's face screwed up even tighter. "I'm still going to murder him."

Daquiri's eyes fell back to the smooth stone in front of her. She slowly traced out a dark pattern on the rocks with the wet tip of her finger. "I...can't say I'd be entirely opposed to that," she finally said, her voice on the quieter side.

Suzi side-eyed her at that comment, however. "What'd he do to you?"

Daquiri was silent a moment. "I dunno," she murmured. "Nothing, really, I guess." After all, he hadn't really done anything to her…

The other mermaid shrugged a bit. "I mean, I will accept that he is just an annoying little shithead, and just for that deserves to get knocked down a peg or two every now and then or Tuesday. If he wasn't so hopeless in nearly every other category of having a normal human personality, like social interaction, I pro—"

"I think Christopher likes me," Daquiri abruptly blurted out.

The only thing that could have possibly been worse than Suzi's reaction of busting into laughter was that the sound ricocheted off the walls of the cavern, making it nearly ten times louder—and more aggravating—than it already was.

Daquiri frowned at the other mermaid. "I'm serious."

Suzi apparently didn't see this as a reason to cease her laughter. "I know, it—" Her head was in her arms now, cracking up over the pool's ledge. "That's why it's so funny." The girl was laughing so hard, the redhead was pretty sure there were actual tears starting to form in her eyes.

It didn't become any less irritating with time, and Daquiri almost nuked the water directly around Suzi with some mermaid magic, but she waited out the Latina's guffawing until the girl could actually form coherent sentences again. Albeit with maybe an eye roll or two.

"Whew, that is the funniest thing I've heard in weeks." Suzi dabbed at the corners of her eyes before finally focusing on Daquiri again. "We are talking about Indy, right? As in Christopher Braddock? As in the giant, clumsy, antisocial bear who can barely have a normal conversation with anything that moves? You think that that boy has a crush?"

Daquiri scowled. "It's not an idea I would just make up—or perpetuate, for that matter."

Suzi propped her chin up on a fist with mock attentiveness. "And just what has your alleged admirer done to warrant such a speculation, hm? Accidentally said 'hello' one too many times?"

Daquiri flashed a depreciative look at the other mermaid for her implication, but decidedly ignored that part. "He bought Christmas presents for my entire family. Just left them on our front porch. And I don't mean just a few—I mean hundreds of dollars' worth."

Suzi raised a dark eyebrow at her. "How do you know they were from him?"

"I asked him."

Suzi immediately snorted. "Somehow I don't quite believe that you, of all people, merely asked about it."

Daquiri rolled her eyes, but she also looked off to the side for a few beats. "I mean, I may have been a little…tense when I asked him about it…"

"You yelled at him," Suzi guessed, though her tone was so flat it was pretty clear she didn't have many real doubts about it.

"Well what else was I supposed to do?!" Daquiri snapped. "Only an insane person does something like that! An insane, stalker person!"

The other girl looked at her with what seemed like mild amusement. "First he likes you, and now he's an insane criminal?"

"Ugh, Suzi," Daquiri groaned, burying her face into her arms. "I can't deal with him being like this—I can barely deal with him just being there, and I have to be around him like, all the time. Would you just tell me how to make him stop?" She paused. "...please," she mumbled into her arms.

Suzi snorted. "As once-in-a-blue-moon of a request as that probably was, I wouldn't read into all of this too much. That's just Indy being Indy."

Daquiri peeked out from her arms with a dubious look at the girl. "He regularly drains his bank account for random girls he barely even knows?"

The other mermaid rolled her eyes. "Indy practically makes a motif out of not having many friends. When you are lucky enough for him to consider you worthy of friendship, you essentially get upgraded to VIP status by default, particularly when it really counts." The exasperated side-eye that followed this remark, however, gave Daquiri the impression that Suzi wasn't exactly supportive of her friend's extravagant spendings.

And, as it turned out, had more than just observations to back up the sentiment.

"This one time a little over a year ago," Suzi started up, turning so she could lean back on her elbows against the pool ledge, "I broke my board trying to surf a huge wave out on a rough part of the reef. I got a kind of serious head injury to boot, but I was mainly upset about my board—it was my favorite, my lucky board for comps, and sort of a one-of-a-kind type. My parents didn't know where they could find me another one like it. They got me another board, of course, but what does Indy do? He drives all over the state of California looking for how to get another one, and ends up spending half a fortune just to get it back for me."

Suzi broke off from her story to roll her eyes for the second time, but this time it was followed by a scrap of a smile. "Actually, that was the first time I really knew he considered me a legitimate friend, and not just someone he had to tolerate because Gypsy liked me."

The Latina's gaze dropped down into the pool depths below. Daquiri, having straightened back up by then, glanced over her shoulder and down at the water as well. Both of their tails shimmered back at them, the emerald scales glistening almost surreally despite the dim evening light. She glanced back to Suzi when she continued again.

"It sucks I'll never be able to use that board again, anyway." Suzi made a half-smirk that didn't quite reach her eyes as she looked across to the other side of the Moonpool. "Guess Indy ended up wasting his money after all."

Daquiri shifted herself in the water a bit, feeling slightly awkward at the sentimentality suddenly lingering in the air. "That's…a really touching story and all," she said slowly, at least trying to be marginally aware of staying tactful, "but Christopher and I still barely know each other." Her expression turned slightly disgruntled, and she glanced off to the side. "I've never even been very nice to him. You'd think he'd just take a hint."

Suzi snorted. "If there's one thing you'll learn to become very familiar with about Christopher, it's that he doesn't know how to take hints. They go right over his thick, supposedly-brilliant head." Giving Daquiri one of her genuine smirk-smiles, Suzi nudged her a bit with her shoulder. "You have to admit you can't really blame him, though. Because okay, sure, you're mean to him like all the time—but you did still kiss him."

"Ughnnh." Her groan returning, Daquiri covered her face with her hands this time. "Please don't remind me. I still can't decide if it's lucky or horrifying that I can't remember that."

Suzi's smirk almost reached a grin. "I'm sure Indy remembers enough for the both of you."

Daquiri scowled at the girl. "Weren't you supposed to be convincing me that he doesn't have a crush on me?"

Suzi let out a pffft sound and waved her hand dismissively. "I joke because even the thought of Indy like-liking someone sounds like a hilarious disaster waiting to happen." Shaking her head, the Latina hoisted herself up onto the ledge of the Moonpool and started ringing out her hair. "Believe me, Ri, Christopher barely even has the social graces to be regular friends with people. If he ever chooses to find that special someone, it'll be much further down the road, and after he's figured out how to talk to people. If he ever does."

Daquiri despondently pulled apart wet strands of her hair, half-heartedly focused on trying to detangle it. "I hope you're right."

"I can assure you for a fact that Indy doing random, extravagant, and likely ridiculous things for other people is not at all unusual or new. Unfortunately, there is also no way to stop it. It's in his programming." Leaning back on her hands, her tail splayed out before her on the cave floor, Suzi raised her black brows at Daquiri. "Now, are you gonna get out and give a soggy mermaid a hand, or am I going to have to wait here while you finish moping over your would-be unrequited love?"

With a sigh, Daquiri lifted a hand to start steaming off the other mermaid.

From the way it was looking—and whether she wanted it or not—she was just going to have to accept her very, arguably too Merry Christmas.

---

A/N: Spoiler: I wasn't kidding. No one wins the bet. Trollololololololololo—*runs away from Sue*

Let me know what y'all think, I love, love LOVE reading comments from you guys (and I wish there was an easier way to reply to them), it always brings me much joy and amusement. And if you really like it, I'd love if you gave the story (and maybe me) a follow. :'3 'Til next time, guys.

- Ceru