First and Foremost, this chapter corresponds directly with a new story, Don't Spend The Rest of Your Life Wondering What If. Go read that first, probably? :D

Secondly, go read Heroes of Flowers because TheSparklyKitten is trying to get just 31 more reviews by chapter twenty, which really isn't a lot if like two more people went and reviewed every single chapter from this point. It's so good and it's definitely worth the investment. Updates every Saturday, which is more consistency than you'll ever get from me. Also, better character descriptions than you'll ever get from me, haha.


"How do I look?" GoGo asked, turning around and looking at herself in the mirror. She could count the times she'd worn a dress in the past twenty years on two hands. But she'd promised Honey Lemon that they'd match this year, so she was wearing a silver one and Honey Lemon had the same in gold. She'd asked Reese if she wanted to wear a dress as well and had been lucky enough to get her daughter to wear pants instead of basketball shorts. Luca was dressed as always, t-shirt, brown bomber jacket, and a scarf. His favorite scarf was purple and he wore it today. He'd loaned his second favorite scarf, an emerald green one, to Scout, since it complimented his blond hair and hazel eyes. Scout was going to meet them at The Lucky Cat and the twins were in the living room, waiting for GoGo to get ready.

"Perfect. Better question, how do you feel?" Wasabi wore a cheesy homemade Christmas sweater that proudly showcased knitted gingerbread men. He also sported a worried frown, all the more overprotective of GoGo now that she was pregnant. Everyone had been a little off since they'd found out. Plus, Wasabi was still reeling from all these last minute things. Trying to get the house, planning for a new baby, and dealing with Khary.

"I'm fine, are you?" Today was the party, tomorrow a small private Christmas with the kids, and the day after that they'd go to the Christmas play Khary was in and then celebrate with Khary, Damon, and the others. That was majorly stress inducing for Wasabi.

"Yeah, no, I'm only announcing a recently discovered pregnancy to all of our friends then buying a house for the first time and dealing with my prodigal brother and have I ever mentioned that Christmas is stressful?"

"Once or twice, dear." She kissed his cheek.

"Let's head out," he sighed, "We don't want to be late." Wasabi herded his kids into the car and they started the relatively short drive to the cafe.

"Hey mom, how are you feeling?" GoGo repressed a sigh. She'd been getting this from her son as well as from her husband. They were relentless with their interrogations.

"I'm fine, Luca. You don't have to worry about me, I promise. Thank you for caring, kiddo, but everything is going to be okay." Luca nodded and tried to believe it, but things were never 100% okay. If they could be, well, that was all he wanted for Christmas.

"Uncle Khary isn't going to be at the party, right?" Reese asked.

"No, but we'll see him the day after tomorrow." Wasabi took his eyes off the road long enough to glance back at his daughter, unable to read her face.

Reese stared at her lap and nodded, "Okay. Cool." The fight between her dad and Khary had left her with a billion questions. Was Uncle Khary still part of the family? Was her dad going to forgive him? What exactly about their mom was it that made dad so angry and sad? And most of all, had Uncle Khary deserved it? He'd been mean lately, and Uncle Khary was never mean. He'd snapped at Luca once or twice but he'd only yelled at her once. Reese didn't tend to give people the chance to get upset with her more than once. One strike, and she was out. After that she'd build up her defenses until she was impenetrable.

"Yeah," Wasabi sighed in agreement. Neither of them knew what cool meant in this context.

"Remember," GoGo reminded her kids before they got out of the car, "we're telling everyone about the baby tonight, so don't mention it until we do. Alright?"

"Okay," Luca agreed, more excited about meeting Uncle Hiro's new daughter than spilling the secret. He wouldn't have minded if it was another secret he'd held on to, he had so many after all.

"Got it, no telling." Reese would just stick close to Luca, and if Luca wasn't going to share the secret then she wouldn't either. Maybe she'd branch off to talk to Uncle Fred, but likely she'd stay by her brother's side like she did at any social gathering. She'd been thinking a lot about fear and asking for help. She hadn't asked for much for Christmas, it seemed like the only thing she really wanted was to make sense of everything that had been going on.

They headed inside after the quick peptalk and GoGo was immediately ambushed by her old roommate.

"Oh my gosh GoGo you look so cute!" Honey Lemon squealed.

Luca held up his camera, "Let me get a picture of you two twinning." GoGo inwardly rolled her eyes, but she was never going to douse his photography passion, so she smiled for the camera.

"Thanks Luca, send that one to me, okay?" Honey Lemon asked, and the teen gave her a thumbs up before going off to join Scout and Reese and meet baby Kaida. He also snapped a few pictures of everyone, before setting his camera down so he could carefully hold the newborn, thrilled at imagining having his own baby brother or sister to hold next year, if everything stayed 100% okay. Still, he kept quiet about the secret, even when Karmi praised him for being so good with babies. When his turn holding the sleepy little girl ended, no one had any idea of any of the Tomago family secrets.

Wasabi took a little while to get into the party spirit. While GoGo talked and joked with Fred and Honey Lemon, who seemed like they'd come to the party together, he hung back for a bit. Aunt Cass must have noticed because she came over after a few minutes.

"Everything okay, Wesley? You seem down."

"I guess I am, a little bit. Khary and I haven't been on the same wavelength lately and there's just been a lot of stress because of that. I'm really worried about him."

"Tadashi used to be really worried about Hiro, what with his bot fighting and everything. It's natural to be worried about your little brother, it's natural to fight and argue. But that won't change how much you love each other. Give it some time, Wesley, and everything will be okay again."

"Thanks, Cass…"

"Now come join the party. Everyone's glad you're here." Wasabi went to talk to Hiro about the joys of fatherhood (and maybe slip him a few coupons for instant coffee) and everyone seemed to be in pretty good spirits. After a half hour or so, GoGo caught her husband's attention and they prepared to make an announcement.

"Hey, everyone, Wasabi and I have an announcement to make," GoGo said, looking around the room at all the people she'd consider to be family.

"Really?" Honey Lemon asked, her eyes lighting up, "Fred and I have an announcement too!"

"You do?" Now GoGo was a little confused.

"Yes, but you spoke up first! What's going on?"

GoGo took a deep breath, a bit thrown by her friend's statement, "Well, we just found out that I'm pregnant! It's still very early, and you're the first to know outside of Reese and Luca." Suddenly GoGo was being drowned in hugs, Honey Lemon first, then Fred and Hiro and Aunt Cass, even Karmi.

"That's amazing news!" Honey Lemon gushed, "thank you for sharing with us! That's so exciting!"

"We're excited too, albeit a little stressed, now what was your news? You're not pregnant too, are you?" GoGo asked, looking between Honey Lemon and Fred. Honey Lemon tilted her head back and laughed, but Fred wasn't laughing. He whispered something in her ear.

"Oh yeah," Honey Lemon replied quietly, shrugging a bit.

"Can't say whether or not I'm pregnant," Honey Lemon said, "but that's not our announcement."

"I knew it!" Wasabi said, a bit louder than he meant to, "You two are dating!"

Honey Lemon and Fred shared a look, "Um, yes, though we thought we were more subtle, but that's not our announcement either."

"How can that not be your announcement? I want to know everything! I want to know why you kept it from us and how you started dating!" Now Hiro was in on the interrogation.

"That is our announcement. Freddie and I started dating when we decided to write a book together! It's a graphic novel about superheroes. I did the art and Fred did the writing and it comes out next year!"

"That's really exciting guys, congratulations. That doesn't explain why you kept it a secret though," GoGo pointed out.

"We weren't sure at first, we didn't want it to seem like we were rushing into something. But after a few months we realized that we were acting on feelings we'd had since college, and so it stopped feeling like we'd just jumped into this, randomly. Once we figured that out, we just wanted to wait a little bit longer to be sure. We never meant to lie to you."

"I'm glad you guys figured it out, you're cute together," Hiro congratulated, "are there any other secrets you're keeping from us?"

Fred smirked, kissing his girlfriend in public for the very first time, "None that we're going to tell you."

"Why does everyone care so much?" Reese asked Luca quietly.

"I don't know. Being in a relationship makes some people happy. I think that we can just be happy for them." Luca, at thirteen, had never been in a relationship. Reese, at thirteen, had never wanted to be.

"Scout," Reese caught the eighth grader's attention, "what's your position on this whole relationship thing?" Scout was surprised that Reese was the one pulling him into the conversation. He had had a feeling that Reese didn't like him much, but things were changing.

"Lots of drama, I've had a couple. Honestly, what's the point of relationships?"

"He gets it," Reese nodded, and Scout suddenly felt accepted by his best friend's best friend. Everyone kept saying that he was part of the family now but Reese including him, even in something as small as a relationship rant, affirmed that.

Luca shrugged, "Who knows? Mom and dad seem happy." Luca glanced at his parents, who were in the corner talking quietly.

"This has gone well," GoGo said quietly.

"Yep." Wasabi still looked concerned.

"You're worried about the play aren't you?"

"I'm not worried about the play I'm worried about everything that comes after. But it'll be okay… Brothers fight. Everything will be okay."


I'm sorry that this Christmas chapter wasn't more Christmas-y. I imagine it's a big deal in the Tomago household exclusively because of time to spend with their found family. They aren't really a material family. I imagine that Reese and Luca don't ask for a lot because neither of them ever really want anything that they couldn't just ask their parents for or buy with their own money, y'know?

So I couldn't concoct this crazy wish list for them because they just don't care tbh.