Author's Notes: Hey, everyone! Welcome to the second chapter of Christmas Sweets! Here we see Tyki, Road, Wisely, Jasdero and Devitt traveling to pick up some candy. Now, why are they doing this right before a blizzard? Because Road. Just Road.

A quick heads up; there is going to be some poking fun at Texas, since I decided to have the twins come from that state. There is also making fun of American stereotypes. Hey, if I can't make fun of my own country, who can I?

Chapter Two: Broas de Natal

- xXx -

"Are we there, yet?"

Tyki Mikk fought not to groan at the one question dreaded by parents during long drives. But the query had not been uttered by his nonexistent child, seeing as the Portuguese man was currently and happily single. Instead, it came from the impatient teenaged girl sitting in the backseat of the rental car – also known as his niece, Road Kamelot.

"Relax, Road," Tyki replied over the Christmas music floating about the rental car, courtesy of Road's phone being connected to the speakers via Bluetooth. "We only just entered Leeds two minutes ago." The adult then muttered in his native language, "Esta loja de doces não está ficando em ningúem lugar. (This candy store isn't going anywhere)."

The young girl pouted as she folded her arms, crinkling a sheet of paper grasped in her left hand against her coat sleeve. "But it feels as though we've been driving forever," she complained in an exaggerating manner as she glanced at the paper. "If we don't get there soon, we won't be able to get the sweets!"

Wisely, Road's older brother, turned around from his spot in the passenger seat to send her a wry look. "How surprising: heavy snow and an approaching blizzard is making our madcap trip to a sweet shop take much longer than it would have during sane driving weather."

Road had just finished rolling her eyes at his dry observation when their American cousins decided to cut into the conversation.

"If you guys had let Jasdero drive in the first place," Devitt arrogantly stated, leaning back into the seat behind Wisely's as he focused on the Nintendo Switch in his hands, "we would have reached that place at least ten minutes ago."

Playing the same game as his twin brother, Jasdero giggled and added, "Yeah! Tyki's driving way too slow."

Tyki held in a snort of dry amusement at that. 'Trust the Jasdevi twins to think a blizzard is no reason for some caution.'

"And just what do you two expect him to do? Slam his foot down on the gas pedal and send us flying down the road at breakneck speed?" Wisely sardonically asked, returning his gaze to the printout from Google Maps in his lap. As the most level-headed (or the least fussy) teenager present, he was serving as the trip's navigator since the car's GPS was experiencing unknown technical difficulties.

Devitt shrugged and lifted his right foot to rest it beside Wisely's head rest, much to the other's annoyance. "It's better than going at a snail's pace," he smirked, nudging the head rest while Jasdero snickered at the sight. "Back in Texas, we can outrun anything nature can throw at us once we go full throttle. With the roads here, it's basically a cakewalk."

Normally Wisely could tolerate the twin's antics. But after an hour-long drive through heavy snow and unable to nap because he needed to give Tyki directions, the white-haired teenager was in no mood to do so. "Yes, because drag racing Americans with a mountain of speeding tickets are who need to be emulated right now."

Greatly offended by that statement, Jasdero and Devitt put aside their Switches and aggressively lurched forward. Despite the rental's enclosed space, the twins still managed to get close to their cousin's seat. "You're gonna get an ass-full of lead if you keep yapping like that!" Devitt threatened with a scowl as he poked Wisely's head with two fingers held together – a variation of the finger guns.

"Yeah, an ass-full of lead!" Jasdero repeated, making the same hand gesture.

"Oh, I'm quaking in my shoes," Wisely sarcastically scoffed, not at all intimidated by them. It might have been a different story, had the twins possessed their own handguns. But since guns were not allowed on international flights (for extremely obvious reasons), the two Americans were left without their constant companions. A fact that made Wisely bolder… and the twins more irritable.

Realizing that this situation was liable to get out of hand, Tyki pulled up to a street corner and parked the car along the curb. He rested an elbow on the steering wheel and turned around to order, "Hey, settle down you three. This isn't the time or place to be arguing."

The Jasdevi twins growled out, "Fuck off, Tyki!" Neither of them even glanced in the adult's direction, instead keeping their eyes on their smart mouthed cousin.

Wisely declined to comment, but the fact that he silently refused to break away from the stare down proved his own disclination to obeying his uncle.

Tyki let out a weary sigh as he turned to face the front once again. 'Maybe I should have just stayed at the Earl's vacation home instead of agreeing to drive Road and the others to pick up candy before a blizzard hits,' he thought with some frustration, his free hand shielding his expression from view.

'Then again… the other choice would also mean dodging Sheril's attempts to matchmake me with any of those women who just 'happened' to break down nearby…'

'…never mind, I'll take my chances with the blizzard.'

With that put into perspective, Tyki removed his hand and caught a glimpse at Road in the driver mirror. Unlike her uncle, the girl was watching the sniping between Wisely and the Jasdevi twins with an entertained expression on her face. That was not unusual, as she always cheered and egged on the latter whenever they started a food fight during a family dinner. Besides the Earl, Road was the one person who could get Jasdero and Devitt to do any-

'Wait,' Tyki realized with a blink, 'if I can't stop the twins, perhaps…'

The Portuguese man glanced out of the corner of his eye, checking to see if the teenaged boys were still fighting. Seeing that they were, he whispered out, "Hey, Road!"

The teenaged girl shifted her gaze from the bickering to her uncle and raised an eyebrow in question.

Looking at his niece through the driver mirror, Tyki silently gestured towards the teenaged boys with his head. 'Do something about them,' he tried to convey to her.

But Road's golden eyes – a quite common trait in their family – simply flashed with mischief. 'Why?'

Tyki sent a sardonic look back at her. 'Really?'

Road shrugged her shoulders in a manner that practically screamed, 'I'm bored and they're the only real source of entertainment here. Why should I stop it?'

Eyes narrowing, the Portuguese man sharply nodded to the rear window to indicate that she should really look outside.

Still amused, the teenaged girl nevertheless humored him by turning around in her seat and peering through the glass. And felt her mirth disappear as she witnessed the wind harshly scattering snowflakes upon every square inch of space available.

When Road turned back, Tyki dryly raised an eyebrow that rhetorically asked, 'Do you understand now?'

Road let out a soft, irate huff but refrained from doing anything which communicated disagreement. Instead, she reached out, grabbed the backs of Jasdero and Devitt's coats, and quickly pulled them back into their seats.

"Oof!" the twins grunted out as they bounced a bit from the momentum. Before they could move even a finger out of place, Road elbowed them in their sides and said, "Knock it off!"

She also harshly kicked the back of Wisely's seat – because he was just as much to blame as the twins – and thus sent him lurching forward with a wordless shout.

"Hey!" Jasdero whined as he rubbed his side. "That hurt, Road!"

"What's your problem?" Devitt asked with a wince.

Road fixed her gaze on the Jasdevi twins and replied, "My problem is that your fighting is threatening our mission! We need to pick up the sweets as fast as possible, then wait out the blizzard at the closest hotel." Her golden eyes narrowed as she added, "Neither can be accomplished if Tyki isn't able to drive. And he can't drive with you guys distracting him!"

Jasdero looked rather sheepish, but Devitt grumbled under his breath, "Wisely started it…"

"Too bad! I'm finishing it!"

Road shifted her gaze between Jasdero, Devitt and Wisely – who intelligently stayed silent – before addressing them all with a no-nonsense tone, "Now, I want all three of you to get along… at least, until we get the sweets and go to the hotel. Do you understand?"

"Yes…" the three teenaged boys unwillingly mumbled.

"I said, do you understand?"

The teenaged boys sighed and repeated in a louder voice, "Yes."

Road's face dropped a surprisingly threatening scowl for a happy grin. "Good!" she chirped out, then sent her uncle an expectant look. "Start driving again, Tyki. The sweets await us!"

The older man chuckled before drawling out, "Yes, Road." As he put the car back into gear, he threw his nephew a questioning look. "Just how far are we from the loja, Wisely?"

The light-haired teenager peered through the snowy abyss, trying to find even a glimpse of a street sign, and then consulted the pieces of paper within his grasp. "If the directions and map are accurate, it's only a few blocks away from our current location," he concluded.

"What, really?" Tyki questioned as he eyed the unending rows of attached houses passing them by. 'Our surroundings don't really suggest we're that close…'

Wisely accurately guessed what his uncle was thinking and replied, "Leeds allows certain food businesses to be run from the owner's residence."

Tyki let out a short hum as he thought on the explanation, then quickly accepted it and turned his full focus on driving.

The prospect of getting closer to their destination naturally increased Road's excitement and impatience, causing her to bounce in her seat. As she sat in between the Jasdevi twins, her movements also caused them to involuntarily sway in place.

"Ooh!" the teenaged girl giggled to herself with a sparkle in her eye. "Going to pick up homemade sweets from a confectionery; this is gonna be the best Christmas Eve ever!"

Tyki raised an amused eyebrow as he observed Road through the driver mirror. It was common knowledge that his niece greatly adored sweets. He could still remember how she jumped with joy when he arrived at the Earl's vacation home with some broas de Natal. This current display, however, was unusual even by her standards. "You seem to hold high hopes for this place, given that you've haven't yet tried their products," he commented as the car moved forward.

"Silly Tyki!" Road grinned as she held up her smart phone. "Just because I've never visited the shop doesn't mean I don't know what to expect. 'The Wandering Pierrot's Pocket Sweets' has been on my Instagram's homepage since September! In fact, everyone here has seen at least one picture of its sweets!"

All Y-chromosome bearing individuals in the car blinked in confusion. "We have?" they all said at once.

Road let out a sigh of light disappointment. "My weekly sweets vlog, remember? The one I send you all a link to on WhatsApp? The pictures were included in my 'Top Anticipated Sweets' segment. And I've even mentioned the shop by name a few times."

"Oh," was the primary reaction of her male family members. Their secondary reaction varied by individual.

"How the fuck do you expect us to remember all of that, Road? We're not Skinn," Devitt justified with a careless shrug, supported by his brother's nodding.

"All those photos do tend to be indistinguishable from one another after a while," Wisely mumbled as he kept watch for the shop.

When Road directed her gaze through the driver mirror to Tyki, he simply smirked and reasoned, "At least you'll get to eat them now."

Road dramatically flopped back into her seat and threw an arm over her eyes. "I'm surrounded by philistines!" she moaned out loud, much to the others' amusement.

Wisely's quiet chuckle at his sister's performance disappeared once his attention was caught by an approaching streetlamp. After the teenager was able to read the signs posted on it, he straightened up and said, "Tyki, turn this corner. The shop should be the last house on the opposite row."

Anything words that might have left Tyki's mouth would have been drowned out by Road's squeals of joy. So, the adult instead chuckled and followed Wisely's direction.

After just one more U-turn to reach the other side of the road, the rental car finally pulled up in front of the brick house. Just barely after the vehicle stopped in place, Road burst out with an iron-clad grip on Jasdero and Devitt's coats and a battle cry of, "Onward!"

"There she goes," Tyki sighed as he and Wisely watched Road vaulting over the low brick fence while ignoring both the iron gate and the shouts of her captives. The adult then caught sight of a white wooden sign – posted behind the section of fence not made redundant by a group of teenagers – and exited the car to walk up to it. Despite the reduced visibility from all the swirling snow, he was still able to clearly read the carved and painted letters: 'The Wandering Pierrot's Pocket Sweets – Handmade Chocolates, Sweets, Fudge and More'.

'Well, at least we're at the right place,' he thought with some amusement. But then the smirk on his face melted away as a question that should have occurred to him earlier finally showed its face. 'Wait, is the shop even still open-'

BANG BANG BANG!

Taken aback by that series of loud noises suddenly ringing through the air, Tyki turned to look at its source: Jasdero and Devitt assaulting the front door with their fists while Road watched them.

"Hey, open up!" bellowed Devitt, uncaring of how much he and his brother were being public nuisances. "You got paying customers freezing their asses off out here!"

"Yeah, we're freezing!" Jasdero oh so helpfully added.

Tyki watched this display with ever-growing trepidation for a few more seconds before turning back to the car. "A little help here, Wisely?" he asked the teenager still in the car.

Wisely – who had been observing everyone else through a half-open car window – responded by raising the window and locking the door.

'Claro, (Of course)' Tyki sarcastically thought as he facepalmed. With some reluctance he removed the appendage and turned back to the house. He was on his own regarding damage control.

The Portuguese man stepped over the low fence – thus making a mockery of it as much as Road, Jasdero and Devitt did – and trudged over to the group, prepared to smooth the feathers of the soon to arrive shop owner. If they were not going to be irritated by all the noise the twins were making, they certainly would hate how it was causing an unseen dog inside to bark its head off.

But right when Tyki reached the short snow-capped hedgerow right in front of the house, he noticed something odd. From afar, the hedgerow appeared to be a continuous green line partially wrapping around the front of the house and stopping only for the piece of fence which delineated the property from its conjoined neighbor. Up close, however, he could see that there were in fact two hedgerows which overlapped to form a hidden corridor.

A corridor which was bathed with a golden glow…

Curiosity now truly piqued, the Portuguese man strolled over to the opening and peaked around the corner. First, he noticed the descending set of stairs leading into a short but cozy subterranean nook. Then he realized that the light filling up the space came from three different sources: an overhead lamp, a small window set into a door, and a larger window set into the wall. Finally, after leaning further in, he observed that the larger window not only had a logo and the shop's name on it – it also displayed several jars with colorful pieces of what could only be candy.

"Hmm… isso é interessante, (that is interesting)" Tyki murmured to himself as he looked back at the twins still raining blows upon the front door. "A loja parece estar aberta, mas ningúem não está atendendo à porta principal. (The store appears to be open, but no one is answering the front door)"

But instead of pondering further, Tyki decided it would be better to enter the store and get Road's sweets that way. It certainly would not be as noisy as the twin's way.

And so, the Portuguese man started to descend. Due to the large amount of snow burdening the stairs and swallowing his feet with each step, progress went slower than he would have liked.

Just before he reached the final step, Tyki noticed sudden movement from the corner of his eye and instinctively turned his gaze to see what caused it. He was greeted with a better view of the store window and its content. Not only were there candy jars and other such displays, but also several pieces of Christmas decorations. Christmas lights trimming the inner edges of the window itself, garlands twisting and turning around the candy, and shiny ornament balls hanging from anything with a stable hook, edge or point were all present.

But what caught his attention in the first place was a waist-height Christmas tree. Not because of its decorations – though they were pleasing to look at – but because of the person tending to it.

Or rather, the person's ass; currently on display due to them bending over.

"Fixe, (Nice)" Tyki breathed to himself. The Portuguese man then let out an appreciative whistle as he paused to examine the sight. From what he could see of the person – who was facing away from him and partially hidden by the Christmas tree – they possessed a rather slim physique, but that did not preclude them from having a nice ass highlighted by their white pants. It certainly would be hard to resist squeezing those round globes of flesh during… activities…

'Are they single?' Tyki wondered as he started moving again, all while keeping his eyes on that beguiling view. 'I was planning to just relax in a hotel room while waiting out the blizzard… But that does not mean I can't have something to anticipate later this week…'

However, as Tyki resolved to charm his way into getting the mystery person's number, his foot descended upon the final step-

And ended up slipping.

"Porra! (Fuck)"

- xXx -

Cultural Notes

Philistine – An uncultured, boorish person who is uninterested in art at best. Derived from the Philistines, an ancient group of people from Canaan best known for fighting with the Israelites; one such conflict is the showdown between David and Goliath!

Broas de Natal – Traditional Portuguese sweet bread biscuits for Christmas. Generally made with sweet potato, ground almonds, eggs, sugar and orange peel.