A/N- So, this is just a little idea I was toying around with, so don't judge it too harshly. Also, sorry if Winter's a bit out of character, she's very hard to write, as I discovered while writing this. I own nothing, all rights belong to Marissa Meyers.
"So, what did you want to talk to us about?" Cinder asked impatiently. She was in the middle of running a country, after all, and she didn't really have time to have casual conversations with her friends.
"Well. . ." Cress began, trying to stop herself from blurting all of her thoughts out at once. "I was doing a little research into the second era. . ."
"Oh boy," Scarlet groaned. "Here we go again."
Cress blushed, and tried again.
"Anyway, I was doing a little research about the second era, about holidays, specifically, and I found this really interesting one that only Americans celebrate," Cress continued, wondering how her friends would feel about her idea.
"What holiday were you researching?" Kai asked curiously. He had always been fascinated with the way things worked in other countries.
"Does it matter?" Scarlet snapped impatiently. "It's a second era holiday, big deal. Why should we care?"
"Scarlet- friend, there is no need to be so harsh with Cress," Winter chastised gently. "She often has wonderful ideas."
"I know, it's just that it's winter over here, and I've got to start mulching the crops, so I really don't have much time," Scarlet explained.
"Why don't you just have Wolf do it?" Thorne suggested. "He's big and strong."
Wolf growled from off screen, and Thorne jokingly hid behind Cress.
"Can we please get back to the point?" Cinder commanded in her best stop-joking-it-isn't-funny-anymore voice.
"Right, sorry. Continue please, Cress," Kai said, and Cress cleared her throat.
"As I was saying earlier," Cress continued, wrapping her hair around her fingers nervously. "There's this second era American holiday. It's called Thanksgiving. Now, I was thinking. . ."
"Thanksgiving?" Kai interrupted excitedly. "I heard about that once. Didn't Americans create that as some sort of celebration of a treaty with the natives?"
"Sort of. Thanksgiving is a holiday where people would sit down with all their family and friends and eat a big feast in celebration of all of God's blessings," Cress explained patiently.
"A feast?" Wolf commented curiously, poking his head onto the screen.
"Glad to see we caught your attention." Iko rolled her synthetic eyes good- naturedly.
Cress put her head in her hands. Why had she thought a video chat with all her friends at the same time had been a good idea?
"Guys!" Thorne yelled, bringing their numerous side conversations to a screeching halt. "Please. Let's all focus here. Cress. You had something you wanted to say?"
"Thank you, Carswell," Cress said gratefully. "Now. We all have a lot to be thankful for, and I was thinking, what if we celebrated Thanksgiving this year?"
All she got were blank stares in return.
Kai was the first to break the silence. "Well, I think this is a great idea."
"You do?" Cress asked in surprise.
"Yeah, you do?" Cinder repeated. "Aren't you forgetting? We're running a country right now."
"I know, but think about it. We could leave Torin in charge for a few days. We could celebrate this holiday, and then come back in less than a week. All we need is a place to stay," Kai defended.
"Well, alright," Cinder agreed reluctantly. "I guess it wouldn't hurt if we were gone for a few days. I'm in."
"Well, if you guys are going, then I'm going," Iko added.
"Us too," Scarlet chimed in. "And we can host, if you'd like."
Wolf nodded in assent.
"Jacin and I will be sure to be there," Winter clapped her hands in delight, and Jacin, who hadn't said a single word throughout the entire video call, nodded his head.
"Alright," Cress said, happy that everyone had reached an agreement. "How about next Thursday?"
Everyone agreed, and Cress ended the call, a huge grin on her face.
Over the course of the next week, the group decided through a series of comms who would provide what. It was agreed that Wolf would catch a turkey for their main course, and Scarlet would do most of the cooking. Everyone else picked one dish to bring per couple, and they waited for their designated Thanksgiving to arrive.
Thursday
As Scarlet was basting the turkey, the Rampion landed outside, and someone knocked on the door. Wolf was outside feeding the chickens, so Scarlet had to try and open the round door handle with her butter coated hands.
She ended up only being able to thoroughly coat the door knob in butter, and Cinder, hearing her struggle, ended up just opening the door herself.
"Scarlet!" everyone exclaimed at once.
"It's so great to see you!" "You look great!" "How are you?" How's that turkey comin' along?"
Everyone spoke over each other, and Scarlet started to get a headache. Cress and Thorne had stopped to pick up all of the former Rampion crew members on their way over to the Benoit-Kesley home, so everybody arrived at the same time.
Once inside the house, the group split into two parts. Scarlet, Cress, Jacin, and Winter went into the kitchen to start dinner, while Cinder, Kai, Thorne, and Iko went out to try and find Wolf.
They found Wolf picking apples down by the creek, and decided to try and scare him. The four of them fanned out, circling Wolf, and tiptoed towards him. Wolf, of course, had smelled them coming from the moment the ship landed, but he decided to humour them.
Cinder was the first one to reach Wolf. She ran and tried to jump on him, but failed, as he dodged to the left. Kai tried next, although he refrained from trying to bodily harm Wolf. Instead, he ran out of the trees screaming and hollering, and Wolf wheeled around to face him. This allowed Thorne to jump onto his back, knocking him off balance. Iko tackled him from the side, and all three of them fell into the grass, laughing hysterically.
Wolf got off the ground first, and held out his giant hand to help Cinder up. She gladly accepted his hand, turning to help Thorne. He took her hand, and she started to pull him up, but changed her mind halfway. She let go of his hand, and laughed when he hit the ground.
Wolf chuckled, and offered his hand to Thorne while Cinder helped Iko. Thorne refused, not wanting to make a fool of himself again. Instead, he chose to just laugh it off and stand up by himself.
Meanwhile, back at the house, Scarlet was trying to give hur culinarily challenged friends something to do that wouldn't involve messing up her carefully planned dinner. Cress had sent her a menu earlier in the week, so she knew what kind of traditional Thanksgiving dishes she should make. She let Jacin make the mashed potatoes, while Cress worked on the green beans and Winter made the dinner rolls. Scarlet, for her part, refused to let anyone else touch the turkey, for fear that it would be ruined.
After putting the turkey in the oven, Scarlet set about making the stuffing herself as well, even though Cress had offered to help. After making the stuffing, she made her own gravy, and a sweet potato casserole all by herself.
A few hours later, Scarlet looked up to find that everybody else had left the kitchen, probably because she wouldn't let them help. She grinned, and started working on her cornbread casserole.
Back in the living room, the Rampion crew were reminiscing about their days fighting Lunars and hanging out together. Well, Thorne and Cress were reminiscing. Nobody else had too many fond memories of their time in space.
"Hey, remember that time that you plugged yourself into the ship?" Thorne asked Cress. "I thought you were dead, and I had to open up that panel on your head!"
"Yeah, and it was a huge invasion of my privacy!" Cinder snapped.
"Well, excuse me for saving your life!" Thorne snapped back good naturedly.
Scarlet heard them bickering from the kitchen, and took off her apron, walking into the living room to join them.
"I mostly just remember all the times you beat Wolf up!" Scarlet complained to Cinder.
"Yeah, well, it never seemed to bother him much!" Cinder shot back.
Before either girl could say anything else, however, Cress stepped in.
"Wait! I think I have an idea of something we can do," she interjected.
"What is it?" Kai asked. He was enjoying Thanksgiving almost as much as Cress.
"Well, in the second era, people had a tradition of saying what they were most thankful for before they ate dinner," Cress explained. "But I was thinking that we could do it now, since nobody will be able to wait to eat."
"That's a great idea!" Thorne agreed. "I'll go first. I'm grateful that Cinder didn't kill me when I opened up her head panel- thingy."
"Carswell!" Cress chastised. "This is serious!"
"Alright, alright," he conceded. "I'm glad that it was me who went into that satellite to find Cress. Even though we got stranded in the desert, and it kind of sucked, my life wouldn't be the same now if I hadn't been the one to find Cress."
"Aww, Thorne!" Iko exclaimed. "I didn't know you had a sentimental side!"
"Only for Cress," he said in his best manly voice. "Who's next?"
"I'll go," Cress volunteered. "I'm thankful that I got out of that satellite, and that I have my captain to show me the world."
"Alright, I'm next," Kai said. "I'm grateful that Nainsi broke."
"What? That's a weird thing to be grateful for," Iko interrupted.
"You didn't let me finish," Kai continued with a smile. "Because even though that adorable mechanic and her quirky droid I met that day got me into a load of trouble, I wouldn't trade my memories with my future queen for anything."
He and Cinder just smiled at each other for a minute, neither of them saying a word. No one volunteered to go next, as they weren't sure they could follow Kai's beautiful declaration.
Eventually, Cinder spoke up. "Alright then. Well, I guess I'm thankful for. . . I can't believe I'm about to say this. . . Levana."
"What!?" Iko exclaimed, leaping out of her chair. "Levana? B-but, she's a monster."
"I know," Cinder said slowly. "But if she hadn't lit my nursery on fire, I would have grown up in a stuffy Lunar court, and none of us would be here right now. Wolf, Scarlet. You two wouldn't be together. Nor would Cress and Thorne, or me and Kai. Iko, you probably wouldn't even be alive. Winter and Jacin might be the only ones who would be together right now if it wasn't for Levana. All the friendships we've made, and the adventures we've been on, they were all, in some twisted, horrible way, Levana's doing. So yeah, I think we should be grateful that she made the choices she did. Because even though the things she did were horrible, at least we're together."
After a few more moments of silence, Wolf decided to speak.
"I think Cinder's right," he agreed. "However, I have something of my own to be grateful for. I'm grateful for my beautiful, feisty alpha female, who never backs down for anything. I love you, Scarlet. You have truly completed me. You made me a better man."
"Aww, thanks Z," she cooed, cuddling closer to him. "Alright, so mine is something none of you know. Not even you, Ze'ev."
Wolf looked at her curiously, but said nothing.
"I'm grateful that Wolf and I finally get to start our pack," Scarlet finished with a grin.
It took a moment for Scarlet's words to sink in, but once they did, the room exploded with various cheers and words of congratulations. Wolf just smiled and kissed Scarlet's cheek gently.
"You knew, didn't you?" Scarlet whispered, and Wolf nodded.
"I heard the heartbeat," he admitted.
Eventually, the room settled down. Winter voiced her gratitude next.
"I'm thankful for my handsome guard, who always protects his princess," she chirped, looking at him flirtatiously.
"Well, I'm just grateful that I was lucky enough to win the heart of the princess," he said, looking around the room uncomfortably. Jacin rarely showed emotion, or said anything even remotely sentimental.
"Well, I guess that just leaves me!" Iko exclaimed cheerfully. "Let me think. . . I'm grateful for my family."
"Huh?" Cinder asked. "Iko, you're an android. You can't be related to anyone."
"Who says I have to have blood to have family?" Iko shot back. "I'm talking about you guys. Cinder. Kai. Thorne. Cress. Wolf. Scarlet. Winter. Even you, Jacin. You guys are the only family I'll ever need."
"Aww, we love you too!" Scarlet said, a tear running down her face. "Sorry. I'm a touch hormonal."
"Just a touch?" Thorne replied jokingly. Scarlet shot him a look, and he hid his face behind Cress.
The group talked for the next hour while Scarlet finished dinner, although Wolf insisted on helping her. After a bit, they heard a magical sound from the kitchen; Scarlet yelling for them to come eat dinner.
"Boy am I glad we did that whole 'What are you grateful for' thing before dinner," Thorne laughed. "I don't know if I could have survived having to look at this and not being able to eat it."
"Everything smells delicious, Scarlet," Cress told her politely.
"Everything is delicious," she replied sassily. "What are you waiting for? Dig in!"
Nobody hesitated to comply. Over the course of the next half hour, Scarlet's entire feast was devoured, with only the occasional comment of, "Oh, this is delicious!" or simply, "Mmm!"
After dinner, the men washed the dishes, while the women caught up in the living room.
"So, I've got some amazing news!" Winter began, her eyes twinkling. "I found an engagement ring in Jacin's jacket pocket!"
"He's going to propose!" Iko exclaimed, then covered her mouth. "Oops."
Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Jacin was rubbing his hands together nervously.
"Hey, what's the matter man?" Thorne asked, slugging Jacin's shoulder. "You went to the doctor and they said your posture wasn't completely straight? Cause I got news for you buddy. Your spine couldn't get any straighter if you stuck a metal pole up your shirt."
"No, it's not that. I'm going to propose to Winter," Jacin admitted.
"That's great, Jacin!" Kai clapped him on the shoulder. "You know, you should do it here. Wolf probably knows the most romantic spots on the farm."
"As a matter of fact, I do happen to know the perfect place," Wolf agreed, his huge grin making his dog- like features look a bit eerie.
Ten minutes later, Jacin was walking Winter up the hill to the old apple tree Wolf had told him about. As she was circling the tree, looking for the perfect apple, Jacin pulled out his ring and got down on one knee.
"Jacin!" she exclaimed when she saw him, deciding to have a bit of fun. "Whatever are you doing? Get up off the ground and help me!"
She was unable to hide her cheeky grin as he stared at her in disbelief. As he realized what was going on, he relaxed a bit and tried to find the words he had rehearsed so well.
"Winter," he began, still fumbling for the speech he'd written and memorized. "I. . . umm. . ."
He trailed off, lost in her eyes, and she had to tap him on the shoulder to get him to continue.
"Right! Sorry. Winter, from the moment I met you, I loved you," he continued. "I have loved you since we were nine years old, fighting imaginary pirates. Winter Hayle- Blackburn, I have always known that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you, but I could never find the courage to ask you. But we're older now, and I'm ready if you are. Winter, will you marry me?"
Winter, who had been waiting patiently throughout his stuttered speech, threw her arms around Jacin and kissed him fiercely. As she was kissing him, she pulled the ring out of his hands and slipped it onto her finger.
Waving her left hand in front of his face, she asked, "Does this answer your question?"
Back at the house, the whole group, who had been watching the entire thing, cheered and clapped.
Scarlet slipped over to Cress and put her arm around the smaller girl's shoulders.
"Hey," she whispered. "Thank you for this. I think we all needed it. We should do it again next year."
Smiling, Cress leaned her head against Scarlet, already thinking about what the group could do for Christmas.
A/N- Hey guys, hope you enjoyed! This is my first Lunar Chronicles fic, and I've got to say, it was more difficult than I thought it would be. Still, I really enjoyed writing it, and I hope you enjoyed reading it. Have a blessed day, loves!