I let loose a moan and rolled over in bed as I heard thunderous knocking on my door. "Yeah?" I called back.

I didn't see who it was, but they had really, really heavy footsteps, making my headache even worse. They sat on the end of the bed and rubbed my arm. "I really wish dad didn't do that!" Velvet shouted.

"C-can you please not yell?" I begged.

"Joe, I'm barely whispering." She said in a quieter tone.

"Still too loud." I grumbled.

"Come on, have some breakfast. Mom's got something for hangovers." At the mention of a remedy for my current situation, I got up as quickly as I could, only to end up falling face down on the floor. Velvet giggled and helped me back up to my feet. She dragged my drunken ass over to the table where she placed me in a seat across from Fallow who groaned and held his head with both hands.

Sepia then placed a cup of clear liquid with leaves or something in front of both of us. "Don't talk, just drink. And it's hot, so don't burn yourselves either." She said in a comforting tone. I clasped the cup with both hands and sipped at the hot liquid, my nausea and headache slowly dissipating with each drink. By the time I had finished it, I felt like I was completely sober.

"You have to send me the recipe for whatever that was, Sepia. I promise you that I don't get drunk very often, but when I do, it's just awful." I said to the matriarch, who nodded back with a smile.

"It's a little something I picked up from my family. My brother would go out drinking with his buddies on a regular basis and my mom just got tired of helping him out, so she charged me with making the drink to help him. All it is a few herbs combined with boiling water."

I was about to thank her when Kay and Chris came out of their rooms dressed in their pajamas with massive grins as they handed their scrolls to me and Fallow.

"What?" I started.

"Just hit play." Chris said, still grinning. I gave him a suspicious look, but complied. I hit the play button and the scroll flashed to a video of me with my arm around Fallow's shoulders as we entered the Scarlatina household, both of us obviously hammered beyond all recognition. "So-so what yur sayin' is tha if I gave youuu a carrot, you wouldn' eat it?" I drunkenly asked him.

Fallow shook his head. "Nawwww, caruts are fuckin' amazing, are you kiddin me?" He slurred back.

I shook my head at drunk Joe's antics as the camera panned over to Kayla, who was also filming with her own scroll while Velvet tried to get me into my room and out of my jacket.

Drunk Joe slumped against the wall and looked directly at Velvet. "You know, you rumind me uv a gurl, I think her name's silk or fabric or somethin' like that. She's real nice! I think you should meet hur!" I said, pointing a finger at her.

Velvet chuckled and put both hands on my shoulders. "Joe, it is me. Okay? It's Velvet. I'm right here in front of you."

Drunk Joe squinted and tilted his head. "Oh, I guess it is. Hi Velv! How are youuuu?"

Velvet smirked and held back another laugh. "I'm fine, but you're obviously not, now come on, let's get you out of this coat and into bed." She tried to take my coat off and I pushed her away. At this, I got worried that I had accidentally hit Velvet, but what happened next soothed my suspicions.

"I already got a gurlfrien'! She's the bes' in the world!" Drunk Joe yelled as he ripped off his jacket and stumbled to the guest room. I put down the scroll and breathed a sigh of relief. Thank Oum almighty that even drunk Joe knows Velvet's the best. I thought.

"So… yeah. You and dad were pretty drunk last night when the cab dropped you off." Chris said as he put the device in his pocket.

"Really? 'Cause it looked like I was completely sober in the video." I replied sarcastically. "Sepia, I am so sorry if I caused you any trouble." I said apologetically, turning my gaze to Velvet's mom.

To my surprise, she shook her head and smiled. "It's no problem. That might've actually been the funniest thing I've ever seen." I nodded back and looked at Velvet, who was now sitting beside me, gaze to her feet. "How about you? Are you okay with the way I behaved last night?" I asked, both fearful and concerned.

She slowly looked up at me. "Honestly, I'm disappointed that my dad got you drunk, but as for you, I'm happy that not even when you're drunk would you cheat on me." She said with a beautiful smile.

I put an arm around her shoulders and pressed my forehead to hers. "Sober, drunk, dead, alive. Under no conditions or circumstances would I ever cheat on you. You're amazing, there's no two ways about it."

"Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss…" I heard Kayla whisper-chanting. I gave Velvet a quick peck on the lips, which elicited an "aww." From Velvet's sister and kept her smiling.

"Alright guys, who wants breakfast?" Sepia asked, popping a tray of tater tots in the oven.

After breakfast, which entailed an embarrassing detailed description of what happened when Fallow and myself had arrived home drunk last night, I took a walk with Chris to the back yard where he showed me all the important sites of his childhood with his sisters, including a tree that he had fallen out of when he was seven, resulting in a broken wrist.

"So you just climbed up there, without either Kay or Velvet offering you any money or anything? You just did it on a dare saying that you couldn't?" I said doubtfully.

Chris nodded, proud of himself. "Yup. But come on, I'm sure you did stupid shit when you were a kid. What's the dumbest thing you think you've ever done?"

I thought for a moment as we trudged through the snow. "Well, there was the time when my uncles rolled me down a hill in a garbage barrel." I replied.

"Wait, you mean that they stuffed you in a barrel and pushed you down a hill?" I nodded. "Pretty stupid, I'll give you that. Any injuries?"

"Besides some nausea and a few bumps on my head, no. Nothing really significant."

"Meh, that kind of takes the stupid out of it then. Nothing's ever really dumb unless you get hur…" Chris was interrupted when a snowball hit the back of his head at sixty miles an hour, sending him face first into the snow. I turned around to see Velvet making more snowballs while Kay was doubled over, clutching her stomach while she laughed.

I pulled Chris out of the snow and pointed to his sisters. "They have declared war! We must repent!" My voice taking on a militaristic tone.

The other rabbit faunus nodded and began packing snow tightly together into small orbs. While he covered me, I made an impromptu fort to provide shielding against the attacks, and the girls did the same.

"We will give you one chance to surrender!" I yelled, leaning up against the tightly packed piece of cover with Chris beside me.

"Death before surrender!" Came Kay's response.

I looked at Chris, who bore a mischievous grin. "No mercy." He said. I grinned back as he handed me several snowballs. I peaked over the barricade and whipped a snowball at the girl's own blockade. Just as I threw the projectile however, both Velvet and Kay immediately stood and threw one snowball each at me. One missed, but the other hit me square in the face. Chris then retaliated with two snowballs of his own and kneeled next to me.

I groaned in mock pain and grabbed the sleeve of his jacket. "I'm hit! Tell me doc, am I going to live?"

Chris grabbed the collar of my jacket and smirked. "You'll live soldier, it's just a flesh wound! Now get back in the fight!" I chuckled and continued to make additional snowballs before an evil idea sprang to mind.

"Hey, on my signal, keep them suppressed. Don't let them get a shot on me." I said. Velvet's brother nodded and began making more ammo. Once he thought he had enough, I gave the order to keep our enemy pinned down, activated my semblance and began rolling a massive amount of snow into a boulder. Once it got to be about three feet in radius, I heaved it over my head and with both hands, launched the massive snow-bomb at the girls' fortress, crushing it and burying them in the white powder.

Chris looked back at me with a wide smile as I shrank down to normal height. "An artillery strike. Smart." We looked over to see Velvet and Kay climbing out of the snow, defeated. Chris and myself began laughing, attracting the attention of the Scarlatina parents.

Fallow walked over to our barricade and clapped both of us on the back in congratulations with a smile. "Well done, boys! One less threat to be dealt with."

Sepia looked back and glared at her husband as she helped her daughters out of the snow. "Yeah, but they won because of Joe's semblance. In any other circumstances, the girls would've won." She claimed.

Fallow chuckled back and smirked. "Do I hear a rematch approaching?"

Wordlessly, the girls began reconstructing their fort and Fallow laughed again before returning his gaze to us. "Let's get to work, boys." Chris and me nodded back, myself manufacturing more ammunition while father and son built another barricade, stronger and larger with small holes so that we could observe our enemies from safety.

Once both sides of the now-divided Scarlatina house had built their respective defenses, Sepia called for basic rules to be set.

"No one uses their semblance and losers will not hold grudges!" She shouted over her barricade.

Chris raised an eyebrow and looked at me, a snowball in either hand. "Guess that means no more artillery strikes." I grabbed a ball of the hard-packed material and shook my head slowly.

Fallow lightly chuckled and replied to his wife with a simple 'agreed'.

After hearing Sepia yell 'Open fire', several snowballs thudded against the other side of our delicate reinforcement.

"How the hell are they throwing them so fast?" I asked in disbelief.

"Sepia used to play softball." Fallow answered as another barrage thudded against the snow. "And it sounds like she hasn't lost her touch."

"So, how are we supposed to aim at them if mom's completely bombarding us the entire time?" Chris asked.

I peeked through one of the pre-made holes and saw all three women of the Scarlatina family whipping snowballs at our barricade. "Well, it looks like all three of them are on offense and no one's conserving ammo so here's my plan: one of us draws their fire, the other slowly flanks around and the last one stays here, occasionally returning fire to keep them interested."

"I think one of you should run." Fallow declared.

Chris furrowed his brow. "Why not you?"

"Well, you're younger and can probably move faster than my old bones can."

"Oh, the one time he admits he's old." Chris said to me with a smirk. "And he uses it to get out of doing work, what a surprise."

I ignored the remark as I spoke. "I'll flank around, I think Chris should draw their fire and Fallow, you stay here. Sound good to everyone?"

"Actually Joe…" Chris began.

"Good, let's get moving." I said, pushing Velvet's brother out of cover towards the house where he just began to run while Fallow peeked up from cover and threw a snowball every few seconds. Once I was satisfied no one was watching, I sprinted over to a snow-covered bush where I could observe the firefight between the two sides. Chris once again successfully drew their fire and I made another run for cover, another bush that concealed my presence. After several minutes of Chris being pelted with snowballs and Fallow keeping the women interested in his position, I quietly snuck up behind my girlfriend and poured a handful of snow down her back before pelting her sister and mother with a snowball to the back of the head.

Velvet ran around screeching at the unexpected cold, Kay just glared at me while Sepia sighed in defeat and gave me a small smile. As the matriarch of the family raised her arms in surrender, Velvet tackled me into the snow and held my head to the cold ground as long as she thought I deserved before letting me up. I turned over in the snow, my face to the sky as Velvet stood over me with her hands on her hips.

"Admit it, you deserved that." She ordered.

I shrugged back. "Not quite to that extent, but it was close." She laughed and shivered, her mom taking notice.

"Alright, everyone get inside." She ordered. "I thought I was raising three kids, not three frozen Popsicles."

Velvet then offered a hand to help me out of the snow and I gladly took it, holding her close and sharing my body heat with hers.

After everyone had taken a hot shower and changed into their pajamas, Chris and Kay took it upon themselves to make cups of hot chocolate for each of us and draped a blanket around Velvet and me. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that Kay's sole objective during my stay was to get me to stay with Velvet the whole time as she took several pictures of us together.

"It's a good thing you're not camera shy." Chris stated. "Otherwise you'd never stay around Velvet or Kay."

I chuckled. "Yeah, but Velvet doesn't take many pictures." I interjected.

Chris looked confused at the statement. "Dude, her weapon is a camera." He then looked between Velvet and me several times before his gaze settled on his sister. "Wait, have you not taken a photo of his weapons yet?"

I looked over at Velvet, who was glaring at her brother. "Your weapon's a camera?" I echoed her brother. I just thought that she had always fought barehanded. It seemed to work for her pretty well during the breach in Vale.

"Yeah, I uh… I designed it myself." She replied quietly. "I take a photo of someone's weapons and then I can create a holographic image of it for my own use later."

"So, why didn't you take one of my gauntlets? I wear them all the time, so it's not like it'd be very hard to obtain." I stated.

"Yeah, I know. I guess I was just too focused on our relationship to bother getting a photo." She declared.

My eyebrows shot up, somewhat shocked that I was so high on Velvet's priority list. "Oh. Okay then, I-I guess that that's something we'll deal with when we get back to Beacon." I said with a smile.

She nodded back and laid her head on my shoulder as she shuffled closer. "But in the meantime, I suggest we just enjoy our time together."

I ended up spending the rest of the afternoon telling Velvet's family what my childhood was like, how my uncles were basically brothers, how they raised me when my parents were away and what my plans were after graduating Beacon.

"So, yeah. After I'm finished with school, I want to get an apartment of my own in Vale, keep doing missions for the kingdom, and just go from there." I summarized.

Kay nodded. "Nice. Have you thought about starting a family?"

"Well, that's more of a question for future Joe. Present Joe's more focused on…" I looked at Velvet whose head was still resting on my shoulder. "More important things." I finished with a smile. Upon hearing this, she took her head off my arm and pecked me on the cheek, causing her sister to 'aww' again.

"Alright guys, dinner is served!" Sepia declared from the kitchen. The family and myself rushed over to the dinner table, the surface covered with an assortment of mouth-watering foods ranging from roasted carrots and broccoli to a platter full of pork ribs smothered in barbeque sauce.

"You guys don't have turkey on Dustmas eve?" I asked the family.

Chris shook his head as he took his seat next to me. "Nah, it's been a tradition that the main course on Dustmas eve is a finger food and then Dustmas day we always have turkey for dinner." He explained, grabbing a large rack of ribs.

"Does your family have any traditions during the holidays?" Sepia asked, handing the roasted vegetables to her husband.

I shook my head. "Not really. My family and me really aren't that imaginative. On New Year's we just watch the fireworks and watch movies together."

"Still, it's better than doing nothing." Kay interjected.

I nodded in agreement and piled some of the meat onto my plate as well as the roasted vegetables. After a hearty meal and light-hearted conversation, Velvet, myself, Chris and Kay played a few games on the game console hooked up to the TV in the living room for a few hours before calling it a night and going to bed.

As I lay in the guest room of the Scarlatina house, my mind was still comprehending what was happening in my life and how far I had come. On my first day of Beacon, I'd lost my best friend from Signal as well as two dear friends I had met the day before. After that, was assigned to a team whose leader I shouted at simply because I was mad later, I met Velvet; a beautiful rabbit faunus too shy and reserved to stand up for herself whom I'd fallen in love with faster than a boulder falls from a mountain top.

And now, I was sleeping at her house in Vacuo, meeting her family, buying them Dustmas gifts and getting along with them.

I smiled to myself and clasped my hands together behind my head, slowly letting sleep envelope me in a blanket of warm darkness. Before I could slip into the realm of dreams however, I heard two light knocks on my door. Confused as to who would be asking for me at eleven at night, I got up and opened the door to see Velvet wearing my hoodie over her regular pyjamas.

"Hi." She greeted me quietly.

"Hey." I replied. "Nightmare?"

She shook her head. "No, just couldn't sleep."

I nodded and gestured for her to come in, closing the door behind her as she crawled into the guest bed. I moved in next to her and let her play the part of the big spoon as she put an arm around my mid-section and rested her head on my shoulder.

A comfortable silence formed before she spoke again. "Sorry if I woke you."

I chuckled. "I said it once, I'll say it again, Velvet. You don't ever have to be sorry about waking me up during the night. Being able to cuddle with you is a massive highlight of my life." As soon as the words left my mouth, I could practically feel the heat coming from Velvet's cheeks.

"I'm starting to think that you actually like making me blush."

"It's a perk."

She giggled and punched me on the shoulder. "Smartass. Merry Dustmas."

"Merry Dustmas, beautiful." I replied with a grin.