pen and paper; au of holiday fluff

Lightning thought is was rather amazing how family seemed to breed tradition. When it had just been her and Serah for all those difficult years, their holiday traditions were always a bright spot - they had little money to spare, but Lightning would always manage to scrounge up enough for them to rent a movie and get popcorn. They'd spend Christmas Eve together, eating and laughing at bad acting.

Obviously that was something difficult to plan once they'd each gotten married and had families of their own, but Lightning didn't mind. It was nice to create new traditions with Hope and Soren - especially since their son was at the age when he actually understood more about Christmas.

"Do you remember what we did last year?" She sat on the couch while Soren flew onto the cushion beside her, clearly excited for the reason his mom had asked him to come out here.. She smiled, wondering where he got that energy from. Probably his aunt.

"What what what?" Soren babbled in excitement.

Lightning reached over and got a blank piece of paper and a pen from the table beside her and handed them to her son. "You can write your list for Santa."

Soren's eyes grew wide. "Yay!' He took the paper and pen, getting down on the floor so he could easily write on the coffee table. "I know exactly what I'm gonna ask for!"

"I bet," Hope joked as he came into the room, grinning at his wife's chuckle. He was carrying two mugs and handed one to Lightning, who thanked him with a kiss, and the other to Soren, who barely looked up from his scribbles. "Can't write your list for Santa without hot chocolate, right?"

"Or coffee," she added with a smirk, since that was what was in hers.

Hope smiled at her, getting back to the kitchen and soon returning with his own mug. His eyebrows shot up at the mostly intelligible words on Soren's paper. "Whoa, kiddo. What are you asking for? A whole toy factory?"

"Don't put ideas in his head," Lightning teased, nudging Hope's knee with her own. Soren was smart enough to realize that 'Santa' wouldn't get him everything on his list, but that wouldn't stop him from asking.

"Nuh-uh." The tip of Soren's tongue poked out of his mouth in concentration. "Just stuff."

"Hmmm." Lightning hoped he would read it to them so she could try and figure out what he wanted the most. She and Hope had already gotten a number of things for him - safely hidden in the attic - but what fun was making a list if you didn't get at least one little thing from it?

Besides, it kept the magic alive. Lightning had honestly stopped believing in Santa when she'd been about seven or eight - a bit older than Soren was now. She wanted him to believe as long as he could.

"You know…" Hope, who'd seemed lost in thought, suddenly interjected, "when you're done with your letter, there's something magic you can do to get it to Santa, instead of putting it in the mailbox."

Lightning arched her eyebrows, but Soren only responded with an enthusiastic, "Okay!" and went back to writing. She cocked her head in confusion, asking after a sip of coffee, "Got an in with Santa?"

"Perhaps."

She rolled her eyes in amusement, curling her legs under her and settling against her husband better. Hope, in turn, wrapped an arm around her waist, letting them meld against each other perfectly. A happy sigh escaped her when Hope gently kissed the top of her head. Honestly, even years later, sometimes she couldn't believe that she was a part of moments like these in her life. She'd been so sure it would just be her and Serah forever.

She loved the family they'd managed to build.

"All done!" Soren cried a few comfortable minutes later. "What do we do now, Daddy?"

"Can we read it, first?" Hope asked, holding out a hand for the paper.

"Kaaay," Soren agreed, handing it over, but it was clear he wanted to see this magic thing his father had mentioned earlier.

Lightning smiled again, her eyes scanning the letter. Luckily, she'd gotten pretty good at deciphering Soren's penmanship. His wish list wasn't too extravagant - in fact, he'd asked for a couple of toys that they'd already gotten him - but what surprised her the most was that he'd added a P.S.:

P.S. If you could get Mommy some coffee that'd be nice cause she really likes coffee thank you

"Soren…" She smiled and shook her head. "How come you asked Santa to bring me coffee?"

"Maybe his is magic!" He gestured clumsily with his arms like that would demonstrate. "'Cause I bet that's how he stays awake all night!"

It took everything they had for Hope and Lightning to keep straight faces. "That was very thoughtful of you, kiddo." Hope ruffled his son's hair with a grin. "Now c'mon, let me show you this magic."

"Yay!"

Lightning looked on curiously. She honestly had no idea what Hope had up his sleeve, and her confusion only grew when father led son to the rarely-used fireplace. Luckily, it was gas-powered, so it was only a flick of a switch to get the fire roaring, which Soren instinctively backed away a bit from.

"This is something my mom told me," Hope said quietly. Lightning grew even more surprised and flashed him a sympathetic little smile. The cackling fire filled the respectful little silence that followed - even by Soren, who didn't know anything about his grandparents except that they'd all been taken far too soon. To find out about a tradition one of them had passed down was clearly a huge honor.

"What is it?" he asked after a minute, clearly all excited again.

"This guarantees that your letter gets to Santa." Hope tapped the paper in Soren's hand. "First, you have to fold that up really small. As small as you can make it."

Soren glanced at the paper, then proceeded to do so. The end result was rather…interesting looking, but it got the job done. "Like this?"

"Yup." Hope smiled, ruffling his son's hair a bit. "Now, what you do is look at the fire and imagine one burning at the North Pole. It's cold up there, so you know they have lots of fireplaces, right?"

"Right!"

"So picture one of those fireplaces. Then tell your letter to go to the North Pole, and put it in the fire." Hope gestured his head towards the flames. "The smoke will carry your letter to a fireplace right in the North Pole. And - " he tickled Soren's side, which got a giggle, "I have it on good authority that Santa always takes a look at the letters coming from the fireplace first."

"Really?"

"Really," Lightning said softly, her gaze lovingly on the two boys. She had no doubt that this tradition passed down from Nora had helped Hope believe in Christmas magic for a long time - Hope had told her awhile back that he'd been twelve when he'd found out the truth.

"Okay!" Soren looked excited now. He looked at the folded up letter in his hands, then squinched his eyes shut, clearly picturing one of those fireplaces up in Santa's workshop. "To the North Pole!" he shouted, and tossed the paper into the fire.

There was a loud cackle, but it was immediately eaten by the flames. The smoke escaped upwards and Soren grinned widely at the sight. "Santa's gonna get my letter!"

Before either of them could respond, Hope and Lightning both glanced up when they heard a light scraping against the nearby window. To their surprise, it was a flurry of snowflakes.

The first snowfall of the year.

Lightning smiled when the boys both got up and scrambled to look out the window. She followed as well, one arm slipping around Hope's waist and the other resting on the back of Soren's head.

"Looks like Santa's telling you he got your letter."