Words: 2,765
Disclaimer: I can do this in Spanish - no.
Notes: Bringing in some more characters! I'm trying to get these chapters out per week but (unsurprisingly) life/school/extracurriculars are starting to pick up again at a much rapider pace than I'd expected. Still, I'll do my very best! I also found a note at the end of the document for this chapter to remind you all that Granny's house has been restored (I'm probably remembering this a little incorrectly but I'm pretty sure it had undergone at least a little damage by the end of the series). Anyway. That's all you need to know. House - alive. Moving on.
(2nd)
merry christmas, ya filthy animal
There's no place like home, especially when it's Christmas.
As much as Sabrina loves the city, there's something special, warm, and truly nostalgic about spending the Christmas holidays with her family (and their extended Everafter family) at Granny Relda's house in Ferryport Landing. This Christmas Eve has been weirdly delightful and not at all problematic, or in Sabrina's specific case, she can count the number of Puck's pranks in the past two weeks on only one hand, which is a feat in and of itself.
Granny's invited the whole family for the holidays, so the house is packed with guests, including but not limited to Sabrina herself, her two siblings, her parents, Jake, Red, and Mr. Canis. Granny had also invited Puck's relatives, but Titania had declined the invitation, referring to some big Christmas event in Manhattan that would give her more limelight with the public eye if she made an appearance. Thankfully, Mustardseed's accompanying Puck to spend the Christmas holidays at Ferryport Landing this year and since his presence always seems to have a sort of dampening effect on Puck's energy levels, the holiday break's been going off without so much as a hitch and only two or three pranks, none of which have changed Sabrina's hair colour. So far, so good.
It's still much too early in the evening to start opening presents but it's the perfect time to set up dinner, which is what the adults are busying themselves with. The children, pre-teens, and teenagers are gathered in the living room, which has been tidied up of family journals and dusty tomes to provide space for the family and the Christmas tree. They've been watching movies every evening for the past week and a half, and the movies have evolved from purely Christmas-themed films to any movie that's set during the winter or has snow in it. Yesterday it had been the second Captain America movie because the word "winter" is in the title, and the day before that, they'd watched the first Captain America movie because a good majority of the film is set in snowy terrain. Sabrina and Mustardseed bear the silliness of the movies and grumble to each other about their siblings' poor choice of "Christmas" movies but never complain too loudly since everyone ends up enjoying the films anyway.
Tonight, Daphne's chosen to put in Anastasia and for once, Sabrina's got nothing bad to say about the evening film. She's snuggled up at the end of the large couch nearest to the Christmas tree with her knees tucked beneath her, absentmindedly playing with a lock of hair while she watches Vladimir and Dimitri teach Anastasia how to be a proper princess.
"Is Vladimir saying he could be just as good of a princess as Anastasia?" Daphne asks in the monotone she always uses when she's focused on a movie. Sabrina snorts and Mustardseed's lips quirk up into a smile as he gives Daphne a strange look.
"I think the point of the song is that with a little bit of help, anyone can do anything they put their minds to," Mustardseed explains easily. Sabrina snorts again at that.
"That's deep," she comments sarcastically. "Or maybe it was just a good place to throw in another song since this movie is an animated musical." Daphne purses her lips as she thinks about the two different responses.
"I like what Mustardseed said better," she decides. Mustardseed throws his hands out to the side playfully, looking at Sabrina with a triumphant look on his face, complete with one arched blond eyebrow, jutted chin, dimple on the cheek, that lopsided Goodfellow smirk – the whole package. Sabrina shakes her head at him but doesn't fight the smile crawling its way onto her lips. She's known him for four years now. He might be the younger, more mature brother, but every now and then, Mustardseed exhibits certain characteristics that remind Sabrina that he and Puck are definitely related.
"Are you being a total grinch again, Grimm? Save it for when second semester starts, would you? It's Christmas!" Speaking of the devil's spawn himself, Puck waltzes into the living room balancing a tray of six mugs of hot chocolate precariously in one hand.
"Correct me if I'm wrong," Sabrina says lazily as Puck hands his brother a mug. "But I do recall that the Grinch saved Christmas."
Puck winks at Red and Daphne as he hands them their mugs. "Hard for you to save anything with a face like that."
Sabrina gives him a dirty look while Red and Daphne snort helplessly into their first sips of hot chocolate and even Baz, who's only six-years-old, releases a light giggle that draws the older kids' attention to him.
"See, even Baz here agrees with me, don't you, kiddo?" Puck says with a smile, ruffling the little boy's unruly red hair and making the little boy squirm delightfully.
"Yeah," he giggles, taking the small mug Puck offers him before the fairy makes his way to the couch and settles down in between Sabrina and Mustardseed, the last two mugs rattling on the tray as he sets it on his lap.
Before Sabrina can reach over to retrieve a mug for herself, Puck picks them both up and offers her the one in his right hand, the one closest to her. She lifts a hand towards the mug and opens her mouth to thank him but Puck playfully moves the mug away from her reach right before she touches it, an impish look on his face. Sabrina drops her hand in her lap and sighs exasperatedly, throwing him an impatient look. Puck just laughs at her reaction and sets his mug of hot chocolate down on the tray, and with his free hand, takes Sabrina's hand and places the warm mug in her palm.
"Jeez, there! Lighten up!" he tells her, but Sabrina doesn't miss the fond look in his eyes and she hides the growing blush on her face behind her mug, ducking her head as she takes a sip, her cheeks just as warm as the chocolate she's drinking.
Not even five minutes pass before Veronica appears in the doorway to call the kids in for dinner. Baz and Daphne instantly whoop out loud in reckless abandon and spring up from the floor to run to the dining room, almost knocking over their half-full mugs of hot chocolate in the process. Veronica dashes after them immediately, trying to reel in her two youngest children while Red and Mustardseed leave the living room at a much calmer pace. Sabrina's actually a little surprised that Puck hasn't torpedoed off the couch and she's even more shocked to see that he seems to be waiting for her.
"You're taking your own sweet time," he says offhandedly as she carefully sets her mug down on the floor near the couch where there's the smallest chance anyone might accidentally knock it over.
"I can say the same about you," she retorts, getting up. Puck seems to catch that she's noticed that he's waiting for her and shrugs one shoulder, reaching up with one hand to rub the back of his neck, hoping the act will cover up his embarrassment. It does quite the opposite, only drawing Sabrina's attention to the reddening flush spreading across the front of his throat, and she smiles a little, knowing she's caught him redhanded.
"Whatever, let's go eat," he mutters, stepping aside and waving his hand in front of him. "Ladies first." Sabrina raises an eyebrow at his actions.
"How chivalrous," she remarks. "I see your mom's etiquette lessons are starting to catch up with you."
"More like Larry's finally starting to get on my nerves," he says, making a face at the thought of his good-natured but annoyingly persistent tutor. Sabrina laughs lightly at that while she makes her way to the dining room. She can hear the clinking and clanking of cutlery knocking gently against Granny's special china plates blending in with the sound of her family's voices, no doubt chattering excitedly about the food spread out on the table (a mix of Granny's unorthodox recipes and Jake's and Veronica's more traditional, Sabrina-friendly dishes) and the inevitable gift-opening that's scheduled to happen at midnight. Sabrina takes a deep breath, briefly closing her eyes at the aroma of an entire Christmas dinner worthy of Gordon Ramsay's praise. She has her own opinions about her grandmother's cooking (not that she's quiet about it) but she has no doubt that her uncle and mother are kickass cooks when they want to be.
"God, suddenly I feel like I haven't eaten in three months," she says, rubbing her stomach when her belly rumbles as she walks down the hall. Puck snorts while he walks alongside Sabrina, shoving his hands in his pockets.
"Welcome to my life," he says. "How do you think I feel all the time?"
"You're different," Sabrina says, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Damn straight," Puck agrees wholeheartedly, a look of childish pride on his face. Sabrina rolls her eyes just as they approach the doorway to the dining room, unaware of Daphne's vigilant eyes watching them from her seat at the table.
"I meant different as in freak of nature different," Sabrina says, but before she can step over the threshold of the dining room, and before Puck can open his mouth to offer up his own retort, Daphne stands up abruptly from her place at the table, startling the entire family.
"Stop! Stop right there! Hah!" she cries out, laughing out in what can only be interpreted as victory. Sabrina's so shocked that she actually freezes in place and stands there staring at Daphne in confusion. Puck almost walks right into Sabirna and stumbles a little, stopping to stand next to her.
"Pay up, suckers!" Daphne demands triumphantly, waggling her fingers in a gimme sort of motion at her family. Mustardseed sighs and immediately pulls a few bills from his pocket, surrendering them to Daphne with no hesitation. Red pouts the whole time but pulls out money from her sweater pocket, barely reaching over before Daphne practically snatches them from her fingers, grinning widely as if she's just won the lottery, which, from the looks of it, she practically has.
Sabrina watches in astonishment as everyone – save her grandmother, little brother and Mr. Canis – actually turns over a few of their own bills to her little sister before finally fixing a suspicious glare on the twelve-year-old brunette, who's flipping through her newly acquired greens gleefully.
"…What the hell?" Puck speaks up before anyone can say anything. He wordlessly ignores the glare Veronica shoots him for his less-than-appropriate language.
"What's going on?" Sabrina agrees. Her previously grumbling uncle suddenly perks up and turns to Daphne.
"They haven't even kissed yet, Daphne, I want my money back!" he cries, and Sabrina almost chokes, but Daphne holds her wad of bills away from his reach.
"The bet was I could get them under a mistletoe before dinner, and I did!" Daphne says proudly. At those words, Sabrina blanches, the blood leaving her face, practically evaporating, and taking 400% of her dignity with it. She blinks once, twice, three times before peeking upwards and sure enough, spinning slowly in all its sparkling green and red glory is a charming mistletoe hanging from the threshold.
"Huh," Puck breathes out, and he almost sounds impressed. "That's pretty good."
"Granny, I thought you said the charm would clear the house of mistletoe until Christmas day!" Sabrina says accusingly through gritted teeth. Suffice to say, this is totally not how she'd expected her holidays to turn out.
"I'm sorry, liebling, faerie magic is far more powerful than a mere herb charm," Granny apologises, but the smile on her face betrays her amusement and Sabrina can only look at her helplessly. Desperately.
"Yep!" Daphne quips. "Mustardseed helped out a little. It's a one-time spell. Like, only one mistletoe, only one chance, that kind of thing. But he still managed to make it work at the right time!" This time, Sabrina shoots a glare at Mustardseed, who actually jumps a bit from the intensity of her stare.
"We're going to have a little talk later," she snarls at him and he gulps, scooting as far away from the angry girl as possible.
"You don't have to do it, you know," Henry speaks up awkwardly. "You'd be killing two birds with one stone. Don't kiss the guy and save yourself the trouble, and we'd all get our money back." Veronica reaches over and smacks him lightly on the head.
"Don't be ridiculous, dear," she says to him sweetly while he rubs the back of his head.
"I just thought –"
"Oh, for Christ's sake," Puck says loudly enough for everyone to hear. He turns slightly to face Sabrina properly and reaches up with one hand. In the back of his mind, he can see little red lights alerting his brain, his body and all of his hormones that this is a code red, code red, and he's really going to do it, he's really going to touch Sabrina like this, but in that moment, all he can feel is the smoothness of her cheek and the tickle of her hair against his fingers as he brushes a loose lock of gold behind her ear. The red lights keep flashing in his head, a blinding irritation, as he leans in closer – he hears Sabrina gasp a little and thinks that he might like the sound a little more than he probably should – and suddenly all the red lights turn off when he connects his lips…
…with her cheek.
He briefly acknowledges Daphne cry out "Hey!" in protest.
Puck keeps his lips on her cheekbone half a second longer, and rubs his thumb on the skin behind her ear, and then he's pulling away, his lips brushing against her skin, before everyone can finish processing what he's just done. Daphne's distraught, still standing, and she's got this look on her face like Puck's just ruined Christmas and the next ten Christmases afterwards just because he hadn't kissed Sabrina on the lips like she'd probably (read: totally) wanted him to.
"What?" he laughs at Daphne's expense. "A kiss on the cheek is still a kiss." He spares Sabrina a quick glance and swallows his nerves before hurriedly stepping towards the empty seat next to his brother, immediately reaching over to wrestle with him a little.
"Can't believe you had a hand in that, you traitor," he says as he repeatedly rakes his knuckles roughly against Mustardseed's head, happily ignoring his younger brother's cries of pain.
Baz has been giggling nonstop throughout the whole thing, pretty sure he knows what's just unfolded between his oldest sister and his role model. Relda smiles a little, impressed with Puck's ability to smoothly reset the atmosphere into something more comfortable and familiar, and starts to settle down for dinner. Red and Mr. Canis give each other knowing glances as they wait patiently for Sabrina to join the family, for the Goodfellow brothers to stop roughhousing, and for dinner to officially start. Henry's twitching in his seat after Puck's little show, no matter how innocent the kiss might have been, and Jake's also twitching a little, but only because he's sure now that he won't be getting his money back. Daphne's finally sat back down, having realised that while her Christmas curveball didn't have the specific outcome she'd aimed for, she's still won enough money to buy herself maybe two or three new sweaters and that thought's enough to put a smile back on her face. Veronica looks at Sabrina when she realizes her eldest daughter still hasn't joined them at the table, apparently rooted to her spot under the mistletoe.
"Sweetie, you gonna eat tonight?" she says amusedly, mirth laced in her tone. Her voice snaps Sabrina out of her daze and the blonde quickly moves to sit at the last open spot at the table, one in between Red and her mother. She's still a little wide-eyed, definitely more than a little flustered, and she can still feel Puck's lips - kind of chapped but warm and soft from the hot chocolate - on her cheek. She's finding it hard to believe that had just happened in front of her entire family, even her dad, and now the only thing she's thinking is whether or not Puck's going to like the present she'd gotten for him.
Merry Christmas indeed.
- fin -
Notes: Happy belated holidays, I guess? I hope in particular that Mustardseed was acceptable, or even better, likeable. I quite enjoy the way I've been writing him. Let me know what you think, what you liked, what you didn't like, if it made you smile or wince or twitch. All that good stuff. Peace out, kids.