The night had finished up on a bad note, and a very bad one at that. Both of the families now hated each other, Ven had lost temper and made Evy cry, and Des had been hurt by Evy and wouldn't be back to a hundred percent till a couple days from now. Yeah this Christmas probably wouldn't be in anyone's top 5
With both of the mothers taking care of their respective daughter, Terra and Aqua were tasked with setting out all the gifts that they and their mothers had bought. Aqua had gotten to the tree first and was setting out the small presents first. Just as she was setting out the last of the small ones Terra had entered the room
"You to huh?" Terra asked as Aqua looked up at him and put on a small grin
"Yeah, my mom was too busy with Evy to come out and do this herself." She said placing the last present on top of another that would go to the same person as Terra set down the bags of gifts he brought with him from his and his mom/sister's room. His mom put the gifts in Des' room because of her husband's violent habits and because she knew Des wasn't one to ruin a surprise especially for herself.
"Same with my mom and Des, she'll be ok if you're wondering. She'll just have a slight limp in her step for the next week or so" Terra said as he opened up his sack of gifts and started placing them around the tree while Aqua got up and went to a pile of larger gifts she set out when she got there earlier.
"I'm sorry about that" Aqua said heaving up a big box and moving it to the back of the tree
"You don't have to apologize it wasn't your fault"
"But I could've stopped Evy after dinner or I could've been a better sister and talked to her…"
"Woah Aqua calm down, things just happen" Terra said as he got up and walked over to her behind the tree "What matters is how we deal with them. So everyone is a little mad should that stop us from trying to make them happy tomorrow? No it shouldn't" Terra told her as he put a hand on her shoulder, sending slight tingles up and down her spine "So don't worry about what you could've done, I don't blame you and neither does my mom or Des. Just relax and be happy for tomorrow" He said as after a few seconds to let what he said sink in Aqua nodded
"Thanks Terra" she said then gave him a quick hug, making Terra blush momentarily. Aqua then let go and got back to what she was doing as Terra stood there for a couple seconds after then recomposed himself then got back to work. It take them long to get the presents positioned where they wanted them to be. The tree looked even better with all the gifts under it. It was a very festive sight just like a freshly laid blanket of snow.
"Well if all else at least Dante will be happy with it in the morning" Terra said as Aqua nodded
"Yeah that'll be nice. Well I'd better get to bed. The little guy is probably going to wake me up pretty early tomorrow"
"Yeah same here, night"
"Night" they both said then parted ways for their rooms. But just as they left the room, the front doors slowly opened and a hooded Ven had entered the castle, quickly getting off his snow gear. He tossed then tossed in the closet then let out a sigh, still feeling bad from earlier. If it was a little earlier in the day he would've gone to say he was sorry to Evy or go check on Des but it was at least 1 in the morning now and they had to be asleep. As he climb his way up the steps he was greated with a fantastic sight. What once was just a pretty plain decorated tree turned into a cascade of sparkling wonder.
"Whoa…" He said to himself as he got closer to the tree and knelt down to look at the gifts that were scattered all around it. 'what are these doing here?' he wondered as he looked all around the tree. Everywhere he looked he could kind a brightly wrapped gift with someone's name on it. As he looked around he began to put pieces together. For his birthday his master, Terra, and Aqua gave him gifts that looked like this. So he could tell that these boxes had things in them for whoever's name was on the gift. Then as he thought even more he deduced something
'Maybe all that stuff I got for everyone is suppose to go under here and be wrapped like that. But where am I supposed to get that kind of paper?' he thought as he got an idea to solve his semi-dilemma. So he got back to his room, as fast as he could without waking anyone, and started pulling out big pieces of plain white paper that he had by desk whenever he felt like he was up for a little art project, and got out the stuff he bought. He started wrapping the three he gifts he got for his master, Terra, and Aqua. And set the fireworks he got for everyone else to the side, he's need some time to set that up later tomorrow. As he wrapped the gifts he found it hard getting them to look as neat as the others around the tree, but he figured no one would care since they were going to tear into them anyway. So after all three of the gifts were wrapped he strolled back to the tree and gently set them down in front of it. When he placed his gifts next to the others they looked a little crummy but it didn't take away from the nice sight the tree was giving. With simple nod and small grin Ven's job was done, so he turned around and head back to his room for some much need R&R.
With that everyone was sleeping, though not everyone anxiously waiting for Christmas day like they should. No visions of sugarplums dancing through their heads, nor the imagining of a jolly red man on the rooftop. The thought going through most of their heads was for this to be over with so their lives could go back to normal.
Morning…
Dawn slowly broke, the brightening sun peeking past the mountains around the castle. Everyone was still sleeping even with the sunlight starting to seep its way into their rooms. Everyone except one blue haired boy
Almost on the instant the first speck of sunlight came into the room he woke up. He slowly got up into a upright position on the bed and took a look at his surroundings. He was on the end of his mother's bed with her still sleeping at the front with Evy in her arms. She had spent the whole night comforting her and had fell asleep with her in her arms. Dante then looked forward again and rubbed his eyes with a yawn. Then it struck him lightning.
"Wait… it's Christmas." He said almost in tone of disbelief as he wobbled his way on the bed to the window and looked out to see a freshly snowed landscape with a rising sun. A huge smile quickly found its way on his face as he began to shake with excitement. "IT'S CHRISTMAS!" he yelled stiring his mother and sister awake
"Uh…" his mother groaned as Dante quickly found his way ontop of her and shaking her
"Mommy get up it's Christmas!"
"Uh…ugh Dante ok stop!" she said as little groggy as she sat up.
"Ugh is it morning already?" Evy asked as she got up
"Yeah it is merry Christmas!" Dante said happily as Evy rubbed one of her eyes
"Yeah yeah merry Christmas" Evy said with a yawn at the end
"Hurry up and get up!" Dante said starting bounce up and down on the bed
"Gezz ok Dante" Evy told her brother while their mother did some small stretches in bed
"Why don't you go see if Aqua is up?" She suggested as he happily nodded and jumped out of bed and went to Aqua's room. Immediately after he left Evy slumped back into bed
"5 more minutes"
"Ok sweety" She told her then got up and went to the closet where she pulled out a box and a rather big box at that, it was at least 2 feet tall. "This'll just give me some time to get this out. I hope he likes it" She said as she picked up the box and moved it to the front room.
Dante had quickly gotten to Aqua's room and stormed his way in.
"Aqua wake up it's Christmas!" He yelled as he looked over at her bed to see no one residing in it. "Aqua?" he asked as he walked in and looked around. She was nowhere to be found. As he went further in the room the door behind him began to close but he didn't think anything of it. 'where could she be?' He thought as he began to turn around but was then hoisted into the air "Woaaaahhh!"
"Gotcha!" Aqua said as she poked him in the tummy with a laugh. Dante let out a laugh as he wrapped his arms around her neck in a hug.
"Merry Christmas Aqua" he said as she smiled at him and returned the favor
"Merry Christmas Dante" She said then set him down
"Why are you up? Mom and Evy weren't up when I woke up?"
"They've always been people that like to sleep in, I always wake up early on Christmas just ask mom" She said, thinking back to years prior where she would always wake up early and wake her mother up along with her father and excitedly wait for them to get to the tree and let her open her gifts. "Well come one lets get to the tree" Aqua said then opened her door and watched Dante run off "I'm gonna get there first"
"Oh no you're not!" Aqua said playfully as she ran out of her room and after him.
Meanwhile…
Terra was slowly waking up as the pale sunlight hit his face. He let out a groan as he began to stretch his arm over his head then crack his neck. He nestled around in the chair he was in to loosen his back as his eyes opened to a familiar sight but in a different setting. His mom sleeping next to Des with one of Des' arms gently placed on top of their mother in his bed. This was sight was familiar to him, his mom would always sleep with Des if something bad had happened. Most of the time it was his father being himself but this time of course was because she was hurt. Terra grin for a moment before he got up and gently walked his way over to his bed, which he did willfully surrender to them last night, and gently shook Des. She stirred awake very slowly as her opened to the sight of her brother looking down at her
"Morning" she said tiredly
"Morning Des, Merry Christmas" He said in normal happy voice as she looked at him with a smile and said
"Merry Christmas Terra" She said happily as she sat up in Terra's bed, and winced a little in pain.
"Do you need help up?" Terra asked as Des shook her head at him
"No I got it"
"You shouldn't strain yourself honey" their mom said as she sat up to. She had waken up a little after Terra shoke Des awake "Morning baby merry christmas" She said to her son who returned the favor.
"Well let's hurry up and get down stairs. I didn't set up all the gifts for nothing" Terra said making his mom feel bad that she had forgotten to set up the gifts, but glad that he went out his way to do so. Then a funny thought crossed her mind
'Wow he really played the Santa roll really well' she thought finding it funny that he had to play Santa for Dante and set up the gifts too.
"Yeah come on mom get up" Des said, already standing up at the end of the bed and taking slow weighted steps to the door.
"Don't push yourself to hard dear" She told her as she nodded, but unseen to her mother she rolled her eyes
"Ok" She said then left the room and tried to get a good start to the front room. Terra stayed behind as his mom was starting to get out of bed, still in the same clothes she was wearing yesterday.
"Terra go make sure she doesn't fall over" She asked him as she stood up and stretched out her arms
"I will but I want to ask you something" he said as she looked at him curiously
"What would that be?"
Meanwhile on the other side of the castle…
Aqua and Dante went back to their mother's room and met up with her and Evy. Then they started off for the tree
Dante was far ahead of everyone, occasionally having to wait for everyone to catch up. Evy was ahead of her mother and sister but not far up ahead to be next to Dante. While yesterday still resonated in her head with a constant painful sting it was after all Christmas and who doesn't like free stuff. Leaving Aqua and her mom trailing at the back end of this, it was silent between the two of them until it was broken by simple gasp from her mother
"What?" Aqua asked her being that she was the only one that heard her gasp
"I didn't set out the presents last night" she said in a silent frantic tone but almost loud enough for Dante. He looked back thinking he heard his mother say something but shrugged it off as nothing.
"I wouldn't worry about that I think 'Santa' took care of that" she said with a wink at the end. Her mother looked at her curiously for a second then sighed out of relief when she pieced it together. She was lucky to have such a considerate daughter.
"Thank you dear"
"Don't mention it mom"
"I really owe you one" she told her daughter as Aqua looked at her
"Well I did want to ask you something"
"Sure anything…"
"I know that you aren't right now on the best of terms with Aqua's mother…" Terra said to his mom as she sat there and listened.
"… and I know you're mad at her because of last night but for today could you… drop it?" Aqua asked her mother who looked at her like she was crazy
"Well I wasn't going to hold anything against her anyway…" Aqua's mom said
"…Even if it was her daughter I shouldn't be mad her. I shouldn't be mad at Evy either but I do want a apologize for Des from her"
"I think we can do that" Terra said with a smile
"So you aren't going to get mad at her?" Aqua asked. And to answer both Terra and Aqua's questions they nodded. Aqua gave her mother a smile to say thank you as they finished their way to the front room. Terra thanked his mom with a hug
"Thanks…" He said before he parted from her "…well I need to go make sure Des is ok and I better wake up Ven" he said reminding his mom of something
"And… I better go wake up your dad" She said as Terra's expression went flat
"Mom I know this might be much to ask but could you please just let dad sleep" He begged his mother who would love to do that. However she couldn't, waking him up would be better than letting him sleep, he'd be easier on her.
"I… can't" she said then got up and left the room, keeping her gaze away from Terra who was starting to worry.
"Mom?"
"Just go help your sister and your friend" she said then closed the door leaving Terra alone with what was going on.
As Elise walked through the halls she had her hand gently rubbing her left arm. Something she hadn't told Terra about his dad was how he got worse after he left. He blamed her for letting him go when in truth he had been liquored up the night master Erauqs came and took Terra with him. In some small she did play a part by giving him his drinks but he could've said no. And every day after he blamed her for Terra leaving, and even took his anger out on her. She tried to show the courage to stand up to him at times but she would always go back to being scared of him
As she approached the door that her husband was behind she had to muster up the strength and courage to raise her arm and knock on the door.
"What?"
"Just making sure you're up"
"Well I am, and I'll be out in a little bit"
"We'll be opening presents now"
"Whatever I'll meet up with you guys in a bit" He said unnervingly as she sighed then left for the front room post heist. While behind the door, that monster of a man was on the ground of the room doing pushups, each time he came up his muscles conjoined showing compact and tight his body was. With one big shove he got up on his feet and took a deep breath before going into a fighting stance and punching out combos at a insanely fast rate. He calmed down and took a breath as he looked for his bag and opened it up and pulled out a roll of white bandages
'I've waited three years for this Terra…' he thought as he began to wrap the bandages around his left fist then tied it off and started on his right '… you were supposed be a fighter like me. You were going to take my spot in that hellish sport and make me proud. But no you had to go off and play make believe with some crazy old man' he thought as he finished his bandage, tightening tighter than the other. 'your grandfather and me wanted you a fighter since before you were you little snot, that was the plan that's I'm married to that whiny girl I call a wife' he thought as he found his shoes and got them and tightened them as much as he could
"But it all ends now Terra. You're coming home"