Merry Christmas
AN: Another chapter in one day! I know, but I do want to get this story finished. I already have an idea for my 2016 Christmas Story, (freaky, I know) and want to finish this one and let it rest. There's probably another five chapters tops to go, hope you enjoy this one.
Previously:
The two friends looked at each other in astonishment, and then looked with perplexity at the envelopes and the wall from which they had just emerged from.
"Well, I wonder where we will end up this time," Sapphire said, picking up the envelopes with one hand, and looped her free arm through Katja's as they stepped through the portal once again.
After once again experiencing that odd sucking feeling one gets when they've walked into a portal, Sapphire and Katja looked around at the room in which they found themselves in.
The room, obviously a living room, was decorated in the cheery golds, reds, greens, and silvers of Christmas. There was a six foot Christmas Tree, decorated with images of Father Christmas, snowflakes, angels with gold halos, bells, baubles, and even presents.
Music, which they recognized to be "The Twelve Days of Christmas," was playing in the background, but as they listened carefully, and realized what language it was being sung in, the two girls felt certain they must be in St. Petersburg, Russia.
As they took another look around, they realized that their guess was right, for even though it had been nearly two years since they had seen this place last by their own worlds time, they recognized the photos on the walls, and saw that some new ones had been added.
"This is Irina's place," Sapphire whispered, and as if on cue, the door which she knew led to the kitchen, opened and a fair-haired, arctic blue-eyed, middle-aged woman wearing winter pajamas with Father Christmas on them, strolled purposefully into the room.
When she spotted Sapphire and Katja, it took her less than a second for her to recognize them. Her stern-looking face split into a wide smile, and she threw her arms around them in a joyous way.
"Merry Christmas, my любимцев!" She cried, using the Russian term for darlings.
"Merry Christmas, Rini!" They chorused, using the nickname that they had used out of the blue one day during the Clue Hunt, and she had found it rather sweet at the time, but she had also tried not to smile.
"I think Christmas is so magical," Irina said happily, as she led the two girls over to the balcony, where the city lay blanketed in a thick sheet of snow. Twinkling lights could be seen here and there, and the girls had to agree that it was a magical time.
However, as she turned away, Sapphire spotted something on Irina's left index finger, and knew that this Christmas was going to be very magical for her.
"A certain Ekat popped the question, did he?" Sapphire asked with a cheeky grin, as she realized what those envelopes could have contained. Katja gasped, and spun around, her brown eyes widening as they took in the amethysts and diamonds in the ring on her finger.
"OMG! Irina, are you getting married!?" She exclaimed, a huge grin breaking across her face.
"Da, on New Year's Eve, and nyet, I'm not marrying Alistair. I don't care if you ship me with him in your "Fanfictions.""
"Then who?" Sapphire asked.
"Well, a man I believed to be dead for several years, forced to live in exile in Tibet, until I found and recognized him two weeks ago whilst traveling around near Mount Everest." She said with another smile, and the door opened again to reveal a dark-haired, blue-eyed man smiling at all three of them.
"May I introduce you? Katja, Sapphire, I'd like you to meet Nivalona Spasky, my husband, and soon-to-be-married-again husband?"
The two girls gaped in astonishment, and then cheered loudly for their friend, happy that she had her family back.