Tis time \ovq/ chapter 100 ahhhh! This chapter's got it all, Hound wolf time, Family fluffy cuteness, a bit of spice. It took a little extra time but hopefully it's worth the wait cause it's time to celebrate so much. 100 chapters, the end of another in story year, and many other things. I want to make sure to thank you all properly so I've gathered a few gifts for this exact occasion and added them at the bottom of the fic. These are my small, humble gifts of thanks to you for being so amazingly wonderful and supportive.
FanFic . Net readers. I'm sorry to ask you to do this, but I can't add the presents to the page. I do still want you to have them too, so if you'd like, please visit the Ao3 page. The story has the same title and my username is the same. I don't like asking people to put in extra effort like that when they don't know if it's worth it. So instead I'll include a list of what is waiting in the end notes. for those that want to be surprised, you can head over to Ao3 without checking.
Song Suggestion: House of Memories by Panic! At The Disco
Disclaimer: I own nothing CapCom owns Resident Evil and as such they own my soul. I don't make the rules, they're stuck with it now and need to make sure to water it once a week. Please don't sue, k thanks.
A loud whining sound of an electric drill filled an otherwise dark hall of the BSAA as the work to rebuild and recover was still well under way. Chris grimaced slightly, though his expression was hard to read thanks to holding a flashlight in his mouth. inaudible grumbles were hidden under the sound of the drill as it fought the resistance of the screw that didn't want to go into place. a few more moments of this passed before success came, and the final screw was snugly in place. Chris took the flashlight from his mouth.
"Finally," He grumbled before climbing down the ladder he'd gotten accustomed to using. once he finished climbing down, he placed the flashlight and drill on one of the steps as he dug out his new phone. Chris poked at the screen as he walked over to a half empty box of florescent tube lights and plucked two from the container. He shifted to hold the phone to his face with his shoulder before making his way back to the ladder and carefully up the steps.
"Hey, it's Alpha. I got the last of the lighting in place." Chris announced to whoever was on the other end. With a quiet click, the first of the two cylinders were put in place. "Yeah. You should be good to flip the breaker now. just check with the other repair teams beforehand to make sure they're not knee-deep in wires." another click was heard as the last tube was put in place. "Alright good luck. Bye."
Chris moved to hold his phone properly and end the call now that his hands were free. he waited a moment before climbing back down once more and patiently waited in the silent, dark hallway. 10 minutes passed before all at once the lights turned on and illuminated the space for the first time in over a month. It wasn't much, but a small sense of pride welled up inside him as a hesitant smile began to form as he looked down the bright hall at his handy work. One task down and only a couple of dozen more to go.
Once he finished cleaning up the smaller clutter in the area, Chris picked up the folded stepladder and started making his way through the halls that were notably cleaner. There was still an occasional missing door here or there, but broken furniture had been cleared away, desks and tables had been put back into place and the barracks were being properly used as a place to rest once more. As Chris made his way down the hall to drop off the ladder in the proper closet. He stopped as he saw Night Howl come into view.
The soldier stopped in place and held his crutches under his arms so he could wave in greeting. "Afternoon Captain."
"Hey, good to see you're up and walking again," Chris replied as he shifted to put the ladder down against the wall and walked over, so Night Howl wouldn't have to move as much.
Night Howl laughed. "Well, moving as much as I can. I think I was faster on wheels, but, it's good to get my legs moving a bit now that my hands are fixed up."
"Well, it's something at least," Chris said as he watched Night Howl show his notably scared, but healed hands. "You still need a ride to poker night, right?"
"Yeah, if you don't mind," Night Howl agreed as he shifted to get a hold of his crutches again. "I'm looking forward to getting this cast off. I need to start training with the rest of you guys again so we can go and fight back."
"It'll be good to have you with us. but take your time," Chris shifted to cross his arms. "I want to get out there too but, the director is insisting we stay grounded until we can get a few more recruits. We'll have to trust the other headquarters to take up the fight for now."
Night Howl frowned but nodded all the same. "Well. At least all this free time has given me a chance to study the Megamycete sample in more detail."
Hearing that got Chris's attention. "Anything of note?"
"Nothing worth discussing publicly," Night howl replied while glancing around.
"All right. well. Keep at it," Chris said with a frown. "If you need anything, you have my number."
"I'll stop by later when it's time to head out, so you don't leave without me," Night Howl joked, thought his smile softened to sympathy. "I'm sure you're excited to get home. How long has it been?"
"I try not to count," five days.
"Fair enough," Night Howl shrugged before starting to move. "See you in a few hours."
"See you then," Chris waved before heading back to get the ladder he left behind.
It was hard to admit, but he was dragging his feet and he knew it. Putting the ladder away should have taken all of 10 minutes. It took 30 as he'd stop to talk to anyone who greeted him in favor of avoiding his office. This tactic only worked so well, though, as he eventually found himself sitting at his desk staring at a large stack of papers. Letters of condolence and sympathy to families who lost loved ones. Letters that were long over due to be sent.
He took a breath and picked the first one up to read it. Each page held a name, a job and a story. Each page was a person who believed they were able to make a difference somehow, some way. And sure, maybe some of them were actually pricks. Maybe they were just doing a job for the money, had a past or present of unsavory sorts, but they were people. They had people who loved them, and cared about them despite their flaws. Mothers, fathers, husbands, wives. Titles that would be left empty and make a hole in lives that would never be the same, even if the ones they left behind moved on to try and fill that void.
Chris went through the effort to read each letter. He'd write a note of his own at the bottom, even if it was something as generic as 'I'm sorry for your loss' and sign the page as one of the founders of the BSAA next to the signature of the Director. It was a tone-deaf attempt at solace in his opinion, but at least the recipients would have names to curse for their pain.
They were going to recover from this. The lives lost would not be in vain. Maybe if he thought that enough times it would be true. The hours passed by and signing letter after letter, reading name after name, only left Chris more drained than before. His small victory of being able to turn on a light in the building felt all the more hollow.
He found himself staring at yet another letter, though he was too warn out to process the words on the page, let alone hear the door to his office creak open.
"Captain?"
"Hm?" Chris jolted and looked up to find Night Howl standing at the door.
"Sorry, I thought maybe you fell asleep. I said your name a few times... Anyway. It's almost six. If you're still okay to head out," Night Howl trailed off, knowing well enough what the pages on Chris's desk were.
"Right, sorry. Um, yeah, I'm just wrapping up," Chris answered as he put the unsigned letter back in the pile. He'd gotten through a good half of the stack at least. "I just need to drop these off with the director to get sent out. I'll meet you by the car."
"Yes sir,"
Chris watched as Night Howl hobbled off before getting up while collecting the stack of signed letters. Knowing that Night Howl was waiting on him, and that knowing he'd be free to go home, helped him fight the urge to drag his feet any further. Seeing all those names of people that wouldn't get to go home to their loved ones made it difficult to be excited, though.
All the same, the letters were dropped off and Chris made his way out to the parking lot and to his car.
"That didn't take too long," Night Howl commented as he waited for the quiet click to announce that the car door was unlocked before getting in.
"Nah, didn't stay for small talk," Chris said as he opened his door as well and got in to start the usual drive home process. "So before when you said there wasn't anything to discuss publicly."
Night Howl chuckled. "Figured you'd want to talk about that. let's wait until we're past the guard stations."
"All right," he reluctantly agreed, and focused on doing exactly that.
Once they were out on the main road, Night Howl spoke up again. "It's certainly unique. Now that we know it acts like some sort of brain, I tested it like one, and it reacted similarly."
"Similarly how?"
"Well. Up until now, we've been treating it as a toxic plant. it spreads, it gets everywhere and can make people sick. I put the sample in a saline solution and hooked that up to an fMRI machine, and wouldn't you know it, I got some data." Night Howl moved to mess with his glasses for a moment before continuing. "It's strange, I can't quite make it out, but I can tell that the Megamycete, or even someone in there, doesn't like that I'm poking around."
Chris furrowed his brow as he forced himself to continue focusing on the road instead of turning to look at Night Howl. "What does that mean?"
"Means it could tell someone was looking in from the outside. I got a few pictures, but it fried the system shortly after."
"You're sure it was the mold that did it?" Chris asked as his frown only creased further.
"I set that system up correctly. I know I did. It started pulsing, then there was an electrical short in just the machine. So, unless you're saying the building had an electrical surge at coincidently the exact same time, and it only affected that one machine. Yeah. It was the mold," Night howl replied with a more defensive tone. He took pride in his work darn it and if he said something was wrong then something was wrong.
"All right, All right. Just making sure we're looking at all the possibilities." Chris sighed. "Not that there's much we can do at this point."
"If we had someone connected to the mold work with us, we might be able to make more progress," Night Howl suggested.
"You mean Heisenberg? Doubt he'll come along willingly and the BSAA has been giving them a wide birth since the whole threat of a civil right's case came up," Maybe if he had Emma bring it up to them. She was a bit better at negotiating with them, even if it still kinda pissed him off.
"That's not exactly what I meant," Night Howl paused a bit to think over his words carefully. "Rose has already successfully entered the shar-"
"No,"
"B-"
"I said no." Chris annunciated while keeping an iron grip on the steering wheel. "That's the end of this discussion."
"Yes sir," Night Howl begrudgingly replied. The rest of the ride home was done so in silence, as almost six turned to a little past six when they finally made it back to the cozy house on the corner of the cul-de-sac. After a bit of finagling with crutches, Chris and Night Howl made their way to the door.
"I'm Home," Chris called in his usual greeting as he walked in.
"Welcome home!" Came the ever nostalgic and comforting reply.
"Dahda!" was heard shortly after with the thundering of toddler steps as Piers hurried over to greet him. "N-owl!" The child chirped as he saw Night Howl.
"Took you goddamn long enough,"
"Who's late to their own party huh?"
"Where the hell have you been?"
Chris's content smile shifted to a confused frown as he looked around the corner to find that Canine, Umber Eye and Lobo were already waiting in the living room.
"Hey when you're waiting for a ride from the work-a-holic you end up being late to the party, what can I say?" Night Howl answered instead as he hobbled over to join the others.
"Everyone's here so, we're gonna eat now, Right?" Lobo asked as he moved to get up.
"Hm?" Emma looked over to the group. "I figured with it being a poker night that you guys might graze a bit while playing. It's just a crock pot meal I let cook while I was at work so, you guys can eat when you're hungry."
"It smells like chicken and spice and everything nice and I would like to eat. Let's go." Lobo said as he got up and gestured for everyone to start moving to the table.
"Well you're excited," Canine says through a laugh as he moved to get up as instructed.
Lobo sputtered out a laugh. "I had to eat MREs the last two weeks while staying in a sterile bunker, and you have me sitting here for almost an hour smelling that," He said and gestured to the slow cooker. "It's cruel and unusual punishment."
"Then show a little respect to the host and set the table," Umber Eye chimes in. "I brought the cards this time. I'll get that set up while you guys get food."
"I'm surprised your wife let her out of her sights," Night Howl pointed out while trying to make his way over to the table that had already been set up with stacks of cookies for poker chips, all while dodging the curious toddler who was hopping alongside him in an attempt to imitate how he was walking.
"Yeah," Lobo chimed in while collecting dishes to do what he was told. "When do we get to meet your family anyway? Could have been nice to have them join us if she was worried about you being away."
"Nah. Wouldn't be fair to her to do that," Umber eye replied while shuffling the decks. "She still pretty upset right now, Rightfully so, and it wouldn't be right to pus her to meet the team when she's this emotional. It's not giving her a fair chance for a genuine first impression."
"That's fair," Emma agreed as she started carrying a few bowls of snacks over to the table as well. "If Chris had said he was going out to a bar or something with everything going on, I don't think I'd take kindly to it."
"Yeah. It is nice to get out of the house, though," Umber Eye said as he offered a hand to help place a bowl on a section of the table that Emma couldn't reach from where she was standing. "It would be better to wait. I have a feeling that, under better circumstances, The family would get along well with the rest of you. Emma, I'm sure that my wife would appreciate having someone to talk to that understands all this. It's just not the right time."
"Well, I look forward to getting to meet her then," Emma said before moving to adjust a few of the plates that Lobo put out which were at various depths on the table, some of which were far too close to the edge for comfort.
"You and Rose are joining us for poker night, right?" Canines asked as he picked up one of the plate to not so subtle serve himself from the crock pot of slow cooked shredded chicken that almost looked red from the spices it had been stewing in.
"I'll see if she's up for it, I think she ate once she got home from school, and she mentioned she was feeling achy today." Emma replied while moving to hold the elbow of her other arm so her free hand could hold the side of her face.
"Aches? I thought those got better after she started taking the medicine. Did she forget to take it?" Chris asked with similar concern in his tone.
"That's the strange thing. She's never missed a day since she started. I'm not sure what's causing it, but she seemed tired." After a moment of hesitation, she shrugged. "I'll check on her though and see if she wants to join us."
"Fair enough, Hopefully she's feeling okay," Night Howl said as he moved to take his turn in line by the crock pot. "What is this, by the way? It smells good."
"Drunken cowboy stew," Emma answered with a proud smile while waiting for the others to get their food first. They'd had it hard over the last few weeks so she wanted to make sure the got enough first. "Some garlic, tomato paste, and chili pepper, with equal parts whiskey, and water for the broth. I added a bit of vinegar to bring out the chili and went with birds eye this time for more heat, but I cut it back with some honey then added a bit of cilantro and chives on top once I got home."
"This is one of your college recipes, isn't it," Chris teased with a slight smirk as he picked up a plate all the same to go and get a serving.
Mock shock was displayed in return as Emma let her mouth hang open for a moment before speaking. "Some of those recipes are actually good, thank you very much."
"Didn't say they weren't. It just has a name so figured you didn't make that up just now," He answered while quickly serving himself, so he could make his way back to the table. "That and the alcohol content." The second portion earned him a playful nudge in response as he walked by that caused him to chuckle. It was good to be home.
"You guys go ahead and get started. I'm going to go check on Rose," Emma stated, giving Chris a peck on the cheek while walking by.
The others quietly snickered to themselves before Lobo spoke up. "Alright, who did the least reps today?"
Three. Five. One. Two.
Chris winced. "None, didn't get around to the gym."
"Such a poor example from our beloved captain, I'm hurt," Lobo joked before trying to reach for the deck and missing at first before getting a hold of it. "Here you are."
Chris patiently waited before accepting the offered deck and started dealing out the cards. By the time they were halfway through the round, Rose and Emma entered the room.
"Hey, how are you feeling street wolf?" Canine asked with a hesitant smile.
"Ugh,"
"That good, huh?" Lobo replied as Rose took her seat as the team had taken to their previous seating formation from thanksgiving, with Umber eye at the other end of the table from Chris.
"Pretty much. Probably just my backpack. that thing is too heavy," Rose grumbled as she poked at her stack of cookies. Even with the grumbles, she still had a slight smile forming as she was happy to be treated like a part of the group. They wanted her to be there, so it was hard to say no and not join them.
"Yeah, that's something I'd say I don't miss but, well, we still have to deal with heavy backpacks on missions," Umber Eye joked. "I'm out," he added to allow the game to continue.
"Final round then," Chris placed the last card in the middle.
As Chris did this, Piers pulled himself into his usual seat to get a better look at the table, only to find an ocean of cookies. The wide-eyed child looked from the pile by Chris then at Chris himself. "Mine?" He asked while pointing at the cookies. The simple question was met with a roar of laughter from the table, which caused Piers to giggle along as well. "Mine!" He repeated, louder. It was funny after all, so might as well say it again.
Chris's shoulder's dropped. He didn't even get to play yet, and he was already getting robbed by his own son.
"Oh come on, 'dad'. How do you say no to a face like that?" Lobo taunted, more than happy for the advantage it would give.
"When you want something, what do you say?" Emma coached.
Oh, oh oh! he knew this one! He quickly looked over to Emma with a wide grin. "Peas." He happily answered, only to see Emma gesture towards Chris.
"What do you want?"
Piers turned his attention back to his dad and pointed at the cookies. "Mine Peas."
Chris rolled his eye before picking up one of the cookies and sliding that over to the toddler. It was progress after all with his talking, and it's supposed to be encouraged.
"Yey!" Piers happily accepted the cookie and slide out of his chair to sit under the table with Duke, who had taken his usual food hunting position.
The adults chuckled once more as the game continued on. Laughs and jokes were shared over good food and with good company as the group took the time to rest from the stress of work. All while appeasing the tiny cookie monster who'd occasionally show up to point at another stack that he deemed his, until he eventually passed out in Emma's lap.
'*'*'*'*'
The night of peaceful rest was followed by 9 more days of stress, but the holidays arrived and to Chris's relief, He'd been assigned to the group that would have the 24th and 25th off. The house had been decorated in his absence. A fake tree covered in colorful and a hodgepodge collection of ornaments sat in the corner of the living room, surrounded by presents of various sizes for the two kids. Emma was contently sitting on the couch to keep an eye on Piers, who had recently learned how fun presents are, and didn't seem to understand why he wasn't allowed to open the ones that magically showed up again.
Chris, however, was standing by the front door and staring out the small window next to it. Arms cross and frown etched into it's usual frustrated scowl. "They called over an hour ago."
"They'll show up," Emma replied from the living room.
"They should be here by now," Chris retorted as he uncrossed his arms to gesture at the grand nothingness where there should be something.
"Patience is a virtue," Emma practically sang as an amused smile started to form.
"Not one that I possess," Chris sang back as he checked his watch, which read 4:42pm.
Hearing that caused Emma to roll here eyes as she got up to walk over to the door as well. "They'll get here when they get here. We're lucky they agreed to do a delivery today."
Chris grumbled under his breath in response. "Then they shouldn't have said that they would be here in 30 minutes."
Emma shook her head but moved to hug the cranky grumbling grouch, "The sky's looking a little gray. I wonder if it will snow?" She asked in an attempt to get his mind off waiting.
Chris lazily glanced up at the sky, "Maybe."
"Could be nice if it means we get snowed in, and I get to keep you for an extra day or two," She said with a hint of hope.
"Yeah well, so long as the truck gets here first," Chris tried to argue through a laugh at Emma's, admittedly working, attempt to dull his grumbling.
Emma laughed in return. "You are determined to be cranky," she pointed out before her amusement turned to a coy smile. "Though, can't say I disagree. Could be nice for the new bed to get here first."
"Yeah. I know the BSAA tried to replace everything, but the mattress was," He stopped to grimace. "You know it's bad if I can't if the couch is better or worse."
"It's better," Emma quickly answered. Honestly, even she was kind of excited about replacing the bed. This was probably the only good thing to come from the last few months. all the extra hours and need for morale to prevent a mass exodus of resignations led to a very sizable year-end bonus. Funds that were quickly put to work. While it seemed a bit frivolous to replace a bed that wasn't even a year old, it also seemed a bit justified to do something nice for the two of them. Considering the missed birthdays, holidays and such of the past few years along with the stress of the current schedule and constant fear of another attack.
"Ah, there it is. See. Only 45 minutes late. That's practically on time," Emma gave a gentle nudge before the sound of tearing paper could be heard. "Piers, No!" She quickly turned on her heels to try and salvage what was left of any gift he got to.
Disappointed crying could be heard seconds later, causing Chris to wince. Of course, the truck arrived right when the house was full of the sounds of a screaming child. Once the delivery driver made their way up to the door, Chris opened it.
"Hey, I'm looking for the Redfield's. Is this the right house?" The driver asked, though it was already clearly the right house, considering Chris was waiting to open the door.
"Yep. You're good to haul away the old mattress, right?" Chris asked in return before pointing a thumb over to the stairs behind him.
"Yeah, we can do that," the man looked over his shoulder to shout at his co-worker, who was halfway through opening the back of the truck. "Hey George, Leave it, we gotta get the old one out first."
"Alright, I'll be right over," they shouted back before moving to finish opening the truck, so they'd have a place to put it.
"Sounds like you got a live one. Tired of waiting for Santa?" The delivery driver asked in an attempt at small talk while waiting for George to make it over.
"Something like that," Chris replied, as small talk still was not his cup of tea.
Awkward silence with howling screams in the background replaced the attempted conversation, but before long the other delivery worker did make their way over.
"Alright, let's move a mattress and get on our way," George said and followed as Chris led the way.
As simply as that, They picked up the old mattress, carried it out to the truck and carried the new one in and put it in place. A quick 'happy holidays' was offered in parting, but other than that it was a no fuss process. Aside from the fussy toddler, who was now very upset with the baby gate that kept him out of the living room.
The gate gave Emma enough respite to head upstairs and find that Chris was already in the process of putting fitted sheets on the new bed. She walked over to take one of the corners and help out. "There we go," Emma said once the sheet was in place. "It certainly has more padding, the sheets barely fit."
"That was a rather low bar to clear." Chris pointed out while moving to make the bed with the rest of the usual sheets, blankets and weighted blankets.
"You seem excited," Emma said with a laugh as she once again stepped in to help.
"Well, The last one was stiff as aboard and the one before that was what. Seven years old?" Chris asked while looking at Emma for confirmation.
"Nine,"
No wonder they only got a cheap replacement. "Yeah. I'm excited." He confirmed before contemplating another thought. "When's bedtime for the kids?"
"Rose is at 9:30 now and Pier's is at 7:30," Emma answered.
Of course Rose talked Emma into a later bedtime while he was away. God dammit. "Think we can split the middle for an even 8?"
"That's not the middle," Emma pointed out. There's no way Rose would go for losing an hour and a half for Piers to gain half an hour. All the same, she had a hunch as to why he was asking. "You want to test the bed?"
"Yes," Is that even a question? He's basically been gone for months and would alternate between sleeping on a table and a cot.
Well, he was honest. "I'll see what I can do," Emma agreed before giving Chris a peck. "I need to cook dinner, do you mind re-wrapping the presents that Piers got to?"
"Sure, It'll pass the time." he agreed as he followed her lead out of the room and down the stairs. "Where's the tape?"
"Should be back in your study," Emma answered and made her way over to the living room first to talk to Rose, while Chris walked off to take on the admittedly easier task.
"Hey Rose, just a heads-up bedtime is 8 tonight," Emma stated rather than asked, figuring that this would be the best bet to minimize room for arguing.
This quickly got the Teen's attention, as she looked up from her phone with a mixture of disgust and shock. "What?"
"It's 8 o clock for Christmas, since you get to stay up until midnight for New years," Emma insisted, while silently praying that all the aging Rose went through over the last year would cause her to for get that it was not 8 last time.
"That doesn't even add up!" Rose argued as this new and sudden change to immediate precedent over whatever was going on in her game.
"If you want it to add up we can make it 7," Emma offers in return to try and push a hard sell. If 7 was the alternative, maybe 8 would sound like the better option.
"What the hell!"
"Language," Emma warned.
"You and Chris curse all the time," the hypocrisy of it all.
"Yeah, and not when we're trying to communicate in an appropriate and respectful manner," Emma countered with a frown. She didn't mind the debate, but it was not going to be disrespectful.
"This is so unfair," Rose grumbled and groused as she dramatically crossed her arms.
At this point, Emma started to crack. Maybe the hard sell was a bit harsh. She could try and find a better middle ground. "Look you don't have to fall asleep right away, you just have to be in your room. Fair?"
"Not really,"
Welp she tried. Time to fall back to the tried and true argument ender her mother would use. "Well, when you're mom, you can make the rules." At this point, Emma walked away. The discussion was done. She set the rule. She just had to not fall back on what she said because of pouting. She could do this. "Bed time is 8. It's just for Christmas and you just have to be in your room."
Rose once again, dramatically flopped onto her side to lay on the couch, set on ignoring everyone in her teenage angst, which was aided by the baby gate that kept her littler brother from pestering her while she wallowed. As soon as Chris walked by hope returned.
"Chris, Emma's being mean," Rose accused.
Yeah, he already knew what this was about. "Listen to your mother."
Silent, open-mouthed, utter betrayal was all that was left as she watched Chris walk away with the partially unwrapped gifts. Her parents were actually on the same page for once, and it was the one time she hoped they wouldn't be. Needless to say, that grumpy silence continued. Dinner was made, and served. At 7:30 she watched as Piers was put to sleep, and she begrudgingly went upstairs at 8. Though, she left the light of her room on, and door open in protest to show she was not going to bed.
The next hour or, Chris and Emma passed the time waiting for the kids to fall asleep by worked together to set up for the following morning. They'd learned well that the whole wake up at 3am option was, not great or desirable. They'd rather avoid ending up with another two-hour nap situation, like Rose's first Christmas, if one of the two kids decided to be particularly evil. Like the grumpy one who was likely looking for 'justice' or the two-year-old that had no chill.
"Think they're asleep?" Chris whispered as the two walked over to the stairs.
The light from Rose's room illuminated the otherwise dark home. "That looks like a no," Emma whispered back.
Chris looked up at the light with an unamused deadpan stair, but motioned for Emma to follow him. The two went upstairs and Chris stopped at Rose's door. "You can keep your light on, but I'm closing the door," He said, which was only met with a glare in response. "Good night." He didn't bother waiting for a response that he knew he wasn't going to get, and closed the door.
Rose was a fair bit more upset than Emma thought she'd be. It was kind of short notice. Maybe she was too harsh. "Do you think she'll be okay?"
"She'll get over it. We're not asking for a lot. It's one night," Chris repeatedly affirmed while they walked to their room, closing and locking the door behind them. There shall be no 5 AM revenge wake-up calls. The second he was sure the door was locked, he reached out to pull Emma close and kiss her, which was just as quickly returned. Patience was, as he admitted, not his strong suit, and he moved to pick her up to put her on the bed.
The mattress had more give than he was expecting, causing the two to stumble as they fell onto the bed in a pile. A surprised yelp was met with a hushing reminder to be quiet before layers of clothes were discarded in favor of sheet and blankets. The weighted blankets made it felt like being wrapped in a hug on a giant soft cloud with a snugly personal space heater. Once fervorous affections grew less frequent, as the comfort of the nice soft bed became distracting. A yawn could be heard and just that quickly their plans were forgotten and they both fell fast asleep. Snoring the night away.
This was not the case for everyone though as across the hall, a small child in their nursery was wide awake staring up at the ceiling trying to pretend to be asleep cause it was bedtime... but there were presents downstairs, and he wanted to open 'em. This had to be the longest night in the history of ever for the child that still had very little concept of time, since he could not read a clock. Maybe if he counted sheep? One. Five. Tree. Seven. what comes next? Um. Two?
That didn't work. Nighttime was taking too long. Frustrated grumbling resulted in blankets being discarded and the toddler taking action into his own hands. That action being, turning the door knob of his room which open with a wide swing. happy adventures awaited as he hurried pat the once more, open door of Rose's room and over to the stairs.
Doing so caused a slight shadow that caught Rose's attention and got her to look up from her phone just enough to see a glimpse of her brother walking by and the sound of a troublemaker walking down the stairs.
"Uuugh," Rose grumbled as she paused her game and got up to follow after. "Piers," Rose quietly hissed as they made i around the corner towards the living room, dining room, kitchen, combo space.
it only made him move faster in his dash for the tree, where he found even MORE present! "Pes-ant!" it was very exciting.
"damn it." He can't even read yet. There's no way he'd leave her gifts alone even if he could. If she had to wait, so did he. "Piers No." She quickly moved to pick him up, only to wince. "Ugh, you're getting too heavy for this."
"Nooo," Piers whined while reaching for the boxes. It wasn't fair everyone was so mean to him.
"Hush, you're gonna get us both in trouble," Rose chided as she carried her brother back up the stairs.
"Oosee no" He replied more defiantly as he fought to get away but she only put him down once he was in his room again.
"Go to bed," Rose stated before closing the door. Which, reopened 5 seconds later.
"No you don't," She grumbled as she intercepted the child and carried him with her into her room this time, closing the door behind her, only to find that Duke had taken her bed while she was chasing down Piers. "Raaugh, Duke. Off." She quietly ordered, and the dog reluctantly complied. Once the space was clear, Rose put Piers down and sat on the floor. At least this way, she could stay in her room and keep Piers out of trouble.
As she sat there and picked up her game again, she could feel tiny eyes watching her before a finger poked into the side of her face. Her lack of reaction caused Piers to giggle as he poked her again. It's what she was doing to the small light box and he could see why. This was fun! "Play?"
"No," Rose groaned. "Sleep."
"No"
Rose held her face as this conversation was feeling obnoxiously familiar to a particular argument over bedtime that happened a few hours earlier. "Fine. Look, I'll read you a story, but then you have to go to sleep." Rose said with little room for argument as she turned off her phone and got up to grab a book from the small collection on her bookshelf. Her eyes glanced at the large leather-bound book titled 'village of shadows'. After a moment of consideration, her hand reached past it and picked up a book about a dog, it's cowboy friends and their adventures in outer space.
Rose turned around to walk back and found that Piers had already nestled himself into bed with an expression of anticipation. Story time.
Rose Sat down Next to Piers and got comfortable so she could start reading the book and make sure to take a decent amount of time on each page with the hope he'd eventually get bored. Even with the lights on, after half an hour of stalling both kids eventually fell asleep and Duke climbed up to join them and keep them safe and warm.
'*'*'*'*'
One good night of sleep came to an end as the blinding morning sun leaked through the curtains. Chris yawned before smacking his lips and snuggling closer to Emma. That was gre- wait a second. Gears started to click into place, causing Chris to realize he was still partially dressed. A grumbling sigh escaped him as he moved to cover his face with one hand. This bed had to go. It was a great night's sleep, but god-damn it all. The fact it could just re-code his brain to 'sleep' like that was not going to fly. Although a few more minutes did sound nice.
Those few minutes passed and came to an end as Emma's alarm went off. Emma groggily reached for her phone to turn off the alarm as her screen displayed that it was now 7:30AM on December 25th. Her eyes narrowed to a suspicious squint. 7:30 christmas day and there was not a single sound. no shaking door or crying screams of a toddler that wanted attention after a long night without it.
"It's too quiet," Emma grumbled and begrudgingly pushed herself to sit up, despite every muscle in her body saying 'no, it's comfortable. Stay here'.
It took a moment for Chris to understand, but eventually the calm silence registered. "Shit, what did he get into," Chris asks as he quickly got out of bed and started getting properly dressed.
"Well I'm guessing he probably got downstairs and past the baby gate," Emma replied as she did the same and changed into a fresh set of day clothes.
"So we'll probably need to rewrap Rose's gifts, again," Chris said while mentally mapping out a plan of action. "divide and conquer?"
"Yep," Emma agreed as she shifted to adjust her sweater, so it sat more comfortably.
Once the two were ready for the day they hurried out of their room down the stairs to find, oddly, everything was fine. The two stared at the clean, not destroyed living room in dazed confusion before turning to stare at each other for a moment. Just as quietly, they made their way back upstairs to check on the kids, starting with Rose's room since it was the closest to the stairs.
Calm and peace of mind finally returned with content smiles as the two parents saw that both kids had fallen asleep with a book wide open and Duke snuggled close. The old dog lifted his head for a moment to give a quiet huff of a bark before laying his head down on Rose as a pillow.
Chris gently closed the door again. "We should let them sleep in."
"Yeah," Emma agreed as the two once more made their way down the stairs. "Guess I was worried about nothing."
"They're good kids," Chris replied with a sense of pride. Were they a pain in the ass sometimes? Sure, but they were his, and they weren't that bad.
"Yeah, I think I'll get a head start on breakfast while they're sleeping. I don't they'll stay asleep much longer anyway," Emma chuckled.
"True. Maybe I can help or something," It didn't seem quite right to sit around while she worked. though that quickly changed as he followed her over to the kitchen and finally looked out the window. "On second thought... I might be busy." a thick layer of fluffy white snow had fallen overnight.
"You'll take care of the driveway?" Emma asked hopefully.
"Yeah. I'll take care of that," Chris agreed and gave her a quick peck. "Let me know when they wake up?"
Emma gave Chris a kiss in return. "Can do."
"Thanks,"
The two adults got to work on their various tasks. The smell of crackling bacon soon filled the house, as the scraping sound of a thick plastic shovel against pavement could be heard. Piers was the first to stir as he sleepily rubbed at his face with both hands before nuzzling into his fluffy canine friend. The sun was too bright... wait a second. Sun! Sun meant day time! Piers sat up and looked around to find that Rose was in the middle of Rolling over to continue sleeping.
"Oosee,"Piers called as he patted her face. it was time to wake up cause he was up.
"Noo. five more minutes,"
Piers frowned at that. Fine he'd go on his own and check on the boxes. Maybe there were even more presents now. Piers not so carefully crawled out of bed and hurried over to the door, which was not so carefully flung open. The house smelled like breakfast, which only reminded the toddler that he hadn't eaten anything since dinner and he was hungry.
"Mama!" Piers happily cheered as he made his way over to Emma.
"Good morning sleepy, you finally woke up," Emma said and chuckled as she received a hug. "Are you excited for presents?"
"Yes! Pes-ants!" he cheered as he let got to excitedly jump around to get out all the energy. This meant he was allowed to open them all now, right? With that thought, he turned to hurry over to the living room, only to find the accursed baby gate in the way.
"You need to wait for your sister," Emma stated while blessing the wood and plastic barrier for doing it's job. That lasted for all of 5 seconds before watching Piers try and climb over it. "Piers no, you have to wait." Emma quickly moved the pan she was using off the heat so she could hurry over and get Piers off the gate before he could hurt himself.
"No, pes-ants now," That's not fair, she just said he could.
"In a few minutes, Go get your sister," Emma instructs as she put him back down.
"Oosee!" Piers shouted as he hurried back to the stairs.
While he did this, Emma made her way out to the garage to find that Chris had gotten about half of the driveway cleared. "Chris, Piers is up."
That was sooner than expected. "All right, I'll be right in." He called back before sticking the shovel in a pile of snow, so it would stay up right before walking back to the house. After tapping his boots on the door frame to get the snow off, Chris walked inside and saw two quickly moving blurs followed by a slower moving Rose.
He took off his coat and worn out, knitted navy-blue scarf as he made his way over to the living room to find that Emma was sitting with Pier's in her lap to keep him from immediately picking up and opening the first present he saw while Rose was sitting and semi-patiently waiting on the couch next to Duke as she was still slowly waking up.
"Can you help hand out the presents?" Emma requested while struggling to keep the wiggly child contained.
"On in," Chris replied as he moved to take a seat by the tree as well. "Rose, Another for Rose. One for Piers," He listed off as he'd check the tag and hand over each of the boxes. by the time he was done, they each had a small stack of 8 gifts.
"Ready?"
The kids both nodded.
"Set. Go," Chris finished the count down. Piers was released and paper tearing commenced as various toys and wished for items were revealed. Piers found many colorful and noisy new toys with fun flashing lights. Rose gifts were more practical items she'd asked for like a cute new lamp for her room, A large orb-like squishy pillow with a small face printed on it and a gift card for the phone game she enjoyed playing.
"Looks like that's all of them," Emma said as the final gift was un wrapped. "I need to get back to breakfast."
"What do you guys say," Chris coached the now equally distracted kids.
"Thank you," Rose had already taken to using her new pillow as she laid back on the couch and booted up her game to enter the gift card information.
"Dan-chu" Piers parroted while playing with one of the toys while it was still in semi open its packaging.
That was better. Chris got up as well. "I should finish shoveling the snow."
Rose looked up from her screen. "It snowed?"
"Sn-ow?" Piers parroted once more.
"Yeah we got about 5 inches, so it's going to take a while for it to melt," Chris answered as he started making his way back to the door, only for Rose and Piers to beat him there. "Hey, you are not dress for that. Get back inside."
"I just wanted to see how much there was,"
"Snooow" Piers cheers as he happily ran out of the garage and into the front yard in his pajamas.
Chris grumbled as he hurried out bare foot as well to chase after the toddler and coral him back inside, with Rose following after. "Hey Em, Peirs wants to go outside I'm locking the garage door."
"Okay, thanks!" Emma replied before looking back at the toddler, who was now pacing around as he couldn't decide if he wanted to try and force his way outside or if he wanted to play with his new toys.
"If you guys want to play outside after breakfast, that's fine. Just make sure you change into warm clothes and wear lots of layers, okay?" Emma said mostly to Rose since Piers would need help with that.
"When's breakfast?" Rose asked curiously.
"Well, it will be done in about 15 minutes. 10 if I get some help."
"I can help," Rose agreed and got to work mixing up pancake batter while Emma worked on scrambling eggs and checking on a pan of sausages.
Working together did make time pass by quicker and before long the table was set with a plate of cooled off bacon and sausage, A plate piled high with pancakes and toast, and a bowl of scrambled eggs. Rose and Piers took their seats shortly after, though Piers seemed intent on keeping one of his new toys with him at all times.
"Thanks for the help Rosey. You and Piers can go ahead and start eating," Emma said as she put a cut up pancake on to Pier's plate with some bacon and eggs.
"Kay," Rose replied as she started serving herself as well.
Once that was taken care of, Emma walked over to the garage door and unlocked it so she could walk to the edge of the garage. "Chris, Breakfast is ready."
"Thanks. I'm almost done. I'm going to finish this up first," He replied as he'd gotten another quarter or so cleared away.
"Alright, I'll put a plate together for when you're done," She said before heading back inside.
Chris continued to scrap away the snow so it piled up in the yard. By the time he got the last quarter of the driveway cleared off, he could hear excited shouts and steps hurrying out of the garage.
Rose quickly hurried over to the snow with Piers not far behind her, waddling along like a tiny stiff marshmallow thanks to the extra layers and thick puffy blue winter coat he'd been bundled in. Once she made it to the snow filled front yard she instantly flopped into the snow to make a snow angel.
Chris watched and winced as Piers attempted to copy Rose by falling face-first into the snow and wiggling around. This kid was a walking hazard to himself. Chris sighed and hurried over. "Are you guy's okay?"
"Yeah,"
"Yes,"
"Try not to lay in the snow too long or you'll get frostbite," Chris warned as he moved to pick up Piers and help him back onto his feet. As he did so, he felt the soft impact of a quickly made snowball. He raised an eyebrow and slowly looked over to find Rose trying to pretend she had no idea what was going on, all while making another snow ball. "Seriously?"
"What?" Rose asked in return. "I didn't do anything. I'm just, building a snowman is all,"
"Oh really,"
"yep," Rose replied as she worked on patting more snow together.
"Well, guess I better help with that," Chris replied as he made a snow ball of his own and made it bigger. if she threw hers, he'd have a much bigger one waiting in retaliation.
Rose watched as the intimidatingly large snowball formed, and quickly had second thoughts about throwing hers. That looked like it would hurt... "Okay I think that's big enough," Rose said as the snowball now required Chris to push it around with two hands.
"I donno, I could make it bigger," Chris warned in return.
"Yeah that's fine," She nervously said as she walked over with her own decently large ball of snow that required both of her arms to carry it. Rose placed her snow ball on top of the snow boulder that Chris had made, while Piers carried over a handful of vaguely packed snow and smacked that on the snowball as well.
"Needs a head," Chris pointed out as Piers continued to pat the snowman.
"I got it," Rose quickly replied as she saw her opportunity.
Chris knelt down once more and started working on another retaliation snow ball.
"What are you doing? I said I got it?" Rose asks with a frown.
"Just making a back-up in case Piers knocks over the body," Chris replied with a shrug. Like hell she was going to start a fight like that and then catching him off guard a second time.
Dang it all. Rose grumbled to herself under her breath as her plan failed yet again. But hey. She had a snow man. She finished the still decent size, but smallest, addition to the pile and put that on top.
Chris watched with genuine surprise. Guess she was telling the truth after all. That or she figured out she was picking a fight she'd lose. "All right, I'll go and see if Emma has a nose for it. Keep an eye on your brother. I'll be right back," He said as he left the retaliation snowball behind in favor of heading inside.
He tapped the snow off his boots once more even though he left them on and walked to the kitchen.
"Hey I was about to go and check on you," Emma greeted as she watched Chris walk to the fridge. "I put your plate in the microwave."
"Do we have carrots?"
"huh?" Emma raised an eyebrow and walked over. "I think there's a bag in there from a few days ago, Why?"
"Kids made a snow man," Chris answered as he found a half full bag of carrots. "Figured it'd need a nose."
"I see," Emma replied as her confusion turned to amusement. "Theres a bag of charcoal chunks in the garage if it needs eyes and a mouth."
"Good to know, might grab a few pieces," Chris admitted while taking a carrot from the half full bag.
"All right, Did you want to take a break? I can swap places with you for a few minutes if you're hungry,"
"It's been a while since I've gotten to spend time with them, I don't mind keeping an eye on them to make sure they stay in the yard." Chris replied as he closed up the bag and put it away.
"Okay. If you see runny noses, send them in. They're cold and just going numb," Emma instructed as she went back to cleaning up the mess from all the open gifts. There were toys to take out of cardboard and plastic and batteries that needed to be installed.
Chris chuckled to himself as he closed the fridge. "I've got it handled."
"I know, I know. Have fun," Emma said and made a playful shooing motion.
Chris made his way back out to the garage with the carrot nose in hand, and stopped along the way to dig out a few Charcoal briquettes that he smashed with the heel of his boot to get smaller chunks for the kids to use. By the time he made it back, he found Piers was making a tiny snow 'castle' by sitting and mounding up snow in front of him. He also rather quickly noticed that his retaliation snowball was gone and that Rose was in the middle of making a second sightly smaller snowman.
"What are you up to now?" Chris asked as he watched Rose put the 'body' on the base of the second snowman.
"... It looked lonely," She hesitantly admitted, knowing well enough her answer was childish as she looked over to the larger snow man. "If it's gonna stand out here till it melts, it might as well have a few others to wait with it. Right?"
Chris watched as Rose walked off to make another slightly smaller snowball for the second snowman's head. "Fair enough," He agreed as he put down the carrot and charcoal and got to work. Rose had her grumpy moments. She was stubborn, but no one could say she wasn't empathetic. She knew what it was like to be lonely and didn't want others to feel the same.
"I'm already making the head," Rose announced with a frown.
"I know, I'm making another one," Chris answered as he rolled the snow, even going so far as to start collecting snow from around the side of the house. The two worked together, and one snowman became a large snowman with two smaller snowman's one on either side.
Rose hummed as she looked at the collection and glanced over at Piers who was now trying to dig a tunnel in the center of his snow mound. "Hmm. One more."
"Another one?" Chris asked bewildered.
"Yeah, a much smaller one," Rose confirmed before vaguely gesturing to Piers.
Chris smiled to and chuckled under his breath. "All right. Lets get to work."
the wound up having to gather snow from the backyard this time to make the tiny addition, but the smallest snowman was slowly built. More carrots and charcoal were collected for extra faces including a baby carrot for the small snowman.
"There, That looks better." Rose admitted with a nod at the snow family.
"hmm. one more thing," Chris said as he took off his scarf and put that around the neck of the largest one. "There. Now let's get inside. It's been over an hour." Chris said and noticed that piers had flopped onto what was left of the snow to make another very tired and lazy snow angel. "Piers, Bud, come on time to go inside."
Piers slowly got up and trudged over. He was wet, and cold and his nose was runny, and it wasn't fun outside anymore. Inside sounded good. Inside and lots of blankets.
Chris led the way inside for the group and helped piers out of his snow boots. "Em, Kids are done with the snow." He announced.
"Welcome back! I'll get started on some hot chocolate. Rose make sure you change into dry clothes."
"Already on it," Rose replied as she was already halfway up the stairs.
"Come on bud, let's get you dried off," Chris said as he led Piers upstairs. It took some work, but the snow soaked layers were eventually replaced with dry, warm fluffy pajamas and a blanket that would hopefully help the kid warm up quicker.
Chris watched as Piers hurried off to head back downstairs, where his toys were waiting. After he was sure that Piers made it down without tripping on his blanket, Chris went over to his and Emma's room to change as well. A change of clothes did wonders for warming back up, and he made his way back downstairs as well.
As he walked into the open living space he found Emma, Piers and Rose sitting at the table, each with a mug along with a plate of breakfast at his chair and Coffee mug that read #1 Chris. He took his seat with a content smile and sipped at his coffee as the rest of the family enjoyed each others quiet company.
List of gifts:
1 pep talk video message from Jeff Schine (The voice actor of Chris Redfield from RE8) recorded specifically for the readers :)
16 illustrations of scenes from the story from various artists
1 Outfit Reference sheet for Emma
Well, it's been fun writing for you guys. Granted I'll be back in 2 months, but, it just feels like such a long break after writing this story pretty much non-stop for almost a year and a half. At this point, my plan is to finish up the AU story of Aged up Piers, that will probably eat 3 of the 8 weeks, then spend the last 5 cleaning up Bond Polarity, hopefully get a new chapter in there, so I can get back into a rotation of writing for it by the time Shadow of Rose Drops. Once that drops, I'll take a week or two to completely examine the content for details and pick up again here for 6 more chapters.
