User blog:Promestein/Starcross - Merry Christmas

This Christmas, I ended up writing something involving my characters and the verse, and I thought it'd be a waste to keep this to myself, so I will share it here. Enjoy.

Alice and Venus' Christmas
Christmas is such a fucking chore.

Everything seemed like a better idea before she did it. Of course she needed a big, beautiful tree that she and Venus could decorate together. Of course she needed to get the perfect gifts. Of course their house needed to be a bright bastion of holiday spirit, at least for Venus’ sake.

But now, she’s just tired. All of Venus’ many, many gifts were sit under the Christmas tree. Some, from her, others, from ‘Santa’. Each one served as a stark, painful reminder of how much money she had spent. Sure, she could work it back given some time and effort, but it was nice to have a comfortable amount of money on hand and in her savings. Otherwise, it was just uncomfortable and scary.

Alice picks up the milk, which Venus had set carefully by the fireplace hours earlier, and sniffs it. It smells fine, but she knows that, after spending so long out, it’d have spoiled a bit. She drinks it all in one go, wincing at the slightly sour taste, before setting it carefully back down. And the cookies - which Venus had insisted on baking with her.

At least they were good. Alice could pride herself on that. Cooking and baking were easy enough. After years of obsessing over her meals and portions, cooking just got easier and easier. Baking was a bit newer, but Venus liked everything she made enough that Alice felt justified in baking every once and a while. She finds herself smiling a bit, and she claps her hands to her cheeks, grumbling.

You’re getting soft.

She walks back to the tree slowly, just to check and count all the gifts. There were things for her, too - little, self-indulgent gifts she had gotten under the guise of ‘Santa’, and things that Venus had gotten herself. Alice doesn’t know what they were - the urge to unwrap them in secret comes to her, but she can’t spoil Venus’ fun. She shifts the position of every gift, trying to get them to a point that seemed perfectly organized.

And of course, now that she’s here, she has to check the tree too. All the ornaments have to be moved back so they aren’t too close to the edge of the branches. They branches poke and scrape her skin, but she ignores them. She’s dealt with worse. The tree is one of the lives one, which she and Venus had picked up from a store. Venus had insisted on getting a real tree, and, for some reason, Alice was easily swayed. Children.

Finally satisfied, Alice rubs her eyes and exits the room, turning off the lights behind her. It was oddly satisfying to see all the Christmas tree’s lights just flick off, all at once. Alice briefly considers flicking it on and off, but pushes the thought down. She’s not a child.

Now, it was time for her routine check.

Every door in the house was double locked, and all the windows’ shutters drawn closed. The windows, too, were locked. Everything seemed perfectly and utterly fine. It was like this every day. Nothing was ever unlocked, but she still did her check, because, if she didn’t, the fear of someone breaking in and stealing things and killing her would keep her up for hours.

The last room she checks is Venus’. She opens the door, slowly, and steps inside to check the window. Many nights, Venus would open the blinds to stare at the moon, and sometimes she’d close them again. Not this night, thankfully. Alice taps her hands against the wall, before turning her attention to Venus, tucked in underneath layers of blankets. “The Night Before Christmas” was lying on the floor, near her bed.

Alice had, on her insistence, read it to her until she had fallen asleep, but she must have woken up and fished it out again. Unsurprising. Alice picks it up and puts it back away in Venus’ bookshelf, before slowly stepping back to Venus to smooth back her hair and press a kiss to her forehead. “Sleep well, darling,” she murmurs, before turning her back and leaving the room, carefully shutting the door behind her.

Now, she had to check her food. All throughout the day, she had been beginning the preparations for their Christmas dinner. Alice knew enough about food - and traditions, as meaningless and outdated as so many of them were - that she knew how to make a traditional American Christmas dinner, but that was both boring and overdone, and she had done it all before.

So, she had worked to do something a bit (just a bit!) different. Maybe it was a bit ambitious for just two people - is that all you have, Alice? - but she ate a lot, and it was always good to have leftovers. A turkey was, of course, essential. She had picked one out weeks earlier, and had spent much of Christmas eve preparing it. It was nicely deboned and cleaned out, now, and all its stuffing already prepared.

There were potatoes, peeled and chopped. She had made gravy the week before. With some difficulty, she had managed to locate romeritos, along with all the necessary complements, which were always one of the best parts of a Christmas dinner, at least for her. They were simple enough that she could cook them tomorrow.

She had enough ingredients for a small batch of tamales. The dough was ready. Part of her wishes she had reason to cook more. But she can barely handle one child as it is, and it’s not like anyone else ever stuck with her for more than a few months. Alice chews on her tongue before pushing the thoughts away.

Alice had more flour, for atole, which would also be cooked tomorrow, as well as various soups, stews, and rice. There was kimchi, too. Even if that wasn’t a Christmas dish, she liked it, and Venus liked it, so they were eating it on Christmas and they needed the vegetables to balance out all the meat anyways.

Everything is in order.

She’s so tired. Her eyes feel heavy. Alice rubs at them, staggering into the bathroom to brush her teeth. She barely has the energy to go through with clipping her nails and shaving and everything else, but she does. Even if she did it the night before, she needs to do it every night.

Finally, she opens up the door to her room, and quickly undresses so that she can fall into bed. She pulls the covers up and over her head, knowing that, despite the late hour - her clock says it’s nearly three in the morning - Venus will be up at seven to wake her up so they can unwrap their gifts together.

And even if Alice will internally whine and groan about that, she’s looking forward to Venus’ reactions, and to her own gifts. Alice wakes up to the not completely unfamiliar event of Venus jumping onto her bed. There’s a little uncontrollable jolt of panic and fear, but once she’s placed Venus’ face and figured everything out, she calms back down. “Mom! It’s Christmas!” Too much noise. The upside of that is that she was never too sleepy to get up after Venus jumped in. All the adrenaline really woke her up.

She shifts, turning over onto her back. “Merry Christmas, darling,” she says, still somewhat sleepily. “Get to the tree and I’ll be there in just a second.” Alice shoos Venus, who is bouncing with excitement, from her room. She doesn’t have the time for a long shower, so she takes a shorter one. Her hair’s a curly, fluffy mess - Venus would only get upset if she spent time on that when there were presents waiting. Alice can’t blame her.

Once she’s dressed - in lazy casual sweatpants and a tank top - she makes her way to the living room. Venus is still rushing around the tree, looking at her presents and making adorable, excited little noises. “I’m here, sweetie,” she yawns, “You should check out the stocking presents first, I think.”

“Oh! Okay!” Venus rushes over to the fireplace, taking down her stocking without even the slightest bit of hesitation. Alice smiles, and slowly makes her way to her side, taking down her stocking on the way. She already knew what was inside her stocking, but she needed to get ready to fake excitement over Santa’s “gifts”.

Venus looks at her for permission, and, as soon as Alice nods, Venus pulls out the contents of her stocking. There’s small stuffed animals, candy and chocolate, a keychain. Venus is so adorably excited about every little thing, waving her little arms around and then hugging her, mumbling little, hurried thanks.

Alice’s stocking isn’t filled with anything special. There’s a bit of candy, a small snake plush she had decided to gift herself with, and a new case for her phone. Venus seems amazed that Santa got her gifts so right, even down to her favorite candy. Such childish innocence is something Alice could never bring herself to crush.

She seems angsty, though, so Alice gets her exaggerated fawning over quickly so they can move onto the big gifts. Venus unsurprisingly goes straight for the biggest gift, ripping into it with small fingers. Alice watches in anticipation, tapping her fingers against the floor, as Venus finally manages to open it.

“Oh…” Beneath all the wrapping paper was a fully furnished terrarium. “Is…”

“Today, after we’re done with the rest of the gifts and have breakfast,” Alice says, smiling, “We’ll go and get you a snake of your own. Like mine.” Venus looks up at her with adorably big, excited eyes, and then jumps forwards to hug her. Alice hugs her back, chuckling. “I take it you like it.”

Venus just makes an indescribable, excited sound, and Alice feels herself warm up. It’s moments like these that made this excessive holiday worth it. Alice pets her hair. “There’s other gifts, you know.” ''How could you spend so much money on this? A terrarium? The tree? All the food? A snake?'' Alice ignores her own thoughts, instead focusing on Venus. “As if I’d only get you a snake, as amazing as they are.”

“I love you, mom,” Venus mumbles, face pressed up against her stomach, and Alice sighs contently. “Thank you.”

“I love you too, darling,” she says, lifting Venus up and pressing a kiss to her cheek. “You’re my sunshine.” She’s all you have. Alice pulls a hand through her own knotted hair. “Oh, should I open a gift now? We can alternate.”

Venus nods, not moving out of the hug, and Alice reaches for the nearest gift addressed to her. It was one of two that was from Venus. The most she could get for her with her allowance. “What’s this?” She shakes the box, looking down at Venus. “What’d you get me?”

“Open it,” Venus grumbles, shifting to look at her terrarium.

“Okay,” Alice begins opening the package. It isn’t very large. Maybe the size of a dvd case. It was the size of a dvd case, actually, which didn’t leave a whole lot of guessing room. Unless, of course, she fit something super small inside, and this was just a misdirection. Then again, she was just a child, and how much did she even know? Alice blinks, stopping her thoughts, and instead focuses on peeling back the wrapping paper.

It is, to no one’s surprise, a film.

Blade Runner.

Alice looks at the dvd case for what feels like too long. It’s a good movie. She remembered watching it, in theatres, the year before. (Not with Venus, of course). But… it leaves a dry taste in her mouth, one that she can’t quite explain. She knows enough to know it was a good movie, one of her favorites, but it...

Like tears in rain.

Haha, wow, that’s not something she wants to think about on fucking Christmas. ''Great idea, Alice! Let’s think about death again!'' Alice sighs, and smiles, hugging Venus close. “Thank you. This is a really good movie.” She’d have to watch it again.

The weird feeling sticks with her like a cloud as they unpack the rest of the gifts. Venus insists on her saving the present she gave her for last, because she got less presents than Venus and it wouldn’t be fair if she got through them all right away. The other gifts are less remarkable, at least in Alice’s eyes, than the terrarium. Clothes - much to Venus’ restrained disappointment. Much more to her excitement, a game system, with a few accompanying games. A bunch of books that Alice had looked into, to make sure they were appropriate while still being interesting and relevant. You’re spoiling her. Alice ignores herself.

Her presents from ‘Santa’ are all expected. A few books that she wanted, underwear from Santa - just to show Venus that Santa treated them all equally - and some nicer clothes she had taken notice of. That left one, last gift - the other one that Venus had got for her.

Venus is bouncing with anticipation as she unpacks it. It’s a box - much larger than the other one. Alice has no idea what it could be, which, on some level, irritates her. She’s supposed to know everything, and she can’t even guess what her seven-year old daughter would have bought for her? But she ignores that, because Venus is more important than her ego ( Keep telling yourself that, SOLSTICE ), and surprises are fun enough. Sometimes.

When she finally picks through the box, her fingers hit glass and she pulls out a mug resembling a coiled rattlesnake, with a tail for the handle. That wasn’t the only one, though. In the same package, in a box underneath, was another mug. She picks it up.

World’s Best Mom.

Venus, you really don’t know anything.

Alice wipes her eyes on reflex. Is she crying? Maybe a bit. Her eyes feel a bit wetter than they should. ''Stupid. Soft. Weak.'' She wraps her arms around Venus again, hugging her close. “You,” she mumbles, refusing to allow her voice to waver in the slightest, “Are the best daughter I could ever ask for.”