Chapter Text
Christmas morning was not the exciting affair it usually was for Claudia. That image of Santa kissing Daddy Lou haunted her all night. Papa Les would be so heart broken! Maybe she would save telling him for after Christmas– no! That wouldn’t be fair to her papa and Daddy Lou had to explain what he was doing under the mistletoe last night!
The red suited homewrecker had brought all the gifts Claudia wanted, though. Even if he was trying to ruin her parents’ marriage, she could be happy about that.
“You all good, Claudia?” She turned at looked at Daddy Lou. “You look a bit… you’re thinking hard about something.”
The girl sighed, looked at him, then at her Papa Les. With tears in her eyes, since she didn’t want this to be true, she said, “Papa… Daddy Lou kissed Santa Claus last night.” Her daddy immediately spitting out his coffee and opening his mouth to say something gave her the confidence to add on, “And don’t say you didn’t cause I saw you! I came downstairs and I was hiding in the kitchen and-and I saw you!”
Both of her parents looked deeply embarrassed. “Well?” she said to no one in particular. Rose and Viktor were too engaged with the toys they’d gotten to respond at all, but Papa Les was looking at them rather than her.
“Claudia,” he said like he was biting back a laugh. “Louis was not kissing Santa last night.”
“Yes he was! I saw him!”
Louis wiped his mouth of the spit out coffee. “You weren’t supposed to be downstairs, young lady; that’s an issue in itself—.”
“Don’t try and distract me, Daddy Lou! Explain yourself!”
Both her parents looked at each other for a moment before her papa stood up. “Claudia, darling, I’ll explain.” He began walking to the kitchen.
She followed, “How are you gonna explain, Papa? You weren’t there?” He crouched down and faced her.
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Claudia wished Daddy Lou was cheating on her papa with Santa Claus.
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The doorbell rang around 5 pm. “Claudia, can you go get that?” Daddy Lou called from the kitchen. Claudia put her tablet on the couch and shot him a glare. He sighed exasperatedly. “Please let Daniel and Armand in, Claudia.
“Are they at the door? Or is it Santa again?” she shot back with all the vitriol of a 9 year old scorned.
“Claudia, please,” Papa Les said from the couch while bouncing Viktor on his lap. Viktor babbled something about Santa and Claudia sighed, beginning to walk to the front door.
It was her uncles Armand and Daniel standing there, Armand in front while Daniel was behind him balancing wrapped boxes on his arms. Before Armand could say anything, the secret Claudia had been holding in all day burst out.
“Santa isn’t real and my parents are weird!”
Armand looked at her blankly before saying, “Merry Christmas to you too Claudia.” Behind him Daniel was laughing his head off. As they walked in, Daniel dropped the boxes by the stairs and yelled, “Louis, what did you do?!”