Chapter Text
Raven was pacing her apartment nervously, checking her phone every few minutes. She had started on a batch of cookies and gotten out most of the decorations, but was too full of nervous energy to do much besides put together a playlist of holiday songs, which she kept tweaking every few minutes. Had Luna seemed like more of a traditional, Silent Night type? Or would she prefer some updated covers, á la Mariah Carey ‘All I Want for Christmas is You?’ Eventually, Raven decided to compromise, including a variety. She did have other guests to think about.
After some time had passed, during which she hadn't been quite as productive as she had hoped, her phone pinged. She snatched it up, and felt her heart skip a beat when she saw the unknown number. She took a deep breath before opening the text, assuring herself it would be just how they had discussed it. Luna wasn’t about to cancel.
And she didn’t.
Luna: shift over. btw, dress code??
Raven: Black tie.
Raven: JK
Raven: Ugly sweater would be ideal
Luna: on it.
Raven smiled at her phone, then looked down at her own attire. Now that Luna was coming, she might want to up her game. Retreating to her closet, she scoured the shelves until she came across the perfect outfit.
It was a short while before she heard the doorbell ring. "Coming!" she called, and swept her eyes over the apartment one last time before striding to the door and pulling it open.
Raven was momentarily struck breathless. Luna stood on the threshold, hands tucked into the pockets of her down jacket. Her bright, curly hair framed her soft face and bright eyes. She looked absolutely stunning. After a second of silence, she spoke.
“Not having second thoughts, are you?” Her words had the intonation of a joke, but Raven thought she detected a hint of anxiety in her voice.
She collected herself enough to quip, “No, just relieved that you didn’t bring the hatchet.”
“Oh, I must have forgotten it in the car. Would you give me a second to go grab it?” Luna responded with a relieved smile, half-turning on the doormat.
Raven smirked. “Ah, that’s what I get for asking out the pretty girl I just met. They all turn out to be serial killers. When will I learn?”
“Oh, does this happen to you often? Here I was thinking I was special,” Luna replied in mock-offense.
“Aw, don’t get jealous. None of them made it this far. You want to come in?”
“I would love to.”
Raven stepped out of the way so that Luna could enter. She did so, removed her coat and scarf, and hung them on a nearby coat rack. As she turned back around, she revealed a very loud knit sweater; blue, green, and black, with white text stitched above a picture of what appeared to be eight salmon pulling a sleigh.
“Merry Fishmas,” Raven read aloud. “Wow, that certainly qualifies.”
“I got it at work last year. They’re big on puns over there. You should read the email subject lines.”
“Not sure if mine is technically a pun, but…” Raven lifted her arms to display her own black garment with large, blocky rainbow letters that read “DON WE NOW OUR GAY APPAREL.” Luna grinned appreciatively.
Raven dropped her arms gave a modest shrug. “Well, technically ‘bi apparel,’ but I thought it fit the occasion.”
“It’s perfect, I’m jealous. My sweater pales in comparison…”
“Come on, yours is still well-suited to the holiday.”
“Well, if you can think of a better holiday-themed fish pun than this has… let minnow.”
“I’ll mullet over and get back to you,” Raven shot back.
Luna shook her head in appreciation. “Darn. You’re fantastic.”
“Don’t you mean fintastic?” Raven teased.
“Oh my cod, you have to stop.” This cracked them both up. Any lingering doubts about the awkwardness of the situation dissolved in the laughter.
Once they stopped giggling, Raven felt the need to welcome her guest properly. “Well,” she started, extending her arm grandly to the apartment. “My humble abode.”
“How lovely. I see you fit the tree in, somehow. Magic?”
“Upper-body strength and lots of cursing.”
“Consider me impressed. I was skeptical, but I think your place can pull it off.”
“Gives it a nice earthy feel, does it not?”
“Definitely.”
There was a pause, then Luna clapped her hands down on the counter. “So. Big party. What do you need me to do?”
“Let’s see.” Raven surveyed the room, then gestured to a few boxes to Luna’s left. “Maybe start with unpacking those ornaments? Then move on to putting up tinsel? I’ve got some baking I need to finish— made the dough a little earlier. It isn’t a party without cookies.”
“You know it.” Luna took a seat and opened the nearest box. It was filled with an assortment of baubles, homemade ornaments, and tinsel.
“You wouldn’t mind if I played some songs, would you?” Raven asked, hand hovering above her phone’s screen.
“Not in the least.”
She pressed play. For about a half hour, the pair worked in a comfortable near silence, broken only by some enthusiastic karaoke— sometimes with accompanying dance moves, which grew more and more ridiculous as the late afternoon wore on.
A little while later, the oven beeped, and Raven bent to remove her cookies and set them on a rack to cool. When they were ready, she began to frost them.
“Hey, want to be my taste tester?” Raven called, once she had added the finishing touches to the first batch.
“Hit me up,” Luna responded, twisting around to face her, task abandoned.
Raven picked up one of the snowmen shapes, and extended it to the other girl. Luna made no move to grab it. Instead, she quirked her eyebrow, almost in a challenge.
With a smile, Raven stepped closer and lifted the the cookie a little higher, so that it hovered directly in front of Luna’s mouth.
After a pause, during which their eyes remained locked, Luna took a bite.
Raven knew the gesture might be a little cliche, but hoped that it would come across as sweet. Literally, in fact. Luna closed her eyes and let out a noise of appreciation.
“Mmmm, that is one tasty pastry.”
Raven laughed, but didn’t return to her icing.
The music faded away, the end of White Christmas dwindling to nothing. Raven wondered distractedly if that was actually just in her imagination, if Luna’s quiet breathing was becoming so loud in her mind that it drowned out everything else— but no. It was just a natural pause in the music, as if it was holding its own breath, waiting for something.
Luna was looking down at her, just a tiny bit taller. Her eyes were deep and brown and distracting, and full of some emotion that Raven couldn’t quite place. As time seemed to slow even further, Raven perceptively noticed a fleck of frosting at the corner of her lips. Just as she started to lean forward, ever so slightly—
The door burst open, slamming against the wall with a loud bang. Without turning to look at the intruders, Raven closed her eyes and sighed deeply. Of. Course. After wallowing in her frustration for a fraction of a second, she stepped back slightly, reopened her eyes, and turned towards the door, eyebrows raised.
On her threshold stood two people, faces rosy from the cold, dark hair messy from the wind. She was about to ask why they hadn’t at least rung the doorbell, then remembered who she was talking to. Monty and Jasper were strangers to the concept of knocking.
Monty stepped hesitantly inside, eyeing the situation. After an extremely awkward few seconds, he explained, “I thought you might need some help. We can leave if we’re… interrupting something.”
The girls in the kitchen glanced at each other. After a beat, Raven said, “No, it’s fine. We actually really could use the help.” Luna nodded sheepishly. She was up to her ears in multi-colored tinsel. Monty smirked. “I thought so.”
The two took off their coats and scarves and hung them next to Luna’s. Raven smiled at their matching Naughty and Nice sweaters as they made their way to the counter. They waved an awkward hello to Luna, while simultaneously shooting Raven a questioning glance. She started.
“Oh, right, sorry. Monty, Jasper, this is Luna. Luna, Monty and Jasper.” Raven had purposefully avoided using an indicator for the girl beside her, because she wasn’t sure what exactly to say. Friend? Date? She had just asked her out, so girlfriend definitely seemed a bit too much. She hoped Luna didn’t notice her hesitation.
Apparently not. Her guest immediately asked, “Oh, is this the Jasper who learned the violin for your caroling excursion?”
“The one and only. A night that none of us will ever forget. Also, I’d say ‘learned’ is generous.”
Jasper looked offended. “Aw, come on, Raven, you have to admit my rendition of Jingle Bells was pretty impressive. Right?” he appealed to Monty.
“Jasp, you know how appreciative I am of your musical talents,” Monty assured him. Looking satisfied with this response, Jasper bounced over to the tree, where he began to dig through the boxes of ornaments.
“At least that violin kept him from actually singing any carols,” Monty whispered to the girls.
“I heard that!” Jasper called from behind the tree as they laughed. Monty grinned and went to join his boyfriend, taking the box of tinsel from Luna as he did so. Raven shot Luna an apologetic smile, and turned back to frosting her cookies while Luna polished off her own. They would have more time together later. For now, she really did have to focus on setting up a half-decent holiday party for her friends.
With the help of Jasper and Monty, that proved less difficult than she had expected. The apartment slowly transformed into a winter wonderland— paper snowflakes, draped tinsel, fully decked-out tree, the works. Although Jasper had a couple inches on her, Luna had the honor of putting the star on top— with the help of a chair dragged in from the dining room. Raven smiled to herself as she watched her lean forward carefully, meticulously positioning the shining gold-plated tree-topper atop the pine that the two of them had carried together.
Although a little put out about being passed over for this task, Jasper was placated when he found a few sprigs of mistletoe among the other ornaments in one of his designated boxes. His devilish grin inspired some trepidation in Raven. He also made sure there was a roaring fire going in her fireplace, despite her safety-hazard-born reservations.
“There’s a screen in front of it and everything, how bad could this be? We’ll make sure not to leave any flammable objects too close. Okay?” She eventually grumbled her approval and a roaring fire was lit, which Raven had to admit made for a pretty cozy atmosphere.
Soon, stockings were hung above it, the old grandfather clock was strung up with garlands, and frosted cookies were plated and set on a table with other refreshments. Raven’s “Christmas Jams” playlist was blasting music, and everything was ready for the guests to arrive.
And arrive they did. Raven had never realized how small her apartment was until it was filled to the brim with hordes of her rowdy friends and acquaintances. Of course, she had had a lot of them over, but seldom all at once, and never with the accompanying ruckus that came from them all being in the same place at the same time.
Raven quickly gave up greeting every person who walked in the door, instead deciding that a simple wave would work for now. She occasionally whispered a name or anecdote to Luna, who seemed to be enjoying the running commentary of their arriving guests.
But suddenly, Luna’s eyes widened and she grinned. “Hey, is that Lincoln?” she asked, gaze towards the door. Raven turned, recognizing the dark shaved head immediately.
“Yeah, how do you know him?” she inquired.
“We went to high school together. Wow, what a small world.” Luna glanced at the other girl. “You wouldn’t mind if I went to say hi, would you?”
Raven shook her head with a smile. “Knock yourself out. I’ve been neglecting my duties as hostess anyways.” She watched as Luna made her way to the door, where she immediately struck up a conversation with her old friend. Raven scanned the room for anyone she hadn’t greeted yet, and noticed a couple standing near the desserts.
“Hey, Murph, Emori,” she said, coming up behind them. “Not plotting the theft of my silverware, are you?”
The pair turned and grinned upon seeing her. “Well, if it isn’t the woman of the hour, Reyes herself.”
“Good to see you, Raven,” Emori added, flashing her an innocent smile.
“And don’t worry, I think our hands are too full with your refreshments to be pilfering your fine cutlery,” Murphy said, taking a generous bite from a frosted Santa.
“I hope so. A lot of work went into these. All me, by the way, before Monty and Jasper swooped in to help out.”
“Of course they did. Can’t have their party upstaged without getting credit for it.”
There was a brief lull in the conversation, then, “Who’s that?” Murphy asked, indicating Luna. She was still chatting with Lincoln across the room. “I see everyone from our usual crowd, but those curls are foreign to me.”
“Oh, she’s here as my date,” Raven replied, as casually as she could.
Murphy raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”
“Yeah, she sold me my Christmas tree and I asked her out. She helped decorate, too.”
“You’re sure you didn’t just seduce a random girl to help you with the decorating because you always leave it for the last minute, Reyes?”
Raven faked offense. “Aw, come on, Murphy, I’m hurt. I asked her out because she’s gorgeous and made me laugh and can carry a billion-ton tree for like half a mile.”
“Fair enough.” Murphy took another bite of his cookie. “So, what’s her name?”
“Luna,” Raven replied, trying to keep her eyes from drifting towards her again, still standing next to Lincoln.
“Cute. Well, good on you, Reyes. And about time, if I may add.”
Raven smirked. “You may not. But thanks.” She glanced around at her other friends milling around, then back at the couple before her. “Well, I guess I’ll leave you two to your desserts. Good to see you, Emori,” she said with a smile, and turned away.
She noticed that Luna’s conversation with Lincoln was beginning to wrap up, and started to make her way over before she was cut off by Clarke, who wanted to talk to her about some recent art school drama. With a sigh, Raven resigned herself to a good half hour (at least) of the politics of different artsy cliques. She realized Lincoln had introduced Luna to Octavia, and that the three of them were now deep in conversation.
After what seemed like hours, someone tapped Raven on the shoulder. She turned from Clarke to see Jasper munching on a reindeer cookie, Monty at his side.
“Hey, Raven. Monty and I were wondering if you have any board games, or anything like that? Might be fun.”
“Oh, yeah, I think I’ve got some in my closet. I can go grab them,” she offered, thankful for the escape from Clarke’s latest story of pigment-based betrayal.
“Neat, thanks.”
“I can help you carry them in,” Luna volunteered suddenly, appearing at Monty’s shoulder. Apparently her conversation with Lincoln and Octavia had finished. Raven smiled at her gratefully. Finally.
“Be right back,” she told the others, and led Luna through the kitchen and towards the closet at the end of the hallway, the noises of the party fading away as she closed the door behind them. The hallway was dim, lit only by a single street lamp outside the window, which illuminated their faces and the snow pouring by. As they reached the closet door, Raven paused and turned to her companion.
“Hey. Sorry I’ve barely seen you since the party started. Kind of rude for me to invite you, then leave you to fend for yourself among my friends. They can be a handful.”
Luna smiled and leaned her back against the wall of the narrow corridor. “I got to talk to a few, and they’re certainly an interesting bunch. I’m pretty sure my wallet changed hands a couple times before ending up back in my purse.”
“Good-hearted delinquents, that’s them.”
“Yeah, I can imagine that they—” Luna suddenly stopped talking, eyes fixed a few feet above Raven’s head.
“Um, that they what?” Raven prompted.
Without speaking, Luna motioned with raised eyebrows. Raven looked up to see a sprig of a small green plant with red berries suspended above her head.
After a second, she sighed deeply. “I’ll bet you anything this was Jasper’s doing.”
“Shouldn’t have let him be in charge of the mistletoe. Fatal mistake.”
There was a short, awkward pause, each waiting for the other to make a move to leave, or dismiss it. After a beat, Luna glanced up again with a look of contemplation.
“Well, I mean, it is tradition…”
“…And who am I to disagree with the well-established customs of this widely celebrated holiday?” Raven replied, echoing her tone.
“If your ‘Christmas Jams’ playlist is any indication, probably the first in line.”
Raven grinned. “That’s fair.” There was a beat, another moment of silence that could have been described as awkward— but more accurately as anticipatory.
After a second, Luna reached out a hand and touched Raven’s cheek, gently, uncertainly.
Raven inhaled sharply, feeling as unsure as the other girl looked. She managed a small smile, trying to let Luna know that she was okay with this. She was okay— although she thought her heart might just shatter from beating so quickly.
Luna leaned down, and softly, gently, with great affection, captured Raven in a kiss. She felt her eyes close, Luna’s thumb trace her cheek, hyper-aware of every sensation tingling throughout her body.
After a moment, they pulled apart. Raven opened her eyes, a little breathless, in time to see Luna do the same. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes sparkling, and she looked happy— if a little surprised at herself.
After a second, Raven laughed in disbelief. “Wow.”
“Wow,” Luna echoed.
Raven laughed again, leaning her head onto Luna’s shoulder for a brief second, before turning to the closet and opening it up, still grinning.
“Come on, let’s get back out there. They’re probably waiting for the board games.” After grabbing a few from the top of the stack, Raven offered her hand, which Luna took gladly.
They re-entered the party side by side, holding hands and grinning sheepishly, each clutching a game in their free hand. Raven noticed Jasper wink at her from across the room and stuck out her tongue, but after a second she couldn’t help but grin back. The party continued on, as people danced and laughed and talked and ate and played games, Raven and Luna joining in with enthusiasm. But their hands never unclasped, and they never left each other’s side.
As midnight neared, the last few stragglers were making their way out the door. As he and Jasper left, arm in arm, Monty waved over his shoulder to the pair sitting side by side on the couch in front of the fireplace. Raven waved back with a smile, before twisting to face Luna as the door shut behind them.
“So… would you maybe… want to hang out another time? Like, another date?”
Luna smiled softly, tracing circles across Raven’s palm with her thumb. “I’d love that. Coffee, Thursday? I know a place.”
“Can’t wait.”
There was a brief, comfortable pause, during which Raven laid her head on Luna’s shoulder, looking into the flickering flames of the hearth before them. Just then, the grandfather clock in the kitchen struck midnight, twelve chimes ringing out into the still air.
“Merry Christmas, Luna,” Raven murmured, taking in the glow from the fireplace and string of lights above it, the lingering smell of cookies baking, and the snow drifting past outside the window, all turning the already pleasant scene into something nearly magical.
“Merry Christmas, Raven.”