Work Text:
Their first Christmas as a married couple. Luke smiled with pride as he set out the drinks for Julie’s family to come over. Though their house wasn’t big, it was a tradition for the Molina’s to attend Christmas at the house of the most recently married family member - in this case, Luke and Julie.
Julie was still struggling to get all the decorations on the tree, standing on her tip toes to try to reach some of the branches. Luke paused in the doorway of their small living room and smiled at the sight. His wife was too stubborn to get a step ladder, but too short to win this particular fight with gravity.
“A little help might be nice,” she threw over her shoulder at him, trying to grab one of the tree branches.
Luke smiled slowly. “Oh but my love… the view from here is so delectable.”
Julie snorted. “Horndog.”
“And proud.”
“If you’re going to be a douche about it,” she said, turning back to her task, “at least get the gifts for the family so we can set them out. I don’t know what time everyone plans to get here and I don’t want to look like we aren’t prepared.”
Luke obediently moved to the basket he and Julie had been dropping wrapped presents into as they finished with them. Julie’s were all wrapped in brown paper with stamps on them, and usually a piece of yarn tied it shut. Luke’s were all wrapped in brightly coloured paper that he’d asked Reggie to pick out, since he couldn’t see the colors that close to the full moon, and had small cards taped on with a short message. Julie had teased him when she found the first one, proclaiming it chicken scratch, but he’d watched her pocket it after pressing a kiss to the words, so he figured he was doing something right.
“Here,” he said, picking it up. “Want me to spread them out, or keep them in here?”
“A bit of both? We don’t want to look stingy.”
Luke dropped the basket to the ground and slid his hands around her waist. “Are you worried?”
Julie leaned back against him, her hands coming to settle on his. Their wedding bands glittered in the lights on the tree, sparkling up at him. He still couldn’t believe his luck. This absolute rockstar of a girl with a voice made of gold and the biggest heart in the world had said “I do” to a disaster of a person who occasionally turned into a wolf. He was the lucky one in this relationship, and he never intended to overlook that luck.
“A little.” Julie squeezed his hand reassuringly. “It’s not you. It’s the pressure from my family, I think. This is the first Christmas in anyone’s house that isn’t my dad’s since Mami died, and I really want it to be perfect. My dad needs this.”
“So there’s no legend about how the success of our first Christmas hosting will dictate the rest of our marriage?” Luke asked, gently turning her in his arms. Her arms came up to loop behind his head.
She grinned. “There is. I just figured you wouldn’t want to hear the whole thing after the way you reacted to Bobby threatening to neuter you last time.”
Luke shuddered - Bobby’s neutering jokes were not his favorite. And then Julie laughed, that beautiful laugh that was the most delicate but most powerful thing in the world, and Luke’s favorite sound of all time. And in that moment, he would have taken the threat of a thousand neuterings if it meant she would keep laughing.
“Well,” he said, nosing into the crook of her neck and mumbling against the delicate skin there, “I have the utmost faith in my wife and her ability to wrangle even the most difficult of events to her will. You are going to knock this out of the park, like you do all things.”
Julie’s skin shuddered under Luke’s light touch, and he grinned. Victory.
“Come on, you,” she said breathily. “We have presents to set out.”
Tia Victoria sat back, her hands folded over her stomach as she let out an appreciative sigh. “Mija, that was incredible.”
“Thank you, Tia,” Julie said, clearing plates. “Although if you liked the potatoes, that’s all Luke’s doing. He got me so many that we have a plant in the garden now.”
“She’s being modest,” Luke protested. “Julie took out any of the plants in the garden that could hurt me when I’m in wolf form, since we don’t really know how that works with my system and none of the underground magic community have answers. It left her with a lot of space in the garden, so she put in fruit and vegetables. Almost everything on this table Julie grew herself.”
There were various noises of appreciation and astonishment, and Luke took great pleasure in winking at his wife as she became flustered.
His wife.
Luke was never going to get tired of thinking that to himself. His wife. Who would have thought a disaster child bitten by a werewolf when he was a kid would grow up to connect people through music and get married to the most incredible person in the world? Julie was made of so much more magic than he was.
“Presents, then dessert,” Julie said firmly. “We need to give you all time to digest before you try the pies and cake we have for you.”
Amidst groans, everyone got to their feet and moved to the living room. Willie provided Flynn with a piggyback ride, which prompted Carrie to hop on Alex’s back. Reggie gave Bobby a hopeful look.
Bobby held up a finger. “I love you, but if you try to get on my back I am going to spend Christmas with a bottle of whiskey and a Die Hard marathon. Without you.”
Trevor snorted. Bobby turned to stab an accusatory finger at his father.
“You won’t be invited either.”
“Kindly stop trying to ruin Christmas, Bobby,” Julie said drily as she sat on the sofa and patted the seat next to her. Luke obediently sat, and was jostled to the side by Carlos flopping down and dramatically draping himself across both of them. Julie pushed ineffectively at his legs, before Luke picked him up and put him to the side.
“Why did I have to get the brother-in-law who has super strength as part of his skill set?” Carlos asked grumpily.
“Because your sister fell in love with me and I’m not about to waste that opportunity,” Luke said plainly. The room echoed with the sounds of their friends going, “Aww,”, and Julie buried her head in his side to hide how flustered it made her.
As a result, Ray handed out his gifts first. It was something of a tradition for their family to give Luke two gifts - one for human form, one for wolf. He opened the first to find a case of new guitar picks, which would definitely help when they were touring - his kept splitting throughout their shows, and he went through more of them than any member of the band. The second was what appeared to be a brush, but with a clicking mechanism.
“It’s for when Julie combs out your coat,” Ray explained. “She told me it’s pretty thick - this brush clicks out all the hair so the brush doesn’t get clogged up, and you won’t end up with fur problems when you change back.”
Luke was touched. “Thank you, Ray. That means the world to me.”
“Open mine next,” Reggie said with a grin.
The gifts ranged from toys to a bell for his harness in case he got distracted by a squirrel and sprinted away from Julie again (it had been ONE TIME and they NEVER LET HIM FORGET IT). Most were useful, all were funny. Until it came down to the gifts Julie and Luke were giving to one another.
Luke offered his first, smiling as she opened the package to show a black velvet box. She raised an eyebrow at him.
“We’re already married, so you can’t propose to me again.”
“I would if I could,” Luke proclaimed, “but you and I both know that box is too big for a ring. Open it.”
Julie cautiously opened the lid of the jewelry box to expose her gift to their sights. The room all let out a collective sigh at the sight.
It was a gold necklace, one he had been careful to measure against hers before committing to. It would hang just below her current collection, and it had three charms on it. One was a music note, one was a wolf’s head, and one was a guitar.
“Music, even when I’m in another form,” Luke said gently. “You can always bring me home with music.”
Julie pressed a gentle kiss to his cheek. “Thank you, my love.”
Reggie stuck his head up from behind the couch. “Hey Jules? If you need to bring him home, does that mean you’re letting him out? You shouldn’t let your dog out without a leash, you know.”
After the assorted laughter had settled, Luke met Reggie’s gaze calmly.
“I am going to eat every pair of leather boots you have in your closet, and you are going to have no one to blame except yourself.”
Reggie blanched and sat back on his heels. “Damn, Luke, you don’t have to go right for the kill like that.”
“It’s my killer instincts.”
Julie raised an eyebrow. “The same killer instincts that drive you to announce that someone is at the door seventeen times? Or the ones that tell you the mailman isn’t to be trusted, even though all he has ever done is deliver our mail?”
Luke could feel himself blushing. “There’s just something OFF about him, okay?!”
Julie grinned. “Sure there is, babe. Here, open mine.”
Luke accepted the oddly shaped gift and began to take the paper off, setting it to the side - he knew Julie liked to recycle as much as she could. Underneath was a familiar object.
“A potato?”
Luke looked at Julie in bewilderment. “Is this some kind of revenge for me accidentally getting you too many? My love, the solution to us having too many potatoes is not for you to give me more potatoes.”
Julie let out a peal of laughter, and Luke imagined that if he could grab it from the air and give it shape, it would be a string of crystal snowflakes to hang in their tree to remember this night.
“Actually,” Ray said with a smile, “this is where I come in. You see, when my great grandparents first got their farm, there was no money for a celebration. They couldn’t get a tree, or presents, or a fancy meal. But my grandfather wanted to remember the day. He was so happy with my grandmother, and he wanted to give her what he could.”
Ray gave him a knowing look, and Luke looked down with a smile. He knew what Ray was saying - that it was like Luke himself. Ray was giving his approval for their celebration.
“So,” he continued, “Abuelo went out and found the first potato of the season and gave it to Abuela. Abuela cooked it up for them to share together. You see, there’s a lot to be said for potatoes.”
Luke obediently handed the potato to his father-in-law. Ray held it up so that they could all see the vegetable.
“Potatoes aren’t flashy,” Ray said. “They grow under the surface, and they’re hardly the most impressive vegetable out there. But they’re reliable and sturdy. They can withstand the most intense storms. They provide life and comfort.”
Ray looked to Luke, who had at some point pulled his wife into his lap without realizing.
“This is what I want for you two. A marriage that lasts, that brings comfort and life. A marriage that isn’t for the world but that’s for you two.”
Luke accepted the potato back, contemplating it for a moment.
“I feel bad now,” he said into Julie’s hair. “I didn’t get you a root vegetable.”
Julie laughed softly, covering Luke’s hand with her own. “There’s always next year, love.”
“Not that I don’t love watching Julie and Luke be in love,” Carlos called from the kitchen, “but I have been watching that every day since I was a baby, so can we have dessert?”
Luke laughed and let Alex help him to his feet. Before they walked back to finish the meal, Luke pulled Julie into his arms and presented her with the potato.
“Will you help me plant it tomorrow?”
Julie smiled and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Of course. Although we will have to be careful that you don’t try to dig it up next full moon.”
Luke was proud to add a traditional dish to the next Molina family holiday.
Mashed potatoes for his daughter.