Chapter Text
Being festive had always been a trademark in the Interitus household, but only when they remembered what time of the year it was, much less the time of the month. With most of them absolved in their jobs and hobbies, no one realized the holidays sneaking up on them, even the most vigilant ones had it slipped their minds. However, when the first snow fell and the icicles dangled from gutters, the entire house exploded into a frenzy. That, plus many accusations from a certain horned, blue-haired gremlin to a much taller and technologically advanced older sister with an attitude shorter than the annoyance.
The decoration kick-started without a hitch— which was incredibly easy given that Caeli had kept all of the seasonal decorations stored inside the workshop. The moment that word reached him that Christmas and the rest of the holidays were knocking on their door, he immediately got to work dragging out dusty bins and crinkled-up bags. Of course, he had some help that came in the form of two very small creatures. Both of them chanted “Christmas! Christmas!” as they ran around his legs, tripping him more times than he could count.
They were still hounding him as he took the piles of boxes to the main foyer of the house. As he took the lids off of them, the children were all over the contents within. Their eyes glowed with childlike wonder and in no time, they made a mess of decorations around their feet.
Still, it was cute seeing Lettie with a wreath around his little neck, claiming that he was helping as he forgot where to put his little feet. A couple of times, Caeli had to unceremoniously drop whatever he was holding to quickly catch the little kid before he fell flat on his face.
Rai was as much of a help as their twin brother, even digging into one of the nearby boxes and getting excited over a three-foot nutcracker. However, their moment of wonder quickly became short-lived when they realized that the wooden sword was glued to the figure’s hip.
“Woah you didn’t tell me you had Santa’s elves this year.”
Excited squeals from both of the kids hit Caeli’s ears and he turned around to see Ayumu nearly spill hot cocoa as their baby siblings began a verbal and physical assault of childlike innocence. Quickly, both of their hands snapped up above their head and held their drink aloft as the kids jumped at their legs.
“Mumu! I’m a tree!”
“You smell like one!” came Ayumu’s answer.
“Can you give me a sword like that wooden guy?”
“Mumu! It’s Christmas time!”
Ayumu put one of their hands on their hip as they looked down at the two kids, almost reprovingly. “Well, then you little brats should start putting up stuff since the house doesn’t look like Christmas.”
“Oh, yeah!” Rai spun on their foot and sprinted back to Caeli, who was happily unloading some tinsel and not paying too much attention to the others. Right after them, Lettie followed which was always the norm. Those two couldn’t be separated at all.
—
The rest of the unpacking went on without a hitch as more members of the family noticed the excited air and decided to join in. Of course, when Lapis Dei showed her face, she took over how things needed to look. When she showed her face in the foyer, she didn’t waste any time before picking up a box and hurrying off with it.
Being a perfectionist, she wasn’t about to have either Ayumu or Vyomi ruin her plans like they had the year before, but that was just wishful thinking. That year, they managed to rearrange her entire setup in the entryway by spelling out crude words in tinsel with a few broken ceramic snowmen. They claimed that the destruction involving snowmen came from an unforeseen and surprise snowball fight.
After that, they had to mop up everything and replace the decorations before Caeli found out.
Now, she stood in the living room in front of the mantle as she tried to position a red candle in the dead center of the shelf above. If it was off by just a tiny bit— a fraction of an inch, even— then the look would be ruined.
The rest of the job had been completed before the candle with fake vines of holly and plastic berries bordering the shelf space and dipping low around the fireplace. It worked incredibly well with the living room and its clashing colors.
“They should call you the best decorator in the house,” said a very warmly-dressed Beau. She wore a cardigan with too many puffballs to celebrate— or survive— the colder conditions though still looked completely at ease even in the warm house.
“I thought you’d take that title up for yourself,” Lapis Dei mused back. She delicately removed her hands from the candle as she finally got it into the position she was hoping for.
Just as Beau was about to open her mouth, someone shorter than Lapis Dei leaned over and waved her hand over the candle, lighting it up with a small flame. When caught in the act, the woman’s cheeks flushed crimson and she looked back over to the candle sheepishly before smiling wanly.
“It just needed that finishing touch,” Tana tried to explain with a small shrug. Despite the sheepishness, she appeared to be very proud of herself.
And the effect looked quite nice. Beau certainly thought the same as well, as she threw her arms up into the air with a flare of drama that she always carried with her.
“You both belong in home magazines!” she cried out, “Your talents are wasted here!”
That left with an even redder Tana and a Lapis Dei who tried to cover her face with her hands. Neither of them ever handled Beau’s flirts well, no matter how over the top they were.
And neither of them also noticed as a ferret of a menace slunk up behind them and snatched the candle off of the mantelpiece. It only came from a gasp from Beau and a string of annoyed words that had “seize them,” “vermin,” and “thief” strung within them.
Something that could be only described as alarm shot through Lapis Dei and she spun on her heel to catch Ayumu sprinting away as fast as they could, holding the candle aloft as if it were some great prize. They sped past Femi, who was holding a poinsettia, and who quickly raised her arms to stop the fire from harming any leaves.
“Here comes the star of tonight with the Olympic Flame! May it never burn out!” Vyomi cheered, poking her head out of another room with Christmas lights sitting in a matted pile on her head. She pumped her fist in the air as Ayumu ran by, though quickly shot back into the room as Lapis Dei gave chase.
“Give me back that candle, Ayumu!” she seethed.
“Not until we allow Christmas Olympics again!” they shouted back, “Indoor snowball fights are a professional sport!”
“Over my dead body!”
In the end, she managed to get the candle from her little brother. The chase was incredibly short-lived but no less aggravating, but she did walk off victorious and left Ayumu behind with sweeping duty. A win for her and a loss for the annoying ghost.
However, when she got back, the holly around the mantle was gone with both of her girlfriends saying that Vyomi wanted in on the fun. To say that Lapis Dei was thrilled was the biggest lie of the century. Beau tried to remedy things by replicating the look with water, though it only raised her mood upon seeing it.
—
Acer was also not thrilled when they were asked to join in on the festivities of decorating, especially when Zorro knocked on leaf’s door in an attempt to draw them out of leaf’s room. The look of disgust on leaf’s face was enough for leaf’s father to stop asking. Still, he was relentless in trying to get leaf out to just spend time with the family.
Like the stubborn kid that they were, Acer gave a groan and shuffled their feet out, followed by a much more eager Yuyu. They bounded out of the room and to leaf’s dismay, were immediately scooped up by Zorro. Humming to himself, he sent Acer a wink as he attempted to put a little red and white striped bandana around the cat’s neck. Fortunately, Yuyu didn’t seem at all bothered and instead quite happy about the fashion choice. Purring contentedly, they hopped out of his arms and pranced away.
“What have you done to my cat?” leaf asked.
“Nothing that they’re upset about!” Zorro said happily.
“I’m still not decorating.”
Despite that, and how leaf hated to admit it, Acer actually enjoyed sitting off to the side with Yuyu in their lap. Leaf watched as everyone ran to and fro with all sorts of glittering items with increasing interest. But they would not get into it that way.
—
Laughs broke out once the tree was put up. While Caeli was having a breather after having to fight with several branches, Zorro and Rai took up the beginnings of decorating it. They had the time of their lives, sorting through different strings of ribbon and lights, attempting to find the best fit for the chaotic room around them. When Rai couldn’t choose which colors they wanted, they giggled as Zorro settled the debate by choosing all of them.
The two ran around the tree as they strung it up with colorful lights, though it quickly stopped when Rai’s little arms couldn’t reach past a certain height. For a moment, they stood there distraught as they tried to throw their string of lights up on a branch just out of their reach.
The problem was quickly solved by another joyous squeal as their father lifted them off the ground and plopped them squarely on his shoulders. Their little tail wagged joyously from side to side as they went back to throwing lights around haphazardly.
When the two were done smothering the tree in ribbons, the others closed in to help decorate it with their own touch. Lapis Dei wasn’t the only one who didn’t trust putting tree ornaments in the hands of Ayumu and Vyomi. In fact, the entire family blacklisted them from even touching one on the off chance they began to throw them at one another. Well… most of the family. Caeli swore he could’ve seen Femi sneaking Vyomi some ornaments. When she wasn’t with Ayumu, she behaved herself most of the time, but that was only most.
Ayumu didn’t quite mind being on the back burner with Acer and instead elected to be a coach and shout out wherever there were blank spots on the tree. That had gotten old quickly to the point where Lapis Dei almost threw the ornament she was holding at the cackling ghost. Luckily, Tana caught on and gently pushed her to another part of the tree to take a look at.
When the event decorating the tree was over, poor little Lettie had only been tall enough to hang ornaments at the very base of the tree. Yes, they were partially jealous that Rai got to do all the fun stuff while they made it their personal goal to hang something by jumping, but they still felt that warm fuzzy feeling in their chest. Still miffed, though.
“Oh! We forgot something!”
Caeli stopped beside him and he looked up at his father, following his gaze to what was displeasing him so much. And there it was. Sat on top of the tree was a lack of something, just some big empty space where something should have been sitting.
“Star!” Lettie said hopefully, pointing up to where the two were staring at.
His father gave a start as if the thought had only just occurred. Even behind his mask, he smiled widely and patted the little kid on the head in approval. A rush of pride rushed through him and he beamed back before nearly tripping on his own feet.
“Wait! I’ll get it!” he offered.
Lettie turned on his heel and ran as fast to the tree box as his little legs could carry him, which wasn’t that fast considering how small he was. With the smile still unable to leave his face, he bent over and rummaged through the bags before he found his prize. With a giggle, he straightened up and trotted back over to his father holding it up.
When he first held it up, he first expected his dad to simply take it from him and hang it up, as he was a grown-up. Grown-ups could reach high places, spots that Lettie could only dream of getting to. However, he was completely blind-sighted when his dad held out his arms for him to jump into.
But he didn’t need to be told twice. Lettie let another giggle free and he ran into those awaiting arms. In an instant, he felt the floor disappear from underneath him as his dad hoisted him into the air, far above his head to where even he could reach where the grown-ups couldn’t. Putting two hands on the star, Lettie carefully plopped it down on the top of the tree.
That was the final piece they needed for their house to be completely decorated. But no one was particularly thrilled about having to put away any of the boxes and sweep up the floors.