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Frey whistled the main melody of Last Christmas to herself as she hung a set of lights over the door to Auden’s house. The season was here! Or, well, that was the case in her world at least. Frey wasn’t sure if the people of Athia had anything similar, she certainly hadn’t read anything about it. Either way, she wanted to celebrate with Auden. Just one day off to have fun with her girlfriend. That shouldn’t be that hard, right?
“How’s that look, Cuff?” Frey asked as she rubbed her chin, looking at her decorations from a distance. She’d managed to sneak out of Athia once or twice every few weeks to gather some decorations from back in New York, and had stored them all under the floorboards.
“It certainly isn’t terrible.” He admitted, Frey imitating his demeaning tone mockingly. “You know, I’m starting to think you don’t much appreciate my criticisms.”
“What? Noooo, never.” Frey acted with a roll of the eyes. “There’s no one whose opinion I respect more than yours.” She continued, turning away from the door so she could tend to the Christmas tree next to the dinner table. The lights had already been hung on the tree, along with a fair amount of tinsel. She just had the balls left to do. Crouching down, she rummaged in her cardboard box of decorations and pulled out two different balls.
“What do you think? Red and green or silver?”
“Ehh… I think they’re both quite gauche color combinations, if you’ll allow me to be completely honest.” Cuff answered, the semi-disgust in his voice more than obvious to Frey.
“I told you, I don’t choose the colors. It’s part of the tradition.” Frey explained for what felt like the hundredth time. “Now tell me, red and green or silver?”
“Sure, red and green.” He sighed in defeat, as Frey got back up to her feet and began hanging the balls up in the tree with her powers. A part of her wanted to call her lazy for doing it like this, but a bigger part of her said “fuck you, this is my christmas” to that part and then kicked it out of her brain. Or something like that.
Either way, Frey was definitely happy that she wasn’t at risk of tipping the entire tree over like this. And as she telekinetically placed the topper in its respective place, she crossed her arms in quiet contentedness. The whole house had been decorated, all before lunch. Now she just had to wait until Auden got back from council duties. Which would be in…
“You do know Ms. Keen isn’t coming home until later today?” Cuff interrupted her thought process.
“Yeah, I just realized that. When did you suddenly become my event tracker?”
“When the girl yelled it at you before she left. Remember? You had fallen asleep again.”
Frey mocked Cuff’s words again, mimicking the flapping of his non-existent lips, as she moved towards the door. “Whatever, I guess I’ll just head out for now.”
“Or you could go to Newark and see if you can’t find a gift for the girl. That’s part of this holiday too, right?”
Frey suddenly stopped with her hand on the door handle, as she thought about what Cuff had just said. “Hey… that’s actually not such a bad idea.”
“I know, I’m full of good ideas.”
“You’re full of shit, that’s what you are.” Frey shot back before turning around and forming a torana. “To New York it is.”
…
“You like that one?” Frey whispered to Cuff, acting as if she was talking into a wireless earphone instead of the disembodied demon she was really addressing. She held an incredibly gaudy necklace in her hands, a golden chain adorned with rubies on every link, holding together a centerpiece that was a heart made of solid gold.
“You don’t?” Cuff asked in an uncharacteristically quiet voice. In the center of this jewelry store, Frey felt the need to whisper for obvious reasons. She could only ascribe Cuff’s sudden lack of volume to either a need to fit in, or a genuine feeling of hurt at her assessment. She liked the second one more and decided it to be true.
“I think it looks like a parody of a necklace, not something someone would actually ever we-”
“Do you need any help there?” A worker suddenly asked from behind Frey as she put the necklace back in its stand. Frey looked over her shoulder for a second, and upon spotting that it was a clerk rather than the security guard she was expecting, she turned around to face them.
“I actually do, yeah.” Frey said as she flashed a polite smile at her. “I’m looking for a Christmas gift, for my girlfriend. But I think all of the stuff I’ve looked at so far is kinda…”
“Gaudy?”
“I was gonna say flashy and stupid, but that works too.” Frey mumbled as she scratched the back of her head. “I want something a bit simpler, that really says ‘I love you’. Ya dig?”
“I think I may have something like that, hold on a second.” The worker said, as she turned around and walked to the back storage room. Frey softly whistled along with the Fleet Foxes song in her earbud as she waited there with her arms crossed. She wasn’t sure what the lady was getting for her, but as the woman came walking back with a chain in her right hand and something Frey couldn’t exactly pinpoint in her other, she figured it was something good.
“Alright, I think I got something to your specifications.” The lady said with a smile, as Frey expressed how impressed she was with a whistle. “So this necklace isn’t super elaborate, which doesn’t make it too expensive either. The chain is however solid 24 karat gold, and the centerpiece is a beautiful jade encrusted gold piece.”
Frey was definitely in agreement with her, it was pretty beautiful. The chain was on the thinner side, didn’t have the thicker links and more elaborate links that the others had. It was definitely a lot less auspicious, which Frey appreciated. But the thing in the woman’s other hand interested her a lot more.
It was a… something between a bracer and a bracelet. A cuff, Frey would even dare to call it. It was a set of golden bands, unknown runes carved into their surface and interlinking with each other into a holistic object. It really, truly reminded Frey of Cuff. But instead of feeling weirded out, she kinda of thought it fitting. A piece of jewelry reminiscent of the demon that had been burned into her arm, permanently engraved into her soul.
“How much does that one cost?” Frey asked.
“It’s less expensive than the necklace.” The lady said. “We’ve been going through a lot of these recently, but they’re really beautiful pieces.”
“Mhm.” Frey mumbled, pulling her sleeves down lower in an attempt to hide the Cuff markings running down her arm that eerily resembled the item. “And it wouldn’t happen to have an evil demon in it, right?”
“If you’re asking me,” Cuff said with a sigh. “no, this bauble has no connection to me.”
The woman first looked at her incredulously, before flashing a small smile and a chuckle. “I think we’d have found a lot more dissatisfied customers coming back to demand a refund if that was the case.”
Frey let out a sigh, before smiling back at the lady as to not scare her too much. “I’ll take that one, then. And wrap it up like a Christmas present please.” She said, before reaching a fist forward. The woman quickly reacted and caught the… jewels Frey dropped into her hand.
“Don’t have it in exact change, sorry.” Frey shrugged, as the lady looked down at the assortment of random jewels in her hand, and then back up at Frey with an agape mouth.
“I’ll be… right back.”
…
“How do I still have to wait for her to come home? I’ve been out the house all day.” Frey groaned as she leaned back in her chair.
“Temporal distortion, perhaps?” Cuff offered, much to Frey’s annoyance. She threw her head back so she could look at the ceiling. The house had been decorated like a freaking winter wonderland, by all means, Frey should be exhausted. But the excitement of introducing her girlfriend to her world’s tradition of Christmas was keeping her awake.
She pondered finishing that Sylvia Plath novel she’d gotten at the bookstore she visited with Auden, but she couldn’t muster the motivation. She was almost done with the thing too, but she really didn’t have the mental focus to read anything right now. That much was obvious when, as she heard the front door so much as creek, she immediately sat up straight and stared intently.
And as the wooden door opened, revealing Auden, Frey almost immediately shot up from her chair.
“Auden!” Frey practically yelled, Auden jumping at the sudden sound before being rushed down by Frey and pulled into a hug that clamped her arms down to her body.
“Frey! Please, you have to stop scaring me like this.” She pleaded light heartedly. As Frey finally let go, she patted her clothes down before standing in front of her, arms crossed waiting like a dog for Auden to see what she was so proud of. And it didn’t take long for her to notice.
Her eyes darted around the room and glared at the multicolored lights strung along the ceiling, glanced at the golden tinsel hung along whatever it could, and eventually landed on the big tree in the corner.
“What is this?” Auden inquired curiously as she looked over at Frey with a raised eyebrow.
“It’s Christmas.” Frey explained with a giddy smile, taking Auden’s right hand into her left and beginning to guide her to the tree. “It’s a tradition where I come from. Around this time of year, we all come together, and celebrate… some old guy that died on a cross. And then we give each other gifts to show our love.”
“He… died on a cross?” She asked, even more confused than before. Frey didn’t engage with the question, instead taking her other hand into her own as well and placing herself in front of Frey.
“It doesn’t really matter. What matters is, I wanna spend my Christmas with you this year, here.” Frey said, an infectious smile that forced Auden to smile back. “And no, I don’t care that you didn’t get me a gift.” Auden couldn’t help but laugh at how cute Frey as acting, squeezing her hands tightly as she did so. Frey blushed for a moment.
“I’ve never seen you so excited before.” Auden sighed, enamored at Frey’s current state of being.
“I know, it’s just… something about introducing the woman I love to this tradition is getting me all-”
By the gods Frey could keep yapping on later, Auden had been getting more hot and bothered since the moment she’d walked in the door. She needed Frey now. And so she took her, pulling her into and embrace and slamming her lips against Frey’s. Frey was definitely taken aback at first, she was still talking!
And then Frey settled into it and began reciprocating. She was still surprised at Auden’s sudden leadership, and as she placed her hands on her girlfriend’s hips, she felt her beginning to explore her mouth with her tongue. The sensation sent a chill down Frey’s body, and she shuddered a breath into Auden’s mouth.
After a prolonged makeout sesh — another surprise hit Frey when she felt Auden grab at her butt — Frey finally managed to pull away. With heaving breaths, she threw a crooked smile at Auden. The girl smiled back at her.
“Happy Christmas, Frey.”
“Merry Christmas, it’s Me-” Auden let out a groan as she bumped her forehead against Frey’s. “Ouch, okay, I get it. Not the time.”
…
Oh, Frey was such a good cook compared to Auden. She’d never make that comparison out loud, of course. But as she looked up from her plate to see Auden happily chowing down on her meal, she figured Auden knew that. Or she hoped so.
She really didn’t want to break it to her.
As Auden placed her cutlery down onto her empty plate, Frey looked over at her with a chuckle.
“I’m buying that you liked my cooking?”
“Yes I did!” Auden practically exclaimed. “Does it truly call for a holiday for you to do something like this?”
“Uhm,” Frey stroked her own chin in deep thought. “Yeah?” She replied with a chuckle. “This time of year brings out the best in me…” She sighed as she got up out of her chair and circled around to Auden’s side of the table. Subtly, she slipped a small wrapped package from her cloak. And despite Auden intently following her movement with her eyes, she did not spot the gift until Frey had already placed it down beside her plate.
“What… is this?” Auden asked, looking upon the… well, mess of green and red packing paper and tape. The thing had come in a nice box, but Frey had messed up with the scissors and she hadn’t really bought enough packing paper, and it just all kinda… well it at least resembled a rectangle.
“It’s your gift.” Frey said, trying her best not to sound too excited.
Auden side-eyed Frey for a moment, before beginning to unwrap the paper. It all came off pretty easily, tearing away at even the lightest tug, and only really being held together by an inordinate amount of tape. The paper gave way to a beautiful velvet blue box, the logo of the jewelry store Frey had visited engraved on top like a blacksmith marking his name on his new masterpiece of a blade.
Although a lot more corporate.
Silently, Auden’s fingers moved across the supple material before sliding to the crease and lifting the lid up to reveal the vambrace Frey had purchased earlier that day. She lifted it out of its case, digits caressing the cold metal and sliding across sparse but beautiful encrusted jewels and incredibly detailed engravings.
“It’s… beautiful.” Auden nigh-whispered, before turning her head to look up at Frey still standing beside her, a content smile resting on her face. “You really shou-”
“No! Shut up, don’t you dare.” Frey chuckled. “You deserve this, all of it. I don’t know if I’d still be standing here if it wasn’t for you, for all of this.”
Auden’s cheeks turned a peachy pink, and she couldn’t help but let out a soft sniffle. “I think I like this Christmas tradition.”
“I knew you would.”
“I will get you an even better gift next year.”
Frey rolled her eyes. “Challenge accepted.”