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With bright lights, and melodic hymns all through the air, one person stands out above all the rest. Everyone’s caroling, or setting up for the ‘fête des lumières’ as Chloe called it. It’s a festival of lights, twinkling so brightly they’ll blind you even as the sun shines. Apparently, it’s a celebration before Christmas.
Red hates it. It’s loud, obnoxious, and has none of the fun of a classic Wonderlandian tea party. Where were the crumpets and the color-changing cups? Whatever the Auradonians called Christmas definitely couldn’t compare. How did they even survive with only one a year? You could have a tea party any day. They should really have an initiative like that here.
The only issue with Red’s inherent dislike of Christmas was the fact that it was Chloe’s favorite holiday of them all. And knowing her roommate, she’d get sucked into the Christmas spirit too.
Now, it was the last day of the festival of lights, only December 21st. And even so, Auradonians were acting like it was Christmas day. They sang out and about in the streets about some Santa Claus figure. She’d researched him in the United Library, and all she found was a fat white guy with white hair who was immune to freezing. Not too much to be hyped about.
But again, Chloe loved it. And if her all-loving roommate could love something so passionately, who was she not to give it a try?
But just one. This didn’t seem like it was worth more than one chance, after all. Besides, she needed to find what people called ‘the reason for the season’.
“Red, I promise, it won’t be that bad. You haven’t seen their Christmas menu! I wish I could get it every year.” Chloe says. “Stop mulling inside. Don’t you see the snowfall? It’s even better than the rain! I mean, it’s frozen rain, and the cold is sure to make it better!”
Red crosses her arms. “You know I hate the cold. In Wonderland, it was always the perfect temperature. Not…” She gestures her hands around wildly. “Like this. The seasons aren’t even to your whim! How do you survive that cold?”
“With a jacket?” Chloe deadpans. “Just put on some layers and you’ll survive. It’s not the end of the world at all.”
Red slams her hand onto her heart, feigning offense. “I can’t believe this. Chloe Charming beat me at the skill of sarcasm?” She places her hand on Chloe’s shoulder, crouching down a bit to look her dead in the eyes. “The student has become the master.”
They linger like that, staring into each other's eyes for what anyone else would say is a bit too long, before Red breaks away, quickly opening the door and running through it. “Catch me if you can!”
Chloe’s frozen for a moment, before grabbing her coat, and almost heading out the door. That’s until she realizes that she should get one for Red too. After all, if Wonderlandians never need to worry about temperature, the cold will go crazy. She gets it, slides on her boots, and runs for her life.
“Red, wait up! Do you even know where we’re going?”
– –
As their feet crunched on the light snowfall that adorned the streets of Auradon City, Red looked around at the lights. They were in all different colors, shapes and sizes, almost like the flowers back in Wonderland she remembered.
“Red? You’ve been standing here for a hot minute. Don’t you want to go to the Royal Grounds Café?”
“It’s done with renovations? Wait, is it decorated for Christmas too?” Red looked as if she had seen a ghost.
Chloe giggled. “I can neither confirm or deny that statement.”
Red sighed, extending her arm as Chloe pulled it towards a quaint hole-in-the-wall café they frequented. However, they hadn’t been there in a while thanks to renovations, and Red could tell Christmas had invaded them too. The door opening jangled with jingle bells. The seats were changed to fit a color scheme of red, white, and green, and the menu was completely overhauled for the Christmas season.
The only thing she could respect about Christmas was the red. It was her namesake, after all, and the yuletide could be way more bearable if it was the main color. Alas, that couldn’t be the case.
Looking up to the menu, Chloe pointed out a new addition to the menu. “Red, look! It’s candy-cane hot chocolate! Isn’t that something interesting you should try? It tastes similar to the Wonderland tea you made me try a while ago.”
Frowning, Red shakes her head. “No thanks. Whatever you call your minty chocolate surprise, I want no part. Comparing it to Wonderland tea, especially the special royal blend, is gallymoggers!”
Chloe raises an eyebrow, judgingly looking at Red. “I… really don’t know what you mean, but I’ll take that as a resounding no.” Turning to the cashier, whom Red recognizes as one of the kids she’s seen at Auradon Prep; Alec, the son of Ariel, Chloe orders her own and Red’s order as well. “I’ll take the candy cane hot chocolate, and Red will have her usual, black coffee with two sugars. You still have that as an option, right?”
Red knows they don’t offer that anymore. The menu revamp took over everything, yet Alec takes one look at Chloe and her charming smile (pun intended) and immediately agrees, stumbling over his words as if he’s three years old again.
“Of course, Chloe! It’ll be finished as fast as a gallimimus! That’s a dinosaur, by the way…” He trails off, hard at work at the coffee station. He calls back, however. “Stay by the drop-off! It’ll only be a minute!”
While Red is overjoyed that she was able to get her order, instead of some random Christmastide apparent delicacy that only the most basic people drink.
Chloe scoffs. “Considering I’m the one paying for your drink, I don’t think it’s extraordinarily wise to be calling me basic.”
“Cards, I said that out loud?” To distract from her embarrassment, she scoops their drinks, throwing a haphazard thanks to Alec (whom she doesn’t really like anyway) and scurries out the door.
“Red, where are you going? I haven’t even paid yet…” Chloe trails off, tapping her card on the register.
“Alright then, you’re ready to go. I mean, I guess Red already has.” Alec smiles. “I suggest you go after her, though. It’s already getting darker out, and the festival is probably going to start soon. Hey, wait!” Alec reaches underneath the desk he’s at and pulls out a red Santa hat. “Give this to Red. It’d be pretty funny.”
Chloe reaches out and takes it. “You’re right. Thanks. I’ll see you back at school, then! Make sure to practice or I’ll wreck you at Swords and Shields!”
Alec throws finger guns. “Right back at you. Tell your fellow lovebird to enjoy the lights!”
Chloe falters before speaking. “We’re not lovebirds, Alec. Alec?” He’s already back to attending the line. Chloe sighs, assuming that she should probably try to find Red.
That was easy said and done, as Red is outside by a heater, hunkered down, sipping on what Chloe thinks is her coffee. As she reaches down for her own hot chocolate, opening it and taking a sip, she does a double take and spits it out immediately.
“What is this? Red?”
“Okay, just listen to my story, alright?” Red stands up, dusting the light snowfall off the fur hood of her jacket.
“So, at first, you already know I left the shop right? And-”
Chloe cuts her off. “How could I forget? You looked redder than your name.”
“It’s not that funny. Anyway, I picked up a cup that I thought was mine, but since they both have identical designs I wasn’t able to tell which was which. So I opened one of them and took a sip, but it wasn’t mine. Surprisingly, it tasted really good, and it wasn’t until I was three-quarters done that I realized it wasn’t my drink.”
Chloe’s eyebrows raise. “So you’re telling me I bought two drinks and I can’t drink either of them?” She sighs. “Can’t you pull a water bottle out of a pocket dimension or something like that? I’m thirsty.”
“Nope. I will if you buy another one of these hot chocolates for me, though.” Red continues slurping it noisily, to Chloe’s dismay.
“I’m going back, to buy one for myself and myself only, okay? Stay here.” Chloe strides back into the store, confident her drink won’t get snatched again. But she’ll get a water bottle, just in case.
– –
Again, Red knows that she’s taken yet another candy cane hot chocolate, but she can’t help it. They taste spectacular, and she knows Chloe won’t argue if she pouts and whines enough.
Now, it’s been a while since the coffee shop, and the festival ceremony is about to start formally. The lights shine even brighter at night than at day, and it’s actually pretty nice. Red’s pretty glad Chloe pulled her out of their dorms. It really has been a wonderful day.
“Red! The light show on the Auradon Tower is about to begin! You’ve gotta see it, this year it’s supposed to be bigger and better than ever!”
And the surprising thing was, she was right. There were lasers, for goodness sake. Lasers! They twirled and flared around, and then there were projected dancers, and fun, upbeat music. There were even people handing out hard maple candies, which were apparently supposed to be thrown at the tower whilst chanting ‘Collez-le!’ It was odd when thought about in hindsight, but in the moment it was surprisingly fun. The only hang-up was when Red ‘accidentally’ dropped hers into Chloe’s hair, and it took ten minutes to get out. They’re surprisingly sticky.
And as the festival came to a close, and the city went quiet, Red and Chloe started their trek back to their dorms. The snow had all been stepped on, negating crunches made by their boots. Red guessed there’d be no snowball fights now.
Although, as they made it back in what looked like the dead of night (even though it was only eight o’clock) and nobody else was outside, they passed by a tall arch with a large herb of sorts attached at the top of it.
“Chloe? What’s that?” Red pointed it out. “We should go check.”
Before Chloe could register that the mystery herb was, in fact, mistletoe, Red had pulled them both underneath it.
“See, that one. And only one too! Whoever was in charge of decorating it didn’t do a good job in the slightest.”
“Red, that’s mistletoe.”
“I still don’t know what that is. Remind me?”
“Oh yeah, I somehow forgot about that. Basically, it’s a Christmas tradition wherein two people walk underneath it, and then they have to kiss.”
“Is it that simple? Okay, then.”
“What do you–” Chloe gets cut off by Red bending her head down and kissing her.
Red raises her head back up. “I’ve wanted to do that for a while. Have you?”
Chloe, still stunned, squeaks out a “Yeah. Um, so what was that all about?”
Red cocks her head. “What?”
“You just kissed me!” Chloe yells, exasperated. “I mean, I liked it too, but–”
“It seemed fitting. The mistletoe just gave me an excuse.” Red shrugs. “The question is, what does that make us now? And will you still buy me candy-cane hot chocolate?”
“Of course. And, to be honest, we don’t have to be anything other than Red and Chloe. Unless you want to be my girlfriend?” Chloe questions.
“I’d like that. I’d also like to get inside pretty quickly, because I can’t stand this cold. You can only bear it for so long.” Red says.
“Oh, wait!” Chloe reaches into her pockets and pulls out the Santa hat Alec gave her, and places it on Red’s head. “You look even cuter now!”
“I know I do. I also know we still need to get inside.” And she means it.
She also means it when she says that she’s finally found the reason for the season. Who would have thought that Christmas isn’t that bad after all? All it takes is some hot chocolate. And Chloe. That too, definitely.