Chapter Text
“Shit shit-” Were the first words that Chell heard in the morning. Not spoken by herself but she knew the voice of her constantly hurrying girlfriend.
Cracking open her eyes to the early morning darkness – as was the case with winter – she slowly rolled over in the warm cozy bed to find the other half of the bed, predictably, empty. Quickly flicking her eyes up, she spotted the shifting silhouette of where Flo was pacing and wearing out the already threadbare carpet with gifted woollen socks. In the dim moonlight, Chell could see her hands were visibly tense against her skull, and the raven-black hair that she loved to nuzzle into was spilling in-between the thin gaps between Flo’s fingers. On her face was a scrunched up expression, a snarl combined with eyebrows that created a miserable arch above her eyes. Speaking of, her eyes were almost shaking, red and watery. The look of agony was apparent.
Bolting up, the covers flying off of her as she now sat, Chell began to try and assess the situation with a freshly pounding heart.
Had someone died? Had they lost the apartment? Had something burned down? Had someone broken in? Had they been robbed? Questions swirled in Chell’s head, her mind quick to sharpen even after a deep sleep. There was also the possibility, she reminded herself, that Flo could be panicking over a small issue that can be easily sorted. That was something Chell discovered Flo would often-times do, probably because of the pressure to perform to perfection from her old job. Complications of any kind could send her into a spiral, and Chell would be there to help her focus.
This was, Chell soon discovered, the case as Flo whirled around to face her and whispered in a ragged, tear-choked voice. “I forgot the turkey.”
Turkey? Chell’s brows furrowed. They didn’t need a turkey, they already had one prepared for the Smissmas meal the next day. Flo had been there with her as she watched Chell handle it – keeping well away from the meal due to her inexperience in the kitchen. So they did have a turkey, one straight from Mann Co. as a part of the new employee contract Flo signed.
Then it hit her.
Every year since Flo’s prior job had turned to dust, her former co-workers (turned close friends) would gather for Smissmas. Every year, she hadn’t attended. This was, in part, due to her guilt surrounding one of the co-workers. It was easily admitted to Chell, instead of being a deep untold secret like she had expected, and she soon heard of the tale between the War of the RED Demoman and the BLU Soldier. Years after that, once everything (namely the Administrator and the australium) had gone down the drain and the truth was plain to see, she had informed the two of them – the Soldier over the phone and the Demoman in person – of what had truly transpired. In her words, their responses had haunted her. There weren’t threats, or looks of blood-lust, no – it was an empty state of shock for both of them that left her scuttling away. She had, back when she had first told Chell of this, said that Demoman had looked like how she had once her Administrator had died – which was all Chell had needed to hear to understand.
After that, she couldn’t bear to look them in the eyes – or eye. Instead, she had hid away in her apartment every time Smissmas had rolled around and stayed with Chell, using her as an excuse not to go and visit. Chell could see that staying also gave her a lot of guilt too, leaving her anxious as the holiday arrived and relieved when it left. But, of course, she had ordered a Smissmas turkey for her former co-workers every year to arrive at their house freshly prepared. Obviously she couldn’t just ignore them, she claimed, otherwise they would’ve worried – but she wouldn’t dare show her face now.
And, this year, she had forgot to place her order to Mann Co.
Despite being the new assistant to the two CEOs, her order wouldn’t be taken into priority – not even the CEOs had that ability. It was, in their words, to make things more fair. This was understandable, and Flo had agreed on this, but now she seemed to be deeply regretting this choice.
Chell shuffled over, wrapping her arms around Flo’s waist and urging her to look at her. With a few more sniffles, Flo complied and sat down next to Chell onto the still warm bed – the old mattress creaking to welcome the new weight. As if by instinct, her head went against Chell’s chest and she seemed to be making an effort to calm down. This effort went out the window when she registered the situation once again, and her confidence crumpled along with her posture. “God, I’m such an idiot- It’s one simple order! And I- I managed it every other year. Early November, before the fifth, and it’ll be one of the first to be delivered on time. But- But I didn’t manage it this year! I’m so stupid-”
Flo’s hand had begun to rub into her skull, as if trying to punch a message to her own brain. Chell moved one of her hands to hold both of Flo’s, and began trying to sign with the other. ‘Not your fault. New plan will be made.’
“There’s no time- Smissmas is tomorrow! How the Hell-” Flo paused, trying to take a deep breath as her voice shook and rattled. Tears filled her eyes again, replacing the ones that had dried earlier. “How the Hell are we gonna send for a turkey to arrive by then?”
Chell paused, thinking this over.
Getting a turkey to be delivered for tomorrow was a plan completely out of the window. In fact, buying a turkey at all would be an impossible feat considering the preparation that would be needed and the fact all of them will be completely off the shelves at this point. Shopping around Smissmas time was a nightmare on its own, this would need a miracle to happen. But… Chell thought for a second, turning sharply in the direction of the kitchen. They did have a turkey. One prepared already, that they could put into a container and take themselves. Obviously the roads would be crowded, but… If it was Jeremy’s, Tavish’s or Dell’s then it would be just under a day to get there. They could leave just after lunch for the road-trip and then get there possibly a few hours early or exactly on time depending on the traffic.
She flew into action, grabbing clothing that would be needed as well as toiletries. Of course, the turkey would need to be packed as well. Perhaps they could take the whole pot with them- Yes! That would work. She would need to wrap the turkey up, though, with extra foil, just in case. Then- She shoved a spare pillow into a bag, along with some sleeping bags- her preparations wouldn’t go to waste and-
“Chell.”
Snapping out of her sudden daze, she paused in her half stomps on her clothing bag and looked over at Flo in confusion. When she saw Flo staring back with the exact same amount of confusion, she was hit with the realisation that she hadn’t actually explained what her plan was to her girlfriend. With one last move that would make a wrestler envious, she managed to fit all of the clothes and toiletries the two of them would need into one bag and flopped back down on the bed next to Flo.
‘New plan. We take the turkey we prepared over to their gathering,’ Chell began, signing very quickly to the point where Flo was still trying to comprehend her first sentence as she was finishing her last. ‘And deliver it ourselves. We have Smissmas dinner with them this year and either stay at theirs in a guest room or stay in our car at theirs for the night depending on which person is hosting. Which person is hosting? I need to call them.’
“We- No. Nonono-” Flo began shaking her head, adjusting her glasses as she processed Chell’s words. There was a frantic nervousness that sprung into her movements, replacing the devastation from before with something anxious. “I can’t show up. You know why. They’ll- Oh God, they’ll kick us out.. They’ll kick me out! They’d probably let you stay. Anyone would be lucky to have you.”
‘I’m staying with you.’ Chell signed, interrupting her spiralling rambles. She knew that Flo was worrying over nothing, every time they sent off a turkey they’d receive what felt like over a hundred ‘thank you’ cards in return with hand-written messages that could sprawl pages in some of them updating Flo on everything she’d missed from every perspective. For now, she needed to get her plan into motion, so she repeated the earlier question she had signed. ‘Who is hosting?’
“I- It’s Dell this year, I think. And Pyro. They live together in a pretty nice place,” Flo began, getting distracted slightly as she thought about her former co-workers. Good, if it calmed her down then Chell was grateful for it. “Both got pretty rich from their jobs… Not just mercenary work, either. They’re comfortably retired now, and- Well I told you about Dell’s auctions, right?”
Chell nodded, remembering the conversation that had started with her initially being wary of Dell and his technology. Hopefully it wouldn’t fall into the wrong hands, she shuddered to think of what might happen. Nothing as bad as what could’ve happened in her native universe…
“But- Oh God, Chell, I can’t do this!” Flo protested, clutching onto her own arms and curling in on herself. Tears fell onto the lenses of her glasses, and Chell had to take them off her face to prevent them from dropping onto the ground on their own. In her state of despair, Flo didn’t even notice this. “They’ll hate me. I know they will.”
Chell wiped the glasses clean on a piece of cloth specifically designed for that, going by the instructions as opposed to just cleaning it on her clothes like Flo usually would.
‘Flo, look at me,’ Chell signed, moving Flo’s chin up to face her and placed the glasses back onto the bridge of her girlfriend’s nose. Flo blinked her dark green eyes at Chell, finally meeting her brown ones. ‘They send you cards every year. I have read those cards. They love and miss you.’
“But-” Flo choked on her sobs. “They can’t mean it. After everything I…”
‘But what if they do?’ Chell shot back. Flo sniffled, leaning into her shoulder and messing up her glasses yet again – not that Chell minded, at least she seemed to be listening now. ‘What if they’ve been aching like you have? They want to see you Flo.’
Silence from her girlfriend.
‘And I want to see them,’ Chell added, in case that was any motivation. She wasn’t lying, of course, she did genuinely want to see them all again. Over the course of her dating Flo, she had met them one by one but meeting them all together might be nice… She wasn’t one for socialising, but for Flo to reunite with her friends? She could handle it. Maybe she would take a break to go outside every now and then but she wasn’t backing down. And Flo had to know this. Her stubbornness was literally marked on her files back in Aperture, it was something that defined her existence. But, she breathed and forced her expression to be kinder, she could be gentle too. ‘Please, Flo.’
“… Okay. We’ll go this year. You know I can’t resist those eyes,” Flo softly smiled, her own eyes darting to the side, and Chell could see her cheeks dusted pink. With a quick kiss on the cheek, leaving Flo stuttering, Chell took this as permission to continue packing – and that she did.
Despite all the times Flo has seen her in action during a plan, she still managed to look surprised at the sheer efficiency that Chell always seemed to have. These rapid organisational skills were a habit Chell had picked up over the years, not just at Aperture but from before – or, at least, she was pretty sure she had been that efficient before. Regardless, it was something that came second-nature to her. She had grown especially quick since she now had time to rest and less urgency on a regular basis, so when it came time for an emergency situation – like right now – she could fly into action with the energy saved up from plenty of time sleeping in. Flo, on the other hand, considered a lie-in waking up sharp at eight in the morning after going to bed at just after midnight. One of these days, Chell would be able to convince her to rest for twelve hours.
But that was not today, as the two of them leapt around the apartment preparing various things. Flo was organising the event itself, calling Dell over the phone because – as Chell belatedly realised – she was the only one of them who could talk on a regular basis.
Instead of managing that aspect, Chell managed all of the other things – such as watering the excessive amount of plants in their apartment and making sure the extra sensitive ones would still be watered using a contraption built by her own hands (she didn’t trust any store-bought timed water dispensers). Once her plants, both decorative and practical, had been cared for, she moved onto making sure the electricity and heating were off in all of the rooms as, sure, they could afford the bills considering Flo’s pay-check… Well, she still didn’t want to spend any unnecessary money. It took a moment for her to decide on whether to leave the heating on in the room containing her plants, she had insulated that room well enough after some custom modifications and it was already pretty warm in there… But maybe she would leave it on just in case. In there, at least. It was winter after all and it grew shockingly cold in their building without heating.
She would always get stuck with indecision on choices that involved living things.
Letting out a sigh, she allowed that decision wash over her before moving onto the next. That was; finishing packing the other things they would need for the journey. There were small electronics placed into a bundle, as well as a notepad and a pack of pens for either her to doodle on or Flo to make notes on. Overall, they had three bags; clothes and toiletries, snacks and electronics and other small items, and a spare bag shoved into the prior one just in case they bought anything while they were out. Each bag was tossed into the passenger seat, where she would be seated. The turkey was wrapped in an extra layer of tin-foil, then returned to the pot and was securely loaded in the backseats of their car – a beaten down cream-coloured one with brakes that took a second to register and a nasty scrape from an incident with a falling fridge. She grabbed the previously retrieved pillows and sleeping-bags, putting them beside the pot of turkey as well. Once she had loaded everything in, she locked the car and returned to the apartment.
Typically Flo would hate her leaving the car unattended like that, but she knew all of her neighbours were aware they shouldn’t mess with the couple and wouldn’t try to steal anything so she felt comfortable enough to leave it.
Now with empty arms, she re-entered the apartment and saw Flo still on the phone with Dell in the main room with the landline. Due to the technological advances of this universe, Flo did have a wireless phone in a year that Chell’s native universe definitely didn’t have those, but she preferred to use the landline for more normal calls. To ‘not arouse suspicion from the others’, according to her. Chell leaned against the empty door-frame nearby as she listened to the tail-end of the call.
“Mhm… I know, it isn’t really like me, is it?” Flo chuckled, and Chell quickly assumed she was talking about the turkey situation, although it could have been about showing up in general – if she had reached that point in the call. “Yeah- Yeah, so Chell and I are just gonna drop by with the turkey, if that’s still.. Okay… Ha… Yeah, no, I’m not joking… Really? … Okay, I’ll- I’ll see you there then!”
There was a click and a hiss, before it seemed Flo’s posture deflated and she hung the phone back up on the wall. Despite the loss in energy, there was a smile growing across the shorter woman’s face and, knowingly, she turned to where Chell had silently been standing for the past few minutes with a look of muddled glee.
“Dell said that it was okay for us to come, and that there were guest rooms ready for everyone,” Flo began, pacing yet again with the only change being no woollen socks and instead with her black Mary-Jane shoes on, one of the items of uniform she didn’t throw out after the Administrator’s death. They wore a bit more against the flooring, but Chell didn’t care that much. This time, the pacing was a confidence builder, instead of from stress, and that’s all Chell wanted. “He’s going to be sharing with Pyro so we’ll have his regular room. And that’s the only change that he needed to make, they already have enough chairs and he-”
She stopped for a moment to take a shuddery breath, and Chell noticed her eyes growing misty again.
“He said they always set out two extra chairs, just in case we ever showed up,” Flo finished, turning to Chell with a massive smile on her face. Chell returned the smile, stretching face muscles that she only ever used regularly for her.
After having some brief lunch, re-heated leftovers from the previous night, the two bundled themselves into the car – Flo in the driver’s seat and Chell in the passenger.
“Okay. Doors locked? Windows locked?” Flo asked, which Chell nodded to as a response to both. In Flo’s hands sat the notepad Chell had packed for them, free from the bag for now. On it was a list, written in mostly neat handwriting that prioritised being quick over being fancy, created by the two of them to check everything was secured before they left their base. “The lights are all off, and the heating? Apart from in the plant room.”
Chell nodded again, her legs curled up to make room for the bags below her and to keep her comfortable, which she was for the most part. She did end up shuffling so the seat belt wasn’t digging into her skin. It was always difficult being over six foot tall, with every ceiling being far too low and the seat belt not fitting right around her chest, but she wouldn’t trade it for the world – especially now that Flo was here with the convenient height difference allowing for comfortable resting positions. It was worth the minor pains like this.
“We’re ready then,” Flo ticked off the last on her list, stabbing into the page with the pen in a confident way, satisfied that everything was done. Handing over the notepad to her, Chell took it and unceremoniously shoved it back in the bag it came from. With a small flourish that gained her a smirk, Flo took out the car keys and turned the car on – the engine rumbling to life until it settled in a lower growl. Before she changed gear and set the car in motion, Flo turned to Chell with a knowing look. “And no, you won’t drive any of the way there, even if I get tired.”
Chell raised an eyebrow. ‘But what if we’re late?’
“I will take being late over you driving,” Flo snorted, her attention returning to the road. Chell watched the movements out of the corner of her eye, seeing her hand changing gears and legs moving to press the pedals. Now, since her focus was away from Chell, the wouldn’t be able to communicate. Hiding a pout, Chell ignored the fact that Flo managed to get the last word in – on account of her being the only one able to say them. “Which should show you how much I mean that. Also, uh, if you wanna put the songs on? I’m letting you choose.”
Chell shuffled again, moving her legs just enough so she could lean forwards to reach the dash. Once she had put in the playlist, appropriately nicknamed ‘Roadtrip’, she leaned back.
Along the journey they were making, they had made several stops. Most of them were uneventful. Banter and inside jokes were traded between then, as well as low-quality snacks and drinks. Plenty of gas stations were stopped at, mostly because their car could only hold so much fuel (which wasn’t that much at all), and many new diseases were probably introduced to them through the various experiences in the toilets. Chell, when in the car, particularly liked the long silent stretches of roads where she could wind down the window and stick her head partly out into the wind. The air blasting past her reminded her of flying through the air to reach the next portal – which was both nerve-wrecking and completely breath-taking. Luckily, the open window had the added bonus of making sure the car wasn’t too stuffy, especially when the temperature dropped towards the end of the day and the cold air came into the car.
It was around this time where they had found themselves nearby what seemed to serve as a tourist spot during the day. There was an arrangement of picnic benches near a few valleys, deep and plunging with some birds soaring around them, but most seemed to be resting. Flo stopped the car nearby in a vacant area, the ground being solid dirt below the tires. With a few quick movements, the car shuddered into a halt.
“We’ll eat here. No one else is here, so it’s perfect, right?” Flo turned to Chell, who’s gaze was still out of the car and in the distant. Without turning to look at her, Chell could feel the expression shift and the floundering begin. “I mean, that’s only if you want to too, of course. We don’t have to. It’s not that important.”
Turning around, Chell blankly stared at her for a moment before the tiniest smile lifted her lips. She signed, ‘It is perfect. We’ll have a good view of the sunset.’
Flo’s shoulders visibly lowered in relief, and she returned the smile with a naturally wider one. At one point, Chell would’ve been envious of the ease that the expression appeared on her face, but she had long made peace with her own inability to grin naturally. Now she could just appreciate the view.
Speaking of, she unfurled her legs once again and opened the car door with a click. Her boots hit the ground with solid thumps that left small clouds of dust trailing behind her heels. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Flo also exiting the vehicle and heading towards the benches – Chell felt herself accurately assume that she was going to check each of them and find the best one. While Flo did that, Chell leaned into the car and retrieved the bag that held their meals, cobbled together from the half-decent things they found in shops or gas stations that had been in small towns, or, as is usual for gas stations, littered along the road. They had managed to gather two whole sandwiches; an abomination full of meat and vegetables for Flo that apparently reminded her of one of her co-workers sandwiches and a simple ham, cheese and lettuce one for Chell. For drinks, Chell bought some bottled water while Flo had ordered a black coffee that was resting in an insulated flask (one gifted to her by Chell for her birthday a few years ago). There was also a large bag of greasy french fries that Flo had dared Chell to buy.
After grabbing the bag containing all this food, Chell shut the door and locked the car with the keys that Flo had left in the driver’s seat for her. Stepping around it, she spotted Flo sitting at one of the picnic benches and headed over. With a turn of her head, she grinned at Chell and pointed. “Okay, so this is the bench with the least amount of bird poo but you might wanna check where you’re sitting still.”
Chell nodded, giving her side of the bench a look and sitting down almost adjacent from Flo. With a gentle ‘flomp’, the bag hit another relatively clean spot on the bench and she began handing Flo her food. More smiles were sent Chell’s way, and attempts at smiles were returned. Soon the food was organised between them, with that bag of greasy fries sat firmly in the middle of them for either to pick at.
Silence settled between them for a while, as they chewed their sandwiches and sipped at their respective drinks.
Chell found her eyes constantly shifting. First, at her food, making sure no bugs had landed on it and swiping at ones nearby who thought about it – not swiping to kill but swiping to scare them away. It was a habit she had tried to encourage in Flo too, with her being far to used to killing things in general, to some success. ‘If they hit my food, they die. That’s fair, right?’ And Chell would then have to protest that the creatures were just trying to live, which requires food. Maybe she would get it through to Flo eventually. Speaking of, Flo was the second place her eyes would land – catching her eating her sandwich or wiping at her face to remove stray crumbs and stains. It was cute.
And her final view was that of the sunset; bright oranges, reds, yellows and pinks plastered across the sky, bleeding into the clouds. At the edges were tinges of purple, slowly becoming a calming dark blue or black, depending on how you saw it. Stars were spread across the sky like glitter at a kid’s birthday party.
With a jolt, Chell remembered something at the last minute, hurrying over to the car. Flo called out to her to ask where she was going, only receiving a brief ‘one second’ gesture in reply.
After digging in the small electronics bag, she retrieved what she was looking for; a camera. It was a new SureShot one from the camera company Canon (previously known for their weaponry) – although it wasn’t new in her world, and actually was pretty out-dated, it still worked like a dream. Hurrying back over to Flo, she gestured to her camera and gained a giggly reply.
“I wondered what got you so energetic!” Flo’s grin showed off all her teeth, along with brief bursts of laughter. “You look so happy, I’m guessing this is a good photography spot? The sunset is pretty beautiful.”
Chell nodded swiftly, quickly realising Flo was right – she definitely felt herself smiling. She then signed, ‘Go back to eating, I want to take some pictures of you.’
“Of me?” Flo stuttered, her giggles turning into snorts as she tried to swallow the rest of the bite of food she had taken without choking. “But there’s a sunset right there! You should use the film on that.”
‘I can take pictures of both you and the sunset,’ Chell retorted, quickly doing just that. ‘But I will save some film for when we get to Dell’s.’
“Yeah.” Flo let out a content sigh as she sipped her coffee, her eyes looking out towards the sunset in an almost wistful way. Chell didn’t have to read minds to know that Flo was looking forward to seeing her friends again, and quickly snapped a picture of this scene. “I can’t believe I’m actually going to see them again tomorrow.”
‘There’s no getting out of it now,’ Chell cheekily replied, snapping some pictured of the sunset in-between her signing. ‘We’re already over halfway there.’
“No we’re not,” Flo rolled her eyes, but the happiness remained on her face. “And I guess I could throw myself off this cliff, that’d get me out of it.”
‘No,’ Chell responded, fast. ‘They’d come out here to heal you up.’
“.. They would, wouldn’t they?”
“Maybe I should’ve jumped off that cliff.”
Right now, they were parked outside of Dell and Pyro’s home. Three other cars were parked here, one belonging to another guest and the other two presumably being the owners’ own – one was ripped open like a metal dissection and Chell found it hard to believe that it was by anyone other than Dell’s hands. They had been sitting in the car for at least ten minutes. Technically they were early, so it didn’t matter too much, but the longer they sat there the more that Flo seemed to spiral.
“I know the others want to see me but I’m still-” Flo stopped, her hands white-knuckling the steering wheel and her eyes burning holes into the dashboard. Her breathing was shaky. “Tavish. I can’t… Why would he be okay with seeing me? I ruined his relationship. I had to, and I didn’t want to, but I still did it. And I know I had to, if she had found out by herself she would’ve had me killed – or, worse, fired – but that still doesn’t explain why…”
Chell reached out across the middle of the car, wrapping an arm around Flo’s shoulders – letting her lean into her.
“He said he missed me, Chell,” Flo whimpered, looking at her with watery eyes. “In the letters. But why?”
‘I can’t speak for him,’ Chell gently reminded her, using one hand to sign. ‘But he still was your friend. And I have a feeling he understands the pressure on you.’
“But-” Flo shook her head. “How can he forgive me?”
‘Maybe he hasn’t, but he still likes you,’ Chell shrugged. She had met Tavish before, very briefly. Overall, he seemed like a very laid-back person with an understanding of others. He’d sympathised with her story faster than she’d expected, and empathised her complex feelings about GLaDOS and the robots she knew from Aperture. On one hand, GLaDOS had tried to kill her several times and she had tried to kill her back but, at the end of it all, they had helped each other and bonded. But she couldn’t understand her conflicting feelings over it. She liked GLaDOS and her sense of humour at the end, but the stinging insults and the actual murder really tore her opinion in two. Tavish had said he had relationships like that with people and it was up to her to decide whether the negatives were a full deal-breaker or whether she wanted to try a less close friendship.
Chell had a feeling that Tavish was speaking from experience, and this had been confirmed when Flo had later told her that she admitted the truth to both the RED Demoman and the BLU Soldier.
In the present, Chell saw Flo register her words and try to understand what exactly they meant. After a moment, she signed again. ‘Like me with GLaDOS.’
Flo’s mouth opened into a small ‘o’, as the words got through to her. There was a small silence, wherein Flo took in a deep breath, before she replied. “Okay. I think I’m ready. Just… Need to fix my make-up.”
Chell nodded, pulling out the tiny make-up bag from the toiletries. Flo only used eyeliner, lip balm, mascara and (on very special occasions, like today) eyeshadow and Chell would only wear lip balm to stop her lips from chapping and bleeding, so the bag didn’t need to be huge. Chell applied some lip balm to herself first, before kissing Flo to transfer it over – a game they had started a few months before they had begun officially dating. Flo chuckled, gently punching Chell in the arm, before taking the make-up bag and angling herself out of the window in front of the wing-mirrors so she could see herself in them. It was a precarious position that caused Chell to raise an eyebrow at her, but she seemed to know what she was doing, so she didn’t comment. For now.
It wasn’t long before the two of them were standing outside of the door, make-up now applied to one of them.
In Chell’s arms were the pillows and sleeping bags, while Flo held the two other bags with the clothing, toiletries, small electronics and other stuff that had come in useful along the road-trip. The air around them was far colder than it had been yesterday and the two of them were bundled in jackets and scarves, shivering as the wind bit into them, no longer safe from the elements in the car. Before them, the door was a creation that appeared wooden but Chell could see small areas where the paint peeled off to reveal cold grey metal. The house itself was large – rustic but furnished, with no damage around any of the windows and all the tiles on the roof remaining. On the side, where there used to be a plain brick wall, colorful splashes of paint stood out to Chell. It reminded her of Doug Rattmann, but, when caught staring, Flo had told her it was ‘probably Pyro’s work’. As Chell stood there, taking in the building; one thing was made clear.
Flo was stalling for time.
“Are we sure we have everything we need?” She asked, for the fifteenth time. Chell, growing impatient, nodded and gestured to the door with her head. Moving the bags around her arms, Flo shot her what was probably meant to be a reassuring smile but instead looked like an anxious grimace – before putting her hand before the door, and- “Here goes nothing.”
Knocking three times. A neat rhythm, a professional one.
Noises were heard on the other side of the door, yelling and calling across the house, footsteps from heavy boots, and – eventually – the jingling of a set of keys. When the door opened, the two of them were greeted with a blast of warm air. Noises, not just of the people inside, greeted them – like Bobby Dairn singing Mack the Knife on a record in the distance – and the mouth-watering smells of the Smissmas dinner wafted through from the kitchen all the way to the front door. Sudden yellow and orange lights caused the couple to squint, before they both settled their eyes on the man before them. He was far shorter than Chell, and only just taller than Flo, with a medium strawberry blonde beard and black goggles that were perched on his head. His outfit was a blue hoodie, with dark navy overalls that Chell was certain was a pair of work overalls. His eyes, a mix of green and brown, landed on them both, before his mouth stretched into a smile.
“Flo! Chell! Glad to see you two made it,” Dell, as Chell quickly remembered from the strange outfit and the Southern accent, was the one to greet them, opening his arms out like he was about to hug the two of them – before turning around and gesturing for them to come in. “Haven’t seen you two in a dog’s age, c’mon in! It’s as cold as a yeti’s backside out there.”
Chell nodded to Flo, encouraging her to go first. With a cute little puff of her cheeks, reminding Chell of a chipmunk, Flo straightened her back to try and bring some confidence back into herself – and marched into the house like a woman on a mission. Chell watched her for a few seconds, a fondness churning in her heart, before she turned around and shut the door behind them. She wasn’t sure if Flo’s confidence would last, nor if anyone else’s reactions would surprise her, but she was dead certain of one thing and one thing alone.
This would be the most chaotic Smissmas she will have ever had with Flo.