Special Occasion Stories - 11. Unison Island Christmas Special

Lizzie groaned at the hand shaking her shoulder. It couldn’t be time to get up yet. She hadn’t long gone to sleep.

“Lizzie, Lizzie, wake up. Come, on, you gotta get up and see this.”

Lizzie slapped the hands away. “Go away, Theo, I’m sleeping.”

“But, Lizzie. Santa’s here. I saw him. He’s downstairs with Da.”

Lizzie slapped Theo’s hands away again. “We talked about this. There is no such person as Santa. You're ten years old now. You’re old enough to know when your parents are using some mythical creature to blackmail you. Be good or Santa won’t bring you gifts for Christmas! That’s dumb.”

“But I saw him.”

Lizzie rolled her eyes. Theo’s pouting had been cute when he was five, but at ten it was getting into the realms of weird.

Theo continued before she could form a reply. “He was kissing Da. I went to get Pa, but he wasn’t in his room. You gotta get up.”

Lizzie stifled a chuckle. This was going to be so much fun. But first, she needed to send a message and get rid of Theo.

Grabbing her phone, she tapped out a text and hit send.

Pa, Da

I suggest you take yourselves to the bedroom before Theo learns more from ‘Santa’ than he should.

L

Honestly, you’d think her parents were newly mated the way they acted. They’d been mated twenty-five years, since she was conceived not long after their mating night. A fact her uncle Casey had had fun embarrassing her with since she was old enough to know what being mates meant.

Shuddering Lizzie pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind. She was only home for Christmas. By new year she’d be back in her own quiet house, where she wouldn’t have to worry about what she was going to walk in on at any moment.

“Lizzie.”

Right, Theo was still there. She cocked her head. Enough time should have passed for the coast to be clear. However, better safe than sorry.

“Okay, let me find a dressing gown, I can’t go wandering around in my nightclothes.”

Theo stood tapping his foot in impatience as she rose, went to her closet and found what she wanted.

Finally, they made their way downstairs and, of course, there was no one there. The milk the youngsters had left out was gone, and the cookies reduced to crumbs.

Lizzie also noticed the hastily rearranged cushions on the sofa and the lone sock peeking out from under the rug.

“See, no one here.” Lizzie waved her arms to encompass the whole room.

“It’s your fault,” Theo pouted. “You took too long to come down here.”

He gave another long sigh and stomped back up the stairs, slamming his bedroom door loud enough that Lizzie knew he would be getting a talking to in the morning.

Lizzie rubbed her hands together. Now Theo was dealt with she had something to do. Back in her room she pulled her laptop out and got to work.

***

Christmas Morning was noisy. Lizzie’s uncles, Vash, Casey, and Jackson had arrived in the shared living space between the families two homes early with their adopted pack children in tow. The large room was filled to capacity.

Wrapping paper covered most of the floor and the youngsters were arguing over who got the best gifts.

“This is for you and Pa.” Lizzie pulled out a flat wrapped gift and handed it over.

Pa grinned and ripped the paper away. His expression changed to a suspicious frown when he saw the cover of the CD he revealed. The picture was of Santa standing under some mistletoe.

Theo stopped any comment Da was going to make by jumping on his back.

“Cool, you got a CD. You gotta put it on.”

Theo grabbed the CD and over Da’s protesting slid it into their player.

Soon Christmas music filled the room from the surround sound speakers. Songs of love and peace, and Da smiled at Lizzie who kept her expression purposely innocent.

Then a familiar intro started and Da glared at her. The glare intensified when the words started.

“I saw Daddy kissing Santa Clause, Underneath the mistletoe last night.”

Merry Christmas Everyone