#Nelle's Christmas Prompts 2021

[foreveralwaysanauthor]

A Buying State of Mind

December 14, 2021

Prompt - Gift Shopping

Characters - Cabin Crew

Notes - I grew up in a very small town where there was only a Walmart to go to for clothes if you didn’t want to drive an hour to the nearest mall. In my tween/early teens, my dad spoiled me with trips to the mall almost every other day while my mom was at work. Now, I love the mall and must write about it too!

December 14th,

I can’t believe how much fun it’s been being back at the cabin this month. Aunt Mack and Uncle Brady have taken us so many places, and we’ve done so much, and the month isn’t even half over yet! Today, we’re going shopping for presents, but Bentley and I have almost no money so I’m not sure how that will go over. I already have a list made of what I want to get everyone, but I guess it all depends on the price.

“Royce, Lela, Bentley, and Mick,” Brady called from downstairs, making Royce pause in his writing. “We’re heading out in five. Make sure you’ve got everything you need.”

Royce pushed himself up from his spot on the floor - the most comfortable writing spot, if you asked him - and lightly kicked Bently’s calf as he got to his feet. The fourteen-year-old pulled out his headphones, staring up at Royce from his seat in a beanbag chair. “What?” he asked as he paused the music coming from the phone he’d borrowed from Royce.

“We’re leaving,” Royce stated, tossing his journal and pen onto the bookshelf as Bentley grumbled his way to his feet and handed Royce his phone back.

“Any clue where we’re going?” Bentley questioned, fixing his shirt as he followed Royce downstairs.

Royce shook his head. “Don’t know, but we’ve got thirty-eight bucks to blow on stuff for everyone.”

“Even Vivien?” Bentley suggested teasingly as they came to the bottom of the stairs.

Royce scoffed and rolled his eyes, shoving Bentley by the shoulder. “Why wouldn’t I? She’s our friend.”

“Mhm,” Bentley hummed skeptically, “yeah, one you definitely have a crush on.”

“I do not.”

Miles made his way over to his brothers, standing behind Royce as Bentley smirked knowingly at Royce. “We talking about Royce’s crush on Vivien?” Miles asked with a grin.

The sixteen-year-old whipped around, sending a glare in his older brother’s direction. “I don’t have a crush on her!”

The oldest of the brothers snorted with poorly contained laughter before ruffling Royce’s hair. “Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, big guy.”

Royce’s mouth gaped open like a fish as his brothers left him by the stairs. When his brain caught up with his mouth, he hollered after them, “I don’t have a crush on Vivien!”

“Sure,” Lela drawled as she passed him, tapping away on her cell phone.

Mick chuckled as she made her way down the stairs and toward the front door, “I don’t know who you’re trying to convince, bud, but it’s not working.”

As Mick left the house and closed the door behind her, Royce threw his arms up in defeat with a huff. Deciding he didn’t want to be left t behind, Royce grabbed his coat from next to the door and pulled it on before heading outside and getting in the family’s van, mildly frustrated that he now had to sit between his smug-faced brothers who had no intention on stopping their teasing.

Once the family arrived at the mall, they all piled out and made their way inside, finding the nearest directory so they could plan out where they would each be. After a while, they divided into pairs - Mack with Bentley, Royce with Brady, Lela with Miles, and Mick with Butchy - and went their separate ways through the shopping mall. Miles was quickly dragged off to the candle shop by Lela while Mick and Butchy strolled to the entertainment store to find a few movies Brady and Royce had mentioned wanting to see.

Once the four of them were alone, Mack and Brady gave Royce and Bentley each a hundred dollars to buy things with and told them that, if and when they needed more, to let them know and they’d help out. As much as he loved the gesture, Royce was adamant that he wouldn’t use it since he had almost no money to pay them back later on. It seemed as though Bentley was in the same boat as his brother, shoving the bill into his jeans and hoping he wouldn’t have to pull it out again, but Royce knew that would probably only last until he found something he knew someone in their family would want.

The group of four stayed together for a while, walking to the other side of the mall before splitting up. Royce quickly handed Bentley half of their thirty-eight dollars before they went to opposite sides of the hallway, knowing he could at least use what was there to buy something, no matter how small. While Mack and Bentley headed for the bookstore, Brady led Royce into a store called Superhero Hideaway. Much to Royce’s surprise, the store was like a library of comic books - three of the four walls consisted of nothing, but comics and superhero figurines while the last wall had a few changing rooms and racks upon racks of costumes. As Royce looked around in wonder, Brady headed straight for the register, conversing with the worker whom he apparently knew very well.

Royce quickly scanned over the multitude of books, finding his favorite series, Amazing Spider-Man, had far surpassed the thirteen issues he currently owned. “Woah,” he breathed to himself as he picked up a comic and began flipping through the pages. “I don’t think I could ever get used to this.”

Royce quickly placed the book back on the shelf as Brady approached him. “Ready?” the blonde man asked. “I had my stuff on pre-order so everything is set for me, but if you wanted to look around, we can hang for a bit. You do have a hundred to buy stuff with if you find anything.”

“No, nope, I’m good,” Royce insisted after looking at the price of the comic he’d been reading, sparing one last, longing look at the comic books on the shelves before following Brady out of the store and across the hall to the video game store.

When the four found each other by chance in the middle of the hall, Bentley began rattling off about a tea place Mack had brought him to. “There are little bubbles in the bottom of the cup and they pop when you bite them. Mine tastes like blueberries and they’re so weird but so good and you’ve gotta try some!”

“How much did you have?” Royce asked in return as he sat next to Bentley on a bench and took the cup from Bentley. He had to wonder how only about a third of the cup was gone and Bentley already seemed hyper.

“Lesson learned,” Mack began, leaning over to speak to the boys, “Bentley gets nothing, but decaf from now on.”

As soon as Mack’s attention had returned to her conversation with Brady about what she’d gotten off their list, Royce turned his attention back to Bentley and took a sip of the tea he’d been offered. “It’s good. Did you get anything so far?”

Bentley sighed and shook his head in disappointment. “No. Everything is too expensive and I’m not about to spend Uncle Brady and Auntie Mack’s money. It just sucks because there was this cool series about a magic school that I wanted to get, but it was eighty dollars for just the paperbacks. What about you? Any luck?”

Royce shook his head. “I wish. You should see some of the stores here. We went to this comic book store and there were so many in there that we’d be in there for a year reading them and not put a dent in their inventory.”

“Woah, where was that? I didn’t see it.”

Royce glanced over Bentley’s shoulder, pointing in the direction of the store before sighing, “Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me.”

“What?” Bentley asked, spinning around and looking in the direction Royce had been watching before smiling. “Oh, I get it now.”

On her way out of the comic book store was Vivien, her mouth going a mile a minute as she spoke with the tall guy she’d left the store with. Bentley glanced at Royce before raising his hand as far into the air as it would go and waving enthusiastically at the brunette girl. “Hi, Vivi!” he called, making Royce smack him on the arm and tell him to hush.

“Oh, hey, Beemer!” Vivien called in return, making her way over and giving Bentley a hug as he stood before turning to Royce and giving him one too. “Hey, Rolls.”

“Hi,” Royce greeted in return. “What’re you doing here?”

Viv shrugged, nodding in the direction of the guy she was with. “My friend Riven needed help picking out something for his boyfriend for Christmas so, in exchange for my help, he’s carrying my bags of presents.”

“Heh,” Bentley laughed, “we thought you two were on a date or something.”

“Definitely not!” Vivien laughed in return. “He and I have been skating partners since we were, like, four, but nothing more, thankfully.” Vivien leaned in close so she could whisper to the boys, “He doesn’t even know his Hogwarts house, guys. We all know I can’t date someone like that. I mean, come on, it’s common sense!”

As Vivien straightened up, Royce chuckled nervously, “Yep, common sense.”

“So,” Vivien began as she spared a look at Brady and Mack, “you guys doing Christmas shopping too?”

“Sort of,” Bentley sighed. “Everything is so expensive.”

Vivien scoffed, “Tell me about it. I already spent, like, two hundred on gifts and I still have three people left to buy for.”

“Holy-”

“Hello, Vivien,” Mack interrupted. “How are you?”

The brunette smiled up at the older woman before speaking, “I’m good, Mrs. B. Just doing some shopping. You guys get everything yet?”

“Almost,” the woman answered. “These two,” she nudged Bentley and Royce for emphasis, “still have to get stuff off of their lists, but we have almost everything else.”

“Cool,” Vivien said before taking a look at where she’d left her friend. “Well, I’ll let you guys get back to it. I have to go get Riven out of Hot Topic before he buys out all of their anime section. See you around.”

“See you,” the group replied as the girl took off for the darkly lit store.

Royce quickly turned to Mack and Brady with a hope-filled, pleading look. “What’s a Hogwarts and where can I find out what house I’m in?”

“Did you boys even get anything off of your lists?” Brady asked as they rode the escalator to the next floor.

Bentley and Royce shared a look before shaking their heads. “It’s too expensive,” Royce muttered.

Mack sighed, placing a hand on both Royce and Bentley’s shoulders from her spot between them. “Honey, that’s why we gave you the money.”

Bentley shook his head adamantly and placed a hand over Mack’s with a small smile “You need the money for bills and stuff.”

“Yeah,” Royce agreed. “Besides, we only have thirty-something dollars to our names. We can’t pay you back.”

As they stepped off the escalator, Brady turned to the boys with a sigh and a shake of his head. “Boys, we never asked for you to pay us back, not that we ever would in the first place. We have more than enough money. We have the surf shop Aunt Mack’s grandpa left us and I have a few successful patents out there from surfboard I’ve created. There’s no reason for us to worry about how much we’ve got.”

Royce glanced away before fishing the money out of his pocket and flattening it against the side of his jeans. After staring at the money - which was more money he’d had in his pockets since he and Bentley had moved - he finally met Brady’s gaze and held the money out to him in a way that the older man could easily take it or leave it. “Are you sure?”

“Positive, bud,” Brady replied, pushing the bill back toward Royce and closing the teen’s hand around it as Mack nodded in agreement. “Like we said earlier, if you need more, tell us. You can spend it on anything and, when we leave, you can keep what’s left for when we come back next time.”

“We can buy anything?” Bentley asked with a grin that the other three could tell was nothing but pure excitement with a hint of mischief.

Mack smiled and nodded. “All I have to say is try not to spend it all in one place and there are a few stores we'd prefer you don't go inside," Mack sent Brady a look that told him to agree, which he did, "but yes, you can buy just about anything in the mall.”

With his smile only widening, Bentley latched onto Brady’s wrist and dragged him toward the escalator opposite of the one they’d just come from, chanting, “Come on, come on, come on!”

As his brother and Brady disappeared around a pillar and into a store, Royce chuckled and shook his head with a smile. “Well, that’s pretty much what I expected.”

“What about you, sweetheart?” Mack asked, lightly nudging Royce as they stepped away from the escalators. “Did you find anything that strikes your fancy so far?”

Royce thought for a moment before nodding slowly. “There are a few things I could think of.”

“Lead the way.”

When the group met back up at the car, they each had bags piled full of gifts weighing their arms down. Everything was put in the car’s trunk in separate spaces, each covered with a blanket they’d brought so everyone knew whose was whose when they got back to the cabin. Before leaving for the night, they went back inside for dinner, staying for another hour or so to eat before going back to the cabin to unload the bags and hide them.

Mack and Brady were first, grabbing what they’d bought and bringing it in the house, stashing things away in their bedroom closet before lighting the fireplace and allowing the rest to bring their things in once at a time. Mick and Butchy kept their things in their closet just the same as Mack and Brady, Miles kept his in his under his bed in the suitcase he’d brought, and Lela was able to stash hers away in her dresser behind some clothes she rarely wore. Bentley kept his on the floor of their closet, trusting that Royce wouldn’t peek - which he had no intention of ever doing in the first place. Royce, however, kept his bags on the far side of the top shelf of the closet where Bentley couldn’t reach, even if he tried.

All in all, it was a very successful shopping trip.

[foreveralwaysanauthor]

Love Is A Gift

December 24, 2021

Prompt - ‘Twas The Day Before Christmas

Characters - I think it’s more about who isn’t mentioned at this point lol

Notes - This took me forever to get out but that’s entirely on me. I was very wrong about not having a lot to do today and found that out the hard way. My mom and I were only invited today to go to my cousin’s house for dinner tomorrow so I have no clue when tomorrow’s prompt will even be posted. I haven’t even started it yet, but it will be up, I just don’t know when. And I’m so glad you liked my prompt yesterday, Eleanor! I was stressing over how you'd like it so I’m very grateful you enjoyed it!

Ah, Christmas Eve. The day for most people to do last-minute gift shopping, run out of tape halfway through wrapping things and wind up downing a bottle of whatever alcohol was lying around as they realized they’d somehow forgotten to buy something for someone and would have to out early in the morning and pray that some store or another would miraculously be open. Sadly for those who were stuck having a birthday on that day, their celebrations were typically cut short due to the upcoming holiday and nobody having the time for another party around the same time.

However, if you’d ask a certain Makana Kaya Birch, she’d tell you it was no big deal having her birthday on Christmas Eve. She’d long since gotten used to putting aside her birthday parties in favor of Christmas celebrations. Even though her parents and other family members had almost always made sure to get her something for her birthday, Mick had grown to be alright with her birthday taking a backseat to Christmas. After all, it was the season of giving, not demanding gifts.

When she and Butchy became a couple, she had to explain to him that, if he wanted to just get her something for Christmas and say it covered both that and her birthday, she’d be fine with that. Butchy didn’t take that very well - nor did anyone else in their friend group, for that matter - but begrudgingly went along with it for Mick’s sake because, all in all, she knew how much of a hit his finances had taken due to the holiday and he knew she was only looking out for him. That didn’t mean he planned on continuing that trend into the next year. After all, she was his fiancée now and he planned on treating her like the queen she was.

Now that it was almost that season once again, Butchy was nearly clueless as to what to give Mick for her birthday.

He wanted it to be something special that would stand out as a birthday gift and not just another present she’d insist could be split as both a birthday and Christmas gift. Lela had suggested a necklace with something engraved on it, but Mick only wore necklaces for special occasions so she wouldn’t risk losing them in the ocean. Miles had given out the idea of getting the girl a new surfboard as she’d talked about wanting one when they hung out at Big Momma’s, but Butchy had discovered that Mack and Brady were already in the process of making one for their daughter. Even Royce and Bentley had pitched their own ideas but Mick already had access to loads of books and he knew for a fact that Mick had far too many colored pencils for him to even bother trying to get the girl new ones she didn’t have already so, while Butchy was grateful for the thought the boys put into their ideas, they were written off pretty easily.

Needless to say, he was quickly running out of ideas.

That was, until one day when Mick told him exactly what she wanted.

It was a fairly warm, October day and Mick had brought Butchy with her to visit her family. Her father had signed up to bring his ‘41 Ford station wagon - the same car Tanner drove both in the movie and in day-to-day life - to a car show and invited them to come and check out all of the cars on display. Much to Butchy’s surprise, the car show had a special tent set aside where motorcycles could be shown off. Mick led the way through the area, having navigated it year after year with her dad, talking to people everywhere she went while Butchy observed her fondly and examined each car he came across with a newfound delight.

By the time they’d gotten to the motorcycle tent at the back of the field, it was nearly time to head home for the night. It didn’t take long for Butchy to get lost in the range of motorcycles and Mick wasn’t surprised when he started talking with the owner of almost every bike he came across. Once they’d made their way to the row of bikes from the ‘60s, Mick split off from her fiancé and headed for the same bike she looked at every year - a ‘62 Harley-Davidson Panhead. Butchy had seen her eyeing the bike before in a magazine back at his workshop, but never thought she’d take an interest in it. As he finished chatting with a couple who owned a cherry red, ‘63 Indian Chief he’d taken a major interest in, Butchy made his way over to where Mick was conversing with the woman who owned the ocean blue Panhead she liked so much.

“I wish I could have one of these,” Mick told the woman. “It must be so amazing to cruise around on.”

“Oh, it is,” the woman claimed with a smile. “My father bought it when it first came out and I used to ride with him all the time. I was in an accident a few years ago and now I can’t ride it so I have no use for it now other than for show, sadly.”

Mick sighed and nodded in understanding, running her hand along the side of the bike, “That’s a shame. No beast like this should be locked in a cage.”

“You took the words right out of my mouth,” the woman replied.

After that, it didn’t take much for Butchy to latch onto the idea of getting Mick a bike of her own for her birthday.

By the time Butchy actually had his hands on the bike of Mick’s choice - the Panhead she’d admired - it was mid-November. Not only was the motorcycle a hot-ticket item, but finding it in the same ocean blue Mick loved was even harder as, apparently, it was a rare color. Hiding the bike was another problem. He couldn’t very well leave it in his garage - or anywhere else in his home, for that matter - and he definitely couldn’t leave it with Miles since she loved just going over there at random times just to hang out with Miles and her “new brothers.” The only place left he could keep it where she wouldn’t find it, was at Tanner’s house. The surfer was only ever home to sleep and Mick never went over there as she knew, if she needed Tanner for any reason, he’d be at Big Momma’s or with Lela at their house.

Tanner and Mick had always gotten along really well and Butchy was grateful that they were, especially in times like these. The surfer had readily agreed to let Butchy use his garage because, first off, he only used it when it rained and, second, it was under lock and key at all times. So, after Tanner gave Butchy the spare key to his house for when they wanted to work on the bike, the motorcycle sat in the surfer’s garage, waiting for Mick’s birthday to come around.

Not long after they’d found a temporary shelter for the bike, Butchy, Lela, the Murphy boys, and, eventually, the rest of the Rodent crew and a few of the surfers, began working on the bike. Some took to painting designs onto the metal, others took the leather seat off so they could add some embroidery work to it, and a few with trained eyes and steady hands began engraving a special emblem of theirs into the sides of the gas tank. With everyone working on it together, the motorcycle was finished on the nineteenth of December.

Miraculously, they’d evaded Mick’s detection throughout the process, using excuses for their whereabouts and ducking out whenever they had the chance. Butchy and Lela had to sneak out after Mick went to sleep some nights just to finish up what others had left for them during the day. There had been a few close calls, but either Mick didn’t seem to notice or she pretended to not know for their sake. Either way, it had worked out and they had completed their work on the bike a lot sooner than Butchy had originally planned.

The day Mick’s birthday rolled around, Butchy decided to go all out. He made her breakfast in bed, they spent the morning in bed together reading and talking, then, when she decided to get up for the day, he decided to help her do her hair - something he didn’t do too often but knew Mick loved. They went to her family’s home for a few hours just to spend time with them and Butchy was glad to see Mick so excited over her brand-new surfboard as well as a few pieces of equipment he knew absolutely nothing about, but Mick seemed happy to receive. After staying at Mack and Brady’s for lunch, they returned to Butchy and Lela’s home with them to attend a Christmas Eve party that Big Momma’s was throwing.

Well, it wasn’t so much a Christmas Eve party as it was a surprise party, but Mick didn’t need to know that, did she?

Lela and some of the girls helped Mick to get ready for the party, distracting her just long enough for Butchy to sneak out with the guys, bring the motorcycle from Tanner’s house to Big Momma’s and return home before his fiancée was any wiser. Around five that afternoon, they left the house for Big Momma’s taking the time to walk there instead of hitching a ride in any of the available vehicles which wasn’t odd seeing as it was seventy degrees and still fairly sunny outside. Once they neared the restaurant, Tanner and Lela, as well as a few of the others from the group, took off in a run for the building, chattering about how excited they were for the party so it wouldn’t seem out of place - not that it would in the first place as Mick knew how excited everyone got for one of those parties.

The majority of the group went inside first, allowing Mack and Brady to enter ahead of their daughter and her fiancé so they could see the look on her face when she realized what was happening. Butchy made sure to enter before Mick, holding the second set of doors open for her and watching her face as everyone collectively yelled a combination of “Surprise!” and “Happy Birthday!” The reaction was instantaneous - a squeak of surprise, a smile that her hands rose to cover once she realized what was happening, and wide eyes that scanned the room and took note of every single face in the crowd. To Butchy, her reaction was priceless.

Once the birthday girl had finished making her way through the room, hugging people and thanking them for attending the party, Mick settled into a chair in the middle of the room with the rest of her family. Lela quickly slid her a plate full of food, having set one aside as she knew firsthand just how fast the food table’s contents would be depleted. After nearly an hour of conversing with the other partygoers and enjoying time with her friends, Mick was handed the first of many presents.

Bentley had given her a sketchbook filled with artwork he’d done of her and the people in attendance, writing a message on the front cover of the book for only her to read. Royce had enlisted the help of Mack and Brady to get Mick a replica of a magic necklace from a book series they’d recently finished reading. Lela’s gift was a set of matching charm bracelets that they both could add to, but they shared two beads in common - a surfboard and a motorcycle. Miles had chosen to give Mick a leatherbound journal - something he’d never admit to making himself - as he knew just how much the girl loved to write about her life in-between worlds.

After all of the gifts were given and Mick was surrounded by a small pile of things, Butchy stepped forward and took her by the hand, leading her to the side and telling her to close her eyes. Once she had, he gestured for the motorcycle to be brought up behind her so that, when Mick turned around again, it would be the first thing she would see.

“On the count of three,” Butchy spoke softly, “turn around.”

Mick nodded, a wondering smile crossing her face. Once Butchy started counting, the majority of those present joined in, watching as Mick turned to see the blue motorcycle in all its glory. The seat was embroidered with flowers and Mick’s initials, the Rodents’ emblem and a single crown were engraved into the metal of the gas tank, and the ocean blue parts of the bike were now a beachy scene, a few little surfers painted in the water while others stood on the sand. The biggest surprise to Mick was the painting on the sides of what appeared to be her family’s destiny board - it was so realistic she had to touch it to make sure it wasn’t actual wood taken from the board.

“It’s a real surfers motorcycle,” Miles chuckled, settling a hand on Mick’s shoulder as she rounded the bike another time with wide eyes.

After examining the bike in detail and finding out who had done what to it - she wasn’t shocked to hear that Bentley and Miles had helped with the paint job and metalwork, but was pleasantly surprised to hear that Royce had helped Lela and Butchy with the embroidery work - Mick had practically launched herself at Butchy, wrapping her arms around him as tightly as she could muster.

“You do realize you’re going to have to teach me how to ride, right?” Mick asked in a whisper, her brilliant smile hidden in the crook of Butchy’s neck as he held her close.

Butchy chuckled, “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“I almost ran you over the last time we tried,” Mick laughed softly as she pulled back enough to see him. “Are you sure you’re ready for that again?”

With a smile and a nod, Butchy agreed. “As long as I can keep my foot intact this time, I’ll be okay.”

“Heard that!” Miles chimed in from his seat at the table they’d all been sat at.

“I think you were meant to,” Mick claimed with a teasing grin, giggling as Miles squawked out a “Hey!” in retaliation.

As the party began to end, people began leaving for home, wishing Mick a happy birthday on their way out. Once it was down to Mick and her family, they gathered up everything they’d come with and everything Mick had received and headed for home. Mack, Brady, and the Murphy boys stayed the night at Butchy and Lela’s house at Mick’s insistence, Miles and Butchy taking turns pushing the bike home before leaving it locked in the garage and joining the rest of the family in the house to watch movies. At the end of the night, Mick and Butchy retired to bed, leaving most of Mick’s gifts strewn about in the living room for the time being.

“You didn’t have to go through all that trouble so I could have a motorcycle,” Mick spoke as she slid her legs under the covers. “I would’ve been happy no matter what you’d given me. Heck, you could’ve given me a Ziploc baggie filled with Cheetos and I would’ve been happy.”

“I know,” Butchy replied, turning to Mick with a smile as he made his way toward their bed, “but you’re my fiancée and I adore you more than words will ever be able to describe. You deserve so much more than I might ever be able to give you.”

As Butchy found his way into the bed beside her, Mick reached out for him, placing a hand on his cheek. “Your love is all I’ll ever need.”

Deciding not to argue with such an endearing sentiment, Butchy pressed a kiss to the palm of Mick’s hand before pulling her close to him. “Happy birthday, beautiful.”

“Thank you,” Mick replied with a cheesy grin. “Merry Christmas Eve, handsome.”

[foreveralwaysanauthor]

Thin Ice, Thick Skin

December 4, 2021

Prompt - Ice Skating

Characters - Cabin Crew + Vivien

Notes - Can you tell I watched Little Women last night and couldn't get this idea - and the scene it was inspired by - out of my head?

December 4th,

We’re going ice skating today on the pond out behind the cabin. Aunt Mack’s family will be coming to visit. Some of her cousins and their kids will be there and I think both Bentley and I are nervous about this. Mick said there will be a few people around our age coming over. Neither of us has skated before so we don’t want to make fools of ourselves, but we’re at least willing to try. Vivi will be coming over and she seems excited. I’m kind of excited to see her since I just finished the book she recommended and I want to talk about it. She video-chatted with me earlier and it was fun. Apart from the fear of breaking my face open on the ice in front of everybody, I’m actually looking forward to skating today.

Royce and Bentley had spent the better part of an hour getting fitted for skates as Royce kept getting texts from Vivien. Their conversation kept him pretty engrossed in his phone, but Miles didn’t have the heart to tell him to put the device away as he loved how happy Royce looked. Granted, that wasn’t the only reason that it took so long, but that seemed to be one of the main reasons. Once they finally had their skates from the sports store, they went back to the cabin and began making lunch.

After lunch, Vivien arrived with her father and younger sister - her mom and brother were at her brother’s dentist appointment. It didn’t take long for Royce and Viv to start talking, glad to finally be off the tried phone and able to talk in person again. They quickly spiraled into a conversation about the Hunger Games series they’d both been reading. Bentley watched on from his seat by the fireplace with an almost unreadable look on his face.

“What’s wrong, Bender?” Butchy asked softly as he sat next to Bentley.

“Nothing,” the fourteen-year-old replied quietly, turning to stare into the fire. “I just want to go skating already.”

Butchy sent him a knowing look and a slight nudge to the side. “Are you sure that’s what’s bothering you, buddy?”

Bentley sighed, turning to Butchy and leaning against the older man. “Royce sure likes Vivien, huh?”

“He does,” Butchy agreed, wrapping an arm around the teenager. “I think, if you spent some time with her too, you’d like her just as much.”

“I bet I would, but,” Bentley exhaled, digging his elbow into one of Butchy's thighs and pressing his chin into the palm of that hand, “I’ve seen him with friends before and they usually include me in everything because of Royce. This is different. He isn’t even trying to include me in their conversation and neither is she.”

Butchy wasn’t entirely sure how to respond to that. He’d seen Miles with a girlfriend before and the oldest Murphy boy had acted different, sure, but it didn’t last long. Royce wasn’t acting completely different, just more talkative and a bit more cautious - as though he’d slip and say something wrong at any moment. The thing was, Butchy couldn’t be sure of how to approach Royce about the situation without affecting Bentley’s relationship with his older brother.

“Butchy?” Bentley asked, glancing up at the older man with an almost serious look in his eyes. Butchy didn’t like that look in the slightest.

“Yeah, Benny?”

“RJ really likes talking with Viv and they have a lot in common.” Butchy nodded in agreement, almost wishing he hadn’t as Bentley’s expression fell and he looked back over his shoulder at his older brother. “Do you think he’s sick of being around me? Or that maybe he’s gonna replace me with her?”

“Oh, no, buddy, of course not,” Butchy insisted, running a hand over Bentley’s back reassuringly. “He would never do that. I think he’s just happy to have someone his age who loves the same books he does.”

“He makes them sound so interesting and it feels like the characters come alive when he reads to me,” Bentley claimed, pulling his knees up to his chest. “I wish I could read the way he does.”

It was Butchy’s time to sigh, “Bentley, dyslexia isn’t-”

“I know, I know,” Bentley dismissed with a small, playful, roll of his eyes, assuming he'd hear the same spiel he always did from his brothers. “I’m not upset over not being able to read right. I'm used to it by now. I just want Royce to be able to talk to me about the books he talks with everyone else about - even the long ones that take weeks to read like Gone With The Wind.”

“Would it make you feel better if I talked to him?”

Bentley shrugged before shaking his head slowly. “I think I should try to show him I can be interested in books too. Maybe then they’ll be okay with me hanging around them more.”

“You don’t have to be more of anything,” Butchy stated firmly. “You’re great just the way you are. If anybody - your brothers included - can’t see how amazing you are by just being yourself, they don’t deserve you.”

Bentley smiled up at Butchy, leaning against the older man and wrapping his arms around him. “Thank you, big guy. I love you.”

“Love you too, kiddo,” Butchy replied, squeezing the boy until the younger eventually let go. “Now, how about we go get our skates on, yeah?”

It didn’t take long for everyone to spill out of the cabin and make their way down to the frozen water. Mick and Butchy had taken to skating around with the kids, giving them a crash course in skating - both in the literal and metaphorical sense - before allowing them to skate near the rest of the adults. Royce had taken to skating fairly well, bar from a few stumbles now and then when his knees wobbled. Bentley, on the other hand, had made friends with the ice, hugging it every few steps he took. He wasn’t ready to admit defeat and say that he was worse than Mick’s youngest cousin, eight-year-old Lexi, but even so, it was obvious to anybody who watched him for more than five seconds that he absolutely was worse than her.

Vivien and her sister, Abby, as it turned out, were competitive skaters and felt right at home on the ice. They had, apparently, competed in tournaments around the state and come home with high scores nearly every time. Bentley had to roll his eyes as Vivien showed off one of her skills, some spin jump that she’d named, but Bentley had been too busy tripping to listen to what it was called.

“She’s really good,” Royce claimed as Bentley slid his way toward him. “What do you think?”

“I’ll let you know when my face isn’t on the ground,” Bentley huffed as he clutched onto Royce’s arm. “Can you help me, Royce? I can’t get three steps in without falling.”

“Why don’t we ask Viv when she comes back?” Royce asked in return, sending a smile Bentley’s way as Vivien made her way toward them. “She’d probably be a great teacher.”

Bentley had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. “I’m sure she would be, but I-”

Bentley was cut off abruptly as Vivien pulled to a stop near them. “So, that was the Lutz. It was only created in the early nineteen hundreds so it’s not too old of a jump, but it’s one of my favorites.”

“That was amazing, Viv,” Royce stated before glancing between her and Bentley. “Bentley was just-”

“Going to ask Miles something,” Bentley claimed with a grin, not letting Royce finish his sentence before pushing himself off of Royce. The older Murphy brother reached out to grab the younger as he stumbled backward, nearly falling over again before righting himself. “See you later.”

With that, Bentley shuffled his way toward his oldest brother, passing Lela along the way until he eventually collided with his sibling. Miles glanced down before smiling - it wasn’t his first time getting run into by a kid in their short time on the ice. “Hey, baby,” Miles greeted, quickly wrapping an arm around Bentley’s waist to steady him. “How’s the skating going?”

“I suck,” Bentley stated, taking a sip of the hot cocoa Miles offered him. “I suck and Royce wants to have Vivien help me.”

“You should, she’s a great skater,” Lela piped in as she slowed to a stop near them, grabbing her hot cider from the picnic table they’d set up by the edge of the pond.

“Mhm,” Bentley hummed, settling on taking another sip of the hot cocoa until Lela skated away again. “I don’t want her to teach me.”

Miles glanced down at his brother curiously, making sure Royce and Vivien were far enough away to not hear him before speaking, “Why not, Benny?”

“I just wanted to spend time with Royce,” Bentley muttered softly. “Ever since he got that cell phone, he’s always talking to her or about her and I just wanted to be with him for a little bit without having to talk about some girl.”

Miles nodded slowly, knowingly. “I know. Do you want me to talk with him? Maybe it’ll get him to spend more time with you.”

‘Why does everyone keep asking me that?’ Bentley thought to himself before replying aloud, “No. If you do, he’ll get all huffy about having to spend time with me instead of her and it’ll be awkward. I’ll just talk to him myself.”

Miles sighed softly before turning to see where Royce was. “You should hurry, bud, they’re going to the other side of the pond.”

Bentley huffed at the thought of having to go all that distance just to talk, but said a quick goodbye to Miles and began to push himself in Royce’s direction. The closer he felt he’d gotten, the further away Royce and Vivien seemed to be. “Royce,” Bentley called as the older two raced toward the other side of the pond. “Royce, wait up!”

Royce and Vivien continued talking as they skated. “You know,” Viv began, “I never knew Butchy and Lela had three brothers. The first year Mick and Butchy were together, it was just Butchy and Lela, then it was Lela, Butchy, and Miles last year, why not you guys?”

“We were living with our dad last year,” Royce replied. “We only just moved to town in June, just after my birthday.”

“Oh,” Vivien said with a nod. “So, Miles lived with Butchy and Lela while you and Bentley stayed with your dad for a bit?”

“Yeah,” Royce confirmed as he watched Vivien skate backward in front of him. “Bentley and I were alright with it being just us for a while. I think that’s why we’re so close.”

A silence fell over the pair as Vivien went back to skating next to Royce. “Do you think Bentley likes me? You always talk about him and how you’re so close, but he never hangs out with us. I have a feeling I’m the problem in the equation.”

Royce quickly shook his head. “No, I don’t think it’s that at all. I bet he thinks we’d bore him to death with all of our book talks. He’s dyslexic and it makes it hard for him to follow along with books unless I read them to him.”

“I’m dyslexic too, you know,” Viv claimed with a grin. “My dad encouraged me to read the Percy Jackson books when I was younger and they made me feel more confident about it. Maybe you should have him try reading those with us when we start them next week. It’ll be our own little book club.”

“That would be cool,” Royce agreed with a smile. “I’d love for him to like reading the way I do.”

“Yeah, and-”

Viv’s voice was overtaken by a yell of Royce’s name. The pair quickly turned to the voice, finding Bentley standing a few yards away from them, knees wobbling anxiously as he stared down at the ice below him in horror. “Benny, what’s-”

“It’s breaking,” Bentley cut off quickly, tearing his eyes from the ice and meeting his brother’s eyes. “The ice. It’s breaking, Royce. I heard it crack when I moved.”

Royce moved to grab his brother but was quickly held back by Vivien’s grip on his arm. “Don’t move closer, that could send him through the ice. Bentley, stay as still as you can, okay? Royce, grab a branch from over there.” She gestured toward the side of the pond where some branches had fallen from their trees and into the brush on the shoreline before the freeze. “We’ll pull him to us.”

Royce quickly skated away as Vivien turned back to Bentley. “Hey, Bentley, keep your eyes on us, alright?”

“I’m scared,” Bentley blurted, locking eyes with Vivien as she stared back at him with as gentle of a smile as she could muster.

“I know,” the girl with the circle-framed glasses replied quickly. “We’ll get you off of there soon, okay? You’ll be alright.”

Bentley’s whole body seemed to shiver as the ice made a low creak under him. “Viv, it keeps cra-AH!”

Vivien, Royce, and Bentley let out screams as the ice gave way under Bentley, sending him crashing into the freezing cold water that he had, at one time, swam in with his family just a few months prior. The water felt nothing like it had back then, the warm, sunkissed water had turned into piercing knives, stabbing icicles into every inch of skin it could reach. After the initial shock and urge to suck in some of the icy cold water had subsided, Bentley tried to push himself toward the surface. He could hear muffled screaming from above, whatever direction that was, and kicked his way toward it, attempting to push himself closer to the opening he’d fallen through.

The first thing Bentley heard as he surfaced was Royce screaming his name as he attempted to find something to hold onto other than the ice. Bentley found a branch shoved his way and quickly latched onto it, allowing himself to be pulled, inch by inch, out of the water until he was on the ice again. Bentley glanced around blearily as the cold began to sink into his skin, seeing the majority of his family skating their way. Royce had pulled a shivering Bentley to his chest, holding him tight as the adults made their way to them.

“Bentley,” Royce pleaded thickly, “Benny, baby, please, say something.”

Bentley finally focused on Royce, smiling as his brother’s watery, caramel eyes latched onto his steely blue ones. “Th-That was- That w-was co-old,” he stammered through shivers with a smile before coughing lightly as another chill ran up his spine.

Royce laughed breathlessly, tightening his grasp around Bentley to warm him as Miles slid to a stop near them and knelt down. Not wanting to separate his brothers, Miles resigned to wrapping his arms around them both and rattling off questions directed toward both them and Vivien. Bentley looked around as Miles questioned Royce as to what had happened, finding the majority of those present crowding around them, sending him concern-filled gazes as Miles slowly lifted him off the ground.

The group made their way back toward the cabin, but Bentley relaxed into Miles’ hold, just happy he didn’t have to skate his way back.

The few faces Bentley had acknowledged were missing from the group when Miles hauled him into the house, had been sent to the cabin to light the fireplace and find some towels and blankets. Bentley had insisted he was fine to anyone who asked, but none of the adults seemed to take him seriously, insisting he must be in shock. Both Miles and Royce seemed hesitant to leave Bentley alone for long so, while Bentley was changing into warm clothes after being all but thrown into the bath to wash off the icy cold water, his older brothers waited outside the room in awkward silence, waiting to be let in.

Once Bentley emerged from the room, Miles practically threw himself into a protective frenzy, asking his younger brother every question he could think of while Royce sat to the side, not wanting to get in the way. It wasn’t until Bentley held out a hand to his curly-haired brother that Royce moved from his spot on the floor. When the brothers headed back downstairs, they were greeted with a barrage of questions which Bentley handled fairly well before relaxing by the fireplace with Butchy while Miles and Royce talked with Mack, Mick, and Brady.

“Butchy?” Bentley asked in a whisper. Butchy hummed to acknowledge that he was listening, so Bentley continued, “I think Royce is mad at me now.”

“Why do you think that?” Butchy whispered in return, glancing down at Bentley with a frown.

Bentley shrugged, tugging lightly on the blanket that was wrapped tightly around his shoulders. “He hasn’t talked to me at all since we came in and it feels like he doesn’t want to be close to me now.”

Butchy glanced over Bentley to where Royce was standing, his face buried in Mack’s shoulder as the older woman spoke softly to him. “I think he’s scared, Bender.”

“Why?” Bentley asked around a yawn as the fire crackled in front of them. “I’m alright.”

“I think it scared him when he realized he couldn’t jump in after you without putting himself in the same amount of danger,” Butchy replied with a sigh. “He’s used to being there for you and helping you when you get into trouble. I think seeing you in trouble and knowing he couldn’t help you, really bothered him. As for not talking to you, I think all the screaming he did earlier might’ve hurt his throat too much.”

Bentley peered up at Butchy, meeting the man’s gaze before turning to steal a glance at Royce. “I want to talk to him.”

Butchy watched the two brothers before holding Bentley away from his side. “Can you stay here alone for a minute? I can go get him.”

Bentley thought for a moment before nodding slowly. “Don’t make him come if he doesn’t want to. I want him to want to talk to me if that makes any sense.”

Butchy chuckled softly, ruffling Bentley’s hair as he stood. “Oddly enough, it makes sense to me.” After adjusting the blanket around Bentley's shoulders, Butchy told the fourteen-year-old to stay put before making his way over to where Mack and Royce were standing.

Miles placed a hand on Butchy’s arm as he passed, stopping the older man in his tracks. “How is he?” the oldest of the brothers asked, a hand gripping Butchy’s arm.

“He’s fine,” Butchy assured with a smile as Miles’ grip slowly loosened. “If anything, he seems more worried about the two of you than he does about himself.”

“Us?” Miles questioned, glancing over at Bentley who stared into the fireplace with a grin. “Why?”

Butchy placed his hands on his hips and sent Miles a knowing look. “He’s been watching you both like a little hawk. You’ve been pacing holes in the floor since you got down here and Royce has either been sitting in a ball on the floor or hugging Mack and Brady. I’m sure that’s not making it easy for him to think positive.”

Miles sighed heavily, staring briefly up at the ceiling before turning back to Butchy. “I should talk to him.”

“Actually,” Butchy began, “he wants to talk to Royce.”

This made Royce turn from Mack’s tight embrace, hurriedly wiping his face with the sleeve of his sweater. “M-Me?” he stammered hoarsely with a short sniffle. “Is he- I-Is he mad with me?”

Butchy shook his head. “Quite the opposite, actually.” At Royce’s confused head tilt, Butchy finished speaking, “He thinks you’re mad at him.”

Royce peered around Butchy cautiously, finding his little brother’s steely blue eyes locked on him already. Royce offered a small wave which Bentley returned with an almost unnoticeable grin. With a turn back to Butchy and Miles, Royce nodded slowly, picking subconsciously at the skin around his fingernails. “I’m going to talk to him.”

Butchy stepped aside, allowing Royce to step past him and make his way toward his younger brother. True to Butchy’s earlier claim, Bentley was staring him down as he approached, almost as though he was trying to gauge what Royce was thinking. With a big huff, Royce sat down next to Bentley, joining his brother in staring at the fire as it crackled. Bentley looked anywhere but Royce as silence passed over them.

“So,” Royce began, clearing his throat and wincing when it twinged in pain, “Butchy said you wanted to talk to me.” Royce glanced to his left, finding Bentley staring back at him. “If you’re going to yell at me, though, I think Auntie Mack and Uncle Brady would prefer we do this upstairs.”

“Why would I yell at you?” Bentley asked softly. “You did nothing wrong. I was the one who was dumb enough to fall through the ice.”

“That wasn’t your fault,” Royce insisted, turning to Bentley and placing a hand on his little brother’s face. “Benny, none of that was your fault. The ice was too thin in the middle of the lake and that’s completely out of your control. I should’ve stayed with you while we were out there. If I had, this might not have happened.”

“You didn’t know,” Bentley stated firmly, closing his eyes and relaxing into his brother’s hand. “Nobody did. I’m not mad or upset. I was scared, sure, but not mad.”

With a relieved exhale, Royce pulled Bentley into a hug, happy to feel his baby brother return the embrace. “You have every right to be. You have no idea how scared I was and I wasn’t the one to fall through the ice.”

“I think I know exactly how you felt,” Bentley laughed as he pulled back from Royce’s embrace. It took one look at his brother’s face for Bentley to stop giggling. “Hey, were you crying? Your eyes are all red.”

“Oh,” Royce breathed, “I- uh, well, yeah. Today was such a rollercoaster. I went from being happy to being absolutely terrified, then to being worried if you were mad at me or not. I guess it got to me.”

Bentley grabbed the edges of the blanket that had been wrapped around him and wrapped an arm around Royce’s shoulders as he scooted closer, allowing his brother to take one side of the blanket and share it with him. Royce gripped his side of the blanket with one hand, tucking an arm around Bentley in return.

“I love you,” Bentley murmured to Royce as he leaned his head on Royce’s shoulder. “You know that, right?”

Royce nodded with a small smile. “I know. I love you more.”

Bentley let out a soft giggle, peering up at Royce with his usual brilliant grin. “I love when you say that.”

“You love it because Miles would tell us that all the time,” Royce claimed running a hand through Bentley’s hair to mess it up.

“That too,” Bentley agreed, “but mostly because it makes me happy when you say you love me.”

“Good,” Royce stated softly, squeeing Bentley tight, “because I don’t ever plan to stop.”

[foreveralwaysanauthor]

When Loved Ones Are Near

December 26, 2021

Prompt - The Most Wonderful Time

Characters - Gotta have at least one last Cabin Crew prompt this year!

Notes - Merry Christmas! I know this is a day late, but I took most of the day off to be with my family yesterday which I hope you don’t mind. Also, I hope you have a fantastic day and that you had a great time celebrating the holidays however you decided to!

December 25th, Christmas,

I have to say, I think this year is one of my all-time favorites. I’m so glad we chose to run away and move in with Miles. I mean, just look at how many family members we have now! We’ve only spent two months and a few weekends living with them in total, but I already can’t imagine life without Uncle Brady and Aunt Mack. They’re wonderful people and they love me and Bentley and the rest of us like they’re our parents which is incredible. I mean, they even bought everyone matching Christmas pajamas! I thought people only did that in movies. And life just wouldn’t be the same without being able to call Mick and Lela my sisters! They’re some of my favorite people in the world and I love spending time with them. Butchy’s been awesome too. He’s like the perfect older brother who takes the time to hang out with us no matter how busy he is. Then there’s Vivien… she’s amazing. She’s so accepting of us being from another time, another world, and she gets along well with everyone I care about, and I really like her. I have for a little while now and I don’t know if I’ll be able to tell her before we leave again or if it’ll have to wait for sometime next year, but I want to tell her so bad! I don’t even know if she likes me back, but she puts up with my nonsense pretty well when she visits so maybe she does like me back.

For the first time in a long time, Royce awoke to Bentley’s face maybe a few inches away from his, his little brother’s finger poking into his ribcage repeatedly. “Merry Christmas, you filthy animal!” Bentley exclaimed, bouncing on Royce’s bunk, much to the sixteen-year-old’s displeasure. “Get up, RJ! It’s time for gifts.”

“Good morning to you, too,” Royce groaned, pushing his brother away with a hand to the face before rolling onto his side. “Go back to bed.”

“It’s six-thirty,” Bentley stated matter-of-factly. “Aren’t you always telling me I should get up earlier?”

Royce sighed and relaxed into his blankets, “Not on Christmas. That is, legitimately, the only day I ever ask to sleep in.”

With a roll of his eyes, Bentley flopped onto the mattress next to Royce and took the other half of Royce’s blanket, covering himself with it and pulling some from Royce, knowing it would agitate him. “Fine, I’ll just stay here then,” Bentley stated before rolling onto his side, taking Royce’s blankets with him.

As Royce felt the blankets slide off of him, he turned to Bentley, smacked the fourteen-year-old on the back of his head, and took some of his blankets back. “Go sleep on your own bed. You have one for a reason, you know.”

Bentley smirked, his plan was working already. “I know, but I want to stay in your bed with you like we used to.”

“I think you mean ‘like we still do almost every weekend,’” Royce restated, putting an arm around Bentley’s shoulders and pulling him close. “Clingy child.”

“Not a child.”

Royce snorted softly, “Yeah, you are, but so am I.”

Bentley smiled and agreed before relaxing into his brother’s bed. “Can we go open presents now?”

“We have to wait until everyone else is up, Benny,” Royce muttered. “As much as I’d love to, you and I both know Miles won’t be up for at least another hour or so and, even then, he’ll complain about it being too early until he gets some coffee in him.”

With a soft laugh and a nod of agreement, Bentley spoke softly, “That’s for sure.” After a brief moment of silence, Bentley wrapped an arm around Royce’s middle and added, “Merry Christmas, Royce.”

Royce smiled and squeezed Bentley tight before replying, “Merry Christmas, Bentley.”

Somehow, between their soft-spoken conversation and watching the snow flurries outside their bedroom window, Bentley and Royce had fallen asleep once more. The only reason they knew this was because Butchy had to come in and wake them, telling them it was time for breakfast. Despite having more than enough sleep, it took the brothers a while to make their way downstairs. The rest of the family was already congregated on the couch and, much to their surprise, Royce and Bentley found Miles was already awake, sipping at a coffee from his seat on the floor in front of the coffee table where Royce and Bentley usually sat. Mack and Brady handed the boys plates of what they knew they liked before taking their own plates and joining the rest of the group for breakfast in the living room.

After everything was finished and plates were taken back to the kitchen, it was time for presents. Due to the varying styles of wrapping paper used, every present had a to-and-from sticker on it. For some, though, it was fairly easy to tell who had wrapped what. Royce and Bentley were in charge of handing out gifts as they had chosen to sit closest to the tree, so they made sure to hand everyone a gift before taking one for themselves. A few rounds of presents passed and, before they knew it, the mountain of presents under the tree was replaced with a pile of wrapping paper that they’d worry about taking care of later on. The final round of presents went around and most were torn open fairly quickly, adding to both the growing mountain of wrapping paper pieces and the pile of presents everyone had gathered near them.

A while later, after going through their presents, opening them, and sharing what they’d gotten with the others in attendance, Royce and Bentley went up to their room and video-called Vivien to wish her a Merry Christmas. The girl was in the process of getting ready when they called her, catching her just after she’d finished getting dressed and had begun brushing her hair.

“I can’t believe you finally got a cell phone, Beemer,” Vivien claimed, sending the boys a brilliant, beaming smile. “That’s awesome!”

“I know, right!” Bentley exclaimed. “Aunt Mack and Uncle Brady said they’ll hold onto it while we’re at our house like they do for RJ but I get to keep it with me otherwise.”

Royce grinned and nudged his brother. “Now we have to show you how to use it.”

As she placed her brush down on the counter in front of her, Vivien nodded in agreement. “And how to fill it with apps that you’ll post on, but will scroll through until your battery dies like Pinterest or Instagram.”

“What about TikTok?” Royce added with a grin. “Can’t forget that.”

Bentley nodded in confirmation before deciding to change the subject from his gifts to Vivien’s. “So, what did you get for Christmas, Vivi?”

With a sly smile, Vivien moved her phone and ran her fingers through the top of her hair. “Why don’t I show you some of them when I stop by?”

“You’re coming over?” Royce asked. “When?”

The girl with the glasses shrugged as she began sectioning and braiding her hair. “Maybe fifteen, twenty minutes. My family wants to have us bring gifts to some of our family members, and, because you guys live down the street, we’ll probably start by bringing you guys your gifts.”

“You got us gifts?” Bentley asked with a smile.

“Of course I did, Beemer,” Vivien replied as she picked up her phone once more. “Now, let me finish getting ready and I’ll see you in a few.”

“Later, Viv,” Bentley and Royce said before the girl ended the call.

Bentley smirked at Royce as the older boy stood and whipped off his pajama shirt, tossing it into the nearest hamper and searching the closet for something decent to wear. “What’s wrong with what you’ve got on?”

“I can’t be wearing that when she comes over!” Royce stressed, pulling a sweater over his head as he made his way to the dresser to adjust the collar and fix his hair in the mirror. “It’s already past noon, I’d look ridiculous to her.”

As Royce prepared to open the door and head downstairs, Bentley stopped him with a snort. “So the shirt was crazy but the pants aren’t?”

Royce quickly glanced down, finding that, true to Bentley’s words, he was still wearing his pajama pants. With a huff of exasperation and a quick “thank you,” thrown Bentley’s way, Royce headed back for the closet and Bentley turned back to his new cell phone with a shake of his head and a soft chuckle.

“You’re welcome.”

By the time Vivien and her family showed up, Bentley had warned the rest of the family so they had time to change if they wanted to and Royce had found his pants. Royce had welcomed the family into their cabin getaway when they arrived and, when he took in just how much they’d dressed up, felt instantly relieved that he’d gotten dressed. Vivien’s siblings, Abby and Oliver, looked uncomfortable in their matching sweaters - Abby more so as she’d been practically forced to wear a skirt but, by the way Oliver kept tugging at the collar and sleeves, everyone could tell he was equally uncomfortable. Their parents had dressed in red and green evening wear, telling everyone that, after they’d finish giving out presents, they’d be attending some upscale style charity event.

Royce had to blink a few times when Vivien entered the house, a handful of neatly wrapped presents hauled behind her in a little wagon. The sixteen-year-old’s golden-brown hair had been pulled into a braid with small ribbons tying it together at the ends, something he’d never seen her do with it before. Another thing Royce instantly noticed was the way the navy blue of her outfit made the green in her eyes stand out more.

“Hey, Rolls,” she greeted, leaning the handle of the wagon on the wall so she could walk around. Her plaid skirt fluttered behind her, briefly reminding both Royce and Bentley of Snape’s capes in Harry Potter. “Hey, Beemer.”

The brothers gave their own form of greeting while Vivien grabbed a pair of gifts from the wagon. Before long, the trio made their way upstairs and into the boys’ shared room. In the privacy of the boys’ room and knowing her parents would be busy chatting with the rest of the group for a while longer, Vivien tugged her skirt over her head and tossed it aside - grateful that her circle skirt was long enough to hide her leggings - and flopped onto Bentley’s bed. “You guys are so lucky to just chill in your pajamas all day,” she grumbled.

Bentley sent Royce an ‘I told you so’ look before smirking and taking up a seat next to Vivien. “It would’ve been nice if you could’ve stayed here and hung out with us while your parents did all of the gift-giving stuff.”

Vivien sighed happily, “I’d love nothing more than to hang with you guys and drink hot chocolate all day. Maybe I’ll try asking after, but I think they’ll probably say no since it’s mostly the older people in our family we’re bringing gifts to.”

“You never know,” Royce offered as he perched himself on the other side of Vivien.

With a nod, Vivien sat up and chose to change the subject. “Well, enough of that,” she said before getting up and grabbing the presents she’d left on the dresser on her way into the room, handing them to the boys before moving back into her previous seat and watching the boys open them.

Bentley pulled his gift out of the box, gasping as he realized what he was looking at. “It’s Percy’s sword from the books! How’d you get this?”

Happy that she’d gotten the boy something he was already enjoying, Vivien giggled, “That’s for me to know, and you to never find out.”

“This is so cool!” Bentley laughed as he pulled the sword, sheath and all, from the box, flipping it around in his hands before standing. “Thank you so much, Viv,” Bentley spoke as he gave the older girl a hug. “I’m gonna go show everyone. I’ll be right back.”

Royce and Vivien watched the excited fourteen-year-old leave the room, hearing him bound his way down the stairs. Vivien turned to Royce expectantly as he opened his present, finding a Spider-Man DVD set as well as a few of the comic books he’d taken a liking to when they’d gone to the mall and a few of those little vinyl figurines Vivien had a small collection of in her room.

“I wasn’t sure if you’d seen the movies yet or not, so I got them for you yesterday,” Vivien explained, fiddling nervously with the lining of her boots as she attempted to gauge Royce’s expression. “The comics, on the other hand, I saw you checking out at the mall so I got a few of them and some of the statue thingies because I really like them and I thought you would too.”

“They’re perfect,” Royce said, hugging Vivien before she could ramble any further. “Thank you so much.”

Vivien smiled over Royce’s shoulder, giving him a squeeze before Royce pulled back and set his presents aside. He quickly stood and made his way to the closet, pulling out a pair of boxes - one long and fairly thin while the other was round and tall. After handing them to Vivien, he wanted as she peeled back the paper on the long present first, revealing a box he’d been anticipating for just over a week before it finally arrived two days before Christmas. Vivien sent him a curious smile before opening the box and grinning at what was inside.

“My wand,” she spoke to herself, gingerly pulling the object from its box. The wand itself was just over thirteen inches long and was made of spruce wood that had been stained a shade of navy blue up until it reached the handle where it gradually faded into ebony. Vivien had talked about wanting a wand for a few weeks and had even shown Royce and Bentley which one she planned on buying with the money she’d get from her grandparents’ Christmas cards. Royce had beat her to the chase, though, having written down on his phone exactly what she’d wanted so that he could get it for her for Christmas.

Royce rubbed the back of his neck as he anxiously awaited Vivien’s reaction. “I know how much you love Harry Potter and, when you showed me the wand, it just clicked.”

Unable to wipe the smile from her face, Vivien held the wand and pointed it toward the other side of the room before standing and making her way to where the mirror hung on the wall. She stared at her reflection as she pointed her wand at the reflective surface, smiling at herself. “It’s amazing, Royce! I love it,” Vivien claimed before making her way back to Royce and sitting down next to him so she could hug him.

After a moment, Vivien slid the wand into a tightly woven section of her braid and Royce handed her the circular present. This one she opened fairly slowly, finding a round, blue object - something akin to a vintage hatbox - with a carrying strap on one side and a zipper holding it shut. Vivien examined the box with a smile even though she hardly ever used a purse, just glad it was in her favorite color. She thanked Royce with a smile, but the boy shook his head and told her to open it.

Hesitantly, Vivien did as asked, pulling back the zipper before opening the box. Inside was a small, silver tiara with what appeared to be sapphires and diamonds laid into the metal. “What are- What is this for?” Vivien asked with a small smile as she traced a finger along the rhinestones.

“Well,” Royce began, “you said before that you missed when they used to give crowns to the people who won medals at your skate competitions. You won gold at the last one you went to, so Bentley and I decided you deserved something better than just some flowers and a medal.” There was a pause of silence as Vivien examined the crown. “Is it too much?”

Vivien stared between Royce and the crown for a minute as Royce continued to babble nervously before she set the case aside and turned to Royce. “I could kiss you right now.”

Royce sighed and shook his head, “It’s not a big deal, I can return- wait, what?”

“It’s just, you’ve put so much thought into this stuff,” Vivien stated with a look of gratitude on her face. “It means the world to me, it really does. I could, quite literally, kiss you right now, I’m so happy!”

Royce breathed a sigh of relief, “That’s good. I-I mean about you liking it, not about the kissing thing! Not that you kissing me would be a bad thing or anything. I’d actually love it if you did, but I-”

“Royce,” Vivien interrupted firmly, cutting him off mid-sentence as her face began to heat up and Royce’s turned a bright shade of red. “Do you want to go on a date with me?”

Royce froze in place, mouth agape briefly before Vivien raised a hand and closed it for him with a smile. Clearing his throat apprehensively, Royce smiled. “Are you being serious or are you just messing with me?”

“I’m completely serious,” Vivien said softly. “I’ve really liked you for a while now, Royce, and I’d like to go out on a date with you, if you’re up for it.”

With a breathy laugh and a short nod, Royce spoke, “In that case, I’d love to go out with you.”

Before Vivien could say anything more, there was a soft bang in the hallway followed by an exclamation of “Finally!” from Bentley to which both Royce and Vivien shared a laugh. As their laughter began to fizzle out, Royce gave Vivien a hug, returning the squeeze he received from her before she let go.

“So,” Vivien began as she glanced toward the bedroom door, “needless to say, Bentley’s known about me liking you for a while.”

Royce let out a short laugh and shook his head with a knowing smirk. “Really? He’s known I’ve liked you for ages now. I can’t believe he never said anything to either of us.”

“I know! I bet he told the twins though,” Vivien joked, waiting until she heard an adamant “No, I didn’t!” through the door before dissolving into giggles as they listened to Bentley get up and wander off down the hall.

Royce joined her briefly before smiling. “You look incredible, by the way. You always do, but that blue looks great on you.”

“Why thank you,” Vivien replied graciously. “I have to say the same.” After a brief pause, Vivien spoke again, “You know, you look great in the whole ‘sweater with a button-down underneath’ look, but those matching pajamas you and Bentley were in earlier on video chat looked super comfy.”

Royce’s eyes widened a smidge before he closed them and sighed, “You saw those?”

The girl smiled and nodded. “I did,” she confirmed. “They looked so cozy.”

“They were.”

With a short laugh, Vivien lightly smacked Royce’s arm, “Then why’d you change? If it were up to me, I’d be in my pajamas all day, dude.”

Royce ran a hand through his hair with a nervous chuckle, “I wanted to look good for you.”

Vivien laughed wholeheartedly this time, tossing her head back as she went. Once she calmed down a bit, Viv nudged Royce with a grin. “You know what would be funny?” Royce shook his head with a smile. “If we went, for a date or something, to this really fancy place in our comfiest pajamas.”

Royce chuckled and shook his head, “Imagine everyone’s faces if we did.”

“Like I said,” Vivien began as she laid back on Bentley’s bed, “it would be funny.”

“It would,” Royce agreed with a nod before joining her. After a while of silence, Royce spoke again, “What do you want to do for our first date? Movies? Dinner?”

Vivien shrugged, turning to Royce with a small smile as she laced her fingers with his. “How about we enjoy Christmas with our families first and, when we decide we want to go out, we can figure it out then?”

Royce turned to Vivien with a relieved smile. “No rush?”

“We have all the time in my world and yours.” Vivien returned her gaze to the ceiling, glancing around at the glow-in-the-dark stars the brothers had placed on their ceiling. “There’s no need to rush when we have nothing but time.”

Royce grinned to himself as he joined her in staring at the ceiling. “Merry Christmas, Vivien Leigh.”

“Merry Christmas, Rolls Royce.”

[foreveralwaysanauthor]

Underneath The Tree

December 23, 2021

Prompt - Wrapping Paper

Characters - Too many lol

Notes - This is a set of three snippets that I've been wanting to post for a little while. Also, Eleanor, I may or may not have borrowed Carrie so I could add one in here just for you. Even though these are on the short side, I’m so unsure of how that one came out, so, if you don’t really like how it came out, let me know and I’ll fix it!

Mick and Butchy:

One Christmas morning, a year into their relationship, Mick awoke and, with a yawn, found herself in bed alone. Sure, Butchy could’ve gotten up to make breakfast with Lela, but he rarely left her in bed alone. She knew he liked to watch her sleep until it was time to get up so he could spend more time with her and they could get ready for the day together. The brunette reached over and felt his side of the bed, finding it oddly cold. Butchy had been gone for a while and, being the heavy sleeper she usually was, Mick had never noticed.

Mick threw off the covers and got up from the bed, wrapping a blanket around her arms and making her way to the living room. The house was oddly quiet. She peered into the kitchen and found that nobody was making breakfast yet which was odd considering how Lela loved to help Butchy make it every day. With her curiosity piqued, Mick wandered her way into the living room, turning on the light so she could see. There, sitting criss-cross under the Christmas tree, was her boyfriend, his upper body wrapped with green and red, plaid wrapping paper and his wrists tied together with the strings of a big, gold bow. There was a bow over Butchy’s mouth and a note taped to his chest with her name written on it.

“Butchy, what are you doing out here?” Mick asked as she made her way to him, untying his hands, and taking the bow off of his mouth. “What happened?”

“Lela and Miles dragged me out here and tied me up,” Butchy claimed with a small smile, allowing Mick to untie him and take the note off of his shirt. “I guess I’m your present from them.”

“You seem pretty calm about this,” she realized, slowly unwrapping Butchy from his red and green prison. “How long have you been out here?”

“About two hours,” Butchy replied with a soft laugh. “I was already up and was watching you sleep when they came in. They said I was being creepy.”

“Well, I think it’s cute,” Mick whispered before pressing a kiss to his lips. Once Butchy was free from his wrappings, Mick picked up the note and read it.

‘Mick, you forgot to put this on your Christmas list this year. We got it for you anyway. Be careful with him, okay? We love him just as much as you do. We’ll be hanging out at Big Momma’s today, so you two have the house to yourselves for a while. Don’t do anything too crazy! Merry Christmas! Love, Miles and Lela.’

Tanner and Lela:

The surfer gang had invited their girlfriends over to Tanner’s house for a Christmas Eve get-together and, while most everyone was inside talking and watching movies, Lela and Tanner were sitting outside on the porch, watching the snowfall and holding each other tight. Tanner had his arms wrapped around Lela’s waist and was watching her lovingly as she talked about her excitement for Christmas.

“Did you have anything special on your list?” he asked her.

Lela smiled, pressing her forehead to his. “Just you.”

Tanner smiled. “You already have me, beautiful.”

The next morning, Lela woke up in Tanner’s bed, wrapped up in his blankets, and curled up on his side of the bed. Tanner was nowhere in sight and Lela had to wonder if he had gotten called in to work or something. Lela sighed and made her way into the living room, planning to spend a little time watching TV if Tanner wasn’t home. Lela slid her way into the living room and headed toward the Christmas tree, flipping the switch to turn on the tree’s lights.

However, sitting just in front of the Christmas tree, wrapped in sparkly wrapping paper and little bows, was her boyfriend. A bright, beaming smile graced his face as Lela jumped. “Tanner!” she exclaimed. “What are you doing?”

“I had the guys wrap me up for you after you went to bed,” Tanner explained, chuckling at how much his sudden appearance had startled his girlfriend. “You said you wanted me for Christmas.”

“This isn’t exactly how I meant it,” Lela sighed with a grin, pulling a silver bow off of his hair. He pressed a kiss to her lips as he pulled his arms free from the wrapping paper and took her hands in his.

For a brief moment, his face changed and Lela saw a fleeting glimmer of worry in his eyes. “This is better though, right? The guys’ girlfriends said it would be romantic.”

Lela giggled at him with a shake of her head before lightly pressing a kiss to Tanner’s cheek. “This is perfect.”

Miles and Carrie:

Carrie and Miles had only been officially together for a few months when Christmas came around. Miles had decided to keep his relationship with Carrie a secret from most of the gang and, after explaining his reasoning, Carrie had been alright with it. He had told Carrie that he wanted to make sure that his family would get along well with her first before throwing her into the chaotic pool of crazy that was the rest of the gang. It had taken some work getting Butchy to like the blonde, but once they’d worked out their differences, for the most part, it was smooth sailing.

Two days before Christmas, however, Miles rode home with Carrie after work and asked her if she’d be willing to go to his gang’s Christmas Eve party as his official girlfriend. Carrie, of course, said yes and, together, they began discussing their plan of action and how to go about introducing the blonde to his biker friends.

The night of the party came sooner than either of them had anticipated and, when Carrie got to the party, almost everyone seemed welcoming. Miles’ little brothers had been happy to see her and told her, in private, of course, about how happy Miles had been lately because of her and how grateful they were for that. After the party started to die down, Carrie watched as, one by one, they all left to spend the night with their relatives and significant others. The night went by a lot faster than she’d expected, but it had been fun nonetheless. By the end of the night, only Carrie, Miles, Royce, and Bentley were left.

Bentley and Royce shared a look before retiring to their room to leave Carrie and Miles alone. Truthfully, they had spent most of their “alone time” cleaning up and talking about how their night was. That night, Carrie had fallen asleep watching movies, so Miles carried her to his room and allowed her to stay there while he slept on the couch in the living room as any respectable boyfriend would. When Royce returned that night, he’d teased his older brother about sleeping on the couch, but left him alone otherwise.

When Carrie woke up on Christmas morning, she found herself surrounded by the scent of her boyfriend’s cologne. After pushing herself out of Miles’ comfortable mattress adjusted her hair and clothes so she didn’t look too messy before leaving his room and heading for the kitchen, hoping to find him awake and making breakfast. Without finding Miles in the kitchen, Carrie headed for the living room instead. In the light coming from the living room windows, the blonde found Miles��� brothers, Mick, Butchy, and Lela had assembled, almost as though they were waiting around until she was awake.

“Uh, hello, everyone,” Carrie greeted cautiously, looking around as they smiled innocently at her in return.

The family smiled at each other before moving aside so Carrie could see the Christmas tree. As they stepped aside, she spotted Miles tied to a chair in front of the Christmas tree with a bunch of bright strips of wrapping paper, strings, and bows decorating him like a messily wrapped present. He didn’t look too enthusiastic about his current position but, given that Carrie knew he had the strength to break free if he wanted to, she figured he had a good reason for staying tied up.

“Why?” was all Carrie could think of asking, but the smile on her face let everyone know she wasn’t the least bit upset with him being stuck there.

Bentley spoke up with his usual, bright smile. “We wanted to thank you for making him happy again.”

Royce agreed with a nod before speaking up, “Merry Christmas, Carrie.”

The rest of the family repeated that notion before heading to the kitchen to make themselves breakfast with whatever the Murphy’s had in their supply. Carrie approached Miles and slipped his pocketknife from his jeans pocket, slowly cutting her boyfriend free. “Are you alright?” she asked

“I’m fine.” Miles smiled at the blonde reassuringly. “I kind of went along with it to make you happy.”

Carrie helped Miles up from the chair and gave him a tight squeeze as he pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I’m always happy when I’m with you.”

[foreveralwaysanauthor]

Honey Mist Auburn

December 22, 2021

Prompt - Candy Cane

Characters - Mack, Brady, Devon, and Jamie

Notes - So this is somewhat based on a family story of mine. My great-aunt (who is now 90 and I adore her to pieces) did this exact thing when she was around my age (so back in the early 50s) and it sounded hilarious so I decided to try writing it, mixed with a scene from a Zack and Cody episode I watched last night!

One day quite some time ago, a bet was made between two friends. One bet the other that they wouldn’t ask out their crush. The one who was dared decided to challenge the one who dared them to do the same thing. Whoever could get a date with their crush first, won. The winner of said bet could make the other do whatever they desired for a whole day. They both ended up deciding the challenge was too small, raising the deal from a whole day to a single day every month, but the day itself could be chosen at random by the winner. Sadly for both, they’d both ended up getting a date with their crushes. To make things worse, the two girls they’d asked out had both said yes at lunch, making both participants the winner and the loser since neither of them had bothered to check the time when they’d gotten their answer.

Since they were both losers and winners at the same time, they chose to go through with their aforementioned bet agreement and allow the other person to torture them for a day every year. They came up with a set of rules to make sure things couldn’t go too far and their girlfriends, now wives, made sure they abided by those rules.

Rule 1 - Nothing that can cause physical harm.

Rule 2 - No committing crimes.

Rule 3 - Nothing that can hurt relationships.

Now, were the two men still as competitive as they had been in their school days? No, but they’d promised each other they’d continue their bet for the rest of their lives and who would they be, if not men of their words?

“You can’t be serious, Devon!”

“Come on, man, it’s just hair dye,” Devon claimed with a smirk. “It’s not the end of the world.”

“It’s red!” Brady retaliated.

“It’s barely red!” Devon laughed, he took the box from Brady and red it before snorting. “It’s called Honey Mist Auburn, Brady. It’s a blonde-ish red. You heard the guy at the store. He said that, if anything, it’ll give you a hint of red for a day. Besides, it says it’s semi-permanent which means it washes out.”

“Have you met Mack?” Brady squawked as he took the box back and examined it with scrutiny. “We’re getting our Christmas card pictures taken in two days, and if this doesn’t wash out before then, she’ll kill me which definitely falls under the ‘bodily harm’ category, don’t you think?”

Devon scoffed, “No, she won’t. She knows what our deal is, and, after you made me dress in drag for my boss’s Christmas party last week, she’d say you deserve this. Now, sit still and read the instructions for me.”

Nearly an hour later, Devon sat on the kitchen island counter as Brady rinsed his hair out in the kitchen sink. He’d told Brady what the instructions told him: rinse until the water is clean, then use the little bottle of conditioner to get rid of what color was left in his hair. While they waited for the dye to set, they’d used some of Mack’s bobby pins to pin some of Brady’s stray hairs into little circles on the top of his head, something Brady claimed was something Mack called pin curls. Devon hadn’t let Brady see himself in the mirror while they waited for the color to set. At first, it was due to Devon’s desire to keep Brady on his toes about the whole situation but, as Brady’s hair slowly turned from blonde to a pale pink and then, ultimately, to a crimson, Devon began to get nervous about the whole situation.

“Alright,” Brady said with his head still in the sink, “I think I’m done, Dev.”

As Brady slowly lifted his head and moved to grab the towel they’d set aside, Devon’s eyes widened. “A-Are you sure, dude? Did you use all of that bottle?”

Brady began ruffling his hair dry with the towel, turning to Devon with a smile. “Of course, I did. I don’t want to walk around looking like a firetruck, do I?”

As Devon attempted to control his facial expressions, Brady laughed and walked toward the bathroom. “Are you sure?” Devon asked, apprehensively following at a distance. “It might be a good look for you.”

“Oh, yeah?” Brady chuckled. “Then I’d look just like you did in that big wig last week.” With a laugh, Brady turned on his bathroom light, running the towel over his head a few more times before setting it on the counter and turning to his mirror.

Devon flinched as Brady screamed, staring at his once-blonde hair in horror. His sandy blonde hair had turned far more than Devon’s proclaimed “hint of red.” In fact, it looked closer to a ketchup-y red than anything the box had suggested. Brady examined his hair in shock, poking at the red strands as though they’d magically change to normal if he moved them around. Devon watched him for a minute before sighing softly, “I’m so sorry, Brady.”

Brady stared at him in the mirror before looking back at himself and shaking his head. “It’s alright, man. At least it washes out, right?”

“Yeah,” Devon said with a hopeful smile. “I’ll go check the box.”

“It says how long?!” Brady exclaimed, taking the box out of Devon’s hands as the other man scanned the information on his phone.

“The box says the color can stay for about six weeks,” Devon explained as he read the search results he’d gotten on his phone, “but this says it comes out in about twenty-eight washes if you want to try that?”

Brady sighed, re-reading the box’s warning labels again, “I don’t think we’d have enough time or shampoo for that.” The previously blonde mand tossed the box haphazardly onto the counter, resting his elbows on the marble and resting his face in his hands. “Mack’s gonna kill us.”

“Us?” Devon questioned.

“You chose the color and I had no way of saying no. We’re both at fault and she’s not going to care about the whole bet thing when she sees this,” Brady claimed as he began to stare into space, knowing his fate was sealed already.

Devon sighed, “At least it doesn’t look too bad.”

“I look like the demonic love-child of a Chucky doll and Strawberry Shortcake.”

With a snort of poorly-contained laughter, Devon smirked. “Yeah, you do, but it’s not the worst I’ve ever seen.”

The front door opened and closed, making both men sigh as they resigned to their respective fates. It was only a matter of time before their wives had returned from the charity event they’d gone to which, sadly, they’d been hoping wouldn’t end for another few hours. As the sound of shoes tapping against linoleum floors and the women’s voices slowly approached, Devon and Brady turned to the entrance of the kitchen and plastered on the fakest smiles they could muster. Jamie was the first to enter, thankfully, gasping as her eyes locked onto Brady’s bright red hair. Mack, however, wasn’t even paying attention as she entered the room, tossing her grocery bags onto the counter as she checked a notification on her phone.

“Mack?” Jamie said slowly, peeling her eyes away from her friend’s husband as the woman made her way to the fridge to grab a bottle of water. At Mack’s hum of acknowledgment, Jamie cleared her throat, “You might want to turn around.”

Mack looked over at Jamie before turning, smiling at Brady before turning her attention to Devon as he waved to her. It took her mind a moment to comprehend the offensively bright color her husband’s head emitted but, once it did, she shrieked and nearly dropped her bottle of water. “Brady, what on Earth did you do to your hair?! You look like Ronald McDonald!”

Devon smirked before his wife sent him a withering look and he quickly looked away. “It was part of that stupid bet thing from high school, wasn’t it?” Jamie questioned as her husband cautiously avoided her gaze.

“Maybe,” the men replied slowly, pressing themselves as close to the kitchen counters as physically possible while they awaited the barrage of complaints the women would release. Oddly enough, it never came.

Mack turned to Jamie with a pleading stare. “Please tell me you know how to fix this.”

Jamie nodded with a sigh, “Believe it or not, this isn’t my first rodeo.” She turned to the men and held out her hand. “The box, if you will.”

Brady snatched the box from the counter and placed it in Jamie’s hand, grateful to see the woman smile as she read the box. “Can it be fixed?”

Jamie turned to Mack with a smile and nodded once more. “It can. I have a few boxes of Color Oops at the salon for cases like these where a couple of complete morons decide their hair needs to be neon instead of pastel. Let me run to the salon and I’ll be right back.”

With that being said, Jamie took up her purse again and left the house for her salon and both men found themselves mildly relieved to know there was a chance at the problem being fixed quickly. Well, until they turned to find Mack with her arms crossed firmly over her chest.

“So,” she began, “I only have one question; why? Brady, you know we’re getting our first Christmas cards with Makana done soon, why would you allow this? And you,” she spoke, stopping Devon in his tracks as he attempted to sneak away. “Why would you decide it would be a good idea to make my husband look like Ariel from The Little Mermaid?”

“I was aiming more for a Jessica Rabbit, but I guess we left it in for too long,” Devon tried to joke. His only response was a blank stare from Mack. “Honestly, the box said it was only supposed to be a tint of red, not,” he gestured to Brady, “whatever this is.”

Brady nodded in agreement. “The color was supposed to be Honey Mist Auburn.”

Mack stepped forward, examining her husband’s hair with a look of exasperation in her eyes, but a small smile on her face. “Well, honey, you missed auburn big time.”

“Well, that’s as good as it’s going to get for now,” Jamie claimed as she took a step back from blowdrying Brady’s hair. “You’ll just have to wait out the rest of the dye, sadly.”

Brady’s hair had toned down from the bright red it had before, looking a bit more of a strawberry blonde than the Strawberry Shortcake look he’d sported earlier in the afternoon. However, due to the bobby pins that they’d put in to hold his hair back from the dye and the sheer amount of time they’d left it in for, Brady’s hair was stained with faint streaks of red mixed in with his almost-blonde-again hair.

Brady looked himself over in the mirror before grinning. “I look like a candy cane, but it’s not too bad, all things considered.”

Mack placed her hands on her husband’s shoulders with a smile. “Just wait until we get our pictures done.”

True to Mack’s threat, when the time for their pictures came around, she made sure to tell the photographer what had happened and asked them to do whatever they could to embarrass her husband. Much to Brady’s surprise, Devon and Jamie showed up not long after their session started with their son, Hudson, in tow. However, what surprised Brady most was the fact that his best friend now had streaks of red and white dyed into his hair, making him look just the same amount of candy cane that he had. Brady was forced into an awful, candy cane patterned sweater and matching pants while Devon was made to wear a full set of red and white striped pajamas, making them almost match entirely.

Mack and Jamie made sure, when the time came to have the pictures printed, that the photograph of both their families was surrounded by the photographic evidence of their husbands’ horrible combination of brain cells. The Christmas cards were sent out and had been received very well, much to the surprise and chagrin of the men involved. Mack kept hers framed in their bedroom, Jamie had hers set aside in a collection of their family’s Christmas cards, and, once in a while, they’d bring the cards out and show them off, advising others of what not to do if a potential bet with either of their husbands ever came about, especially around Christmastime.

[foreveralwaysanauthor]

Garnet, Moonstone, and Aquamarine

December 21, 2021

Prompt - Ornaments

Characters - Cabin Crew

Notes - This is just a little something my family has done for years and I figured I’d bring it around for these guys as well even though it's a short one

December 21st,

Last night was… interesting. After Bentley and I finished our Harry Potter book, Aunt Mack and Uncle Brady put on the movie, which was nice and I loved how they did the flying car and the basilisk. But then, when we were going to bed, they came up to see us and talked with us for, like, an hour or so. It was great, don’t get me wrong! I love spending time with them and they’re like the closest thing Benny, Miles, and I have had for good parental figures since our mom died and our dad went off the deep end. I love them. It’s just that I have to wonder why they wanted to spend so much time with us yesterday. They read with us, talked with us before bed, and let us have plenty of ice cream before bed - which, by the way, they’ve memorized what we like and that’s amazing. I don’t know, maybe I’m overthinking things again, but it just feels so much like a real family. I’ve almost called them Mom and Dad so many times, which is terrifying on its own, and they’ve said to some of their friends that we’re their kids, but that’s probably to avoid suspicion, right? Okay, I’m definitely overthinking things now.

After lunch that day, the family sat down to watch Home Alone, Home Alone 2, and How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Again. Nobody seemed to have a problem watching the movies over and over again but, by that point, Royce had most of the first Home Alone memorized and Bentley knew all of the lyrics to You’re A Mean One Mr. Grinch by heart. Once the Grinch’s movie was over, Brady claimed he and Mack had something to say.

“So,” he began, ”I know we’ve already gotten the tree ready and all the decorations are up, but there’s something I’m sure at least one of you noticed was missing.”

“The icicle lights we hang from the mantle?” Mick offered.

“No,” Mack replied, “those broke last year when a few certain someones decided to play football inside and smashed three of them in one hit.”

Royce and Bentley tried not to laugh as Brady, Butchy, and Miles quickly looked away, each of them claiming one form or another of “Not a clue who that could be.”

Lela thought for a moment before snapping her fingers a few times. “I knew we were missing the motion-activated, singing Santa.”

“No, we’re not,” Mick and Miles said in alarmingly fast unison, glancing at each other before looking away as nonchalantly as possible. They may or may not have “accidentally” thrown him in the trash at the end of the last Christmas they’d spent in the cabin after hearing him sing “Here Comes Santa Clause” one too many times in a day. The other three who’d been in attendance that year knew about where the Santa had gone, but they’d all decided to never say anything to Lela as she’d taken a special liking to the singing decoration.

Lela’s curious look was quickly changed as Royce spoke up from his spot on the floor, “I wouldn’t know what’s missing, but could it be some of those mistletoe ornaments I found in the attic when you sent me up there for the snowflake tablecloth?”

“Nope, but that’s a good guess,” Brady replied. “We are talking about ornaments.”

The room went quiet until Mick and Lela turned to each other and shrieked, “Our ornaments!” making both Bentley and Royce flinch away at their combined volume. Brady patted the boys on their backs as Mick and Lela stood from the couch and began scouring the living room for the small box they knew the ornaments were in.

Bentley turned to Brady in confusion and spoke softly to the man, “What ornaments are they so excited about?”

“Initial ornaments,” Brady replied.

Butchy nodded from next to the man. “Everybody in the family has the first letter of their name on an ornament with little pieces of their birthstone embedded in it.”

“Some of us share a stone, but not a letter,” Miles spoke. “Just like how yours, Bentley, would match Aunt Mack’s. Others, like mine, don't share with anybody else.”

Royce tilted his head to the side as he thought over his brother’s words. “You have a letter ornament? I thought they were for family only.”

“You guys are a part of our family too, big guy,” Brady chuckled, ruffling Royce’s hair from his spot on the couch behind the teenager.

“But we’re not blood-related?” Bentley claimed.

Mack’s smile disappeared briefly before broadening as she spoke, “Do we have to be blood-related to be family? Last I checked, love doesn’t have any terms and conditions.”

“Yeah, kiddo,” Brady agreed. “You’ve been family to us since before we even met you. When we first met you, we knew we'd love you just as much as we love the rest of those crazies. I thought you knew that.”

“Well, we do,” Royce said softly, leaning back until his back rested against Brady’s legs. “And we love you too, don’t get me wrong, it’s just that this is something you guys do as a family and I wasn’t expecting any of us to have an ornament of our own.”

“This is just the tip of the iceberg, guys,” Mick stated with a grin as she picked up a small, wooden box from the mantle above the fireplace. “We’ve got loads more family stuff that we plan on sharing with you when the time comes. It's only a matter of time.”

As the rest of the group began picking through the box Mick held for their respective ornaments, Royce and Bentley stayed with Mack and Brady, watching the four with mild anticipation mixed with a hint of longing. Mack leaned forward, placing a hand on either boy’s shoulders. “What’s the matter?” she asked in a hushed tone.

“Nothing,” the boys replied as Mick placed the now empty box on the coffee table, handing Mack and Brady their respective ornaments before heading to the tree to place her own among the branches.

Mack hummed thoughtfully before leaning back and grabbing the two small boxes from a spot on the couch between herself and Brady. As she leaned forward once more, Mack held out the boxes to the boys. “Well, why don’t you both find a place to put up your ornaments?”

Royce and Bentley turned to face the woman before slowly taking the two boxes from Mack’s hands and opening them. Inside the boxes were letters with little stones on them, each dangling from a colorful string.

Bentley held up a B-shaped ornament with aquamarine stones on the surface. “Is this mine?”

“Yes, sir,” Mack replied as she stood from the couch, intending to make her way to the tree to hang her own ornament. “Brady’s stone is sapphire, Butchy’s is a diamond, and Miles' is garnet.. Yours matches mine, as Miles said earlier.”

“We have our own ornaments?” Royce questioned, as he pulled his letter out of its case and set it in the palm of his hand. “Why?”

“Why not?” Brady asked in return. “You’re our kids just as much as Mick is.”

“We bought these after we asked Miles if you’d all be staying with us for December and they only just came in yesterday,” Mack said with a smile. “We couldn’t wait for you to see them.”

Miles took the box out of Royce’s hands and set it aside before pulling his brother to his feet. Royce stared down at the ornament in his hand - a silver R with little blue moonstones stamped into it - and smiled fondly. Instead of simply hanging the letter on the tree and returning to his previous spot as Miles had already done, Royce stared at the ornament in his hands, running his fingers over the shimmering stones. Brady took note of the look in Royce’s eyes as he approached the tree and placed a hand on Royce’s shoulder.

“Is everything okay, buddy?” he asked as Mack joined them. “If you want to put that up higher on the tree, I’m sure Butchy or Miles and I could give you a boost.”

Royce shook his head with an airy laugh. “That’s not it.”

“Did we get the stone wrong, Royce?” Mack questioned softly. “The person who made it gave us three options to pick from for June, but we weren’t sure which you’d like best.”

“No, no,” Royce said with a smile, “it’s perfect.” Before Mack and Brady could question him any further, Royce turned and brought an arm around both of them, holding them tightly as they returned the embrace enthusiastically. “Thank you.”

“Of course, kiddo,” Brady replied as the sixteen-year-old squeezed them.

Once Royce released them from his grasp, he spoke softly, "I have a question, if that's okay?"

"You don't have to ask, sweetheart," Mack replied, taking one of Royce's hands in hers with a soft smile.

"I don't want to sound disrespectful, and you can say no because, well, it's your house and you don't need my permission," Royce chuckled nervously before taking a deep breath and continuing, "but I was wondering if we can also put up our mom's ornaments? She made them for Miles, Bentley, and me when we were really little and I was hoping we could hang them on the tree like we used to."

Mack and Brady smiled at each other. "You absolutely can," Brady said. "Do you have them with you?"

"Really?" Royce spoke in mild disbelief. "You're okay with that?"

"Of course, we are," Mack confirmed. "We'd never refuse you something like that. If you have them, go get them and bring them down so you boys can put them up. Besides, I'd love to see them anyway."

Royce let out a breath of relief before beaming at the couple and throwing them back into another hug. This one was a lot shorter, but, if it was possible, felt even tighter than the last. Once Royce released them, he practically flew up the stairs to grab the bag of ornaments, leaving the rest of the group - bar Mack and Brady, of course - wondering where he was off to.

Miles and Bentley stood from their seats, looking every bit ready to run after their brother in case something was wrong, but Mack and Brady told them he was just excited and would be back in a moment so they chose to stay on their feet until his return just in case. Royce's return trip was just as fast as his departure as the sixteen-year-old ran down the stairs, cloth bag in hand, hitting every other step on his way down until he reached the main floor. Bentley turned to Miles and they nodded before making their way to where Royce was standing with Mack and Brady. Royce opened the bag and pulled the ornaments out as carefully as he could, showing them to Brady and Mack as he did.

As his brothers joined him, Royce handed them their ornaments, watching them set theirs among the branches before taking his own and placing it on a branch. After that one was set onto a branch and dangling amongst the tree's needles, Royce took up his new, silver and blue moonstone ornament from Mack and Brady and hung it on the branch closest to the ornament he'd already hung. Taking a step back to look at the hanging decorations, Royce nodded.

"Perfect."

[foreveralwaysanauthor]

Game On!

December 20, 2021

Prompt - Snowball Fight

Characters - Cabin Crew

Notes - My driveway is a hill and I used to do this all the time with my oldest nephews because we're around the same ages and they're like my brothers. I still, to this day, claim I won 90% of those and I'm sure, if I asked, they'd say they did, but that's the fun of it.

December 20th,

Last night was incredible! Viv and I sang together, we all had a great time, and I can’t wait for the next party like that. Their house was huge and Bentley and I may or may not have gotten lost a few times after the party was over, but it was fun regardless. I’m almost glad we have nothing to do today, though. After all the excitement and fun we had yesterday, I kind of only want to sit by the fireplace and read with Benny today. It’ll be nice to just sit around for a bit; we haven’t done that a lot this month. It’s kind of hard to believe we have only five days left until Christmas.

Bentley had only been up for a few minutes when Royce asked if he’d like to read which, of course, he did. He was glad Royce and Vivien had gotten him more interested in reading since now he felt closer with Royce than he ever had before. After they’d gotten dressed for the day, Royce grabbed a book from the shelf by the door and the two of them headed downstairs to grab some food and chill in the living room. The fireplace was already lit and crackling, the smell of burning logs wafting through the home, and there were pancakes, bacon, and toast being placed on plates on the kitchen counter. Mick and Butchy greeted the boys with a smile, handing them plates so they could grab what they wanted before turning back to cooking.

After they finished eating, the boys headed for the living room, taking a few cushions off of the couch and tossing them onto the floor by the fireplace so they could lay down and read. About a half-hour into the second Harry Potter book, Brady and Mack made their way downstairs and into the living room, sitting on the couch and listening to the Royce and Bentley read. By the time Royce had read to the fifth chapter, it was nearly eleven and Brady asked if they’d mind taking a break.

“Not at all,” Royce replied. “Why? What’s up?”

Brady smiled. “I was just wondering if you’d mind going to get the mail. I just got an alert on my phone saying a package has arrived.”

“Can we both go?” Bentley asked with a smirk.

With a shake of her head and a smile, Mack spoke, “Go ahead.”

Leaving the book open on the floor, the boys raced to the mudroom to put on their coats and boots before flying out the front door and racing down the hill in the snow, using the occasional patch of ice to slide faster than the other. It wasn’t until they were almost by the mailbox that Bentley gave Royce a forceful shove, sending him into the snow by the end of the driveway with a laugh. As Royce pushed himself out of the snow, Bentley opened the mailbox and retrieved a few letters and a small box.

Bentley looked up as he began walking back up the driveway, finding Royce smirking sneakily at him. “You can’t throw me in the snow,” Bentley spoke confidently. “I’ve got the mail and, if it gets wet, they’ll be mad.”

“Not my problem,” Royce claimed, inching closer to Bentley. “You said it yourself; you’ve got the mail, not me.”

Bentley paused, taking a small step back as Royce moved closer. “What if there’s something important? It’ll get all wet.”

“It’ll dry,” Royce said before charging forward, wrapping his arms around Bentley’s middle before the boy could get very far. He picked Bentley up and carried him over toward the snow, dodging his brother’s attempts at kicking himself free before throwing him into the snow-covered grass on the side of the driveway. Royce watched the handful of envelopes and the small box flutter through the air as Bentley let out a shriek and the snow enveloped him almost completely. Royce quickly picked up the letters and box before running as fast as he could up the hill while Bentley pushed himself out of the snow with a huff. As Royce slowed to a jog, figuring he was far enough away from Bentley to walk the rest of the way, he felt something smash against the back of his coat, sending flakes of wet snow splattering to the ground.

Royce slowly turned, finding Bentley smiling up at him, tossing and catching another snowball in his hand. “Oh, you did not just go there.”

Bentley laughed, “I went there, I’m still there, and I’m staying there. Why don’t you stop being a wuss and come join me.”

“I’m not a child,” Royce chortled teasingly before turning back around. “Unlike you.”

Before Royce could get very far, another snowball landed on him, this one hitting him in the back of the head. “Really?” Bentley claimed with a smirk, already working on forming another ball. “Because you sure act like one.”

After brushing the snow from his head, Royce turned back around and shoved the letters into his back pocket, placing the small box in a zippered pocket of his coat before grabbing a small mound of snow in his now free hand and tossing it to where Bentley stood. Bentley laughed, dodging the snowball before launching one of his own at Royce. Royce quickly ducked as the snowball hurled toward his face, throwing one Bentley’s way before quickly piling up another one. Before he could throw it, though, Bentley came running his way, pushing him into the snow once more before cackling like a madman and making his way up the hill, grabbing more snow along the way.

Royce rolled his way out of the snow this time, following his brother up the hill and tackling him into the nearest snow pile before he could throw another ball at him. A brief silence fell over the boys as they fought to catch their breath but it didn’t last long as they slowly turned to each other and began laughing. As their laughter turned into occasional giggles, Royce stared up at the sky with a smile.

“That was fun,” he breathed.

“Which part?” Bentley asked with a giggle. “Throwing snowballs at each other or shoving each other in the snow?”

Royce laughed and turned toward Bentley, reaching for his brother’s hand in the snow as Bentley smiled at him. “Both.”

Bentley shuffled closer, resting his head on Royce’s shoulder with a soft exhale. “We need to do stupid stuff like this more often.”

“Yeah, we do,” Royce agreed with a grin before chuckling. “Well, almost anything we do together can be considered stupid stuff.”

“That’s for sure,” Bentley said with a laugh, “but, if Miles joins in, it raises the stupidity levels. I think we can both agree on that.”

The brothers descended into another fit of laughter before eventually pushing themselves out of the snow and trekking the rest of the distance to the house, attempting to brush off what snow remained before they entered. After pulling off their snowy coats and tossing their boots by the heater to dry, Royce pulled the box from his coat and they entered the living area of the house, finding Mack and Brady watching them from the couch.

“You boys have fun out there?” Mack asked before sipping her hot chocolate.

“We just went to get the mail,” Royce said, slowly pulling the now wet and mildly crumpled letters out of his back pocket.

Bentley tried to hide his snort of laughter with a cough, avoiding meeting Royce’s eyes as he knew he’d burst into laughter if he did. Brady nodded slowly, smiling at the pair as he spoke, “Really?”

“Yep,” Royce said, realizing just how unconvincing he sounded as he peeled apart the wet envelopes and set them in Brady’s outstretched hands.

“No sledding down the hill?” Mack questioned. “No snowball fight?”

“I wouldn’t call it a snowball fight,” Bentley claimed as Royce placed the box on the coffee table. “It was more of an all-out snow war that I definitely won.”

“You did not!” Royce exclaimed, an accusatory tone coming into his voice as he sat by the fireplace again. “I threw you into the snow and it looked like it ate you. I won.”

Bentley scoffed as he sat next to his brother, “As if! I’m smaller than you and I pushed you into the snow not once, but twice! I totally won.”

Once things calmed down and the boys were back to laughing and reading their book, Mack turned to Brady with a smile, both of them shaking their heads at the teenagers’ shenanigans. Brady grinned, whispering to Mack about how nice it was to see the boys be so carefree and playful. Mack nodded and handed Brady the box from the table, watching him open it and smile before peeking into the box to see its contents. A silver letter R with small moonstones stamped into it and a silver, aquamarine-encrusted B laid inside the box, a colorful ribbon attached to both. The couple smiled at each other before setting the box aside, knowing they’d give it to the boys the next day as an early Christmas gift.

[foreveralwaysanauthor]

Great Minds Think Alike

December 19, 2021

Prompt - Christmas Party

Characters - Cabin Crew

Notes - Can I just say, the first half of this was written at 3am this morning and I am now very exhausted.

December 19th,

Yesterday didn’t quite go as anticipated. Vivien seemed to take everything way better than I’d thought she would, but she said she had a lot to think about so we’ll see how that works out. Today is the day of Vivien’s Christmas party. Since it’s not far from our cabin to their house, Miles is walking us there and Uncle Brady is picking us up when it’s over. I can only hope that Vivien is still okay with me and Ben coming. She hasn’t texted me saying otherwise. She’s one of our closest friends and it doesn’t help that I like her. I can’t help being stressed over this.

Royce sighed for the umpteenth time as he paced the floor of his and Bentley’s shared room. He’d sent Vivien a text asking if they could still attend the party, yet that was twenty-three minutes prior and he still hadn’t gotten anything back. Bentley rolled his eyes as he looked up from the Harry Potter book he’d been reading. “Can you please stop doing that? I’m trying to read about a dragon being born and you sighing every three seconds is really dragging the mood down.”

“Sorry,” Royce mumbled before sitting on the edge of Bentley’s bed. “I’m just-”

“Worried Viv is mad at us for not telling her sooner?” Bentley interrupted. “I can tell. You keep walking back and forth like that and, sooner or later, you’ll have to explain to Auntie Mack and Uncle Brady why there’s a hole in the rug.”

Royce allowed himself to fall back onto Bentley’s bed, hearing it creak slightly as Bentley tucked a bookmark into his book, set it aside, and joined him. “I don’t understand how you’re so calm about this,” Royce breathed, looking at Bentley who smiled toward the ceiling in return.

“She said she loves us no matter what,” Bentley stated with a shrug. “I don’t think there’s anything to worry about.”

Royce shook his head before turning to Bentley with a serious look. “I can think of one thing.”

Bentley turned his head, finding Royce’s uneasy stare already locked on him. “What would that be?”

“The fact that I’ve got a crush on her.”

Bentley snorted, “I was wondering how long it would take for you to admit that.”

“Yeah, I- wait. What?” Royce asked. “How did you know? Did you read my journal or something?”

“No, I would never do that to you. Besides, I didn’t have to,” Bentley claimed with a smirk. “You talk in your sleep sometimes.”

Royce could practically feel the embarrassment begin crawling up his skin. “No, I don’t.”

“Yeah, you do,” Bentley spoke, placing a hand on Royce’s arm. “How else would I know about that weird dream you had the other night where you were being chased by a - what was it? - a zombie who only wanted your Cheez-Its?”

With a sigh, Royce resigned to his fate, “It was a vampire, but point taken.” After a brief pause of silence, Royce asked, “So, how long have you known?”

“About your crush on Vivien? Around a week or so,” Bentley replied with a smile. “In your sleep, you were telling Vivien how much you love her and then you started speaking in French so I had no clue what you were saying apart from the occasional ‘I love you’ and you calling her ‘ma chérie’ a lot.” Royce groaned as his face scrunched up in embarrassment. Bentley, deciding to add more fuel to the fire, continued with a teasing smirk. “I don’t know if it’s any comfort to you, but, if we’re judging by the sound of you trying to kiss her here and there between words, I’d say you did very well confessing to her.”

Royce cringed, letting out a low groan of complaint and shaking his head as he brought his hands up to his face. “Ugh, that’s horrible.”

“You’re telling me?” Bentley scoffed. “I had to listen to that mushy crap for, like, three hours.” Bentley laughed briefly, “And you wondered why I slept in so late that day.”

With a deep sigh, Royce sat up. “I’m only just figuring out that I like her. It just happened so fast and I don’t know where it came from, but I really like her.” Royce paused, smiling at his own words before turning his attention back to Bentley and giving him a wondering gaze. “Why didn’t you tell me I liked her?”

Bentley pushed himself onto his elbows and stared at his brother blankly. “Okay, first of all, I did try to tell you, but you just brushed me off every time as your annoying little brother who just likes to tease you which, let’s be honest, I absolutely am so that’s understandable.” The brothers shared a laugh at that, lightly shoving each other before Bentley laid back down on his bed. “Second, as much as I adore the idea of you and Vivien being together, I know I shouldn’t mess with stuff like that. I knew you’d figure it out eventually. You’re a smart guy most of the time and it was just too obvious.”

“‘Most of the time’?” Royce repeated as he joined his brother once again.

“Yeah,” Bentley said with a smirk. “You’re kind of stupid when it comes to love. Do I need to remind you of the whole Serena thing from a while back?”

At the reminder of his first date - if you could even call it that - Royce rolled his eyes and sighed, “I’d rather you didn’t but, once again, point taken.”

“Honestly, though,” Bentley spoke again, “I don’t think you have anything to worry about. If anything, maybe she likes you too.”

“Really?” Royce asked, pausing as his cell phone buzzed next to him on the bed. He picked up the phone and unlocked it, tapping on the newest notification and smiling as he read it.

Viv: Sorry, I was in the shower. And ya, you’d better come, or else I’ll go to your place and drag both of you here myself 😜 Can you come early tho? I wanna talk with you guys about yesterday if that’s ok?’

With a grin on his face, Royce turned the phone to Bentley and let him take it, allowing him to read the message before taking the phone back and replying to Vivien’s text. “See,” Bentley said with a knowing smirk as he listened to his brother tap away on his phone. “I told you there’s nothing to worry about.”

The walk to the O’Brian house was filled with chatter. Miles had been informed of Royce’s feelings for Vivien earlier in the day - not that it was something the oldest of the brothers didn’t already know - and had taken the time to talk with Royce about his feeling as they walked. Bentley kept quiet for the most part, adding in his two cents when he felt it necessary although, for the most part, he just enjoyed the walk and listened to his brothers. By the time they’d reached the O’Brian family house, the Murphy brothers had discussed the majority of Royce’s feelings and had given the sixteen-year-old advice on how to handle things now that he was aware of his crush on Vivien.

The O’Brian house was one of those typical, colonial-style, New England homes that had been built around 1800. Huge didn’t even begin to describe the property which, given how big families usually were around the time of the house being built, wasn’t unusual. Damien and Chelsea had inherited the property from Chelsea’s grandparents once they’d passed, turning part of the grounds into a vineyard and using the refurbished barn as a winery and event venue. As the brothers made their way up the driveway toward the front door, the screen door flung open and a soap-covered Saint Bernard dashed out, followed soon after by Abby and Oliver who chased after the dog as it ran toward Miles, Royce, and Bentley.

“Loki!” Abby yelled as the black dog ran in a circle around the Murphy brothers. “Loki, stop!

“Loki?” Bentley repeated, gaining the dog’s attention. “Um, sit?” Bentley tried as the dog moved to stand in front of him. The dog paused, sniffing Bentley’s hand and giving a solitary bark before sitting in front of the boy. Bentley chuckled, reaching a hand up and petting the dog’s wet fur. “Good dog.”

Oliver quickly rushed forward, latching onto the dog’s leash before placing his hands on his knees and panting to catch his breath. Abby leaned against her brother, lightly smacking the back of his head as their chase came to an end. “I told you to tie his leash to the safety bar and close the door before taking the showerhead down, Olly.”

Oliver huffed, “How was I supposed to know he doesn’t like the shower? You and Viv are the ones who wash him most of the time.”

Oliver’s grumbling complaints were cut off as Vivien emerged from the house in a pair of shorts and a hoodie. “Olly, Abby,” she yelled from the porch, “Mom wants to see you.” As the girl spotted her dog in the field, his tail wagging in excitement, she sighed and opened the screen door, “Loki, come on!”

The Saint Bernard quickly stood, yanking his way free of Oliver’s grasp and taking off in a run for the house, leaving the rest of the group standing in the middle of the driveway. Abby sighed as she began walking toward the house, “At least he didn’t try eating the grapes again.”

Oliver only nodded, following his sister as she led the way into the house. The Murphy brothers followed closely behind, a trail of suds showing the path the Saint Bernard had taken. Once they’d entered the house, Damien greeted them, telling Miles he was more than welcome to stay for the party if he wanted to. Miles politely declined, claiming he still had some wrapping to do before Christmas and telling the man that Brady would be back to pick up the boys in the evening. With that being said, Miles gave his brothers each a hug and left, shoving his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket before making his way back down the driveway and toward the road.

Royce and Bentley stood in the main area of the house, staring around at the highly vaulted ceilings and wooden beams that accented the living and dining area of the home. “Guys,” Vivien’s voice called from above, making the boys turn to see her standing on an upstairs balcony. “There are stairs in the hallway under me. Come on up.”

Royce turned to Bentley and shrugged, making their way into the hallway and finding the wooden stairs fairly easily. They made their way upstairs, finding themselves in the room with the balcony Vivien had been on - an office with a desk, a loveseat, and a bookshelf being the only decorations apart from a rug. Vivien cleared her throat as she leaned against the doorway opposite the desk, alerting the boys to her presence. Her hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail and she was still in only shorts and a hoodie, making both Bentley and Royce feel horridly overdressed in their slacks and dress shirts. “Hey,” she greeted with a small wave. “You guys look great.”

“Thanks,” Royce said with a smile.

“You look comfy,” Bentley stated, earning him a small shove from Royce before he added, "I meant that in a good way."

“Thanks,” Vivien laughed, “I was getting ready for the party when I saw you guys in the driveway. Do you guys want to hang out in my room and talk or would you rather do it here?”

Bentley turned to Royce and the two of them shrugged. “Wherever you’re more comfortable,” Royce offered.

Vivien nodded slowly, pushing herself off the wall and turning. “My room it is, then. I’ll get ready while we’re at it.”

The walk to Vivien’s room felt a lot longer than it probably was as Vivien led them down a long hall, passing two bedrooms and a laundry nook before stepping down two steps and entering the girl’s room. Vivien’s room was definitely an extension of herself; a gentle shade of blue and an array of photographs adorning the walls, an alcove across from the door with an overflowing bookshelf on either end, a desk with a gaming pc, some trophies for both figure skating and skateboarding, and a collection of pictures on it sat by the window, and a pair of figure skates tied together by the shoelaces that had been placed on the chair.

“So,” Royce began slowly, examining the room as Vivien closed the door and grabbed a dress bag from the foot of her bed, “now what?”

Vivien tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, draped the dress bag over her arm, and sighed, “We play Twenty Questions while I get ready.” At Bentley and Royce’s confused look, she smiled. “Right, that’s from after your time. Um, basically, I ask you something, you answer honestly, then it’s your turn to ask me something.”

“Okay,” the boys agreed, taking up seats in Vivien’s reading alcove.

Vivien nodded slowly, green eyes flitting around the room before she made her way into her en-suite and closed the door most of the way, leaving it open a crack so they could hear each other. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked.

Royce sighed, he knew this would be one of the questions but he hadn’t expected her to be so blunt about it. “We wanted to, but everybody told us to keep it a secret.”

“Yeah. You know, Mickie waited two years to tell her cousin and he’s one of her best friends,” Bentley added. “So, if you think about it, you got the better deal finding out when you did.”

With an accepting smile, Vivien took in a deep breath and unzipped her dress bag. “I guess that makes sense. It would sound pretty crazy if you’d just told me straight-up.”

“Are you mad at us for not telling you?” Royce questioned, picking at the button on the cuff of his sleeve as he awaited Vivien’s response.

“No. You had your reasons and you’ve explained them to me already. I can’t be upset about that.” With a grin, Vivien blew a stray hair from her face and pulled the dress out of the bag, setting it aside so she could change. “Now, how are you guys handling the modern world? I kept throwing random stuff in your faces and expecting you to understand. That can’t be easy.”

Royce turned to Bentley and the two seemed to contemplate the question before Bentley spoke up, “It’s weird. Some things are easy to figure out like TVs and stuff, but other things like cell phones and video games are a bit harder to understand. We’re getting better with it the longer we stay.”

“Good,” Vivien said with a smile Royce and Bentley could practically hear. “Maybe I’ll bring you guys to the arcade by my school sometime. That’s probably more your style than the games I’ve been sharing with you.”

Before Royce could say anything, Bentley spoke again, “That sounds fun! So, how would you feel if Ro-”

Bentley’s question was cut off by Vivien’s dad calling her name from downstairs. Royce sighed in relief as Vivien emerged from her bathroom with a huff, adjusting her shirt as she left the room to see what her dad wanted. “Really, Bentley? What were you going to ask her? ‘What would you think if Royce asked you out?’”

“Exactly,” Bentley agreed. “Glad we’re on the same page.”

“We are not on the same-

Vivien entered the room once more, sending a smile Royce’s way. “Your brother is here. He said something about an inhaler.”

Royce quickly stood and crossed the room. “He’s overprotective. I’ll be right back.”

Once Royce was gone, Vivien shut the door and made her way back toward her bathroom, pausing in the doorway. “Beemer,” Vivien began, waiting for the younger teen to nod in acknowledgment before continuing, “what was your question? You never got to finish.”

Bentley pretended to think over the question before laughing softly, “I forgot.”

“That’s okay.” Vivien glanced toward the door before moving into the bathroom once again, pulling her hair free of the ponytail, and speaking to the fourteen-year-old, “Do you think Royce knows I like him?”

The boy ran a hand through his hair, watching the door to make sure Royce didn’t burst in while they talked about him. “You’re kidding, right? He may be book smart, but he’s dumber than a box of rocks when it comes to love. I guarantee you, no matter how obvious you make it, he will still be clueless.”

Bentley had known about Vivien’s feelings toward Royce longer than he’d known about Royce’s feelings for Vivien. When Royce had passed out from exhaustion early in the month, Bentley had taken his phone and called Vivien to let her know what had happened. Despite telling her she didn’t need to visit, the stubborn girl came over anyway and spent some time with them while Royce slept. After a while of talking, she confessed that she’d kind of liked him when she met him on Halloween and that’s why she’d given him her number that day, but her feelings had only grown after spending time getting to know him. Bentley had promised to keep it a secret, but now that he knew it wasn’t one-sided, he’d been trying to think up plans for getting the two of them together.

“Things would be so much easier if he knew,” Vivien sighed as she pulled her dress on and zipped it up, examining herself in the mirror with intense scrutiny, “or if I knew whether he liked me or not. Either way, that would make things a whole lot less complicated.”

Bentley looked up as Vivien pulled the door open and stepped into the doorway. “Call me a nosy younger brother, but I have to ask. Why do you like him so much?”

Vivien smiled as she glanced anywhere but at Bentley. “He’s sweet and smart. He listens to me about the little things - like when I told him I liked playing Minecraft and he got me that adorable axolotl plushie at the mall just because it had the Minecraft tag on it. And his love for everyone he comes across is amazing. I adore that, even when he’s not having the greatest day, he still takes the time to send me a text because it makes me happy. He’s just an amazing person and I love that.”

Bentley watched as Vivien’s rambling came to an end. While she was grateful Bentley was a go-between for her and Royce, Bentley was even more grateful that he’d been able to see both sides of the relationship thus far. As Vivien relaxed against the door frame, Bentley smiled. “Good. Well, in that case, you should know that he-”

Bentley was quickly cut off as Vivien’s bedroom door opened and Royce stepped in. “I swear, Miles talks a mile a minute when he gets- woah…” Royce breathed as he took in Vivien’s change of wardrobe. The forest green, knee-length dress was an extraordinary contrast from the girl’s usual graphic t-shirts and jeans, the color complimenting her eyes nicely. Her hair was down, which was a rare occurrence on its own, and she had a clip with mistletoe on it holding a section of her hair in a small bump at the front. Royce quickly corrected himself, straightening his posture and smiling at the girl in front of him. “You look amazing, Viv.”

“Why, thank you,” Vivien giggled, giving a quick curtsy before righting herself. “My mom’s friend made the dress for me, but I don’t do dresses often so this is the first time I’ve worn it. It feels a little awkward.”

“Well, you look beautiful,” Royce assured before clearing his throat. “A few of your friends are here already. Are you ready to party?”

Vivien turned to Bentley, watching the boy rise from his seat and cross the room toward them with a smirk before turning her attention back to Royce. “Absolutely.”

A few hours had passed and the time had come for music to be played from the playlists everyone had made. Vivien’s ice skating partner, Riven, had decided that the party needed more entertainment, taking up a microphone Vivien’s parents had left in the barn after a wedding had been hosted in the winery and singing his own rendition of Ariana Grande’s Santa Tell Me. The party only picked up after that as, with every playlist, the person who’d made it ended up singing a song from their list. By the time Royce’s turn had rolled around, he’d decided to sing one of the shortest songs on his playlist - Blue Christmas by Elvis Presley.

Unlike his older brother, Royce didn’t have much of a problem singing in front of people, having signed up for chorus as an extracurricular at school a few years in a row before switching to the book club. A few cheers were heard from the rest of the group as the familiar intro of the song began to play and Royce began to sing. Bentley smiled from his seat and softly sang along as his brother performed. Vivien’s face lit up like the lights that hung on the branches of the nearby Christmas trees as Royce moved from the front of the room and sang his song to those in attendance, finishing his song once he was stood in front of her, holding the microphone out to her as she was next in line.

Vivien took the microphone from Royce’s hand and smiled at him as he offered his other hand for her to take. She slid her hand into his, allowing him to guide her toward the front of the room before she handed her phone to her friend CJ who was in charge of playing the music over the winery’s speakers and prepared herself for what was to come. Much like what had happened when Royce’s song began to play, Vivien’s choice of All I Want For Christmas Is You received a rowdy cheer of excitement as soon as it began to play. Feeling motivated by the happiness of her friends, Vivien began singing as best as she could, allowing her inner Mariah Carey to shine as the song continued.

A few of Vivien’s friends joined in when she’d approach them, adding backing vocals to the song as she led them in song. Feeling emboldened by some unseen force, Vivien approached the spot where Royce and Bentley were sitting as the song began to finish. Reaching out a hand to Royce, Vivien pulled him to his feet as she sang, a brilliant smile coming across both of their faces as Royce began to sing along.

“Oh, I just want you for my own, more than you could ever know,” they sang together and Royce was immensely relieved that he’d memorized the lyrics to the song after Vivien had added it to his playlist. “Make my wish come true!”

Deciding to let Vivien have her own superstar moment, Royce stopped singing, allowing her to sing as high as she could manage for the last notes, “Oh, baby, all I want for Christmas is you!”

As the song began to wind down and the background singing slowly faded into silence, Vivien squealed, wrapping her arms around Royce’s shoulders and jumping up and down as the exhilaration sank in. “Oh, Royce, that was amazing!”

“Yeah, you were!”

As Vivien pulled back and placed the microphone into the hands of one of her friends, she laughed airily and corrected him, “We were.”

Royce chuckled and nodded slowly as Vivien sat down in the spot next to his, “You’re right, we were.”

[foreveralwaysanauthor]

The Reality of It All

December 18, 2021

Prompt - Movie Day

Characters - Cabin Crew

Notes - I've been wanting to write this one out for ages and, even though it took me ages to finish, I'm happy it's finally here.

December 18th,

Uncle Brady decided this morning, since there’s so much snow on the ground, that we’re having a movie day today. He even invited over Vivien’s family since we’re not far from them and Vivien texted me saying she’d see us later so I guess they’re coming. I can’t deny that I’m excited to see her. She’s so much fun to hang out with and we get along really well. She’s just amazing... Anyway, Bentley’s excited because if Vivien comes, her younger twin siblings, Oliver and Abigail, come too and they’re the same age as Bentley so he’ll get to show off his favorite movies at some point. They get along about as well as Viv and I do, which is great. I hope we can watch Titanic again - I love that movie.

“Alright, everyone!” Brady called as the last movie - Lela’s pick of High School Musical - came to a close. “We’ve got pizza coming out of the oven in a few minutes. If you’re hungry, come get it.”

Vivien’s father, Damien, stood and sighed, “Sadly, we’ve got to be going.”

“What?” Royce and Bentley asked.

From her spot next to Bentley, Abigail let out a grumble of complaint. “Why can’t we stay?”

Damien smiled, reaching down and ruffling his daughter’s hair. “You know you’ve got to get to practice, Abby.”

Abby stared at her father for a moment before raising an arm and faking a cough into her elbow. “Oh no,” she said dryly. “It appears as though I’m sick. Can you call the rink and let them know, Daddy?”

Damien turned to his wife, Chelsea, with a pleading look. In return, Chelsea shook her head and sighed, “Abigail Marie, stop pulling the ‘Daddy’ card on your father and go put your boots on.”

With a resigned sigh, Abby turned to Bentley with a smile. “It was worth a shot. I’ll see you after practice.”

“See you later,” Bentley replied, getting a hug from the girl before she stood and took off for the mudroom to grab her coat and boots.

“At least I’m not going anywhere,” Oliver sighed happily, leaning back against the couch and popping another piece of popcorn into his mouth.

Oliver was quickly corrected as his mother stood from the couch. “Nice try, mister.” Chelsea’s arms were crossed over her chest as she turned to her only son. “Don’t think that I forgot about your parent-teacher meeting that easily. Go get your coat on.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Oliver huffed and groaned, pulling himself from the floor as Bentley snickered at him, earning Bentley a swift shove as Oliver passed him. “Oh, shut it. I’ll see you later, man.”

“Later,” Bentley replied as Oliver left the area. Royce and Bentley turned to Vivien expectantly, waiting for her to be summoned by her parents. The girl with the glasses shrugged at them in response, unsure if she had anything planned that day.

“Can I stay?” Vivien asked, sending her parents a hopeful smile.

Chelsea took out her phone, examining her calendar for a moment before nodding. “You have nothing on the schedule so, if Brady and Mack will let you stay until we come back, that’s fine by me.”

When the sixteen-year-old quickly whipped her head around to the couple on the couch, Mack waved a hand with a grin. “That’s fine. We’re not going anywhere.”

Vivien beamed, turning to her parents again and thanking them before standing and giving them each a hug. “I’ll see you guys when you get back.”

Not long after, the rest of the O’Brian family left and the pizzas were pulled from the oven. After claiming their slices, Royce, Bentley, and Vivien returned to the living room to talk about what the next movies could be. Royce took in a bite of food before smirking. “Why don’t you pick the next movie, Viv?” he asked. “It’s my turn next and I haven’t decided yet.”

“Oh, I couldn’t do that,” Vivien replied, brushing crust flakes from her fingers before taking a sip of her soda. “It’s your turn, not mine. Besides, I don’t even know what movies there are to choose from.”

Royce gently argued that he didn’t mind giving her his turn and that he’d go after. Vivien politely refused once again, adamant that she didn’t want to skip his place in line. As the friendly argument continued, Bentley stared between the two before shaking his head with a smirk. He scooted his way across the floor to the fireplace, grabbed a box filled with DVDs, and dragged it back to where they’d been sitting around the coffee table. Shoving it next to Vivien’s leg, Bentley grinned. “Here you go. Pick away.”

Vivien looked between the two boys before shaking her head and sighing, “Thanks, Ben.”

Bentley simply nodded with a hum before subtly high-fiving Royce between the beams of the coffee table. Vivien sifted through the films, chuckling softly at a few of the names before pausing toward the back of the box. “Wow,” she breathed, “I think I’ve finally found one I’ve never seen before.”

“Do you want to watch it?” Royce asked.

Vivien flipped the case over, reading the summary of the movie before shrugging. “Yeah, why not,” she said with a grin before opening the case, pulling the DVD from it, and making her way to the DVD player. She swapped out the DVDs, placing High School Musical back into its case before placing the new disc into the open player and pushing it into the machine.

“What’s the movie?” Bentley asked as Vivien placed the empty case on the mantle and made her way back to her seat.

“Some beach movie from the sixties,” she replied as she took up her cell phone and checked some of her notifications. “It’s probably like Beach Blanket Bingo or something.”

As the DVD player loaded the disc and the main theme of the movie began playing, the cabin became almost eerily quiet. Royce and Bentley’s eyes widened in panicked horror as the screen displayed the title of a movie they knew all too well. Clips and pictures of Tanner, Giggles, CheeChee, Lugnut, and - oh, no, no, no! Was that Miles standing between Lela and Butchy?! - the rest of the gang began flitting across the main screen of the movie in time with the music.

Vivien glanced between the boys as she tucked her cell phone into the back pocket of her jeans. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing!” Royce and Bentley exclaimed, their eyes flitting to Vivien before Bentley tried to sneakily lean around the small table, aiming to retrieve the remote by Vivien’s leg but it was just a hair out of his reach.

With a slow, skeptical nod, Vivien took the remote, adjusting her glasses over her nose as she turned back to face the TV. Bentley deflated in defeat and Royce let out a quick, but soft “No!” and reached across the table for Vivien’s arm as the girl’s gaze met the screen. Vivien smiled at the screen and the boys let out heavy breaths they’d both sucked in as a picture of Tanner and Seacat came on, replacing one of Lela and Butchy at Big Momma’s.

“Okay, this could either be awesome,” Vivien began, turning to Royce and Bentley with a grin, “or amazingly stupid. Place your… bets. Why do you guys look, I don’t know, concerned? Maybe scared?”

The song began playing again, making Vivien turn back to the screen, allowing her to see a short clip of Lela and Tanner talking while Butchy stood between them. Vivien blinked a few times as she tried to register what she was seeing. The green-eyed brunette took her glasses off and swiped at her eyes, placing the round frames on her face once more before staring up at the TV screen again.

Bentley turned to Royce, watching his brother’s almost perfectly stoic expression with concern as the hurried footsteps of the rest of their family entering the room registered in the back of his mind. Vivien slowly stood from her spot on the floor, stepping toward the TV as the main menu continued to play. Green eyes glinted with curiosity and confusion as she used the remote in her grasp to select a scene from the menu, clicking on one that had Butchy, Lela, and Tanner up on the stage at Big Momma’s. Vivien fast-forwarded until she found the exact moment the three of them were on the screen and paused it there, examining the image with scrutiny as the sound of deflating sighs could be heard from the rest of the family as they realized what had happened.

After a while, Vivien turned to face the group before turning back to the TV, letting it play for a moment before pausing again and examining the scene. Once again, she turned back to the group and made her way toward them, taking Lela and Butchy by the wrist and pulling them toward the TV and leaving them there before taking Miles and guiding him over in the same manner. The brunette took a few steps back, owlishly observing the three who stared back at her with mixed emotions.

Vivien turned to Mack, Mick, and Brady who only smiled back at her. “Are they…?”

“From a sixties beach movie?” Brady asked. “Yes.”

Vivien nodded slowly before grabbing the DVD case from the mantle and pulling her phone from her pocket, typing the name of the movie into the search bar. “‘A surfer Romeo and a biker Juliet fall in love, but tensions between their respective gangs build as they duke it out over Big Momma’s, the most primo’ - wow, ‘primo’? Seriously?” Vivien shook her head with a snicker of laughter before continuing, “‘The most primo spot in town. However, with Les Camembert, a wealthy real estate developer, wanting to change the favored spot to a resort, will the couple be able to convince their respective gangs to join together and save their beach?’”

“That about sums it up,” Mack muttered, fiddling with the flower necklace Lela had given her.

Vivien continued to read the movie’s informational page, scrolling down to the cast listings and reading a few names off. “Butchy, Lela, Tanner, Miles, Giggles, Lugnut, Seacat, CheeChee. Okay, who comes up with these names?”

“Our parents,” Butchy claimed with a teasing grin.

“Wait,” Vivien began, turning to Mick, Mack, and Brady with a confused look. “How is this possible?”

“It’s a long story,” Brady explained.

Mack nodded. “A very long story. But, we’ll answer any questions you have.”

Vivien thought for a moment before speaking, “How did they get here?”

“A machine I built,” Brady stated. “It takes us between this world and theirs.”

“How is that even possible?” Vivien questioned.

“Not a clue,” Mack said with a small laugh as she sat on the couch, “but it does. Brady claims it must be ‘movie magic’.”

Mick crossed the space between herself and the younger girl and placed her hands on Vivien’s shoulders, rubbing up and down the girl’s arms with a smile. “I know it’s a bit outlandish and completely absurdyq, but it’s a hundred percent true. Maybe we can show you how it works sometime.”

Green eyes met brown and Vivien smiled at the genuine happiness in the older girl’s eyes. “It’s a lot to think about, but thank you.” She glanced around for a moment before her eyes landed on Royce and Bentley who were sitting so close together now that they were practically conjoined. “What about you guys? Your names aren’t on the cast list. Are you, I don’t know, ‘real people’, or are you just made-up characters too?”

The younger two Murphy brothers shrugged. The idea of them not being “real people” had been a bit of a struggle point for them mentally ever since they’d found out about all of this a few months prior. At the time, they’d been able to settle on the fact that neither of them cared about whether they were what others considered “real” as long as they were happy. Now, however, it was increasingly difficult to remain happy when one of their closest friends questioned their existence.

Vivien took another deep breath and slowly made her way toward the boys, sitting on the edge of the coffee table. “I’m sorry, guys, I’m just trying to figure everything out. I mean,” Vivien laughed softly, “this is a lot to take in and you guys know I always ask a lot of questions.”

Royce gave the girl a small grin as Bentley laughed, “We know.”

“Stop me if I come across as rude, but I have another question,” Vivien began, turning to the rest of the group who had begun to make themselves comfortable on the couch. At their collective nods, Vivien sighed before speaking, “Are any of you guys even related? I mean, you’re all played by a bunch of random actors in real life, does that change anything?”

Before anyone else could answer, Miles spoke up, “We are family no matter what world we’re in. Regardless of whether we’re characters in someone else’s movie or real, physical people, we are family.”

Vivien nodded. “I get it.”

Bentley inched himself away from Royce, leaning toward Vivien and extending a hand out to her. “Are we still friends?”

With a smile, Vivien reached out and latched hands with the fourteen-year-old. “Absolutely. After all, who else is going to show me around the beach and to that restaurant in the movie? What’s it called?”

“Big Momma’s?” Royce offered with a smile, taking Vivien’s other hand as she offered it to him.

“Yeah, that!” Vivien said before laughing. “But, yeah, we’re still friends no matter what world you’re from. You could be aliens from some planet in another galaxy and we’d still be friends.” Vivien leaned forward, wrapping her arms around both Royce and Bentley’s shoulders and pulling them close. “I love you guys and that will never change.”

[foreveralwaysanauthor]

A Glimmer of Hope

December 17, 2021

Prompt - Snow Angel

Characters - (There is a cut to the past, but it’s mostly Cabin Crew AU) Miles, Royce, and Bentley

Notes - I had a pretty hard time writing this and for no reason other than lack of free time and my insane levels of procrastination, but I'm glad I can post it now

December 17th,

I’m exhausted and sore from all the walking we did yesterday, but I couldn’t be happier with how we spent the day. Bentley and I got tons of pictures that we have to go through later, but I think we’ll stay in bed for a while longer. It almost hurts to move. It’s like I’ve got a couple of Mickie’s weighted blankets on top of me which usually feels nice but I’d like to be able to move without feeling like I weigh a ton and a half. I think I’ll just lay here for another hour or five. Maybe that will help.

“Royce,” Bentley whispered from his bunk, the scratches of Royce’s pen against his journal paper being the only thing that let Bentley know he was awake too. “RJ, you up?”

“No,” Royce whispered back sarcastically, setting his journal aside. “It’s the boogeyman and I’ve come to take your soul.”

“Oh, haha, you’re hilarious.”

Royce leaned over the side of his bead, a tired smirk stretching his face. “Thanks, I thought so too.” After a brief pause, in which Royce was almost positive Bentley had chosen to roll his eyes, Royce began again, “What’s up, Benny?”

“Did you look outside?” When Royce stated he hadn’t yet, Bentley giggled airily, “It’s snowing.”

“No way,” Royce laughed under his breath before slowly rolling over and looking over the headboard of his bed so he could see out the window. “Wow,” he breathed. “I guess you weren’t kidding.”

“Wanna make snowmen later?” Bentley asked, finishing off his sentence with a yawn as he rolled over.

Royce chuckled, laying back down against his mattress. “If I can move later, sure.”

“You too, huh?” Bentley sighed.

“Yup.”

Bentley nodded against his pillow, staring over at the string of fairy lights they’d hung on the wall, their Polaroid pictures illuminated by the lights on the clips they dangled from. “Going back to sleep?” Bentley asked.

“Probably not,” Royce sighed. “Sadly, I’m wide awake, but I’ll stay quiet if you’re going back to sleep, baby.”

Bentley shook his head even though he knew Royce couldn’t see him. “I don’t think I could. I’m too excited about the snow.” Bentley paused thoughtfully before speaking softly once again, “Could you maybe read to me instead?”

“Yeah,” Royce agreed with a grin. “Just give me a minute to move and I’ll be down.”

“Take your time,” Bentley mumbled before he began shifting his blankets around, making room for Royce. “I’ll still be here.”

As Royce pushed himself toward the ladder of his bunk, there was a soft knock on the door and, even though the door was open, Royce called out a soft “Come in,” hoping his voice wasn’t too loud as the person stepped inside.

Miles smiled as he entered the room, closing the door behind him. “Thought I heard you two talking when I got up. What are you both doing up so early?”

Royce yawned, pushing himself down the ladder until he could step onto the floor, “Talking about the snow and how sore we are after yesterday.”

Miles hummed in acknowledgment, crossing the room until he was able to sit with his brothers on Bentley’s bed. “Guess we’re all in the same boat, then,” Miles claimed before turning to Royce. “I wanted to ask how your chest is feeling today after all the walking we did.”

“I didn’t use my inhaler yesterday so it’s a little sore,” Royce responded with a shrug, “but I’m sure it’s nothing some Tylenol won’t fix.”

“Good.” Miles turned his attention to Bentley as the fourteen-year-old began to sit up. “What about you, Ben? You feeling good?”

“I feel like doing nothing but sleep and watch movies all day,” Bentley grumbled as he pushed himself the rest of the way up. “What about you? Why are you up?”

Miles sighed, “I couldn’t sleep so I went downstairs for something to drink. Figured I’d check on you both while I was up.”

“We were talking about the snow,” Bentley claimed as he stretched, wincing as his back popped like a big bowl of Rice Krispies with fresh milk poured over it.

Ignoring his brother’s loud spine, Royce turned to Miles with a small smile. “He wanted me to read to him. Do you want to join us?”

Although Miles looked ready to accept the offer, he stood from the bed and stretched. “I was going to ask if you’d like to come in my room for a bit, maybe beat me in poker a few times, but if you’d like to read, I don’t mind.”

“We could read in your room,” Bentley suggested, looking every bit ready to throw off the blankets and run across the hall to their brother’s room.

“Yeah,” Royce agreed, pushing himself to his feet. “Maybe you could read to us instead.”

Bentley nodded, pulling the top blanket from his bed and wrapping it around his shoulders as he made his way to the end of his bed and stood slowly. “Or maybe you could tell us more stories about Mom.”

The suggestion made both Royce and Miles smile as Bentley stood between them. Both older brothers wrapped an arm around Bentley, pulling him with them as they made to leave the room. “I’d love that,” Miles whispered as they crossed the hall. After the brothers entered Miles’ room, Miles closed the door, finding Bentley and Royce already perched on his bed with identical smiles. “So,” Miles began as he found his way onto his bed, “what would you like to hear about her?”

Bentley and Royce leaned so they could see each other. Royce shrugged with a smile before gesturing for Bentley to pick something for himself. The steel-eyed boy thought for a while about the variety of ideas he could choose from before as he stared out the window. “Did we ever play in the snow with her?”

Miles smiled, an airy laugh falling from his lips as he made himself comfortable. “Oh, yeah. I remember, one year, she took us to visit Pépé and Mémé when they moved to Maine from Quebec and it was snowing when we got there.”

“Wait,” Bentley interrupted, “they lived in Canada? I thought they lived in France.”

“I did too!” Royce agreed. “Mom used to talk about France like she lived there.”

“She did,” Miles confirmed. “They stayed in Sainte-Maxime until Mom was seven and Mémé and Pépé moved them to Canada after Mémé had Uncle Tommy.”

Bentley and Royce hummed as they took in the knowledge and Miles smiled as the boys thought of their mother. As Royce leaned against Miles, the sixteen-year-old smiled. “I remember them a little. Pépé would sneak us candy when Momma wasn’t looking and Mémé would yell at him in French, but he’d talk his way out of it and give us more.”

“Is he the one that always smelled like cookies?” Bentley asked in a whisper. “Because I remember someone talking in French and smelling sugar cookies.”

Miles laughed, squeezing Bentley with a nod, “He’d bake fresh cookies the day we’d come over and we’d cover them in frosting and eat them before bed without telling Mom or Mémé, but I think they knew and let him do it anyway.”

“Did we go over a lot?” Royce asked.

Miles nodded. “Mom didn’t like being far from them so, whenever Dad was deployed, we’d go to their house for a week or two.”

“Are they still alive?” Bentley questioned softly.

With a sigh of disappointment, Miles shrugged, “I wish I knew. I couldn’t find any of Mom’s letters from them to find out where they lived so I had no way of finding out.”

Royce took one of Miles’ hands in his with a small grin. “We’ll find them, Miles.”

Bentley chose to do almost the same, lifting Miles’ arm and wrapping it around his shoulders, keeping a tight squeeze on Miles’ hand in the process. “Yeah! When we go home, we’ll look for them.”

Miles hadn’t wanted the boys to get their hopes up - after all, there was always the possibility that they had either passed away or just didn’t want to see them after their mother’s death - but the glimmer in their eyes at the idea of spending time with their mom’s parents was just too much for Miles to ever say no to. So, with a grateful smile and the faint hope that the boys would forget this part of their conversation later, Miles nodded. “We will.” Deciding to change the topic before either of the boys could continue talking about their grandparents, Miles cleared his throat and spoke, “Now, you wanted to talk about memories with Mom in the snow, right?”

Bentley’s golden-brown hair bounced as the boy nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah!”

“Alright,” Miles said softly as he thought. “Well, there was the time we tried to teach you both how to do snow angels…”

“Miley, sweetie, could you please bring me Benny’s mittens from by the heater?”

“Sure, Mama!” an eight-year-old Miles replied before scurrying off toward the aforementioned heater and retrieving the mittens for his two-year-old brother.

As he returned to his mother, the woman smiled. “Thank you, baby,” Dorothea said with a grin as she placed the mittens over her youngest son’s hands. Bentley didn’t seem to care for the mittens, already pulling at the woolen objects that his mother had secured to his winter coat. “There we are. Now, all we need is Royce.” With a glance around her parents’ home, the woman shook her head with a smile and stood, making her way toward her father who was in the process of handing her four-year-old as much candy as his pleading, big, brown eyes desired. “Papa,” the woman said with her hands on her hips.

“Well, hello, Dora,” Philippe greeted, his accent thick as he quickly began pocketing his handful of sweets. “Didn’t see you there.”

“Of course, you didn’t, Papa.” Dorothea smiled and picked up her son, allowing him to keep the little strawberry candy he’d been given. Dorothea spoke, “We’ll be outside for a while if you need us. We’ll come in when Mama comes home from the market.”

With a wave of his hand, Philippe told his daughter and grandsons to have fun before watching them prepare to leave the house. Dorothea set Royce on the floor before releasing her long, chocolate curls from the pins she’d kept them in, placing a hat on her head before taking Royce by the hand and opening the front door. Miles picked up Bentley before leaving the house, giggling as Bentley wrapped his tiny arms around Miles’ neck as far as they would go - which wasn’t far at all with how puffy their jackets were. It didn’t take long for Royce to let go of their Mom’s hand and run as fast as his legs would take him toward the snow that had piled up in their grandparents’ front yard. The four-year-old nearly disappeared as the snow he’d jumped into came up to his waist.

“Miley, Mama!” Royce called, swimming his way out of the snow. “Look how far I went!”

“Great job, Roy,” Dorothea said with a smile, watching as Miles helped Bentley “jump” into the snow. It was a fairly normal occurrence for Miles; pick up Bentley, wait for him to say “Go!” and then throw him into the shallowest snow pile possible. After the first throw, Miles was usually left to his own devices as Bentley preferred to be with Mama.

As Bentley practically waddled to where Dorothea was sitting in a snow pile, Miles made his way to where the snow had piled up the most, taking a running start before throwing himself in. Royce, who had found his way out of the snow by then, wasn’t far behind, jumping in on top of his older brother and giggling maniacally when Miles let out an “oof!” at the sudden weight on his chest.

“Royce,” their mother began warningly although the smile on her face was hard to miss, “what did I say about jumping on Miles?”

“I’m okay, Mama!” Miles quickly called with a toothless grin before turning to Royce and doing a zipper motion across his lips.

Royce quickly reciprocated before smiling and giving his brother a hug. “Sorry for jumping on you, Miley.”

“It’s okay, RJ,” Miles said with a grin. “I like playing with you.”

Dorothea smiled at her sons and stood as Bentley took off as fast as his little legs would take him, climbing into the pile with his brothers once he reached them, allowing Miles and Royce to pick him up and haul him up to where they were. Not long after, their mother joined them, throwing herself into the snow with a small jump so she was laying on her back, staring up at the cloudy sky. Royce decided to join her, laying shoulder-to-shoulder with both Miles and their mom. This time, Bentley chose to lay on Miles’ other side, not quite copying the rest of them as he chose to rest his head on Miles’ arm and curl into his brother’s side.

“Mama,” Miles began, waiting for the woman’s response before continuing, “Can we make snowmen before Mémé comes home?”

“Yeah!” Royce cheered in agreement.

With a small sigh, Dorothea shook her head. “When Mémé comes home, we have to go inside and have dinner, chéri. We can make some snowmen after dinner, yeah?”

Although upset he wouldn’t be able to make snowmen to surprise his grandmother when she returned home, Miles smiled and nodded. “Okay.”

Dorothea smiled at her oldest son before speaking, “Why don’t we try something easier for Roy and Benny for now?” Once Miles excitedly agreed, loose waves of light brown hair bouncing as the eight-year-old sat up with his brothers, Dorothea pushed herself up, off the snow. “How about we make some snow angels for Mémé? You know how much she loves angels.”

Miles excitedly agreed once more, making Royce and Bentley agree in their own ways. Miles pulled himself out of the snowbank, reaching back into the snowy mess to pull Bentley out while their mom helped Royce jump out of the powdery snow. Together, they made their way to an area of snow they hadn’t disrupted yet. Miles allowed the snow to catch him as he fell backward into it, moving his legs and arms back and forth in the snow to create the perfect angel. Royce watched him for a minute before finding space nearby to attempt a snow angel of his own. Bentley, on the other hand, watched his brothers in curiosity before turning to his mom with a cheesy grin.

“I wanna play,” Bentley giggled.

“Okay, but you gotta go like this,” Dorothea said, moving her arms the same way Royce and Miles were. Bentley watched her for a minute before waving his arms back and forth in front of him. Dorothea snickered before adjusting Bentley’s arms and watching him try that for a moment before lifting him up and placing him in the snow next to Royce. As soon as the two-year-old was laid in the snow, his arms went back in front of him and began to wave back and forth instead of side-to-side. Their mother laughed for a minute before taking Bentley’s hands in hers and showing him how to do it again.

By then, Miles and Royce had stood from the snow and were throwing piles of snow at each other. A few minutes later, their grandmother pulled into the driveway in their family car and the boys raced to see their mémé, leaving their mom and Bentley trailing behind them. Soon after, they were inside the house, having dinner with the rest of the family - bar their father, of course, who was serving in Germany at the time and had told them he would probably be home in a week or so.

As Miles wrapped up telling his memory of spending time with their mom, Royce and Bentley smiled up at him. Royce chuckled, “I remember getting so much candy from Pépé that my stomach hurt.”

“We all did at some point,” Miles laughed. “That man was a sucker for puppy-dog eyes and we all knew it.”

Bentley smiled, watching the two of them laugh over a shared memory that he just didn’t have. “Was Mom always so fun? Playing in the snow with us and stuff?”

“Oh, all the time!” Miles confirmed with a smile. “She’d take us to the movies, and to the beach, and we’d go to the playground in the park for hours. She was an amazing woman.”

Royce agreed and began chattering with Miles about some of the things they’d done with their mom. Bentley stood and made his way to the window by Miles’ bed, staring out at the snow as he played with the latch on his mother’s locket; he’d refused to take it off since Miles had given it to him, wanting nothing more than to keep her close as he went about his days. Scanning the snowmen that lined the front yard and the faint outlines of snow angels that were slowly being covered with fresh snow as it fell from the sky, Bentley noticed a glowing light in the middle of the snow. He knew it wasn’t the sun as it was still fairly dark out and the cloudy skies were so thick that it would prevent any light from coming through. The more Bentley stared at the light, the more it seemed to change. After about a minute, the light seemed to stretch and take the form of what looked like a person.

Bentley watched as the person made of light moved in the snow, twirling around before turning their attention to the boy watching them from the window. The figure solidified even further and smiled up at Bentley, chocolatey curls glowing golden brown as the snow shimmered behind them. The person waved to him making Bentley’s jaw drop as he fumbled for the clasp of his locket, opening the latch and tearing his eyes away from the person to scan briefly over the picture in the center - the one where his mom held a younger version of himself. He quickly turned back to the window, finding the same person from his locket staring back at him with a beaming smile.

Bentley slowly raised a hand to wave and the woman - his mom - waved in return before moving her hand and holding up only her thumb, index, and pinkie fingers to him. Although Bentley had no clue what that meant, he followed suit, pressing his hand to the window as the woman appeared to giggle at him. With a smile, Bentley turned to his brothers, telling them to join him by the window before turning back to the window, finding that the ghost of their mother had disappeared from view once more.

Royce and Miles joined Bentley by the window, smiling at the snow-covered landscape as they wrapped an arm around Bentley’s shoulders. “That’s so beautiful,” Royce sighed.

“It is,” Miles agreed.

As his brothers conversed about the snow, Bentley stared at the space his mother - or at least her ghost, spirit, or maybe her soul? - had vacated before turning to Miles and holding up his hand in the same way she had just done to him. Miles smiled and squeezed Bentley tightly. “I love you too, Benny,” he spoke, pressing a kiss to Bentley’s forehead

“So that’s what that means,” Bentley mumbled under his breath.

“What did you say?” Royce asked softly, quirking an eyebrow as Bentley quickly shook his head and smiled.

“Nothing,” Bentley replied, returning his gaze to the spot where his mother had once stood. “Nothing at all.”

[foreveralwaysanauthor]

The Cold Never Bothered Them Anyway

December 16, 2021

Prompt - Ice Castles

Characters - Cabin Crew

Notes - I plan on going to the ice castles for the first time when they open in January (they’re opening late this year due to lack of snow and high temperatures) but I have cousins that go every year and they love it. Also, if you want to see what I’m talking about, google “ice castles New Hampshire” and you’ll see just how majestic these things really are because I don’t think I did it justice!

December 16th,

Lela made us all watch Frozen last night and, while the fact everyone apart from Benny and I knew all the lyrics felt a bit concerning, we enjoyed it. I guess Bentley got pretty attached to the idea of building snow forts as he wanted to do nothing more than make some today, but Mickie said she had a better idea and told us all to hang out while she talked with her parents. Now, I’m outside with Benny, Miles, and Lela. They’re doing something with pinecones and I’m just writing, but that’s what I do best so-

Royce’s writing was abruptly cut short as a pinecone whipped into the back of his coat, sending a thin scratch of ink across the page he’d been working on as he jumped. ‘At least it wasn’t snow. That would’ve soaked the pages,’ Royce thought to himself as he turned to see Bentley smiling mischievously at him and bouncing another pinecone from one hand to another. “Seriously? I’m writing.”

“When you should be playing,” Bentley spoke with a smirk. “I mean, come on, we’re outside, RJ. Have fun.”

With a sigh, Royce complied, tucking his pen into his unfinished journal entry and setting it aside on the picnic table. As Bentley cheered at his ability to make Royce join their game, Royce picked up a few pinecones for himself and turned his brother’s gloating spree to his advantage, using some baseball pitch he’d learned from Miles ages ago to send a cone flying through the air and into Bentley’s chest.

The boy squawked in return, snapping his gaze to Royce’s smirking face before chucking a return pinecone in retaliation. Not long after Royce had joined the battle, Mick came running out of the house with a squeal of excitement, calling for a cease-fire before she crossed into any enemy territory. Butchy followed behind at a slower pace, obviously not in the mood to run through the snow and get pelted with pinecones.

“Everyone go get dressed,” Mick hollered.

Royce and Miles shared a look before Miles turned to Mick with a teasing smirk. “I’m pretty sure we all have clothes on, Mick.”

Mick sighed, “You know what I mean. We’re going somewhere super cold so everyone needs to go inside and put on the warmest clothes they own.”

Lela tossed her remaining pinecones into the nearest snow pile before making her way toward the house. “Where are we going?”

With a smile that everyone could label as nothing more than knowing mischief, Mick grinned. “You’ll see.”

“What is this place?” Bentley asked airily as he climbed out of the minivan. Snowy white pillars rose into the sky far above them, chunks of ice cascading down the sides of the enormous structures. Some of the structures appeared to be glowing a blue hue in the setting sun whilst others had strings of lights turning them an array of colors from the inside. Whether or not the pillars had lights didn’t seem to matter as, either way, they looked just as magical.

“These,” Brady began as he closed his passenger side door, “are the ice castles of New Hampshire.”

Mick smiled at the familiar - at least to her and her parents - sight before turning to the rest of the group. “There’s snow tubing, ice slides, sleigh rides, light walks in the forest, and they’ve added stuff this year that wasn’t here last year, but it’s always so magical and I can’t wait to explore the grounds!”

“So, in other words,” Miles began with a chuckle, tucking his hands into his pockets, “we need to strap a leash to you before we go inside so you don’t wander off like a little puppy.”

Mick glared at Miles though the glint of happiness in her eyes was hard to miss. “I’ll zip tie you to the nearest sleigh and have them drag you around the property. Skin you alive, y’know.”

Miles shook his head with a snort which only seemed to egg Mick on. “I love your threats; they get so creative sometimes.”

The short brunette looked ready to fire off another one, just for the heck of it, but her mouth was quickly covered by Butchy’s hand. “Not in front of the children.”

Mick sent him a look in return but kept quiet. Royce and Bentley, on the other hand, grinned at each other and decided to take over Mick’s role as Miles’ tormenter. “We’ll push you off of a ski hill with only one ski,” Bentley tried, making Mick smile at him while Butchy shook his head and began following Mack, Lela, and Brady toward the entrance of the castles.

“That’s called snowboarding,” Miles teased as he began walking away.

“We’ll use you like a sled on the tallest hill and send you crashing into the side of one of these ice castles,” Royce fired off, following his older brother and Mick out of the parking lot

Miles smirked. “Wouldn’t that send you into the ice castle too?”

Bentley thought for a moment before grinning like a madman. “We’ll take one of the icicles off the side of the castles and stab you with it so, when it melts, there’s no evidence left.”

The older three froze, turning to the fourteen-year-old with varying looks of shock, excitement, and mild horror. “W-Where did you learn that, Benny?” Miles asked, his eyes wide as his baby brother smiled back at him.

Bentley seemed fairly proud of himself, rocking back and forth on his heels with a brilliant smile. “One of those horror movies you guys watched the other night. Try Hard or something like that.”

“Die Hard?” Mick offered.

“Yeah, that!” Bentley agreed as he began walking to where the rest of the group had congregated. Royce, Mick, and Miles quickly followed. “I came downstairs for some water and there were two guys fighting in the snow and one had a knife so the other guy grabbed an icicle and stabbed him in the eye. I was tired so I didn’t stick around much longer and I went up to bed. Looked like a good movie, though.”

Royce shook his head and followed Bentley as the boy took off for where Butchy and Lela were standing. “Told you guys he likes to sneak downstairs to watch movies if he knows you’re watching without him,” Royce claimed over his shoulder with a smirk. “But do you listen to me? Of course not.”

Mick and Miles stayed back for a minute, watching the two teenagers join the rest of the family in the line by the ticket counter. “I must say,” Mick started with a smirk, “I’m impressed.”

“Impressed?!” Miles exclaimed in disbelief. “My baby brother just told me how he plans on murdering me and you’re okay with that?”

“You say that like we don’t threaten each other’s lives almost every other day,” Mick stated with a shrug. “Besides, if he doesn’t get caught, it’s fair game.”

Miles gaped at Mick as she turned on the spot and continued walking toward the rest of her family, adding a small skip to her walk as she got close to them. “Psychopaths,” Miles muttered to himself as he slowly followed Mick to the line by the front of the property. “That’s the word I’m looking for. I live in a house full of psychopaths.”

The ice castles were, true to Mick’s earlier claim, magical. Monuments of varying heights and colors littered the area. Balls of fairy lights hung from the trees in the forest and sculptures made out of ice could be found in the bottom of almost every ice building. Caverns and tunnels sprawled between structures, leading the group down winding paths that seemed to stretch on forever. Water fountains found in different areas throughout the castles would spray along with the beat of the music playing through speakers hidden throughout the property. Giant ice crystals that looked just as clear as quartz could be found around every corner, a few of them coming up to Bentley’s chest.

There were two slides made out of ice - one, a shorter slide that was mostly occupied by small children and their parents while the other was a much larger, longer slide that was divided into two identical tracks, running about one hundred feet long. Of course, Royce and Bentley chose to race each other down the slide once they reached the front of the line, making the rest of the group wait for their turns as they all but pushed their way to the front. By the time they’d explored the entire property, the sun had begun setting over the edge of the trees and the lights around the area began to illuminate the area in a glowing rainbow of colors. They’d taken their time finding their way to the edge of the forest for the light walk trail so that the sun would’ve been mostly gone over the horizon, allowing for the lights on the trees and the glowing lights from above to become more vivid against the snowy landscape.

The trail was only a quarter-mile long, but there was so much to see, Royce and Bentley stopped multiple times to take pictures with their Polaroids, thankful that Mack had allowed them to keep an extra package of film in her purse just in case they ran out. Once they reached the end of the walk, they settled down for some hot chocolate and cinnamon buns before making their way back to the main area to line up for the sleigh rides. The sleigh they’d boarded was led by two majestic Percheron draft horses named Pepsi and Sunkist that Lela claimed looked like the type of horse you’d see a royal riding into battle on.

The sleigh ride through the woods was every bit as magical as the walk had been, colorful lights strung between the trees and glowing balls lining the pathway for the horses. The soft wind blowing by them as the horses pulled them along, was enough to make most of the group begin to feel the exhaustion of walking most of the day as they relaxed into their seats. After their sleigh ride through the forest had come to an end, Royce, Bentley, and Lela were offered the opportunity to feed the two horses an apple each which, of course, they did.

Once they’d made their way back to the car, the exhaustion of the day had sunk into their muscles, forcing the majority of the group to all but melt into their chosen seats in the minivan. Brady had taken over for driving home as Mack had brought them there, but nobody seemed to mind as long as the heater was on and they could sleep, if not, rest, for the hour or so it would take them to get back home.

Butchy and Miles became human pillows for the ride home while Mack and Brady conversed softly in the front seats, oblivious to this information. Mick and Lela had curled into Miles in the middle row, Lela’s head pressed into Miles’ underarm as she faced toward the door while Mick’s arm draped over Miles’ middle and her head rested lightly in the crook of his neck. Butchy had, by some stroke of luck, gotten the better deal and claimed the far back seat - often affectionately referred to by the family as Antarctica since whoever was back there was often left out of conversations and left to their own devices - for himself and the boys. The seat was far more comfortable as it not only had its own heaters overhead, but it also had the ability to be reclined into a laying position, giving whoever was back there, the opportunity to watch the stars out the back window.

After about fifteen minutes of the ride home, Royce and Bentley had fallen asleep watching the stars. Royce was resting on his side, curled into Butchy’s left with a hand clutched into the man’s jacket. Bentley, on the other hand, was much like Lela, facing away from his personal, and quite literal, body pillow, although he had a firm grasp on Butchy’s hand, holding the man’s arm hostage for comfort's sake. By the time they’d reached the cabin, Butchy was the only one other than Mack and Brady still awake as he was known to get migraines if he fell asleep during a car ride.

Oddly enough, it didn’t take much to get everyone inside the cabin when they arrived as everyone wanted to go inside and either sit by the fireplace or go straight to bed. The sluggish parts of the crew - certainly not Lela and Bentley - had to be nearly dragged out of the car, but after being told they’d get to sleep again if they went inside, they headed inside fairly quickly, saying a quick goodnight to those around them before dragging themselves upstairs and collapsing into their respective mattresses.

Royce stayed up for only a little while, sitting on the couch with Mick and Butchy for a few minutes before Butchy caught him nodding off one too many times and chose to carry him off to bed. Mack and Brady retired to their room to change out of their snow gear, leaving Mick and Miles alone in the living room. Miles had wedged himself in the corner of the couch, stretching himself over the next two cushions as Mick made her way back to the couch, having retrieved the TV remote from where someone, possibly Brady, had left it on the mantle and turned the device on with the volume low. Instead of perching herself on the other remaining cushions, Mick found her way to where Miles was resting and laid down in the small space between him and the back of the couch, resting her head against his chest.

After a minute of watching TV, Miles glanced down at Mick with a small smirk. “If you fall asleep on me again,” he began softly, “I’ll shove you off a cliff.”

Mick grinned against him and shook her head, draping an arm over Miles’ stomach as she curled into his side and made herself comfortable. “No, you won’t, you moron,” she mumbled confidently. “You love me too much.”

Miles smiled, turning his attention back to the TV where Jim Carrey’s Grinch threw a Christmas tree up the chimney. “Yeah, I do.”

[foreveralwaysanauthor]

Pause, Play, Repeat

December 15, 2021

Prompt - Christmas Playlist

Characters - Royce, Bentley, and Vivien (still Cabin Crew AU, but not everyone is mentioned)

Notes - Okay, I have no idea why this didn’t post yesterday. I had it scheduled to post for noon yesterday since I was going to be busy all day, but it was still in my drafts so I don’t know what happened but here it is! Anyway, this might tie into another prompt I do on the 19th and you'll see why. I'm not sure 100% sure it will, but either way, I'm excited about it 😊

December 15th,

Vivien came over after shopping yesterday and insisted that we have to hang out today. She says she’s missed us, even though she came over three days ago and we hung out then. It’s fine with me, I like spending time with her. She’s a great friend, we have a lot in common, and she’s one of the few people I would trust with everything I know. Though I have to say, I doubt it would be easy for her to wrap her head around the whole “other universe” thing; she’s very analytical. I just hope that, when she’s here, everyone will stop talking about me having a crush on her. I mean, even if I did, that’s beside the point. She’s a friend first and foremost.

“So, how are your guys’ Christmas playlists coming along?” Vivien asked from her perch on one of the beanbags in Royce and Bentley’s room. Royce had left to get snacks and drinks, leaving Bentley and Vivien alone to chat.

“Our what?” Bentley asked, looking up from his drawing.

Vivien sent him a smile and repeated herself, “Your Christmas playlists. You put a bunch of songs on a list on your phone and other people can check them out. Well, I know you don’t have a phone of your own yet, but still, Royce lets you use his. I figured you guys would be about done making them by now.”

“I still don’t understand,” Bentley claimed, shaking his head as he tapped his pencil on the side of his sketchbook.

“Oh, come on,” Vivien sighed, resting her arms on the side of Bentley’s bed so they were face-to-face. “Does Royce tell you anything? We’re having a teens-only Christmas party on the nineteenth, did he tell you about that yet?

“Yeah,” Bentley agreed, “he said we need to bring a bunch of music for it.”

Vivien snorted, “That would be the playlist I was talking about.”

“Oh,” Bentley said, “well, I guess that makes more sense than bringing a bunch of records to the party.”

Vivien laughed as the door to the room pushed open and Royce entered. “Yeah, I guess so! Hey, Rolls, were you seriously thinking of bringing a bunch of records to the Christmas party?”

Royce shrugged as he tossed a bag of chips in Bentley’s direction. “I mean, that’s how you bring music to a party so, yeah, why?”

Vivien stared at him in disbelief before tossing her head back in laughter. “Dude, no! That’s so old school. You can’t be serious!”

“Why not?” Royce asked again, placing a bag of pretzels by Vivien’s seat before sitting down.

Vivien’s laughter slowed to a stop as she looked between the two brothers and realized that they weren’t joking around. “Wait, you’re serious?” At the brothers’ identical nods, Vivien paused. “Do you even have Spotify on your phone?” Royce shook his head. “Wow, you guys really are in the dark about phones and stuff. I knew about that app long before I even got a phone.”

“Like we told you,” Bentley began, “our dad never allowed us to do any stuff on computers or anything.”

Royce nodded in agreement. “Yeah, and we walked to and from school so we never really had a lot of friends we could talk to about stuff like that.”

Vivien sighed, shaking her head, “No offense, guys, but your dad sounds kinda sucky.”

“None taken,” both brothers responded.

“He had his ups and downs,” Bentley claimed.

Royce nodded with a sigh, “But he was military so that was our normal.”

Vivien gave an “ah” in understanding. “PTSD is a big problem with ex-military so I guess that makes sense to an extent but, still, no cell phones? That’s a bit excessive.”

The boys shrugged in return, allowing the topic to drop as Vivien went onto her cell phone. “So,” Royce began, “what are we supposed to do for the music, then?”

“Oh, right,” Vivien said, nodding to herself as she quickly brought up her music app. “You go on here and make a list of all your favorite Christmas songs. It doesn’t matter what they are or who sings them, just make a playlist and we’ll play it at the party along with everyone else’s. It has to be on the short side or we’ll be there all night so I kept mine at ten songs.”

Royce and Bentley nodded, leaning over so they could see what to do on the app. After a bit more explaining, Vivien took Royce’s phone and added the app, taking it across the hall to where Mick was and having her add Royce’s phone to their family’s premium subscription before returning to the boys and helping them create a new playlist for each of them.

“Now, you get to have fun deciding between Mariah Carey and Ariana Grande,” Vivien claimed with a grin, handing Royce his phone before setting hers aside and chatting with Bentley.

Royce grinned at his phone, noting that she’d set his name on the app to “✨ Rolls Royce ✨” and added herself to the list of people he was following. He quickly checked her profile, finding a multitude of playlists ready to be played. She had five different playlists for Christmas alone with “I’m gonna deck your halls, bub,” “when theatre kids try to be ~festive~,” and “I’ll just be hanging around the mistletoe, hoping to be kissed,” being among the lineup. There were plenty of songs to choose from on each, only a few of which Royce knew, but he had no intention of taking many songs from there as he needed his playlist to be one he felt a connection to.

He soon found the search bar, typing in a song he could barely remember his mom singing every year and adding the first result to his list. He added a few more songs from the suggestions on his home page before searching a few. He added Brenda Lee’s Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, a cover of It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year by a man named Andy Williams, and Blue Christmas by none other than Elvis Presley. As he added a few more songs to the list, a hand waved in front of his face. Vivien and Bentley began laughing as Royce jerked back from the hand.

“See!” Bentley exclaimed. “I told you, Viv, there’s nothing behind those eyes or between his ears.”

Between her giggles, Vivien nodded. “I didn’t think he’d zoned out that bad!”

Royce sent them a roll of his eyes before setting his phone aside and crossing his arms. “I did not zone out.”

“Dude, you totally did!” Vivien laughed. “Do you even know what we were talking about?”

Royce paused, staring blankly between his brother and friend before attempting, “The Christmas party?”

Bentley snorted before shaking his head. “Not even close!”

“Let me guess,” Royce began again, sending his brother a knowing stare. “You want to make marshmallow snowmen?”

“Nope,” Bentley said with a cheesy smile. “Well, I mean, I do, but that’s not what we were talking about.”

With a shrug, Royce sighed, “Worth a shot, I guess. What’s up?”

Vivien rolled her eyes with a bright smile and a shake of her head. “We were trying to figure out what books we should add to our reading list, but you weren’t adding anything to the conversation, so we asked you what you were up to.”

“Oh,” Royce said before taking a deep breath. “I was just working on my playlist. I’ve got eight songs already.”

“I’m calling bull on that,” Vivien claimed, whipping her phone out and unlocking it. She quickly went onto her Spotify and found Royce’s account, tapping on the only playlist he had, and scanning over the song list. Sure enough, he had eight songs already on the list. “It took me almost a week to narrow down my list, how the hell do you have most of yours already?”

Royce shrugged, earning him a shove and a scoff from Vivien. “Hey! What was that for?”

“Royce, I mean this in the nicest possible way, but, you suck. You completely suck.” Vivien scrolled back to the top of the playlist and huffed. “Like, I love you, man, don’t get me wrong, but you totally suck.”

Ignoring the feeling of butterflies in his stomach as she told him that, Royce beamed at her in return. “Love you too, Viv.”

Bentley rolled his eyes, sending Royce a teasing smirk. Vivien read the different song titles before pausing. “What’s this one?” she asked, pointing to the first song he’d added to his list.

Royce took a glance over her shoulder before smiling. “That’s a song our mom used to sing every Christmas. It’s Douce Nuit which is Silent Night.”

“So it’s Silent Night, but sung in French?” Vivien questioned. At Royce and Bentley’s nods, she smiled. “That must sound beautiful. I can’t wait to hear it at the party.”

Bentley moved to get up from his bed, reaching for Royce’s phone so he could plug it into their speaker. “We can play it now-”

“No,” Vivien cut off. “I want to hear it for the first time with everyone else. It’ll be more special, I think.

“Alright,” Bentley resigned, laying back down on his bed and returning to his drawing.

Vivien scrolled back to the top of the page and sighed, “You need to name it something better than that,” she mumbled. She took the phone out of Royce’s grasp and opened it, bringing up the playlist on Royce’s phone and hitting the edit button. “What’s your favorite Christmas movie? Miracle on 34th Street? The Grinch? Polar Express?”

Royce thought for a moment before speaking, “I like those, but I’d say my favorite is between Home Alone and that movie we watched the other day where the guy killed Santa and then became him.”

Vivien smiled. “That’s funny, those are some of my favorites too. Luckily for you, that means I have tons of quotes memorized. What about ‘I believe, I believe, I believe’?”

“Sure,” Royce agreed with a nonchalant shrug, not exactly understanding the reason behind naming a playlist something special.

Vivien hummed thoughtfully before shaking her head. “Nah, it doesn’t really make me think of you when I say it. How about, ‘Good news! I saw a dog today’?” After a moment of thought and Royce deciding she was talking more to herself than she was to him, Vivien shook her head once again. “No, that sounds more like a Bentley thing than a Royce thing.”

Bentley looked up at the sound of his name, but nodded when Royce gave him a wave of his hand, letting him know he wasn’t being talked to. “How about ‘Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal’? You know, from Home Alone?” Bentley offered as he turned back to his drawing, sketching out some details within his artwork.

Vivien’s eyes lit up as she leaned over the side of Bentley’s bed and grabbed the fourteen-year-old by the arms, shaking him in excitement. Thankfully, the movement didn’t ruin his artwork as he’d had enough time to toss his pencil aside before the shaking began. Bentley let out a laugh as he was released and Vivien collapsed back into her beanbag. “Bentley, you’re a genius! That’s, like, the most iconic movie quote in existence! I can’t believe I didn’t think of it.”

A few taps of Royce’s phone screen later and the playlist was all set and the phone was back in Royce’s hands. As Vivien went back to conversing with Bentley about movies and books and artwork, Royce stared at his screen with a smile. Not only had Vivien changed the title of his playlist, but she’d also added a few songs to it - All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey, Underneath the Tree by Kelly Clarkson, and Santa Tell Me by Ariana Grande gracing the bottom of the list. Perhaps she’d added them forgetting that they’d go onto his list and not her own, but as Royce glanced over at Vivien with a grin, watching as she and Bentley continued their conversation with emphatic ease, he told himself he’d have to have those songs memorized by the day of the party.

[foreveralwaysanauthor]

Careful What You Wish For

December 13, 2021

Prompt - Wishes

Characters - Miles, Royce, Bentley, and Butchy

This is like an AU-ish thing. Some parts are canon and others aren’t, and I hope it’s easy to tell what’s what, but I’m not sure how to describe this other than “you’ll see” so just a warning.

Notes - This was almost the first time I introduced the Murphy boys’ father in a speaking role, but I decided against it in favor of saving that for another couple of posts I plan on making after the prompt month is done. Also, I know it isn’t Friday the 13th, but I love Friday the 13th (the day, not the movie lol) and just thought this would be fun to work with.

Friday the thirteenth never seemed to bother Miles. If anything, his day usually seemed to go even better when it was Friday the thirteenth. To most who knew him, it infuriated them that he was so calm about a day that they were so superstitious about, but Miles just let it go and allowed the day to pass with relative ease. It wasn’t something he did on purpose; the day was just like any other for him. Nothing big ever really happened.

Well, for the most part.

“Did you make a wish?” Butchy asked that night as he joined Miles on the front porch.

Miles took a sip of his coffee and sighed, “Nope, not yet.”

Butchy glanced at him out of the corner of his eye before staring back out at the water. “Why not? There are plenty of stars and it’s Friday the thirteenth - your lucky day. You’d have double luck. Something eating at you?”

It didn’t take much for Miles to nod in response. “What isn’t? I promised my brothers I’d bring them here as soon as possible and it’s been almost two years. What kind of brother am I?”

It was Butchy’s time to sigh as he leaned against the porch railing. “A good one.”

Miles scoffed but quickly apologized as he knew Butchy was only being supportive. “I just don’t see it.”

“Miles, we’ve been over this,” Butchy claimed, placing a hand on Miles’ arm. “You can’t beat yourself up for something out of your control. You just bought a house of your own and, while I bet you’d love to have them as much as the rest of us would, you have almost no furniture.”

“I know… I just want them to be with me,” Miles said forlornly. “They don’t deserve to be stuck there with that mother- that- that- moron.”

Butchy chuckled at Miles’ choice of words. “Good catch. Lela would be proud.”

“Thanks.”

With a nod, Butchy went back to the topic at hand. “I completely agree with you about that, though. They shouldn’t be stuck there, but there’s no way to do anything without evidence and the possibility of getting you in trouble.”

“If he cared in the slightest about his car being stolen, he would’ve hunted me down to kingdom come,” Miles explained with a huff. “I just wish I could go back to that day and tell them what my plan was so they could be at least a little prepared for when I was gone. Maybe they'd be better off if I had done that in the first place.”

Butchy chose not to say anything for a while. The two stood in relative silence - bar the crashing of the waves on the sand and the faint music coming from Big Momma’s as the surfers threw another one of their shindigs - while both contemplated on their conversation. “Why don’t you bring them down to visit for a week?”

Miles’ eyes widened as he turned to Butchy in wonder. “Really?”

Butchy smiled and patted Miles on the back. “Yeah, why not? The last time you went to see them was in October and I’m sure they wouldn’t mind staying with us if it means they’re able to see you more often.”

Miles just sighed with a smile as though a weight had been lifted from his shoulders in an instant. “Are you sure?”

Butchy chuckled, turning to Miles and placing his mug of hot chocolate on the porch railing before taking Miles by the shoulders. “I’m positive. We’ll look into prices for train rides and flights and we’ll try to get you out there.”

“Tomorrow?”

“If you want to, yeah, we'll find a way.”

“Thank you, Butchy.”

True to his word, the next day, Butchy, Mick, and Lela brought Miles to a train station in Tampa. While the trip would be fairly long and he’d arrive in Myrtle Beach just around dinnertime, it would be worth it just to see his brothers again. Miles boarded the train fairly quickly after it was announced over the speakers that it was boarding. After being directed to an empty seat, Miles sighed to himself, muttering under his breath, “I can’t believe I’m doing this.”

Not long after, the train pulled from the station and, due to having to wake up at the crack of dawn to catch the train, Miles decided to sleep until they reached Charleston, South Carolina. He could go to his uncle's house and borrow his car for the rest of the ride to be with his brothers. He bunched up his leather jacket and tucked it against the icy window before resting his head against the jacket and relaxing into a light sleep. Sadly, what felt like only minutes passed before the train jolted, waking Miles from whatever sleep he could’ve gotten. When he finally rubbed the sleep from his eyes, Miles glanced around the train, finding only a man in a conductor suit sitting across from him, staring out the window.

Suddenly wide awake at the idea of the man just sitting there, watching him, Miles pushed himself to sit up straighter and pulled his jacket from the window it was pressed against, ready to pull it on. “Sorry, I didn’t know I was asleep for so long that we-” Miles cut himself off as he glanced out the window, a wintery, snow-covered scene passing by. “Is that snow?”

“Perhaps it is, Miles,” the man in the conductor’s outfit replied.

Miles froze and locked gazes with the man, finding himself almost uneasy at the man’s small smile. “I never told you my name.”

“You didn’t need to.” The man raised a single finger, pointing at the sleeve of Miles’ jean jacket. Sure enough, near the cuff of his jacket sleeve, his name was embroidered in Lela’s signature design - swirling letters and a small daisy.

Miles sighed, relaxing back into his seat. “Okay, sorry about that, but is that really snow outside? If so, I definitely missed my stop.”

“As I said, perhaps it is snow, but I suppose we’ll never know. Either way, you haven’t missed your stop,” the man - if Miles dared to examine his outfit in the slightest, he’d find the man’s nametag read Nicholas - said with that same smile Miles had been put off by in the first place.

Before Miles got the chance to question the man, the man rose from his seat, stepping out from his side of the booth. “Enjoy your time with Bentley and Royce, Miles. I’d make it count if I were you.”

Miles simply gawked at the man as he left the train car, attempting to process everything the man had said to him in the last few minutes. Deciding he was still half-asleep and that the man was simply being nice to him, Miles leaned back against the window, staring into space as the train slowly pulled to a stop. It wasn’t until Miles exited the train that he realized that one, the ground was completely snow-free and, two, he’d never told the man anything about where he was going or who he was visiting. But, when he turned back around to confront the man about this, the train he’d just left was completely gone, as though it had taken off down the tracks without him knowing.

Realizing he’d never get the chance to confront the conductor - if he even was one - Miles sighed and began heading toward where he knew his brothers would be - their father’s house. Somehow, it never occurred to him that the train had been destined for Charleston, a city that was about a two-and-a-half-hour drive from his hometown, where he’d arrived.

Miles smiled as he walked up Duffy Street. As much as he’d practically despised being under his father’s tyrannical roof, he had to admit that walking back up the street toward the house was almost something out of a movie - memories of riding bikes with his brothers and the rest of the neighborhood kids, leaving handprints in the freshly set sidewalk after the town workers left their neighborhood, coating their driveway in sidewalk chalk, and walking his brothers to school. As he finally reached the house in question, Miles smiled. His brothers’ bedroom light was still on.

Miles made his way to the side of the house, finding his way to the window that led into his brothers’ shared bedroom and peering inside. Royce was laying on the floor, surrounded by schoolbooks and journals while Bentley was resting against the wall beside his bed, doodling in a notebook Miles had given him for Christmas not long before he’d left for St. Pete. As Miles observed them, attempting to figure out a way to get their attention, Royce sat up and began speaking softly to Bentley, an eighth-grade history book in one hand and a notebook in the other.

‘Odd,’ Miles thought to himself. ‘Royce is wrapping up tenth now. I hope he's not doing Bentley's work for him again.’

Miles froze as Bentley shifted on his bed, turning so he could lay down. The boy paused, the rest of his sentence to Royce falling short as his gaze met Miles’ and he waved. Royce quickly turned and smiled before standing from the floor and making his way to the window, pulling the window open so they could talk.

“I thought you were in your room, Miles,” Royce spoke softly, pushing his reading glasses further up his nose. “Are you sneaking out or something?”

“Can we come?” Bentley asked as he joined his brothers. “Or do you need us to cover for you in case Dad asks?”

As his brothers’ words sank in, Miles paused, glancing between the two of them. It wasn’t hard to notice how different they looked from the time Miles last saw them in October - Royce’s hair was kept in loose rings, something he’d been neglecting to keep up since Miles had left home, while Bentley was significantly shorter than he remembered, only coming to Royce’s jaw. The last time he’d seen them both, Royce’s hair was held back with about a bucket of gel and Bentley almost came up to the top of Royce’s ear.

It was almost as though they were… No, that couldn’t be. It was impossible.

Royce and Bentley shared a look before Royce reached out the window and waved a hand in front of Miles’ face. “Earth to Miley,” the boy teased.

“‘Miley’?” Miles repeated quietly. “You haven’t called me that in… in years.”

Royce turned to Bentley and the two shared a concerned stare before turning back to Miles and kneeling on the floor so they could be eye-to-eye with him. “Miles,” Bentley began, reaching out the window and putting a hand on Miles’ arm, “are you okay?”

Miles shook his head briefly, swallowing thickly before meeting his brother’s gaze. “Benny, how old are you?”

Now it was time for his younger brothers to be truly concerned. Bentley grinned confusedly but replied honestly. “Eleven and ten months to the day, just like I was when you asked me this morning for our countdown. Why?”

An ice-cold chill ran down Miles’ spine as he soaked up his brother’s words like a sponge. His brothers - the ones he had every intention of bringing home with him, at least - were supposed to be almost thirteen and fifteen not, from the sounds of things, eleven and thirteen. “It’s January thirteenth? Of nineteen-sixty?”

“Yeah,” Bentley answered slowly. “It’s your birthday tomorrow. Miles, what’s going on?”

“I think I’m losing my mind.”

“It sounds like it too,” Royce claimed with a grin.

Miles sent him a look which, to Miles’ surprise, Royce merely snickered at instead of schooling his expression into a more serious stare as he’d been doing more frequently as of late. Miles smiled and shook his head before gesturing for the boys to come outside. “Get your jackets and climb out. We’re going to the beach for a bit. We’ve got lots to talk about.”

“So, you’re from the future?” Royce asked as he stared at his brother skeptically.

“Yes,” Miles replied.

“And you don’t know how you got here,” Bentley added as he attempted to draw in the sand, “but you were on a train to visit us and now you’re in the past?”

“Yep, and tonight is the night I’m supposed to leave.”

Royce turned his head, meeting Miles’ eyes. The older man, now appearing as a seventeen-year-old version of himself, froze as he realized what he’d said. “Leave? Leave where?”

Miles sighed as he had wanted to avoid the topic, “You never did miss anything I said.”

“‘Did’?” Royce echoed as his eyes widened. “Like, in the past, ‘did’? Am I dead in the future?!”

“No!” Miles exclaimed quickly, “No, no, no! I just meant that you’ve always been very good at picking up little things I say, even if I never meant to say them.”

As things calmed down once more and Royce all but flopped into Miles’ side with an exaggerated sigh, Bentley piped up, “So where are you leaving to?”

Miles sighed once again, not even half prepared for whatever their reaction might be. “St. Pete Beach, Florida.”

Even if Miles had been even remotely ready for his brothers’ responses, it wouldn’t have mattered. To his complete surprise, they just sat there, leaned against him with matching nods of what seemed to be acceptance. They seemed almost eerily calm about his words, both of them turning and wrapping an arm around him as they relaxed on the sand. Miles switched his gaze between the two of them before staring out at the water and questioning why they were so calm.

“You’re almost an adult; I had a feeling this would happen soon,” Bentley mumbled into Miles’ jacket.

Royce nodded slowly before peering up at Miles. “We’ve talked about this before, remember? We had it all planned out. Did something change?”

Miles sighed, laying back in the sand as he thought over everything that had happened after he left their childhood home. Royce and Bentley quickly followed, using Miles’ arms as pillows as they stared up at the sky, waiting for their brother to answer. “So much changed. I met an amazing group of people you’ll call family, I just bought a house for us right on the ocean, and there’s this restaurant we could walk to from the house where everyone is amazing and friendly. It’s- It’s like another world down there.”

Royce glanced at Miles out of the corner of his eyes with a smile. “Do they like us?”

To that, Miles smiled and nodded. “The most important ones have met you three times, I think, and they love you to pieces.”

It was Bentley’s time to look up at his brother, turning onto his side to see Miles better. “Do we like them?”

“I wouldn’t ask you to move in with me down there if you didn’t,” Miles answered.

Smiling at their brother’s words, Bentley and Royce relaxed against Miles’ arms once again. A moment of nearly complete silence passed - the occasional seagull and the crashing waves being the only other sounds in their secluded spot on the beach - before Miles chuckled. Bentley and Royce turned to Miles with identically raised eyebrows.

Deciding to answer their unasked question, Miles sat up with a laugh under his breath. “It’s just that you two are taking this whole ‘I’m from the future thing’ really well. Almost like it’s no big deal.”

Bentley shrugged, sitting up and shaking sand from his hair. “You’re our big brother, Miley. Even if you told us the grass was blue, we’d believe you.”

“Besides, if it’s anything like that time machine movie you took us to see,” Royce began with a smile as he sat up in the sand and ran a hand through his curls, “you’ll erase our memories and none of it will matter.”

Miles laughed this time, placing a hand on both of his brothers’ heads. “I love you guys.”

Royce and Bentley responded with matching “love you too”s before wrapping their arms around Miles’ shoulders. Miles sighed, relaxing into the hug with a smile as his brothers clung to him. “I really hope this isn’t some wild, ice-cream-induced dream.”

As they pulled back from the embrace, Royce and Bentley swiftly reached up and pinched Miles on the arm, making their oldest brother yelp. As the two of them dissolved into fits of giggles, Miles simply smiled, grateful to see them happy despite both of them knowing that he’d be leaving them later that night.

After walking around town, eating at the diner, and going to the movies, they made their way back to the house they called home and climbed in through the boys’ bedroom window. They spent the next hour or so talking about things that Miles had experienced in his future life - people he’d met, things he’d done, places he’d been to. After a while of chatting about everything and nothing at the same time, Miles glanced at the clock on Royce’s nightstand and sighed.

“It’s time for bed, boys.” Matching groans of complaint were his only response, to which Miles chuckled, “I know, I know, but you both need your sleep and I have to get ready to leave, remember?”

At that, the boys went quiet and Royce detached himself from Miles’ side, making his way to his own bed as a silence fell over the room. “Do we have to stay here?” Bentley asked, tugging at Miles’ shirt as the older boy stood.

Miles sighed, reaching down to tuck the blankets around Bentley as the almost twelve-year-old laid down. “You have no idea how much I wish I could take you both with me, but you have to stay here just a little while longer until the Miles that you know has a house you two can move into.”

Bentley smiled sadly as Miles placed a kiss to his head. “Thank you for coming back to be with us, Miley. I’m gonna miss you.”

“I’ll miss you too, Benny,” Miles said with a small grin. “Don’t worry, though, I’ll see you again soon.”

After pressing one last kiss to Bentley’s head, Miles moved to Royce’s bed, finding the thirteen-year-old curled on his side with the blankets already pulled up to his chin. As Miles sat on the edge of the bed, Royce turned to face him, silent tears welling up in his eyes as he launched himself into Miles’ arms. Miles swiftly enveloped his brother in a tight squeeze, running a hand through his curls with a sad smile.

“I don’t want you to leave,” Royce complained softly so Bentley couldn’t hear him. “What will we do about Dad? I can’t even protect myself, how am I supposed to protect Benny?”

Miles took a deep breath and sighed. Sadly, this was a question he’d been prepared for. “You’re a smart boy, Royce. Use that to your advantage. If he starts anything, lock yourself and Benny in here and leave the way we did earlier. Go down to the library or something until you think it’ll be safe to come back.”

Royce nodded slowly against Miles’ chest. “I could get a job like you did. I can help you save up money and we can move in with you faster.”

Miles shook his head as Royce leaned back from the hug. “Save your money, baby. Don’t tell Dad you’re making any money; he can’t take what he doesn’t know about. If you need any help - and I mean any help - you call Uncle Tommy and he’ll come get you and bring you back to his place. I’ll be fine on my own. I’ll get a few jobs and work my butt off to get you home with me.”

Royce nodded slowly with a soft sniffle, attempting to blink away the stinging in his eyes as the room went quiet again. Once Royce laid down and was tucked in by Miles, Bentley yawned loudly from his bed. “Miley?” Bentley asked tiredly from his side of the room. Once Miles acknowledged him, Bentley spoke again, “Are you happy in Florida?”

Miles smiled. “I’ll be happier to have you both with me, but yes, yes, I am.”

“Good,” the youngest of the brothers said before rolling over and making himself comfortable. “You deserve to be happy.”

After talking with Royce for a little while longer, Miles climbed out of their window and into his own room, not wanting to risk being found by their father. Looking around his old room, Miles felt a wave of nostalgia rush over him. His bed was completely unmade - his teenage self definitely lived by “I’ll just sleep in it again” reasoning - his desk was covered in comic books and journals, and a couple of suitcases Miles knew all too well were just barely visible from their hiding spot in the closet. With a deep breath, Miles grabbed the suitcases and tossed them onto his bed. After popping them open, Miles grabbed some of his clothes and began filling his suitcases with almost everything he owned.

Some of his comic books he’d give to his brothers as, once he’d gotten to Florida the first time around, he’d regretted not leaving them some. Some of his sweaters and hoodies were set aside - he wouldn’t need them in Florida and his brothers loved them anyway - as well as his latest journal. Once his suitcases were full - it didn’t take much as they weren’t the biggest - Miles closed them up and set them by the window before going back to where he’d left his journal and opening it, scribbling out a short note to his brothers in the back of the book.

‘RJ and Benny,

Just know that no matter what happens or how long it takes, I will be back to bring you home. Thanks for spending the day with me, even though I’m not technically your Miles. It felt great to be back with both of you again and to see you both so happy. Next time I see you both - in my future, at least - we’ll see a movie or maybe we’ll hop on a train and go straight to Florida. Who knows? I’d like to, anyway. I love you both more than words could ever say. See you in the future.

Je t'aime pour toujours.

-Your Miley.’

Miles closed the journal and pushed it into a small lockbox he’d kept his money in over his time living there. The box was big enough for a few of his sweaters and some of his comic book collection which was more than enough for him. After making sure their father was sound asleep in the living room, Miles snuck into the room, grabbed the man’s car keys from the coffee table, brought the lockbox into his brothers’ room, and left the key for it inside a letter he’d already prepared for Royce, and escaped back to his room.

Before long, Miles climbed out his bedroom window and made his way to where his father’s car was parked in the driveway. Before he could get in, however, he heard a loud train whistle blow nearby, making him jump. That hadn’t happened the first time he’d left home. Slowly, Miles turned, finding a train screeching down the middle of his street, steam billowing from underneath as the train pulled to a stop. As far as Miles was aware - which, of course, he was, as he’d lived there his entire life - there had never been any train tracks there. Before he had the chance to question anything - like, you know, his mental health or if he was even alive anymore - the conductor from earlier stepped down from the train and stared expectantly at him.

Miles dropped his suitcases, taking off in a run in the man’s direction. “You-!”

“Will be very late if you don’t board right now, Miles,” the man interrupted with a knowing glint in his eyes. “You’ve seen your brothers. Now, I believe it’s time for you to return.”

“Return?” Miles repeated. “Return where?” The man, Nicholas - yes, Miles had taken the time to check his name tag this time - simply smiled and gestured to the train. This time, Miles wasn’t irked by the man’s demeanor. “But my brothers-”

Once again, Nicholas interrupted Miles, “Will be upset with you if you don’t meet up with them soon. Now, boarding or not boarding?”

Miles turned to the train with a wary stare before sighing and giving his answer to the man.

“Hey, kid,” a gruff voice spoke as Miles slowly sat up and yawned. Miles glanced around blearily, rubbing one eye as the other landed on a tall man in a railway worker’s uniform. “Yeah, you,” the man spoke again once Miles spotted him. “Welcome back to the land of the living, kid. We’re in Charleston which means it’s time for you to get off before we turn around and head for Georgia.”

With that being said, the man turned and left, not bothering to wait around as Miles gathered up his things and made his way off the train. The walk from the train station - which Miles had been to numerous times to visit his brothers - to his Uncle Tommy’s place was only about fifteen minutes long, but it felt like an hour passed before Miles showed up at the man’s house, planning on asking to borrow his uncle’s car so he could drive the next two and a half hours to his father’s house. If he remembered his brothers’ schedules properly, Royce would be just getting off of work, and Bentley would be at the park as he always was after finishing up at his busboy job.

To his great surprise, instead of his mountain of an uncle opening the door, it was pulled open by someone who looked an awful lot like his baby brother - dark, golden blonde hair and piercing, steel blue eyes that glowed in the light that came from the porch sconce. As soon as Bentley’s eyes met Miles’, they widened as a smile beamed across the young teen’s face. “Miley!” he screeched, launching himself onto his oldest brother.

Miles quickly embraced the boy in return, smiling as he realized that Bentley now came to just under his chin. He didn’t have much time to think on the matter as Royce quickly joined them, having run from somewhere in the house when his little brother had yelled. Once he saw Miles, however, any concern was thrown out the window in favor of joining Bentley in tackle-hugging Miles.

“Miles, you’re back!” Royce exclaimed, throwing his arms around Miles’ neck.

Their uncle soon joined them in the doorway, watching with a smile before telling the three boys to go inside. Royce and Bentley had no hesitation about pulling Miles up the stairs and into Bentley’s room. “How’s Butchy and Lela?” Bentley asked as Miles sat on his bed and looked around the room.

“Yeah, and what about Mickie? How is she?” Royce added as he sat on the end of the bed.

“They-They’re good,” Miles replied slowly as he took in how well-decorated the room was. There was a desk covered in art supplies and stickers Bentley had probably gotten from the comic book shop, a wardrobe with a mirror on one of the doors, posters of Bentley’s favorite superheroes, and pictures of family members scattered over the walls. It suited Bentley in so many ways. “When did you guys move in here?”

Bentley and Royce glanced at each other before Bentley allowed Royce to speak. “Miles, you helped us move in back in August, right before school started.”

Miles turned to his brothers curiously before slowly shaking his head. “No, I think I would… remember that…” Miles sighed heavily before laying back on Bentley’s bed and staring up at the ceiling. “Great, I’m losing my mind all over again.”

Once again, Royce and Bentley shared a look before joining Miles in laying back against the mattress. A minute or two of silence passed before Bentley sat up and turned to the side to face Miles. “Is this like that time you said you were from the future?”

Miles quickly sat up, taking Bentley by the shoulders. “Say that again?”

Bentley sent his brother a confused, raised eyebrow, but repeated himself, “Is this like when you said you were from the future?”

“You remember that?” Miles breathed softly, a smile forming on his face.

It was Royce’s turn to sit up and speak, “It was kind of hard to forget. You gave us one last great day with you before you left for Florida just like you said you would. Almost everything you said, came true.”

“Almost?” Miles repeated.

Just as Royce was about to answer, Bentley cut in, “Wait, are you just now coming back from that? Is this the future you were talking about?”

Miles glanced between his brothers, taking one of their hands in both of his before smiling. “You know what? I think this just might be better than what I had talked about. You’re going to have to fill me in on what I’ve missed because,” Miles scoffed happily as he looked around the room, “I guess I’ve missed a lot.”

Royce and Bentley leaned in front of Miles so they could smile at each other before nodding to Miles and beginning to tell Miles everything that had happened since he’d left for Florida. As the stories began, Miles began to fill in the banks, pulling bits and pieces of memories out of seemingly nowhere. By the end of their conversation, Miles had taken his brothers into a hug, just grateful to be with them and to know they were in a safe environment until he’d be able to bring them home with him. It was more than he could’ve ever wished for.

[foreveralwaysanauthor]

A Sweet Revenge

December 12, 2021

Prompt - Advent Calendar

Characters - Lela, Mick, Butchy, and Giggles

Notes - Well, I have mom to thank for this idea. Hopefully, my google searches won't interfere with my ads now because that would be interesting

Lela’s favorite part of her day, in December at least, was when she’d go to the kitchen and get chocolate out of her advent calendar. The candies always had a different filling or flavor, and, for some reason, she loved the surprise. The only problem was, while Butchy always made sure to buy one for her and one for himself, his calendar was almost always empty by day ten. It was around that time of the month that he would, much to Lela’s chagrin, turn to her calendar for a treat in the morning. Since Butchy was almost always up before Lela so he could make it to work on time, her sweet treats would be missing long before she ever woke up.

While Lela had tried before to hide her calendar in the fridge or pop out the candy for the next day and hide it in her room, it never worked. There would always be one missing the next time she checked. Sadly, this had happened every year since they were little and Lela was accustomed to it. But, unfortunately for Butchy, that didn’t mean she was okay with it.

“Mick,” Lela practically yelled one morning as she stormed into the bedroom Mick and Butchy shared. “I’m grounding your husband.”

Mick smirked and shook her head from her spot on her bed. “What did he do this time?”

“He’s started eating my advent calendar chocolates again,” Lela huffed, flopping onto the bed beside Mick.

“Didn’t you yell at him for that last year too?” Mick asked, rolling onto her back so she and Lela could stare at the ceiling together.

Lela hummed in agreement before sighing, “He does this every year, without fail, and I’m sick of it.”

“Why don’t you just get back at him for it?” Mick suggested.

“Don’t you think that’s a bit mean?”

Mick gave her a blank stare in return. “How many years has he done this?”

Lela sighed, “Alright, point taken.”

The two laid in silence for a moment before Mick sat up a bit and rolled onto her stomach again. “I might have an idea.”

Lela grinned, letting out a short laugh, “If your idea is putting some of those ‘special chocolates’ from that weird store at the mall in there, I might actually say yes.”

“We are not giving Butchy vodka chocolates!”

Lela groaned dramatically, “Why not? Don’t you think it would be funny to see him drunk in the morning? We could even record it!”

“That would be hilarious, but he eats your calendar chocolates before work, Lela,” Mick said, trying to refrain from laughing at the idea of Butchy stumbling around the house. “We don’t want him to get fired.”

“We could put it in Saturday’s slot,” Lela suggested with a smirk. “He doesn’t have work on Saturday.”

“No.”

“Aw,” Lela grumbled. Lela quickly flipped onto her stomach so she and Mick were eye to eye. “So what was your plan, Captain Buzzkill?”

Mick rolled her eyes with a smile. “Grab your calendar and your jacket. We’re going to Giggles’ house.”

“Can you say that again?” Giggles asked as she invited her friends inside. “I don’t think I heard you right.”

Mick and Lela quickly moved into the house, petting the blonde’s Irish Setter as they passed her. “We need to borrow some of Rosie’s treats so we can get back at Butchy for eating my chocolates,” Lela explained, kneeling on the floor to play with the puppy.

“Okay, maybe I did hear you right,” Giggles said with a confused look in her eyes. The blonde surfer quickly turned to Mick as the brunette perched herself on the arm of Giggles’ couch. “Can you explain the thought process here? I’m so confused.”

“Butchy ate all of his advent calendar chocolates already and has begun eating Lela’s,” Mick explained.

“Already?” Giggles shook her head. “I swear, that man goes through enough sweets to put Willy Wonka out of business.”

Mick nodded in agreement with a hum. “Lela wants to stop him by taking her chocolates out of the box from the back of it, putting some of Rosie’s treats in, instead, and closing it back up so it looks like nothing’s changed.”

Giggles laughed before letting out a soft sigh, “Well, you’re in luck. I just bought a new bag.”

“You’ll help us?” Lela questioned as she played tug-of-war with the Irish Setter who snuffed playfully at her and yanked at the toy in her mouth. “Well, you and Miss Rosie.”

Giggles smiled at her friend before nodding. “Absolutely. I might actually have something better to help you get back at him.”

Two hours later, Butchy came home from work, expecting his sister to yell at him for stealing her candy earlier in the day, but got nothing. If he was honest with himself, he was almost upset that she didn’t react. Almost. She and Mick were in the kitchen, making dinner and talking about some movie they’d both watched while he was out. Cautiously, as if expecting Lela to blow up at him for taking her chocolate, Butchy edged into the kitchen, pressing a kiss to Mick’s temple before wrapping an arm around both hers and Lela’s shoulders.

“Hello, ladies,” he greeted, eyeing the knife Lela held. “How was your day?”

Mick sighed, “Lela and I haven’t been feeling the greatest.”

Butchy frowned, taking a look at both girls before speaking, “What’s wrong?”

“Well, we bought Mick an advent calendar like mine and wanted to get her caught up,” Lela explained, leaning her head against Butchy’s arm. “We split all of the candy half-and-half apart from today’s, but now we both have headaches and I’m super tired.”

“Me too,” Mick sighed. “Don’t forget that weird stomach cramp I had earlier.”

“Maybe it’s all the sugar?” Butchy offered, pressing a hand to Lela’s forehead to see if maybe she had a fever which, of course, she didn’t.

Mick sighed, pushing some of her hair back as she continued stirring the ground beef, “Yeah, probably. Today’s looked like a Hershey kiss, though, and you know how much I love those.”

“Yeah,” Lela agreed. “Too bad it tasted weird. I wonder what they put in it. I’ll have to check later.”

Butchy glanced between the girls curiously. “But today’s wasn’t a-” he quickly cut himself off by clearing his throat before trying again. “Mine didn’t look like a Hershey kiss today.”

“Yours is a different calendar, silly,” Lela replied with a smile. “It would’ve been nice if they were though, then we’d know if it was just one of the chocolates or if it was because we had too many of them.”

Butchy nodded in agreement before releasing both girls. “Why don’t you two go rest and I’ll make dinner?”

“We can finish-”

Butchy quickly interrupted Mick, placing a hand on her arm. “You aren’t feeling well. Go take some medicine and relax. I can make dinner. It’s shepherd’s pie, right?” At Mick and Lela’s nods of agreement, Butchy smiled. “Good. It looks almost ready so it won’t take too long, but I’d feel better if you both at least tried to rest.”

Mick and Lela shared a look before conceding, leaving the room with the intention of hiding around the corner and watching Butchy to see what he’d do. As soon as the girls were out of his sight, Butchy turned to where Lela’s advent calendar was hung on the wall. It was a simple Christmas tree style calendar with each of the “ornaments” being a different pocket. He quickly scanned the days, knowing he’d taken the one for that day that morning. He quickly discovered that the one for the next day was still in there and, true to what the girls had said about the one they had thought was that day’s, it looked almost exactly like a Hershey kiss. Glancing briefly in the direction the girls had left in, Butchy smelled the candy. True to form, it smelled like a mixture of chocolate and caramel.

With a small shrug and a faint hope that Lela wouldn’t kill him for eating another of her chocolates, Butchy tossed the candy into his mouth. It didn’t taste nearly as bad as Lela made it out to be - a little gooey and it tasted faintly of a medicine Butchy couldn’t remember the name of, but it wasn’t bad.

It took the strength of a thousand men for Lela and Mick to contain their laughter as they quickly made their way to the living room to watch TV.

The next day, Lela and Mick practically ran to Giggles’ house to report on what had happened. The blonde opened the door and smiled before ushering her friends inside and closing the door, following the other two to the living room and sitting with them on her couch. “So, how’d it go?” she asked as her dog sat on the chair across from the couch.

“None of my chocolates were touched this morning,” Lela sang as she beamed in Giggles’ direction.

“Awesome!” GIggles cheered. “Did he eat the ex-lax as planned?”

“Without even a second thought!” Mick exclaimed before the three of them began laughing.

After the laughter died down a bit, Lela turned to Giggles with a smile. “I never asked, but where did you even get those?”

Giggles shrugged and grinned. “My mom was a nurse for a long time and makes sure I keep a little bit of everything in my first-aid kit. I guess you never know what will come in handy.”

“That’s for sure!” Mick giggled. “It was so funny.”

“No,” Lela giggled, “what was funny was the letter he left me!”

“What letter?” Giggles asked with a raise of her brow. In response, Lela pulled a small piece of paper from her jacket pocket and handed it to Giggles with a smirk and a snort as she tried to hold in her laugh.

Giggles sent her a curious smile and opened the paper, reading it aloud while Mick and Lela attempted to contain their snickers. “Lays, sorry for eating your chocolate, but I think I stole the same one that you and Mick split and got sick from last night and I think that makes up for it at least a little. I won’t take any more of yours and I don’t know if either of you should either. We can talk about it when I get home tonight. Don’t know about you, sis, but I think I’m done with chocolate this year. Love you always, Butchy.”

[foreveralwaysanauthor]

How To Bake A War Crime

December 11, 2021

Prompt - Baking

Characters - Cabin Crew (+ a brief bit of Vivien)

Notes - Okay, so I have no clue if anyone else follows bdylanhollis on Tik Tok as well, but I like to scroll through his page to see the different weird recipes. Did I stalk his page while writing this? Yes, yes I did.

December 11th,

Bentley and I finished the first Percy Jackson book yesterday before dinner. I think Viv and I might’ve created a monster. He wants to finish the series, which is great, but there are tons of books. Viv says there are four more in the original PJ series, then there are maybe five more spin-off series that follows this one. She also sent me another app suggestion (this one makes twenty-eight since the start of the month). It’s called Tik Tok and Bentley and I are having a blast with it so far. There’s one guy that we both have been watching a lot already and we really want to try baking stuff like the ones he does. I don’t understand why the 1960s and 70s had such a sick obsession with gelatin or why everyone used so much Spam in their recipes, but we’ve been having fun trying not to gag at how nasty everything looks. Later, I think we’re going to try convincing Aunt Mack and Uncle Brady to let us make one of the recipes from his page.

Royce and Bentley let out matching hums of curiosity as another video began. For the majority of their morning, they’d been scrolling on Royce’s phone, watching videos of a man baking a variety of recipes from the past. “A 7up Jello salad from sixty-three,” the man stated before he began listing the ingredients and mixing them according to the recipe. Royce cringed in disgust as marshmallows and walnuts were added to the already nasty-looking mixture and it was set inside the man’s fridge.

“Why is it jiggling?” Bentley laughed awkwardly as the “food” wiggled ominously on a plate.

“I don’t know, but I want to try it,” Royce chuckled, swiping to the next video as the current one came to an end. They quickly skipped over that one as it was a recipe they knew all too well; chipped beef - or as the soldiers of World War II so eloquently named it: shit on a shingle. Yes, it looked exactly as it sounded and tasted even worse. Sadly, due to their father’s military service, the meal was served now and then while they were growing up. Needless to say, they were grateful for every meal they now ate with Miles and the rest of their found family.

The next video on the list was a chocolate mayonnaise cake from 1956. “What’s the deal with mayonnaise?” Royce questioned in disgust. “And why put it in a cake of all things?”

“I don’t know,” Bentley said around a laugh.

Once the baking was done and the guy tried his concoction, he announced that it was actually really good. “Hmm,” Royce hummed thoughtfully. “Maybe we could try making that later.”

Bentley laughed before coughing and clearing his throat when Royce didn’t join in. “Wait. You can’t be serious?”

“Why not?” Royce asked. “The guy said it was good.”

“It has mayo in it!” Bentley exclaimed in mild disgust. “The guy even called it a war crime because of how much there is in it! Besides, you hate mayo.”

Royce shrugged, pushing himself up from where they’d been lounging on the floor. “It’s a cake, Benny. I can get over how nasty that goop is if it’s for a cake.”

Bentley followed close behind as Royce left the room, a smirk stretching his face as he realized, if his brother wanted to make this cake, he’d have to scoop that “nasty goop” himself. “Now this, I gotta see.”

One trip to the grocery store, twenty replays of the Tik Tok they’d chosen, and a quick Google search later, the boys had all of the ingredients set out on the counter, waiting to be mixed and baked, but no progress had been made. In the spirit of things, they decided to try guessing what to do before ditching their first attempt when it looked significantly different than the one in the video. Finally, they resigned to calling the only person who might have an idea as to what to do next - Vivien.

Vivien laughed from her end of the video chat Royce had set up, “You guys have no clue what you’re doing, do you?”

“Nope!” both brothers confirmed.

Vivien shook her head with a smile. “And the video didn’t help at all with measurements or timing?”

“Apart from saying he put in about a cup of mayo in the dry mix, no,” Bentley claimed. “Just some funny commentary and a list of ingredients.”

“Well, sounds like you’re in for it a fun afternoon,” she laughed as she looked at something behind her phone.

“Tell me about it,” Royce huffed.

Vivien sent him a teasing smirk before speaking, “Once upon a time…”

“Alright, I walked into that one.”

Bentley chuckled and shook his head as Royce began searching for a pan to bake the cake in, “Can you come over and help before he starts ripping chunks of hair out of both our scalps?”

This time Vivien sighed heavily, “I wish I could, but we have to bring my sister to skating practice and then mom and I are going Christmas shopping. And, before you ask, no, I won’t tell you what I’m getting you.”

With a smile, Bentley leaned close to the phone and whispered to Vivien, “I’ll tell you what I’m getting Royce if you tell me what you’re getting him too.”

“I heard that,” Royce claimed, his head still buried in a cabinet next to the sink where he was continually searching for a pan.

“You heard nothing,” Vivien and Bentley shot back before descending into laughter.

Their laughter was quickly cut off as Vivien’s mom called her from the other room. With a sigh, Vivien told her mom she was coming before turning back to her phone screen. “Well, that’s my cue. I’ll talk to you guys later. Save me a piece of the monstrosity, alright?”

“We will. See you later,” Royce said with a wave as he placed a pan onto the countertop.

“See you,” Bentley said as he picked up Royce’s phone from its precarious perch in the windowsill.

“Try not to burn the house down!” Vivien quickly added before saying goodbye and ending the video call.

After pocketing his phone, Royce turned to Bentley with a deep sigh. “Do you think we should at least get Miles to help us?”

Bentley gave Royce a deadpanned look in response. “The same Miles that left an empty pot on the lit stove and nearly started the house on fire a few days ago? Besides, he’s busy wrapping gifts upstairs.”

“Okay, that’s a no.” Royce ran a hand through his curls before leaning on the counter. “How about Mickie?”

“She and Lela went to that game store in the mall with Auntie Mack,” Bentley exhaled. “We won’t see them for another three hours, at least.”

“Then our options are slim.”

“Basically nonexistent,” Bentley agreed. “Miles can make great food when he’s not thinking about other stuff too. Uncle Brady burns everything he touches.”

“Like the microwave eggs?”

“Especially the microwave eggs.”

Royce sighed, “That leaves Butchy.”

“Whatever it is, I didn’t do it,” Butchy commented as he passed the kitchen on his way to the living room, having heard his name mentioned as he walked.

The brothers shared a laugh before Royce said in return, “No, but you will!”

“Get ready to open the window in case the smoke alarm goes off,” Butchy ordered calmly as he neared the oven.

Royce found the latch of the nearest window, ready to flip it up and push the window open if a burst of smoke billowed out of the oven. Bentley held a few dish towels, prepared to fan any possible smoke in Royce’s direction. Butchy slowly pulled the oven door open, pleasantly surprised to see no smoke and, even better, a fluffy-looking cake. Royce let go of the window latch and Bentley set aside the dishtowels as Butchy pulled the cake pan out of the oven and set it on some oven mitts on the counter.

“Well, it doesn’t smell burnt,” Bentley muttered, easing his way closer to the cake.

Royce cocked his head to the side as he glanced at Butchy. “Does that mean it’s edible?”

“Not a clue,” Butchy replied with a sigh, “but there’s enough mayonnaise in that thing to kill a man.”

“Maybe cooking it gets rid of the taste of mayonnaise,” Bentley offered with a hopeful smile.

“Do you think it’s cooked all the way?” Royce questioned.

“I sure hope so,” Butchy sighed as they stared at the cake.

“If you stick a toothpick into the center of it, pull it out, and the pick is clean, that means whatever you baked is fully cooked,” Brady answered as he entered the kitchen. At the three confused looks he received, Brady sighed, “Just because I burn everything I cook on the stove, doesn’t mean I’m bad at baking, guys.”

Butchy tilted his head thoughtfully. “Didn’t you almost burn the lasagna last ni-”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Brady cut him off with a wave of his hand. “If someone,” Brady ran a hand over Bentley’s hair with a smile, messing it gently as he went, “hadn’t distracted me by raving to me about the Percy Jackson book he’d just finished, I might’ve heard the timer.”

“Sorry, Uncle Brady,” Bentley apologized.

“It’s fine,” Brady acknowledged with a smirk. “I think we all would’ve preferred if I had actually burned it since pizza was our other option. Besides, it was nice to talk about a book I haven’t read in years.”

“It was a really good book.”

“And I’m glad you shared your love of it with me,” Brady replied before pulling a toothpick from a plastic container on the side of the stove. He stuck the pick into the cake and pulled it out, showing the clean toothpick to the boys before throwing it out. “Well, it looks good to go. Are you going to put frosting on it?”

“We didn’t pick any up. Do we have any frosting here?” Royce questioned.

Brady grinned, making his way to the pantry and pulling out a plastic bag with four different colored frosting containers inside. “Let me introduce you to my secret stash, boys.”

“Why do you have a secret stash of frosting?” Butchy asked this time as Royce and Bentley began opening the containers and painting the frosting on the cake with some butter knives.

Brady sent him a look. “Have you met the women of this house? All three of them will annihilate all of the sweets in the pantry, including these, if given the opportunity. I hide these in one of the top cupboards that they can’t reach so I can have some for myself once in a while.”

Butchy shook his head with a smile, turning to watch the boys coat their chocolate experiment in an almost tie-dye array of colors. Once the cake was thoroughly coated, they set it in the fridge so they could eat it with the rest of the family when the girls came home from the mall. After everything was put away and the frosting was hidden once more, the group of four joined Miles in the living room to watch TV until the girls got home for dinner.

About an hour later, Mick, Lela, and Mack finally arrived, dragging bags and pre-wrapped presents into the house and placing them in the living room. Lela began sniffing the air as she placed a few of the gifts they’d bought under the tree. “Why does it smell so good in here?”

Mick took in a deep breath. “It smells like chocolate.”

“Brady,” Mack called from the kitchen, “why is there a rainbow log in our fridge?”

“Royce, Bentley, and Butchy made a chocolate cake for us all to try,” Brady replied. “They decorated it themselves.”

“You can bake?” Lela asked her older brother.

“Yeah, since when can you two bake?” Miles questioned his little brothers. “And why wasn’t I invited to help?”

“You were wrapping upstairs and we didn’t want to bug you,” Bentley said with a grin.

“Plus you would’ve been too busy ‘taste testing’ everything to actually help,” Royce added.

Miles scoffed in mock offense, “But that’s my official job title!”

Mack shook her head from the entryway of the kitchen. “How about we all become taste testers now?”

Royce and Bentley shared a look before turning to Mack as Lela and Mick joined her in the kitchen. “You want to have dessert before dinner?” Bentley asked.

“I don’t see why not,” Mack replied with a smile. “Besides, it smells too good to just leave it in there.”

As soon as his wife disappeared into the kitchen once more, Brady leaned over to Butchy with a smirk. “I told you. They’re a bunch of sugar gremlins.”

The group was soon brought together in the kitchen, a slice of brightly decorated cake on each of their plates. “Ready?” Brady asked the group.

“More than ready,” Mick sighed, poking the cake with her fork as she stared at it almost longingly.

“Go for it,” Mack encouraged, already placing a forkful in her mouth.

A majority of the group followed, bar Royce and Bentley who decided to watch their reactions before ingesting any of the mayonnaise-infused cake. Once they saw that the cake was received well, the boys tried it themselves.

“Okay,” Miles sighed to the boys. “I don’t know what you did to this thing, but it’s great.”

“Thanks,” Bentley said with a grin.

“It was pretty easy to make with Butchy’s help,” Royce stated softly as he took in more cake.

Bentley nodded before speaking again, “Butchy said earlier that there’s enough mayonnaise in there to kill a man.”

Everyone apart from Butchy and the two younger Murphy boys paused their eating. “Did-” Lela coughed slightly before placing her fork back on her plate. “Did you just say there’s mayonnaise in the cake?”

“Yep!” Bentley confirmed with a smile.

Mack cleared her throat, “Do you mean margarine, Bentley?”

“No,” Royce denied. “He said it right. We used a cup of mayo in the cake and we also made some chocolate sauce to put on top with the frosting and that used even more mayonnaise.”

With a small, almost cautious smile, Miles spoke, “I guess it’s a good thing it doesn’t taste like mayo, huh?”

Butchy smirked. “If you want it to taste more like it, there’s more mayo in the fridge.”

A chorus of “Ew, no,” and “Ugh, that’s disgusting,” quickly came from the rest of the group as they dispersed from the kitchen, leaving Butchy and the two boys laughing by themselves. Sure enough, though, by the end of the night, all but one slice had been eaten. When Vivien came over for the next day so she could talk with Royce and Bentley about the next book they’d be reading, they made sure to let her try their colorful creation. She didn’t seem to mind the amount of mayonnaise inside the chocolate cake, something both boys seemed happy about. Instead, she gave them an idea for their next culinary adventure; the worst “dessert” of all time - a fruitcake.