#long distance christmas

[jule1122]

RNM Fic - Years past seemed so much grander

Written for @rnmnewyear2023 Day 5:  Yankee Swap.  I went for the rarest pair I could think of (Jesse/Mimi), but I did work in a gift exchange.

So I wrote fic last year, This one goes out to the one I love which was canon complaint, but imagined Jesse and Mimi had been together before Jesse became part of Project Shepherd.  But like Mimi tells Alex, he is corrupted by touching things from another world and becomes the man we know.   This is an AU version of that relationship that give Jesse and Mimi a happy ending.  In this universe, instead of joining Project Shepherd, Jesse dismantles it and shuts down Caulfield.  Jesse and Mimi are married.  The Evans are told Max and Isobel are aliens and Walt adopts both Michael and Dallas.

Title is from “Christmas Saves the Year” by twenty one pilots.

Years past seemed so much grander on AO3

Summary:  Mimi struggles with Christmas without the kids, but Jesse has a surprise for her.

Christmas with five kids was pure chaos, but Mimi loved every minute of it.  There was the mantle overflowing with stockings, five advent calendars to fill with each child’s favorite treat, checking and rechecking the letters to Santa to make sure they had the most important requests covered, remembering what wrapping paper was “Santa” paper and not reusing it the next year for other presents.  And that was before the craziness of Christmas morning when the promise of the season finally become reality.

Mimi loved decorating the house-putting the tree up the day after Thanksgiving.  And Jesse always made sure the outside was just as festive as the inside.  The house smelled like cinnamon and chocolate for the whole month of December.  There were visits to Santa, school parties and sleepovers, night spent driving to see the best Christmas lights.

But the kids grew up, and Christmas started changing.  The handmade ornaments and small gifts from the school’s Santa’s Workshop sale dwindled down as one by one the kids left elementary school.  One year they were convincing Clay to go along with the younger children’s belief in Santa, and it seemed like only a blink of an eye later, Alex and Maria, the last holdouts, were telling her they knew Santa wasn’t real. 

Christmas changed, but Mimi still found joy in her family.  She brought the kids in the kitchen more often - passing on the recipes her mother taught her for cookies and kolachi.  She held on to some traditions like advent calendars and trips to see the Christmas lights, but now there were winter formals and ski trips.  Jesse let the kids take over the outside decorating and it turned into a yearly contest to see who could come up with the best designs between her children, the Ortecho, Evans and Sanders kids.

Their families were close, united in the challenges of raising children with alien powers and making sure they were safe.  They took turns hosting a New Year’s Eve party and the kids were in and out of each other’s houses.  It wasn’t unusual for Dallas to join her and Greg to bake cookies while Flint spent the day at the junkyard helping Walt. Once they all reached middle school, they started their own Secret Santa gift exchange with heavy penalties for using alien powers to cheat after the year Isobel influenced Flint to buy her a purse several times over the agreed upon spending limit.  

But this year December is a quiet month. It’s the second year in a row none of her children will be home for Christmas.  Last year, Jesse surprised her with a trip to Lake Tahoe.  It was romantic and magical enough to distract her from what was missing.  It was the first time in their almost twenty years of marriage she and Jesse had traveled alone, and they treated it like the honeymoon they never had.

Jesse offered to take her to New York City for Christmas this year, but Mimi refused.  Between missing the children and losing her mother in February, Mimi wasn’t feeling the holiday at all and hated to waste the trip when she wouldn’t appreciate it.  So they stay in Roswell, Jesse doing his best to cheer her up while she goes through the motions.

With the kids scattered throughout the country, and overseas in Flint’s case, her shopping is done by the middle of November so she can be sure all the presents will arrive in time.  Jesse still strings the lights after Thanksgiving dinner, but the tree doesn’t go up until the middle of December and except for the star and lights remains undecorated.  She tells Jesse she doesn’t feel like baking this year, and he just smiles and says his waistline and cholesterol thank her.  

They skip the Christmas light displays, but Jesse takes her to the Christmas market.  It’s the best day of the holiday season by far.  They hold hands and drink gourmet hot chocolate while wandering among the vendors.  Mimi buys wildflower honey for her tea, a set of organic cocktail mixers for the Evans, hot pepper relish and mustard for Walt and alien themed hand painted coasters for Arturo.  Jesse leads her to a jewelry vendor from the Reservation, and they pick out a pendant to set aside for Maria’s birthday.

When they leave, Mimi feels lighter than she has in months so she asks Jesse out to dinner.  They go to their favorite restaurant just outside of Roswell.  Every weekend they have a band, and after dinner and a candy cane martini, she and Jesse dance until closing.  Mimi falls asleep on the way home, Christmas music playing softly on the radio and Jesse’s hand warm in hers.

Christmas Eve is quiet.  Jesse makes a scaled down version of their traditional dinner, and they end the night with eggnog in front of the fireplace.  They could have gone to the Evans’ house with Walt and Arturo, but Mimi decided she’d rather stay home.  She doesn’t want to be bad company even though she knew everyone would understand.  Isobel and Dallas are the only two in Roswell this Christmas so they are all missing their children.  Clay and Alex are stationed in different parts of the country, and Flint is in Italy.  None of them were able to get holiday leave this year.  Both Liz and Greg are in grad school on the East coast and couldn't manage the trip home.  Maria and Rosa are on year two of what was supposed to be a month-long road trip, only stopping in Roswell for a week here or there to plan their next stop.  Max had flown out to spend Christmas with Liz, and Michael is staying with Alex until Alex is deployed in the spring.  Mimi will be able to handle all the missing faces by New Year’s but right now it’s just too much.

They sleep in on Christmas morning - there’s no one to bang on their door demanding presents.  Mimi’s tempted to spend the whole day in bed, but she gets up when Jesse brings her tea.  Arturo stops by on his way to church and surprises them with breakfast.  He invites them to join him for services, but they’ve never been a religious family, and he’s not surprised when they decline.  They exchange gifts after breakfast.  Mimi gives Jesse the woodworking tools he wanted and a few new shirts.  He gives her a box set of herbal teas, the latest book by her favorite author and a delicate hand crocheted shawl she lingered over at the market.  They decide to save the presents the kids sent until each of them calls.

Mimi puts on a marathon of Christmas movies - just something mindless to play in the background while she reads and responds to the occasional “Merry Christmas” text.  In the early afternoon, Jesse calls her into the dining room.

“One more present for you, sweetheart,” he says pointing to a laptop with a big red bow on the table.

“Oh, Jesse, you shouldn’t have.  Now Alex will have two computers to fix when he comes home.”  It’s a running joke in their family that no matter how much anti-virus software and firewalls he installs on her computers, Mimi still ends up with viruses.  Her last computer stopped working a few months ago.

“I think you’re going to like this one.  Let me show you.”

Jesse gently guides her to the chair in front of the laptop and opens the cover.  He taps a few buttons and suddenly the screen is filled with her children.  “Merry Christmas, Mom!”  They shout, completely unsynchronized.

“My babies!’  Mimi brings her hands to her mouth, tears filling her eyes.  She can’t believe they are all there together.  “How?” she asks, turning to Jesse.  

“I know it’s not the same as being together in the same room,” Jesse says, kissing the top of her head before sitting down next to her.  “But we thought it was the best alternative.”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she leans over and kisses Jesse.

“We wouldn’t have agreed to this if we knew there was going to be kissing,” Clay complains.

“Please,” Maria scoffs.  “If it wasn’t Mom and Dad, you know it would be Alex and Michael.”

“I’m just so happy, I’d give all of you a kiss if I could,” Mimi beams at the screen.  

A chorus of groans greets her, and she blows them all kisses in retaliation.  

“Why don’t you tell your mom what you’ve done for Christmas,” Jesse directs them.

Mimi listens with rapt attention as they all tell her about their holidays.  She doesn't know if they realize it, but they go in age order, starting with Clay.

“Hey Mama D,” Michael greets her.  Mimi smiles at the nickname he gave her when he and Alex started dating.  “I’m making sure Alex has real food in his fridge, and he goes to bed at a decent hour.”

“Thanks sweetheart,” she replies.

“Taking Alex to bed doesn’t isn’t the same thing as him getting a good night’s sleep,” Flint teases.

“Jesus Flint, not in front of Mom,” Alex objects, blushing.

“Poor Alex,” Clay taunts.  “Still the baby of the family.”

“Hey, I’m only a few months younger than Maria.”

“A few months in age, but years younger in life skills,” Maria argues.

“Oh, really?”  Alex counters.  “Who called Michael last week because they couldn’t figure out why their car wouldn’t start. Only the problem really was”

“No, no, no,” Maria shouts.  “You promised not to tell anyone about that.”

“Alright children,” Jesse says in a tone that catches their attention.  “This is supposed to be a present for your mother, not a reminder of why a quiet Christmas isn’t such a bad thing.”

“Sorry, Dad,” they respond in unison. 

“It’s fine,” Mimi reassures them.  She would listen to them fight for hours just to hear all their voices together.

“Why don’t we open gifts,” Greg, always the peacekeeper, suggests.

Jesse brings out the box with all the gifts the kids had sent, and they take turns opening.  Everyone is able to stay on for about an hour after that.  Between occasional connection issues and general confusion of having so many people online together, there is a lot of talking over each other and cut off sentences.  It reminds Mimi of the Christmas morning chaos when the kids were young, and she loves every minute of it.

Once they have to say goodbye, she lets Jesse hold her for a moment while she takes it all in.  “That is just what I needed,” she tells him.  “What would I do without you?”

“It wasn’t all me,” Jesse insists.  “They may not say it, but the kids miss you as much as you miss them.”

“Not possible,” Mimi shakes her head.  She looks out the window and notices it’s already dark out.  “Come honey, let’s go for a drive and see some Christmas lights.”

“Are you sure?”

Mimi nods.  Christmas will never be what it once was, but today her family reminded her it can still be special.

[steddieunderdogfics]

to the rythm of eternity by sidekick_hero

@sidekick-hero

Rating: Explicit

16,875 words, 1/1 chapters

Archive Warning: No Warnigs

Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Meet-Cute, Established Relationship, Long-Distance Relationship, Fluff, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Christmas Fluff, I can't stress enough how fluffy this is, POV Steve Harrington

Summary:

"I can't wait for you to get here, Stevie." Eddie's voice sounds muffled through the headset, almost too quiet with all the noise around him. The video quality is shitty too, because while it's not even noon for Steve in Chicago, the sun has already set in London and Eddie is walking to the Phoenix Theater to start setting up the sound for the evening show. Steve can see the streetlights in the background casting shadows across Eddie's face. It's a busy street Eddie's walking down and people keep bumping into him, the chatter around him mixing with the sound of passing cars. From the looks of it, it must be Piccadilly, which means Eddie is almost at his current place of employment. Or: The last two years Steve and Eddie have been doing the long distance thing when Steve visits Eddie in London for Christmas and falls in love with the city as well.

Thanks for the rec!

This rec is a part of Theme Weekend. The theme this weekend is Rom-Com AUs.

Know a fic that deserves extra love? Submit through our asks or the submission box!

[loverssuggestions]

I can't wait to run my fingers through your hair and kiss your forehead as you fall asleep against my chest.

[beautifulheartandspirit]

😭😭🥺🥺🤍🤍🤍🩵🩵i surprised my Yiayia with a blanket that says how much I miss her and this was her reaction 😫 I love her so much and I can’t wait to see her 🩵

[hairtusk]

I will share my time with you, you make the years go slow

And I'll take good care of us both, you'll see how I can grow

[busyasabbey]

It's not much but this is what I decided to do for Emily's Christmas present 😊

(background is the only thing that isn't mine)

[long-distance-love]

I know how hard it is to spend the holidays away from your long distance partner, so if that's the case for you, my heart goes out to you. It won't always be like this, I promise.

[elwin-at-your-service]

When is the best time to start celebrating Christmas?

Hmm. Well, as an elf, I never have - so I don’t know!

But if I were to rely on a combination of what I’ve heard and what I feel…

• Christmas tree up from 1 December

• Christmas lights all year round

• Peace on Earth and good tidings for all ASAP and keep it going forever, not just for the silly season!

• Don’t let banshees eat tinsel. This one is from first hand experience. You’ll think he just sat on a small broken-off piece and you’ll try to pluck it off… but it will just keep coming and coming like a festive colonic pipecleaner

[superflatpsyche]

Cover art for a zine I've been working on. It'll be 44 pages of black & white comics about visiting my long-distance partner in Arizona!

All of the pages have been sketched out, so I just have to finish 'em up!

[crabussy]

holy fuck I've earned over 500usd by selling my art this year. good lird. I'm only 16 this is incredible thank you so much everyone,,

[shaykesqueer]

I will finish this chapter.

I’m going to finish 10k+ words of romance and magic and I am not going to get distracted by the little gay people in my phone or playing Norman Reedus and the Magic Fetus

[lizbethsletters]

thought on my mind | 012

Lately, I have realized I let outside people or forces in a way guide my judgement they make me question things I hadn't even thought of. One of my friends actually told me I should break up with my girl because I was thinking of my ex best friend. I don't know about you but to me that sounded like messed up logic. So I decided to make a decision I will stop asking for advice and deal with it myself because they guide me in the wrong direction 9/10 times. Don't get me wrong I love my friends but sometimes the things they say they take it too far and they try to force me to make some stupid decision. I'm also writing this on Christmas Eve well at 12 and I miss my girl so much. Due to some complications with my parents I'm not able to talk to her until after new years day which fucking sucks. I think it sucks even more because me and her are long distance so it's not like I will see her soon at all, we just have to wait it out. One thing I love to do when I can't talk to her is write her letters. It sounds stupid but I have a notebook where I just I write letter to whoever I want, to someone who isnt in my life, or maybe someone who I just can't talk to. I have started to do this since september but my dumbass misplaced the notebook and I recently found it. Every time I write a letter to anyone it makes me feel liberated, maybe it's because I know that those words are out of my system for good that way I can live without those words weighing me down. Sooo tip #12 if you can't tell them write them a letter so in a way you have told them but they never know about it.

[guardian-of-local-forest]

im that kind of a partner who keeps a folder of screenshots of sweet stuff my girlfriend said

[wheres-your-paddle]

bad news: my friend's christmas present won't make it to his place for another month+

good news: that means he'll be away at uni when it arrives. he's gonna know it's there and not know what it is until he goes back. i get to laugh at him.

[hit-the-dirt-and-get-back-on]

It really sucks when the one thing you want for Christmas isn't a something but rather a someone.

[sluttyten]

This is definitely Christmas week at work omg