“Core family debrief” Yuna announces after they bid goodbye to Shane’s uncle who was loitering in the doorway with the expensive, half empty bottle of wine he brought clutched in his hands.
It’s snowing outside. The house is settling into that fuzzy quiet that comes after hours of chatting and cutlery clinking and Christmas music playing in the background.
It’s just the four of them. Shane, Ilya, Yuna, and David. Ilya scrunches his face and looks at Shane.
“What does this mean?”
Shane smiles, big and goofy, high off the fact that the house is quiet and the people are finally gone. And it’s the end of Christmas Day and they’re both staying in his parent’s guest room tonight. Together. tomorrow is Boxing Day which is Shane’s favourite day of the holidays, because there’s no expectation and they have the whole day off together.
“Core family it’s like…immediate family. Like the core group.”
“Oh.” Ilya hesitates, “I should uh, go then maybe?”
“Go? Go where?”
“You’re core family, honey,” Yuna interjects. “Core family debrief is a Christmas tradition,” she explains. “Where we debrief the night” she lowers her voice conspiratorially “and gossip about how Uncle Jack took home the expensive wine.”
“Ah,” Ilya nods seriously, “I notice this. He brings wine for gift and then drinks it and takes the rest home”
“He does it every year! Like he thinks bringing something expensive is a nice gesture but then he takes it home!” Shane crows, and off they go.
David makes them all decaf coffee with eggnog flavoured Baileys and they sit around the coffee table gossiping about the extended Hollander family and drinking.
Ilya is more comfortable as the night goes on, pointing out his observations and Shane looks tickled pink at everything he says, and at some point he gets Yuna going on a rant about how weird it was that Shane’s cousin obviously fought with his girlfriend in the guest bedroom when they said they wanted to “check out the house”. David sits quietly with a little smile on his face and every so often adds the voice of reason, and Yuna and Shane always groan and tell him he just doesn’t get it.
All while Ilya tries to ignore the twist in his chest at the fact that he’s part of the Hollander core family. He’s considered closer family to Yuna and David than their own siblings. Closer to Shane than his aunts and uncles and grandparents and cousins. This little unit of four. His core family.
