even if you don't read my fics this is also important for you!! pls read above the cut!! and if you do read my fics pls read below also!!
thank.
hey howdy hello and welcome!! happy holidays if you're reading this when it comes out!! and if not, then... happy day. yeeha.
ANYWAY!! i am soooo excited to share this with you guys, i've been working on this since SEPTEMBER omg. i finally get to publish and see your reactions and ugh i can't wait!!
from tomorrow until christmas, i will be updating EVERY. DAY. twenty five oneshots all at your disposal unless you're reading this in real time and have to wait for them to be published first.
and, i did it TWICE. that's right, i wrote FIFTY chapters in about two months. yes those are full suitcases under my eyes thank you for noticing.
FOR FOLKS WHO ARE JUST HERE FOR CHAOS AND DONT READ MY STUFF: i’ll be tagging all of these as “cadvent” so if you’re not in the mood to scroll a bit (i will be putting most of the fics under the cut like i normally do, kind of like this, but even still) feel free to block that tag :) and happy holidays!!
hello my darling readers!! welcome to below the cut. i’m imagining we’re all huddling under a parachute together like in elementary school pe rn. so fun.
anyway. every day there will be two new chapters!! one will be ‘vanilla’ cadnis, or the one without my twin oc’s leo and layla, and one will be with the twins. ill specify which in the title and opening notes :) i decided to do each twice because i had so many ideas and i know that kid/family fics are not everyone’s vibe. feel free to read both (please i beg i worked so hard) but if kidfic isn’t your kind of thing i understand.
credits for all the prompts go to bidiboop on wattpad!! i'm about four years late to this but whatever i wanna do it so i'm doin it now. rock n roll. thank you for the beautiful list!!
also!!!! some important shoutouts before we get into this beautiful holiday monstrosity. to my irl friends Kween, Nerd, and BeepBop, as well as @etchedstars and @/julez_20 on wattpad . thank you for letting me vent about this and/or for giving me ideas <333
and last but most definitely not least thank you to my friend bread @/paloma-nymph on wattpad or @/deadbreadrunning on ao3. this would not have happened without you. thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your support and inspiration. and also for making my beautiful covers :) also!!!!! they also did fifty chapters with the same prompts i'm using!!! bread did 25 days of heathers ships and 25 days of mean girls ships so everyone please go support my friend!!
before we get into the fics themselves, i wanted to give y'all some important information that i may or may not have included and didn't give context for (i can't remember!! so. have this.)
-to begin with!! this timeline is all sorts of wack. they do not go in chronological order at all even a little bit.
in an attempt to make things easier i'll put the rough ages cadnis are and the rough ages the twins are in the opening notes of each chapter (bearing in mind that- in my timeline anyway- janis' birthday is in october and cady's is in february, so janis is a bit older)!! i may not have gotten the ages exactly correct bc i cannot do math!!! but give or take a year they're accurate. and even still there's a few little contradictions and things. but shhhh if we don't look too close maybe they'll go away.
-characters!! y'all know the ones in canon (i should hope) but here are some of the ones you might see mentioned:
-Elvira Sarkisian-Heron: Cadnis' pet black cat, adopted about a year after they were married. Occasionally goes by the nickname Ellie
-Daffodil Sarkisian-Heron: Cadnis' pet golden retriever, adopted after Cady completed her PhD when they were 26. Occasionally goes by the nickname Daffy
-Chip Heron: Cady's dad
-Betsy Heron: Cady's mom
-Rhys Heron: Cady's older brother, deceased. He was killed in the line of combat in the army when he was twenty and Cady was ten
-Juliette Sarkisian: Janis' mom. Occasionally goes by the nickname Ettie
-Luca Sarkisian: Janis' dad, deceased. He passed away from an illness when Janis was four. He's also French, that's kind of important
-Juliana Sarkisian: Janis' younger half sister. She was born when Janis was six. Occasionally goes by the nicknames Julie, Jules or Juju
-Pancakes Sarkisian: Janis' pet cat. She had him from the ages of 13-21
-Layla Reese Sarkisian-Heron: The elder twin (by three minutes). Louder, braver, and bigger in just about every sense. Occasionally goes by the nicknames Ladybug, Bug, Lala, or Loopsy
-Leo Juliette Sarkisian-Heron: The younger twin. Shy, quiet, but an absolute sweetheart. Occasionally goes by the nicknames Bumblebee, Bee, Lolo, or Lishy
-Elmer Sarkisian-Heron: Layla's stuffed elephant, received as a gift from Damian and Aaron when she was born
-Georgie Sarkisian-Heron: Leo's stuffed giraffe, also given to her by Damian and Aaron when she was born
other important shit (highly recommend reading my main book if you want more deeeeetails)
-cadnis got together on cady's birthday their senior year of high school (february 11)
-they did long distance for the first two years of university (janis was in new york and cady stayed in illinois. cady finished her undergrad in two years instead of the traditional four, and moved in with janis and damian in new york when they were 20 ish to start working on her master's degree)
-they got engaged right after janis finished her undergrad and cady finished her masters and they were ~22
-the twins' birthday is in may (may 14), so at their youngest they're six going on seven months old here :)
-cady and janis were 28 when the twins were born
-cady carried them
-the twins were born premature by almost two months and spent roughly a month in the nicu
-while cady was pregnant they developed twin to twin transfusion syndrome (in a nutshell, it's when two babies sharing a placenta in the womb don't share nutrients/blood/fluids/etc evenly and it can be deadly to both) and required surgery
and i believe that is everything!! hopefully but who knows lol.
day five yeeha!!! welcome to the first instance of ezzy stretching the prompt!!! for reasons of shskaksmsnakak.
once again!!! their ages don't matter. starting to realize this whole thing is maybe less useful than i thought. but eh. cady is ~25 and janis is ~26 but yet again!! do what you want.
tw for surgery (nothing major)
enjoy!!
—————-
"Hey, baby," Janis greets as Cady returns home. "How was the dentist?"
Cady huffs crankily. "I have to get my wisdom teeth removed."
"Oh no," Janis says with half-fake sadness. High Cady is always a fun one, so she's excited, but having teeth pulled is never fun.
Cady sighs again. "You're not allowed to make fun of me. Or take videos. Or-"
"I won't! I promise," Janis says with a chuckle. "Well, I might take videos. But I won't send them to anyone until you're not loopy and tell me I can. I'll take care of you."
Cady considers this compromise. "Fine. But if I say anything super embarrassing you have to delete them."
"Okay," Janis agrees. "Pinky promise."
Cady giggles at that and hooks their pinkies together. "And you have to cuddle me all day after."
"I would've done that anyway."
————-
The next week finds them at the dentist yet again. Cady is in one of Janis' hoodies for comfort, and some cozy leggings. Even still, she looks terrified.
"Hey," Janis says gently, squeezing her hand as Cady's eyes dart frantically around the room. Cady looks at her, and seems to calm slightly as her focus narrows on her wife. "What's up?"
"Nothing," Cady says quietly, fiddling with the dental bib she already has on. Janis knows this isn't nothing, and simply waits for her to elaborate. "'M nervous."
"About what?"
"I dunno," Cady shrugs. "That it'll hurt, I guess."
"Makes sense," Janis nods. "You are about to be removed from your teeth. But you'll have a lot of drugs in your system, and we already have the prescription for your stuff after. And we have all that ice cream and stuff, and I'll take care of you. You'll be fine."
Cady looks at her thankfully and reaches for a hug. Janis protectively cuddles her on her lap until it's time, and continues holding her hand as Cady is put under anesthesia. She doesn't let go until Cady is wheeled away and she's led back to the waiting room to wait for her.
—————
"Hey, Peanut," Janis greets gently as Cady finally opens her eyes after her procedure. Cady looks to her and blinks at her oddly. "How you feeling?"
Cady pokes her tongue in and out of her mouth like a lizard. She tries to speak, slurring around the lingering anesthesia and cotton that's been stuffed into her mouth. "Mah tongue ith fuzzy."
Janis bites her lip so she doesn't laugh and nods. "That's normal, it'll go away in a few minutes."
Cady continues looking around her room, wiggling her toes as if she's just remembering she can control her limbs. Suddenly, she looks at Janis. She seems very upset. "Is the tooth fairy gonna visit me?"
"I'm sure she will," Janis nods. "You did lose some teeth."
"Where they go?" Cady grumbles, looking around for them. "Jaaanis. They-they stole... stole my teef."
"The doctor has them, they're cleaning them for you and then you'll get them back," Janis explains.
"My teef," Cady insists.
"Here's your teeth," Janis says as the doctor returns. The doctor hands over a small bottle with Cady's sanitized teeth in them. Cady takes it and shakes the bottle like a maraca. "See? There they are."
Cady suddenly starts trying to pry the bottle open. Janis gently takes her hands to stop her.
"Don't open it, baby."
"Puddem back," Cady demands of the doctor who's checking her vitals. "Need m' teef."
"You still have plenty," Janis chuckles. "These needed to come out."
"Jayjay?"
"Mmm?"
"Do I... still... have a tongue?"
"Yeah," Janis chuckles. "You get to keep that."
Cady seems content with this. "Mmkay." One of the monitors suddenly gives a sort of 'ping'. Cady echoes it with a mumbled, "Ding."
—-
The doctors clear Cady to go home once she can walk on her own steam. Janis gets her care instructions and takes her wife home. Cady requests to be carried across the parking lot, and Janis happily obliges.
"Weeee," Cady says happily, watching the world sway slightly as she clings to Janis.
"Having fun, baby?"
"Mm."
"Good."
"Janis?"
"Yeah?"
"They-they put... sheep. In me head. Little sheep."
"Those are cotton balls, angel," Janis laughs. She feels Cady reach to try to pull one out to show her. "No, leave them there. The sheep need to live there for a while."
Cady ponders this and nods. Janis sets her down outside the car and opens the door. Cady buckles herself in, and Janis passes over the ice cream they had bought yesterday once she's secure. Cady's brow furrows in concentration as she tries to read it.
Janis peeks over at her from time to time as she starts the drive home. Cady's still trying to read the pint. Janis looks at her when she hears a sniffle. "What happened?"
Cady points to the flavor. It's moose tracks, as she chose yesterday when they went shopping for recovery supplies. "They-they killed a m-moose? And they want-want me to eat it? A moose in my ice cream?"
"No, baby, no," Janis hushes, trying to seem sympathetic and hold back her laughter. "There's not a moose in there, I promise. That's just the name of the flavor, Butterfly."
"Oh." Cady sniffles. "The moose is okay?"
"Yeah, baby, they're all okay. You don't have to eat any moose," Janis comforts, squeezing her hand. Cady nods and finally opens her ice cream. Her hands shake slightly as she takes her spoon to it and digs in. She misses her mouth with the first bite, and it plops right back in to the container.
"Where me face?" Cady sighs, patting it with a hand as if checking to make sure it's still where she left it. "Found it."
"Good job. Make sure you don't lose it."
Cady nods seriously. "I got it."
Janis chuckles and continues driving. Cady is quiet for a long time, content to eat her ice cream and watch the world go by out the window. Janis looks over at her when they're stopped at a light.
"How are you feeling, Peanut?"
Cady turns to look at her; her cheeks sticky with melted ice cream and chocolate around her lips. Janis grins lovingly and passes over a few napkins.
"Help?" Cady asks, handing them back. Janis rolls her eyes affectionately and tenderly swipes the ice cream off Cady's face, chasing it with a sweet, gentle kiss to the corner of her mouth. "Thank you."
"You're welcome, baby," Janis replies. "How are you feeling, though?"
"Dizzy," Cady replies, blinking at her oddly. "'N the sheep."
"We'll have you lie down when we get home, that'll help," Janis comforts. "We're almost there."
Cady nods again, seeming content with the events. Janis starts driving again when the light changes, and Cady watches out the windshield this time. She's quiet for a long time before she pipes up again. "Jay?"
"Yeah?"
"You... I love you," Cady stutters. "A looot. I don't... I don't... talk 'bout it. Enough. But I love you a looooooooot."
Janis looks at her briefly and takes her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. "I love you too, Cads. I love you so much."
"Really?" Cady asks eagerly. Janis chuckles and nods.
"I do. I don't talk about it enough either. But I love you a lot too."
"Whoa," Cady says happily, as if this is some sort of revelation. Janis kisses her knuckles, and continues holding her hand for the rest of their drive home.
————-
"Whoooooooa," Cady says in awe when she sees their Christmas tree. Janis turns the lights to it back on, and her eyes go somehow wider. "Whooooooooooa!"
Janis chuckles and comes to kiss her forehead. "Come here, you need to lie down."
Cady lets Janis tuck her in on the couch so she can still look at their beautiful tree. She nuzzles into her blankets and holds tightly to her stuffed lion. Elvira hops up onto her legs and sniffs around curiously, prompting Cady to look at Janis in shock.
"Jay. Tiny lion."
"That's the cat, Peanut."
"Tiny lion," Cady repeats quietly, looking curiously at Elvira. "Little lion. Baby lion. Small lion. Tiny lion."
Janis chuckles quietly and lets her keep going, heading to the kitchen to get Cady another snack. Cady eventually dares to pet Elvira, and Janis can faintly hear her singing a little song to herself.
"Soft and fuzzy, soft and fuzzy..." she hears a quiet yelp as Elvira either swipes at her or tries to bite, and then the song continues. "Sharp and pointy, sharp and pointy."
"Cads, do you want yogurt or soup?" Janis asks, laughing quietly. Cady still seems completely taken with the cat. "Caddy."
"Want sleep."
Janis nods and closes the fridge. Cady did eat a lot of ice cream on the way home, she's probably still full. "Okay, baby. Do you want to stay here or go nap in bed?"
"Want you," Cady sighs, rubbing her eyes. Janis feels her heart melt slightly. Cady doesn't fully seem to recognize her in this state, but she still knows they love each other, and that she's safe with Janis.
"Okay, come here," she says lovingly. "Hold onto your lions."
Cady gently holds to her stuffed animal and Elvira as Janis scoops her up bridal style and carries her to the bedroom. Cady pouts as Janis tucks her into her side of the bed, but brightens as she crawls in next to her.
"Owie," Cady says as she tries to rest her sore cheek against Janis' shoulder. She tries again in exactly the same place. "Owie."
"Don't rest on your side, Peanut," Janis says gently, lifting her wife's head up. "You need to keep your head elevated."
"Don't like elevators."
"No, like... keep it... hold on," Janis chuckles. She props herself up against the headboard and rests Cady's back against her chest. "How's that? Comfy?"
Cady wiggles for a second until she finds a good position, then nods. Janis smiles and starts stroking through the roots of her hair. Cady tips her head backwards to see her.
"You're so pretty," Cady says quietly. "Look at you." Janis smiles. "You're not looking."
"I can't look at myself, baby, I'm sorry."
"Then... I look for you," Cady says. Janis sees nothing but adoration in crystal blue eyes. They're still a little glassy as the result of the drugs, but she can tell Cady is looking at her with an impossible amount of love. "So pretty. You know you're so pretty? I love you. A lot. You're very soft. And strong. And pretty. You know that?"
"You're helping," Janis says quietly, kissing Cady's forehead. "A lot."
"So pretty. Soooo pretty," Cady continues. She repeats it more times than Janis can count, gradually growing quieter as her eyelids begin to flutter shut. Janis holds her close and listens to every one until Cady is finally asleep.
—————
"Good morning," Janis greets when Cady stirs many, many hours later. She enjoyed the cuddles, but regrets not having the foresight to use the bathroom before inviting her wife to pin her in place for several hours. "Feeling any better?"
"Teeth hurt," Cady huffs.
"You can take the gauze out now if you want," Janis offers. Cady does, and then opens and closes her mouth a few times to try to get some sensation back in her jaw.
"What did I do while I was high?" she asks quietly, followed by a gentle yawn.
"Want me to go in order?" Janis asks. Cady nods. "You asked me if the tooth fairy would come, then insisted that they had stolen your teeth. And then when the doctor gave them back to you you tried to open the bottle to put them back in."
"Oh god."
"Then on the way home you started crying because you thought they'd put a real moose in your ice cream," Janis says, biting her lip to contain more giggles. "Oh, and you wanted to know why you had 'sheep' in your mouth. And then we got you home and you just stared at the tree for, like, an hour."
"Oh god."
"And then you sang a little song to Ellie and we cuddled and then you took a nap."
"That's not... terrible, I guess," Cady sighs. Janis shakes her head.
"It was cute. You were so sweet, you just held on to me once they let you go."
"I trust you," Cady shrugs. "My mouth tastes like pillows."
"How do you have a frame of reference for that?" Janis laughs.
"Shut up," Cady whines. Janis pouts and pulls her back into a cuddle. Cady nuzzles into her neck with a whimper. "My mouth hurts."
"You can have some medicine now, it's been long enough. Come on," Janis says, kissing Cady's chapped lips and helping her up. Cady blinks at her pleadingly and reaches out again. "Fine, come here." Cady grins happily as she picks her back up and carries her to the kitchen. "Only because you've been recently removed from your teeth."
"You know you would anyway," Cady teases. "Because you loooove me."
"I do," Janis agrees. "But you loooove me, so... it's only fair."
"I guess," Cady giggles. She gratefully takes the painkillers Janis pops in her hand and swallows them with her water bottle. "Thanks for taking care of me."
"I'm allowed to return the favor every now and again," Janis replies quietly. "I love you, toothless."
"Hey!"
—————-
yeeha day five done!! hope you enjoyed and i shall see you all tomorrow!!
eeee day 24!!! happy christmas eve (to those who celebrate!) have some A N G S T. ehehehe.
cady is 20 and janis is 21 in this one :)
tw for
minor self deprecation
general Unhappy Times
enjoy!!
—————
“Jayjay!” Cady yells from the kitchen.
“What?” Janis asks, heading down the hall to find her.
“Where are the cookies?” Cady asks. Janis points to the top of the microwave. “Oh.”
Janis laughs as Cady stands on her tippy toes to reach them, barely managing to get a finger on it and tug it down. It nearly falls on top of her, but she catches it at the last second.
“Santa?” Janis chuckles, pressing against her girlfriend’s back and kissing her cheek. Cady nods eagerly.
“My tracker says he’s in England, I wanna make sure I have time to get everything perfect.”
Janis is leveled by this sentence. Cady doesn’t usually do sarcasm, and when she does it’s painfully obvious. Janis can’t detect the slightest hint in her voice. Her twenty-year-old girlfriend still absolutely, wholeheartedly, completely believes in Santa. Shit.
“Are you sure you want to give him homemade cookies? Don’t wanna poison him,” she chuckles, trying to distract Cady while she formulates a plan. She has to keep the magic alive for her. She can’t be the reason Cady stops believing. It would crush them both.
“No, they’re good! We did good,” Cady pouts. “And milk sometimes works as a treatment for ingested poisons, anything bad would probably be cancelled out. And he’s magic, anyway, he’ll be fine.”
“Magic indeed,” Janis agrees. “I’m gonna go finish wrapping presents.”
“I thought you finished already,” Cady says confusedly, pouting as Janis kisses her one more time before she pulls away and heads to their bedroom.
“I missed a few, I’m almost done,” Janis replies. She had actually finished, but this revelation means she needs to change the tags on a few. “Stay out here.”
“Okay. Have fun,” Cady says. “I’m gonna make food for the reindeer.”
“I’m sure they’ll appreciate it,” Janis calls down the hallway before whispering, “What the fuck do I do?”
——-
“So how is Santa getting here? I’ve never had a Christmas in an apartment,” Janis asks, trying to see how Cady thinks this is all going down.
Cady shrugs. “There’s plenty of room on the roof. And we have a fireplace, they probably go all the way down. He can just pop in each one and then make his way down and around the building.”
“Makes sense,” Janis agrees. “Where are you going?”
“To the roof! We gotta go put out the stuff for the reindeer!” Cady says like it’s obvious. “Come with me, I don’t like the roof.”
“Okay,” Janis chuckles, tugging on her coat and following her girlfriend to the stairwell. Cady is armed with a large bowl of oats and a bag of carrots. Janis doesn’t have the heart to tell her it’s more likely to be eaten by squirrels than any reindeer.
Cady hands her the carrots and makes nine perfect little piles of oats. Janis stands behind her to make her feel safe, since they’re up high and it’s windy. She rests a carrot next to each pile and makes a mental note of where they are so she can come clean this up later.
“What do you think?” Cady asks, looking at her reindeer offerings with pride.
“Looks good,” Janis nods. “If I were a reindeer I’d be very happy.”
“Good,” Cady nods. “Okay, now it’s our dinner time. But we have to be in bed soon.”
“As you wish,” Janis says, reaching a hand out to escort her girlfriend back inside.
Janis knows she can’t ruin this now. Any misstep would crush Cady beyond repair. The excited glint in her eyes is Janis’ whole motivation. It’s the most precious thing she’s ever seen.
She can’t be the one responsible for sending it away.
—————
Cady practically pins her to the bed when they head off to ‘sleep’. Cady has some trouble, with her excitement for the holiday, so Janis does her usual tricks of scratching her head and kissing her forehead to help her drift off. She lingers for a while, just watching Cady sleep. She smiles at the nose scrunches or small twitches that begin as Cady starts to dream.
With a kiss to her forehead, Janis carefully pulls herself out of bed and heads to prepare everything for tomorrow.
-
She sets the presents out first, adding the extra ones from ‘Santa’ to the ones already under the tree. She has to make a few trips, but it’s worth it for Cady.
Janis forces down all the cookies Cady so beautifully plated, making sure to leave behind a single bite and some crumbs as ‘evidence’. She also, unthinkingly, chugs the entire glass of milk. To hell with her lactose intolerance.
“Okay, what else…” she hums, looking around the living room. “Footprints!”
She goes to grab her snow boots from the doorway and carefully opens the grate over the fireplace. Hopefully Cady won’t notice that Santa wears the same boots as her girlfriend.
A few ashy footprints on the carpet really seal the deal. Janis decides to go the extra mile and scatter some more soot around the fireplace to make it seem like Santa had a sort of scuffle trying to get out.
Unfortunately, she’s so preoccupied with her handful of chimney dust that she doesn’t hear Cady wake up, or hear her come down the hall in time to stop her. What she does hear is…
“Jayjay?”
Janis yelps and snaps her head up to look at her. She’s never seen Cady’s eyes so sad.
“What-what are you doing?”
“Shit, baby,” Janis stumbles, putting down her handful of ash from the fireplace and dusting her hand on her pajama pants. “I thought you were asleep.”
“I was,” Cady says shakily. “Why-why are you…”
Janis stays quiet, biting her lip sheepishly and hoping for a Christmas miracle. Alas, Cady does put the pieces together and releases a quiet sob.
“Baby-“
Cady wraps her arms around herself protectively and breaks down. Janis tries to go provide some comfort, but Cady turns on her heel and runs out of the apartment before she can.
“Caddy!” Janis calls. Cady didn’t get her coat, or even put some boots on. She’s only in her thin Christmas pajamas. They’ll keep her warm, but not for long. Not for long enough. “Shit.”
Janis runs back into the apartment so quickly she nearly runs into the wall. She puts her snow boots on the wrong feet in her haste, and tugs her coat on over her shoulders. She rips her bag off the hook and is after her girlfriend before she can say “Fuck.”
The night guard for the building helpfully points her in the direction Cady ran. Janis nods in appreciation and sprints that way. Cady’s fast, but Janis has longer legs. Hopefully Cady stops at some point and allows her to catch up.
Once she’s out of the parking lot, Janis can see Cady-sized footprints in the snow. Janis runs as fast as she can in the direction they lead.
She gets worried when they start heading into the woods nearby. There’s more obstacles here, branches and trees and rocks and roots. Janis stumbles over the bumpy terrain and nearly gets a face full of snow for her efforts.
“Son of a bitch,” Janis huffs when the snow stops. She’s in the densest part of the woods, now. No snow means no footprints. She has no idea where to go from here. “Caddy! Baby, where are you?!”
Nothing. Janis presses on in the same direction she was going.
“Peanut?! Cads, come on, let me… let me explain, please!”
Still nothing. Janis pulls her phone out of her pocket. No service. Now they’re both lost in the woods. Without each other. Caddy must be terrified.
“Butterfly?! Come on, please,” Janis begs as tears start streaming down her face. What if she doesn’t find Cady? It’s absolutely freezing. Even with her survival instincts, Cady couldn’t survive on her own out here for long. She probably wouldn’t even make it through the night. “Caddy!”
She freezes in her tracks when she hears what sounds like a quiet sob.
“Caddy?!”
Janis is either hallucinating, or has found her girlfriend. She stays quiet for a minute to listen before she barrels off in the direction the noises seem to be coming from.
“Caddy!” she sighs in relief when she trips into a clearing and finds her precious redhead in the middle, sobbing in the snow. “Baby, I’m so-I’m so sorry.”
Cady clings to Janis and weeps brokenly into her shoulder, shuddering violently with a mix of cold and emotion. Janis squeezes her close and breaks down herself, relieved she’s found her alive and almost well.
“Why the fuck did you run out like that?” Janis demands, pulling Cady’s face away from her neck and running her hands over Cady as if making sure she’s really there. “You scared me to death!”
Cady whimpers in response, snapping her face back to Janis’ shoulder like a magnet and sobbing somehow harder.
“I’m so sorry,” Janis whispers into the roots of Cady’s hair, resting one hand on the back of her head and the other around her shoulders to hold her close. “I’m so sorry.”
Cady still doesn’t say anything, she just shivers violently in Janis’ embrace and weeps. Her cheeks are frigid against Janis’ neck; her fingers icicles as she clings to Janis’ shirt for dear life.
Janis gently coaxes Cady away and tugs off her coat, wrapping it around her girlfriend and tugging her arms through the sleeves. Cady doesn’t react, doesn’t respond as Janis picks her up and starts heading out of the woods. Janis squeezes her close so Cady can steal a bit of her body heat and sighs, trying to blink away the relieved tears still streaming from her eyes.
—-
Cady is silent the whole way home, crying too hard to speak. Or to do much of anything, really. She just locks around Janis like a vice and weeps. Janis is just happy to have her back in her arms.
The night guard helpfully opens the door for them when he sees them return. Janis nods at him one more time and carries Cady back to the elevator. They’ll have to get him a present, too.
Cady refuses to be set down to let Janis unlock the door, so Janis leans to the side, holding her in one arm and fiddling with the key with the other.
When they make it inside, she pries her girlfriend off and sits her on the couch. Cady curls into a miserable little ball, sobbing into her knees and curling tighter into the smell of Janis radiating from the warm coat.
Janis runs to the bedroom to get a new set of pajamas for Cady. The ones she has on are covered in snow. They’re cold, and wet. They must feel as miserable as Cady does.
She puts them in the dryer and sets it to the quickest cycle to make them nice and warm and cozy, along with a pair of cozy socks and one of her own sweatshirts. How does she fix this? How does she even approach this?
Janis heads back to her sad little puddle of girlfriend and gently crouches down next to her. “Hey.”
Cady warily pokes her teary blue eyes out of her cave of coat and blinks at her. Janis’ heart splinters a bit with every heaving sob she hears.
“Can I touch?” she asks. Cady seems to take a moment to process before she nods. Janis gently brushes a hand through her hair. “Can you speak?” Cady takes another moment before she shakes her head and buries her face back into her knees with a pitiful wail. “Hey, hey, it’s okay. I understand. You take your time. Do you want to go take a bath? Get warmed up?”
Cady shakes her head, continuing to cling to herself and shake. If Janis wasn’t aware of the circumstances, she would be almost concerned she’s having a panic attack. Janis gently hushes her and continues gently stroking her hair.
“Okay, okay. Can I hold you? You’re gonna freeze if we don’t do something to get your body temperature back up,” she says in concern. Cady nods and reaches out desperately. Janis pulls her into her lap and buries her nose in cherry-scented curls. “I’m so sorry, Butterfly.”
Cady stays in her ball form, but rests her head on Janis’ shoulder and lets herself be gently rocked from side to side. Janis peppers kisses to her temple and squishes her close.
The dryer beeps after a while. Janis tries to stand, but ultimately decides she isn’t quite willing to throw her back out for this. Cady whimpers as she’s delicately shifted to the side, and aggressively nuzzles back in when Janis scoops her off the ground.
Janis is getting worried. Cady has to be massively dehydrated by this point, but her crying shows no signs of slowing down. She clearly doesn’t want to talk about it. Janis isn’t sure what to do.
“Come on,” she murmurs, grabbing the toasty pajamas from the dryer and carrying them to their bedroom along with her distraught girlfriend. “It’s gonna be okay.”
Cady makes an almost frightened sound when Janis pries her off and sits her on the bed. Janis points between her and the clean pajamas, asking wordlessly if she can help her get changed. Cady nods shakily and manages to remove the cold set with shaky hands.
Janis crawls into bed next to her once Cady is changed into the warmer ones and pulls her close for a cuddle session. She was worried Cady would be upset with her for being the one to spoil the secret, but she doesn’t seem to be. She just presses herself as close as she can, like she’s trying to hide from the world inside Janis. Janis does what she can, kissing her forehead and wrapping them from head to toe in the bedspread so Cady doesn’t have to focus on anything but the two of them.
“I’m so sorry, Peanut,” Janis whispers, kissing the roots of Cady’s hair. “I should’ve been more careful.”
“It’s not-not your f-fault,” Cady sobs. Janis feels a wave of relief wash over her. If Cady is verbal, things must be starting to turn around. She still feels awful.
“Maybe not,” she agrees in a murmur, gently rubbing Cady’s back in a desperate attempt to soothe. “But I… I just wanted to keep the magic alive for you. I’m sorry I couldn’t do that. I didn’t want you to find out at all, and especially not like this.”
“I w-would’ve even-eventually,” Cady whimpers. “I’m such an idiot!”
“No, baby, no,” Janis hushes desperately. Cady breaks down again, sobbing heavily into her chest. “You’re not an idiot, baby. Think about it, you didn’t grow up around other kids who would’ve told you he… he wasn’t real. If your family never told you either, how were you supposed to have known? It doesn’t mean you’re an idiot, you just… found out a little later than most people do. It’s okay.”
Cady doesn’t say anything in response to that, she just cuddles back into Janis’ chest and resumes her misery fest.
“Come here,” Janis says, rolling out of bed and reaching for her. Cady looks at her in confusion, but cuddles in when Janis picks her back up and carries her to the kitchen. She whimpers again when Janis puts her down on the counter. “Just a second, I promise.”
Cady wraps her arms around herself again and watches as Janis rushes through the kitchen, preparing… something. Whatever it is involves whipped cream, which is always nice.
“Here,” Janis says, handing a mug to her girlfriend. Cady eyes it warily and takes it in her shaky hands. Janis gently rests her hands over her fingers to help her hold it steady long enough to sip.
“White chocolate?” Cady sniffles quietly. Janis smiles sadly and nods.
“Yeah. It was meant to be a Christmas present, but I think this is more important.”
Cady takes a deep breath and another sip. Her hands gradually stop shaking, and her heaving sobs slow to mere snuffles. Janis just stands in front of her, rubbing her thumb lovingly over Cady’s hip. Cady keeps drinking until the whole mug is gone, then leans forward for Janis to hold her again.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers. “I shouldn’t have ran like that.”
“Don’t be sorry,” Janis murmurs back, looking into her girlfriend’s eyes as Cady rests their foreheads against each other. “I get it. How are you feeling?”
“Tired,” Cady replies quietly. “I just wanna sleep.”
“Okay. We can do that,” Janis nods. “Anything you wanna talk about?”
Cady is quiet for a long moment as she thinks about Janis’ question. Eventually, she whispers a, “Thank you.”
“For what?” Janis replies in confusion.
“Everything,” Cady says. “Trying to keep the secret. Trying to help me believe. And for running into the snow after me, and all of this. I’m not upset with you. At all. You were just… trying to make this another magical holiday for me. It’s not your fault I woke up and found you. And all this has more than made up for it.”
“Of course not,” Cady replies, nuzzling into her neck. “You made it much better.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah,” Cady says. “I don’t need Santa. I have you. Your love is much more magical than he could ever be.”
“I love you,” Janis whispers, pressing her lips against Cady’s in a desperate attempt to stop herself bursting into tears again. “We’ll have the best Christmas yet.”
“Because we’re together,” Cady whispers back. She peppers sweet, loving little kisses over Janis’ face as she’s carried back to bed. She stays latched around her girlfriend as they flop under the covers. Janis holds her just as tight and returns the kisses. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” Janis murmurs. “I love you so much.”
“Thank you for keeping the magic alive,” Cady says before she drifts off, content in Janis’ arms.
“Thank you for being my magic,” Janis replies, cuddling in closer and drifting off to sleep, dreaming of sugarplums.
"Babies are up," Cady says when she hears noise start coming through the baby monitor. "Your turn."
Janis groans quietly and rolls out of bed to go grab the twins from their morning nap.
"Good morning, girls! Did you have a good nap?"
"Nap," Layla says with a precious little yawn before reaching out for her mommy. Janis takes her with a chuckle and kisses her chubby cheeks as she carries her over to be changed.
"Did you have good dreams?"
"D'eams," Layla confirms. "Cuddle aaaaaaall day."
"You dreamed we got to cuddle all day?" Janis chuckles. "Actually, I think we can do that. We don't have anywhere to be today. What do you think, Bee? Should we go get Mama and snuggle for the rest of the day?"
"Snuggle Mama," Leo says as Janis swaps her out for her twin and changes her diaper. "Luff Mama."
"Aww," Janis coos. "What about me?"
"Luff Mommy too," Leo nods. Janis smiles and bends down to kiss her nose.
"You'd better," she chuckles. "Okay, one second."
Janis leaves them together in Layla's crib while she goes to wash her hands, then picks them both up along with their favorite blankies and stuffies, and then carries them back to see Cady.
"Hi Mama!" Layla chirps. Cady looks up from her computer and laughs when she sees the little puddle of blankets and messy-haired babies her wife has returned with.
"Hi, princess," she says. "Did you two have a nice nap?"
"Cuddle aaaaaaaaall day," Layla says again as Cady takes her from Janis.
"Huh?" Cady chuckles affectionately.
"That's what she dreamed about, apparently," Janis replies, crawling back into bed with Leo. Leo rolls over and clambers over to cuddle Cady too. "I think we have to, now."
"I think that sounds doable," Cady agrees with a chuckle, kissing Layla's forehead. "What about you, Lolo, what did you dream about?"
"D'eam 'bout Santa."
"You dreamed about Santa?" Cady asks. Leo nods with a smile. "He's coming soon, you only have a few more weeks to wait."
"Mama?"
"Yes, little love?" Cady asks, propping herself up on her side. Layla nuzzles into her chest, while Leo lies on her back in between Layla and Janis.
"Wha's a weeks?"
"A week is seven days," Cady explains.
"Oh." Leo says dejectedly. "Lotta days."
"I know," Cady hums understandingly. "But it's gonna go by so fast, we're gonna have so much fun. We have a lot of fun stuff planned in between to keep you busy. Santa will be here before you know it."
"Hug Santa," Leo sighs.
"Aww," Janis coos. "You get to meet one of his helpers soon, you can hug him. I bet he can pass it on to Santa for you."
Leo considers this method and nods. Layla leans back from Cady a bit to ask, "Get p'esents?"
"If you're on the nice list," Janis says. "What do you think, have you been good this year?"
Layla rolls over to look at her mommy and nods. "I been good."
"Yeah, I think so," Janis grins. "Sweet girls. You two make it easy on the elves."
"An' a weindeer?" Leo asks. Janis looks down at her and cuddles a bit closer, her nose almost in Leo's little ear. Leo giggles as she gets lots of kisses on her chubby cheek.
"I dunno about the reindeer. You two have been so nice that they're gonna have so many presents to carry here," Janis replies.
"Be heaby," Layla says. Janis nods.
"It will be heavy, we'll have to give them lots of yummy carrots."
"Cawwot?"
"Reindeer love veggies," Cady explains. "Especially carrots. They think they're so yummy, and it helps their eyes be strong. They have to fly all around the world at nighttime, the carrots help them see better."
"I like cawwot," Leo says thoughtfully. "I weindeer."
"You're a reindeer?" Janis chuckles. Leo looks up at her and nods. Janis rolls over onto her back and brings her knees up, resting Leo on top to hold her like an airplane. "Look, you can fly, too!"
Leo giggles happily, poking her little tongue out as Janis veers her gently from side to side to steer her around. "Mama, look!"
"I see, my little deer," Cady chuckles. "You're flying so high, look at you go!"
"Me too!" Layla calls, crawling out of Cady's embrace and over to Janis. Janis switches them out and lets Layla have a turn as the reindeer.
They both giggle and cuddle into Janis' chest when she brings Layla in for a landing. Janis laughs with them and holds them close to her. "What should we do while we cuddle?"
"Stowies," Leo says immediately. Janis grins at her.
"Read stories? Okay, we can do that," she says. "Why don't you go pick some from your bedroom?"
Both of them eagerly wiggle down off the bed and barrel back to their room. Layla comes back early and empty-handed. "Mommy?"
"Yeah?"
"How much stowy?"
"As many as you want," Janis chuckles. "We have time." Layla nods and runs back.
"I am gonna go make us some quick lunch," Cady hums, bending over to kiss her wife. "You lot enjoy story time, I'll be right back."
Janis pouts slightly, but kisses her back. "We'll miss you."
Cady laughs and heads downstairs. Janis waits for her daughters to come back, lying peacefully on the bed and just relishing in the cozy vibes of the day so far.
Between the two of them, the twins manage to bring about half of their whole bookshelf back with them. Janis laughs as two towers of storybooks come wobbling back into the room, with some little feet just poking out the bottom of each.
"Oh my god, girls," she chuckles, going to help them carry all their favorite stories over to the bed. "Those are heavy books, you guys are so strong!"
"Got waffles!" Layla cheers.
"Muscles, baby," Janis corrects gently. She almost doesn't want to, their incorrect phrases are just so cute. "Come here, which one should we start with?"
"Uh..." the twins hum, rooting through the massive pile of books. Layla eventually pulls out a copy of The Grinch. "Dis!"
"Okay," Janis chuckles. "Come here."
Janis smiles as her daughters nestle in on either side of her, wiggling in close so they can both see all the pictures. She does her best silly voices for all the characters in Whoville and makes them both giggle.
Cady returns when they move on to Paddington, armed with a tray of lunch for her family. "Aww, look at you guys. Can we take a break to have lunch?"
"I think so," Janis grins, marking their place before sitting up. "Ooh, sandwiches."
"Ooh, sammiches," Layla copies. Cady laughs and hands each of them a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Leo and Layla's are on their special Christmas elf plates and cut into little triangles. Janis' is on one of their normal plates, but is very neatly cut diagonally.
"There's a bite taken out of it," she chuckles, looking at one half of her sandwich as Cady hands the twins some sippy cups of hot chocolate.
"I had to test it for you," Cady says with a wink. "Make sure it's good enough for my love."
"Mama?" Layla asks, taking a hefty swig of hot chocolate.
"Yes, snowflake?"
"Bite mine p'ease?"
Cady chuckles and leans in to try a bite of the offered sandwich triangle. "I think that's a good sandwich, Lala. Perfect for my baby girl."
"Me too?" Leo asks, offering one of her own sandwich bits. Cady leans in and takes another bite.
"Oh, I think that one's good too, baby," she says. "I'm gonna eat more of your lunches than mine."
"What do we think, girls? Does Mama make good sandwiches?" Janis asks, taking a sip from her own mug of hot chocolate. Both twins nod around bites of peanut butter and apple jelly. "I think so too."
"Yummy," Leo says, doing a little happy dance as she chews and takes a sip of her hot chocolate.
"Just be careful," Cady laughs. "Don't choke."
The twins chatter away about their excitement for the holiday while they have a little picnic in bed. Cady and Janis listen intently until the sandwiches are gone and the hot chocolate is warming up their bellies.
"Mama stowy?" Leo asks once the dishes have been removed and they're back to cuddling.
"I would, darling, but I have to work," Cady says. Her babies both pout, but nod. Cady looks into disappointed blue eyes, perfect little reflections of her own. Her babies won't be this little forever. Work can wait. "You know what? Yeah. Come here, pick some stories."
Layla hands over a well-loved copy of Winnie the Pooh and cuddles in. Leo cuddles in with her sister, and Janis presses in behind her, cocooning the twins between herself and her wife. Cady kisses each forehead before opening the book and starting to read.
"'Here is Edward Bear now, coming down the stairs, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin.'"
——
Cady continues reading even after the twins drift off for their afternoon nap. Janis stays pressed against her family contently, listening to her wife's voice and feeling the cozy warmth radiating from the lot of them cuddled together.
“Wake up!” Janis yells, entering their bedroom banging some baking sheets together. Cady startles so violently she pitches herself out of bed and falls to the ground with a soft thunk and a groan.
“The fuck, Janis?!”
“Good morning!” Janis says eagerly, banging her impromptu cymbals together a few more times. Cady groans again.
“What do you want?”
“It’s cookie day! Chop chop, rise and shine and all that!”
Cady rolls onto her back and glares up at her wife. “You couldn’t have woken me up nicely? With, like, kisses and cuddles and love?”
Janis bangs her trays together one more time. “Not today! Rock and roll, buckaroo! Come on!”
“Why did I marry this?” Cady grumbles to herself as Janis heads back to the kitchen.
—-
Janis grins as Cady comes shuffling out to the kitchen several minutes later, wrapped in their entire bedspread with a very grumpy pout. Janis pushes her mug of slightly caffeinated tea towards her. Cady pokes a hand out of her blanket cloak to grab it before it quickly disappears again.
“I do not appreciate my wake up call.”
“Sorry.” Janis says, rubbing Cady’s back as she comes up and leans in, implicitly demanding snuggles. “It’s fitting, though, you have to admit.”
“You could’ve put a cookie with my tea, that would’ve been more fitting.”
“Next year.”
Cady whines and presses her face into Janis’ chest. Janis kisses her hair gently and lets her stay. Cady is quiet for a long time before she says, “You have to snuggle me while I have my tea. Your payment for my very rude awakening.”
“I can live with that,” Janis chuckles. Cady puts down her tea and reaches for her, so Janis scoops her little blanket ball off her feet, grabs the tea, and heads to the couch for some good-morning cuddles.
————-
Cady seems much happier after being given some time to wake up properly and pampered with loving cuddles.
“Better?” Janis asks quietly. Cady nods, but makes no effort to leave.
“Teach me your ways, cookie wizard,” Cady yawns.
“I can’t until you let me up, Peanut,” Janis chuckles, booping Cady’s nose. Cady groans as if it’s a spectacular inconvenience and just rolls to the ground, cushioned by her blanket. “I guess that works.”
“Carry me.”
“Why are you so tired today?”
“Because I was woken up entirely too early by someone being entirely too loud.”
“Fair. Come on,” Janis grunts, removing Cady from her cocoon and carrying her back to the kitchen to cook. “The most important rule of cookie making.”
“Wash your hands first?”
“No.”
“Don’t eat the raw egg?”
“Important, but no.”
“Remember to turn the oven off?”
“No. The most important rule,” Janis says, pulling out all the ingredients they’ll need. “Is make the snickerdoodles first. That way when you run out it’s still before Christmas and you’re legally allowed to make more.”
“Why don’t you just make a bigger batch?” Cady asks confusedly.
“There is no batch of snickerdoodles big enough,” Janis says. “Trust me. You haven’t lived until you’ve eaten your weight in snickerdoodles at least once.”
“Uhm… okay,” Cady says in confusion as she goes to wash her hands. Janis follows and peppers kisses up and down Cady’s neck as they both scrub their hands with the delightful orange soap Cady had discovered. “Stop that or we’ll be doing something else instead of making your cookies.”
“…We could make them tomorrow?”
“I did not get woken up by you banging cookie sheets together to not make these cookies, Jay,” Cady retaliates, turning around and kissing Janis’ nose.
“Did you just do that so you could use my shirt to dry your hands instead of reaching for the towel?”
“No.” Cady replies. “I did that so I could use your pants to dry my hands instead of reaching for the towel.”
Janis pouts at her, but also doesn’t bother with the towel. Cady rolls her eyes lovingly and kisses her one more time before climbing onto the counter to observe her wife at work.
“How do cookies work?”
“I don’t fuckin’ know,” Janis chuckles. “I just follow the recipe and hope for the best.”
“So you’ll follow a recipe but not the instructions for putting our furniture together?” Cady asks.
“Yeah,” Janis says, adding the butter and sugar to a bowl. “Not following a recipe just makes either fire or poison. Not following the instructions just means I put the legs on the wrong part of the chair.”
“It looked like it was doing a handstand,” Cady giggles. “I still don’t know how you managed that.”
“I have skills you don’t know about,” Janis retaliates. “Can you hand me the flour?”
“Catch.”
“No!” Janis says. Too late. Cady gently tosses the large bag of flour towards her wife, but it isn’t gently enough. Janis scrambles to catch it, but doesn’t make it in time. And now the kitchen looks as if it’s been through a hell of a blizzard. “Caddy!”
“What? You didn’t-didn’t specify,” Cady says, laughing so hard she nearly falls off the counter. “I’m so sorry.”
Janis blows her flour-covered hair out of her face and glares at Cady. “I said hand it to me.”
“And I said catch,” Cady giggles. “Come here.”
Janis shuffles out of the large pile of flour she’s standing in and over to her wife. Cady makes grabby hands for her and wraps herself around Janis, who leans into her with a whine.
“I’m sorry, mpendwa,” Cady murmurs softly, carefully brushing the flour from Janis’ eyelashes and cheeks. “Did you breathe any?”
“I don’t think so,” Janis replies.
“Good,” Cady says, moving to dust off Janis’ dark hair. “You don’t look bad with white hair.”
“I look like I have dandruff.”
“You haven’t seen yourself,” Cady giggles quietly. She tips Janis’ chin up to kiss her and sputters slightly at the bland flour taste against her lips. “You’re kinda cute. My snow girl.”
“I feel dusty,” Janis whines.
“Then let’s go get you cleaned up,” Cady purrs, kissing Janis again. “We have all day to make cookies.”
Janis perks up and runs off to the bathroom to get ready. Cady chuckles affectionately and puts the other ingredients back away, and sweeps up the remnants of the flour incident before she goes to join her.
“Jay?” she asks as she heads to the bathroom. She can’t hear any water running, or any indications of her wife’s presence. She about jumps out of her skin when a hand pokes out of the shower and drags her in. “Christ, Janis!”
“Hi.”
“Hi,” Cady giggles. “I still have my clothes on, goof.”
“Ugh!” Janis groans. Cady rolls her eyes, kisses her cheek, and quickly gets rid of the offensive garments. “Much better.”
Cady squeals and hides behind Janis as the water is turned on and comes out absolutely freezing for the first few seconds. Janis protectively squeezes her hand and also tries to avoid the icy water.
“Why do we do it like this every time?” Cady giggles as they’re both pressed against the far wall. “We need to remember to wait outside, the water heating here is awful.”
“It is,” Janis agrees. “But I get to hold you.”
“You sap,” Cady teases, pressing up to kiss her wife. She pulls back offer a second and pulls a face. “You taste like flour.”
“And whose fault is that?”
“I said catch!”
“Yeah, after you threw a whole ass bag of flour at my head!” Janis retaliates.
“I wasn’t aiming for your head,” Cady mumbles sheepishly. “That’s just where it went.”
“It’s okay, baby,” Janis chuckles. “It didn’t hit me.”
Cady kisses her one more time and grabs the shampoo to wash the flour out of Janis’ hair.
—————
They both decide that after the events of the morning, they should work up to homemade cookies, and decide to go shopping for store bought dough to practice with.
“Aww, look at the little snowman ones,” Cady says, grabbing a package of break and bake Pillsbury cookies. Janis adds it to their already too large pile of other cookie doughs.
“These are the best,” Janis says. “We got these every year.”
“You’ll have to show me, then,” Cady says quietly. Janis squeezes her hand and grabs another box. “This should sort us out for a while, I think.”
“Definitely,” Janis grunts, shifting her grip on the weighty basket of cookies waiting to be baked. “Home?”
“Alright, take two,” Janis laughs, heading into the kitchen to work on their new cookies. “Let’s get going.”
Cady grins excitedly and washes her hands once again. Janis follows suit, but avoids kissing Cady’s neck this time. She gives a chaste kiss to her cheek instead and passes her the hand towel.
“Thank you, lovey.”
“You’re welcome, baby,” Janis says, grabbing one of the trays. Cady instinctively winces after the incident this morning. “I’m not gonna hit you with it or anything.”
“That’s not what I’m afraid of,” Cady replies, plugging her ears just in case. Janis puts the tray down and gently pulls Cady’s hands away.
“I won’t make any noises and I won’t wake you up like that again.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
“Pinky promise?” Cady asks, holding up her little finger. Janis hooks her own around it.
“Pinky promise.” Janis uses their twined fingers to pull her wife into a kiss. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” Cady murmurs, content to stay pressed against Janis. They linger for a few minutes before remembering the dough thawing on the counter. “Cookies. Kisses later, we need cookies.”
“Fine,” Janis whines jokingly. Cady pulls the tray closer and grabs a box of the Pillsbury tree ones. “Wow, you’re standing?”
“Oh,” Cady says when she remembers, taking her usual place perched on the counter. Janis kisses her cheek, having to be the one on her tiptoes for a change. “Sit with me.”
“Okay,” Janis chuckles, climbing onto the counter as well. The tray and cookies sit between them. Janis takes half and starts breaking them off one by one to position on the tray. Cady follows suit. “So what are you asking Santa for this year?”
“I dunno,” Cady giggles. “I think I can give him a break this year.”
“Oh?”
“I already have everything I could ever want,” Cady murmurs, looking meaningfully at Janis. Janis looks back with a bashful grin and leans across their cookies for a kiss.
“That’s sweet,” she says when they break apart. “But, like… say Santa just got married this spring and it’s his first Christmas with his wife and he really wants to do a good job and get her some things she really wants so he’s been, like, working overtime to make money and trying to budget and really struggling to come up with stuff. What would you suggest he get?”
“I’d say… stop doing overtime because the wife probably misses him,” Cady replies. “And to not stress so much. The wife will love whatever he picks for her. Or, he could make her something. If he’s so inclined. But really, love, I just want to spend some more time with you. You don’t have to work so much for me, all I want is you.”
“You make things so hard, why can’t you be all vain and materialistic?” Janis whines jokingly. “Fine. My break starts soon, anyway, I’ll spend as much time with you as you can stand.”
“Is that a threat?”
“If you want it to be.”
—————-
“This is cozy,” Cady says, curled up in Janis’ lap in front of the oven and sipping at a mug of hot chocolate as they watch the cookies bake. “We should do this more often.”
“We will,” Janis promises, kissing behind Cady’s ear. “As many cookies as we can eat.”
“I’ve heard good things about gingerbread,” Cady says curiously, leaning back against Janis’ shoulder and looking up at her. “You can make people?”
“Yeah,” Janis chuckles. “Gingerbread doesn’t spread a whole lot, so it holds its shape better than most cookies. You’d like it, it’s nice. I made it every year with my mom when I was little, they were always my favorite.”
“Aww,” Cady coos. “You’ll have to show me when we go home, then, I can wait a few days.”
“Of course,” Janis grins. “What did you do for Christmas in Kenya?”
“Not much,” Cady says. “We usually would get a hotel in Nairobi so we could have internet and call my relatives here, so we called my mom’s side every Christmas Eve and my dad’s on Christmas day. And we always got a few presents and had a big breakfast from whatever the hotel had. But we never got a tree or had an oven to make cookies or anything.”
“It was,” Cady recalls fondly. “My parents always tried to make it special. They did the best they could. And they did a pretty good job. What about you, what did your family do when you were little?”
“We usually went to Ohio over break to see my mom’s family. My dad’s side always made an effort to call me for birthdays and holidays and stuff, and they would ship presents over, like, a month ahead of time,” Janis says. “Vera and Julie and I would make cookies with mom and my aunt, and decorate the tree with my uncle. And we all got to sleep in the same bed on Christmas Eve, that was the best part.”
“Cute,” Cady says. “I’m glad you’re so close with your family.”
“Me too,” Janis replies. The timer for the cookies go off then, making them both jump. Cady narrowly avoids dumping hot chocolate all over their laps. She stands and grabs the oven mitts to remove the trays from the oven while Janis grabs a plate to transfer them to.
“Janis, what are you doing?!” Cady says as Janis starts removing them from the tray almost immediately with her bare hands. She yelps after every one and drops them onto the plate rather aggressively. “Let them cool, you’ll hurt yourself!”
“It’s worth it!”
“What’s worth it? We have all day,” Cady says confusedly. “Stop it, you’ll burn yourself.”
Janis only stops when her wife grabs both of her hands and gently kisses her red fingertips. Begrudgingly, she lets Cady run them under some cold water and kiss them better.
“Why are you trying to go so quick?”
“I want to cuddle again,” Janis pouts. “The sooner they’re off the tray then the sooner we can put other ones on the tray and then the sooner we can put the tray in the oven and then the sooner we can snuggle and watch them.”
“Love, we don’t have to watch cookies to snuggle, we can be done for the day,” Cady offers.
“But cookies.”
“True,” Cady hums. “Let’s take our time, and once we finish for the day I’ll give you the best snuggles you’ve ever had.”
“…All day?”
“All day, and probably all night,” Cady confirms.
“Okay,” Janis says. Cady can see the wheels turning in her mind.
“What are you scheming?”
“If we do all the cookies at once,” Janis says. “Then… I get more snuggles.”
Cady peeks around her to see the mound of boxed dough they have yet to do. It is awfully big. “Actually… that might not be a bad idea.”
“Wait, what?”
“I don’t see why we couldn’t do that,” Cady shrugs. “The flavors are all complementary, and the textures and bake times are similar enough to mesh… fine. If we’re careful, I don’t think that’d be too bad.”
“Who are you and what have you done with my Caddy?”
“I’m still here, dork,” Cady chuckles, rolling her eyes lovingly and pressing up for a kiss. “Let me go get my math notebook.”
“There she is.”
—-
Janis watches lovingly as Cady checks all the packages and uses the amount of dough by weight to work out how long they should bake the cookies and how big they should make them. Cady scribbles away with her tongue poked out.
“Okay, if we use all of everything, we should make them about two and a half inches in diameter and bake them for thirteen to twenty minutes,” Cady says, capping her pen.
“How do you do that?”
“Do what?”
“How do you still have brain cells?” Janis asks in wonder. “Mine all left after graduation.”
“Nooo,” Cady frowns. “You’re brilliant, my love. This was your idea. I still have brain cells because I do math every day. Your brain cells just shifted to focus on art and stuff.”
“And stuff,” Janis snorts. “Half are you, half are your butt, and half are art.”
“That’s not…”
“I just told you I can’t do math,” Janis retaliates. “Come on, let’s make this… franken-cookie.”
“Ooh,” Cady says eagerly. “If this works well we could make that a new family recipe!”
Cady grabs a large bowl, and they both start dumping entire containers of dough into it. They lock eyes when everything is inside and both stick their hands in to knead everything together. Cady squeals at the texture. She can’t tell if she likes it or not.
Janis chuckles and flicks a little bit at her. Cady jumps back with a laugh and flicks a bit back. “Don’t do that, you’ll throw my timing off.”
“Fine,” Janis grins, bending over for a kiss. Cady kisses her back and continues mushing the dough together.
“I love you.”
“I love you too,” Janis hums, kissing her wife one more time.
—————
“Okay, hold onto your ass,” Cady says as the last tray of their strange cookie mixture goes into the oven. She yelps as Janis grabs her bum. “I said yours!”
“We’re married! We share now!”
“You are exhausting,” Cady sighs with a chuckle, plopping back on Janis’ lap. “Watch the cookies.”
“And pray.”
“And pray,” Cady confirms. “Are there cookie gods?”
“I hope they’re merciful.”
————-
“Ready?” Cady asks, handing Janis a cooled franken-cookie. Janis takes it and gently thumps it against Cady’s. “Cheers.”
“Cheers,” Janis grins. They both take a large bite of the cookies. They came out a rather unsettling brown shade with some suspicious chunks, caused by the mixing of food colorings and chocolate chips with other flavors.
But surprisingly, the taste is good. The chocolate chip and sugar cookie doughs blended together nicely, and there’s a faint hint of pumpkin spice from another kind they had found. Cady’s math means they got a good bake and a satisfying chewy texture.
“Not bad!” Cady chirps happily, taking another bite.
“Yeah,” Janis agrees.
“You seem surprised.”
“I am.”
“This was your idea.”
“My ideas rarely work out in my favor,” Janis replies. “They need… salt, I think. Just a bit. But they’re really not as bad as I was expecting.”
“New tradition?” Cady asks eagerly. Janis nods and kisses her, tasting their delicious new creation off her lips.
“New tradition. Now, take the plate,” Janis instructs. Cady looks at her in confusion, but does follow her direction. She squeals in surprise as Janis picks her up, clinging to her wife and the plate of cookies at the same time. “And let’s go cuddle.”
“Cuddle cookies,” Cady says. “That’s what we can call them.”
“I like it,” Janis grins.
“I love you.”
“I love you too, Peanut,” Janis hums, returning Cady’s kisses. “But don’t do that yet or I’ll crash into the wall.”
“Caddy?” Janis asks while Cady feeds the twins their breakfast.
“Hmm?”
“It’s the fourteenth.”
“Oh. Yay,” Cady says happily. She smiles down at the babies. “You two are already seven whole months old! You’re growing so fast, oh my goodness!”
“They’re so pretty,” Janis says quietly, inching closer and resting her head on Cady’s shoulder. “Like, I know every mom thinks they have the cutest baby in the world, but they’re so beautiful.”
“They look like you,” Cady says quietly. “Especially now that they’ve gotten a little bigger. Their features are easier to piece out.”
“They still have those blue eyes, though,” Janis says happily. “Baby blues.”
“They are beautiful,” Cady agrees. “We made these.”
“You did a substantial amount more than me,” Janis chuckles. “But yeah, we did. We made some perfect little ones.”
Layla apparently decides she’s finished and breaks away, looking up at her moms with a little wiggle and happy sound. Cady picks her up and props her against her shoulder. “Yeah, we’re talking about you, happy girl! Are you ready for your pictures?”
“Aaah!” Layla squeals excitedly. Cady laughs and starts to burp her.
“Who am I kidding, you’re always ready.”
—-
Cady gets the babies dressed while Janis heads downstairs to get the backdrop sorted out.
“Aww, girls!” Janis coos when she turns around to see what Cady has done to them. They’re in soft white onesies that say ‘My First Christmas’ in gold letters. Cady paired it with some adorable thigh-high socks, one red and one green; and small gold bow headbands as a finishing touch. “You look so cute!”
“So does this backdrop,” Cady grins. Janis has laid their usual plushy white blanket out on the ground and made a large number seven out of ornaments (with all hooks and other hazards removed) in the middle of it. “It’s perfect.”
Janis helps get the babies laid out on their respective side while Cady goes to get their name boards so they can tell them apart. She returns to Leo back in Janis’ arms and Layla several inches away from the blanket on her belly.
“They’re getting so wiggly,” Janis chuckles. “Won’t stay put.”
Cady laughs and retrieves Layla, putting her back in her spot. Janis puts Leo back down as well and they both scramble for their phones before they run off again.
Leo giggles happily at her moms and starts chewing on her little feet. Layla is more of an action person and flips herself onto her belly to make her escape again.
“Where you going?” Cady chuckles. “You keep running away. You don’t want to take your pictures? Mommy and I want to see how much you’re growing! Come back here, goofy.”
Layla giggles as Cady flips her back over and positions her properly. Cady snaps some cute pictures rapid fire to try and get as many usable ones as she can. Leo cooperates, content to nibble on her toes and smile for the camera. Layla continues trying to escape, but stays put long enough for Cady to get a few cute pictures.
“There we go! Good job, girls!” Cady says when she’s satisfied with her quantity of pictures. Layla is finally allowed to roll wherever she wants, and Janis picks up a bent Leo who refuses to let go of her foot. “We should really do some more decorating, Jay, we don’t have anything up yet.”
“We definitely should get the tree up, at least,” Janis agrees. “Kinda running out of time there. What do you think, girls, should we have a decoration day?”
“Let’s have breakfast first,” Cady giggles as her twins both give an excited squeal in response to Janis’ question. “But that sounds like fun.”
—-
After an excessive amount of fruit for breakfast, it’s time to decorate. Janis and Cady leave the twins in their playpen for containment and safety while they carry in boxes and bins of decorations from the garage. After about the fourth, both twins are sitting and peering eagerly at them through the net of their pen to see what they’re doing.
Janis goes to sit on the other side and peeks back at their daughters. Layla happily gives her kisses through the mesh and giggles as Janis tries to tickle her. Leo is a bit more serious and eventually starts to cry, thinking she’s stuck and unable to reach her mommy.
“Oh, pumpkin,” Janis chuckles sadly. “It’s okay, come here, baby.”
Leo clings to her in relief when Janis lifts her out of the top of the playpen, sniffling miserably into her shoulder and relishing in the cuddles and comfort. Janis pats her back and hushes her gently.
“You’re okay, shh, my little bee. Come here, let’s find some decorating you can do.” she hums, rooting through one of the boxes. “Oh, yeah, here, let’s go put these stickers on the windows.”
Leo happily takes her offered window clings and pats them onto the glass wherever Janis holds her up to. Several are upside down or sideways, and a few fall down after being stuck on the wrong way, but they get the back door pretty well decorated.
“Good job, pumpkin!” Cady cheers when she returns with the last box and finds Leo’s head nearly brushing the ceiling to get the top of the door covered. “Making me nervous, but good job!”
“I’m not gonna drop our kid,” Janis huffs. “Again. Come here, Lala, your turn. Let’s go do the front.”
Layla babbles happily as Janis picks her up along with another stack of window stickers. She helpfully sticks them into place where she can reach after wiggling to being put down, resulting in a large quantity covering the bottom foot or so of the screen door.
“Good job, Lala!” Janis chuckles. “Little tightly packed, but I like the vision behind it.”
Layla then starts rearranging them, pulling off the ones she’s already stuck up and trying to put them somewhere else. Several of them eventually flutter off, including the most recent one. Layla whines in frustration and sticks it back, but tries to stick it back to another sticker and it simply falls off again.
“Goodness,” Janis hums when Layla gives a frustrated scream at her sticker. “You feeling angry, Bug? Come here. Try putting it here.”
Layla whines again when Janis picks her up, and rather aggressively slams her sticker against the glass. Janis carefully takes a little hand and runs it over the window cling to make sure it’s stuck on before turning Layla around.
“Cranky little ladybug. Good job, though, you got there eventually.”
“What happened?” Cady asks when they make a return.
“We had a little scream at some of our stickers.”
“Ah,” Cady laughs. “Those are frustrating sometimes, huh, Layla?”
“Apparently,” Janis chuckles. “Bottom half of the door is very well decorated.”
“Good,” Cady says. “Can you start unpacking the tree while I put them down?”
“Yep,” Janis nods. “You should stay, though. They can nap down here.”
Cady raises an eyebrow. “You have to be quiet, then.”
“I’m always quiet!”
“Mm, I can think of a few occasions,” Cady hums. Janis knows full well what she’s talking about and gives an indignant scoff. “Okay, fine. Just try to keep the profanity to a minimum.”
Janis gives another indignant huff. “I don’t swear in front of our babies.” Cady raises the eyebrow again. “Much.”
“I’m teasing. But seriously,” Cady hums, kissing her wife on the cheek and carrying the twins to the couch to get them to sleep. Janis grins at her and gets to work undoing the box.
The ‘no swearing’ rule is quickly broken. Cady hadn’t really expected it to last. Janis pulls the base of the tree out of the box and positions it properly. Elvira’s eyes light up and she makes a beeline over to hide beneath it, batting at Janis’ hands as she tries to separate the ‘branches’.
“Every goddamn year,” Janis sighs. “Oops.”
“I told you,” Cady giggles. “At least they’re not talking yet.”
“Thank goodness,” Janis hums. “Ellie, why can’t you wait until we have it all set up before you start claiming your territory? We leave it for you, can’t we at least decorate it first?”
Elvira just bats at her hands again. Janis sighs and grabs the middle section.
“We could just leave it like that,” Cady says quietly as she rocks the little ones to sleep. “Let her have that and put the top up somewhere else.”
“I wish,” Janis chuckles. “They asleep?”
“Just about,” Cady hums, drumming gently on Leo’s bum to try to coax her into a nap. “This one’s fighting me. But Lala’s out cold.”
“How do you do that?” Janis asks. “They fight me forever. You always get them down in, like, fifteen minutes.”
“I have the food,” Cady giggles. “And I know the tricks.”
“There’s tricks?”
“Yep.”
“Care to enlighten m- son of a bitch!”
“Janis,” Cady laughs. Janis looks up at her from under half of their tree, now on its side and on top of her. “Maybe hold off until I can help you.”
“I got it,” Janis grunts, trying to army crawl her way out from beneath the tree. “Why did we buy such a heavy tree?”
“We wanted a big one,” Cady says. “Can you get it?”
Janis continues wiggling and clawing at the carpet to escape, eventually freeing herself and throwing her hands up victoriously. Cady giggles at her as the baby finally drifts off in her hold.
“Yay, you’re free,” she whispers. “And these little squishes are finally asleep.”
Janis stands up and heads over to them, carefully lifting Layla and transferring her to her baby swing, then puts Leo in hers. “There.”
“The best little decorations,” Cady hums, wrapping herself around her wife. “And they’re homemade.”
Janis bursts out laughing and nods, pulling Cady’s arms tighter around her waist and linking their fingers together. “Made with love.”
“So much love,” Cady agrees. “Does this year feel different to you?”
“Kind of,” Janis nods. “It feels like a bigger responsibility, now. But it’s also more fun. I like seeing them experience everything for the first time.”
“I do too,” Cady agrees. “I like seeing the world through their eyes.”
“I think we’ve done good so far.”
“We have. Especially you,” Cady replies, turning Janis around and pressing up for a sweet kiss. “You’re the best mommy. Seeing you with them is the most wonderful gift I’ve ever been given. I love you so much.”
Janis blinks back a few tears and kisses Cady again. “I love you too. It’s been a hell of a year.”
“It has,” Cady nods. “Time for a hell of a Christmas, then.”
—-
Janis turns around after putting the top chunk of the tree in place when she hears a small yawn. She turns around to find Layla mid-adorable stretch.
“Hi, baby,” Janis coos, scooping her out of her swing and holding her close. Layla yawns again and rests against her shoulder as she blearily rubs her little eyes. “Aww, sweet girl.” Layla perks up when she sees the large tree and points to it. “That’s the Christmas tree, what do you think? You wanna help decorate it?”
Layla looks at her curiously. Janis looks back. Cady comes down the hall with some photos she’s printed to put in the twins’ ‘My First Christmas’ ornaments and finds them mid-staring contest.
“Thanks,” Janis replies, finally looking away from her daughter’s face. “Only fell on me twice.”
“A new record,” Cady laughs. Janis pouts and gently sets Layla on the ground.
“It’s up, shush. Lala, you get to help me with the lights.”
Layla happily takes the offered bundle of LEDs and wags it around with a delighted shriek. Janis chuckles and finds the end to plug it in.
Layla stares at the lights on her lap when they’re lit up, holding them in her little hands and looking at them with wide eyes. Janis chuckles as she grabs one of the bulbs and brings it to her mouth to gnaw on.
“No no, don’t eat the lights,” she says, gently removing them. “Do they all work?” Layla makes another excited noise. “Good! Can you help me get them on?”
Layla looks up at her curiously. Janis looks back again.
“Actually… hm.”
Layla giggles happily as Janis picks her up and starts winding the lights around her little body. She wriggles once she’s been turned into a little firefly, but can’t escape.
“Jay, you’re supposed to decorate the tree, not the baby,” Cady laughs. “She’s cute though.”
“I think we could leave her like this. What do you think, Ladybug, you wanna be the tree instead?” Layla gives a frustrated grunt and tries to wiggle out again. “No? Okay, come here.”
“Wait, I want a picture,” Cady says before she can do anything. Janis stands aside and lets Cady snap a few cute pictures of their little glowing burrito before she picks her back up and unplugs the strand.
Cady watches as Janis walks in a circle around the tree, holding Layla on one shoulder and using her other hand to position the strand of lights in the right place on top of the tree. Using the baby as a spool is not what she had in mind, but is remarkably ingenious.
“Huh,” Cady says. “Clever.”
“Tada,” Janis says, giving Layla a final spin around to free her from the last few lights. “Good job, Lala!”
“My best little decorator,” Cady coos, taking Layla and holding her above her head. “You’re such a good helper!”
Layla giggles and cuddles into her neck when Cady brings her back down. Cady smiles back, kissing her forehead and holding her close. Janis looks over her shoulder and smiles seeing the two of them together. Cady beckons her over, so she goes to join the little impromptu cuddle session.
Leo wakes up in the meantime, stretching and looking around curiously. Janis goes to get her so they can cuddle both twins at the same time.
“Hi, Bumblebee,” Cady coos, kissing Leo’s cheek. “You took a very long nap today, you must’ve been sleepy.”
“Mamamama,” Leo replies with a yawn. Cady beams and holds both twins close.
“Yeah, that’s me,” she chuckles. “My littlest loves. And my big love.”
Janis grins sheepishly and squishes her family in a hug again. “I love you.”
“I love you,” Cady replies quietly, peppering kisses against Janis’ lips. One of the twins gives a cranky whine at being squished, and both begin to wriggle in an attempt to get free. “Oh, shh, you’re fine. Let me love your mommy.”
No dice, another cranky whimper. Cady rolls her eyes lovingly and sets the twins down to play. Janis chuckles and leans in for one more kiss before she goes back to decorating. Cady follows and starts putting the ornaments on. Fragile ones go up high to prevent any baby incidents.
-
“Here, munchkin, put this on the tree,” Cady says, handing Layla a plastic lion ornament and pointing to a branch. Layla helpfully sticks it into the tree. She doesn’t actually hang it from anything, so it just falls off with a thunk. “Yeah, almost! Here, Bee, you try.”
Leo takes the elephant one she’s offered and immediately puts it in her mouth, gnawing on a leg. Cady laughs and lets her get a feel for it before gently pulling it to the tree. Leo carefully puts it on the branch Cady points to and claps for herself.
“Nice job, girls!” Cady laughs. “We’ll make some good decorators out of you yet.”
Janis laughs as Cady fixes the ornaments for the twins while they’re not looking, and finally pulls the angel out of her box. Cady had it made as a surprise for Janis for their first Christmas after they were married. Her dress is made out of little bits of spare fabric from their wedding dresses, and her hands have little lights in them that connect to the ones from the rest of the tree.
“I don’t know if we need her this year,” Janis jokes, holding Leo in her other hand. “Could just stick you up there instead. And we can rotate you and Lala out on shifts.”
“You’re such a dork,” Cady laughs. “How would you even stick them up there?”
“Duct tape,” Janis shrugs, holding Leo as close to the top of the tree as she can get her. “She fits.”
“We’re not sticking our baby on top of the tree,” Cady says, protectively grabbing her daughter and holding her close, even though she knows her wife is joking. “Either of them.”
“Fine,” Janis fake-pouts. “Tree gets a fake angel instead of our real ones.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Janis chuckles. “What do you think, girls? Do you like the angel?”
“Nananana,” Layla babbles, reaching out to taste the angel. Janis gently pulls it away.
“Nice to know you use the same word for angel, snow, banana, nap, and both your grandmothers,” Cady laughs.
“Nananana.” Leo continues.
“You want some ‘nanas? It is past lunch time,” Janis chuckles. “We’ll test the tree first and then feed you little monkeys.”
Cady picks up both babies and stands a good ways away in case of potential disaster. She’s not totally sure what could go wrong, but if anything could, Janis would manage to make it happen somehow.
But, miraculously, all that happens is the tree lighting up in the proper manner and looking even more beautiful than it did a second ago. The twins both shriek excitedly at the new glowy thing they can see.
“I know, right?!” Janis laughs. “We did a good job!”
“Time for a break,” Cady yawns. “I need a nap too.”
“We have time,” Janis hums. “Lunch and a nap.”
“Sounds perfect.”
—-
After doing exactly that, they decide to get a start on some of their outdoor decorations. The twins get bundled in several layers of their warmest clothes and their snowsuits and hats. Janis laughs for a solid ten minutes at the little baby marshmallows she now has on her hands.
Leo is looking curiously at the dancing Santa they usually put on the porch to scare any visitors. It’s cute, but if you’re not expecting the motion it can be startling.
“You like Santa?” Cady chuckles, helpfully scooting it a little closer to the baby so she can get a better look. “He’s gonna bring you so many presents.”
Leo continues looking and eventually reaches out to touch. Cady pops her up on unsteady little legs and coos quietly as her daughter gives the decoration a sweet hug.
Unfortunately, she missed the fact that Janis had already plugged him in. Santa alerts to the motion and lights up, beginning to sing and dance. Leo screams in fright and falls back into Cady’s arms in tears.
“Oh no, baby,” Cady says sadly, trying not to laugh. Leo wiggles into her hold desperately and continues crying into her shoulder. Janis unplugs the Santa and purses her lips.
“First ever traumatic event with Santa in the books,” she jokes weakly. “Poor baby.”
“Shh, snowflake, you’re okay,” Cady hushes, letting Leo cling to her and cry. Janis rubs her back to help comfort her. “It’s okay, we turned Santa off, shh.”
“Eee,” Leo wails, reaching for Janis for comfort. Janis takes over and starts gently rocking her to calm her down.
“Shh, baby girl, I got you,” she murmurs, kissing Leo’s forehead. “I’m sorry, baby, you just wanted to give him a hug, huh? Come here, it’s okay, shh.”
“She’s so upset,” Cady pouts, stroking a careful finger over Leo’s cheek to brush away some tears. “Doesn’t like Santa’s song.”
Janis continues hushing Leo carefully and rocking her around. Leo continues crying and clinging to her in fright. Janis resorts to some desperate measures.
“Au clair de la lune, mon ami Pierrot
Prête-moi ta plume, pour écrire un mot.
Ma chandelle est morte, je n’ai plus de feu.
Ouvre-moi ta porte, pour l’amour de Dieu.
Au clair de la lune, Pierrot répondit
Je n’ai pas de plume, je suis dans mon lit.
Va chez la voisine, je crois qu’elle y est,
Car dans sa cuisine, on bat le briquet.
Au clair de la lune, s’en fut Arlequin
Frapper chez la brune. Elle répond soudain
Qui frappe de la sorte ? Il dit à son tour
Ouvrez votre porte, pour le Dieu d’Amour
Au clair de la lune, on n’y voit qu’un peu
On chercha la plume, on chercha du feu
En cherchant d’la sorte, je n’sais c’qu’on trouva
Mais je sais qu’la porte sur eux se ferma.”
Janis continues crooning her favorite French lullaby to her baby as she gradually calms down; one her father used to sing to her when she was little. Cady grins faintly hearing her wife sing to their baby.
“There we go,” Janis coos when Leo finally calms with a sniffle. “See? Everything’s okay. I got you.”
Janis dries Leo’s little eyes and rests her down by Layla to play. Cady comes up and holds Janis around the waist with a small smile.
“Your voice is so beautiful.”
“Thanks,” Janis says, flushing in embarrassment. Cady smiles wider and tenderly strokes a strand of hair behind Janis’ ear.
“I think the rest of the decorations can wait until tomorrow,” she hums softly, pressing up on her tippy toes and nuzzling her nose against Janis’. “I think… we should go make some hot chocolate and snuggle our babies in front of a fire instead.”
That definitely sounds much better than standing on a snow-covered roof in the cold trying to detangle several strands of lights. Janis kisses her wife soundly before nodding in agreement. “A solid plan. Here.”
Cady takes both twins as Janis passes them to her, and holds them close with a slightly frightened squeal as Janis scoops the lot of them up.
“You’ve been lifting more,” she purrs when they’re safely back on the ground inside. Janis nods with a small smirk. “My big strong lady.”
“I have to be able to lift all my loves,” Janis says. “It’s paying off.”
“I love you.”
“I love you more.”
“I love you most.”
“Aaaaah,” Layla helpfully adds, wanting to join the conversation.
“Oh, yes, we love you too.”
—————
here’s the translation for the lullaby janis sings to leo (if it’s a bit off, i’ve used google translate for this. and also i just googled “french lullaby” and this is one that popped up. so, blame google.)
this is another chapter where their ages aren’t important, so. i imagined janis as ~22 and cady as ~21 but again, y’all do what you want.
enjoy!
————-
“Whatcha doing, Peanut?” Janis chuckles as she enters the living room. Cady is lying on her tummy on the ground and looking out the glass door to the balcony with a magnifying glass.
“It’s snowing!” Cady says. When Janis looks closer, it is indeed flurrying lightly. “I’m looking at all the different shapes of the snowflakes.”
“Oh,” Janis says. She comes to lie next to her, folding her arms in front of her and resting her chin on her hands. “Which one’s your favorite?”
“That one,” Cady says, holding the magnifying glass so they can both see and pointing to one. “But they’re all so pretty.”
“Do you ever wonder if there’s mutants?”
“What?”
“Mutants,” Janis repeats.
“Like… mutant snowflakes?”
“Yeah,” Janis says. “Like. There’s billions and billions of snowflakes that fall every year, and we’re always told they’re all supposed to have six points, but… has anyone really checked? What if one only has five? Or seven?”
Cady blinks at her. “I think you think too much.”
“Look who’s talking, miss PhD in mathematics,” Janis retaliates. “But seriously! There’s only seven billion people on the planet and god knows how many have some sort of genetic… stuff. Surely not every snowflake is exactly perfect.”
“I dunno,” Cady says. “I’ve never really had a chance to get acquainted with them. I’ve never really seen snow.”
“You haven’t?” Janis asks in shock.
“Not really. The only year it really snowed enough to do anything with was junior year, and I was so focused on being a Plastic then,” Cady shrugs. “I’ve never touched it. But so far I think it’s nice.”
“It’s supposed to be cold this year, if we get enough I’ll teach you all the best things about it,” Janis says. “What do you want to do most?”
“I dunno,” Cady says in a tone that tells Janis she definitely knows.
“Aww, you’re embarrassed,” Janis teases. “C’mon, you can tell me.”
“I wanna make a snowman,” Cady mumbles. Janis laughs. “It’s not funny!”
“It is, though,” Janis says, rolling onto her back and pulling Cady on top of her. “You’re so cute. We can absolutely make a snowman if it works out.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, of course,” Janis says. “Everyone should make one at least once, and you didn’t get to when you were little. We’ll make the coolest snowman around.”
“Can we make Olaf?” Cady asks, now very eager. Janis laughs again and runs a hand through Cady’s hair.
“We can sure as hell try,” she chuckles. “What else?”
“I wanna… uh… what’s it called…” Cady murmurs. “Slid…sliding…”
“Sledding?”
“That’s the bitch!” Cady says loudly. Janis bursts out laughing again. “Sledding. I wanna go sledding.”
“We can do that too. Damian has some nice ones, maybe we’ll go with him.”
“And ice skating,” Cady says. “And I wanna take a sleigh ride. And meet Santa.”
“Santa?” Janis smiles. “I can definitely do Santa. We can go to the mall soon, we need to do our shopping anyway.”
“Yay,” Cady says happily. “I love you.”
“I love you too, my little elf.”
“Hey!” Cady huffs. “I’m not an elf!”
“You’re short enough to be,” Janis teases. “Uh oh. Angry Caddy.”
She stands and runs, but Cady is hot on her heels. Janis runs around the apartment as fast as she can. She quickly runs out of territory, and Cady still has her Kenyan instincts. In a split second decision, Janis opens the front door and sprints down the hall.
“Hey!” Cady yells after her, closing their door and running after her girlfriend. She runs past Damian, who just shakes his head with a sigh at their antics and continues carrying their groceries in.
Cady catches up to Janis in the parking lot. Janis continues running, using the last of her energy and breath to get as far as she can. By her own standards, she actually made it quite far.
She finally runs out of steam in their apartment complex’s yard area. Janis pauses to catch her breath and is rapidly tackled to the ground by her small redhead. “Ack!”
“Gotcha,” Cady smirks. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Janis chuckles. Cady helpfully removes herself and helps her up, gently dusting the snow from Janis’ front. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” Cady giggles. The snow picks up again, along with a blustering wind. “It’s even more beautiful out here.”
Janis watches with a fond smile as Cady sticks her arms out to her sides and twirls, looking like a ballerina in a music box. She lets her continue for a second before she gently takes her hand and adjusts her stance so they’re waltzing around in the snow-sprinkled grass.
Cady laughs brightly as Janis spins her out and then back in, and turns her head to kiss Janis’ cheek as her back presses against Janis’ chest. Cady turns around and winds an arm around her girlfriend’s shoulder, cupping her cheek with her other cold hand and pulling her down for a kiss.
The snowflakes melt and mingle on their cheeks as their lips meet over and over. Their toes and fingers go numb with the cold, and the brushing of their lips turns frigid.
“I l-love you,” Cady murmurs through chattering teeth when they break apart to breathe. Janis chuckles and picks her up, kindly removing Cady’s freezing toes from the cold ground.
a note: sometimes their ages just. aren't important to the plot. this is one of them! so. i imagined cady as ~21 and janis as ~22, but y'all can do whatever you want :)
enjoy!
—————-
Janis wakes to a weight on her back and fingers drumming on her cheeks.
"Caddy. It's seven in the morning. Sleep."
"But it's Christmas!" Cady chirps.
"It's December first!"
"I just wanna cuddle," Cady pouts. "Where's your Christmas spirit?"
"About two weeks away," Janis grumbles into her pillow. "C'mere." Cady huffs crankily as Janis shifts, tipping her onto the bed next to her and pulling her into a cuddle. "There. Cuddle and sleep."
"Noooo," Cady whines, but Janis is already latched onto her like an octopus and snoring into her ear. "Fine. You're lucky you're cute when you sleep."
She kisses Janis' nose gently and giggles as it wrinkles before nuzzling into her girlfriend and drifting off to sleep again.
—-
When Janis wakes the second time, Cady is nowhere to be found. "Caddy? Where'd you go?"
"Good morning sleepyhead," Cady chuckles, coming back into the room and handing over a mug of coffee made just the way Janis likes it.
"Thank you," Janis says, voice still rough with sleep as she rubs her eyes and takes it. "You look cute."
"Thanks!" Cady says, putting her hands on her hips with an adorable smile. She really does look cute, decked in her adorable snowman onesie. "It's so soft, feel it."
She holds out a sleeve for Janis to feel, but Janis sneakily puts her cup down and hauls her back on top of her. Cady shrieks in surprise, but quickly cuddles in.
"Let's just stay like this," Janis mumbles into her neck.
"That sounds nice," Cady agrees. "But I have a better idea."
"No, come back," Janis whines when Cady removes herself and reaches for her.
"Just trust me, we can cuddle all day after," Cady coaxes. Janis grumbles crankily as she throws the covers off and goes to her girlfriend. "Get all the pillows and blankets you can carry and meet me in the living room."
"Wh-" Janis tries to ask, getting cut off by a kiss as Cady dashes away.
-
"Oh my god, Janis," Cady laughs when Janis comes staggering out of the bedroom wrapped in their entire bedspread, tipping from side to side under the weight of it. Cady heads over and tugs the sheet away so she can see her face. "Hi."
"Hi," Janis grunts, stumbling her way to the couch and dropping everything.
"I didn't mean all at once, lovey," Cady chuckles.
"You said all I could carry," Janis retaliates.
"I guess I did. Either way it saves time. Come on," Cady says, grabbing about half and opening the door to the balcony.
"Outside? It's cold," Janis says in confusion. Cady plops her pile of blankets on the balcony and comes back to grab more.
"I'll keep you warm," she purrs, opening the door again.
Janis follows in confusion. "What are you scheming?"
"Just trust me," Cady says, beginning to make one of her little nests. Janis hands over more supplies until it's cushy enough for Cady's standards. "There! Now get your cute butt over here and let me love you."
"You think my butt is cute?"
"I think all of you is cute," Cady replies, holding Janis tight against her and wrapping them both in their thickest, warmest blanket. "My little Jellybean."
Janis gives a flustered squeak and hides her face in Cady's chest. Cady laughs and kisses her forehead, bringing a hand up to fiddle with Janis' hair.
"That's nice," Janis mumbles, muffled by Cady's warm skin.
"Don't go to sleep again, we just woke up," Cady murmurs back. Janis groans into her chest.
"Sleepy."
"You're always sleepy," Cady giggles. "I know how to wake you up."
"Oh?" Janis asks interestedly. Maybe it's something nice. Like a morning make out session, those are always fun. Cady holds her hand up and wiggles her fingers ominously. "No."
"I think so," Cady says. Her hand inches towards Janis' neck. Janis squeals and hunches up her shoulders. "I haven't even touched you yet!"
"And you think you're not cute," Cady chuckles as she finally makes contact and wriggles her hand all over Janis' ribs. Janis shrieks and tries to wiggle away, but Cady won't let her go. "You have the best laugh."
"Mercy!" Janis begs, laughing hysterically and trying to grab Cady's hand so she'll stop. "I can't breathe!"
"Okay, okay," Cady giggles. "Can't have you dying on me."
"Like this?" Janis says, rolling over to pin Cady beneath her and going limp.
"Yeah," Cady giggles, wrapping herself around Janis and smiling as Janis kisses the side of her neck. "But with significantly more emotional distress on my part."
"Hmm," Janis hums. "I'll try really hard not to."
"Good," Cady says. "I love you."
Janis props herself up on her elbows and bends down to kiss her. Cady reciprocates eagerly, still clinging to Janis like a little sloth and refusing to let her pull away. She gently runs her tongue along the seam of Janis' lips, and angles her head to deepen the kiss when Janis allows her entry.
They lie there like that for a long time, as the wind blows around them and little snowflakes drift down from the sky. They just hold each other, warmed by their love and able to ignore the cold, tasting the spirit of Christmas on each other's lips.
"I love you too," Janis murmurs when they finally break apart. "I love you so much."
"Kiss me again," Cady says. Janis smirks slightly and cups her neck.
