This time, it’s not someone’s Revan, it’s @sovonight ‘s exile! Her name is Cela Pace and Y’ALL. I could go on and on about how much I love sovo’s content. Their art is soooo good and their exile is so well fleshed out. And yes, you caught me, HER EXILE X ATTON CONTENT IS SUPREME. It’s just pure and utter brilliance. Anyway, I couldn’t help myself, I just had to paint Cela.
Rita Calhoun (previously x fem!reader)
A piece of the Exile Collection. A follow up to A New Leaf.
Covers the “making gingerbread” square for @cptnrogersevans bingo
Warnings: minor language, fluff, family cuteness, minor mention of past hurt/angst.
Rita was doing her best not to trip over the probably far too many bags she was carrying as she scurried between the elevator and her apartment door. She was definitely later than she’d planned, and definitely later than she’d said she would be. Luckily, there were only sounds of Christmas music and laughter coming through the door as she pushed it open, Olivia appeared to be in the kitchen, topping up what appeared to be a glass of wine, glancing toward the door.
“Was starting to think you got lost.” She teased in greeting and Rita let out a huff of a laugh, dropping a couple of bags on the table inside the door as she stepped out of her shoes.
“I am so sorry.” She shuffled out of her coat, doing her best to actually hang it on one of the hooks, “it was way crazier out there than I thought it would be.”
“It’s fine.” Olivia replied, nodding toward the living room, “they’ve been having the time of their lives with that new Switch game.”
“God…” Rita let out a soft sigh, thanking Liv for the glass of wine she slid across the island, “Liv…honestly, you’ve been such a fucking godsend these past couple of years, I’m pretty sure whatever I get you for Christmas this year needs to be bigger than your paycheque.” She hummed over a sip of wine, “any chance you’re in the market for a new car?”
Olivia barked out a laugh, “have a company car, remember?”
“What about Noah?”
“Rita…he’s fourteen!”
“So?” She shrugged, “can’t you get an early permit at that age?”
“Does Lexi have one?”
“No. She’s got access to the car service, and is a year younger. Besides, it’s useless to drive in this city.”
“Exactly my point.” Liv laughed again, shaking her head at Rita’s usual over the top-ness when it came to gift giving, “how about, for now, I’ll settle for those kits? And we can discuss a theatre trip or something after the holidays?”
“Sounds perfect.” Rita smiled, shifting through the couple of grocery bags she tugged up to the island, “I got a couple of different themes, wasn’t sure what Noah or Amanda’s girls would want.”
“Thank you.” Liv gave her a warm smile before turning to the kids, grabbing Noah’s attention to say bye to his friend. As the two of them left Lexi bounded up to the kitchen,
“I’m starving! Did you bring dinner?”
“Dinner?! Me? I thought you were cooking.” Rita teased back, wrapping an arm around the nearly thirteen year old who rolled her eyes in response, but accepted the hug and kiss placed on the top of her head. “And of course I brought dinner pumpkin.” She kissed her head again, “go wash your hands and help me set the table?”
“Course.” Lexi shot her a gleaming smile as she darted off down the hall and Rita couldn’t help but smile as she watched her go, beginning to pull out containers of food.
She was amazed at how much Lexi had grown over the years since Rita had adopted her, although, she came from a very broken and technically abusive home. While she herself hadn’t endured anything physical, the neglect and emotional components were there, it was only when she finally ended up in the SVU squad room, her case rolling across Rita’s as a pro-bono for family court when Lexi was eight that Rita realized that maybe there was more purpose to her life than mourning you and defending criminals. Together, she and Lexi and helped move each other through their individual grief of Rita losing you, the love of her life, and Lexi coping with the loss of her parents.
The holidays had been a tough point, especially the first Christmas together, where all Rita wanted was to shower Lexi with as many gifts and festive experiences that she could, but knew better. She was constantly seeking advice from Olivia, and they’d become much closer friends over the past five years. It was three years into Lexi’s adoption, when she was eleven that Rita finally came fully clean and explained what had happened to you, well, to the most appropriate that she thought she should to someone Lexi’s age. Over the past two she’d gotten more details whenever the girl had asked, Rita knowing that now she could handle it.
By now, the two of them had completely settled into a rhythm of helping each other out around the house on a daily basis, and fully knew exactly what the other expected when it came to specific holidays. Rita let Lexi host (supervised) Halloween and birthday parties at the apartment, and always let her invite a couple of her closest friends out to the Hamptons for the fourth. They spent Christmas just the two of them, occasionally Rafael and Lucia joining them (usually at Lexi’s insistence that she didn’t want Rita to burn the place down), and New Year’s Eve was spent with the found family that the squad and all the kids provided. They truly had taken things that were small and broken and patched them all up, making them happy and glowing once again.
When it came to Christmas, there were some more unique traditions that they’d developed as they’d opened up to each other and the way they’d celebrated the holiday in the past. The mantle above the t.v held stockings for the two of them, but also one for you, and one for Lexi’s late Mom. Usually they stayed empty, minus a sealed letter or two, merely a symbol of what used to be and whom they still loved. Rita had noticed that every year Lexi had popped a little note at the least into your stocking, she never read them, letting the girl keep her privacy, but she appreciated the sentiment, and started to return the favour once she’d picked up on it. The letters for you went into a memory box Rita kept stashed in her closet, filled with the memories that she refused to give up, just holding onto the little piece of you that she had left.
Her eyes were pulled from the mantle when Lexi padded back into the room, peering into the take out containers,
“What’cha get?”
“Well…” Rita smiled, pulling down a couple of plates, “it is Saturday, so I figured some Chinese would hit the spot, don’t you think?”
“Sounds amazing.” Lexi replied with a muffled voice, a piece of ginger chicken already in her mouth that Rita chuckled at.
A little bit of small talk took over as Lexi updated Rita on her day, and how she absolutely demolished Noah at two of the games they’d played. They plated up dinner and got settled in at the table, Rita laughing at the story Lexi was telling. She updated the older woman on her school’s Christmas plans, the classroom party, and her first official school dance, although she wasn’t sure if she was actually excited about that or not yet. Rita assured her, that as long as she stuck along with her friends, she should have a good time, and to not worry about it, school dances were always overrated anyways. Lexi replied that she would much rather spend a night at the arcade playing games than fretting over dancing with stupid boys and Rita said a silent thank you to whatever higher power was up there. She’d barely begun to adjust to being a parental figure she certainly didn’t want to deal with Lexi wanting to date yet.
“What’s in the other bags?” Lexi asked, her gaze trailing over them as she helped Rita load the dishwasher.
“Well you said last year you wanted gingerbread, and we do remember how much of a disaster that was, right?”
“You tried to make it from scratch, what did you expect?” She teased and Rita laughed again, shaking her head at the smirk on the girl’s lips.
“Well I chose the cowards way out this year.” Slipping the rest of the leftovers into the fridge, she rinsed her hands before moving over to the bags, pulling out a variety of boxes, “I know you’re getting a little old for the princess stuff now, but I figured Jesse and Billie might want some of those ones, so I just got a little bit of everything.”
“No…I love it.” Lexi shot her a grin, “besides, you can never be too old for princesses, can you?”
“You certainly can’t.” Rita smiled, smoothing back at Lexi’s hair, “do you want to do them tonight?”
“Can we?!”
“Of course.” She chuckled, pressing a soft kiss to her hair, ever so thankful that she was able to hold onto as much childlike innocence as she could.
“I’m gonna kick your ass at this.” Lexi smirked, grimacing at the scoff Rita let out.
“Whoa…swear jar…” she gestured and Lexi huffed, tugging a quarter out of her pocket and tossing it in, causing Rita to raise a brow.
“It was only a little one!”
“You drive a hard bargain kid.”
It didn’t take long for the kitchen table to be covered in gingerbread house pieces, candy, frosting and the like. And it didn’t take much long after that for Lexi’s warning to be completely true, although, no one was surprised. While Rita did sometimes have a knack for baking, she lacked the patience that creative and steady handed things like this took. Lexi was already intricately decorating the roof of her house when Rita’s decided to fall apart for the third time and she let out a sigh.
“Told ya.” The girl teased, licking a swirl of icing off her finger.
“You’ve always been an impeccable artist.”
“Thank you.” She smiled, “and hey, don’t worry about it, we can snack on yours instead.”
“Oh and I supposed you’ve got more plans for tonight?”
“It’s not that late yet.” She pouted lightly, “can we watch a Christmas movie?”
“How am I supposed to say no to that face?”
“Yay!” She bounded up from the table, starting to head toward the living room.
“Hey! Wash those hands! I don’t need this entire apartment sticky.”
“Yes M’am.” Lexie called back nearly tauntingly as she retreated to the kitchen to do as asked (and snag a couple pieces of Rita’s destroyed gingerbread house onto a plate).
Lexi made the choice of watching Elf, and as much as that would never be Rita’s choice, she would always agree to whatever the younger girl wanted, especially at the holidays. She cherished the way that Lexi still would snuggle into her side, letting her arm wrap around her, she knew with the teenage years approaching there wouldn’t likely be much more of this left. She’d take what she could get now, even if it meant sitting through shitty movies and letting Lexi indulge in far too much sugar. About halfway through the movie Lexi let out a little yawn, no doubt from a sugar crash before her sleepy voice broke the semi silence of the room.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Of course. You always can, you know that.”
“Should I still just be calling you Rita?”
“Pumpkin, you can call me whatever you’d like.” Rita titled her head down, stroking softly at Lexi’s hair, noticing it the way her brow was furrowed, despite her attention still being on the movie.
“Noah calls Auntie Liv Mom. He’s adopted like I am.”
“I think that’s a little different sweetheart. Noah never really met his parents, Olivia adopted him when he was still a baby. You very much know and love your Mom.”
“But I love you too. A lot.” She twisted her head up to look at Rita, “and you’re the one that saved me, that’s taking care of me.”
“And I love you to the moon and back.”
“I just think you deserve more than just a first name for that.” She shrugged, turning her attention back to the t.v, “that’s all. Liv gets Auntie Liv, I feel like you should be like, Mommy Rita or something.”
“You don’t think that sounds a little juvenile?”
“I’unno.” She shrugged again and Rita chuckled, tickling at her side softly, pulling a giggle out of her before she kissed the side of her head.
“What’d’ya say we brainstorm over the next little bit, try and find something that works for both of us? Hmm?”
“Sounds like a deal.” Lexi snuggled deeper into the embrace, “I love you. Thank you for the gingerbread houses.”
“Your welcome pumpkin. I’m glad you liked them. And I love you too.”
Another Revan...er wait, Exile (left) AND Revan (right). These two belong to @oodlesofd00dles ! And I love them. Especially Doran (exile) because they are are very cute to me. There, I said it.
