Fluffcember 2024: Cold Turkey | Rayllum & Sorvus & Clauderry Callum is determined to ask Rayla to be his girlfriend this Winter Break. But if he can't even start a fire, how is he supposed to create the perfect moment? Soren has decided to stay on campus this Christmas, but with Rayla and Callum as his only company, he's starting to feel like a third wheel. Except maybe it's not just the three of them left on campus after all. Meanwhile Claudia is trying to have a nice Christmas with her family, but maybe her family isn't at home...
Viren glanced from his phone back to the tupperware of cold spaghetti, then to the phone again. He poked absently at the mass of cold noodles and congealed sauce. It had split into red blobs of tomato and a thin, watery orange liquid. Stabbing into it with a fork, he lifted a clump and inspected it. He couldn’t remember making spaghetti. So either Claudia had made this while she was here, or it was very old.
He took a tentative sniff as the doorbell rang. Setting the fork down, he pushed the chair back.
“Give me a moment!” Viren called, stepping into his slippers and shuffling down the hall.
He didn’t know who it could be. Certainly not Soren, not after yesterday. Perhaps Claudia had changed her mind about speaking to him?
“Viren.” Harrow smiled at him as he opened the door. “May I join you?”
“Ah. Harrow, yes, of course.” he stepped aside, letting his friend go past him and into the house.
Viren closed the door behind him, turning around to find Harrow holding out a tupperware he’d brought with him.
“I brought some leftovers. I know it’s not much.”
“Thank you.” Viren took it. “So then… is that all?”
“What?” Harrow raised an eyebrow, then laughed. “No. Not until I’m sure you’ve eaten it.”
He led the way into the kitchen, Viren trailing after him. “So… how did it go with Soren?”
Viren sighed. “My daughter doesn’t want to speak with me and my son hates me. It went how you might expect. You could have warned me he was there.”
Harrow winced. “Yes. I’m sorry. I knew how things were between the two of you, I wanted him to feel safe. I didn’t want to betray his trust.”
Viren let out a harsh laugh. “You wanted him to feel safe so you hid him from me. His father.”
“You know that’s not the way I meant it.” Harrow said, taking the tupperware when Viren made no move to do anything with it. He took out a tray and began scooping the leftovers onto it before sticking it in the microwave.
Viren sat back down at the table with a sigh. “I am aware of how you meant it.”
Harrow sat down across from him. “What did he say?”
“Apparently I have hurt him, somehow. And broken our family.” Viren informed his friend.
“So what are you going to do?” Harrow asked, patiently.
“What would you have me do? I believe he and his mother have made it clear that I have already done more than enough.”
“That’s not the Viren I know.”
“Perhaps I am not the man you once thought you knew.” Viren said, propping his elbows on the table and clasping his hands before himself.
“He’s in there someplace.” Harrow assured him, getting up and taking the tray out of the microwave as it beeped. He split it onto two plates, pushing one across the table to him.
Viren poked the mass of congealed mashed potatoes and the few pieces of dried out turkey that were probably still cold in the center.
“So, what are you going to do?” Harrow prompted again, somehow already halfway through his plate.
“Nothing.”
“No creative solutions?”
“This isn’t my career, Harrow. It’s my family.”
“Which is all the more reason to try.” Harrow pushed. “If there’s one thing I know about you, Viren, it's that you would do anything for your family.”
“I would.”
“Well? Did Soren… send you anything?”
“So that was you, then.” Viren sighed. He picked up his phone again, staring at the screen. The phone number, website link, and the message from his son. Just consider it.
“He asked me for the information.” Harrow said, gently. “What did you say?”
“Nothing, yet.” Viren put his phone back down. “Lissa and I tried counseling. It didn’t work.”
“It might help you and Soren.”
“I doubt that.”
“It might help Soren.” Harrow said.
Viren stabbing his fork into a piece of turkey before looking up at his friend again. “He’s already seeing someone about me, isn’t he?”
Harrow rubbed at his beard. “He said it’s helping.”
Viren sighed, burying his face in his hands. “Where did I go so wrong?”
“Do you actually want me to answer that question?”
“Stop being such a therapist right now.” Viren sighed. “I could just use a friend.”
“I think you could use both.” Harrow said, getting up and placing his now empty plate in the sink. He looked back at him, leaning on the counter. “If Soren thinks family counseling could help him, then shouldn’t you try it, even if you don’t think it will? Isn’t that the very thing he’s asking you to do?”
Viren wrinkled his nose. “I don’t see how both my children telling a stranger how much they hate me while I sit there is going to help us.”
“That’s not how counseling works.”
“That’s how it felt with Lissa.”
“That was one bad experience, Viren. Don’t let it shape your entire life.”
Viren sighed, glancing back over at his phone. He picked it up.
Viren: Would Claudia be present?
The little bubble appeared to tell him Soren was typing almost immediately, vanished, then returned.
Soren: yeah
Viren: I’ll give them a call and see about setting up an appointment.
Viren: I don’t know if I could have your mother be present.
Soren: that’s fine
Soren: thx
Viren stared at the final message until Harrow walked around the table to see what he was looking at. His friend clapped a hand on his shoulder.
“See? If you listen, and you make a gesture, they see it.”
“I don’t think our problems are solved just because he thanked me for something.” Viren said, still staring at the phone.
“No.” Harrow admitted. “But isn’t it something?”
“Yes.” Viren said. “Yes, it is.” his finger hovered over the message, hesitantly. Then he clicked on it quickly, reacting with a heart before he could overthink it. Harrow smiled at him. Viren set the phone facedown on the table again.
“Was that so bad?”
“Oh, stop being so smug.” Viren said, returning to his food. It had gotten cold again.
Harrow sat down across from him, that same smile on his face.
“You’re not being any less smug.” Viren informed him.
“How do you feel?”
“...Better.” Viren admitted. “I doubt it will accomplish anything but-”
“It feels nice to have a solution?” Harrow offered.
“Yes.” Viren agreed. “A way forward. A different path.”