A very happy holidays to all who celebrate! And a safe and happy Thursday to those who don’t!
I wrote a holiday short for @preg-vancy with our blorbos Alev & Vera and they gave me permission to share their gift. So enjoy! 💚
The air was thin and crisp outside as flurries of snow rushed and whipped down the street. Racing each other in a jovial swirling foot race toward the frozen beach. Everything was quiet as the blizzard outside wrapped the town in a thick blanket of white as most at this hour were peacefully sleeping through the night, safe and warm in their homes. Across the township, there were no windows lit by this hour, except for the faintest flicker of light one would have to squint through the blowing snows to see from the streets.
Coming from the town’s only humble restaurant that had long since closed for the night hours prior. Inside, a roaring fire had been lit in the fireplace, popping and crackling, filling the silence of the dark venue and giving it a hint of life still, even after hours. Though the blaze didn’t sit alone as the one who had lit it never strayed far from its warming glow.
A mug of something spiced with cinnamon and clove let off a soft vapour of delicate steam. Rising and vanishing up into the air in a much more demure manner than the strong winds rushing past and battering against the windows outside.
Holding the mug thoughtfully in both strong but caring hands the same deep red colour as the contents of the cup. A man in his thirties sat on the well worn sofa that faced the lively fireplace, surrounded by a pair of matching armchairs without bodies to occupy them at this hour. A thick, woollen knit blanket wrapped around his shoulders and held him like a hug as it curled around his body and draped over his legs. Obviously more for comfort than warmth as the flame-like nature of his hair flickered faintly, almost as if in conversation with the fire he was gazing into. Suggesting that he had no problems of his own with the cold.
His slippered feet were half curled under himself as he lounged on the sofa propped up on one arm, in his soft burgundy bathrobe. Resting the bottom of the mug against his pyjama-clad baby bump, which would twitch and quiver every so often as the twins would shift and stretch in his ever growing womb, and continue to fight for space for another three months yet. But for tonight they only sought to disturb the cider in their father’s hands, and make him let go of the cup to rub his heavily rounded belly and comfort them instead.
He barely glanced upward as overhead a creak in the floorboards echoed throughout the quiet dining room. If not the old building settling itself against the elements battering at its walls. Then footsteps, he presumed, belonging to his equally expectant beloved, only nine weeks behind himself. More than likely waking in the middle of the night to find her way to the bathroom half-asleep through the darkness. He put the idle thought out of his mind, almost too efficiently when a door connecting the restaurant’s back hallway up to the apartment above slowly creaked open.
“‘lev?” A soft half-asleep voice murmured out his name. Alev startled, nearly spilling his cider; and pushed himself up on one arm to sit up just enough to look toward the doorway where she was standing. Leaning up against the doorway for support and squinting through the darkness to get her eyes to focus on him through sleep and without her glasses on hand. “What’re you doing up down here?” She asked.
“I couldn’t sleep but I didn’t want to wake you…” With the bouts of pregnancy induced insomnia they’d both been going through over the past few months. They had been giving each other plenty of grace and understanding when or if the other managed to fall asleep, and an unspoken rule not to wake the other unless it was completely necessary.
“I rolled over and you were gone. It was cold in bed without you.” Her lower lip puckered out into a sweet little pout that he couldn’t resist and Alev gently patted the spot next to him for her to come join him by the fire. “Then I came out to the living room but you weren’t there either.”
“I’m here now, Vera. Come sit,” he gently encouraged her over and Vera nodded. Her slippered feet padded along the hardwood floor toward the blurry glow of his locks until she managed to wander-waddle her way through the darkness and feel her way along the back of the sofa until she found her way to her seat. With one hand on top of her heavy belly, Alev could hear Vera let out a soft ‘oof’ as she lowered herself down next to him. Bringing her feet up off the floor like he did, she leaned into him and rested her head against the side of his own, warm comforting bump as she continued to lovingly cradle hers. “I just thought, maybe a fire would be nice, seeing as I probably wasn’t going to be getting to sleep anytime soon. The background noise is good for thinking. Apple Cider?”
“What were you thinking about? Only if you feel like talking about it of course…” Vera looked up at her beau as he stretched out the oversized blanket to wrap around them both and settled his arm around her shoulders. Her nose wrinkled with an apprehensive expression as he held the mug toward her and she reluctantly took it in her hands. The mug was just as pleasantly hot to the touch as Alev was, and certainly smelled delicious. “Alcohol?” Despite knowing him far better than that, she still had to ask rather than assume, just in case.
“Just cider, no alcohol,” he promised. Satisfied by his confirmation, Vera nodded and sat up just enough so she could safely bring the mug to her lips and take a sip. And Alev watched her eyes fall closed as the taste of the winter spices and citrus washed over her palette and settled into a pleasant warm feeling in her chest. Though she was quick to hand the mug back to him so that she could curl back up to his side.
“I was thinking about the future again. Not- in an anxious way this time. Just, how by this time next year there will be six of us and they’ll be nine and seven months old by then. This will be our last winter festival together where it’s just the two of us. Our first holiday engaged to each other AND our last winter holiday before we’re really married…big time married I mean- In front of our friends!” he quickly clarified before he could feel the frown start to form on Vera’s face, absolutely not about to discredit their beautiful elopement.
“I’ve been thinking about that a lot too lately,” she admitted, “if you don’t mind me sharing?” Her eyes flickered from the flames in the fireplace to the flaming gemstone on her ring finger. The twilight fire topaz passed from Alev’s great grandmother, eventually down to her from his mother, her new mother-in-law, the thought still made her giddy just thinking about it. Married. She was a wife. Alev’s wife! She tilted her head to look up at him and he nodded in approval.
They both closed their eyes to imaging their future together few the years as Vera described what she saw in her mind.
The entire family coming down to Solarhill for the babies’ first Christmas. Matching red and white onesies for all four of them as they lay on their tummy time rug to watch the twinkling tree for the first time with utter fascination. While the older adults sat with something festive to drink to talk and fawn over the infants.
The next year and the year after that, everyone is a little bit older. Enlisting the help of the quads to each set a false candle in the windows to help illuminate the block and grant anyone walking by a safe passage on their journey. Vera filling the house with the smell of fresh baking at all times. Even enlisting the help of some of the children in her task, to a variety of chaotic mixed results at the hands of her toddlers.
Another year after that, in the comfortable darkness like they were tonight. She could already see herself and Alev sitting together like they were now. Talking about how big the kids were getting and getting teary eyed over how they were already in pre school. Decorating the tree together as a family with old ornaments from over the years; and new decorations made of paper and felt from daycare, each one a little misshapen or scribbled over in marker but still special just the same in Vera’s heart.
And in the years further ahead, as the times all blurred together with how far off they seemed yet still crept idly forward one day at a time. How she still wished to do more yet: travelling home for the holidays to Crow’s Nest to be with Alev’s family, spending warm nights inside playing games. Parties with their neighbours and friends where everyone would come over and have an unforgettable evening together. The big elaborate feasts with braised meats, wine, pomegranate, and spiced roasted vegetables. Mulled wine and ciders to enjoy sitting around a blazing fire every night leading up to Christmas as they talked about the past year and wished for good things in the to come. Teaching the littles how to use their magic safely to light real candles and fires in the fireplace to celebrate. And special traditions that were all uniquely ‘them’ as Vera and Alev tried to blend their cultures and make something that showed off where they both came from.
As the pair both opened their eyes and slowly came back to the present moment, the fire had already begun to die down and the mug of cider had long since been emptied. In the growing silence that replaced the crackling and popping of wood in the hearth. The wave of exhaustion Alev had been searching for was finally beginning to hit amidst the peace and hope that warmed his chest after hearing his beautiful wife lay out the perfect future for them. And for their babies who were starting to grow especially restless by how long he had been sitting still by now. He could hear a soft giggle behind Vera’s smiling lips as she felt it too when one of the squirming kicks thumped gently against her cheek. Then watched as her curious hand pulled up his pyjama shirt to expose his bare bump to the chill of winter’s air.
“You be good in there,” she whispered to his belly. Holding herself up on one elbow so that she could turn over to plant a soft kiss over where the kicking and nudging was. While her free hand left her own bump to caress his sensitive middle and try and settle his pair of freeloaders. “You’ve been keeping papa up way too late this week, we need to get him back to bed before he starts to fade out and falls asleep down here, don’t we?”
Through the dim light surrounding them and Vera without her glasses to see his features up close, Alev was thankful that she couldn’t see how hard he was blushing or the tears that still piqued at the corners of his eyes after her touching monologue; fully encapsulated her vision of their future together that he had secretly always dreamed of having long since before they’d even met.
The arm he’d wrapped comfortingly around her shoulder as they cuddled shifted downward to rest on the side of her bump while she showered his in affection. Idly rubbing her expectant middle as he fought back a yawn and promptly failed.
“See babies? Let’s go get him up to bed.” Vera looked up at Alev and he smiled warmly down her, the pair reaching to share one last affectionate kiss by firelight and it felt like sparks flew between them.
Burning just as bright as they day they met and set to last as an eternal flame forevermore.
“I just…may need some help getting up first.”
