It was the afternoon of Christmas Eve, and lightly snowing. Anthony watched Sören watching from the window, and put an arm around him.
"It's pretty," Sören said. "It reminds me of Christmas in Iceland."
Anthony kissed the tip of Sören's nose, feeling Sören's nostalgia across their Force bond, aching for him. What was meant to be a three-month vacation had unexpectedly become a lot longer - they weren't leaving Indiana anytime soon. Sören had hoped to visit Iceland for Christmas this year, but of course, that wasn't happening now. They had no idea when, or if, such a trip would be possible.
Anthony gently tried to redirect Sören to happier thoughts. "What was your favorite thing about Christmas in Iceland? You know... besides teasing everyone about the Yule Cat."
Sören grinned. "When I was a kid, I used to play in the snow. It got me out of my aunt and uncle's house for hours and I never really gave it up, even when I was a teenager and people thought I was too old for that. I miss it."
Anthony would walk through fire to cheer Sören up when he was down, but now here was something he could do that was far less of a hassle. "Do you want to go out and play in it?"
Sören threw his arms around him and gave a happy yelp.
"Did I hear playing in the snow?" Ryu had a big smile on his face too. "Can I come along?"
"Sure, if we're going," Anthony said. Hiro yipped. Anthony turned and looked around the room. "Anyone else?"
"I could use some air," DeKalb said.
Yeyette nodded. "It'll be fun." She tugged on Palcë's sleeve. "You should come along."
"I don't... do fun," Palcë said.
Maglor chuckled. "I'll come along for moral support, if that helps?"
Palcë frowned, and gave a resigned little nod.
"You do fun," Sören said to Maglor. "If there had been snow in Valinor, apart from what little bit we could magic up ourselves, you boys would have had a blast. I guess we're making up for it now."
"Shhh, you'll ruin our reputation as bloodthirsty maniacs," Maglor said, laughing harder.
"Oh, fuck that shit." Sören scowled; Anthony thought there was a strong resemblance between Sören and Palcë when Sören frowned like that. "Canon got a lot of things wrong. The Celegorm I remember was a total cinnamon roll, not a villain at all."
"I am very sure Ronald Tolkien was the reincarnation of Beren, and was rather jealous of my brother," Maglor said. "Thought there was competition for Lúthien, never forgave him for it, decided to demonize him. Meanwhile, Celegorm was much more interested in his dog. Er... not like that." He facepalmed, then quickly went on, "He liked hunting, fishing, hiking. Wasn't really room in his life for girls. Married to the outdoors, I guess you could call it. And he was a bit of a good Samaritan, helping travelers in need. I'm guessing he probably rescued Lúthien and it got spun as capturing her."
"He was a good kid," Sören said, looking sad again. He glanced at Dara then. "My sister has good kids, too. Whatcha say, are you coming with us?"
"I thought I would do some last-minute Christmas shopping," Dara said.
"As you know, nearly everyone else has that idea," Nicholas said. "Good luck not getting trampled, let alone finding anything you'd want to buy."
"I make my own luck," Dara said.
Sören snorted. "So like... did one of the Yule Lads hop over to Ireland, and did he start the leprechaun thing? Because..."
"Sounds like you want a snowball fight." Dara narrowed his eyes.
Sören nodded eagerly, a big grin on his face. "Bring it." Sören looked over at Nicholas and Victor. "You guys coming along?"
"I am not much of an outdoors person," Victor confessed. "And Eugène will throw a fit if all the people are gone for long."
"Oof, yeah," Anthony said, remembering the squalling he'd heard when they came back from looking at the Christmas lights around town a few days ago. "Poor thing."
"I'll stay behind as well," Nicholas said, "both to keep you company..." He looked at Victor, who nodded in acknowledgment. "And also because my arthritis acts up out in the cold."
Nicholas took good care of himself, he was very active for a senior - he worked out, he walked, he fenced - but the arthritis had become more of an issue since moving to Indiana, which was significantly colder than London. Anthony felt for him, and gave a sympathetic little frown.
"Perhaps we could play a game of chess," Victor said.
"Yes, a game of chess would be quite welcome," Nicholas said, with a look on his face that said save me from these people wanting me to do silly, undignified things.
"OK, well... remember it gets dark out earlier, so if we're gonna go have a family snow outing, we'd better leave soon," DeKalb said, looking at the clock. "Like, everyone-start-putting-on-your-outerwear-right-now soon."
"Yes, sir," Anthony said, ribbing his friend a little with a mock salute. "We had better hop to it before you get out that megaphone."
"Watch it, Posh Spice."
Sören giggled - Anthony knew he'd walked into that - and Sören was still laughing as they went over to their outerwear. As Sören stooped down to pick up a boot his eyebrows shot up. "What the FUCK?"
Sören showed the boot to Anthony, then they looked at the other boot. Both of Sören's snow boots were filled to the brim with baby potatoes.
Across the room, Dara was shaking with silent laughter and now Yeyette let out a snicker, before she clapped her hand over her mouth. Sören put a hand on his hip and raised an eyebrow.
"You did say that the Yule Lads will put a potato in your shoe if you've been naughty this year," Dara said. "Seems like they think you making all those Irish jokes about me is pretty naughty -"
"You're not exactly disproving your Irishness by putting potatoes in my boots, laddie," Sören said, taking his boots to the kitchen to get the potatoes out.
_
While much of Indiana was flat, parts of Terre Haute and Beauregard were quite hilly. Anthony could feel Sören's wonder across their Force bond as they climbed to the top of a hill and looked down.
"It's almost like Akureyri," Sören said. "Hills... not a lot of forest. Just, you know, no fjords."
Anthony had to. "Are you pining for the fjords?"
Sören elbowed him and nodded.
They'd stopped at a sporting goods store to buy inner tubes and "family size" toboggans which were better suited for one tall adult rather than two average-sized adults or one average-sized adult and a couple kids. DeKalb, in his line of work as a self-described "nature cop" following his departure from the military, knew where the best areas were to play in the snow without being disturbed by onlookers. They were at an abandoned property - a rundown farmhouse in the distance, a patch of frosted bare trees up ahead.
That meant they could use the Force out here, without having to worry about another incident with the Feds. Ryu and Hiro were already using the Force to build a snowman together. Sören and Anthony both smiled at the sight of the young man and his happy dog, in the old-gold glow of late afternoon. DeKalb and Maglor joined Ryu to help build the snowman; Palcë stood off to the side, taking it all in.
Just before Sören could put down his inner tube and climb in it, snowballs hit them both in the back. "HEY!" Sören and Anthony looked over their shoulders and saw Dara, whistling innocently as he rolled a snowball by hand and the Force packed together two more. They went flying in the air without being thrown; Anthony ducked Sören down just in time before a snowball could hit him in the face.
Sören and Anthony went to war against Dara and Yeyette, building snowballs as fast as they could, the snowballs flying fast and furious. Sometimes they dodged, and sometimes they got hit. Then they all got hit, and DeKalb let out a loud whistle.
"If we didn't buy this equipment for nothing, you should use it before it gets dark," DeKalb said, rolling up his coat sleeve a little to tap his watch.
Anthony gave another mock salute and DeKalb gave him the finger before another snowball flew up at him; Anthony ducked and it hit Sören by accident, right in the face.
"Oh no." Anthony felt bad, but he also couldn't help laughing at the grumpy look on Sören's face. He began to brush away the snow. "Are you OK? Are you -"
Suddenly Anthony was Force thrown into an inner tube and he was going downhill, backwards. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA -"
Sören followed, coasting downhill in his inner tube, arms in the air. "WOOHOO!"
From the bottom of the hill, Anthony and Sören watched as Maglor and Palcë each boarded a toboggan and zoomed down. Maglor threw the metal horns and yelled "WOOOOOOOO" and Palcë frowned, but once they crashed into the snowbank at the bottom of the hill, Palcë actually gave a small smile.
Yeyette used the Force to pull up one of the toboggans, and now it was her turn. Sören sent up his inner tube for Dara. Dara looked a little confused, like he wasn't sure it was for him, and Yeyette gave him a shove. "Come on, party pooper. If Palcë can do it..."
Dara smirked as he boarded the inner tube. "Race you."
Yeyette and Dara rode down, with Yeyette in the lead, then Dara pushing ahead. "WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Dara screamed.
Anthony couldn't believe it. He and Sören started cracking up at the sight of ultra-serious, ex-Foreign-Legion Dara, yelling "WHEEEEEE!" in an inner tube. Dara crashed into the snowbank first and bounced up, arms raised in a victory pose.
"Rematch," Yeyette said. She gestured to Sören. "Come on, let's have another contestant."
And then Sören was dragging Anthony up and using the Force to push Anthony's inner tube uphill. Anthony didn't particularly mind, however. He hadn't played in the snow like this since he was a small child... and he hadn't had friends to play with. Neither had Sören, from what he could tell about Sören's background.
He had friends now. He had a family.
Ryu was looking for sticks to adorn the snowman with, and that got Hiro in the mood to play fetch. Anthony smiled, feeling warm fuzzies as he climbed back into the inner tube. He had a memory of Finarfin, giving a pup to Celegorm... walking with his nephew in the grove at his palace and teaching him about the different species of trees and shrubs and flowers, all the different birds Finarfin kept in his menagerie. Letting Celegorm feed the swans. Then, a vignette of Finarfin, Fingolfin and Fëanor taking their kids camping; Fëanor hiking in the woods with a small Celegorm riding piggyback on his shoulders.
Sören was seeing it too, across their bond. Sören reached out and took Anthony's gloved hand in his and squeezed... then once they let go, they dropped down.
They went barreling down the hill, faster, faster, and this time the crash into the snowbank was hard enough that Anthony went flying out of his inner tube... right into Hiro, who fell on top of him. Hiro was not a small dog, and even though Anthony's Force sensitivity made him a bit tougher than the average human, the weight still knocked the wind out of him.
Hiro let out a little whine, blinked, and licked Anthony's face. "Sorry," Hiro said, except it was in a Canadian accent. Sore-ree.
Now it was Anthony's turn to blink. "Wait, what?" Anthony pointed. "Have I gone mad, or..."
"I guess you've never heard a dog talk, eh?" Hiro narrowed his eyes at Anthony as if to say you should know better.
Sören sat there in the snow with his mouth hanging open, and then he tried to speak and could only make noises for a moment or two, which would have been hilarious if Anthony were not in such a state of shock. Finally Sören found his words. "I heard it too." Sören looked at Ryu. "You knew he could talk?"
"Well, of course, he's my dog," Ryu said. Hiro went over to Ryu for pets.
Sören and Anthony looked at each other - Anthony's hair stood on end, a frisson down his spine, and he could hear the unvoiced are you thinking what I'm thinking? Before Anthony could dare to ask, Sören cleared his throat and he said, "So, Ryu, ah... have you ever had, um... strange dreams?"
"I was waiting for the right time to talk to you about all of that." Ryu chuckled. "I guess the time presented itself. Yes, I remember things. Like camping with my father and uncles. We should go camping, you know, sometime this winter. I used to love to go camping in the winter in the woods in Canada -"
And then Maglor hug-tackled him and started giving Ryu noogies, both of them laughing wildly as Ryu thrashed around underneath him. "I had a feeling," Maglor said, hugging him again, fierce and tight, jaw trembling as he teared up - but he was smiling. "I didn't want to say anything, though, and be seen as trying to influence or manipulate you into identifying a certain way..."
Ryu hugged him back. "It's OK, Káno. I understand. I... was hesitant to say something, too. Didn't want you guys to think I was some kind of impostor..."
Sören and Anthony got up and joined in the hug. Sören tried to make words again and now he could only cry, but Anthony knew it was happy tears. Anthony shed a few silent tears himself - Finarfin had loved his brothers' children like his own, and Celegorm saw him as being a second father.
"It's a Christmas miracle," Sören quipped, able to make words again. "I guess we're in a fucking Hallmark movie or something. Or maybe a Disney movie, with the talking dog."
"Yeah, a Disney movie about a guy who burned a lot of ships and whose sons took an oath to murder people if they got in the way of three jewels," Anthony snarked.
Sören used the Force to get him in the right shoulder with a snowball; Anthony laughed harder. "Disney Princess Finarfin over here. Besides, like Káno said earlier, canon demonized us. We had reasons for doing what we did. And my Turcafinwë was no murderer."
"The Cinnamonrollion," Anthony said, not able to resist the bad pun.
Maglor facepalmed, but was laughing too. "Hells, Ara, that's terrible."
"Cinnamon rolls?" Hiro came back over, tongue lolling, tail wagging. He yipped. "Will there be sausage rolls and popcorn balls, too?"
_
Victor and Nicholas were still playing chess when they got back. "I'll go fire up the grill," DeKalb said, taking off his outerwear. "Anyone want to join me?"
"I'd like to," Ryu said, then he gave Hiro a pointed look and said, "I don't think it's sausages."
Hiro gave a little whine.
Eugène was perched on the arm of Victor's chair like he was studying the match - after what Anthony had seen earlier, he wondered if Eugène was that way too.
There was, indeed, so much to wonder about now.
Anthony was temporarily distracted by dinner - grilled steak and vegetable skewers, not the most traditional Christmas Eve dinner but still delicious. He was further distracted by Ryu and Sören clamoring to watch Christmas movies. "Let's get in our pajamas and make a blanket fort for it to be extra cozy," Sören said.
Sören looked adorable in his Pusheen "Home is where my butt is" T-shirt and blue plaid pajama pants, with bunny slippers, carrying the rainbow tie-dye bunny he'd bought at Build-A-Bear. And Maglor looked more delicious than he had any right to, wearing a pair of black silk pajamas like Nicholas's. Anthony's cock stirred at the memories of the way Maglor, grown up, joined in his father's and uncles' fun. They had been keeping their distance since Maglor was rescued, but he was getting harder to resist. That seemed to be mutual, with Maglor stealing glances at Sören, Anthony and Nicholas every now and again.
There was popcorn to go with the movie, and every time Anthony's fingers brushed Maglor's in the bowl, a shiver went through him. After a few rounds of this, Anthony saw Sören crinkle his nose and bite his lower lip - a sign that Sören, too, was feeling the sexual tension in the air.
But they didn't want to make things weird in front of the others; Sören tapped Maglor on the shoulder and, in what Anthony could tell was an attempt to defuse the sexual tension, Sören asked, "Where's your unicorn? We can't have a proper blanket fort pajama party if you don't have your unicorn."
Maglor raised an eyebrow, then quietly got up. A few minutes later he came back with his purple stuffed unicorn - and Nicholas's blue stuffed dragon. Nicholas narrowed his eyes, but took the dragon from Maglor. Sören gave him an innocent smile that wasn't innocent at all. Anthony chuckled as he nibbled on popcorn.
A few minutes later Sören used the Force to make his bunny hop over to Maglor's unicorn. "Hi," Sören squeaked. "What's your name?"
"Er," Maglor said.
"Er isn't a name." Sören gave Maglor a look. "You didn't name him yet?"
"Well, no..."
"It's been days. He needs a name."
Maglor facepalmed, laughing. "People are trying to watch A Muppet Christmas Carol..."
"Jæja, and your critter doesn't have a fucking name, Kanafinwë."
Says the guy who named all his kids -finwë, Anthony snarked to himself, eating more popcorn.
I heard that, from the guy who named his kid Goldilocks. Sören's lips quirked with amusement, then he turned back to Maglor. "I'm waiting," he said in the bunny's high-pitched voice, using the Force to make the bunny tap its foot.
Maglor laughed harder. "Hells..."
"Hells!" Sören clapped his hands together. "That's a good name."
Maglor double facepalmed. Anthony almost sprayed his popcorn.
Then Sören leaned forward to look at Nicholas, and waved. Nicholas rolled his eyes.
"You need to name your dragon, too," Sören said.
Nicholas glared. "Shan't."
"Shan't is a weird name, but OK," Sören said. Then he grinned. "I suppose it's better than Hair Commander." He shoved popcorn in his mouth as Nicholas's glare intensified.
Nicholas looked at Anthony. "What are we going to do with him?"
"I have some ideas," Anthony said, smirking.
"I bet," Maglor muttered under his breath.
When A Muppet Christmas Carol was over and they were trying to decide what to watch next, Sören got up and said, "Bathroom." But he took a longer time than usual, and when Sören came back he had his hands behind his back, whistling innocently. Sören thrust a package at Maglor, that was wrapped in red paper with Santa-hat-wearing assorted dogs on it, with a red-and-green plaid bow. "I thought you should open one of your gifts early." Sören attempted a wink that was more of a clumsy blink. "For putting up with me, and all."
"Oh, Atya, I don't put up with you." Maglor grabbed Sören and gave him a hug, before shoving Sören down next to him. He planted a kiss on the top of Sören's head; Anthony got the sense that Maglor wanted to give him a proper kiss, but he was holding back. They all were. Maglor shook the package before he opened it.
Inside was a set of KISS action figures about half the height of the purple unicorn. "I know you like KISS," Sören said, "and I know you've lost a lot of things with... everything that happened, like some of your band memorabilia, so I got you KISS dolls..."
"Action figures," Maglor corrected. He hugged Sören again. "That was very sweet of you, thank you."
Maglor looked ready to cry, and that made Sören tear up too - Anthony found himself getting a little choked up as well. Maglor opened the box, and Sören took Ace Frehley and made him straddle the unicorn's back. Maglor rolled his eyes, but shook with laughter.
"They should go on adventures," Sören said. "Seems unfair to make your KISS dolls perform all the time..."
"You are not taking my KISS dolls on trips." Maglor corrected himself, looking sheepish. "Action figures."
Anthony snickered and Maglor gave him a look. Anthony winked.
Then Maglor paused, looking a bit troubled. That gave Anthony cause for concern - Maglor could feel things in the Song - but then Maglor looked at the cat, who was playing with the wrapping paper. "This wasn't clothing," Maglor said. "Is the Yule Cat going to eat me now?" His concerned look became a teasing smile.
Eugène came trotting over, tail high in the air, and looked Maglor up and down. Then he said, "I won't eat you, if I can eat the hard food instead."
The cat could talk too. The cat had a Parisian French accent, like Yeyette's. Anthony had seen a lot of strange things in his lifetime, and especially over the last four months, but this was insane.
"Yes," Yeyette said, nodding. "He can talk. I didn't say anything before now - though my partners knew about it - because, well..." Yeyette made a vague hand gesture. "It's one thing to say some of us are reincarnated elves, it's one thing to say meth heads are turning into Orcs out here, another thing to say 'my cat talks and he's bilingual.'"
"That's... that's nice." Anthony immediately facepalmed, feeling like an idiot; "nice" was not the word he was going for.
"I'm very nice," Eugène said, and began preening. "Or else you'd all be dead. Right, Maman?"
"Spoken like a true member of the family." Yeyette used the Force to bring over the cat's treat bag.