There are some days when all I really want is a little peace and quiet, and to be left alone by everyone except for Rhua. Well, actually most of the time it's one of those days. Every single day of the Christmas season is definitely one of those days. So opening the door to our house and getting hit by a wall of sound is not one of my favorite ways to come home on Christmas Eve, and Rhua knows it.
That was why I wasn't terribly surprised to see that Evilee's car was sitting on the street when I looked back after opening the door. Rhua had better taste than to be blasting Christmas music in the house, but Evi was never quite that considerate. So, I took a deep breath, tried to keep from throwing a bolt of magical energy into the room to shut the music up easily, and stepped into the wall of sound.
At first it sounded just like random noise, and that wouldn't have surprised me much. I didn't understand Evi's taste in music at all. But then, after realizing that it was just so noisy because she had the volume on Rhua's stereo turned up as high as it went, I realized there were words in the noise. It took me a few seconds to realize what the words were though.
Feliz Navidad, Feliz Navidad
Prospero ano y felicidad
Feliz Navidad, Feliz Navidad
Prospero ano y felicidad
I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
From the bottom of my heart
I finally made my way to the stereo, by keeping two blocks of air held solid over my ears, and punched the power button. I let the magic fade then and sighed in relief. Just then, Evi came running into the room, a ladle in her hand and looking upset.
She had on a short red velvet dress trimmed with fake white fur, to be like a skimpy Mrs. Claus outfit. There was a matching hat on her head. She had the black parts of her oddly mottled hair dyed red and the blonde parts white, so that her hair looked like a broken candy cane more than anything else. She had on black boots and an apron that read "Kiss me, I'm naked." The upset look on her face faded as she saw me glaring at her.
"Hi Daddy!" she exclaimed, launching herself at me to pick me up and hug me. I growled at her to put me down, and she did, laughing slightly. "Why'd you turn off my music?"
"Don't call me that," I said peevishly, flattening my pants, which she had wrinkled when she picked me up. "And I turned that stuff off because it was annoying and painful. I like being able to get in the house without having to walk against a wall of sound you know."
"Aww, you're no fun…Saka," she pouted. "I was just listening to some nice holiday music while I baked."
"I don't care," I said. "Why are you here anyway?"
"The whole family's getting together for dinner tonight," she said. "Didn't Papa tell you? Grandfather, the Demon Lord, Lia, and Keth are coming over too. I offered to help cook. Papa's out looking for some good wine, and Sara's going to be over to help as soon as she can. I'm working on dinner right now. Want to help?"
"My father is coming over?" I asked. She nodded. "I'll be in the study, alone. Don't bother me."
She sighed as I stalked out of the living room and toward the study. Once in there, I locked the door behind me and slumped down in the overstuffed, oversized leather chair that Rhua had bought for me somewhere around twenty years earlier. I then activated every layer of mental shielding I had installed into the room and the chair over the years, to keep everybody out.
I hated the holidays for a reason. The humans all seemed to be less shielded and louder during the holidays. The general good feelings and happiness made them more present, especially to me, and I hated it. It became bad enough that I couldn't even get comfortable in my house without having shields up, and that drained me. Having the family over that night would not help it at all, since Rhua would expect me to at least try to be civil to them. That was hard to do when I couldn't get the humans' voices out of my head.
I had had a long day at work that day, trying to convince the owner of the company that I wasn't a child and that I was perfectly legal to work there. The clamoring, happy, cheerful Christmas moods of the humans around me didn't help that either. I didn't need to come home to find out I had to please my father, and Rhua's father, and my nice and nephew. So instead I decided to sleep the whole evening in the chair.
I managed to fall asleep right away after pulling a blanket around myself and snuggling deep into the chair. I was tired. The high up idiots at work had set the deadline for the code for the new game for Christmas Eve, even though they had to have known that no one would be there to get it done. I was the only one of the developers who hadn't taken vacation for the holidays, so I got stuck with the brunt of the deadline rush. I had just gotten home after working 36 hours straight, and I felt it was definitely time for a well-needed nap.
I woke to Rhua's hand on my shoulder. He was shaking me gently, calling my name, so I turned to blink up at him sleepily. "What?" I asked, sounding much more awake than I felt.
"It's dinner time," he said gently. He leaned forward and gave me a gentle kiss on the forehead. As he did so, a few strands of his hair escaped from the braid and fell onto my face. I brushed them away, noting that he had used a bit of Evi's dye, making the white parts of his hair a very pale red.
"I'm not in the mood for dinner," I said. "I'm tired. I just finished tweaking code for a day and a half straight, and I want to sleep. I don't want to deal with Father and the brats."
"Please Saka," he said. "We haven't all gotten together in a long time. This is Sara's first chance to meet Evi's family, outside of us. Don't you want to be there?"
"Not really," I said, half out of stubbornness, half out of the antisocial mood I was in.
"Well you're coming anyway," he said, pulling me out of the chair. Once he had me completely out of the blanket he picked me up and carried me into the kitchen. I could have gotten out of his arms easily using magic, but I knew it wouldn't be any good, since he could just as easily bring me back with a similar trick. He was determined to get me with the rest of the relatives for dinner, and I wasn't going to be able to get out of it, short of blowing up the house.
He finally deposited me in a chair at the table, right between Father and Sara, Evi's girlfriend. I grumbled a greeting to everyone there, sulking. I didn't want to be there, and I wanted everyone to be aware of it. They all looked far too happy for my mood, even Father.
I looked around the table. Sara was seated to my left. She was wearing female "Santa's elf" outfit. It was a green dress, no trim, with a green stocking hat and pointed green shoes. She had her hair colored to match, since her natural purple hair would clash horridly with all the green. Evi was on her other side, wearing the same outfit as before, except that she had lost the apron.
Rhua was next around the table. He was still wearing his work clothes, Dockers and an un-tucked crimson red button up shirt today. The only holiday touch he had was the pale red cast to the light parts of his hair, and I could almost ignore that. His father was next to him, with a garish red and green tie that had real Christmas lights attached to it. They were blinking randomly, and it gave me a headache just looking at him. It didn't seem like the kind of thing he would wear, but I've noticed that many people, even gods, seem to go odd during the holiday season.
Lia was sitting next to him. She was wearing a tight brown dress and had her long hair dyed to match the dress and braided and styled to look like reindeer antlers. I wasn't sure how she did it, unless she was using magic to keep it in place. She had her nose painted red, and she looked like an odd humanoid version of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.
Her brother was next to her. I hadn't seen him in a while, and I was surprised to see that he had shaved his head completely bald. He was wearing black leather pants and a metallic green shirt. He had red ribbons tied around his chest, waist, thighs, and upper arms, and a matching big bow right on top of his bald head.
I didn't expect to find Father, who was the last person I saw as I looked around the table, wearing anything like the outfits that everyone else was wearing. The idea of the Demon Lord wearing any of the idiotic holiday things that everyone else was wearing made me want to blow something up, because it was so stupid. So, when I noticed that Father had little bells hanging off of his horns and a giant red bow stuck to the front of his shirt, I was about ready to get up and walk away from the table, even though I knew that Rhua would just bring me back right away.
I didn't though, because I didn't have time to. Before I knew it, everyone around the table was saying some form of "Merry Christmas, Saka," to me. Then Evi, Sara, and Rhua went into the kitchen and started bringing out the food. It only took them one trip, even though the meal was huge, because they all used magic to carry what they couldn't fit in their hands.
I brooded through most of dinner. The turkey was excellent, but I still didn't want to be there. The neighbors were almost all celebrating in much the same way, so I was too busy trying to keep them out of my head to enjoy dinner. I was distracted enough by that that I didn't even notice when Sara, at Evi's request, switched my water for wine, and I didn't notice it when I drank either.
I get drunk easily, very easily. My small size doesn't help at all, and my demonic nature doesn't do a thing to affect it. By the end of dinner I was drunk enough to not notice the mental holiday clamor, which put me in a much better mood. Of course, since Evi was making sure that my wine got refilled every time I ran out, I was also drunk enough to be giggling and sitting in Rhua's lap.
We exchanged presents after dinner. Someone, either Father or Rhua's father, made sure that I was sober before we did it, so I was back in my distracted, less than social, mood, though it got me unwrapped from Rhua as well. I ended up curled up on the loveseat next to him instead, trying to set some shielding up around myself, since I knew that Rhua wanted me to participate. Sara and Evi ended similarly curled up on the floor next to the tree, after Evi turned on more Christmas music, this time Mannheim Steamroller at a much lower volume, which was much better than what had been playing earlier.
I didn't pay much attention to the gifts. I didn't give them to anyone; I never did. I considered my presence there, when I could be asleep in the nicely shielded study, or my bed, to be enough for them, and no one seemed to mind that I didn't have anything to give. In fact, I didn't notice most of the gift-giving going on around me until they all turned to me at the same time.
Rhua had pulled out a small box from somewhere, and was holding it out to me. It was wrapped in plain black paper, with a simple green bow, and the tag on it read "to Saka, from everyone." I could feel a magical aura coming from it. It felt peaceful, and made me wonder what was in it.
"It's from all of us, Daddy," Evi said. "Go ahead, open it."
I tore the paper off to reveal a small jewelry case. A simple gold chain with a star shaped emerald pendant reflected the blinking lights of Rhua's father's tie when I opened the case. I picked up the pendant, and a sense of peace washed over me, dampening the mental clamor of the humans around me.
"Rhua mentioned the problems you have with keeping the humans out during this time of year when I asked him what to give you," Keth said. "It turned out to be a bigger thing that any of us thought it would, finding the right combination of spell and stone that would dampen the humans without impairing your senses, so we all worked together to make it for you."
I think that was one of the first times I'd ever had peace during that time of year since the stupid holiday became widespread among humans. I smiled at Rhua, and then at the others. Then I put it on and hugged Rhua tightly.
"I think this is the first time I've gotten something useful out of this damned holiday," I said. "Thank you."
Father, Rhua's father, and the brats stayed at our house that night. Rhua wanted them over on Christmas day, Evi and Sara were the only ones at dinner who didn't live far away. Evi and Sara went home, promising to be back in the morning, we put the brats in one guest room, and we managed to get Father and Rhua's father to agree to both sleep in the other guest room.
Later that night, after we had shuttled our guests off to their rooms, Rhua and I snuggled together in bed. I still had the pendant on, and I wasn't planning on taking it off. Without the distraction of every human around I would be able to get a restful sleep for the first time since mid November, and that was what I wanted more than anything at the moment.
"So, like your present, love?" Rhua asked me.
I hugged him, burying myself deeper in the blankets at the same time. "Yeah," I said. Then, I settled down to sleep. Just as I was drifting off to unconsciousness, I felt Rhua kiss the top of my head, and I realized that it was probably my best Christmas ever.