Note from Lauren D. Fulter: Hello, dear readers (or sworn enemies looking for dirt on the Council to defeat them with)! At the time of writing this, it’s been a little over a year since you’ve heard from the Council, but I can assure you they’ve been busy in TUQ 4. While I can’t wait for you to read that installment, I whipped out a silly little short over Christmas. It’s purely fluff. It’s not very edited. And it’s all good, chaos vibes. And I will only have it up for your reading pleasure for a week! This short takes place between TUQ and OTCC, when the Council was still just six Members, at the Defender camp, the Inn is being rebuilt, and there’s no imminent Shadow Soul threat.
I hope you enjoy!
With lemons, LDF
I hope you enjoy!
With lemons, LDF
“What’s Holiday?”
That was the question that caused the entire Council to drop dead silent and stare at Nikki with mouths agape. She was getting used to that reaction. She simply took a sip of her lemon tea and shrugged. “Is it something I’m…supposed to know?”
“You obviously didn’t have a childhood,” Tabitha muttered.
Felicity elbowed her. Tabitha choked on her drink. “Hey!”
“It’s just some silly thing that the regions do every year to celebrate the end of the EarthShaker and Earth being inhabitable after nuclear warfare,” Ray said. His eyes were glued on his mug, stirring it absentmindedly.
The Council’s winter afternoons after training were usually spent in the abandoned dining tent over steaming cups of coffee and whatever food they’d manage to scavenge or Ray felt inclined to bake. Like today, he’d gotten up early to force Lincoln into making a loaf of cornbread.
One of the loaves was lumpy and misshapen…and had some odd dark coloring, while the other was pristine and could’ve appeared in a net ad.
Lincoln defended his loaf, saying there was nothing wrong with it and the Council was crazy not to trust it. He took one bite and forced himself to swallow before admitting cooking wasn’t exactly his skill and that cooking wasn’t needed to defeat Oquelite.
“In Nikki’s defense, she doesn’t exactly remember anything more than six months,” Lincoln said, squishing his miscolored bread with the back end of a wrench. “I didn’t remember it either…and I’m still not sure about the hype.”
Tabitha choked on her drink again. “Okay, that’s it! We’re doing something for Holiday.”
She got up from her seat with an authoritative slam of her fist against the table.
“Really?” Ray groaned.
“Oh, come on, Mathews. Don’t tell me you’re not excited for an excuse for more sugar,” Tabitha smirked. She pulled her binder out of her back, ripping free a loose page. “Okay, Nik and Lincoln, three things are most important on Holiday: Leaves, bells, and candles.”
Nikki and Lincoln frowned, exchanging glances.
Leaves?
“Tabs, that sounds a bit random,” Cole finally weighed in. He’d been sitting in the corner, refilling his coffee cup at least three times, as he watched the discourse. “What Tabitha means by leaves is wreaths. They’re meant to symbolize the new life after the war. The story goes that the first Defenders left the bunkers to make sure Earth was habitable and brought back a branch…now they’re kinda just sold as Holiday hats.”
“So we get to wear leaves on our heads. Got it,” Nikki said. It sounded simple enough.
“Sometimes candles are worn on the wreaths,” Felicity said. “We tried that once at a family Holiday party. My younger sister lit her hair on fire dancing, so it’s safe to say we never tried that again.”
“Wouldn’t that be cool if we had a fireproof Council Member?” Ray said, his eyes lighting up. “Then they could wear a wreath, no problem.”
“Fireproof Council Member?” Lincoln scoffed. “Hotshot.”
“Nice pun.”
“Guys, focus!” Tabitha scribbled the wreath down on her paper, biting on the back of her pen. “Bells are collectively run around midnight, Capitol North time, on Holiday. It’s supposed to be a celebration heard around the world. While waiting, we indulge in way too much sugar and caffeine and probably drive Taryn crazy, but that’s the fun of it.”
“That sounds amazing,” Nikki said. Staying up late with the Council? Eating sugar? Wearing fire in your hair? Ringing bells? It still didn’t make much sense, but it sounded fun. Well, more fun than their usual routine of wake up, train, sleep, repeat.
“I’ll do it for Nikki,” Lincoln said begrudgingly, but Nikki could see the spark in his dark eyes as he watched Tabitha finish off writing the plan.
Tabitha smiled. “Perfect. Holiday is tomorrow, so we don’t have too much time. But we’re the Council. We’re like supposed to be stronger together or whatever.”
“This is kind of like the missions Taryn assigns us,” Cole shrugged. “What does everyone want to work on?”
“Ray is cooking,” Lincoln said. “And I’m not.”
“Hey!” Ray said. “Just for that, I honestly think you should!”
“I have more important things to do,” Lincoln said, picking up his back and pulling out a scrap piece of metal. “What if we had candles that didn’t light your hair on fire?”
“Do you really think you could invent those?” Nikki gasped.
Sometimes, she wasn’t sure what was more magical: The Oquelite or Lincoln’s invention.
Lincoln blushed, looking away. “I can sure try.”
“I guess I can help you,” Tabitha said, shrugging. “I’ve always wanted to try my hand.”
“And risk everything tasting like hot sauce?” Cole raised a brow.
Tabitha shot him a look, crossing her arms. “Well, now I’ve made my choice. I’ll prove you wrong.”
Cole held his hands up in surrender. “Okay, chill. I’d like to see you try.”
Tabitha smirked. “So, do the rest of you want to go out and buy wreaths and bells?”
“Maybe we could all hit the woods and find branches?” Lincoln suggested. “Might be more fun that way.”
Tabitha clicked her tongue, pointing to Lincoln. “Look, you’re learning! Fun! Yes!” Tabitha then turned to Nikki. “And Nikki, since Taryn likes you the best, you’re going to be the one to inform her of her plan and have her invite the rest of camp, got it?”
Nikki swallowed. “Me?” she frowned. “No, Taryn likes all of us equally.”
The other five all exchanged glances Nikki couldn’t read. Ray shrugged. “Whatever you say, Princess—”
Lincoln kicked him.
Nikki got up from her seat, taking the last sip of her lukewarm lemon tea. “Sounds like a plan. Mission Holiday starts now.”
“These are interesting contraptions,” was the first thing Taryn remarked when Nikki presented her with the wreath.
The Council had woken up early that morning to venture out into the woods to gather branches. There had only been one outbreak of using twigs for sword fighting and Ray teleporting without warning into the treetops to get the best branches. They were proud of their findings and after training, spent the rest of the day on the floor of the boy’s cabin assembling the wreaths.
“We made them ourselves,” Nikki said.
“You all worked together?” Taryn laughed.
“Mostly,” Nikki said, laughing dryly.
Everyone had their own ideas on how the wreaths should look before they all just settled on making their wreaths different. Ray was still insistent that lemons make no sense on a wreath, but he eventually digressed and helped Nikki weave the branches together.
Taryn picked up the wreath, inspecting Lincoln’s candle inventions. “I admit these are rather impressive. At least better than the ones the Defending Department would hand out every year.”
“The Defenders would celebrate Holiday?”
Taryn paused, pursing her lips. She set the wreath down and shook her head. “I haven’t. Not in the past decade, at least. Not that it matters. It’s more exciting for children than a Sergeant anyway.”
She turned back in her chair at the head of the long table in the empty cabin. She looked back at the roaring fireplace behind her, poking at a fallen ember with the toe of her boot.
“Well, you weren’t a child ten years ago,” Nikki realized, doing the math in her head. If Taryn was thirty-six now…she was already twenty-six a decade ago.
Taryn chuckled. “That’s because Zita was all over Holiday. She would always try and bring the entire team together to do something. Even after Lyell, Reyna, and Aaron all had their own families.” The Sergeant’s smile slipped, her eyes beginning to fade like they had every time she mentioned the Curatrix team.
Nikki stepped closer. “Did you…enjoy it?”
Taryn was quiet a moment, tapping her foot against the fireplace hearth. “I loved it,” Taryn whispered. “In those last few years, that was the only time I ever saw them.”
Nikki placed a gentle hand on Taryn’s arm.
Taryn shrugged her off, getting to her feet and shaking herself. “But that’s all in the past now. I have business to attend to, and things to take care of. I do hope you’ll enjoy your first Holiday, kid.”
She started toward her room, but Nikki grabbed her wrist. “No one’s working right now. It’s a universal holiday.”
Taryn froze.
“We have coffee. Ray and Lincoln worked on inventing a new powerful blend.”
It was a little too powerful. Nikki had tried it once, had stayed away for three days, and started to hallucinate lemons instead of targets.
Taryn laughed. “You know how to tempt me.”
Nikki picked the wreath up from the table, flicking the switch to activate the fake flame. “Besides, it wouldn’t be the Council without you.”
Taryn rolled her eyes. “Is this a twisted way to get out of training tomorrow?”
She took the wreath from Nikki’s hand and set it lopsided on her head. Nikki bit back a laugh. It was a once-a-lifetime sight to see a Defending Sergeant decked out in full gear with a flowery candle wreath atop their head.
“Now, where’s this caffeine you’re so insistent about?”
Nikki laughed this time, leading Taryn out of the cabin and to the fire in the center of the camp. Tables had been set out, filled with not only Ray’s confections but donations from other Defenders and farmers. The cold air was stooping to freezing, nipping at Nikki’s nose and ears, but the blaze of the fire, and the rare excitement from the camp around her made it easy to ignore.
A soft ringing could be heard as Tabitha lugged a basket filled to the brim of copper bells.
The fire roared in the center, and luckily, no real fire incidents had incited. Lincoln was happily giving out his wreaths to the curious Officers, who starred and touched at the faux flame in bewilderment.
Nikki could tell by the smug look on Lincoln’s face their confusion was an immense compliment.
“Yo, you got Taryn!” Ray pushed out from the ground, his wreath around his wrist. “Good to see you came around, Sergeant.”
“You’re one to talk, Mathews,” Taryn chuckled, fixing the wreath on her head. “Where’s the solidarity?”
Ray looked down at his wreath, pursing his lips.
Before he could answer, Cole swept in, throwing his arm around Ray’s shoulder. “Tabitha has summoned—Oh, hi Sergeant.”
He gave a shaky salute.
Taryn cracked a smile. “Hello to you too, Johnson. Now, you better not make Delorous wait…though maybe she deserves it from all the times she’s slept in during training.”
“I don’t think that’s ever going to change.”
The three rushed off from Taryn, Ray still holding onto his wreath.
“So, what else has Tabitha planned?” Nikki said, snatching cornbread from the table as they passed. The coloring of this piece looked pretty normal. “Is there something she missed?”
“I can never really tell with her,” Cole sighed, leading them into the alley between two cabins. It was hard to miss the other three Council Members with their flaming heads.
Tabitha was practically bouncing. “Perfect. You’re all here. How do you all feel about the roof?”
“Roof?” Cole frowned. “Is that safe?”
“Perfectly,” Nikki assured him. She’d spent plenty of time on the cabin rooves, even to the point where Taryn had to ban her from using it as an escape route during defense training.
Hanging her wreath around her arm, she showed the Council how to climb up the railing of the cabin porch and pull yourself up onto the roof.
Some took some extra help, like Felicity, who groaned about not even being able to do a pushup…and then there was Ray, who completely cheated the system and teleported himself.
The Council huddled on the roof, looking out to the smudge of the moon hardly shining through the cloudy night sky.
Nikki held her wreath in her hands, running her thumb over the wooden lemon woven into the branches. With a click, she lit the candles. Despite no fire, she could feel a warmth inside her.
“The lemons were a good call,” Ray said.
Nikki frowned. “You didn’t like them earlier.”
“I was just being annoying,” Ray smirked, looking down at his own wreath. He hadn’t given it much extra besides a golden thread he’d used to tie it together. “It’s just…I don’t know, Holiday has never felt like Holiday.”
“Yeah, I know how you feel,” Lincoln said, fidgeting to get his wreath over his hair.
“You don’t count.”
“Hey! I do. I always watched people celebrate. Never did it myself,” Lincoln shrugged. “Not much to celebrate when you live in a cave in the woods.”
Ray cracked a smile. “Cave in the woods sounds fun. My mom was usually working. I always tried to make it fun for my siblings, but…” Ray bit his lip, twisting a leaf in his fingers. “It just always felt like a gut-punch reminder that our family was broken.”
The Council was quiet. It felt like, for a moment, they were the ones to exist in the bleak, cold night.
“Everything broken can be fixed,” Nikki offered, flicking the candles on Ray’s wreath. “It can never be the way it was before, but we’re a family, right?”
“Ew, gross? Ray as my brother,” Lincoln pretended to gag. Felicity flicked him.
“Nikki has a point,” Felicity said. “All of us have pretty broken pasts…and yet, we’ve all ended up here.”
Fate had literally entwined them. Nikki placed the wreath on her head. “There was no one else I’d rather be supernaturally stuck with.”
Ray gave a small chuckle. “Even if they sometimes go evil mode?”
“We all have our evil mode moments.”
“Not literally-almost-murdering-your-friends evil mode moment.”
“Look, they vary from person to person.”
“You’re sticking with us, Mathews. We’re not letting you again, got it? Almost being murdered or not.” Lincoln wrapped an arm around Ray’s shoulder. Nikki blinked. Was this really happening?
Ray took a deep breath and placed the wreath on his head. “This feels ridiculous.”
“It’s a form of Council bonding. Group humiliation.”
“Everyone shush! It’s almost time!”
Tabitha passed down the bells.
Lincoln sighed. “More group humiliation.”
“Feel the spirit, Lincoln,” Tabitha said. “You’ve just been missing out.”
Nikki grasped the bell in her hands, fishing her crumbled cornbread from her pocket and offering it to the others. Tabitha could hardly keep still, checking the time on her Comm.
The time wasn’t necessary.
The sound of ringing was just enough of an indicator.
Nikki’s heart leaped. The echo of the bells felt like it was vibrating through the hills. The party of officers below cheered. Taryn smiled, meeting Nikki’s eyes.
Nikki rang her bell.
Taryn rolled her eyes and did the same.
Nikki smiled. For a moment, it felt like the world was on the same note. Perhaps the following year would bring more Council Members, more confusing traditions, and moments like this.
“Guys? I have another question.”
“Yeah, Nik?”
“What’s a birthday?”