Annie CIX: Tannenbaum II

(Chronological index: Affianced (and right after Annie XCI)



Pet turned and wrapped her arms around the other sylph. They hugged tightly. Then Pet started to sob. Annie stroked her back as long as she could stand it.

"Okay, what? What's worth the waterworks? You don't even know, yet, if you didn't get the water skis you asked for."

Pet mumbled. Annie pried her loose and pushed her to half an arm's length away. "What did you say?"

"It's real," she whispered. "It's really real."

"Santa?" Annie asked, confused.

"The family. We're becoming a family. A real family." Pet started to cry again.

"Idiot," Annie snarled. "We've been a family since Denise came to get her car back." Pet cried and yanked Annie into a hug. "Seriously, you should be used to it by now. Back off or you'll scare Santa away!

"Help! Help! Drama!"

But no one came to rescue her for several long minutes. Pet sobbed gently but unendingly into her shoulder, drenching her nightshirt.

She wriggled and pried but couldn't get the young sylph off. Not without inflicting actual harm, and Annie didn't want to do that.

She suspected there was a Toblerone in the stocking and this was not the time to get grounded. She tried to relax, stroking Pet's back. If the blonde relaxed, too, Annie might be able to break free.

Then she glanced up at the tree beside them. A teddy bear seemed to wink at her from the nearest branch. A teddy bear Pet had picked out, but demanded Annie's approval of.

Just like she imagined begging for Boaz' approval when he took her on imaginary clothes shopping trips.

Pet was like a little sister. HER little sister. She finally had someone to look up at her. Without grabbing her and hoisting her high to look up her dress, and claim he was beneath her, either.

And Pet was real. She stroked Pet's head, running her fingers through the soft, silky hair. The sobbing slowed, the breathing deepened.

Annie laughed at that. And at herself. Trying to fend off drama just lengthened it. Really treating Pet like a sibling calmed her down.

Then Annie put her face in Pet's shoulder and started to cry.

They were both reduced to sniffles when the humans stomped into the scene. Huge sleep-warm hands cupped the entwined sylphs and carried them over to the couch. Denise cupped the two to her bosom while she leaned back against Ray's chest.

Pet melted into the familiar warmth and smell of her owner. Annie relaxed enough slide out of the sylph's embrace.

Ray reached down two fingers to stroke both widdle heads.

"Did...did we wake you guys up?" Pet asked. She was clearly worried, probably fearing that she'd ruined Christmas for everyone. Annie protectively glared a warning at her owner.

"Oh, no," Ray was already answering. "Ever since I was ten, I always wake up at midnight on Christmas." Annie blinked, but Pet seemed to buy it. She often forgot out well Master could lie, since he tried to never lie to her.

"And when he woke up, that woke me up," Denise lied. "So you're in the clear, Pet."

"You're both in the clear," Ray said. Annie nodded.

"Well, yeah, after putting up with your gift-based insomnia for years, I should be."

Annie explained what the tears had been about. Denise gave Pet a finger-hug, agreeing with her assessment of family status. Even if the wedding was still some way off.

Ray pointed out they were a couple and their familiars, not a family, not until the license was signed. He was gently booed into silence.

They lay together for a while, listening to the soft sounds of a house at night. Each human hugged and kissed each sylph, then each other, and wished Merry Christmas to all.

There was another companionable silence in the dark room for a short while. Then Pet asked, "So...it really IS Christmas day, right?"

"Technically," Ray said cautiously.

"So, the presents ARE ours, now, right?"

"Technically," Ray said. "But you guys dismissed the technicality of the official marriage/family status so-"

The boos were less gentle on this round. He gave in to the inevitable and they opened their gifts.

-------

Ray's parents listened intently to Pet describe the crying and hugging and waking after dinner that night. She stood on the table, between the salad bowl and the garlic pullem bread and acted out the scene.

Neither of them bat an eye at the reference to Ray's habitual wakening. Victor did interrupt Pet twice, just to be sure the little girl was breathing.

"What? No, of course I breathe! I have to breathe or everyone gets blurry but usually I breathe when everyone starts talking around me or over me or to each other about something and I have to wait my turn to talk again but that's okay because I don't know too much about things that would interest biggie people-"

"NONSENSE!" Gwen snapped. "We're interested, you silly little sylph. You're a guest in this house, Pet, and a member of the family."

'Gasp, gasp," Pet panted, breathing rapidly in lieu of a reply. But she and Annie and Denise all shot knowing looks at Ray.

"Oh, don't listen to him," Victor said. "He discovered programming and he's been a rules Nazi ever since."

"Hey!" Ray protested. "I was a rules Nazi in AD&D, YEARS before I learned Basic."

"That's true," Annie nodded. She sat on the edge of the lasagna pan, working up the energy for another dive.

"And speaking of that," Victor said. "And about family, there's one present we couldn’t decide if we should give you guys just yet."

"But we probably could," Gwen said.

"But we already opened all our gifts," Ray pointed out.

"SHUT UP AND LET THE NICE PEOPLE TALK, DOOFUS!" Annie shouted. Ray lifted one eyebrow. "Um..." She twisted where she perched, hands behind her back. "Master doofus?"

"That's better," Ray said. "But we still had three present openings today. I'm not sure if excitable little sylphs are going to be able to sleep tonight if there's a fourth-"

Denise reached over and placed three fingers on his lips. "Shut up and let the nice people talk, doofus, my love."

Pet gasped, and in pleasant surprise, not oxygen starvation. Annie and Denise exchanged a nod. Victor almost slid out of his chair, laughing.

"I guess it's up to me," Gwen said. She went out to the living room while Ray helped his dad sit upright. She came back with a small package, reached over and around her son and handed it to Denise.

She studied the card. "To the OTHER Fosters," she read aloud.

"But we're not Fosters yet!" Pet squealed.

"Near as dammit," Annie said. She hopped down and walked towards Denise's plate. Pet let out a small yelp and ran to catch up. "Still, if you guys don't feel qualified to open a 'Foster' present, I suppose I can shoulder the burden."

Denise placed the package down in a clear spot and held it while the sylphs tore open the ends. Ray eased the wrapping paper up and away.

"A Christmas ornament!" Denise said happily. Pet and Annie ran to the front. The cardboard box had a little plastic window. Inside was a sculpture of two snowmen, a loving couple. Little panels at their base were labeled 'Ray' and 'Denise.'

Ray remembered seeing a kiosk at the mall that sold such things. All sorts of combinations of grownups and kids, to depict almost any imaginable family. Even newlyweds.

"Aw, dat's soooooooooo kewt," Annie said. Ray looked at her suspiciously, trying to detect sarcasm, but in vain. She turned to give him a warm smile. He smiled back.

"Open it up!" Victor suggested. Urged. Begged.

Ray opened the box and Denise lifted it out. She held it where all four could see it. Pet squealed happily.

"Oh," Annie said. "Well, I was wondering."

"What?" Denise asked. She lifted the decoration higher. "Oh. Oh, my." She showed the face to Ray.

The male snowman wore a top-hat. What he had taken for fallen snow on it was actually two teensy tiny snowmen figures on the brim of his hat. Little figures that had to have been sculpted and labeled by sylphs.

"Oh, look!" Denise said. She reached out to lift the golden string that the ornament hung from. There was a small plastic magnifying glass attached.

Ray used that to read the tiny figures' names. "Pet....and Arnie."

"Shut up!" Pet protested. "It says ANNIE very clearly."

"You can't read, Pet," Denise pointed out.

"I saw the two snow-sylphs and the two names and Annie saw them and if there was a problem Annie would have said so, not to be mean or make anyone feel bad but to be sure it was fixed so that it would be the perfect perfect perfect gift that they meant it to be so it must be right!"

"Ipso facto," Ray nodded.

"But you didn't call him a doofus," Victor told Pet. Gwen slapped his forearm.

"Pet's the nice one," Annie shrugged.

Pet's wide eyes went back and forth from face to smiling face. Then she teared up. "It's real," she whimpered, curling up and starting to cry.

"Oh, not again," Annie muttered. But she dropped to her knees and swept her sister into a loving embrace.





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