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“Hey, angel, did you sleep well?”
Taylor reached into the crib, and gathered her daughter, six months old and bright-eyed, into her arms.
“Are you ready for your first Christmas lunch, Miss Livi?”
Baby Liv reached out a hand, grasping at her mother’s hair.
“Uh-uh, no pulling– cheeky!” Taylor redirected Liv’s attention by capturing her fingers in kisses. The smile that lit the infant’s face made her heart melt then and there. “Mama ‘Stel is waiting for us! And Uncle Aleister and Auntie Grace, and Reggie. And Tio Diego and Varyyn. Even Tio Abuelo came all this way to be here. Big family Christmas! That sounds fun, huh?”
Liv babbled wordlessly, her big, brown eyes roaming her mother’s and seeing happy excitement there. So little of what Taylor had said meant a thing to her, but she recognised ‘Mama ‘Stel’ as being something to smile about.
Ever since the Catalysts’ first Christmas on La Huerta, Taylor had always spent the festive period in the Elysian Lodge, where the snow-covered surrounds gave it the most magical atmosphere. Most of her friends spent the holidays in the States with their respective families, but her family was here. It had become a tradition; Aleister and Grace, Diego and Varyyn, herself and Estela—the La Huerta regulars, would spend Christmas together, forming an increasingly tight-knit family unit. Other family was lost to most of them, through estrangement, death, or never having existed in the usual sense; what they had was one another. Estela’s beloved tio would sometimes join the gathering, depending on how grinchy he was feeling from one year to the next. With baby Liv around, though, Nicolas could not have been kept away by any force on this world or the next.
Having freshened Liv up with a clean diaper and an appropriately festive onesie, Taylor brought the wide-eyed infant out from the temporary nap-room. As she walked, she jiggled Liv up and down, delighting in the grin that lit her tiny face. A small toddler with vivid steel-blue eyes and tight dark curls waddled up the hallway to greet the two of them, breaking into an awkward run and then falling against Taylor’s legs.
“Hiya, Reggie!”
“Baby Liv seep?” Little Reginald Hall was some eleven months his cousin’s senior, and utterly captivated by her. As he’d begun asking simple questions about the world around him, ‘baby Liv’ was his favourite subject.
“Baby Liv awake! See? Not so grumpy once she’s had a good sleep. Did you have a good nap, Reggie?”
“Big seep!”
“Big sleep? You must be all ready for Christmas lunch. You gonna sit next to your mommy and daddy at the table?”
Reginald pointed down the hall toward his parents, who were bringing out the first dishes to the festive buffet. “Mama! Dada! Come Auntie Tay-or!”
Estela greeted her wife and baby brightly as they stepped into the front room. Within moments, she had her arms around them both.
“Oh, Livita! Has Mama Tay dressed you up as Waldo?”
“Estela! It’s candy cane stripes. Obviously. Gee, Liv, your mama can be very silly sometimes.”
“Pfft. Candy cane stripes are diagonal. You made Livi Waldo… a very, very cuddly, very ticklish Waldo.” Estela took Liv in her arms and blew raspberries into her neck as she squealed with delight.
Nicolas joined them, and placed a kiss on the baby’s forehead. “There she is! Esposita, are you worried you’ll lose her?”
“She’s not Waldo, she’s a candy cane! Because she’s sweet.” Despite Taylor’s insistence, neither Estela nor Nicolas appeared particularly convinced. “Ugh, whatever! I think Waldo would like a snuggle with her Mama ‘Stel.”
As Liv reached out, Estela gleefully took wrapped her up in a cuddle. “Mi dulce bebe! Feliz navidad!” She showered the baby with kisses, her heart leaping with the sound of those tinkling giggles. Then, Taylor’s arms were around the both of them, sharing in a blissful moment. Liv might not have been old enough for any of the festivities to sink in, but for her mothers, to spend the special day with her was a little taster of joys to come.
Christmas 2027
Estela scraped the snow from her boots, and watched her small daughter follow suit.
“Okay, mija, pyjamas on, then a hot cocoa before bed?”
Three-year-old Liv danced a jig on the doormat. Her cheeks were glowing from the cold air, her eyes sparkling with gaiety. It was Christmas Eve, and she could barely contain her excitement for what was to come. She grabbed Taylor’s arm as she followed them through the door, tugging her over the threshold with a wild flourish.
“Hurry, hurry!”
“Uh, Liv, it’s settling down time, yeah? Time to calm down a little bit, or you’ll be too hyped-up to sleep. You want to be nice and sleepy so Santa can come, right?”
With a pout, Liv reluctantly calmed her flailing movements. It was a big ask, but if she couldn’t sleep, Christmas would never come.
The sprawling halls of the Elysian were so terribly inviting for Liv to sprint up and down, but she restrained herself. Santa would surely be on high alert for any misbehaviour—no doubt it made his night easier if there weren’t so many well-behaved children to deliver presents to. Her mothers had assured her that a kid would have to be actual, proper, blow-up-a-house, push-your-uncle-down-the-stairs naughty for Santa to pass them by, but Liv was taking no chances. She’d do all her mad running up and down the halls after the big man had delivered—she was no fool. Hand in hand with her moms, Liv walked nicely all the way back to their family suite, their traditional home for the festive season. There, she had her very own room just off her mothers’. It was warm, and cosy, and already filled with the scents of Christmas. Just being there, Liv could feel that something special was coming.
“Arms up, nena!” Estela gently pulled Liv’s shirt off over her head, then lovingly mussed her hair. “That’s it, now your pants…”
Liv put her arms around her mother’s neck, anchoring herself upright as her mom helped her into her pyjama pants, one leg at a time. She leaned in, snuggling close.
It was never lost on Estela how secure that little girl felt in her arms. For so much of her life, Estela had been faced with fearful glances or been stared at as if she was something different, something weird… almost every new person she encountered went through the same process with her. It didn’t hurt so much after a while, for she was used to it. But her Liv… her sweet Liv had not ever looked up at her with anything but adoration and complete trust. Someday, she’d assured herself, she’d tell Liv how healing their bond had been, even in just a few short years. For the time being, though, Estela soaked up every moment, and adored her daughter right back. Tenderly, she combed through Liv’s hair, offering a gentle scalp massage in exchange for fidgeting being kept to a minimum.
With Liv appropriately dressed for bed and settling down at last, Estela carried her through to the adjoining room, where Taylor was tending to the fireplace, and three steaming cream-top mugs of cocoa awaited.
“Livi, darling,” Taylor called out, “do you wanna grab the milk and cookies for Santa? And the carrot for the reindeer? Your cocoa’s gonna be too hot to drink yet, so you’ve got time to do up a really nice little plate for them.”
Liv’s eyes lit up, and she slid down Estela like a firefighter down a pole. “I’m gonna pick the biggest carrot! Hang on—we need nine carrots!” She counted off on her fingers. “Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen… aaaand Rudolph. Did you know that they’re all girls? Reggie told me that. He said that only lady reindeers have antlers in the winter. Do we have nine carrots?”
“Hmm, I don’t know if we’ve got that many,” Taylor replied. “Maybe we can break some up? I’m sure the reindeer will share with each other. That’s what Christmas is all about, right?”
“Right!”
While Liv busied herself with plating up some festive offerings, Estela sat down by the fireplace to offer her wife a hand.
“Hey…” Taylor couldn’t help the smile that jumped to her face. This was all a dream come true, with Liv finally old enough to understand the scope and excitement of the holiday season. In Estela’s eyes, she saw that same blissful anticipation. As much as this was something all new for Liv, it was something new for them too.
“Hey.” Stealing a quick kiss, Estela edged a little closer to Taylor. It was obvious that Taylor didn’t really need help with getting the fire started, but the gift of togetherness was always appreciated. The glow to her cheeks said it all, and it made Estela just about melt. “I’m so happy….” She shook her head, giddy. “I love you. So much. You and our little monster.”
Taylor chuckled. She felt like she could just about burst with joy, and she could feel it reverberating off Estela, off Liv… it was a dream come true. As the kindling crackled with the dance of newborn flames, Taylor took Estela’s face in her hands and kissed her long and deep. Paradise. Eyes closed, she laughed breathily as their foreheads met, pressed together in an expression of sweet solidarity. “No one I’d rather raise a beautiful little monster with. Love you, ‘Stel.”
“Mooooom! You can stop kissing now—it’s cocoa time!” Liv skipped back into the room, long hair bouncing out behind her. “Cocoa time! Cocoa time!”
“And here I was thinking Mama Estela had finally tamed you…”
Estela snorted. “Be serious. I’m just a mortal woman.” She picked up a large, heavy blanket, and placed it over her shoulders and Taylor’s once they’d settled upon the rug in front of the fire. “But a hot cocoa can do what a mortal woman can’t. Come here, mi preciosa.”
Eagerly, Liv plonked herself down between her mothers and gratefully took her mug from Taylor’s hands. “Yummy! Thanks, Mama Tay.”
The hot drink warmed the soul, as did the embrace. The old Elysian Lodge suite held some powerful memories for Estela and Taylor—not all of them pleasant. But the painful associations seemed to fade away, blurring into the distance as something brighter came into the forefront.
With Liv on her knee, and Estela’s serene face nestled against her shoulder, Taylor read aloud from the storybook, ‘The Night Before Christmas’. With each line, Liv seemed to slump down further, her little body growing slack with fatigue. It seemed the afternoon they’d spent sledding had done the trick, tiring her out nicely. Taylor pressed a delicate kiss to the child’s forehead.
“Guess we’ll be carrying her to bed after all,” Estela whispered, tenderly stroking Liv’s forearm.
Taylor turned her face to meet Estela’s lips in an all-too-fleeting kiss before turning the last page. That special kind of exhaustion that came with being a parent at Christmas was wonderful, but that their angel had dropped off to sleep so surprisingly easily was a relief nonetheless. When morning came, they’d be well-rested and ready to give Liv a day to remember.
“…But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight; happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”
With plates piled high and delicious scents wafting around, the table drew everyone to their chairs the moment Aleister announced Christmas lunch was in session. From his highchair, Reginald squealed and held out carrots to Liv, who nursed at Taylor’s breast on the other side of the table.
“Reggie, love,” Grace gently urged, “she’s already got her lunch. Why don’t you show baby Liv how you eat them?”
Taylor looked up from her baby daughter to offer her nephew a warm smile. At his tender age, he was already a friendly kid—definitely taking after his mother. “Thank you, Reggie, that’s really kind of you. I might mash up some of mine for her to try. It could really help if she sees you eating your vegetables so well.”
“Baby Liv eat!”
Aleister patiently offered a forkful of slightly mushed Brussels sprout to his wriggling son. “Reggie eat too. That’s my boy…”
“Icky!”
Getting food down the smaller Liv was less of a challenge, what with ‘food’ basically meaning ‘milk’. Contentedly, she suckled, her gaze darting up sporadically as Taylor tucked into her own lunch, with Estela’s assistance. Ravenous though she might be, Liv was curious about the world around her, which seemed so much busier than usual. She often spent time with family and friends, but so many all at once was a little strange. She’d even caught her Uncle Aleister crack a smile—very odd. Then, a piece of mashed up– food? —mashed up something wriggled into her line of sight on the end of Estela’s finger.
“Give it a try, Livi?” Estela cooed. “Mmmm, sprouts!”
Liv scrunched up her face in disgust, and buried it back in Taylor’s chest with a disgruntled whine.
“Or not!” Diego laughed. “Come on, Estela, you aim it into her mouth!
Estela scoffed, giving a look of disdain. Since when was Diego some kind of child-raising expert anyway? Unless she’d missed some blockbuster movie in which the hero had to get a plate of vegetables into a petulant toddler. But surely even Diego couldn’t sit through that shit. “I think I can get a kid to eat a damn sprout…”
Christmas 2029
“Tia Estela! Livia has a sprout stuck up her nose!”
“No, I don’t!”
Liv ran into the kitchen after her cousin Reginald with a face set in defiance… and half a Brussels sprout wedged in her left nostril.
For a split-second, Estela looked upon her child, bewildered, but she recovered quickly. As crises went, she’d been faced with much worse. “Livi, what have you been doing?”
“It’s not a sprout. It’s half a sprout. I don’t have to eat it now, right?”
Estela sighed. “Don’t you worry, I’m sure we can find you a fresh one. Come here–”
“But, Mom! They’re yucky..”
“Livita, let me take a look.”
“Tia Estela, is it gonna go in Liv’s brain?”
“Is it? Mommy, I don’t want a sprout brain…”
“No, it won’t go in your brain. But if you don’t want to smell sprouts for the rest of your life, we’ll need to get that out of there.”
Suddenly very obedient, Liv tipped her chin, allowing her mother a good look. “Am I gonna be a sprout face forever?”
With gentle fingers, Estela stroked Liv’s hair reassuringly. “It’s okay, Livi, we’ll fix you up.” She turned to Reginald, who was watching with wide eyes. “Can you find your mom and dad for me, Reggie? Ask them if they have any tweezers. Blunt, not sharp.”
Reginald skittered out of the room, crashing into Taylor on his way.
“Woah, easy there, whirlwind!” Taylor caught sight of Liv’s worried face. “Oh, honey, what’s going on?”
Estela shook her head in patient exasperation. “It seems Miss Livita was saving some of your sprouts for later.”
“That good, huh?”
“Mom, ew.”
Reginald ran back in. “No tweezers! Livi’s gonna be a sprout face forever!”
For the first time, Liv looked frightened. “Mom…?”
“Hey…” Taylor put a hand on her daughter’s shoulder. “You know your mamas have slayed monsters, and travelled in time to cure incurable diseases? Pretty sure a sprout up the nose is no match for us.”
A small crowd began to form.
“Have you tried snot-rocketing it out…?” Diego suggested.
Liv tried. The sprout remained steadfastly nestled in her nostril.
“Please,” Aleister urged, with as much patience as he could muster. Fatherhood might have softened him, but he had limits. “Can we try and keep the encouragement of such vulgar behaviour to a minimum?” Hastily, he guided his young son’s fingers away from his own nose.
With a roll of her eyes toward her brother, Estela sat down and pulled Liv into her lap. Kids were messy, but it was no big deal. There were worse things. Far worse.
“Right, let’s get this done, before your uncle has an aneurysm. Taylor, napkin?”
“Check!”
“Okay, Livi, I’m gonna cover your other nostril, and then blow into your mouth. It might feel a bit weird, but that should get it out. Is that all right?”
Liv pulled a face. “Uh, all right… so you’re gonna blow a snot-rocket for me?”
“Ewwwww!” Reginald cried.
‘Operation Liv’s Sprout’ was put into action. Taylor handed the little girl the napkin, which Liv held in front of her nose, ready to catch the projectile. Reginald watched with utter fascination, while Diego took a few snaps for the family Christmas album. Estela took a deep breath and then…
-whoosh-
“I caught it!” Liv exchanged a high five with Taylor. “Yeaaah! That was so cool! So, is it dessert time now?”
Christmas 2028
“Hey, Livia?”
Liv looked around the side of her snowman—her snow-Batman—and eyed her cousin. “’Sup, Reg?”
Reginald readjusted his woollen hat, which had become lopsided in a recent snowball fight. He’d been wanting a talk for quite some time, but getting a quiet moment when Liv was all hyped on Christmas wasn’t exactly easy. “I was wondering…. What do you think of them? The babies.”
“The babies?” Liv’s expression was quizzical. She’d not given a whole lot of deep thought to her new twin cousins. They were just a few weeks old, and, to be honest, not capable of doing much particularly interesting yet. Reginald had seemed excited during Grace’s pregnancy, but Liv knew that excitement had since fizzled out. “Erm, they’re okay, I guess. They don’t really do much.”
“Yeah… I guess not.”
Liv plonked herself down upon the powdery snow, and patted the surface beside her with a be-mittened hand. “Do you like them? They’re a bit weird and wrinkly, but they’re kinda cute.”
With a non-committal shrug, Reginald sat down next to Liv. “I… don’t know. I thought it would be more fun than this. If Ernest isn’t crying, Immy is. Mom and Dad are busy with them all the time.”
“That must make you sad.” Liv put her chin on Reginald’s shoulder, offering her support. She didn’t know how to be a help to her sensitive cousin. If someone was picking on him—which had happened quite a lot—she scared the offender away. But she couldn’t very well chase away those demanding twins.
“Mmhmm… it does,” he murmured. “I know Mom and Dad are still there, but I miss them.”
Liv put an arm around him and squeezed. “You know when we got Robin?”
“Livia. Babies and puppies are not the same thing.”
“I know that. Duh!” Liv rolled her eyes. It would be a lot easier to give a pep talk if Reginald didn’t have that smart-ass streak. “But puppy Robin was a whiny pain in the butt too. He used to pee everywhere, and cry all night. My moms had to look after him all the time. But then he got a bit bigger, and then we just had fun all the time. It was better to have him as a pain in the butt baby than to not have him at all. I bet Ernie and Immy will be like that too.”
Reginald was not convinced. Babies took a long time to grow up. A long time that his parents would be absorbed in caring for them. “Maybe.”
“You could ask your mom to show you how you can help. Then you would spend time with all of them at once. I bet they’d like that. Uncle Aleister and Auntie Grace look so pooped all the time—you could make them less pooped!”
“With babies, there’s gonna be poop.”
“Ew, Reggie!”
Reginald giggled and hugged Liv back. This period of adjustment would be a whole lot harder if he didn’t have his best friend around. Frequently, he’d been left in the care of his Tia Estela and Auntie Taylor for days at a time, when things got too much for his own parents to keep on top of. Liv and her antics were a great distraction. And for a silly little whirlwind, she could be surprisingly wise. “That’s a good idea, actually. I want to help them. Maybe if they’re too busy to show me, I could ask your moms how to do baby-helping stuff. They’ll know about babies.”
“Yeah, they know about babies. I turned out okay, so they can’t be really bad at babies.” Liv looked down the hill, where her mothers, along with Diego and Varyyn, were making their own snowman. Well, making a snowman, and keeping an eye on the kids. The Christmas before, Liv had snuck off and gone yeti-hunting. She hadn’t gotten far, but the result was that supervision had been amped up a notch. Liv suspected that Reginald was quietly relieved that it would be too difficult for her to drag him along on some daring expedition. This year, she wouldn’t have done it anyway. Her cousin needed some TLC, and that meant a Christmas more his pace. If he was feeling sad, adventures were no fun anyway. “Hey, maybe next year we can show the babies how to build a snowman? And how to have a snowball fight—”
“Livia, you can’t throw things at babies! You’re a brute!”
Liv snorted with laughter. “Yeah I am.” She puffed out her chest, displaying the home-made badge Reginald had given her as a gift, which read ‘Defender of Nerds’. “That’s why no one messes with you! But, fine. I’ll throw things at the grown-ups instead. Hey—dare you to chuck a snowball at my mom!”
“I know which mom you mean, so no. I’m not dumb enough to start something I can’t win—”
“Wiiiiiimp!”
“Am not!”
“Fine, we’ll start easy.” With a mischievous glint in her eye, Liv got to her feet, and rolled a snowball. She smirked at her cousin, who watched with excited anticipation. “Shhh… I’m gonna get ‘im…”
Carefully stepping in her own footprints to minimise the crunch of fresh snow, Liv snuck closer to the adults. It took no time at all for Estela to see what she was up to, and a smirk was exchanged. With a shake of her head, Liv gestured toward Diego, and noticed Estela discreetly get Taylor’s attention. In a snowball fight, they were always on her side. With Diego completely engrossed in prettying up his snowy incarnation of baby Yoda, the small child lurched forward, hurling the snowball at his beanie-covered head with all the strength she could muster.
“Merry Christmas ya filthy animal!” Liv hollered.
“Wait—Liv, what?!”
A second snowball came fast from the side, as Taylor pegged Diego in a sneak attack. She smirked, triumphant. “And a Happy New Year.”
Liv danced. “Yaaaay, Mom! We got ‘im!”
“I mean, solid reference but… ouch.”
“Nice shot, Livita,” Estela said proudly. “But… how are your reflexes?” Quick as a flash, she whipped her own snowball out, catching her stunned and bemused daughter full in the face.
“Blerrrk. Now it is on! Get ‘em Reggie!”
“But Livia, I—”
“Get ‘em Reggie!”
Wild shrieks and shouts filled the air as Liv launched an assault on the grown-ups with Reginald’s help—first reluctant, but it took mere seconds for him to embrace the fun.
In the melee, the small boy didn’t notice his parents come outside until Grace’s snowball flew through the air in a perfect arc, landing on his head.
“Got you, sweetpea!” Grace laughed at the happy bewilderment on her son’s face. “You didn’t think we’d miss out on all the fun, did you?”
Reginald ran to his parents, and let himself be enveloped in a bracing hug. “What about the babies?” he asked, muffled against Aleister’s coat.
“Reggie,” Aleister said, kneeling down to look his son in the face. “In our family, everyone matters. Christmas is special for you, so sharing it is special to us. Grandma Imogen is keeping an eye on the twins while we sleep—Mum and Dad are all yours.”
As Reginald went in for another embrace, he was startled to alertness. “–Look out, Daddy! Tia Estela—”
“—oof.” Aleister fell forward, tumbling face-first into the snow as his wife and son giggled. “That—” huff—“bloody—” huff—“barbarous—” huff—“bi—” He caught himself, aware that his young son was present. Cheeks spotted with pink, he brushed himself off. “Your Tia Estela is quite the ruffian, I’m afraid. Good—” huff— “throwing arm, though.”
The laughter was wiped from Reginald’s face as Liv pegged him in the chest. “Hey!”
Liv danced past, impish glee across her face. “We’re gonna get ya! Me and my mamas gonna kick your butts!
Estela tauntingly threw a snowball up, catching it one-handed with ease. “Feeling brave, hermano?”
Still a little ruffled, Aleister pushed his sleeves up. “Grace, my dear, you’d better watch from the sidelines. I fear there’s a brouhaha oncoming. This may be messy…”
Bellies full from a mammoth feast, the Christmas party lazed across the Elysian’s warm parlour. Conversation had reached a lull as everyone digested happily. Only Reginald was up and toddling around, enraptured with a new toy. Every now and then he’d break from his solo play to lift the blocks from his wooden stacking tower to show Liv.
“Baby Liv, look!” he’d say, before continuing building and rebuilding his tower. “Red. ‘lo. Bue. Geen. Look, baby Liv!”
Liv’s interest was waning as she struggled to remain awake, but she offered her cousin an arm-wave. Those bright colours were pretty nice to look at. She yawned widely, and flopped back down against Estela’s chest. It was soft, and warm, and safe. Reginald and his coloured blocks blurred out of sight as her eyelids drooped, and drooped, until she could keep her eyes open no longer.
“Baby Liv seep?” Reginald asked when he looked up to see his audience had drifted off. “Nap-nap?”
Estela stroked Liv’s hair and gave her nephew a soft smile. “Yes, she’s all tired out.”
“Night-night kiss?”
“Okay, come here, then. Nice and gentle.”
Reginald waddled over, and was hoisted up by Aleister, who held him up to let him plant a slobbery kiss on his cousin’s face. “Night-night baby Liv!”
As Aleister carried his son to the other side of the room, where he wouldn’t inadvertently disturb the baby, Taylor cuddled in close, her face nestled against Estela’s neck, a hand gently patting their little Liv’s back. More than ever, it felt like those hollow parts of her, the parts where a family should have been, were filling out. When she’d first come to accept her identity, she never could have dreamed that a life like this could exist for her. In one another, the Catalyst gang’s lost souls had found love and support, almost as if in defiance of those who’d made them feel unwanted or broken, shunned. How far they’d come.
With a gentle hum, Taylor murmured happily against Estela’s cheek. “Who’d have thought this could be us?”
Estela looked down at the cherubic infant dozing in her arms. How could she have imagined something so perfect…? How could a life filled with something so perfect be hers? Even after all this time, there was a part of her waiting for someone to come along and snatch it all away. But, no. That wasn’t what their lives were now; fear, uncertainty. They’d won the fight. The future was this; family.
“…I…” She raised her head, meeting Taylor’s loving gaze and returning it. “I’m starting to believe it.”