Snapshots of a Fabray-Lopez Christmas
Title: Snapshots of a Fabray-Lopez Christmas
Author: kalexico
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1852
Summary: “That Day of the Year” universe. Snapshots of Christmas with Quinn, Santana and their kids.
_______
“I fucking hate Christmas songs,” Santana grumbles when All I Want For Christmas Is You is played for what must be the 5000th time.
Quinn smiles and rubs Santana’s back, steering her to the centre of the mall to look at a very busy Santa. There’s a long queue and it takes a while before they find them, but then Ian’s beaming smile can be spotted from miles away. Quinn and Santana simultaneously smile and wave, neither willing to admit how proud they are because their kids don’t need their mommies with them in the queue anymore, as long as they’re still in sight.
It also makes Santana tear up a little bit, because it makes her feel like her kids are older than they really are, but she’d rather be caught dead than admit that.
Quinn pulls Santana into her and kisses her on the cheek. “Look at them. They’re so happy to go to the mall with both their mothers. They’re happy, Santana. We made four kids and they’re happy and they’re smiling and excited and so innocent. What do a couple of annoying Christmas tunes matter when you have that?”
“I hate it when you’re right,” Santana mumbles.
“I’m glad you took these few days before Christmas off,” Quinn adds. “I love how much Christmas feels like a family holiday now. They can manage without you more than you realise, you know.”
“Are you trying to tell me I’m redudant at the company I started myself?” Santana asks, eyebrows up in the air.
“Of course not, silly. I just mean that it’s nice that you can spend this time with us now and that maybe it’d be nice if you could do that during the year sometime as well. Or maybe just work from home more.”
“Where is this coming from? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’d love to be home more, but you’ve never brought this up before.”
“I’ve been thinking about this for a few months now.” Quinn blushes - they’re not usually very secretive. She buries her face in Santana’s neck and Santana immediately takes her cue by wrapping her arms tightly around her wife. Finally, Quinn looks up and continues, biting her lip in such a goddamn cute way that Santana knows she won’t even be annoyed. “Ever since we visited Beth, I’ve been thinking about when we were young. When I was young. How strained my family life was, how nobody ever seemed to care about someone else. As if we were just four, and then just three people being thrown together in one home, and how we had to live with that because God wanted it so or something. And then with the holidays approaching I got thinking again, how cold and distant Christmas was. How Dad was almost never there and how Mom would either go to her sister in Kentucky and be bitter at the world, or we’d go skiing but they’d be at the bar all the time and leave me with animators. I don’t want that for our kids. I don’t want their parents to be gone all the time and I really want them to feel like we’re a family.”
“Don’t feel guilty, Quinn. As you said, they’re happy. And if it makes you happier for me to work from home more, then that’s what I’ll do. I started the business, but I trust my people. I’ll figure it out.”
“Thanks, Tana. I’d love that. Can that be my Christmas present?”
Santana smiles mysteriously. “You ain’t seen nothing yet if you think that’s your Christmas present, babe.”
They turn to look at Santa again and smile when they see Elisa animatedly talking to him as Juliette is waiting for her sister to finish, rolling her eyes at the rambling.
“Mommy, mami, mommy, mami!”
Santana groans. She’s comfortable under the warm cover, holding Quinn in her arms and feeling the steady rhythm of her wife breathing. It’s a perfectly peaceful morning, until now.
“Calm down, Ian. We told you not to jump on the bed.”
“But mami!” Ian says excitedly and out of breath. “You don’t understand!”
He keeps jumping and takes a deep breath for his next ramble when kid number two storms through the open door. Elisa joins her brother in his enthusiasm.
“It’s Christmas, mami!”
She jumps, twirls and nearly lands on Quinn’s stomach. Quinn has always been a good sleeper and doesn’t even stir. But then Kieren has found the way to their room - bullhorn in hand. Santana reprimands herself for the thousandth time. She should never have bought that for him at the last football game they went to see.
“SANTA CAME WITH PRESENTS!” he shouts, his voice amplified to such an extent that Quinn startles awake and sits up, her hair an adorable mess.
“Did Santa came with presents?” Ian asks, turning to his brothers.
“Did Santa come, Ian,” Juliette corrects him as she enters the room. She turns to Santana. “Mami, I’ve been wondering, are you related to Santa?”
“No,” Santana smiles. “Why d’you ask, Jules?”
“Because of your name. Santana, maybe he’s your grandfather or something.”
“No, honey,” Quinn laughs. “It’s a pure coincidence. You’re not related to miss Julie either, are you?”
Juliette ponders this for a minute, then shakes her head. “You’re right.”
“Mami, presents,” Kieren whines.
“You know,” Quinn starts as she gets out of bed (luckily she was sensible enough to remember to put pyjamas on last night, anticipating this wake up call), “this holiday is not about the presents, it’s about-“
“loving and sharing and being happy with your family,” Kieren finished for his mommy. “But Santa always brings such good presents and I’ve been a really good boy because I did pretty good at school if I say so myself and I told Santa I did and I told Santa to ask miss Julie and I know she’ll tell him I’ve been a good boy because she always laughs when I explain why I did something the way I did it so I know she likes me, which is no surprise, of course, because who doesn’t like me when I smile like that, and -“
“Let’s open the presents,” Santana smiles, interrupting her rambling son.
Kieren is enthusiastically trying out his R/C car while keeping an eye on his video games. Ian is hugging his stuffed bear and introducing him to the family, including uncle Dave. Elisa is trying to convince Kieren to let her dolls sit on the R/C car, but Kieren won’t have it. Juliette is opening her present and squeals when she sees a picture of the cutest dog in the history of cute dogs and reads what’s written.
“Santa got me a dog!”
That causes Kieren, Ian and Elisa to turn their heads in amazement.
“Well, where is it?” Kieren asks impatiently, forgetting all about his car.
“It says here that Santa gave it to uncle Dave to take care of it so it could get used to the temperature here. That’s smart, because the dog would probably be cold if he’s used to the North Pole,” Juliette reasons.
“What are you gonna call him?” Santana asks.
Juliette gives her a deadpan look that is again so much like a younger Quinn that it’s scary. “I don’t know that until I see him, silly.”
The bell rings and Santana gets up to open the door. Juliette jumps up as well when she hears a bark. Santana knows it’s Dave and the dog because she texted him when they started opening the presents. Once again, Quinn and Santana know they bought way too much, but they couldn’t help it.
After ten minutes in his company, Juliette decides that the dog will be called Dahl. It was a tough choice, with Dickens and Shakespeare on the shortlist as well.
Quinn is stunned when she opens Santana’s gift, who’s beaming at her hopefully. The pair of earrings and the accompanying necklace are simply breath-taking and must’ve cost her wife a fortune. She thanks her wife with a heartfelt kiss.
Santana is equally stunned when she opens the discrete envelope Quinn hands her and finds a series of pictures of her wife in a very… sexy babydoll and then some very… sexy lingerie inside. Santana feels a pang of jealousy when she realises that someone must’ve taken these, then realises that her wife knows enough about photography and timers to have done it herself. She blushes and swallows when Quinn scoots over and whispers in her ear that she bought those things and she’ll show them off in the poolhouse tonight, uninterrupted by the kids because she asked Dave and his new boyfriend to stay over.
Santana surprises them all by putting on a DVD she claims to have recently found. They start watching and soon realise this must be a few years old because the setting is a shabby apartment and it’s clearly home-made.
Quinn gasps when she recognises one of their first Christmas trees.
Santana’s face appears on the screen. She looks like she’s fumbling with the settings. Then there’s a knock on the door and it opens. A few seconds later, Quinn appears.
Then Quinn realises.
Santana gets on one knee before Quinn has the chance to take her coat off, and then she stumbles through a speech about how beautiful and perfect Quinn is, and how Quinn is her whole world and she wants a bunch of kids with her and the promise to make her happier than she ever could imagine, and then some other sappy stuff.
And finally, Santana pops the question: “Quinn Fabray, would you please do me the honor of marrying me, being my wife and the mother of my children.”
Quinn says ‘yes’ with a passionate kiss she can still taste on her lips as she watches it unfold on the large screen so many years later.
She can’t stop the tears from rolling down her cheeks and thinks to herself that this is truly it - Santana has made her happier than she could ever imagine.
And she certainly makes her happier than ever that night because Quinn wasn’t even aware it was possible to have so many orgasms in one night.
End.