2Happy December 19th, friends! Of all the Christmas stories I've done over the years, I've never been this early posting it! With that said, this is the first of 3 mini-stories. So it's still possible the final part won't appear til like 11pm on Christmas Eve. Whatever.
Nothing intense here. Just enough syrupy sweetness to rot your teeth. Which is what we all need at this point in the year. Bloodline is on hiatus til after the holiday so I can lose myself in these, and properly enjoy writing them.
If you just randomly found this and aren't familiar with the Dirty Chai AU, uhh basically Mika and Kurda accidentally adopted an orphan human together. She's like 25 at this point in the main DCU timeline, but this particular mini-story would take place early in This Is Us, when she's about three. Mika and Kurda not in love at this point, and although groundwork is being set, they're not even really friends yet. They're like workplace nemeses who are just doing their best to be good dads. I dunno, there's no good way to summarize the DCU without it sounding dumb, but I promise it's like... not the actual worst. Just don't overthink it.
Enjoy!
The thing about raising a small child in Vampire Mountain while also working a full time job is that your childcare options are fairly limited. Mika and Kurda couldn't exactly check Gracie into the local daycare centre when their schedules required their full concentration.
Council was a month away, so the mountain was already in a state of organized chaos. And on this particular day, Mika was supervising back-to-back Trials of Initiation for some General prospects, and for obvious reasons he didn't think his three year old needed to spectate those. And Kurda was off mapping caverns in the north end of the mountain - it was always the coldest down there, so he figured it would be better not to strap Gracie to his back as he sometimes did when he worked on his cartography.
But when you're a Vampire Prince, you can say things like, "Here, hold my baby." and not only will people hold your baby, they'll guard that baby with their life. Because they know if that baby gets one single scratch on your watch, it's a one-way trip down the Hall of Final Voyage for you. So yeah, Mika was pretty good at finding child care on short notice.
But he didn't have to go that far today, because it just so happened that Arrow was free for a few hours while Mika wasn't. Now, they could have just switched. Arrow could have presided over the trials to free up Mika for Gracie time. But Mika never wanted to give off the impression that his abrupt entry into fatherhood had tempered his dedication to the only other thing in the world he loved: his job. And Uncle Arrow really, really enjoyed his Gracie time. It was a win for everyone. So off Mika went, leaving Arrow and Gracie in charge of the Hall of Princes for the majority of the day.
But in hindsight, Mika sort of wished he'd plunked Gracie into the arms of the nearest mountain guard rather than leave her with Arrow. Although it worked out in the end, Arrow's complete and utter lack of forethought caused some pretty significant inconvenience.
Mika picked Gracie up from the Hall of Princes, thanked Arrow for babysitting, then set about putting her to bed. As he was tucking her in, she had a few words for which Mika was woefully unprepared.
"Daddy?"
"Yes, Princess?"
"When will Santa get here?"
Gods fucking damn it, Arrow! Mika thought to himself. He didn't always keep track of the date, but a bit of quick mental math suggested today was indeed December 24th. Inwardly, Mika kicked himself. Outwardly, he smiled and told Gracie "not til you're asleep".
He quickly located his partner-in-parenthood. Kurda was just on the way in to bid Gracie goodnight as Mika was leaving. But Mika grabbed him by the arm and looked him dead in the eye as though preparing for battle.
"Smahlt, we have a problem."
Arrow was benignly picking dirt from beneath his nails with a massive hunting knife when Mika came barreling back into then Hall of Princes with a vengeance. And he wasn't alone, Kurda was trotting along behind him looking mildly annoyed. It was one thing for Mika to be in a mood, but considering Kurda's usually sunny disposition, that was a little alarming.
"You're back!" Arrow greeted Mika with an oblivious smile.
"Arrow, I need you to explain to me why the ever-loving fuck you felt the need to tell my extremely impressionable three-year-old that SANTA CLAUS is coming to Vampire Mountain tonight?"
"Because... today is Christmas Eve?" Said Arrow slowly, frowning as though expecting this to be a trick question.
"Since when do you look at calendars?" Kurda groaned, unable to keep himself from scolding the tattooed Prince. "Since when do you even know what month it is?!"
It wasn't that Mika and Kurda didn't want to do the whole Christmas thing with the little girl they'd accidentally adopted. They were just so damn busy that particular week. And seeing as they were cut off from the entire rest of the world, they could have celebrated Christmas in July and Gracie would've had a grand time regardless. Part of Mika couldn't blame his friend for his well-intentioned slip. Arrow had raised several children during his marriage to Sarah, and he always had a wistful, adoring look in his eyes whenever he mentioned them. Having Gracie around gave him an opportunity to flex his long-forgotten paternal skills. And Mika thought that was great. The timing of this was just so awful.
So that's the brief summary of how Sire Mika Ver Leth and General Kurda Smahlt found themselves in a mad dash to scramble together a last-minute Christmas that was worthy of the grand tales Arrow had spent hours weaving.
They had maybe an hour til sunrise, so the first order of business was to head out to the woods and find a Christmas tree. Mika grabbed a battle axe from the armoury, and off they went.
"Would you quit swinging that thing around? You're going to take my head off." Kurda winced as they stalked through the sea of evergreens.
"Smahlt, I'll have you know I was undefeated in the axe tournament for three councils in a row in my General days." Mika shot back, continuing to spin the axe lazily in his hand. "I could trim your fingernails with this thing if I wanted to."
Kurda rolled his eyes, but didn't get around to delivering a retort because at that moment he spied the perfect Christmas tree. It was a young tree, maybe four feet tall. The trunk wasn't too thick, but the branches were beautifully full. It was just right.
Mika wasn't convinced.
"It's tiny." He observed, frowning.
"So is Gracie, and so is her room." Kurda reasoned.
"Her room is narrow but the ceiling is high." Mika corrected him. "We could fit a tree twice this tall in there."
"Sometimes less is more. Bigger isn't always better!" Kurda protested. Mika raised his eyebrows dubiously.
"Smahlt, are you projecting some self-esteem issues onto a tree? Is that what's happening here?"
"Get your mind out of the gutter. You know a bigger tree means more square footage to decorate, right?" Said Kurda, hands on his hips impatiently. Mika shrugged, as if he hadn't been complaining relentlessly about Christmas for the past hour and a half.
"Well, we're committed now. A Princess deserves the nicest tree in the forest." He said with complete conviction.
"For the hundredth time, Mika: she's not technically a Princess and if you don't stop calling her one she's going to develop a ego complex." Kurda scolded him. "Do you want her to turn out like you?"
Mika shot Kurda a quizzical stare. And Kurda rolled his eyes again.
"Of course you do. What a stupid question." The blond General replied drily.
Mika said nothing for a moment. He rotated slowly on the spot, carefully analyzing the other tree options.
"That one." He declared at last, wasting no time landing a heavy axe blow into the base of a full-figured eight-foot spruce.
Kurda threw his hands up in exasperation but couldn't help but feel slightly amused. Mika Ver Leth was a fascinating person to observe. He was so calculated and responsible. But every now and then, he just did whatever the fuck he wanted, for no apparent reason other than that he could.
Mika did most of the heavy lifting, literally, to get the tree back up through the mountain til it was standing upright in his room. They had to proceed with a certain amount of stealth; as Gracie was snoozing next door.
Ornaments were next. Vampire Mountain didn't have much in the way of interior decor so they had to get a little creative. This was Kurda's time to shine.
"Alright, this box is full of outdated maps and old paperwork nobody needs." Said Kurda briskly, shoving a box of paper into Mika's arms as they rummaged through a storage room. "I have a pair of scissors on my desk upstairs - we'll cut them into snowflakes. Oh, grab that roll of twine and that little box of rusty shurikans. They'll look like stars from a distance. We just need to hang them far enough up so she can't reach them. Hey, do you think the kitchen has any glass jars sitting around? We could put little candles in them-"
Mika was smarter, or more logical, than the average vampire, but all this was going over his head. He didn't understand how Kurda could take one tour around that dusty old storage room and see any sort of potential for Christmas decorations. All Mika saw were boxes of junk.
But Kurda clearly knew exactly what he was doing, because in less than two hours, Mika's room had transformed into a festive, glowing, wonderland. The paper had been cut into dozens and dozens of snowflake shapes which added a pop of brightness to the tree, and the leftover scraps had been sprinkled around the room to look like snow. There were little candles everywhere (all on high surfaces out of Gracie's reach), the tree was trimmed beautifully, and the excess branches had been cut off and re-purposed into wreaths which adorned the walls. It was simple and beautiful. Mika's one contribution to the decor was the large shuriken he'd polished and tied to the top of the tree like a star, only because Kurda couldn't reach quite that high.
Once that was complete, they stood back and admired their handiwork.
"This actually looks nice." Mika declared.
"Of course it does. Did you doubt me?" Kurda asked, glancing sideways at Mika.
"No comment." Said Mika. "Alright, so what are we putting under the tree?"
"I thought of that. I went to the sporting halls while you were figuring out a tree stand." Said Kurda excitedly. He picked up a large, unmarked box he'd brought into the room during the decorating process. "They're still renovating in there, so I picked all these extra pieces of wood from the floor - I had to sand them down a little bit but it only took a minute. They're perfect building blocks!"
Mika looked into the box, sure enough it was full of little wooden squares and rectangles that almost looked like they could have been purchased at a toy store. Then he looked back up at Kurda. He was trying to hide it, but his eyes betrayed the fact that he was legitimately impressed.
"That... was a great idea." He said slowly. "I never would have thought of it."
"I'm more than just a pretty face." Said Kurda with an impish grin.
"Whatever. We also have that bag of clothes we got last time we flitted to the village. Remember?" Said Mika, eyes suddenly alight. "She hasn't seen them yet. We got them a size too big on purpose, knowing she'd grow into them. They'll probably fit by now. We can wrap them up and put them under the tree."
"I'd forgotten about those!" Kurda exclaimed. "Gods, that's convenient."
"And Paris picked up this paint set last time he went travelling!" Mika added triumphantly. He yanked open the largest drawer on his desk and withdrew the little tray containing many colours of paint and a collection of brushes. "Here it is! I was saving it for her birthday, but we can figure something else out for that."
"Good idea." Kurda affirmed. "Especially since we don't know when her birthday is."
"We decided it's going to be the anniversary of when we found her, remember?" Said Mika.
"Right." Kurda agreed with a fondly reminiscent sparkle in his blue eyes. "Okay, let's get all this wrapped. We might even have time to get a few hours of sleep before the festivities begin."
The wrapping would be simple; they'd use paper and twine. It would fit the rustic-antique aesthetic of the rest of the room. They both sat down on the floor and got to work.
"Gods, I would've killed for something like this when I was her age." Said Kurda wistfully as he wrapped the paint set with an almost reverential level of care. "My family was dirt poor. The best Christmas gift I ever got was a pair of socks."
"Nothing wrong with socks. I love socks." Said Mika offhandedly. He was occupied with wrapping the collection of new clothes. It was a sea of pastel colours, except for one tiny black t-shirt. (Mika figured it would be fun to match every now and then).Kurda arched an eyebrow at him.
"What about you?" Kurda asked.
"Huh?"
"What was the best Christmas gift you ever got as a child? If any?" Kurda pressed.
"Uh... one year my brothers and I all got horses. That was fun." Said Mika. Kurda cocked his head like a confused puppy.
"Like, rocking horses? Or figurines?"
"No. Actual horses." Said Mika, with a sheepish sort of smile that looked more like a grimace.
"Charna's guts. How many brothers did you have?!"
"Just five."
"JUST five?! My gods. How nice that must have been." Kurda remarked. "I don't know where you grew up, but in my village, only the wealthiest of the wealthy owned horses. So needless to say, my family walked everywhere."
Mika's expression shifted into something that could only have been interpreted as guilt with a bit of embarrassment, and Kurda's eyes widened.
"I see. You were one of those." The blond scoffed, rolling his eyes. "I should've known. That makes so much sense."
"Money doesn't buy happiness, Smahlt." Mika muttered. He kept his eyes on the package he was neatly tying together with twine.
"Of course it doesn't. But it buys food. Shelter. I'm willing to bet you never went hungry just so your siblings could eat while your parents cried in the other room. I bet you didn't have to get a job at age six, if ever." Kurda replied in a clipped tone that starkly contrasted from his usual cadence . Mika sighed and glared up at him.
"Are you trying to make me feel guilty for something I had no control over? Or do you want me to pity you?" Mika growled. "What exactly are you hoping to accomplish with this conversation? We both ended up in the same place eventually."
Kurda exhaled heavily and ran a hand through his thick, platinum hair.
"You're right. I'm sorry." The General groaned. "We didn't choose where we were born. I just... I just want Gracie to have better Christmas memories than I did. That's all."
"Yeah well, so do I." Said Mika, looking back down moodily at the parcel of clothes in his hands. He slid it under the tree then leaned back against the wall.
Kurda set the wrapped paint set under the tree next as well, and glared dubiously at Mika who was giving him a similar look in return.
"What, you want to get her TWO horses instead of one?" Kurda quipped. "I wouldn't even know where to find ONE."
"No, Kurda!" Mika snapped back, clearly struggling to keep his voice low enough to not wake Gracie. Kurda looked up at him sharply - Mika didn't always address Kurda by his first name so the odd time he did, it always caught his attention. "Listen, I'm sorry you grew up like that. And you're right, I can't relate. But I know this much: I would've traded all those gifts for my parents to love me. Or even to pretend for a day. But we can't change where we came from, so let's just give Gracie the best of both worlds. Because we can. End of discussion."
Kurda smiled wryly, meeting Mika's eyes as though understanding him for the first time that day.
"My family used to light home-made candles, tell stories, and sing carols for hours... it was one of the only things we could do that didn't cost anything." Said Kurda softly. "But we had each other, and we were healthy. And that was more than a lot of people had back then-"
"My point exactly. My parents would've rather eaten glass than do anything like that." Mika replied bitterly. "They only gave us horses so we'd spend more time outside the castle, away from them."
"-And if we sang loud enough, we couldn't hear our empty stomachs growling." Kurda continued earnestly.
Mika rolled his eyes and slowly ran his palm over his forehead and through his hair, giving off the impression that he was all the way done with this day.
"Okay, Smahlt. Now you're just trying to make me feel bad for the sake of it."
Mika slowly got to his feet and stretched; sitting on the floor had him a little stiff. He glanced warily down at Kurda, and although Mika harboured at least a bit of annoyance at the blond pacifist at any given time, he found himself having to force the glare that usually came effortlessly. Kurda was looking up at him with the purest expression of contentment Mika had ever seen.
"I'm not. Really." Kurda insisted. His blue eyes were shining earnestly, and Mika believed him. "None of that matters anymore. Look at us, we overcame crippling poverty and, uh... emotional neglect, and made something of ourselves. And look at us now."
Kurda remained seated on the floor for another moment, watching Mika stare thoughtfully into the neatly decorated tree. He didn't think he'd ever seen Mika look quite so relaxed. Although Mika was typically cool-headed (compared to vampires like Arrow or Vancha anyway), there was always a certain amount of well-disguised tension about him. Kurda had never really noticed it until the Gracie situation had them spending far too much time together. But standing in this cozy, candle-lit room, there was no trace of it. From his posture to the look in his eyes, he looked as though 'stress' wasn't even in his vocabulary. The way his well-muscled arms hung loosely at his sides, and his battle-scarred hands were tucked comfortably into his pockets. The way his normally steely, calculating eyes were focused on the tree with a sparkle of genuine wonderment... youthful, almost. Kurda wasn't entirely convinced he'd met this man before. He was still staring when Mika eventually glanced down at him. Kurda tried to look away but he wasn't quite quick enough.
"Enjoying the view, Smahlt?" Mika inquired. He arched an eyebrow and wrinkled his nose slightly, as though Kurda had just done something horrendously embarrassing.
"I'm trying. But you're blocking the tree." Kurda retorted swiftly.
"Well, I'm going to bed." Said Mika. "I'd say you could sit on my floor and stare it while I sleep, but that'd be weird. No offence."
"None taken." Kurda snorted. "I've had enough of you for one day anyway."
"Good." Said Mika with a curt nod. But he extended a hand to Kurda and helped pull him to his feet anyway.
"Alright, if I wake up before you, I'll bring Gracie in to open her presents." Kurda began. "But if you wake up before me-"
"I always wake up before you." Mika cut him off.
"Fine. WHEN you wake up before me, you'd better come get me." Kurda stated, pausing and glancing over his shoulder at Mika as he headed for the door. "Because if I miss our first Christmas because you forgot to include me... they'll never find your body."
"Wow. Giving me orders AND threats of bodily harm. You know you give me reasonable cause to have you arrested at least once a day, right?" Said Mika with a satisfied smirk, as he leaned casually against his large mahogany wardrobe. "Also, that'd make you a really shitty pacifist."
"Lock me up, then." Kurda shot back flippantly. "Good luck keeping Gracie in line on your own."
Mika rolled his dark, storm-grey eyes, but he looked more amused than anything else.
"Goodnight, General Smahlt."
"Goodnight, Sire Ver Leth."
There was something special about that first Christmas the three of them shared. It was beautiful in it's simplicity. Mika woke up first as he always did, then he slipped into Gracie's room and woke her up with a tickle. Her shriek of laughter woke Kurda up too, and so began the festivities.
Gracie was so overwhelmingly excited over the makeshift decorations, you'd swear they flew in the entire Rockefeller Christmas Tree from New York City. And then she saw the presents.
"Uncle Arrow was right! Santa found us!" She hollered in pure ecstasy, squirming out of Mika's arms and tearing into the nearest parcel rather aggressively. Soon the floor was littered with paper and bits of twine. She got into the paint set first.
"We should have done this in your room." Mika commented to Kurda as they watched flecks of yellow paint spatter the lid of his luxurious mahogany coffin. But Gracie carried on to paint an abstract rendering of Vampire Mountain that was made with so much passion, Mika couldn't complain about the mess left in her wake. He'd keep the painting forever.
They sat together for several hours; Kurda had cleared his schedule and Mika made sure Paris and Arrow knew he'd be unavailable for at least the first part of the day. They didn't mind a bit.
Gracie alternated between painting, trying on her new clothes, and building with the blocks. Kurda tried to give her some pointers on architecture. He had an eye for those things, spatial reasoning skills sort of went hand-in-hand with cartography. Gracie promptly ignored all of his advice, stacking tower after tower for no other reason than to give her best Godzilla impression.
"Remind me not to get on her bad side." Mika groaned as he ducked to avoid a flying block for the umpteenth time. "Gods, she could kill someone."
"Hey, Honey? Your other daddy forgot to get presents for Uncle Arrow and Papa Paris." Said Kurda with the air of a professional hostage negotiator, gently prying a block from her little fist before she could whip it like a hand grenade, while Mika chuckled from behind the tree. "Think you can paint a nice picture for them so they don't feel left out?"
So with great enthusiasm and no shortage of mess, she did just that. Then it was off to the Hall of Princes to deliver the art. Gracie was eager to tell Uncle Arrow and Papa Paris all about her Christmas gifts. Not to mention there was a meeting in progress and Mika supposed he should at least make an appearance. (Honestly, Kurda was just impressed he'd been able to subdue his inner workaholic for the majority of the day).
"Wow, Mika. Did you paint this all by yourself?!" Said Arrow with a grin as he examined the painting. "Is it... uh... oh, I know! It's a frog!"
To be fair, it was mostly a green blob with a few swipes of red here and there.
"No, stupid. It's a portrait of you. The red symbolizes your tattoos." Mika retorted drily, even as his eyes glinted with mirth. "It's called abstract. Educate yourself."
"Daddy didn't paint it! I painted it!" Gracie exclaimed, slapping her forehead with great exasperation, as if Uncle Arrow was truly a hopeless case.
"Oh! Why didn't you say so? This looks even better than I look in real life!" Arrow declared, holding the painting up so the conglomerate of nearby Generals could see it - the meeting had been put on hold as soon as Mika, Kurda, and Gracie wandered in. The Generals nodded approvingly and a few gave a thumbs-up. Paris and Arrow both hung the paintings up on the wall behind their thrones, to Gracie's delight.
"We have a little something for you too, my dear." Said Paris, a twinkle in his blue eyes.
"I get MORE?!" Gracie shouted.
"It's just a little present." Said Paris. "And it's not wrapped, I apologize..."
He reached behind his throne, and slid out... another throne. But a tiny one, a wooden, child-sized replica of the original four. It even had a little steel plate attached to the arm rest, just like the magic panels on the real thing. It was sturdy but lightweight so it could easily be moved into the little storage room when not in use. And best of all, it had 'Princess Grace' carved into the head.
"For me?!" She shrieked in disbelief, running to it.
"All yours! I don't believe anyone else here will fit into it." Paris confirmed.
"My throne doesn't even have my name on it." Mika remarked, noticing the engraving.
"You're not a Princess." Paris shot back with a wink.
"Excuse me, Sire Skyle? I'd like to debate that." Kurda contributed seriously, and Arrow let out a booming laugh. Mika shot Kurda a glare, like he did ten thousand times a week. But there wasn't any gravity behind it, in fact he looked almost as happy as the little girl testing out her very own throne.
"Now when you visit your father at work, you can advise him from the comfort of your own seat." Said Paris, smiling in satisfaction at her evident joy. Arrow slid the throne - with Gracie sitting in it - across the platform until it was parked right next to Mika's. Mika took a seat in his own throne and looked down at Gracie. She beamed proudly back up at him, as though she was right where she belonged in the world.
"How do we look?" Mika asked casually, glancing over at Kurda, who was unsuccessfully trying to mask his amusement.
"Do we really want two Ver Leths on duty at any given time?" Kurda replied mischievously. This elicited even more thunderous guffaws from Arrow, and a hearty chuckle from Paris as well.
"She's also a Smahlt, is she not?" Paris asked, grinning wider than before. "We can only hope your combined influences balance each other out."
Neither Kurda nor Mika could keep themselves from joining in the laughter at that one.
They spent the rest of the day in the Hall of Princes. Paris ended the meeting early and had the kitchen staff bring in trays of Christmas dinner. Everyone who was currently in the mountain began to filter into the Hall of Princes, and when the ale began to flow, so did the carolling. Soon the Hall was filled with laughter and off-key renditions of all the Christmas classics, and even some Hanukkah ones too. While vampires don't go out of their way to celebrate holidays, apparently it doesn't take much convincing to bring out their festive sides either.
It was the first Christmas Gracie would remember. Being around three years old, the memories would be vague on details as she grew older. But she'd remember the feeling, the delight of walking into the unexpected tree and gifts. How she'd spent the rest of the day surrounded by love and laughter. She wouldn't remember what songs they sang, but she would remember how Kurda sang with her, teaching her all the words, and the way his eyes - bright blue like hers - shone in the torchlight. And she'd remember how, even though she was completely in love with her little throne, she still ended up back in her favourite place eventually: in Mika's arms, while he sat in his own throne. Where she felt like the queen of the whole world.
More than anything else, she'd just remember being happy.
I hope you guys liked that - I had so much fun writing it! After how heavy Bloodline has been, it felt really good to sort of turn my brain off and get back to writing what I love: things without plot.
Part 2 will be up in the coming days, maybe tomorrow. Please leave a comment if you liked part 1 enough to read this far!
- Roxy