The Novak Dolls

Thanksgiving

The holidays were always an insane time in the Novak house. Well, more insane than usual, if you can believe, especially when the subject of Christmas and Christmas lists came up.

But today wasn't about Christmas, Chuck thought. Today was about Thanksgiving. The biggest Thanksgiving he had ever hosted in his entire life.

Because in addition to his ten kids (Lucifer, Michael, Balthazar, Anna, Gabriel, Castiel, Hannah, Charlie, Chloe, and Amara), he had also invited the Winchester family, and Balthazar and Anna had insisted on bringing dates, so there were 16  people coming to Thankgiving and all of them were bringing appetizers.

It was a disaster waiting to happen. Chuck had invited his editor too, but Marv had only laughed and said that he had read enough about Chuck's family to know never to go to his house. Fair enough, Marv, fair enough.

Thanksgiving morning, of course, was pure chaos. He, Hannah, and Michael had overtaken the kitchen, determined to finish all the food in time for dinner while the rest of the family went nuts. Gabriel was half shoved into a cabinet, screaming about missing candy, Anna was arguing with someone on the phone, Amara was four hours early and having a screaming match with Balthazar over Celine Dion as usual, and then Lucifer burst out of hell, furious.

"Who the FUCK STOLE MY GOOD TIE?" He yelled, and the house shook.

"Geez, Luci, it's just a tie, no need to go Hulk smash over it," Balthazar insisted. Lucifer shot him a glare.

"Where the fuck is it?" He demanded.

"I don't know!"

"Check the laundry," Chuck suggested.

"Didn't Michael steal a bunch of your dress clothes for that fancy college dinner?" Hannah asked.

"Oh shit-" Michael dropped the potatoes and ran as Lucifer charged toward him.

"WHERE THE FUCK IS MY GOOD TIE, MICHAEL?!?!?" 

"I DON'T KNOW, I DIDN'T USE IT, I SWEAR!" Michael climbed on the counter, clinging to the cabinets like they were the only thing keeping him from falling off a cliff.

"MIKEY-"

"I JUST STOLE YOUR CUFF LINKS OKAY, AND I DROPPED THEM DOWN THE DRAIN AND I WENT ON EBAY AND BOUGHT ONES THAT LOOKED JUST LIKE THEM SO YOU'D NEVER KNOW THE DIFFERENCE, I'M SORRY!" Lucifer stared him down for a moment, then whipped back around.

"I believe you," Michael sighed with relief.

"Why does this stupid tie matter anyways?" He asked. Lucifer scowled and sulked away.

"BECAUSE IT DOES."

"Becaaaauuuseeee," Gabriel sang, climbing out the cabinet with a bag of outdated skittles. "CHLOEEE gave it to hiiiiim!"

"SHUT YOUR DIABETIC ASS UP GABRIEL OR I'LL TELL SAM YOU HAVE AN ANIME BODY PILLOW." Lucifer warned.

"I DO NOT!"

"LIKE HE'D BELIEVE THAT."

"DAAAAADDDDD-"

"God have mercy," Chuck whispered.

"Can't pray to yourself, Dad," Hannah reminded him.

Somehow, they got the food ready in time. Somehow, they got the tables set (well, that wasn't much of a surprise, Cas had been in charge of the place settings). Somehow everyone had gotten dressed and looked relatively nice. Now all that was left was for the guests to arrive.

Chuck did one final inspection of the house, making sure that there were no dirty plates or underwear left out. Sure, there was a paint mural on the wall still and his cabinets were unnaturally pink and the whole house could still bring horrified tears to a cleaning lady's eyes, but it was the cleanest it had been all year, and Chuck took pride in that.