*Small Outlander spoilers!*
»So, you want to make me believe that this Claire traveled through time through that stone from the stone circle. And is now, which year was it again?«
»1743.«
»And is now stuck in the year 1743. Where she then almost gets raped by a guy that looks like her husband in her original timeline and then she meets a group of Scots. With them she kind of has this love-at-first-sight-moment with Jamie Fraser, who she by the way casually locates his shoulders. Then she is, well mostly, held captive in that castle and gets to be a healer or however, they call them. Then in the following episodes, get called a witch and needs to marry Jamie to stay alive. Even though I like that because I don't like Frank, but still. And then she tells him everything and he takes her back to the stone circle. However, he panics and grabs her hand when a hocus pocus thing happens. Gets cold feet and backs away only to tell her he will stay for the night in the woods if something happens. And she decides to stay and doesn't really want to return to Frank because she has no idea if she loves husband-future or husband-past. After that she goes to Jamie's home, that castle with the strange name. Did I comprehend that right?«
*
»Pretty much, yes.«
»What in Luna's name...« He banged his hands over his head together. »Give me the remote. If we don't watch more, I will go crazy.«
Smirking, I gave him the remote control and slurped on my tea.
After I left the bathtub – correctly after twenty minutes, just like Naika ordered – Cassian and I made ourselves comfortable in his bed.
Luna Kiana gave us cookies she had baked in the afternoon and made us tea too. Christmas cookies, because Christmas wasn't that far away anymore.
I didn't want to think about the happy atmosphere, decorations and music of Christmas. Much of that was already happening but it got only worse. And the music just got a cover every damn year.
I was cuddled up in my fluffy blanket and squeezed against Cas' side while he had one arm around my hip and with the other one, he started the new episode.
Actually, I was already at season 3 but Cas refused to watch it without knowing what had happened beforehand and that's why we started with season 1.
However, it was interesting to watch Cas how he reacted to many things and interactions. And his most important argument for starting with season 1 was that he wanted to get to know more about the things I liked.
And well, like already said, he wanted to know what had happened beforehand.
If I went back to the topic of Christmas now.
With the Ramsay's I had a little tradition which I would like to still hold on and Naika and Toby would probably agree with me. May and Maxim would go back to their pack soon, but right now they were here. Maybe they stayed longer so we could fulfill our tradition – if it was even possible.
As far as I remembered, there would be a small Christmas party in the evening of the second Christmas day – like a Christmas ball – in school. There weren't just students and teachers but parents too and many residents from our hometown. It was a big party and the whole village was invited. We did that every year.
And in the years, I had still lived here my band The Lycans played at that party. That's why Ethan already sent me the song list from which I went through some of the lyrics.
To my demise was there one song that Flora chose. One in Japanese. She loved that language too much.
Normally, it was Ethan who made the song suggestions and we others voted. With him choosing there wouldn't be songs like that.
However, it seemed like Flora and Jackson made some suggestions too. As far as I understood, Jack would accompany us on a piano with two songs. Next to the drums he could play piano.
Quietly, without distracting Cassian from the show, I grabbed my phone and opened the chat with Ethan. Going through the list one last time.
1. Frozen – Do you want to build a snowman?
That was one of the suggestions from Jackson. But we still haven't decided if we want to do the English or German version. And we too didn't decide if I sang it alone or if Flora joined in – probably together because of the kind of shared lyric between Anna and Elsa. Right?
2. Chris Rea – Driving home for Christmas
A suggestion from Ethan and a typical Christmas song.
3. Indina Menzel and Michael Bublé – Baby it's cold outside
That was also a suggestion from Ethan, and Flora and I would sing this one together. After all it was made for two voices and alone it wouldn't sound good.
4. Todadora! – Holy Night
The song from Flora. She watched the anime not long ago and loved the Christmas song so much she wanted to sing it too. Also, with us both.
Maybe I could convince her to use an English cover. And that would be more understood than the Japanese version. Maybe someone would understand it if they could speak Japanese, but most people I knew from this village couldn't even speak proper English.
Or I could persuade her to forget that song completely. But with my luck, probably not possible.
5. Glee – Jingle Bell Rock
One of my favorites and a suggestion from Ethan. Normally, he and I put our ideas together. So, his suggestions were mine too. We had the same taste in music. We both chose the version of the TV show because it was much peppier than the original version.
6. Mozart – Gold falls from the heaven
A not common but also a relatively nice song for Christmas. But the pitch of this song was damn high in some parts. I could probably do it but I still got scared with high tones.
That was one song that Jackson would accompany me with the piano and Ethan would join with the drums to stand in for Jackson.
7. Michael Bublé – Santa Claus is coming to town
Another suggestion from Ethan and also secretly from Zack because he loved that song from the singer. And he wanted to surprise Leandra with that song because she loved it more than he did. The band was fine with Zack's request and so it went on our list.
8. Wham! – Last Christmas
And that was the last song which we chose – another typical Christmas song.
Other students could also suggest songs and make requests which looked at and thought about how to do it. We mostly could do it, but there were too many requests.
»What're you doing?«
Surprised, I lifted my eyes from my phone and met Cas' green eyes. Without thinking about it my eyes went to his lips before I shook my head and met his eyes again.
»I just looked at the song list for Christmas again,« I croaked and could have hit myself for my hoarse voice.
It was only because of my cold and possibly not because his presence made me damn nervous. And not at all those tempting lips in that tempting face from this attractive handsome person. Damn it, stop thinking like that!
»I think you reached step two. Though I hoped we could have skipped it,« Cas mumbled and furrowed his brows worried.
»Ah, uh, no.« I cleared my throat because I still sounded hoarse.
»Until now step two still didn't reach us,« I laughed, now with a clear voice and showed him the song list. »You are going to sing songs in Japanese?« he asked, puzzled. Flora suggested two songs but one of them got denied, but Ethan still sent it to me in a clip.
»You know those two songs? Are you watching anime?« He shook his head, laughing.
»No, but Flora played this song« - he pointed to the song Winter's story from Given which we denied - »not just one time, when I was at Lucien's, with volume at 100 percent on her Bluetooth-box.«
»Oh.«
Approving he nodded and shrugged his shoulders. »Well, I didn't understand it because of the language. But someday I need to learn it because of the peace treaty we have with that Japanese pack. Even though I don't understand why we have that in the first place. If we get attacked, we are eliminated before they could even reach us. The other way around the same.«
»Cas, seriously. You are the Alpha, not me.« Uncomprehending, I looked up to him and he shrugged his shoulders again.
»You are my Luna and because you are my Luna, you can explain it to me, please. Because I can make a sense out of it.«
»First of all, peace treaties between packs are always good and work-out positively, the location of the pack doesn't matter. Secondly, why do we have a peace treaty with the Canadian pack then? I was sick and could go to them because of this treaty and our Alpha was sure that I was safe there. Peace is always good and if there is a treaty, even better. It could come to the point that some packs have an alliance and choose to attack other packs. They don't even need a reason, but could only choose to widen their territory. In those situations, packs that have a treaty come together and defeat such a pack. Peace is always the first choice you should make. And to learn a few Japanese words shouldn't be that hard or you could just try talking in English. They should understand that too.«
Not satisfied he pulled a grimace. »Why does my Luna need to explain that to me? I'm kind of useless now as an Alpha.«
My traitorous heart thumped fast when he called me his Luna and I ignored it at first that he called himself useless.
»Don't say that. There may come times where I need you to explain something to me because I don't know the answer. Okay? After all, my Alpha isn't useless at all.«
His ears turned dark red and noticed that I just said and blushed too.
»Well... I... I didn't mean... uhm...«
»It's fine,« he croaked.
An uncomfortable silence appeared between us and I cursed inside myself that I called him my Alpha. How could I even do that?!
Yes, he was my future Alpha but I meant it in another way. I called him my Alpha – my property.
It was maddening!
»Do you have a wish for Christmas?« I asked quietly to break this silence. He cleared his throat, his ears still dark red.
»Not really. A nice Christmas with you, without complications? Just a nice meet-up, giving away presents. If someone wants it, go to church...« he mumbled and I could swear his ears blushed even harder.
Sadly, his wish didn't help me at all. What should I give him?!
»Do you have a wish?«
Thoughtful I frowned and shrugged my shoulders. »I too don't really have a wish. Well, one thing, but I need to get that from Naika and Toby, because it's a tradition between us that we agreed on to do every Christmas,« I quietly said.
»What tradition?«
»Well, we always ran together through the snowy forest and howled to the moon. Later we went tobogganing with rubber tires and at home we drank hot chocolate in front of the fireplace,« I told him and remembered my last two Christmas eves.
Fairy lights hung on the trees and lit the toboggan run. Inside the woods hung vegetables and fruits on the pines for the animals and we watched them in our wolves' forms and didn't hunt them. And then there was the bright moon in the clear night sky.
Later we sat together in front of the fireplace and drank hot chocolate and laughed together, talked for almost the whole night. And in the morning, we unwrapped the presents.
»If the two of them don't want to do it, I'm going with you,« Cas pulled me out of my memories. Surprised, I eyed him before I smiled at him softly and thanked him.
Yeah, I would like to do that with my Alpha.