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As do most things in his life nowadays, it started with the SCPs. Or more like, the suspicious behaviour of said SCPs. Or just the one.
Lunar, glued to technology as he is, has been giving him weird glances, which almost look angry, and having strange conversations that usually cut off whenever he comes near with other members of the family. After a couple days, all members of the family began to give him weird looks, tentative as they were with his supposed uncles. It made something in him tense.
Okay, he's getting kind of worried. Just what are they planning?
***
"Say kid... What sorts of things do you like?"
He hums just to show Moon he heard him, waist deep as he is in the washing machine that decided to die on them, while he tries fishing around for a wrench. He grunts in thanks when the lunar SCP passes it to him.
"Well I like mystery novels I guess. And chocolate, but I think that's quite obvious."
"But what would you like as a gift for example? I have to know birthday gift preferences before my brother murders me for not knowing one of his kid's likes."
Eclipse snorts, because yeah, he can see that happening. It's quite easy to imagine Killcode attempting to break Moon in half. He could probably do it with just his pinkie.
"I repeat chocolate for example. Some fancy bonbons or whatever. I like video games too, ones that have management in them or adventure rpg or soulslike games. I've also wanted another chance to try VR again, but eh. Not that high on the list."
"And what sorts of food would you want for celebration? And I meant actual foods, not sweets."
He pulls himself out of the washing machine just to raise a brow at Moon. The lunar uncle just glowers back.
"What? Is this an interrogation?"
"Just answer the damn question!"
He rolls his optics, and barely resists the urge to flip him the bird. They'd be here forever if he wasn't the bigger person.
"Well I think you should ask Killcode that. He knows all my preferences."
"So like no special meal?"
"Having homecooked food all the time is special enough already."
Something seems to barely soften in Moon's expression, and he reaches down to ruffle his rays.
When he indignantly growls and swats back, the hardness doesn't return quite as much as it usually would.
***
He growls as he feels something insistently nuzzle at his face, and he swats at whatever it is. There's only a deep rumbling chuckle, and then the attention is back.
When he opens his optics, he's not that surprised to see Killcode above him, grinning merrily. The soft loving expression on him makes something fragile inside him curl into itself.
"Good morning son. Get ready"
"It's my day off"
It's barely intelligible, but his father clearly hears him, because he shakes his head fondly. And then he's stealing the fucking blankets, which is frankly an offense he can't overlook.
"Hey—!"
"We're going shopping. Now get ready before I help you."
He shudders at just the image of that, then meekly nods. He's quick to rush to the bathroom, noting there's already a pile of clothes waiting for him there.
Great, he was kind of worried he would have to do the walk of shame back to his closet. Again
***
Shopping this time is... weird to say the least.
Not just because there're two more people with them, one loud and squealy and the other sour and grumpy, but because the SCPs are clearly not telling him something.
Okay, just what is going on here?
"Why do we need this many pumpkins?"
And why are they looking at the Christmas section? The holiday has passed weeks ago!
"Lunar wants to try something."
Ookay, what sort of monstrosity requires this many pumpkins? And why does the midget want to eat it? He doesn't even like pumpkins.
They get a bunch of other things, like lentil, which is surprising seeing as they don't usually buy that. Nor has he ever seen his family buy meat when they can just hunt.
Also, he swears he saw Killcode glare at the pig meat in their cart. So why are they getting it?
And this is his day off. He wanted to sleep in.
Damned SCPs
Still a much fonder thought than it has any right to be.
***
"We are going to be carving pumpkins!"
He blinks at Lunar and the tiny cloud grins back. His little star tail is wagging.
"It's not Hallowee—"
Small hands clasp over his mouth, and the manic expression on his littlest brother's face unnerves him so much his voicebox shuts off with a click.
"You weren't here for two major holidays, and it's the new year. I'm not going to just let you ruin our first ever family Christmas Halloween. Do you hear me?"
He nods frantically, and Lunar switches back to his sunshine and rainbows grin from before, sudden danger gone all together. He just picks up the tablet from the table, and points at a YouTube video he has on.
"And thankfully, I found this tutorial! We just need to follow the carving process, but make Christmas shapes instead!"
"We don't need the tutorial" the tiny SCPs head snaps back up to him with speeds that should be impossible, and he's starkly reminded of Killcode "I know how to carve pumpkins from my daycare days..."
His baby brother lights up, throwing himself at Eclipse in as big a hug as he can give. He simply pats the tiny back.
When he looks up for assistance from everyone else, the expressions on their faces are downright evil.
Great. They're ganging up on him again!
Killcode hands him a knife with a wide grin, cheery expression almost terrifying.
"Then teach us Eclipse."
He can almost hear the squealing laughter of children again as he grasps the knife.
***
"This blasted vegetable is fighting back! I do not understand how anyone thinks this a snack."
He sighs as Bloodmoon whines yet again, smashing their third pumpkin in a row into mush. And it was a nice round one too.
Thankfully, they got a bunch, probably counting with the short temper of people. Because so far? This is miserable.
Killcode, bless him, is trying his best, but despite his precision he had to abandon his knife, because he just simply couldn't hold it for any longer with fingers like that. So now he's using his claws to cut Christmasy shapes, but it's hard going. He's struggling.
Bloodmoon is at war with theirs, and they really tried everything from separating to just manifesting extra arms, but it always ends the same. They get mad and they destroy their pumpkin.
Lunar is... doing okayish, but the shapes he's trying to carve are shaky at best. It reminds him of the children back from the daycare honestly, but he keeps that observation to himself lest he be kicked.
Solar Flare is very slow, but the shapes he's making are coming along nicely. It already made a Christmas tree and from what he's seeing they're currently carving snowflakes. He gives it an encouraging thumbs up whenever it looks up for guidance.
Surprisingly it's Sun and Moon who're doing the best. The two uncles have observed carefully, and then almost immediately got the hang of it. Sun's so good at it he's helping everyone else alongside Eclipse. Whenever they share a glance the sunny uncle spins his rays and winks playfully at him. Moon's just keeping to himself, steadily growing his pile of carved pumpkins. He does keep an eye on everyone though, which is how he notices the lunar uncle is subtly helping in his own way.
It's strangely sweet. Maybe this isn't as bad as he thought it would be.
"Bloodmoon if you stopped pulverising your pumpkin maybe you'd actually be having fun."
They growl at him, but before they could leap over the table with the knife still in their hands, Sun interferes by gently grabbing their hands and guiding them in a soft carving motion. Together, they actually begin to make a shape that looks like a gingerbread man. How cute
The heartwarming moment doesn't last long, because when they're finally free again, Bloodmoon cackles and stabs the gingerbread, then gives it a sad dying face.
Eclipse does as anyone else would in this situation, and shuffles closer to his father. The giant gladly wraps an arm around him.
When he turns to look at Sun, the sunny uncle looks especially dead inside. Moon has him though, because he bumps into him with a shoulder, then motions to an especially big pumpkin. After some more wordless communication the two uncles begin carving it together, going for a snowy landscape if the vague shapes so far are indication enough.
Eclipse just shakes his head.
Next year they aren't carving pumpkins, whether it be for Halloween or for something else.
***
Decorating the Christmas tree with gold and black balloons was kind of okay, even if the next year's numbers were kind of weird, but putting Halloween decorations next to them was surreal. And that's coming from a guy who works with anomalous entities and has family members who are said anomalous entities as well.
He had to stop for a good minute to just gape at the tree, little porcelain reindeer decoration in hand and all, to just try and stop himself from shorting out. He doesn't think he succeeded, especially because he needed Solar Flare to sit him down.
He's still sitting, head in his hands, while his best brother is leaning against him in silent support, quietly watching as Lunar, Bloodmoon, Moon and Sun decorate the tree and the living space, while Killcode hums away in the kitchen. It's weirdly domestic, even if he thinks this is what it must be like to be on acid or something.
"What's my life?"
"A happy occasion?"
He just stares at Solar Flare until it goes back to observing everyone else. If this was a normal situation he'd be feeling a bit bad for staring down his brother.
Right now he just feels pretty stupefied
And well, he just wants to suffer in peace.
Is that too much to ask for?
"Does anyone want to taste test the gingerbread dough?"
Alright no, life has meaning again
***
"What's this?"
The soup Killcode was working on appears to be some sort of... brown sludge that looks kind of like it came out of a sewer. He half-expects it to move.
"Lentil soup. I searched the internet for traditional new year foods, and this was one of them. I believe it's from Eastern Europe?"
He makes a non-committal sound, poking at the... soup with his spoon.
How did this thing of all things win?
"So this is what we bought the lentil for."
"And the pig. In that culture it's said because pigs dig with their noses in a forward direction their meat will guide your fortune forward as well."
That's actually kind of cool
"And the lentil?"
"The stupid things are meant to symbolise your fortune as well! How much coins one should have!"
That's all cool and all, and pretty interesting, but why does it look like this?
"And I made freshly baked bread with it because people say it's tasty when you dip it in."
Well, if this thing is even survivable
Although that might just be rude... There are people who eat this thing at least yearly after all.
So he sucks it up, and grabs a slice of bread. He doesn't deign his siblings with even a glance as they don't even have the decency to pretend not to watch him with bated breath as he dips the bread in the sludge then sticks it in his mouth. They're probably waiting for him to drop dead or something.
Killcode is also eyeing him expectantly, but he'll let that slide. The nightmare is just curious if he likes it or not.
Chewing is a bit of a chore at first, because he's expecting a taste similar to the looks of the soup, but he's pleasantly surprised by the salty and somewhat spicy flavour, with just the slightest undertone of ham to it. Combined with the taste of the fresh bread, it's something near divine. It warms his mouth pleasantly and goes down just as easily.
He takes a moment just to take it all in a bit, stirring the soup until he can see the slightly faded orange of carrots and the muted pinks of ham amongst the sea of lentil. The scent he finally lets hit his smell sensors reminds him of family.
And he didn't think it'd ever hit him this hard but... he has a family now. A family to spend holidays with. A family that made an entire activity of his free day, where he'd have probably just laid in bed until he had to get out, and made him warm soup along with freshly baked bread.
If this isn't what love looks like then he honestly doesn't know what it should be.
He blinks his optics again, banishing the itchy feeling of tears wanting to form.
It'd be such a stupid thing to cry over
Strangely enough, when he looks up into the eyes of these powerful beings, he thinks they understand.
And that doesn't scare him as much as it might have at one point.
***
"I didn't get any of you presents..."
Is what he stutters out as everyone presses a present into his hands until he can barely see over them.
Sun just chuckles good naturedly, wrapping an arm around him in a hold he reserved just for Eclipse.
"But you are here! And for us that's enough of a present."
Alright, he's not going to fucking cry. He's not, because that'd be embarrassing.
Be an emotionless robot Eclipse, you have experience with that—
"I'd argue it's the best present I've ever received. Thank you brother."
The happy little tilt to Solar Flare's shoulders and the joyful crescents of its eye lights threaten to undo any attempts at put togetherness, especially when it comes over just so it could lean their head on his shoulder.
"Even if you're dumb! I still like you a lot!"
And then Lunar's wrapped around a leg, nuzzling into his knee lovingly. Even his tail wrapped around him.
"We always wanted a big brother!"
"Thankfully you are around! "
Rusty drapes himself over one of Eclipse's shoulders while Bloody does his best to wrap around his waist.
"You are a handful, but I have a science buddy now."
Moon just simply places a hand on the middle of his back, but that small gesture from him means more than anything. When he leans slightly into it, the lunar uncle stays.
"I am unhappy about your workplace, however I'll forever be grateful it brought you to me. I love you son."
Killcode pulls them into a hug, letting Eclipse hide his face in his neck so the others don't hear his sniffles. Somehow he's still unused to such consideration.
With his hands full, he can't exactly hug anyone back. But he realises he doesn't need to.
They all know already
***
In hindsight, Moon wasn't even being subtle. In Eclipse's defence however, he didn't expect this from the grouchy lunar uncle. His mistake, really.
It's almost unreal as he sits on the ground while he carefully unwraps each present these powerful beings got him, each item making him want to curl up and never leave as things he's been interested in for a while, things he loves and things he didn't even know would interest him keep being revealed.
Moon got him a science kit of all things, one of those things you give to kids who want to pretend to be scientists. He hasn't thought about these kinds of things ever, but now that he has one a part of him that never got to be a child relishes in delight.
Sun gave him a hand knit sweater, with a cartoony eclipse on it. It's amusing enough that he snorts out loud, then puts it on. The sunny uncle wouldn't give anything that wasn't clean already anyway.
Lunar got him a new music cd from an artist he's been lately listening to, and he also got him that stupid I am Bread game they were challenging each other about. Although he will admit, seeing the printed-out picture of their tv on the back of the cd was an experience he doesn't want a repeat of.
Bloodmoon made him an earring, using some fancy bird feather. When he motioned them to, they clasped it around his left middle ray so carefully like he were glass. When he spun the ray around its pleasant weight jingled hypnotically.
Solar Flare got him the continuation of that mystery novel he was always thinking about continuing, but always decided against because he didn't feel like buying the next book. And he would have felt kind of stupid downloading it as a pdf.
Killcode made him a scrap book. Containing items that reminded him of all the times they were together. He was left staring at it for a long time.
Around him the SCPs chatter, giving him some privacy as he takes in his first ever Christmas he celebrated. Which didn't even happen on the actual date.
It's all just a warmth he didn't realise could be possible. It's all just colours and shapes that clash while also not. It's all just noises that make him twitch to attention.
It's all just things he didn't even know were important
So he just sits on the ground, gazing sometimes at his new scrapbook, and sometimes at his family as they laugh amongst themselves. As Bloodmoon picks up Lunar and places him on their shoulder, as Solar Flare and Sun decorate now fully cooled gingerbread in a spooky Halloweeny fashion, as Killcode tries keeping Moon away from the chocolate topping to the cake he's making bellowing playful threats at his mock growling brother.
Something in him clenches, and something else sings
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