How to Train Your Vampire

AN: This here's a little different as its just some fun fluff I made of the Lexi and Scarlet being together. (They're very cute.) But more importantly I wanted to throw it out there that HtTYVII is starting its run on Patreon and will start going up on here on Oct 1st. My aim is to update every other day but alas, there's always at least one day that things go awry. Also, because I prefer to have things in neat little bundles, the HtTYVII will be added on to the end of this story here. Hopefully everything goes well. Happy Fall everybody.

How to Train your Vampire Holiday Special (or rather a bit of fluff I wrote when it was a blizzard)

School had closed down because of the ten inches of snow that got dumped that morning. Since it would be hard to explain why Scarlet was suddenly around the house when I had a hard time making excuses for how she got there every day anyway, I’d suggested we power through the four or so lawns to Lee’s house.

Scarlet wasn’t bothered by the cold and damp. She didn’t like snow because it was white and reflected sunlight so that it burned her face from underneath no matter how she adjusted the hoody. It was still extremely overcast though so as long as we were quick it wouldn’t be too bad.

By the time we got to Lee’s house, she’d made the hot chocolate. She knew Scarlet well enough to know that Scarlet would want some. Scarlet liked chocolate, especially milk chocolate. Lee also was the type to go a bit… overboard with her hot chocolate. One mug had a miniature candy cane perched in its peak of whipped cream and smelled strongly of mint. Another had marshmallow creme on top instead of the whipped cream with gratings of dark chocolate and a few graham crackers struggling to maintain structural integrity. The third was chocolate on chocolate on chocolate. Lee had made stronger hot chocolate with extra cocoa mix and topped it with a small bit of whipped cream and then added chocolate syrup in a zigzag pattern to make it look zebra-like. On top, a single Hershey kiss perched, slowly sliding into the hot drink with a silent ‘ploop.’

This extra chocolate mug was the one Scarlet decided to take.

I didn’t care about taking photos of that one since it was quickly dissolving into a mess and instead focused on the other two, which were at least identifiable as fancy hot chocolate.

Scarlet happily climbed onto one of the island counter’s stools and perched, or huddled… I guess vultured might be a good way to put it.

Lee rolled her eyes as she had to wait for me to finish taking photos with my phone before she could finally take a spoon and destroy her work of art.

Either way, I deeply enjoyed the hot drink as I watched my photos upload. They weren’t stunning but food photography was finicky.

“So,” Lee said. She leaned on the counter with her drink, scooping marshmallow out to then lick it off the spoon. “I think we’ll do the annual cookie swap this weekend,” she explained. “Hopefully we don’t end up with too much make-up work.”

We glanced out the window where snowflakes continued to drift down. There was a risk we’d be snowed in tomorrow too. Our history exam would then be on Monday and our weekend tainted with the responsibility of studying even if we ended up not doing it.

“Should we set up the secret santa?” I asked.

Scarlet was contently sipping at her hot cocoa but stopped to listen in at this.

“Yeah,” Lee agreed and went to fetch her laptop. A few minutes later we’d gather up everyone's emails and used one of those websites to draw random names.

Even Scarlet got a draw with an extra email of mine I never checked. She almost protested this but I gave her hand a little reassuring squeeze that it was okay, and she went quiet.

Still, once we’d left Lee’s after quite a few hours of TV and movies and another round of hot chocolate, she was even quieter than usual.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

She shook her head, and tried to take shelter in my shadow from the sun.

“Something’s wrong,” I told her. “I can tell by now.”

“I’m just… you know. I’m not part of this,” she said.

“You’re our singer,” I pointed out. “You are absolutely a part of this.”

“No,” she said. Her face buried into my back.

“But…” I sighed. Something deeper was up. “I promise, the others want you there too. You’re our friend and they like you. I’ll spot you some cash for a present too, if that’s the issue.”

She shook her head again. We were almost back to my house.

“Then what…” I trailed off. “Do you have bad holiday memories?” I asked.

There was a silence. “Not… exactly,” she said.

I couldn’t think of another question to ask that wouldn’t be nagging, but I tried.

“I’m… Jewish,” she explained finally.

I stopped, and she stumbled against me at the abrupt change in pace.

“I’m sorry,” she rushed. “I know I should have told you and everything but I just– you understand, right?”

I turned and pulled her into a hug with a gentle shush. “It’s okay,” I told her. “There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being Jewish.”

She nodded.

“So it’s not that you’re worried about being included as a friend but being included when you’re not Christian?” I asked.

She nodded again.

“Okay,” I patted her hair over the hoodie. “Listen, nobody cares that you’re a Jewish. We call it a Secret Santa and Christmas cookies but honestly it’s far more important to us to spend some time together.”

“They won’t care I don’t know any of that culture?” she asked.

“Absolutely not. In fact, why don’t you bring some Jewish traditions in. It’s… Hannakuh that happens this time of year right?”

“It’s not Jewish Christmas,” she said immediately.

“I understand that but it is part of the holiday season here… in America. Are there any treats or something you can make instead of Christmas cookies? I’ll help you in the kitchen if you need it.”

Scarlet was quiet. She mumbled something into my jacket I couldn’t quite make out.

“What was that?” I asked. 

“Rugelach,” she repeated, picking her head up out of my clothes. “The chocolate filled kind, you know.”

“Uh…” I had no idea what rugelach was, but I was determined to find out and took my phone to find a recipe. “Yeah, we can do this.”

She buried her face back in my jacket. “Are you sure the others won’t mind?” she asked.

“Of course not. I’m pretty sure Sierra is jewish too, now that I think about it. I guess Christmas has gotten so commercialized now-a-days it doesn’t really matter what denomination or religion you practice, there’s usually going to be some Christmas culture trickling into your life this time of year.”

Now that I thought about it, that sounded kind of unfair but then again, Christmas for so many people was far divorced from religion anyway. Even I, technically a ‘christian’ only knew vaguely that Christmas celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ and The Virgin Mary and that donkey, for some reason.

She nodded. “Okay,” she said. “If you’re sure.”

“I’m positive,” I told her. I gave her head a few pets to reassure her. “I’ll make my brother drive us to the store.”

She nodded again and hugged me.