The rest of the night was uneventful, save for the several attempts to get all of the children ready for bed by a reasonable hour.

The kids had gone to bed around ten, and had woken up around eight in the morning. It was Christmas Eve’s eve, and that meant only one thing. Crazy children.

The twins were first up, which was expected, and then Mael and Bear followed. Naomi was next to crawl out of bed, but only because the boys were making so much noise that it didn’t matter whether she laid there or not, she wasn’t sleeping anymore. The only one who could manage to sleep through all of this, was David.

Michael was bewildered by David’s determination to never wake up.

The two both eventually climbed out of bed, and made there way toward the coffee machine, which was the only thing keeping any of them going at this point. There were eleven people in the house, and neither of them were keeping up.

“I do have some last minute shopping to do,” Edith was sitting patiently at the counter, waiting for the french toast that was being made. Julio was nowhere to be seen, but David knew he was in the house somewhere. Marie nodded, agreeing that she too had become a bit behind on this year’s christmas list.

Michael was placing bread on the griddle when he realized what day it actually was. It was the twenty second of December. How could he have forgotten that it was today? Michael handed Edith the spatula and pulled David into another room, away from prying eyes.

“David, I forgot to tell you something,’ Michael said cautiously, before grabbing his hands. “My family comes in today.” He said it in a nervous voice, afraid that the stress might just make David go insane. It could have, because with eleven people in the house, and at least two of them being extremely skittish of vampires, it was a lot to handle.

“When was this decided?” David sounded angry, but it wasn’t anger. No, it was fear. His father nearly attacked Michael, and Mael, but held off because they were family. Julio would have no problem tearing other vampires to shreds.

“Way before your mother decided to show up, that's for sure!” Michael said, reaching his limit. Their whispering was getting louder and the talk in the kitchen was getting quieter as the family started to hear them argue.

“My dad barely handled you and Mael. Imagine what he’d do to your family. Especially your brother!” David waved his arms around angrily, trying to get his point across.

Michael’s brother was a sore spot in the family. Finn was constantly breaking rules, and basically hated Michael because of the Zodiac title. There wasn’t a time that Finn had ever stopped drinking human blood, and Michael resented him for that. There was a time and a place to discuss Finn though, and it certainly wasn’t now.

“Julio is just going to have to deal. I can’t tell them not to come. We’re getting married soon!” Michael said, defended his stance. David knew that Michael couldn’t do what he was asking, and that this entire argument was pointless, but he’d reached the point of no return.

“I don’t want them fighting. Not on Christmas.” David said, wiping his eyes of any tears that dare come out of his eyes.

It had been a few moments of silence before David and Michael had realized that Julio was standing right there. He was holding a mug of hot coffee, and a newspaper in the other hand. His face was deepening in anger, but otherwise, looked completely calm. Julio managed to put himself directly in front of Michael, and leaned in.

“What’s my kid crying about?” He asked, sounding like he was on the brink of getting really angry. Julio didn’t make a move to touch Michael, but he was showing enough signs of aggression to be taken seriously.

“Dad-”

“I asked him, Mijo.” That word again stunned David to silence, and Michael continued to face off against Julio. Michael took a deep breath and backed away. Julio looked at him in surprise. Surely, Julio thought, surely David had taught him basic wolf nature. Wolves would stand off at each other, and the one to back down, was the one submitting.

“My family was invited over today long before any of this was planned. We were going to start the wedding planning, but we can’t really do that now, can we?” Michael had knowingly submitted, not wanting to cause David to be more upset. It was as much appalling to him as it was to Julio to step down from such an obvious fight, but he wouldn’t do anything like that to David’s father.

“Why not? I didn’t kill you, and I certainly could have. Why would I kill your family?” Julio had somewhat of a point, but Michael also knew that his family was nothing like him. They held as little respect for wolves as wolves held for vampires. In the younger generations, such prejudices had already started to disappear, but these were old generations. It wasn’t as easy for them.

“That doesn’t mean I’m not angry for making her cry,” The words had caught in his throat even as he said them. David shrugged, he wasn’t one to hold a grudge. David’s father sheepishly rubbed his neck, but also backed away from Michael, a sign of mutual respect in a wolves nature.

“When will they be here?” David asked, as they followed Julio into the kitchen slowly. Michael responded by telling him sometime that night. Michael was aware that his family still followed a nocturnal clock, and preferred to keep it that way. Michael had followed it for a while, when he was younger, but after he met David, it was easier to sleep at night.

The kitchen was just as busy as when they left it, only the French toast was nearly done, and Edith had started what she’d thought would be enough meat for both Mael and Michael. It wasn’t even close. Michael jumped in and stopped Edith from cooking it through. Rare meat was better in that sense.

“Thanks Edith.” He said, placing the steaks that were in the pan onto a plate. “Mael, foods ready!” Michael called out to no one in particular. Julio had the sense to look at him like he was insane before Mael appeared right in front of him with super speed.

“Look daddy, I can run fast like you!” Michael chuckled and handed him a piece of meat. To the others it looked nearly raw, and unappetizing, but Mael didn’t seem to care. Mael sat down and dug in without another word. He’d seen Michael do it tons of times, and his desire to be just like his dad overruled the fact that it was raw meat.

“Why are you giving a kid raw meat?” Julio was the first to speak up. Julio sat at the table next to Mael, sipping his coffee and reading the newspaper from two days ago. He had his reading glasses on, even though Michael swore he looked no older than thirty.

“Mael requires a special diet since he is a vampire now. He only requires blood one time, and after that, he should be fine to just eat raw meat like I do.” Michael said, sitting down on the other side of Mael with his own plate. Mael was already happily digging in, and Julio looked up from his newspaper.

“It smells disgusting,” He commented, looking at the meat for a second. Julio knew, by any stretch, it was far better than drinking blood. He took another glance at the red meat on Michaels plate, before looking back up at him.

“Your family, do they eat only raw meats as well?” Julio asked, and Michael started to choke on his bite of food. Michael’s mother was a nice woman, but had grown up hundreds of years ago, when feeding off both humans and wolves was a widely accepted thing to do. Michael’s father was born in the eighteen hundreds, which made it harder to hunt, but not as much as it would be today. His family didn’t feel the need to change their dietary needs.

Michael’s brother was also a part of the blood boat. Michael couldn’t say for certain that he wasn’t either, seeing as he occasionally took a bite from David now and then. Michael always reassured himself by telling himself that the bites were mutual. David would bite Michael back, but that was more of a claiming thing that wolves did than anything else.

“Not exactly.” He choked out between sputters of food. The old man took a careful swig of his coffee, and for some reason, Michael had the faintest idea that coffee wasn’t the only thing in that mug.

“Well, let the joyous season begin,” Julio said, holding up his mug. Michael clanked his own coffee mug against it, but didn’t say anything back.

All Michael kept thinking was that this holiday might turn out to be a horrid disaster.