A Moment in the Sun

{Future/Adults, later than EAS}

Planet scanned through the shelves, looking at the new Christmas headbands on display. There were multiple.

Holly stood beside her. She had the idea that the two should buy Christmas headbands for the entire group. It was kind of like a holiday tradition. Every year, they would all try to match together in some way. Kelijah (though he often went by KJ) often joined them, as he was the youngest.

Cae and Bella also usually joined them. Iris sometimes was able to convince Lilac to join, and when Lilac joined, Dameon joined as well. Bubs (though everyone in the group called him Orca) didn't join a whole bunch.

Planet was silently counting all of the different headbands in her head. There was the Santa Claus hat, reindeer antlers, Christmas tree with ornaments, gingerbread men, and many more.

We should have done Santa hats, Planet thought to herself. She turned to Holly. "Do you think we should buy one pair?"

"No, there isn't enough for everyone."

"So, we should buy a little bit of everything?"

Holly nodded. "Yeah, they're only one dollar."

Holly walked next to Planet in the parking lot, looking for their car. A small frost had built up, and the wind was almost attacking the two. Bags were in both of their hands.

After they had found their car, Planet dug through her bag in an attempt to find the car keys. After relentless searching, Planet pulled the car keys out the bag and unlocked the small car.

Holly grabbed the two bags from Planet and began placing them into the trunk. Planet moved to the front of the car and started the engine. Holly closed the trunk door shut after she finished loading up all the bags. Planet exited the driver's seat. Holly could hear Planet approaching her, due to her prosthetic legs.

A gust of wind blew past Holly, and she shivered. She hugged her arms in an attempt to warm herself up. Even in the smallest bit. She was starting to wish she was an animal, then she could have a coat like Polars.

Planet saw Holly shiver. "Are you cold?"

Holly nodded. "Yeah, a little bit."

At this, Planet made her way over to Holly and hugged her tightly. Holly went quiet. Planet looked up at her. "Is this helping?"

Holly looked down at her. "Yeah." This was technically a lie, but Holly appreciated the effort. She also didn't want Planet to stop hugging her.

After a while of just stand-still hugging, Holly pushed herself away from Planet. "We should get going," Holly said as she opened the door to the passenger's side.

Planet nodded. "Good idea."

Ruth hid beside the house with Kori, snowballs in hands. When they saw Hope appear in their line of vision, they jumped out and ran in her direction.

"GET HER!" Ruth shouted as both Kori and Ruth began throwing snowballs down at Hope.

"AH-" Hope began to shout but was muffled out by the snowballs coming down at her.

While this was going down, Dameon managed to sneak behind Kori, before tackling him to the ground. Hope took this as an opportunity and began tackling Ruth down as well. After both Ruth and Kori were pinned to the ground, Hope and Dameon let go and ran down the neighborhood behind a house.

Ruth and Kori were both covered in snow. Ruth pushed himself off the ground and began shaking off the snow, but some of it had already melted on his fur and made him wet. Ruth groaned, flicking his tail the shake off more snow.

"I lost to a girl. A girl," Ruth groaned as the snow melted in Ruth's tail. Kori laughed at Ruth as he shook off the snow, the snow he got on himself when Dameon tackled him.

"That's your own fault, you let your guard down."

Ruth shot him a glare. "You let your guard down first."

Kori rolled his eyes at him. "It doesn't matter; we should catch them."

Ruth nodded, fiddling with his ring for a moment. He and Mousy have been married for a while now. "Right."

The two of them started running off in the direction they last saw Dameon and Hope. Panting as they ran, they could see their own breath in the air. When they were running though, Ruth took a snowball to the head. Then Kori.

Dameon and Hope jumped out from a bush nearby and started repeatedly throwing snowballs at Ruth and Kori.

"YEAH!" Hope shouted when Ruth and Kori bumped against each other and fell onto the ground. "You've just been..." Hope paused for a moment. "...Snowed!"

Dameon looked at her weirdly. "Really?" He asked, his expression dumbfounded.

Hope crossed her arms. "Well, what was I supposed to say?!"

"Literally anything else!"

"You're impossible!"

Dameon and Hope suddenly started throwing snowballs at each other instead of Ruth and Kori. Though, after a while, they were laughing again.

Planet parked the car into the driveway before turning off the engine. She could see Ruth, Kori, Hope, and Dameon throwing snowballs at each other and playing further down the street. Planet rolled her eyes but smiled.

"What is it?" Holly asked. Planet shook her head.

"Nothing, just-" Planet nodded her head in the direction of the four animals playing with each other down the street. Holly followed her direction, then nodded.

"Ah, yes. Makes sense," Holly said as she unlocked her door. Planet opened her own door and stepped out into the cold air once more. Holly made her way to the trunk of the car and opened it, revealing the four bags filled with Christmas headbands.

"Planet! You're back!" Comets' voices shouted before embracing Planet from behind.

Planet let out a small 'humph' as Comet did so. Planet patted Comets hands, which were pressed against her stomach.

"Heya sis," Planet replied simply.

"We're going to make hot chocolate, and do karaoke, then wrap presents."

Planet nodded. "We'll be there in a moment."

Comet nodded, then turned to Holly. "Hi!" She said happily before running inside.

Holly smiled. When she married Planet, she became Comet and Star's half-sister. It still stressed her out though, because she didn't know if Star liked her or not. Star was a difficult person to understand.

"What's all that?" Orca's voice suddenly asked. At first, Holly and Planet were shocked and confused. They turned around and were met with the familiar blue, tall elephant. All three of them were silent, till Orca cleared his throat. "I asked, what's that?"

Holly looked confused, before following his gaze onto the bags in the trunk. "Oh!" Holly turned to Orca. "Headbands! It's our Christmas tradition this year."

Orca raised an eyebrow. "You all wear Christmas headbands every year as a tradition?"

"No- the thing changes every year. Our tradition is to try and match in some way."

"Oh, I see."

All three of them went silent once more, the sound of the wind blowing past them. Then a thought occurred to Holly.

Holly turned around and reached into one of the plastic bags. She pulled out a headband with reindeer antlers. She turned to Orca and smiled. "Have one!"

Orca looked surprised. "What?"

"You heard me, have one!"

"No- You don't have too-"

"Just take it," Planet interrupted him. "You can't escape now."

Orca was hesitant, then slowly took the headband into his hooves. "Thanks, I guess."

"You're welcome," Holly replied. Then she reached for another one, this time it had elf ears and a Santa hat, then turned back to Orca. "Take this one too- for the hubby."

Orca didn't even try to argue. Instead, he took the other headband into his hooves. Holly nodded, happy with herself, grabbing the rest of the bags and closing the trunk. Planet locked the door with the car keys, and the two went inside.

It had taken Sage a while, but she finally managed to get the fire going (with a little help from ButterHoof). Sage could feel the heat of the fire almost immediately, and she quickly backed away.

Flora snuggled up closer to the fire and sighed. "That's nice," she muttered mostly to herself.

Solar heard the crackling of the now large fire and made her way to sit next to Flora. Polar, on the other hand, moved from his seat to get away from the fire.

"Too hot," he muttered.

Solar rolled her eyes at him. "Oh, you're just so dramatic."

"No, I'm not."

"Yeah, you are."

"Nuh-uh."

"Yeah-huh."

"Nuh-uh."

"Yeah-huh."

"NUH-UH."

"Can you two shut up?!" Ollie shouted over the two. Polar and Solar shut up immediately, as Ollie didn't get mad that often. The last time they saw Ollie mad was when Kori got Solar in the hospital after an ice-skating accident a few years back.

Polar didn't want to think about that, so instead he started imagining that the snow outside was purple. Now that would be weird. So instead, he changed the color to a soft pink. Like lemonade pink.

Polars thoughts were interrupted as he heard the sound of a clarinet playing 'Jingle Bell Rock' upstairs. Most likely Mousy.

Mousy had recently been offered the job of being a middle school band director, mostly for the woodwind instruments. Of course, she had accepted. Right now, she was in a private lesson with one of the students in the Wind Ensemble. When they go back to school, they're going to be playing an assortment of Christmas and New Year songs.

"Guys, I made hot cocoa!" ButterHoof announced excitedly. She placed a tray of the mugs onto the coffee table. "Mousy said she was going to be done soon, and Cae and Bella are on their way. Someone should go get the two felines."

Polar stood up. "I'm on it."

Luna watched as the two felines (Iris and Lilac) snuggled up against each other, fast asleep. Just three minutes earlier, they were fighting and arguing over a blanket. A blanket.

Luna sighed and got up, making her way to the resting, purring felines. Slowly, she placed both of her palms against the two of them, beginning to look through memories. She placed Iris into a dream of running but was stuck on Lilac. She felt nosy, but she began accessing Lilac's memories, trying to find a good memory to play as a dream.

Luna came across one dream with KJ and Lilac in the mall. KJ was holding a backpack-plushie that had 'HUG ME' arms. It was a bright blue elephant with a lightbulb necklace. KJ was trying to pull off the tag of the plush-backpack and bumped into some lady. And an angry lady. Luna wasn't listening to the dream, but she could see the actions visually. She thought that the lady and Lilac were telling each other off. But when lilac tried to walk away, the lady pulled Lilac's tail, which made them pissed.

Luna exited the dream and just decided to give Lilac a dream of running, not wanting to intrude any further.

After that, Luna sat back on the bed and sighed. They got about five minutes of silence and peace... before Polar decided to slam the door open. Which made the two felines jump up and hiss. Polar backed away from the two as Luna deadpanned at Polar.

"What. The. Heck. I just got them to settle down!" Luna practically shouted as both Lilac and Iris fought over a stupid blanket once more, hissing and scratching at each other.

"Oh, sorry. ButterHoof sent me to get you guys, since we're going to drink hot cocoa and do karaoke now."

At the mention of hot cocoa, Iris ran down the stairs, alongside with Lilac. The sound of the front door opened.

Holly and Planet managed to get the front door open without dropping any of the bags, which were light, but the wind was still ruthless (Like Ruth himself).

Before they could get through the door though, Sage and ButterHoof swung the door opened. "Y'all we're gone for ages!" ButterHoof said, astounded. Planet shrugged.

Both Planet and Holly made their way through into the house and placed down the four bags onto the coffee table, next to mugs filled with hot cocoa. Iris, Solar, and Aqua were singing 'Rocking Around the Christmas Tree' in a karaoke machine.

Both Remi and Polar sat to the side on the couch, while Luna lounged nearby the fire. Ollie continued to read his book, now near the fire as well. Lilac was attacking the Christmas tree that Ollie and Orca had put up together in the beginning of December. Once Solar and Aqua saw Holly and Planet placing down the bags, they dropped the microphones and rushed over to the bags.

"Hey! You can't leave me in the middle of the song!" Iris shouted at the two runaways. Mousy started coming down the stairs, laptop in their hands.

"I'll join you," Mousy reassured as they placed down the laptop and picked up the microphone. Iris nodded, satisfied.

"Someone should go get the chaos group from outside," Sage added, stopping both Solar and Aqua from looking inside the bag. When Aqua tried to push, Sage shot them a glare. "A tradition must be opened together." Aqua stopped after that.

Polar sighed. "Fine, I'll do it I guess," Polar grumbled as he pushed himself off the chair from the bar and walked outside, the cold air not bothering him whatsoever.

Kori and Ruth tried to roll up a smaller snowball, before picking it up together and placing it on top of the previous snowball (which was on top of a larger snowball). Hope and Dameon came over to see the snowman's body before nodding in satisfaction.

"Yes, but now it needs arms and a face," Hope chimed in, Kori nodding along. Ruth did so and picked up two of the closest sticks he could find. Dameon went and picked up two smaller rocks and one large, pressing the rocks into the face of the snowman. Ruth stared at the snowman weirdly.

"He looks weird."

Dameon turned to him. "You try doing better!"

Ruth huffed and crossed his arms but said nothing in reply.

"It looks bald," Kori said to break the silence. The other three nodded along.

"But I don't want to give it a hat, that's basic," Hope chimed in. Again, the other three nodded.

The four of them heard the sound of huffing from behind them. They turned around and saw Polar running towards them, panting and such. Polar slowed down and placed his hands against his knees, catching his breath.

"I-.. need- to get out more," Polar managed to get out. He stood up straight. "Anyways, Sage sent me to get you guys, we're doing the tradition thing."

Everyone had gathered around the coffee table, some people lounging by the fire (Iris, Lilac, Luna, Solar, Hope, Dameon), some sat at the bar (Polar, Remi, Aqua, Ruth), and others sat on the couches (Planet, Holly, Ollie, Apollo, Kori). Everyone else was around the coffee table (Comet, Star, Cae, Bella, Sage, ButterHoof, Andie, Flora, and Mousy).

Everyone took their turn to grab a headband from one of the four bags. Almost immediately everyone placed them on their heads. Iris and Lilac started fighting over a Christmas tree headband, mostly because Iris wanted one, and Lilac took the last one.

"Give it to meeee!!!" Iris hissed as she tried to claw at Lilacs arm, desperately trying to reach from the headband. Lilac hissed in return and yowled.

"NO! I had it first!"

"Be careful! There is a fire right behind you two!" Sage shouted to the two fighting, hissing felines. Dameon and Luna gave each other a look, knowing how very natural this is for the two cats.

Hope stared at her headband. It was one of candy-canes. "Do you think this would look good on the snowman?"

Ruth looked over at her, before nodding. "Yeah, it definitely matches the color theme as well."

Hope perked up happily at this. She turned to Dameon. "Dameon! Let's put this headband on the snowman!"

At the mention of the snowman, Dameon jumped up. All at once, Ruth, Kori, Hope, and Dameon all ran out the front door, not wearing any type of protective winter clothing at all. Bella saw this and stood up to run after them, the cold not bothering her at all.

Sage looked confused and looked over at Cae. "What snowman?"

Cae shrugged. "I have no idea."

Meanwhile, the four of them ran all the way down the street, where they could see the snowman they had built not too much earlier in the distance. The four slowed down to a jog when they started to get closer, then stopped when they were right in front of it.

Quickly, Dameon went ahead and reached for the headband from Hope's hand, but Hope pulled away from him. Ruth took this as an opportunity and snatched the headband away from Hope. Hope turned and glared.

"Hey!"

Ruth rolled his eyes. "You're fine."

Hope huffed and placed her hands on her hips. Ruth gently placed the headband on the top of the snowman's head. It was too small, and it kind of stabbed into the side of the snowman's head. But it was pretty, nevertheless.

"HEY!" They heard Bella's voice from a distance and turned. "Don't forget your jackets!"