The Quiet Ever After

The Association's Notice - 8

Axel helped his neighbors who took down their decorations at the instruction of the HOA get them back up over the next week, occasionally running into Ryan as he went in and out of the forest to keep an eye on the critters. Eventually, the three felt comfortable enough to encourage the animals to roam the neighborhood at night once more.

The raccoons were especially happy since Bethany had gone away to hibernate and they had one less friend to spend time with. Lord Carthinox was, after all, always reluctant to see anyone.

The holidays coated the neighborhood in full. While not every house had decorations up, and most were just tiny little displays or net lights done around the front yard, the neighborhood burst with color. Visitors drove through now and then to see what was going on and Santa came through on a fire truck for the kids. Ben and Kirk loved it.

Holiday parties also started to spring up around the place. Axel and Nina jumped at the chance—the confluence of power between the Earth and Starlit Plane, they sensed, was building. Likely, it'd punctuate at the Winter Solstice, leading to the incredible borealis effect that occurred around the area. Plus, their house was one of the few that Veronica felt comfortable visiting at all with her newborn daughter, Elise.

"She may cry a bit," Veronica told Nina and Axel over the phone, "but otherwise she's pretty calm!"

Axel spent quite a bit of time getting the house ready for the kids to come over, though was reliant on Veronica to bring over all of the things for the baby to need. He didn't want to ask Brittany for anything, since they still needed things for their future daughter, Jane.

Phil and Hideki accepted the invitation to come by, too, as did Yaya and her daughter and Raquel and Trish. Everyone else was either busy that day or had prior engagements.

A few days before the party, as a frost melted away from the neighborhood, Axel spotted Ryan removing the blankets from his plants. The man had grown his hair rather extensively and was quite fond of wearing warm hats on his head, and didn't mind keeping his arms exposed anymore, revealing the dark mage markings.

Ryan spotted Axel and gave him a curt nod. Axel jogged down the street.

"You know," Axel said as he arrived in front of Ryan's house, which he'd never noticed before but was a similar model to his own. "Another thing to help keep them warm is to take all the leaves falling from the trees and scatter them around the plant roots."

"Great," Ryan said. "Thanks for the heads up. I'll just go finding those...oh wait."

His lawn had none. It was kept perfectly clear.

"You go to the forest every hour, you'll find some," Axel said. "Also, I wanted to extend an invite for this Friday."

"Invite for what?"

"We're hosting a holiday party. You should come."

Ryan laughed. "Sure. Listen, we worked together against the HOA but that doesn't mean we need to be buddies all the time now."

"I know. But do you want to just sit around your house watching old Christmas movies all month long or do you want to get out and socialize for a second? Phil and Hideki will be there, you can bring them some food and hang out with those guys if you prefer that to us."

"I do."

"Then?"

Ryan folded up another blanket and tossed it on the perfectly kept stack. "I'll think about it. How's that?"

Turned out, it was good enough, as Friday morning saw Ryan give Axel a point to the house and a curt nod.

Nina and Axel dressed in some nice, but comfy holiday clothes, with Nina in a a plaid dress and black leggings with a Christmas Santa hat adorning her brunette head while Axel had a similar shirt and pair of jeans on with a funny gingerbread hat on his head. He considered wearing jingle bells on his wrist but that quickly became annoying and could bother the raccoons. So he left them at the door, and the kids could have fun with them.