Mrs. T’s preparations must have been thorough from the day before. Brayden could’ve sworn she had just thrown it all into appropriate dishes to cook in and then threw it in the oven all before 3pm. The only thing that she’d worked on that afternoon was the turkey. A Christmas movie was on their big TV while Brayden, Lillian, and her brothers were playing a board game at the kitchen island. It wasn’t so much an island in Brayden’s opinion, as it was a continent. 13 feet long and 3 feet wide, it was this ever-revolving hub in the center of their home.

Brayden had always prided himself on a little quick wit and some intelligence to go with his looks, but playing these games with Lillian’s family made him feel like he was just a cut above a moron. The only one he could keep up with was Liam. Lillian and Alex dominated a handful of rounds of Clue, and the house rules even went so far as they couldn’t be on the same team for trivial pursuit, in any genre. However, with card games, luckily, they held no marginal advantage.

At around 2 o’clock her older family had begun to arrive. Her grandparents gave him inspecting looks and asked him all those very important life questions. He passed with flying colours, of course. Brayden in turned inquired about what it had been like living in England during the punk revolution or having parents who fought or participated in the second World War. He was interested, of course, but also – they had these proper English accents that he couldn’t get enough of.

When the inspection of him ended, her grandfather, much like her own dad, gave him a rough pat on the shoulder. The grandparents left to sit by the Christmas tree and the small fire her father had conjured in the fireplace.

The three siblings only had one young cousin on their dads’ side, everyone else was a century old, they explained to him. They left out the part where their young cousin wasn’t just another young person but a 5-year-old little girl. Hallie was smitten with Brayden the second she laid eyes on him. She tailed after him all afternoon and into the evening, clinging to the bottom of his shirt or grabbing at his hands.

Lillian’s eyes glittered with amusement at his expense. Brayden of course doted on Hallie, she sat on his lap while they played cards, he held her hand when they ventured outside for a very quick snow angel. Right before dinner her whole family had gathered in the living room. Lillian and her brothers, being the youngest group sat on the carpeted floor, without question. Brayden joined them, Hallie in tow sat between his legs and played with the small toys her parents had brought with her.

“Sorry about her.” Hallie’s dad chuckled as Hallie made herself comfortable.

“No big deal, I have a bunch of little cousins, and a nephew.” Brayden smiled back.

As the family settled into the dining room for dinner, Hallie picked the spot on Brayden’s left, Lillian on his right. Alex stretched out across from him and settled in.

“You know, with our mom’s side sometimes we get demoted to a kids table still. Lillian has been trying to fight it since she turned 21.” Alex murmured across the table.

“We’ve been the youngest over there for a long time, but Taylor and Dylan finally have their own kids, so we usually get pumped up to primo seating these days.” Lillian rolled her eyes.

“You guys have no cousins your age?” Brayden inquired.

“No Taylor and Dylan were the closest two, but they were still 8-10 years older than us.” Liam added, next to Alex.

“It’s been just the three of us for our whole lives.” Lillian grinned.

Brayden looked a little sadly at the three.

“Don’t feel bad, we’re all so close in age, all our kids will get to be close cousins. We made a pact.” Lillian whispered in his ear.

Hallie looked up from the plate someone had got together for her, gravy on her little red and green Christmas dress.

“Braaayden.” She whined.

“Yes Hallie?” He turned to her.

She babbled on about her favourite dinner foods for a while before getting distracted by the secondary tree’s lights.

“Two trees?” Brayden asked.

“Yeah, there simply aren’t enough decorations to fill the space, so it’s our Christmas eve / people we won’t see before the holiday tree.” Lillian murmured under the din of all the other conversations.

Her cheeks were flushed with red from the liquor they’d been absently drinking since about 4 o’clock. His own face was warm as well.

Dinner and dessert passed in a flash. Brayden lay on the floor of their basement, along with Alex.

“I might die.” Alex whimpered.

All Brayden could do was grunt in agreement. Small feet hurried down the stairs.

“Oh no.” Brayden groaned.

Before he could sit up to catch the assailant, she’d bounced right into his gut, making Brayden feel like he could cry.

“Hi Hallie.” Brayden groaned out, forcing himself into an upright position.

“Lillian sent me down here to tell you guys it’s your turn.” Hallie beamed at the two boys.

Alex’s turn to groan as he forced himself up and then dragged Brayden up behind him. The house was too full for all four young people to clean the kitchen at once, so they agreed on shifts. Lillian had tried to insist Brayden was a guest, but her brothers said he’d been hanging around the house so damn much in the last 4 months that he was helping or dying.

Hallie in tow, the boys dragged themselves up the stairs. Liam and Lillian had really put a dent in the kitchen clean up. Alex dried and put dishes away and Brayden took and packed orders for leftovers, all in plastic to-go containers.

“All right everyone, present time.” Mrs. T called out.

The family all gathered back into the dining room, chairs moved to face the tree, and the big table moved slightly to the side to make room. Hallie sat on the floor at Brayden’s feet. She got her litter of presents first, distracting her from the grown-ups opening their own gifts. To Brayden’s surprise two packages were passed to him.

“Apparently, they have an underground network and have been betting on you being here for the last few weeks. People were starting to get nervous.” Lillian whispered to him with a grin.

“Had it gone according to the schedule, people would be very put out.” Brayden ceded.

“Yeah, I made $10 today betting you’d be here, and you’d help clean.” Alex grinned and winked.

Mr. T groaned and shook his head, passing his son a tenner discreetly.

“I don’t know if I should be offended or honoured.” Brayden remarked, before tearing into his two gifts.

From her grandparents, a lovely set of cufflinks for the formal dress he wore for work. Surprisingly, a small gift that said

“From Hallie”

was next. Brayden looked around the room confused. He was trying to remember which faces he’d seen before, if any. Hallie’s dad wiggled his eyebrows in Brayden’s direction. He had been at the bonfire.

“Oh my god, they were all betting on me.” Brayden shot at Lillian.

She just shook her head and shrugged.

“I told you.”

“Hallie did you pick this out for me?” Brayden leaned down and asked her gently.

Hallie’s eyes light up and she nodded vigorously.

“Open it, open it!” She cried.

Brayden gently pulled the tape and wrapping paper away from box.

“Faster Brayden, come on!” She squealed.

“Okay, okay.” Brayden slid the box out of the wrapping in one flick of his wrist, revealing his gift.

“Mommy and Daddy said I was going to meet you today and that your job was a superhero, but that you’d be in disguise.” Hallie whispered conspiratorially in his ear.

“A superhero you say?” Brayden’s eyes lifted to the gentle eyes on him around the room.

“Are you a superhero?” She whispered back excitedly, basically jumping out of her skin.

He never talked about his work, what he did and saw every day. The people in this room seemed to understand something about it though.

“I am yes, but it’s a secret, so don’t tell anyone.” He whispered to her.

There was a small pin, displayed in the tiny box in front of him. The pin read

“Superhero!”

in big bold lettering. Brayden felt his eyes sting.

“You know Hallie,” Lillian’s great aunt, and Hallie’s grandmother started, “You’re related to another superhero.”

“Who Nana, who?” Hallie whizzed across the room, to jump at her grandmothers’ knees.

“Well, my dad, and Auntie Christina’s dad, he was a superhero before we were born.”

“Really!?” Hallie’s eye darted around the room looking for confirmation, heads nodded everywhere.

“Yeah, he fought bad guys with a bunch of other heroes too.” Her grandmother said, pulling her into her lap.

“I’m really happy, to know superheroes!” Hallie clamoured and snuggled into her grandmother’s lap.

Brayden sucked in a deep rattling breath, he was not going to cry in front of her family, on Christmas.

“We’re really thankful to know superheroes too.” Mrs. T smiled gently.

Brayden’s vision swam dangerously.

“Hallie, you have a couple more presents to open, don’t you?” Someone spoke up in the room, taking the attention off Brayden.

He was taking deep settling breaths when a shoulder nudged his. Alex grinned at him to his left. Liam, just another seat down, offered him a wicked smile, and raised his glass to him before chugging the rest of his drink. Alex followed suit. Brayden in proper frat boy fashion, returned the gesture and chugged generously.