⌜ chapter ten ⌟

"Twenty years, and our aluminum tree looks good as new." Mr. Matthews says as he's straightening the branches of the top piece. "I love this tree. I like you, Eric, but I love this tree."

"Oh, don't worry, baby. I love you." Letty says when she sees the look on Eric's face, and he smiles down at her from the top of the ladder.

"Okay, please, I am just asking you please," Cory starts as he makes his way down the stairs to where the others are, and Eric climbs off of the ladder to stand beside his girlfriend. "Topanga's gonna be staying here for Christmas, overnight. Could we please not run naked down the hall singing We Wish You A Merry Christmas?" He asks his brother. "I'm lookin' at you."

"I only do it because people have come to expect it." Eric tells him.

"It's me. I'm people." Letty smiles when Cory turns to glare at her.

"Anything embarrassing about your dad you care to mention?" Mr. Matthews asks as he walks up behind his younger son as the older teenagers walk away from them, returning their attention to the aluminum Christmas tree.

"Well, at this stage of your life, are you capable of change?" He questions.

"Nope."

"Okay, so just when you do it, say excuse me." Cory tells him. "Eric, come here." He walks away from them, and the older boy leaves Letty as she decorates the tree.

Letty can't hear their conversation, and it seems to be rather hushed. She simply continues decorating the tree with Mr. Matthews.

Cory's showing his older brother a promise ring that he got for Topanga. He wants to give it to her for Christmas as a promise that they're gonna be together forever.

"You wanna see something even better?" Eric whispers as he grabs his brother's arm.

"No." He glares at him as the older boy pulls him farther away from the brunette by the back door.

"I'm gonna give this to Letty." He says before pulling a velvet box from his pocket and opening it to show to his brother.

Cory's eyes widen as he looks at the engagement ring. "You're gonna propose tonight?" He asks, but Eric shakes his head.

"No, not tonight. I wanna plan another trip that's just me and her." He tells him. "But I'm afraid that if I leave it in our room, she'll find it. I don't want her to know what I'm planning. Which is part of the reason we've already gone on one weekend vacation. This way, she'll think it's just another trip like the other."

"How long have you been planning this?"

"A long time. It's taken while to save up enough to buy a ring for her that I like." Eric says. "You think she'll like it?"

"It's you. Eric, she'd say yes if you proposed with a Ring-Pop." He tells her, and the older boy smiles as he stuffs the engagement ring back into his pocket.

"She can't know about this. No one can — not even Topanga, and especially not Shawn." The older boy says. "I'm trusting you with this."

"I promise."

Eric nods. "Thank you."

"Hey, uh... Congratulations, man."

"She hasn't said yes yet."

"She will." Cory tells him, and his smile widens.

The next thing Letty hears is, "No naked running. You got it?" And then the younger boy is walking away from his brother. "Don't encourage him." Cory points at the brunette as he walks past her.

"Fine. I'll just keep him with me while he's naked." She says, and Eric smiles as he runs over and wraps his arms around her. Letty squeals when he suddenly picks her up and spins her around, then he kisses her when she's back on her feet.

"You two repulse me."

"Cor, look what I brought you for Christmas." Mrs. Matthews says as she walks into the house through the front door.

"Oh, look, Miss Topanga Head." He smiles as he walks over to greet his girlfriend.

"Hi, guys." The blonde smiles as she hugs him. "Thanks for letting me spend Christmas with you. My parents went on a cruise to Barbados, but I told them, nope, I wanted to spend Christmas with Cory."

"What's with parents and going on cruises for the holidays?" Letty asks as she looks at Eric, and he shrugs. "I don't really feel like I'm missing out on much in the parental department."

"Hey, why don't we toast Topanga's first Matthews Christmas with some of my special eggnog?" Mr. Matthews says as he walks into the room carrying cups and the eggnog. "There you are."

"Yum." Letty smiles as she sits on the couch, and Eric passes a cup to her.

"Mm. This is really good." Topanga says after taking a sip. "Have you guys ever tried hot mulled cider?"

"No." Eric says as he looks at her. "Nog. We're an eggnog family."

"Wait, if this is tradition— I would never want to interfere with tradition." She says. "It's just that, you know, my family's always had cider."

"Well, we can have both, huh?" Cory suggests.

"How?!" Eric questions. "How could we have both? You ever been to the supermarket? The cider's nowhere near the eggnog. You know why? They hate each other."

"Scarlett?" Mr. Matthews takes a drink from his cup.

"Hey, Eric, drive me to the supermarket? I'm thinking I want some cider this year." The brunette says as she stands up.

"Yes, my love." Eric says as his dad hands him the key to the car.

"You'll make him focus?" Cory asks as the two older teenagers start for the front door.

"Since he was seven." Letty tells him, and then turns back. "Topanga, is there anything else we can get you that's gonna make your Christmas with us feel more like home?"

The blonde smiles. "No, and I'm really sorry to put you guys out. It's just that cider on Christmas is, like, my family's one tradition. Well, that and we go to our favorite evergreen tree farm. But everyone has one of— What the heck is that?" She questions when she turns around and sees the aluminum tree that's situated by the backdoor like every other year.

"Our tree." Eric walks up behind his girlfriend, resting his hand on her hip. "What's wrong with our tree?" He questions.

"It's fake." Topanga says. "It's silver."

"It's aluminum." Mr. Matthews corrects.

"The evil little girl's gonna make us get a new tree, isn't she?" Eric whispers, and Letty shrugs as she looks up at him.

—

"She's insane." Eric hisses as he wraps his arms tighter around Letty. The brunette's huddled up inside of his jacket with him as they watch Topanga walk around the tree farm.

"She's seventeen, she misses her family, and she likes tradition. There's nothing wrong with that." Letty says.

"Yeah, well, I can think of better ways to be cuddled up with you right now." He leans his head toward hers, hiding his freezing nose in her hair.

"As long as we're in Vermont, could we stop and get some syrup?" Topanga asks Mr. Matthews as he's cutting down the tree that she picked out.

"We'd be nuts not to." He says, and she smiles before walking away from them.

"This is gonna be the best Christmas ever." Eric says sarcastically as he picks his head up. "Ask her if she still wants it on the twenty-fifth, Cor." He snaps at his younger brother.

"No yelling in my ear." Letty says as she ducks her head.

"Sorry." He grumbles as he reaches up and covers her ear with his gloved hand.

They head back to the house, and the guys get the aluminum tree put away and the evergreen all set up. Letty and Topanga help them decorate, and Eric keeps grumbling things to his girlfriend throughout the project. She rubs his back and offers him a sympathetic look.

"You guys, this is my first Christmas away from my family, and I just really want to thank you for making me feel like part of yours." The blonde says, smiling as she looks between the two boys.

"You're welcome, honey." Eric smiles, feeling a little less hostile now that he's not as cold.

"So, what time on Christmas Eve do you guys open your presents?" Topanga asks as she looks at her boyfriend, and Letty quickly moves to the side of her own.

"Eric—"

"We open them on Christmas morning." He cuts her off, but she doesn't let him move down the stairs from the landing by the tree.

"Oh." Topanga says as she looks up at them.

"Oh?"

"Oh."

"Oh." He mutters, and she walks away from them. "Conference. Come here, come here." Eric tells his younger brother as he picks up Letty and walks over by the door.

"You've been doing this more and more lately." The brunette comments as he sets her back on her feet. "Have you been working out?" She smiles as she looks up at him.

"Flirting with me is not going to help." He says before looking back at Cory.

"What?" The younger boy questions.

"Welcome to the rest of your life."

"Eric, so she opens her presents on Christmas Eve."

"This isn't about the presents." He shakes his head.

"So, she wanted a real tree."

"This isn't about the six-hundred mile drive to Vermont." Eric argues.

"Okay, so she makes purring noises when we make out." Cory says, and his brother immediately looks freaked.

"Remember that conversation from last Summer where I know too much about Topanga?" Letty hisses, her voice low enough so that the younger girl won't hear them.

"Perhaps I've said too much."

"Ya think?!"

"Listen," Eric pulls his brother farther from where Topanga's standing. "What this is about is today she takes over Christmas, tomorrow it's the rest of your life. Goodbye, Cory Matthews. Hello, whatever your...Topanga name is." He says as they stop in front of the couch.

"You know, what's the big deal about when we open presents?" Cory questions as he looks between the two of them. "And my Topanga name is Captain Take-Me-Shopping." He smiles.

"Yeah, well, Captain, this isn't about the presents, okay? This is about the power struggle between men and women since the creation of man." He argues.

"What's wrong with him?" The younger boy asks as he looks at Letty.

"He gets crabby when I win arguments." She tells him.

"She kisses me, and I lose my train of thought — it's not fair!" Eric argues.

"Can you do that now?" Cory motions to his brother, and she shakes her head.

"Wait till you guys see what I have to put on top of the tree." Topanga says, and they all look at her. "I'll be right back."

Cory tries to leave after she goes upstairs, but Eric pulls him back, much to the younger boy's annoyance. "Why are you letting her walk all over you?" Eric questions.

"She is not walking all over me. Watch, okay?" He turns away from them, and the older two follow after him. "When she comes downstairs with her little ornament, I am gonna let her know that our cardboard noodle star is going on our tree, or I'm not Captain Take-Me-Shopping." He says, and Eric salutes him before leaning into Letty.

"Hi, guys." Topanga smiles as she reaches the bottom of the stairs, and then she kisses Cory.

Eric makes a purring noise, and Letty quickly smacks his arm when Topanga's eyes widen like saucers. Cory looks like a deer in the headlights as his older brother glances around innocently.

"He guessed." Cory says as Eric shrugs. "It was a guess."

Choosing to move on, Topanga pulls a small angel from behind her back. "Won't this look beautiful on top of the tree?" She asks.

"Topanga, I have something to say to you."

"Let me guess. You love the angel!" She smiles and stretches up to peck kisses around his lips.

"I love the angel." He then turns back to his brother. "I have failed." Cory says as he walks around to stand behind them.

"Duh." Eric mutters. "Um, hi. Uh, Topanga... About you spending Christmas with us, the Matthews, I have a problem."

"Eric, if this is about spending limits on presents, I'm sorry. I just saw something that was so Eric, and I had to get it." The blonde tells him.

"I love you. Welcome to our family." He hugs her, and Letty nods.

"Yep, that's my man." The brunette says, and he shrugs as he turns to face her.

"Hello!" Mr. Feeny greets as he walks in from the kitchen. "Greetings of the season. It's Christmas Carol time." He says as he walks in with the book in his hand.

"I love A Christmas Carol!" Topanga says as she moves closer to the couch.

"Yeah. Every year, Mr. Feeny comes over and reads it to us." Cory tells her. "No one ever asks him to. He just does."

"I like it!" Letty smacks him.

"Tradition." The older man smiles.

"Hope, Jason, and I are gonna start bringing the girls as soon as they're old enough to sit still long enough." The brunette says, which he seems rather happy to hear.

"Yeah, I'm thinkin' one and a half isn't the year." Eric says, and she shakes her head.

"You know what might be fun?" Topanga asks.

"Tradition." Feeny tells her, and Letty looks up at her boyfriend.

"What if instead of you just reading the story, we all took parts and acted them out?" The blonde suggests, and he slams the book shut.

"Can't I just sit down and cuddle with my girlfriend while we drink hot chocolate?" Eric whines as he wraps his arms around Letty's waist, and Mr. Feeny stands up.

"Cory, did someone express a problem with how I read this last year?" Feeny asks as he walks over to the teenager.

"I liked it." Letty leans her head back on Eric's shoulder.

"Because if I was a little slow, I could always pick up the pace." He adds.

"Morgan would have a blast playing Tiny Tim." Topanga says, and they look at her. "I'm gonna go tell her." She then starts for the stairs.

"Our Morgan?" Eric questions, speaking low enough that only his girlfriend hears him.

"I see a lot of attitude in our very near future." The brunette adds.

"But I'm Tiny Tim." Feeny says. "And Scrooge...and all of them."

"I'm sorry. She likes to do things her own way." Cory tells him. "But it's just one time a year, you know? It's not my whole life. It's just Christmas...and every morning when she tells me what to wear."

The older man pauses as he looks at him. "Nice shirt." He says, and then walks out of the house.

"I want hot chocolate." Eric says, and Letty takes his hand and leads him into the kitchen. "We should start doing this again. Remember how we'd come down early while you were living here and we'd have hot chocolate on the colder mornings?"

The brunette smiles as she sets the water to boil on the stove. "We'd have to get out of bed earlier so that it doesn't make us late for our classes." She tells him as he wraps his arms around her waist from behind.

"Maybe we should do it at night before bed instead." He says, and she chuckles as she turns  around in his arms. "I could pick you up from the bookstore, and we could stop at that coffee shop by the apartment. What do you say?"

"I think it'd get expensive real quick." She says, and he nods as he takes a step back and leans against the island counter, keeping her in his arms. "But we can stop at the store and pick up some hot chocolate there, that way we can sit on the couch in the apartment with a blanket and watch a movie or something while we drink it."

"Your idea's better." He says, and she smiles as she stretches up onto her tippy-toes to kiss him.