Work Text:
the sunshine of life
celeste squeezed beckett’s hand reassuringly. her boyfriend was understandably nervous since today they were meeting her parents, definitely plural. she reached up and poked the frown lines appearing between beckett’s eyebrows, giggling as he appeared startled before softening as he looked at her.
“they’re going to love you, beckett. you have nothing to be nervous about. unlike your parents, who clearly did not like me,” celeste said, muttering the last part to herself.
she felt beckett wrap an arm around her waist and pull her close. “that wasn’t about you, i promise.”
two months ago
celeste cleared her throat nervously as she stood outside the tall, intimidating mahogany doors that led inside the harrington mansion. even though she had some idea of what the harrington name meant in the attuned world and thanks to shreya, knew how influential and wealthy some magickal families could be, she was still wholly unprepared for how unnerving it would be to feel as small as she did in that moment.
suddenly she was going over her appearance piece by piece in her mind, evaluating everything she was wearing against the unknown standards she presumed beckett’s parents would have. the blue and gold waistcoast and matching dress that seemed like a safe bet at the time given beckett had picked it out for their lunch date with katrina last year, now seemed to pale in comparison to what she imagined they expected their only son’s girlfriend to wear.
beckett wrapped an arm around her shoulders and leaned in to leave a kiss on her forehead. “it’ll be okay, celeste.” she nodded and took a deep breath before following him into the mansion.
just as expected but worse than anticipated, the evening was one awkward moment after another. her introduction included her nervous rambling about how she was raised attuneless and the shared looks between beckett’s parents made celeste want to slouch down and disappear underneath the table. dinner wasn’t any better given the conversations seemed to focus on advancements in magick technology that their company was working on as well as ground-breaking new research in the fields of elemental biology and medicinal magickal plants.
they were mildly impressed with the stories of how they defeated raife highmore, but that passed quickly once they zeroed in on the danger that beckett was in. it was clear that they were going to blame her for putting their son in danger. celeste couldn’t wait for the evening to be over.
“if you say so,” she said, glumly.
beckett lifted her chin and lowered his head to give her a sweet kiss. “i love you, celeste.” he straightened up and celeste could tell he was about to give himself a pep talk. “if you can get through dinner with my parents, i can get through an evening with yours… even if one of them is a source.”
“that’s the spirit! and well, there will be two sources, actually. nome said he’d stop by,” cadence quickly explained as beckett’s head turned so fast she thought he was going to give himself whiplash.
before he could say anything, the doors to the cottage swung open as they climbed up the short steps. celeste was immediately pulled into a hug from her adoptive parents who quickly wrapped beckett up too before he could protest. theia smiled warmly at the four of them before wrapping celeste up into a tight hug.
“i missed you sweetie. and i am so excited to meet your sweetheart!” theia exclaimed, grabbing beckett’s outstretched hand so she could pull him into hug.
“yes, i am sweetheart – wait, no, i’m harrington, um, i mean beckett. beckett harrington. it’s, uh, very nice to meet you, ms. sun source,” he said, licking his lips nervously and trying not to wipe his palms on his jacket.
she waved at him dismissively. “call me theia, you’re practically family!” she looped her arm in beckett’s and started pulling him toward the house. he turned to look back at celeste, who gave him a small supportive wave while trying really hard not to laugh.
fortunately for beckett, theia was filled with questions for her future son-in-law, as she so embarrassingly put it despite celeste’s protests. that left celeste with a few minutes alone with her adoptive parents; her father cleared his throat awkwardly in her direction and she sighed.
“how was school this semester?” john russell asked awkwardly.
celeste rolled her eyes. “school was fine.” with all the events of the last three years, including discovering and bonding with her twin, fighting for her life twice over, and being reunited with her birth mother, she hadn’t really spent much time processing the fact that her parents lied to her about her birth family, her magickal nature, and the fact that a madman was after her. all in all, it felt reasonable that she’d be pissed and her parents knew it.
anne russell cleared her throat. “how was dinner at the harringtons?”
celeste gave her mother a pointed look just shy of an outright glare. “it would’ve gone a lot better had I been raised with a working knowledge of the magickal world.”
john had the decency to look a little ashamed. “we’re really sorry, honey. we thought you’d be safer as an attuneless and when raife had seemed to all but disappear, we thought we were in the clear. but we shouldn’t have kept your true identity a secret.”
“i guess i understand since you were trying to protect me. i forgive you,” she said, wrapping both of her parents in a big hug before turning toward her boyfriend who was being grilled by her other parent.
even though she was sitting on the opposite end of the living room from beckett and theia, she could tell by his rigid posture that he was tense. the gentle, but commanding lilt of her mother’s voice carried softly across the room.
“so beckett, i’ve heard a lot about you from celeste. what i want to know is, how do i know you’re not just attracted to her magick?” theia asked. although she was smiling, celeste knew the underlying tone did not go unnoticed by beckett.
“because i love her! she’s smart, brave, beautiful, compassionate, and she feels so warm and i can tell my innate metal attunement is drawn to her,” he blurted out a little too loudly for the level of conversation in the room.
“but that makes sense since she’s a sun-att and you’re the sun source and you feel like celeste which was still surprising since she doesn’t really look like you, i mean, not that i can’t tell you’re related, it’s just—augh, sorry.” beckett’s ears and neck were flushed a bright pink.
“wow, harrington, real smooth,” atlas teased. “no book in the library to study up for this, huh?”
“atlas!” celeste said through clenched teeth.
theia chuckled. “beckett, it’s alright. just ask me the questions you have, i promise i won’t bite. i could make it miserably hot, but i won’t.”
“man, this is sooo entertaining. better than all that trashy reality tv you got me into,” atlas said, grinning from ear-to-ear.
“could you be a little more supportive, atlas?” celeste asked, annoyed.
atlas grinned cheekily. “nah, i’m good. i will make more popcorn though. hey harrington, don’t stumble over yourself until i get back.”
celeste could feel her eyebrow twitch in irritation before realizing that she could get some of the attention off beckett and get back at atlas at the same time with a single phone call.
* * * * *
just a little while later, a knock on the door made everyone pause and look around at each other. since everyone that was expected was there already, except for nome, and he never knocked, it was natural for everyone to look confused.
celeste couldn’t help the mischievous smile that crept over her face. “atlas, why don’t you go see who it is?”
atlas turned to glare knowingly at celeste as she stood up. “what did you do?”
she barely had the door open before she was bombarded by the rest of the pend pals all fighting to simultaneously hug her and get out of the cold all at once.
“double trouble, double trouble’s mom source, mr. and mrs. russell, happy holidays!” zeph cheerfully shouted out, his arms full of containers of his grandmother’s cookies, which atlas grabbed from him ecstatically.
“i hope you guys didn’t have too much fun without us! and atlas, i hope you save me a spot under that magickal mistletoe,” shreya said, giving atlas a flirtatious wink.
“what? we don’t have mistletoe and why would i—” atlas’ confused thoughts were interrupted as shreya glided through the hallway, stopping briefly to give atlas a kiss on the cheek before making her way to the living room and greeting everyone properly.
atlas flushed briefly before she noticed the huge smirk on celeste’s face. “you are so going to pay for this.”
“i have no idea what you’re talking about, i just thought it would be great if all of our friends could hang out with us over the holidays,” celeste said, grinning before she went back to the living room to see if she could save beckett from further questioning.
all the lights in the house suddenly went out. almost immediately, theia snapped her fingers and the lights all flickered back on to reveal a tall man with long white hair standing in the middle of the living room, surrounded by nine stunned faces.
“always with the dramatic entrances, nome,” she said, but there was a lightheartedness to her tone.
“it’s more fun that way,” nome responded, giving her a quick peck on the cheek before introducing himself to everyone.
with everyone distracted by nome’s arrival, celeste slipped her hand into beckett’s and gave him a small tug. he looked at her inquisitively as she signaled toward the staircase with a tilt of her head. a few moments later, she closed her bedroom door behind them before wrapping her arms around beckett’s neck and standing on her tiptoes so she could give him a kiss.
“thank you for coming – i’m so proud of how you handled yourself,” she murmured, looking up at him.
beckett gave her his signature smirk. “well, of course, you shouldn’t expect anything less from a harrington.”
celeste let her eyes roll lightheartedly. “you know i heard the entire conversation and can tell how nervous you were just from the back of your head?”
his smirk faded into a warm smile. “you know nothing.” before she could protest further, he bent down to capture her lips into a kiss, his hands tightening around her waist to pull her flush against him.
celeste pressed against him as much as she could, intertwining her fingers at the nape of his neck. beckett deepened the kiss, coaxing her mouth open so his tongue could play with hers.
“hey, where’d beckster and celeste go?” zeph’s voice wafted up the stairs, reminding her that their alone time was limited.
“dunno, probably doing it upstairs in her room.”
celeste pulled back at the sound of atlas’ voice and winced. she knew she could count the seconds before her mother’s voice rang out right on cue.
“celeste russell, get down here right now! no boys alone in your room!” theia’s voice boomed through the house, reverberating through the walls.
she let out an embarrassed huff as beckett chuckled. “we really should be used to atlas’ comments by now,” he said, giving her one last kiss on the lips before opening the door and holding out his arm for her to take.
as they descended down the stairs she got a full view of the living room and realized everyone she loved was under one roof. atlas and shreya were sharing the loveseat while zeph and griffin were listening to whatever crazy and embarrassing story nome was telling about theia, with theia refuting and sharing her own stories about nome; aster was showing her adoptive parents how to care for some of the trees and plants in the garden with butterball and navi playing in the snow at their feet.
she felt her eyes fill with happy tears and looked up at beckett, who was giving her a warm, knowing smile. he gave her hand a squeeze and headed out to join aster and her parents in the garden and celeste took a moment to acknowledge the gratitude she felt. even though she had gotten used to being a sun-att and feeling a strong warmth emanating from within her all the time, never had she felt warmth like this. it was gentle but all-consuming, starting in her heart and slowly spreading outward throughout her body. but she knew that if love and gratitude could be summed up in a feeling, this was it.