Theresa stood in front of a stack of upcycled wooden crates, each overflowing with cookie cutters of various sizes and shapes. She tapped her finger to her pursed lips as she considered which to pick. She glanced back to Lars, who stood at their shared station rolling out his dough. His jacket and face were still covered in flour, despite his best attempts at wiping it off. She laughed again at the image of his shocked face rematerializing through the puff of white after he'd accidentally knocked the bag over. She still had some of the residue in her hair. Her hand briefly hovered over a human shaped cookie cutter before she reconsidered and added a humanoid fox shape to her collection instead.
-
The class had begun with the teacher--a literal bear of a woman--introducing herself in a thick Russian accent: Arina. Then she had immediately proceeded to bark out instructions, most of which Theresa had hardly been able to understand. She'd made cookies before, though they had always ended up looking like something you'd find on Pinterest with a Nailed It! caption. She spent most of her time at the hospital working, after all.
For his part, Lars had made a great companion for the evening. He was well spoken, had a great sense of humor, and their shared love of Tom had been an effective ice breaker as they laughed over funny and embarrassing stories. She felt a little guilty that she'd been avoiding him instead of allowing him a chance to get to know her. Her guilt immediately dissipated, however, as a cloud of flour took her by surprise. Laughing, she vowed to make more of an effort.
-
After returning to her station, she set out the patterns: human woman, humanoid fox, humanoid reindeer, humanoid wolf. She'd decided to make a gingerbread set of her family, and the dough was already rolled out.
She began by pushing the humanoid fox pattern into the dough twice. Tom and Lars. Then, she grabbed the humanoid reindeer and pushed it in twice. Eric and Clyde. She thought for a second and did it two more times near the other reindeer. Bix and Tag. Next, she took the humanoid wolf and made two more indentations. Michael and Otso. They'd interacted so much this trip that she didn't mind including her ex-husband and his new suitor. Plus, seeing how naturally the two were falling into step with each other had given her a sort of closure that she hadn't expected. If anything, it helped to explain why they hadn't worked out all those years ago. And he was so obviously on his way to becoming a wolf that she'd decided to save the dishwashers from the extra work of cleaning yet another cookie cutter.
She paused, frowning at the collection of patterns cut into the dough, noticing a pattern: pairs. She fingered the human woman pattern and wondered where to put it, not realizing that Lars had started to watch her process. She ended up pressing the cookie cutter into the dough next to the reindeer. It seemed to make the most sense.
-
Bix answered the door the next evening, peering out at her curiously. "Good evening, Theresa. Are you here to see Eric?" She'd specifically waited until later in the day, wanting to ensure that the reindeer was home from Practice so she could finally talk to him. She held a small container full of the cookies she'd made the night prior.
"Actually, I wanted to talk to you about something, if you're available, Just Bix." She hoped he didn't have as much company that evening as he usually seemed to so they could talk in private. His house had become the meet-up spot of late, always full of reindeer, werefoxes, and now werewolves coming and going. She felt a pang of jealousy.
She followed Bix after he had excused himself briefly to put on some shorts while she peeked in on Clyde and Eric, who were both currently napping on the bed together. A gentleman...gentledeer? Tag, Bix explained, was meeting some friends at the bar that evening and she assumed Michael was with Otso. She'd planned her visit well.
Bix motioned for her to take a seat as he sat across from her. She held the cookies in her lap, trying to figure out how she wanted to start.
"How can I help you this evening?" She wasn't sure if Bix was happy to see her or not, though he looked interested in hearing what she had to say.
"I want to know why Eric decided to become a reindeer." She had decided to be direct.
Bix blinked at her, his mouth opening slightly. Evidently this had not been what he'd expected. "Anteeksi? I'm not sure what you mean."
"I've been here in the North Pole and Santa's Village for about a week now. I've seen and interacted with the people of several species. Err...Tribe. I want to know why you think Eric chose Reindeer. Why not a wolf or a fox like Tom?"
Bix was nonplussed, though he considered the question for a moment. "To be honest I don't think I've ever asked him directly. I know he found Clyde through the flight lessons. But from my understanding Lars had set that up. Perhaps he felt drawn, like your ex husband to the doctor? You'd have to ask him when he wakes."
She took a deep breath and decided to take the leap. "How would I go about experiencing it, to know for myself? I know that visitors are able to change during their stay, but all of my interactions so far have been spontaneous transformations like with Tom, Eric, and Michael."
"We still have Eric's transformation collar at our house, if you want to try it." Bix and Theresa looked over to Clyde in surprise as he peeked at them from around the corner, not realizing he had been awake. "I could go get it. I know Eric would not mind."