alwaysontop:

Who: Tatum and Sera.
When: Morning of December 24th (Christmas Eve), after Tatum comes out to their father.
Where: Donnelly-Rousseau residence. Portage Lake, Maine.
What: Tatum comes home to pack her stuff, she’s freaking out, Sera freaks out too.
Rating: Probably some swearing but otherwise SFW.


When Sera woke up that morning it seemed like any other Christmas Eve really. She had naturally been done her shopping weeks ahead of time, and all her wrapping was done too. Unlike Tatum, who was constantly scrambling to do everything last minute. Which Sera never really understood, when at least her sister could do magic outside of school now. She still had a few more weeks to go herself.

She spent the morning helping to clean up the living room and kitchen, and organizing presents under the Christmas tree while Madeline ran into the office for a few hours. Tatum and their dad had been home in the morning but had headed into town.

Not too long after they left and with everything done downstairs for the big night ahead, she retreated upstairs to her room to curl up with a good book. She wasn’t sure if Rath was home or not, but if he was it didn’t really matter to her. He was probably asleep and as best as she could hear the house was completely quiet. Piling up a few pillows against the headboard of her bed, she propped her self upright and settled into her book, shimmying down a bit on the pillows to let herself get comfy.

When Sera heard Tatum rip through the hall and into her room a few minutes later, she knew something was up, even before she heard her sister's door slam. It shook through the silence of the house and the brunette instinctively jumped up, dropping her book onto the bed next to her. She took a few quick steps towards her own door. She might have thought she was being robbed or something if she had not heard Tatum mumbling to herself and fumbling around somewhere.

As far as she knew Tatum was supposed to be in town for hours, and checking her watch she realized not much time had passed at all. They would have been lucky to even make it to Portland in that time, it wasn’t exactly a short drive on a good day and it was Christmas eve. She took a few steps back to her bedroom window and peered out. Maybe they just forgot something and turned around to grab it? Maybe Tatum was just in a hurry.. but their father’s squad car was no where in sight.

Tatum, from what she could hear over all the banging and crashing around coming from her room, didn’t seem like she was in a very good mood. Whatever her reason was for being home so early was. She made her way into the hall and walked a bit closer to Tatum’s door, carefully listening. Maybe dad finally busted her for weed or something?

She stopped just a few feet from her sister's door. If Tatum was upset, she’d probably only make it worse. Maybe now really wasn’t the best time to nag her. She was just about to turn back around and go back to her book when among the noises coming from Tatum’s room, she heard what she knew had to be crying.

Getting to Tatum’s door, she did something she normally wouldn’t have done at home and reached out to knock. She knew how much it drove her sister crazy when she just barged in. Waiting for a few seconds with no answer, she knocked again. She knew she was in there, she could hear her. Tatum either couldn’t hear her over the racket she was making or was just ignoring her. She wasn’t sure which but figured it was probably the latter. She knocked yet again this time just a bit louder.

After another knock, she spoke up, just loud enough so she knew Tatum could definitely hear her. "Hey! are you alright in there?" she asked kind of apprehensively. She was sure she could still hear her crying. If she didn’t answer this time she was just busting in, there was nothing else to it.