Title: That Cooper Family Christmas Feeling
Summary: Altword Kaitlin's Christmas Eve night. AU. Post 4.7. 'The Christmukk-huh?' 280 words. Angst. PG.

Disclaimer: Not mine. Don't profit from 'em.

That Cooper Family Christmas Feeling: shallowness

Kaitlin's trying to adjust to seeing her dad and her mom in the same room with no social event as an excuse, to having her dad in their house when she meets him all over Newport Beach, but never here. It's like the world's axis tilted, or straightened out. But the bitterness and acrimony her parents are venting at each other is familiar. Only there's no Marissa there too, to wheedle into letting her try on her clothes in another room, far away from the latest fight, where Kaitlin gets to wear everything if she doesn't talk about what Marissa's drinking.

Listening in, this fight seems weird, somehow - it's not about money, for one thing. There's talk of a bathroom, a thong and a street urchin - ew - and her dad is at their house and Sandy Cohen went to have Christmukkah dinner with the dragon lady and geek boy. And Summer Roberts is going there too. If Kaitlin had decided to major in Psychology at Berkeley it might be an interesting case study. But she didn't. And she yawns. She's heard enough. Her dad will likely stay after they've finished exchanging blame, maybe even for long enough to give Kaitlin the gifts that some Newport Group flunky chose and wrapped for her.

They don't notice when she mutters g'night, but she didn't expect them to when they barely registered she was back home. She walks through her empty, over-decorated house up to her empty room to stare blankly at an old photograph. A while later, she goes to bed in pyjamas that used to belong to someone else and sleeps as Christmas Eve turns into Christmas morning.

FIN

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