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"Cassian! Cassian, sweetie! I was out picking up some last minute groceries for you and the bakery sublet into their store was giving away samples of their fruit cake. It was really good so I brought you home some! Maybe you could recreate it?" Charley Norris handed over the slice of Fruitcake to Cassian, who held it with a look of slight suspicion. He looked at it, then up at his mother, then down at the cake.

It was a lie.

But that had never stopped him from eating something of dubious nature before. "I mean, I can try," he relented before taking a bite of the slice of cake while his mother watched eagerly. Cassian froze mid-bite. He looked at the slice of fruit cake, then at his mother. Then at the cake. Then he took another bite. It was gone within the minute.

"See! See I told you it was good!" Charley pressed and Cassian nodded. "It was really good. I...I'm gonna need a few minutes to plan out this recipe a bit," he mumbled to himself, snatching his notebook off the counter and sitting down to start writing feverishly. It certainly wouldn't be something completely done that day, and it wouldn't be perfect in it's first iteration, but he'd at least get the idea down enough to be able to buy enough stuff to play with.

It took about an hour and a half to work out rough versions that he liked enough, but the moment he stood up, he swooned with vertigo. When had his house gotten so bright? It was..pleasant? Hadn't it been an overcast snowy day outside?

Cassian walked to the window to peer outside, and the colors of the world just seemed so...bright and nice. It was almost late enough into the evening that most of the Christmas Lights were on in the subdivision and it was just so....seasonal. He liked it. Sure, it had been a little cooler than he'd liked, but the season was nice.

America was absolutely bonkers about their shopping, however. Mom had fallen into old routines and had always been a large fan of Christmas in general, so while he wasn't as in tune with everybody else, there were some traditions still set in place. Just most of them didn't involve atrocious amounts of shopping. They involved the amount of groceries that Cassian had arranged neatly in the freezer they had in the garage in pre-prepped portions.

He put dinner in the oven while the high of just feeling pleasant set in and went to sit on the couch again to look over the neighborhood. It was good. Everything looked good. He sighed contently. Then, he nodded off.

The timer on the oven screeching woke him, then the sound of his mother wailing from the sound of it. He stumbled from the living room to the kitchen, slamming his hand onto the timer to turn it off before he turned the knob to turn off the heat. He swung the oven door open and the heat that billowed out of it hit him in the face like a steamy fart.

It smelled too much and it was moist. Cassian's insides did a somersalt and he recoiled so quickly he hit the counter then dropped like dead weight. Eli Norris had abandoned his office to check on his wife, but retreated from her side when he heard his son collapse in the other room. "Cassian??" he wasn't sure if he was asking or simply just confused, but the boy motioned with a hand to the stove while the other arm wrapped around his guts. "Just...just take that out and put it on the stove. M'fine..." he grumbled.

But no.

He was not fine. Was this food poisoning? He and mom were suddenly sick, and Dad and Dean were looking very confused. Everything smelled bad, and lights hurt and he rolled onto his stomach. Then his stomach rolled as well. "Oh boy..." he hissed under his breath, grabbing a drawer handle to try and heave (ughhh) himself up to his feet. The handle snapped off the drawer and he hit the floor again.

Dean rushed over in concern, and Cassian reached out to grab his shoulder. "S'fine..." he mumbled, using his younger brother to drag himself up to his feet. Dean frowned with concern. "Cass...do you need to lay down? Do we need to call a doctor?" he asked and Cass shook his head. "Laying down will be fine. I must've....ate something funny," he said and Dean continued to frown. "How 'bout I camp you in front of the bathroom in case you have to horf."

Just the word 'horf' made his insides curl up and Cassian shook his head. "No. No. S'fine....I'm gonna go to my room...." he pressed. But he made it down 2 steps and nearly puked. So it was back up the two steps and to the bathroom, where Dean helped him curl up in front of the toilet. "I'm gonna have dad call a Doctor, OK?"

He didn't protest it.

Instead, he found himself dozing off on the floor despite his tumultuous innards.

He was woken by his stomach growling angrily at him and Cassian sat up, frowning as he pieced together when he'd gotten to the bathroom floor. Then, he fumbled up to his feet. "Well...I think I'm OK.." he said to nobody in particular, patting his stomach. He eased his way out from the room to peek into the living room where Eli and Dean were sleeping on the couch. It was dark out now, and a glance at the clock marked the time as 11:46. He could tell that at least they had eaten based on the missing food from the pan he'd at least attempted to cook earlier.

An easy walk down the hallway in the opposite direction and Cassian cracked open the door to his parent's room where Charley Norris was still laying in bed as well. He smiled, nodding to himself before he made his way back to the kitchen to start cleaning up. Going to close his notebook, however, he ripped out the pages about fruitcake and threw them in the recycling.

"No thanks. I'm good."