FF1 Xmas Special 2025

A VERY DARCY CHRISTMAS

Five days left until Christmas, and countless commitments to survive first.

Faye Darcy is lucky tonight, and the Diorgasm party has been canceled, allowing her start the long drive home early and not have to bother with an event that she had no interest in anyway. Nepotism can only get her out of so many contractual obligations, and she’d been dreading this one. Fortunately, Covid came to her rescue, flattening enough important people that Diorgasm called it all off. Miraculously, Faye seems to have dodged it. This time.

She handles her Octavia carefully as she turns onto the winding road that will take her to the house. There’s hardly any snow, but she has a particular appreciation for road safety. She’s only wrecked once in Formula One so far, but it’s not an experience that she’s likely to forget. She uses her indicator as she turns onto the drive.

She let go of her flat some time ago; there’s just no point to having a place of her own when she travels so much, and her mother already has two houses. It looks as though she’ll have exactly one night of quiet, because tomorrow, loads of family will start to arrive. Her mother’s rather large house will suddenly be entirely too small, and she’ll have to share her room with Apple and Fallon. Faye doesn’t mind, though. She likes most of her family when they aren’t teasing her for being single and childless. She’s only twenty-five, but that doesn’t stop anyone. None of her sisters and cousins has children yet, but in fairness, most of them do have partners.

The aggressively Norman house that Faye grew up in comes into view, and a few lights are on, but not many. There’s a BMW 5 Series with rental plates behind Glynda’s Tiguan. Who in the world could be driving that? Fallon? Has Fallon turned up early? She’d drive that car.

Faye pulls in and gets her bags out, hurrying through the flurries to the front door. Her cold fingers find the right key, and she’s in. The house is warm, familiar, and safe.

But there’s something that does not belong.

Faye frowns at the limited edition, pink and blue duffel bag on the floor. It’s an old promotional item from the early days of FUTA; they made a dozen of these, each with a different player on it. This is the one with the busty Swedish girl on it. The bag is faded and worn, and Faye knows it well. It belongs to Alice Wilde.

What’s Alice doing here?

Faye covers her mouth to prevent a gasp. This must be some sort of surprise. Faye is suddenly alert, but the old house is quiet. An empty wine glass stands on the table under the mirror. She quietly sets her bag down. If there’s meant to be a surprise, she’d best not ruin it. The last thing she wants to do is get back in her car, but she can get a hotel if necessary. First, she wants to know what’s going on. There’s a light on upstairs. Faye puts her hand on the banister and begins to climb.