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“It’s not like it’s a whole Christmas album, love, it’s just one song.” Clarke said, lying on their bed. “We did promise Raven we’d support her with this.”
“The implication was that it would be the cheering on from the sidelines kind of support.” Lexa replied, looking at Clarke in the bedroom mirror as she tied her hair back loosely for the night. “The whole point of a side project is that it doesn’t involve the rest of us.”
“It’s a charity album with a lot of different people on it.” Clarke said, wrapping an arm around Lexa as she slipped into bed next to her. “It’ll look strange if it doesn’t have her own band on there.”
“She can just explain we’re on maternity leave. It’s not as if that’s a secret.”
“It’s one day, and you know everyone will be happy to look after the kids while we do our bits. It’ll be fun, something to remember for their first Christmas.”
“Clarke, it’s July.”
“Don’t stress on the details, the Christmas spirit exists all year. And I know I didn’t marry the Grinch.” Clarke’s leg slipped over Lexa’s as she pressed up closer to her.
Lexa sighed. “One day, one song? And it’s a cover?”
“Yep.” She could feel the little burst of air on her neck as the p popped on Clarke’s lips. “And it’s a great song, me and dad used to sing it in the car all the time. Are you hanging up your stockings on the wall.” Her voice dropped into an earthier tone as she quietly sang it, the closeness of hr voice making Lexa shiver.
“All right, I’m in.” She said, rolling slowly onto her side to face her wife. “Against my better judgment.”
Clarke grinned. “It’s going to be great, you know you’ll love it.”
Their lips pressed together, arms wrapping around each other as they kissed, the familiarity of the way they nestled together enough to make Lexa feel good right up until she heard the familiar crackle of a speaker sparking into life. They both paused for a moment, hoping it was a false alarm, but soon there were the first sounds of ragged breath that quickly turned into a familiar set of cries and wails.
“Aden.” Clarke said, rolling her eyes as they reluctantly disentangled themselves from each other in a practiced routine.
“My turn, you try and sleep.” Lexa said, wanting to stay, but knowing she was already in a race against the clock to get to her son and settle his tears before-
She hadn’t even made it to the bedroom door before a second set of cries, only slightly different from the first arrived to echo the first.
“And there’s Madi.” Clarke laughed as she rolled off the bed to follow Lexa. “I remember sleep. I used to like it, I think.”
Arkadia Studios was Raven’s baby. She’d got bored of being shuttled around different studios to produce artists, and always found something to complain about in every one she visited. After a little careful nudging by the rest of the band, she’d finally been inspired to open her own set of studios in her own city, and while the others had hoped it might distract her for a while, they’d found themselves roped into the search when she requested their help in checking the acoustics of every vacant building she looked at until she found one that finally appealed to her. She’d spent a lot of time fitting it out while the rest of the band had been, in her words, “busy having personal lives” and now it was ready for the opening recording session.
Lexa had never heard Raven show any huge enthusiasm for Christmas music, so the declaration that an album of that would be the first work out of the new studios was a surprise to her. But, if there was one thing she’d learned over the last few years of working with her, it was that it was usually best to let her have her head and run with whatever idea she had as they normally worked out for everyone involved. The sheer number of awards they were having trouble finding a place to store was a testament to that. So, Raven declaring that she’d had the idea for that album even before opening the studio was something they all agreed to go along with, especially as the proceeds from it were all going to a range of charities.
When they got to the studios, there’d been the usual cooing over the babies from everyone and then catching up on everyone’s news as though they hadn’t all seen each other over the last few days. While they weren’t all living in the midst of each other’s space like they did when they were on tour, the lives of the five of them were all interwoven together, along with everyone else who lived in the band’s orbit, in a way that she knew a lot of the music press was made up because it was too perfect to be true. Meanwhile, Lexa wondered how people in bands that didn’t consist of their wife, their sister and two of their best friends and the easy shorthand that developed from that managed to cope with everything.
With the catching up done and Aden, Madi and Nyko sent off to play in the creche that Raven had managed to include within the building, carefully concealed and soundproofed, they’d dived into the rehearsal room for a few run-throughs of the song, making sure all their home rehearsals and practices of it were matching up, as well as finding a few little tweaks they could add in to personalise it to their sound.
“I think we’ve got it.” Raven declared. “I want to do this kind of old school with us all in the studio together for the main take, but I want to record some separate parts for overdubs and loop. Whatever sounds good in the final mix, you know?”
“Sounds good.” Clarke said. “And all done today?”
“I hope so, I’ve got someone else coming in tomorrow and I don’t want you guys cluttering up the place while they’re around.” Raven laughed. “But I want to change it up a bit and do the separate parts first, that way we finish all together for a change.”
“Sure,” Lexa shrugged, not questioning Raven’s process, “who’s up first?”
“It’s classic rock, guitar’s up first of course. Your costume’s in the main green room, you can change in one of the rooms there.”
“OK,” Lexa said, the content of what Raven had said taking a moment to permeate into her sleep-deprived new parent’s brain, “hold on, my what?”
“Your costume. You know, for the video.” Raven said, like it was something she’d told her a hundred times before.
“Again, the what?”
“Did Clarke not tell you? We’re shooting video footage for everyone when they record, old school in the studio style video, and we want everyone looking the part.”
“No, no one told me.” Lexa looked towards Clarke but her wife had suddenly taken an extra special interest in coiling up the cable for her microphone. “All right, I’ll do it.”
“An elf.” Lexa said, trying to work out best to position the strap of her guitar around the puffy shoulders of the costume. “It’s the middle of summer, it’s ninety degrees outside, not all this building has air conditioning and I’m dressed as an elf.”
“Air con and fans just mess with the sound too much.” Raven said from the control room, watching Lexa through the glass. The others were sitting on a long couch that filled the wall behind her, watching what was going on.
“Fine. Why isn’t everyone else changed?”
“We’re waiting till our turn, we don’t want to sit here sweating all day.” Anya shouted. “The quicker you get this done, the quicker you get to see us like that too.”
“Then let’s get it done.” Lexa said, trying to smile for the camera that was positioned to capture her playing. “Which parts do you want?”
As Raven told her and she worked through them, trying out a few different ways of tackling parts of song, improvising some new riffs and progressions as they went, Lexa found herself slotting back into the rhythm of being in the studio, forgetting what she was wearing and focusing on the way the guitar felt in her hands and how the sounds flowed from it as she brought them out. Time passed quickly, and she’d soon laid down enough to please Raven.
“One down, three to go.” Raven said. “Oh, while I remember, there’s just one more thing.”
“Which part do you want?”
“Oh no, that’s all good. I need you to remember something, though.”
“OK, what is it?” Lexa asked.
“Octavia’s wedding. That neon pink monstrosity you tricked me into wearing. Revenge is a dish best served cold, Lexa. Christmas cold.”
Lexa stared at the window into the control room, trying to think what to say. Raven was standing with her arms folded, looking at her with an air of true contentment while behind her she could see Clarke, Anya and Octavia all reflecting the same shock Lexa felt before breaking into laughter and applause.
“Did you just make up this whole thing to get me here like this?” Lexa asked finally, trying to piece together what had happened.
“Eh, not exactly.” Raven said. “The album’s happening, everyone else is coming in to do their tracks over the next few weeks. But, it might be that the inspiration for doing it was thinking of getting you dressed in something embarrassing, connecting that to Christmas…and then it just kind of snowballed from there.”
Lexa looked down at the guitar and her feet, trying to hide the fact that she couldn’t stop herself from laughing. “You’re absolutely ridiculous, Reyes. Well done. You win this time.”
“This time?” Raven asked.
“Oh, don’t sleep easy. This isn’t over. Now can we get on and record the rest of this thing?”
“Of course we can. O, get in there, I need the drums next.”
“Wait, doesn’t she need to change too?”
“Change to what? I only got a costume for you. If I’d got them for the others I’d have had to wear one myself, and that wasn’t happening.” Raven said. “And I might have locked the room with your other clothes in, so you’re stuck in that for the rest of the session.”
“Oh, this is so not over.” Lexa said, giving her a hard stare through the glass.
“Do your best. But you should know that stare isn’t at all scary when you’re dressed like that.”