#fanficmas

[watchmegetobsessed]

❄️HOME THIS CHRISTMAS❄️

A/N: hope you uys have been having an amazing christmas so far! for this fic i want to say special thanks to @futurecherry !

WORD COUNT: 5.6k

SUMMARY: Harry Styles is back in town and all eyes are on the two of you, because everyone knows how much he broke your heart when he left.

MASTERLIST | SUPPORT ME!

This fic is part of ❄️ FANFICmas 2022 ❄️ Read more about fanficmas here!

You always thought the saying ‘talk of the town’ wasn’t real, not in the way movies loved to portray. The whispers behind someone’s back, the stares, the looks, it all seemed way too dramatic to be real. Right until you became the person it happened to.

December is by far your favorite time of the year. You hate to be a cliché, but it truly is the most wonderful time of the year. The town turns into a cozy winter wonderland, every shop and home is decorated, lights are guiding the way through the streets you know better than the back of your hand, the smell of mulled wine and hot chocolate puts a spell on you every time you walk past the square in front of the town hall, there is nothing that could ruin this time of the year for you.

Or so you thought. Because the returning of Harry Styles just made you the talk of the town and ruined the festive mood for sure.

Who would want to step out of the house just to see everyone looking at them with pitiful looks, whispering about the poor girl who now has to face the guy who broke her heart? No, that’s not even expressive enough to describe what Harry did to you when he left town five years ago, never even looking back to see the mess he left behind him.

Word spread across town fast when he was first spot at his mother’s house, picking up some old stuff of his. Mrs. Cromwell saw him through her kitchen window. She phoned Mrs. Adler who was just about to leave to the grocery store. She told the news to everyone she ran into and in a matter of hours everyone in town knew that Harry was back.

Including you.

It’s been a week since the first sighting and your life has turned upside down since then. Everyone wants to know what you think about his return, how you’re doing now that you can practically run into him anywhere and anytime.

Well, you’re already over that.

The first meeting went just as awkward as one would expect. He came into your bakery on a Tuesday afternoon, you were shocked to be face-to-face with him at first and he seemed just as speechless as he stared back at you while everyone else around you were dying for the scene to unfold.

When the two of you recovered, the conversation went something like this:

“What are you doing here?”

“I’ve moved back.”

“No, what are you doing in my bakery?”

“I came to see you.”

“But I don’t want to see you.”

“Can we talk? Please?”

“No.”

And with that, you rushed back and locked yourself into the closet sized office for an entire hour. He was gone by that and so you ignored the curious stare of your employees and carried on like nothing happened.

Since then, you’ve been avoiding him at all cost and you realized you can do that the best if you just never go anywhere. His return is nerve wrecking enough already, but he has managed to ruin your favorite time of the year for you too. You can’t enjoy the Christmas market, the decoration, the festive vibes because every time you step out you’re afraid you might run into him again.

You’re convinced you wouldn’t survive it.

Looking at him last time was painful enough, mostly because you clearly see the version of him you were in love with and who broke your heart and left without looking back. You could notice the changes on him, his hair, his face, it wasn’t the same and yet… you were still stuck in the past.

There’s just way too much hurt in you after what happened, lots of questions and even more anger towards him that you’ve kept bottled up all these years and you fear you might snap if you have to face him again.

“Are you gonna hide in the back today as well?”

Willa, your student cashier gives you a look as you walk past her when you finally arrive in the afternoon. She’s been working for you for almost a year, she’s trust-worthy and very hard-working, but she also has a tendency to speak her mind quite openly. She is never afraid to call you out when you’re acting ridiculously.

“I’m not hiding,” you hiss at her. “I have… some billing… stuff to do,” you mumble and you wonder how you got to the point where a seventeen years old girl is telling you off when you were supposed to be her boss.

“Whatever you say, boss,” she shrugs as an elderly woman walks in and she busies herself with serving her.

“Kids these days…” you mutter under your breath before locking yourself up in your office.

Running your own business luckily usually has your hands full when you’re at the bakery, so you forget about Harry’s existence as you dive right into work. Unfortunately, it seems like today won’t be the day when you can escape through work.

“Boss?” Willa appears at the backdoor right after you finished a call with one of your suppliers.

“What’s up?” you smile at her, but then see the worried look on her face and you just know already what this is about. “Don’t say—“

“He’s here. Asking for you.”

“Damn it,” you groan, burying your face in your hands. “Tell him I’m not here.”

“That’s not gonna work.”

“Why not?”

“Because I already told him you’re here.”

“Fuck,” you whisper. “Okay, then tell him—“

“Or maybe you could just talk to him.”

Harry’s voice startles you. You both look at him, he’s standing a few feet away from you and you feel heat rushing through your veins, which is kind of useful since you’re not wearing a coat and it’s quite freezing out here.

“I’ll be… in my spot,” you hear Willa say before rushing back inside, leaving you alone.

“I’m sorry, but I’m really busy and whatever you want—“

“I want to talk, Y/N. You can’t just avoid me forever, I live here now.”

“The town is not that small, we can just live next to each other without crossing paths.” You turn to head back inside, but he grabs your hand and pulls you back, the sudden touch of his hand on your skin sending jolts of electricity through your whole body. You yank it back as you turn to face him.

“Y/N, don’t you think we should at least just talk it over?”

“You wanna talk? You wanna talk about how you fucked me over? How you broke my heart and left me when I needed you the most? How you said you’d love me forever, but you didn’t even love me enough to stay when I put all my money into starting a business and a life here?”

“Y/N—“

“I never wanted to do it alone! I explicitly told you that I don’t want to go into it on my own and you said you’d be here and that we could do it together. And then you lost your mind, said you can’t handle being tied down here and that you needed freedom. You threw me away like you didn’t promise me forever a million times before. So you want to talk about that?”

Your sudden outburst is a surprise to the both of you, but it also feels liberating to unload it all.

“I think we are way past the talking phase, Harry. You wanted to leave, me and the town, whatever! You can do whatever you want even if it destroys other people. But don’t be surprised when said people don’t want you in their life.”

This time he doesn’t try to stop you when you storm back inside. He doesn’t come after you either.

You think about your encounter nonstop for the next few days. He is all you think about and you hate him for that. You also ponder whether you were way too harsh with him or not, but you always get to the same conclusion. Your words do not compare to the pain he caused you when he left.

The twenty-third is the last day the bakery is open, but seeing the heavy snowing in the morning you ring in to tell the shift that you’ll be in soon and they can leave early, have the rest of the day off. It’s a little past ten when you arrive, you help them close and prepare the place for the few days off. You stay after everyone is gone, doing some last minute paperwork and barely even notice how time flew by.

And how much snow has fallen.

“Shit,” you mumble under your breath when you see the whole street covered in inches of fresh, white snow and it’s still heavily falling. The wind has picked up too, it might soon turn into a whole storm so you better get going.

You parked down in front of the bakery, so you easily get in, but as you try to start the car, it refuses to do anything.

“Come on, come on!” you groan, turning the key in the ignition over and over again, but it wouldn’t start. You’re forced to walk home, which means about 45 minutes out in this weather.

You zip up your jacket, pull your hat on and brace yourself for freezing to death before getting out of the car and you just start walking, hoping for the best. The first few steps are not that bad, you let yourself believe you’ll be home in no time, but by the time you reach the corner, you’re thinking about just turning back and waiting for the end of the snowing in the bakery. You’re eyes are watering up, but the cold wind is practically freezing it onto your cheeks. There’s snow everywhere, your feet are slipping on the ice underneath the fresh snow and you know it’s just a matter of time until you land on your ass.

And then a car pulls up beside you.

“Y/N? What are you doing out here?” Harry calls out over the passenger seat.

“Having a grill party, what do you think?” you scoff, pulling your jacket tighter around you. “My car died.”

“Get in, you’re gonna get pneumonia!”

“No thank you, I’m totally fine!” you stubbornly say and start walking again.

“Y/N, please! I’m not letting you walk home, you’ll never make it on foot!” He drives slowly beside you as a harsh wind blows right into your face, almost pushing you off your feet. “Just get in the car!”

You clench your jaw as you think about your choices: freezing to death on your way home or spending a few minutes in a car with Harry to get home safely. It’s a hard one.

“No talking, okay?” you say as you get in his car, the warmed up seat immediately melting up your frozen muscles.

“Okay,” he nods as he starts driving, but the silence lasts for about five minutes. “You really thought it was a good idea to walk home in this weather?”

“Where’s the no talking?”

“I’m sorry, but you just… You’ve always been so stubborn, it’s good to know you’re the same,” he chuckles softly, but it just gets your blood boiling.

“I’m not the same and you know nothing about my stubbornness. Now would you just drive me home and not talk to me like you promised? Though promises don’t mean shit to you, that I know.”

Your words cut like a knife, but at least he goes silent. Staring out the window you watch the snow fall, it’s unusually thick, you haven’t seen anything like this in years around here. It mesmerizes you so much you don’t even notice where you’re going, only when Harry kills the engine and you see an unknown building instead of your home.

“What? Where are we?” you ask, looking around, trying to see what part of town you’re at but you can’t make out because of the snow.

“My place,” he answers.

“Why? I don’t live here, take me home!”

“Y/N, your home is another at least fifteen minute drive from here, but I can barely see the front of the car in the snow. Just wait it out at mine and then I’ll take you home.”

“Hell no! I’m not waiting for anything!” you protest.

“I bet Clement Road is already blocked, we wouldn’t even make it to your place!”

“You planned this whole thing out, didn’t you?”

“What?” he chuckles in disbelief. “Oh yes, I ordered the snowstorm and killed your car too.”

“Wait, you did?” your eyes widen. “I-I mean the car, did you do it?”

“Oh my God, Y/N, I did not!” he throws his hands into the air. “I did not mess with your car, I was coming from my grandma when I saw you. Now please just be rational for a minute and wait until the snow stops. I promise, I will take you home as soon as the roads are drivable.”

You hate to admit that he is right, that it’s your only and best choice if you don’t want to walk home and freeze to death. So, true to your stubborn self you get out of the car without a word and march up to the front door of the house he parked in front of. Moments later you hear him get out of the car too.

“The no talking rule still applies,” you mumble under your breath as Harry keys the two of you into the townhouse. He nods, pushing the door open and lets you go inside first.

It hasn’t processed that you’re now entering his private space, a place that’s his home, but you’ve never been to. He was still living with his mum when the two of you dated, you knew that house like the back of your hand, it was a second home to you. You haven’t been there since the breakup. 

“How wet are you?” he asks and your eyes snap wide.

“What?”

“Your clothes,” he adds with a cheeky smirk hiding in the corners of his mouth. “How wet did they get? Do you want a change?”

“Um… My pants are kinda saggy. And my socks.”

“I’ll get you a full change. Make yourself home,” he says, before disappearing down the hallway. 

For a few seconds you don’t move, feeling odd to be here, but when you recover, you wander into the living room that’s on the right from the front door, looking around curiously.

He still hasn’t packed out fully, there are a few boxes lying here and there, but the place looks cozy already and most importantly a lot like him. You see pieces of him everywhere, decors and furniture that just screams Harry, or at least the Harry you know from years ago.

He returns with a pile of clothes in his hands and he has already changed as well into sweatpants and a shirt.

“Here, the bathroom is on the left, throw your wet clothes into the dryer. I’ll make us hot tea.”

He hands you over the clothes and his signature smell hits your nose right away, nostalgia washing over you as you nod hazily and leave to the bathroom. You strip out of your wet clothes and put on the sweatpants and shirt he gave you and suddenly you’re back in time when you used to spend days without end at Harry’s and you had to wear his clothes because you’ve run out of yours. You loved stealing his hoodies and shirts, they felt like his warm embrace, but now… it confuses you.

Walking out you hear him on the phone and judging from the conversation, it’s probably Anne. He has put the kettle on, two mugs set on the kitchen counter as he stands by the window, staring out while talking to his mother. You don’t want to invade on the private conversation, so you return to the living room and snoop around a bit.

What caught your attention first thing when you walked in is the fireplace. He used to tell you about how much he wanted one so he could drink tea and read in front of it. You wonder if it’s what sold him the place when he was looking around.

On top of the fireplace there are a bunch of memorabilia, picture frames, gifts he has gotten over the years. It wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but as you scan over it, you find more and more things that are connected to you.

First there’s a candle you bought for him after a fight as your peace offer. Then there’s a photo framed from Anne’s birthday, it’s got her, Harry, Gemma and you on it. The more photos you look at, the more you’re met with yourself. You would have never expected him to showcase any pictures that has you in it, but he clearly doesn’t mind looking at you every day. Reaching into the little wooden box that sits on the left edge of the fireplace, you find movie and theater tickets, most of them he used with you on dates. He has a whole stack, probably with every movie and play you two have seen and there are a lot.

“I kept them all.”

His voice startles you, you were so busy snooping around you didn’t notice he finished his call. Shutting the lid of the box you turn around and fold your arms over your chest to stop you from touching anything.

“Why?” you question.

“Because they are memories. Good ones.”

He sets down two mugs on the coffee table, hot tea steaming from them, but they get ignored as he walks up to you and grabs the box. Digging into the tickets he grabs one and hands it over to you.

“Do you remember this?”

Taking the piece of paper you look at the title. It’s from the old cinema in town you used to go to almost every month. They always had some of the old gems playing and you loved having the experience of being in the movies, watching a film that can’t be seen elsewhere.

This particular ticket was for The Breakfast Club, one of your biggest favorites. You missed the few times they played it in the theater and you were bummed. So Harry got them to add one more date, on your birthday. It was the sweetest thing someone has ever done for you and you’d be lying if you said it doesn’t fills your chest with warmth.

It’s a happy memory you share with him.

“I remember it. Yeah,” you say, clearing your throat as you hand the ticket back, knowing you have it saved at home too.

“You’ve seen that movie so many times, you were mumbling the lines next to me,” he chuckles, as he places the box back.

“Why do you have all these?”

“Told you, they are good memories,” he shrugs, ignoring what you really meant by your question.

“You shouldn’t be holding onto them,” you shake your head, taking a few steps away from him to put some distance between the two of you.

“Why?”

“Because you left me,” you snap at him. “These memories weren’t good enough for you to keep you here. With me.”

Spite is dripping from your words, words you’ve been meaning to get off your chest, but you kept them buried deep inside you.

“Y/N, I didn’t leave because I didn’t want to be with you or because I wasn’t happy.”

“Oh, so you just woke up one day and decided you had better things to do?” you scoff.

“Jesus, would you stop belittling our relationship and my feelings for you?”

“Feelings?” you can’t stop yourself from laughing. “What feelings did you have that made you leave me, huh?”

Whenever you thought of having this conversation with Harry you imagined yourself staying calm and collected, not letting him show how much he hurt you, but you’re more like a deranged mess.

“I panicked, Y/N, okay? I was… I was young and for a moment I felt like I was running out of time. I was wrong, but by the time I realized, it was too late.”

“Trapped? You felt trapped in our relationship? Well, that’s just great to know.”

“I had no reason to feel like that, it was a momentary craziness. Have you not gone through that? Have you never questioned your decisions before?”

“Of course I did, but I didn’t move across the country or left behind the people I said I love.” It’s a hit below belt, but you can’t help it.

“I made mistakes, I’m human! But I’m here to make things right!”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“That I’m here to earn your forgiveness. I hurt you, caused you a lot of pain and I want to make up for that.”

“That’s very noble, but I’m not a partner in that.”

“I’m not asking you to take me back, I know I fucked up big time. I’m just trying to do the right thing and earn your forgiveness.”

“Stop saying that!” you growl.

“What?”

“That you want to earn my forgiveness!”

“But it’s the truth!”

“You wouldn’t need my forgiveness if you loved me enough to stay!”

“Would you stop refuting my feelings?!”

“Don’t lecture me about your feelings! I’m only seeing the facts, that you didn’t love me enough not to leave! So if you want to get me to believe you still love me and want me back, I can assure you, it’s not enough now! You left me when we had so much at stake, when I spent all my money on a business we were supposed to start together! I was all alone, I lost my lover, I lost my faith in a future we planned together! If you loved me, you wouldn’t have done that!”

“You think I don’t love you?” he raises his voice, clearly short on his patience as well.

“Oh, I know you don’t!” you scream at him.

For a few heartbeats he just stares at you and you have no idea where this is about to go. Then, without a word he storms back into his bedroom and you stand there, stunned with your chest heaving.

When he appears a few moments later he is carrying a big cartboard box. He throws it to the floor in front of you and opening he reveals a big collection of… everything that has anything to do with you.

“I kept every tiny thing that reminds me of you. Everything! All of our polaroids!” He grabs the dozens of photos the two of you took over the years and throws up into the air like confetti. “I have every gift you gave me, every clothes you got me, everything!”

He keeps throwing things out, laying them in front of your feet as you stare at him with your lips parted.

“These,” he continues, holding up a stack of papers, “are letters I wrote to you since I left. Over eighty letters, Y/N! Every time I wanted to run back to you begging for you to take me back, I remembered that you probably hate me, so I wrote you letters I never sent!”

He throws the letters into the air too and you watch them fly around in the room as Harry stands up.

“Wanna know why I still have these? Why I’m here? Why I came back? The only fucking reason I came back?”

Blinking you feel a tear rolling down your cheek.

“Why?” you whisper.

“Because I love you! I never fucking stopped loving you, Y/N!” he screams at you and this time you. “And if I have to spend the rest of my life paying for what I did to you, I will fucking do it, because you’re my everything and I would rather atone forever than live a moment knowing I didn’t try everything to make up for what I did!”

He’s breathing heavily and so are you. The intensity of the moment is swallowing you in whole and you feel like you could just collapse any moment. His confession has broken everything you’ve built up in you in the past years and now as you stare back at him, you go fully blank before…

You move before you could even think and Harry mirrors you the same moment, the two of you meet halfway and unite in hard, demanding kiss you’ve fantasized about so many times, beating yourself up about it.

You lose every ounce of self-control, you both do. Everything you do is so primal, just wanting to fulfill this burning need inside you for each other. You push against Harry, fingers grabbing onto his hair hard while his hands dig into your waist, he is making you walk backwards, stumbling and stepping on his letters and polaroids, but nothing matters.

It’s tug of war as you head to the bedroom without stopping the hungry, almost violent kissing and you tear your clothes off of each other as if they were poisonous. When he presses you against the wall at one point, pushing his erection against you, a loud cry bursts out of you, grabbing onto him even more desperately.

By the time he throws you onto the mattress you’re naked and he’s ridding himself of his last piece of clothing. You moan as you see his hard cock springing free, begging to be buried in you finally. He climbs on top of you and the weight of his body presses you into the mattress heavenly. You don’t even notice that you’ve started crying as you cling onto him as if your life depended on it.

He stops for a moment, brushing the tears off of your face.

“Hey,” he softly says, kissing the corner of your mouth and lifting himself up. “We don’t have to do this if you—“

“Please!” you gasp, pulling him back. “Please stay here,” you beg, linking your arms behind his head to keep him as close as possible. “Please stay here,” you repeat and you both know your words have a meaning beyond just wanting to keep him in your embrace in this moment.

“I’m not going anywhere. I’m yours forever,” he assures before thrusting into you. “I’m yours forever.”

Harry seems to be asleep beside you when you finally decide to get out of bed and get yourself a glass of water. He stirs gently when the mattress moves underneath you, but doesn’t open his eyes. Quietly, you make your way to the kitchen and grab his shirt from the floor, pulling it on. You grab a glass and fill with tap water and stare out the window while sipping on it.

The storm has stopped, everything is covered in fresh, thick snow, right in time so you’ll have a white Christmas.

You repeat what happened tonight over and over again, trying to figure out how you truly feel about it. When you had Harry pressed up against you, you clearly wanted him in any and every way possible, but now that the lust as died down, momentarily, you’re finally using your brain to think.

You might have jumped at him too fast, it doesn’t mean that everything is smoothed out and there are no hard feelings. There are still questions and fears in you that you won’t be able to bottle up anymore.

“Everything alright?”

Harry’s voice startles you again and as you turn around you see him padding closer to you, wearing his sweatpants and a sleepy look on his face. He stops a few feet away from you, assessing your expression and he sees you the worry etched onto your face.

“Talk to me, Y/N,” he whispers, taking your face in his hands and you hold onto his wrists.

“We got a little carried away.”

“Do you regret it?” he asks and you can see panic rising in him.

“No,” you say without hesitation. “But… I can’t do this if you’re gonna leave again.”

Tears dwell in your eyes. You’re not angry anymore, but scared, that you’ll get hurt again, because you fear you wouldn’t survive it.

“I meant what I said, Y/N. I’m not going anywhere. Unless you want me to leave. I’m never making the same mistake again, I paid for it too.” Leaning down he kisses you softly, painting his promise onto your lips. “I promised myself I would be home this Christmas. But it’s not the town. You’re my home.”

You breathe in his words, let the relief settle in your chest as you nod and rest your forehead against his. Minutes pass by and he just holds you, ensures you silently that you’re not about to make a mistake by starting over with him.

“You must have heard how popular the bakery got, huh?” you joke with a chuckle.

“Ah, absolutely,” he grins, kissing the tip of your nose.

“I’m not letting you get into the business though.”

“So I can’t be a kept man? Damn it!” he laughs and you giggle against his neck. “I’ll prove you that it’s not a mistake, okay? I’ll earn your trust back.”

“Okay,” you whisper with a nod.

“Come on, let’s get back to bed. We can talk more in the morning.”

You follow him back into the bedroom and you gladly settle in his embrace, cocooned in his arms, knowing that this Christmas you’ll be home too.

Harry’s arms are clinging onto you when you slowly wake in the morning. His hands have sneaked underneath your shirt, the warmth of his palms coating your naked skin underneath the layers.

He has always been a clingy sleeper, you learnt that early in your relationship. All those mornings you spent tangled up in each other, soft, lazy kisses, Harry’s hands all over you, because he could never get enough of you.

“I love you, my Y/N.”

“My sweet love, good morning.”

“So soft, so warm, all mine.”

He was always the sweetest in the morning. And he was the same the day he decided to leave. You felt his touch on your waist, stomach and chest, he hugged you tight, his body pressed up against yours in bed as the morning sunshine beamed through the window. It was like every other morning, only that he didn’t go to bed with you that day.

You stretch blindly, enjoying the feeling of Harry wrapped around you, but slowly, you feel like you’re tossed back in time to the day he left, reliving the possibly worst day of your life.

“Mm, morning,” Harry murmurs behind you, his lips pressing to your shoulder before he gently turns you in his arms and he kisses your pouty lips once. Twice. But before he could go for a third one, he realizes something is off. “Babe?”

“I’m… S-sorry, I just…” you sit up in bed, looking around, taking in your surroundings as sleep wears off of your eyes. You’re in Harry’s bedroom at his new place, yet you still feel like you’re in the past, stuck with the version of Harry that will leave you. Again.

“Hey, it’s alright. Just breathe for me.” He gently rubs your back as your breaths are rapidly heaving through your chest. “It’s alright, baby.”

“Are you gonna leave?”

The words roll down your tongue before you could even think twice and you want to take them back, afraid that they might hurt him, but they also root from your fears you’re still struggling with.

Harry stares back at you for a moment and you expect him to walk out on you, but it never happens. Instead, he cups your face in his hand and leaning closer he brushes his lips softly against yours.

“I’m not leaving, Y/N. Never. I know it’s hard to see anything other than the past, but I will work hard to change that.”

“It’s just… so many things remind me of what was before,” you whisper, almost embarrassed, but you just can’t help this feeling that keeps crawling up your spine, into your mind.

“I know. It’s okay, I don’t expect you to change so fast, I know I have to work for it and we’ll get there, to the point where I earn your trust back. Okay?”

“Okay,” you nod shortly as he rests his forehead against yours.

“I love you. We’ll get through this.”

“I love you too,” you coo and crawl to his lap, letting him wrap in his embrace as he lies back in bed, pulling you with him.

“Do you remember how we used to spend Christmas?”

“Yeah,” you nod. “We got a Christmas tree together just before Christmas, made gingerbread house and exchanged gifts on the twenty-fourth, because we were too excited to wait till the morning,” you say with a tiny chuckle.

“What if we did everything different from now on? Make new traditions?”

“What do you have in mind?”

“Well, we could decorate the tree earlier, look for a different recipe to bake and wait till the morning with the gifts.”

“We could attempt to wait… But we might fail.”

A laugh rumbles through Harry’s chest from where you lift your head to look at him.

“I’m sorry I freaked out on you.”

“Don’t be. Just let me be there for you when it happens.”

“Okay,” you whisper and push yourself up so your lips could meet his and this time, it finally feels new. It’s your fresh start.

Thank you for reading, please like and reblog if you enjoyed and buy me a coffee if you want to support me!

[pancakes4two]

baby please come home

happy holidays everyone! i wanted to write something short for @watchmegetobsessed​‘s fanficmas to close out the year. i’ve had the best time writing a bunch of concepts these last few months so... here is an ode to the first harry i wrote this year & the most recent 💗 enjoy!

preview: Harry disappears from public view until January, wanting to close out the year in private. He does, however, decide to share a photo of the three of you sitting under the tree on Christmas. You’re grinning at the camera, leaning close to Harry. Beau is sitting in your lap, fuzzy antlers sitting atop his head. His entire body is turned towards Harry, big brown eyes glittering as he stares as his dad and reaches for him with tiny hands. Harry’s smiling so wide his eyes may as well be closed, his face flush with nothing but pure joy.

He captions the photo: Christmas Morning. Harry’s House. December, 2022. It gets 10 million likes in 24 hours.

MASTERLIST | TALK TO ME

1. christmas with dadrry (from this blurb!)

Harry is playing his last show of 2022 when he decides to have a little fun. He’s been in Brazil for the past couple of days, closing out the Latin American leg of Love on Tour. Three stops ago in Argentina, he’d sent you and your son off on a plane home to London. With the two of you now being 5,000 miles away, he can’t help but ache for home a little more than usual, despite the fact that he’ll be joining you at home soon. A sign at the barricade reminds him of this fact, as he prepares to give a speech to lead into his encore.

“So…” Harry says, popping out his hip dramatically, “Before we move on to our last couple of songs, there’s a sign up at the front here that I want to address.”

The arena explodes in chatter as a spotlight comes down from above, searching for the flashy poster board. Harry squints and twists his microphone cord between his fingers, (he mentally notes that next year will be the year he finally starts using a wireless mic) and points when he manages to spot the sign he had noticed earlier.

“Right, this sign says,” Harry pauses as a cameraman beside him zooms in on the sign, projecting it onto the large screens behind the stage. “We came here for Y/N and no-one else.”

The crowd bursts into collective laughter and hoots, and Harry sees a few phone shoot up in the front row, eager to capture the obvious fan interaction that’s about to take place. He walks closer to the edge of the stage, and kneels down directly in front of the two fans that had brought the sign.

“Let me just start by saying how could you,” Harry brings a hand to his chest, squeezing his fist and trying his best to school his expression into one of dramatic anguish. One of the fans belly-laughs, while the other takes his reaction more to heart, waving her hands in the air and trying to rationalize the statement that had been written on their sign. “Only joking! But I am a bit hurt. It’s my name that’s attached to the tour, the posters, the merch, after all...”

“Sadly, I do have to inform you that Y/N has left with our son to go back home,” Harry squints out at the audience. The crowd groans loudly at that, and the sound of Mitch’s laughter comes through his in-ear monitors.

“Soooo, you’ll have to deal with it just being me up here!” Harry points a thumb at himself, turning around to give Mitch the finger with his other hand. “It is, however, close to Christmas, and I must admit I’m missing my family too. So we’ll see if we can do something about that.”

Harry gestures for the production lead then, and the fans that make up the first couple of rows in the stadium look to each other curiously, wondering why Harry’s suddenly gone off-script. While they whisper amongst themselves, the production lead runs up on stage and hands Harry his phone. He wiggles it in the air, brandishing it in front of the crowd. They cheer in anticipation for what he’s about to do next. The screen on Harry’s phone turns on in response to all his movement, and the stadium unexpectedly gets a glimpse of his wallpaper. It’s a picture of you and Beau, taken not more than a month ago, posing in front of Foro Sol in Mexico City. Beau’s wearing a Love on Tour shirt that’s comically large on his tiny body, sucking on a pacifier as you hold him to your chest, pointing at the massive screen displaying Harry’s name behind you. The entire crowd coos upon seeing the image, and even more phones shoot up to record the moment. Harry smirks knowingly, as if to say: adorable, isn’t it?

He holds his phone to his chest then, hiding it from view as he types in his passcode and swipes through his apps. He opens up your contact card and presses the FaceTime button, shushing the crowd when the call goes through. It’s late enough at night back home in London that he’s sure Beau’s asleep already, but you’re still awake and will be able to pick up his calls without disturbing the sleeping baby. The screen takes a moment to load before your face pops up, slightly pixellated and makeup-less, but beautiful nonetheless. Harry turns his phone back towards the crowd, and they can’t hold in their excitement when they see your face projected onto the stadium screens.

“Say hi everyone!” Harry waves at his phone, grinning at how the crowd has welcomed you. “Y/N, everyone’s been missing you, and now that I’ve got you here, it only seems fitting that I sing something special tonight...”

You give Harry a confused look through the phone, and he says nothing in response, just smiles and cues Pauli in. Pauli twirls a set of mallets between their fingers and begins to play a xylophone in front of them. They count themself in, and the starting notes to Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You sound through the stadium. 

Harry can’t hear you over the noise of the crowd, but he sees you shake your head at him and swears you yell out, “Shut the fuck up!!!” as he starts to sing.

“I don’t want a lot for Christmas, there is just one thing I need. I don’t care about the presents underneath the Christmas tree. I just want you for my own, more than you could ever know, make my wish come true... all I want for Christmas is you!”

Harry prances around the stage with you on his phone, directing the lyrics to your smiling face on the screen. The crowd dances along and Sarah points and laughs when Harry passes by, fondly admiring just how much of a hopeless romantic he is. As the song continues, Harry decides to leap across the catwalk, determined to make this performance as extra as humanly possible. The crowd reaches for him, but in this moment he only has eyes for you. He brings his phone out in front of him as he shimmies in front of the camera, reminding you that, “Baby, all I want for Christmas is you.”

When Harry launches into the bridge, he points up at the sky. A loud pop sounds through the venue as cannons that had been rigged onto the stage release tiny pieces of confetti that had been shaped into snowflakes. The paper rains down onto the crowd, blanketing the entire stage and floor into a sea of white. The pretend-snowflakes continue to cascade through the sky, glistening under all the stage lights, and Harry ends the song by running back towards the main stage and collapsing backwards onto it. He moves his limbs up and down through the confetti that now covers the surface as if to make a snow angel. He looks up at your smiling face, still watching him sing through his phone, and it’s almost as if you’re there with him. It’s only been a few days and yet he still misses you like crazy. Harry gets lost in the moment for a second, before the crowd drags him back down into reality. He sits up, brushing the confetti out of his hair, and smiles at the sea of people looking at him adoringly.

“Hope you didn’t mind that little switch-up, there,” Harry beams, “just felt like singing a Christmas song tonight.”

“Now, we’re gonna say bye to Y/N,” he continues, placing his microphone behind his back so he can speak to you privately. The crowd boos in response, and you laugh. 

“Let me talk to your fans!” you say, wagging a disapproving finger at Harry.

“You’re a demanding bunch!” Harry jokes, putting his microphone back under his phone speaker. Your voice comes through over the venue speakers, a little tinny, but understandable. 

“Goodnight everyone! Hope you had lots of fun tonight, and thank you so much for the surprise. Take care of H for me so he comes back home all in one piece,” you blow a kiss to your phone and Harry catches it, keeping it in his back pocket.

“That was for the fans, you idiot!” You laugh, and Harry throws his hands up at the crowd when they start to laugh at him.

“Okay, no more listening privileges for you lot if you’re just going to make fun of me,” he sighs jokingly, hiding his mic behind his back again. He brings the speaker up to his mouth so you can hear him properly.

“Be home soon,” he says, “love you so much. Sleep well and text me when you’re up.”

“Love you too, goodnight, H,” you smile, hanging up the call. Harry turns back around and sees his crowd looking disappointed at the fact that they weren’t able to hear the last bit of your conversation.

“Don’t look at me like that! Some conversations are better left private,” He wiggles his eyebrows suggestively, and Mitch throws a guitar pick at him, having heard the conversation and knowing that it had not gone at all like what Harry was implying. “Anyways, onto the encore...”

LONDON, A FEW DAYS LATER

Christmas morning arrives in a blur. Harry’s finally sufficiently rested after battling with jet lag, though he still finds himself waking up slightly earlier than usual. The sun is only starting to rise, and it had snowed the night before. He looks outside the window to see the landscape painted in a winter glow. The Christmas lights that you’d put up after coming home are wrapped around the trees and shrubs outside, providing some warmth to the otherwise blue atmosphere.

Harry makes his way into the living room, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He finds you awake already in the kitchen, with Beau on your side, heating up a pot of tea. Beau is looking determined, sucking on a baby bottle with force as he clings onto his mother. You both notice Harry at the same time—you look up at him and your features soften, while Beau drops his bottle on the counter and reaches for Harry, babbling for his dad.

“Alright, alright; there’s more than enough me to go around,” Harry laughs, taking Beau from you. “Good morning. Happy Christmas.”

“Mm,” you hum while Harry kisses you. You pour two cups of tea, putting milk in sugar in one mug for you and just milk in the other for Harry. You hand his mug to him, and the two of you head over to the tree. It’s placed right in front of the largest window in the living room so it catches the most light. In the early morning, the entire space fills with a cozy light, the ornaments shining softly under twinkling lights. Both of you had decided on not giving each other gifts this year, preferring to absolutely spoil Beau rotten instead.

“Let’s open your presents now, Beau-bear,” Harry coos, bouncing the infant gently in his arms. It’s crazy, how much his life has changed in the last year. He looks at Beau, who’s looking curiously at the box in Harry’s hand, and you, quietly sipping on your morning tea. Harry’s chest swells with a whole host of emotions that he doesn’t necessarily know what to do with—but he does know that this is exactly where he belongs. He’s spent the better half of the year away from home and written an entire record exploring the idea of home. But he knows now that this is it. This is home: Christmas morning spent with the love of his life and his child. The presents that fill the entire space underneath the tree, a Christmas album playing over the sound system in the living room, Beau in a reindeer onesie, you wrapped up in a wool scarf, the snow that’ll decorate your lashes later when the three of you go out in the snow.

Harry disappears from public view until January, wanting to close out the year in private. He does, however, decide to share a photo of the three of you sitting under the tree on Christmas. You’re grinning at the camera, leaning close to Harry. Beau is sitting in your lap, fuzzy antlers sitting atop his head. His entire body is turned towards Harry, big brown eyes glittering as he stares as his dad and reaches for him with tiny hands. Harry’s smiling so wide his eyes may as well be closed, his face flush with nothing but pure joy.

He captions the photo: Christmas Morning. Harry’s House. December, 2022. It gets 10 million likes in 24 hours.

2. christmas with young harry (from this blurb!)

“Y/N!” You hear someone call out distantly from your bedroom window. “Y/N!”

The voice gets closer, and you realize it belongs to Harry. Abandoning the notebook you were currently writing in, you cap your pen and run down the stairs. Once you’ve turned the corner into your living room, though, you see that your parents have already let him in. Harry waves at you from the front door, pulling off his shoes and dusting snow off of the knit beanie resting atop his head. He hands a tin of what could only be Christmas cookies to your mom, and she pulls him into a hug.

“Happy Christmas,” Harry grins, “Mum said she liked the cookies best plain, but I think they’re better with warm milk.”

“We’ll have to try them both ways, then,” your dad responds, clapping Harry on the back. “Happy Christmas, H. Did you bike here?”

“Yeah,” Harry responds a little breathlessly. You notice that his cheeks are more pink than usual due to the cold, and the parts of his hair that weren’t covered by his hat were curling in all different directions, blown out of place by the wind. “Wanted to give Y/N her present before dinner.”

“How lovely!” Your mom coos in response, “We’ll leave you to it. Don’t forget to keep your door open, Y/N!”

Harry laughs while you roll your eyes exasperatedly at your mom. The two of you head upstairs, him trailing slightly behind you with a careful hand on your waist. You hadn’t realized earlier, but he’s wearing a backpack. It looks rather full, like the zippers are about to burst from the size of whatever he’s stuffed inside it.

“What are you planning on giving me, a bomb?!” You joke, poking at the bag’s exterior.

“Shut up!” Harry groans, “of course not! I couldn’t bring a bigger bag with me on the bike, so like, I had to make do.”

“Only joking,” you giggle, opening the door to your bedroom. Harry takes off his jacket and hangs it on the back of your desk chair before flopping onto your bed. He’s wearing a navy-colored crewneck that’s too big for him, and the sleeves go past his hands. His skin is still flushed from the temperature outside, and you think he looks absolutely adorable like this, all cozy in your room. You sit across from him and tangle your legs together. The two of you have been together for almost four months now, thanks to your friends leaving you in a room alone and basically forcing you to confess your feelings to one another at the end of the summer, but you can’t help but still be a little awkward. Harry’s your first boyfriend, and you’re still trying to make sense of the magnitude of what you feel for him. It scares you a little, how much you’ve started to care for him and how you find yourself wanting to know more about him always, from the big things down to the tiny mundane details of his life. But it also brings you comfort, knowing that you can hold so much fondness for someone else, and have those same feelings be reciprocated.

The two of you have been looking forward to Christmas—you got together too late in the year for Harry to be able give you what he had called a proper, boyfriend birthday gift, and Harry has yet to celebrate his own in February. Both of you were excited to exchange gifts as a couple for the first time, somehow, they just meant so much more to you now that your relationship had evolved beyond just friendship. October had barely ended before you started thinking about his gift. You wanted it to be absolutely perfect.

“Were you doing homework before you came?” Harry asks incredulously. He must’ve caught a glimpse of your notebook when he set his backpack down. “How do you still have work left to do?”

“It’s for next term,” you reply sheepishly, “I got bored and wanted to plan out the classes I’m taking starting January... I figured I might as well get a head start while I’m home...”

“Ever the bookworm,” Harry looks at you fondly, reaching over to ruffle your hair. You loved that about him, the fact that he never made you feel badly about anything you did. Between the two of you, you were definitely the more academically-inclined one. While you sat diligently at the front of class taking notes, your boyfriend preferred to sit near the back, cracking jokes until your teacher got annoyed and focusing more on making the setlist for his band’s latest gig, instead of his assignments.

“Wonder if I can convince you to do my homework for a month as a gift,” Harry pulls you closer to him, cupping your face in his hands. He’s about to kiss you when you turn around suddenly, forcing his lips to meet only your cheek.

“No can do,” you smirk when he pouts at you, obviously disappointed that his act of affection didn’t go as originally planned. “We both know you’re meant for bigger things than school, H, but you just need to stick it through for a few more months and before you know it, you’ll be all done with GSCEs.”

“I suppose,” Harry huffs childishly, crossing his arms over his chest and frowning up at you. You kick at his arm with a socked foot, giggling at him. He reaches for your hand and unzips his backpack, pulling out a large, misshapen object that’s been tied together with ribbon. You’re not sure what the gift is meant to be—the Christmas tree-patterned wrapping paper is folded and bent in ways you didn’t know were physically possible, and there’s several pieces of tape stuck to the sides of it, patched on in an attempt to cover places where the gift wrap had ripped.

“I wanted to wrap it myself,” Harry explains, pulling at a non-existent thread on his sleeve, “but it obviously didn’t go too well.”

You laugh as he hands the gift to you, looking sufficiently deflated. “You get full marks for effort.”

“Before you open it,” Harry adds, watching you pull at one end of the ribbon. “I tried my best to get you something you really wanted, but I didn’t know if, like, someone else had already bought it for you, or anything... so there’s a receipt in there for you to exchange it for something else if you’d like.”

“Don’t be silly,” you reassure him, taking extra care to tear the paper carefully. The gift feels delicate in your hands, as if the item inside were made of something soft and pliable. You pause on opening the present for a moment to press a gentle kiss to your boyfriend’s knuckles: the last thing you’d want is to make him think you’d ever be disappointed in anything he gifted to you.

You finally manage to pull away at the gift wrap and tape, and your hands land on a cream-colored cardigan. You gasp and look at Harry, who’s looking between you and the object in your hands fondly, like he’d known exactly how you’d react all this time.

“There’s no way...” you say, turning the cardigan over in your hands, running your fingers along the careful stitches and admiring the tortoiseshell buttons. “But this is so... it costs so much... how?!”

Harry smiles at you, watching you unbutton the sweater carefully. “Well, I remember how much you liked it when you tried it on in the shop, so I worked some extra shifts at the bakery at the beginning of Christmas hols. I made Gem drive me down to the city yesterday and got it for you. It took a lot of convincing. She’s making me do her laundry for the next month.”

“It’s so perfect,” you say sincerely, enveloping Harry in a hug. You wish you could stay like this forever, safe in the embrace of a boy who makes you feel so massively, his arms locked behind your waist and his heartbeat steady against your chest. “I love it so much. You’re just the best.”

“Glad you love it,” Harry says softly, kissing your forehead and tucking a loose strand of hair behind your ear. He watches you intently as you reach under your bed and procure a holiday-themed bag. You hand it to him, tapping on his knee while he plays with the tissue paper inside.

“Your turn.”

“Did you gift me a bomb?” Harry jokes, weighing the bag in his hand and pretending to drop it because of how heavy it is.

“Like I’d kill you off after that incredible present you just got me,” you retort, kicking at him impatiently. “Enough stalling. Open it!”

Harry pulls away at the tissue paper and pulls out a large vinyl record, covered in plastic wrap. He shakes his head and looks at you with wide eyes. “Y/N. You didn’t.”

“I did,” you reply, grinning at him as he continues staring at you in amazement. Over the summer, Harry’s parents had accidentally donated his copy of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours to a charity shop along with a box of his old clothes. You knew how much that record meant to him, so you’d gone to a small record shop the last time you were in the city and picked up a replacement.

“Y/NNNNN,” he drags out your name dramatically, peppering your face with chaste kisses.

“Come on, look at the bottom of the bag, there’s more,” you say, playing with his hair. Somehow, the two of you had ended up shifting closer and closer to each other in your excitement, and now you’re basically sitting on top of Harry, eagerly waiting for him to finish opening his gift.

“No way, two gifts?” Harry clutches his chest dramatically, “you must really like me.”

He pulls out a book from the bag, checking to make sure there’s nothing else inside that he’d accidentally overlooked. The cover is made of linen and bound together with ribbon. Stuck to the front is a polaroid of the two of you on Harry’s bike, you sitting behind him as he poses for the camera, both of you brandishing massive scoops of mint chocolate ice cream.

“What is this?” Harry whispers, flipping through the pages. Each page is covered in memories of the two of you, filled with pictures and tiny souvenirs from places you’d gone together.

A picture your mom had taken of the two of you asleep on the living room couch, your head enveloped in Harry’s chest. There’s a blanket covering the two of you, and in the distance, a TV is playing the ending of The Notebook--you’d obviously fallen asleep before getting to the best part.

A ticket stub from the first concert you’d gone to together. You still remember how you felt that night, colorful lights streaming down from above as music filled your ears, Harry dancing and singing loudly from right next to you.

A picture you took on your computer when the two of you were meant to be studying together in the school library, Harry sticking his tongue out at you while you flip him off playfully.

A picture your friends took of the two of you holding hands on the bus. The two of you dancing in Harry’s garden. The two of you running through a corn maze at the local farm. Harry waving at you from outside your bedroom window. A photobooth strip of the two of you: a vignette of him looking at you, a vignette of him turning your chin towards him, a vignette of your lips meeting.

“I figured, next year, when you’re off to the X-Factor and you get all big and famous, you can keep this with you when you’re away and it’ll remind you that I’m always thinking of you,” you say shyly. “You know, so you don’t forget me while you’re away.”

“How could I ever forget you?” Harry asks, and his voice is so sincere that it cuts straight to your heart. “I’d never get big or famous enough to forget about you. But this book, Y/N, it’s amazing. It means so much to me that you made this for me. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

“Mhm,” you respond, smiling at him.

“Of course, you’re going to feel silly when they send me home right after auditions, and it’s back to me being your average boyfriend.”

“That’s not going to happen,” you say, and you mean every word of it. “Whole country’s gonna know your name soon.”

“Well, then I couldn’t be more grateful that you were the first one to know,” Harry says, pulling his phone out from his pocket. “Let me take a picture of us and tweet it to my two fans.”

You laugh then, and run your fingers through your hair to tame it. You pull yourself into Harry’s chest and he brings his phone out in front of the two of you. He kisses the top of your head, smiling through the action, and the digital camera clicks. You watch as he attaches the photo to a tweet and begins to type up a caption.

Christmas with my number one fan. Lucky she doesn’t know I’m her biggest fan, too. 

Harry presses send on the tweet and locks his phone. For now, no one sees it except for his sister, and the four other friends who actually follow his Twitter account. But twelve years later, when the whole world knows his name, a fan will find the tweet on his account, buried under thousands of other messages, and tag him in it. He’ll open it in the morning, with you asleep still beside him, and smile to himself as he remembers your first Christmas together. He’ll pull you a little closer as snow falls silently outside, brush your hair aside and listen to you breath steadily in his arms. He’ll lean in and whisper, Told you I could never forget you, and count himself lucky for all the holidays he’ll get to spend for the rest of his life with you right there beside him.

TAGLIST: @crazygirlinthisworld​ @grapejuice-rry​ @b-reads-things​ @s8tellite @michellekstyles​ @vrittivsanghavi​ @alienorknight​ @flwrmuse 

[tbyfandoms]

White Christmas | Shawn Mendes x Reader

Pairing: shawn mendes x f!reader

Word Count: 5.7k

Summary: in preparation for christmas eve dinner with shawn’s family, y/n makes her famous christmas cookies. when shawn offers to help it leads to a mix of ingredients y/n wasn’t quite expecting and a night full of memories

Warnings: swearing

Masterlist | Ask/Tell/Request

A/N: hi everyone! i wanted to write this story in honor of @watchmegetobsessed ‘s #fanficmas2021! i’ll be using the prompt “when i said i want a white christmas, this wasn’t what i had in mind.” i read that prompt and immediately thought of this idea so i hope you all like it as much as i do and it gets you into a festive holiday spirit! the execution of the plot and ending probably could’ve been better, but i’m still proud of it and think it’s sickeningly cute. finally, merry christmas eve, i hope you all have a wonderful holiday (if you celebrate), and that it’s full of so much love and happiness <3. enjoy the story and lmk what you think! :)

The smell of holiday candles wafted through the air as you made your way through the living room. What was it; cinnamon? Nutmeg? Some sort of spice only found in candles during the holidays? Whatever it is, it’s wonderful and making the condo feel and smell warm and cozy.

Shawn always went a little overboard with the candles he placed around the condo, but you loved it, loved the way it made him so happy and relaxed. Considering all he goes through, you figure the least this man deserves is a space where he feels safe and at ease. Even if that does mean spending fifteen minutes trying to light a bunch of Christmas candles.

As you put away the lighter you had been using, Shawn walks out from the bedroom and makes his way into the kitchen with you. You smile at the sight of him; red sweater, jeans, fluffy hair, and eyes sparkling from the city lights outside mixed with the holiday ones strung up around your home. A perfect sight you could say.

“Hey, baby, how’s it going?” Shawn asks as he makes his way over to you, wrapping his arms around your shoulders.

“Good, I just finished lighting the fifty candles you have out,” you tease. Shawn groans and nuzzles his nose into the top of your head.

“Whatever, you know you love them,” he hums. “They make all the decorations come together. It’s one thing to see the holiday spirit, but it’s another to smell it in the air as well.”

“I’m going to have to agree with you on that one, Mendes,” you reply.

Turning slightly in Shawn’s arms, you gaze around the condo, taking in the sight of everything. It all looks so beautiful, and Shawn isn’t wrong about the candles helping to really tie everything in. It really feels like being in a winter wonderland when you step inside the front door.

You and Shawn had decided to go all out this year. After everything that happened last year with the height of the pandemic and not being able to have the Christmas you all hoped for, you decided this year you’d do everything you could to make it as best as possible. Shawn’s family was coming over for Christmas Eve dinner and the both of you couldn’t be more excited. Family gatherings were far and few between with all the constant restrictions and fears of getting sick, so being able to finally spend this time together is really all you could ask for.

Shawn’s family would be here soon, so you’re just making all the finishing touches. You and Shawn had somehow put together a wonderful meal, all your favorites and then some. It was a miracle considering when you and Shawn are together in the kitchen, there’s always some sort of disaster. The two of you have too much fun and constantly lose track of time, leading to burnt dishes or forgotten ingredients. It truly is a Christmas miracle the food made it’s way from the kitchen to the dining area without a hitch.

“Is there anything left to do?” Shawn questions, unwrapping his arms from around you.

“Just one more thing,” you reply before opening up a few cabinets. “The Christmas cookies!”

“Ooo that’s right! Your famous Christmas cookies,” he chuckles as he watches you get all the ingredients you need.

“I don’t know if I would count the recipe I found online and have used the past four years as famous, but okay,” you giggle, setting out measuring cups and mixing bowls.

“According to Aaliyah they are. I swear she’s brought them up more times than I can count this past week,” Shawn says, shaking his head. “She’s so excited for them considering she wasn’t able to get some last year.”

“Well i’ll have to make her extra to take home. I couldn’t possibly let my favorite girl go without them any longer, now could I?” Shawn rolls his eyes while you laugh. The bond you and Aaliyah have is special, and you’re grateful to be able to connect with Shawn’s family so well.

“I guess not,” Shawn replies. He looks around at everything you’ve placed on the kitchen island and he reaches out to pick up a few of the cookie cutters you set out. “Do you want some help making them?”

You turn around and face Shawn, staring at him curiously.

“You wanna help me make the cookies?”

“Yeah! You’ve always made them on your own and I think it’d be fun if we did it together this time. I wanna continue to make as many memories with you as possible,” Shawn smiles fondly at you and you can’t help the fluttering of your heart as you take in his statement. He really is the sweetest guy in the world.

“Of course you can help me, love. Thank you for offering,” you say as you make your way over to Shawn and plant a small kiss on his cheek.

Taking his hand, you lead Shawn over to the other side of the kitchen island where all the materials are laid out. Shawn picks up some of the measuring cups and turns to face you.

"Where do I start?" He questions. You smile and push a couple of different ingredients towards Shawn, thinking of the perfect job for him.

"Since I make the cookies from scratch, how about I read off the recipe and you help me measure out the different ingredients," you say. Shawn nods his head and begins to open up the bags of flour and sugar.

"Alright, sounds good. Let's do this!" he exclaims.

Watching as Shawn starts to separate all of the measuring cups, ready and waiting for your instructions, you scoot a little closer to him.

"Hey if you do good I might even let you lick the spoon when we're done with it," you tease, nibbling on your bottom lip to try and stifle your laugh.

"Hmm, sounds intriguing," Shawn hums, tilting his head so his lips graze against your ear. "But I think I'd like something a little sweeter."

As you feel your cheeks heat up, Shawn moves his head away from your ear and brings his lips down onto yours. Even though Shawn made you flustered, you're able to revel in the taste of him, kissing back immediately.

After a minute Shawn pulls back and your eyes flutter open, you’re left feeling like you’re floating. No matter how many times it happens, every kiss with Shawn still feels like your first in the best way possible.

“So, shall we?” The tiniest of smirks pulls at the corner of Shawn’s lips as he tilts his head towards you, finding humor in the fact he can still sweep you off your feet.

“Absolutely,” you reply, shaking out of you lovesick trance. God this man has such a hold on you. You love him nonetheless.

Rummaging through the pile of ingredients, you find the recipe and begin baking with your boyfriend, ready to make more of those Christmas memories with him.

*****

“Baby it’s cold outside!” You and Shawn finish off the song as best you can, your harmonies not quite matching up together, but it’s perfect to you both anyways.

Shawn suggested turning on the music about halfway through the cookie preparation, after you both had really started getting into things. You thought that was a great idea and you’ve been singing different holiday songs ever since. Your favorite had been the one just before Baby It’s Cold Outside, it was All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey. You and Shawn had been trying to hit the high notes but every time you would both start laughing while you danced around the kitchen. It was a sight to see (and hear), you’re sure.

Now, you’re deciding on all the cookie cutter shapes you want to use. There is so many to choose from and you typically only used a few of them each year, but you figured you’d use way more this year considering you didn’t get to make hardly any last year since it was just you and Shawn. You’ve already decided on using the tree, reindeer, santa, snowflake, and snowman ones, you just wanted one more.

“Y/N, look,” Shawn says, reaching his hand out and picking up a cookie cutter from the pile. “Let’s do the gingerbread one, that way when we decorate them we can make them look like us.”

You laugh and nod your head in response, you’d love to see how that turns out.

“Okay, I love that idea. Let’s do it!”

Shawn places the gingerbread shape with the rest of your choices, taking the unused ones and putting them away so you both have more room to work.

You grab some flour from the bag you set out earlier, and begin to lightly dust the dough with it. It’s the worst to have the dough get stuck to the counter because then you won’t be able to pick it up and put it on the tray without it breaking.

After spreading some flour on the counter as well, you lay out the dough and grab the rolling pin. You hold the pin in your hands as you take a second to look from the dough, to shawn, and then back again.

“Here, Mr. Muscles,” you say as you hold out the rolling pin to your boyfriend. “Now that you’re helping me, you can have the absolute honor of rolling out the dough.”

It’s not that you can’t roll out the dough on your own, you’ve been doing it just fine these last few years, but having Shawn do it just sounds so much better.

“Oh thanks so much, baby, I’m so grateful to be doing this,” Shawn replies sarcastically as he grabs the tool from your hands.

You giggle at Shawn’s response and shake your head. Shawn begins to roll out the dough and you lean on the counter as you watch him perform the task. All he’s doing is rolling out cookie dough but wow, you think, is this man dreamy.

*****

“Y/N, you can’t tell me this doesn’t look just like you!” Shawn laughs as he holds out the gingerbread cookie to you. “You guys are practically twins.”

“Please, I don’t look like that even on my worst day!” You laugh and roll your eyes at Shawn’s poor attempt to make the gingerbread look like you.

“Oh okay, because yours looks so much like me,” Shawn retorts, pointing at the cookie you are currently trying to make look like him as best as possible.

“Hey! Mine looks so good, I even drew on your tattoos!” You smile looking down at cookie Shawn, content with the cute designs you drew on it’s arms with the black icing.

“Babe, I know it can’t be just me that think’s the guitar tattoo looks a little…odd,” Shawn holds back his laugh while staring at the icing tattoo, feeling grateful his actual tattoo doesn’t look like that.

“It’s not my fault the cookie arms are so short and small!” You reply, feeling your cheeks heat up, knowing exactly what Shawn’s getting at. “I only had so much room to work with.”

Shawn giggles and moves closer to you, planting a kiss on the side of your head.

“It’s okay, I think they look great and I love them both,” he says as you look up at him. You give Shawn a small smile as you nod your head in agreeance.

“And I love you,” you whisper, staring up at the man you’ve been so grateful to be with these past few years. He’s everything and more you could ask for and no matter what you wouldn’t trade this relationship for the world.

“I love you so much more, my love,” Shawn grins.

“If you say so.”

Shawn leans in and connects his lips with yours, the taste of sugar still on his lips from when you let him lick the spoon earlier. The memory of it makes you smile into the kiss.

You both pull back and stare at each other fondly for a second before returning to the cookies in front of you. Teasing aside, they all do look really good and the both of you are happy with how they all turned out. The only cookies left to be put on the plate are the two gingerbread versions of you and Shawn, you had left decorating those for last.

Each of you grab the gingerbread you had been decorating and set them lightly on the plate, not wanting to risk breaking one. Stepping back, you lightly squeal with excitement, completely happy with how the cookies turned out. The fact you and Shawn made them together makes it even better.

“Well, i’d say we’re finished! Thank you for helping me, i’m proud of us,” you say to Shawn, looking over everything you’ve accomplished tonight; dinner and desert.

“You’re welcome, baby. I’m proud of us too,” Shawn agrees.

“Let’s clean everything up and by the time we’re done your parents and sister should be here.” Shawn hums in agreement before taking some of the utensils used and putting them in the sink. You start to close up different bags of ingredients and throw away the extra stuff you didn’t use but aren’t able to keep.

While pushing the plate of cookies forward so you can have room to wipe off the counter, you feel a tap on your shoulder. You turn towards Shawn and look at him questioningly, not sure what he needs.

“You have some flour on your face,” he says, causing you to instantly use your shoulder to try and wipe it off.

“Where is it?” You ask, seeing as the powder didn’t appear on your top after rubbing your cheek on it.

“Right here.” Before you can process what’s happening, Shawn reaches forward and smears flour on the side of your face. Your mouth hangs open in shock as you take a step back and watch as powder particles drift from your face onto the kitchen floor.

“You did not just do that!” You exclaim as you use the back of your hand to try and wipe off some of the flour. Shawn’s laugh fills your ears and you can’t help but want to laugh as well, but stand your ground as you walk closer to him. “You think that’s funny, huh?”

“Mhm,” Shawn smirks as he crosses his arms in front of his chest.

“Oh okay. Well so is this.” You quickly reach to your side and scoop up the flour that’s still laying on the counter, and then throw it in Shawn’s face. His eyes immediately flutter close and his nose scrunches up, causing you to burst out laughing at the sight.

“You’re gonna pay for that, Y/L/N,” Shawn grumbles as he reaches for the bag of flour. The bag tips over and a puff of white goes up into the air, some of the flour spilling out onto the counter. Shawn grabs a handful of it before starting to throw it at you in tiny pinches. It doesn’t hurt, but you can still feel the powdery substance against your skin, causing you to shriek and giggle at the feeling.

Swiftly grabbing your own handful of flour, you start to return fire on Shawn. You watch as the curls atop his head bounce from side to side as he tries to dodge your throws, and how his smile is visible even through the clouds of kitchen ingredients being thrown about.

The only sounds heard throughout the condo are laughs, shrieks, and holiday music still playing in the background. Somehow, they’re sounds you never want to forget about. Sounds filled with love and happiness, even if you’re currently throwing flour at your boyfriend.

You start to run low on ammo so you try to reach for the bag of flour but Shawn comes up behind you and wraps his arms around you, dragging you back and away from the bag. You try to wiggle out of his arms, but fail as you can’t stop laughing and Shawn’s strong grip doesn’t seem to let up.

“No more! Please! Truce, truce! I’m sorry, I surrender!” Shawn begs. He shakes his head to try and get some of the flour off and takes a big breath in before wincing. “I think i got some in my nose.”

The both of you laugh and Shawn releases you from his grasp, allowing you space to take everything in. You take a second to look over the kitchen and your laughing quickly fades to nothing. The counters and floors are completely covered in flour, everything now having a layer of white powder over it.

This is exactly why you and Shawn can never be trusted in the kitchen together. It looks as if a snowstorm happened inside your kitchen.

“Shawn,” it comes out as almost a whisper, the disbelief evident in your voice. “When I said ‘I want a white Christmas,’ this wasn’t what I had in mind.”

You think back to a few days ago when you and Shawn had been talking about Christmas wishes. You hoped it would snow all night Christmas Eve so you’d wake up to a perfect white Christmas. Needless to say this isn’t the kind you were hoping for.

Shawn let’s out a breathy laugh, not believing the fact you guys made such a mess in so little time. This isn’t going to be fun to clean up, and it’s definitely going to take a while…

A gasp escapes Shawn’s lips followed by an ‘oh shit!’

Your head whips towards him and you can see the anxiety begin to consume him.

“My parents and sister are gonna be here any minute!” The color drains from your face as the realization hits you as well. How could it slip your mind!? It’s the whole reason you and Shawn were even baking in the first place!

“I’ll go get the vacuum, you start to clean the counters!” You rush out of the kitchen before Shawn even gets a chance to respond. You’re down the hall and back within seconds and you immediately start to rid the floor of flour with the vacuum as Shawn wipes furiously at the counters.

Sneaking a glance at Shawn as you move back and forth with the vacuum, you notice how his head and chest are almost completely covered in flour. You don’t even want to think about what you must look like right now.

Shawn moves side to side from the sink to the kitchen island, trying not to trip over the vacuum as you frantically move back and forth, cleaning up as much of the flour off the floor as possible. You can’t believe you let that whole flour fight go so far, sure it was fun but definitely not something you should have done before expecting company. It’s surely something you’re going to look back on both fondly and stressfully.

A loud buzzer rings out around the condo and you and Shawn stop dead in your tracks at the sound of it.

“They’re here!” You squeak, immediately stopping the vacuum. It isn’t perfect but it’ll do. At least the floor doesn’t look like it’s completely covered in snow anymore.

“It’s okay, i’ll go push the button to let them into the building and then finish up here. It’ll take them a few minutes to get up here anyways. You go clean up.” You nod your head and hastily go and put away the vacuum before running back to your shared bedroom.

As you stand in the bathroom you can’t help but gasp at your reflection in the mirror. The flour war may not have lasted long, but it was long enough to leave you looking like a complete mess.

Flour particles cover your top and white streaks run across each side of your face. Instead of wasting time trying to wipe off the flour on your clothes, you change tops immediately. You run a brush through your hair and use wipes to get rid of the flour on your face. Somehow, it doesn’t look awful and your satisfied with the new look. It’ll have to do because it’s not like you have time to do anything else anyways.

Rushing back to the kitchen, you notice Shawn wiping at the plate of cookies and your heart instantly sinks.

“What’s wrong? Are the cookies ruined?” Shawn looks up at you and shakes his head, tossing the rag he was using to the side.

“No, they’re find. There was just some flour on the plate but I got it off, no worries.” You let out a sigh of relief and make your way towards Shawn. You reach out to hug him but step back immediately, realizing he’s still completely covered in flour.

“Shawn! You still have flour all over you!” Shawn’s eyes go wide and he looks down at his sweater and reaches his hand up to touch his face. He was so focused on cleaning he didn’t realize he still had to clean himself up too!

A round of knocks is heard and yours and Shawn’s heads both turn towards the door. You begin to walk towards it slowly, stopping for a second to look back at your boyfriend.

“Go clean up, it’s fine i’ll just tell them you’re in the bathroom or something.” Shawn nods his head and is gone in an instant. It wouldn’t be the end of the world if Shawn’s family knew what happened, but it’s not like you want them coming in to see the kitchen in complete shambles and you and Shawn looking like you rolled around in white powder. Not a good look after not being able to see them for so long.

Grasping the handle on the door, you look back towards the bedroom, hoping Shawn will be out here soon. You know how much this means to him and his family, you don’t want him to miss a second of it if he doesn’t have to.

You open the door and a smile is instantly plastered onto your face at the sight of the family in front of you. Although you’d been able to visit Shawn’s family here and there, it wasn’t the same like it used to be. With the restrictions, quarantines, and conflicting schedules it made it seem like all of you hadn’t been able to spend any time together at all. This time with them, being able to just sit down and enjoy each other’s company, means the world.

“Y/N!” Karen exclaims as she wraps you in her arms. “It’s so good to see you, love.” The happy tears spring to your eyes before you’re even able to process everything, but you’re able to hold them back as you embrace Shawn’s mom.

“It’s so good to see you guys as well! I missed you all so much,” you say, taking a step back so they can all come inside. Karen moves to the side a bit so Manny can step in and greet you.

“We missed you too, it feels like it’s been so long,” Manny sighs as he hugs you and rubs a comforting hand up and down your back. “It’s so great to be able to celebrate together, all five of us!”

You smile and nod your head in agreement, turning to greet the last Mendes.

“And of course I can’t forget about my favorite girl!” Aaliyah squeals and jumps into your arms, causing the both of you to laugh and stumble back from the door.

“I missed you, Y/N! I’m so excited to see you! You’ve gotta fill me in on everything!” Aaliyah leans in closer to you, pretending to whisper and look suspicious. “Including any embarrassing things my brother has done.”

The both of you burst out laughing again, even Karen and Manny join in. You shake your head at the girl, not surprised at all by her request.

“Speaking of your brother, where is that son of mine?” Karen questions as you all start to make your way around the corner and into the dining room.

“Oh he’s-“

“I’m right here, Mom,” Shawn says, saving you from having to make up an excuse. You look up and see Shawn leaning against the kitchen island, arms crossed, and looking perfect as ever. You’ll truly never understand how guys get ready so fast.

Shawn’s family make their way over to him and they all greet and embrace him. You smile at the sight, feeling so grateful you get to know such a loving family.

Karen, Manny, and Aaliyah all make their way to the living room, setting down their things and putting presents under the tree. You move towards Shawn, wrapping your arms around him from the side.

“You clean up nice, Mendes,” you tease, taking a look at not only Shawn himself, but also at the kitchen. It looks like the flour fight never even happened. There’s a spot here and there but it’s normal for having cooked and baked all day. Everything turned out wonderful, at least you hope it did.

“What can I say? I do my best,” Shawn replies, smirking down at you. You roll your eyes and pat his chest before moving back from him.

“Sure you do, baby.” The both of you chuckle before Shawn reaches out and grabs your hand. “Let’s go have a nice time with your family.”

You begin to lead Shawn towards the dining table, but the soft pull of your hand makes you stop and turn back towards him.

“Our family,” he says as he stares at you fondly. Those same tears from earlier seem to make their way back to you, leaving your eyes brimmed with them as they threaten to spill over.

“Our family,” you whisper in return, your heart feeling full at the fact Shawn and his family consider you part of theirs. They truly are some of the kindest people you have ever had the pleasure of meeting.

“C’mon, let’s eat,” Shawn says before taking the lead and pulling you towards the dining table. Shawn’s parents and sister join you and soon you’re all sitting down, ready to dive into all the delicious food.

*****

Dinner went wonderfully. It consisted of good food, laughs, stories, and a whole lot of off-key singing as the holiday music continued on in the background. Shawn helped you clear everyone’s plates and store the leftover food, so now you’re all sitting at the table having drinks and enjoying each other’s company before you eventually head to the living room.

Every person at the table can be seen with a smile on their face, each of you enjoying your time to the fullest. Even as the chatter begins to die down, everyone feeling full after eating, there continues to be a quick remark here and there, someone remembering a story they wanted to share or a joke they wanted to tell. Every topic and remembrance of something else to share is welcomed, no one wanting to give up this special time just yet.

After a few more minutes of letting everyone’s food settle, you excuse yourself and make you way to the kitchen. You reach over the counter and grab the large plate of cookies you and Shawn had made, excited to share them with everyone.

“Are those what I think they are?” Aaliyah asks as she watches you walk back over to the table. You nod your head as you set the plate down in the middle of the table.

“Homemade Christmas cookies, brought to you by some recipe I found a long time ago, me, and surprisingly; Shawn.” You glance at Shawn and smile when you catch his eye, still loving the fact he helped you make them and that it ended in a war in the kitchen.

“Oh god, Shawn helped?” Aaliyah grimaces as she picks up one of the cookies shaped as a Christmas tree. “Suddenly I don’t want a cookie.”

“Hey! I’m a good baker! You haven’t even tried them yet,” Shawn slumps in his chair and you can’t help but giggle at him. Aaliyah just rolls her eyes jokingly before examining the cookie further.

“Did you guys put powdered sugar on them?” Aaliyah asks as she takes a bite out of the cookie.

Your eyebrows furrow in confusion, knowing for a fact you didn’t. There’s frosting on the cookies, the kind that dries solid, so that’s plenty sugar as it is. You reach over and grab one of the other cookies to see what she’s talking about and you nearly gasp at what you find.

“Shawn!” You whisper as you hold the cookie out in front of him. You look over and see Aaliyah’s talking to Manny and Karen, all of them oblivious to what you’re saying to Shawn. “There’s flour on the cookies! I thought you said they were fine when you were cleaning?”

Shawn takes the cookie from your hand and groans when he notices the white specks across it.

“Sorry! I thought they were. I only noticed the flour on the plate, I didn’t realize some of it got on the actual cookies.” Shawn leans forward and grabs the plate, wanting to see if all of the cookies are like that.

“Look, it’s just the few that were exposed on top.” He grabs one of the clean napkins and begins to brush off the specks of flour on top of each affected cookie. “See? All good.”

Shawn places the plate back in the middle of the table and smiles as his mom and dad each take one. He grabs the two gingerbread versions of the both of you and hands the one you made of him to you, while he keeps the one he made of you.

“So, baby sis, how do you like the cookies?” Shawn smirks as he awaits Aaliyah’s reply, so sure she’s going to think they’re wonderful and take back her remark about Shawn probably ruining them.

“Eh, they’re okay and that’s only because Y/N took part in making them, if it was just you they’d be awful,” Aaliyah laughs and you join in as you watch Shawn pout and slump in his chair yet again. “Really though they are good, I feel like I can taste some flour though…”

You shake your head and narrow your eyes at Shawn. “You can thank your brother for that one. Let’s just say we had a little mishap with the flour in the process of finishing the cookies.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Aaliyah tilts her head as she looks at the both of you and everyone starts laughing, Shawn’s cheeks turning a rosy color in the midst of it.

Aaliyah, Karen, and Manny get up and head to the living room, ready to wind down and exchange gifts. You go to join them but Shawn quickly reaches for your arm before you can get far.

“Wait, we have to take a bite out of cookie us,” he says, picking up the version of you he made. You laugh at his way of putting it but nod your head in agreement. After all the drama in the kitchen earlier, the least you can do is try one of the cookies that started it all.

You take a bite out of cookie Shawn’s arm, the one with the questionable guitar tattoo on it, and Shawn takes a bite out of cookie you’s leg. You hum in delight at the taste. Not bad, you think.

“You taste pretty good,” Shawn mumbles against your ear before nudging his nose against the side of your head, letting out a small chuckle.

“You’re not so bad yourself,” you reply, feeling a little bit of warmth in your cheeks due to Shawn’s joke.

The both of you set down your cookies and then wipe your hands off on your napkins. You turn towards Shawn and give him a soft smile as he reaches out and tucks a piece of your hair behind your ear. He leans down and captures your lips in a sweet kiss, the taste of the cookie still fresh on his lips.

Shawn pulls back and wraps you in his arms, holding you close as you both look over at his parents and sister, watching as Manny says something that makes his wife and daughter laugh hysterically.

“Thank you for everything tonight, Y/N. For cooking and baking and getting the condo ready. Especially for being so open to my parents and sister year after year. You don’t know how much all of it means to me,” Shawn says.

“You don’t have to thank me, baby. We did all of it together, and if anyone should be thanking someone it’s me thanking you. You and this family are the best thing that’s ever happened to me and i’m so happy you’ve all let me be a part of it.” You lightly squeeze Shawn in appreciation, feeling emotional over his comment.

“I love you so much, pretty girl.” Shawn mumbles into your hair. You smile at the feeling and nickname before looking up at him.

“I love you too, Shawn.”

Shawn leans in and gives you a kiss on the forehead, instantly leaving behind a feeling of warmth and love.

“Hey, lovebirds come check it out! It’s snowing!” Aaliyah’s voice cuts through the trance you and Shawn seem to be in, and you turn to look over at her. She’s standing by the large glass windows in the living room and although it’s a little hard to see, it’s clear snow has started to fall outside.

You watch in awe as the snow outside mixes with the lights of the surrounding buildings, everything looking like starlight. The city at night is one of yours and Shawn’s favorite sights and is why you both love the view from the condo so much. Everything always looks so incredible from up here.

“I guess you’ll get your true white Christmas after all,” Shawn says as he watches you stare out at the city, knowing how much you had hoped for this and how excited you must be.

“I guess so,” you reply, turning back to face your boyfriend.

Shawn holds out his hand for you and you gladly take it, allowing him to lead you into the living room, ready to continue the night with your family.

[lady-annie-bee]

Day 2- College Au

Zutara

College au!

Katara was having what you might call "a bad day."

She could've sworn that she set her alarm for six-thirty, yet when she looked at her phone when she woke up, it was seven-fifty. Her class started in ten minutes.

When she walked out the door, with her hair not even brushed, in leggings and a sweatshirt (she was pretty sure she slept in this, it was vastly different to her usually immaculate appearance) and saw how hard it was raining, she debated whether college was really worth it. Was this eight am anatomy lecture really worth the hassle? The stress? Professor Pakku liked to give her a hard time, he had even docked participation points from her grade for not being well dressed. Nearly every time Katara had his class, he would find some reason to pick on her or demean her.

Maybe this thunderstorm was a sign, maybe she really wasn't fit for higher education. She could probably make it as a dancer...

"No, Katara!" She frowned at the thought of Pakku winning. "You are going to go to class in your pajamas and Pakku can just deal with it! Who cares what he thinks!"

When Katara finally walked into class, it was eight-thirty. She was soaked to the bone. She could feel nearly everyone's eyes on her, she just scowled and calmly made her way to her seat. She shot a heated glare at Pakku, just daring him to say something.

It was inevitable really. Not even the second coming could bring them out of their argument.

From all around the classroom, students looked at Katara like she was crazy for arguing with a teacher like that. Maybe she was. But there was one student a few rows behind her who looked at Katara with awe instead.

***

Walking out of the classroom, red in the face from arguing, Katara brought her phone out and called Sokka. She held it to her ear only to find out that Sokka had his phone off, as usual. Katara growled and left him a vaguely threatening voicemail.

If he was an engineer, surely Sokka could figure out how the on button worked...

Katara was pulled from her thoughts by a steaming latte. Her eyes followed  the arm up to the face it belonged to. A blushing Prince Zuko. The nickname was from when his sister forced him to do the musical production where he played a prince; for some reason, the nickname stuck.

"Uh, hello. Zuko here, I uh, saw that you looked pretty upset. So I got you a latte," Zuko's eyes widened, struck in realization, "I really hope you like lattes," he said in a rush.

Katara blinked. She was left speechless, which, believe her, did not happen often.

"Oh! Uh, thank you! I actually love lattes, so you're good. You really didn't need to do this though! Really, I get so riled up after each class of his. This is nothing new," she smiled at him.

"OK well, I have two coffees and can't drink both of them so..."

Katara laughed, "Well, can't say no to free stuff."

"Definently not," Zuko agreed. "What kind of college kid would you be?"

"Ugh, don't remind me. Every time I wake up for Pakku's stupid lecture, I wonder if I'm really cut out for this," Katara looked down at her latte.

"That's rough, buddy..."

"But then I remember that I can't let him win and I get in my car, ready for a fight." She clenched her unoccupied fist to punctuate her point.

"Spite, huh? Me too, my father would hate that I'm in criminology, but that's what fuels me to keep doing it," Zuko looked angry for a second.

"Your father...?" Katara could somewhat relate, as a war hero and amputee, he was what made her want to go into nursing.

"We don't really get along. Anyway, enjoy your latte, I gotta get to forensics." Zuko awkwardly waved her good bye.

Katara quickly realized that she needed to sign up for clinicals to get the times she wanted.

***

The next eight am lecture, Katara opted to sit beside Zuko. Her five page essay stapled and neatly tucked in her folder, she worked all week on it and was sure that it was just about perfect. Zuko on the other hand...

"You wrote it last night, didn't you?" Katara asked, though it was more a statement than a question.

She took in his disheveled hair, tired eyes, and rumpled papers. On his desk sat a Red Bull and an empty coffee tervis. He nodded at her.

"In other news, I will probably have a heart attack today," he said, as if saying the weather. "I haven't slept in two days, I have so much work to do. Caffiene is my blood right now."

Katara stared at him for a second, hoping he was joking, "Zuko, you need sleep, if you don't sleep for another day you'll start hallucinating."

"I'll sleep eventually, probably. But homework isn't the only reason I can't sleep."

Katara raised her eyebrow at him, and eyed the door. Pakku would be walking in any moment now.

"I couldn't sleep because I told myself that I was going to ask you out the other day but I chickened out last minute."

Face red for a completely different reason than usual, Katara opened her mouth to say something, or just gape. She wasn't sure. She was sure that if her mouth was open long enough words would start coming out on their own. Katara didn't speak fast enough, almost as soon as she processed what he said, Pakku walked in.

"Alright eveyone, pass your essays in. Stop gaping Katara, you knew it was coming."

Katara's mouth shut. If she said something now, everyone would hear it, she internally cursed Zuko for not saying something sooner. She looked at him from the corner of her eye, he looked completely complacent. As if he didn't realize the weight of his words.

She whispered to him, over the sound of shuffling papers, "We're going to talk about this later."

During the lecture, Katara could not focus. Something about the intricacies of the nervous system was not nearly as interesting as thinking about Zuko and his exhaustion enduced confession. Was it a confession, though? He just said that he had wanted to ask her out, it's not like he was claiming to have fallen in love with her...

Katara came back down to Earth when Pakku glared at her. If she didn't pay attention soon, he'll start calling her out. No matter that she had the highest grade in the class-

A small piece of scratch paper on her desk came to her attention.

'Dinner?' It said.

Katara smiled at it and wrote a response, and placed it back on his desk.

'It's a date!'

"Katara! Is my lecture so boring to you that you feel the need to entertain yourself like a middleschooler, passing notes?"

Surprising even herself, Katara said, "Sorry professor, but some of my classmates didn't understand what you were saying, seems like it's time for you to retire afterall. Your old age is clearly getting to you and your ability to teach."

"Why you....!" Pakku went red with anger, another shouting match was about to begin.

Say what you want about this class, but it certainly was interesting.

***

"How do you get away with fighting with old man Pakku all the time, anyway?" Zuko asked, looking dashing for the dinner.

"Oh, well he's technically my grandfather."

"Oh OK... Wait, what?!"

[cutsorcuddles]

snowfall; an oddlita fic

Hello everyone! As I’d mentioned before, I made a little challenge for myself in trying this thing called the 12 days of fanficmas, where I post a one shot every day leading up until Christmas. This is day one! I am going to be having surgery next week so I’ll try to queue some stuff up for when I’m not online, but I may end up not having something for every single day. Anyway, here’s day one!

Creepy as he felt, Odd found himself glued to the spot. He heard the quiet whir of the vending machines behind him, feeling the slight warmth on the back of his neck from the vents. Before him he watched the snow fall, like little white bugs dancing in the wind. It wasn’t a very romantic thought, but Odd had never been the best at romance. He was good at the game that middle and high schoolers liked to play, but that wasn’t too useful to him now.

His eyes were on the bench, just on the other side of the field, and the two people sitting on it. They faced away from Odd, unaware of his presence, both laughing at whatever joke she was making. For a brief moment, Aelita covered her face with her pink mittens. Jeremie put his arm around her. She leaned into him, and Odd’s gaze shifted to the snowflakes again. They rested on the ends of her hair like sugar on strawberries. Jeremie whispered something in Aelita’s ear, and she smiled at him. God, that smile.

Now Odd definitely felt like a creep, watching two of his best friends have a moment – whatever that moment was, he wasn’t sure. His hands shuffled nervously behind his back, fingers playing with the ribbon wrapped around the small box he was holding. He shouldn’t have even bought the present in the first place, but it wasn’t the gift that was the problem. It was the note he’d written to accompany it that was eating away at him inside.

She’d probably appreciate the earrings. They were small pink gems of some sort that she had pointed out to Yumi excitedly on the day that the girls dragged Odd to the mall with them; Jeremie was busy with homework and Ulrich had martial arts practice. It took all the self-control in the world to not spill the real reason why he had asked Yumi to drive him back to the mall the next weekend. Odd was pretty sure she’d picked up on the reason anyway, though.

For weeks the earrings sat in a small box under Odd’s bed. Ulrich never bothered to snoop around Odd’s side of the room, even when he went on one of his sprees where he would clean everything in the room and then leave it alone for a couple of months before it happened again. Ulrich had found one too many year-old half-eaten bags of chips or slobbery Kiwi toys in the years they lived together so now he left Odd’s bed alone.

It wasn’t that Odd didn’t want anyone to know, like it was some atrocious secret that could get him kicked out of the friend group; he just didn’t want to cause unnecessary drama. After all, Jeremie and Aelita were two of his best friends, and he made her so happy. Hell, Jeremie was the reason Aelita was even here in the first place. Odd didn’t want to cause any rifts. And of course, all of that sounded completely logical in his head, until she came into view. He wasn’t sure if it was something that had grown in the past three years since she stepped foot on this earth, or something that emerged when he’d realized they only had a year and a half of school left before they all went their separate ways.

But now, he couldn’t stop paying attention. The way her nose crinkled when she laughed, or stuck her tongue out ever so slightly when doing physics homework, or the intense look of concentration she got when it came to music. That was probably when he liked to be around her most. He loved when she laughed at his jokes or when they’d just sit outside of English class and make up stories about the random upperclassmen walking by. However, Aelita was the most, well, her, when she was with her music. She wouldn’t even remember Odd was in the room sometimes, mixing the same few seconds of a song, looking for the perfect combination of sound. Odd could watch her for hours. And he would, until she’d look up with an apologetic look and asked why he didn’t say something about the time passing. He’d respond that he didn’t notice it either. If he’d felt this way about any other girl (well, except maybe Yumi), this wouldn’t be an issue. But of course, it had to be her.

None of that had been stupid. He could avoid being impulsive in-person. What had been stupid was when he wrote down what he felt on a piece of paper the size of a post-it note. He hadn’t spilled his heart, of course. Odd had never been exactly good with words, even less so than romance. But still, he’d written that note, the pencil trembling, and then stuffed it into the box with the earrings before he could talk himself out of it.

 Aelita,

I have to say this because it’s literally eating me alive, but I think I like you. Ok no, I know I like you, but I know I shouldn’t. I’m not trying to do anything to sabotage your relationship. That’s the last thing I want. I just feel like you deserve to know.

Odd

 He had to ask Ulrich how to spell sabotage.

As if waking up from his thoughts by unexpected movement, Odd’s attention went back to the bench. He saw Jeremie lean in to whisper something in Aelita’s ear again. She nodded, and then the blonde stood up and stuffed his hands in his pockets as he walked away, hunched against the cold.

Odd took a step forward onto the snow, hands still behind his back. He squinted against the wind, and saw that Aelita hadn’t moved from her spot on the bench, and she still hadn’t seen him. He could walk away like nothing had happened, unwrap the present, take the note out, rewrap it, and make things far less complicated for both of them.

Instead, he found himself walking closer to the bench.

“Hey, Aelita,” he called from a couple of yards away.

Aelita turned around to face him, grinning. “Hey, Odd.”

Odd dropped one hand to his side, holding the other out to her. The small red box reflected sunlight in a way that made it seem like a gem itself. He hoped that, if she noticed his hands shaking, she’d think it was from the cold.

“Merry Christmas.”

[finerllines]

christmas at mum's

a/n: hi everyone this is my contribution to @watchmegetobsessed fanficmas so go check out all of dory's fics. the prompt i chose is 'tradition? we have literally never done that.' this is also a little check in with charlie and harry from the love, charlie universe. i hope you guys enjoy, happy holidays!! <3

summary: it's charlie and harry's first christmas together as a couple and charlie has no clue how to behave

wc: 1.7k+

tw: none

///

Charlie’s been in this position before, so there is no reason to feel so on edge and out of place. She’s been to Anne’s a thousand times, including during the holidays, and yet, her brain is on overdrive trying to sense any eyes on her, and then distract herself to forget that people are looking at her. A good number of guests are familiar, being part of Anne’s usual Christmas party crowd, herself included, but there’s something about this year’s party that feels different.

A hand reaches from behind her and tips her chin back. Then, she gets a kiss on her forehead.

“Hi lover, are you okay? Why d’you look so tense, huh?”

Right. That’s why.

This is the first time she and Harry have been around his family as a couple. In fact, apart from his band and colleagues, they haven’t really made their new relationship known to anyone, choosing to spend most of their time together in private. For her sake and Rory’s.

She turns back to face Harry. Her boyfriend. Her partner. Her lover.

“I’m okay, just … don’t really know how to act. It’s my first time being around your family since we, you know.”

Harry smirks. “Since we started swapping spit.”

Rolling her eyes, Charlie replies dryly, “Yeah, since we started doing that.”

“Well, mum and Gem already know, and I’ve already told them to not say anything to you or to anyone, because I know you’ll get all flustered and embarrassed. So, as long as you can keep your hands to yourself, we’ll just about survive tonight.”

She rolls her eyes again.

He rounds the sofa to sit next to Charlie. Her draw to him is undeniable and she instinctively leans into him. He reaches for her hand and brings it up to his mouth to kiss it softly.

“You wanna tell me what is really bothering you?” he whispers by the side of her ear.

“Nothing. Just don’t know how to behave.”

“Try again. I know that’s not it.”

She would be frustrated that he can see right through her if he hasn’t been doing this for years. Instead, she just feels embarrassed about what she’s about to admit.

“My parents aren’t here,” she mumbles.

Neither of them move at her admittance. Charlie feels Harry’s body tense and she mentally smacks herself for mentioning it, for punching all the festive cheer out of Harry’s body. They had come last year without her, making some excuse to account for her rare absence, while Charlie spent her first Christmas alone. Well, not alone, with her daughter. It’s not that Christmas is particularly special to her and her family - Christmas isn’t really celebrated in their culture – but the one Christmas-y tradition they had was going to Anne’s to have a traditional English Christmas dinner. They had never missed one. Until Rory came along. Then all of that happened.

Just as she goes to apologise for dampening the festive cheer, he beats her to the punch. “I’m sorry, it’s stupid of me to have forgotten.” His grip around her hand tightens and he starts moving his thumb back and forth on her wrist hoping to soothe her. “But now you get to make holiday traditions with your new family, with Rory.” Then, in a smaller voice, he adds, “And me.”

The lump in Charlie’s throat seems impossible to swallow, so she just nods. She can’t believe it. Harry, her gem of a partner, is disappointed in himself for not remembering something very sad that happened in her life – something that she chooses to never mention – and is still so hesitant to insert himself into her life.  

Peeking behind her again, she sees that Anne and her guests are all still enthralled by Rory, who is happily making funny faces to her audience of adults. Quickly, she tilts her head up to steal a kiss, pulling away before he has time to respond, hoping to communicate her gratitude without words.

“Hey,” Harry whines softly then connects their lips again. For longer this time, allowing him to slowly savour her taste. A hand on his chest gently pushing him back causes him to pull away. “What, you embarrassed of me?” he jokes. But Charlie isn’t looking at him. Instead, she’s looking back at everyone else to make sure they’re still preoccupied.

“I don’t know about your family, but in mine, we don’t even have prolonged eye contact with our significant others. You may be okay singing about your kinks in front of the world, but I will not be caught showing physical affection in front of your mum.”

The seriousness of her scolding makes him chuckle.

“You’re adorable.” Harry pinches Charlie’s chin, provoking her to try and nip at his fingers. They settle back against each other with matching faint smiles on their lips. His arm is thrown over shoulders, his thumb gently stroking her cheek in a comfortable rhythm. “If it’s worth anything, I’m happy you’re here, as my lover, and I’m happy that Rory is here, and we three get to spend the holidays together. It’s tradition.”

“Tradition?” She turns to face him. “We’ve literally never done that. Rory only just existed last year.”

“Traditions have to start somewhere and this one is starting here on,” he checks his watch, “6.48pm, 25 December 2022.”

“Hmm. I guess I’ll see you this time next year, lover.”

Harry’s teeth clamp down tightly on his lower lip to try to contain the beam that wants to blossom across his face. Next year. She didn’t even flinch. Her voice didn’t waver.

They get called to the dining table to get ready for dinner before he gets a chance to slip too deep into his domestic daydream.

-

The last time Charlie was in Harry’s bed was when she was sixteen. It was the night before Harry’s audition and he had texted her in a panic, begging her to sneak over to help him fall asleep. She had nibbled through the skin of her bottom lip on the journey over, nervous at the prospect of sharing a bed with a boy, something she hadn’t done since Harry started having crushes on other girls. But all her reservations flew out the window the moment she saw her best friend’s red nose and teary eyes. Without saying anything other than an initial greeting, she crawled into bed next to Harry and let him rest his head on her shoulder and hug her arm to his chest as he fell asleep. He fell asleep almost instantly. But she was wide awake the whole night, eyes glued to the ceiling, brain running a thousand miles an hour as it tried to work out why her heart was racing the way it was.

This time, Charlie’s mind is racing but for a completely different reason.

“Stop looking at the door,” Harry whispers in the dark, “it’s locked. And mum’s not going to try and peep.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t say sorry. Come closer to me and try and fall asleep. Santa’s not going to come unless you fall asleep.”

“You are so annoying. I hate you.”

Her hand feels for him under the duvet then shuffles over until her legs can tangle with his. Unsatisfied, Harry rolls over and wraps his arms around her body, completely covering her, tucking his head into the crook of her neck, letting the tip of his nose graze her soft skin.

His warm breath tickles her when he whispers. “Are you going to be this nervous every time we stay over at mum’s?”

“I told you, I don’t know how to behave around your family now. When Anne let me stay over as kids, she trusted that you and I wouldn’t do anything … inappropriate. And now –“

“- oh we’re going to do something inappropriate?” he jokingly interrupts. “If we are, we should probably go to the living room because Rory is right there.”

That earns his hair a firm tug.

“Stop making fun of me. It’s Christmas, you are supposed to be nice.”

“I’m sorry. You’re cute. Okay, we won’t stay over next year. You can be as inappropriate as you’d like in your own bed.”

She tugs his hair again.

“Don’t worry, okay. Mum is definitely already asleep and she definitely knows that we are sharing a bed.”

Running out of retorts, they lay together in silence, bodies melting into each other under the heavy duvet. Charlie feels his breathing slow to a steady pace, but her mind is still buzzing with thoughts.

“H? Are you awake?”

“Hmm.”

“What if …” she trails off, fingers now scratching Harry’s scalp. “Were you serious when you said we’d spend Christmas together every year?”

“Mmhm.”

“What if you can’t make it back for Christmas. What if you’ve got to do Christmas shows?”

His reply is immediate and confident. “I won’t do them. Or I’ll fly you guys to wherever I have to be.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“Yeah. That’ll be okay?” Harry props himself up onto his forearms to look his beloved in the eyes.

Under his attentive gaze, Charlie’s face grows hot. “Yeah. I’d like that. And I think Rory would like that too. She’s grown attached to you. Sometimes she’ll grab my phone and tap her little fist on the screen. I think that’s her way of asking for you.”

“Fuck. That’s the best thing I’ve heard all year.” He drops his head in glee, resting his forehead against her shoulder. “I’m away from her too much. Is it okay that I feel like that?”

“It is okay, more than okay. I know it’s been less than a year and I said we’d move slow, but it makes so much sense to me. When I think about Rory’s first day of school or her moving her to a big girl bed, I think about sharing those moments with you. Does that scare you?”

“No, I want it.”   

They find themselves wearing matching expressions again. All moony eyed and smiley.

Tired of just marveling at his beautiful face, Charlie slots her lips between his to kiss him soft and slow. “Merry Christmas, lover,” she whispers softly. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Harry leans down to press his nose against hers. “Merry Christmas. I can’t wait to make new traditions with the both of you, lover.”

[harrysfolklore]

putting the christmas tree with harry !!

this is my entry for @watchmegetobsessed’s fanficmas 2022 !! i hope you like it 💕

if you want exclusive blurbs and tropes SUBSCRIBE TO MY PATREON

ask me anything | masterlist | likes and reblogs are appreciated !

NAUGHTY LIST

The calendar marked that it was December the 19, and you and Harry still didn't have a single Christmas decoration up in your house.

To be fair, you just spent the past month travelling across South America for Harry's last shows of 2022, but now after a quick stop in Los Angeles, you were finally home in London.

So after complaining about how your house looked so sad and dragging Harry to the nearest store to buy some decorations and a tree, your plan of the evening that consisted on getting your house in the Christmas mood started.

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go." you and Harry sang along to Michael Bublé's voice that played on the speakers.

"Oh Christmas songs, I am your slave." Harry said as he passed you a couple of ornaments to hang on the tree.

"Did you just quote your tweet from 2014?" You turned around to look at him with a small smile, he was wearing a red jumper with brown corduroy pants and everything about him looked cuddly.

You loved being home with him.

"I don't know, maybe," he shrugged before continuing, "Mum called, wants to know if we're still coming this weekend."

"Of course we are, Christmas with the Styles for the second year, I wouldn't miss that for anything." you happily said, over the two years you and Harry have been together, his family had become your second one, they received you with open arms last Christmas and made you feel like one of them.

"Remember how nervous you were last year?" a smile made its way to Harry's face as he remembered last year's Christmas, since you and Harry started dating during his 2021 tour, you only had the chance to meet his mum and sister once when they visited him for one of his shows in LA, and Christmas was going to be your second meeting.

"Give me a break, okay? It was my second time meeting your mom and I was going to crash in her house for the holidays, of course I was going to be nervous." you told him as you hung more ornaments and decorations in your tree, it was almost done and you were very happy with the results.

"And they ended up loving you, baby, just like I told you," he moved to stand behind you, wrapping his arm around your shoulders, pressing a few kisses to the side of your face, making you lean into him "Tree looks good, we did a great job." he kissed the side of your face again, lingering his lips there for a minute.

"We? Harry I basically did all of that on my own while you sang Christmas songs the entire time." you playfully complained, turning around to face him and place your hands on his stomach, the material of his jumper soft in your hands.

"Heyyyy! That was mean!" he made his typical 'Heyyy' face, making you throw your head back as you laughed.

“I’m so happy to be spending the holidays with you again,” you ignored his complaints and decided to be soft for a minute. It was the perfect season for it, after all, “This year was just amazing, and I can't wait to see what next year has for us, if you'll still have me, of course."

"Baby! Of course I'll have you, I'm wrapped around your little finger and you know that," he kissed your nose sweetly, making you scrunch your face a little, "Besides, who's going to put up my tree next Christmas if you're not around? I'm going to turn into Scrooge!" you rolled your eyes with affection before speaking.

"So that's the only reason why we're dating? Because I put together amazing Christmas trees?" you decided to play along with him.

"That and your fantastic arse." he placed his hands in your bum making you squeal and laugh.

"Wish I could said that your arse is fantastic too but," he raised his brow, waiting for you to finish your sentence, "I was taught not to lie to others."

"Oh come on, my arse is spectacular and you know it," you laughed at his antics again, he could be such a man-child sometimes, "You're being so mean to me today, I might have to do something about it."

"Yeah? Like what?" it was your turn to raise your brow and tilt your head, waiting for his answer.

"I'm putting you on my naughty list." he grabbed you by the hips, making your chest collide with his, you instantly moved your hands to place them on his neck.

"You have a naughty list? Who else is there?" your eyes moved to his lips for a moment, dying to taste the red wine he had been drinking from them.

"Just you, actually." he smirked and finally kissed your lips, happiness filling both of you to be home for the holidays.

taglist: @cucciolafaerie @eleanordaisy @sunflowersndpeaches @golden-hoax @alienorknight @daydreamingofmatilda @sunflowervolume66 @vanteguccir @ivyproblems @ayeshathestyles @stylesmygucci @gimsaysay @rosaliedepp @dontworrysunflower @milfrrynation @manifestrry @iceebabies @harrystylesrecs @pleasingrryyy @harianaswhore @leadmetogarden @abeanontoast @grapejuice-rry @vrittivsanghavi @msolbesg @tati813 @sad1esgf @ivegotparticulartaste @eviesaurusrex @itsgabbysblog @theekyliepage @gumballavocadoharry @watermelonsugacry @be-with-me-so-happily @a-strange-familiar @reveriehs @musicforcinemas @harrybabyyyyyyy @tinydeskwriter @noooovaaaaa @tenaciousperfectionunknown @mxltifxnd0m @rach2602 @balletdancerry @b-reads-things @juiceboxrry @lomlolivia @itsgigikay

[finelinevogue]

Hey so about fanficmas-its basically where you write festive blurbs towards the end of November and December I guess and there are a list of prompts based on which you can write those I tried to put in the link but it wouldn't let me , so for more info search for watchmegetobsessed on Tumblr. She is the one who started this I think. Sorry for the long rant lmao 🤍

ohhh amazing! no you weren’t ranting at all! you were helping out a lost soul like me😭😭 thank you xxx

[winnipegpatty]

watchmegetobsessed is doing “fanficmas” and already has at least two cute christmas fics out 🙂🙂

OMG BLESS THANK YOU

@watchmegetobsessed (tagging so I can click and others can too haha)

[twostepstyless]

lovie don’t stress yourself out by overworking yourself! we’ll love whatever you write, whenever you write it. let yourself rest for an hour with a cuppa tea and a few biscuits, before going back to it! don’t give yourself burnout :(( xxxx

Ah my angel :( I needed this tonight, was so close to being on time, only a short 9 minutes late, it is what it is lmao! Thank you for this beautiful <3 I’m now off to read day 1 of your fanficmas! I’ve been saving it since it was posted to read after I got mine finished tonight, lots of love to you, precious xxx

[hrryfics]

the fic with the ugly sweater is by @watchmegetobsessed!!

thank you @harryedwardstyles27 and anon!!

hey! i was reading this just a few hours ago but my tumble refreshed… i suck at giving details but could you help me find it?

it was a childhood friends to lovers, and i remember them having ugly sweater competitions with their families. the girl’s parents were killed in a hit and run, her and harry are neighbors so anne basically took her in. last thing i remember was like a memory she had on walking in on harry’s first kiss against the trees (with a girl named like debby or something) then he tells her how he wished it was her blah blah blah when they are adults.

before that she had pickled him up at the airport for the holidays and pretended to be a fan asking for a picture.

watch that be a mix of two fics cause i can’t remember a thing lol i’m very sorry!

i think the part where the reader walks in harrys first kiss is in the my girl series by @heyyyharry ??? im not sure tho. but DOES ANYONE KNOW THIS???? cause i wanna read it too

[watchmegetobsessed]

❄️LIKE A FAMILY❄️

A/N: happy holidays cuties!! this is the first fic out of the three stories coming throughout christmas, i hope you'll enjoy them all!

WORD COUNT: 2k

PAIRING: older!Harry x single-mom!reader

SUMMARY: Harry never thought he would have a family to celebrate Christmas with, but now he has you and your daughter who he loves as his own and it seems like the little girl feels the same way about him.

MASTERLIST | SUPPORT ME!

This fic is part of ❄️ FANFICmas 2022 ❄️ Read more about fanficmas here!

Harry hasn’t been this excited and nervous about Christmas since he was a little boy, when he still believed in Santa. He is thirty-seven now, yet his eyes pop open at six in the morning as if an alarm went off.

On his left he sees that you’re still peacefully asleep, your hair is a mess and your lips are slightly parted as you’re softly snoring beside him. He never told you that you snore, it’s his little secret, he knows you’d get embarrassed and try to find a way to stop yourself from doing it, but he actually loves it.

He tries to relax and stay in bed a little longer, but he can’t stay put and he doesn’t want to wake you up, so he navigates his way out of the bedroom to make breakfast. He passes the giant Christmas tree, it’s the biggest he has ever gotten, but in the past few years he had no one to celebrate with and he didn’t want to waste on Christmas decoration just for himself. This year, however, he went all out so you and Tia would have the best first Christmas you spend living together. It’s a special occasion and Harry wanted it to be perfect and memorable.

If someone told him three years ago that he would have an enormous Christmas tree in his penthouse with dozens of gifts for a little girl underneath, he would have snorted out a laugh and called them crazy. Even maintaining a stable relationship felt like impossible a while ago, but a lot has changed.

He met you and your daughter, Tia.

He had his doubts about dating a single mom, but you had him wrapped around your finger even before your first date. He fell hard and fast and he changed his whole lifestyle to suit you and it was the best decision he has ever made. Now, two years later you’ve officially moved in just a month ago and you’re spending the holidays together.

Like a family.

Harry never saw himself as a father figure, he has come to terms with the possibility of never having kids a long time ago. Yet his life has turned upside down because of one three years old princess who is the true ruler of his luxurious home these days. There are dolls and toys everywhere, a pink towel and bathrobe in his spotless modern bathroom, a tiny, yellow raincoat with daisies on it hung up next to his Gucci coat and most of the times Barbie movies are played on his flat screen.

And he wouldn’t have it any other way.

He walks over to the fridge that has Tia’s schedule on it, Harry’s name put up next to her ballet classes, it’s been his duty to pick her up every Tuesday and Thursday, everyone in his office knows he leaves the building at four no matter what to be at the dance studio by four thirty.

He decides to make pancakes, Tia’s favorite. He grabs everything he needs from the fridge and the pantry before mixing them up and grabbing a pan. Stacking them on each other he sets the table for three, brews the coffee just how you like it and makes hot chocolate for the little girl.

“You’re up early.”

He hasn’t even noticed you were approaching him as he flips another pancake. You walk up to him and press a loving kiss between his shoulder blades before wrapping your arms around his waist from behind.

“Did I wake you up?” he asks.

“No. Bed was cold without you though,” you hum as you watch him put the pancake on top of the pile and pouring more of the mixture into the pan.

“Couldn’t sleep.”

“I hope you’re not nervous,” you chuckle, but you hit the nail on the head and his silence proves that to you. “H, she will love your gifts. All eleven of them,” you add smiling. He went a little overboard with toy shopping, but he wanted Tia to have the best time the first year she spends Christmas with him. He knows how big of a change it was for the two of you to move in with him and he wants to show you how happy he is that you took this step.

“Just want everything to be perfect,” he mumbles shyly, finishing up the last pancake.

Moments later he hears Tia’s door open and a pair of tiny feet are tapping on the granite floor as she runs down the hallway, appearing with her crazy bed hair and wearing her favorite Christmas jammies.

“Santa was here?” is the first thing she asks, dragging her giraffe plushie after her. “Santa was here!” she shrieks seeing all the gifts underneath the tree and Harry can’t help but smile to himself, thinking about how you and him placed all the neatly wrapped boxes out last night after she went to sleep.

“He was, but you need to eat breakfast first,” you remind her as you walk up to her and take scoop the little girl up into your arms.

“Oh, pancakes!” she grins happily when she sees what’s on the table.

“Yes, Harry made them for us,” you hum, kissing her cheek before making her sit in her usual seat. She’s still a bit too small for the table, but she insists on eating like you and Harry lately.

“Thank you!” she smiles at him and you don’t miss how his cheeks blush.

“You’re welcome, princess.” He places everything needed on the table before walking past behind Tia, pressing a kiss on top of her head and taking his seat.

Tia talks about the dream she had and Harry listens to her as if she was explaining the meaning of life to him. You help her with the syrup, but let her handle her food alone. She only gets one little spot on her jammies, though her chubby cheeks have syrup all over them.

“Can you clean her up a bit? I’ll clean the table,” you ask Harry and he nods before moving over to Tia with a napkin to wipe her face as much as he can.

He then takes her to the bathroom to wash her hands and the rest of her face while you load the dishwasher. You remember when you met him, Tia had just turned one and Harry was scared to even hold her hand. He said she was so small and fragile, he didn’t feel like he could take good care of her. Now he is the first one to pick her up whenever she demands to be carried, he loves wrestling with her on the couch, throwing her up into the air and of course he catches her every time with ease.

“Gifts! Gifts!” she chants as she rockets out of the bathroom, into the living room where the Christmas tree is, Harry following behind her.

The three of you settle by the tree on the soft carpet as Tia scans over all the boxes.

“Which is mine?” she asks.

“See, this is your name,” you point out one of the boxes that has her name written on it. “T-I-A, look for that.”

Tia sorts out all the boxes that belong to her and starts ripping the apart while Harry watches her reaction to all of them anxiously, relief washing over him every time he sees her face light up. Dolls, plushies, clothes and all kinds of toys, Tia got everything she put on her list and even more.

You open your gifts and you give Harry his, though it was a struggle to find something to give to a man who has everything he wants, but when he opens the box and sees the tickets to his favorite Broadway show his face lights up and he kisses you softly, mumbling his thank you against your lips.

“Mommy, can I?” Tia asks you when every gift has been unwrapped. Harry furrows his eyebrows in confusion while you know exactly what your daughter is asking you about.

“Yeah, I’ll grab it for you,” you smile, standing up from your spot and disappearing in Tia’s room for a moment before returning with an envelope.

“What’s that?” Harry asks as he watches you join him on the floor again.

“It’s a gift! I made it for you!” Tia announces in excitement as you hand her the envelope so she can give it to Harry, who is shocked to be receiving something from Tia.

“Oh… Thank you so much,” he says, taking the gift from her.

Tia starts jumping up and down giggling as Harry opens the envelope and pulls a drawing out. His lips part as he examines the masterpiece and he realizes what it is.

“It’s us!” Tia explains as she climbs to Harry’s lap so she can point at the figures. “This is mom, this is me and this is you!” she points at the stick figures in the middle. “We’re in the park!” she adds, which explains all the green scribbles around the stick figures, a big yellow splodge in the corner of the paper which he assumes is the Sun.

It’s an average kids drawing, he knows Tia loves drawing, but what completely takes his breath away are the wobbly words underneath the figures that she wrote probably with your help.

Mom, Me, Dad, the words read, the first D in dad is backwards and her M’s are giant compared to the other letters but it doesn’t matter, he is fixated on the last word.

“Y-You wrote these?” he asks, his eyes first moving to Tia and then to you. You sit with a warm smile, watching the two of them have this amazing moment.

“Yes! Mommy helped!”

“And… you know what they mean?” Harry asks carefully and Tia nods.

“Mom, Me and Dad,” she answers and Harry’s eyes start dwelling instantly as she wraps his arms around the little girl, hugging her to his chest tightly.

“So I’m Dad?” he asks when he lets go of Tia, but she remains sitting on his lap.

“Mhm,” she nods, playing with his necklace, probably not even realizing how major this moment is to Harry. “If you want,” she adds.

“I would love to be your dad, Tia,” he says with the most lovesick smile you’ve ever seen on his handsome face.

The three of you stay and play a little more with Tia before Harry gets up to put her drawing up to the fridge. He can’t help but stare at it grinning.

“She’s been so excited to give it to you,” you say as you walk up to him, linking your arm with his as the two of you look at the drawing.

“You’re not mad she called me dad?” he asks, worries popping up in his head suddenly.

“H, I cried when she asked me to help her write dad on the picture,” you admit with a chuckle. “I thought she would have to grow up without a father and now she has the absolute best dad I could ever wish for her. I could never be mad at that.”

His shoulders loosen up as he leans down and steals a short kiss.

“You think I’ll be a good dad?” he quietly asks.

“You are a good dad, Harry. You read her bedtime stories, watch all the Barbie movies with her, you ignore all work calls when you’re with her, she feels safe with you, she trusts you and she loves you. I can never thank you enough for being this amazing with her.”

“I love her too,” he softly says. “How could I not? She is… the most perfect little princess,” he adds with a little chuckle.

“She is your princess,” you grin before pushing yourself up on your tiptoes to kiss his lips. “And… I don’t want you to freak out, but… if you ever decide you want another pair of tiny feet running around here… I’m down for that.”

“You want another?” he asks, his eyebrows shooting up at your suggestion.

“With you, I would have a dozen more,” you chuckle. ”But one would be nice too. I think Tia would be a great big sister.”

“She would,” he nods, his hand wandering down to yours, rubbing his thumb over your naked ring finger. “Let’s get back to this when you have something here,” he says with a smirk and your heart skips a beat at his words.

“Okay,” you say breathless, pressing your lips to his again.

Thank you for reading, please like and reblog if you enjoyed and buy me a coffee if you want to support me!

[tbyfandoms]

❀ Masterlist ❀

Hi everyone! Here you'll find a complete list of all the imagines/fics/etc. that I've written. I've organized it in a way that I think makes it easy to find my works for different fandoms. I hope you find something you'll enjoy <3

Last Updated: 12/21/24

Total Works: 22

Currently Writing

Request Form

☆ Celebrities ☆

Shawn Mendes:

White Christmas - in preparation for christmas eve dinner with shawn’s family, y/n makes her famous christmas cookies. when shawn offers to help it leads to a mix of ingredients y/n wasn’t quite expecting and a night full of memories (watchmegetobsessed fanficmas 2021)

New Year’s Nightmare (CEO!Shawn) - new year's eve quickly takes a turn when y/n has a run in with a mystery man. after thinking she'll never see him again, one thing leads to another and suddenly she's trapped in an elevator with him during one of the biggest nights of the year

Luke Hemmings:

Here For You - when y/n notices luke drifting away from her, she decides to confront him on it. luke’s response leads to shock and a whole lot of heartache (goldensonlyangel 1k celebration)

Double Life (GangMember!Luke) - when y/n comes home early, she has a run in with her longterm boyfriend that leaves her questioning everything and wondering who exactly it is she’s in a relationship with (requested)

Timothée Chalamet:

Academy Attraction - it’s the oscar’s and once timothée and y/n spot each other on the red carpet, their attraction to each other is visibly undeniable, leading to a night full of awards in more ways than one

Austin Butler:

Gorgeous - after meeting austin at a party, y/n is left with a desirable impression and immediately writes a song about it. set to perform at the cannes elvis premiere after party, y/n takes the opportunity to let her true feelings be known. based off the song gorgeous by taylor swift

Invisible String - y/n and austin have known each other for years. each harbors feelings for the other yet they remain clueless to it until an accidental slip up from austin leads to a series of events that reveals just how destined for each other they've always been (requested)

In Sickness and in Health - when y/n wakes up sick in the middle of the night, austin does everything he can to make sure she feels better

Sweet Nothing - noticing y/n’s struggle to come up with a final song for her new album, austin offers his help which leads to a trip down memory lane and a whole lot of sweet nothing. based off the song sweet nothing by taylor swift (requested)

Flowers - after making a quick run to the store, austin comes home with a surprise for his favorite girl in the world (requested)

Birthday Blues - noticing her struggle with the loss and memory of her brother on his birthday, austin helps and comforts y/n with the celebration of his special day (requested)

Joe Burrow:

I Smell Snow - the first cincinnati snowfall of the season leads to a night full of magic and love

☆ Content Creators/In-Game Characters ☆

Dream:

Comfort (CC!Dream) - when dream is organizing the gifts from his subscribers, he becomes emotional and reflects on the past couple of weeks. y/n is there to comfort and assure him of his importance

Love Story (CC!Dream) - when taylor swift drops her rerecorded song ‘love story’, y/n and dream are excited and decide to stay up for the release. y/n thinks it’s just an ordinary night full of one of their favorite songs, yet dream has other plans in store for them

A Promise (SMP!Dream) - the smp is in shambles. tensions are high in the wake of tommy's death. y/n is still struggling with everything that happened with dream and wishes life could go back to what it used to be before everyone was hungry for power. y/n thinks of the promise dream made to them, and is oblivious to the fact dream intends on keeping it

☆ The Carrie Diaries ☆

Sebastian Kydd:

Alone - when delivering her annual thanksgiving tradition cookies, y/n discovers just how alone sebastian has been feeling, and she’s determined to help fix that

☆ Outer Banks ☆

JJ Maybank:

Nowhere Else to Go - during a storm, y/n discovers jj’s dealing with a lot more than he led on. in a mix of thunder and lighting, a whole lot of secrets and feelings are revealed

I’ve Got You - struggling with financial burdens, y/n starts to crumble under the pressure. jj notices the girl he loves is hard on her luck, so he does everything he can to help fix it (requested)

☆ Stranger Things ☆

Steve Harrington:

Dance With Me - while at a school dance, y/n struggles to enjoy herself. seeking comfort and solitude she wanders the school in hopes to clear her mind. what she doesn’t expect is to run into the guy who’s been occupying her thoughts, and to make a connection with him she’s only ever dreamed of

☆ Aliens in the Attic ☆

Jake Pearson:

Against All Odds - while on vacation with her best friends’ family, y/n gets a lot more than she bargained for when she encounters both love and…aliens!? (requested)

☆ Awake ☆

Clay Beresford:

•Heart to Heart - after crossing paths and connecting with new york’s most well known businessman, you end up in a whirlwind situation that’ll change your life forever

☆ Harry Potter Universe ☆

Dramione:

Rapunzel - stuck with the inability to meet with her boyfriend face to face on her own, hermione enlists the help of her best friend to get her there. meanwhile, stuck in a meeting of star-crossed lovers and nothing better to do, harry has a few quips for draco up his sleeve

[cutsorcuddles]

pumpkin’s first christmas; a lapidot fic

12 Days of Fanficmas ~ Day 2

“Lapis! You gotta come help me with the lights!”

Lapis Lazuli groaned from under her blanket. She’d known this drill before. Whenever Peridot got into something, she really got into it. Lapis had never heard of Christmas before, and to be completely honest, she didn’t really care all that much. She did enjoy watching Christmas movies with Peridot, who had gone and rented every single one she could find from the library with Steven’s library card, but the whole concept just seemed a bit… strange. An entire day dedicated to being nice to family members and giving gifts – shouldn’t you be nice to family every day? Family was at least a concept Lapis had grown accustomed to over her time on Earth. To her, family was Peridot, Pumpkin, and Steven. She didn’t really need anything else.

“Lapis, come on! These lights aren’t gonna hang themselves!”

The call came from downstairs. Lapis pushed the blanket off as she arose from the couch. She didn’t sleep very often, as gems didn’t need to, but she enjoyed the comfort of the heated blanket Steven had gifted to them once it started to snow. She made her way down from the loft to find Peridot standing on two chairs by the front door, straining to place a string of green lights on the wall. Pumpkin barked excitedly nearby.

Peridot turned, grinning. Lapis had to admit (internally, of course) that she looked kind of adorable in her red and white sweater, a Santa hat perched on the top of her head. “Lapis, great!” Peridot announced as she jumped down from the chair and reached the string of lights out to her. “I can’t get these hung up too well, but since you’re taller I was hoping you could get them.”

Lapis wasn’t entirely sure what just happened but now she had a string of electrical lights in her hand. “Um, alright,” she said and carefully stepped onto the chair. She held them up like she’d seen Peridot do. “Like this?”

“Yeah, yeah!” Peridot enthusiastically stated behind her. “Just hold that there and I’ll hand you the tape.”

“Alright,” Lapis responded, trying to keep the lights evenly in a line. They did look rather pretty. And even though she wasn’t sure if she could physically make herself as enthusiastic as Peridot was, she really did enjoy seeing the other gem happy.

This went on for a while, until Lapis and Peridot had collectively strung little green and red lights all around the barn. Pumpkin excitedly followed as they made their way around the room, barking all the while. Once the final light was strung, Peridot rushed over to the light switch and turned them all on. Pumpkin jumped around the room, barking first at the red lights and then at the green.

Once all was finished, Lapis stepped down from the chair and smiled, looking at the twinkling lights around the barn. “Would you like some hot chocolate?” she asked Peridot, who was still staring at the lights excitedly. “We still have that whole box that Steven brought us.”

“Ooh, yes!” Peridot clapped her hands together and grinned. “Extra peppermint in mine, please! It’s festive.”

Lapis smiled softly and headed back to the loft where the box was. “You can have all the peppermint. It’s a little too strong for me.”

When Lapis re-emerged with the hot chocolate, she saw the door half-open, but didn’t see Peridot or Pumpkin. “Peridot?” she called, and saw a green head pop in from the other side of the door.

“Lapis, come look at the moon!”

They’d done this before. Sometimes Lapis and Peridot would climb on to the roof and stare at the moon for hours. They didn’t so much focus on the stars; they didn’t want to think about which one was homeworld. But the moon was a safe medium. And as Peridot often said, it was quite beautiful.

Lapis made her way outside and saw Peridot sitting cross-legged on a bench outside, Pumpkin in her lap. Lapis handed her the cup of peppermint hot chocolate, keeping the caramel hot chocolate for herself. It was initially slightly too sweet for Lapis’s taste, but with a little salt it was perfect.

As they sipped their hot chocolate, Lapis and Peridot gazed out at the snow, admiring how the moon reflected off of it to give the area around the barn a bit of a magic glow. They didn’t say anything, and they didn’t have to, Lapis thought to herself. Just being here, having something, having a family, was more than either of them ever could have imagined.

“You know,” Peridot broke the silence, holding her mug close to her face. Lapis turned to her, but Peridot didn’t look her in the eyes. “I’m really glad I have you.”

Lapis was taken slightly off-guard, and quickly looked away from Peridot, staring into her mug of swirling hot chocolate. “I…” she said, trying to find the right words to express how she felt. Why didn’t words ever come out right when they needed to? “I am too.”

Peridot was the one to turn this time, eyes shining as she looked up at her. “Merry Christmas, Lapis.”

“Merry Christmas, Peri.”

[watchmegetobsessed]

aww so cute!! oh to be decorating with harry... thank you for participating in fanficmas!!

putting the christmas tree with harry !!

this is my entry for @watchmegetobsessed’s fanficmas 2022 !! i hope you like it 💕

if you want exclusive blurbs and tropes SUBSCRIBE TO MY PATREON

ask me anything | masterlist | likes and reblogs are appreciated !

The calendar marked that it was December the 19, and you and Harry still didn't have a single Christmas decoration up in your house.

To be fair, you just spent the past month travelling across South America for Harry's last shows of 2022, but now after a quick stop in Los Angeles, you were finally home in London.

So after complaining about how your house looked so sad and dragging Harry to the nearest Target store to buy some decorations and a tree, your plan of the evening that consisted on getting your house in the Christmas mood started.

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go." you and Harry sang along to Michael Bublé's voice that played on the speakers.

"Oh Christmas songs, I am your slave." Harry said as he passed you a couple of ornaments to hang on the tree.

"Did you just quote your tweet from 2014?" You turned around to look at him with a small smile, he was wearing a red jumper with brown corduroy pants and everything about him looked cuddly.

You loved being home with him.

"I don't know, maybe," he shrugged before continuing, "Mum called, wants to know if we're still coming this weekend."

"Of course we are, Christmas with the Styles for the second year, I wouldn't miss that for anything." you happily said, over the two years you and Harry have been together, his family had become your second one, they received you with open arms last Christmas and made you feel like one of them.

"Remember how nervous you were last year?" a smile made its way to Harry's face as he remembered last year's Christmas, since you and Harry started dating during his 2021 tour, you only had the chance to meet his mum and sister once when they visited him for one of his shows in LA, and Christmas was going to be your second meeting.

"Give me a break, okay? It was my second time meeting your mom and I was going to crash in her house for the holidays, of course I was going to be nervous." you told him as you hung more ornaments and decorations in your tree, it was almost done and you were very happy with the results.

"And they ended up loving you, baby, just like I told you," he moved to stand behind you, wrapping his arm around your shoulders, pressing a few kisses to the side of your face, making you lean into him "Tree looks good, we did a great job." he kissed the side of your face again, lingering his lips there for a minute.

"We? Harry I basically did all of that on my own while you sang Christmas songs the entire time." you playfully complained, turning around to face him and place your hands on his stomach, the material of his jumper soft in your hands.

"Heyyyy! That was mean!" he made his typical 'Heyyy' face, making you throw your head back as you laughed.

“I’m so happy to be spending the holidays with you again,” you ignored his complaints and decided to be soft for a minute. It was the perfect season for it, after all, “This year was just amazing, and I can't wait to see what next year has for us, if you'll still have me, of course."

"Baby! Of course I'll have you, I'm wrapped around your little finger and you know that," he kissed your nose sweetly, making you scrunch your face a little, "Besides, who's going to put up my tree next Christmas if you're not around? I'm going to turn into Scrooge!" you rolled your eyes with affection before speaking.

"So that's the only reason why we're dating? Because I put together amazing Christmas trees?" you decided to play along with him.

"That and your fantastic arse." he placed his hands in your bum making you squeal and laugh.

"Wish I could said that your arse is fantastic too but," he raised his brow, waiting for you to finish your sentence, "I was taught not to lie to others."

"Oh come on, my arse is spectacular and you know it," you laughed at his antics again, he could be such a man-child sometimes, "You're being so mean to me today, I might have to do something about it."

"Yeah? Like what?" it was your turn to raise your brow and tilt your head, waiting for his answer.

"I'm putting you on my naughty list." he grabbed you by the hips, making your chest collide with his, you instantly moved your hands to place them on his neck.

"You have a naughty list? Who else is there?" your eyes moved to his lips for a moment, dying to taste the red wine he had been drinking from them.

"Just you, actually." he smirked and finally kissed your lips, happiness filling both of you to be home for the holidays.

taglist: @cucciolafaerie @eleanordaisy @sunflowersndpeaches @golden-hoax @alienorknight @daydreamingofmatilda @sunflowervolume66 @vanteguccir @ivyproblems @ayeshathestyles @stylesmygucci @gimsaysay @rosaliedepp @dontworrysunflower @milfrrynation @manifestrry @iceebabies @harrystylesrecs @pleasingrryyy @harianaswhore @leadmetogarden @abeanontoast @grapejuice-rry @vrittivsanghavi @msolbesg @tati813 @sad1esgf @ivegotparticulartaste @eviesaurusrex @itsgabbysblog @theekyliepage @gumballavocadoharry @watermelonsugacry @be-with-me-so-happily @a-strange-familiar @reveriehs @musicforcinemas @harrybabyyyyyyy @tinydeskwriter @noooovaaaaa @tenaciousperfectionunknown @mxltifxnd0m @rach2602 @balletdancerry @b-reads-things @juiceboxrry @lomlolivia @itsgigikay

[finelinevogue]

Hey Ellie! Hope you're good<3 Btw I wanted to ask, are you gonna take part in fanficmas??? I would love to read more holiday fics if you are writing 💗💗💗

hiiiii! i’m doing good i’m about to go to sleep! how are youu??

let me know more info on fanficmas?!? how do i get involved and stuff cause it sounds fun!💖💖💖