May all your Christmases be bright...

[awickedtime]

Raised in the Church of Night, Nick's never celebrated Christmas before, but it's important to Charlie and Rosie, so it's important to Sabrina, so it's important to Nick. He'd basically given Rosie and Charlie free rein to decorate the apartment, which is draped in lights and glitter, the tree shimmering merrily in the corner. It's not dissimilar to some of the festivals that he had celebrated in his life. The iconography is different, though.

They've carved out time to spend together, in the midsts of all the other meals, all the other obligations with the found families that they've made themselves. Nick had agonised over gifts for the girls, less so for Charlie, and they're neatly wrapped in paper and metallic ribbon. He's proud of how pretty they look, if he's honest.

Comments

[teenagerenegade]

"Here we are," echoes Charlie, curling his free arm around her shoulders, pulling her in for another kiss. "Everything's so different from this time last year, but..." He looks at Rosie and Nick standing together near the Christmas tree. "It's perfect, isn't it?"

[signed_sabrina]

"It really is," she agrees, curling up against him, trying to recall a time she's felt happier and more secure. "And then before too long we have another kind of anniversary indeed," she adds, with a quiet giggle and a waggle of her eyebrows. "Do we break into a room again?"

[teenagerenegade]

"Oh, man," says Charlie, a faint flush spreading across his cheekbones at the thought of it. "I don't...Kagura." He shrugs. "I guess I won't know I feel until we're up there, but...That'd be a pretty good way to distract me."

[signed_sabrina]

Sabrina lives to make him blush like that, whenever she can, and it's enough that she nearly turns and crawls into his lap, especially when she realizes just why he might be nervous about the party.

So then she does scoot until she's sideways on his lap, nose pressed against his cheek, whispering against the shell of his ear. "Just think of it as reclaiming the place. We can crush up some cookies, maybe, and I'll wear my finest black lace."

[teenagerenegade]

She gets into his lap and Charlie wraps his arms around her, shifting her weight in his lap until they're both comfortable. He smiles as she whispers.

"It's not the cookies I'm nervous about," he says, a little unconscious chill going through him as he remembers the summer. "But you in black lace? Definitely helpful."

[signed_sabrina]

"No, they just set the ambiance," she says, nearly boneless against him. "We don't have to, if you don't want. There's a lot of places we could go. I just want to spend the night with you."

She smiles. "...in black lace."

[teenagerenegade]

"We can see what's going on in the city," he says. "Or up at Kagura. I don't care as long as we're together." He presses a kiss against the side of her neck. "And you're in black lace."

[signed_sabrina]

"Start in the city, end up at Kagura?" Her head tips automatically at the press of his lips, basking in the attention. "Then we can all have breakfast in one of the rooms, assuming you haven't worn me completely out."

[teenagerenegade]

"That definitely sounds like a plan," says Charlie, kissing her neck again before he leans back. "We can book the rooms today - make sure they don't sell out."