Maybe It's Not So Bad After All [Narry AU]

Maybe It's Not So Bad After All

“Just this once, please?” Lou begged. “I have so many appointments due! You know how it is during Christmas, people wanting their hair done all the time for their dinners and get-togethers.”

Harry looked at the slight woman skeptically. They’d been neighbours for as long as Harry could remember, and usually Harry wouldn’t have any qualms with babysitting her four year-old daughter, Lux. But knowing Lou Teasdale, Harry could just sense that there was more to this babysitting than meets the eye.

He sighed heavily.

Lou straightened herself. “I’ll pay you.”

Harry perked a little. He was after all, a teenager, and which teenager would turn down money?

“And I’ll do your hair free of charge for your semi-formal.” The glint in Lou’s eye was almost enough to make Harry turn the offer down.

But as it appears, ‘almost enough’ isn’t quite enough.

“I’ll do it,” Harry found himself saying.

“Great!” An overly-triumphant grin erupted over Lou’s face, nearly breaking her doll-like features. “Lux had been really excited to go to Santa’s Village for the past month! You could take her there for me tomorrow!”

And that was the catch. Santa’s Village. God, everyone hated that place and somehow kids seemed to love it. Harry remembered how it would always smell terribly like a mix of candy and piss, and how the snow was always brown. The lines were neverending, and there was always an overflowing amount of children that streamed in. Santa’s Helpers were always bored looking teenagers with nothing better to do in the Christmas break and they had so much attitude, always saying the nastiest remarks to the little patrons. The fake reindeer weren’t even half-decent.  And the worst part was probably Santa himself. The huge man always reeked of beer and had terrible body odour.

Basically, Santa’s Village smelt bad, was crowded and messy and had a bad Santa.

It had been a while since he’d last went to Santa’s Village, but he doubted that things changed very much within the past couple of years.

“What? But it’s a Saturday tomorrow!” Harry whined. “The traffic’s gonna be such a pain! It takes an hour just to get there on a good day. Imagine how long the car ride’s gonna be?”

Lou eyed Harry decidedly before saying, “Well, you know how much Lux loves hanging out with you, and you know how she gets about Christmas. Lux loves car rides.”

And yeah, Harry did know how much Lux loved spending time with him, and it was a little hard to ignore how much she’s been waiting for Christmas to come. The child had been talking non-stop about reindeer and presents and snow since November. It’s only been her fourth Christmas, afterall.

And so here he is, driving his car on a lovely Saturday morning, with a bubbly four year-old strapped to the backseat of his car. They were on their way to Santa’s village and singing along to Christmas music on the radio, and Harry swears he’d never seen Lux any happier. The sound of honking cars and angry drivers cursing occasionally cut through Lux’s adorable singing, but it only spurred the little girl on to sing louder.