Who Would I Be Without You? //Ben Cook fanfic// *FINISHED*

Four: Home For Christmas

A/N: So, I'm not an expert on the Cook family, so a lot of the stuff I do put into this story is from my own head, seeing as I'm pretty sure Ben doesn't have a sister called Olivia, this is purely my own imagination at work and anything that does relate to Ben and his actual personal and family life is coincidental! Thank you and enjoy reading :)

Disclaimer: if you ever find yourself in my house in winter, the attic is the warmest place to go.

I find myself up there a lot, especially when I was either in trouble, or sad, which was happening a lot more lately. Christmas has become my least favourite time of year, seeing as it's usually only me, mom and dad in the house nowadays and the family that comes and visits us, I don't know extremely well and I'm forced to socialise with them at least I'm leaving for college soon, I can have an excuse for not always coming home;

"Sorry, so much work to catch up on!"

"Flights were cancelled due to heavy snow." 

"I promised I'd go on this trip with my friend this year, I hope that's okay."

for now, I guess they're stuck with me, much to their dismay. I know they can't wait to be done with my high school bullshit.

I don't think they ever had to deal  with this sort of crap when my other siblings were my age (and if it wasn't clearly established yet, my siblings are good as gold in mom and dad's book) but maybe that's because most of them had moved out by that point and done a lot for themselves, college, jobs...other things.

Anyway, I was up in the attic in the late afternoon, rummaging through the boxes to find the rest of the Christmas decorations dad had forgot to put up, and because dad had the lousiest organisation skills, they were all in different boxes spread across the attic, so I found the star for the top of the Christmas tree in one box, the mistletoe and door wreath in another and lastly, I found a whole box of snow globes.

I paused, reaching in and pulling out one of the bubble wrapped globes and unveiling it gently to reveal a scene from the movie Singin' In The Rain, with Gene Kelly on the lamppost, I smiled gently, taking some of the others out of the box, many of them showing scenes from musicals, but most of them were christmas themed:

two children building a snowman, Rudolph being fed a carrot by an elf on a ladder, a father reading a story to his children by a crackling fire. But the one that caught my attention was at the very bottom of the box, I pulled it out and un wrapped it carefully.

This one was an intricately designed scene of a small log cabin, covered in snow and fairy lights, two small fir trees, also covered in snow, stood wither side of the cabin.

I turned the globe carefully in my hands, finding a switch and a key beneath it, I flipped the switch, a faint light flickering inside the globe, shining through the windows of the cabin and through the twinkling fairy lights. I turn the key and the song "Have Yourself Merry Little Christmas" starts playing, I let out a choked laugh and smile with tears in my eyes as I remember the Christmas I was given this.

It was around 5 years ago, we were at a log cabin, just like the one in the snow globe and we had so much fun cooking Christmas dinner together, making up stories by the fire, having a huge snowball fight, chopping down our own christmas tree and exploring the woods, looking for Santa's grotto (dad decided to tell 13 year old me that we were close to the north pole and Santa was hiding in the woods) I'm pretty sure that was the year I thought I was too old for that stuff, then I got that snow globe from Ben.

I went through many phases of collecting things, snow globes was when I was 11 and I kept it up until I was 15. I sigh, wrapping them back up and putting them all back in the box and picked it up, carrying it back down stairs with everything else I had found.

When I got downstairs, dad was busy chopping onions and mom was in the living room, putting the last finishing touches to the tree. I placed the box down next to the tree, taking the star and door wreath out and handing the star to mom, "we really need to talk to dad about his organising skills in that attic." I grumble, walking to the door.

Mom chuckles, putting the star on top of the tree, "you can try sweetie, but it'll probably go over his head." I roll my eyes at her comment and step outside, seeing dad had already put the nail in for me.

I put the wreath on the nail, adjusting it so it'd fit just right.

After it was hung, I stepped back and grinned at my handy work.

Just as I was about to go back inside, I heard footsteps creep up behind me and I freeze, turning slowly to see a tall figure wearing a creepy clown mask with the hood up on it's jacket, I screamed and fell back out of shock, backing up into the door, the growling continued, but it turned into a slow rising chuckle.

I furrowed my brow, my heart racing as the figure took off the mask to reveal my idiot of a big brother, Ben.

I relaxed slightly, my annoyance clear on my face as I scowled at him and he continued laughing, "you are too easy sis!" he says, holding out his hand to me. I take it begrudgingly. Once I'm up, I shove him, which only causes him to laugh more. 

"That is not funny you ass!" I snap, not able to hid the slight smile on my face.

Ben sighs, his laughter subsiding, "I can't believe you're still afraid of clowns." he says, looking down at the mask in his hands, I fold my arms and pout.

"That's your fault for making her watch that Krampus movie!" A voice says from behind Ben.

I look over Ben's shoulder to see Emma walking up the path from a cab, rolling her suitcase behind her, I smile widely and run over to her, enveloping her in the biggest hug.

"Nice to see you too!" she laughs, her voice strained from me hugging her so tightly as she hugged back. I hear coughing from behind me and I pull away from the hug to see Ben with his arms folded, "excuse me, don't I get a hug?"

I roll my eyes at him, "I don't think you deserve one after that!"

he pouts at me and I can't help but laugh, walking over and enveloping him in his own tight and warm hug.

"Well, this was certainly entertaining my dear siblings," Emma says, smirking, "but if I am mistaken, I can smell cinnamon and caramel, so shall we?" 

me and Ben exchange a look before rolling our eyes and turning back to the house and walking through the door.

A/N: Yet another chapter I enjoyed writing! Hope you did too, please send feedback and vote if you liked, thanks for stopping bye and see you soon :)