*(Is this all we see?)*

~*Chapter 25*~

Midnight woke up fairly early, or early enough that the sun was hardly out, to Dawn being in his room. Shaking his shoulders to wake him up. Midnight zipped to pull his blanket to his chest. "Excuse me!?" He yelled. "I'm only wearing boxers can you get out?" He asked annoyed.

"Yeah well I've seen you naked before."

"As babies!" He pulled the blanket farther up, burying his arms. "You don't even remember that!"

"Okay whatever. Now we need to get up! It's Christmas!"

He remembered just then. Of course. How could he forget? It was Christmas. He felt stupid. 'I forget everything.'

Midnight sat up when his sister stood up and walked towards the door. "Get dressed. And I'll meet you downstairs."

"Is mom even awake yet?" He asked, rubbing his eye. He tried to look at his sister in the dim light by squinting his eyes. She closed the door and walked out. It was quiet. When he knew she was gone, Midnight got up to walk to his closet. He shifted through the sweaters and grabbed a seemingly light red one in the blank darkness.

Midnight picked out a pair of dark blue shorts. Getting himself almost presentable, he closed the closet door behind him.

When he walked out of his room the hallway lights were off. With the only light being the string lights hung up across to reach the wall corners and wrap around. The entire hallway was quiet. He almost thought there was an assassin raid. 'There has not been one of those in a while.'

Midnight followed down the stairs, finding his sister by the tree. He sat down next to her. She looked at his arms, as if she was looking through the fabric of his sleeves. "Don't." He warned.

"I wasn't going to Mid." She slapped his upper arm. "Chill out and stop being paranoid." Dawn stood back up and walked to the kitchen. She drifted her hands towards the plate on the counter. After pealing the tin foil off she grabbed a cookie from the small pile. (which they made shortly after they got done wrapping presents.)

Midnight stayed seated. "You should have one." Dawn held one out in front of her brother.

He tilted back to get away from her hand. "I will later."

"Fine sore loser." Loser. The word seemed do familiar in his head. From Levi. From Kevin. From the rest of the group. Even if it was Dawn who said it just then, the word still reminded him of those boys. Especially when he didn't want to think about them.

"You're confused." Dawn suddenly blurted out. She could feel his emotions. He thought she couldn't do that yet. Or, to him. His as was Ian magic didn't block it?

"No I'm not." He frowned confusingly.

"And its about Nick isn't it?"

"No." He pulled his sleeves over his hands and started chewing at the fabric. Nervous. She would tell just by looking at him. And he knew that.
"Come on Midnight." She sat back down, putting a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay to like Nic-"

"Hey Mid, Dawn." Fawns voice erupted in their conversation. Lilly was behind her. "Hey moms." Dawn said, her tone sounding like she was trying to hide something. "Is Leah awake?"

"Yeah." Lilly answered, she stepped down the rest of the way down the stairs. She walked up to Dawn, Fawn followed. "She's coming downstairs in a few minutes."

"Yeah yeah I'm here." Leah was behind them with a sudden puff of light grey sparkles. A yawn exiting her mouth. "Lets unwrap presents."

The entire group gathered around the tree. With Midnight close to the middle, Dawn beside him, Fawn on the other side and Lilly and Leah on the couch. Fawn stood up to grab the first present. She observed it for a moment before handing it to Midnight. It was blue with white stars. The box was medium, and light.

He fumbled with the box before slipping his fingers under a gap in the paper. He ripped the first part, then the second. He took the entire paper off the box. It was a sweater set. With three different colored sweaters with custom decals of a half moon and many stars surrounding it. He looked up. "I got that for you." Lilly spoke up. "I thought since you love wearing sweaters and your name is Midnight I would get something like that." She chuckled lightly. "And I didn't want to get one so--"

Midnight smiled. He didn't want to be rude to her then. She was being nice. Even if she was trying to seep her way into his forgiveness. "Thanks." He simply replied.

Dawn was the next to get her present. A small box, almost enough to fit jewelry. She started unwrapping the paper and stared at the box. Her fingers placed at the cover. "What is it?" Midnight asked.

When she opened it, Midnight saw a gold necklace with her name printed fancily on it. The N had a baby pink gem at the end.

Midnight looked over at her face. "It's beautiful." She smiled as she took it out of the packaging. "Who got it?"

"I did." Leah raised her hand slightly. "I thought it would be nice. Plus it was the only Dawn related thing there. I could have made something but I thought this was nice." Leah shrugged before taking a sip of water. "So you're welcome."

~~~~

After Dawns present it was Fawn, who got a new ring from Lilly. He assumed to replace their previous engagement ring. Maybe to be something new. He didn't know. Lilly got a new leather jacket from Leah, a pink one. And Leah obviously, got Midnight's present.

That was the order of the gifts until they finally got through all of them.

Midnight was happy with what he got. After the sweater set he got a new art easel from his mother, a sketchbook set from Dawn (which he greatly appreciated since the ones he had were almost full), and a dark blue wool blanket to put on his bed. As well as other things.

When all the presents were set aside they all sat down for the 'traditional movie'. Which, was their way of watching all of the cheesy Hallmark Christmas specials to pass the time.

Or to just see if Fawn would cry. She always did at the love stories.

They watched at least two. Until Midnights focus averted from the TV and to Nick. He wondered what he had been doing the day. With his parents. Happy. Not having this looming rain cloud over his head.

He wondered if he was happy. Or maybe unhappy too. Midnight wasn't sure.

But he hoped he was happy. Really happy.

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Thanks for reading! It's a bit late but my schedule is so f-ed up at this point. Hope you enjoyed it! Tutor will be back in very soon, the next chapter is close to completion!

~Liz <3