Jingle Bells

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year...

He wakes up slowly, still far too tired to open his eyes. But he's quite aware that his fiancée is still snuggled up next to him, and he welcomes it as a nice surprise.

Then he realizes that it's Christmas, and worry sets in. He sits up quickly.

"Nini? Are you okay?" He shakes her gently.

She whines tiredly and tries to pull him back down next to her.

"Hey, it's Christmas. What're you still doing asleep? Wasn't I supposed to wake up like three hours ago to obnoxiously loud Christmas music?"

"Consider this a Christmas present."

"Are you feeling okay?"

"Mhmm. You wanna go back to sleep?"

"It's ten."

"It's Christmas."

"I want hot chocolate."

"The one time you don't wanna sleep in."

"We did sleep in. C'mon, it's Christmas!"

"You don't like Christmas."

"But you do, baby."

He gets up and walks around to her side of the bed. Then, he picks her up bridal style and carries her down the stairs and into the kitchen. She yawns and stretches when he sets her down, and he smiles at her.

"Hey, in all the excitement yesterday, I never got to wish you a happy anniversary," he tells her.

She smiles a bit. "Pretty soon we're gonna have a new anniversary."

"Mhmm. And you won't be Mrs. Claus anymore."

"I'll always be Mrs. Claus."

"Alright, alright. Just make the hot chocolate while I make breakfast."

"And then presents?"

"And then presents."

She grins, and they start cooking.

After they eat, they take their mugs of hot chocolate to the coffee table and sit on the floor in front of the tree.

"Can I open my present first?" She asks him with a weird tone in her voice.

"Uh... yeah, sure. Are you sure everything's okay?" He asks while handing her his gift. "You always make me open mine first."

"I'm fine," she says. "I'm just... not ready for you to open yours quite yet."

She opens her gift and immediately smiles at the two plane tickets inside. "Mykonos?" Then she sees the note inside and opens it.

His eyes widen. "Oh, you don't need to read that-"

She grins and holds it out of his reach, reading the note. "'I was thinking that maybe getting away to an island where we would pretty much be completely alone would be a good way to see if we can handle a real future together. And I wanna see you in a bikini again.'" She looks at him, raising her eyebrows. "Really?"

"I got the tickets, wrote the note, and wrapped the present before I knew I was gonna propose!" He tells her. "But I was thinking about it..."

"And you want to see me in a bikini again." He smiles sheepishly. "That too."

She rolls her eyes.

"Alright, now where's this present you weren't ready to give me?"

She swallows, immediately looking nervous. "R-right."

She bites her lip and hands him a perfectly wrapped box. He takes it and frowns at her.

"Why do you look so nervous? You know I'll love anything you give me, right?"

"I-I know. This is just... different. I don't know how you'll react."

"Well, you don't need to worry. I already know it's gonna be perfect."

He unwraps the box and opens it, immediately smiling when he pulls out a reindeer onesie that matches hers, except a few sizes bigger. "You were worried because I complain about it when you wear it," he says.

"N-not exactly..."

"But you know I secretly love it."

She swallows. "There's- there's more."

He sets down the onesie and looks inside the box again. He looks up at Nini, who looks about ready to pass out as he pulls out the second item in the box.

It's another reindeer onesie that matches Nini's, except this one is quite a few sizes smaller.

"Uh... did you get the wrong size the first time or something?"

She shakes her head, chewing her lower lip nervously.

He looks at the onesie again, and then back at her. "This... isn't for me, is it?" He speaks slowly, carefully, because he's pretty sure he already knows what's going on and he's trying to process it all at once.

She shakes her head.

He stares at the ring onesie again, holding it in his lap. He runs his fingers over the soft fabric and smiles a bit. He doesn't even realize he's crying until a tear falls on the onesie and darkens a spot on the brown material.

He laughs a bit and runs a hand through his morning curls, tightening his grip on the onesie that just turned his life upside down. He meets Nini's nervous gaze.

"You're serious?" He asks her, his voice cracking with emotion.

She nods.

"How..." he clears his throat when his voice cracks again. "How long have you known?"

"About a month. That doctors appointment you booked me a couple weeks ago was confirmation." She struggles to speak, whether from nerves or emotion, he isn't sure.

"This is why you haven't been feeling well. And why everything seemed to go wrong last night."

"It's been like that for a while. You've just been so busy... you haven't noticed."

"N-Nins, I'm so sorry- "

"It's fine," she states quickly. "I'm not mad. I'm actually kind of glad because I wasn't ready to tell you until today."

"Why were you scared to tell me?"

"I guess I was worried you'd be upset. I mean, a child out of wedlock... that's gotta have some pretty serious consequences."

"You really think I care about the consequences?" He asks gently. She shrugs, and he shakes his head, smiling. "We're... we're having a baby, Nini."

She looks up and nods, a smile finally forming on her face. "We're having a baby!"

He laughs and hugs her tightly, burying his nose in her neck and closing his eyes.

"You've made it impossible for me to dislike Christmas now," he tells her.

She laughs, which makes him laugh, and he pulls away and kisses her.

"I love you so much," he tells her.

"I love you too. More than you'll ever know."
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Awe 🥰

P.s. can we talk about the holiday album?! If my future husband isn't josh then I don't want it. And also... Mark?! Like WHAT?!