A/N: Merry Christmas everyone! Or Happy Holidays! :) I've procrastinated and procrastinated on this story, and so I decided that I should finally post it, considering Christmas is coming to an end and it is a Christmas story (speaking of which, did anyone watch A Christmas Story all day today on AMC? No? Oh, well, I did). Anyway, I hope you enjoy this super fluffy Paily Christmas story, and enjoy the rest of your holiday!
Title: I've Been Dreaming of a White Christmas
Rating: K+
Pairing: Emily/Paige
Words: 1,917
The soft pitter patter on the hardwood floor barley echoes in the hallway as two sets of small toes come in contact with the ground, inching their way closer and closer to the set of long stairs.
"Do you think Santa came?" the small girl asked.
"He had to," the older boy replied in a hushed whisper, "he just had to! There isn't any way Santa skipped our house, Elly."
"Okay Finny," she nodded as they continued their voyage. Upon reaching the top step, the boy turned to his sister and gestured for them to be quiet by placing a finger on his lips. She nodded in approval and the two of them continued on, tip-toeing down the first few stairs before peering over the railing. Their eyes lit up with excitement as the abundance of presents stacked neatly under the Christmas tree shimmered underneath the twinkling lights.
"Hey came!" the boy shouted, a wide grin threatening to split his face in two.
"Hurry, let's go wake Mama and Mommy!" The two raced back up the stairs before barreling into their mothers' room, slipping across the slick ground in their slippers.
Emily's eyes snapped open upon the sudden intrusion, and the sudden added weight on the bed confirmed her suspicions. The excited squeals and giggles forcing her to sit upright, still underneath the covers, as her daughters' hands grasped her shoulders and shook her violently.
"Mama, mama! It's Christmas! It's Christmas!" Her daughter's bubbly attitude bringing a smile to her face. "Santa came, he really did!"
"Okay, Eloise, okay," Emily giggled, prying her daughters' hands from her shoulders and tossing away the covers. Her wife groaned, still lying in bed, pulling the covers over her face, despite the constant tugging on her legs from their son. "Finn, take your sister downstairs and sit on the sofa. I'll try and get mommy out of bed," the two children nodded and hastily made their escape from the room, "But don't touch anything until we get down there!" Emily called after them, but knowing it was already too late.
She returned her attention back to her wife, who was holding on to their thick comforter for dear life as Emily sat down on the edge of the bed next to her.
"Paige…" Emily lightly placed her hand on her wife's hip and shook it softly.
"I'm sleeping," came the sluggishly mumbled reply. Emily grinned and took hold of the top of the comforter, peeling it ever so slowly to reveal the annoyed look across Paige's face.
"Get up, it's Christmas, honey!"
"Can't Christmas wait for, I don't know, three more hours?" Paige begrudgingly sat up next to Emily, still clutching the blanket to her waist. She glanced at the alarm clock on the bedside table and groaned. "It's only eight o'clock!" Paige held her head in her hands and Emily rubbed comforting circles on the small of her back. "I was up until five thirty wrapping gifts, Em," her voice dropping down to just barely above a whisper.
"I know, I know," Emily tried consoling her. She leaned over and placed a lingering kiss on Paige's temple before standing, tugging Paige along with her. Paige stood up, mumbling something underneath her breath that Emily couldn't quite catch. "I'm sorry, what was that?"
"I hate you," she said more clearly.
"No, you don't."
"No, I don't," she sighed, pulling a heavy sweatshirt over her head before intertwining her finger's with Emily's and heading down the stairs.
Finn and Eloise sat on the sofa in the large living room, bouncing up and down with anticipation. Spotting his mothers' on the stairs, Finn hopped up and rushed over to the tree, sighing "Finally" with a shake of his head. Emily sat down on the loveseat perpendicular to the sofa on the other side of the room as Paige set up the video camera on the tripod. She turned it on and disappeared into the kitchen, setting a tea-pot of boiling water onto the stove to make hot chocolate. She returned to the living room, taking a seat next to her wife and opened up her arms to an embrace, which Emily happily snuggled into. They watched and smiled as their kids tore apart their presents, from new dresses and books for Eloise, to action figures and a new baseball glove for Finn. After about a half an hour of "oohs" and "aahs" and "oh my gods" and "holy craps", Emily removed herself from Paige's embrace to tend to the now-boiling water on the stove, removing four mugs from the cabinet and proceeding to make hot chocolate.
Walking back into the room with a tray of hot chocolate, her children and wife's attention easily being drawn to her as she set it down on the coffee table, and the three of them quickly reached for their own mugs and sipped hastily. She shook her head in amusement before taking her own mug and sitting down next to Paige once again. After a few moments of watching her kids cheerily sip on their drinks, she feels a small tap on her shoulder and turns her head around, only to come face to face with a small, wrapped box being held out to her.
"Paige, wha-"
"Merry Christmas, Emily," she cut her off with a small grin. Emily was reluctant at first, staring down at the box for a few moments.
"I feel awful. I left your gift in my office at the hospital. I had to hide it when you came in for a surprise visit the other day and I forgot to take it out and-"
"Emily," she cut her off again with a chuckle. "Sweetheart, it's okay. As long as I get to spend Christmas with you, I don't need any presents."
Emily's face threatened to split in two with her huge, cheesy grin. Paige could hear the small whisper of "Mommy is such a cheesy ball" and the softy giggles that followed. She craned her neck around her wife to stick her tongue out at Finn, who returned the gesture with a cheeky smile. She returned her attention to Emily, and placed the small gift in her hands. "Open it."
Emily slowly untied the silver string that was tied neatly into a bow at the top of the gift before hastily tearing away the paper, revealing a small, red velvet jewelry box. She stole another glance at Paige before cracking it open, her mouth falling agape and the necklace inside.
It was a beautiful silver necklace, with five charms hanging from it: two grown women and a small boy and girl, with a small emerald-green heart placed delicately between the two women, one child on either side of them. Emily's eyes welled with tears as she traced her thumb across the charms lightly. She looked into Paige's eyes, practically melting under her gaze.
"Paige… It's beautiful…" she managed to get out. Paige motioned for her to turn around, and Emily eagerly obliged. Paige pulled Emily's hair to the side, clasping the necklace together and placing a chaste kiss where metal met skin on the back on Emily's neck. Emily spun around and threw herself into Paige's arms, happy tears trailing down her cheek, and she didn't really care where they ended up as she nuzzled her face into the crook of Paige's neck.
"Merry Christmas, Emily McCullers."
"Pew pew, I got you Mom!" Finn called from across the room, and Paige dramatically dropped to her knees as the Nerf bullet hit her in the chest.
"Help, help! I've been shot!" she clutched her chest and began gasping for air. "I need a medic!"
Eloise rushed over to her faux-dying mother lying behind the sofa as Finn did a victory dance in the middle of the room; all the while Emily sat and was barely able to control her laughter at her wife and children's antics.
As Eloise began to pretend patch her mother's chest, something in the nearby window caught her eye. She immediately stood up, rushing over to the window. Curiosity got the best of Finn, and he quickly joined his sister at the window. Paige sat up and looked over at Emily with a confused expression on her face before also turning her attention to the window. Emily just shook her head in amusement at her family while sipping on her now second cup of hot chocolate when suddenly she heard the excited squeals coming from not only her children, but her wife as well. Finn and Eloise rushed up the stairs and Paige dashed over to Emily, pulling her into a crushing kiss. Before Emily could even register what was happening, Paige pulled away with an ear-to-ear grin plastered on her face.
"Snow, Em! It's snowing!" She cheered and ran up the stairs as well, leaving a stunned Emily alone in the living room. It was silent for a few minutes before her wife and children come barreling down the stairs, through the main hallway and out the front door, dressed head-to-toe in heavy winter gear as the falling snow danced all around them, quickening its pace before it looked like an all-out blizzard was going on outside her window. Not even fifteen minutes later, the ground was almost completely covered by snow. Emily's attention was drawn away from her family to the neighboring houses where children and parents filed out into their yards and began playing in the snow.
Emily's gaze was drawn quickly back to her as the shrill sound of something smacking against the window took her from her thoughts. A large amount of snow covered most of the window Emily was looking from, and just over the edge she could see Paige coming closer with a smirk on her lips. Emily watched as Paige stepped closer and brought a finger to the mass of snow on the window, writing out "want to go sledding?" Emily laughed and moved to the adjacent window, breathing on to it and writing out "absolutely". Paige motioned for Emily to open up the window, and Emily happily obliged.
"We'll be making snow angels until you come out. I'll grab the sleds from the shed, and we can walk to the park once you come outside," Paige said with a smile.
"Aye aye, captain," Emily saluted.
"Wait, Em, lift up the screen," Paige suggested. Confused, Emily slowly lifted the screen and Paige reached in to the window to grab ahold of Emily's face, kissing her tenderly on the lips. As they pulled away, Emily still had her eyes closed. Once she felt the sharp, cold sting of snow pelting her face, her eyes snapped open in a fury, narrowing in on her wife laughing hysterically on the ground.
"Paige! What the hell!"
Paige tried her hardest to control her laughter as she said, "I love you Emily!" She stood up quickly and Finn and Eloise joined her, forming snowballs and aiming them at Emily and the open window. "On three!" Paige shouted. Emily jolted forward in a panic and she heard her wife yelling three, slamming the window shut as snowballs pelted the glass from the outside. She locked eyes with a grinning Paige, trying to look angry, but the outcome was her smiling like a mad fool before cracking the window once again.
"I love you too!" she shouted and dashed up the stairs, quickly changing into her snow gear to join her wife and children out in the snow.