I know I should be working on Collision and Burning, but this idea popped into my head about a month ago and I couldn't stop thinking about it. I knew I had to write it. This essentially, first and foremost, a Zan fic, but there are some hints of Toneisha if you squint. I wanna thank ainsley25 for helping me choose the cover for this story.
"Dan." Zoe said, tugging on the boy's sleeve. "What's that?"
She pointed to the ceiling, where strings of sparkling decorations were connected to the ceiling, shining as the light hit it.
"That's tinsel." Dan replied, smiling down at her. He pushed his blonde hair out of his eyes – it was getting a little too long and it always seemed to be falling into his eyes. In other words, he needed a haircut. Dan bit back a smile, waiting for the question that he knew was coming.
"Dan." Zoe said again, her jade eyes sparkling with curiosity.
"Yeah?"
"What's the tinsel for?" Zoe asked.
"Christmas." Dan replied. Dan thought that that would be the end of it – surely even SKUL celebrated Christmas.
Zoe's brow creased and she glanced around, almost as if she were trying to remember something, but the memory was so long ago that she could no longer recall it.
"They did have Christmas at SKUL, didn't they, Zoe?" Aneisha asked from behind them. Zoe shook her head in confusion, glancing from Aneisha, to Tom and then back to Dan as they walked into the classroom. "What's Christmas?"
This surprised Dan, which was quite a feat. After working for MI9 for nearly a year, the blonde had learned to expect the unexpected, to be ready for anything. There were times when something slipped through and surprised him. This was one of those times.
Zoe slipped into her seat and Dan knelt down in front of her table, leaning on his arms as he started explaining to her about the traditions of Christmas.
"But what is Christmas? What started it?" Zoe asked, cutting him off as he started explaining about Christmas trees.
Dan smiled up at her. "I'll tell you what. We're putting up our Christmas tree tonight. Why don't you come over about six and I'll explain it all to you then?"
Zoe smiled and nodded as behind them, Tom and Aneisha grinned.
Before Zoe had even knocked on the door, it was thrown open, revealing Dan standing in the doorway, wearing jeans and a green t-shirt. He smiled at her in that way that had gotten most of the girls at St Heart's wrapped around his finger and he stepped aside, letting Zoe step past him. She smiled and moved into the corridor, looking around as Dan glanced up at the sky. Snow was falling from the sky in elegant snowflakes. He smiled and closed the door, turning to face Zoe. She wasn't paying attention to him whatsoever – she was focused on the photo frame in her hands. Dan, being as quiet as he possibly could, crept up behind her and peered over her shoulder. He saw that it was the family photo from two years ago – Bianca was in her last year of high school and Dan had been two weeks away from turning fourteen.
"Family photo?" Zoe asked, twisting to look at him. Dan glanced at her face and nodded, smiling as he took in the younger version of himself in the photo. He looked much more different from than he did now – his hair was longer than it had been then and he'd stopped eating so much junk. Macca's didn't help when you had to be able take off after enemy agents at a moment's notice.
"Yeah." Dan said, taking the photo from her and placing it back in its place on the cabinet against the wall. "Come on."
He led her through into the living room, where a fake pine tree was already set up. Zoe could see some of the plastic glittery stuff she'd asked Dan about at school placed in the tree, so that the plastic leaves held it up. A tall girl, who looked about twenty, with long black hair braided down her back, placed a plastic ball on one of the branches. She turned and her glittered like sapphires, the same way that Dan's did. Zoe recognised her as an older version of the girl in the photo.
"Is this your girlfriend, Daniel?" The girl asked, smirking.
Dan rolled his eyes. "Friend, Bianca. She's a friend."
"Riiight." Bianca said. "You bring a girl home the night we're setting up the Christmas tree and she's not your girlfriend? Dude, you are seriously –"
"Bianca." Dan muttered through his teeth, his eyes flashing dangerously. "Don't."
"Never mind." Bianca said, smiling sweetly. Dan glanced at Zoe, who was watching him and Bianca with an amused expression.
"Zoe, this is my sister, Bianca. Bianca, this is Zoe."
Bianca smiled at her. To her, Zoe looked like a ballet dancer. She was thinner than Bianca could ever hope to be. Her eyes looked everything over with barely contained curiosity, like a small child. There was nothing skimpy about her, as she was wearing jeans, boots and a blue t-shirt. This surprised Bianca. When she had imagined the first girl her brother would bring home, she had imagined a blonde girl who wore nothing but sky-high heels on her feet and short skirts and too much make up. The last thing Bianca had expected was a pretty redhead with a genuine smile and a decent sense of how to dress properly. Bianca decided that she'd underestimated her brother in his sense of girls. She'd thought that he was shallow, that he would pick his girls based on what they looked like. Looking at Zoe, she could see that that wasn't the case. Although Zoe was incredibly beautiful, the way that Dan kept looked over at her to see her expression told Bianca that what had drawn Dan to Zoe was her personality – the way she thought, the way she acted, the words she spoke. From the way Dan stood beside Zoe, as if he'd break the arm of anyone who dared try and hurt her, and from the way Zoe stood beside him, as if she'd throw herself off a cliff into the ocean if Dan was at the bottom waiting for her, Bianca could see how far in love with each other that they'd fallen. Bianca could see that it wasn't just a simple crush, just being infatuated with each other. She could see it in Zoe's eyes that there were a million other things that she'd rather do than hurt Dan. As for Dan, Bianca could see that he'd be there for Zoe, whenever she needed it. He'd be whatever she needed; her best friend, her lover, her anchor, her strength. Bianca had been fully prepared to give this girl the whole 'hurt my brother and I'll hurt you' talk. She hadn't anticipated for hurting Dan to be at the back of the girl's mind.
"Your friend's here, Daniel!" A black haired woman cried as she walked in, a blonde man trailing behind her. At first, Zoe could see any resemblance between Dan and the woman, but then she noticed the subtle similarities – the stubborn set of their jaws was the same. Dan, obviously, had inherited nearly all of his father's looks while Bianca had gotten their mother's.
"I'm Ebony." The woman said, reaching out her hand. Zoe shook her hand as Ebony gestured to the man behind her. "This is Kieran. We're –"
"My parents." Dan finished for her, linking his thumbs into the belt loops of his jeans.
"She's very pretty, Daniel." Ebony said, looking at Zoe with interest. Zoe flushed and ducked her head, muttering her thanks.
"Does she have a name?" Kieran asked. Ebony shot him a sharp look but Zoe just smiled. "I'm Zoe."
Dan smiled, remembering the last time he heard those words leave her mouth. Then, she'd sounded so happy to have a real name. Now she said it as if she'd had it forever.
The tree took a long time. Every time Zoe picked up a decoration she didn't recognise, she asked Dan what it was. And each time she did, he just smiled and told her. After witnessing this exchange several times, Bianca demanded to know why she didn't know what all these decorations were. By the time Dan had thought up an explanation, Zoe was already launching into a story of how her parents were Buddhists, so they didn't celebrate Christmas. All Dan had to do was listen without looking too shocked. It was a good lie – especially with the amount of time she had to come up with it and considering Zoe had no way of knowing that Christmas came from what Christians believed in. He didn't do too good at pretending that he already knew the story – when Zoe had finished Ebony said, "Are you okay, Dan? You look a little shocked."
"I didn't know her parents were Buddhists." Dan said lamely. It wasn't much of an explanation, but it was the best he could come up with. Even so, it seemed to be enough for the others, even if Bianca did glance at him a little suspiciously.
When the tree was done, a star on the top and small lights blinking brightly between its plastic leaves, Zoe and Dan escaped to Dan's room. Zoe had seen a side of Dan she wasn't used to seeing – she'd only seen it in flashes a handful of times, when he was down in HQ with her, Tom and Aneisha, but she'd seen it non-stop for nearly an hour. This Dan was more carefree, more open. He joked a lot more than she was used to and he didn't seem to care what people thought about what came out of his mouth. Zoe wondered if this was what he had been like before M. – that the cynical, untrusting and careful person that she knew was just the facet of him that he allowed to shine through, dimming down the happiness inside of him. Zoe felt fury building up inside her that scared her with its intensity at the prospect that MI9 was changing him.
Dan bit his bottom lip as he watched Zoe step inside his room, her eyes glancing around in that curious way that she had. He stepped inside after her as she moved towards his desk, her hands reaching for the photo sitting on top of it. She smiled as she saw the photo of her, Dan, Tom and Aneisha at Blade Con. It had been taken not long after they'd defeated Todd-Williams – Zoe could see the sparkle in adrenaline that lingered in Dan's eyes. Some of the green paint had rubbed off of Aneisha's face and Tom looked a little tired, but they were all smiling and happy. Zoe smiled and placed the photo back in its place, moving towards Dan's bookcase. Dan followed her slowly, his eyes cautious. Zoe seemed upset at something, but Dan couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was. It was hard to tell with her, because there were so many things that she had the right to be upset about.
He brushed his fingers across her arm and Zoe jumped, turning to look at him. Dan smiled gently at her. "You okay?"
"Yeah. It's just . . . all this." Zoe replied, gesturing around her.
"We can go back downstairs, if you want." Dan said.
Zoe shook her head. "No, it's good. It is. It's just – it looks so lived in."
"Lived in?" Dan asked.
"Yeah. Mine – it's got stuff in it, of course, but it doesn't show any history. It doesn't show any part of my childhood in the slightest."
She plucked a book from Dan's bookshelf, flipping it open. Dan saw that it was his old copy of The Jungle Book that he'd been given from his grandfather when he was six. Zoe sighed as she closed the book and placed it back on the shelf. "According to my room, I never had a childhood. It's like a teenage girl was dropped into the room out of nowhere." She smiled bitterly. "That actually isn't too far from what happened."
Dan sighed, reaching out and brushing his fingers across her arm. Zoe's eyes flickered to his face as he stepped closer to her, so that he was all she could see as he turned her arm over, his fingers tracing over the writing stamped into her arm. His touch was soft and his fingers felt warm, filling Zoe with a warmth she knew only he could provide. Dan's eyes flickered to Zoe's face as the door behind them opened and Bianca stuck her head in. "Come on, you two. Come get something to eat."
"We're coming." Dan said without looking at Bianca. Zoe slowly pulled her arm from Dan's hand and he let her skin slip from between his fingers. He didn't move as Zoe brushed past him and Zoe smiled, grabbing the front of his shirt and pulling him with her. He stumbled after her as she released him, pushing the sleeve of her shirt down so it covered the V.9.5.Z.O.E.6 that glittered on her arm. She supposed that if they saw it, she could tell Bianca and Kieran and Ebony that it was a tattoo, but how many sixteen-year-old girls had a tattoo? And most tattoos were there for a reason. What would she tell them that was there for? There was no way she was telling them what it really was.
Dan and Zoe both plastered smiles on their faces as they walked into the kitchen, as if they hadn't been discussing how Zoe had been robbed of her childhood when Bianca walked in. Bianca smirked knowingly as Dan slid into his seat beside Bianca and Zoe sat beside him, sitting in that with a straight back. Ebony smiled at Zoe with increasing interest. Teenagers these days had such poor posture, but this girl had perfect posture in the way she held herself.
"Hey, Mum?" Dan said, shoving a piece of pasta into his mouth. "Can Zoe come with us on Christmas Eve?"
Ebony smiled. "Of course she can, Daniel."
Zoe looked confused. "What's on Christmas Eve?"
Dan looked sideways at her. "Every year on Christmas Eve we go for a walk around town to look at Christmas lights. Do you want to come?"
Zoe smiled happily. "Sure! Sounds like fun."
Dan smiled at her. The prospect of doing something fun and enjoyable seemed to have cheered her up.
After dinner, Dan and Zoe went back up to Dan's room while Bianca stepped outside. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and went into her contacts, scrolling through until she found the one number she never thought she'd have to call. Dan's phone, about six months earlier, had glitched majorly, causing her to end up with copies of most of Dan's contacts. This included Tom Tupper. Bianca could never understand the friendship that Dan and Tom had. The two boys were so different that it wasn't even funny – Dan was the school heartthrob while Tom was the school's computer nerd. Bianca couldn't fathom what on earth the two boys had bonded over – Tom appeared to be obsessed with Blade Quest, which she knew Dan hated.
Sighing, Bianca pressed 'dial' on Tom's contact and held the phone up to her ear. It rang twice before an adolescent male voice asked, "Hello?"
"Thomas Tupper." Bianca said, smiling.
"Who is this?" Tom asked.
"Bianca Morgan."
"Bianca – you're Dan's sister. What do you want?"
Bianca rolled her eyes. "Do you want to get Dan and Zoe together?"
"Already figured it out, have you?" Tom asked. "Yes, I do. I'm sick of them trying to hide the fact that they like each other."
They're in deeper than that, Bianca thought, but she didn't say it. What the boy noticed and what he didn't was his own issue, not hers.
"On Christmas Eve, Zoe's going to come with us to look at Christmas lights." Bianca told him.
"How does that help?" Tom asked.
Bianca resisted the urge to scream. "My brother, as annoying as he can be, is a gentleman. He'll walk Zoe to the door when we drop her home. If you can get a mistletoe to hang from the doorway . . ." She trailed off.
"Bosh." Tom said. "But how do you know that they'd kiss? I mean, sure, it's mistletoe, but –"
"Dan will follow the tradition." Bianca said. "He's always loved Christmas."
Dan was about to knock on the door when it was thrown open, revealing Zoe, dressed in a white knit jumper, blue skinny jeans and black boots. Dan smiled at her and the light that shone above the front door made his eyes sparkle. He thought back to when she'd come over so he could teach her about Christmas - he'd opened the door before she even had a chance to knock. "Is that payback?"
"You bet it is." Zoe replied, smiling at him as she closed the door behind her and walked outside. She glanced down at herself and then looked up at Dan, almost uncertainly. "White's a Christmas colour, right?"
Dan smiled and nodded. Bianca, standing behind them, sighed. "Yes, you both look mighty fine. Can we go?"
Zoe flushed and nodded. Bianca grinned as she started walking down the street and Dan and Zoe walked side-by-side behind her.
"Where's your parents?" Zoe asked.
"Apparently, Mum's not feeling well and Dad's staying in to look after her." Dan said, shrugging.
In front of him and Zoe, Bianca grunted, barely looking up from her phone. "Sounds pretty suss to me."
Dan rolled his eyes and Zoe giggled, earning her a grin from Dan.
"Who are you texting, Bi-Bi?" Dan asked.
"Don't call me Bi-Bi!" Bianca snapped, shoving her phone into her pocket. Dan and Zoe collapsed into laughter as they turned the corner.
Aneisha and Tom grinned as they watched Dan, Zoe and Bianca turn the corner before bounding towards Zoe's front door, mistletoe clutched tightly in Aneisha's hands as Tom knocked on the front door. Zoe's foster mum, Amelia, opened the door. She noticed the mistletoe and smiled. "Let me guess – you want to hang mistletoe over the door so that when Dan drops Zoe home, they'll be under the mistletoe together."
"Yes." Aneisha answered, playing with the mistletoe nervously.
"About time someone did something with those two. I was ready to shove them into a room together."
Aneisha looked surprised at this comment. "You aren't worried about them getting . . . carried away?"
Amelia shook her head. "No, I'm not. Zoe's responsible and can make her own decisions and Dan respects Zoe. His parents raised him right – he's a perfect gentleman. Do you want a ladder?"
Tom nodded as Amelia walked off to go get the ladder. When she came back with it, Tom held the ladder while Aneisha climbed up, fastening the mistletoe above the door.
"Do you really think this will work?" Tom asked.
"Of course it will." Aneisha said. "Bianca said it would, didn't she?"
"Yeah, but . . . if Bianca told you that Dan was going to walk himself off a cliff tomorrow, would you believe it?"
Aneisha sighed as she finished with the mistletoe and climbed down. "It depends on the circumstance, Tom. But if she told me today that Dan was going to walk off a cliff tomorrow, I wouldn't believe her."
"You wouldn't? Why not?"
"Because I'm pretty sure that by the end of tonight, Dan's going to be walking on cloud nine." Aneisha said, smiling as she propped the ladder against the wall. Tom looked confused and Aneisha sighed. "He's going to be really happy, Tom."
"Oh." Was Tom's only reply as Aneisha returned the ladder to Amelia and then they took off towards the opposite end of the street that Dan and Zoe had disappeared into.
Dan wished he'd thought of bringing Zoe to see Christmas lights before. She had a look of wonder on her face and the lights that decorated the house in front of them illuminated her face, outlining the shape of her jaw. The lights made her eyes twinkle and when she laughed, it wasn't the slightly forced sound that it had been in the past couple of months – it was a genuinely happy sound that sent chills down the entire length of Dan's spine.
If her laugh has that effect on you, a voice whispered in the back of Dan's head, imagine what it would be like kissing her. . .
Almost immediately, an image lodged itself in Dan's brain, of him crushing his mouth against Zoe's. He had kissed girls before, so he knew what it would feel like, but he also knew that it would be different with Zoe. He knew that because he loved her, kissing her would change him in a way that all those other girls couldn't, because he hadn't loved them the way that he loved Zoe.
Zoe turned to look at Dan, her brow furrowing as she noticed his expression. She nudged him with her shoulder, which brought him back to reality, his blue eyes focusing on her as she asked him if he was okay.
"Yeah, fine. I'm fine." Dan said. Zoe smiled at him before turning back to the lights. Bianca, standing a few metres away from them, smirked. Even if Zoe had no idea what the boy had been thinking about, Bianca did.
"Dan." Zoe said. "What's with that reindeer?"
She pointed to a display on the front lawn – it showed Santa Claus in his sleigh, being pulled by reindeer. This wasn't what confused Zoe – Dan had explained to her about Santa Claus and his sleigh and his reindeer and his elves and his 'naughty and nice' list. What confused her was the fact that the reindeer at the front had a glowing red nose.
"Oh. I forgot to tell you about that." Dan said. "That's Rudolph. The story goes that out of all the reindeer, Rudolph was the one that was bullied and teased by all the others, until one Christmas Eve, it was so foggy that no one could see anything. So Santa hooked Rudolph up to the sleigh so that his nose could guide them and apparently he's led them every year since."
"Does he still get bullied?" Zoe asked.
Dan laughed. "It's just a story, Zo. But no, he doesn't get bullied. He saved Christmas."
Zoe smiled. "Well, that's good."
"You two ready to go home?" Bianca asked. "I'm tired."
"I swear, you could sleep for a week and still not get enough sleep, Bi-Bi." Dan said. "Yeah, okay. You go on ahead and I'll drop Zoe home."
Bianca shrugged and started walking back the way they'd come. Dan and Zoe followed, but slower, walking side-by-side in a comfortable silence.
"Why do you call her Bi-Bi?" Zoe asked.
"When I was really little, I couldn't say Bianca." Dan said. "So I called her Bi-Bi. Now I just call her that because it annoys her."
"Meanie." Zoe said, bumping her shoulder against his. Dan smiled down at her fondly and Zoe ducked her head to hide her burning cheeks. Now that she wasn't paying attention to him, Dan allowed himself to take in how she looked. She really was beautiful, but it was a natural beauty that shone from within. She wasn't like other girls, who piled on makeup to look pretty. Zoe seemed as if she didn't really notice that she was beautiful and didn't really care.
"What?" Zoe asked. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"You look nice, Zo."
"Thanks." Zoe mumbled, ducking her head again as her cheeks burned, even hotter than they had before.
Dan shrugged as they turned on to Zoe's street. When they reached Zoe's house, Dan walked her all the way to the front door until Zoe turned to face him. "Thank you, Dan. Tonight was fun."
Dan smiled at her. "No problem, Zo, you're – you've got to be kidding me."
"What?" Zoe asked, wondering what he was talking about as he dipped his head back. Zoe looked up and a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth as Dan pulled his head up so he was looking at her.
Dan stepped closer to Zoe and asked softly, "Do you remember what I told you about mistletoes?"
Zoe nodded, butterflies fluttering in her belly as Dan ducked his head and rested his hand on Zoe's hip. He watched her eyes before he closed his eyes and kissed her mouth gently. He felt Zoe's mouth press back against his, soft but surprisingly sure.
The following effect was as if there had been a barrier between them ever since they'd met and their kiss had caused that barrier to shatter. Dan, uncaring to whatever the consequences may be, pulled Zoe even closer to him as his mouth pressed harder against her's. Zoe gasped into his mouth, one of her hand's moving to rest on his chest while the other wrapped around Dan's neck, her fingers sliding into his blonde hair. She pushed up on her toes so that they were the same height, pressing her mouth more fiercely against Dan's. Now that she knew what she was supposed to do, she wasn't holding back. She'd been shying away from how she felt about him for too long and he'd been hiding how he felt about her for too long so that now everything that they felt towards each other collided in a tsunami that stole Zoe's breath and made Dan hold her tighter.
Eventually, the lack of oxygen became an issue. Zoe pulled away from Dan slightly and rested her head against his shoulder. Dan closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
"Zoe?"
"Hmm?" Zoe said.
"I love you." Dan said quietly, so quiet that he wasn't entirely sure that she heard him. But she did – she always heard him. She pulled away from Dan a little and looked him in the eye before she kissed him, her mouth pressing against his. Dan's mouth answered her, his fingers tangling in her hair and he kissed her back.
"I love you, Daniel." Zoe whispered when they broke apart again, her head once again resting on his shoulder. Dan smiled and kissed her hair, his fingers tracing invisible patterns on her back.
"I should probably get inside." Zoe said after a while of them just holding each other, relishing in each other's presence.
Dan let Zoe go, watching as she moved towards the door. She paused, with her hand on the knob and turned to face Dan. "Merry Christmas."
Dan smiled at her. "Merry Christmas, Zo."
Zoe smiled back at him, opening the door and moving inside. She leaned against the door, a smile on her face as she listened to Dan's retreating steps. When she couldn't hear him anymore, she traced the shape of her lips with one finger, just remembering what it was like to have Dan's mouth against hers. Somehow, she was sure that this was going to be the best Christmas she'd ever had, as well as her first, because she got him. She realised that she wouldn't care if her stocking was filled coal instead of candy and there was nothing under the tree, because she'd got Dan. And that was the best Christmas present that she could ever get.
I hope you liked it! Just thought you guys might like some cute Zan holiday fluff in the lead-up to Christmas. :) I hope you all have a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!