OF GINGERBREAD AND MISTLETOE
Once upon a time, when Christmas 2012 was way in the future, I wrote my first piece of Maddison Christmas fluff, Of Angels and Red Berries. You don't need to have read that, you just need to know Mark and Addison are married, in New York, and Addison had twins Holly and Gabe in the last hours of Christmas Eve, 2012. I now take them into real time, it's Christmas 2015, and Holly and Gabe are turning 3.
I still don't own it, and there are literally NO spoilers. Enjoy!
The kitchen was a mess, there were gingerbread crumbs everywhere, and she thought she'd just seen Mark licking the spoon before putting it in the wash bowl, but at the sight of her children, she smiled and considered the day a success. Holly was leaning on her elbows at the kitchen counter, her eyes drifting shut, beside Gabe swinging his legs, humming along to the Christmas music. She would forever advise anyone who asked to try not to have children on Christmas Eve, but the twins had been a couple of weeks early, and although that first Christmas she'd spent in the hospital, albeit with Mark and her two newborn children by her side, she wouldn't have it any other way. She'd thought for so long that they were going to be an impossibility, she thought that she'd thrown away the only chance that she was ever going to get to have a child, with what felt like the shambles of a relationship born in an extra-marital affair, and the delusions she'd had at that time that she could save a long dead marriage.
But then years down the line, after she'd chased a long-ruined marriage to Seattle, finally accepted that the last eleven years of her life were over, bringing Mark trailing after her, run away again herself when the fear had taken over, and found herself back in New York, alone this time, Mark had turned up on her doorstep. With nothing but the clothes on his back, a confession of love and a promise to try, everything had seemed to fit. They'd gotten married before the following summer, and when Mark had agreed to start the IVF with her, she'd never expected anything to come of it, let alone twins. But a relatively easy conception had turned into a simple pregnancy, followed by two healthy, screaming babies, and now the just-turned-3 year olds sat at the messy kitchen counter, in various stages of falling asleep.
"Bed time, I think." She announced, causing Holly's eyes to fly open, as if to deny that she'd ever been sleeping. She shook her head at her daughter, chuckling. "You need to get a good night's sleep tonight. Santa won't come if you're not asleep, you realise."
Holly almost rolled her eyes in a way that was so unbelievably Mark Addison couldn't help a laugh. She took the hands of both her children, and pressed a kiss to her (equally exhausted looking) husband's cheek.
"I'll be on bath time duty." She smiled, "You clean this up."
He looked as if he was about to argue, but he instead pressed his lips against hers, however briefly, tasting suspiciously like the gingerbread mixing spoon as well. She'd deal with that later.
Half-dragging her two children across the room, she braced herself for the challenge that bath time was always seeming to be lately. But surprisingly, and probably because they were exhausted, walking in the snow in Central Park, helping Mommy build a snow man almost the height of Daddy, and making gingerbread cookies with Daddy, they were almost worryingly quiet in the tub, yawns never quite concealed.
It was a painless affair, in the end, and as she was towel drying Holly's short crop of strawberry blonde hair, she happened to notice Gabe already drifting off between the covers. She and Mark should try harder to wear their children out more often. Bedtime had never been this easy.
Mid yawn, Holly gave her a little smile, glancing at her sleeping brother.
"Could you tell me a story really quietly, Mommy?" she whispered. "So I can get to sleep?"
Addison nodded, pressing her lips to her little girl's forehead. "You get settled then, Holly."
Her daughter wriggled a few times, brought her purple blanket up in her right fist – 'snuggles' had been her favourite ever since she was a baby – and put her thumb in her mouth.
"Ready." She lisped.
"Once upon a time there was a lady dragon, who wanted more than anything to find a dragon prince to-"
"Mommy, you always tell the mommy dragon story!" came a little voice from across the room. Apparently her son hadn't been as asleep as she'd suspected. "Tell us a new one!"
She smiled, kissing her son on the cheek, ruffling his darker hair affectionately.
"Ok, a new one." She took a deep breath, "Did I ever tell you about the Christmas fairies?"
Holly shook her head, eyes widening, and Gabe rolled onto his side, as if to listen more closely.
"There was once a princess and a prince who couldn't find their castle. The princess had had a castle in one kingdom, and then the prince had moved in with her, but it wasn't their castle, so the princess moved to another kingdom, only for the prince to follow her. They never found a proper castle in that kingdom, so after a while the princess left that kingdom and came back to the original kingdom."
"Did the princess not love the prince?" Holly asked, looking somewhat horrified. "Why did she keep leaving the prince in other kingdoms?"
Addison smiled. "The princess did love the prince. I think… I'm not sure she realised she loved the prince, then, though. And she needed to find a castle. Princesses and Princes need to find their castles, whichever kingdom they're in."
Holly nodded. She seemed to think that was a good enough defence of the Princess' behaviour.
"One day, when she was back in the old kingdom, not in a castle yet, just staying in a little palace, the prince turned up. And he told the princess that he loved her very much, and he thought maybe they needed to build their own castle if they couldn't find one in any of the kingdoms-"
"There's only been two kingdoms." Her son was still awake, though Holly's eyelids seemed to be drooping.
"They were the only kingdoms in the area, Gabe. They had to find a castle in one of those two kingdoms, and it rained a lot in the second kingdom, that's why they came back to the first kingdom."
"I don't like rain."
She chuckled, letting her son press his lips against her fingers.
"So the prince and the princess, because they were in love, and because they needed to stop travelling around the different kingdoms, decided to build themselves a castle. And they did. It took a long time, and they worked really hard, but eventually they had built a whole castle. But one thing was missing. It was nearly Christmas, and they didn't have any Christmas decorations, but it was too late on Christmas Eve for them to make any decorations."
"Couldn't they have bought some decorations?"
She laughed again, shaking her head. "You can't buy decorations in these kingdoms, Gabe. They had to go to bed on Christmas Eve quite sad because they didn't have any decorations in their new castle. Now, they were due to be visited by some magical fairies in a couple of weeks, because that's what happens in these kingdoms, but in the fairy land, some Christmas fairies saw that they didn't have any decorations, saw that they'd worked really hard to build their castle, and decided they wanted to help. So they swapped with the other magical fairies and snuck down in the middle of Christmas Eve night and worked their magic."
Gabe's eyes were wide.
"When the prince and the princess woke up in the morning, there were beautiful Christmas decorations all over their new castle, making it finally a home. And there was so much love and laughter and happiness in the castle they'd built all by themselves, the Christmas fairies decided to stay."
"Forever?" Holly lisped, in her semi-asleep state.
"Forever." Addison smiled, pressing her lips to both her children's foreheads again, and pulling the covers around them. "Sleep tight, little ones. Santa's coming tonight."
She was sure they were both asleep before she left the room.
When she came down into the kitchen, it was spotless, and Mark was sat on the corner of the breakfast bar.
"You took a long time… was bath time a struggle?"
"Surprisingly, no. I had to come up with a new story, apparently they're getting wise to the mommy dragon story!"
Mark laughed, Addison standing between his legs, pressing his lips against hers. "What did you tell them this time?"
She cocked her head on one side, and cupped his face with one hand. "I… I told them our story. After a fashion. With princes and princesses and castles and fairies, but our story."
This time, when Mark leant in to kiss her, he raised his eyes to the ceiling.
"Look up."
She glanced up, and gave him a thankful, tired but loving smile. "Mistletoe." She breathed, as she pressed her mouth against his, slightly fierier than the last, tongues dancing. Mark's hands started to travel down from around her neck and she pulled back.
"Oh, and there were Christmas miracles." She breathed, face close to his. "Two Christmas fairies, actually, that made a prince and princess' castle a home on Christmas Eve night…"
He couldn't help the smile on his face, and he leant his forehead against hers. She slung her arms around his neck, pressing her lips lightly to the corner of his mouth.
"Merry Christmas, Red." He breathed, and she felt a slight tingle somewhere inside her at the nickname that didn't seem to surface anywhere much other than between the sheets these days.
She brought her lips to his, again slightly more fiercely, biting his lower lip slightly.
"Merry Christmas, Mark." She whispered breathily against his mouth. "You know, I think they're both fast asleep."
He raised an eyebrow. "Oh really?"
"If you're interested in a slightly early Christmas present, a reward for cleaning up all your mess in the kitchen…"
He didn't need asking twice, he never did. He slipped straight off the breakfast bar stool and let her take him by the hand, leading him upstairs.
That's a wrap! Hope it's sickeningly fluffy enough for all of you. Would love to hear what you think – think of a review as a little Christmas gift!