Because it's Christmas :D

Best time of the year? Christmas. Without a doubt, Christmas was Charlie Valdez's ultimate holiday. If it could really be Christmas every day, Charlie would explode with happiness. The second Halloween was out the way, he pulled out all the stops getting ready. No-one was going to stop him. Heck, they had to join him. Come Christmas Day, there was no escape...

"Really, Charlie?" Elsie grumbled.

"CHRISTMAS!"

"It's three o'clock in the morning, go back to bed!"

"CHRIST. MAS."

"CHARLIE!" Louisa yelled from the other room. "GET YA ELF BUTT BACK IN YA BED NOW!"

"NO!" Elsie made a grab for him. Charlie scampered from the room only to collide with his father. "Merry Christmas!" Leo yawned into his hand, holding his little double by the arm. Charlie grinned at him. Leo stared at him blearily eyed. It took a few seconds to register anything and even then he was disjointed and mumbling.

"You're wearing... elf..."

"I am an elf."

"It's early."

"It's Christmas. Hey, no falling asleep on Christmas. Once you're up, you're up." Leo blinked a couple of times and made minimal effort to wake himself up. Charlie smiled. "Come on, Dad. Santa might have come!"

"Elf butt." Leo managed, eyes shut. "Go back to bed, Rudolph, we'll present later." Louisa appeared, placing her hands firmly on her hips. She seemed more alert than her husband. She said nothing, staring her son down. Charlie stared back.

"Bed."

"Christmas."

"Bed."

"Christmas."

"Charlie, ya know we all love Christmas, but sleep is important too." Charlie pouted. "Give us a couple more hours 'n' we'll be with ya."

"That's ages though!"

"New rule. Every time ya try 'n' get us up, I'm takin' a present."

"I see the Christmas spirit missed you this year." Charlie muttered, arms folded across his chest. "I'll be back. At around six."

"Seven."

"Half past six." Louisa glowered. "Seven." She nodded once and he stomped back to his room. He glanced back to see his mother waking a sleeping-standing Leo, guiding him kindly back to bed. Leo stumbled a bit and she ended up half-carrying, half-dragging him. Charlie smiled slyly and closed his door. Right, he had just under four hours to get things sorted, the Big Finale. Going into his closet, he moved aside boxes of old toys and inventions, revealing a secret panel he himself had installed a few years back. He lifted the door, beaming at his metre-by-metre square hidey hole.

Charlie must have set the alarms all over the house for seven o'clock while they had resumed precious sleep. Louisa immediately snatched up the one beside her, marching across the room to flung open the window. She examined the shrieking clock in her hand, throwing it up once. Leo sat and watched, half-comatose, as she hurled the demon instrument out. It soared into the street, smashing against the road. A lorry drove over it seconds later and the din was silenced. Elsie had broken her clock too; Alokia was the only one with any sense to simply switch them off without a fuss. She fixed coffees for the four of them. Charlie was already wired on Christmas.

The living room had been blizted. The usual decorations were in place, but more had been added. It was like a fake snow storm had whipped through at some point, like walking into Santa's grotto only a thousand times more chaotic. Confetti snow had been blasted around, there were more trees, little trees, all decked in tinsel and lights and baubles and stars, and there were lights around the ceiling, tinsel around the dining chairs, Santa hats on the corner of the TV and photoframes, toy reindeers and snowmen and robins were placed in clumps around the room, a fire was roaring in the grate, Christmas puddings and other festive snacks laid out on the table in festive bowls and plates, designed to look like snowflakes and winter creatures.

"Lou." Leo said, caffiene not yet working in his system. "Lou, I think Christmas barfed in our home."

"Charlie!" Louisa called. Her youngest, still dressed in that ridiculous elf costume, popped up from behind a large stack of presents. His hat was slightly crooked, dusted in fake snow, he had chocolate smeared across his cheeks and fingers and bits of sticky tap, wrapping paper and ribbons were stuck to his front and arms. "What d'ya do?"

"Christmas!" He disappeared, emerging moments later with a badly wrapped box. He clambered towards them, bells jinglingly from the curly toes of his big elf slippers. He held it out to his parents, smiling, yet anxious. Leo downed about two-thirds of his coffee and set the mug aside.

"If this blows up in my face, there will be trouble, Christmas or not."

"It won't." Charlie promised. Leo took the box hesitantly, he and Louisa ripping the paper from it. They both froze. Charlie wrung his hands nervously. Elsie and Alokia were trying to peer at this gift, but their parents huddled together, hiding it from sight.

It was a photo album-meet-journal: a huge, leather bound book that weighed almost as much as Charlie did, the pages thick and numerous with photographs and writing. And it still wasn't complete. Charlie had left a third or more of it blank, for additions. More paper could be added. It was a visual timeline, from when Leo and Louisa first met, through all their trials and tribulations. Charlie had included a few of his conspicaries as to why no-one was invited to the wedding- The priest man turned into a dragon and sealed the deal with magic dragon fire and then the gods arrived and everyone had a massive party. Joe had helped Charlie with the spelling. And the grammar. And everything to do with words.

In fact, he had had a lot of help with this. Jacksons, Graces, Zhangs, Di Angelos, Smiths- they had all chipped in. Piper had been the most excited about this, hoping to glean more information about her favourite ship than she had ever had before.

Louisa sniffed, fingers trembling over a smaller photograph. Her lips moved soundlessly, a single word; Boys. Bradley, Stephen, Christopher and Alfie-Joe. Nico and Hazel helped Charlie with this one, letting him relay their conditions, how they were doing in Elysium, what they looked like, what they were like, how they got on, who they were with. Leo mouthed something to, smiling sadly at an old photo; Madre. "Turn the page." Charlie prompted gently. They did together. This page had messages from each of the sons. Louisa read what she could, biting her knuckles. Leo held the book in his arms, eyes fixed on the page. There was another message from his mother.

Elsie and Alokia stared at their little brother. He managed a small smile before they vanished from sight completely. Louisa had him in a hug, squeezing him, not wanting to let go. With his arms stuck, Charlie rested his head against her shoulder. "Merry Christmas, Mama."

This was meant to be a comedy sort of thing, but I thought I'd be nice instead. Just a little idea I had. The messages that were left in that book, I may go over or may go into more depth at a later date in The hot and the cold are both so intense.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Thank you for everything, love you all lots! :D