Christmas fic prompt courtesy of my wonderful girlfriend: All she's known all of her adult life is what christmas means to Runway, what Christmas means to fashion. Andrea shows her that it can mean something for her too.

AU where everything is the same except for the fact that Miranda never had the girls and never married anyone therefore had no one in her life to show her how great christmas could be.

I seem to be on a bit of a roll at the moment fic wise so I hope you guys are still enjoying reading what I have to offer

Miranda Priestly had never had what anyone would describe as a happy christmas. Growing up in a poor family in England, where affording food on a regular day was difficult enough, Christmas was only ever marked by a decrease in temperature, an increased likelihood of snow and, if their father had had a particularly good few weeks, new toy to be shared between the three of them.

When she walked away from all that to strike out on her own all Christmas had meant was a day where she could couldn't make any money. While all of the other girls in the sewing room were excited about the time off with loved ones Miranda saw it as a chance to get ahead. It was true that she couldn't access the work room for several days but that didn't mean that she would stop working. She spent those days locked up in her pokey studio flat building on her fashion knowledge and working on her own designs.

She took the same attitude to her assistants position at Runway, only then she managed to sweet talk the on shift security guard into giving her access to the building even when everything was shut down for the holiday. None of her colleagues cared what the introverted and driven assistant to the editor did in her spare time, not even at Christmas, but that suited her just fine. When she wasn't running around ensuring that everything was going th way it should be she was in the closet or down in the archives building on what she had already known because even then she had known that Runway would be hers one day.

As Editor in Chief Miranda had to take a little more interest in Christmas but only in as much as she understood the impact it had on the magazine. She understood that she was expected to show her face at several events as well as hosting Runway's annual gala, she had to sign off on the christmas bonuses and she had to deal with the fact that most of her staff would take at least two days off to spend the holiday with family. The biggest imposition in her opinion was that they had to take extra time to include his and hers gift guides and party season fashions in the festive issues along with a feature which offered the best party dresses for under two hundred dollars, the very idea made her shudder.

She received gifts now, from designers, photographers and models all trying to garner favour and she found it necessary give some gifts of her own but she felt no joy in the giving or receiving because when it came down to it they were simply business transactions. That was until Andrea.

Andrea Sachs with her warm smile, sunny Ohian optimism and her damn infectious Christmas spirit. Andrea Sachs who had broken down every one of her carefully constructed walls and pulled out of her a woman who she barely recognised, a woman who no one in her life had ever witnessed. It had started with a gift left with the book the first Christmas the girl had worked for her, wrapped in simple brown paper, it was a well read edition of what was obviously Andrea's favorite novel if the annotations in the margins and scribbles in every blank space were anything to go by. It was left without a note but it was the first time in her working life that Miranda had spent Christmas day on anything other than work. She had devoured the whole thing, every annotation, every theory and it made her hungry to get to know the brunette better.

The following year Miranda had expected to once again revert back to her al Christmas but it was with a heavy heart. Andrea had walked away, months ago now really, and she shouldn't care but she couldn't seem to let it go. She had let the younger woman in, closer than she had let anyone in her life and she had dared to hope that maybe, just maybe she had found that which had been illusive so far in her life, someone who actually appreciated and cared for the real her. If only she had vocalised those feelings maybe Andrea would still be with her. For all of those reasons she was surprised to find a simple brown paper package waiting for her when she returned from the office on Christmas Eve. It was book obviously from Andrea's collection though this time it came with a note. She once again spent her Christmas Day reading. She read the novel first nd found that it perfectly matched the mood she had been in for the last several months and going on the younger woman's margin scribbles it had made her feel the same. She kept the note until after dinner, it was an apology, a mobile number and a request for dinner the next day. For the first time in her life she found it easy to forgive.

The third Christmas Miranda woke up with Andrea beside her. Amongst the presents under the tree that the brunette had persuaded her to buy was a single brown paper package, another book, another part of the younger woman's life. After they had eaten the Christmas dinner that Andrea had insisted they make together from scratch, they curled up together in front of the open fire and Miranda read her latest gift, her latest insight while Andrea set about on a whole new literary adventure, one of Miranda favorites gifted to her in the same manner. It was that year that Miranda finally understood why people looked forward to Christmas day and it was, on their fourth Christmas together that she asked Andrea if she would do her the honour of spending every christmas for the rest of their lives together.