Hello!

Like always, I'm super sorry that I haven't posted anything in so long; my life has just been taken over by exams so sadly my writing's taken a little bit of a backseat. I apologise for leaving all my other stories un-updated but after I've finished with this one I'll hopefully to get back into writing for Reality Check and Just Like Me again, I've got the next chapters for them planned out, I just need to actually find time to update them.

But for now, here's the start of my Christmas story! And what better way to start a story off than with a little bit of Mack and Brady fluff? ;)

On the first day of Christmas Brady got from Mack, a trip to the ice rink that didn't quite go to plan…

Mack thought that it would be a cute idea to take Brady to the ice rink on a little date. The fairy lights, the crisp air and the leisurely skating beside each other with their mitten-covered hands held between them, what could be better?

Well it turns out that Mack actually being able to ice skate would make it better…a lot better.

Brady let out another soft laugh as Mack let out a sharp gasp and her left arm flailed wildly next to him. Her knuckles had turned white beneath her mittens from clinging onto the railing around the outside of the rink for dear life.

"You know what?" she said. "I think I'm getting better at this."

"Really?" Brady chuckled.

"I think this is working a lot better than what I was trying to do before," she said as she inched her way around the edge of the rink.

"Oh yeah, the shuffling's really paying off," Brady said in a teasing tone.

"Am I not supposed to be shuffling?" Mack asked. She took her eyes away from the ice in front of her for one second to raise her eyebrow at Brady, but that was still enough to send her feet wildly skidding in opposite directions until she lost all control and ended up on her bum again.

"No, because that's why you keep ending up like this," Brady said, effortlessly skating around to face her and helping her to her feet.

"Thanks," Mack mumbled. "I've got this," she then said with more determination. She then gripped back onto the railing, took a deep breath and began shuffling again.

"You sure about that?" Brady asked, skating along backwards in front of her.

"Positive," Mack said through gritted teeth. But then the toe of her ice skate's blade got caught in the ice and made her lurch forwards. Brady caught onto her forearms before she could fall too far, but Mack still let out a squeak of surprise.

"Don't worry, I've got you," Brady chuckled.

"I know, I know," Mack grumbled as she tried to balance herself again. She went back to her safety blanket of holding onto the side as she watched Brady skate a few strides forwards, all whilst still looking at her with a serene, yet amused smile curling at his lips. Mack made an attempt to move to join him but her ice skate practically ran away from her and she ended up slipping down the wall.

Brady was sure that he was witnessing the reincarnation of Bambi in human form, which is why he let out a rather large laugh.

"Don't laugh; I can't help sucking at this!" Mack exclaimed through giggles herself.

"Well one: I can't help laughing at you when you look like a giraffe that's learning to walk for the first time," he said, making Mack let out another laugh. "And two: the only reason that you suck is because you've never done it before."

"Having an excuse to fail doesn't mean that I'm not still failing."

"No but it gives you a little more confidence," Brady said with a small laugh.

"I don't think I can have any confidence when I'm skating around with you: Mr Figure-Skater of the year," Mack said sarcastically.

"Thanks," Brady chuckled. "But I'm only good because I come with my family every year," he finished with a flurry as he skated around to face Mack again and added an extra little spin on the end, following it up with a wink.

"Ok, no need to show off," Mack teased as Brady helped her up for what felt like the fiftieth time that afternoon.

"Come on, it's really not that hard if you know what to do."

"Well of course you can say that, you can actually do it," Mack said, crossing her arms over her chest before realising that that threw her off balance. And once again she found herself clinging onto Brady's arm.

"Look, we just need to get away from the edge-"

"Brady, no!" Mack retaliated as Brady started to slowly lead Mack away from the side of the rink.

"And just glide," he finished as he flashed a wicked smile.

"Yeah, that would go great if I knew how to glide," Mack snapped sarcastically.

"You just put one foot in front of the other and push off," Brady said, slowly starting to do it himself as he towed Mack along with him.

"That's easy for you to say," Mack said. "I don't think 'gliding' is something my body knows how to do."

Her legs shook a little as Brady gently pulled her along. He could tell how nervous she was even though she was trying to hide it. Mack didn't ever really like going out of her comfort zone, even when it was just ice skating.

But the longer they went on like this, the more confident Mack became. And soon enough she was skating (well, still kind of wobbling) around all on her own. That didn't mean that she'd occasionally catch her skate and grab onto Brady to steady herself.

"See, I told you you could do it. Look, you're a natural," Brady chuckled, letting go of her hand and watching her go skating off ahead all by herself.

"I wouldn't go that far," Mack called back to him, ungracefully waving her arms around to balance herself again.

"I disagree," Brady said, skating up behind and circling around her with ease.

"Ok, no need to show off," Mack teased. "And don't get too excited, our time slot's almost up."

"Aww, come on, just five more minutes," Brady whined, which just made Mack laugh and roll her eyes.

"No, we can't. And besides, there's a hot chocolate sitting in that café with your name on it."

"I'm not moving unless there's whipped cream involved."

"Well neither would I," Mack said, making Brady crack a laugh.

"Alright, fine," Brady chuckled as he grabbed her mitten-covered hand.

"What are you doing?" Mack asked, looking on at Brady in amused bewilderment as he began to pull her towards him and then proceeded to attempt to twirl her.

This probably seems like it would have been a lovely romantic moment with the sparkling fairy lights and Christmas music floating out from the wall-mounted speakers. And if would have been if they hadn't been on ice skates. Mack was already incredibly clumsy on them; she struggled with just going in a straight line with them on, so attempting anything else was bound to go horribly wrong, especially a spin. So, as I'm sure you can imagine, the only way that this was going to end up was with them both laying in a tangled heap on the floor.

"That was probably the dumbest idea you've ever had," Mack snorted as both teens sat on the ice laughing their heads off.

"I know," Brady wheezed, which just set him off laughing again. And they proceeded to laugh border-line hysterically for minutes on end. Every time that they tried to compose themselves they'd end up setting off laughing again.

"You're so stupid," Mack eventually chuckled, whacking his leg with her mitten.

"Well it's taken me years of practice to get this good," Brady chuckled, sitting up behind her and wrapping her in his arms. "Now," he said quietly, still trying to supress his giggles. "How does that hot chocolate sound?"

"Perfect," Mack smiled, twisting her head to peck him on the cheek.

So, how was that? I hope you enjoyed it! I haven't written anything in absolutely ages so I'm a little out of practice. I think it turned out alright though, what do you think? I know it's a little on the short side for most of my chapters but I'm afraid that they're going to have to be that way because of the nature of this story. Hopefully you don't mind too much though. They're probably easier to read this way anyway.

Speaking of the nature of this story, my plan for it is to have a separate chapter dedicated to each character (since there are 12 of them). And because that means that I need to write a lot of chapters, I'm going to make them a little shorter than I normally would so that I'm not so stressed to get everything done. Knowing me, I will end up getting super stressed though. XD

I've pretty much got all of the characters' chapters planned out but, if you have any ideas that you desperately want me to use then please let me know because I would greatly appreciate it! Especially if it's an idea for Lugnut's chapter because I don't have one for him yet (preferably something linked to a Christmas fair, but that doesn't really matter).

Um, I think that's all I have to say for now. Thank you for reading! See you next chapter!

-cherrygorilla