Hanna's POV
It's almost Christmas and here I am home alone and bored out of my mind. Spencer is at the country club with her family for some event, Aria is with Fitz in Philadelphia, and Alison is not an option for any one of us to hang out with right now, so I call Emily. The phone rings nine times and I'm about to hang up, but she finally answers.
"Hello?" she answers out of breath.
"Hey, what took you so long?" I laughed.
"I couldn't find my phone."
"Oh, can I come over? I'm bored."
"Yeah, yeah. Just come over whenever."
"Thanks, Em! I'll be there in five." I hang up the phone, get my jacket and purse and head over to Emily's. Even with the snow covered streets of Rosewood, there are a ton of cars on the road and they're all going slow as molasses. It's going to take me longer to get to Emily's than I wanted.
After what felt like an hour to me, I finally got to Em's. I hop out of my car and walk briskly through the cold air and up her doorstep. I fling the door open and relish in the blast of warm air that hits me. "Em? I'm here!" I call out as I remove my boots and jacket.
"In the living room!" I hear her call back to me.
I round the corner and my eyes widen at the sight before me, even though I really should have expected it. There are Christmas decorations strewn all throughout the room, Emily sitting on the floor right in the middle of it digging through one of the dozen and a half boxes. "No wonder it took you so long to find your phone earlier. It looks like a Christmas bomb went off in here," I laugh.
Emily glares at me playfully before she cracks a smile. "Whatever, you know this is my favorite holiday. Now shut up and help me find the extension cords so I can put these electric candles in the windows please."
"Are they in the box that says candles?" I ask with a smirk, pointing to a box to her left.
"No, wise-ass. I checked that box first."
"Just trying to help. Don't you usually have this done weeks before Christmas, not like a few days before?," I laugh.
"Usually, but with all the shit that's been going on I haven't had time, not to mention not having any help. Mom has been in Texas for two weeks and won't be back until Christmas Eve, Dad can't come home at all, Paige and I broke up for good so there goes that option, and all of y'all have been too busy."
"Em, all you had to do was ask. You know I'll drop whatever and help my very best friend decorate for her favorite day of the year." Emily simply smiles in return.
After searching through five boxes unsuccessfully, I'm tired of this. I climb my way across the room, push some boxes to the side, and collapse on the couch.
"Han, you're supposed to be helping me," Emily pouts.
"I tried. Those things have disappeared, Em."
"Maybe they're still up in the attic. I'm going to go check. Try not to break anything."
Five minutes pass before I hear Emily shriek in delight and come bounding back downstairs, extension cords in hand. It takes us fifteen minutes to put all the candles in the windows of the house and plug them in.
-x-x-x-
"Can we take a break? I'm tired of decorating for now," I ask Emily.
"Yeah, sure."
"Thank you!" I say as I collapse onto the couch.
"Oh! C'mon," Emily exclaims as she yanks me off the couch by my hand, "Let's go play in the snow. Yeah, we'll make snow angels and a snowman and have a snowball fi-."
"Noooo, no way. That's where I draw the line" I groan.
"What's wrong, Marin? Afraid you'll get beat?" she challenges me.
"Oh, you're so on, Fields!" I push her onto the couch and run away laughing to put on my boots and coat. She jumps up and runs behind me to do the same. As soon as we are ready we race outside. Emily spins around in circles with her arms spread wide, soaking in the fresh snow falling from the sky. She soon tires of that and plops onto the ground, immediately laying down in a straight line and spreading her arms and legs back and forth, making the first of many snow angels. I lay down next to her and soon we have made a little snow angel family.
"Snowman time?" I ask Emily.
"Um, yeah. You start on the base here and I'm going to gather some snow to bring back over."
I start pulling armfuls of snow closer to my body. I pile the snow into a big ball, about three feet wide and three feet tall. After I decide that the size is perfect, I start to shape the snow up so it looks rounder and has a smoother perimeter. Just as I finish that a snowball pelts me in the back. I flip around and glare at Emily as she just stands there smiling innocently.
"You're supposed to be getting more snow for the snowman, not throwing snowballs at me!"
"I was getting more snow, but I didn't know how to get it over there so I thought 'What would be the easiest way to do that? Throwing it' and so that's what I did," she answers.
"You want to throw snow? Fine, get ready to be obliterated, Fields," I say as I bend over to pack some snow together to throw at her. Before I can even get a handful together, I get pelted again. "Em!"
"What?" she asked sweetly, "Not my fault you called war before you had any ammunition," she says as she steps to the side and sweeps her arm in the direction she just moved from. There is a pile of about thirty snowballs ready to be fired.
"Shit," I say dejectedly.
"Don't tell me you're giving up before we even start?" Emily smirks.
"Never," I smirk back. I run towards her pile of snowballs to steal some and she shrieks, intercepting me from my desired path. She wraps her arms around my waist and spins as she picks me up to offset the force that I hit her with. I wiggle out of her arms and dive for the snowballs, throwing as many as I can at her before she can throw any back. In no time all the snowballs are gone and we are both rolling around on the ground laughing.
"Okay, as much fun as that was, I'm freezing and need some hot chocolate," Emily says.
"Same here."
-x-x-x-
When we get back inside we fix our hot chocolate, move into the living room and put up the tree and place the ornaments on it.
"You want to put the angel on top?" Emily asks.
"Um, Em, in case you forgot: You're the tall one here. There's no way I'll be able to reach the top."
Emily laughs, "I realize that, but I'm not quite tall enough either. I was going to pick you up so you could do it. Unless you want to try picking me up?"
"Yeah, no. I wouldn't even to get you an inch off the ground."
"Weakling," Emily teases.
"Hey, sports aren't my thing and you don't exactly build up a ton of arm strength shopping."
"With as many bags as you carry around sometimes, I'm surprised to hear that," she giggles.
"Oh, shut up punk. Give me the angel and let's do this," I smile. Emily hands me the angel and stands in front of me, picking me up by the backs of my thighs and pushing me up higher on her torso. I easily put the angel on top and connect it to the lights of the tree so that it also lights up. "All done," I say.
Emily lowers me back down, but when my feet hit the ground and I step back to admire my work I trip over another decoration. Before I can hit the ground, Emily grabs onto me and steadies me. "You okay?" she asks worriedly.
I look up to answer her and something above us catches my eye. Instead of answering her I stand back up fully and lean up the extra few inches caused by our height difference and connect my lips to hers. God, her lips are soft. After a couple seconds, Emily's brain kicks back into gear and she responds to the kiss, moving her lips gently against mine and pulling me closer to her by my hips. I lift both my arms, wrapping one around the back of her neck and cradling her jaw in my other hand. I open my mouth slightly and dart my tongue out to run along her bottom lip. She parts her lips and allows me access. We fight for dominance, teeth and tongues clashing heatedly. As I break for air I grab her bottom lip between my teeth and gently tug it back with me before I release it with a pop. We lock eyes, both our chests heaving rapidly, seeking out the oxygen in the air around us that had become nonexistent in the previous minutes.
"What was that?" she asks smiling, still trying to catch her breath. I smile at her sweetly and point above our heads. Mistletoe. "I-I forgot I hung that already."
"Well, I'm glad it's there," I say cheekily, adding in a wink for good measure. Emily grins at me and leans in to kiss me again. This one is long, languid, and even more amazing than the first one, if that's even possible.
Emily pulls back after a few more seconds and rests her forehead against mine. "Merry Christmas, Hanna."
"Merry Christmas, Em," I smile and attach our lips again. We spend the rest of the night cuddling on the couch, watching Christmas movies while drinking hot chocolate, and sharing a lot more kisses. This is definitely my favorite Christmas so far.
-x-x-x-
This was requested by plumpykaye. Hope you liked it! xo