Wonderful Christmas Time
236
Ah, another Christmas story. Vacation is good for writing. Please pay no attention to the timeline of this. As in, even though they have modern accessories in the house, it's not taking place in the modern day. The way I see it is just France, England, Canada and America being one big happy family, so leave me alone, ahaha.
That being said, another family story following the same dynamics as Birthday Parties because family stories are just so adorable.
Disclaimer: The next story probably won't be a Christmas one, but the one after that probably will… And the first sentence belongs to Clement Clarke Moore.
Wonderful Christmas Time
It was the night before Christmas when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. Except for one Arthur Kirkland who was at it again, getting the last of the Christmas presents ready for the celebration.
Arthur looked up at the clock on his desk and sighed when he saw that it was well past midnight.
"Well, it's no longer the night before Christmas." He thought to himself as he tied the elegant bow around the last of the Christmas presents. He could hear Francis' soft snores from the bed and he was envious of the Frenchman. He would have liked to be under the soft covers and sleeping soundly, but somehow, he had managed to fall behind on his Christmas tasks. So here he was, adding the final touches.
It had all started with him being put in charge of the decorations since he had been banned from the kitchen yet again. Once Arthur had purchased the tree, the rest of the family had helped him decorate it since it was a family thing. However, he had then been asked to do the rest of the decorations and for some reason, there was always at least one light bulb on every single string that wouldn't work. That had meant that he had to find which one it was since the entire string wouldn't even light up.
When he had finally finished with the lights and decorations a few weeks ago, he had come to the startling realization that he hadn't even thought up of the Christmas presents, let alone started on them and so, he had spent many days and nights working on them.
He would have finished with the presents yesterday, but Francis had dragged him to the grocery store to get the items needed for the Christmas meal. Then Francis had brought him out for lunch and then it had been a nice walk around the park without the children. From there, the older man had joined him for afternoon tea and finally, they had just spent the rest of the afternoon on the sofa while Alfred and Matthew played outside.
He would have finished them after dinner, but Francis had gone outside with Matthew to make snowmen and Alfred had joined shortly after. Arthur had felt alone, so he had gone out with them and they ended up doing four snowmen of various sizes that represented each one of their family members.
Afterwards, Francis and Alfred had plotted against Matthew and himself and had started a full on assault snowball fight. They had only stopped and returned inside when their clothes were soaked through and the children had started yawning. Francis had then made them hot cocoa which they sipped by the fire and when Alfred had fallen asleep against Matthew, they had brought the kids to bed.
In all honesty, it had been a splendid day, except he really wanted to sleep right now. Arthur glanced at the sleeping mass of blankets and glared at it for a moment. In his mind, Francis had it easy. All he had to do was cook a lavish meal in a few hours and it only made his job easier since he was a culinary genius.
Arthur realized that he was being quite childish and got up from his seat. He picked up the three presents and went downstairs to put them under the tree with the others. Once he made sure that everything was in order, he returned to his shared bedroom and crawled into bed.
When the bed shifted due to his added weight, Francis moved closer to Arthur's body, wrapped one of his long arms around the younger man's waist and pulled him close. The Frenchman snuggled closer to him before sighing contently. Arthur was amazed that he had done this while still asleep, but then again, when it came to Francis, anything was to be expected. With a final yawn and a quick kiss on Francis' cheek, Arthur pulled the covers over his tired body and closed his eyes.
It felt too soon when Arthur was awakened by eager voices and the feeling of being jumped on some hours later. He turned around to burry his head in the Frenchman's shoulder, but the voices and jumping did not cease. That's when he opened his eyes and noticed the very eager and bright faces of Matthew and Alfred.
"It's Christmas time, it's Christmas time!" Matthew chanted repeatedly.
"Come on Dad, wake up! We gotta go open presents!" Alfred added as he bounced on the bed.
"Yeah, come on Papa, you have to make le déjeuner/breakfast." They pulled at their parents' arms until the two adults finally sat up in bed.
"D'accord, du calme, les cadeaux seront encore là dans cinq minutes. Allez en bas mettre la table et on vous rejoindra sous peu."/ "Alright, calm down, the gifts will still be there in five minutes. Go downstairs set the table and we'll be there in a few." The brothers seemed pleased by the answer and rushed out of the room to run downstairs. Once they were gone, Arthur groaned and leaned against Francis.
"Bon matin, mon cœur. Tu as bien dormis?"/ "Good morning, my love. Did you sleep well?" He asked as he placed a soft kiss on Arthur's cheek. He snaked his arms around the younger man's waist and rested his chin on Arthur's shoulder.
"Not enough, that's for damn sure." Francis chuckled lightly at that.
"Je suis désolé de t'avoir dérangé hier, mai au moins aujourd'hui tu n'as pas grand chose à faire."/ "I'm sorry for having bothered you yesterday, but at least today you don't have anything to do." Arthur simply leaned further into the embrace and closed his eyes.
"It's alright, the distractions were good." He lazily replied. He was about to fall back asleep when a voice was heard from the floor below.
"C'mon already! It's been over five minutes. What's taking so long?" Alfred, ever the patient child, said. Francis laughed at that and disentangled himself from the bed sheets while Arthur groaned once more.
"Allez viens, je vais te préparer une bonne tasse de thé." / "Come on, I'll make you a good cup of tea." He extended his arm and Arthur walked into the embrace. The pair made their way downstairs where they found the two children sitting at the kitchen table. Arthur took his own seat while Francis went about to make them breakfast.
Arthur felt a tad better once he had swallowed some breakfast and drunk some tea. Matthew and Alfred had tried to rush through the meal in order to get to the presents faster, but in the end, the decision of when it was appropriate to open presents was left to the parental unit. Finally, once the dishes had been cleared and put away, the small family made its way to the living room where the Christmas tree stood tall and proud.
The kids sat on the floor by the tree, while the adults sat on the sofa. It had always been done this way and Arthur felt like it would never change. Matthew looked up to Francis who nodded his head to let the boy know that he and his brother could start handing out the presents.
When all the presents had been delivered, Matthew was given the honour of opening the first one. They went from youngest to eldest and they each opened one present at a time. It was an unquestionable tradition and routine that had been set into their family and no one cared to change it.
"Merci, Papa."/ "Thank you, Papa." The youngest said upon opening his present and finding some new pastels, paints and other art supplies.
"De rien, mon homme. Continue ton bon travail."/ "Your welcome, my man. Continue your good work." (A.N. mon homme in French can be used as an endearing term.) Next, Alfred received a board game from his brother who told him that it was "so that they could play together when it rained outside." The older brother had smiled and given a one armed hug to his cadet.
Arthur then opened his first gift which came from Alfred. He found a beautiful box of exotic teas that had been imported from a far away land. Arthur smiled at his eldest and thanked him kindly. Tea could be such a nice gift.
To finish off the first round, Francis picked the small box that Arthur had only wrapped hours ago and removed the delicate, but complex bow. The Frenchman pulled out a white gold pocket watch with his initials engraved on the front. He opened it up and looked at the intrinsic design before placing it back into the box. Francis pulled Arthur close and pecked his lips as thanks.
They continued with their ritual until there was only wrapping paper on the floor and no more presents under the tree. Matthew ended up receiving a hand knit scarf from his father and a story book from his brother. Alfred, on the other hand, got a cowboy outfit from Francis and from Arthur; he received two new wood carved soldiers mounted on horses to add to his set.
Francis had gifted Arthur with an elegant key chain and Matthew had drawn a picture of their family for him. Lastly, Francis received a beautiful silk tie from his eldest and a cook book from his youngest.
After they had exchanged their "thank yous", the family went to get dressed for Christmas mass. It was another of their holiday traditions. Arthur was the first to finish and was sitting in the living room, adding his keys to his new key chain when Francis walked down. The Frenchman was wearing his finest Sunday suit and had tied his hair back with a red festive ribbon. Arthur was about to ask where the children were, but just as he opened his mouth, the two made their way to their parents.
"Shall we then?" Arthur asked. They put on their winter coats and left for mass.
Mass was a relatively calm affair and everyone behaved. They didn't sit too far back or to close to the front, but just where it wasn't too far to see the altar. Arthur stood with Alfred to his left and Francis to his right while Matthew was to the right of Francis.
Alfred was holding on to his father's hand and Arthur didn't mind one bit. However, when Francis took his other free hand, he looked up with questioning eyes. The Frenchman said nothing and simply smiled. Their hands remained linked together until the end of the service. The four of them stood there like the perfect little family.
Upon their return home, Matthew and Alfred went to play in the living room while Francis went to start the food and Arthur made himself a cup of tea. Cup in hand, he went to stand by the entrance of the living room to look at their children. Despite the fact that he was tired and would have loved to spend the remainder of the day curled under his blankets, he felt serene and happy as he stood there and watched his sons play.
Arthur was interrupted from his thoughts when he felt an arm encircle his waist that then pulled him into Francis' chest. The Englishman looped his own arms around his companion's torso and snuggled closer for comfort and warmth in the embrace.
"Joyeux Noël, mon coeur."/ "Merry Christmas, my love." Francis whispered in his ear before placing a soft kiss on his lips. When they pulled apart, Arthur noticed that they were standing under the conveniently placed mistletoe and it gave him an idea.
"Merry Christmas to you to, Francis." Arthur pulled Francis back down and brought their lips together in something that had a little more love and zest than before. Francis was only too happy to reciprocate the feeling. They would have continued on with their little display of affection had it not been for the very distinctive interruption.
"Ewwww, what are you two doing?" Alfred said from inside the living room. Arthur quickly pulled away, having quite forgotten that his sons had been in the room, but he let Francis keep his arm around his waist. In all honesty, he wasn't all that surprised by Alfred's reaction. It was very much like him to respond in this way whenever he and Francis were caught in an embrace. Matthew on the other hand, simply smiled warmly at his parents and returned to his game.
"Un jour tu comprendras, mon homme. C'est simplement une façon pour moi et daddy de se montrer qu'on s'aime beaucoup."/ "One day you'll understand, my boy. It's just a way for me and daddy to show that we love each other very much." Alfred wasn't too convinced and still looked both revolted and disgusted.
"Why don't you go back to your game? Matthew's waiting for you." The boy turned his head and deemed that the game was indeed more interesting and less weird than his parents, so he returned to it much to his brother's content.
"Ah les enfants, ils peuvent être si mignon parfois."/ "Ah kids, they can be so adorable at times." Francis said as he took a step towards the kitchen. Arthur simply smiled and followed him out. When they got to the kitchen, he took a seat at the counter and watched as Francis made magic happen in the kitchen and prepared the meal.
Francis had outdone himself yet again with the food and everything was superb. Throughout dinner, they had talked amongst themselves and exchanged pleasantries. Francis had amused the children by telling them stories of a Christmas long, long ago when Arthur had tried cooking him a nice meal, but had ended up failing miserably at that. Arthur had protested that it hadn't been all that bad, but the family knew better.
As they made their way through Christmas pudding, Arthur looked down to Francis' hand that was linked with his own on the table and then to the children who were eating happily and he had to smile. There was nothing like having Christmas dinner with one's family and loved ones and he had all of that around the table. This truly was a wonderful Christmas time.
OWARI
Awww, fluff! So yeah, because it took me thirty minutes to come up with the presents, I put them all in. Deal with it. Also, make believe that I didn't use some of the same ideas as I did in Birthday Parties for the gifts ahahah. Reviews make me happy and I hope you liked it!
Reviews, no matter how short, even if they are anonymous, mean a lot to me and let me know that my writing brings emotions to you readers out there. I see you, the ones who only favourite, the ones who add me to alert, don't think I don't. Even if it's just an exclamation point, it warms my heart.
Started writing: December 13th 2009, 12:00 am
Finished writing: December 15th 2009, 12:17 am
Started typing: December 15th 2009, 9:10 pm
Finished typing: December 16th, 1:18 pm