A/N

This chapter is absolutely nothing like the one I had written up, and I'm so sorry for that. Most of it is flashback, but the last little bit is setting up the next chapter or so, where the majority of Christmas will be discussed. I gloss over an issue with Dumbledore in the chapter but I promise, I'm picking it back up soon. Honestly, the chapter was about three pages long when I wrote it the first time- it WAS at nine pages, and I'm toping off 6 with this AN, which is annoying me horribly but I can't remember all the flashback snippets I'd put in. This is also why I was so long in putting it up, I kept trying to perfectly rewrite it and it kept falling flat.

The first time Charlie missed a dinner, I thought I was going to go crazy with worry. He came home, smelling of smoke and fire and a metallically sent I soon became aware of as danger nearly every day and then he wasn't home like he had promised. I was upset, which upset Remus, so when Charlie eventually stumbled out of the floo, looking exhausted and ready to drop, Remus nearly pounced on him.

"What do you think you're doing, not letting us know you weren't going to be home!?" he'd snarled at the tired man. I'd jumped from my seat on the couch, ready to interfere, but Charlie straightened up and glared right back at Remus.

"I didn't think I had to report everything I did to you." he'd snapped back, and this time I did jump in, worried that Remus would snap and equally worried that Charlie would get upset and just leave again.

"Please, we were just worried. If you're going to miss a dinner you promised to be at, just send a Patronus or something next time, please." I begged Charlie, and he'd deflated. Remus still looked upset, but a warning look from me had him walking away.

The first time Charlie and I had an argument was also the first time he'd yelled at me. I'd asked him to come home from the reservation more often because we hadn't had any time to do anything together. He might have moved in, but two weeks in and he hadn't been here very often and he and I hadn't done much besides chat over dinner with Remus there.

"I'm not going to give up my job just because you asked me to, Hadrian!" he'd screamed at me, startling me because up until then we'd been talking quietly about it while Remus graded papers in the bedroom.

"I'm just wanting more time with my mate, I'm not asking you to give up your job, just leave at the time you told me you would." I'd tried to plead, but he was too furious to listen, and it devolved into one of the few arguments between Remus and Charlie that I couldn't calm down.

Soon he was exploding every day. By the third week he was on the brink of leaving and sleeping on the couch, constantly growling at Remus and I and tearing me apart, because one minute he would be tucking my hair behind my ear and the next minute demanding that I give him space, like I'd been the one to walk over and sit next to him when it was usually the other way around. Remus was ready to kick him out himself when he'd found me in bed alone after a detention he had to monitor, and Charlie stewing in the living room because I'd asked him to talk about his day and he'd actually physically shoved me away.

And then, one day, I caught a glimpse of Charlie eating breakfast- something I rarely saw because he was awake even before I was most times- and realized what was wrong almost instantly. I'd growled, ripped the food from him and tossed it into the fire before I'd realized it. He'd jumped up, ready to scream and going red in the face, but I'd flung a stupefy at him and ran for Remus.

"Remus, we never asked the elves to monitor his food!" I'd shaken him awake, and he was groggy until I began to rapidly explain what I'd smelt all over Charlie's food- a rage inducer and a pheromone suppressor. He was being fed potions to make him ignore his instincts and flare his already tremendous temper. We'd called on Snape to dose him with a cleanser, and we both were glad it was a Saturday as Charlie slowly, slowly, became the man we had brought in that first day. We never told him who we thought it was, but we didn't have to. He had a snarl on his face every time the name Dumbledore was brought up around him after that.

Our first date was him taking me to a reserve festival- normally only for workers, but he'd asked to bring me along. I got to see fire dancers, and people taming the dragons, some of the younger ones acting like puppies and others performing tricks with the people who had raised them. We'd laughed and clapped and danced all night, around a bonfire that I lost in the sky it was so large.

"I'm so sorry about before, I should have realized what I was feeling wasn't normal." he'd shouted over the chanting at some point, his eyes bright in the fire but a sad look on his face.

"You're here now, right?" I'd called back, tugging his hands on my waist until he'd wrapped them around me. He'd smiled at that before swinging us back into the enthusiastic, wild dancing.

The first time he'd kissed me, we'd been walking around the black lake, hand in hand, talking about what we needed to get Remus for Christmas. I'd already gotten him something, of course, but Charlie was still feeling bad and demanded my help in finding the older dominant a present he would like.

"You two don't know each other well. Just ask him what he wants!" I'd finally complained, tired of throwing out ideas to have them immediately rejected. I growl when he laughs at me and I spin to walk away, letting go of his hand when he dragged me back into his arms.

"Don't be like that! You're just cute when you pout. I'll think about what you've told me, I promise. Now, what did you get me for Christmas?"

"I'm not going to tell you now! And I'm not pouting!" I exclaim, wiggling out of his arms but attaching myself to his arm again.

"Well can I show you what I'd LIKE for Christmas?" he asked, a spark in his eye I'd missed. At my eager nod, he'd swept down and kissed me. He was like the fire he played with every day, setting my nerve endings aflame and frying out my thoughts. My whole body warmed and it wasn't a slow, crashing build like Remus but a sudden, raging blaze that set my pulse racing. This is what had been missing, I was whole, I had them both, this is what I needed and no two others would be a better pick for me. One that simmered and one that boiled and me, stuck somewhere in the middle, caught in the rising temperature of the water and loving every moment of it.

The first time I got a peek at what might be a romance between Remus and Charlie, I was ecstatic. Not that they even knew that I was awake, or that I could hear them. I'd gotten up from a nap and noticed I was alone, though I distinctly remember a broad, muscled chest being my pillow as I dozed off after a long flight around the grounds. I'd walked to the door sleepily, only to pause as I saw the two of them on the couch, close enough to touch. They were murmuring about the book they were reading, both too focused to see me, and I watched as Charlie's eyes fluttered closed. It must not have been the first time because Remus had sighed, and when Charlie's eyes didn't open again he'd pulled him closer so that the younger dominant was laying on him instead of awkwardly resting his chin on his chest. Charlie had just shuffled closer and I glimpsed Remus' arm around him before I headed back to the bedroom, deciding that homework was a better option with a wide grin on my face. I didn't expect them to get along like I did with them, they weren't mates, after all, but if we were living together it would be nice to be together properly, with them being just as in love as I was with them.

"Merry Christmas love." Remus' rumbling underneath me makes me look up before I glance behind me and see Charlie's head lift as well. It always amused me how tousled his hair was in the morning and this time was no exception. I feel Remus' lips on my temple, and Charlie leans down and catches the edge of my mouth as he murmurs a merry Christmas to the both of us. The rustling of leaves around me makes me sit up and grin.

We'd come to the Black manor two days ago, and though they'd complained, they agreed to sleep in the greenhouse with me, which made me happy.

"Come on then, I'm sure Sirius is already up and ready to go. Let's go open presents!" I prompt, poking Charlie's side since he was the hardest to wake up on his days off. I get an annoyed grunt in return as I begin to dress, and I hear them both roll out of the bed and do the same around me. I'm bouncing in place by the time they get done, and as Remus is slipping on shoes my phone goes off.

Padfoot: Wake up and get your asses in here! I'm hungry.

"Sirius is awake," I inform them as I put the phone up, holding both my hands out eagerly. Charlie takes one, giving me a proper kiss this time now that he was awake, and I turn expectantly to Remus when he's done and I'm not disappointed as his hand slips in mine and he kisses me, too.

I'd been hard work these past two months to get them to get along, and sometimes one of them still alpha's out on the other, but for the most part, we'd settled into a routine that we were all happy with. Sometimes- most times- it looked dysfunctional and chaotic if I took a step back and looked at it- or Draco came into the rooms and commented- but I loved it. We were all in this together now, and Charlie was putting effort into making the relationship work with both of us now, so it wasn't just Remus and I struggling.

Honestly, that's all I needed for Christmas.