A/N Well here is the next update. Sorry for the spotty schedule but you can consider this late for Sunday (if you're a pessimist like John) or early for Wednesday (if you're an optimist like Anna). Again thank you to a-lady-to-me for pre-reading and giving ideas. And a big thank you to all of you who leave reviews, especially long ones. They really make my day.
Lots of Christmas fluff on the way which proves I don't own these characters or anything to do with Downton Abbey. Enjoy!
Being a normally early riser, John woke before Anna and simply stared at the beauty that lay before him. He was amazed at the overwhelming feeling of happiness, contentment, blessing and love he felt just looking at her. What he saw wasn't just physical beauty either, although he felt she was the most attractive woman he had ever known, she was also the most beautiful in terms of her character and her spirit. He couldn't believe it had taken him 47 years to find the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, but he was sure now that he had.
He wanted so badly to reach out and touch her but he restrained himself in order to let her sleep. There were no words to explain to Anna how much he loved her so he vowed to show her in a thousand little ways every day for the rest of his life. To put her needs before his own. He would start this morning by letting her have a lie in and serving her breakfast in bed.
He slipped from the bed and quickly threw on a fresh pair of boxers, jeans, and a casual shirt. He grabbed a pair of socks and took Beauty into the other room. After putting on his shoes, he took the dog for a quick walk and then went into the kitchen to fix a simple breakfast.
Anna was awakened a bit later by Beauty snuffling at her back and the sounds of clinking and clanking coming from the kitchen. She smiled and reached over to John's side of the bed before realizing he was no longer there. She ran her hand up and down the sheets smiling at the memory of the night before. In only a few moments, John entered the room carrying a tray laden with croissants, scrambled eggs, jam, a rather over large slab of butter and a steaming mug of tea. There was one perfect red rose lying on the tray as well.
Anna stretched, "What's all this?" she smiled languidly.
"It looks like breakfast to me," John said boyishly, setting the tray across Anna's lap and joining her on the bed, "I didn't do such a bad job it's unrecognizable did I?" He pushed his unruly lock of hair back in line and Anna found him completely irresistible.
"No, it's lovely, only it's your birthday, shouldn't I be making breakfast for you?"
"I had plenty of birthday yesterday. I want today to be about us," he smiled happily.
"Are you sure? Today is your actual birthday, you should get to do what you want."
"Then let's finish this up and I'll show you what I have planned for us."
As they ate, John received a 'Happy Birthday' call from his mother and spoke with her for several minutes while Anna finished her meal. When she was completely done, she rose from the bed to go take a shower. Sometime during the night she had put John's jersey back on but now she was rummaging around looking for her discarded knickers.
John rang off and asked, "What exactly are you doing, Miss Smith? If you want to snoop around my bedroom you should probably wait until I'm not in it!"
"I'm not 'snooping', I'm looking for my underwear. I can't seem to find them."
"Can't find them?" he laughed, "they're red for god's sake, how hard can it be?"
"I don't know," Anna accused, "you're the one who flung them across the room. Where did you send them?"
"I'm sure I don't know, my love," he grinned and waggled his eyebrows, "I had other things on my mind when I removed them. I wasn't watching their trajectory."
John got an absolutely wicked look on his face and continued, "Perhaps they flew up onto that shelf over there in the closet. You should take a look."
Anna was not turned toward John so she didn't see his look. She made her way to the closet and began to reach up to search for the panties when she suddenly spun towards him, "You were hoping to see my bum weren't you?" She was laughing as she spoke and although John didn't respond, his smile told her all she needed to know.
John rose from the bed and closed Anna into his embrace. He let his hand roam down to her bottom and gave it a little squeeze, "But it's such a perfect little bum… and it is my birthday. I had to try." He gave her another wicked smile and followed it quickly with a little kiss. "I'm sure they'll turn up. That can't be the only pair you've brought."
"I suppose, but next time try to control yourself, Mr. Bates," Anna smirked.
"Impossible," John responded, "You're far too irresistible. Now why don't you go take your shower and I'll do up the dishes and we can get on with our day?"
When Anna had finished her shower and entered the sitting room, she found John, done with the dishes, sitting on the sofa reading the paper. She was surprised to see the room filled with several large boxes of many different shapes and sizes.
"Ok," she laughed, "I know I did a lot of shopping yesterday, but I didn't do this much. What are all these?"
"These, my darling, are my Christmas decorations. I thought we could start our holidays by wrapping your purchases and decorating the tree together. It's a little early, but we won't see each other again until the 20th and that seems late, especially since we're going to Mum's on the 24th."
"You have Christmas decorations?" Anna asked, surprised.
John looked at her with chagrin, "I may not be that religious Anna, but I'm not a martian. I do celebrate Christmas."
"And you want to spend today doing Christmas things?"
"Yep," there was a boyishly silly grin on John's face, "I'll even wear an ugly Christmas jumper if you want me to."
"Do you have an ugly Christmas jumper?"
"Um, no," he chuckled, "but you can buy me one if you want."
"Not necessary. There are far too many pictures floating around out there of my brothers and I dressed in identical Christmas outfits for me to want to subject anyone else to ugly Christmas attire. You're completely safe."
John chuckled and said, "Do you want to wrap, decorate the tree, or do both together?"
"Ug, I hate wrapping. I have absolutely no spatial visualization skills, whatsoever."
"Really? I would think spatial visualization would be a part of mathematics, geometry anyway."
"And you'd be right. It's just not a part I'm very good at."
"Well," John replied as he moved toward the stereo, "I'm a great package wrapper, butcher's son and all, wrapping is in my blood. Why don't you help me put the tree together, then I'll wrap your gifts and you can decorate the tree. Fancy some Bing Crosby or Dean Martin while we're at it?"
Anna rose from where she had been tucked into the corner of the couch. She went over and wrapped her arms around John's waist, "You get cuter every day, do you know that?"
"Mmmm," he responded with a kiss, "I'm glad you think so."
Once the tree was set up, Anna dragged the boxes over and began to open them one by one. "So there are two kinds of Christmas tree decorating people. I'm wondering which type you are."
"I didn't even know there were two types," John said as he began his wrapping duties, "What are they?"
"Well, there's the very posh type where the whole tree matches, or the more homey type where the ornaments are a mish mash, but each one holds a story. My family is the mish mash type."
"And which type do I strike you as?" John replied as he raised a package and examined its measurements.
"Hmm, hard to say," Anna pondered carefully, "If we were in St. Andrews I would guess mish mash, but here in London, I'm not so sure. Your life here is much more posh."
"Our life here," John corrected, "and it's not more posh by choice, only by necessity. So I think you will find a pleasing mix of family ornaments in all those boxes, Miss Smith. Including one or two embarrassing ones I made as a child."
Anna beamed with delight, "And will you tell me all the stories, Mr. Bates?"
"Of course," he said seriously, "you know I will never hide anything from you, my love."
They filled the next few hours with John wrapping gifts and packing them to be shipped to America while Anna decorated the tree. From time to time they would stop and sing a particular Christmas favorite accompanied by Bing or Dean and then resume their work. Both tasks took much longer than necessary as Anna kept stopping John to tell her the stories behind the various ornaments. As they went along, Anna found out much more about John's childhood and fell more deeply in love with him by the minute.
John finished first and joined Anna in decorating the tree and the flat. After a few moments he gently lifted a box marked 'FRAGILE' from one of the boxes and held it reverently. Anna noticed the care he was taking in handling this particular piece and asked, "What's that?"
"It's the tree topper. One of my most prized possessions," John spoke with clear adoration in his voice, "I saw it one day while...someone and I were looking about at antiques and I don't know, it just called to me. I didn't think I had ever seen anything so beautiful in my life."
Anna didn't speak as John slowly opened the box and unwrapped its contents. Finally, he lifted out a beautiful angel tree topper. She had on a flowing cream and hunter green dress and long flowing golden hair. John looked at her a moment and then said in amazement, "My god Anna, she looks just like you. No wonder she called to me all those years ago."
There was no hint of a joke in his voice, only astonishment, but Anna still thought it must be his imagination. She went to his side and gazed at the angle, prepared to say it was nonsense. But it wasn't nonsense. The angle actually did resemble her quite a bit, even down to the expression on her face. She looked at John in wonder and neither of them spoke for a few moments.
Finally, John broke the silence, "You see Anna, I've loved you even before I knew you." He touched her face tenderly and then turned to get the step ladder. He lovingly placed the angle on the tree saying, "Now I have you to watch over me until your return on the 20th."
Before long it was time for Anna to head to the airport. She didn't let John talk her into taking the last flight this time and as finals were so close he didn't really try to talk her into it. They were both determined to prove to Dr. Carson that Anna's studies would not suffer due to her relationship with John.
"I can't imagine how I'm going to get all these packages on the plane," Anna wondered aloud as she stood by the door with her luggage.
"Don't worry about that. I can take them to the post on my way home from the airport. Even the ones to St. Andrews if you like. We can send those to the house and then you can distribute them."
"John, I thought we had talked about this and decided, no tearful goodbyes at the airport."
"No, you decided, but that's not what I mean. I figure I'll ride to the airport with you and we can say our goodbyes in the relative privacy of the car. It's the most I'm willing to compromise, so you might as well agree to it now." John looked so determined that Anna could only laugh and agree.
Mason appeared to help with all the bags and suddenly it was time to go. Anna and John spent the time in the cab holding hands and speaking quietly. They couldn't take their eyes from each other. All too soon they were at the airport and it was time to say the final goodbye.
"Anna, it really has been the best birthday ever and it's all down to you my love," John spoke earnestly.
"I love you too, John. So much. I miss you already."
"Call me when you get there." He looked at her longingly.
"Only fifteen more days and then we have a whole month."
John sighed, "Fifteen long, miserable days. You better give me the goodbye kiss of all goodbye kisses to hold me over."
"Ooh," Anna teased, "hope i don't fold under the pressure." She smiled, but her eyes were moist.
John returned her smile, "You'll just have to keep trying until you get it right!"
They kissed each other then. A kiss filled with so much love and longing that neither wanted it to ever end but before too long the cabbie spoke, "Oy, it's all the same to me mate, but the meter's running. You're paying top price for those kisses."
Anna laughed and said, "I have to go. See you soon my love."
John held her hand until they lost contact due to Anna's distance, "Don't forget to call me. I love you," he shouted through the window. He instructed the driver to stay put until he could no longer see her.