A/N: Here's a Christmas prep-related fill. The twins are eleven in this one, during their first Christmas living on Earth.
With a clank, the Doctor flipped open the stepladder and sat it down next to the mantle. He was halfway up when James approached him, holding up a string of lights in his hands.
"Here we go, Dad," the tween beamed. The Doctor pulled a small box of thumbtacks out of his hoodie pocket and placed it on the top of the stepladder, taking the lights and hanging them up with the tacks as support.
"This looks about right," he said, having reached the edge of his reach. Stepping down, the Doctor examined his in-progress handiwork and nodded. "Yeah, I think so."
"Do you think Mum'll like it?" Jim wondered. "It's not Auntie Idris, but it's a start."
"She's wanted us to have a proper Christmas on Earth for a while now, so it's definitely going to make her happy; now go fetch the garlands from Auntie Idris before Alison and Mam get home."
"Okay!"
James scampered off towards his parents' bedroom, where the TARDIS was parked in a corner. The Doctor chuckled to himself, glad that his son was getting into the spirit. For being a holiday originally a midwinter festival hijacked by religion, it definitely worked for him despite the fact that he neither had a winter to be in the middle of nor a religion to fuss over. Clara fussed, though she certainly didn't make him fuss along with her, which was kind of her. It was why he didn't protest against the manger scene she had set up in the corner of the dining room, or even the holiday itself. He was about done with the second section of lights when the door to the flat opened and his wife and daughter returned home.
"Hi Dad!" Alison said cheerily. She put the shopping down on the floor and looked at her father. "Oh, hey, you setting things up already?"
"Yeah—was hoping to get done before you got home, but apparently not," he said.
"I decided to cut it short today, since the stores are a bit nuts," Clara explained as she entered the room. "Where's James? I need him and Alison to bring in the box with the tree."
"In the TARDIS fetching garland."
"I'll get him!" Alison said. She dashed away, leaving her parents alone for the moment. Clara folded her arms across her chest and shifted her weight to one hip, looking up at her space-husband.
"You're being rather festive," she mentioned. "Should I get used to this?"
"I am fond of Christmas, Clara… always have. You know that." He tried to go down the steps and stumbled off instead, falling face-first into the nearby couch before scrambling to get up in an attempt to brush it off. "Besides, the children love it, and it's the first time we get to host your dad."
"It is, isn't it?" She stepped towards him and wrapped her arms around his middle, rubbing her nose against his shirt and taking in the scent of him. "Dad gets his grandkids for the first time and we all get to be a family."
"It'll beat the Christmas we spent on that penguin planet."
"The smell will be better, at the very least."
"…only until Alison and James start puberty. Teenagers emit some of the worst odors. You know once when I was travelling with Adric…"
"We'll be right back!" the twins announced as they ran through the flat and out the door. Their parents chuckled and held one another tight.
"Aren't we lucky?" the Doctor asked.
"The luckiest in the universe," Clara replied. She pulled his face down for a proper snog, to which he immediately reciprocated. With his hands on her waist and her on his rear, the two tenderly kissed until they heard the sounds of preteen disgust coming from by the door.
"The two of you have a room, you know," Alison frowned, scrunching her nose.
"We technically have a whole flat, so I'd shush up if I were you," Clara fired back. The kids both grumbled in disapproval as they dragged the cardboard box containing their new artificial Christmas tree into the sitting room, over towards where they had cleared out space to set it up in the corner. They ripped open the box and fished out the instructions in an attempt to ignore their amorous parents. Instead, the Doctor picked his wife up and sat down in an armchair, having her settle down on his lap as they continued kissing and caressing.
"…are we going to be big siblings soon?" James wondered in concern.
"I wouldn't mind," the Doctor wheezed, Clara moving from concentrating on his lips to his neck. "Do you want a brother or a sister?"
"Hush, you," Clara scolded. She smacked his shoulder and he squeezed her bottom in retaliation, causing her to bite his neck.
"Come on, Jim; I think we've still got homework to do," Alison scowled. The twins sulked off towards their rooms, which meant that the tree project was abandoned.
"You scared off our free labor," the Doctor teased.
"I scared them off? You were the one asking if they wanted a baby sibling."
"Never hurts to ask. I mean, it would be fun giving them one, wouldn't it?"
"Say that when you're the one carrying the kid," she hummed, resting her arms along his neck. They continued to kiss without a care, knowing that they could still convince the kids to assemble the tree for them, even if it took until after they stopped the festivities.