Just some quick Christmas fluff for the holidays :) The bolded lines are the phone dialogue, btw.

João- Portugal

Angus- Scotland

Just as swiftly as the transition of November to December, Autumn left and Winter arrived.

The snow had a delicate magic to it. It turned whatever it touched into something sublime and enchanting. The park's trees had long lost its leaves the previous week, but this morning, a blanket of snow had covered the park so that it was like a piece of Narnia had dropped into London.

"Anything else on your mind, Francis?" The therapist asked.

"Erhm… no, actually," he replied. It was actually the first time in a while that he had meant it when he said those words.

"Alright, fantastic!" She said with a smile, and they shook hands. "I think that you've made quite a lot of progress over the couple of weeks! I'll be visiting my family back in Suffolk, so I won't be here for the rest of the year, sadly. Are you planning to do anything for Christmas?" she asked as Francis grabbed his coat.

"Not much. I'll probably just Skype my dad and such. One of my friend's brother have a Christmas party going on at their place, so I'll probably be there."

"Sounds great! See you next year! Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas to you too!" And then he left his therapist's office.

Dr. Turner was a therapist who Francis saw every two weeks. Even though this was only their second session, Francis was starting to feel better already.

Her office was across a mall near the apartment block, so as he walked through it, he could hear the Christmas cheer everywhere.

Carollers were singing the carol of the bells, a Christmas tree that touched the ceiling stood proudly in the centre of the room, a line of children lined up for a mall Santa, and people carrying bags of wrapping paper as well as toys and other gifts buzzed like bees. A violinist who busked outside of the mall played Silent Night, and Francis tossed a shilling to the violin case.

It was even snowing a bit, just enough to dust the people in snow, but not too heavily as to cover people up with snow entirely, which added to the nice Christmassy atmosphere.

Very soon, he made it back to the apartment. The apartment was decorated with tinsel and Christmas lights. Gilbert plugged in the Christmas lights, making the Christmas tree in the middle of the room light up.

The TV was showing Home Alone, while on the couch, he could see Antonio chatting with his (recently declared) boyfriend Roderich.

"Hey Fran!" Antonio called out. Gilbert, on the other hand wasn't as certain.

"Ah, Fran! Erhm… how was the therapist's?"

Sure, Francis had felt better, but ever since he had told him about his anxieties, Gilbert had started restraining everything that he said.

"Gil, it's fine, you don't need to censor everything you say. I wasn't being completely honest with myself over the last couple of months, so I'm trying to do so right now. I'll just remind you whenever I want the topic to be changed. OK?"

"Hm, kay." Gilbert still seemed distracted. Francis sighed. He was a perfectionist, and hated causing problems.

Before he could answer, there was a knock on the door. While turning the doorknob, a small part of him wondered if it was Arthur. Turned out, it was Antonio's brother, João, who had came all the way from Portugal. He greeted him, and went over to the sofa before promptly going into a lengthy conversation with Antonio.

As Francis stood, and looked over to Antonio with João and Roderich, he realised something.

Arthur on the other hand lived alone, as far as he could tell. He never mentioned much family, either. Was Arthur spending Christmas alone?

He walked into the bedroom, and dialled Arthur's number.

"Hello?"

"Arthur! Hi! We're having a Christmas party at a friend of mine's, do you want to come?"

"Erhm… no thanks. Parties aren't exactly my thing."

After some more small talk, (how were you, etc) they hung up.

Francis thought. Maybe he could go over to his apartment, but then there was the Christmas party over at Ludwig's house, and he didn't want to miss that. On the other hand… how alone was Arthur? Maybe he could just give him a gift or something.

He knew that Arthur liked to read, but his bookshelves were full, and besides, it was sort of a predictable present. Arthur wasn't great at cooking, so maybe he could cook him something. Maybe a casserole? They still had more than an hour until they needed to be at Ludwig's. Yes, that sounded good.

And so he got to the kitchen and got to work.

Watching re-runs of Doctor Who while embroidering and sipping hot chocolate was a good way to spend Christmas, in Arthur's book. He wasn't the type who got too festive of anything, he just hung up some tinsel and called it a day.

He held up the embroidery hoop, and examined the piece of embroidery. The blanket stitches hadn't worked as well as he had hoped, and were a bit wide for his liking. Again, the satin stitch-

A knock on the door distracted him, and he stood up. He was pretty confident that it was Francis, though he wasn't sure why he was here, especially so shortly after a phone call. He took a deep breath in. The worst case scenario would probably be Francis accusing him for not wanting to go to the Christmas party, though he reasoned with himself that it'd be insanely unlikely. The best case scenario would be that Francis decided to spend Christmas with him or something like that. The most likely thing would be that Francis decided to drop in for a quick "Merry Christmas", maybe even give a card or a gift or something.

As per with his third prediction, Francis was standing at the door carrying a casserole pot.

"Hi, Arthur!" He greeted before handing him the pot with a smile. "Merry Christmas."

"Ah." He took the pot. Even with the lid closed, he could smell the savoury content of the pot, and it smelt absolutely mouth watering. "Thank you. Erhm, wow, you didn't have to give me a casserole." Francis smiled, and shrugged.

"It's the least I can do. I have to go now, unfortunately. Bye!"

Arthur waved while Francis walked away to join with another small party of people. Arthur looked down at the hallway, and then down at the casserole, still warm in his hands. It had been awhile since he was given a Christmas present. Sure, there were still the Christmas cards given by that overly festive co-worker, but otherwise, it had been awhile.

He brung the casserole back into his apartment and onto the table. Actually, it had been awhile since he had something close to a proper Christmas dinner. During Christmas, he usually went out to eat, whether if it was at a fancy diner or at a takeaway place. The last time he had a proper, hearty Christmas dinner was…

Was…

Seven years ago.

Had it really been that long? Wow. Seven years. Almost an entire decade.

He grabbed a dish and opened the lid. The tantalising aroma of hot lamb, rosemary, potatoes, and peas flooded the room immediately. His mouth watered. It smelt delicious!

A memory popped in his head. One year during Christmas, Angus tripped on the cat and fell into the trifle. He snickered at the memory. Mum wouldn't let the cat sleep on the dining room floor after that.

After he put some of the casserole into the dish, he noticed the way the potato slices were arranged so that they overlapped like fish scales. His own mother would just stack them.

He blew the casserole piece on the fork, and ate it. A million memories of Christmas during his childhood flooded his mind.

It tasted good. It tasted like home.

Arthur went on to finish half the casserole, and put the pot into the fridge. While he did, he wondered: shouldn't he give Francis a Christmas present as well?

He thought. What would Francis like as a present? Something music related, maybe? The stores were closed already, so if he was to give him a present, he would had to improvise. He definitely couldn't give him something cooked, hell no. Well he did have books…

There was this book he bought earlier in the year. Arthur walked over to his bookshelf. He had only read it once or twice, so it should be somewhere at the bottom shelf…

Ah! There it was wedged in the bottom. He pulled the book out, and brushed the cover.

For a second, he wondered if it was a good idea. Was he really going to give him a book? At least the casserole had effort put into it, this book was pretty much just something he pulled out of his ass.

Arthur took a deep breath in. The shops were closed, and he couldn't think of anything more suitable as a present. At least the book wasn't at the same calibre as, say, gifting Francis a used napkin or a plastic bag, at least there was some thought put into it. Besides, the book was still in a pretty good condition.

After reminding himself of those things, he felt better about it, and went out and headed downstairs.

"Hey, Fran, I think that this is for you or something," Gilbert called out as he came back from collecting mail the next day.

"Hm?"

"Here. It's from that Arthur guy." He handed him a book with a post-it note stuck onto it. A book from Arthur? Huh. The cover had a blue trombone on it. The reason that Arthur had picked this one was probably because it was about trombones, which was somewhat close to saxophones. Sure, Francis didn't like trombones more than saxophones, much less know how to play one, but he appreciated that at least Arthurĺ tried to pick something that peaked his interests.

"Thanks, Gil." He read the note:

Hi, I found this book while rummaging through my things. It's a book about a girl with sound-colour synesthesia, and it's quite an interesting read. The shops were closed, so I wasn't able to get wrapping paper, I must apologise. By the way, thank you for the casserole.

Merry Christmas,

Arthur

He flipped the book over, and read the summary. Reading books were not exactly his thing, but the premise sounded interesting. He reached for his phone:

Thank you for the book!

A few seconds later, there was another text:

You're welcome :-)

The book, trombones are blue, is a real book, by the way, though it is a WIP by Wild Rhov. Thank you, Rhov for letting me mention the book!

I'll be taking a bit of a hiatus to figure out what's going to happen in the next couple of chapters, so no chapters next month, unfortunately. But on the other hand, thank you for the comments last chapter!

Happy holidays, everybody!