Petal's POV

Sitting on the edge of my bed, I sighed into my hands, wondering if I could do this. We were celebrating Christmas, everyone getting extremely excited about it – and for a few weeks I'd been happy too. I'd never had a family to spend the holidays with so it was an incredible new experience I couldn't wait to see for myself. That is, until I found out that the rest of the Benedicts were invited.

I could already hear them talking loudly downstairs. It sounded like 30 people had been stuffed into the small living room. As if my anxiety around new people wasn't enough, they also had to make it crowded. I was in for several panic attacks today, I could tell as much already.

A soft knock on the door startled me out of my train of thought, making me glance up worriedly. Had they already come up to drag me downstairs?

"Pet? Are you ok?" A sigh of relief escaped me when I saw it was Gray standing at the doorway. I simply smiled and nodded, beckoning him to come into the room. I knew he wouldn't take me anywhere I didn't want to go, so at least I was safe for now.

"Yeah, fine. I hear the party's in full swing now."

"Mhm, Auntie Crystal and uncle Xav were the last to arrive with the kids cause they got stuck in a traffic jam coming here from New York."

"Oh, it's good that they could at least make it before it got dark." I was speaking more about my own opinion than anything else. I would have hated being stranded in the middle of a traffic jam after the sun went down. Night time was when the monsters came out to play. However, it didn't really mean that it was good – it just meant that I'd be taken to socialise sooner, which I was trying to avoid at all cost.

"Yeah. I brought you a flower." Smiling at me, he placed a blue flower in my hands.

"Where'd you find this?" I asked curiously, twirling it distractedly between my fingers. It was such a beautiful colour, radiant and alive even though it had been cut from its roots. So I tucked it behind my ear, not caring that it wasn't the same colour as my dress and that Sky might kill me for it later. At my action, Gray's smile widened, despite the fact the fact that I hadn't believed that to be possible moments before.

"A flower shop. It might surprise you to know these don't grow in Colorado in the middle of winter." Hitting him for his bad joke, I let my hand rest on his chest after the action. He grabbed it, joy seeming to radiate off of him in waves. For that second we simply stood there, and I could pretend that I wasn't real and he wasn't real and all of this was just a tumbling weed lost in the desert of time. But that wasn't true. This moment was important - I was about to meet his whole family - and pretending could only get me so far.

"You're such an idiot." I whispered, afraid to break the moment.

"And yet you still date me." There was mirth in his eyes, making my chest expand. Yes there were thirty odd people waiting for me downstairs, but here it was just him and me, and nothing could touch us.

"Yeah."

"We're all ready for you to make your big entrance." And just like that, it was shattered. At this I grimaced, Gray obviously catching the expression on my face. He didn't grab my hand to take me downstairs, instead put an arm around my waist as I leaned on him. "You don't want to go though, do you?"

"Not at all."

"Well, come on, tell me why not and I'll try to fix it." I wanted to hit him round the head for that comment whilst at the same time I felt the urge to coo at him for his never ending loyalty to others. He really would go to the furthest extremes to help those he loves. I felt my heart breaking a little at the thought of having to tell him that he couldn't fix it, unless he was willing to kick his whole family out on Christmas. I refused to be that selfish.

"I don't have good enough presents for everyone." Making up a quick excuse, I sighed in relief when I saw the anxiety melt straight off his features. He'd been worried I'd be scared to meet his family, that much was obvious. I felt too bad about putting that fear back in his eyes by revealing that my statement was only a half-truth. So I didn't. I just kept spinning my web of lies, with enough truths to appear to be the truth. "I don't know your aunts and uncles well enough so I just got all the women nice smelling soap and bath bombs and the men scarves with gloves but… God what if they're not good enough, Gray?"

"Hey, don't worry about it too much. Christmas is about spending it in family, not about the presents. I'm sure they'll be thankful that you bought them anything at all – especially with your badly paying job." He shot me a playful glare which I just shook off. I'd been working at Sainsbury's after school to pay off my debt to the Benedicts but none of them were exactly happy about it. In fact, Gray had begged me every time I went off to work to just quit, saying that his family liked treating me as one of their own. I never listened anymore, telling him the excuse I always did.

"You know I like being able to thank you guys this way – stop whinging about it." I'd become a lot more forward in these past months about my opinions, and it felt so liberating that I couldn't stop myself from doing it. I hadn't ever been able to imagine finding happiness from standing up to others, but it felt like I was simply expressing my opinion. Before, I'd thought I wouldn't be able to do it, as that might mean getting hurt or hurting others, but now I was realising that wasn't true at all.

"Well, it was worth a shot-"

"You mean just like the time before? And the time before that? And-"

"Shh, let me continue." He placed his finger on my lips, rolling his eyes at me with a smile. I grinned back, placing my own hand over his mouth and talking around his finger.

"Nope, if I can't talk you can't either." Instead of being deterred by my actions he just kissed my palm, removing it from his mouth. He knew what he was doing to me with the unexpected kiss, turning my insides into mush, and was perfectly aware that he wouldn't meet any resistance. "You're gonna be the death of me one of these days." Once again not letting what I was saying affect him, he entwined our fingers.

"And don't you know it." With this he sent a wink my way, making the butterflies in my stomach develop rabies. When he removed his spell from over me he was going to have an earful about shutting me up with his charming wit. "Are you sure you don't want to go down?" I started shaking my head, but he stopped me before I could fully transmit my point, seemingly having a great idea. "Mum's put flower vases everywhere, and you could totally just concentrate on the roses if you're feeling too crowded. I know you get into a sort of state of meditation when you focus on nature. So just do that if you're feeling close to a panic attack."

"I don't know Gray I mean- Wait did you say panic attack? How did you know that that was why I didn't want to go down?" Looking at me with despair, and an expression I'd been catching in his eyes too often – but that I remained unable to identify – he slowly brought his lips to mine.

"Because I love you, you thick headed walnut."

Hi :)

This chapter was so fun to write guys, like seriously. He finally said it :D I've been planning to have him say I love you for ages now but just didn't know how, but here we have it, I finally managed to get my life together xD

We didn't make the target last time, unfortunately :( But that's ok, I still got some lovely reviews that made me happy all the same :) Also I've decided to start a new policy where I'll update chapters on Monday and Thursday still but f you guys make it to the target before then I'll be posting the chapter early :D This chapter's target is... Hm, let's say 93, do you guys think we can make it this time? Obviously completely optional.

Bye bye :)