Christmas is coming (I say, as it's literally just the beginning of December both in the story and in real life)! Let me be excited, alright? Anyway, happy Saturday, lovelies. Hopefully you guys enjoy this chapter. I'm like really tired, y'all. And fluffy times will be coming to an end soon, pls forgive me. ~Shaymie

Alex's POV

We piled into Jefferson's house and let out a collective sigh of relief as the warm air hit us. Only Jefferson would leave the heat on while he was gone. Then again, he could afford it. I briefly wondered where his parents were. Everyone shed their layers of jackets and scarves and walked into the living room. Jefferson and Peggy went to the kitchen, saying that they were going to prepare something to warm everyone up.

Lorin sat down on Jefferson's couch with a sigh and took her beanie off. She ran a hand through her hair, which was as poofy as ever. She hadn't been doing much to it since she cut it, choosing to let it do whatever it wanted. It was a fluffy mess of sandy curls, surrounding her face adorably. She managed to make it work and not look like a crow's nest.

"Are all guys in New York disgusting pigs?" Darcy asked as she flexed her hand. She huffed and sat on the floor in front of me and Lo, since we had run out of couch space. She rolled her eyes at the offended scoffs that came from the guys in the room. "Okay, so only the rich ones are pigs. Yes, even you Thomas."

"What'd I do?" Jefferson frowned as he walked back into the room, carrying a tray of steaming mugs. Peggy walked in behind him with an identical tray and set it down on the table in the middle of the room, handing me one mug in particular. Coffee. I smiled thankfully at Peggy and took a sip. Lo was given a cup of hot chocolate, which she wrapped her hands around silently. She hadn't talked in awhile, I realized. She hadn't said a word since the end of the snowball fight. I'd normally assume she wasn't talking because of Burr's girlfriend (or whatever she was to him), but she didn't have a problem talking in front of her earlier.

"Penny for your thoughts, Lo?" I asked quietly, resting my chin on top of her hair as Darcy started complaining to Thomas about how she thought that rich people in New York were complete jerks. Lo tilted her head up curiously and frowned.

"W-What?" Her voice was light, feathery, and slightly shaky, like she hadn't expected for someone to talk to her. There was a distant look in her eyes, like she wasn't entirely here. I'd seen that look before. It was the look she had when she had been worrying about something but didn't want anyone to know about it. I frowned.

"Something's bothering you, Lo. What is it?"

"...It's nothing," she frowned, looking down at her hot chocolate. I sighed. She was a terrible liar. If it really was nothing, she would have been finished with her hot chocolate by now, not just staring at it. Her cute little nose was scrunched up, like she had just thought of something upsetting. She sighed and set her cup to the side. Her gray eyes turned up to look at me. "Really, I'm… I'm fine. I was just thinking too much. Like always."

I opened my mouth to respond, but quickly shut it. She'd tell me if it was anything too bad, wouldn't she? She had a habit of holding everything in until it was too much (like the issue with her childhood), but I didn't want to force her to talk to me if she clearly didn't feel like it. My gaze went down to her arms, which were littered with scars, before I looked back up at her face. I knew she hated people staring at them.

"Are we actually going to do anything, or are we just going to watch Darcy argue with Jefferson?" Angelica sighed, twirling a bit of hair around her finger. She was definitely the least enthusiastic of the group. Everyone else was able to at least tolerate Jefferson, for Lorin's sake. Eliza and Peggy may be the only people who willingly talk to him. But Angelica still held a grudge against him for all the times he'd flirted with Lo in the past.

"Okay," Darcy smiled as she turned away from Jefferson mid-sentence. She clapped her hands together and stood up. "I'm going to the bathroom. Thomas, how about you put on a Christmas movie or something?"

Jefferson sighed as Darcy sauntered out of the room. He went over to his expensive-looking entertainment system and started to take out several DVDs, his eyebrows scrunching as he looked through them. I chuckled. I didn't think anyone could boss him around, least of all Darcy. Maybe he was scared of her after seeing her knock that guy down with a single punch. She had mentioned getting a gym membership recently so she could stay fit for her modeling job, but somehow I felt like her strength didn't come from just that. I had a feeling that she was used to beating up guys that looked at her or Lo wrong.

"When are we going Christmas shopping?" Peggy asked excitedly, bouncing in Laf's lap. "I want to go to the mall to see Santa!"

"Peggy, you do realize that Santa isn't re-" Burr's sentence was cut off by Theodosia stomping on his foot with a glare.

"He isn't what?" Peggy's face fell, and there were tears glistening in her eyes. I didn't think that she would still believe in Santa. Didn't people normally stop believing in him when they were little kids? Or if they were like me, they never believed in him in the first place.

"He isn't at the mall today!" Lorin said quickly, brushing some hair back from her face. "He probably won't be there for a couple of days, you know. He's probably still working on packing up the gifts. There's a lot of people in the world, Pegs."

I bit back a laugh as Eliza told Peggy that she'd get to see Santa next week... Then I realized that I didn't know what to get everyone for Christmas. It was even worse than the situation I'd had with Lo's birthday. At least with that, I'd only had to worry about one person. Now I have to worry about several people.

"...You will be found."

I smiled as Lo sang the final notes the song she was performing with Eliza and Madison for their choir final. They had been practicing a lot lately (which sadly meant that I had to listen to the same song on repeat), but at the very least, they sounded amazing. Lo had been talking about how excited she was to be able to do something with Eliza and Madison, since she hadn't been able to perform in the choir concert.

The room next door was strangely silent, the only sounds being some quiet shuffling. Maybe they were taking a break. Laf and I had to remind Lo to take breaks so she wouldn't strain her voice. Maybe now she knew when to take breaks without us telling her. I sighed as I stared down at the blank piece of paper in front of me. At least one of us was getting something done. I was trying to make a list of what to get everyone for Christmas. George and Martha said they'd pay for whatever Lo and I wanted to buy our friends as long as it wasn't too expensive. Laf had his own credit card since he was 18.

I got up from my desk and stretched. I had been sitting at my desk for awhile now, and I needed a bit of a break. I went over to Lorin's room (knocking before I entered) and found her sitting on her bed with Eliza and Madison. They were looking over some sheet music and talking quietly, though they stopped when they saw me. I walked over to Lo and kissed her on the cheek. She looked up at me, her eyelids drooping slowly.

"How's it going?" I asked, sitting down in the beanbag chair in the corner. I took my glasses off and rubbed my eyes, blinking when Lo climbed into my lap. She curled up and put her head on my chest, closing her eyes and humming softly when I put a hand on her head and started running it through her hair. She actually started purring when I started scratching at her scalp. So it wasn't just me that liked that… I made a note to remember that for later. "Lo?"

"Hmm?" she mumbled, grabbing a fistful of my shirt. "Everything's fine. We're taking a bit of a break. I'm a little tired."

"It's about time for us to go anyway." Eliza checked the time quietly and grabbed her purse. She put the sheet music into a stack and put them on Lo's bedside table. She stood up and smoothed out her skirt."Jamie has a doctor's appointment."

"Text me when it's over," Lo spoke sleepily. She didn't open her eyes, even when Eliza and Madison both gave her a kiss on the cheek and left. I picked her up and set her on the bed. She reached out and grabbed my hand before I could leave. I noticed that she was still wearing her charm bracelet. I think the only time she ever took it off was when she showered.

"What's up, Lo?"

"It's a bit too cold to sleep." She opened her eyes and smiled at me as I kicked my shoes off and got into the bed next to her. My breath caught in my throat as she started tugging my shirt off, planting hot little kisses on my neck and chest. She leaned forward and put her mouth next to my ear. "So how about we do something to warm ourselves up? I believe I owe you something for that snowball fight."

...Well, how could I say no to that? I got up quickly and locked the door, turning the lights off as I passed the switch. Lo resumed the kisses as I wrapped my arms around her, and we spent the next several hours getting warm and cozy.