HAPPY NEW YEAR GUYS!
I HOPE YOUR 2018 HAVE BEEN GREAT AND THAT 2019 WILL BE EVEN BETTER!

I have based this entirely on how I've celebrated New year's eve, including basing Neal's excitement on how my 6-year-old little brother acted last year.
I also chose to include a Swedish tradition (and according to Wikipedia it's also a tradition in some other European countries) to watch the British sketch "Dinner for one", in Swedish called "Grevinnan och betjänten".
They air it at 19:45 every New Year's Eve and it's a tradition to watch it (just like we watch the Disney "From All of Us to All of You" at 3PM every single Christmas eve).
Just because I love the tradition and I thought that it would be fun to include even though it might not make sense.

Also I did not have time to edit this since I was done with it pretty late in the evening.
So if there's any mistakes, it's entirely my fault and I'm sorry :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The week between Christmas and New Year's eve couldn't have pass any slower, at least according to Neal.
Even if he had plenty of things to do, everything from using all the things he had gotten for Christmas to activities that the adults had planned, he just kept complaining that the days went by too slow and acted as if new year's was months away and not just days.
Finally, the 31st arrived but the Burkes' relief over no more complaining was very short lived.
As soon as Neal woke up he started complaining that the hours were going by too slowly and that he wanted to go to June's right NOW.
The Burkes had originally planned on celebrating the new year at their own home, like they always did, but June had insisted that they would all come to her house for the celebration.
It had been the fact that they wouldn't have to cook the food and that they would have an amazing view of all the fireworks from her balcony that had made them give in and accept the woman's offer.
Finally, it was time to leave the house and Neal, who had been dressed and ready to go for the pat 10 minutes, were impatiently telling them to hurry.

"We were gonna be there at 3PM! If you don't hurry we will never make it there in time!"

The kid said while he grabbed Peter's glove and more or less threw them at him.
Peter just chuckled at him, the child was truly a time pessimist but at least that would make him punctual.

When they arrive they were met by Mozzie who were just returning from a walk with Bugsy.
It was hard for them to not laugh when the tiny pug spotted Satchmo and decided that he wanted to say hello to his friend, which meant that the dog went from calmly walking to pulling on the leash with all of his might.
Mozzie, who had not at all been prepared for the sudden strength, was completely caught off guard and stumbled, almost falling and faceplanting the ground.
The short man grumbled to himself before letting go of the leash, knowing that the dog was too distracted by Satch to even think about running away, and the tiny dog ran to the bigger dog as fast as his little legs could carry him.
After the dogs had happily greeted each other, they went inside where June were cooking, they had sort of expected that she would have a maid or something cook for her but they had been wrong

"June, do you need any help?"

Elizabeth asked, seeing that the woman was running around the kitchen, trying to do everything at the same time.

"No thank you, Elizabeth. I've got this. You guys are guests so you should just go and sit down, make yourselves at home."

She answered before she more or less forced the couple out of the kitchen.
The Burkes sat down on a couch while their kid sat down by the piano with Mozzie and the two friends started to play around with it.
A couple of minutes later Jones and Diana arrived and Peter got up to greet them while Elizabeth, who still felt bad that June was doing everything by herself, went to see if she could at least cut some vegetables or set the table.

"No Christie?"

Peter asked Diana, knowing that her girlfriend had been scheduled to work during Christmas but had promised to show up today.

"Major traffic accident involving a bus full of people, they had to pull in every doctor they could."

She explained but Peter could sense some tension there, as if there was something more than that, but that wasn't something he was going to bring up today.
Peter changed the subject to a little more lighter topic and was in the middle of a joke, admittedly a bad one, when Neal suddenly showed up and started to pull on his hand.

"Come and listen, daddy! You have to come listen!"

He told him excitedly while pulling his hand as much as possible and Peter smiled at his choice of words.
Even if he had asked if he could call them mommy and daddy, he hadn't made the switch yet.
Neal had only called him daddy one time before and that had been when he had been woken up by scratches from his closet.
The poor kid had been absolutely terrified, he had been a sobbing mess begging him to "please get rid of the monster daddy!" while he clung onto Elizabeth for dear life.
In the end Peter had opened the closet and had been met by none other than Satchmo.
The dog had at some point got into the closet and fallen asleep on a pile of clothes and then someone had closed the closet door without noticing the dog's presence.

" Okay, okay I'm coming."

Peter told him and followed him back to the piano where Neal sat down and started to play the melody of 'Twinkle little star' without any mistakes.
Peter and his coworkers applauded when the boy finished and Neal smiled proudly.

"Kid's a natural."
Mozzie remarked before he turned back to the piano and moved to another easy melody that he could teach him.

June had decided to serve a three course meal, starting with a creamy broccoli soup.
Neal was slightly skeptical about it at first but once they convinced him to try it, he seemed unable to stop eating it and they had to remind him that they would be served more food.
Their main course was not one, not two but three different kind of pies since June hadn't been sure what they would like.
The first one was a taco pie decorated with nacho chips on top, the second one was a pie with mushroom and onions and the last one was a cheese and broccoli pie.
They tried a piece of every pie and they were all perfect.

"So who's the better chef, me or Elizabeth?"

June asked Neal and even if she was joking it reminded Peter of how his mother and grandmother had always competed about who was the best chef and made the kids the judges.
Neal looked between June and Elizabeth who was glaring at each other, pretending that this was a serious competition.

"I think you're both great."

The boy answered, smart enough to not pick a side even if it wasn't for real.
The women stopped glaring at each other and instead smiled, both seeming satisfied with his answer.

"Good answer."

June said before she, with the help of Peter and Jones, started to clear the table.
The last course was of course the dessert and the course that Neal had been looking forward to the most.
For dessert they got a homemade chocolate mousse with whipped cream on top.
Neal was given the glass with the most in, something that caused him to look like he had just won the lottery through the entire meal.

After dinner the adults had some coffee while Neal had left the table and was now placed on the floor with a pencil and a paper, trying to draw the adults.
Once and again he would yell out things like: "Peter sit still!" and the person who had been yelled at had to sit still until Neal said they could move again.
When Neal was done he proudly showed it to them and even if it was still a kid's drawing, it was pretty amazing.
The amount of detail he had added and how he had managed to capture things like their facial expressions were truly amazing for a 6-year-old.
June, who had been gifted the drawing, had immediately found an appropriate frame and framed it, throwing the photo in the frame aside since it wasn't as important.
Then they all sat down in front of the TV and watched "Dinner for One".
Neal was amused by the sketch, giggling almost nonstop, and the funniest part, according to him, was when the butler tripped over the tiger's head.
Once it was over, they decided to play some games, starting with teaching Neal some simple card games.
He caught on pretty quickly and they weren't sure if it was beginner's luck or cheating but the kid won almost every single round they played.
Then they moved on to playing some of the child appropriate board games that Elizabeth and Peter had brought with them before they moved on to playing Trivial Pursuit where Neal, just like last time, helped Peter roll the dice and answer some of the easier questions.

They had originally planned on putting Neal down for a nap by his usual bedtime and then wake him up before midnight but the stubborn child had managed to convince them to let him stay up, something that he kept bragging about the entire time.
No matter how much he bragged though and no matter how much he fought it, he was still out like a light by 10PM.
One second he was sitting on the floor, lazily playing with the dogs, and then the next he was sprawled out on the floor, his head rested on a very confused looking Satchmo.

"Damn."

Jones said before reaching into his pocket and pulled out his wallet, pulling out a 10 dollar bill that he handed to a smug looking Mozzie.
June and Diana both sighed before getting up from the table, going to fetch their wallets as well.

"Did you guys bet on how long he would make it?"

Peter asked, partly surprised that they were betting on his son and partly offended that no one had told him about it.

"Can you believ-"

He turned to ask his wife but interrupted himself as he noticed that she had left the table as well.

"Really? You were in on it as well?"

The agent asked her as she returned with a 10-dollar bill in her hand.

"I thought he would last at least 20 more minutes."

She just answered and Peter shook his head before he got up from his chair.

"Unbelievable."

He muttered, now really offended that he had been the only one left out, as he lifted up the sleeping child and freeing the dog, who hadn't dared to move a muscle.
He carried Neal up the stairs and put him in a bed in one of the guest rooms, not only was it more comfortable but it was also no chance of him getting disturbed by the adults now.
Peter tucked him in before leaving the room and going downstairs to the rest of the adults who had refilled the glasses of wine.
He was glad that they had all gotten to the agreement that they could all drink if they wanted to but no one was going to drink too much.
Considering James' alcoholism, they had no idea how Neal was going to react if one of them had too much and he noticed it.

They spent their time playing more games, just talking to each other and in general just having a good time with many laughs.
Elizabeth left the table by 11.50PM and went up the stairs to wake Neal up, wanting to give him a couple of minutes to fully wake up before midnight, while the rest of them started to prepare for midnight.
Jones was sent to fetch the champagne, Diana got some soda for Neal while June and Peter carried the glasses up to the balcony where they would start the new year.
There were already several fireworks being set off, and they had been both seeing and hearing them for the past couple of hours.
Soon Elizabeth came out on the balcony with a tired Neal by her side.
He trudged over to Peter and lifted his arms up, indicating that he wanted to be picked up.
The agent easily picked him up and held him tightly as Neal leaned his head against his shoulder while he looked at the fireworks.
Mozzie was in charge of keeping track of the exact time and soon started to count down from 15, the other ones joining in once he reached 10.
Neal had gotten a little more alert and was now happily counting down with them until they reached zero and they all yelled out "Happy new year!" as the sky exploded with colour and the loud bangs echoed through the city.
They clinked their glasses together before drinking their champagne and soda.
Neal then spent a minute or two looking at the fireworks with awe before asking Peter to put him down.

Peter only looked at the fireworks for a minute before he looked down again but when he did the kid was gone.
He looked around him but there were only adults on the balcony.
He was positive that Neal had just gone inside to use the bathroom or something but Peter still excused himself and went inside to locate his boy.
With everything that had happened, with the running away and the kidnapping, you couldn't exactly blame Peter and Elizabeth for being slightly overprotective of Neal.
He searched the entire house, looking in every room and calling out for his name but received no answer.
It was like he had vanished into thin air.
Peter was just about to return to the others and sound the alarm when he heard a whimper coming from under the bed.
He crouched down and saw Neal lying there, tears rolling down his cheeks as he hugged the two shaking, whimpering dogs.

" They're really scared, Peter."

Neal said with a sniffle before tightening his grip around the dogs.

"New Year's is not fun for them. It's not fun at all."

He couldn't help but feel proud of the kid who felt so much empathy for the dogs and chose to comfort them instead of looking at the fireworks that he had spent the entire week waiting for.

"Do you want to stay with them until it's over?"

Peter asked and Neal nodded.

"Can you stay too?"

Even if Peter loved to look at the fireworks and even if he wanted to celebrate with the other, he too empathized with the animals and knew that their celebrations were torture for them.

"Yeah I'll stay."
He answered and lied down on the floor, reaching his arm under the bed so that he could pet the dogs.

It was over 1 AM when the Burkes finally arrived home and they were all exhausted.
Neal had fallen asleep again in the car and Peter had to carry him yet again while Elizabeth was fighting to hold on to Satchmo's leash, the dog panicking every time a late firework was heard.
They finally made it inside where Elizabeth quickly made sure that Satch had food and water and that both of the doors were locked and all of the lights were off before they walked up the stairs to tuck Neal in before they went to their own room.
Peter gently put Neal in the bed and Elizabeth pulled the cover over him before she leaned against Peter, resting her tired head against his shoulder.

"It was a good year."

Elizabeth said with a yawn and Peter smiled.
It was definitely a good year because they had been blessed with this wonderful boy.

"And I think this year will be even better."

Peter answered before they both kissed Neal's forehead and left the room to go to bed.
The year had been good but it had also been tough, with Neal living on the street, with being kidnapped and dealing with bullies.
This year they were a family and with all the bad guys out of their lives they were more than ready to have a normal year and become closer as a family.
Who knows what this year have to offer?

I did feel the need to include the part about the dogs because we had a wonderful little family dog, a corgi, from 2003 to the very start of 2015.
(Not so fun fact: My dog actually got sick on new year's eve 2014 and passed away on the 1st of January 2015.)
Our dog was terrified of fireworks and he had epilepsy which was a major worry so as a child I used to watch the fireworks for a minute before spending the rest of the time under a bed with my dog just like Neal.
I do love watching fireworks but I also do suffer with the animals so I just felt the need to include their perspective of New Year's.

Also I have to say that I'm going through a lot right now, I got sick and missed Christmas eve (my fave day of the year) which really triggered my depression, I'm pretty sure I've lost my best friend of 15 years and I have some major writing assignments to do for my uni course.
(Sorry for oversharing :P)
Anyways because all of this I just need to take a short break from writing but don't worry I'm only planning on taking January off and are planning on getting this and my other stories updated in February.
So thank you for understanding why there won't be a new update for a while and I wish you all a very wonderful 2019.