do they know it's christmas? [zarry] ✔️

3.

She hears Harry before he comes rushing around the corner, laughing to himself, delighted, Zain just behind him with his worried little frown.

"Harry, where are your clothes?" Anne asks, sighing.

"Gone," Harry answers cheekily, grinning at her, naked as the day he was born.

"At least keep your diaper on," Anne tries, sighing in resignation.

"He doesn't listen to me," Zain says solemnly, looking up at her.

"I know, darling," Anne reassures him, because Zain was always trying to help and took it hard when Harry wasn't listening to him or not paying attention to him. It would be heartbreaking but there was nothing worse to Harry than Zain not being around, so it was fair probably.

"No clothes, mummy," Harry pouts, plopping down in front of the Christmas tree and starting to shake the boxes he can reach.

"Zain, look!" he adds, smiling gleefully at Zain when one of the presents jingles softly. "Look!"

"Presents are tomorrow, Harry," Zain says worriedly, pulling at Harry's arm.

"Why don't you go play upstairs until Trisha comes," Anne suggests. "With Harry's animals. That would be fun, no."

"No, mummy," Harry says and then starts talking his gibberish.

Zain nods at him seriously, like he understands.

"All the animals need to visit the stable, remember?" Anne tries as Harry moves onto the next present. "Like in the story we read. The donkey and the sheep and what else?"

"Camels," Zain says eagerly, looking at her with large eyes.

"Exactly," she smiles, picking Harry up and tickling him gently. "Come on, let's get you back into some clothes and then you can visit the stable."

"Camels can go really really long without drinking," Zain tells her, clutching her hand as she carries a wiggling Harry upstairs. "Mummy told me."

"Did she, love?" Anne asks, squeezing his hand slightly.

"Yes," Zain nods, his hair bouncing slightly. It was getting long. "She reads me and Doniya a book every night and it is all about animas," he chats, bouncing on the spot while she tries to wrangle Harry back onto at least a diaper. Zain tries to help by patting Harry's hair but it only makes Harry more desperate to get away, wanting to play.

She lets him go, the diaper on for what she hopes will be more than ten minutes, and watches them huddle together with their toy figurines as she cleans up, Zain chatting at Harry while Harry watches him with worshipful eyes.

Zain keeps chatting, oblivious, showing Harry the camel and then the sheep and letting Harry hold them when he grabs for them, eager to hoard his treasures.

Christmas always makes her nostalgic, perhaps because it marked the passing of time more clearly when the rest of the year had a tendency to blur into hot days and rainy days, playful days and days that felt overwhelming. But she remembers watching Zain pat her belly and Harry kicking, and then too soon Harry crawling after him. Now, Harry was already running after him and next year they'd both be chatting and then he's be in school.

She sighs to herself and settles in to watch them, Zain trying to teach Harry how to make donkey noses and Harry too busy trying to hold all the toys at once to pay attention.

He's try taking off his diaper in a moment again and then start crying when Trisha came to pick up Zain and Doniya, but for now they were happy in their own little world and she could enjoy the peaceful moment.

⭐️

next one will be longer I promise