The Hockey Life - A Patrick Kane Fanfic

Part Fifty-Five - Home for Christmas

PART FIFTY-FIVE: HOME FOR CHRISTMAS

The airport was extremely busy when I got there in the evening, but that wasn’t much of a surprise to me. It was Christmas Eve, after all. I just felt lucky that the snow we had begun to accumulate didn’t delay Patrick’s flight. Things could have been disastrous before the holiday even officially started, but so far they weren’t. I watched a crowd of people make their way off the plane and into the airport and I smiled when I saw a familiar head of blonde curls.

“Hey. How was the flight?” I asked as I intertwined my fingers with his and we made our way through the people to get to my car.

“It was alright. A little turbulence,” he answered.

“And how was Christmas with your family?”

“Just a little more exciting than my flight. It was pretty fun. It always is,” he said.

“That’s good. Did you get any awesome presents?” I wondered.

“I got clothes, mostly, but my mom got me a new pair of headphones,” he explained. We were outside at that point, and I quickly grabbed my gloves out of my coat pockets and slipped them on. Winter was definitely here.

The drive was a little longer than usual, mostly because of the Christmas Eve traffic. Once we got out of the city, it was a little better. Even so, I felt much better once I had pulled into the familiar driveway of my childhood home. As much as I enjoyed snow, I hated driving in it. Now I could just admire the big flakes that were falling down. Patrick and I grabbed our bags and went up the path to the front door. I could tell that my dad had cleared it out, but there was a new, thin layer of snow that covered it now. I rang the doorbell and wrapped my arms around Patrick to keep warm while we waited for someone to answer. I could hear Puck barking, so I knew someone would be there soon. Sure enough, my mom answered the door and we hurried inside. I hugged my mom first, then my dad, then Brian, and lastly Puck, who seemed to be happier to see me than anyone. He was pretty excited to have Patrick around as well.

Once we were out of our winter layers and we had set down our bags in my room, I showed Patrick all the decorations. We had a Christmas tree in the main living room, the basement, and in the open space near the spiral staircase. Apart from that, there were lights and garland on the staircase and on shelves. My mom also set out cute holiday-themed knick knacks. I loved how the house looked at Christmastime.

“Are you guys hungry?” my mom asked when we made our way into the kitchen.

“A little,” I admitted.

“I made some caramel corn, so don’t be shy,” my mom told us. I didn’t hesitate to dig into the big tin of it on the counter. Patrick joined me. Once we had gotten our fill, we joined my parents and brother in the living room for the annual Home Alone Marathon (which only included the first two films). My parents were pretty tired by the time the second movie was over, so they headed to bed. Us “kids”, however, weren’t ready to go to sleep yet. Instead we discussed our plans for the next morning.

“Okay, so we have this tradition where we young adults act like little children on Christmas morning and find a ridiculous way to wake our parents up,” Brian explained. “This year, you get to help,” he added as he glanced over at Patrick.

“Okay. What exactly are we doing?” Pat asked.

“We’re not sure yet. That’s what we have to figure out,” I said.

“In the past we’ve done things like jumping on our parents’ bed and blasting Christmas music. We need a new strategy for this year,” Brian decided. After talking for a while, we came up with a new, original idea that we were able to agree on. Once we had that figured out, we realized it was late and we should probably get some sleep, even if we didn’t really want to. Brian went up to his room and Patrick and I went up to mine. I was sure my parents would have preferred that we didn’t sleep together, but they never said we couldn’t. Besides, there wasn’t a spare bedroom and I didn’t feel like sleeping on the couch or making Patrick do so. I brushed my teeth and took off my makeup before we each took a side of the bed.