Merry Christmas!
Preston's P.O.V.
A white Christmas was always fun, but it was even more fun when I was surrounded by friends in a warm home with mountains of food on the table. Everyone had arrived in Canada over a period of weeks, Lachlan first because he honestly spent more time in Canada than he did in Australia at this point, and I ever so slightly suspected something was going on, but I didn't mention it. I was next to show up, only an hour earlier than Vikk, and Mitch and Jerome arrived horrifically early the next day.
We had all arrived slightly before the very busy travel week surrounding Christmas to avoid that hectic rush, so there was a day or two for me to get over my exhaustion from travelling- sure it might have only been one flight, no swapping time zones or anything, but I had always hated airports and planes, and no one seemed to mind. No one interrupted me as I slept for 12 hours, got up to eat a bit and then went right back to sleep.
By the time I was finally actually awake Christmas was only 4 days away and everyone was sort of in a happy dream, just glad that we were back together. We hadn't been together as a group, all 6 of us that is, for well over two years now and everyone was just so excited to be back together, to be able to hug each other and fall asleep in the same bed and just talk face to face like the good old times.
"Mornin' Preston." Jerome said with a smile over a mug of coffee, one arm tight around Mitch's waist. Said boy was still half asleep, eyes closed and legs dangling off the barstool, probably mostly relying on Jerome to keep him from falling over. "Want some?"
He gestured at his coffee and I nodded thankfully, already moving towards the fresh pot sitting on the bench.
"Yeah, thanks." I mumbled, yawning again. "How long have you been up?"
"Less than 10 minutes." He glanced down at Mitch. "And not at all. No one else is up."
"Alright." I stirred the cup for a moment before sitting down at another stool next to them, blinking slowly while I tried to properly wake myself up.
It took about an hour before the next person wandered down the stairs- Lachlan- followed a few minutes later by both Vikk and Rob. All three looked pretty tired and there was a comfortable silence until they had got through at least one cup of coffee each, although Vikk had gotten a second by the time the other two made it through half of one. Mitch had woken more by this time though and was chatting quietly with Jerome about nothing in particular.
"Are we doing anything today?" Vikk asked around his mug, directed at Rob.
"No, don't think so." He replied tiredly. "Just hanging out, it's too cold to go anywhere. Lachy's streaming I think but that's about it." Lachlan nodded.
"Yeah, in a couple of hours." He mumbled. Rob continued.
"But we won't be going anywhere. We've got food for the next few days and for Christmas already and everyone's get presents, so I think we'll just stick around here. Oh yeah, and Boomer, Jake and Mitch are coming around tomorrow morning, I don't think I've mentioned that."
"You told me and Lachy." Vikk murmured quietly.
"Oh yeah, I did."
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Christmas morning came fast, and everyone was super excited. Because of the size of my house we were all sharing rooms, of course in the typical Pack ships that all the fans loved. I was in with Rob, Mitch and Jerome were in the guest room and Lachlan and Vikk were downstairs in the lounge, sharing the two couches that had been pushed together to form a square, about the size of a regular king sized bed.
Rob and I were downstairs first, shaking the youngest two awake. Both of them groaned and attempted to shake us off them but after enough of us shouting "Christmas! Christmas!" they finally decided to get up. Our commotion also woke Mitch and Jerome, who stumbled down the stairs a minute or two later.
"We get it!" Vikk groaned, sitting up on his couch with a duvet pulled around his shoulders. "It's Christmas! I doesn't mean we can't sleep in!"
Lachlan still hadn't sat up and was instead glaring at us over the edge of his blanket, hair tousled, but I could tell he had this childish excitement in his eyes because it was Christmas! Eventually he crawled like a slug, still wrapped in that blanket, off the couch and over to the tree on the other side of the room. Jerome and Mitch were making coffee in the next room.
Once everyone was gather, youngest wrapped in blankets and everyone clutching hot mugs of coffee, we began.
"Stockings or presents first?" Rob asked.
"Stockings!" Lachlan chastised. "It's tradition!"
"Alright then, stockings it is." He laughed.
Our stockings were mostly chock full of little gifts, candy canes, chocolate and marshmallow Santa's, chocolate coins, Pez for a laugh, and a whole bunch of other little gifts. Everyone got a set of earbuds, mints, a beanie, a mug, things like that. Each stocking was personalised to the person who received it, Lachlan's stocking was mostly Pokémon themed, Rob's themed around flowers and Vikk had mostly star themed items. It was pretty cute to be honest- Rob had done the shopping for these which is why everything was mostly the same, and why his was flower themed. He had chosen them himself.
Everyone was on their second cup of coffee, or hot chocolate, by the time we got around to opening presents. We did them one at a time, round in a circle, and we had amazing time laughing and joking.
This was the sort of thing I lived for. I loved being surrounded by my friends, celebrating Christmas even though I technically didn't celebrate it, but for us Christmas was about friends and family rather than the religious meaning behind it. If I could do this every year I definitely would and as I glanced around the room, Vikk with stupid star glasses on, Rob wearing a flower crown, Lachlan with Pikachu ears on top of his head and Mitch and Jerome wearing matching sparking Santa hats, I smiled.
I loved these boys. This was definitely the best part.
