🎄 Underneath the Tree 🎄 Zarry

Ten ❄️

The few days until New Year's Eve are spent well, Harry reckons. No matter how many ugly looks Gemma gives him every time he's touching Zayn in any way, Harry is determined to continue things just like before. So what if they kiss? They're adults, they make their own decisions. Just because Harry isn't looking for a relationship doesn't mean he has to be celibate his whole life.

The days of nothingness between Christmas and the New Year are very mystifying but Harry has always found them quite pleasant. You don't really know what day it is, you don't feel like shit if you're not productive and spend all your time on the couch watching TV and eating cookies. It's warmth and the fuzzy feeling of a good, long hug.

He does look into his notes for his internship a few times, not too seriously though. Zayn usually hangs around, reading the book he got at Rosie's Petals, commenting on the plot of the sequels as well because apparently, he knows what's gonna happen but he's reading it either way. Harry redoes his nails one of those days and tries to talk Zayn into letting him paint his nails too but Zayn doesn't let him. Not because he would mind having his nails painted but because "that pastel... turquoise is so fucking ugly, I'm not letting you put that on me" and yeah, that's fair. Harry's heard a similar comment about that particular polish before but he likes it and it's his nails so he doesn't really give a fuck.

New Year's Eve is a bit of a strange holiday and Harry's never quite liked it. Sure, when he was younger it was exciting to stay up late and set off some fireworks but now, honestly, he'd rather be in New York at a party, getting drunk off his ass. Next year, he might end up taking a quick trip to Manhattan for a party and then coming back to the cabin. He loves his family, but they're not the most exciting bunch.

They do technically have a party of sorts. There is party food, they're encouraged to dress up nicely but all they do is sit around in the living room, watching various New Year's Eve programmes and then when the middle ages adults are tipsy enough, there is some dancing involved. Aunt Betty always puts on some late 80's music of her youth and Matt and Jane whine at her to stop embarrassing them.

This year it's not much different. At 11 PM, the adults are drunk just enough to abandon their adult kids and reminisce about their youth while pulling some terrible dance moves. But it's all in good fun. Harry knows that one day, he's gonna be that old too and oh, he will start dancing the second he hears Beyoncé playing.

"Are they ignoring us already?" Matt stage-whispers as he comes back to the corner of the living room where the youths are sitting around, drinking all the wine they could find. "I got something for us." Matt then proceeds to pull out a bottle of vodka from behind his back. In his other hand are a bunch of neon plastic shot glasses Harry's sure are leftover from his last party.

"Oh, wow, you're so generous," Gemma says in a monotone voice. "Shitty vodka. This is the best party ever."

"Don't be ungrateful," Matt nudges her ribs as he sits back on the sofa. "You could've gone to some fancy party but you're here and this is all we have. Is everyone drinking?"

"Is it just straight vodka?" Harry frowns. Lately, he's graduated from shots to drinks because after hitting twenty-one, it felt too dumb to be puking after every single party. His drinking game is more refined now.

"Yep and you're gonna love it," Matt thrusts a full shot glass into Harry's hand and another one into Zayn's, who doesn't look too excited about it either. Ah, to be a college freshman again and be thrilled about any and all alcohol.

"Well, cheers," Zayn turns to Harry and clinks their neon shot glasses together before throwing back the shot. Harry feels like he just drunk plain petrol or something. One thing he doesn't miss from his earlier years of college is the cheap vodka.