MERRY
Finally stepping off the plane after a long flight meant Harry wanted to release a sigh of relief, but the journey was far from over.
Traveling with a six-year old, a three-year-old, and a six-month-old was stressful as fuck. Harry kept repeating a simple phrase in his head: Never again. Never again. Never again.
Harry was holding six-month-old Cody in one arm as he dragged his carry-on case behind him with his other hand, all while Noah held three-year-old River's hand in one of hers, while her other rolled her carry-beside her. Six-year-old Leo walked in front of them all, with his child-sized carry-on trailing behind him as he held it with one arm and cradled a stuffed animal penguin in his other.
The flight was exhausting. Cody was crying quite a lot, which was not surprising considering it was her first flight ever, and Leo was quite restless. It was a long flight, after all, so Harry and Noah couldn't exactly fault him, but it was exhausting to deal with. River, on the other hand, was as relaxed as ever, simply sitting in between the window and his baby sister while he watched kid's shows on an iPad.
Because there were five of them, their seats were a little separated in the airplane. The plane had three columns of seats - a column on each side that had three seats per row, and one column down the middle that had four seats per row. Harry, River, and Cody sat on one of the edge columns, where River had the window seat, Cody sat in the middle, and Harry sat in the aisle. Noah and Leo sat across the aisle from them in the middle column, with Leo sitting in the aisle and Noah sitting in the middle.
Given that Cody was a daddy's girl all the way, it only made sense that she was placed with Harry. That was part of why Harry was so exhausted - he was the one caring for her and calming her down the entire time.
The family finally made it to baggage claim after getting through immigration, and Noah tasked herself with grabbing a cart to place all their luggage on. Harry stood with the kids by the luggage carousel, waiting for it to start dispensing their luggage.
When Noah came back with the cart, Harry handed Cody to her and began grabbing all of their luggage off the carousel to place on the cart. Thankfully, Leo and River patiently stood by, but that was mainly because they were beyond exhausted from the journey and didn't have the energy to run around.
Thankfully, the process of getting to the rental car place wasn't too difficult, and they were quickly provided with all the car seats they needed before they packed their car and set off.
It only took a few minutes of driving before all the kids fell asleep, causing Harry to finally speak up about his unpleasant experience.
"We are never traveling ever again," he declared firmly.
Noah rolled her eyes and reached over to soothingly rub Harry's left arm as he rested his hand on the gear shift knob.
"Don't be so grouchy, handsome. It's worth it," she said with slight amusement in her tone.
"Is it?" Harry questioned with immense doubt in his. "We still have to fly back home and go through it all over again."
Pouting and continuing to rub Harry's arm, Noah said, "so what? We're spending Christmas with your family and the kids will love seeing their nan. I know you're getting old, but that's no reason to be a curmudgeon."
Harry's jaw dropped in absolute offense and he glanced over at Noah to glare at her, sending her obvious daggers before looking back at the road.
"Excuse me?!" Was all he said in response, despite wanting to use more expletives but censoring himself in the presence of his sleeping kids.
"I'm just teasing, baby," Noah turned on her sweet voice to make up for her words. "Look, we have about two weeks to relax now and then we'll deal with the flight home when the time comes. Don't let that ruin your kids' Christmas though, okay?"
Knowing that Noah was correct and he was simply just grumpy, Harry sighed and jokingly asked, "I guess I should try to actually be a good dad, huh?"
Noah giggled and moved her hand to caress Harry's cheek, giving him a few loving pats. "Oh, shut it. You're the best dad ever. And I'm sure Cody loved getting to spend so much time with her daddy during the whole flight."
Harry let out a scoffed laugh, remembering how Cody clung to him and insisted on being on his lap the whole flight. "Sure, yeah, she sure had the time of her life. Wish I could say the same."
"See? That's why you're the best dad ever. Even though it was miserable for you, you still gave her all of your attention."
"Uh huh," Harry said, focusing on the road ahead of him as he was still adjusting to driving on the other side of the road again.
England during Christmastime was absolutely magical. At least, in Noah's eyes it was. She was so excited to be spending Christmas there yet again, as it had been a few years since they were there for the holidays. In fact, the last time they spent Christmas there was when Leo was two, so the other kids had not gotten the chance to experience it yet. It was not River's first time in England, though, as they had visited in the summer since, but it was Cody's first time.
"It's true!" Noah insisted. "Anyway, did you tell your mom we landed safely and are on our way yet?"
"Not yet, I had my hands full with Cody and the rental and everything," Harry answered before grabbing his phone from the cup holder and holding it out to Noah, "here, can you just send her a quick text?"
Taking Harry's phone, Noah sent a text to Harry's mom, Evelyn, letting her know that they were on their way from the airport after arriving safely.
Finally, after a lengthy drive, the family pulled up to Evelyn's home, where Noah began the process of gently waking the kids in the car. Thankfully, Leo and River woke up pretty easily and were actually excited to see their grandmother, but Cody was a little grumpy after having her sleep disturbed and was therefore pouting while Harry carried her to the front door.
Leo was the first to reach the door, so he knocked excitedly and waited as River and Noah followed close behind him, with Harry and Cody being at the back.
Evelyn opened the door with a beaming smile and was quick to embrace her two grandsons happily in each arm, giving them a tight squeeze while declaring how happy she was to see them. Leo and River were beyond excited to see their nan as well, so they hugged her back just as strongly.
While they ran inside to see the large Christmas tree stacked with presents underneath, Evelyn warmly greeted Noah with a hug before letting her inside and instantly gushing over baby Cody. She had seen Cody only six months prior, since Evelyn flew over for the birth, but it was such a drastic difference to see her as a newborn to a six-month-old.
They continued their greetings as Noah followed the boys inside, finding them at the Christmas tree.
"Oh my gosh, that tree is gigantic!" She exclaimed when she noticed that Evelyn spared no expense on the decorations that year, most likely because she wanted to make it as fun as possible for her grandchildren.
Noah absolutely adored Evelyn for that.
"It's so cool!" Leo said, inspecting the intricate ornaments that were scattered around the branches.
"Christmas is only a few days away, boys," Noah reminded them in a sing-song tone. "It'll be here before you know it."
And that was the truth. Only a few days later, Harry and Noah were rudely awoken by two rascals climbing and jumping on their bed shouting, "mommy, daddy, wake up, wake up! Santa came!"
The parents woke up at the same time, groaning and rubbing their eyes as they readjusted their positions to be able to crane their necks up to look at their energetic sons. Somehow, Leo and River were wide awake already. One glance at the alarm clock on his nightstand told Harry that it was hardly even 6AM, so he groaned even more and rubbed his eyes as an attempt to wake up.
"Bubs, please don't jump on mommy and daddy," Noah said with exhaustion clearly laced in her tone. She reached her hands out to River, who cutely climbed further on the bed and straight into her arms for a cuddle.
Tugging him close to her, Noah gave River a big hug and kissed his head over and over, tiredly saying, "Merry Christmas, precious boy," in between each kiss.
Leo, on the other hand, crawled up and tucked himself into Harry's side, who quickly wrapped an arm around his oldest son.
"Let's just lay here for a bit before we get up," Harry mumbled with his eyes shut as the family laid in bed.
"No!" Both Leo and River protested, trying to sit back up and continue their excited Christmas morning ritual.
Soon enough, Noah and Harry gave up resisting and actually got out of bed, clad in their Christmas pajamas to match their kids. Noah grabbed a now-awake Cody from the crib in their room, then they headed downstairs behind their two oldest.
Thankfully, by the time they made it downstairs, Evelyn wasn't far behind them, as she was typically an early riser anyway and was able to hear that everyone else was awake in the house.
Christmas morning, despite being exhausted, was spent blissfully. Harry worked on making some breakfast for everyone while Evelyn and Noah cuddled with the kids as they watched classic Christmas movies on TV. They all enjoyed their breakfast together once it was made, and they soon started to get ready for the day since guests were going to arrive around noon.
Noah got ready and dressed in her cute Christmas outfit before helping River get dressed. His smart outfit was absolutely adorable, making him look super handsome and like a carbon copy of his dad. Leo got dressed on his own in the outfit that was purchased specifically for Christmas, and he looked just as smart and handsome as River.
Harry got dressed in a handsome outfit, too, before dressing Cody in a sweet Christmas dress and putting her curly short hair into a cute bow.
By the time guests started to arrive, the Christmas celebration was in full swing. Thankfully, there weren't too many people there - only the closest family members - but it was still enough to make it feel like a fun family get together. Everyone was gushing over Noah and Harry's kids, since they rarely got to see them and they were much bigger than the last times they had seen them.
The couple kept getting swept up into separate conversations with other people throughout the celebration, but they naturally caught each other's eyes every now and then and offered comforting, knowing smiles. Noah couldn't help but swoon whenever she looked over at Harry and saw him sweetly cradling Cody in his arms, swinging her and bouncing her around as he conversed with people.
Leo was off mingling with the few other kids that were there, while River naturally stayed right by his mom's side the whole time. He gently hugged her leg and simply glanced around at everyone around him, noticing some who looked familiar and some who didn't. After all, he was really young when he last saw some of these people, so he didn't remember all of them.
Nevertheless, the celebration continued on until it came time for the Christmas dinner. Thankfully, Evelyn had set up assigned seats at the table, because multiple people were playfully arguing over who got to sit next to Noah during the meal. The arguments made Harry jokingly roll his eyes, finding it amusing that his family was more excited to see Noah again than himself. He couldn't exactly blame them, though, because Noah was charming beyond words and incredibly magnetizing.
The dinner table had River sitting in between Noah and Evelyn, then Cody's high chair was in between Noah and Harry, and Leo was next to Harry. Everyone else was scattered around the table, including Harry's sister Chloe and her husband, Harry's uncle and his family, and more.
The meal went by pleasantly with everyone enjoying the food and Noah assisting River with his food while Harry helped Cody with hers. Conversations were light and the food was incredible - everything a Christmas dinner should be.
Thankfully, by the time dinner was over and everyone was opening gifts, River was more sociable and outgoing overall. He sat with Leo as the boys excitedly began to play with some new toys they got, allowing Noah and Harry to cuddle together on a single armchair. Noah was sitting across Harry's lap with her arms looped around his neck and her hands clasped together on the opposite side of his neck.
The couple admired their sons playing together sweetly while Evelyn had Cody on her lap, getting some quality cuddles in with her granddaughter.
With classic Christmas music playing softly in the background and a roaring electric fireplace warming up the room, Noah and Harry found themselves utterly at peace and as cozy as ever. Noah's head was tilted against Harry's head while he mumbled funny comments just low enough for only her to hear, typically about how Leo and River were humorously playing together.
As the celebrations came to an end, people began slowly trickling out and saying their goodbyes to Noah and Harry while wishing them a Merry Christmas yet again and safe travels home.
By the end of the night, Leo and River were asleep as Noah and Harry sat in bed with Cody on the bed with them. Noah was breastfeeding Cody while Harry scrolled through his phone, catching up on the world after spending the whole day off of his phone. When he got bored enough, he locked his phone and sighed before leaning more into Noah, glancing down at his precious daughter as she laid in her mom's arms.
Harry cradled Cody's head gently and began to stroke her hair while gazing into her soft, expressive eyes.
"Did you have a nice time tonight?" Noah asked Harry quietly.
Appreciating her always checking in with him, Harry hummed and said, "yeah, it was nice seeing everyone again. Did you?"
"I did indeed," Noah answered while looking up at Harry and giving him a gentle kiss, just because. "See, though? You were all grumpy after the flight over and I told you it would be worth it. Wasn't it worth it?"
The way that Noah was always right made Harry scoff to himself, but he knew that his wife deserved to be validated for her obvious intelligence, so he simply said, "it was worth it, you were right. The kids seemed like they had a fun time, too."
"Oh, they absolutely did," Noah agreed, glancing down at Cody who was practically falling asleep while feeding. "I mean, look at her. She's nearly wiped out."
Harry smiled down at Cody and held his hands out while offering, "here, I'll burp her and put her to bed now. I think it's safe to say she's done."
And so, after Noah handed Cody off to Harry and he gently burped her while she continued drifting off, he placed her in her crib in the corner of their room and rejoined Noah on the bed. By that point, Noah was quite tired, too, so she was laying down and held her arms out to Harry to invite him to cuddle with her once he laid down, too.
Naturally, Harry accepted the cuddles and gave Noah a soft kiss on her forehead before comfortably tucking her head into his chest.
"Goodnight, handsome. Merry Christmas," Noah mumbled, giving Harry's chest a gentle kiss.
"Goodnight, munchkin," Harry replied. "Merry Christmas to you, too."
A/N: surprise! a short little christmas gift from me to you, because i have missed noah and harry a lil too much.
there's more where this came from, too... stay tuned!
also, check out my new story exhume if you haven't already! treasure hunter harry circa 1998. 5 chapters are already up. give it a try!
see y'all soon :)