it was the family's third day of staying in the cabin. so far they had decorated the place with flashing lights, home-made baubles and tinsel. they spent an entire day making it look somewhat prettier.
brad, dusty, negan and sky had all gone to find tree decorations, in placement for the enormous woodland tree brad managed to cut down and explode himself with. they were expected to be out for a while.
however, back in the cabin, riley, sara, lex, marcus and kurt were all having a good time. a better time, you could say. lex was baking festive shaped cookies along with riley, meanwhile sara was cuddled up on the sofa with her kids, keeping them warm.
marcus and kurt were being the cute idiots they are and were drawing festive things to put up along the place and maybe even to give to people. dylan was in the middle of the two, giggling happily but also with confusion as the two made jokes to one another.
"everybody want hot chocolate?" lex called from the kitchen.
the crowd of positivity yelled back with a loud "yes please!" and continued their activites. with a proud smile, lex served up the steaming drinks and laid them onto a tray, where riley then took them out into the living room.
"here you go. one for you, one for you, and one for you."
riley handed each one out, until it came to the children, she put them on the side.
marcus took the mug and very shyly nudged upwards to kurt, who pretended not to pay attention with a smirk as he sipped his beverage. they all seemed satisfied and thanked lex. she smiled and continued to bake.
half an hour passed and the living room was covered in drawings (you could easily tell which ones where done by who), there were some crayon ones done by dylan, who looked super proud of himself.
the shaped cookies were laid out onto the dining table. there were all different shapes and sizes. some were snowmen and some were trees. sneakily, lex had taken a few.
riley returned to the kitchen to help her with tidying and washing the dishes. sara had managed to get up and tidy the rooms up a bit. kurt just laid back and watched the other silver haired male struggle to gather all the left over paper and colouring pencils.
a few moments later the rest of the family were coming through the door, panting and shivering. sky and negan were arm in arm, while brad was trying to cuddle dusty, which the other man did not appreciate. instead, he slipped away to the kitchen to find lex whistling to herself and cleaning still.
without warning, dusty wrapped his arms aroud her waist from behind and kissed her ear softly.
"good evening, love."
"oh, hello dusty." she smiled. "what did you all find?"
sky came into the room clutching what seemed to be a heavy bag. you could noticably see the large baubles and star for the top of the tree. lex studied the bag and when she was satisfied she nodded.
dusty gave her one last kiss before leaving the room to remove his snow covered jacket and shoes. brad was still shivering in the hallway, hat slipping from his head. dusty rolled his eyes and smacked it off of him, tossing it to one side.
negan settled in again, but removed nothing. he sat on the opposite sofa to kurt and raised an eyebrow at dylan who waved at him.
"you lot been okay in here?" sky asked, following negan's footsteps and then sitting down next to him.
"perfectly fine until you all came back." scoffed kurt in reply.
"oh piss off old man." negan grumbled back.
"um, yeah, we've been okay!" marcus stuttered to break the tension between the two. "ma baked some treats for us all!"
"for after dinner!" lex called out from the kitchen again. dusty chuckled.
"well, that's sweet of her," sky smiled and snuggled up to her boyfriend. "speaking of which, what's for dinner?"
in perfect timing, the doorbell rang. kurt stood up with a grunt and staggered over to it, opening it. a boy in his teens stood with five boxes of pizza and some smaller boxes on top of them. the older man took them all and sara grabbed the money, handing it to him with a gentle "thanks".
marcus helped kurt lay out the food on the table while the rest of the group sat on the sofas still.
sky huffed as negan moved slightly. he looked down at her pouting face and chuckled.
"hey kid, bring me a plate."
marcus turned his head towards the leather-jacketted man and raised an eyebrow.
"of what, exactly?"
"a bit of everything."
the small boy nodded and gathered up slices of every pizza, some chicken wings, garlic bread and other bits he found. he waddled over to the couple and negan thanked him with a smile after taking the plate. sky sat up and was already chewing on something.
lex ruffled marcus' hair with a brightened smile as marcus returned the same look. kurt, for once, let out a warm hearty laugh as they all sat down but marcus tripped. marcus wasn't even bothered by the trip and he giggled at his lover's laugh. oh how he loved it.
the family sat down together, no arguements, no death glares. everybody was happy and close to one another. after they had finished their meals, the laughter died down as dusty entered the room after putting his plate in the kitchen. he came back with a large glass of champagne. everybody turned to face him.
"first off, i want to thank everybody for being here," he began. "none of this would have happened if it wasn't for you, dad."
everyone's eyes were pretty much out their skulls now. even kurt choked on his drink.
"excuse me, what?"
"honestly, i'm speaking from the bottom of my heart here. i'm thanking you the most, dad," dusty opened the champagne bottle and put it onto the table, putting down a few glasses. "the reason we're not all stuck at home in that miserable rain with loud ass neighbours who don't shut up, is because of you."
kurt was still choking on his drink. dusty wanted to die right then and there as the room was quiet.
"well... thanks, dusty." was the only response.
after another moment of awkward silence, riley cleared her throat.
"so, i guess that's a merry christmas to us all!" suddenly there was laughter again.
lex noticed dusty's confused and upset expression, and stood up. she headed toward him, putting a single hand on his chest.
"i'm proud of you, love."
"for what? ruining christmas? he's never gonna think the same of me again."
"dusty, hun, you're one of the best things that's ever happened to our family. and me. we're all proud of you, even brad."
the two looked over at brad who was being growled at by negan. dusty let out what sounded to be a happy sigh. he turned back to the shorter woman and held her close, arms wrapped around her and a hand on her hair. he was stroking it and sighing again. lex had her arms around his muscular build as best as she could, rubbing his back softly. it was a lovable moment before-
"hey! get a room!" sky called, followed by laughter.
they both let go of each other and stuck their tongues out. dusty watched lex head to the kitchen but stopped her.
"what are you doing?"
"going to clean, why?" lex looked confused.
"nono, let me do that part. go and talk with the others."
"... are you sure?"
"honest."
lex smiled and kissed his lips softly, heading to the living room. dusty was left with a bright pink face as he staggered into the kitchen for the fourth time that evening.
lex had joined the others, and seeing how positive they all were, she hummed softly and sat down next to sky, who had negan's arms around her as he rested his chin on her head. they looked as though they were both about to fall asleep.
she then peered over to marcus, who was sitting in kurt's lap, head rested against his chest with dylan next to them, holding both their hands. without thinking, she giggled and sky raised an eyebrow.
"what's up?"
"it's just so weird to see kurt so... soft? he's usually wanting to put a knife at someone's kneecaps or something."
kurt looked over at the two with his own eyebrow raised. sky glared at him through negan's arm.
"ah, i spoke too soon." lex laughed.
for the rest of the night, the group had a wonderful game of cards and then each couple headed to bed. riley and sara stayed behind for a while longer to put things away, marcus was reading what seemed to be both kurt and dylan a bed time story, lex and dusty were both cuddled up already alseep and negan and sky were... well. that's a whole different story.
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god damn, 1528 words. i hope they were all worth it, though.
this is a little book for my pals. marcus. lex. and sky. even though we don't talk.