"she belonged to him, not because it was something he demanded, but because it was something she couldn't help"

⋆✧⋆✧⋆

"C'mon, Charles, move your little butt," I say to my sister as she aimlessly skips out of the car and frolics in the snow. "It's cold outside, let's head in."

"Ok, fine." She gives in and follows me into the house.

It's the day after Christmas which is why Charlotte is wearing about fifteen articles of clothing. She couldn't pick which new outfit to wear, so she decided to wear them all. Currently, she's sporting a new hat with a purple pompom and a tiara paired along with it. She's also in a Frozen t-shirt with a stripped zip-up over top, and a hot pink puffer jacket. She's wearing blue leggings with a pink tutu, and finally, yellow rain boots to tie the entire look together.

She looks batshit crazy in the best way possible because somehow, she still looks freaking adorable.

My sister strips off her boots and jacket and waddles through the hallway. When she turns the corner to make her way into the living room, she catches a glimpse of Daisy and Mason and runs over to them. She jumps up at Mason, wrapping her small arms around his neck.

"Hey, baby Blake," My best friend greets her as he pats the pompom on her head. She giggles in his arms and Daisy just smiles at the two of them and says, "I love your outfit, princess."

"Thanks! Sterling got me the tiara and tutu!" she squeaks out while she reaches her arms out for Daisy, silently asking to be held by her.

Mason does as she wants, passing her over to his girlfriend and the two girls engage in a conversation about her outfit while Mason walks over to me.

The four of us hang out, mostly just listening to Charlotte ramble on about a million different topics, and wait for everyone else to get here.

It doesn't take long before the group piles in, and soon, it's a full house.

By the time we're all settled in and finished saying hi, Charlotte's patience has worn thin. She found out Laney bought her a gift this morning and she's been waiting all day to get it. "Is it present time yet? I've been waiting for years!" My sister's dramatics and desperation make everyone laugh.

My girlfriend throws my arm slung across her shoulder off her, and gets up from the couch. "Alright, you've waited long enough. Here you go, sweetheart."

Charlotte watches in awe as Laney picks up a skillfully wrapped present and hands it to her.

It doesn't take long for her to rip away the paper and open up the box. "An Elsa Leo!" She squeals as she lifts up her present and begins dancing around with it. It's a gymnastics leotard decorated as Elsa's dress from the Frozen movie.

God, that is the absolute perfect gift for her. Laney is a god damn genius.

My heart feels utterly full when my sister jumps into my girlfriend's arms, hugging her as tight as her short arms will allow. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I love it!"

Laney just chuckles as she embraces Charlotte and whispers something inaudible into her ear.

She leaves the room to go try on her present so she can give us a quote, "Fashion show."

In the meantime, the rest of us continue exchanging our gifts. This year we decided on doing Secret Santa considering there are twelve of us and we're all, for the most part, broke university students. The presents are relatively predictable, but nevertheless perfect for that person. For example, Theo ends up with three new books from Beth, and Jemma gets an assortment of colourful fluffy socks and candy.

However, the group produces a few obscure items, with Mason's new knew high socks covered with pictures of Daisy from Owen, and Harper's 18+ colouring book given to Aspen.

When I say 18+, by the way, I mean downright pornographic.

⋆✧⋆✧⋆

After we finish secret Santa and admiring Charlotte's new gym suit, we decide on playing in the snow, suggested by none other than my little sister.

I get her snow pants, jacket, boots, hat, and mittens on her while everyone else changes into something warmer.

The thirteen of us head outside to the front yard, Charlotte on Luke's shoulders and Laney's hand in mine.

It's honestly really gorgeous outside. The sun set hours ago yet, because it's snowing, it's not too dark out, making it so we can all see without needing to turn a light on.

I hear the sound of my sister's giggles as she runs around in the snow, chasing after Daisy, Aspen, and Beth.

I'm not surprised when Owen chucks a snowball at Mason's head, effectively starting a snowball fight. It doesn't take long for everyone to join in, quickly shaping spheres of snow and throwing them at anyone who dares to go near you.

"You bi-" Harper begins to curse at Aspen, who gets her right in the face, but stops herself when she remembers Charlotte is there.

Theo picks up my sister, holding her body out in front of his own to use her as a shield and she squeals in his arms.

"That's not fair! Put the child down, Theo." Laney protests making him place his human shield on the floor. I'm surprised he listens to her considering what Laney is so clearly playing at, but I guess he can't read her quite like I can.

Just like I predicted, my girlfriend snatches her up the second she's put down, copying Theo exactly to get away from the flying snow.

Nice try, my love. But there's no cheating allowed.

I chuckle to myself at the pride beaming through her smile up until I make my move. Running up to the two of them, I tickle Laney with one hand and catch the little girl with my other as she's dropped.

But, before I can even celebrate, my sister is stolen from my arms by Chase, which is no surprise considering he's a damn good football player.

Right now, Charlotte is the ball.

The game quickly transforms from a snowball fight to a hybrid between tag and keep up, Charlotte being the undroppable item. She's having the time of her life being passed between everyone, laughing as hard as I've ever heard her before.

Laney makes the mistake of laughing at me and she yells, "Karma!"

I just shake my head and smile at her before I throw her over my shoulder. I feel her legs kick my back as she tries to escape my grasp, but when she realizes she's not winning this, she gives in, calming within my arms and allowing me to do my thing.

I put her gently down on the snowcovered grass and lower myself on top of her. I lean down, and place my lips on hers, bearing in mind we're in front of a couple family members and our best friends. We keep the kiss short and sweet, barely anything over a peck, and yet it feels surreal. Having this girl in my arms, freely expressing my love for her.

Life is good.

Better than good.

While we're in our own little world, we don't notice the fact that everyone else has stopped and are now looking at us.

We get a couple of awes from the girls and 'well done' smirks from the boys, but Charlotte's reaction is the one that makes me laugh.

She runs over to us, pushes me over so I go toppling down beside Laney, and yells, "Gross!"

I laugh at her, pinching her cheek affectionately before she shimmies her way in between us, lying down. The rest of the group joins us, and in a matter of seconds we're a row of bodies sprawled out on the snowy ground, staring at the sky.

We don't even bother filling in the silence, yet it's not at all awkward.

It's peaceful.

However, we're still the same group of energetic friends, so, the quiet doesn't last long.

Owen, of course, is the first to speak. "Merry Christmas, you guys. I love you all." It's surprisingly wholesome but Owen can't just leave it at that as he adds, "And by the way, I won the game."

With that, we get up and chase him inside, most of us with strong arguments against his previous statement.

⋆✧⋆✧⋆

Once we take our winter gear off and drink an alarming amount of hot chocolate, I decide it's time for Charlotte to head to sleep.

We all take turns saying goodnight to her before Laney and I take her upstairs and tuck her into my bed. Luckily, she's pretty tired from the eventful day we had, and she crashes almost right away.

When the two of us join our friends back downstairs, Luke and Harper announce they have a surprise for everyone. We do as we're told, meaning we're sitting on the couch in a row with our eyes closed and our hands held in front of us.

I feel something soft placed into my hands and I fight the urge to flinch. Knowing these two, it's very likely this is some fucked up prank and they just handed me a weird animal with rabies.

"Open your eyes!" Harper can hardly contain her excitement as she orders us.

"Matching ugly Christmas sweaters!" Luke informs us. "We can all wear them tonight while we watch the movie."

When I look down at the thing in my hands, my jaw drops and I look straight to Owen beside me, as does everyone else in the room. We all burst out laughing, minus Owen who's partly in shock and partly offended, yet still on the verge of laughing.

The sweater is green and red with a giant picture of Owen on the front.

Fuck, this is hysterical.

I can already tell this must have been one expensive ass gift, but I know both Harper and Luke really well. They're dedicated as fuck and can't turn down a good prank.

Owen has always been a little less controlled than Luke but I guess when he pairs up with Harper, Owen has met his match.

"Fuck the both of you." he growls. "Actually no, scratch that, fuck you all. Actually wait no, scratch everything I just said, I'm glad you did this. It's clear the lot of you are fans of mine. This is just merch to quench your undying desire to stare at me at all times."

Leave it to Owen to recover well and quickly from anything that threatens his ego.

The man is confident, I'll give him that.

Harper and Luke don't even look disappointed in the fact that he doesn't really give a rat's ass. They're still recuperating from laughing to the point of tears moments ago.

"Go on, my fans. Try the sweaters on."

Still chuckling to myself about this entire situation, I pull my t-shirt over my head and start to pull the sweater onto my body. Only, I'm interrupted by Aspen's voice before I can do that. "Holy shit, Dell, Our girl has claws on her!"

I'm incredibly confused by her words but when everyone crowds around my back — with the exception of Chase who's probably disturbed and Laney whose face is beet red — to inspect it, I know what's happening.

"Impressive, for the both of you," Daisy remarks with a smirk.

I guess evidence from the other night is still visible across my back. AKA Laney's scratch marks from when I fucked her.

A sense of guilt arises in my stomach, I know Laney is pretty private with this stuff and I'm sure she's embarrassed. So, I cover myself up with the sweater.

Only, I underestimated my girlfriend because the second the shock of the situation wears off, she decides to be a little bold. Confidently yet nonchalantly telling the group, "What? Sterling doesn't just have sex, he fucks."

Atta girl.

Pride fills my chest, wiping away any previous feelings of guilt. I'm glad she's been able to get so comfortable with this group of people that she can say things like that now. If this happened a couple months ago, she probably would've passed out.

A ripple of howls and chuckles fill the room as our friends react to her comment and I wince when I notice Chase doesn't find this situation nearly as funny.

"Does anyone know sign language?" he asks.

"No, why?" Theo replies.

"Because I'm going to need it after I chop my ears off."

Jemma just pats his shoulder and delivers a quick peck to his check. "Hush, sweetie. Don't be dramatic."

"Dramatic?" Chase is floored. "Tell your best friend not to talk about her sex life in front of me."

Laney tries to suppress a laugh that seems to only antagonize and taunt her brother.

"Unless that's just something we do now." He smirks as he delivers his next lines, "Hey, Jemma, baby, what was that thing I did to you last week you loved so much?"

Laney's hands go straight to her ears, plugging them as she shuts her eyes tightly. "You're right! I'm sorry! Please stop," she yells.

"Told you."

⋆✧⋆✧⋆

After watching Home Alone, we were pretty exhausted and we decided to end the night. Instead of heading out with her girls and Chase, Laney decided to stay the night with me. Now, the two of us are sitting in the living room together because Charlotte is fast asleep in my room and I didn't want to risk waking her up. We saved our presents for each other for a more private setting, not wanting to have either our family or our group of friends watching it.

"Alright, I want to go first." She hands me a wrapped box with an excited smile on her lips.

When I unwrap the box and look inside, my heart just about stops.

"Holy shit," is all I can say.

"Do you like it?"

I don't answer her, still in shock.

"I hope the silence is a good thing. I asked my dad for his help and he said he thought you'd like it."

I cup her face in my hands and kiss the living daylights out of her. "This is fucking incredible. How the hell did you get this?" I hold up a hockey jersey signed by none other than the greatest NHL player of all time.

"Well, apparently he played with my dad when they were much younger and they remained pretty friendly. Friendly enough for the guy to do a favour for his friend's daughter."

I kiss her once more, not sure what else I could do to showcase my appreciation.

This is quite possibly the greatest gift I've ever received. And picturing Laney thinking and asking about hockey to organize this, makes it even better.

"My gift is going to pale in comparison, but here," I place a small velvet black box into her hands.

She opens it and looks inside. Her lips part slightly and her eyes gloss over. "Sterling," she whispers.

"It's beautiful, oh my god." Her voice is still quiet.

Inside the box is a small silver ring. The band is shaped as a snowdrop, her favourite flower, with a small stone shining in the middle.

"It's a promise ring of sorts. A promise to love you. To protect you. To hold you when you want to cry. To make you laugh on a bad day. To make sure you know you're the most beautiful girl I've ever laid my eyes on. And to, eventually, marry you."

Tears fall down her cheeks and I wipe them with my thumb. "You are the greatest man I have ever known, Sterling Blake. Remember the promise goes both ways too. When I wear this it's my promise to do the same for you. To love you with all my heart."

⋆✧⋆✧⋆

I think this chapter is going to forever be one of my favourites. It's just so packed with sweet moments and I love seeing my characters happy.

I've been going to bed at 5:00 AM every night for the last two weeks and I told myself I'd quickly write this chapter and then go to sleep early. However, that didn't happen because it's me and I made this chapter tripple my usual length. Oh well.

Question of the chapter: What's the best Christmas gift you've ever received?

Please vote and comment!

Stay safe and healthy <3