the b&b smelled like christmas. hints of cinnamon, pine, and fresh citrus lingered in the air after hyeyeong and lin mixed their own potpourri to simmer on the stove while everyone split into little groups and dispersed.

miles was worried they wouldn't find a place big enough to fit everyone on such short notice, and even after chenle and the others took care of everything, he still couldn't believe they were all together on christmas eve. most members told fans they were with family, but they were spending this year with a different family instead.

he sat huddled by the fire with soyi and yuxi, their feet shoved in plushy socks and wearing matching pajamas. the six (plus daniel) all chipped in to get christmas-themed pajamas for everyone, so while they weren't all identical, they still matched.

miles stifled a chuckle when renjun stepped around the corner in his brown pattered rudolph set, which paired fairly well with sosuke's frosty pj's. the latter was sitting on the couch with daniel and jeno, sosuke was leaned back with one ankle laying across his knee and his arm tossed comfortably over the back of the couch. miles watched as renjun hesitantly sat in that space in front sosuke's arm, looking smaller than usual beside the younger's large, spread form.

a nudge brought miles back to reality, and he looked over to find jisung sitting next to him with a soft smile. "whatcha staring at?" he asked, trying to follow the younger's gaze.

"nothing." miles grinned as he nudged jisung back and rested his chin on his arms, which were propped up on his knees. "just thinking, that's all."

he let his cheek fall a bit to rest on his arm so he could look at the boy next to him. jisung looked utterly adorable in his santa claus pajamas, which were an identical match with miles's. there hadn't been many variations, so many people had the same pajamas sets. hyeyeong thought it'd be fun to play a team game, since they could split into four teams of four based on their pajama design.

yuxi's loud laugh pulled miles's attention away from jisung, and he looked over to find her laughing at soyi, who was coughing up (lukewarm) cocoa. "wrong... tube..." she managed between coughs as miles patted her back.

a moment later, chenle and mark joined the little group of four, the formers eyes trained solely on soyi as she finally calmed down. "hyeyeong wants us to split into teams and bake cookies," mark explained as he gestured to his and chenle's matching grinch pajamas. when he noticed the two santa's, his face lit up. "hey! you guys are a team, too!"

miles and jisung looked at each other's outfits before pumping their fists and knocking hands. "we're gonna win," miles jeered with a grin.

knowing jisung couldn't cook, that statement was likely false, but miles wasn't going to let it show on his face.

"love the confidence. not going to happen, though," chenle shot back. he narrowed his eyes playfully and showed the same optimism, despite having mark lee on his team.

the six looked between one another before shooting to their feet and racing to the kitchen. jiae let out a small screech and thankfully haechan was able to tug her back just in time to avoid getting run over by the lot as they crowded around a very surprised hyeyeong.

"uh—" the elder started, blinking up and down at the six eager idols and friends. "hi?"

miles puffed his chest out as he spoke. "we are here to complete for best cookie."

by this point, the commotion had grabbed the attention of the other guests. they slowly trickled into and around the kitchen as hyeyeong ran both hands through her hair.

"it was just an idea, but i figured we could split into teams based on our jammies and bake cookies." she seemed a bit uncomfortable to suddenly have all eyes on her but quickly embraced into her inner-manager. daniel shot her a reassuring smile from across the counter.

lin shrugged somewhere in the back. "i think that sounds fun!" miles turned around to find her leaning against jaemin, both of them in santa pajama sets. he silently cheered in pre-victory.

it didn't take long for the others to agree, and soon the four teams were discussing what cookie they wanted to bake. santa team, consisting of miles, jisung, jaemin, and lin, thought sugar cookies would be fun to decorate and quickly split up to collect their necessary ingredients.

"okay, i'm not going to lie, i only know how to make chocolate chip," jiae admitted to her rudolph team members. haechan winked at her as renjun and yuxi shared a nod. "chocolate chip works for us."

sosuke sat sluggishly in one of the barstools while his team members (jeno, soyi, and daniel) discussed what they wanted to do.

"i think i heard team santa mention sugar cookies, so we shouldn't do that, right?" jeno asked, and soyi nodded and suggested, "maybe red velvet?"

the three boys blinked at her. soyi's face flamed. "... okay, maybe not."

leaning forward and resting his arms against the counter, sosuke shrugged. "i could sneak out and grab some cookies from the store. doubt anyone would notice."

that earned a little laughter from his members, which seemed to brighten their mood. they finally decided to make peanut butter blossom cookies after daniel's inside man (hyeyeong) sent them a family recipe.

the final team, grinch, were already making their gingerbread mix while the others rushed around to gather ingredients. eunjin swore that she knew how to make the best gingerbread cookies, and mark was just excited to decorate them as chenle and hyeyeong mixed in two different bowls.

yuxi tore her gaze away from her mixing to face the other groups as she asked, "what will the winning team get?"

some team members were too focused on their cookies to answer, but few glanced curiously in her direction.

"maybe the winners can pick the first movie while the others clean and cook?" jeno suggested, which earned some complaints, but eunjin's loud voice rose above them.

"great idea, jeno! you all better prepare to cook and clean while my team watches elf, though." it was a fun, harmless jab that sent the other teams to focus only on the matter at hand.

the four teams worked surprisingly well together without any distractions until a very small yelp sounded from the frosty team.

soyi stepped back from the oven quickly and popped her finger into her mouth. chenle had heard the sound and snapped his head up, about to make his way toward it when hyeyeong grabbed his sleeve. "hey, you're getting frosting on his neck!"

clearly she hadn't heard soyi's little cry, but by the time chenle looked up again, jeno, daniel, and sosuke were all crowding soyi after bringing her to the sink to run cold water over the burn. chenle heard her laugh with them and slowly turned his attention back to hyeyeong and their cookies.

it took longer than expected for every group to finish since not everyone's cookies baked at the same temperature, but eventually there were four platters of cookies spread across the center island. not all sixteen could fit around it, so the others took to the barstools and living room while the cookies were judged.

chenle stood beside soyi, quietly eyeing the bandage around her pinkie finger. it had transformers on it, so he assumed it had to be from miles. he fought the urge to place his pinkie over hers and instead nudged her lightly and asked if she was alright.

"oh, this?" soyi asked as she raised her right hand. "yep, all good! i burned it while putting the cookies in the oven." her eyes shut as she grinned up at him, and chenle stayed close enough for their shoulders to brush as they waited to judge cookies.

miles laughed loudly at one of the gingerbread men, who had accidentally gotten decapitated. mark had taken extra time to add some red frosting around the stump. "dude, leaving him alone! it's for the story."

once everyone had a chance to try the cookies, they decided to raise hands on favorites instead of write their vote on a paper. the only rule was that they could only vote once and couldn't vote for their own.

after a very loud, very lengthy vote, team grinch pulled ahead with 6 votes. the reason behind their win, jisung claimed, was the headless gingerbread.

"at least everyone got a vote!" yuxi defended, her team's chocolate chip cookies earning only two votes from jaemin and sosuke, surprisingly. santa team and frosty team tied for second place with four votes each.

as eunjin, chenle, and mark settled dramatically onto the couch, the remaining groups stayed behind the clean and start on dinner. it took daniel physically carrying hyeyeong into the living room for her to finally relax and recognize her win. he kissed the top of her head before retreating to the kitchen.

once they were done cleaning, miles and yuxi remembered their bunk battle and snuck from the kitchen to jump on the available spots beside chenle and mark on the couch.

they grinned cheekily at the idols, batting their lashes for effect. "so. our bunk fort contest. we're we thinking of doing that before or after dinner, cause lin thinks dinner will take a while."

mark was on his feet at the mention of the bunk contest. "i need to borrow jisung and soyi!" he shouted to the kitchen crew before grabbing the two and running for the bedrooms. since haechan and jiae weren't officially competing, they offered to stay and help the others prepare dinner.

"okay, i have five minutes on the timer," soyi said. they were crowded in the hallway between the two bedrooms since mark and chenle's bunk beds were in a separate room from the other four.

mark let out a strange sound. "five minutes?! dude..."

"this is a battle to the death, mark!" miles reminded as he shook mark's shoulders. "the loser has to drink sosuke's eggnog!"

"but is it, like, that bad?!"

there was no hesitation as everyone else, excluding chenle and jisung, exclaimed, "yes!"

mark raised his hands in surrender, now panicked at the thought of losing and having to drink eggnog.

"okay, three, two—"

"wait, we're starting now?!" chenle exclaimed, shuffling on his feet as he prepared to take off toward his bunk.

"—one, go!"

elly
merry christmas chenle 🎄
delivered

•
merry (late) christmas and happy holidays if you celebrate!

i've run out of chapters so updates may be a bit slower, but i'll try to keep them consistent 💗 i have a lot planned 😈 but if you have any ideas/requests for future updates lmk!