"Conner! Conner, wake up!"

Stifling a tired groan, Conner reluctantly opened his eyes to find his sister shaking him aggressively. "Whoa whoa whoa!" He said, alarmed. He swatted Alex's hands away and sat up straight. "Geez, what was that for?" He rubbed his arm where Alex had gripped him.

Alex had an excited grin on her face. "It's Christmas!" She exclaimed gleefully.

Conner had to blink twice to get the words in his foggy brain. He looked outside his window to see the Northern Kingdom full of snow, and he smiled. "It is Christmas!"

Alex tugged Conner out of his bed. He stumbled on the floor, and had to grab Alex's shoulder to steady himself. He heard a chuckle that didn't belong to him or his sister.

Leaning on the frame of his door, there was Bree. She had an amused expression and she had clearly been observing the scene for a long time. Conner's heart fluttered just looking at her. "Come on, you'll miss breakfast," She told Conner. There was a look in her eyes he only saw when she looked at him.

He barely moved; he just stared at Bree for a reason he didn't really know.

Alex glanced back and forth between them for a while, but they both looked dazed. She rolled her eyes and tugged Conner's sleeve, forcing him to tear his gaze from Bree. "Let's go, guys. You'll have plenty of time to drool over each other later," She grumbled. A flush spread to Conner's face as he hastily tried to defend himself as Alex dragged him downstairs.

As Alex led him out the door, she leaned closer to her brother and lowered her voice. "Is everything ready?" She asked.

Conner nodded subtly. "As ready it'll ever be," He replied out of the corner of his mouth.

Alex looked relieved and let go of his arm. She then walked to Bree and linked arms with her, saying something Conner couldn't pick up. As they reached the beginning of the stairs, Alex detached herself from Bree and wandered back. "I've gotta get something from my room," She said when Conner shot her a funny look. He couldn't even ask her why before she disappeared back down the hallway, leaving Conner and Bree alone.

Conner felt the heat rise to his cheeks. It had been a while since he had been this nervous around Bree, but old habits die hard. His palms were slightly sweaty so he wiped them on his pants. He couldn't just stand there like an idiot forever, so he took a gulp and went over to Bree. She smiled charmingly when he came beside her. Conner's mouth went dry.

"Merry Christmas," Bree said, breaking the silence.

Conner was too wrapped up in looking at her that he didn't notice she was waiting for a response. "Uh— yeah, merry Christmas," He stumbled back. He cursed himself for feeling so damn timid right now. Today was the day he was supposed to prove his devotion to her, and he was already blowing it. He tried to stand up a little straighter and gain back some of his confidence before it was too late.

Bree laughed softly from his right. They had fallen in step with each other, and were walking down the stairs. She offered Conner her hand, and it didn't take long for Conner to slip his fingers into hers. The smile she gave him made him forget where he was and how anxious he had become. He gently took their intertwined hands and brought them to his lips, and he kissed Bree's hand with a smile.

Bree blushed softly and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "You are so strange," She teased, swinging their hands back and forth.

Conner just shrugged. "I know," He said simply. "Now let's hurry up, I smell pancakes."

**************

"Alright everyone," Alex chirped cheerfully as she tapped on her glass to gather the attention of the lively dining hall. "Let's meet in the foyer so we can open our presents!"

Alex's words caused even more enthusiasm among the group, and everyone immediately bustled out of the hall to surround the huge Christmas tree in the centre of the foyer, chatting loudly.

Red was the last one out because she had opted to wear heels at a very early point in the morning even though everyone else was mostly wearing pyjamas or casual attire. "I should have just worn slippers," She grumbled as she tried to make her tired brain steady her incredibly wobbly feet.

The tree in the main hall was massive. It stretched so high that it nearly touched the palace ceiling, which was very far up all on its own.

Alex was already in front of it when the lot first reached the tree. Nobody had even seen her get up from her chair, which was scary but impressive. They all ogled at the sight of all the bright presents that littered the ground under the tree and most were itching to find their gifts.

Queen Snow White met Alex at the centre. With a sweeping gesture, she exclaimed, "Merry Christmas!"

Everybody took that as a signal to begin the gift-giving. Even though there weren't a huge number of people, there were plenty of presents everywhere.

Goldilocks squealed joyfully when she opened Bree's gift. "This is perfect!" She was much more excited than most people when it came to receiving coffee makers.

Bree smiled. "Now you can drink coffee whenever you want," She said. "There are power outlets in this world, right?"

Bree was also pretty happy with Goldilocks's gift to her, a fully-fledged bow and arrow. Her eyes lit up and she smirked. "I'm totally going to bring this to school," She said, already loading an arrow and taking mock aim.

Alex was extremely thankful for Bree's gift, so in return she had gotten Bree her very own mirror so they could talk whenever they wanted. Conner had given Alex a copy of King Arthur (no matter how much he hated the picture of the buff blonde-haired jerk on the cover, although Alex began to cry when she laid eyes on him), and Alex gifted him an endless notebook that had infinite pages but could easily fit into his backpack. Froggy gave Bree a stack of mystery novels she surprisingly hadn't read yet, and gave Conner a nice blue suit, much resembling his own.

Goldilocks presented Conner with a little dictionary, and Red gave him... a little dictionary. It was later discovered that Goldie had stolen the original dictionary from Red, and when Red found it was missing, she simply bought another one. Bree received a simple but flattering dress from Red, and Jack gave Conner and Bree matching spiral-bound notebooks with locks, except Conner had Bree's key and Bree had Conner's. The notebooks seemed to be for writing things they only wanted to share with each other.

"What in the world is this?" Red asked in confusion as she held Bree's red hoodie in one hand and Conner's sweatpants in another. "Are these clothes meant to be for a pudgy old man?" She asked. "Conner, are you implying that you think I'm fat?"

Bree laughed and rushed in to save her boyfriend from Red's cluelessness. "No Red. They're just comfortable clothes," She explained. "You can wear them when you don't feel like dressing up or you just want to laze around the house."

"But I always feel like dressing up," Red whined dismally. "Except when I get those days when I just stare at the wall and have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. It's days like that when I wonder what my true purpose is, and then I remember: I'm a queen! Then I get all dressed and put on my best smile and go out to do queen things! It's such fun! So in the end, I guess I do dress up anyways." She rambled to herself. Red's inner monologues had always been interesting yet nonsensical at the same time.

Bree didn't really know how to respond to such a thing. "Try them on," She said. "You'll like them better then."

After about three minutes, Red was stuck to the clothes like glue.

Eggnog and hot chocolate was passed around. Amid all the cheer, Alex made eye contact with her brother. "Do it," She mouthed.

Conner sighed. He knew he couldn't put it off forever. Besides, if he waited any longer he'd be too nervous to think straight. It was just a present, that's all.

He watched Bree from afar, letting her socialize with the others and finish opening her gifts. The moment struck when Bree searched around for him and their eyes locked. Now or never, dude.

He approached Bree with a sheepish smile on his face. "Hi," He said as he sat down beside her. "Listen, I—"

"You want to give me my gift somewhere private, I know," She finished. She smiled cunningly when Conner closed his mouth in confusion. "Me too."

Conner let out a breath in relief. "Yeah, okay. So, do you want to, like..." He trailed off. He could feel his jitters in every part of his body.

Bree laughed and took Conner's hand. "Let's go into the lounge," She said.

Conner seemed to be more at ease now that Bree had somewhat taken the lead. "Sounds good," He replied.

Bree snuck a look to Alex as they left, a perfect display of excitement and unease on her face. "You'll be fine," Alex mouthed to her.

Bree took a deep breath. She was totally overreacting. It was just some present, right? Everyone gets one, so it's no big deal.

Her gift was quite personal, and that was what scared her. In a few minutes, Conner could very well be holding her entire heart in his hands.

They reached the lounge and Conner opened the door for her, shutting it behind her. The room was deathly quiet. Conner could hear his heartbeat in his ears. "So, uh," He said awkwardly. Why was this so hard? "Who's going first?"

Bree just shrugged. She scoured the room to find two brightly wrapped presents stacked on top of each other, and another one in the opposite corner. Bless Alex, she thought. She had promised Bree that her gifts would be in the lounge, and she must have told Conner the same thing. Alex didn't want them to have the inconvenience of carrying their boxes with them to the room. "Well, I got you two things," She said.

Conner chuckled. "Yeah, I kind of did too." He thought for a moment. "How about we both just give one to each other at the same time, and go from there?" He suggested meekly.

"That sounds like a good idea," She commented. Bree promptly went over to her gift for Conner and separated the bigger box from the smaller one; and Conner retrieved his. The mood was heavy in the room and neither of them really knew why. Their breath was bated as they switched boxes.

Conner was very hesitant to tear off the wrapping paper, and he kept looking up at Bree before he did. They both shut their eyes and tore the paper off at the same time.

Cracking her eyes open, Bree looked at the box in her hands. "Oh my God," She muttered, unable to contain her surprise. "Where did you even get this?"

Meanwhile, Conner had just glanced at his box and was completely freaking out. "Holy crap! You've gotta be kidding me right now!" He was practically jumping with glee and hugged the gift to his chest. It wasn't something he'd usually go for, but it brought back too many good times to forget.

Bree stared down at the beautiful wooden box in her hands. It was definitely antique, with a gold lock and key coming with it. It was just the kind of thing she was into. It felt so ancient to Bree. "Seriously, where did you get this?" She asked. She ran her hands over the glossy finish.

Conner played it off as no big deal. "I found it in Mother Goose's old room, actually. It was her jewelry box or something. There was a note inside it saying that whoever found it first would get to keep it, along with the seven bottles of distilled beer in there. Something told me beer isn't your thing," He said cheekily.

Bree couldn't believe that she was holding Mother Goose's jewelry box in her hands. The poor thing must've seen so many terrible things and must have contained even worse, and it only made Bree love the gift even more.

"So where did you get this?" Conner held his present up in front of him. The smile on his face was wider than anyone had ever seen. Bree had gotten him a dark blue hoodie with the word "Buckinghamshirevilleton" stitched on it in white. Conner's cheeks were obviously a little red, the embarrassment of the past situation returning from him. But his likeness for the hoodie itself and the fact that it had been one of the first things he had royally screwed up in front of Bree was enough to make him love it. It brought back so many fond memories that he never let go of.

Bree smirked softly. "Alex helped me, actually. I just told her what I wanted and she pretty much magicked it up for me," She explained.

"Guess I wasn't the only one who thought of doing that," Conner murmured quietly.

"Huh?" Bree couldn't hear what Conner had said. Instead of repeating himself, he simply cleared his throat nervously and told her it was nothing.

Bree fit the key into the lock and turned it. She was about to start opening the box before Conner sprang from his seat. "No, don't open it yet!" He blurted. Bree took her hand off the top of the antique and stared at Conner with confusion. "Uh, the second part of my gift is in there and..." He stuttered, his face turning an insanely dark shade of pink. "It's sort of a personal one," He said slowly.

Uncurling her fingers from the box, Bree understood. "Mine is too." The nerves had returned, except now they were worse than ever. "How about we open them at the same time?" She suggested.

His blue eyes calmed a bit. "Okay," Conner agreed.

There was an increasingly thick tension passing between them. If they had both poured themselves out for the sake of each other, they were afraid that whatever they had to give wasn't good enough. Conner took the paper off his, and Bree creaked the box open.

"There are only a bunch of blank envelopes in here," Bree remarked.

Conner looked puzzled. "A notebook?" Although there was nothing special about it from afar, the book reminded Conner of something he couldn't put his finger on. "This looks familiar," He said after a moment.

Bree smiled delicately. "That's because it looks like your dad's."

Conner widened his eyes. She was right; it was an exact replica of the notebook he and his sister had found on their first trip here. His father had written so many things in that book and Conner still missed him.

The thought of the bittersweet memory brought tears to Conner's eyes. "It does look exactly like it," He whispered. "Where did you find this?"

Bree was touched knowing that the gift already had some sentimental value to it. "I bought it at this random store, but with Alex's help we managed to make it look like your dad's," She explained with a smile. "I thought you'd like it."

Conner didn't open the pages yet, he just flipped the book about in his hands, wondering if he was really holding it. "I do," He said. "Thank you."

"Um, what are all these envelopes for?" Bree asked him lightly. She didn't want to interrupt Conner's reminiscing, but she was curious to do some herself.

Conner looked back up at her. "They're letters," He responded simply.

Bree furrowed her brows when she picked one up. "There's no address on them."

"That's because I was never planning on sending them."

She took an envelope out of the box and opened it. The first two words told her everything she needed to know. "They're to me?"

Conner swallowed. "Yep." He took a deep breath. "I wrote dozens of 'em. After you left and all that stuff with my sister started happening, I felt like the only person that would understand me was you," He confessed. "I couldn't see you or talk to you, and it was killing me. All I wanted was for you to set me straight again, you're good at that. Since I never saw you, I wrote to you instead. I know you'd never see them, but I did it anyways. It made me feel like somebody was listening to me. It got everything out in the open, and when I wrote those letters to you, everything just made more sense." Bree was hanging on to every word that was coming out of his mouth. It was strange for Conner to talk like this. He was usually so reserved when it came to his feelings for Bree. "I missed you," He admitted. "So I harnessed that the only way I knew how."

Bree let her hair fall over her face, covering her rosy cheeks. She hadn't even looked through the letters yet, but she could tell that there were a lot of them. Her heart did a twist in her chest. Whatever these letters said, she sure hoped they were just as honest as what was in the pages of Conner's notebook. "Open the notebook," She said quietly.

Conner peeled the cover away from the first page. He found that there was a bunch of writing already there. Conner didn't have to guess who wrote it, he could point out Bree's handwriting anywhere.

Conner,
Merry Christmas! I know that this book might not look like much, but there's a lot more effort put into it than you might think at first glance. When I saw this in the store, it sparked my dangerously authentic idea of what I wanted to get you.

I know your dad really meant a lot to you. Through the stories you and Alex have told me, I've gathered that he was a great man and a wonderful father. I wish I could've met him, I really do. Alex told me that every time she looks at you, she can see his spirit in your eyes. And although the only way I know him is from your stories, I see him when I look at you, too. He would be so proud of you. You've taken the stories he's shared with you and turned them into your own.
  
I'm proud of you. I hope you know that.
  
My whole life I've been running from my feelings. It doesn't look like it, but there's a whole lot of self-doubt going on behind the scenes that I've never had the courage to talk about. My upbringing tried to teach me that sharing your hurt with other people is a burden. I'm still struggling with that concept, even today. You tried coaxing me out of my shell, you showed me that there are still people in the world that can accept the flaws of other people and love them just the same. In my house, that was considered blindness. I cannot thank you enough for that.
  
I don't say what I feel. I keep everything bottled up. More often than not, it doesn't get me anywhere good. So I'm going to try my hardest not to do that anymore, starting with this book. There are so many things I never said to you but I wish I did. There are so many things I wished I could tell you.
  
In the pages of this notebook, I wrote them all down. Everything about me I'm too scared to tell anyone. Everything about you that I want to say. I'm a writer, so I wrote all of it. All my feelings for you are scattered between these lines.
  
If you haven't realized it already, this is probably the most terrifying thing I've ever done. I can't decipher myself, I'm a mystery in my own mind. But you can figure me out. I understand if you might not feel the same way I do, but I have to tell myself that it's okay. You're the only person in the world that I'd trust with this. You are holding my heart in your hands.
  
There are blank pages in here too, so if you ever need to let stuff out, go right ahead. Write a story. Keep a journal. Do whatever you want.
  
Whenever you read or write in this notebook, I want you to remember that you dad is still looking out for you, and no matter where you are, so am I. You're the one person who's constantly there for me. You've never left me behind. After a life of looking for things I didn't even know I was looking for, the only thing I really needed was you. Don't forget that.

Love,
Bree

Conner didn't move. He kept staring at the page, reading it over and over. A tear fell onto the page leaving a stain, snapping Conner out of his trance. He blinked feverishly. There were small tears running down his face, which he hadn't even noticed until a couple seconds ago. Still, he found himself unable to move his eyes.

Bree saw Conner's reaction and she feared the worst. "Are you okay?" She asked. Neither of them had spoken a word for a minute or two. The stillness of the room appeared undisturbed. "I really didn't mean to make you cry or anything." Bree didn't know if he was happy, or confused, or upset, or just plain revolted. Tears meant a lot of different things, and Bree had to learn that the hard way.

Conner wiped his eyes. His face was already getting warm again but he barely cared. The amount of emotion he got from those words made his heart fill up. "Now I really need you to read my letters," He said finally. "I basically wrote the same thing but a million different times." His eyes were big but his demeanour was small as he gazed up at Bree.

She was scared about what he would say. What if she had just ruined everything for them? What if she had come on too strong?

Conner gestured to the box on Bree's lap. He was so full of words that he couldn't choose which ones to say. "There's something else in the box," He said.

Bree knitted her brows together. She sifted through the letters, looking for something else. After sweeping them away, Bree found a small white box at the bottom of the chest. She looked up at Conner, hoping to get a signal.

"Go on," He urged. "Open it."

Bree hesitated. Boxes like that were usually small enough so they contained one particular thing. She took the box into her hands. She was still nervous. Shaking herself out, she cracked the lid open. "Woah."

Bree was familiar with many different rings, but this one was something she had never seen. It was made out of silver, but when Bree turned it she could see a flicker of gold. There was a single small black gem at the bottom of the ring, instead of it typically dotting the entire ring like you'd see in the Otherworld. And as for the gem in the middle, Bree had no clue what it was.

She wanted to say that it was an amethyst because of its purple hue, but the colour coming out of that jewel was much too vivid to be anything out of the ordinary. It was a deep violet and was almost shaped like an eye. But the thing that caught her the most off-guard about it was when she took a closer look at it, there was a faint glowing coming from the center of the rock shaped like a heart.

Bree had lost her breath. She had never seen anything like this her entire life, and it fascinated her. It was so beautiful that Bree felt it had been given to her by mistake. "This is gorgeous," She managed to say.

Conner meekly stood up from the chair he had been sitting at and walked over to Bree's. He still had the book tightly in his hands. Conner knew it was by far the most valuable thing he'd ever received, so he didn't want to let it go for a second. "Do you like it?" He asked as he took a seat in the chair beside hers. He studied her expression intensely. Once he started looking at her, he couldn't stop.

Bree didn't know how to express her response. "I love it," She ended up saying. She carefully took the ring out of the box and held it in her fingers. She was too in awe to think straight. Bree wasn't the type to lose herself in a gift or anything of the sorts, because she knew it was important to remember that people were much more irreplaceable. She wouldn't melt to the ground if somebody gave her something. But something about this ring gave her a strong feeling of sentimentality. It felt like Conner had taken a part of himself and stuck it in a ring, if that made any sense. There were tears pooling in her eyes at the prospect.

Conner broke into a smile. He had been so nervous about this whole exchange at first. All he wanted was to make Bree happy and show her how he felt, and he was afraid the feeling might not have been reciprocated. But after reading that first page of the notebook, everything seemed so much clearer. Bree loved him just like he loved her.

He put a hand on Bree's shoulder, and she turned to look. Conner chuckled softly as Bree ducked her head to blink back tears and fight her oncoming blush. She couldn't hold it in forever, so a small tear escaped out of her lid and rolled down her cheek. Conner tilted her head up and wiped her cheek with his thumb. "Do you know why there's only one tiny stone on the band?" He asked her, referring to the black jewel encrusted on the silver of the ring.

Bree shook her head. Conner bit the inside of his mouth to force himself to keep a straight face. "It's kind of cheesy, but Alex thought it was a good idea," He started lightheartedly. The tension was still persistent at Conner's feeble attempt to remove it. "Every year we're together, another jewel is added to the band," He said. "So by this time next year, there'll be two."

It was a sweet but promising testimony to Bree. This was so much more than a ring, and it was abundantly clear. "How did you manage to pull this off?" She asked in amazement.

Conner shrugged the question off. "Alex helped me make it," He responded. "I didn't know how to give you something that said what I needed to say, so I asked Alex about it and she told me that she could just create something if I wanted. I kinda just held on to her wand as Alex did the cool sparkly stuff and thought of everything I needed to get you. When I opened my eyes, the ring was already in my hands." He looked at the ring, which Bree was still holding.  "Try it on."

Bree laughed and wiped her eyes. She slid the ring onto her finger, and it fit perfectly. The second it was on the heart at the core of the purple gem pulsed. "You really outdid yourself this time, huh?" She elbowed him lightly.

Conner stood up and pulled Bree's hands to bring her up with him. "So did you."

As soon as Bree was up, she fell into Conner's arms and embraced him tightly. Conner stumbled a bit, but warmth filled his chest and he hugged Bree back. He buried his face in her hair and kissed the top of her head. "Thank you," Bree mumbled to him. She hadn't felt this happy in a long time, if ever.

Conner smiled. He didn't really know what to respond to her. When it came to Bree, he was always at a loss for words. This time was definitely no exception. Conner chuckled, resting his chin on her head. "Same to you." He leaned down to kiss her cheek in the silence.

Despite the dormancy of words exchanged between Conner and Bree, the room had been so loud throughout the ordeal. Bree never knew that feelings could make a place so noisy.

She looked down at the book still clutched in Conner's hand. Very noisy indeed, she said to herself. Conner followed Bree's gaze and he put his arms back around her.

"How many letters are in that box?" Bree asked.

"I have no idea," Conner said truthfully. "I just know that there are a lot of them, and they're all basically me professing my love for you just in a thousand different ways."

Bree smiled coyly. "I guess we're in the same boat, then."

Conner flushed pink. "Should we get back now?" He asked Bree.

Bree surveyed the room. "If we're done, then yes," She replied. Bree slipped out of Conner's arms to fetch her jewelry box, and Conner draped his hoodie over his shoulder.

On their way out the door, Bree noticed that she hadn't closed the box all the way. A letter had wiggled its way out of it and floated to the floor. "Oh!" She bent down to pick it up.

While Bree was looking down, Conner gazed up. "Oh." He gulped.

By the time Bree looked up at Conner, he had an expectant expression on his face. "What is it?" She questioned curiously.

Conner made a fleeting motion with his head to the doorway above them. Bree took his gesture and found that there was some green plant with red berries hanging over them. Mistletoe. She was sure it hadn't been there before!

She stood back up with a playful grin on her lips. "We wouldn't want to disappoint, would we?" She winked.

Conner took that as a sign and wrapped his arms around her as Bree pulled him in for a sweet kiss. As soon as their lips touched, the glow coming from Bree's ring intensified. The longer they kissed, the brighter it became.

Once they separated, Conner couldn't help but kiss her again. Bree giggled softly and rolled her eyes. She cupped Conner's face and kissed him back.

Unbeknownst to most, there was somebody else peering around the corner, thoroughly pleased with their work.

Alex fist-pumped herself. "Yes!" She whispered enthusiastically. "I knew that was a good idea!" She was going to give herself a high five when her elbow hit the wall, making a low sound. "Ow, crap!" She scurried out of the hall before his brother or Bree would come investigate.

Christmas was deemed a success.

**************

okay i'm finally done, sorry this took so long! after christmas i went into a depressive pit but now i'm back and my uwu's have been restored!

also i know this s u c k s (we were all thinking it) because i had this somewhat coherent plot line but i ruined it with a bunch of fluffy nonsense and it was way longer and deeper than i intended so you're welcomeee

and before u ask, a new chapter of the scorchings (my other tlos fic check it out if u haven't already hehe) will be up very soon! and also if you left a request, i haven't forgotten about it and it'll be up next!

merry christmas/ happy new year to all!! please comment and vote to share the spirit all around (especially to me because comments help fuel my nonexistent ego)
-heart

i'm sorry for making u read this