kaitlyn awoke on christmas day to a vaguely melodic scream coming from down the hallway.

 "IIIIIIIII."

"ohh, no." she grumbled to herself, flopping back down and burying her face in her pillow as walker stirred next to her.

"DON'T WANT A LOT FOR CHRISTMAS." aryan and dior screeched, banging on doors as they made their ways down the hallway with mariah carey whistle note-ing through the speaker.

"every year." walker groaned next to her, rubbing his eyes.

"THEEEERE IS JUST ONE THING I NEED." dior belted, the door to kaitlyn and walker's room bursting open as she thrust one of those little karaoke microphones in kaitlyn's face.

"i don't care about the preseeents." kaitlyn obliged, barely carrying a tune with her croaky morning voice.

"underneath the christmas tree." walker said in a monotone before covering his face with the pillow.

"IIIII JUST WANT YOU FOR MY OWNNNN." leah appeared in the doorway, striking a pose in her grinch pajamas and grabbing the microphone as dior laughed. they left and rushed down the hallway, no doubt on the hunt for charlie as their next song victim. 

"more than youuu could ever know." kaitlyn whisper-sang, giggling as walker sat up groggily and planted a quick kiss on her cheek before getting up to go downstairs. kaitlyn threw on a christmas sweater and followed him down.

"presents time!" leah cheered, setting up the camera to livestream their haul and shuffling the christmas playlist

"how do you have so much energy." charlie grumbled, flopping down on the couch and leaning his head on the side of kaitlyn's arm.

user81 HII IGOOD MORNING MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYVODYYY
user7 me EVERY MORNING in fact.
user2 charlie is me i am charlie
user33 i love kaitlyn's sweaterrrrr

"it's christmas. and it's literally not that early. it's only eight." leah stuck her tongue out at him before tossing him a stack of wrapped packages. "you first." charlie showed the camera a fancy watch from his parents, a vinyl from dior, a joint present of a new fitness tracker watch from walker leah and aryan, and a 'world's best grandpa' t-shirt from kaitlyn, which he laughed at. 

"i also contributed to the vinyl decision and purchase, so i didn't just get you a gag gift." kaitlyn explained. 

"gag gift? more like gag city! catch me wearing this every day." charlie yanked it on over his tank top as everyone laughed.

user9 HELPP GAG CITY IS CRAZY
user22 he is so loved it's so cute
user1 charlie has L music taste im sorry...

"yeah, his music taste is kinda weird." dior agreed. charlie pushed her head to the side. 

"leah and dior are opening their gift over there, but they're going to do individual christmas hauls on their tiktoks, by the way, so go check those out later." kaitlyn flashed a thumbs up at the camera, covering up leah's shocked-happy face at the gift basket kaitlyn and dior had gotten her filled with her favorite things and a bunch of makeup she'd been wanting.

"aryan's turn!" walker hit him over the head with a giant goat plushie.

"for me??" aryan acted downright emotional over the gift.

user6 best gift actualy
user33 ok so that plushie must weigh absolutely nothing bc that hit looked HARD
user12 surprised it wasn't an adele vinyl!

"also for you." charlie rolled his eyes and tossed aryan a little mesh bag. 

aryan opened it and gasped. he held it up to the camera - a gold chain, one that was little but was real gold and had little emeralds on it for his favorite color. "actually for me?"

"for you, goat man. from all of us. we love you, plus we feel like we owe you for all the rolling in the deep references and third-wheeling we make you do." walker said, grinning. 

"awwww, he's gonna cry!" leah pointed out at aryan's misty eyes.

"shut up." he swiped at his face.

"group hug!" kaitlyn cheered, wrapping her arms around aryan as everyone piled on top.

user23 this friend group.
user9 CUTEST THING EVERRRRRR
user2 so my heart is actually melting rn
user56 why am i crying

"walker and kaitlyn left."

"walker first. i'll open mine later." kaitlyn said, holding out a stack of presents. "also, except for charlie, most of us are opening our parents' gifts later with them. most of them are still asleep, but charlie's are traveling."

"and kaitlyn's gonna open one of my gifts off-camera." walker added, shooting a nervous glance at her.

"ooo, it's a secret?" she asked, wiggling her eyebrows. 

"not really." walker shrugged before turning his attention back to his presents. kaitlyn noticed the reddened tips of his ears and dropped the subject.

"oh, wow." walker said, trying and failing to fight the grin spreading across his face. he held the black 'i ❤️ my girlfriend' t-shirt up to the camera. "we're definitely making a tiktok with this later."

kaitlyn laughed and clapped her hands. leah glanced down at the comments. "guys, before you all come at her, it's a joke, it's a tiktok trend, and you're all just haters." she stuck her tongue out.

user8 no it's just genuinely weird as fuck
user21 HAHAHA AWW THAT'S SO CUTE LOOK AT HIS SMILE
user76 ok so i'm hating BUT if walker scobell was my bf i'd get him that shirt too...

"open the other ones." walker opened a bunch of hair stuff from leah, a silk tie with little ocean waves on it from rick - "thank you uncle rick i love it SO much!!!" - batman pajamas from dior, a fancy hoodie from charlie, a persassy t-shirt from aryan that they laughed at for about five minutes, and a GIANT lego set from kaitlyn plus some cookie's she'd baked, which were his favorite gifts of all.

she grinned and blushed harder than ever as he planted little kisses all over one side of her face, halfway off-camera. "i do in fact love my girlfriend." he yanked the t-shirt on over his pajama shirt.

user9 i just threw up a little bit i'm so jealous i might cry
user0 sleeping on the highway tn!
user8 the pda is actually nauseating

"ew, you guys are so cute, it's disgusting." aryab pretended to gag. "okay, we're going for christmas breakfast at my house! love you guys, and have a very very merry christmas! or happy hanukkah! or kwanzaa! or whatever you do or don't celebrate!" he ended the livestream as everybody laughed.

"i'm gonna give kaitlyn my gift now. meet you guys there?" they all nodded and said their goodbyes before heading out the door. they'd forgotten their speaker, and now soft classical christmas music filled the house with as much warmth as the crackling fire.

"i have something for you." he said as soon as they left. they were standing in front of the tree, close as ever, their happy faces reflected in the many ornaments.

"i heard. something so important you had to give it to me in private." she wiggled her eyebrows. "is it a firearm? a nuclear weapon? an organ? ooo, maybe a dolphin?? please say it's a dolphin."

walker laughed. "nothing even close." he picked out a small present near the base of the tree, and looked at her, smile fading, heart hammering. 

"a seed that once i plant it in my backyard it will grow into a dolphin?" kaitlyn said weakly, acutely aware of the tension that now filled the room, created by walker's nerves, which she absorbed through their strong connection.

he handed it to her, and she carefully worked away at the taped corners instead of ripping off the wrapping paper like she normally did. "you don't have to keep it. if you don't want it, i swear, i can take it back. or you can keep it but not wear it. or wear it but ignore the implications if you don't want them?"

it was a small navy velvet box. kaitlyn's heart was beating so fast now that she couldn't muster up the humor to make another dolphin joke.

"i don't really know how you're supposed to do this." he took the box from her and opened it, but didn't get down on one knee like in wedding proposals. they both stared at it, the tiny golden ring with a heart gemstone, nestled in the little box. kaitlyn felt her eyes well up. she looked down at it and back at him.

"it's a promise ring. you totally don't have to wear it, and if it's too big of a commitment for now, we can just forget about it. i just thought it was a nice idea for christmas, and i love you, and-"

she interrupted him with a soft, slow kiss that made his heart relax as he melted into her.

"walker, i love it." 

"you're crying too? me, you, and aryan all within twelve hours." he laughed, wiping a happy tear off of her face and sliding the ring onto her finger. she leaned into him.

"it's so beautiful. i'm never taking it off. i'm going to just stack our wedding ring on top of this one."

the word 'our' had never sounded more like music to his ears.

kaitlynbright we could leave the christmas lights up tilllll january
liked by traviskelce and 893.3K others

walkerscobell and i'm highly suspicious that everyone who sees you wants you‼️😖🖕
⮑ kaitlynbright i've loved you 3 summers now honey but i want em alll‼️‼️❤️

user7 MARRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL WHO CELEBRATE 

user66 so the lover lyrics i'm crying what if i throw myself off the washington monument

iamcharliebushnell was the present given??
⮑ kaitlynbright yes never been happier

leahsavajeffries OMG SIDE PROFILE
⮑ kaitlynbright OMG UR WHOLE EXISTENCE

user65 OMG SHE GOT HER CAT
⮑ kaitlynbright YES I DIDDD

dior.n.goodjohn i still think our gift to aryan was the best
⮑ iamcharliebushnell blud started CRYINGGG
⮑ mckennagraceful oh this i NEED pics of
⮑ aryansimhadri guys let's not...

aryansimhadri lil sis is wifed up!!!
⮑ kaitlynbright just about!!

user5 pjo chrismtas special when.

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younger.deadpooll it's you and me! that's my whole world! moon and to saturn and you and iiii ended upppp in the same roommm at the saaame tiiiime and i. FEEL SO HIGH SCHOOOLLLL EVERY TIME. I LOOK AT YOUUUUUU

sushiluvr09 so now we're outdoing my captions i see

goatedaryan Bruh. 
⮑ younger.deadpooll What
⮑ goatedaryan this too cute need me a gf

notcharliebushnell ok.

jeffries_sava best couple (i cry myself to sleep bc i have no one and i will never know a love like theirs)
⮑ diorsauvage NO GIRL U HAVE ME (same.)

user1 UMMM IDK HOW I MADE IT ONTO THE PRIV BUT THIS MADE ME CRY
⮑ pjoscobellfanpage IK WE'RE LIKE ELITE EMPLOYEES

xochitlgomez THIS IS TOO CUTE HELP. @sushiluvr09 u got our boy kicking his feet and giggling on a public platform

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sushiluvr09 huh oh sorry couoldn't hear you over the very loud noise of my PROMISE RING #tryingtostiflemysighscauseifeelsohighschoooooleverytimeILOOKATYOUUUBUTLOOKATYOUUUUUUUU

younger.deadpooll this is not a violation of me for once!

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⮑ author speaks!

so high school and so long london and fresh out the slammer and florida top 4?????? 

AND I'M JUST. GETTING. COLOR. BACK INTO. MY. FACE. I'M. JUST. MAD AS. HELL BECAUSE I LOVED THIS PLACE

the prophecy is so pjo coded

ALSO. remember that guy i was just talking about?? theres a DIFF guy who is in my grade this time and in my sport and he is so gorgeous and smart and nice and hilarious just one small problem he's best friends w my ex so i guess i'm gonna DIE ALONE.

if u can't tell i'm a little boy crazy but it's ok 😜