31: All is Merry and Bright

Christmas day. Probably my most favourite time of the year. There was nothing like spending Christmas day with your nearest and dearest. I was so glad to be inside the warmth, my bright red Christmas jumper keeping me cosy from the cold blast of snow outside.

All members of the Agreste household were safely inside our house, away from the snow, happily chatting away as we stuffed ourselves with Christmas dinner. Who knew that we would end up getting to this point, with Liz and Jason and myself being able to spend Christmas together without being at each other's throats?

Luckily, everything was resolved between us, no more secrets or lies and we were finally able to be ourselves around each other. It was turning out to be a great day so far.

"You've really outdone yourself, Victoria. Everything is amazing" Natalie praised.

"Oh, thanks Natalie. I love organising the Christmas dinner" my mom blushed.

"Well, in that case, you can host Christmas dinner every year" Gabriel, Jason's father, laughed.

We were all dressed in crazy Christmas jumpers. It had become a silly tradition and each year; we would try to outdo one another. Liz's jumper had a huge snowman at the front, the carrot sticking out of the jumper. But Jason's was even crazier, his red Santa Claus jumper lit up. I think he won best jumper this year.

By the time we had finished dinner, we were all stuffed. No one spoke as we all laid on the couch, nursing our now full stomachs. "That was amazing as usual, hun" my dad sighed, rubbing his belly.

"Don't forget that I've made cookies too" I said, to which I received groans in response. "Hey, there is always room for dessert"

"I really don't want to think about food right now" Liz groaned.

"I'm looking forward to tasting your world-famous cookies, although not right this second" Jason chuckled. "I do love your bakes. I hope you've made your cupcakes too" he said, kissing my cheek.

"Ewww, please stop. You're going to make me barf up my dinner" Liz moaned. Even though everything was back to normal between us, it did annoy Liz to no end when Jason would kiss me. "I'm never going to get used to that, am I?"

"Well you're going to have to get used to it" Jason laughed, kissing me once again, which got a giggle out of me. "Besides, do you think it's any easier for me to see you and Ian together. Now, that's strange"

"I think it's cute" I cooed. "They are so adorable together"

"Not as adorable as you, my love" Jason smiled.

"Eeuurghh, can't you move out already?" Liz moaned. "That way when I say, get a room, I mean you go to your own place"

"How about it, milady? Shall we find a place that we can call our own?" Jason smirked.

"Hey, I didn't mean move in with Rosie. You are not taking her away from me"

I could feel my face heat up.  Luckily, our parents were knocked out on the sofa, so I didn't have to face the embarrassment of talking about the subject of Jason and I. As happy as my parents were about Jason and me, I was still their only daughter, who they were super protective over.

I knew Jason was only joking, loving to rile up Liz, but I would like to think that someday we would end up moving in together. I could feel my own eyes drooping and eventually let my head fall onto Jason's shoulder.

"Is Ian coming over later?" I asked, my eyes starting to close.

"Yeah, he's with his family just now but he said he'll come over later" Liz said, a huge grin on her face.

"That's nice" I said before sleep overtook me.

When I woke up, Ian had arrived. Liz and Ian were snuggled up by the fire. I looked up to see Jason already awake, smiling down at me.

"You should have woken me up. Isn't your arm hurting where I slept?" I asked.

"You looked so peaceful, I didn't want to wake you" he smiled, playing with a strand of my hair. "Plus, I needed you full of energy when I gave you your present"

"You got me a present?" I grinned, no longer feeling drowsy. Our parents were now awake, and everyone was snacking on the desserts.

"Of course.  You got me an amazing present so of course I had to get you one. I really hope you like it". I had almost forgotten about the present I left for Jason at his house.

"I'm sure I will" I grinned, kissing his cheek. "Did you like your present?"

"I loved it. I can't believe you found all those pictures. I can't even remember most of them. I looked adorable as a kid" he laughed, referring to the pictures I found of us when we were younger.

"You did. But I looked cuter" I teased.

"Well, there's no arguing with that" he smirked.

"When did Ian get here?" Ian clearly got the message about our crazy jumpers' tradition and came wearing a reindeer jumper, the antlers sticking out on either side.

"Not long ago. I'm glad your now awake because all they've been doing is being all cute and giggly with each other. It was weirding me out" he shuddered, looking at Liz and Ian cuddled together as Ian whispered into Liz's ear, making her giggle.

I bit my lip to stop myself from laughing. "We could do the same you know"

"What do you mean?" he raised an eyebrow.

I smiled up at him before kissing him lightly on the lips, sighing in contentment. Everything was the way it was meant to be. I couldn't ask for anything more.

"You really are something you know" Jason chuckled.

Our Christmas tree, which was up against the window, lit up against the white of the snow, the snowflakes falling softly to the ground outside. The whole scenery was picturesque, I could stare at it all day.

"Okay guys, I think it's time we open up presents now" My dad announced.

"Yaas, finally" Liz shouted, bouncing up and down on the spot like a little kid.

The rest of the day consisted of opening all our presents and munching on snacks. Liz and I received some clothing and jewellery as well as other amazing little gifts. Liz gifted me with some makeup that I had wanted for a long time and she got Jason a keyring.

Jason looked down at it confused, raising an eyebrow for an explanation. "That's for when you eventually get your own house keys" Liz laughed.

"Are you moving out?" Ian asked.

"Nope. But Liz is really hinting for me to"

Our parents had moved to the dining room next door, probably chatting about whatever adults chatted about, leaving us on our own.

"How about we give our gift now?" Ian grinned to Jason, taking out something from his pocket.

"You got us something?" Liz asked, looking at me. I shrugged in response, wondering what the boys had planned.

Jason also took something out of his pocket and handed an envelope to me. Ian did the same for Liz. "What is this?" I asked.

"Open it and find out" Jason smirked.

Liz and I raised our eyebrows at each other, but opened the envelopes, too excited to wait any longer. Inside the envelope, were tickets. "Plane tickets?"

"Look to see where we're going" Ian said.

I looked at the tickets which read 'Return flight to London'

"London? We're going to London?" I beamed, hoping that this wasn't some prank.

"Yep. Ian and I have planned a trip to the UK. We're going to start in London and work our way up, finishing in Edinburgh" Jason explained, the grin on his face conveying his excitement.

"We're planning to go in the summer, so we have a few months to get prepared for it. Jason told me all about Edinburgh and I've always wanted to go to London, so we decided why not do both" Ian shrugged. "We can do a little touring of all the major UK cities if we have time"

"We still have some time to plan out the finer details. So, what do you think?" Jason asked, pursing his lips in anticipation.

I was speechless. I couldn't believe they had planned this for us. I didn't know what to say as I stared down at the tickets I held in my hands.

Liz spoke first, breaking the silence "Oh my goodness, this is amazing. Thanks Ian", she said, lunging towards Ian, enveloping him in a hug.

"Hey, your brother also contributed to this present, remember?" Jason laughed, stretching out his arms for Liz.

Liz rolled her eyes but hugged her brother. "Thanks Jason, this is the best present ever."

I smiled to Jason, shaking my head at the gift in my hand "This is too much"

Jason grinned "Don't worry about that. Just think of the memories we will create. This is a great opportunity, plus we get to explore Edinburgh again and show off what we already know to Liz and Ian"

Just thinking about going back to Edinburgh made my heart flutter. When he put it like that, I couldn't say no to the gift. It would be a trip of a lifetime, filled with many memories. "Thanks Jason, I love it" I smiled, hugging him. I turned to Ian, almost forgetting to thank him too "And thank you Ian"

"No problem. It's going to be the trip of a lifetime"

"It sure will" Jason grinned, placing his arm around me.

"This is amazing. I can't wait already" I said excitedly, kissing Jason on the cheek.

"Can't it be summer already" Liz groaned. "I've already started planning in my head where I want to go in London. I want to go to Oxford Street and do lots of shopping, and then I want to go on the London eye, I've heard that amazing. Oh, and there's Madame Tussauds and – "

I laughed, listening to Liz list all the places she wanted to go to when we went to London. I was so excited to go and make new memories. If this trip was as amazing as our Edinburgh one, we were in for a treat.

"So, I looked up what else we can do in Edinburgh that we didn't get a chance to do last time" Jason smiled, running a hand through my hair.

"Oh yeah. What else is there to do?"

"Well, we didn't' get to go to the zoo last time. They have a panda exhibit, the only one in the UK, so we will have to check that out"

"I'm sure Daniel mentioned that before. I do love me some cute pandas"

"I may or may not have asked Daniel for some advice on where else to go to in Edinburgh" Jason chuckled.

"Jason. You know no one in the office is supposed to know about us" I scolded, playfully hitting his arm.

"But this is Daniel we're talking about. He probably already knows"

"Yeah, your probably right" I rolled my eyes.

"Daniel also gave me a list of other places to check out"

"I swear that boy knows more about Scotland than even the Scots do" I laughed.

"Did you hear than Daniel managed to convince his fiancé to have his wedding in Scotland?"

"I'm not surprised. He is Scotland obsessed"

"Apparently his fiancé is obsessed with that show Outlander, so I suppose she didn't need that much convincing"

"Is he wanting to get married at Edinburgh castle or something?" I scoffed, not surprised if he did end up doing that.

"Don't be silly" Jason rolled his eyes "I think he's looking into Stirling castle"

"Where's that?"

"Don't even ask. I got a whole history lesson off him"

Liz was busy yapping Ian's ear off, telling him all the things she was already planning to do once we got to the UK. If she was like this now, what was she going to be like when we got there. Ian sat patiently, smiling as he listened to Liz and nodded at the correct moments. I truly hoped he was paying attention; Liz was surely going to question him on it when he least expected it.

I placed my head against Jason's shoulder and sighed "I'm going to miss Daniel"

"Yeah, so am- wait, what are you talking about?" Jason frowned.

I smiled, my stomach swarming with nerves about telling Jason my news but also excitement about what the future held for me. "Do you remember how I applied for that postgraduate degree?"

"Yeah, I remember you mentioning it"

"Well, I got in. I'm starting next month" I grinned excitedly.

"That's brilliant news" Jason beamed, enveloping me in a hug. "I'm so proud of you"

"I can't wait to start. But I'm really going to miss everybody at work, I did have a great time there"

"I'm going to miss seeing your face there every day" Jason pouted.

I couldn't help but kiss that pout off his face. "I think seeing each other all the time would have gotten annoying eventually. We would have gotten sick at the sight of each other"

"I'm still going to miss you regardless" he sighed, placing his forehead against mine. "But I'm so proud that my girl is going to become a teacher. You're going to do amazing things"

I wrapped my arms around him and kissed him, thinking off all that had happened for us to get to this moment we were in now. Who knew that one crazy drunk night at a club would end up turning our whole world upside down? I didn't think it was even possible for me to fall for my best friends' brother, someone I had known all my life, someone that had been right under my nose the whole time. He knew everything about me, and I knew pretty much everything there was to know about him. And I was looking forward to finding out a lot more about us in the future.

"I love you" I sighed, hugging him, feeling his heartbeat matching mine.

"And I love you too" he said, giving me one last peck on the lips. I don't think I would ever get used to Jason being in my life like this, his kisses, his hugs. I couldn't wait to see what the future had in store for us.

"Hey, what are you two lovebirds talking about over there?" Liz shouted over.

"Did you know Rosie got accepted into her teaching course?" Jason smiled down at me proudly.

"I knew you could do it. My best friend is going to be an awesome teacher" Liz screamed, coming over to hug me.

"Is this us becoming official adults? Did we do this thing properly?" I laughed.

"Who knows. But I'm looking forward to finding out"

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The End!

Thank you so much to all those that have read this. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I loved writing this. It was so much fun.

Originally, there was meant to be another chapter after this, but decided to end it here. I felt like a cute Christmas chapter was a good place to end it.

There will be an epilogue posted soon and maybe some bonus chapters.

Thanks again for sticking with me on Rosie, Jason's and Liz's journey (oh yeah, and Ian too. Can't forget about him, lol). I hope you all enjoyed x