The next few days passed in a blur. They continued their cleaning, baking and cooking marathon. Sarah didn’t understand why they had to wash all the windows in the house, but that’s what they did, along with mopping the floors and dusting every nook and cranny. But everything was clean and done for Christmas Eve. In the morning of the Eve, Gloria took all the children with her to the town to deliver some of the foods to the charity that would share them with the less fortunate people. They gave out bread, jam and pies they had made with lot of effort. On the way back, they stopped at the local bakery, and Gloria bought everyone a massive gingerbread biscuit.

The family would spend the rest of the day with different activities such as playing games and watching movies. While Sarah enjoyed all of it, it drained her energy well before dinner time, and she quietly retreated to her room between rounds of Monopoly. She lied down on her bed and closed her eyes for a moment. Socializing was tiring. She enjoyed the company of her cousins but being constantly around people sapped her energy. Too much was happening almost all the time.

Sarah took out her phone. Her finger hovered over Castiel’s phone number. She didn’t like phone calls, but she wanted to hear his voice. She bit her lip and pressed the call button, pushing herself into a better position on the bed.

The phone rang a few times, but Castiel answered quickly.

“Sarah? Is everything alright?”

Sarah’s heart leaped at the sound of Castiel’s voice. She couldn’t quite hold back a smile.

“Hi. Yeah, everything’s alright. I just wanted to call you. I miss you.”

“I miss you too. How have you been?”

“Good. We’ve been busy. Lots of prepping for Christmas. It has been more like a work camp than a holiday,” Sarah said, laughing a bit. Her vision of a holiday was a bit different from this.

“I feel you. Mum invited some guests over and decided we need to clean the entire house because of it when they’ll only be seeing the kitchen and living room.”

Sarah chuckled. Sounded like parent behaviour for sure.

“When are you coming back?” Castiel asked then.

“Probably on Sunday. I’m not 100% sure yet.”

“Okay. I can’t wait to see you again.”

Sarah’s cheeks warmed, and she smiled again.

“Same. How’s the gig thing progressing by the way?”

“Really good. Morgan’s friend is holding a party, and Morgan recommended us to play when he said he wanted some live music. We decided to take it since it’s a good opportunity to get some visibility. It’s on New Year’s Eve. I know we made plans, but we should have time for both.”

“I’m happy you got an opportunity like that.”

“Leon and I were talking that we could all go to the party. I’m sure Morgan’s friend is fine if we bring you and Amanda along. Free food and drinks. And amazing music of course.”

“Sounds great. I like the idea.”

A party with bunch of people she didn’t know was an intimidating thought, but she wanted to see Castiel play and support him. And how else would she get new experiences if she didn’t take the chances that were offered to her?

“We can iron out the details later when we have more info,” Castiel said.

Sarah hummed in agreement. It’d be easier to plan when they were all together and Castiel and Leon had received more details.

“Sarah, are you here?” Amity’s voice from the hallway interrupted Sarah’s train of though. Her cousin opened the door before Sarah had time to do anything.

“Oh, you’re on the phone. Sorry.”

“It’s fine. I was just talking to Castiel.”

Sarah was holding her phone against her shoulder. Amity perked up hearing Castiel’s name.

“Oh really? Hi! I’m Sarah’s cousin,” she said with a loud voice.

Sarah rolled her eyes, smiled, and lifted the phone back to her ear.

“Did you hear that? My cousin says hi.”

“Hi to her too,” Castiel said. There was a hint of amusement in his voice.

“He says hi back,” Sarah relayed the message.

“We’ve been talking about you here. I hope we can meet up sometime. It’d be nice,” Amity continued still hanging in the doorway.

Sarah decided to put the phone on speaker.

“If Sarah’s cousins look even half as pretty as she does, I’m happy to meet you,” Castiel said.

Amity laughed.

“What a flirt. I’m almost blushing here. You seem like a funny guy. I’m sure we’d get along.”

“As long as you don’t get too familiar with each other,” Sarah said, pretending to sound offended. Amity laughed at her fake-pouting face.

“I wouldn’t dream of it. I’m perfectly happy with my boo,” her cousin said. “Well, I’ll leave you alone. Just wanted to say that we’re having dinner soon.”

“Okay, I’ll come down soon. Thanks.”

“Bye Castiel. Merry Christmas~”

“Yeah, same to you.”

Amity disappeared and closed the door behind her. Sarah sighed and turned off the speaker mode.

“That was my cousin, Amity.”

“So, you’ve talked about me, huh?”

Sarah’s face flushed red. Her fingers fidgeted with the corner of a decorative pillow.

“Little bit, yeah. My cousins held an interrogation after they found out I have a boyfriend.”

“And what did you tell?”

“Oh, naturally everything down to the tiniest detail. Your height, favourite colour, the length of your hair, how amazing you are…”

Castiel snorted. Yeah, sure. Sarah would never tell anything more than necessary. But it was nice to know she had talked about him. Sometimes Castiel wondered if she was embarrassed or ashamed of him. But if she talked about him to her family, he worries were probably unfounded.

“I do need to go now. I don’t want to delay dinner.”

“Okay. It was nice to talk to you.”

There was softness in Castiel’s voice that made Sarah’s heart flutter again. She was so weak for this guy. She missed him so much.

“I’ll talk to you later. I love you. Bye.”

“Love you too. Bye.”

Sarah closed the phone and hurried downstairs hoping that the blush on her face would fade before she reached the dining room. She didn’t want to answer any questions about it. Amity would surely tease her enough as it was.

After dinner they gathered in the living room to watch one more movie before bed. Sarah paid attention for about thirty minutes before her attention drifted to her phone. She had been added to a group chat with her cousins who were having an intense conversation about Amity talking to Castiel. They pulled surprising amount of content from the two minutes Amity and Castiel had talked.

What did he sound like? Did his voice match his looks?

They voice did match! It was a smooth voice and not very deep but not high pitched either. A very nice voice.

Cool.

I wish I had been able to talk to him ;-;

You guys are really into this idea of Castiel, huh? Should I be worried?

Oh Sarah! Nothing to see here, hehe

Do you think we could get a video chat next?

Face time with Castiel!

Why can’t we facetime with Aldo instead? Or Maribelle.

Because Aldo is boring.

No he’s not!

I haven’t even seen picture of Maribelle yet. There is unbalance in the system.

[Hope attached a picture]

Oh. She’s pretty.

IKR! Do you see all those freckles? And the curls

Oh no, she’s starting

and how nice that dress fits

*goes to sleep*

Shut up Ver :<

lol

Sarah smiled at the screen. The conversation quickly spiralled into Verity and Hope having an argument. Amity chimed in every now and then, but Sarah followed from the side lines. Being included in a conversation. Verity and Hope glared at each other over their phones. Sarah rolled her eyes and tried to focus on the movie again. She had lost a big part of the story and had no idea what was going on anymore.

The movie ended an hour later, and the adults started to usher the kids to bed. Steffie and Felicity had already fallen asleep on the fluffy rug despite all the candy they had been eating. Sarah and her cousins stretched and drudged upstairs. Excitement started to simmer inside them. No matter how old they got, Christmas made them feel at least a little bit giddy. Tomorrow would be a great day.

It was barely nine in the morning, but everyone was already gathered in the living room —still comfortably in their pyjamas— with cups of hot chocolate and plates of biscuits within arms’ reach. Steffie and Felicity had been awake hours earlier and more or less on purpose pestered everyone else awake as well since gifts wouldn’t be shared unless everyone was awake.

So now they were all gathered near the Christmas tree that had been surrounded with presents during the night. They started giving out the gifts starting from the youngest, since Steffie and Felicity looked like they were about to burst. They let out excited squeals when the present turned out to be some dolls they had both wished for. They barely had interest to finish opening the other presents that contained boring things like clothes before they immersed themselves into a play. While Clement tried to act casual, he too ripped the wrapping papers of his present without much waiting or hesitation. A smile lit up his serious face when he saw he had got the games and books he had wished for.

It was no surprise to Sarah and her older cousins that their presents consisted mainly of chocolate, gift cards and skin care products. They also all got a similar pair of fuzzy socks which Sarah assumed to be from their grandparents. Sarah took a tentative sniff of the guava and passionfruit shampoo which smelled heavenly. She would definitely be using it a lot, unlike the dark chocolate shower gel from last year which still hadn’t been completely finished.

After gifts, they had a quick breakfast and then Sarah’s grandparents and Gloria’s family packed themselves in cars to head to the Christmas church. Sarah always felt slightly awkward to stay behind, but she reasoned that it was better to stay behind than be uninterested and bored during the service which was important to other people.

With the house empty, Sarah could finally relax a bit after all the hustle and work. She slumped on the couch and Harlowe trotted to her. Sarah scooped to dog on her lap and received a face washing as a thank you. Sarah smiled and smooched the dog before putting him on the floor again. Harlowe bounced around the floor and then wandered to the Christmas tree trying to get his teeth into the balls hanging on the branches. They had already pre-emptively left the lowest branches clean from anything that could find its way to a puppy’s mouth, but it didn’t stop Harlowe from trying.

Sarah chuckled and walked to the dog again.

“Nope, don’t eat them,” she said and sat down on the floor, patting her leg.

Harlowe leaped towards her with his short legs and fell on her lap.

Sarah shook her head in amusement. She took out her phone and positioned herself and the dog in front of the Christmas tree to take a few pictures. It was near impossible to make Harlowe stay still long enough, but after taking as many pictures as quickly as she could, there were a few successful shots. Most of them were deleted because the puppy was nothing but a brown blur in them.

“Harlowe, you need to practice staying still,” Sarah said while scrolling through the photos. The puppy was gnawing on the hem of her shirt. “But look, in this one you’re cute, and I don’t look dumb either. Some of the tree is also visible.”

One to twenty was a good ratio when it came to selfies, right?

She attached the photo to a Merry Christmas message and set it to Castiel. Nervousness prickled in her stomach. She didn’t usually share pictures of herself.

It took a while for Castiel’s reply to come. Sarah wondered if he had still been asleep. It was not even noon yet, so quite early when it came to holiday sleep schedules. And Castiel probably didn’t have anyone who would eagerly pull him out of the bed before sunrise, except maybe his mother.

You can’t send me something like this first thing in the morning!

Sarah smiled.

It’s 11

You look so fucking cute.

Heat rushed to Sarah’s face. Words like ‘cute’ or ‘adorable’ didn’t usually belong to Castiel’s vocabulary when they were in public, but privately and through messages he didn’t hesitate to use them. And they always got to Sarah.

Thanks >///< With all the work it took to get a good picture, I’m happy to hear that.

You would look good in any picture. I’d send you something too but i just woke up. Unless that’s what you want to see…

The blush on Sarah’s face deepened. She was happy Castiel couldn’t see it.

I’m trying to be wholesome, and you suggest shirtless pics.

I didn’t say anything about shirtless but i like your train of thought.

Sarah didn’t have time to type a message, when another one came from Castiel. The tips of Sarah’s ears felt hot. Castiel was lying on his bed. Blankets covered only half of his naked upper body. His tongue was sticking out playfully. Sarah took a cooling breath. Maybe she should’ve gone to the church after all.

That’s…wow.

Made you speechless, huh.

Shut up. I wasn’t prepared for this.

I wish I could see your face rn

Good thing you can’t.

That bad?

Sarah could picture the smirk on Castiel’s face. He knew he had made Sarah flustered, and he was proud of it.

You bully me.

I light-heartedly tease you.

What’s the difference?

You don’t want to punch me yet.

Are you sure about that?

Fine i’ll give you a break. Mum’s calling me downstairs so I guess I need to go. Have a good day. I’ll text you later. But merry christmas for now.

Go before she comes to get you, lol. Merry Christmas.

Sarah sneaked another glance at the picture Castiel sent her but quickly put her phone away before she would flush again. She picked up Harlowe and headed to the kitchen where mum was preparing the lunch, so that they could eat when the church-goers returned.

The day passed pleasantly with food. They had lunch, an afternoon coffee, some snacks, dinner, dessert and another snack before bed. Every time Sarah thought she couldn’t eat more, but somehow she still managed to fit in few more roasted potatoes, slices of turkey and pieces of berry pie, and some chocolates and biscuits. And some more pie. Between eating they watched more movies and played more board games. Castiel indulged Sarah with dog pictures. His mother had bought a Santa hat for Ares, but the dog wasn’t keen on wearing it. Eventually they managed to wrangle the hat on for longer than five seconds so that Castiel could take a picture. He even managed to get one of himself and Ares, similarly to Sarah and Harlowe. Sarah even showed the picture to her cousins, mainly to show off Ares, but Castiel naturally was the main focus for them.

“I swear, if he wasn’t taken, I’d pursue him,” Verity sighed, “Sarah, you’re so lucky.”

“I know,” she said and blushed. Looks weren’t the most important thing in a person to her, but she did appreciate a beautiful body, and Castiel certainly had one.

“Does he have a brother?”

“He doesn’t.”

Verity sighed with disappointment.

“Did you abandon Beau this quickly?” Amity teased.

“No. He’s still cool and sweet, but girl would like to keep her options open, you know.”

She received understanding nods and hums as a response. If things weren’t too serious yet, it was fine to take glances at other people too. As long as it wasn’t Castiel, Sarah thought.

“I think I’ll send Beau a message. I haven’t texted to him this whole time,” Verity said then. She headed to a more private place and after a few moments Sarah and the others dispersed as well to go graze on assortments of chocolate and glazed nuts.

At the end of the day, everyone was very full but happy and content. Even though not much had happened in terms of exciting events, this had been one of the better Christmases for Sarah. She had enjoyed her time greatly. She was most happy about connecting with her cousins so well. She hoped they would stay in contact even after this gathering. It’d be nice to keep talking and maybe even meet up.