Ace came to wake me up around 11 pm. When we entered the living room it was already crowded and noisy. There was lots of food on the living room table. Berry buttermilk pancake tray bake, whole plates of gingerbread and cinnamon cookies, butter cookies and chocolate chip cookies. Two small bowls were on each side of the table with savory snacks. Salty pretzels, salty pistachios, hazelnuts, cashews, walnuts, almonds,macadamia nuts and a small mix of cheese crackers.

There were a whole bunch of tangerines on the side that looked so good right now. Especially after all the food and drinks we had yesterday.

Especially next to those giant coffee mugs for everyone.

Oh that was one true calling. I took one mug and sat down next to Ace.

Rehan was wearing reindeer ears over his head munching on the Christmas cookies and milk, Kai had a Santa hat on and was staring into his mug a bit out of it.

Fin was talking on his phone while hugging his mug and pacing around the living room with giant plushy penguin sock-slippers.

I barely held my laugh in.

Their mom played a Christmas movie on the TV while their Dad approached us with a bag.

"Go on." He pushed the bag towards me.

I looked at Ace and he pointed at it. I put my hand inside the bag and pulled out elf ears.

Everyone suddenly applauded and whistled. Even Kai gave me a cheer.

"Oh no." I looked at them. No. No no. I am not wearing those.

Ace put his hand in the bag and pulled out a pair of gingerbread man-like mittens.

I burst out laughing.

"Ha-ha. Let's see you put your ears on." Ace grabbed my elf ears and tried to put them on while I was shoving him away.

"Time for presents...Can someone call Francy and Remi." Their mom asked us.

"We're coming!" I could hear them yelling. Francy and Remi walked towards the living room ringing bells. Both wearing white matching onesies.

"Merry Christmas!" They rang the bells making everyone laugh.

" Let me take a picture." Francy's mom pulled out her phone, followed by her dad.

They instantly posed.

I tried to refrain from smiling despite how cute she looked.

After they sat down and grabbed a coffee mug, we started exchanging presents.

I handed them the ones I bought, which were a bit of..a sucking up to be honest. Francy's dad got an expensive wallet, her mom a high quality scarf, Ace got a game he wanted for a long time, Kai an expensive watch and for Rehan I actually had to work really hard for, but I made a special program just for him that will make research data easier for his experiments. I handed it on an external hard drive.

As for Francy. Ah.. I hoped I wasn't being too obvious that I get her on a deeper level. I had bought her the perfect present I knew she would adore. It was a small white pony decor like those from the carousel that was just perfect for her aesthetic obsession.

By the time we had all exchanged presents and I got a lovely sweater just as I was going to say something Kai got up and cleared his throat.

"I'd like to say something."

Kai looked at Remi and then awkwardly made a few steps towards her. She looked down towards the floor embarrassed.

Guess they will announce something.

"What's this about?" Ace asked, taking a cookie.

"No one touched your presents Kai." Rehan added, rolling his eyes and taking a sip of his milk.

"I asked Remi to be my girlfriend and she said yes." He said it in one breath.

Rehan spat out his milk, Ace choked on the cookie and Francy instantly turned towards Remi. "WHAT?!"

Guess she wasn't notified yet.

Fin continued to dip a cookie in his coffee. Guess he knew.

Kai's mom and dad just smiled. "That's wonderful hon. Congratulations to both of you."

I couldn't help but smile. What amazing parents. They probably all knew about his crush and yet they were acting cool, accepting and loving. I turned towards Ace to see the reaction.

Chaos.

Francy was violently hitting his back so he wouldn't choke on the cookie, while Rehan wiped the spilled milk on the table with his sleeve.

"My god. It's a Christmas Miracle. It must be." Ace finally got some air to speak.

Rehan shook his head. "This tops any groundbreaking experiment this year."

Francy gathered herself pretty quickly. She smiled at them. "Congrats. Someone owes me details."

Instantly Kai and Remi were bombarded with questions from everyone. I used this as an opportunity.

I managed to signal to Francy to join me in the kitchen for a second. I waved my hand secretly.

She quickly followed me into the kitchen.

"So I know I said I was going to spend the whole day today with you guys, but um.. I was thinking about um.. what you said."

"Said what?" She was confused.

"About going to see my family... I don't know. It might be a stupid idea. But I want to go and congratulate Christmas and just try to mend things.."

She held my hands. "That's amazing. Don't worry about me. Just go. If that's what you decided then I can only be proud of you and cheer you on."

"That being said." I smiled. "I also think we should tell others we are dating."

I could tell that made her a bit worried. "Are you sure?"

I nodded. "Oh I'm positive. In fact I think we're a bit late since your brother Kai who most likely hooked up with Remi this morning had more guts to say it than we did. We can do this. No matter what Ace says we can handle it. We already broke up once and that didn't work."

She nervously smiled while holding my hands. "I don't know.."

"Hey hey.. stop over thinking. I told you to trust me, didn't I? Well I'm telling you we have to tell him. Today. We almost got caught so many times and I don't want to have to explain the reason we never said anything because at this rate we'll get caught. and we will have to explain things."

She took a deep breath and calmed down. "Okay. I want to tell others as well. Let's do this."

Okay we were doing this. She's trusting me with this.

I let go of her hands and told her in short what I wanted to do.

I got back to the living room and told Ace to follow me upstairs as I had something private to tell him.

He probably thought it was about work so he got up and followed me without asking other questions.

Once we got upstairs he saw Francy who was waiting in the hallway.

"Francy, can you excuse us for a minute?" He asked her.

"Um actually.. I need her here." I told him.

Ace glanced at me confused. "Okaaay."

I gathered my courage. "I..."

"Hey what's going on here?" Suddenly Rehan came up the stairs. "Weren't we going to watch a movie?"

Kai's head popped up from behind him. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Sorry can we get a moment. I have to talk to Ace privately." I told them.

Fin showed up as well. "Well Francy's there so it's not that private."

I glared at him.

Fin wiped the smile off his face and instantly tried to pull Kai to leave with him, but suddenly Remi showed up too.

"What's going on here?"

"They're all going to find out anyway. Might as well hear it now." Francy sighed.

"This was not how I planned it." I told her.

"Plan what?" Ace was getting irritated.

"To tell you I'm dating Francy." I said it annoyed and realized I probably shouldn't have snapped. But shit. I guess it was out now.

Silence befell.

Ace closed his mouth.

I looked at Francy. What were we going to do now if this goes south?

No one said anything. They were all confused by the silence.

Suddenly Ace moved.

We all tensed up not knowing what to expect.

Ace dropped down to his knees and raised his arms in the air. "THANK YOU SANTA. I'm sorry I ever doubted you were real. THANK YOU."

I looked at Elric. Um what?

Everyone was equally confused and terrified by this reaction.

Ace brought his arms down. "I can't believe it worked. Both my wishes for Kai and Francy and I didn't even write a letter."

"Ace, can you come back to reality for a second." I took a deep breath and came over to stand next to Elric. "We're .."

"Shhh." He shushed me and got up. He went to hug Kai and Rehan. "We did it. I can't believe we did it."

"Did what?" Remi asked.

"Set them up." Ace answered.

THEY WHAT?

Rehan pointed at Elric. "This is why your presents were so good. I kinda felt bad for getting you just a sweater, but apparently we gave you more than that."

"I knew something was going on." Fin smirked and looked at Remi. "You knew didn't you?"

She just pressed her lips tightly.

"I can't believe we did it." Ace and Kai hugged.

"Wait..wait..You're telling me you set us up after I just told you we've been secretly dating?" Elric managed to ask.

Ace gave us a victorious smile. "We worked so hard to get you two together but I never thought it would work."

"Yeah cause she hated you." Kai explained.

Oh wait...he means.. Elric and I both looked at each other. He thought this was their doing..

"But we did it." Rehan smiled.

"But..hahha..wait..You didn't do anything." I tried explaining the whole story. That we actually knew each other before that but..

Ace shook his head. " I was doubtful myself if this would work. First it was getting him to come to Rehan's birthday party. I thought he'd refuse but he didn't. Then after that was a done deal we had Rehan's birthday shopping. You two looked pretty comfortable with each other when we left you alone and I thought I saw a spark. Then we tried all sorts of ways to get you to see each other and finally today...would you look at that. Dating."

I almost got a heart attack because of this. Is he being real right now? I glanced at Elric. He could barely contain his bittersweet laugh.

This was a grand turn of events.

Elric was between wanting to kill Ace for the stress he caused us or to hug him for being this happy when he found out. He tried to play along. "So you set me up with your sister because...?"

Ace made an absurd face like he asked the most stupid question in the world. "To have you in my family register dude. What else! Not only is my best friend my brother in law but now instead of running a partnership company now we can start a family business."

I leaned towards Elric whispering. "I think I underestimated how much he respects you."

"So did I apparently." He answered. "Now I feel bad for doubting him."

"Should we tell him?" I whispered. "That we knew each other from before?"

He sighed looking at Ace proudly telling Kai how his plans worked. "Maybe after things calm down. Or apparently after the wedding."

I tried not to laugh and gave him a small nudge.

I ran to give Ace a big hug. "So you're okay with this?"

He gave me a look. "Why wouldn't I be okay with this? This was my doing."

I pressed my lips tight. Ha ha ha. Yeah Francy.. Why wouldn't he be okay with this? ha ha

Elric suddenly broke the moment. "Francy about the other thing.."

"Oh. " I smiled. "It's okay. You can go. I'll deal with this mess."

Instantly Ace made a serious face.

"Why? What's wrong? Where do you have to go?" He looked at Elric. "Is there a problem?"

Elric looked a bit perplexed. Everyone was there and I'm sure he didn't want to tell everyone the problem. But now he had to say something.

"I wanted to go see my parents and come back later. "

"Wait..." Ace stopped and tried to clear his head. "When did you come up with this idea? You didn't say anything."

"Last night."

"But you don't have presents." Ace said.

Oh my god. He was right. "He's right. You don't." I said in panic. He can't just show up like it was a last minute thing. This won't do.

Kai raised his hand. "I have a spare gift. I have a pullover sweater I was gonna give to my baseball coach. I can just get him another one later."

Oh wow. I guess Kai was in a giving mood.

"That's great." Ace smiled. "I bought mom two different presents and decided not to give her a champagne set and keep it for another occasion. I can pack that for your mom."

"I have unopened ornaments. We can pack it too." I smiled happy everyone wanted to help .

"Oh." Remi smiled. "I have an idea. We can pack them some food."

"I'll help you." Fin added.

"Guys..This is too much." Elric was so shocked. "I can't ..I..I "

Ace just walked over and tapped his back to silence him. "Get to work, people."

"I'll go shovel the snow out of the driveway.." Rehan ran downstairs last.

We all scrammed to get things done. Fifteen minutes later we had everything set and carried the stuff to his car.

"You're leaving hon?" Mom asked Elric.

"Yeah. I need to go. I'll come back later again."

"Drive safe." Dad told him as they waved him off.

Dragging our feet in untied and unzipped boots we carried the stuff to the car and shivered in the cold.

Elric was too thrown off his game to say something.

"Good luck." I smiled and pointed at my wrist. He looked down at his bracelet and smiled.

He waved back and got in the car driving away.

We all ran back into the house shivering. We grabbed blankets, each on its own side on the couch ready for the movie.

I was on the end of the couch, Remi next to me and then Ace while Kai, Fin and Rehan were on the other couch next to mom and dad.

Mom and dad definitely sensed some tension and excitement but didn't ask for details.

"Why don't you just sit here? You're dating now." Ace pointed at his spot next to Remi, talking to Kai.

Remi and Kai both looked at each other embarrassed.

"Okay. Let's not make this awkward for them." I gestured for him to sit down. "They're being considerate of us."

I knew well enough that Kai and Remi's awkwardness was not just going to disappear overnight. I'm surprised they made it public though when they just got together hours ago.I looked at Kai. He probably didn't want to hide it but didn't think about it this far.

"Oh yeah yeah. The current expert knows." Ace teased me.

I smiled embarrassed, but still pretty happy that my relationship was not hidden anymore.

"Expert. Francy?"Mom asked intrigued. "What does he mean by that?"

"Umm." Ace glanced at me.

"Well?" Dad was waiting.

I covered my face embarrassed. Well the details are out now."I'm in a relationship with Elric..Lucy..Ace's friend."

Mom clapped her hands laughing. "I knew it." She put out her hand at dad. "Pay up."

Dad sighed and got up to take his wallet. He pulled out money and gave it to mom.

Mom counted the money and winked. "Thank you darling." She smiled at me. "Congratulations baby."

"Thank you?" I smiled unsure what I just saw was my mom and dad betting on my love life.

"Dad? Anything to add?" I turned towards him.

He raised his shoulders. "Elric seems like a great guy. Just don't go off with your head in the clouds and forget that there is school and homework. "

" I won't" I smiled. "You think he's a great guy?"

Mom brought up her hand and started numbering. "And handsome. And rich. And polite. Well mannered, well dressed. You couldn't have picked better."

"I set her up." Ace bragged.

"More like sold me out mom." I complained.

Mom pressed her lips tight and looked away.

"Mom?" I narrowed my eyes suspiciously.

"Who do you think gave him the idea?" Dad sighed and pinched mom's cheek. "Didn't I tell you not to get into the kids private lives."

She nudged him off lovingly. "I just wanted her to date around a bit. You know. Get her out of her little bubble."

"And I thought my family was intrusive." Remi tapped my shoulder in condolences.