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It's Christmas morning! My favorite morning of the whole year! I prefer it to my birthday morning, and that's saying something. And like every Christmas morning I found myself on Blair's bed at 6:30 trying to wake her up so we could go open presents and eat a load of crap for the day.

"Blair! Wake up!" I sang in a loud voice as I shook her.

"Go away." She grumbled, though I knew she had a smile on her face. She loved Christmas and every single tradition of ours as much as I did. Even though we were torn and broken, the traditions reminded us that no matter who was around we had family in each other. That was all we needed.

"Come on! Let's get up and open presents before mom comes down and ruins it all for us!" A mischievous glint appears in my eye. Every year our mother puts a dampener on the present opening part of the day. Because she'd insist on having a million photos taken and if the moment wasn't captured perfectly we'd have to redo it again and again until the whole thing felt fake.

"I may hate your body clock, but I love your brain." Blair laughed and got up out of bed, both of us racing each other down the stairs as if we were still children.

"Santa came!" I yelled a little too loudly for trying to open them in secret. Of course it was just a joke, but it was something we had yelled every year since being kids.

"Shh! You'll walk the devil herself up." Blair walked to the presents and rummaged through them until she obviously found what she was looking for, passing it to me. "Merry Christmas, A."

I smiled and took the present, carefully opening the beautiful delicate wrapping. If it was anyone else it'd have been shredded and on the floor in seconds, but I could tell B had spent her time wrapping this one.

"Oh my God! Blair I love it!" It was a digital photo frame, and it showed a slideshow for every picture me and Blair had ever taken together, starting from when she first held me as a baby. It also played our song as it went along Keep Holding On by Avril Lavigne. I wrapped my arms around my sister in a tight hug. It was crazy to think how much had changed this year, it was only a few months ago that I could barely stand to be in her presence.

"Okay, my turn." I picked my present out from under the tree and passed it to her. I watched as she opened the wrapping paper to reveal the three individual boxes. The first had a small gold dainty bracelet with a crown in the middle to rest on the wrist. The second had a matching necklace and earrings set to go with it. And the third had a custom made headband, a gold trimming but completely filled with sparkling silver diamonds. A true statement piece. "Because no matter what happens, you'll always be my queen." I gave her a soft smile and almost fell to the ground as I was attacked in a hug.

"Easy there B." I laughed, hugging her back both of us watery eyed.

"It's so beautiful, I love you A." Blair hugged me tighter as she spoke.

"I love you too, B." However it was long before our moment was ruined.

"What on earth is going on here?! Why are there presents opened already and where is my camera?!" Oops, busted. Blair and I shared a look as we broke apart, our eyes rolling in sync. "Found it!" My mother declared holding up there camera. "Oh no wait! You two hug and cry again! Make it convincing." Here we go again.

***

By the time we'd finished opening the presents to my mothers standards, it was almost time for dinner. I'd got a new phone, a few dresses, some new louboutins and a Michael Kors bag from my parents. My favourite still had to be the present Blair gave me. It was the most personal.

The Van Der Woodsens/ Bass's were coming round for Christmas dinner and were due any minute, so I was in the process of adding the finishing touches to my make up.

When the doorbell rang, I got up to go downstairs, meeting Blair on the stairway. "So first family dinner with the boyfriend." I teased, watching amusedly as a faint blush appeared on her face.

"Shut up, he's not my boyfriend." Blair hissed.

"He may as well be." I retorted with a snort. Blair elbowed me in the ribs which made me yelp.

"Girls stop fighting!" My mother scolded from down the bottom of the stairs, just as the elevator dinged. At least some things never changed.

I smiled when I saw the familiar faces of Chuck, Serena and Eric. "Hey guys! Merry Christmas!"

Chuck opened his mouth to answer but Bart beat him to it. "Merry Christmas."

I looked up at him before shuddering, God he was a creepy mad. "Uh...thanks." I then turned to Blair and whispered. "How does he make that sound like an insult?" To which she shrugged.

"So Chuck, where's Blair's present?" I asked, once the 'adults' had left us alone. Again Blair elbowed me in the ribs. "Ow! Stop doing that. Or just don't do it in the same place."

"I'd show you Blair's present but that'd be bad etiquette." I tilted my head to the side, trying to figured out what Chuck meant by that. It didn't take long for the metaphorical lightbulb to go off in my head and my nose scrunched up in disgust.

"Ew! You're a pig!" I huffed, Serena's and Eric's faces mirroring mine. However Blair had some sort of adoration in her eye, don't ask me she's all sorts of twisted.

"Why are you saying ew? It wasn't that long we were together." Chuck raised an eyebrow at me.

"Ugh, don't remind me." I teased him with a playful smirk. "Speaking of which, you figured out who's the better lay?" I asked, referring to the notes I left him yesterday.

"Blair." He answered without hesitation. Ouch.

"Okay, as big of a blow as that is to my ego. I would have been so pissed if you said otherwise." I got Blair trying to signal something to me out of the corner of my eye and it didn't take long to catch on. "Hey s, E, why don't we go see how long dinners gonna be?" I took their hands dragging them away, not giving them much of a choice in the matter.

"So how was Christmas at the Bass household?" I asked them.

"Awful." Eric answered for both him and Serena. "Bart creeps me out and it feels so awkward and tense."

"I'm so glad it was only the morning." Serena added. "Your house is a lifesaver. Now your mom can deal with him." I laughed at the thought. To be honest, I didn't think my mom was that keen on him.

"Dinners ready." Dorota came and told us about ten minutes later. We all walked to the dining room and sat down. Chuck and Blair looked slightly disheveled and i shot them a knowing look.

Blair came and sat down next to me with a huge smile on her face. "What are you so happy about?" I asked.

"He said it." She whispered low so only I could hear. Too bad I didn't get the privacy memo.

"Oh my God no way! Aw Chuck you're all grown up." I squealed across the table.

"Alexia will you pipe down?" My mother frowned over at me. For someone so vain she should really be more worried about her wrinkles, frowning's bad for the skin.

Most of dinner went by without a fuss, well apart from the fact that I felt like I was going to bust out of my dress at any given point. Damn them roast potatoes.

"Miss Alexia., you have a visitor." Dorota came and told me while we were all hanging out in the lounge.

I removed my feet from Eric's lap and frowned. "Who ?"

"Mr Nate." I felt chills run down my spine at the sound of his name. Oh holy potatoes! I literally confessed my love for him in that damned letter yesterday. Where's a time machine when you need one?

"Okay you can't stand there all day, A. Go talk to him, it'll be fine." Serena put her hand on my shoulder and offered me a reassuring smile.

"Fancy putting on a brunette wig and doing all the talking for me?" I asked.

"Go!" Blair ordered pointing at the elevator.

"Fine! I'll put my big girl pants on." I grabbed a coat off the coat rack and walked into the elevator. Do you know how long an elevator ride seems when you're on your own, waiting to possibly be completely rejected and humiliated by who you considered to be the love of your life? Quite short actually, I was hoping it to be longer so I didn't have to face him.

When I stepped out of the elevator, I felt like I had the wind knocked out of me as cliche as it sounds. Nate was stood there looking intensely at me with his blue, brooding eyes.

"Hi." I squeak in what is a not very confident or attractive manner.

"Hey, look we need to talk." Nate cuts straight to the point, showing me the piece of paper from last night in his hands.

"I'm sorry okay? It was a stupid mistake and I never should have done it. And if I overstepped with your girlfriend or whatever then just tell her that I'm a huge, raging bitch who's slightly obsessed with you or something." I rambled, my cheeks burning a bright red.

"Wait...girlfriend?" Nate looked genuinely confused.

"Yeah. You took her to help you pick a tree with your family." My face must have mirrored his confusion.

"Oh. Oh God no, that's just- that's wrong on so many levels. She's my cousin." And boy did I think my cheeks could not get any redder, I was clearly wrong.

"Wait...cousin?" Despite the state of my cheeks my heart had picked up pace in hope.

"Yeah. Cousin. Did you seriously think she was my girlfriend?" Nate asked, an amused smile playing on his lips.

"What did you expect me to think?!" I tried to defend myself. "When I called she answered your phone and-"

"Wait when did you call me?" Nate asked, cutting me off.

"Oh. Uh, that night that you told me to meet you. When I didn't show up. I uh- well I wanted to explain that I was sorta double booked and- I broke up with Carter. Officially. Nate, not going to see you that night, not choosing you, that was my biggest mistake." I can barely look at him as I speak, the weight of my words feeling heavy on my tongue.

"You and Carter broke up?" He pressed his lips together. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I tried! But when I called and she answered, I figured you'd moved on." I ran my fingers through my hair. "And I wouldn't have blamed you. God Nate, I've been awful this year. To Blair, to Jenny, to you. I thought you'd realized how much of a lost cause I was and figured you could do better." Jeez, I sounded pathetic. But it was the truth.

"I don't care. I don't care how many times you've screwed up because I've screwed up too. Neither of us are perfect but love isn't perfect. If it was it'd get boring and it wouldn't be worth it. But I know our messy, complicated, whirlwind love is true. I love you too, Lexi. I think a part of my always has. Just took me a while to realize it." Nate was looking at me directly in the eyes by this point and it was all I could do not to melt into them. So I did the next best thing.

I stood on my tiptoes and pulled him into me, pressing our lips together. It was one of those toe curling, tummy fluttering, knee chattering sort of kisses. One that only reminded me of just how in love I was with him.

"Merry Christmas, Nate." I whispered as we pulled apart.

"Merry Christmas, Lex." He smiled down at me, his hand caressing my cheek. I guess I had my own Christmas miracle.

I had Nate at last.