"I thought you'd just be a wet blanket the whole time, Ebenezer Scrooge."

' 'oo says I won't be?" Enoch grumbled and glared at Hugh as the lighter brunette grinned all too cheerily and shoved his elbow where Enoch stood leaning against the wall.

"Olive, probably. You know, I've actually just stopped assuming you won't come anymore, I wasn't even that surprised when you said you were gonna come."

"Weren't ya? That's a real great story. But for ma sanity, don't start playin' Christmas carols." Enoch just rolled his eyes as Hugh seemed to give up on him and headed back across his own living room to lean over the couch and kiss Fiona's head.

It was just the three of them and Jacob here so far, which was a large part of why Enoch was barely saying two words to anyone. He'd intentionally tried to be late too. Apparently everyone had the same idea.

Hugh's mother had given him the house for the evening apparently, consenting to letting him have Fiona over without someone else in the house under the condition that his other friends did too.

The inside of the Apiston's home was as festive as anyone would expect, hardly unusual and painfully cliché to Enoch with the decorated Christmas tree in the corner and string of fairy lights over the doorway to the wreath over the wood fireplace. Hugh's house could almost have been a picture from a children's book. Sure, his parents got into the Christmas spirit but Enoch couldn't remember being interested in helping decorate the tree since he was in primary school. Christmas did not interest him, call him a Scrooge or a Grinch all they liked, he hardly cared.

Maybe it was a mistake to come after all. It was not the most pleasant environment to Enoch, despite being Christmas, with only the four of them and he couldn't go as unnoticed as he would have liked. While Fiona might be more of a conversationalist than Enoch was, she certainly was a girl of few words herself, which left Hugh and Jacob to do most of the talking. That in turn only irritate Enoch more with what was, in his opinion, an insufferable accent from a thoroughly annoying person. Olive would have scolded him for that.

Mercifully, there wasn't long to wait before the doorbell rang.

"Sorry! Kind of late, I know!"

Emma's confident voice preceded her before Enoch raised an eyebrow over to the doorway as she hurried in, with Olive right behind her, both bundled up in coats.

"Blimey, warm enough in here, Hugh? Oh, hi Jacob..." Emma grinned as she started to shrug off her coat and Enoch just rolled his eyes and raised his eyebrows as a greeting when Olive looked over at him and beamed.

"I thought you'd be here..."

"I did tell ya I mi-" Enoch cut himself off as Olive shrugged off her coat in the warmth. Clearly Olive, not entirely surprisingly, was one of those festive people who wanted to dress for the occasion. She was wearing a fitted white jumper embroidered with a pattern of snowflakes over a red skirt that flared a little to her knees and wouldn't have looked out of place in the fifties or sixties with the stockings. In fact the overall effect was, to Enoch's very uneducated eye, very festively sockhop-esque in a way that wasn't entirely unpleasant. Or at all unpleasant. He'd never been blind, he'd always known she was quite pretty but he'd never quite looked at her like that before.

"What? You're staring."

She'd noticed and Enoch immediately snapped out of it and closed his mouth which he had only realised had remained mid word for several long seconds. "No I'm not." He looked away, which probably did little to support his poor excuse and Olive clearly did not buy it.

"Is it too much? You don't hate Christmas that much do you?" Her fingers went to the hem of her jumper and twisted the fabric between them.

"I never said I 'ated it and...no. Wear what ya like." Enoch only muttered, and still didn't look back at her, trying to free himself from the awkwardness of the situation by jumping into boiling water and slotting himself into the others' conversation. Or at least pretending to.

"If ya tell me you wanna put on a Christmas movie, I'm leavin' now, Hugh."

"Oh don't overreact, mate. But that wasn't the general idea. Go have some eggnog, a little cheerfulness never hurt anyone."

xxxXxxx

It was almost a full hour later when it happened. Millard and Jacob were arguing over someone cheating in the next room over where evidently, Hugh had a pool table and the three girls were talking about something Enoch had absolutely no interest in listening to and preferred to it by himself. No one had even noticed where Hugh had disappeared to until the lights went dead and the music from the iPhone dock went quiet playing only from phone volume again.

Everyone shut up and a muffled "Ouch!" came from somewhere nobody could see.

Enoch blinked a few times at the sudden darkness they were plunged into while his eyes tried to adjust to the only light in the room being the dying fire.

"What the 'ell..."

"That's my hand, not the table you ignoramus!" Millard snapped from the next room after a dull thump had sounded.

"It's not that bad weather tonight, is it?"

Enoch heard one of the girls get up from the floor and then promptly fall over something and sighed and got up himself to try and pick his way through an unfamiliar room towards the window.

Pulling aside the curtain he peered out. Every house in the street had gone dark and Hugh's neighbours immediately across the road had come outside. At least the insufferable, over the top decorations outside a few of the houses in particular weren't lit up anymore.

The street was lined with slushy muddy sleet that had come down unnoticed by anyone and the wind had picked up, the weather had gotten worse than they'd thought.

"The 'ole street's out...probably come back in a minute."

His eyes were adjusting to the darkness now as he turned around. Olive's face the most illuminated of them closest to the fire until Hugh appeared from somewhere a few moments later.

"Well damn it..."

A few phones flashed on, illuminating the doorway where Millard or Jacob was standing and Emma's face from the couch.

"I think it's kind of fun!" Emma piped up, "We can at least build that fire up a bit."

"There's wood next to it-" Hugh cut himself off with a wince of pain as he seemed to kick something hard. "...In my own house too."

"I've got it. I'm right here." And then it was Olive opening the fire and carefully stoking it with a few extra logs and Hugh safely dropping into the chair behind Fiona.

"Speaking for my own, personal benefit..." Millard began as he passed Enoch who was still lingering closer to the window and away from everyone else. "But could those of you attached to another party here please refrain from snogging each other's faces off in the dark?"

He shot a pointed look at Hugh and then at Enoch who just raised an eyebrow before glaring at him.

"It's a power outage not a cloak of invisibility."

Enoch rolled his eyes and leaned against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest.

A full ten minutes, and then twenty passed without the lights coming back, during which time the others had opened a board of Monopoly to play by phone and firelight. Despite insistence, Enoch was far from inclined to join in and instead sat on the edge of the couch across the room watching. Specifically watching Olive.

He'd hardly spoken two sentences to her so far, despite the peck on the cheek she'd come over to give him when he refused to join in the game. Damn it all she was pretty, and as much as he didn't like to admit it out loud, it was worth coming tonight just to look at her. Now that sounded creepy even to him.

"Well I'm stuck in stupid jail anyway. Fi can just roll the doubles for me."

A moment later Hugh sunk down onto the couch next to him and Enoch rolled his eyes.

"What?"

"I haven't said anything yet."

"Ya gonna. Get it over wiv."

Hugh just chuckled, lowering his voice, mercifully, so they couldn't hear so easily across the room.

"...So Olive looks nice tonight, doesn't she?"

Enoch turned and glared at him with such sudden ferocity that Hugh actually cringed before rolling his eyes and shoving Enoch's shoulder.

"Yes. You're right..." His voice was dripping with sarcasm that would have given Enoch a run for his money. "By saying she looks nice I'm practically kissing her. Relax. Come on, mate, you're not as subtle as you think you are."

"Dunno what you're talkin' 'bout." Enoch grumbled. He didn't like where the conversation was going and if Hugh didn't watch it he'd find out just how much of a Grinch Enoch could be.

"You've been staring at her all night. You could just...oh here's a wild idea, tell her she looks nice? Are you afraid we're gonna know you like her or something? Cause it's a little late for that."

"Shove off. I thought you said this stopped after I did ask 'er out?" The darker haired boy looked down at the floor, glaring at it like he could bore holes in it.

"Did I?" Hugh sounded moderately surprised and then quickly dissolved into a quiet laugh. "If I did I was lyin' to make you actually do it...have you ever complimented her? Girls like that you know."

"If I want relationship advice, I'd go ta a rock 'fore I go to you." Enoch snapped bitterly but couldn't help his eyes going back to Olive again only to catch her looking at him. She smiled and against every part of his nature, his lip twitched a little thought it was probably too dark for her to notice anyway.

"Oh come off it, mate, are you her boyfriend or not?"

"Hugh! Hurry up, you have to pay already." Fiona called and Hugh who was still snickering at Enoch, nudged him again to which Enoch did not move at all, and stood up to go back over to the game.

Enoch sighed and stood up, using his phone as a light as he passed and stepped out into the hallway without a word to anyone as Emma shouted "RENT!" a little too excitably.

He stopped halfway down and ran a hand over his face and through his hair. He'd barely been there for a few minutes when he heard footsteps on the floorboards coming towards him and looked up to see Olive. Of course.

"Ain't you playin'?"

"I said just to go without me. I was losing anyway. You're even less social than usual tonight."

"So?" Enoch looked down. Olive was carrying something, he could make out the squarish shape pressed to her chest. "What's that?"

"Oh...um...nothing really, I just thought while everyone else is in there..." She trailed off and Enoch could imagine how her nose must be wrinkling in the way she did when she thought she was making a fool of herself. "I just...it would be better if you could see I-"

And just like that the lights flickered on and the dull hum of a fridge started to work again seemed louder than ever from the kitchen. Four or five people let out a chorus of whistles from the living room and Olive was thrown into light again. She was pink, like Enoch had guessed, which looked even brighter than ever against her choice of outfit.

His eyes went to the lump in her arms and everything in Enoch seemed to freeze. It was a squarish, soft looking present wrapped up and tied with a red bow.

"...Olive. No, you didn't..."

"Yeah." She wrinkled her nose again as his eyes went up to hers and he didn't know whether to be grateful, touched, or just terribly guilty. "It seems I did. I'm sorry, I just wanted to."

She held it out to him and when Enoch didn't immediately take it, actually grabbed his hand and made him. Olive had actually gone out of her way to give him a present. Was that what they were supposed to be doing now?

"But I di-"

"Shush." She silenced him and smiled up, there was no trace of expectation or anything but a shy sort of happiness in her face. "I know what you're going to say and I didn't expect it at all. I don't mind one jot, Enoch O'Connor."

"You're...way too nice, Olive."

"I know it's a few days early but...merry Christmas. Open it!" Olive hopped on the balls of her feet in front of him and Enoch looked all the more uncertainly at her as she hesitantly turned the gift over in his hands. He couldn't help it. He was actually touched by the gesture.

She was beaming the whole time he slowly pulled back the ribbon and peeled the sticky tape off of one end of the wrapping and he couldn't help glancing up at her every few seconds. He wasn't used to being given presents at all by anyone who was not his parents, and that was uncomfortable and awkward enough as he got older.

It was soft and felt like wool as he reached inside the open end and tugged it out. The folded item fell a little as he pulled it loose and a sleeve dropped out of the neatly folded pile.

"It's a jumper." He said obviously, staring at Olive's gift and fortunately she seemed to miss the blandness of his tone as she beamed up at him.

"Do you like the colour? I thought it's different to black and grey at least. Do you like it?"

It was such a frankly cliché present that Enoch's first instinct was to make some sarcastic quip about it, but then he looked at her and something twisting in his gut at how happy she looked. Clothes weren't really necessarily Enoch's idea of presents but then...he didn't give them and he didn't get them anyway. Olive was practically jumping with anxiety, her eyes large and bright as she waited for him to answer. He looked back down at the jumper and turned it over in his hands. It was a deep, army green and as he shook it out, it was hardly a stuffy Christmas jumper. Really it was thoughtful and all too nice of her.

"...I don't...get presents. Ya shouldn't've, Olive."

"Rubbish. Of course I wanted to. I just hope you actually like it. " She took a step closer and Enoch couldn't hold her eyes for long as he looked back down at the jumper instead.

He made up his mind. Instead of answering he took a step back after the one she'd taken forward and sighed as he shrugged his jacket off his shoulders and let it fall to the floor as he slipped his arms into the jumper and pulled it down over his head. Why? He wasn't entirely sure. But then, that was frequently the case around her. At least the jumper fit, and it was simple enough to be something he might wear.

"...Thank you."

Olive looked brighter in that moment than he'd seen her all night and before he realised what she was doing, had jumped up and hugged him.

"Uhh..." Enoch started, but her arms were already around his shoulders and she was right up against him. Somewhat hesitantly he reached up and patted her shoulder. "Uhm...okay..."

"Sorry." Olive dropped down off her toes, blushing and smiling at him so charmingly he really wanted to kiss her then her eyes left his and drifted over his head and he frowned slightly and followed her gaze.

Enoch sighed and rolled his eyes. Of course Hugh would make sure mistletoe was hanging around the house, no doubt entirely for the benefit of himself and Fiona.

"'old on..." he said a little quicker than he meant when Olive went to take a step back. "You-uh...oh bloody 'ell, I don't do this either..." His eyes drifted again over the red and white of her jumper down to the flared skirt and then back up to her eyes and away again. "Ya look...nice, okay?"

Olive smiled but then Enoch's awkwardness and the difficulty it had taken to say it, as easy as it should probably have been for...well...anyone else, was temporarily ignored. Her arms were suddenly around his neck and his hands, with nothing else to do, had gone to her waist. He was quite sure she could feel how fast his heart was beating they were so close. It was like something had completely gotten the better of him again that he wasn't fully aware of that made him try, probably awfully, to part his lips and take the quickest of breaths. Then Olive did too and it was clumsy and unsure again before the need for a lot more oxygen became slightly too pressing.

Enoch didn't open his eyes immediately but he felt a good deal warmer that had nothing to do with the jumper. When he did, Olive was giggling a little which Enoch might have rolled his eyes at and secretly found hilarious were it not for a peculiar lightheaded sensation. He couldn't help it and even if he wanted to he wasn't sure he could have stopped himself right then but with Olive's soft eyes staring up at him so happily, his own mouth curled upwards past the barely there smirk to a genuine smile.