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Ever since she could remember, Scarlett Taylor had spent every Christmas with the Styles' family. Though they only lived down the road from each other, they alternated whose house Christmas would be spent at each year. This year it was being held at the Styles' household. Normally, Scarlett is the most enthusiastic about Christmas, she just simply loved the atmosphere and the way that everyone gets along and forgets about everything else for 24 hours. Though, Christmas this year wasn't going to be like a normal Christmas. Just for the simple reason that Harry wasn't going to make it.

Scarlett had gotten the news from Harry last night that his flight from Ireland had been cancelled due to the massive snowfall they'd gotten yesterday. Harry and the boys were invited up to Ireland to do the annual turning on of the Christmas lights, which obviously meant a lot to them, especially Niall. Seeing as Louis, Liam or Zayn couldn't get home either, the boys were spending Christmas at Niall's family home. Scarlett guessed it was better than spending it in a hotel room, right?

As she got up and dressed on Christmas morning, she noticed the snow had settled since last night, causing the view outside to slightly blind her tired eyes for a few seconds. She loved the snow, though. She always thought that the snow could make any day perfect, which is why she tried to focus on the positives for now. Although pulling on a purple hoodie that belonged to her boyfriend didn't really help. Scarlett hated using the word boyfriend, but she didn't really know what else to use. Partner? Other half? Best friend? Yeah, best friend. Harry was her best friend.

Scarlett grabbed her blackberry before leaving her room and making her way downstairs, she'd be having breakfast over with the Styles' so got herself a glass of orange juice before sitting by her mum, Jenny, at the breakfast bar.

"Merry Christmas," she smiled as Scarlett pretty much downed her glass of orange juice, "Heard from Harry yet?"

"You too," Scarlett smiled, "And nope, not since last night."

Just as Scarlett went to put her glass in the dishwasher, she felt her phone vibrate on the kitchen side. Picking it up and looking at who sent her a text, she laughed quietly in her mother's direction.

"Speak of the devil and the devil shall appear."

From: Harry x
Received: 9:42am - 25/12/11
Message: merry xmas, babe :) sorry again i can't make it :( xxx

"Look at you blushing," Jenny teased her daughter before finishing off her coffee. Scarlett simply laughed and started writing a reply to Harry straight away.

To: Harry x
Sent: 9:43am - 25/12/11
Message: its alright, i can still be the life of the party without you ;) merry christmas to you too xxx

She left her phone on the kitchen side before heading back to her room to get dressed for the day.

"Don't be too long," her mum called after her, "Anne wants us over there at 10 for breakfast."



Christmas breakfast was pretty uneventful, as of every year, and now Scarlett was sat on the living room floor as presents were being opened. She had her two year old nephew, Max, on her lap as her sister, Bailey, sat next to her. Bailey's fiancé, Garrett, was also here next to her. Garrett's family lived down south and rarely kept in touch with him, so Anne had happily invited him along to their family festivities.

Scarlett moved Max from sitting on top of her crossed legs so she could reach into her back pocket where her phone had started to vibrate. She thought it was just a text from someone until the screen read that Harry was calling her.

Scarlett answered the call with a shy ‘hello', seeing as she was in a room full of people and couldn't exactly move with a two year old on her lap.

"If I remember rightly," Harry's familiar voice came down the line, "It should be just about present time."

"It sure is," Scarlett laughed awkwardly, noticing everyone in the room quieting down and looking in her direction.

"And if I can guess rightly," Harry started again, "Everyone is staring at you and you feel awkward?"

"Yep," Scarlett responded, popping the ‘p' slightly.

"Good, just how I like it," Harry laughed, earning a smile from Scarlett, "Now, tell my mum to give you the silver present with a purple bow on it."

"Err, okay," she angled the phone away from her mouth and repeated Harry's order over to Anne. She quickly handed a present over to Scarlett, as if she knew what Harry was up to.

"Harry are you seriously gonna-"

"Yep," Harry interrupted, knowing Scarlett wasn't getting away with not opening the present right there and then.

Scarlett had let her sister take Max from her lap and Gemma, Harry's sister, held the phone to her ear on the other side as she carefully unwrapped the present.

As she completely took off the paper, she recognized the present underneath as the exact same purple Jack Wills hoodie of Harry's she'd worn this morning.

"Harry-"

"It's not yours, though," Harry interrupted again.

"What do you mean?" Scarlett asked with a confused laugh.

"This one's mine, you get to keep my old one that you've kind of already claimed as your own," She could hear him smiling through his words and it made her smile too.

"You know you could've just told me that, you didn't have to wrap up your new hoodie," she laughed down the phone.

"I know, I just wanted you to feel awkward in front of our families," Scarlett could just imagine him smiling smugly on the other side of the line.

"Well, thank you, anyway," she smiled again, something she found herself doing a lot whenever Harry was involved.

"No problem, babe. That's not the only present by the way, you'll just have to wait. I'll let you get back to the family fun now," he laughed a little, "Miss you."

"Alright, I miss you too," Scarlett mumbled, notably quieter. She instantly blushed as she put her phone on the floor beside her, noticing that everyone, aside from Bailey and Garrett who were occupied with their son, was staring intently at her.

"Okay, okay," she laughed, placing Harry's hoodie on the floor beside her phone, "Shows over, get back to your presents."

A couple of hours, presents, and games of Cranium later, Scarlett and Harry's parents were in the kitchen starting to make dinner whilst Scarlett, Bailey, Garrett, Max and Gemma all sat in the living room watching Alvin and the Chipmunks. The good Christmas TV didn't start until 6pm, so they left it on a movie to amuse Max for a while. Scarlett wasn't too interested in it so spent the time talking to Gemma and texting Harry.

To: Harry x
Sent: 3:12pm - 25/12/11
Message: i'm bored, amuse me haha xx

From: Harry x
Received: 3:12pm - 25/12/11
Message: did you really just say that? have some christmas spirit! ;) xx

To: Harry x
Sent: 3:13pm - 25/12/11
Message: i've had ‘spirit' all day! gemma's being boring and watching this movie instead of talking to me now xx

"I am not boring," Gemma looked up from her phone in a fake insulted tone.

"Did Harry really just text you to tell you that?" Scarlett laughed, pulling her phone back out to send another text to Harry.

To: Harry x
Sent: 3:16pm - 25/12/11
Message: i hate you xx

"So," Gemma started before moving her body in Scarlett's direction, flinging her legs over the side of the sofa chair, "Feels weird not having Harry here."

Scarlett nodded in agreement, "It's the first time one of the ‘gang' hasn't been here," she laughed at how both families had been referring to themselves as the ‘Christmas Gang' for as long as she could remember.

"It's your first Christmas as a couple too," Gemma winked, causing a blush to form from Scarlett, "Remember that time when you two ignored all of us for the whole day because our mums were talking about how you'd probably end up together one day?"

"Yeah," Scarlett laughed quietly, remembering the day exactly. It was back when they were around 10 or 11 and overheard their parents joking about the two of them getting married in the future. They claimed they were pretty ‘offended' at the time, but it'd become a joke between the two ever since they got together a year ago.

"Gemma! Scarlett! Can you start setting the table, please?" Anne called from the kitchen, interrupting their conversation and Scarlett's thoughts.

Gemma sighed quietly and jumped up from her chair, holding her hand out for Scarlett to grab and pull her up.

Scarlett closed the double doors that lead through to the living room behind her and grabbed the placemats from one of the wooden bookshelves. Gemma started to place silver Christmas crackers on the left side of each placemat after Scarlett had set them down. As Gemma carefully placed a wine glass above each cracker, Scarlett went off into the kitchen to get cutlery for the table.

The kitchen was extremely hectic and the heat was almost unbearable. Scarlett started to count the number of forks she was getting out as the doorbell rang above the loud kitchen atmosphere.

"Scar, can you get that please?" Anne said quickly as she opened the oven and started to pull out a tray full of potatoes, "It's probably just Sally from next door with her yearly visit," she laughed.

Scarlett nodded and put the forks back down on the kitchen side, knowing she'd have to count them again when she got back. She weaved her way through the four adults cooking frantically and pulled on the bottom of her sleeves as the air in the hallway was notably colder. She wondered why one of their neighbours only visited once a year, and why that visit was on Christmas day. Scarlett knew Sally lived with a family of her own so it never really made sense to her.

Scarlett opened the door to be welcomed by a cold gust of wind causing shiver to rack through her body. She raised an eyebrow at the mess of curls stood in front of her, wrapped up in a massive cream coat and a white scarf. It was starting to get dark but Scarlett could easily make out Harry stood in the snow, clearly freezing as he smirked and lifted his arm slightly, motioning to an old ice cream box his gloved hand was holding.

"I brought cookies, courtesy of the Horan household," he trailed his eyes back up to lock with Scarlett's and smiled again.

Scarlett stood still in her doorway, she wasn't sure whether she was hallucinating from the freezing cold or not, Harry was supposed to be stuck in Ireland, right?

Harry laughed slightly at his girlfriend's reaction, "Good to see you, Harry?" he prompted.

She took the box from his hand and dropped it carelessly on the table just inside the doorway before stepping further out in the cold and wrapping her arms tightly around Harry's neck. She attached their lips quickly as Harry's arms snaked around her waist.

"Better than good," she mumbled before Harry picked her up and spun her around in the cheesiest way possible. After placing another soft kiss on her lips, he put her back down on the doorstep.

"How come you made it back then?" Scarlett said with a bright smile, grabbing Harry's hand and pulling him inside. She quietly closed the door and picked up the box of cookies with her other hand.

"Lou pulled a few strings and got me a flight into one of the private airports up in Manchester," he said before pulling off his coat and unravelling the thick scarf placed delicately around his neck, "It took about 2 hours to drive down here with all the snow and traffic but at least I'm here."

"Come on, we're just about to have dinner," Scarlett smiled and grabbed Harry's hand again, leading him through the kitchen and into the dining room.

Although her family's antics of trying to cheer her up all day had worked, Scarlett couldn't help but to feel a different kind of happy now that Harry was here. It's the first Christmas they were spending together as a couple, and nothing made Scarlett happier than finally having Harry sat next to her.

After greeting her brother, Gemma made Scarlett and Harry finish off setting the table and Harry had practically made any excuse to walk by Scarlett and kiss her every 30 seconds.

Soon enough, plates full of food were piled up on the large dinner table and everyone was sat around. Both Scarlett and Harry's fathers were seated at each end of the table and Harry had obviously taken his place next to Scarlett. He instantly wrapped his hand around hers after everyone had helped themselves to the food and settled down. Of course, with Harry holding her hand hostage under the table, they both had to eat awkwardly with their only free hand, something that surprisingly went unnoticed to Anne, seeing as she was always one to pick Harry up on his manners at the table.

"So Harry, gonna tell us about Ireland then?" Gemma spoke with a smile from across the table.

Harry returned the smile and started to talk about how much colder it was up there, but Scarlett kind of tuned out after the first 10 seconds. It wasn't that she didn't want to hear what Harry was talking about, but she felt immensely distracted by an overwhelming feeling of content. She wasn't sure whether it was Anne's amazing home cooking, or Harry carefully rubbing small circles with his thumb on her hand, maybe even a mixture of both. She just knew she was incredibly happy, which then lead her to thinking about how cheesy everything had become.

Usually, Scarlett would be the one to roll her eyes at people like Harry and herself. She hated when people acted like it in the movies and she hated when she saw it in real life, but ever since she'd started dating Harry, it became perfectly acceptable to her, a theory only Scarlett herself would really only understand.

She broke away from her thoughts as she felt Harry squeeze her hand softly. She noticed everyone was starting to get up and take their empty plates and glasses into the kitchen.

"Earth to Scarlett?" Harry laughed as he stood up.

"Oh, sorry," she mumbled, blushing slightly at getting too lost in her thoughts.

"Come here, I have something I want to show you."

Scarlett followed Harry upstairs and into his bedroom, she mentioned her concern about not helping tidy up after their parents had cooked dinner but Harry brushed it off and pointed to his bed, motioning for her to sit down. He grabbed his guitar from the corner of his room and shortly joined Scarlett on the other side of his bed. Scarlett had noticed the snowfall picking up once again and made a mental note to go for a walk tomorrow, there was nothing she loved more than it snowing on Christmas day.

"I uh, I wrote this for you yesterday," Harry positioned the guitar on his lap, causing Scarlett to bring her attention back to him, "Niall helped me with the guitar, because you know, I'm not that good at it," he stuttered and bit his lip.

Scarlett simply just sent him a smile; she was speechless already at the fact that he'd even written a song for her.

Harry started to strum the guitar slowly, there were a few slight twangs where his fingers weren't holding the strings down properly but he quickly became more comfortable as he started to sing.

"It's Christmas Eve, and I'm alone. We haven't talked in weeks, I think I'm coming home, I'll pack my bags, and I pray it snows. Next flight tonight, I think I'm coming home," Harry looked up at Scarlett for the first time since he started singing as he quietened the strum of the guitar, "So get ready, ‘cause I think, I'll be coming home for Christmas, I'll be coming home to all I've ever known. I'll be coming home for Christmas, I'll be coming home to all I've ever known."

Scarlett took a moment to just simply listen to his voice. She had always loved the slightly raspy tone he had. She tuned back into the words he was singing as the guitar volume picked up again.

"Well, I can see it now. The tables set. The smells and sounds. Who could forget? Just you and me, some mistletoe, wrapped in a blanket, I think I'm coming home. So get ready, cause I think I'll be coming home for Christmas, I'll be coming home to all I've ever known. I'll be coming home for Christmas, I'll be coming home to all I've ever known," Harry slowly stopped strumming the guitar and looked down nervously at the bright green guitar pick in his hand before singing the last line completely a cappella.

"You and me, my favourite phrase, as the tree lights up your face. So get ready, I think I'm coming home," He took in a shaky breath and once again sent a nervous smile in Scarlett's direction.

Scarlett didn't understand why he was so nervous, it was a beautiful song and she knew he had a beautiful voice. Although, she couldn't quite form the words to tell him that, she was left completely speechless. The only thing she knew to do was to lean over and kiss him. And so she did.

It was probably one of the most passionate kisses they'd ever shared, it felt completely right. Harry pulled away for a second to place his guitar on the floor before attaching his lips back to Scarlett's. He pushed her back slightly, letting her head fall softly onto his pillow as he leaned over her.

"I just really, really, love you," Scarlett mumbled as she pulled away, "You know that, right?"

Harry smiled slightly and used the hand not holding his body up up to brush a piece of her messy blonde hair behind her ear, "I do know that," he said before laying down next to her and wrapping an arm protectively around her waist.

"I really, really love you too."