A Storm Is Brewing

Christmas Day

Unsure if I was in a dream or simply just half awake, I could feel the faint feeling of Leah's fingertips tracing patterns on my back, her other arm stretched out under my neck. I pushed my legs out, letting out a groan as my eyes adjusted to the light outside, before I turned to face her.

"Happy Christmas, Soph." Leah smiled at me.
"Happy Christmas, Le."

Almost as if she could sense that we were now awake, Olivia rapidly knocked on the bedroom door, letting us know she was awake and ready to see what the big man had brought her this year. A shout of come in left my voice box before the noise of footsteps and a thud that shook the entire bed left Olivia's smiling face staring down at Leah and me. Leah was a natural with Olivia, making it almost impossible not to immediately be in the Christmas spirit despite the slight wine headache I had been left with from last night. We followed Olivia, Rhys, and my parents into the living room, Olivia's gasp at the presents awaiting her making us all chuckle as we exchanged multiple happy Christmases and hugs. Rhys had been instructed by Liv to begin building the stage set she had received, swearing under his breath as he struggled to get the screws to tighten.

"Leah, do you want to help me open my presents?" The youngster gazed up.
"I'd love to."

Leah joined Liv on the floor, both sitting with their legs crossed. Liv was getting Leah to start the initial rip of the wrapping paper, and then she would carry it on, aggressively pulling the paper in any direction she could to see what was underneath. Leah would let out a wow or a how cool is that with every gift, her approval making Olivia appreciate the gifts that Rhys had worked so hard to buy even more. As Olivia moved from Santa presents to relative presents, she asked Leah to read out each tag, her gaze towards the blonde showing nothing short of adoration.

"This one is from Auntie Sophie." Leah smiled in my direction.
"How did you remember which ones I wanted?" Olivia gasped as she pulled her new shoes on.
"I took a sneaky screenshot when you showed me them." I chuckled, making her laugh too.

Olivia continued with her present opening until she had nothing left to open, searching around underneath the tree dramatically as she instructed Leah not to move from the floor.

"This is from me." Olivia smiled, handing Leah a gift from under the tree.
"Thank you." Leah said softly, and I could tell she hadn't expected anything from my family.

Leah took care peeling back the wrapping paper, a goofy smile spread across her face as she anticipated what was to come. She carefully turned the photo frame around, her smile growing as she had her first glimpse at the photo inside. She turned the picture towards me, letting me see that it was a picture that I had taken and sent to Rhys of Olivia standing proudly beside Leah after we had gone to watch her Arsenal game.

"I love it, Liv." She smiled, pulling her into a hug.
"That's good, Auntie Leah."

That smile had just gotten impossibly larger.

"Is it the adults turn now?" Rhys chuckled.
"Yeah. I have no presents left." Olivia sighed.
"You do; hold on."

Leah headed upstairs, returning with a bag full of presents and handing one to each member of my family.

"Here, we got you stuff for Sophie to take back to you before we knew you were coming." My dad smiled, handing Leah a bag of presents.

As we sat in a circle opening our gifts, nothing had ever felt more right for me; I hoped that Leah felt the same despite the probability that she would be missing her family. Suddenly, a large squeal from Olivia zapped everyone's attention in her direction as she held up a coat and jumped up and down.

"This is the coat! This is the coat I told you about, Dad! Do you remember?" She excitedly asked Rhys.
"I do; you talked nonstop about that coat since you came back from London." Rhys chuckled.
"Thank you, Auntie Leah! Thank you so much!" Olivia flew across the room and into Leah's arms.
"You're very welcome."