NaNoWriMo is almost over and I’ve written and posted I think seven things all month but that’s progress compared to the last year and a half of nothing. as I’m writing this, it’s Wednesday evening, the night before Thanksgiving, and I thought I would write a holiday blurb to be festive. I got this from a list of ot3 prompts I’d saved a long time ago about Christmas sweaters. enjoy.
“Zayn, if you ask if we have to wear the sweaters this year, I swear I will take away your kissing privileges for a week.”
Zayn rolls her eyes. “Like you could keep your lips away from me for that long.” She turns back to the mirror where she's applying her makeup and makes a kissy face at Harry through it.
Harry sticks out her tongue, but it looks weird because she's currently lying on her back on the bed, her head flopped over the side, upside down. “Why are you putting on makeup anyway, Zee? We're going to be in the car for, like, three hours on the way to Liam's parents'.” Harry looks around the bedroom, everything upside down from her vantage point. She sits up, then takes a second because all the blood that had rushed to her head is now rushing back out. Her face scrunches up and Zayn tried not to fond too hard over it. “Ooh. Why do I do that? I hate that feeling.” She rights herself so she's sitting against the headboard. “Speaking of Liam, where is he? He was supposed to be here a half hour ago with the sweaters and our car snacks.”
Zayn rolls her eyes at the mention of Harry's car snacks. She always picks some kind of weird granola bar or, like, kale chips; crunchy stuff that leaves crumbs all over Zayn's back seat and dig into her skin every time she tries to get frisky with Harry or Liam (or both) before or after (or during) their dates. But Harry does have a point. She's about to say so when the front door bangs open and Liam's not even in the flat yet but he's spewing apologies left and right as he makes his way to where the girls are in Zayn's room.
“-- so sorry, my meeting with that new project manager ran long and I thought I'd try that shortcut Zayn told me about but I got lost, then I tried using the GPS on my phone, but my battery was almost dead and I didn't want to waste it on that if I ended up even more lost and had to call one of you --” He stops when he realizes neither Harry nor Zayn are cross with him.
“It's fine, Li,” Zayn says while applying her false lashes. Harry and Liam both can't understand how she does it without poking herself in the eye. “As long as you have the sweaters.”
“I do!” Liam opens a paper gift bag and takes out three identical green knitted blobs, laying them all on the bed. He picks up one and holds it up to himself. It's not that bad; green with red around the collar, wrists, and hem, and white snowflakes scattered about the entire thing. There's no words on them this year, unlike the two years previous when they said MERRY CHRISTMAS in huge red block letters.
“Simple,” Harry remarks, and Liam nods. “I like it.”
“Mum said she didn't have as much time as usual this year to make them, so they're not as detailed as the last couple batches.” Harry nods and hums in understanding, and she and Liam wait while Zayn puts the finishing touches on her hair and makeup before gathering their things and hitting the road. It's an almost four hour trip, but they have a playlist and can talk to each other about pretty much anything, so it goes by quickly. By the time they pull up to Liam's childhood home, they're all glad to get to stand up for a bit. Harry makes a very sexual noise when she stretches her back and it pops in about six places, and that makes Liam notice something.
“Hey!” he says, getting their bags out of the back of the car, “We didn't stop the whole way here!”
“Uh, yeah, we did,” Zayn reminds him. “Harry was about to wee out the window from how fast she drank that huge bottle of water.”
“I know that,” he says, handing the girls' bags to them and leading the way to his mum's front door. “I meant we didn't stop the way we usually do, y'know...”
“Oh!” Zayn thinks about it for a second. “You're absolutely right. We didn't stop once for a shag or a snog or anything. That's usually Harry's fault, though. Hey Haz, you feelin' alright?”
“Yeah?” she half-asks, “Why wouldn't I be?”
“We didn't stop to shag on the way here. Zayn thinks you're dying.”
“I do not!” Zayn exclaims, playfully shoving Liam in the arm.
“I'm fine,” Harry says, a twinkle in her eye that Liam and Zayn both no can mean nothing good. “It's not that I didn't want to, I'm just saving it all up for later.” They're all on Liam's mum's front porch now, and Liam knocks on the door. Harry gets right up in his ear and says, “Wanna fuck you in your childhood bedroom,” right before Liam's mum opens the door.
They all have to pretend their extra-pink cheeks are from the cold, and not from Harry being inappropriate, and they're all pretty sure it works until Harry's walking past Liam's mum up the stairs to Liam's room and gets a wink and a “careful, love, the walls are thin” before making her way back into the kitchen to finish cooking.
“You're lucky I love you so much,” Liam says after Harry tells him what his mum just told her. “I'm never going to be able to look my mother in the eye again.”