Chapter 1
Having to miss out on Pride’s annual family ski trip sucked.
Instead of hitting the slopes with her family and friends, Karolina is stuck at the cabin icing a very swollen ankle. She had sprained it going down a black diamond slope, a stupid move considering she was anything but an expert at snowboarding.
The cabin they’re renting is nice. A little too nice for her taste but that’s Pride for you; always taking things to the extreme. There were eight bedrooms, all with amazing views, and the place was even outfitted with a Wizey system, courtesy of the Minorus.
Despite all the tech set up, Karolina’s parents insisted on not giving the kids wifi access for the whole trip— something about unplugging and interacting face to face.
Karolina knows it’s just a ploy to get the kids to talk to each other again and needless to say it’s not working.
After Amy died nothing has been the same, and Nico and Alex especially have taken it hard. It’s like the group just doesn’t function without her. Instead of playing board games and talking all night, they just all awkwardly retreat to their respective rooms and call it a night after they get back from the slopes.
Their parents notice and are obviously not satisfied with their minimal interactions throughout the day, but this was the first ski trip without Amy, what do they expect?
Karolina goes to change her ice pack when the television changes channels to an emergency alert. Apparently, due to the snowstorm outside, roads on the mountains are closed and everyone is being advised to stay inside until it’s over.
Snow is something she’s not used to at all. Sure, they come to Colorado every year for two weeks to ski and bond, but she’ll never get used to the cold. Karolina is a SoCal girl through and through.
Both of her parents were Southern Californians too and must be totally freaking out over the storm and getting back to the cabin. She immediately goes to text her mom but there’s no service.
Karolina heads to her and Nico’s room to ask if it’s working any different for her.
“Hey,” Karolina knocks on the door sliding in slowly, feeling unwelcome in her own room. “Do you have service?”
Nico, still in her pajamas, looks up from her book with a slight glare not enjoying being interrupted. She sighs and unplugs her phone.
“Nope,” She replies throwing her phone on the bed. “Am I supposed to?”
“I guess not.”
Karolina moves into the room, sitting on her bed across from Nico. Nico puts down her book on Wicca and turns her attention to Karolina.
The two were close growing up, hence why they’re sharing a room, but everything’s been different since Amy. Nico is closed off and sometimes straight-up unfriendly, especially to Alex, but Karolina can’t blame her. Alex is the only one that didn’t show up to her funeral; that was the first crack in their friendship.
Maybe they can work some stuff out. Being stuck inside for an undetermined amount of time will give them time to talk.
“There’s a huge snowstorm outside,” Karolina says. “They had to shut down all the roads on the mountains, there’s an avalanche warning or something.”
Nico sighs and flops back onto her bed. “How long?”
“Didn’t say. Maybe a couple of hours or a day?”
“So we’re stuck inside.”
Karolina didn’t see what the problem was considering Nico hasn’t made an effort to leave her room for the five days they’ve been there. Nico used to love going snowboarding with Karolina, they were the only two that preferred it over skis.
“Well if we’re going to be stuck here, might as well make the best of it,” Karolina says with a smile getting off her bed and heading to the door. Nico gets up too, trying to close the door.
“Nico—”
“I’ve got to get changed first,” Nico says. “Be out in a second.”
Karolina limps down the stairs and plops down on the couch shoving a pillow under her foot. Her mom told her to keep it elevated and iced for the next couple days and maybe she’d be able to go snowboarding again next week before their trip ends. She loved being outdoors and being active, having to stay inside immobile is her worst-case scenario.
It’s not long before Nico comes down and sits next to Karolina.
“So,” Nico draws out, playing with a tassel on a throw pillow. She was dressed head to toe in black, per usual, with dramatic eye makeup and purple lipstick to match. Karolina has never thought Nico needed all that makeup on her face like a mask; she was beautiful with or without it.
Amy used to tease Karolina about her supposed crush on Nico ever since they were kids. Maybe her teasing held some truth, Karolina has always felt something a little more than typical platonic love for Nico. But a crush?
Karolina shakes the thought out of her head and turns on the television flipping through channels, but none are coming in. It must be the storm. Karolina finally lands on something coming through and of course, it’s Hallmark.
“I guess this will have to do,” she smiles at Nico.
Nico gives a big smile back, clearly excited.
“Christmas movies are my favorite! I know they’re cliche and cheesy to the max but I can't help but love them. Amy and I used to marathon them growing up; Hallmark is the best channel for it. They’re like Christmas 24/7 as soon as December 1st hits.”
Karolina is taken aback by Nico’s excitement. “Well, in that case, I'll make us some popcorn.”
She must’ve gotten up weird because there’s a sudden sharp pain in her ankle and she has to sit down. Nico tells her she’ll get the popcorn and some ice instead, but Karolina isn’t happy about it. This whole sprain thing is getting annoying, she doesn’t like people having to wait on her, preferring to do the waiting on instead.
Nico comes back with some frozen peas and a big bowl of popcorn, fussing over the pillows propping Karolina up. They sit in silence for a while, Nico absolutely enthralled with Santa’s daughter trying to romance the UPS man but Karolina doesn’t get it.
“What’s the appeal of all this?” Karolina motions.
“What?”
“Christmas.”
“Wait, you don’t celebrate?” Nico asks. “I thought Gibs could participate in other religion’s holidays?”
“No, we can. I guess my parents just never wanted to.” Karolina says surprised Nico paid any attention to her religious beliefs.
“Well, you are missing out big time. Christmas is hands down my favorite holiday,” Nico pauses. “At least it was before Amy, you know.”
Karolina shifts to put her hand on Nico’s. She cant imagine how hard this must be for Nico, spending the holidays without her for the first time. Karolina doesn’t have any siblings and hasn’t really celebrated any family holidays, so the whole thing seems so alien to her.
“What if we celebrate?” Karolina says, not really thinking her suggestion through. “We can celebrate Christmas together, our parents already brought all those decorations! If we’re going to be stuck inside for god knows how long, why not?”
Nico doesn’t look so sure, but she nods. “Okay, uhm, where do we start?”
. . .
Karolina has made it her job to cheer up Nico and get her into the Christmas spirit. Even if she didn’t really know what that was, she was determined to find out. Nico just completely lit up talking about cliche movies and her old family traditions she’d do with Amy; Karolina has missed that light.
The two start digging around in the plastic tubs filled with decorations the Wilders and Steins brought over; Nico’s parents didn’t have the heart to bring out their decorations this year.
“Where do we even start?” Karolina says looking confused, her hands full of garland and string lights.
Nico tells her to bring the garland and grabs a couple boxes of store bought ornaments.
“With the tree, of course,” She starts. “Well, if we had a tree, that is.”
Pride was supposed to go Christmas tree hunting today after skiing, but a certain storm has put a damper on those plans.
Karolina’s brow furrows as she scans the downstairs looking for something tree-like. She lands on a pathetic looking ficus in the corner of the living room and smiles at Nico.
Nico catches on and returns her smile twice as big, “Perfect.”
Nico directs Karolina like a drill sergeant on how to decorate the perfect Christmas tree. Karolina tries to follow but she just ends up looking like a deer caught in the headlights, all tangled in the string lights she tried to put up moments before.
The smaller girl comes up behind Karolina and starts unwinding her from the lights, laughing at how she managed this five minutes into decorating. Nico’s laugh is contagious and soon the two are laughing on the floor, Karolina still very much entangled but without a care in the world.
Karolina has missed this, just having fun with her best friend. She could swear the world stops turning when Nico Minoru smiles and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
They somehow manage to put up lights, garland, and a couple of ornaments on the potted plant’s puny branches. It only looks slightly less pathetic than it did before, but it was theirs and Karolina loved it.
Even though it’s not the prettiest tree, Karolina couldn’t help but feel immense pride looking down at it.
“Let’s take pictures,” Nico suggested. “To document your first and hopefully best Christmas.”
Nico smiles up at Karolina, reaching for her phone and motioning for the blonde to get in front of the tree. Karolina stands posing in front of the tree for a few moments before pulling the photographer in with her and switching to selfie mode.
. . .
They had been messing around with decorating for most of the day with garland now wrapped around every railing and red bows on every column. There was not a surface in sight that hadn’t been adorned with some sort of merriment.
Post selfie sesh, Nico and Karolina collapse onto the sofa suddenly feeling utterly exhausted. About twenty minutes into A Merry Christmas Match, Nico is passed out cold on Karolina’s shoulder. She didn't mind in the slightest, she was actually kind of enjoying it. Feeling her soft breaths on Karolina’s neck sent shivers down her spine. Maybe she did have a crush on her after all.
Karolina has a hard time admitting things like this to herself. It’s nothing new to her, she knows she’s a lesbian but dealing with compulsory heterosexuality and her religion’s views on homosexuality has just made her repress her feelings as much as possible.
She dreams of a world where she’s not afraid to love and a world where her church accepts her for it, but it’s just that— a dream.
Shaking her head free of those thoughts, Karolina goes to move Nico off her shoulder when the house suddenly goes black. Even if she doesn’t want to admit it, Karolina freaks out a bit.
“Nico! Wake up!”
“What?” Nico groggily says, her eyes still not fully open. Karolina shakes her again and she perks up at her urgency.
“It’s okay, Karolina, the power's just out. There’s probably a backup generator that’ll kick in soon.”
This didn’t help the situation for Karolina at all.
“I hate the dark, Nico. I’m scared.”
Nico grabs Karolina’s hand and suggests they move to their room with candles and extra blankets for the night. Karolina reluctantly agrees and grabs all the throw blankets she could find.
The room looks beautiful with all the candles lit up across the floor and any open surface. It was most definitely a fire hazard though, between the open flames and copious amount of blankets something was bound to go wrong.
They sit like this for a while and just talk.
There isn’t really any specific thing they talk about, it’s just anything and everything that comes to mind. Karolina loves it. They catch up on school and things Karolina’s been doing at the church. Usually, Karolina wouldn’t share this much about her religion because of how much she’s bullied for it at school but Nico is safe; she makes Karolina feel safe.
Nico lets out a dramatic yawn. She looks so cute bundled up in her blankets with her sleepy face. Karolina smiles.
“Maybe we should, you know, sleep together tonight,” Karolina suggests with a blush.
Nico looks up surprised by the suggestion.
“For warmth, the heating is out after all,” She clarifies, blushing even harder now. Karolina hopes Nico can’t see her blush in the poorly lit room.
“Uhm no it’s a good idea, Kar,” Nico says getting up from the floor and crawling into her bed with another yawn. She pats the empty space beside her and Karolina gets up.
She slides into Nico’s bed cautiously, not wanting to invade her personal space. Karolina lays completely still to the point where Nico has to ask what’s wrong.
She tries to play it off as her just being cold but that prompts Nico to pull her close in an effort to warm her up. In all honesty, Karolina isn’t that cold, the blankets doing their job and keeping the cold air out. Nico on the other hand is practically vibrating with how intense her shivering is.
Karolina takes off her sweater without thought and gives it to the smaller girl. Nico looks up at her as if to ask if she’s sure and Karolina nods in response, a small smile blooming on her face. She wraps her arms around Nico and in no time the shivering is gone.
“This sweater is kind of amazing.”
“I know right? Fifteen bucks at Target.”
Nico turns around to look at Karolina to see if she was being serious or not. Karolina tries to make a serious face but cracks when Nico sticks her tongue out at her. They laugh a little bit but their tiredness sobers them up fast.
Karolina starts to drift off and subconsciously pulls Nico even closer to her, her head nuzzled into Nico’s neck.
She lets out a sigh of contentment and falls fast asleep.