Around noon, Holly hit pause on her game, setting the controller aside with a little stretch. She turned, dramatically announcing, “It is now officially lunchtime! All capybaras, queens, and snack directors must prepare themselves.”

  Ariel made a move to sit up, propping herself with one arm. “Alright, let me just…”

  But Holly spun around and waggled a finger at her. “No, ma’am. You built a whole throne this morning. You, my love, are off-duty for the rest of the day. I am on lunch duty.”

  Ariel laughed, sinking back into the couch. “If you insist. I suppose I can be pampered a little longer.”

  Holly grinned, blowing her a kiss. “That’s my girl.” She padded into the kitchen, humming a Christmas tune, rummaging through the fridge with practiced efficiency.

  Ariel watched from her spot, hands tracing lazy, slow circles over her belly, content, relaxed, and not in any hurry to move. “Chef Sinclair,” she called, “what’s on the menu? Or is this a mystery box challenge?”

  Holly, already slicing up some leftover glazed carrots and pulling out deli turkey and cheese, called back, “Today’s menu: gourmet sandwiches with cranberry mayo, plus those rosemary potato chips you like. And maybe…” she peered into a container, “...a side of that mac and cheese if you’re feeling brave.”

  Ariel grinned, shifting to get a better view. “You spoil me. If you add one more side, I’ll never leave the couch.”

  Holly, stacking slices of bread, replied with a wink, “That’s the plan. One of these days I’m just going to roll you from chair to couch to bed, back and forth.”

  Ariel let out a dramatic sigh, watching Holly arrange everything on plates, her long hair bouncing as she moved. “You’re very lucky I’m too comfy to help, otherwise I’d be in there critiquing your sandwich architecture.”

  Holly stuck her tongue out and flourished the bread knife. “You can critique after, but only if you leave a five-star review.”

  Ariel pressed her hand to her belly, grinning as she watched Holly work, every movement familiar and sweet. “You’ve already got five stars from me, Hol.”

  In a few minutes, Holly returned, balancing two plates - one piled high for Ariel, one smaller for herself - and two glasses of sparkling water. She set them on the coffee table with a flourish, bowing as she announced, “Lunch is served, your majesty.”

  Ariel sat up, beaming, letting Holly settle next to her before picking up the sandwich. “Thank you, Chef. I promise to try every course.”

  They shared lunch on the couch, giggling, feeding each other bites, and soaking in the happiness of a quiet day, the only agenda being love, laughter, and the simple joy of being together.

  Lunch stretched on, a slow parade of tastes and easy laughter. Ariel and Holly sat side by side, sometimes feeding each other bites, sometimes just talking softly as the snow kept falling outside. Every so often Holly would lean over and brush a crumb from Ariel’s cheek, or Ariel would nudge her sandwich closer, murmuring, “Try this bite, it’s got the good stuff.”

  When the food was gone and the dishes cleared away, they curled together on the couch. The afternoon drifted by in golden light. Sometimes they watched the snow, sometimes they watched silly home videos on Holly’s phone, sometimes they just listened to the music quietly looping in the background.

  Eventually, conversation drifted, as it often did lately, to their wedding. Ariel traced idle circles on Holly’s arm, head nestled on her shoulder. “So, it’s really happening,” Ariel said softly. “We get to plan this whole thing. Our way.”

  Holly’s eyes sparkled. “It still feels like a dream. Like I’ll wake up and…nope. Still here. Still with you.”

  Ariel squeezed her hand. “We both said we want it outdoors, right?”

  Holly nodded. “Spring. When everything’s green and blooming. I want sunlight, wildflowers, birdsong. Not stuffy. Just…us and the people who love us.”

  Ariel closed her eyes, picturing it. “Maybe a little garden somewhere. Or a park? Something open but private. Not too polished, but not the middle of nowhere, either.”

  Holly turned so she could see Ariel’s face. “What about a botanical garden? There’s one by the lake. I went once for a school trip. It had big open lawns, flowers everywhere, little footbridges. It felt…magical.”

  Ariel smiled, already imagining it. “I’d love that. Or maybe that arboretum with all the cherry blossoms. Or the park with the old stone steps. What was it called?”

  “Volunteer Park,” Holly replied, her voice soft with nostalgia. “That could be pretty. Or, there’s that trail outside the city, the one that opens up to a meadow. We could rent a tent and string up lights. Make it cozy.”

  Ariel nodded, her mind whirring with ideas. “We could bring blankets, let people sit in the grass, maybe have a picnic vibe. No assigned seating. Just comfort and sunshine and good food.”

  Holly’s eyes grew misty, her smile wistful. “As long as I get to marry you under the open sky, I don’t care where. I just want it to feel…free. Like us.”

  Ariel pressed a kiss to Holly’s knuckles. “Me too. Wherever it is, it’ll be perfect, because you’ll be there.”

  The rest of the afternoon passed in a gentle haze, brainstorming wildflower bouquets, imagining dancing under strings of fairy lights, sharing pictures of gardens and meadows on their phones, jotting down ideas for vows. The world outside was snow and quiet, but inside, their hearts bloomed with plans for all the springtimes to come

  Their phones were scattered between them, filled with images of gardens, meadows, and tree-lined lawns. They’d scrolled through arboretums, city parks, lakesides—each idea blooming into another, but nothing quite feeling like “the one.”

  Ariel, lost in a photo of wildflowers and twinkle lights, murmured, “What if we do something at sunset? Golden hour, when everything’s soft and glowing. It’d make the pictures magical.”

  Holly, her head resting on Ariel’s lap, traced circles over Ariel’s knee. “That would be beautiful. I love the idea of the light shifting while we’re there, like the whole day is blessing us.”

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  A beat passed, both of them caught in the gentle possibility of it all. Holly glanced at the snow outside, then back at Ariel, her eyes warm and a little dreamy. “You know… there’s a spot I just thought about that would be perfect. Somewhere that feels a little like a secret, even though everyone knows about it.”

  Ariel looked down, curious. “Where?”

  Holly’s smile grew. “Kerry Park. That overlook on Queen Anne, with the view of the whole city and, on a clear day, the mountain in the distance. I remember you taking me there a few days after we met and it just felt so…magical.”

  Ariel’s breath caught, picturing it instantly: the skyline, the needle, the sky painted gold, and her and Holly surrounded by friends and flowers, city lights beginning to twinkle on as they said their vows.

  “That’s… perfect,” Ariel said, voice almost a whisper. “It’s open, it’s beautiful, and it’s ours. Right in the middle of the city where we met.”

  Holly nodded, excitement bubbling up. “We could do it at sunset. Maybe a small setup. Just our people, a few chairs, maybe a carpet of petals. Let the city be our backdrop.”

  Ariel beamed, already sold. “I love that. It’s so…us. I could see us there. And we could go for coffee after, or walk through the city lights, just married.”

  Holly squeezed Ariel’s hand, her eyes glimmering with emotion. “I want our wedding to feel like a promise. Not just to each other, but to the life we’ve built here. Our home, our friends, our city. All of it.”

  Ariel bent to kiss Holly’s forehead, heart thudding happily. “Let’s do it. Kerry Park at sunset.”

  Holly looked up at her, beaming, tears of joy glinting at the corners of her eyes. “You make everything I ever dreamed about seem real, Red.”

  Ariel grinned, tucking a strand of hair behind Holly’s ear. “That’s because you make everything feel like home.”

  For a while, they sat in the glow of possibility, building a vision of vows with a view, laughter in the golden hour, and their first kiss as wives with all of Seattle at their feet.

  The day had been nothing short of perfect. Ariel, delightfully stuffed from a marathon of snacking, cocoa, and being lovingly overfed by Holly, stretched out on the couch, running her fingers through her hair. She felt the familiar tug of knots leftover from a day of couch cuddles and head scratches. With a little groan, she rolled herself up, feeling every ounce of her fullness, and padded to the bathroom.

  Standing in front of the mirror, she set about brushing her hair, pausing to chuckle at her reflection. Her belly was gloriously round, so soft it bounced with every stroke. She grinned, giving it a gentle pat. “Jeez, you really outdid yourself today,” she murmured, voice warm with pride and contentment.

  As she wandered back toward the bedroom, she caught sight of her old “fat pants” hanging in the closet—the pair she’d bought as her “emergency comfort” jeans back when she first moved to Seattle. For a moment, curiosity sparked. She tugged them from the hanger and shimmied out of her comfy pants, then began the complicated dance of pulling on the old pair.

  The waistband snagged at her hips, the denim refusing to glide over her new curves. Ariel grunted softly, wriggling and hopping, belly jiggling with the effort. “C’mon, almost… got it…”

  The sound drew Holly from the living room, curiosity piqued. She leaned in the doorway and burst out laughing when she saw the scene: Ariel red-faced, both hands working the button, her belly pressing stubbornly over the waistband.

  “What in the world are you doing?” Holly grinned, arms crossed, eyes shining with affection.

  Ariel shot her a playful glare. “Trying to put on my fat pants. For science.”

  Holly raised an eyebrow, still smirking. “Babe, at this point, aren’t all your pants ‘fat pants’?”

  Ariel stuck out her tongue. “These are THE fat pants. There’s a difference.”

  Holly watched with open amusement as Ariel managed to wrestle the button shut, the waistband digging in, the top curve of her belly hanging generously over. “You know, we might need to go pants shopping soon,” Holly teased, walking over and giving the soft curve of Ariel’s belly a playful squeeze.

  Ariel smirked, feigning indignation. “This is entirely your fault, Sinclair.”

  Holly just grinned wider. “And proud of it.”

  With a dramatic flop, Ariel sat down on the bed, but the pressure was too much for the poor, overworked button. It popped off with a tiny “ping,” bouncing across the room as Ariel’s belly surged forward, spilling gloriously over her lap.

  Ariel stared for a beat, shock quickly morphing into something much warmer and wilder. She looked up, meeting Holly’s gaze and seeing the same look reflected right back at her.

  Holly’s voice was low, hungry. “I’ll definitely take the blame for that.”

  Before Ariel could reply, Holly leapt onto the bed, pinning Ariel down as they melted into a heated, passionate embrace: laughter, desire, and love colliding, the perfect ending to a perfect first Christmas together.

  The morning light crept into the bedroom, sneaking past half-closed curtains and illuminating the evidence of last night’s passion. Ariel blinked awake, rubbing sleep from her eyes. Her hair was a wild halo, half-matted and full of tangles. Across the room, her “fat pants” lay in a heap on the floor, their button nowhere in sight. Her shirt was draped over the curtain rod - a casualty of Holly’s enthusiastic tugging the night before.

  Ariel glanced over at the bed. Holly was sprawled out on her stomach, tangled in the comforter, hair a blonde disaster, one leg sticking out and the other buried in the blankets. She looked thoroughly, gloriously wrecked.

  Ariel snorted softly and reached over, nudging Holly’s bare shoulder. “Hey, Hol. Just checking. Are you still alive in there?”

  Holly groaned, lifting her head. Her face was creased from the pillow, eyes barely open. She peered around, then at Ariel, then at the general chaos. “What…? Am I dead?” Her eyes spotted the shirt in the curtain rod, “Why’s your shirt up there?”

  Ariel laughed, flopping onto her back. “Because someone was in a hurry last night. And I think my pants exploded.”

  Holly squinted, a grin slowly appearing as the memories returned. “Oh. Ohhh… Right. That was…” she looked at the pants across the room, then back at Ariel, and let out a hoarse laugh, “...that was definitely one for the record books.”

  Ariel smiled, propping herself up on an elbow. “So you survived? You need water? A rescue team?”

  Holly rolled onto her side, wrapping her arm around Ariel’s plush middle, nuzzling into her. “I think I need a medal. Or a nap. Or maybe both.”

  Ariel gently brushed a tangled strand of hair from Holly’s face. “I’d give you a medal, but I think the only thing we have in here is a loose button and a sock that doesn’t belong to either of us.”

  Holly made a show of looking around, then flopped back down. “Fair trade. Last night was… wow, Red. That was fun. You looked so good. I think my brain broke a little when your button went flying.”

  Ariel blushed, grinning. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you move that fast.”

  Holly squeezed Ariel’s belly and gave her a lazy kiss on the cheek. “You make me lose my mind sometimes. I regret nothing.”

  Ariel giggled, voice still a little husky from sleep. “Me neither. But if we keep this up, we’re going to need a reinforced closet for all my emergency pants.”

  Holly shook her head, burying her face in Ariel’s side, laughter muffled. “Or we just buy you a wardrobe of soft dresses and call it a day. No more buttons to betray us.”

  Ariel traced gentle circles on Holly’s back, warmth in her voice. “You like me in dresses?”

  Holly tilted her head up, smirking. “I like you in anything. Or nothing. Especially nothing.”

  Ariel rolled her eyes with a fond, sleepy smile. “You’re shameless.”

  Holly only grinned wider. “Yupp!”

  They lay there a while longer, lazy and tangled, the room still full of laughter and the easy intimacy that came from sharing not just a bed, but every secret, every bit of joy and mess and comfort.

  Eventually, Ariel sighed contentedly, pulling Holly close. “Best Christmas ever.”

  Holly murmured, eyes drifting shut again, “Best every day, Red. As long as it’s with you.”

  And together, in their messy, happy little world, they drifted for a while longer, just soaking in each other and the quiet joy of a love that felt like home.