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It's Christmas Eve and Holly Wheeler can't fall asleep. She knows she has to, because Santa won't come otherwise, but she's just so excited!
Laying awake in bed, staring at her ceiling, she gets an awesome idea. She should try to catch Santa Claus in action!
Holly pulls the covers off and stands up from her bed, her socked feet hitting the carpet. Careful to not make any noise, she creeps across the room to her door and opens it. The door squeaks as it opens, but it's really only loud enough for Holly to hear. She makes her way through the hallway, to the stairs, then carefully walks down, a few floorboards squeaking as she does.
From the bottom of the stairs, she can kind of see the living room if she peeks behind the wall to her left. She hears a bit of ruckus and looks into the decorated living room, expecting to see Santa Claus.
That is not exactly what she sees.
She sees Santa, yes, but she also sees Will Byers. Santa is filling up what appears to be the last stocking, while Will watches. The two are whispering to eachother, but Holly can't hear what they're saying.
When Santa finishes with the stocking stuffers, he turns to Will. Will puts one hand on Santa's face, and stands up on his tiptoes, then– kisses Santa?!
Holly doesn't find it weird that Will is there when Santa is there. She knows that the Byers' have been staying with them ever since that earthquake. But she does find it weird that he kissed Santa, because she was pretty sure that Will was dating her brother, Mike.
After the first kiss, Santa wraps an arm around Will's waist and pulls him closer. Immediately, Holly runs back upstairs before she can get any more traumatized than she already is.
She creeps back into her room and crawls into bed. Now, she has a new thing keeping her awake; Will kissing Santa Claus.
That was so weird.
The first thing that Will hears when he wakes up is his name, whispered by the love of his life. For a brief moment when he's still in a half-awake state, he just hums and snuggles close to Mike.
"Will, come on, it's Christmas." Mike whispers.
Will opens his eyes, taking in the sight of the pretty boy in front of him, then stretches and leans over to give him a good morning kiss.
"'Morning." Will murmurs.
"Good morning, love." Mike says.
Will crawls out of bed first, then Mike follows, both feeling the cold chill of winter on the skin exposed by their T-shirts. Mike moves over to the closet and grabs them each a Christmas sweater to hopefully help them warm up.
They put the sweaters on, then head downstairs, where everyone is probably waiting for them so they can open presents.
The first thing they notice when they get downstairs, is that Holly doesn't seem as joyful as she usually is on Christmas. She looks like she hasn't gotten a wink of sleep, as if she was worried about something.
"Does Holly look...sad to you?" Will asks Mike, making sure to whisper.
Mike just shrugs. "Kind of? Maybe she's just growing up."
Will doesn't say anything more, but he does try to pay extra attention to Holly as they eat their breakfast. Normally, Holly sits next to Will while they eat, and she begs him to help her draw. Today, she does sit next to him, and she does have a piece of paper, but she's just coloring lightly, not begging him to draw with her.
"Hey, Hols, you okay?" Will asks quietly, setting his half eaten pancake back down on his plate.
Holly doesn't respond at first, continuing to color as she munches on her pancakes. Then finally, she mutters, "I know what you did."
'I know what you did'? What does that mean? What did he do?!
He doesn't get a chance to ask these questions before Mrs. Wheeler is standing up from the table and asking, "Who wants to open presents?"
Somehow, that finally gets Holly to perk up. "Ooh! Me! Me! Me!" She exclaims, standing up from her chair and running to the living room.
Mrs. Wheeler and Mrs. Byers follow her, then Mike and Will, and finally Nancy and Jonathan. They're all sitting in a circle on the floor, and Mrs. Byers is passing presents to each of them until they all have one present in front of them.
Mike and Will's presents look to be the same size, possibly the same thing. They appear to be the best wrapped presents besides a few left under the tree. Mike's is wrapped in blue wrapping paper, and Will's is wrapped in yellow.
"Holly, you can open yours first." Mrs. Byers tells her.
Holly tears open the present wrapped in rainbow wrapping paper. She opens the box that the present is in, and pulls out a princess dress, quite similar to Aurora's from Sleeping Beauty.
"Wow!" Holly exclaims, "I love it!"
"That was from me," Nancy says, "Glad you like it."
"Thank you, Nancy!"
The next person to open their present is Jonathan. His present is wrapped in generic Christmas paper with snowmen on it. He pulls a new video camera out of the box, and a smile appears on his face.
"That was from me, Jonathan." Mrs. Wheeler says.
"Thank you, Mrs. Wheeler." Jonathan says kindly, giving her a sweet smile.
Next is Nancy. Her present is put in a gift bag with pretty pink bows on it. She pulls out the tissue paper, then a record.
She gasps, "Fleetwood Mac, Tango In The Night?!" She questions, surprised.
"You're welcome." Mrs. Byers says with a smile.
"Thank you so, so, so much Mrs. Byers!"
Next to open their present would be Will, but before he can, Holly interrupts. "Wait," She says. "That's from me. You and Mike have to open it at the same time."
He looks over at Mike, and they both pick up their matching presents. They rip them open at the same time, finding Carebears inside. Will's is yellow with a sunshine on it's belly, and Mike's is blue with a grumpy face and a storm cloud on it's belly.
"I got the yellow sunshine one for Will because he likes yellow and he's very nice," Holly explains. "I got the blue grumpy one for Mike because he likes blue and he's always grumpy." Nancy chuckles at that.
"Hey!" Mike complains.
Holly sticks her tongue out at him. "If there was a dramatic one, I would have gotten that one instead." She says.
"You little–" Will covers Mike's mouth before he can say anything bad.
Next to open their present is Mrs. Byers. Her present is wrapped in a pretty purple gift bag. She pulls out a coffee mug that reads, 'Badass moms club'.
"That's from me, mom." Jonathan tells her.
Joyce laughs a little then says, "Thank you, Jonathan."
Mrs. Wheeler is the last to open her present. It's wrapped in white wrapping paper with blue snowflakes. She tears it open carefully, and pulls out a record, just like Nancy had, but this one is different.
"True Blue by Madonna!" She exclaims happily.
"That's from me, Mrs. Wheeler." Will tells her, "I thought you would like it."
"Thank you very much, Will." Mrs. Wheeler gives him a genuine smile. Will likes seeing her happy like this, and it's been more common since her divorce with Mr. Wheeler.
"You're welcome."
She passes the rest of the presents around, and they all open them. Holly has the biggest pile by far, full of many toys and dresses, but it still appears like something is bothering her. Will is not the only one to notice, it seems.
"Holly, what's wrong?" Nancy asks.
Holly is fidgeting with her fingers, clearly upset or bothered. "I- I-" She can't seem to find the words for a moment. Then she blurts, "I saw Will kiss Santa!"
At first, no one seems bothered, because they knew that Mike had dressed up as Santa, since everyone else had done other things to get ready for Christmas and he had done nothing. So Mike had been the one that Will kissed last night. Not Santa. Holly must have snuck downstairs last night and seen them, thinking that Mike really was Santa.
"Oh." Almost everyone says at the same time.
Except Mike. He gasps dramatically, throwing a hand over his heart like he's been stabbed. "Will, how could you do this to me?!" He stands up and grabs Will's hand, pulling him up as well. "We'll be right back." He says, then leads Will to the basement.
They walk down the basement steps, then Mike leans against the wall near the stairs. "So..." He starts, "Who's this Santa fellow?" He asks, committing to the bit.
Will rolls his eyes playfully, and steps up to Mike. "You know it was you." He says, then leans up to kiss him.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Mike replies, bringing his hands to Will's waist and pulling him into another kiss.
"Sure you don't." Will chuckles, then says, "Santa."
They hear a little gasp behind them. Will turns around quickly to see who it is, and sees Holly standing there. Jesus, she really knows how to sneak around.
"Mike is Santa?!" Holly questions.
Mike shakes his head. "No! No, uh..." He tries to think of an excuse. "You see, Santa was really busy last night, so he asked me to help him deliver your presents. So when you saw Will kissing who you thought was Santa, that was really me. Okay?"
Holly ponders this for a moment, trying to think if it's reasonable. "Okay," She nods. "So I didn't sleep at all because of you?"
Mike looks at Will for help. "Well, Holly, he really wanted to tell you, but Santa told him not to." Will explains, "So only the three of us know, okay? Don't tell anyone or Santa won't give you any presents next year."
"Okay!" Holly says quickly, "I won't tell anyone! I want presents next year."
Will and Mike laugh quietly as Holly walks back up the stairs of the basement. Mike gives Will a high-five then intertwines their hands and leans in for a kiss.
Later that night, when Will and Mike are cuddling, about to fall asleep, they're holding their matching Carebears.
"Honestly, Holly's explanation for why she got you that blue grumpy one was really accurate." Will whispers.
"Same for the yellow sunshine one she got you." Mike whispers back.
Will smiles at him, though it's hard to see in the dark, then he presses a soft kiss to Mike's lips, lingering there for a moment.
"I love you." Mike murmurs.
"I love you, too." Will replies.
The two fall asleep on Christmas, cuddling eachother and their Carebears.