I love these two way too much, okay, they mean a lot to me. And with Phillip's background and Aurora's general personality, I thought it was only fitting that they do this, it just made sense to me.

○ ○ ○

PHILLIP WAS COMING OVER. Now, Phillip had been over at Aurora's house many times, more than sometimes her godmothers would like, but it wasn't as if he was a stranger to her home by any means. Yet every time it was announced he would be coming over for more than to just pick her up, Aurora always felt a great need to make sure everything was perfect.

"Rory, the boy came over to help when you were sick with the flu, he won't care what our house looks like, it's decorated and everything," Marisol groaned, watching as her goddaughter raced around the room, bouncing off the walls trying to get everything cleaned.

"He also put his feet up on our couch," Rosalee added, and Aurora tried not to roll her eyes, because Phillip always took his shoes off at the door, he had nearly brained himself on the banister because his socks slipped as he was racing up to her room.

"What they're saying, Rory, is that Phillip won't be paying attention to whether you cleaned the fireplace, he'll be paying attention to you," Gazelle explained, because she was always the mediator between the other two women whose relationship Aurora was still trying to figure out.

But she sighed, setting down the Swiffer mop, letting her godmother float it away. She crossed her arms and puffed out her cheeks as she glanced towards the clock. She didn't have an inordinate need to know the time, but it had become somewhat of a habit, always needing to check when her bedtime was.

"Are you sure he's up for this?" Marisol whispered to the other women as Aurora went about tidying the kitchen, "You remember what the boy was like, that was only ten months ago."

"He's been trying to acclimate and this is just another chance for him to prove that he's getting better," Rosalee soothed, remembering asking the same question when Aurora first told them of their plans.

Before anyone could say anything else, the doorbell was ringing, and Aurora was ripping off the handkerchief tied around the top of her head in favor of jamming on the Santa hat she had on the banister, sliding over the hardwood floor and adjusting her casual dress before opening the door.

It was always a thrill whenever Aurora opened the door for Phillip. Sometimes he'd stand there with flowers or good posture, expecting her godmothers to open it, other times he'd be leaning against the doorframe, either waiting for her with one of his crooked smiles or looking around at the flowers they planted in the front.

Today, he was in a puffy coat and Santa hat, trying and failing to seem calm as he leaned against the doorframe, but he was shivering and shaking, but not just from the cold, his smile more strained and his eyes tired, but his dim light brightened when he caught sight of her.

"Hey," he greeted, stepping in and immediately pulling her into a hug, the two stumbling slightly as Aurora had to reach up to hug him and he was holding her far tighter than usual.

"We don't have to do this," she pointed out, closing the door, Phillip still clinging onto her, "We can just watch movies and stuff."

"No, come on, I promised you this, we're gonna do it," he said, pulling away long enough to tug off his parka and hang it on the coat rack they had, revealing a red button-up, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

When he caught her staring, he smirked. "Peter said Harry looks hot when he does this, I figured I'd try it out."

She laughed, feeling her face grow warm as she glanced towards her godmothers who were all watching the scene with varying expressions. While Phillip was taking off his shoes, she motioned for them to leave, to which they all vehemently shook their heads in response.

"So, are we doing this?" he asked, turning around towards her, clapping his hands together, his arms stretched out.

"Yeah," she said, smiling and taking his hand, tugging him over to the kitchen, "I've got all the stuff."

Phillip allowed himself to be dragged along, smiling at his girlfriend before looking towards her godmothers, giving them a small wave with his free hand, more three fingers raised with his wrist flicking forward than an actual greeting.

Normally, Phillip was very polite, always striking up conversation and asking how all three women were doing, but today it seemed he was both nervous and distracted because all they received was the wave. But it was Phillip, so they weren't bothered, he would go back to his usual ways once he calmed down.

"Hi," he greeted, coming to stand right next to Aurora, stealing a kiss, smiling as she laughed, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Hi," she hummed, moving to hug him, because that was who Aurora was, a major hugger, "Ready to work?"

"Yeah," he breathed, steeling himself as he looked on at the array of ingredients that he had to work with, "Okay, so we'll make the gingerbread and frosting from scratch, then we'll put them altogether once they've cooled, I emailed you a template to print out, do you have that?"

She pointed towards the stack of papers in the corner of the kitchen island, looking rather pleased with herself. "I'm a very organized person, Phillip."

"Yeah, I know," he hummed, leaning forward to kiss her, and at this rate, they wouldn't get anything done, "Okay. Do you want to make everything together or do you want to make one while I make the other."

"Let's do it together," she said, clinging onto his arm, and Philip wanted to scream, because there was no way he deserved this girl, there was absolutely no way.

But he would hold on for as long as he could, so he just reached over and kissed her cheek before grabbing the printed out instructions that he had set up on the recipe stand, scanning them over for a moment before getting to work, the two mixing all the ingredients together in the cauldron-themed bowl she had gotten for the special occasion when he decided to cook with her.

"You're hilarious," he deadpanned when she showed him the other cauldron-themed items including spatulas and measuring cups, "Seriously, no, have you ever considered stand up comedy, you'd be perfect."

"You're so mean!" she cried, but she was laughing and giving him another thousand watt smile, pouring water into one of the cups to pour into the larger not-cauldron.

"You love me," he teased, grabbing one of the spatulas and holding it over the bowl, pausing for a moment, "You wanna stir?"

"You can if you want," she said, which was code for, 'pull your own weight,' but Aurora was too nice to say it to his face.

Laughing softly, letting her know he got the subtext, he began to stir, and it was then he realized she might have told him to stir for other reasons, if the way she was staring at his tensing arms was any indication.

He tried to flex more, trying to hide his smile so she wouldn't notice, but the minute he twisted his arm a bit too hard he was caught, and Aurora immediately squealed, demanding to know what he was doing, her face red and words shrill.

"I saw you looking!" he laughed, holding up his hands to try and block the swats that she tried to aim his way, one of the dishrags in her hand, "You can't deny it, I saw!"

"Just go back to stirring!" she scoffed, crossing her arms and looking away, trying to hide her smile and red face, but Phillip just reached over and kissed her neck, causing her to whirl around and shriek, but when she turned, she found him continuing to stir.

The two continued to bake without a hitch, save for Phillip trying to steal a kiss every few minutes, but they were able to roll out sheets and sheets of gingerbread onto the faux-stone pans, meant to match with the cauldron-like bowl, and Aurora had taken a picture at the exact moment Philip saw and registered the pans.

"Birthday money well spent," was all she said in retort, and Phillip had the urge to hug her, but as a punishment.

While the two waited for the gingerbread to cool, they worked on the frosting, since Aurora had already pre-cute the templates that night, knowing that it would pay off in the longer run, and it actually did.

They decided on white frosting, figuring that they could dye portions with food coloring later if need be, but they had to make a lot, which meant that there was going to be a bit of a mess.

"You got it in my hair!" Aurora cried, making a face as she grabbed a paper towel, trying to get it out.

"Sorry," Phillip called, his hands covered in frosting from where he had purposefully smeared some on Aurora's face, though she promptly got back at him, smearing some all over his face and neck, "How does it taste, though, is it good?"

Aurora hummed, scooping up the frosting on her cheek with her finger and sucking it off, closing her eyes and thinking. "It's really good! It's really sweet."

"Yeah, got it from my dad," Phillip drawled, and while that was still quite a sore spot, it wasn't the same from the last time Aurora had seen the man; Phillip was doing a lot better

"Can I try some more?" she asked, reaching out towards the bowl, but Phillip lightly caught her hand, making a face and she huffed, "It's really good! Please!"

"Here, you got some on my face, you can try that, then save the rest for later," Phillip said, scooping the frosting off his cheek and neck, running over the white scars that were still there.

Aurora tried to get the frosting off from his finger and onto hers, but when it was clear it was just going to wind up on the floor, she just sighed and licked it right from Phillip's finger, the boy coughing violently as he tried not to shiver, covering his eyes with his arm.

"Rory, I'm not complaining, but warn a guy first, jeez—" Phillip tried, trying not to choke from sheer embarrassment—he knew Aurora didn't realize exactly what she was doing, she was sheltered like that, but they were going to have to have a very long conversation about it—but he was interrupted by her godmothers.

"We could hear you from our room, you better not be doing what I think you're doing," Marisol cried, barging into the kitchen, having just broken out of the hold that the other two women held her in, trying to convince her that it wasn't what it sounded like.

"What do you think we were doing?" Aurora asked, wiping the corner of her mouth, and if it had been anyone else, Marisol would have immediately believed her to be lying, kicking Phillip out and never letting him back, but it was Aurora and she didn't quite understand.

The most she knew was that if she and Phillip decided to have sex—her godmothers didn't think she was old enough, but they all knew that adult feelings weren't on the top priority for teenagers—to use the condoms she was given and meant to keep in both her bag and her room.

But that was never something to consider, save for her asking Phillip one time on his birthday if he wanted to, to which he said he'd rather wait until she wanted to, so there wasn't any more conversation to be had.

But now that her godmothers were there, she felt as though there was something she was missing, something that even Phillip picked up on if the way he was hiding his face and bending towards the counter was any indication.

"What are you talking—" she began, only to be interrupted by the oven going off, startling everyone.

"I told you, Merryweather, it was nothing," Rosalee hissed, dragging the shorter woman out of the room, "Keep baking, kids, nothing to worry about."

Aurora turned to look at Phillip, but the boy was red all over, looking ready to pass out as he carefully took out the sheets from the oven, his hands shaking slightly, but he managed to get them on the counter without burning himself, but he immediately went towards the fridge to open the freezer and cool himself down.

"Wait!" Aurora called, still hearing her godmothers trying to get back into their room, "Can you cool down the cookies for us?"

Rosalee was the one to return, raising her eyebrows at the sight of multiple sheets of cookies, but Aurora simply shrugged. "Aunt Gazelle had made it so we could fit however many we needed in there all at once."

"She would do that," Rosalee said with a fond smile, waving her hand over the various sheets, and Aurora watched as the steaming smoke over the cookies dissipated, leaving them cool on the sheets.

"Thank you!" she chirped, smiling at her godmother disappearing out of the kitchen.

It was only when the door to the women's room closed that Phillip emerged from where he had practically thrown himself into the freezer, clearing his throat and tugging at the collar of his button--up.

"Did I do something wrong?" Aurora asked, feeling terrible for getting Philip so riled up about something.

"What? No," Phillip said, shaking his head before going to kiss the top of hers, "No, no, you're fine. We'll talk about it later, but you didn't do anything wrong, it's okay. Let's cut these up, yeah?"

Aurora nodded, reaching over and getting the knives that matched with the rest of the set, and it was back to their usual routine, Philip loudly demanding to know if she themed her bed after a cauldron as well, because this was getting ridiculous.

"You love it," she teased, already starting to cut out some of the larger templates.

They decided that she would cut out most of the base foundation and larger parts, Phillip cutting out the more delicate features, including the holes made to the foundations themselves. Luckily for them, the cookie wasn't too rigid yet, and Aurora reminded herself to thank her godmother for knowing what they needed even when she hadn't asked for it.

It was mesmerizing, watching Phillip work. Aurora had delicate, dainty hands, and Phillip always loved to point it out, and while his weren't exactly dainty or delicate, they were precise, controlled, and he knew what he was doing, almost like he was born to do it. It was beautiful.

It took them a great deal of time, what with needing to be careful and precise, but they did finish the pieces without needing to glue any together or restart, and they were both pleased with themselves, Aurora taking some pictures and sending them to her and Phillip's friends, though Peter was the one who responded right away.

from: Peter (3:56 pm)
You're making a gingerbread
house without me?

Aurora scoffed at that; she knew Peter wasn't actually hurt, especially since she had told him about her plans already, though she wouldn't have been surprised if he hadn't actually been listening, he had been worrying about a gift for Diana non-stop.

to: Peter (3:57 pm)
I told you that we were and
you wouldn't have come over
anyways

from: Peter (3:57 pm)
You don't know that I
totally would have

to: Peter (3:58 pm)
Just go back to finding a
gift Parker we're busy

That text was from Phillip who had snatched the phone out from Aurora and was quickly typing in the Snapchat text feature, laughing as Aurora shouted for him to be nice, trying to see what he was typing, only able to grab her phone was Peter replied.

from: Peter (3:57 pm)
Tell your boyfriend to stop
being mean to me

Aurora laughed, texting him back that she would, before trying to give Phillip a reproachful look, but the boy didn't seem too bent on apologizing, instead just moving to start connecting all the pieces, using more than enough frosting each time.

"How are you so good with the frosting, it's always impossible!" Aurora cried, staring in wonder as Phillip connected all the pieces with practiced ease, the tip of his tongue peeking out between his lips.

"My dad's a baker, he taught me when I was young how to make the best gingerbread house," h explained, making the staircase and placing it inside in under five minutes, humming to himself, "Wanna put on some Christmas music?"

As if he had to ask. Phillip laughed as Aurora squealed, bouncing on her toes as she pulled up her Christmas playlist, grabbing a cup and dropping her phone inside, the sound amplifying and filling the kitchen.

Phillip continued to put the pieces together, shouting when Aurora grabbed his hand and pulled him into a dance, the two holding hands and jumping around the kitchen, and it was the kind of dancing they only ever did together, never at any school dances or in public, only in the safety of her room or his, where they could just let loose, tripping over each other's feet one minute, then perfectly in sync the next, and it was the kind of dancing that had both of them laughing and smiling so hard that their cheeks hurt for hours after.

It took twice as long to finish putting the pieces together, but once it was done, it was time to decorate.

"Can we make it pink?" she asked softly, and Phillip smiled, nodding as he grabbed some of the red food coloring, dropping it into one of the separated bowls of frosting.

While had been the one to piece together the interior, she was the one to decorate the exterior. They worked together on all of it, of course, but Aurora decorated best, as she was the one with more experience in that field, and Phillip was just happy to take the back seat and watch her work.

They both had the habit of sticking their tongues out while concentrating, and it was always fun to see her eyebrows furrow in concentration, which was something she did when they took tests, which often got him in trouble whenever he tried to look over at her in class, having to explain to everyone that the reason he was looking was because he thought his girlfriend was cute, not because he wanted to cheat.

No one could blame him, Aurora was really cute.

"What?" she asked, glancing over to look at him, smiling shyly, starting to laugh, "What?"

Phillip didn't say anything, just leaning forward to kiss her. It wasn't as brief as all the other kisses, but it was just as sweet, him just leaned against the counter and her turned slightly to face him, still working on decorating.

Phillip hummed as she pulled away, putting the finishing touches by adding candies all around, taking a step back to admire her handiwork.

"This is amazing," she breathed, taking in the towering gingerbread creation before them, "I'm used to just gingerbread houses, not gingerbread castles."

"Yeah, well," Phillip began, and Aurora laughed as he came to stand behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist, "Only the best for my princess, right?"

AUTHOR'S NOTE

I hate how I end all of these one-shots please forgive me, but I thought it was fun. It was only pseudo-Christmas, but you know what, we're having fun, sue me.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!