Emilia's POV

I always thought the excitement for Christmas would lessen as we age, that we didn't have to wake up at the crack ass of dawn to open presents and instead stall so that we can have a few more hours of sleep. I thought that once we became adults, we wouldn't act like children and get all giddy at the mere thought of opening gifts. I thought wrong.     

I finally understand how parents feel when their kids come into their room and cheer about how it's Christmas and that they need you to get up. Even though they may not be shouting and jumping on the bed to force us to get up, Michael, Calum, Luke, and Julia, are torturing us by blaring Christmas music right by mine and Ashton's ears. I've had my share of rude awakenings, but this just might take the gold.

Their pleas for Ashton and I to get up is downright annoying and if it weren't for it being the merriest holiday of the season, I would probably take whoever's phone is playing the music and toss it down the stairs to end the overly cheery noise.

I groan and grab the pillow and hold it over my head, trying, but failing to drown out the children's voices singing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," who in my opinion does not have a very shiny nose, but rather one that resembles a faulty light bulb.

The music ceases and I can feel the mattress shift below me as Ashton moves away and swings his legs over the edge of the bed. "Give us ten minutes and we'll be downstairs," he says huskily and I suddenly don't feel as tired as I was before. Four pairs of feet shuffle out of the room and Ashton's weight is completely lifted off the bed as he goes to close the door and twists the lock until it clicks. "That should hold the kids off for a while."

I lift up the blanket and he crawls back next to me, wrapping both arms around me and holding me close. "I don't remember signing up for kids," I joke.

"Neither do I; they just showed up out of nowhere," he says.

"Is there any way we can return them?"

"Not unless we have a receipt."

"I should really learn to save those because now we're stuck with them."

All efforts of getting any more sleep is ruined as we erupt into laughter. More sleep would have been great, but laying here and laughing with Ashton is just as nice.

His eyes flutter open and stay squinted until they adjust to the harsh fluorescent lighting. He brushes his thumb over my cheek and his lip curves up effortlessly as he says, "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas to you too," I say, pushing his shaggy mess of hair out of his face and smiling at his now visible face.

"Do you think we should get up?" he asks, tangling his legs with mine as if suggesting that he doesn't want to leave the warm bed and a part of me doesn't want to either but I know that everyone downstairs won't stand for that.

I shimmy out of his grasp and sit up, stretching my arms in the air and accidentally hit the side of Ashton's head as he also tries to lift himself up. I stifle a laugh and apologize. "We probably should. You said we'd be down in ten minutes and if we aren't you know as well as I do that they'll march back up here."

"Sometimes I think I should reevaluate my choice of friends," he jokes and pushes himself off the bed and grabs a shirt from the closet.

"I second that."

Other than Ashton putting a shirt on, we stay in our pajamas as does everyone else when we make our way into the living room. However, what I find cute is that Julia and Calum are actually wearing matching red and green plaid pajama bottoms and I have a feeling she coaxed him into wearing them since she's into all the festive holiday clothing. One year, she made me wear one of those ugly Christmas sweaters with a sequined version of Frosty the Snow Man sewn onto it. It was absolutely horrendous, especially when I had to wear it while taking family photos with her parents. At least this year she has a new victim and he actually seems like he's enjoying it.

Luke pushes the loveseat out of the way to make more room for us to sit and gather around the tree. Each gift is distributed and we all take turns opening our gifts from each other. It's fun to watch their faces glow as they each reveal what they got and smile in appreciation. Michael seems to really enjoy the remote controlled mini helicopter from Ashton which apparently is a replacement helicopter because Ashton broke Michael's last year. It didn't take long for him to break it out of the box and let it take off in the living room.

After he crashes the helicopter into the wall, he moves on to opening my gift to him and I am baffled that he actually cracks the book open and begins reading it with a radiant grin which puts a smile on my face. Julia loves the peacoat that I got her and puts it on immediately and twirls around in circles, admiring the way the loose pleats fan out at the bottom.

Calum freaks out when he sees the Cards Against Humanity Game that Luke and I bought for him. Of course, the first thing he does is look through all the cards and answer some of the questions in the most inappropriate way possible (which is literally the goal of the game). There is even a card that asked the question: What's there a ton of in Heaven? And Calum decides to answer it with 'Incest.' It is then that I appropriately rename the game: You're going to Hell.

When it's Luke's turn, he's gets excited to see the beanies from me. He even switches out the gray one that he's wearing already for the black one and his blonde hair that peeks out from underneath it really stands out more. Even though it's something small, he's extremely appreciative of it.

"Here," Luke says, handing me small square box wrapped in royal blue paper with little snowflakes on it. "This one's from me." He bites his lip as I shake the box to try and figure out what it is.

I rip the paper off and pop the lid off the white box, revealing a rose gold bracelet with leaf shaped crystals surrounding the entire band and three spaced out emerald crystals that reflect off the light as I hold it up and examine the stunning piece of jewelry. I wasn't expecting him to get me something so beautiful and now I feel terrible for only getting him beanies; I should have gotten him something more.  

"These aren't real, are they?" I ask, mentally praying that they're not because then I'll feel even guiltier for not getting him something better.

His silvery chuckle and shake of the head ends the guilt trip that I was heading down. "No, that would have cost a fortune," he says.

"How much was it?"

"I'm not telling you," he teases, flashing his bright smile at me. "Do you like it?"

I run my fingers along the band, feeling every cut of the crystals. Even though I'm not much of a jewelry person, this will be an exception. "I love it," I say, struggling to clasp it around my wrist until Luke helps me with it. "Thank you so much, Luke."

He only smiles and darts his eyes over to Ashton who despite having his lips curved up, is less than pleased with Luke's gift to me. Sensing the tension, Luke tosses Ashton a slightly larger box than mine.

"Don't think I left you out, Ash," he says. I don't even know what Luke got him and I'm intrigued to see what it is.  

Ashton slowly pulls the red and gold paper off, exposing a sturdy black case. His eyes glance over to Luke before returning to the box and removing the top. His eyes widen and his jaw slacks as he stares down into the box. I scooch over closer to see what's inside and resting safely in a block of gray foam is a sleek wristwatch. The silver timepiece with roman numerals contrasts greatly with the black leather band. The modern design is extremely elegant, but somehow it's casual enough to be worn daily.

"I figured you could use a watch," Luke says. "You always seem to lose track of time, especially when you're in your artsy mode. I thought that this might help with that and if it doesn't, at least you'll have a good looking watch."

Ashton laughs with his friend and pulls the watch from the case and latches it onto his wrist. "This might just be the best gift you've gotten me," Ashton beams.

"It's about time I switched things up and got you something better than a gift card."

"Took you long enough," Ashton jokes. "Thanks, man. I really like it."

I glance between the two guys and smile at how quickly the tension dropped between them. Ashton may be wrongly suspicious of Luke, but that doesn't change the relationship that he has with him. I don't think anything ever will to be honest.

I crawl underneath the tree to grab my gifts for Ashton wrapped in the green paper with little reindeer on it (he insisted that I wrap his gifts in it), and he's stunned by the size of them.  

"Judging by the size, I don't think these are socks," he says, holding up one of the presents.

I shrug my shoulders and put on my best poker face. "You never know," I sing.

I let him open the gifts containing the portfolio and socks and he gets a kick out of both of them because for one, I actually got him socks as a gift, and two, he no longer has to worry about leaving his artwork everywhere and can finally have it all in one place. I give him the last gift and his eyebrows furrow at the weight.  

"What is this?" he asks, weighing the box in his hands.

"Well if you would open it, you'd find out," I urge, biting my lip nervously and getting impatient at how long he's taking because all I want is to see his reaction and pray that he likes it.

With a single tear, he removes the sketchbook from its confinement and his hand immediately trails down the smooth leather cover. The spine cracks when he opens it and he runs his thumb over each page, letting them fan out at a rapid speed before reaching the back cover.

"I noticed that yours is almost full and since you're going to be taking art classes next semester, I figured a new sketchbook would be appropriate," I say. "You'll be able to start fresh with it. It's great quality too so you don't have to use a canvas when you paint unless you want to. You can even use water colors and it won't bleed through to the other pages."

A smile creeps up on his face and he stares at the paper as if he's coming up with ideas to draw on it. "I don't know what to say," he states, looking up from the sketchbook for the first time since he opened it. "This is seriously amazing. I couldn't have asked for anything better than this."

"Are you insinuating it's better than socks?" I ask with a sly grin and unlike everyone else in the room, Ashton catches on to the joke.

'It's way better than socks," he sarcastically replies and wraps his arms around me, enveloping me into a warm hug. "Thank you so much," he whispers in my ear and then places a chaste kiss to my cheek.

"All that's left is my gift to you," he says, standing up and walking over to the staircase. "Just wait here and close your eyes when I tell you to."

I sit around confused and wait until he hollers from upstairs for me to close my eyes. The thumps of his footsteps as he runs downs the stairs increase my eagerness to see my gift. I'm not expecting much, but whatever it is, I know I'll love it.  

"Hold out your hands," he instructs and I do as he says. My hands drop when he places the heavy object on them and I come close to opening my eyes, but he tells me to wait until he sits down. "Okay, you can open your eyes."

A tiny gasp leaves my mouth when I open my eyes and I'm in utter shock at what he has given me. The spiral rings on the side have expanded from the multitude of random sheets of paper that have been shoved between the pages. The thick cardboard cover is completely worn and tattered and is barely clinging onto the silver rings that hold the entire book together.

"Why are you giving me your sketchbook?" I ask, completely perplexed yet full of bliss.

"You always said that you wanted to see what's inside," he replies and his lazy grin is making a mess out of me internally. "I told you that you would get to see it soon and soon has finally arrived. Open it to the last page."

I am careful to not let any of the loose pages fall out as I flip to the last page. On it is a colored, realistic sketch of a tiny red box. Above the sketch are the words: "Baby Elephant" written in Ashton's handwriting.

"I don't underst-" I stop mid-word when I look up from the book and see Ashton holding the exact red box as on the paper in his hand in front of me.

He pulls back the top and all the oxygen leaves my lungs as I gawk at the necklace inside. An outlined elephant pendant made of the same rose gold as my bracelet with diamonds lining the entire piece except for the eyes, ears, and tail is showcased within the box. However, it's not the pendant that is taking my breath away, but the similarity of it compared to one that I have long forgotten.       

12 years ago

"Emilia," my mom called and I rushed over to her side on the olive couch.

Her dark brunette hair fell over her shoulder and she pushed her overgrown bangs to the side and fixed the Santa hat on her head before gesturing for my dad to come sit with us. He came over and sat on the other side of me, brushing my hair with one hand while the other rests on the backrest, barely touching my mom's shoulder. They never failed to show their affection towards one another even if it was just a touch of the hand.

"We have one more gift to give you," my mom said and my eyes lit up almost as bright as the Christmas tree across the room. She reached behind her back and pulled out a tiny black box and placed it gently in my small hand.

I couldn't contain my smile as I bounced in my seat, excited to see what was inside. I pulled the top off and a small silver elephant pendant with diamonds tracing the entire outline sat inside. A squeal escaped my mouth and I was quick to pull the necklace from the box. My dad took the thin chain from my hand and I gathered my hair together, holding it up like a ponytail as he reached around my neck and securely clasped it together.

I had always gotten stuffed elephants or figurines, but never a piece of jewelry that resembled one. I played with the pendant between my thumb and forefinger, feeling the smooth cuts of the diamonds and the sleek metal it's placed upon. My parents didn't have a lot of money, yet they spent so much on such a trivial item. It was more than I could have wished for.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," I chanted, giving both of my parents a hug and squeezing them as tight as I could. I couldn't have been more thankful for my gift. I didn't own any other jewelry because I hated all that kiddy pastel costume jewelry that was supposed to be appealing to my age group, and I had much more fun raiding my mom's jewelry box and wearing her stuff.

"You're welcome, Baby Elephant," my dad said, referring to me by my nickname. "Take good care of that, okay?"

"I will!" I promised and not once did I ever take that necklace off. It meant too much to me.

In the end, I didn't keep that promise and I ended up losing the necklace during the move to Julia's house. The chain broke and it went missing. I searched every box and after my old house was cleaned out, I searched every nook and cranny hoping that it would be somewhere in there, but I never found that silver necklace.  

But as I admire the one in Ashton's hand, I make a promise to myself to never let it out of my sight. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I were to lose a second one.

"So what do you think?" Ashton asks as he tries to search for an answer between the wrinkles of surprise on my forehead. It's probably not the most attractive look, but at least it conveys the proper emotion that's coursing through my entire being.

Instead of answering, I give him a question of his own. "How did you know?" I didn't even ask for this; hell, I almost forgot about my old one.

He nods his head in Julia's direction. "The family photos at Julia's house. There were a few with you and her together and I noticed the necklace. I figured with your strange yet cute love for elephants it would be something that you would always wear, but I've never seen you with it on." He pulls the necklace from the box and untangles the chain. "I asked Julia about it and she said you lost it several years ago," he continues and moves behind me. "It took some digging, but I found one that resembled yours the most."

I pull my hair away from my neck and hold it up as Ashton's slender fingers intentionally graze across my collar bone as he wraps both ends of the necklace around my neck. "What about the Baby Elephant part?"

"She said that was your parent's nickname for you, and after thinking about it for a while, you remind me of one. You're clumsy and follow those around you and look up to them for guidance until you can stand on your own. You walk alongside a group of people who care and will always look out for you." He connects the clasp to the hook with ease and my hand immediately reaches for the pendent dangling on my chest.    

A baby elephant is always surrounded by the herd consisting normally of its mother and friends. It develops a lifelong attachment and friendship towards the members of the herd and they value their relationship with each other more than anything. I understand the similarity now.   

"I seem to remind you of a lot of thing," I say with a chuckle.

"There are many aspects of you that remind me of different things," he says "All in all, they make up who you are."

"Aww," Julia coos at the two of us as she sits in between Calum's legs with her back pressed against his chest. She tilts her head up to look at him. "Why couldn't you have done something cute like that?"

"I'm wearing matching pajamas with you, what more do you want?" he jokes and lightly presses his lips to her forehead.

"Are you two always this deep?" Michael says with a quizzical expression etched on his porcelain face, breaking us out of our bubble. I find it funny that everyone else's face matches his too. "It's like I'm watching a romance comedy waiting to be written."

Ashton and I laugh and come up short with an answer because not even we know. This is like everyday conversation for us.  

I tuck my chin in and look down to the shimmering elephant. "There aren't real, right?" I say, questioning him the same way I did Luke. I really hope that he didn't pay an arm and a leg for this. It's bad enough that the bracelet that Luke got me looks expensive.      

"That's not important," he vaguely answers with a guilty chuckle.

I try to pry the price out of him but he doesn't budge and instead instructs us to help clean up the mess we made. We are literally surrounded by piles of ripped wrapping paper and I regret using so much. I should have opted for gift bags instead.

As we pick up our trash and throw it away, my eyes wander over to Ashton's sketchbook that I left on the couch so not to lose it during our massive clean-up session. I think even Ashton notices my crave to look through it since he keeps pulling me out of my daze and tells me to stop getting distracted so that we can finish faster.

Even after we finish clearing the floors, I'm still unable to flip through the pages of the book because Calum wants to play his game with everyone and I don't want to turn him down. We play for what seems like forever since there's really no end to the game; you keep playing until you get bored. With everyone throwing down cards unsuitable for those under the age of seventeen, it's hard to stop. Eventually we run out of cards and call it quits and surprisingly, Luke is declared the winner.

Who knew Luke had such a dirty mind?

It feels like the universe doesn't want for me to see what's inside the sketchbook because throughout the rest of the day, something always gets in the way. Lunch, us taking turns controlling Michael's model helicopter, breaking the helicopter, crashing in the living room for a nap because my friends are idiots and woke us up too early, calling Julia's family to wish them a happy holiday, dinner, and copious amounts of wine courtesy of Julia.

I can't catch a break and all I want to do is break away from everyone just so that I can see at least one thing inside the book. Even a peek would suffice. But no. Apparently there is no "me time" during the holidays and it must be spent with those around you. Don't get me wrong, it's awesome to celebrate and laugh with everyone, but not being able to spare a moment to look through the one thing that I've been curious to see for weeks is tortuous.

Not even Ashton is giving me a break as he drags me to bed after everyone has left to their room. He kisses me tiredly before pinning me down with his heavy arm over my chest and falls asleep. All I can do is stare up at the dark ceiling, mindlessly play with my necklace, and think of all the possibilities that are drawn on the pages. With this much curiosity flowing through me, there's no way I can sleep.

I lightly poke Ashton's cheek, right where his dimple would normally show up, and wait for a reaction. When not a single muscle twitches on his innocent face, I take this opportunity to slowly lift his arm off of me and silently roll off the bed. I check to make sure he hasn't stirred in his sleep before putting my "light as a feather" feet into action and leave his room.

The entire house is nearly pitch black as I carefully and quietly descend the stairs, relying on my other heightened senses to guide me down and not bump into anything as I make my way into the living room. My thigh accidentally hits the corner of the side table by the couch and I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from yelping before turning on the lamp that sits on the killer table that most likely left a nice bruise.

The sketchbook is still lying on the couch where I had left it and I go sit as close as I can to the lamp and finally open the front cover. The first page doesn't have anything drawn on it but instead has "2013-2014" written in black ink on the center of the page. To think this contains two years' worth of work...

I flip the page and several sketches in pencil adorn the white paper. What looks like an engagement ring is drawn in the center. The heart-shaped diamond is absolutely beautiful and it's so hard to believe that this is probably the ring that he used to propose to Natalie with. Surrounding the ring is an array of wilted roses that take away the beauty of the piece of jewelry and I wonder if there is any significance to the flower.

I move to the next page and turn the book horizontally to see an image that I somewhat recognize. It looks a lot like the water color painting of a garden that I found in Ashton's room when I first discovered that he painted. The only difference between this one and that one is the level of detail. It's like he didn't put any effort into it and intentionally left it unfinished.

I keep going through the first couple of pages and see sketches of a lake, a bonfire on a beach, and a second painting of the garden, this one with a little more detail than the last, but it's still unfinished. Just like the pile of paper that I found in his room on Halloween, all of these are colorless and only have black and gray defining them.

Just as I am about to turn the page, footsteps descending the stairs create loud creaks that halt my action. Rubbing his eyes and squinting when he enters the dimly lit room, Ashton makes his way over to me.

"So this is where you went," he says groggily. "What are you doing up this late?" I hold the sketchbook up for him to see and he gestures for me to scoot over and he takes my spot and moves to lie horizontally before pulling me to sit in between his legs. "What do you think so far?"

I go back to the pages I already looked at before answering. "They're great, a little melancholic, but great," I say. "I've barely scratched the surface, but from what I've seen so far, these are amazing. Did you really draw two years worth of stuff in this?"

"More like a year and a half. I took a break from drawing for a while when I moved over here." He turns to the page with the lake and traces his finger over the shaded water. "You saw the ring right?" he asks and rests his chin on my shoulder, his warm breath fanning over my neck as I nod. "I threw that ring in this lake a few days after I found out she was cheating on me. I thought it would help relieve some of the anger and hurt, but the only thing it did was make me lose a little over a grand." He lightly chuckles.

It's still hard to comprehend that he spent that much money on a ring and then let it go to waste. I don't dare tell him that I actually know of him throwing the ring in the lake already because I have a feeling that he might not appreciate Luke telling me, so I just let him continue as he turns the page.

"The guys and I used to go to the beach all the time," he says. "We'd hang out there mostly during the summer, but there were some sporadic trips there during the winter. It was always a good time. However, there were a few fights that happened there that could have jeopardized my relationship with Natalie, but she and I always worked it out. I kind of wish we didn't." He goes on to the painting of the garden and lets out a deep breath. "This is a crappy painting of where I proposed to her. I saw the guilt in her eyes but I didn't make anything of it."

As he tells me about the different scenery, I can't help but notice how he's not calling Natalie by her name. He's only saying "her" or "she." I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing. Is he finally releasing himself from the memories that have been holding him back, or is talking about her with me painful for him? He's willingly revealing things about her to me and he is even able to laugh. That has to count for some progress, if not a lot.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," I say, "I'm not forcing you."

He shakes his head and his beard grazes across my neck, causing me to squirm from the ticklish sensation. "It's alright," he assures, turning to the next page which has a sketch of one of the fountains on campus. "That was actually the worst of it all. Those were the only few pages that are related to that. I was tired of being depressed so I started drawing whatever was around me to distract myself. It helped me cope for the most part."

"The most part? What was the other part?"

"You," he quickly answers and places his lips on the scar on my shoulder. I should have known he would say that, but it's still hard to grasp onto the fact that I helped him get to this point.

I reach around and touch the side of his cheek before craning my neck and letting my lips ghost over his. "It's a pleasure to have been of some assistance, Mr. Irwin," I jokingly whisper and I can feel his smile brush against mine.

"The pleasure is all mine, Ms. Anderson," he says before closing the gap between us and moving the sketchbook off my lap and to the floor and turning me around comfortably in front of him, not once separating from me.

"You know I wasn't done looking at that," I say between kisses as I straddle his lap.

He pulls away and bites his swollen lip. "You know if I had a mistletoe right now, there wouldn't be any excuses for you to not kiss me."

"If you had a mistletoe I still would want to look at the sketchbook."

"Yes, but you would be obligated to stay and kiss me for a while before doing that."

"True, but you don't have a mistletoe so I guess you're shit out of luck," I tease and pick up the sketchbook from the floor and move back to my previous position and open it back to where we left off.

Ashton huffs and rests his chin back on my shoulder. "Fine, but I better get a New Year's kiss from you."

I completely forgot that New Years' is around the corner. If only a quarter of my year was this amazing, I can only imagine how it'll be next year. "I can give you that much," I promise. As long as I'm with Ashton it'll be the start of a great year.  

__________

A/N: This took me 3 days to write and I'm still not satisfied with it. Anyways, only one more chapter left. Thank you all for reading! Please keep on voting and commenting. I love you all! –Rebecca xoxoxoxoxo