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Moving back to England for a year had been the best decision Dream and George had ever made. Both George and Dream had elected for dual citizenship in the UK and the US, and that meant it was easier for the two of them to move back and forth freely and give Lily the life they wanted for her: to experience the cultures of both countries and to spend equal time with her grandparents.
Every day with Lily was a wonder, and every day brought happiness to the two men, but Dream had to admit there was something particularly special sitting on small, red plastic chairs with George at his side, their phones recording as the thirty nursery children were paraded out onto the makeshift stage in the school hall. Lily had been attending nursery full time since September, she’d made good friends with her peers and she’d excelled in every area - George and Dream were already proud of her - but as she walked out in a white nightgown and a tinsel halo (which, George nudged him to point out, was one of the better costumes) Dream felt a tear come to his eye. Her fingers fiddled with her hair - tied in plaits either side of her head that George had carefully done during breakfast that morning - until she managed to spot her parents in the crowd and she waved to them excitedly. Both men waved back, watching her smile widen and her eyes glittering as she started to sing.
There was something awfully strange about parenthood, Dream decided. A group of thirty children aged four and five would, to anyone else, sound absolutely horrific - like nails on chalkboard or a cat hissing - but to him the sound was one of the sweetest things he’d ever heard. Even if Lily missed a few notes, and shouted some lines rather than sang, he couldn’t imagine being more proud of her.
He was proven wrong almost immediately, when Lily stepped forward with two of her friends (Harry and Janette, he remembered: she’d been invited to both of their birthday parties earlier in the year) who were playing Mary and Joseph. A boy that Dream didn’t recognise introduced Lily as the angel Gabriel, and he watched her glance to the side of the stage to get a thumbs up from her teacher before she started speaking.
“Peace be with you! God has blessed you and-- And is pleased with you.” Lily shouted, and Dream’s heart swelled. He didn’t have to be religious to treasure this moment.
“Do not be afraid. God has been very kind to you. You will… Um… Have a baby boy!” Lily giggled, looking at her friends before Harry reached forward and tugged her hand to prompt the rest of the line. “And you will call him Jesus! He will be the son of God.” She finished quickly. “Do not be afraid Joseph.”
As Lily moved back to stand in line with the other children again, Dream felt George rest his head on his shoulder, and he smiled contentedly. This was absolutely perfect.
Lily had a few more lines later in the nativity - which they made sure to film again - but before too long the show was over and the parents that filled the hall applauded for their children. Rather than try and herd the children back into classrooms, the teachers allowed them to leave early with their parents that afternoon, and Lily had raced straight towards Dream and George with her arms outstretched.
“Dad! Daddy! Did you see me?!”
“We did!” George grinned, crouching down to pick Lily up and hold her close. When he stood back up, Dream fiddled with the halo on her head.
“You were so good, we’re so proud of you.” Dream told her, Lily resting her head on George’s shoulder.
“Do you want to do something special this afternoon? You don’t normally get to come home this early.”
As George spoke, Lily pulled the halo from her head and handed it toward Dream, who happily rested it on top of his own hair. There was a moment before Lily came up with her answer, and when she did she wiggled excitedly until George placed her back on the floor.
“I want to have McDonalds! And I want to look at all the lights!”
George looked to Dream, leaving the final decision to him, and the man just shrugged.
“I think we can organise that. Go grab your coat and bookbag from your peg and we can head home to get changed before heading out, okay?”
Lily nodded hurriedly, a smile plastered permanently on her face, and she ran down the corridor from the hall, leaving Dream and George standing around waiting for her. They made a little small talk with some parents they recognised, but it wasn’t long before Lily returned. She’d changed back into her school uniform and had already buttoned up her coat (though she’d put the buttons in the wrong holes, and Dream crouched down to fix it for her), and before long they were heading out of the school gates with their hands joined. The house they’d picked to live in for the year was near to the school, so the walk home was short and they were home and warm again before Lily’s cheeks even had a chance to turn rosy pink.
It didn’t take long after they’d gotten home for Lily to change into something warmer than her school uniform. She picked out fluffy leggins, fluffy rainbow socks and a thick jumper, and a pair of reindeer antlers, before she ran back downstairs to her parents. There was no time wasted in bundling up in coats once more and shoving feet into boots, and while they’d headed out early in the afternoon the sun was already starting to set. Darkness always fell so early in winter, but with the streets around their home illuminated with Christmas lights it felt magical.
Dream and George held each other’s hands as they walked, with Lily running on ahead just a little way to see the lights first (and listening to her parents instructions to stop at every road so they could cross together safely). A number of the homes had tall bushes obscuring her vision, and if jumping didn’t give her the height she needed to see the lights then she’d run back to her parents to ask to be held, before running ahead again to see more.
“She’s growing up so fast.” George said, feeling Dream’s thumb running over his knuckles. “I wish she’d stop. Next Christmas she’ll be 5, she’ll be properly in school, blink and she’ll be in high school.”
“When we first got her, I never thought the days would end.” Dream laughed. “When you came back to England for ten days I thought I’d never cope, and then the wedding!” He shook his head. “I thought for sure once we’d had our honeymoon I’d blown any chance of us actually getting together.”
“You were an idiot.” George admitted. “You entirely deserved to feel like that.”
“I wasn’t trying to be an idiot, I thought I was doing what was best for you.”
“But you were an idiot.” George pointed out. “My idiot, but still an idiot.”
“You wouldn’t have me any other way.” Dream smirked, stopping in his tracks before leaning over to press a quick kiss to George’s lips. When George laughed, he kissed him again, and this time he held the moment for a little while longer. If it were up to Dream, he’d stand there for the rest of the night and just cherish the time they had together, but it wasn’t up to him. Ever since Lily had learned to walk and talk, everything was dictated by her, and her parents were wrapped around her finger.
“That’s icky.” She said, her voice pulling her parents apart. “Kissing is yucky.”
“We’ll hold you to that when you’re sixteen.” George laughed, and Dream just offered his hand to her.
“I’m never going to kiss anyone.” She said proudly, leading her parents along the road and pointing out the different lights that houses had up. Her favourite, by far, was the one with the Christmas train: the carriages were all filled with gifts and that house had an inflatable santa at the end of its driveway. She admired the decorations on that house for several minutes, before Dream tugged on her hand and encouraged her to keep walking.
“If we don’t keep going, McDonalds will run out of fish fingers.” He told her. “And we don’t want that, do we?”
“No!” She cried. “We have to walk quickly!”
George rolled his eyes at Dream’s dirty techniques, and the two helped Lily cross the road before they began walking in a short loop that would eventually take them back around to the closest McDonalds to their home. A lot of Lily’s friends lived along the road, and so the walk was much more stop-start than Dream would have liked when it was this cold outside, but Lily’s happiness was worth the chill in his bones. Whenever she stopped to speak to her friends he was filled with pride, and only once did he raise his eyebrows at a story of a prank she’d pulled at school (which, privately, he was just as proud of her for. No teachers had called to inform him, and it sounded funny, so he pretended he didn’t hear).
The final walk leg of the walk took them through a housing estate away from the main road, and the families here seemed to have gone all out with their Christmas lights. The houses glowed red, silver, gold and green, and Lily pulled George into a game of eye-spy as she held his hand and babbled incessantly.
At the junction before McDonalds there was a small park, and the swingsets seemed to be the only thing that could stop Lily from talking. She was walking a little slower, her eyes focused on the park, and Dream looked at his watch.
“Ten minutes?” He offered, not needing Lily to voice her question to know it was going through her mind.
“Thank you daddy!” She grinned, before letting go of George’s hand and running as fast as she could to pull herself onto the swings. It took a couple of pushes from George to get her going, but she was learning quickly how to swing her legs to keep her momentum, so the husbands had a chance to sit on one of the benches and watch her play.
It was twenty minutes before she decided she was too cold and hungry to go on, and the three walked the last few minutes to McDonalds.
Lily had a Happy Meal with fish fingers and a milkshake, Dream had a chicken wrap, and George had a quarter pounder. George and Lily shared a McFlurry on the walk home, admiring the last lights of the evening. When they arrived, Lily was quick to shed her boots and coat by the door, and she ran upstairs to play. For the first time that evening, Dream and George had a moment of silence to share, and they just smiled at each other.
“Merry Christmas, George.” Dream said softly.
“Merry Christmas, Dream.” George whispered. Lily was old enough to amuse herself for a while, and so her parents allowed themselves to indulge in a quiet moment on the sofa together. They’d get up in a while when she needed to be put to bed, but for now the warmth of each other’s arms was too enjoyable to leave. After all, this Christmas was only going to come around once, and they wanted to make every moment last as long as possible.