Work Text:
"This is the ugliest jumper I've ever worn…I love it!"
Clara smiled as she saw Danny adjusting his tie underneath the jumper he was wearing, wide grin on his face. She moved in front of him and then smoothed down the front. It was, indeed, quite tacky; turquoise on top with black and white decorations and snowflakes across the chest and a red block on the bottom half, and in the middle of the jumper was a rather sad looking black and white cat wearing a Santa hat. “I think this just might win the contest at the school,” she said, looking up at him. “We British people are notorious for our taste in hideous Christmas jumpers. We’ll be unbeatable.”
He chuckled at that and leaned in to kiss her. She melted against him as she shut her eyes, relishing this moment. She’d lost him, not once but twice, and she had never expected this chance to get him back. She wasn’t going to let it go without taking every opportunity to enjoy every moment with him that she possibly could. And then there was the fact that they had Joseph with them as well. Yes, it was sad he had missed the pregnancy and the first two years of their son’s life, but he was here now, and hopefully he would be there for the rest of it.
She began to pull away to finish getting dressed herself but he slid his hands around to the small of her back. She laughed and then pulled her lips away from his. “Only one of us is properly dressed right now,” she said. “I can’t go to my school in my bra and knickers.”
“Unfortunately,” he said, giving her a look that she knew meant when the school function was over and they were home again and they were absolutely certain Joseph was asleep there would be some interesting going-ons in their bedroom. She felt a warmth pool in her lower regions at that. She had missed that aspect of things as well, and while she had been quite tempted to stay in bed and shag him senseless when she’d gotten past the shock of his return she had obligations, the first and foremost being their two-year-old son. But he still could give her a look and she’d go weak in the knees and want to drag him off to bed.
She shook her head and kissed him again, this time much more briefly. “You’re incorrigible. And you have to let me go. The principal would probably be quite put out if I caused a scandal at the school tonight.”
“I suppose if I must,” he said, letting her go with some reluctance. She gave him a grin and then went to her closet to retrieve the dress she’d spent her free time making, with the help of some of the more craftily inclined people to be dropped in the area by the same forces that had dropped her and Danny there. She didn’t have many friends, just a few, but they were dear to her and she appreciated them, especially when it came to doing something like helping her create a truly atrocious dress for a school holiday function. The contest among the administration had been her idea, and the other staff had been quite keen on it. And as it was her suggestion, she had to kick everyone else’s arse.
She’d found a strapless green dress at a thrift store, and bought various bits and bobs of Christmas decorations since the stores in the area had been putting them out since shortly after Halloween. Some had even been putting them out before Halloween had even finished, which her local American friends had said wasn’t surprising. She’d gotten all sorts of tinsel and beads and bows and, on the recommendation of her craftier friends, a hot glue gun and glue sticks, and then gone to town on the dress. As it stood, there was a line of silver tinsel at the top of the dress, then red and green beads all over the bodice, and then the skirt was covered in a multitude of the bows normally found on presents, in white and red and silver and two different shades of green. There was another line of silver tinsel at the hem as well. She was pairing it with bright red pumps and Christmas tree earrings, and she was planning on dusting her bare shoulders and chest with silver glitter to give her a bit of a sheen.
She got the dress on and then started to zip it up but couldn’t quite pull it up. She moved over to Danny. “Could you finish this?” she asked.
He nodded and then she turned so his back was to him. He pulled the zipper up the rest of the way before dropping a kiss on her shoulder. “That is a very atrocious dress. Worse than this jumper. I doubt anyone will have anything worse on,” he said with a grin.
She looked at her reflection in the mirror as he stood behind her. “You think so?” she asked, turning slightly to see different angles.
He nodded before moving right behind her, being careful not to flatten the bows on the back of her dress. “I want at least one picture of you in this dress to keep for when you burn this dress after the holidays, though.”
She laughed before turning to face him. “I don’t know. Maybe we can get a family Christmas portrait with you in the jumper in me in this dress and Joseph in the ugly cute jumper I got him.”
“Can I see the ugly cute jumper?” Danny asked with a grin.
Clara nodded and went to the closet, pulling out a bag from the same thrift store she’d gotten the dress from. “I saw it and I had to get it. It’s more cute than ugly, though, so I don’t know if it should go in the first Pink family Christmas portrait.” She pulled out a white jumper that had a green T-Rex clutching a candy cane in his mouth with broken candy cane pieces around him.
Danny chuckled as he took the jumper and held it up. “No, I definitely think that deserves to be in the first Pink family Christmas portrait,” he said. “That’s the kind of jumper I’d have been proud to wear when I was young.”
“Like father like son, then,” she said with a smile.
“Well, his mother does know both of them best,” Danny said, setting the jumper down on the bed and then pulling her close.
“Mind the bows,” she said, even as she wound her arms around his neck. He looked down at her with a grin on his face. “I’m glad you’re here, for all this. That you get to be here with me, with Joseph…that we got a chance.”
“I am too,” he said quietly. “We should make the most of it.”
She nodded. “We absolutely should,” she said. She wasn’t surprised when he leaned in a moment later to kiss her, and as she kissed him back she realized that even though nothing in her life had gone as planned, that nothing had turned out the way she had thought it would, at this very moment she wouldn’t want anything to be any different. Life was damn near perfect, and she was quite happy for that.