Work Text:
It’s a family tradition that doesn’t look like anything Will had ever done as a kid. He’d grown up with a fully trimmed Christmas tree, with lights and presents and cookies left out for Santa. He remembers helping his dad set up the model train around the tree, and waking up in the morning and being so excited to see what Santa had brought him. He’d always thought that he and Terry would drag their two point five kids to his parents house and he’d share all those same traditions with them.
Except Terry left him, ruining all the dreams he’d had at seventeen. He has new dreams now. So this Christmas, he’s at China Buffet, chasing after Blaine, who at three and a half can’t stay still for more than five minutes, while Rachel, who has just turned five, sings the Dreidel Song at the top of her lungs. Will manages to catch up to Blaine and he swings him up into his arms before returning to the table. Shelby is trying to get Rachel to stop singing long enough to eat.
Maybe he never thought about being a step-dad to two Jewish kids, or that he’d spend Christmas watching a Pixar movie marathon and then going out for Chinese, but maybe that’s just because he wasn’t thinking big enough. Will knows Shelby had been worried when she’d brought up the subject of Christmas and how much she did not want a tree in their house. And maybe for a moment he’d mourned all those childhood memories of his, but he loves Shelby and he loves these kids and he loves making new traditions with them. And so he leans over Blaine and kisses Shelby on the cheek. “This is the best Christmas I’ve ever had.”