You were very excited for Christmas this year. Kyle was going to come home. For the longest time, he wasn’t sure if he would make it. Of course you knew his job was very demanding, and required a lot of sacrifices from both of you. Birthdays, anniversaries, holidays… you often had to spend those special days alone. But this year - he was going to be home for Christmas!

For most of December you were busy with preparations. You were baking cookies and gingerbread, buying presents, decorating. You set up a beautiful Christmas tree, full of ornaments and lights. You even got matching Christmas sweaters for yourself and Kyle. They were silly, but you thought it would be cute if you wore them to dinner with your family. You just couldn’t wait! It was going to be amazing!

Kyle arrived home in the afternoon of the 23rd. He walked in, tossing his camo bag on the floor in the hallway. The house was quiet. Strange… he expected you to come running, expected to smell the food cooking. He looked around, seeing the wrapped presents waiting under the tree, and all the decorations and lights you set up. He walked upstairs to the bedroom, and found you in bed - you were shivering and miserable, and there was a mountain of used tissues on the nightstand.

You had a flu. Right before Christmas you got so terribly sick. You made all those plans, for you and Kyle to have a magical Christmas together. But you felt just awful now, and you had no strength to even crawl out of bed. To say you were upset was an understatement.

But to Kyle, being home with you for the holidays was already magical enough. And he wasn’t going to let you be sad. He walked out of the bedroom, under the excuse of making you some tea. When he returned, he was wearing the silly Christmas sweater that you got for him. He set the tea mug down onto the nightstand, and sat down at the edge of the bed next to you. He took your hand, pressing a kiss to your knuckles. “We will have the best Christmas, sweetheart. Just the two of us.”