#scnat

Nat knelt down in front of Scott, who was on the ground, head hanging low. After they had gotten back to the house, Scott pretty much bolted away from Nat, feeling horrible for what she had seen him become.

“You’re not scared of me, are you?” Scott quietly asked after a moment of silence, feeling his stomach knot up with anxiety as he waited for Nat’s answer.

“Why would I be scared of you?” Nat asked, looking genuinely puzzled. She couldn’t understand why Scott would think she was scared of him, especially after what he did for her during the attack.

Scott looked up at her, face still wolfish; whatever kind of wolfsbane he was hit with made him unable to shift back. Nat figured out what Scott was alluding to and she sat back on her knees, 

“I’m not scared of you.” She seriously said, reaching out to him, “You’re a good person, Scott McCall. Not a monster.” 

Scott came downstairs to see Natalia smacking the toaster with a spatula. He watched her for a moment, amused at watching her yell at the appliance to give her back her bread. 

“Everything okay?” Scott got Natalia’s attention.

“No! This machine ate my bread!” Natalia accusingly pointed the spatula at the toaster. Her eyebrows were furrowed in frustration and under the circumstances, Scott thought it was pretty adorable.

“Again?” Scott raised his eyebrows as he walked over to her.

“Yes, again!” Natalia stomped her foot in frustration, turning her attention back to the toaster and smacking it with the spatula again. “Give it back!” She yelled out.

“Okay--” Scott grabbed the spatula from Natalia’s hand before she landed another smack on the appliance, “Okay, I think you’re scaring it.”

“Good! It took my bread!” Natalia crossed her arms over her chest and stared at the toaster. Scott, seeing Natalia’s eyes turning dangerously close to purple, quickly stepped in between Natalia and the toaster.

“I can fix it.” Scott put his hands up in the space between it. Natalia eyed him before nodding. 

Scott turned to face the toaster and pressed the cancel button. In reaction, the bread Natalia had put in, popped up, nice and toasted. 

“Nat?” Scott called through the house as he searched through the kitchen. “Have you seen the bags of Halloween candy?”

He couldn’t quite hear her answer, but could tell she’d said something from upstairs. He took the steps two at a time, swinging around the bannister to the spare bedroom.

“I said, have you seen the - oh.” he stopped, taking in the scene in front of him. Nat was lying on the floor, surrounded by empty wrappers of fun size candy bars. She let out a small moan, clutching her stomach.

“My stomach hurts.” she said.

“I’ll bet.” Scott replied, trying to hold in a laugh.

“There were just so many kinds that I hadn’t tried yet…” she explained, though her face painted a story of regret.

“I know.” he said, gently smoothing her hair.

“Am I gonna throw up?” she asked quietly.

“Probably.” he said honestly. She nodded, accepting her fate. “Come on, let’s get you some water and go sit outside.”

Christmas was always Nat’s favorite holiday, especially once Scott and Stiles and Lydia taught her all the different family traditions. The pack had become her family, seeing as hers was lost to her. And every year, her new family (especially Scott) would try their best to make that Christmas better than the last. 

Most years, there were mountains of decorations and millions of lights, with a huge (fake) tree and piles of presents. But this year, there was just the tree. Granted, it was one of the ten-foot-tall trees with the multicolored lights that flashed in different patterns, but it still wasn’t the Christmas Nat was used to. She didn’t mind, though; she knew it had been a tough year for everyone, and that the true meaning of Christmas was togetherness and love. She had lived her life without fancy Christmases before, and a simple Christmas with her friends would be just as lovely without all the extras. 

They had their low-key Christmas Eve pot luck, followed by a rowdy round of White Elephant gifting. They settled across couches and floors, holding mugs filled with red wine hot chocolate and watching Christmas movie after Christmas movie on the TV until the wine lulled them to sleep. 

Nat assumed she was the first one to wake up, as it happened every year. But she groggily sat up to see Scott waiting anxiously for her. 

“Merry Christmas.” she whispered. He smiled.

“Merry Christmas to you.” he replied.

“What time is it?” she asked. He checked his phone.

“6:48.” he said. She let out a breath.

“That’s really early.” she said, thinking about laying back down. 

“Santa came last night.” he said, interrupting her thoughts.

“Okay, no need to make fun of me. It only took me a year to realized that there wasn’t another sorcerer who was traveling around with presents.” she said, narrowing her eyes at him. His smile just grew, and he pointed to the tree. She turned to look. Last night, the area under the tree was empty. This morning, there was a small black box resting underneath, the twinkling lights reflecting on a shiny red bow. 

“Open it.” Scott said. Nat was suddenly nervous. She remembered at some point learning that gifts like this were symbols of something, but she couldn’t remember what. It was a tidbit given to her so long ago, and she couldn’t recall the significance. She crawled over to the tree, picking up the box and sitting on her heels. Scott moved next to her, resting on one knee. She opened the box, finding a large amethyst set in white gold, the tiny diamonds around it sparkling in the lights of the Christmas tree. Her breath caught in her throat, and she turned to Scott.

“Marry me?” he asked. She looked at the ring, then back to his face.