You and Mark were friends for a while now. You had met in college and started getting along pretty quickly. He was quite popular, he new a lot of people on the campus, but he wasn't a complete idiot as you, an introvert by nature, pictured most popular guys in college.
Mark was calm and really nice, he always had time for you even if sometimes that meant bailing on something with his friends.

You had come to develop feelings for him but you always thought there was no way he would ever correspond them. But as this was your third year together, your patience was running away from you. Everyday you felt the need to know how he felt about you but you couldn't exactly bring yourself to confess or just ask him about it. True, you had never seen Mark with a girlfriend and that had always given you a glimpse of hope, but that was it. Sure, he was nice to you, but he was nice to a lot of people. Sure, he'd always make time for you two to spend together, but maybe he just wanted a break from the constant buzz of his loud friends.
All these uncertainties were driving you mad and as the semester drew to an end you had to do something.

When the last day of the semester before Christmas break arrived, you still didn't know how to figure out how Mark felt about you and you still didn't have the guts to just ask him about it.
Classes ended and you were really happy when Mark ditched his friends that were going out to walk you to the bus stop.
It wouldn't be long until the sun started to set, but it still wasn't dark enough for you to see the streets light up with the Christmas lights you loved so much.
"Such a shame..." you mumbled to yourself.
"What's wrong [Y/N]? Already missing classes?" he asked smiling clearly having heard what you had just said.
"Not really, no." you smiled back at him. "I was just kind of hoping to see the Chrstimas lights all lit up."
"Well, maybe we could see if everyone wants to hang out tomorrow just going around seeing the lights." Like always, he tried to be nice to you, trying to get you what you wanted. But you didn't exactly love the sugestion. Sure it'd be nice to see the lights with Mark, but just with Mark, no other friends of his required... Still, it was better than nothing.
"Sure, we could do that." You answered without looking directly at him, fearing you may have started to blush thinking about that.

You continued to walk until you reached the bus stop and you knew you had to say goodbye to him, and yet you just didn't want him to go away, not until you knew what you were dying to know, but the question simply didn't want to come out of your mouth.
"So I guess you stay here. I'll be going then. Goodbye [Y/N]." He said to you as you stopped walking.
Driven by panic, you could only think about not letting him go and you did just that. You hugged him without saying anything. 
Once your brain finally processed what you were doing, your cheeks staring heating up like crazy and you started to move your arms to let Mark loose, but to your surprise his arms that had wrapped around your waist didn't loose their grip on you, it only went tighter.
He didn't say anything for a little while until he let go. We were completely apart when he finally spoke. "So, see you tomorrow, right?" He asked, while smiling at you.
"Of course" you answered almost immediately as you just wanted to go hide somewhere where no one could see you.
You said goodbye to Mark, not sure how to feel about what just happened. He didn't push you away but he didn't say anything about it either.

At night, when you were getting ready to go to bed, your phone buzzed. It was a text from Mark telling you where you should meet everyone tomorrow. You got anxious just thinking about seeing Mark after what happened, so maybe it was for the best that his friends were joining you. If he didn't mention anything, you could just let it go.

The next day, when you got to the square that Mark had reffered in his text you didn't see him or any of his friends, but you were still a bit ahead of the scheduled time, so you just sat in a bench waiting for someone to come around.

Mark arrived a bit after you. When he saw you sitting he went to you, but you were facing the opposite direction so you didn't see him come closer. When he got close to you, he placed his hands on your shoulders and you immediately jumped off your seat, scared by the sudden touch.
When you turned around to see Mark, he was trying to hold back his laughter from your reaction.
"Hi [Y/N]. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."
"Hey Mark. I think that's exactly what you were trying to do" You answered him while puffing your cheeks. "So, where is everyone?" you asked getting up.
"I don't think they're coming, we should get going." he answered already turning to  a street filled with Christmas lights.
You were totally caught by surprise by his care-free answer. "What do you mean, they're not coming?"
"That's it. It's just the two of us. Why? Are you scared of being alone with me?" he asked looking very amused by your shock once again.
"No, it's not that, I just though... Nevermind, let's go." You decided to not press the matter any further and you went to his side, he was already a bit ahead of you.
You strolled through some streets, you were not sure how many, admiring the street lights and the stores' decorations. As you walked side by side with Mark, you kept talking about random stuff, like school or a specially nice decoration you spotted.

When every street seemed to have been explored by the two of you, Mark spoke up "Well, I gess that's pretty much it. Let's go back. I have my car parked near, I'll take you home."
"You don't need to take me home, I can just take the bus." You tried to politely refuse his proposal, but with no success.
"No way, I'm not letting you go back home alone at night." As you opened your mouth to protest, he continnued "And the matter is not open for discussion."
He grabbed your hand as he calmly started leading you to the place where his car was parked.
Your cheeks started heating up and you knew you were getting really red, you could probably go stand near a store's Christmas decorations and you'd fit in just fine. You started to think about your doubts regarding Mark's feelings about you and you decided to ask something that had been in your mind for a while.
"Mark?" you called his name, almost like a whisper.
"Yes [Y/N]? Is something wrong?" he asked smilling at you.
"No, I just wanted to ask you something..." you said avoiding his eyes.
"Then what are you wanting for?" he gave your hand a light squize.
"Did you actually tell everyone to come today?"
He stopped at your sudden question, clearly not expecting it. He didn't let go of your hand so you also stopped.
As you started to think maybe you shouldn't have asked, he gave out a small laugh.
"Well, seems I've been caught. You're right. I didn't ask anyone to come today. Do you want to know why?"
"Yeah, I suppose I do." Your heart started racing as your expectations started to rise.
"At first, I was actually thinking of invitng everyone, but then when you hugged me yesterday I started to think that maybe you felt about me the same way I feel about you." He stopped talking looking at you, probably searching for some kind of reaction.
You did your best to appear calm as you asked "And what might that be?"
He smiled, aparently relieved you didn't shut him down instantly.
Well, I guess I've liked you for some time now. Being with you feels so confortable, I don't have to worry about all the fuss that's always around when I'm with everyone. Even if they're all there. You always try to cheer me up if I'm down and you don't hang out with me just to be a part of the group. In fact I even think you don't exactly love the group." He chuckled at the end. "That's it, I thought it was about time I told you and what better way to say this than surrounded by the Christmas lights you love so much? So now it's your turn. Am I wrong to think you like me?"
You did your best to build coherent thoughts after what you had just heard. "No, you're not wrong, I've liked you for some time too. You have always been so nice to me, even if I'm not the most sociable person out there. And you always seem to find time for me when I need to talk to you and I really appreciate that. And I don't hate your friends, I'm just not a big fan of all the confusion that's usually around them." You didn't know what else to say, nor what to do, so you just looked down, averting Mark's gaze.
"[Y/N], look at me please." Mark lifted your chin up so you'd be facing him.
"I don't know what to do now." You suddently realized you had said that out loud.
"I don't exactly know either." Mark spoke with a gentle voice you were used to hear when he was trying to make you feel better. "But what do you say we find that out together?" He smiled expectantly at you.
"I'd like that very much." You said finally able to look him in the eyes for more than a split second.

After you don't know how much time looking at each other, Mark leaned in to kiss you and you happily met him half way. He wrapped his arms around your waist as you wrapped yours around his neck.
"See? It's not that hard to find what to do" He said while smiling at you and he kissed your forehead as he broke his embrace. You unwrapped your arms from his neck and he held your hand again.
"Now, let's go before we freeze here." He said while pulling you in the direction of his car.

You soon arrived to the spot where Mark had parked his car. He drove you home like he had said and when you arrived, he got off the car to open the door for you.
"Thank you" you gave him a small smile, since you were still a bit nervous because of what had happened.
"That's it?" Mark mockingly poutted. "Doesn't the nice boyfriend deserve a kiss?"
Your heart skipped a beat, hearing him say that but he had a point. You gave him a light kiss on the lips and repeated "Thank you. Better now?"
"Much better." He looked incredibly happier than just a moment ago. "Now go get some rest. I'll call you in the morning, okay?"
"Sure, you go rest too. And thank you for today." You kissed on the cheek and he took advantage of the closeness to embrace you again.
"There's nothing to thank me about. Good night [Y/N]." He said kissing you on the lips and then giving you a small kiss on the forehead before letting go.
"Good night Mark." You were the last one to let go, it felt as if you'd wake up from a dream if you let him go.
"All right, go inside before you catch a cold. We'll talk tomorrow."

As you got to bed, you still couldn't believe how lucky you were. Mark was with you now. And it all started with Christmas lights. You knew this Christmas would be special, now that you had someone to love that would love you back.

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Hi everyone.

I'm really sorry I took this long to update, but free time has been a rare thing. A bit late, but here's a Christmas themed story. Please feel free to tell me what you think about it and the other stories.
 

Thanks for reading :)