‘Best thing to wake up to.’

Mike smiled down at the picture he uploaded onto instagram before looking up at the real thing. Taylah was still asleep after spending the night celebrating his birthday and he loved her the way she was the most; naked. She was lying on her stomach, covers pooling at her waist with her right leg hitched up and peeking out from the covers, one arm tucked under her pillow and the other was stretched out towards him.

He couldn’t think of a better ‘the day after’ morning. Even with the headache and fuzziness that currently took up residence in his mouth. Of course, any day that he can wake up next to the beautiful ginger was bound to be a good morning.

“Babe, quit starring and cuddle me.”

Mike blinked as he zoned back into reality to see Taylah had shifted slightly so she could actually see and patted the mattress, indicating where she wanted him.

“Come on, I want my pillow back but you’re over there.”

Shaking his head in amusement Mike crawled back up the bed and flopped onto his stomach beside Taylah, humming contentedly as she shifted to rest her cheek on his shoulder blade as her arm snaked around his ribs.

“Love you,” she murmured before pressing a soft kiss to his skin.

“Love you too,” Mike whispered as he rolled over so she was on his chest, his hand covering hers where it lay on his chest.

---

Taylah bounced on the balls of her feet in her spot beside all of the drivers at the airport as she held the cardboard sign which read “Briefcase Wanker.” She was beyond excited, her brother was finally coming to visit and hang out with her for two weeks! Grinning happily she decided to fuck everything and actually began to bounce in place, white Bart Simpson covered dress bouncing with her as she tried to release her access energy.

Danny watched his sister as she bounced for a minute before stopping and began rocking back and forth, head nodding ever so slightly as she hummed along to the music which was blasting through her head phones. He knew it was a bad idea to let her wait with the sign. Hell, he knew it was a bad idea for her to write the sign. The amount of people who had frowned at her was unbelievable; but then again she was wearing the Fists Of Fury denim vest Horizon had made for everyone along with her skeleton tights and DMs.

The sound of her squealing brought Danny back into the land of the living and he noted that Cole was walking over to them with a tired smile as he adjusted his denim jacket.

“Hey, baby girl,” he said as he pulled her into a tight hug, Taylah’s arms wrapping themselves tightly around his waist as she buried her head into his chest happily inhaling the long missed and loved smell he had. When he pulled back he pressed a kiss to her forehead before turning to Danny and pulled him in an equally tight hug. “God I missed you,” Cole whispered as he pulled Danny even closer.

“I missed you too, big bro,” Danny whispered back as he tucked his head into his brother’s shoulder for a moment before pulling back. “Let’s get your shit and get out of here. Taylah has a feast waiting for you.”

Cole smiled as he hooked his arm around his sister’s shoulders, drawing her into his side as they walked over to the baggage claim, Taylah’s arm wrapping around his hips automatically. “I can’t wait to try it. I’m sure it’ll be fabulous, you’re cooking always is.”

---

“Yeah, Christmas!” Taylah shouted as she ran down the stairs dressed in her black one piece bathers that had were her ribs and hips would be on the front, one of her many presents she received on her birthday. Her blue Hawaiian shirt fluttered behind her as she ran, trying to roll up the sleeves as she went.

“Wait up! I want to go just as much as you,” Cole called as he followed his sister down the stairs of the beach entrance, both launching themselves into the semi wet sand to start on a sandman while Danny came down the stairs at a more sedate pace, calmly setting their towels and beach bag down on the soft white sand. Straightening up, he breathed in deep and held it for a moment before he grinned and ran over to help his siblings build a sandman.

“He’s perfect,” Taylah said happily as she placed the Santa hat over the Sandrew the Sandman.
Cole smiled at the lopsided monstrosity that lay before them. “We did good guys.”

“Dude, he doesn’t even have arms,” Danny said with a slight whine. Taylah jumped up and began running down the beach causing Danny and Cole to shoot each other a confused look before she returned with two stray sticks that had washed up on the sand.

“Voila! Arms!” she cheered before carefully sticking them into the sandman’s side. Side, as in singular, because their sandman was retarded. It had one eye, a crazy smile, horns, sea shell buttons and apparently two arms on his left side.

“You’re something else, T,” Cole said in amusement as his sister grabbed her phone and snapped a picture of their creation.

“Get behind him, I wanna take a picture of you two,” she said with a grin, waving her arm until the two brothers moved to stand on either side of the sandman. Taking the picture, Taylah quickly uploaded it onto her instagram.

‘Merry Christmas guys, from me, Cole, Danny and Sandrew the Sandman. Don’t judge him, he’s a beautiful person.”

---

Danny wiped away Taylah’s tears as the end titles of the Boxing Day Doctor Who special filtered over the screen. He could understand why she was crying, I mean, come on! Eleventh saw Amy! The first and last face he’d ever see.

That would tear anyone up. He was certainly crying and he spotted Cole and Horizon subtly wiping tears off of their cheeks also.

“They, k-k-keep doing t-this to me. Why? Can’t we have a nice and easy DW episode for o-o-once?” Taylah asked as she leaned forward to press her head into Danny’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry, next year will be better. Just think of it this way, Sherlock starts up in January. God knows how long you’ve waited for that,” Cole said as he stood from his spot on the floor to sit on his sister’s other side to rub her back soothingly.

Taylah pulled away from Danny to smile up at Cole. “That’s true.” Cole wiped the rest of her tears away as she spoke. “But seriously, did you guys see Matt and Karen’s wigs? There is so going to be hilarious pictures on tumblr after this.”

Horizon laughed as she nodded. “You know it, buddy.”

---

They were back at the beach again except this time all of their friends surrounded them as they waited for the fireworks and no one had their phones with them; it was going to be a night with just them. New Year’s Day was in less than two minutes and the entire beach was buzzing with noise. Most of it raucous laughter from the people who were drunk or on their way to being drunk.

Cole and Danny were playing tag down by the water, running past random people and tapping them on the arm with a cry of “YOU’RE IT!” before running off, the person they’d tagged running after them as they laughed.

Arms wrapped themselves around the slim waist which belonged to Taylah causing her to smile and lean back. Mike smiled down at her, lowering his head to press a light kiss at the juncture of her shoulder.

“What are you going to do in the New Year, Latté?” Mike asked softly as he raised his head to watch as his brother was tagged by Tony who had joined in on the growing game of tag.

“Not too sure,” Taylah murmured as she leaned her head back against his chest. “I think there’s a couple of tours coming up that requested my presence but I think the guys want to make a new album so we might do that. Other than that, I plan on spending a lot of time with someone in particular.”

Hearing that Taylah would be staying home with her band to write for their new album instead of going out to take pictures was news to him. Smiling at the idea of spending more time with his girl, Mike decided to play along with her. “And who is this someone special?”

Taylah turned to look up him with a surprised look. “You don’t know? Wow, me and Vic have been going steady for like, a day.” Upon seeing his shocked and mock hurt expression she smiled and went up on her toes to kiss jaw. “I’m kidding, Whiskey. You’re the only man for man.”

“Damn straight I am, bitch. And don’t you forget it.”

“Never,” Taylah said as she turned back, resuming her relaxed position against his chest just as people began chanting the countdown to one.

“I can’t wait to spend the year with you by my side,” Mike said as he slid his arms from around her waist to grab her hips and turn her to face him.

“You’d have to pry me away from you with a wrench,” Taylah said confidently just as everyone reached one.

“For luck?” Mike whispered as he leaned down towards her.

“For luck,” Taylah agreed, stretching up to meet his lips halfway. Unfortunately their kiss was cut short as Jaime ran up to them and grabbed her around the waist, carrying her down to the water where he threw her into the shin deep water.

Mike laughed as Taylah stood up completely drenched before she began running after Jaime. His friends were ridiculous and his girlfriend hadn’t aged in maturity since she was ten but that’s why he loved them. Taylah and Jaime ran up to him and grabbed an arm each.

“You’re looking a little over heated, Mike, I think you need to cool off,” Jaime said with a grin as the two began tugging him towards the water.

“Nothin’ like a cool dip to refresh the senses,” Taylah agreed happily as they successfully pulled the struggling giraffe into the ocean, unknowingly starting a splash water which the others soon joined in on.

Mike laughed as he grabbed Taylah around the waist as a wave came, hitting them in their sides. Smiling as she pushed her hair out of her face, Taylah jumped so that Mike was holding her thighs as her legs wrapped around his waist.

“I love you,” Taylah said as she pushed his hair of Mike’s face, hands sliding down to cup either
side of his neck as he smiled back at her.

“I love you too,” Mike pressed a kissed to her lips before resting his forehead to hers.

Of course, the moment was ruined a minute later when a wave dunked them but hey, at least they had their moment.

Notes

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope all things good come your way and that you have a fabulous year! It's currently 1:59AM here on the Gold Coast, Australia and I thought, what better way to start the year than with an update on my story?

Of course, I think I went a little out of hand and mooshed multiple events together and possibly inadvertently finished the story. Oops. I totally didn't mean to but I'm thinking I might leave it here and possibly write a sequel. Thing is, I also plan on writing an Of Mice fanfic and maybe another Tony one, so we'll see how this goes.

Also, to any Whovians out there who read this story and didn't get to catch the Doctor Who special, sorry for the spoilers.