How I Met Your Mother

29 - I did it to myself

natalie

"Good morning niece."

"Good morning uncle. Teddy." I sat at the breakfast table, stealing a piece of Marshall's toast, "How come there was no mention of Julia at Thanksgiving?"

"We were waiting till it got more serious." He shrugged, not looking up from his newspaper, "You know, Kidd asked me to bring her to his wedding." He set the paper down, "He's getting married."

"Crazy right?" Mom came into the room and kissed the top of my head then Teddys before looking over at her brother, "Morning Marshall."

"Morning Maggie."

"I think it's funny how your names both start with M." Teddy leaned his chair back off the floor before putting it right back down as Grandpa walked into the room.

"Here I was thinking I was the early bird." He poured himself a cup of coffee.

"It's 10 am Dad." Dad yelled from the couch.

"Is everyone else still asleep?" Grandpa looked around the room as he sat at the table next to Ted.

"Not for much longer." Mom put her hands on my shoulders before pulling my collar to the side a bit, "Natalie Rose Matthews."

Shit.

"What?" I looked up at her, playing innocent like I always do.

Marshall looked at my collar, "Oh yeah Nat took a nasty fall yesterday. Got a small warrior wound from it. I got one too." He stood up and lifted his shirt up, revealing a long bruise that he did actually get yesterday, "Branch took me out when Teddy came hurtling down the slope."

Mom eyed us for a moment, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Must've slipped my mind." Marshall shrugged.

We all sat around talking for a few more minutes before Julia, Jackson, and eventually Mackenzie came into the room.

"Holy hell. It snowed so much last night." Teddy looked out the window, "We should go outside."

"It's freezing?" Mackenzie raised her eyebrows at him.

I smiled, "I am going outside."

Soon enough, all the kids were outside. Teddy and Jackson were having a contest of who could build the biggest fort. Which is easy to do because we got a whole 13 inches last night.

Mac and I are sitting on the steps sipping on hot chocolate. We haven't really spoken this morning. It's not awkward though. I like it. Being able to sit with someone in a comfortable silence.

"Your grandpa is nice. He was telling me about your grandma for a bit." She laid her head on my shoulder, "She seemed so wonderful."

"I don't really remember how she was. She died when I was 8."

"Loss is tough."

I interlaced our fingers. Our hands were covered by gloves but the heat radiating between us was still there. And I love it.

She lights a spark in me with every little touch.

"You snore. Did you know that?" I took a sip of my hot chocolate without looking at her.

"I do not."

"You do. So loud. It almost kept me awake."

She grumbled and stood up, setting her mug down next to us.

"What are you doing?" I watched her as she made her way to Teddy's pile of premade snowballs he planned on invading Jackson's igloo with. It's not much of an igloo as it is a pile of snow.