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Wendy waited anxiously for the doorbell to ring as she put the finishing touches on her make up. The town Christmas market was one of her favourite parts of the holiday season. Vendors from all over came to sell homemade gifts. Candles, jewellery, baubles, leather bound notebooks, and a million other wonderful things that seemed to come straight from Santa’s workshop itself. And then there was the food. Roasted chestnuts, hot chocolate, homemade waffles, ginger bread, and mulled cider. Her mouth was watering just thinking about it all. There was so much too look forward too, if only Peter would get there. She had managed to convince him to go to the market with her. He found the whole thing obnoxiously cheery, but she thought it would be fun to go for their first Christmas as a couple. Some batted eyelashes and a puppy dog face was all it took to get him to begrudgingly agree to go, though he still claimed he wouldn’t enjoy it a bit. Yet, she was determined to get him to have fun and so she turned on the charm the minute she heard the doorbell ring.
“Merry Christmas!” she said as she opened the door.
“Hey” he said as he walked inside.
“Wait, before you go any further look up.”
“Why have you hung a plant from your ceiling?”
“It’s called mistletoe, and since we’re standing under it you have to kiss me. It’s a Christmas tradition.”
He raised an eyebrow at her. “Well I’m not much of a fan of these Christmas traditions you keep trying to force me into, but that one doesn’t sound so bad.”
Before she got the chance to respond Peter had grabbed her by the waist and pulled her in for a kiss. He could be a pain in the ass, but every time they kissed she was reminded of why she was dating him. It was sort of magic. Even in the middle of winter those kisses were all she needed to keep herself warm.
“Ready to go?” She asked breathlessly as they broke their kiss.
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay here and continue this mistletoe thing?”
“Peter, you promised.”
“All right.” He grumbled. “Grab your coat and I’ll drive you to this Christmas market you keep going on about.”
The sight of the twinkling lights and small wooden stalls as they pulled into the Christmas Market was enough to make Wendy practically jump out of the car. It looked just like the front of a Christmas card. There were even couples skating together on the ice rink they had set up just for the market. Of course, Peter did not share her excitement at all. He kept grumbling something under his breath as they got out of the car. It was starting to get on her nerves. Couldn’t he at least pretend to be happy when he knew how much she was looking forward to this?
“So where do you want to go first?” she asked him.
“I don’t know.” He shrugged “I don’t really care.”
“Can you please try to be interested?”
“I’ve never been into Christmas and I’m not about to change that.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “Well let’s start with the shops. I plan on doing a lot of my Christmas shopping here.”
“Whatever.”
The pair browsed the stalls together, Wendy forcing Peter to stop every so often so she could marvel at and possibly buy the items sold there. Soon she had found gifts for almost everyone on her list. There were charm bracelets for Tiger Lily and Tinker Bell, a mug for Baelfire, a tie for her father, a candle for her mother, a notebook for John, and a toy soldier for Michael. The only person left on her list was Peter, and at this point she wasn’t even sure what she would get him, he didn’t seem to enjoy anything. She kept trying to catch his eye with items, but he remained incredibly disinterested. He didn’t buy a single gift for anyone else while they were there either.
“Why don’t you buy one of these nice leather wallets for Felix?” she said to him at one stall.
“Why would I do that?”
“Because he’s your friend and he would like it. Don’t you two exchange gifts?’
“No” he laughed at her. “Why would we do that? He’s no more interested in Christmas than I am.”
“Is exchanging Christmas gifts not ‘manly’ enough for you and your crew?” She rolled her eyes at him. “Well that’s a shame I’m sure you guys could have a lovely Secret Santa if you wanted. You could exchange bottles of whisky or something.”
Peter just rolled his eyes and shook his head at her before pulling her further along the line of stalls. Clearly shopping for Christmas gifts was not going to get Peter into the holiday spirit. Maybe food would be a better way to win him over. Like most boys, Peter loved to eat all the time, and there was no shortage of holiday goodies being sold at the market. She would entice him with one of those.
“Oh look!” she pointed to one of the stalls. “Fresh baked gingerbread! Let’s go get some.”
“All right, if you want.” He shrugged as she pulled him along.
“One bag of gingerbread please.” She said to the man at the counter.
He packed up a bag of cookies and then handed them over to her while she counted out her money. They smelled amazing, spicy and sweet running counterpoint to each other, and she could feel the warmth leaking out of the bag into her hands. These just had to get Peter interested in the market. She took out a cookie and took a big bite, trying her hardest to entice him.
“Mmmm these are sooo good.” She exagereated. “Do you want one?”
“No, gingerbread is disgusting.”
“Is there anything you like about this holiday?”
“I already told you, no. It’s a dumb holiday, I can’t understand why you get so wrapped up in it.”
“Can you at least try? For me? I am you’re girlfriend after all, it might be nice if you did something for me for once. I think I deserve that much.”
“I’m here aren’t I? What more do you want from me?”
“I don’t know, maybe for you to try to enjoy things with me? Instead of walking around like a zombie and grumbling every time I try to get you to do anything.”
“Fine. Whatever. I’ll try. What do you want to do now?”
“Good. How about we go rent skates and try out the ice rink they have here?”
“No. I wouldn’t be caught dead on ice skates. You can go do it by yourself.”
“Honestly Peter, what I did I just ask you to do? If you can’t even do little things like this for me then maybe we shouldn’t be dating.”
She ran off without waiting to hear his answer. He wouldn’t get to see her cry. Would it have killed him to give this a chance? To make her happy? Maybe it was a stupid thing for her too lose her temper over, but she was sick of it. The one thing she wanted for Christmas was for him to celebrate with her, and he couldn’t even do that. She plopped down on a bench by the ice rink well out of his sight. Watching all of those couples holding hands and skating side by side would only put her in a worse mood, but she didn’t care, she wanted to mope. Christmas was her favourite time of year and he hated it. He hated everything she liked and she wasn’t going to deal with that anymore.
She sat there for what felt like ages, shivering as her tears started to freeze to her face. Then she noticed the sweet scent of apples wafting over to her. She looked up to see Peter awkwardly standing next to her bench with a styrofoam cup in his hands.
“Mind if I sit down?” he asked sheepishly.
She didn’t answer. He took that as a yes and sat on the bench next to her.
“It’s cold. I thought you’d like some cider”
He offered her the cup. She didn’t want to forgive him, but her hands were starting to tingle, so she took the cup from him, if only to warm up.
“I’m sorry.”
“Those are just words. They don’t mean anything. ” She finally said.
“I know.”
They sat in silence for a while. Wendy refused to look at him, instead her eyes followed the swirling patterns made by the skaters on the ice.
“I really am sorry.” He broke the silence. “I should have tried harder to get into this, for you. It’s just well… my parents were never really into the whole celebrating Christmas thing… you know.”
“Oh.”
A little bit of guilt hit her as she looked him eyes for the first time since their fight. There was so much pain there when he spoke about his parents. She knew he had a rough childhood, though he hadn’t been able to give her the details yet. He would in time, but for now she was trying to be as understanding as she could. She grabbed his hand and squeezed it tight, a silent sign that she was no longer angry at him.
“I’m sorry.” She said, rousing him from his thoughts. “I shouldn’t have pushed you so hard. I should’ve realized there was a reason for the way you were acting.”
“No, it’s my fault. I owed it to you to give this thing a chance. I was just being stubborn.”
“Well, we both screwed up.” She sighed. “Not the first time that’s happened.”
“Oh” He let go of her hand to fumble in his pockets. “I know it’s early, but I want to give you your Christmas present now.”
“I didn’t think you were planning to buy me anything.”
“I wasn’t… but after you ran off I saw this… and I wanted to give it to you.”
He handed her a small black box covered in soft velvet. She opened it to reveal a necklace with a small silver bird on it. It was gorgeous, shining brightly in the Christmas lights that surrounded them. Every little feather was delicately carved in detail on its wings, it looked like it was ready to come out of the box and take flight at any minute.
“It’s beautiful, thank you.” She said, truly meaning it.
“I’ve always said you reminded me of a bird so...”
“I love it.” She gave him a quick kiss to show her gratitude. “Will you help me put it on?”
He took the delicate chain and wrapped it around her neck, his gloved hands fumbling for a few seconds with the clasp. She didn’t mind though, his arms were warm and she wanted them around her for as long as possible. Eventually he got the clasp to work and reluctantly took his arms away.
“So do you want to go ice skating now?” he asked.
“Really? You’ll do it? I thought you didn’t want to look dumb?”
“No, I said skating was dumb, I could never look dumb, even on skates. I’ll be a natural at it I’m sure.”
“If you say so.” She rolled her eyes at him. “Let’s go find out.”
She grabbed his hand and pulled him up from the bench towards the skating rink. She knew their first Christmas together as a couple wasn’t going to be perfect, they were both a bit too stubborn for that, but they would find a way to make it work. She would just have to try extra hard not to laugh at him the first time he fell flat on his face on the ice.