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Carmen sighed as she glanced around the base, which was currently decked out for the upcoming holiday. Christmas garland had been placed along the tops of the cabinets in the kitchen. Pinecones and red bows decorated the garland along with lights. On the counter, poinsettias were on display next to a bowl of peppermints and a pair of pine-scented candles.
Felt snow had been laid across the coffee table, where a box of ribbon candy rested. To the sides of the box were a pair of glass reindeer sculptures, which both had places for candles on their backs. In the corner of the living room was a nice looking tree that Zack and Ivy had decorated with an obvious theme in mind. Most of the ornaments were red, a gold one thrown in every so often to break up the red. Gold ribbons were wrapped around the tree to give it an elegant look, warm white lights accenting the colors well. Finally, there was a red star at the top designed and crafted by Ivy herself.
Even the gym of the building had been spruced up a tad for the holiday. Tinsel had been placed along the bars and handles of certain equipment, and a small, less formal tree had been put up in the corner of the gym as well.
Carmen’s grey eyes drifted to the shelf where her oldest possessions had been displayed and was surprised to see the shelf had been left alone, she smiled at that. She felt touched that, despite the siblings wanting to decorate everything in sight, they had refused to touch something that was hers.
“We are not doin’ that,'' Ivy stated in an annoyed tone, which drew the thief’s attention to their conversation. The younger sibling was hovering over the older who was currently attempting to untangle some lights, probably to put up in the windows, Carmen reasoned.
“Wha- why not,” Zack asked in a saddened tone.
“Because we never put that up,” Ivy explained while glaring at the item in her younger brother’s hand. “Why start now.”
“I dunno, maybe someone special will ya know stand under it with ya,” he suggested with a smirk.
“Ugh, c’mon Zack stop kiddin’ around,” she groaned, though Carmen could see blush creeping onto the older redhead’s cheeks. Carmen smiled at that. She couldn’t help it, Ivy was just too cute sometimes.
“Guys,” the red-themed thief finally called after deciding she best step in before this became a big fight. “What’s up? What are you two arguing about?”
“Nothin’ Carm,” Ivy lied while focusing back on the lights in her hands.
“Doesn’t sound like nothing to me,” the brunette commented as she crossed her arms.
“I want to put up mistletoe, that’s it,” Zack interjected before his sister could get a word in.
“I see,” Carmen nodded along. “And I’m going to guess Ivy doesn’t want you to put that up.”
“Yeah,” he affirmed.
“Okay, but why,” she inquired. “What’s the big deal? Isn’t it just another decoration?”
“Wait, Carm you don’t know,” the youngest of the three asked. Carmen shrugged in response. She didn’t really know all that much about Christmas, hell the only Christmas movies she’d seen were ‘Elf’ and ‘A Christmas Story’ thanks to Coach Brunt. A wave of familiar sadness washed over the thief as she thought back to Christmas with Brunt. Part of her wished she could go back to that time, all the happy memories she had, even if she had been ignorant of their true nature. But she quickly dashed those thoughts away as she returned to the present.
“Well, Mistletoe has this whole tradition surroundin’ it,” Zack stated.
“If ya stand under it with someone special ya gotta kiss that person,” Ivy confessed. “It’s used as a plot thing in like tons of Christmas movies.”
“Oh I see,” Carmen said softly, grey eyes flicking to Ivy as she processed the new information she had just received.
Truth be told, Carmen had developed a major crush on the engineer of her group. She knew Ivy was attractive, but she wasn’t expecting less platonic feelings to form for the strong redhead. Could you blame her though? Ivy was cute, strong, and extremely knowledgeable when it came to engineering. Carmen couldn’t count the times she found herself watching Ivy work, mesmerized by her teammate’s movements. Carmen shook those thoughts out of her head as she attempted to come back to reality. After composing herself, she asked, “so that’s why you don’t want to put it up Ivy?”
“Yeah, I don’t need a plant to tell me who I should kiss,” the elder sister stated while crossing her arms. ‘Why does she have to be so cute,’ Carmen thought as she watched the freckled woman.
“Aw c’mon sis, it’s just for fun anyway,” Zack argued.
“If not this year why not do it next year,” the brunette suggested with a smile. Ivy looked up at her for the first time since she entered the conversation and smiled.
“Yeah, alright, that sounds good ta me,” the older sibling agreed.
“Fine,” Zack sighed. “ But ya gotta put it up next year sis.” Ivy rolled her eyes but nodded softly.
The rest of the decorating went over rather smoothly, the only other spat the sibling had was whether they should make sugar or chocolate chip cookies for Christmas. They ended up making both anyway so it really didn’t matter all that much.
It was late now and team red had just finished dinner. Zack had decided to turn in early, mostly tired from all the early morning decorating. Shadow-san was currently in the gym meditating, which left Carmen and Ivy alone. The bostonian woman placed the dishes in the sink and was about to wash them when a certain thief strolled into the kitchen.
“Ivy,” Carmen said softly.
“Yeah Carm,” Ivy responded with a curious tone while she washed a plate.
“I was wondering if you’d want to watch a movie with me,” the brunette inquired.
“Oh yeah, sure Carm! What movie ya thinkin’,” the redhead asked.
“I’m not sure yet,” the red-themed woman admitted. “Truth be told I’ve only seen two Christmas movies. So I thought since you and Zack were so invested in this holiday you’d be the perfect person to ask.”
“Makes sense,” Ivy nodded. “Well let me ask you this Carm, what genre you into? Cause there are a lot of Christmas flicks.”
“Hmm, well how about,” Carmen paused for a moment, slightly nervous about her suggestion. “Romance.”
“Really,” Ivy asked with a small smirk. “Didn’t fancy you as a romance type of gal.”
“You’d be surprised. Romance wasn’t really a priority in my life,” Carmen confessed, eyes drifting to Ivy for a brief moment before continuing her thought. “But I guess I just started to long for it after a while.”
“Oh,” Ivy mumbled. “Well you’re in luck, there are tons of cheesy romance movies themed around Christmas.”
“Great,” the brunette giggled. They fell into a comfortable silence while Ivy worked. But a question had been nagging Carmen for a while so she decided to finally ask it. “Ivy, Why do you and Zack care about this holiday so much?”
She immediately felt as though she had asked something insensitive when the redhead stopped washing for a moment. She took a deep breath before continuing her chore then said in a gentle tone, “Dad loved Christmas.”
Carmen was shocked at that response, the Boston siblings rarely talked about their parents. She had only heard them mentioned briefly in conversations about certain topics, so to hear Ivy talk about her father outside of that was quite special.
“He would always decorate, and every Christmas we’d sit down with a bowl of popcorn and watch old movies,” the shorter woman recounted with a sad smile. “He used to say we were the best gifts he’d ever received.” Carmen smiled at that, “I see why it’s so special to you.”
“Hah Yeah,” Ivy nodded at that while wiping her hands clean. “Sorry to get emotional on ya.”
“Don’t be sorry Ivy,” Carmen assured with a bright smile. “I appreciate you sharing that with me. I know you don’t like talking about your past.”
“It’s not that, I just don’t like acknowledging that he’s,” Ivy paused while taking a deep breath. She sighed then said, “Anyways, back to movies. Any romance, in particular, you lean towards?” Carmen shook her head as she followed Ivy to the living room. She wasn’t too happy with how the redhead had changed subjects, but she wouldn’t push her. It was hard accepting loss, even if it happened long ago. “Alright,” the redhead stated before shrugging, “then I guess I’ll just somethin’ and hope for the best.”
Ivy began to scroll through movies she had downloaded on Carmen’s laptop, and eventually, she chose one that she thought Carmen might enjoy. The brunette sunk into the couch, patiently waiting for the bostonian woman to join her. Ivy hooked up the laptop to the tv rather quickly then took a seat next to Carmen who decided to pull the engineer closer, her head now resting on the taller woman’s shoulder. The thief couldn’t help smiling at the plot of the movie Ivy had chosen.
It was, of course, a heist movie. The story was simple, the thieves in this film were stealing a Christmas-themed necklace that would ‘make them rich’ in their own words. Something went wrong and they end up accidentally kidnapping the owner of said necklace. And predictably the owner of the necklace and the boss of the thieves fall for each other.
Carmen wasn’t all that impressed with the plot, but then the two leads found themselves under mistletoe. The brunette raised an eyebrow as they leaned in and kissed passionately under the decoration. The red-themed thief blushed at that, could she have done that with Ivy if they happen to stand under the mistletoe.
“See,” the bostonian woman in question interrupted Carmen’s thoughts as she spoke. “That’s what I was talkin’ about earlier.” The brunette nodded softly, gear turning in her head as she attempted to think of anything besides kissing her teammate. Unfortunately for Carmen that wasn’t going to be happening anytime soon.
The film ended with the leads having a Christmas wedding, which was to be expected. Ivy sat up slowly turning her attention to Carmen and asked, “how ya feelin’?”
“I’m good,” the red-themed woman said softly. “I wouldn’t mind watching another movie if that’s what you were going to ask.”
“Hah, you know me too well Carm,” the redhead grinned as she pulled herself off the couch. She began to scroll through the movies when Carmen sat beside her, blush crept onto the thief’s face but that didn’t deter her.
“Hey, Ive’s,” Camen purred with a small smirk.
“Yeah Carm,” Ivy asked as she browsed.
“Looks like we’ve found ourselves under a mistletoe,” Carmen explained.
“Wha-,” the freckled woman pulled her eyes away from the screen when she felt Carmen’s hand on her shoulder. The two women stared at each other for a moment both captivated by the other. The brunette was the one to move first, slowly closing her eyes as she leaned in allowed her lips to press against Ivy’s. The redhead tensed up briefly before relaxing into the kiss. She wrapped her strong arms around Carmen as she desperately tried to savor this moment.
When the two pulled away they were out of breath, Ivy smiled softly as she stared into Carmen’s glittering grey eyes. “Wow,” was all Ivy could mutter as blush spread across her face.
“Yeah, wow,” the brunette agreed with a smile. The two continued to stare into the other’s eyes before a look of realization crossed Ivy’s face.
“Wait, but we didn’t put up mistletoe,” the redhead thought allowed.
“Is that so,” Carmen teased as she pulled Ivy closer.
“Y-you just wanted ta kiss me,” the engineer stuttered in shock as heat rose to her cheeks.
“You caught me,” the brunette chuckled.
“R-really? You’re not pullin’ my leg,'' Ivy asked, genuinely touched by the notion of Carmen wanting to kiss her.
“I’m being serious Ivy,” Carmen confessed. “The truth is, I’ve been head over heels for you for a while, I was just never brave enough to act on it...Well, until now.”
“C-Carm, I dunno what ta say,” the redhead gasped. “I-I’ve been into ya too.”
“You have no idea how happy I am to hear that,” the thief sighed happily.
“I dunno, I think I might know where you’re comin’ from,'' Ivy admitted. “So, uh, can we maybe try the kiss again? Ya know since it was under the guise of bein’ a mistletoe kiss.” Carmen chuckled happily at Ivy’s request, then leaned down, allowing her lips to once again press against the redhead’s soft lips.
The two once again pulled away after needing air and just gazed into each other’s eyes. The two eventually found themselves on the couch, a random Christmas movie playing on the tv as they cuddled.
All Carmen could think at that moment was that she had received the best gift ever as Ivy pulled her close.