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It was christmas season again. Caine had been making sure you remembered that for every single day throughout the month.
Who knew an AI could be so passionate about a holiday? It was honestly kind of endearing to see him making all these little winter and christmas themed adventures for you. Sure, it had been similar to the ones you did every year but that didn't mean you didn't enjoy it any less.
The whole cast cheered up a little at this time of year. Ragatha seemed to be the most enthusastic about the season though. Each morning you entered the main area, she was putting up new decorations around the circus. Where was this girl getting these from? Like seriously, it was getting a little crammed. Good thing the holiday had a deadline.
Welp, at least it was pretty.
Today was the big day. You were so excited. Not necessarily because of the celebration itself, but rather because this year would be the first you got to celebrate it with Zooble as your actual partner.
You had been daydreaming about this ever since you got together.
That was a lie, you had been since you realized you had fallen for them, actually. And this time you would do it for real.
It was a shame they weren't particularly as excited for the holiday as you. But they saw the way your eyes lit up everytime they agreed to do something christmas-y together, so it was worth it.
I mean hey, they actually started to slowly get the hang of it the more they did those with you. It just had a different feel with you, they figured.
Everything since you told them you loved them back had, when they thought about it.
Christmas was the celebration of love after all...
-and one huge capitalistic scam- but initially it was a celebration of love.
You were chatting with Ragatha in the couch area when you felt two mismatched arms wrap around you from behind the couch.
"Morning Zooble." You looked up to meet the heaviest looking eyelids in the entire circus, returning a barely comprehensible "Mornin'." with a voice the screamed 'I just fell out of bed and I'm not happy about it'.
You loved their morning grouch attitude, it always made you smile in a way you were convinced nothing else could.
"Hey, you're wearing your christmas sweater. Without Ragatha needing to hold a gun to your head? What's gotten into you?" You joked as you noticed the hand-made, quilt-patterned sweater with it's rich, deep green and cyan color palette, that went amazing with Zooble's pink polygon head.
Ragatha really had a knack for stuff like this. She had made one for everyone. Even Caine and Bubble. Though Bubble was a difficult candidate when it came to wearing clothes.
Nonetheless, they all looked adorable!
"What?! I would never! Zooble, of course you don't have to wear the sweater if you don't like it! I'm so sorry I came off that way, I really didn't mean to-"
"-Rags." You chuckled. "I was just joking around. Don't worry. I think Zooble's actually taken a liking to it. I mean, at least I think he looks amazing in it."
You caught the soft blush that appeared on his face.
He placed his elbows firmly on the back of the couch to comfortably lean over it and rest his head on top of yours. It had become sort of a habit for you two whenever you were in the couch area together.
"Yeah, I'm warming up to it." You felt the calming vibrations coming from his soundbox as he spoke.
Ragatha and you continued your casual banter while Zooble mindlessly traced their thumb over your hands in a back and forth motion.
Despite their normally stand-offish and grumpy demeanor, you had discovered they seeked touch whenever they could get it from you. Mostly when you were alone with them or with people they trusted enough though. You both weren't really fans of PDA.
But when you were alone, that always changed the second the door closed. When you were having sleepovers in eachother's rooms, which was almost every day, they were all over you. And who were you to complain?
You would put your heads on eachother's chest or stomach, spoon eachother, you would nestle between their legs and lean back against the most comfortable pillow you had the priviledge to call your partner, or they would just bury you under their body when the contact still didn't feel like enough.
Slowly the others came rolling in; everyone in their chistmas sweaters. She wouldn't let it show too much but you could see it in her eyes how much joy Ragatha experienced when she noticed it.
Everyone was in a good mood today.
After Caine gave his annual christmas speech, you were already thrown into the with fir branches and red bows decorated portal that led to a literal winter wonderland.
"Da#@, Caine really outdid himself with this one." You twirled around to take in the tall pine trees, covered in a thick layer of snow, showing the dancing sunlight in its reflection and the christmas lights that were strung between them. Zooble watched your eyes sparkle more with every flying second.
"Look at this place!" You flopped down backwards into the snow and started making a snow angel. You were glad Caine had included winter outdoor clothing for you in those adventures.
Pomni joined in, making Ragatha laugh. "Look at you two!"
She gave a content sigh. "We don't have all too many peaceful moments like these..."
Something cold and glittering white suddenly hit you right in your face. "Snowball fight!" The purple culprit called out.
"Hey! No fair!" You whiped the snow off your face and jumped back to your feet, already collecting a hand full of snow and forming it into an unrealisticly perfect round ball, hitting Jax in his crotch area.
"Hey, nice shot." Zooble sent a grin your way.
Jax folded over, as if in pain. "You don't have balls in here, quit whining!" You said while simultaneously scooping up new snow for your next attack.
A few moments later the whole cast was engaging in the fight. And it was actually kind of fun. You felt like a little kid in the real world.
You teamed up with Zooble, hiding behind and also on top of the thick pines, getting at the others through ambush.
On top of the tree you saw Gangle shoveling a bit more snow than normal into her thin ribbon hands to make a snowball. When she lifted it for the throw, her smile growing by the second, she lost her balance in consequence of the extra weight in her hand and tipped over. Stumbling and falling down a pretty steep looking hill at the end of the forest clearing you had claimed as your battle grounds.
"Oh sh!%, Gangle, watch out!"
But the poor girl was already sliding down the hill, her paper thin hands doing little to stop her increasingly fast descent.
"Quick! To the conveniently placed sleighs over there!" Kinger commanded in an unexpected heroic tone.
You all looked to the left where kinger had pointed to.
Damn, there really were sleighs at the end of the clearing.
You confidently jumped out of the tree, Zooble catching you at the foot of it with a practiced manner.
You had to admit, her and you had always been a stupidly good team. You guys had had some really ugly fights in the past, but it had always worked out in the end.
Still, you tried to push those memories as far as you could into the dustiest corner of your brain and not think about them too much. Especially today you shouldn't. It was christmas, for fucks sake.
But had she really fully forgiven you yet?
You had talked it out, of course, but did that make up for it?
Were you sure you had talked about everything?
Or did she just pretend it was okay to not make it uncomfortable again?
The cold wind hitting your face stopped the high-speed rail train of thought as you cut through the winter air with the sleigh. Your partner clutching you against their chest as you minimized the gap between the mess of red ribbon infront of you.
Having snapped out of it, you quickly put out your right leg into the snow, steering the sleigh to the side to not run Gangle over. Zooble reached out their hands and scooped her up. "Gotcha!"
But the celebratory moment only lasted a few seconds, because when you directed your eyes to where you were actually headed, you knew it was already to late to try and stop the sleigh now.
"Oh, you've got to be shi%#!&@ me." You heard it coming from behind you as you approched the cliff at light speed.
You shot off the snow covered ramp and felt the cartoonishly long period of weightlessness.
One second- , idea...
"Don't look down! Cartoon logics!" You called out.
"If we don't look down we won't-"
You were interrupted by a huge shadow developing over your heads. A ridiculously large snowball with Kinger, Jax, Ragatha, and Pomni's head sticking out of it crashed down onto you, taking you down with them. It had devoloped when Kinger had fallen off his sleigh, continuing to roll downhill as he picked up on speed and also forming into a snowball that grew in mass as it caught on to the others that were in its path.
Now too encased into the semi-humanoid snowslide, you were all screaming in unison as the ground got closer and closer.
Smashing down on the ground, the snowball collapsed and you were all strewn about. Slowly you pealed your face off the ground and held your head.
"...Everyone okay?" Ragatha asked next to you as you all slowly stood up again.
First thing you did was rush over to your lover's head laying on the ground.
"Bad time to ask about any missing limbs...?" You picked him up.
Zooble looked at you with a dissapointed reaction.
"Yeah, I admit, that wasn't exactly it." You rolled your eyes at your own pun.
"Let's go find the rest of you."
You guys played a bit more in the snow. Pomni, Jax, Ragatha and Kinger starting another snowball fight while Gangle, Zooble and you tried to buil a snowman.
'Tried' because well let's just say Jax didn't exactly respect that you weren't taking part in the fight anymore.
You still managed to create a pretty decent snowman in the end though. The guy wasn't necessarily the prettiest girl at the party but it was the inside that mattered more anyways, right?
During the snowball fight, Ragatha had stumbled into a small nearby pond, the freezing water soaked up by her clothes, only attracting more cold. The three of you decided to quickly bring the poor girl to the warmly lit hut a few meters away, while pomni, Kinger and Jax said they'd stay outside for a bit longer. Kinger explained he had to defend Ragatha's honor. "This is war!" He declared.
You chuckled at his dramatics as you put your jacket over the doll's shoulders to keep her at least a little bit warmer until you reached the house.
The sign on the door read "For my little sugarcane candy chamelons!". Yep, this hut was for you guys.
"Ooohh, fancy!" You said as you entered; warm air greeting your arrival. That hut was bigger than it had looked outside.
There was an old, but still very much functional fireplace in the living room, the windows were accompanied by thick, heavy curtains hanging by their side, warmly coloured rugs on the floor, a wooden staicase adorned with fir branches on it's railing, a big comfy wing chair in the corner next to an equally as comfortable looking broad couch with lots of pillows and a bunch of candles strewn around the house that would give you anxiety in the real world, since the place was pretty much completely made of wood.
But since you didn't really have to worry about that in here, the candles only added to the homey feeling that settled inside your chest when you entered the house further.
Yeah, there was close to nothing that could make you leave this hut earlier than you needed to.
This place looked amazing. Even Zooble was a little impressed by the interior design.
"Alright, how's about we get you to the fireplace, huh?"
The shivering Ragatha nodded in response.
"I think I'll make us some hot chocolate. That'll warm you up." You sat the ragdoll down on the couch infront of the fire that had lit itself when you had entered the living room. "Gangle, would you help her out of these wet clothes?"
"Uh huh." She smiled and walked over to where she was sat.
"Oh, and Zooble, could you check the upstairs for blankets we could use?" You turned to them again while trying to guess the way to the kitchen. They were leaning on the doorframe to the living room, an almost dreamy look on their face as they watched you adjust one of the pillows Ragatha was leaning on in that considerate manner you so often showed the others here.They couldn't help but admire it every single time.
"Sure thing." They placed a kiss on your forehead and dissapeared up the stairs.
Ragatha covered her mouth as she chuckled quietly.
"What's so funny?" You asked with a slightly confused grin.
"Nothing, I just think you two are the cutest thing there is. It still always catches me a bit off guard when they go soft like that, they never really did that before you joined, you know."
You laughed "Well, it did take a good amount of willpower to get through to that stubborn head- "
"I heard that!"
The three of you giggled and continued a little quieter. "Ragatha's right." Gangle chimed in. "Seeing you guys together, it does something to me."
You smiled "Thanks guys. That's so sweet of you."
A little later, just as you finished making the hot chocolate, there was knocking on the door. You opened it to find Kinger covered in snow from head to toe with the other two sheepishly standing next to him. It had gotten dark out by now.
"Gee, what did those two do to you Kinger?" You tried to keep your laughter as modest as possible infront of the chesspiece-snowman entering the hut.
You gathered around the fireplace and slurped on the hot beverage, conversation flowing easily as the fire popped and spit, providing a soothing acoustic ambience for the room as well.
Taking another sip from your mug, you took a look at the chistmas tree in the corner.
"Hey this guy's a bit blank, don't you think?"
Gangle lowered her cup. "Huh, yeah. It doesn't have any ornaments. Just the lights."
"Maybe we're supposed to finish decorating it."
"This place does have an attic. Maybe the ornaments are hidden up there." Zooble said.
You rested your head on your arm. "Yeah, maybe." You glanced at your partner. "You wanna go check?"
With that you two made your way upstairs.
Zooble pulled the ladder down from the ceiling, opening the hatch along with it.
"Man, I never really went up an attic before, I just realized." You thought aloud as Zooble put the ladder down to reach the floor.
"That thing looks unsafe, not gonna lie." You crossed your arms with a nervous smile.
"No way I'm looking for those ornaments alone up there." Your partner turned to you again.
"Who knows how big that attic of this big a$& house is." He argued.
You up-and-downed the ladder, before sending him another disapproving look.
"Oh, come on." He tossed his head as he put a hand on his hip. "A few hours ago we were climbing up pine trees in a forest and racing down snowhills on a crappy wooden sleigh and now you want to tell me your too scared to go up a ladder?" He snickered with a raised eyebrow.
You looked to the side as the self-conscious smile tugged at your lips. "Alright, you win." You rolled your eyes. "But you're going first."
After rummaging through the attic for a bit, you found what you were looking for in a big cardboard box in a corner.
There was a pretty good variety of ornaments in all kinds of colours, shapes, and sizes adorned with delicate golden details and hooks at the top. Your face lit up as you twirled them around in your hand, anticipation for hanging them in the tree growing rapidly.
Despite your attempts of protest, Zooble insisted she'd carry the heavy cardboard box downstairs.
Probably the better choice anyways, your legs were shaking while descending the ladder even without that box in your hands.
Downstairs again, you encountered the girls and kinger plundering through the kitchen.
"Oh, you making cookies?"
"Uh huh!" Gangle nodded enthusasticly.
"Alright then, we'll be by the tree." You pointed at Zooble with the box in her hands and made your way back to the living room.
Zooble put down the box with a groan and stretched briefly. You stopped next to them to peck their cheek.
"Thanks, honey." You turned to the box, fishing for your first ornament. Their antennae perked up.
"New pet name?"
"Yeah, you like it?" You directed your eyes up to them again as you crouched by the box.
"Reminds me of an old married couple a bit but uh... I'm not hating it." They shrugged.
You snickered. "You're right. I'm not completely averse to that idea either."
They blushed at your indication and their smile softened.
Zooble put their arms loosely around your stomach while you hanged the ornaments on the branches.
"You can be so fu€#!%& needy sometimes, you know that?" You joked when they layed their head on one of your shoulders and just watched your hands work for a bit. It was a bit of a handicap when you wanted to decorate a christmas tree but how could you possibly get mad at their face. Especially when it was resting on your shoulder all cute like that?
After working "together" like that a few more minutes, Zooble suddenly let go with a mildly annoyed huff. Confused you looked up and quickly found what caused them to let go off you. Kinger had entered the living room now. You snickered when you glanced back at Zooble's displeased expression.
"How's the decorating going?" Kinger asked as he came closer.
"It's going great! I think I'll have it finished in a few minutes." You proudly eyed the work you had done so far, hands on your hips. "You wanna lend a hand?"
"Oh, sure!" He lit up. "But you gotta tell me where and which ornament I should place. I'm not exactly good with working out colors like that." He scratched the back of his head with an apolegetic smile.
"No problem." You sent the poor man a relaxed grin and got to work.
"So you're leaving the girls alone with the cookies?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, turns out four people in that small space is a bit counterproductive while baking so I decided to check up on you two in here."
And before you knew it, the tree was done. Only the star on top was missing. You sighed as you reached up but soon realized it was too high up for you to reach.
"Welp. Looks good without the star too, I guess." You shrugged, already halfway turning around to put the big pointy object back into the carton, when you felt two hands suddenly lift you up to the height of the tree's top. You felt like Simba for a second.
You looked down at Kinger, who was smiling like the most proud father in the entire world.
"Come on, put it on already! We don't have all Christmas Eve!" He snickered as he noticed your bamboozled face.
Carefully you put the ornament on top. Slowly retracting your hands, in case it fell off. Then Kinger put you down on the rug again.
This had awakened such a familiar, warm, nostalgic feeling in you just now. He often reminded you of your dad.
It was so bittersweet, especially considering today's special occasion, where family normally celebrated the most together.
Neither of the people here was able to celebrate with their's though, and probably never will ever again.
It made you incredibly sad all of the sudden.
"Thanks, Kinger." Seemingly out of nowhere, you hugged the confused man with slightly damp eyes.
"Of course, sweetie." He patted your back.
"Does anyone know where Jax is, by the way? I haven't seen him in a while, it's getting suspicious. He isn't with the girls in the kitchen, right?" Zooble asked when you managed to separate yourself from Kinger again.
"Huh, you're right. Where is Jax?"
As if on cue, there suddenly was a loud bang outside the house.
Oh god, what did he do this time?
You all hurried outside to see what had caused the explosion. Only a few meters away from your front porch, the was a big golden sleigh, rammed into the ground, in flames and a panicing Caine in Santa costume running around it while yelling family friendly curses.
"Booyah! Bull's eye! Or should I say teeth's eye?" You heard it coming from behind you atop the roof.
"Jax, you fu#@!$% disgrace!" You cursed him out before even getting visual confirmation or any other proof that he was responsible.
"How the hell did you even- " You finally turned around.
"OH HOLY SH%!, WHERE THE FU@# DID YOU GET THE BAZOOKA?!"
"The attic." He said as if it were the most common thing you'd find there.
"The attic? What? Zooble and I saw alot of stuff up there but there certainly was not a bazooka."
"Maybe you two were just to dang busy drooling after eachothers as$#%- HA, YOU MISSED!"
Zooble had thrown a snowball at Jax, missed, but the dodging threw him off his balance and made him kiss the floor anyways. Full on face plant. If this shit wasn't digital, he would have major head trauma now.
Caine snapped away his bazooka and finally faced you guys after clearing his throat dramatically multiple times.
"Good evening, my children! I am Santa! As you can see, my sleigh has been very badly damaged! I only managed to save these for you!" He held out seven wrapped presents to the cast.
"Are those our christmas presents?" Ragatha asked, holding her present in her hands.
"They certainly are, my good child!"
"Caine, we know it's you, please stop calling us that."
"I don't know who this neat sounding Caine guy is you're talking about!" He turned to his sleigh again. It was still ablaze.
"...Now how do I get home?" He mumbled to himself.
"You can always ride me, boss! I promise I'll be a very good boy!" Bubble with a red glowing Rudolph nose, reindeer antlers and golden harness suddenly emerged out of the snow infront of the sleigh. He had eaten the snow that had previously buried him alive from the crash.
Caine looked at Bubble with slumped shoulders and disrupted expression.
"I think I'll take the bus."
Back inside, you all decided to watch a christmas movie together to wind down for the night.
While the others fought over what movie to pick, Ragatha, Pomni and you went to get the cookies.
"Those look really good, you guys. Thanks again for making them."
"Oh, don't mention it!" Ragatha answered. "We had loads of fun baking together like that! Didn't we Pomni?" She pulled out decorative cookie plates from the cabinet.
"Oh, yeah! I mean after some initial difficulties, we did a pretty solid job, I think. -And I only burned one tray this time!"
"That's one less than last time!" You congratulated her with a laugh, smiling reminiscently when you thought back to the christmas baking adventure a week ago.
You all settled down on the sofa in the cozy, dimmly lit living room and put the DVD in. Occasionally reaching for one of the selfmade cookies on the small table, before retracting back into Zooble's arms. She had made sure you two were near the end of one side of the couch, so you wouldn't be bothered too much by the others while cuddling.
It was one of Caine's christmas movies he had made himself. They were crappy but still somewhat entertaining, especially because no matter how many different characters there were in the plot, it was always Caine who played them. No other AI actors, just Caine goofing off in the most Caine-way possible.
Still you felt your eyes get heavier, Zooble's shoulder more comfortable and her calm motions with her thumb on your hand more soothing by the minute. It wasn't long before you decided to fully close your eyes and just let yourself nap for a bit.
Your partner noticed the now full weight of your body against her as you drifted off to sleep.
She smiled as she watched the carefree features on your face slowly emerge from the one that usually always held a bit of worry. But when you were asleep there were no furrowed brows, no fleeting crinkles on your forehead and no unsure glances coming from your eyes.
She was so enamoured with it, she wanted to wake you up again, to scream in your face to ask what she would have to do to have you in that same carefree state when you were awake. She wanted to have you without a worry in the world. You didn't deserve it having treated you so wrong anyways.
By the time your mind gained conscience again, you realized everyone had fallen asleep by now.
Zooble's head leaned back against the top of the couch, Gangle was curled up next to you like a kitten, Kinger was snoring silently in an armchair, Jax's arms and legs were sprawled out on the sofa like he owned it and Ragatha had propped up her head on her arm at the other end of the sofa, while Pomni was slumped against her shoulder with a bit of drool hanging from her mouth.
You grinned at the blackmail-worthy scene you had woken up to and leaned back into the sofa again, trying to go to sleep once more.
But you just ended up staring at the flashing images from the movie on the screen infront of you.
Then you got up and decided to go get a glass of water or something; careful not to stir your partner awake.
Returning from the kitchen you stopped by the window, glass still in hand.
The fresh snow had covered up your old footprints from earlier. The charred spot from where Caine's sleigh had crashed was still visible though.
It had gotten completely dark out since you had played around with the others.
Mesmerized by the gentle snowfall outside you stood there for a good few minutes.
It was almost eerily quiet. Safe for the movie playing on silently in the living room.
How long was this movie anyway? You didn't know how long you had been sleeping but man that shit had been playing for a while.
You liked this calm setting. No annoying background music or bickering from the cast.
Just you in the fully fallen asleep house.
Oh how this brought back memories about your old home too. Again you felt this bittersweet feeling form in your chest.
You could remember it so vividly.
As a child you would sneak out of your room downstairs to see if Santa had visited yet.
And even as you got older, you still kept the habit.
Not because of Santa, but because of this undecipherable feeling it gave you.
Just watching the calm living room and kitchen.
The rooms that were normally always filled with people and life; Now gone completely quiet.
Only entertained by the warm glow of christmas lights.
Your parents had never noticed you going downstairs for so long in the middle of the night.
You were sure they would have gotten really worried about you, just randomly standing there all alone in the dark room.
The thought tugged at your lips as another tear made its way down your cheek.
"Babe, are you oka-"
"HOLY FU&!#@ SH!$, Zooble, you scared the life out of me! Don't ever sneak up on me like that again!"
You quickly lowered your voice again, since the others were still sleeping.
"What the fu&% are you doing up late anyway?!" You whisper yelled.
"What am I doing? What are you doing here?!" They whisper yelled back.
"One second I'm sleeping peacefully with my partner on the couch and the next you're gone, standing in front of the window for what felt like hours. First I thought it was kind of cute and all but then you started crying- " they sighed. "I just had to do something?" They started explaining with a worried frown on their face.
"Just- tell me what's wrong, honey. Please." They looked you in the eye. Like really looked. They were actively looking for something in your eyes. You didn't like it.
You knew you often did the same with others but then it was different.
"And don't just say you're fine. I know you're not, I've seen you."
Ah, dang it.
You sighed and averted their mismatched eyes.
"I dunno. It's kinda intense today." Quick pause.
"I mean- today is christmas, right? Celebration of family and sh!#." You wiped another tear. "And- like- UGH! I fu%!$& hate this!" You groaned when your voice broke as you tried to speak again.
You couldn't keep it inside any longer. The lump in your throat felt ready to burst your brains away and your eyes had already given up on containing the tears.
Zooble wrapped her arms around your slightly shaking form. Squeezing hard, as you finally let out muffled uncontrolled sobs against their chest.
They knew you didn't like talking about it.
They knew you missed your family.
They knew every year it hit you twice as hard as it had the one before.
But they also knew they needed to push you like that to prevent you from letting it eat you alive from the inside.
Because you would really just let it.
And there probably would be no one noticing until it was already too late.
Because normally it was the other way around.
You comforted the people here.
You made everything come together and work again after it had crumbled into pieces.
This was kind of what was expected from you here.
Obviously not in a comanding way or anything. It just was.
The actual bad thing about that was though, that you saw yourself like that too.
You had to help them. You had to make everything okay again. You had to comfort the people with their problems.
Not the other way around.
"You wanna go for a midnight stroll?" Zooble asked after your sobs had died down a little.
You just gave a nod, not entirely trusting your voice yet.
You always liked talking about stuff more while walking. She knew that. It made everything feel less awkward in a way.
You went out to the small village near the hut. It was glowing with the myriad of christmas lights the "residents" had hung around their houses.
The snow crunched under your feet as you walked, and glistened from the different angles the warm lights hit it with.
You talked. Not as much as she had hoped about your inner conflict but she was still glad you at least had addressed a bit of it with her.
Conversation shifted and she even managed to make you crack a laugh with her again.
You walked through the cute little streets, hand clasped around the other's, enjoying this life again.
When you had seen every corner of it, you decided it was time to head back from the village.
You kicked off your boots, took off your scarf and mittens by the door and went inside. Immediately met with the homey warmth and smell that had developed over the evening.
You were standing there in the kitchen, Zooble leaned against the door to the living room, the dim light outlining their form from behind, mind seeming fully captivated to the window just like you probably had earlier.
It looked like renaissance and cubism art had a beautiful baby.
When they noticed you staring, they smirked.
"What are you looking at?".
"Nothing." You sighed with a small smile. "Just that one special someone I was cursed to only meet in digital limbo." You walked over to them. You looked at the leftover cookies on the table and the decorated christmas tree in the corner.
"You think we finally covered every sterotypical christmas thing this year?" You leaned on the other side of the doorframe, arms crossed and a content expression on your face as your eyes drifted to your friends still knocked out on the couch.
"Heh, probably. " They briefly looked up and then to the side again.
"Last year we made life-sized gingerbread houses, the one before that we played Santa ourselves and the one before that... oh! That was the one with... the elf."
You two shuddered when you remembered that year's adventure. It was horrible.
"Welp! At least this year we had a good adventure." You laughed.
"We actually crammed alot of traditions into the program today. You know, the snowball fight, the sleighing, baking and decorating... it was a very normal traditional christmas this year, now that I think about it."
Zooble had focused their eyes on yours again as you thought out loud.
You looked so nice with that warm little smile highlighted by the christmas tree lights.
Why were they so nervous about this now?
It wouldn't be any different from the usual ones you shared throughout the day, would it?
Just that it felt hella cheesy. Kind of out of character. But my god, it was an almost a little too perfect timing.
Nobody would be there to distract you, everyone was asleep, there would be no one watching.
They had their mind on this for the whole day the second they had seen that damn twig by the door.
Come on, Zooble.
You loved stuff like this. As corny as it was.
Alright.
"...I think we really did do all the traditions..." They started.
You looked at them. Something was up. Their tone gave it away, you had noticed it immediately.
"-I think there's one that's missing though."
You narrowed your eyes with a confused grin. What was that dumbass on about?
They stepped closer, away from their side of the doorframe, over to you still leaning against yours.
You chuckled. "Zooble, what in the world are you- "
They placed their hand on the side of your head, cupping it as they pressed the kiss on your mouth in the most gentle but at the same time also eager way possible.
As if they had waited for this the whole day.
Butterflies stormed around in your stomach again.
Only now you had noticed the mistletoe with the cute tiny red bow dangling above your heads .
Had that shit been there the whole time?
You leaned into the kiss, smiling as the time-frame for a peck had long been overstepped by now.
Gosh, they could be such a romantic when they wanted.
And they wanted to really bad right now.
You both had your eyes closed as the kiss deepened a little more.
They already knew you would tease them with this new border-break of corny they had just initiated.
But the beaming expression on your face when retracting their's again was so fucking worth it right now.
For a moment they just held you there. The focus of their eyes once again making you feel like you were the only thing left in the world that was worth looking at.
"Merry christmas, honey." They said as they leaned in to close the distance once more.