Mistletoe and Lots of Snow

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: I own nothing…..except Michael's boxers haha j/k!

Summary: One-parter…cute, a little fluffy. I'll admit it's not very original, but I still loved writing it. Anyway the pairing is M/M

Setting: Around the time of the non-denominational winter dance…….Mia has been sending Michael the love notes……

The Winter Carnival is in two days. I wonder why Kenny hasn't asked me to be his date yet. I mean, how pathetic can I get?? I have a boyfriend, and yet I DON'T HAVE A DATE TO THE CARNIVAL OR THE DANCE!!!

I was sitting in G&T when Michael came up to me and sat right by me. "Hey Thermopolis" he said smiling.

"Hey Michael," I said returning the smile

"Are you going to the Winter Carnival?"

"Yeah. Why?" I asked curiously. Why would Michael want to know if I, the 5'9" big-footed, flat-chested, algebra flunking, dateless freak of a princess and freshman, was going to the carnival.

" Just wondering. You have to stop by and see the computer club booth though," he said looking straight at me.

"Alright. I'll make sure I stop by," I said smiling at him.

"Ok, cool. Oh, and Mia?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't bring Showalter to the booth, ok?" he said getting up and walking away.

Ok, something's up. Kenny hasn't asked me to the carnival or the dance and now Michael's asking me to come to his booth WITHOUT MY BOYFRIEND!

Why would he care? I mean unless he liked me. No, that couldn't be it. He must just be embarrassed. He wants to be nice to me because I'm his little sister's best friend. I guess he just doesn't want Kenny to see him with me because he'll be embarrassed. Kenny's in the computer club with him, and Michael probably thinks he'll look dumb being around a freshman freak like me, so he didn't want Kenny to tell the Computer Club. That must be it.

After school, I decided to go over to Lilly's house. For the first time I've been over there in like forever, Michael didn't walk out of his room shirtless. That was much to my disappointment. Actually, I don't think Michael came out of his room at all. I can't figure out what's going on. He never stays in his room this long.

"Lilly, is you brother alright?" I asked curiously and trying to not make it obvious about my feelings.

"Yeah, the doofus is fine. Why wouldn't he be?" she asked looking at me.

"I don't know. He just hasn't come out of his room at all, so I was just wondering," I said trying not to make it sound like a big deal.

"Oh, I didn't know you wanted to see him," Lilly said walking over to Michael's door.

She started banging on it.

"Lilly, no. What are you doing? You don't have to bother him. I was just wondering," I said.

"Michael!!!! Mia's here. She wants to see you!!!!!" Lilly yelled banging on the door still.

"Lilly, it's fine. I didn't want to see him, I was just wondering," I said quietly.

"Come on, doofus, OPEN THE DOOR!" Lilly said still pounding.

A shirtless Michael opened the door, and Lilly's hands were still pounding, but this time against his chest.

"Ewww, put a shirt on freak!" she said pulling her hands away, looking disgusted.

She walked away towards the bathroom muttering to herself. "Now I gotta go wash my hands!"

I looked down at the floor. What was I supposed to say? Lilly had practically just told Michael that I came by to see him! What am I supposed to do?

"You wanted something, Thermopolis?" Michael asked curiously, tilting his head a little and lifting my chin so I was looking him in the eyes.

Our eyes met and I couldn't look away.

"What is it, Mia?" Michael asked, still holding my chin and not looking away from my eyes.

"I…umm….." I staggered. I had to make up something so I didn't look like a complete moron. I was already doing a great job of that.

"Yeah……"

"I was just wondering how the computer project was coming?" I asked looking down at the floor.

"Oh, that's all you wanted?" Michael asked, his shoulders and his face dropping. He actually looked well……..disappointed.

I had to think of something. I had no idea why he would be disappointed, but I didn't want him to be. I needed to think of something else to say.

"Well, actually……." I said trailing off, trying to gather my thoughts.

"Yeah?" he asked, his attitude perking up a little ( by the way, does anyone else find that word, perking, slightly funny and yet so fun to say? Haha I'm very odd.)

I looked up again, and this time, Michael had moved in even closer to me. My face was centimeters away from him.

"I……um I…." I stuttered. How was a girl supposed to talk or let alone think with the love of her life's face just centimeters away from kissing her.

"Mia, just say it," Michael said gently, putting his hands on my shoulders and running his hands down my arms until finally reaching my hands. He grabbed my hands with his own and began massaging circles on them with his thumbs.

I shuddered. It was very nice to be this close to Michael. VERRRRRRY NICE! But what was going on? Was Michael playing games with me? He had to be. There was no way that he would actually WANT to be this close to me.

"Mia…….." Michael said, his warm breath tickling my cheek.

He started to move in closer. I could feel him inhale and exhale with each breath.

He closed his eyes and started to lean in. Our lips met. He began to kiss me softly and I started to kiss him back until Lilly rushed right out of the bathroom.

"It took me forever to wash my hands because of you, Michael. Gross!" She yelled, then noticing us as we flew apart.

"Well Well Well, what's going on, here?" Lilly asked her eyebrows raised.

My eyes filled up with tears. I can't believe that Michael would play a joke that horrible on me! I mean he obviously found out how I felt. Was it really THAT funny to mock me and make a joke out of me. I couldn't believe that Michael would toy with my emotions like that!

I turned around and ran out the door.

"Mia!!!!!!" I heard Michael yell.

"Way to go, moron!" Lilly said slapping Michael. "Would you like me to bring Tina over, so you can scare her off too?! Or how about Shameeka?"

" SHUT UP! It was fine until you walked in!" Michael screamed.

"Whatever," Lilly said walking into her room.

I didn't stop, even when Michael screamed my name. The tears wouldn't stop flowing. My heart has never hurt this bad in so long…actually well it's NEVER hurt this much. I felt like someone had ripped my heart out of my chest, stomped on it, crushed it into thousands of pieces and tried to jam it back in….and that was just the beginning of the pain.

Next Day at School

We went to pick up Lilly and Michael. I couldn't believe how quiet it was in the limo. Lars kept giving me questioning glances, but I just shrugged. I could feel Michael's gaze on me the whole time. It was like he didn't dare to look away for chance that I might look up.

I still couldn't believe he would break my heart like that. I mean I'm sure he didn't know what he was doing though. He doesn't know that I'm madly in love with him. He just figured that it was some game, since we're just friends. Which that's all we are, just friends. Just because I want us to be more, sadly, that doesn't make us more.

Just friends! Although, right now, I don't know if we're even that.

I don't know what to do! It hurts to look at him. It hurts to know how nice it is to kiss him, yet not be able to have him. It breaks my heart to want something that you can't have so badly.

At the same time, I'm sure he didn't mean to hurt me. He didn't know about my feelings for him. I don't want to give up our friendship over something he didn't know he was doing. Plus, if he keep this up, he'll figure out that I have feelings for him if he hasn't already.

What do I do? Keep ignoring him and lose our friendship, but it won't hurt me as badly because I won't have to look at something I can't have. Or should I forget it and still be friends? Although my heart will break every time I see him, especially every time I see him around Judith! That girl is so lucky! I wonder if she even knows how lucky she really is!

I guess I'll think it over today and then decide.

Later that day in G&T

I could feel Michael looking at me again. I think he wanted to talk. He was waiting for me to look up as if to say it was o.k. for him to approach me.

So that's what I did. I looked up and him and gave a weak smile.

Although, I couldn't tell what was going through his mind. He looked a little sad……and yet, it almost seemed like he had a look of adoration in his eyes, but I'm sure I imagined that.

He gave me a weak smile back, although his mood and his eyes seemed to lighten up a little the second I looked up at him.

He walked over and pulled up a chair next to me.

"Hey…." Michael said cautiously, not knowing what to do.

"Hi," I said back, trying to hide any emotions I had.

"About last night…" he started.

"It was a mistake," I finished. I knew that's what he was going to say. He didn't mean to kiss me. It just happened. I couldn't sit there and let him turn me down, so I had to do it first. I couldn't start crying again, so I said it first before he got a chance to.

"What?" Michael said, looking shocked.

"We didn't mean to do it. It was an accident. Neither of us was thinking. It was a mistake. Wasn't it?" I asked, half dreadfully, yet half hoping he'd say no.

"Sure, yeah whatever," Michael said quickly, suddenly finding his hands very interesting to look down at.

He started to get up.

"Can we still be friends?" I asked, my eyes starting to tear up again after hearing him agree that the kiss was a mistake.

"Yeah, sure. I'll always be your friend, Mia," Michael said looking at me sincerely.

I smiled up at him, forgetting that I had tears in my eyes.

"Mia, are you ok?" Michael asked, sitting down worriedly.

"Yeah. I'm fine……It's just," I started.

"What? What is it?" he said lifting my chin again so I would be looking him in the eyes.

I couldn't tell him. I couldn't just say 'I love you Michael' I couldn't do it! I couldn't say that I wanted to be more than friends so I said something else.

"I'm having a really rough time with Grandmere…..and…..I'm not doing too well in Algebra, especially with the exam coming up" I said, trying to hide the truth.

"I thought you were doing better," he said, sounding concerned.

"I thought I was too, but I didn't understand anything today," I said. That actually was the truth. I didn't understand anything, because I wasn't paying attention. I was too busy thinking about what to say to Michael.

"Here, get your book. I'll help you," Michael offered.

"Thanks," I said getting my book, but I just started to cry even more.

Great now Michael thinks I'm a totally emotionally unstable girl, which in a way, I am. But still, I didn't want Michael to know that.

"What's wrong now?" Michael asked, wiping away one of my tears.

"Nothing," I said completely lying.

"Come here," Michael said, wrapping his arms around me and holding me.

My tears slowed down as he held me closely.

Savor this moment, because this is the closest you will get to Michael ever again. I breathed in his scent deeply and tried to remember everything about this moment, so that I could tell Tina. I still hadn't told her about last night.

After a couple minutes, my crying settled down.

"You all better now?" Michael asked, looking into my eyes.

I nodded.

"Good." he said smiling.

"Now, do you want to do some Algebra?" he asked.

"Sure," I said quietly.

He unwrapped his arms from me, much to my dismay as I grabbed my Algebra book. I sat up and could feel his knee rubbing against mine.

I was about to cry again, due to the face of knowing that I would never have him, but I sucked it up. I have to control my emotions. I'm starting to remind myself of my pregnant mother! shudder

Later that night, I was online, and Tina got on. I told her everything about what happened between me and Michael, and here's the advice she gave me:

MICHAEL IS IN LOVE WITH ME!!!

I know Tina's just trying to help, but she doesn't have to lie. I mean I know she's into all this romance stuff, but she needs to be a little more realistic. She's so oblivious to how things really go and how people really feel. Michael doesn't love me, although it's nice to have a friend that tries to support you by telling you what you want to hear.

Then Michael got on. For the first like 5 minutes, he didn't IM me, and Tina seemed like she was busy, so I sat there for 5 minutes talking to no one. Finally, I got an IM from Michael, which made me smile.

CracKing: Hey Thermopolis.

FtLouie: Hey Michael

CracKing: What's shakin? Haha

FtLouie: Nothing, I was just talking to Tina. What about you?

CracKing: Nothing just doing finishing touches on the computer program for tomorrow. You're still coming, right?

FtLouie: Yeah. I wouldn't want to miss seeing Principal Gupta in a cat suit.

CracKing: Ok, well I'll see you there then. I gotta go. Lilly's kicking me off the computer again. Bye, Thermopolis.

FtLouie: Bye, Michael

CracKing has signed off.

I smiled. It was nice to still be able to talk normally. I would die if anything had changed.

The Next Day: The Day of the Carnival

I was standing at my locker when Michael walked up to me.

"So, what's the verdict?"

"What did you get in Algebra?" he said leaning against the locker next to mine.

I was so happy that I raised my F to a B- that I didn't even realize what I was doing.

"Whee!!!!!" I squealed as I jumped up and threw my arms around Michael.

"I got a B minus!" I exclaimed happily, may arms still around him.

"Really? Wow! That's great!" He actually sounded happy for me.

"I know! You're the best tutor ever!" I said squeezing him tighter.

He chuckled. "Thanks."

I then realized that I had been holding onto him so long and I let go reluctantly.

"I gotta go set up the computer booth for the carnival. You're still stopping by?" he asked.

"Yeah, of course," I said smiling.

I met up with Tina. After her telling me to tell Michael my feelings about a thousand times, we finally went over to the computer booth. When Michael saw us, he rushed us to the front of the line.

"Here Mia, sit at this one," Michael said pulling a chair out for me and I took a seat.

I heard Judith say "Wait? What are you doing?"

Then Michael replied, "No, that's ok. I have a special one for her."

"Here goes" I heard Michael mutter under his breath.

"Huh?" I asked wondering what he meant.

"Oh, nothing...." he replied looking away.

Something weird is going on.

Anyway, I turned my attention to the screen and I saw a castle, one like out of fairytales, like Beauty and the Beast. The picture zoomed in over the castle walls to a garden. There were big red roses blooming and petals falling. The picture was absolutely breathtaking. I hope my castle in Genovia looks like this!

A banner finally appeared across the screen with words written in gold leaf writing and blowing in the wind. I was finally able to make out the words......

Roses are Red

Violets are Blue

You may not know it

But I love you, too

I screamed and jumped out of my chair. I couldn't believe it! Michael knew that I had sent those notes! He was just mocking me. I didn't think he was like that, but this would be the second time this week. Maybe I was wrong about him! I grabbed Tina's arm and yanked her along with me.

"Mia!" I heard Michael scream. I didn't stop. The tears were pouring out of my eyes.

I started to run out of the gym with Tina, but we were stopped by Kenny. He went on and on about how he realized why I wouldn't let him French kiss me and everything. He was going on about who knows what.

"I know you love someone else," Kenny said, his eyes actually teared up a little.

"I'm so sorry, Kenny," I said touching his arm in a friendly gesture.

"So I guess it's true then. I was hoping I was wrong, but I guess I was right. Goodbye, Mia," Kenny said kissing me on the cheek and sauntering off.

I started crying even harder. Not only had I been mocked by the love of my life, but now I hurt the only guy that really loved me. I mean I'm a freak! If a guy can love me so much, how can I just blow him off. It's not like anyone else will ever love me! How much worse can it get?

I had to go home! I had to get out of there. I needed to go home! I just wanted to leave to Genovia and forget all about this. I wanted to forget it ever happened. Maybe when I came back, everything would be normal again. I can only hope.

I said bye to Tina and ran out the school doors. It had begun to snow about an hour ago. The ground was completely covered, and the snow flakes were beautiful. I would have stopped to enjoy them, but I was just too upset to even take notice!

"Mia!" I heard someone scream from behind me. I didn't need to turn around. I knew that voice. That was the voice of the one who had just ripped my heart into pieces.

"Mia, please stop!" he screamed sounding desperate.

I don't know what it was. He had just stomped on my heart, and I still loved him so much that I just had to stop.

I stopped right there and Michael ran straight into me.

We came tumbling to the ground, Michael right on top of me.

My tears were still flowing.

"Mia, I didn't mean to make you cry," Michael said gently.

"No, it didn't. You didn't. I mean it was something Kenny said," I lied as my nostrils flared.

"Yeah. Well I heard you two broke up." he said wiping away one of my tears. "The thing is, I knew it was you who was leaving those cards."

"You did?"

"Of course I did. Lilly told me"

"LILLY told you? How did she know?" I started crying even harder.

"I don't know. Your friend Tina told her, I guess. But that's not important," he said waving his hand.

"I'm going to kill them," I said gritting my teeth.

"Mia, it doesn't matter. What matters is that I meant what I wrote, and I thought you did too." I said rubbing her arms to keep her warm.

"Of course I meant it."

"Then why did you freak out like that in there?" Michael asked

"Well...because...because...I thought....I thought you were making fun of me."

"Never. I would never do that. Mia, I love you," Michael said gazing into my eyes.

"Really?"

"Of course" he said tucking a piece of hair behind my ears.

"I love you too, Michael," I said happier than ever.

He leaned down about to kiss me, then stopped.

"Oh, I almost forgot." Michael bent down and pulled something out of his pocket. I looked over as he held out mistletoe and held it over my head. I giggled as he brought his lips down on mine.

I grabbed his arm and pulled it down towards me. He wrapped his arms around my neck. It was freezing outside, but neither of us noticed.

We pulled apart to breath as we looked up. The snow began to come down harder. Michael looked gorgeous with snow falling into his hair. He looked perfect.

I grabbed him and pulled him back down on top of me. What was really awesome was that we moved into French kissing without even any trouble at all. Michael seemed like a pro at it. I have never been this happy before, well besides the day I got Fat Louie.

The snow was starting to get my clothes all wet, and it was beginning to feel very cold. I shivered.

"Here, let's get you inside," Michael said standing up and holding his arm out to help me up. He wrapped his arms around me and ran his hands up and down my shoulders to warm me up.

We walked into the building as Lilly and Tina approached us.

"Did everything work out?" Tina asked smiling. I think she already knew.

"Yes, perfectly," I said smiling and wrapping my arms around Michael also.

Michael pulled out the mistletoe again.

"I have never loved any plant this much in my entire life," Michael said smirking and pulling me into another kiss.

Mistletoe is definitely going to be my favorite plant FOREVER!!