Double D watched in amusement at the sight of his friends being led away from his house by the oldest and youngest Kanker sisters. Poor Ed had to run to keep up with the blonde tugging him along by his wrist and Lee had her arm around Eddy's shoulders to steer him after the duo. Both sisters had volunteered the Eds to walk them home, otherwise there was no way their sister could have a moment alone with the remaining Ed. The winter get-together ended an hour earlier but his well meaning friends refused to leave him with the Kankers even though the nerdy Ed insisted he'd be fine. Neither of them realized he wanted to have a private conversation with one of the sisters, problem was her sisters weren't about to leave her to face Eddy alone which led to a stalemate. One the other girls decided to fix by removing themselves and the other Eds.

Back inside he continued to gather the trash into the garbage can from the kitchen, listening to carols quietly playing on the radio. He didn't enjoy leaving the clean up so late but with everyone having such a good time he let the party go on longer and then having to keep the peace between the Eds and Kankers, it left no time to tidy up until now. Now being nearly two thirty in the morning and, as tempted as he was to put it off, he'd rather do it before bed. Lucky him Marie, who was far more used to keeping order in chaos, managed to get his home near normal already. All that was left was to take out the trash, return some furniture to their proper locations, and wash a few dishes. Really, he was lucky they could put up with each other long enough to have formed the year long friendship that had turned romantic a few months ago.

When the carols got louder he looked up to see his girlfriend smiling at him. She was no longer wearing the Christmas vest over her black, long sleeved shirt. A vest that she'd modified so the snowmen were zombies, he personally didn't see it, all she did was make the snow red in places. He'd insisted on everyone wearing an ugly Christmas sweater for a contest, the prize of which broke school academic honesty policy. A prize he reluctantly agreed to. His own sweater wasn't really considered ugly as far as Christmas sweaters go, a simple green sweater with reindeer and decorated trees across the torso. He was quite partial to it because…well he might have a small collection of them hidden in his closet.

"I put the dishes in the dish washer."

"Thank you Marie."

"Are you going to move the tables and chair back tonight?"

"No, I believe it'll be fine to leave them where they are until later."

"Thought you wanted to get everything put back tonight?"

Edd simply smiled at her, "can't I choose my wonderful girlfriend who I've barely spent any time with lately over moving a few things around?" Being a tease wasn't a trait most associated with him but when he chanced to discover how embarrassed she got when he said something on the romantic side, how was he to resist? Neither of them was normally inclined to make sentimental statements so he enjoyed the occasional tease to see her flustered. Exams had kept them apart the last couple of weeks which was why he'd need to thank Lee and May later.

As she tried to hide her blush a new song began to play, one they both enjoyed. Turning off the lights, he offered her his hand in an invitation to dance. Marie rolled her eyes at the overly romantic gesture but accepted nonetheless. Perhaps it was a bit much, soft yellow light from the Christmas tree, taking her hand with his and placing the other on the small of her back, slowly dancing to a song, yet neither was about to complain. Well, not this minute anyway.

These were the quiet moments he enjoyed most yet he was glad they didn't happen very often. Mainly because he loved Marie for being herself, an independent woman who spoke her mind but sweet when she wanted to be. Another reason being he could appreciate these moments better when they were few and far between.

Two more songs played before they stopped. The blue haired teen put her arms around his neck while he reached into his pocket to pull out the gift he'd been too shy to give her in front of the others. She looked up when he held it above their heads to see a silver chain with a mistletoe charm on it.

Laughing, she buried her face in his neck. "You dork."

"Isn't that one of the reasons you love me?"

"Never said that was a bad thing." Pulling back she pulled him in for a kiss.

When they parted she took the necklace to put it on. With a grin Double D kissed her temple.

"Do you know what else would be cool?"

…That smirk could not be good.

"A mistletoe belt buckle."