Hey guys! So I'm back with a new Salex fic, it's been a while I know. Happy Holidays to everyone and hopefully you all like this. It will be a two shot and the next chapter will be up tomorrow. As always let me know what you think. ENJOY!
Chapter 1
Alex and Sean struggled as they attempted to haul the large tree up the stairs to the apartment.
"Remind me again why we couldn't have just bought a fake one?" Sean asked as they turned yet another corner.
"Because, when I was a little girl we would have a real tree every year. My Papa and I would pick it out in the morning and Mama and I would spend the rest of the day decorating it." Alex reasoned with him. "I thought you said you had real trees as a kid too?" she countered, confused as to his argument.
"I did, and I loved it. The house always smelt like pine during the holidays, but we never had to fit them up a set of stairs this small!" He complained as they finally arrived at the door to their apartment.
Alex rolled her eyes at him as she put the key into the door and pushed it open before helping Sean drag the tree into the living room. Carefully placing it on the floor the two stretched as their sore muscles relaxed.
"Okay, let's get it into the stand." Alex said as she motioned at Sean.
He shot her a playful glare before he picked up the tree and held it straight in the stand as Alex adjusted the screws at the base to keep it in place. After a few minutes of twisting and turning the tree was finally standing up straight and tall.
"I think it looks pretty good." Sean said as they stood back to admire their handy work.
"Me too." Alex replied with a proud smile.
"Shall we start decorating?" Sean asked pointing to the two large boxes of Christmas ornaments, one with his name on it and one with Alex's. Sean had gotten his from his sister and Alex's mother had sent her some since Alex hadn't really had a proper Christmas since she left Russia. Although the house had been burned the Christmas ornaments had been kept in the basement so they hadn't been destroyed.
Alex nodded in agreement with his suggestion to start decorating and walked over and opened her box.
"Oh wait, I've got to do something. You stay here." Sean said giving Alex a kiss before running out of the room.
Alex smiled. She didn't know what she would do without him. Looking through the box she felt her heart clench. It had been so long since she had seen any of these ornaments. She pulled out the first, and a tear stung at her eye when she saw it was the ornament she had received at her first Christmas. The picture inside was of her as a baby, while her parents held her, her fathers face smiled back at her.
Sean came back into the room to see Alex sitting on the ground looking at a picture of her family. Setting the two mugs down on the coffee table he walked over to her and sat down next to her. "Are you okay?" He asked gently.
"Yeah. It's just, it's been a long time since I remember my parents being that happy. Once Papa started Zetrov he was always working, my parents still loved each other but their relationship wasn't like this. That's all." She said still looking down at the picture.
Sean frowned slightly. He couldn't imagine how hard it must be for her. Alex's father died just after Christmas so every year those same memories were brought back to the surface.
Sean wrapped his arm around Alex's shoulder. "Are you going to be okay?" He asked.
"Yeah. I'll be fine. Don't worry" She said with a sad smile.
"Hey, Alex look, we have a new future. We can make new memories, okay?" Sean said kissing her gently.
Alex smiled warmly at him. "So, what did you leave to get?" She asked him curiously.
Sean smiled and stood up. "Here." He said grabbing one of the mugs off the counter and handing it to her. "Don't worry, it's 100% animal approved." He said handing her the steaming cup of hot chocolate.
Alex smiled at him as she took a sip. "Wow this is good! Who had any idea you could make hot chocolate." She said teasingly.
"I'm a man of many talents." He said, winking at her and giving her that boyish grin she had fallen in love with.
"Now, let's get to decorating this tree." He said taking one last sip of his hot chocolate before placing it back down on the table.
He walked over and grabbed a box of lights he and Alex had bought. Opening it he pulled the lights out of their plastic wrap. "Here, can you take this side?" He asked handing Alex one of the corners.
She took it from him and they worked together, trying to get the lights around the tree. About 15 minutes later of struggling to get the lights on, they were finally able to turn on the tree and see it light up.
"Perfect." Alex said in a light whisper.
"Yes you are." Sean said wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his chin on her shoulder.
Alex let out a chuckle as she leant back into his strong chest. "I was talking about the tree."
"I wasn't" he said truthfully.
Alex reached up and gently patted his cheek with her hand. "Come on, we still have work to do." She said reluctantly pulling away from his warm embrace.
"Ohh, come on" he said with a wicked smile, pulling her back against his chest "We deserve a break" he reasoned, leaning down to capture her lips in his.
15 minutes later Sean and Alex both went through their boxes and pulled out the ornaments they wanted to have on the tree.
Alex was impressed by the large array of Christmas ornaments that Sean took out of his box and gave him a curious glance.
Sean noticed her looking at him and turned to face her
"We travelled a lot when I was a kid. Every year my mom would take us somewhere, either in Europe, or Canada. Sometimes around to different states. Wherever we went my mom made sure we picked up something we could hang on our tree." Sean explained to her.
"That's so cool. I think that is a tradition we are defiantly going to have to continue." Alex smiled, but then dropped her gaze as she realized what she had just said.
Sean let a ghost of a smile cross his lips; he didn't want to make a big deal out of the words that left her mouth so he held his tongue.
But the fact that she had actually said it made his heart soar.
The next two hours were spent with Alex and Sean placing their various decorations on the tree. Once everything was cleaned up and the boxes where put back in the closet Sean and Alex stood back to admire their hard work.
"It's missing one thing." Sean said suddenly.
"What?" Alex asked looking at him, a confused expression on her face.
Sean walked over to the side table and picked up a delicate, hand-woven angel. "This has to go on the top of the tree." He said handing it to Alex.
Alex smiled at him. "You're right." She walked away to grab a step stool when she felt Sean's hands around her waist. She let out a small yelp as Sean lifted her off the ground, high enough so that she could place the angel on top of the tree.
To this day, even after dating him for over a year, his amount of strength still surprised her. Sean effortlessly held her in place as she put the angel on top of the tree. When she was satisfied with it's position Sean threw her up in the air, just high enough so he could twirl her. He caught her in his arms, the twirl having made it so that she was facing him.
Alex let out a giggle and she bent down and captured Sean's lips in a kiss. After a few seconds she wrapped her legs around his waist, pulling their bodies even closer together.
Sean turned them and pushed Alex's back against the wall. He smiled as he felt her knot her fingers in his hair, and he gently ran his thumb over the skin that was just beneath the hem of her shirt.
Seconds later the couple was interrupted by the sound of a timer going off. Letting out a frustrated groan, Alex pulled away from Sean and rested her forehead against his.
But Sean had other ideas and moved his hands to keep Alex against the wall.
"Sean come on." Alex tried to argue with him.
Her resolve quickly faded as he moved his lips to her neck. She wanted to tell him that if they didn't stop, their kitchen would catch on fire but she wasn't able to form complete sentences.
The timer going off again finally brought Alex back to her senses. "Sean stop." She said softly. "The last thing we need is for our kitchen to catch fire." She said gently pushing him away from her.
Sean pouted and Alex let out an amused chuckle. "Come on, soldier" She said giving his lips another quick kiss before ducking away from him.
She walked over to the oven and quickly turned it off. Grabbing a pair of oven mitts from the drawer she pulled out the steaming lasagna.
Sean had made the dinner and put it in while she was still decorating the rest of their small apartment so she had no idea what he had made. She looked over at him and gave him an amused smile.
"Don't look so surprised." Sean said. "My dad told me I had to learn how to cook and how to dance if I was ever going to get a girl. So that's exactly what I did."
"You can dance?" Alex asked, now even more intrigued.
Sean smiled before he took off the gloves she was wearing and placed them on the counter before placing his hand on her waist and pulling her towards him.
Alex followed his lead and placed her hand on his shoulder before lacing her fingers through his with her other hand. Even without music Sean was able to expertly lead Alex around the room.
He suddenly twirled her outwards before spinning her back into his arms and dipping her so that the ends of hairs were just skimming the floor.
He kissed her on the lips before bringing her back up, keeping her body pressed against his.
Alex smiled at him. "Not bad at all, Mr. Pierce" She said breathlessly. Her heart was beating against her chest and her proximity to Sean wasn't helping. Even after all this time he still managed to take her breath away.
Sean's trademark boyish smile crossed his lips before he walked back into the kitchen.
"Don't worry, it's 100% vegan. As always." He said as he platted the food.
Alex gave him a wide smile. He always made sure everything he bought or made for the two of them was vegan. He never complained either, not once. "You know I really love you, right?" Alex said taking the plate from him.
Sean shrugged playfully. "You may have mentioned it once or twice."
The two of them walked over to the table and sat down to eat their meal together.
After dinner the two of them cleared the table and started tidying the kitchen. Sean cleaned the dishes while Alex put the left over lasagne in the fridge.
Once they were finished cleaning Sean took Alex's hands in his and lead her over to the couch. Standing just in front of the couch Sean smiled down at Alex.
"What?" Alex asked curiously.
"Nothing. Just marvelling at how beautiful you are." He said softly.
Alex blushed and dropped her gaze to the floor.
Sean tilted her face upwards so that she was looking at him. "You're beautiful Alex." he stated again before crashing his lips onto her. Alex smiled and kissed him back, wrapping her arms around his neck. They finally pulled away to catch their breaths, resting their foreheads against one another.
"We did say 1 present before bed. Didn't we?" Alex asked with a slight chuckle as she played with the collar of his shirt.
"You're right." Sean said with a smile. He was confident Alex was going to like the present he had for her.
Alex pulled away and walked over to the tree before fishing out a box and walking back over to Sean. "I know it's nothing big, but I couldn't really decide on what to get you." She said sheepishly.
"I'm sure I'll love it." He said kissing her again before he took the box. He sat down beside her on the couch and carefully peeled the paper from the box.
Sean opened the lid of the white box to reveal two small silver cuff links. The word "love" was engraved on either cuff link in Morse code. The engraving was lined with gold so that it stood out from the silver.
"Al, these are amazing!" he gently kissed her lips "Thank you so much!" Sean said wrapping his arms around her.
Alex smiled at his reaction and relaxed as his arms wrapped around her. "I'm glad you like them. I know it's nothing big, I just -"
Sean cut her off by placing his lips atop hers again
"They're perfect." he said cupping the side of her face with his hand.
Alex gave him a smile before pulling away slightly. "So. . ." She said trailing off.
"So what?" Sean asked pretending not to know what she was talking about.
Alex gave him a playful glare. "So what about my present." She said with trying to sound serious.
Sean gave her a feigned look of surprise. "I was supposed to get you something? Well this puts me in quiet the pickle." He said giving her a smile.
Alex hit his arm. "Sean!" She whined.
"Okay fine." Sean caved with a laugh. He walked over to his box of ornaments and handed one to her. "It has to go on the tree." He commented simply.
Alex looked at him with a raised eyebrow. The outside of the ornament was a simply spherical shape, pained gold with a bronze design on it.
Alex gently took the ornament in her hand, wrinkling her eyebrows in confusion when she felt a hinge on the back of it.
Turning it she rested it in her palms and pulled it open. Her breath hitched in her throat when she saw a beautiful diamond ring on a silver band, with an amethyst on either side sitting between two pieces of felt padding.
She went to look up at Sean only to notice that he was kneeling down on one knee in front of her.
"Alex, from the moment I met you I knew I was in trouble. You were a force of nature to be reckoned with, and you don't let anything stand in your way. I love you more than anything and I want to spend the rest of my life at your side" he took a calming breath "Will you marry me?"
Alex had tears in her eyes as she looked down at Sean. "Yes Sean Mason Pierce I'll marry you." Alex told him with a smile.
Sean's face broke into a huge smile as he slipped the ring onto her finger. Standing up he brought her with him and twirled her around in a circle.
Alex let out a delighted squeal as Sean spun her around the room. When he finally stopped Alex ran a hand through his hair, before resting it on the back of his neck. "Merry Christmas Sean." She said softly.
"Merry Christmas Alex." He said, the smile still plastered on his face.
Alex gave him a smile before stepping away from him and taking his hand in hers, slowly leading him to their bedroom.
