"So, what do you think?" Annie asked them with a cautious smile and her hands pressed together in front of her chest. Her eyes were bright, and it only took a few seconds after meeting them for Mitchell to break out a lopsided grin.
"I think it sounds like a marvelous idea. It's up to George though..." Two sets of eyes turned to the third person at the table expectantly. His eyes darted from face to face, but after a second's pause he shrugged and pushed up his glasses.
"Go ahead," he told them, offering up a half smile himself. "Have some fun, I don't mind." Annie opened her mouth to voice a protest but Mitchell beat her to it, a smile still firmly in place as he leaned back in his chair.
"It's not exclusive, we want you to get in on this too." Mitchell said simply, and Annie chimed in.
"Please?"
"I don't-" George started to argue, awkward in his seat as the other two continued to look at him.
"Look, all it's about anymore is commercialism. The name's more religious than the rest of it- and if nothing else I can tell you that I'm pretty sure that the gods of retail couldn't care less that you're a werewolf. We're not going to force you but there's no reason you can't enjoy yourself too."
There was a long pause before George sighed, and before he could start speaking again, Annie spoke up.
"It's about family, too, I mean-"
"I'll do it, Annie," George interrupted her, with an awkward smile, and she beamed at him before turning her attention to Mitchell, excited.
"Do you think.. Do you think I could shop for the decorations? I can do it, I know it. Then while the two of you are at work I can get things put up and-"
"If you're sure you don't want our company, I'll get some money out for you and we'll give it a go.."
Annie beamed.
"Have a nice day," the woman at the counter smiles at him, and Mitchell smiles back.
"You too." It's not until a minute later outside the shop, laden down with half a dozen bags of decorations that he smiles over at Annie. "I won't tell George," he promises, as he sets the bags down for a moment, playing with her hair for a moment, action almost teasing before he puts an arm around her shoulders. The gentle smile he offers her is returned, if hesitantly.
"It's okay if you do, I mean.." She trails off, and he shakes his head.
"Our secret."
The lights thread through the house like bright serpents, steady and blinking both, a mass of glowing color in the living room and pure white in the kitchen. More snake up the steps, around the doorways and along the walls. They barely peak out through the frosted windows, dull glows like warmth from the inside, the pulse of the blinking red like the house's heartbeat. It takes her the better part of a day to get them all up, to find outlets and she's not sure there are any left in the house, and there aren't really any other decorations except a tree barely a foot high, naked but for the tiny metal ornaments that came on it already, without even any lights itself. But the rest shine off of it, and it sits on a table, in plain site, the green bright. Annie has to hold them off at the door for a few minutes as she goes through the last bag. Finds one last pushpin to hang a sprig of mistletoe among the lights over the kitchen doorway. Gets everything plugged in and lit up before she lets them in, trying not to grin in the doorway as she takes a few steps back, face glowing from the tiny lights and in anticipation.
"...wow," George commented once he could see into the house, frozen on the doorway until Mitchell pushed him lightly to try to get in himself.
"Wow," he agreed, as he looked around. Annie's smile slipped through, and she looked back around at the lights herself, and then back to them, trying to read the dazzled expressions.
"I thought it might be a little too much, but..."
"It's brilliant," Mitchell assured her, peering over his sunglasses for just a second like testing before he removed them. "Definitely more than I expected."
"Bit of a fire hazard I'd think but...you'll be here. They're very nice and.. ...are those going up the stairs, too-" George trailed off, and Annie took a quick look like she was checking if those strands had gone.
"They do! I didn't do any of the rooms though.."
"Good idea," he told her quickly, and continued on even more quickly when his tone made her expression fall somewhat. "I like it, I do. It's very..."
"Festive," Mitchell offered, smiling, and George nodded, offering up one of his own.
"Exactly."
They bump into each other in the kitchen doorway, and Annie smiles as Mitchell starts to excuse himself, pointing up at the mistletoe. He laughs, the smile sticking after before he leans over to oblige her with the kiss. They're still smiling when she moves to the side to let him past.
"Wh-what-" George practically yelped after Annie kissed him on his way out of the kitchen. It had lasted all of a moment, and Annie's expression was almost pleased.
"Mistletoe," she told him, pointing up in an attempt to be helpful that was all but lost as George just blinked at her for a moment.
"You kissed me," he reminded her, slower, "What are you-"
"You know what mistletoe is, don't you, George?" Mitchell asked as he casually made his way over, and George jerked his head back around to look at him.
"Yes, but-" A quick nod in the direction of the top of the doorway made George finally look up, and realization dawned as he swallowed and then slipped into the kitchen, awkward and almost embarrased, "...right. Mistletoe."
"I swear I never used to run into her on the way to the kitchen this much," George protested at the hospital as Mitchell stood nearby, his expression almost distracted. "It's like-"
"Does it bother you?" Mitchell asked him, cutting into the ramble before it could begin, and George froze with a towel in his hand.
"Well, no, but-"
"If it's not hurting anything, stop thinking about it so much. If it is, just...say something to her. That's all." George shook his head at the suggestion.
"No, no, it's...okay. It's alright."
George hesitated momentarily before making a dash through the kitchen door to unload a few cups he'd gathered on his way through the house into the kitchen sink. He'd wash them later, or someone would. After another second of checking that the coast was clear he made a dash for the living room, something solid blocking his path before he'd cleared the door.
"Sorry," he muttered to Mitchell, relaxing somewhat as he tried to turn and slip past him and through the doorway. He had barely moved before there was a hand on the side of his face and a mouth pressed to his. The kiss lasted more than a moment, and for a few seconds he actually closed his eyes. They were open by the time Mitchell pulled away though, and he just stared at him afterwards, frozen in the doorway.
"Something wrong?" Mitchell asked him, holding onto the smile he'd pulled away with though it lessened some. The question shook George somewhat awake though.
"No! I.. can I get past now?" He requested, and Mitchell kissed him on the cheek as he slipped by, winking once George couldn't see him to where Annie had been at the back of the room, hands over her mouth to hide a little smile. George spared a glance back at him once he was back in the living room, touching his lips briefly in something like confusion.
'Did you ever think maybe she's lonely?' Mitchell hadn't asked George, in the same way he wouldn't tell him that he knew she waited there, sometimes. He didn't mind, to start, and he minded less as the season went on. The short, sweet interludes they'd turned into somewhere along the line, and he pretended not to notice the way she put a hand on his chest, holding onto his shirt during them. It was nice, and that was all it had to be.
The holiday passed, the exchanging of tiny, stupid things practically glossed over. The scarf and gloves Mitchell got, the new holiday mugs that had joined Annie's herds, a couple extra old movies that George had opened. It was the house that was unwrapped last, lights unstrung from it a little later than they may have been in the surrounding houses, like clinging to the spirit they had to begin with.
"Finished already?" George asked, as he took the last string of lights from Annie and put them into a box with the rest.
"Not yet," she told him, eyes glancing over to where the near-dead mistletoe was still hanging, and he couldn't help catching a look in her eyes as she stared at it.
"Let me help you with that," he told her, making his way over and reaching up to pluck it down before she could protest. He held it in his hand, and hesitated a moment before moving back over to her.
"That's it then.." Annie mused, her voice soft as she looked at the sprig, and he hesitated again before he held it up over her head, and leaned in very quickly to kiss her. Within a few seconds it was over, and he handed it back to her, smiling awkwardly before he practically ran out of the room and up the stairs, leaving her holding the bit of plant to her chest, smiling.