A Different Kind of Christmas

Pairing(s): Romania x Hungary

Rating: K+

Genre(s): Comedy and Romance

Type: One shot

Warning: Has a little bit of swearing

Author's note(s):

I participated in the rare pair exchange on Tumblr! It was really fun writing this and sort of a challenge actually. I was the secret santa for a chick named Lena (aka: nowhiteflags tumblr url) who I've actually never met before obviously. But I hope you enjoy this Lena! I tried to make it perfect for you deary! Merry Christmas! ^-^

Hungary POV:

It seems the fall has flown by particularly fast… At one point in time everyone was in costumes and celebrating Halloween parties and there were leaves covering lawns the colors of brown, red, and orange. Now all of sudden it's December and I've finally realized that it's almost the end of the year. It scares me when I think about it; knowing that I've been around for more than several Christmases. It makes me feel old every once in a while but I should try to get used to it. The pretty, chilly yet warm autumn is over. Winter has finally come around and there's snow that replaces the leaves. I've gone from nice, easy jackets and basic shoes to huge, fuzzy coats and heavy boots because the weather has changed so much. It bugs me a little but like everyone says; out with the old in with the new.

The freezing breeze blows past my face as I head toward the small Christmas market down the lane. It's the best place to buy gifts because there's a lot of rare stuff you can't find at a Walmart or the mall. I like it better because for one they have the best iron frying pans ever making it quite useful for hitting people on the head, and two because the vendors are much nicer and show hospitality to just about every customer that gives them money. It's not too fancy but not too shabby either. Just the way I like it.

"Hello Miss Elizabeta, it's so nice to see you again this holiday!" Says the old woman holding a box of Christmas decorations; this store is always my first stop because of her.

"Do you need any help with that there?" I ask because she's a little old.

"No, no, it's alright dear." She gives me a warm smile that makes anyone's day happy, "You're a little late than usual, last minute shopping huh?"

"Ah ha yeah…" I laugh, slightly scratching the back of my head, I've been so busy with work lately that I haven't had time to buy presents and tomorrow is Christmas Eve.

"Well better late than never, yes?" She chuckles putting down the box and rubbing her frail back, "So what can I get for you then?"

"Ah well…" I had to think about my list.

I need a present for Mr. Austria, maybe ones for Ukraine and Lichtestenstein, ooh and something for Italy, Germany, ugh none for Prussia, am I forgetting anyone…?

"Hello?" Someone enters; the bell on the door making a little tinging sound.

"Ah hello sir! Welcome!" She grins another friendly smile at her customer.

I turn around to see someone I didn't think would ever be at a place like this.

Romania.

"What are you doing here?!" I say half surprised half angry.

"Oh hello Miss Eliza!" He grins evilly with his vampirish teeth, "You come to the Christmas market too?"

"You two know each other?" The store clerk asks curiously.

"I hate him." I say grudgingly.

Romania sneers at me, "Look let us not be fighting on such a great holiday. Love thy neighbor little Hun girl."

Oh he really does piss me off sometimes.

After getting all the gifts and decoration supplies I need, I pay the lady- giving her a gracious tip- and leave with bags in my hand. It's rather late so I decide that's the only part of the market I'll venture through.

"You're not going to get anything else?" I groan annoyed at the Romanian still beside me.

"I just want to go home." I sigh, "Don't bite me you stupid amateur vampire or I'll test my new skillet on your head."

"Two things, one I am no vampire. I don't even sparkle!" He laughs, "Secondly, you should be a little nicer to me. It is Christmas after all. We should not spread hate on this day!"

I can feel my temples hurting; I shut my eyes and try to seek patience. But I open them to see I'm just about to slip in the white powder. But someone catches me before I can fall.

"Miss, please be careful." Romania shakes his head in a sort of disappointment, "You should watch out for ice before you just walk into it."

I use his hand to help myself up. I'm just glad that he can't see my embarrassed blush. Gosh now I feel like a real klutz.

"Seriously, why are you stalking me?" I ask.

"I am not stalking you. I am being a gentleman and walking you home."

"Tch, whatever." He didn't seem like a gentleman at all.

Finally we were getting close to my house- well the house that I got since I'm not living with Austria anymore. I trudged down the snow cleared path to the door stomping off my feet.

Vladimir sighed, "Well I guess this is goodbye." He sounded sad for some reason.

"Guess so." Unlike him I felt a little relived except for a small part of me that I couldn't explain.

I reached into my coat pocket, digging deeper than I usually do. Which is actually strange… Oh shit…

"You don't have the key do you?" He laughed.

"I thought you were a gentleman!" I growled turning toward him again only to totally slide down the doorstep and into the wall of coldness.

He only laughed harder, "Oh wow."

"Sh-shut up!" I hiss, "If you're so much of a gentleman why don't you help me up!"

Being the kind man he was, he invited me to stay at his place for the night- well actually his rented cabin, which I wonder why the hell he would do that around my country. But still the home was decorated nicely with bright lights of all different colors. It was so beautiful with not only regular Christmas lights but icicles as well. Some of them would turn colors very slowly from light yellow to dark violet.

"Did you do this decorating?" I was wondering if he'd done this on purpose or if the décor just came with the cabin.

"Yeah, I hired someone to put them up for me because to be honest, getting up on a roof sounds a little scary."

"Well… They look… Nice…" I compliment his style of lights.

He grins, "You haven't seen anything until you've seen the tree!" Romania unlocks the door and lets me in first.

He's right; the tree looks gorgeous- even though half of it is covered in Romanian flags. Blue, yellow, and red sphere ornaments were carefully placed on the green wire branches and delicate lights wrapped around the whole thing.

"Really get into the Christmas spirit?"

"Is there a problem with that miss?"

"No." I smile a little; I never knew there was another side of the vampire.

"Well good." He picks up some logs and starts putting them in the fireplace, "It's cold, and I'm going to make a fire for milady since she's shivering." I hadn't even noticed, "Please feel free to stay awhile and take off your coat since it's all wet."

"Oh right." I slowly stripped away of my watered down coat and hung it up on the jacket hook by the door.

"And take off your shoes too if you please." He added as I did so.

I also removed my socks as well because they were pretty much frozen. I felt kind of stupid putting my bare feet out there for Vlad to see because my toenails were painted a pretty pink color. But you never know he could have a foot fetish as well. I watched as he removed his coat, a rare sight to see since he wears it pretty much all the time. He didn't have any good looking pecks but he wasn't fat thank God, personally I think he looks good as body type goes.

"Are you fawning over my looks miss?" I remembered I was staring.

"Ah ha ha…" I laugh nervously and advert my eyes, now I feel dumb.

"Would you like some hot chocolate or maybe some coffee?" He asks politely.

"Ah some hot coco would do…" I reply kindly.

He nods and makes his way into the small kitchen, I listen to him getting out mugs and searching through cupboards. I take a seat on the hard wood floor and watch the warm fire burn. It suits the homey ambiance of the cabin which comforts me. Little flames dance around the crisp wood and makes crackling sounds as the bark starts to burn off. I hear footsteps on the floor boards; I look over to see he's wearing cat socks.

"Hope you don't mind, I added some marshmallows in." He sits down beside me handing me a red mug.

"Thanks." I blow softly and press my lips to the edge of the cup and take a small sip. I burn my tongue anyways though. I stick it out to try cooling it down.

"Oh yeah it's a little hot."

"Now you tell me." I roll my eyes and set the cup down.

There's an awkward silence for a bit. I want to say something but before I can open my mouth he speaks.

"If you're still cold miss I have a blanket." It is still kind of cold now that I think about it so I nod. He goes off and grabs a wooly blanket. Next thing I know he's wrapping it around me- wait no, not just me, him too.

"Hey! Get your own!" I say kind of defensively like the sheet is my property.

"There's only one though!" He pouts but not too far away is a pile of folded blankets; what a liar. But I let him stay, out of the goodness of my heart.

He scoots closer making me nervous so I unravel a little and put my hands over the fire.

"So what are you planning to do tomorrow huh?" He asks, "Any parties, feasts, etc.?"

Now that I think about it, "No. Not really. I was just going to stay home I guess because the flights were getting kind of pricey due to blizzards."

I look at his face; it has a tint of pink over it and he looks like he's thinking about something. I see he's twiddling with his thumbs a bit.

"Then would you like to uh stay here Miss Hungary?"

That shocks me because I would've never expected him to ask me to stay with him.

"I can make a little dinner for the two of us and we could exchange little gifts or no gifts at all!" He lets out a nervous chuckle; it's kind of… Cute.

"Well…" I think about my options for a second, "…I guess I could since I didn't have anything to do in the first place…"

His nervous facial expression turns to a very joyful one, "That's wonderful!" He says in a very cheerful tone.

"Yeah well don't think much of it, I still hate you!" I'm not very angry nor serious for that matter.

The Romanian merely smiles like he has been this whole night.

"Hey Elizabeta?"

"Yeah?"

"Merry Christmas." I look at the clock and see it's midnight.

I smile too, "Merry Christmas Vladimir."

He comes a little closer, cupping his hand on my cheek and kisses me. I feel like a tomato as I look up again to see there's mistletoe above our heads. It pisses me off because he totally saw it and didn't tell me. Also he's the one that put it up, that jerk!

Ah but whatever, it looks like this is going to be a different kind of Christmas for me.

But you know what,

I'm okay with that.