A/N- I was compelled, well over a month ago, to write stupidly fluffy Christmas fic, and here it is, uploaded to finally... significantly late. Whoops.

Of all the Christmas parties she had dragged Soul to this year, this one had to be the strangest. Although the place was correctly decorated with garlands and baubles and even a gleaming Christmas tree, the shadowy lab still felt more appropriate for a Halloween party than a Christmas party. Then again, she didn't know what else she had expected when she'd heard that Miss Marie and Professor Stein were hosting a combination Christmas party and baby shower. Obviously it was going to be—

"Hey, Maka. Look!"

Soul's elbow repeatedly nudging her shoulder yanked her out of her thoughts.

"What?" she asked in annoyance, rubbing her shoulder though it didn't really hurt.

He gave her that infamous shit-eating grin of his and pointed up above their heads. "Mistletoe."

For half a second she thought he was messing with her just to see her freak out and turn red (it wouldn't be the first time), but when she looked up, sure enough there was a cluster of white berries tied off with a gold ribbon, nestled into the garland that hung around the walls.

Well, whether it had been his intention or not, he had certainly gotten a blush out of her anyway. "Mistletoe is stupid," she muttered. "Let's just not and say we did."

He pouted. "Aw, don't be a Grinch, Maka. Partners can kiss. Can't partners kiss? Black*Star and Tsubaki kiss all the time."

"That's because they're also having wild animal sex."

It was Soul's turn to flush red, but he kept that teasing light in his eyes and the smirk still lurked in the corners of his lips. His very, very kissable lips… no! Don't think about that!

"Well what about Kim and Jackie? They kiss."

"Not really helping your point, Soul."

He was pouting again, and it was much too cute to be legal. "C'mon, Maka, what's the harm?"

"Soul…"

But even as she tried to warn him away just with his name and the tone of her voice, she knew it was a wasted effort. For whatever reason, he was absolutely determined to get a kiss out of her, and unfortunately for her resolve, she really, really wanted to let him.

"Fine," she said with a roll of her eyes. "I guess one kiss can't hurt. Let's just get this over with." She turned to face him, stood up on tiptoe, and pressed her lips to his.

She had meant it to be a quick peck, but Soul apparently had other ideas. His hands settled on the curve of her waist, not enough to hold her there if she really wanted to stop, but enough to pull her just a little bit closer as he settled down to the business of kissing her… a business that had her feeling dizzy and breathless in seconds.

He was intent on taking his time, tasting and teasing her lips until she was, to her eternal mortification, trembling against him. The flush in her cheeks didn't stop her from returning the gentle pressure of his mouth eagerly when she felt his thumbs rubbing little circles through her blouse against the soft skin below her ribs. The sensation raised goosebumps across her skin, and she shivered and pressed closer, her hands finding their way to run over the fabric of his sweater over his chest. As Soul nipped lightly on her lip in retaliation, she tried to rationalize it as holding herself up, somehow, tried to convince herself that she was absolutely not feeling her partner up, but she wasn't getting enough oxygen to her brain to make that work.

Soul finished up his thorough exploration of her lips with a few soft pecks before he pulled back, arms still resting around her waist. His grin tried to be smug, but the warmth and tender affection in his eyes just made it look sentimental.

"Merry Christmas, Maka," he said, and she didn't need soul perception to hear what he was really trying to say.

It was her turn to smirk as, without a word, she pushed him back into the shadows against the wall and staged a hostile takeover of his mouth.

ONCE AGAIN THIS IS YOUR REMINDER TO SIGN UP FOR REVERB IF YOU ARE INTERESTED!

We're currently a little low on authors in comparison to the number of artists who have signed up (in fact currently we have ten more artists than writers), although it is of course still very early in the sign up period so things may change before the week is up. As a mod, if any artists are left without writers once everyone has been paired up at the halfway point, myself and the other mods will have to pick up the slack, so if you're even remotely interested in being part of a super fun fandom event, consider signing up. As a personal favor to me, perhaps, so that I don't have to write stories for like six different people if we keep having more artists than authors? ;P

But on a serious note, being a writer in this event isn't a huge commitment. All you need to do once you're partnered with an artist is write a minimum of 6,000 words between April and July, which is basically a moderate-length oneshot, or a drabble that's gotten pretty out of hand, so it's really not very much. And if, before it's time to be partnered with an artist in April, you realize you're too busy to continue, you can absolutely drop out. You can quit at any time (though we'd really rather you not drop out after being partnered up if you can help it), but you can't get involved later once sign ups are closed, so if you would like to participate, please consider it.

Sign ups are open until February 14th. Saturday. Valentine's Day. Big flashing neon sign saying that you have until 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Saturday night to sign up. Links to sign-up threads as well as further information about Reverb are on my profile, so please, take a minute to look the info over and see if you'd like to get involved, maybe make some new friends?

I would say sorry about throwing all this Reverb stuff in your face... except I'm only the teensiest bit sorry because it's gonna be fun and I want to give as many people the chance to participate as possible, and it's harder to get the word out on than it is on Tumblr.