December 25th: Advent Calendar Part Two
Part Two of Seven
ONE: HOLLY
Amanda pulls out the little white box marked "1" from the calendar she has put together for Carisi.
"Look inside," she says to him.
He pulls a tiny green sprig with a little red bow on it. "Holly?"
"Yes, our first kiss."
Then lean in to each other and exchange a brief, almost chaste kiss. It is the first time they've kissed since she had asked him for some time to think about things. Neither of them wanted to put too many expectations on the other…
"Hey Mandy," Carisi asks, "I've been wanting to know something."
"Yeah?"
"Why did you reject me under the mistletoe?"
"A girl can't just give in to the first advance."
He looks dumbfounded. "You're kidding, right?"
"Carisi, you ain't from the South. We do things a little differently down there."
"But you live in New York. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you have for years."
"You can take the girl out of Georgia …"
"Okay, I get it." He says, nodding, smiling, knowing that there will probably always be a little bit of culture clash between them, being raised so differently.
It will keep things interesting if they end up staying together.
TWO: STAIRCASE
"Number Two?" he asks.
"All you," she says, indicating that he should go ahead and open the box marked '2′ with a small movement of her hands.
He pulls out an intricately fashioned staircase – A miniature staircase. It looked just like the one in this house. The one where they had …
"Mandy, did you MAKE this?"
"Yes," she says smiling proudly.
"Wow! I didn't know you had these kinds of skills."
"I've got some mad skills you just haven't experienced yet, baby."
He grins, wondering if she's talking about her prowess in bed. Then he flushes.
"Got a question for you now," she says, toning it down. "Was it Kathleen that your mom caught you with under the staircase? The 'girlfriend' your mom mentioned after we were caught?"
"Yes, yes it was."
"That's kind of flattering," Amanda muses.
"Huh?"
"Well, you've only been under the staircase with two people - Kathleen and me." Amanda pauses. "And I know how you feel about her. What she means to you."
THREE: HAIR DRYER
Carisi clears his throat nervously and changes the subject. "Shall we do the third one?"
"Be my guest. It's your gift to explore."
Pulling out a box and opening it, he looks at what's inside and smiles. "Oh, I remember that day."
Amanda smiles back at him as he reaches out to touch her hair, playing with a tendril that had fallen in front of her face gently before tucking it back behind her ear. "That was nice."
"Yeah it was."
Amanda takes the tiny hair dryer out of the box marked '3.' "You know, that night in your bathroom as you blow dried my hair … ?"
"Yeah?"
"I saw all your robot stuff - your childhood stuff. And I wondered what you had been like as a boy …"
"Well, it's pretty simple."
"Oh?"
"I was a nerd."
"No, really?" Amanda pretends to be shocked.
"Nerd, geek, dweeb, poindexter … you name it – that was me." He grins that big goofy grin of his.
"I can't believe it." Amanda continues in mock shock, still giving him a hard time.
"What, the Robby the Robot toothbrush holder didn't give it away?"
She giggles.
"Hey, things have changed now with Comic Con and all. If I had grown up nowadays, I would have been considered cool."
"How so? You seem pretty …" Amanda waves her hand randomly.
"What?"
"I don't know. Just NOT COOL."
"Why you little… "
She shrieks as he lunges for her tummy, seeking to tickle the bejesus out of her. But he bumps the calendar seated between them in his efforts and the little boxes threaten to spill out of it.
"Ooops!" Amanda grabs it just in time to save them all from tumbling to the floor. The tickle game ends before it begins.
FOUR: CHRISTMAS TREE
"Okay now, Carisi. Focus. Number four."
"Okay, I know what this is," he says pulling out a tiny Christmas tree with little tiny decorations adorning it. They are all to scale. Amanda really put some work into this.
"They night you helped me set up my Christmas tree, no?"
"The same," she answers.
"Man, some of that was a real pain."
"You were supposed to get a smaller tree. That's why you ran out of lights."
"Christmas lights," He huffs. "The bane of my existence."
Amanda doesn't chuckle at that. She remembers the day the lights came crashing down on his head at the precinct…
FIVE: FROZEN
"Okay, chop chop!" She says, changing the subject, not wanting the mood to turn melancholy. "Number five."
As he pulls the tinest BluRay on earth from the box labelled '5' he is in wonder. "How did you DO this?"
He can actually read the tiny print, see the details. Its' an almost perfect miniature of the movie they had watched that one night: Frozen. "Damn, Amanda."
"Thanks," she shrugs.
"How did you do this?"
"A lady never tells," she sing-songs.
"Is that another Southern thing?"
"No, just a chick thing." She gives him a wry smile.
"Man, speaking of chicks, your sister had me convinced that you were the Snow Queen. You know – like Elsa."
Amanda harrumphs. "Let me guess, she told you she was Anna."
"Something like that."
"Oh, Kim and her flights of fancy." Amanda says dismissively.
"She told me something else, Mandy…"
"What was that?"
"That if anyone could melt your heart, it was me," he says and looks down sheepishly.
"Oh, hon." Amanda puts her hand softly on his cheek stroking it a bit with her thumb. He looks like he need reassurance. "You already did. Long ago."
"Yeah?" He looks up.
"Yeah, like over a year ago."
He beams. "That long?"
"Yes," she breathes and pulls him in for a kiss that is a little more heated than the last one.
TO BE CONTINUED …
Based on this OTP Advent Calendar fic prompt list posted by yankeecountess . Thank you so much!
Stay tuned for tomorrow's Advent Calendar Part 3!
