Chapter 36

So the Superstars and Divas had the following week off to celebrate Christmas, and the Guns had a busy couple of days. To start with, they first traveled to Union City, New Jersey to meet AJ's folks. Alex was totally nervous about meeting her parents and nearly made a fool out of himself during dinner trying to impress them, but despite nearly flooding their house and then almost setting the place on fire, her parents grew to accept him as her boyfriend anyway.

The next day, they traveled to Richmond, Virginia to meet Mickie's folks. Since she had such a big family, the gathering was nothing short of chaotic. For starters, Mickie's siblings got in a shouting match during dinner about nothing really important, and when Alex tried to resolve the situation, a knife flew past his head. A food fight soon broke out after that. AJ hid into a closet for most of the time, Alex got some Cognac splashed in his eyes, rendering him temporarily blind, Mickie tried to calm everyone down, and Chris just made the situation worse by joining in the fight and accidentally managing to get a fork stuck into her brother's arm. Her parents were on the verge of calling the cops on Chris, but Mickie was able to talk them out of it. Despite the dinner date from Hell, everyone left on good terms. Although, her parents have placed a restraining order on Chris. The day after that, which was Christmas Eve, they traveled to Detroit, Michigan to spend the rest of the holiday at the house that Alex and Chris shared...

"Wow, nice place you guys got here." AJ announced, bringing her bags inside.

"Yeah, I had no idea you two lived together." agreed Mickie. "Is there something you two aren't telling us?"

The two guys looked at one another.

"Look, don't get any ideas. Y'see, Chris and I've known each other ever since the 8th grade, and we've faced many obstacles together, including constantly getting lied to and stood up by chicks, puberty, a senior prank gone horribly wrong, almost getting arrested for structural damage done to the school-" Alex rambled on.

"What does this have to do with you two living together?" asked AJ.

"Well, we're like brothers, and since we've gone through so much together, we figured, why not share a place?" answered Chris. "So to clear things up, Shelley and I only have a bromance, nothing more, nothing less."

"Plus, Chris never pays his half of the rent, and if it weren't for me, he'd be out in the street, so yeah." added Alex.

"Hey! You know damn well why I couldn't pay the rent! That phony Jehovah's Witness swindled me out of my money and-" began Sabin.

"Shut up, Chris, I don't want to hear it anymore." he stopped him.

"Wow, you guys are so cute together." AJ announced while Mickie giggled.

"Babe, he and I are not together. You and I are, and I think that we go pretty damned hot together, dont'cha think?" Shelley asked, wrapping an arm around her waist.

"We do, my fellow geek." she smiled, sharing a kiss with him. "So, you guys have any video games that we can play here?"

"Do we have any video games?" he repeated, surprised. "April, what Sabin and I own is a PSP/X-Box/Wii paradise! Come along." he smiled, leading her into another room.

"Yeah, we better not disturb them. You know how we gamers are." Chris smiled. "Relentless!"

Mickie giggled. "I really don't know, I'm not much of a gamer." she replied. "So, I can't stop thinking about your match against Dave, and you have no idea how proud I am of you."

He smiled and took her hands in his. "Babe, this is like, the 10th time you told me this! I told you that I couldn't have done it without you guys."

"Well, you proved yourself that night and it was nice seeing Dave wallow in his own defeat." the Country Diva continued. "He's probably still crying about it."

He laughed. "I hope he is. Y'know, the entire time I was in the ring with him, I couldn't help but to keep thinking about the horrible things that he said about you, and it just drove me to destroy him even more. NOBODY disses the girlfriend of Chris Sabin." he continued smiling.

"And NOBODY gets to put their hands on the boyfriend of Mickie James. Except Mickie, of course." the brunette smiled seductively, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Ooh, you are so hardcore..." he muttered lustfully, his hands moving to her waist and pulling her closer to him.

"Only as hardcore as you want me to be." she purred, sharing an intoxicating kiss with him. When they broke apart, they were left breathing heavily.

"So yeah, the only thing we're missing is a bed." Chris announced.

"Well, I don't know where your room is, so take me there!" she giggled.

The Detroit native lifted the perky Diva into his arms and jogged towards his room, almost tripping over a rug.

"Hey, don't drop me!" she called.

"Blame Alex for not getting rid of that God-awful rug!" he exclaimed.

Meanwhile, Alex and AJ were in his room, playing their 12th game in a row, Call of Duty.

"BOOM!" the tiny Diva exclaimed. "You are done!"

"No fair, you blew up two of my guys!" Shelley exclaimed.

"You're just jealous cause I beat you again. Just deal with it, dude." she smiled.

"'Just deal with it', I'll show YOU 'Just deal with it'!" he exclaimed, tackling her down on the bed and tickling her.

She laughed uncontrollably. "AAH! Damn it, Alex, stop, stop!" she cried between laughs. He laughed along, glad to see his girlfriend so happy. When he stopped ticking her, they both noticed just how close to one another they were, and leaned in to share an immensely passionate kiss, with him on top of her. Alex wasn't really thinking, so he began to lift up her shirt, when April broke away and said, "Alex, wait."

He looked down at her. "Yeah? What's wrong? Do you want me to dim the lights some more?"

"No, it's just...we can't."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I'm not ready to do this, babe. I'm sorry for ruining the mood, but you know, we've only been going out for a little over a month." she explained.

"And it's too early, am I right?" he asked.

"Exactly. You understand, don't you?" the Diva asked pleadingly.

He smiled and kissed the tip of her nose. "Sure. I still love you, my Geek Goddess."

She giggled and kissed him back. "And I love you, Shelleykins. So, what game should I beat you in next, Fast and the Furious or Guitar Hero?"

"Y'know, if you keep being all cocky like this, I'm not giving you my Christmas present tomorrow." he chuckled.

"Nooo, AJ wants her present!" she pouted.

The next day was Christmas, and after their long night of gaming and reading comics, April and Alex were still sleeping, but that didn't last long when an overexcited Chris bursted in the room, crying, "WAKE THE HELL UP, IT'S CHRISTMAS!"

Then, he leapt on their bed, landing on them and causing them to immediately wake up in pain.

"OW! Chris!" exclaimed AJ.

"Why can't you wake us up like a normal person, dillweed?" Alex demanded groggily.

"Cause it's Christmas, dipwad, now let's celebrate!" he exclaimed.

"I come bearing presents!" Mickie announced, joining them with a few wrapped boxes.

"Oh, goodie! Let's see what we all got!" AJ announced, happily bouncing up and down.

So, the friends went on to exchange gifts. Mickie got AJ a crop top that read, 'Little Miss Giggles', as AJ gave her a matching crop top that read, 'Little Miss Chatterbox'. Chris gave AJ a large Pikachu plushie, and she gave him a series of new video games such as Call of Duty 3, Legend of Zelda, and Assassin's Creed Revelations. Yes, he was a happy boy. Anyway, Mickie gave Alex a few CDs of his favorite bands, while he gave her a cute tote bag with read, 'Emotional Baggage', with a pair of Juicy Couture sunglasses inside. Similar to Chris, AJ gave Alex a few of his favorite video games, along with some rare vintage comics, to his delight. Mickie got Chris a chrome Skull chain necklace, a black bullet belt, and a skull bracelet to match. Next, Chris gave Alex a T-Shirt that read, '...As a matter of fact, the whole world DOES revolve around me.' The Detroit native laughed at this and then gave Sabin a T-Shirt that read, 'Ask Me About My Ability To Annoy Complete Strangers.'. Chris laughed for a moment but then glared at his friend. "Is THIS what you really think of me?" he demanded.

"Yeah, dude. That shirt describes the story of your life in one complete sentence." Shelley replied.

Instead of getting mad, though, Sabin shrugged and replied, "Cool. Thanks, man!"

"And last but not least, for my darling Geek princess..." Alex announced, handing AJ a small box. The tiny Diva smiled back at him as she quickly opened the box, finding a silver circle locket necklace. "Oh, Alex..." she smiled, opening the locket to find a picture of a cute little nerdy Gir w/glasses (from Invader Zim) on one side saying, 'When Hearts Collide'. On the other side, was a photo of the smiling couple. "Babe, this is so beautiful!" she exclaimed, touched. "Thank you!"

"You're very welcome." he smiled back, giving her a kiss.

Mickie smiled at the two before turning to Chris. "So, whaddya get me?" she asked curiously. "And if it's a $25 gift card to Wal-Mart, I will kill you."

The tag team specialist smirked and handed her another small box. "Just open it, will ya?" he chuckled.

"Yeah, well like I said, if you give me some cheap-" she paused once she revealed an orange covered ipod Touch. "Wow!" she exclaimed, pleasantly surprised.

Once she looked through the device, he continued, "So yeah, aside from loading it with all your favorite songs, I also left you a video message."

"Really?" she smiled, checking the message to find Chris saying, "Uh, is thing on?-Oh! Hey, Sweet Mickie! It's the Chrismeister here with a lil Christmas message to a woman that hasn't driven me this insane in love ever since Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider-"

Then, Alex spoke up and said from another room, "Chris, what the hell are you talking about?"

"Hey, SHUT UP, I'm trying to be sentimental here! *sigh* Anyways, Mickie, what I'm trying to say is that I am madly in love with you, my Hardcore Angel." he smiled. Then, he began singing for some reason: "You're my fiiiire, my one desiiiire..."

"Sabin, you shut the hell up right now before I whack you upside the head with this skillet!" Alex cried in the background.

"Nobody asked you, bunghole!" Chris snapped back, exiting the shot.

As the video ended, they all laughed. "So, I know that it wasn't perfect, but do you like the gift anyway?" asked Chris.

"Hey, you may not be perfect, either, but I wouldn't take you any other way. Just so you know, I am madly in love with you too, Sabin." the Country Diva smiled, before they shared another kiss.

"Ok, I'd hate to break up this little moment, but can I just say something?" asked AJ. "Let's just all be thankful that despite everything that's happened to us in the past few weeks, we managed to survive and that we're all still here to celebrate Christmas together. But more than that, we're even tighter friends than we were before."

"Cheers to that!-Here, here!" they agreed.

"Well all righty, kids, we better get moving because now it's time to celebrate this holiday the right way. Who wants pancakes, Lucky Charms, and waffles?" announced Alex.

"WOOHOO!" the three cheered in agreement as they headed out to enjoy the day. After all, the Guns deserved a break after what Ziggler and his crew had put them through lately.