A white Christmas. Bayley had barely been able to believe it when she had looked out of the bedroom window that morning. Seth had been woken by her delighted squealing, to his obvious displeasure. It had been five in the morning at the time, she had to admit. She had never been able to sleep on Christmas Eve, and she never expected to. Christmas was her absolute favourite time of year. Reluctantly, she had let him go back to sleep until almost eight. By then she had been able to wait no longer.
"I still can't believe we got a white Christmas," she said when Seth walked back into the living room carrying two cups of coffee.
"The first time you've ever seen snow in person, right?" Seth asked, remembering a conversation they'd had a few months earlier.
"Yeah. We so have to go out in it later."
"We will," Seth promised her.
Seth handed over Bayley's cup, feeling warm inside without making a start on his own drink. His girlfriend was always a bubbly, excitable person, but it was turned up to eleven today, and he found it so adorable.
Before joining her in sitting in front of their lavishly decorated tree, Seth glanced around the living with a real sense of pride. He had been confident that they would get the work finished in time for the big day, but the fact that they actually had done was still a pleasant relief. The smell of gloss paint still stubbornly hung in the air, but neither of them cared in the least about that. Both the living room and kitchen were completely finished, including decoration. The dining room was also not far from being finished. It was ready enough for them to be able to eat Christmas dinner in there, that was the main thing.
Upstairs still needed a lot more work, especially a couple of the bedrooms, which hadn't even been started yet. There was no rush to get those done though. A couple of bathroom suites still needed to be replaced, and they had decided to also replace the staircase in marble to make the entrance hall a real focal point of the house.
Overall, he decided, they had made great progress with the amount of time that they had been able to put in to working on the renovations. The fact that Bayley was a keen and quick learner had certainly helped. There were not many jobs now that he wouldn't feel fairly confident about leaving her to do.
One job he had chosen to do alone was the Christmas decorations, making a special trip home on a day when Bayley had been sent to a Make-A-Wish event by WWE. They had agreed to only get each other one gift each, in order to save money to spend on the house, particularly with the marble staircase still to be paid for. Seth had bought, put up and decorated the tree. When he was done, it had hit him what a let down it would look with just two gifts underneath it on Christmas morning. That wouldn't have done at all. Then a idea had come to him. After a quick trip back into Waukee, he had returned with the car's trunk loaded with cardboard boxes of various sizes, and a few rolls of gift wrap. A couple of hours later, there was a pile of make-believe gifts under the tree. All of the effort had been worth it, because Bayley had burst into tears of joy the next time she came home and seen it all for herself.
Seth had also considered wrapping up the engagement ring that he'd already bought as a Christmas gift and proposing to her that way, but he had decided against it, choosing to stick to his original plan instead.
Bayley, sitting by the tree with her legs crossed, picked up one of the two items that actually was a gift. "You first, baby. I hope you like it." She handed him the small box, wrapped in blue paper which was decorated with Santa figures and elves.
Seth set about trying to open it, finding it tough work. "Wow, how much tape did you use on this?" he asked with a grin.
"Bayley's special wrapping, that's what that is."
Eventually, he managed to work a corner of the paper loose, which then allowed him to tear the rest off, revealing a black box that struck him as coming from a jewelry store. Opening it up, he saw that Bayley had bought him a Seiko watch. Not being an expert, he wasn't sure how much it was worth, but it sure looked like it was worth a fortune.
"Babe, I don't know what to say," he said softly, looking up at her. "Thank you so much."
"I hope you like it," Bayley repeated nervously as he took it out of the box to examine it in more detail. "I have to admit it's not new. I could never afford a new one. It's reconditioned, but I don't think there's any way to tell."
"No, it looks amazing. I love it. Thank you so much." They talked for a couple of minutes while Seth tried the watch on, Bayley explaining that she had gotten a tip off from her father on where to by excellent reconditioned watches.
"Now it's your turn," Seth said when he picked up Bayley's gift. This one was wrapped in shiny silver paper.
Bayley let out a squeal of excitement when he handed her the gift. Quickly tearing it open, she also found dark blue jewelry box. When she opened it, she saw a silver necklace with a turquoise diamond pendant in the shape of a heart. It was stunningly beautiful. Tears filled her eyes as she lifted out of the box.
"Oh, Seth, it's beautiful."
Seth had thought about what to say next ahead of time. Hoping that she wouldn't think it was lame, he went for it. "I chose a heart because I want you to know that whenever we're away from each other, my heart is still with you."
"That's so sweet," Bayley managed to say, as the tears came.
"Don't cry, angel." Seth moved across the floor to sit closer to her, where he could hug her.
"I'm crying because I'm so happy. I don't even deserve to be this happy. You treat me so well, you spoil me, you've spent so much more money on the house than I have. I just don't deserve it all."
"Of course you do. Who cares about money? You make me every bit as happy as I make you, if not more. You deserve every bit of love I can give you. Just being here with you right now makes me happier than I ever imagined I could be."
They just held each other then, enjoying the moment, Seth stroking Bayley's hair as she rested her head on his shoulder.
A loud bang on the window made them both jump out of their skins.
"Jesus Christ. What was that?" Seth asked, standing up to look. The patch of snow on the glass pane told him all he needed to know. Someone had thrown a snowball which had presumably missed its intended target and hit their window instead. He walked over to the window, then smiled at what he saw. "Babe, get some warm clothes on."
"What? Why?" Bayley stood up and was about to walk over to look out the window, but Seth ushered her out of the door instead.
"No time. Just put some warm clothes on, quick."
"Seth, what's going on?" It was no good though, she was being shepherded up the stairs. A couple of minutes later they were walking back down, wearing several layers to protect them against the cold.
"Where are we going?" Bayley demanded, standing at the bottom of the stairs with her hands on her hips.
"You'll need these." Seth tossed over her black beanie and her pair of leather gloves. He had similar items of his own, and he put them on as he headed for the front door.
Given no choice, Bayley followed after him. She felt a blast of cold air hit her when he opened the door. He stood in the doorway, looking out.
"Sorry, Mr Rollins. I was trying to hit my dad," she heard a boys voice shout, recognising it as the son of their closest neighbours.
Bayley reached the doorway and looked out, smiling immediately at what Seth had refused to tell her. She counted six kids from the neighbourhood and four parents, all engaged in a snowball fight. It was exactly what she had dreamed about when they'd first moved in together. Seth had promised her that it would happen one day, and it was, on Christmas day of all days.
"Get your game face on, babe. This means war." Seth picked up some snow, made a ball out of it and hurled it back at the offender who had hit their window. He made sure not to throw it too hard because the kid was probably early teens at most. In any event, the shot missed to the left, hitting a parked car.
"Woah! That's my car!" The man's anger was feigned, and he followed up with a snowball from across the street. It fell short of Seth.
"Right," Bayley said with determination, putting her gloves on as quickly as she could. She closed their front door after making sure her keys were in her coat pocket, then it was down to business. She scooped up a ball of her own and launched it across the street, causing the man who had thrown at Seth to dodge out of the way.
"There's eight of us this side of the street and four on yours!" someone shouted.
"Yeah, but we're better shots than you!" Seth shouted back, scurrying across their front garden to crouch down and hide behind the picket fence.
Bayley wasn't quite quick enough, and she took a snowball to her right leg on her way across the small lawn. "Who threw that?" she demanded, peaking her head up over the fence. Another ball sailed over her head, making her take cover again.
"We're pinned down here!" Seth called out.
The kid who had hit their living room window vaulted over the fence, landing next to Bayley, hurling a snowball across the street as he did so. "I got your back, Mr Rollins."
"Your dad's on the other team?" Seth asked, trying not to laugh.
"Yeah. We've got to get him."
"Alright, all three of us aim for him, on my mark."
They scooped up and compacted a snowball each, then Seth peaked over the fence. Those on the other side of the street had taken cover behind their own fences and cars. One of the other adults was the other person on Seth and Bayley's side, and he dashed over to join them behind their fence.
"He's behind the car straight across from us," Seth said quietly. "Wait for him to throw at us, then we throw back."
Their target popped up above the hood of the car a moment later, saw Seth's head and threw his snowball. "Now!" Seth yelled, as the ball struck the fence with a bang. All four people on Seth's team popped up and launched their balls at the same target. Three of them missed, but Seth's struck its mark, right on the top of the guy's head as he tried to duck back down behind the car.
All four of them burst out laughing. "Laser sighted," Seth pretended to boast. "Do not get on the wrong side of me in a snowball fight."
Little did he know, he had left the top of his own head sticking up while he showboated, and someone made him pay, striking him on the back of the head with loosely packed ball which exploded everywhere.
Bayley burst out laughing so hard that her sides started to hurt. Judging where the shot had come from, she peaked over the fence and threw a ball of her own which only just missed the kid who had hit Seth.
The fight went on for the next fifteen minutes, by which time everyone had been hit multiple times. A couple of people had turned traitor, crossing the street to Seth's side to even the numbers. It was when Seth got brave that he made himself a problem. He'd had one of his opponents on the run, and had jumped over the fence to get a better shot. It worked, his shot struck the guy square in the back, but then he realised that he was out in the open. Balls starting flying at him from all angles.
"Christ!" he exclaimed, and tried to jump back over the fence in retreat. His foot caught on the top of it and he fell, landing square on top of Bayley, who ended up flat on her back in the snow. At first he was worried that he might have hurt her, but she lay there laughing as she looked up at him.
"Not such a hero after all, Rollins."
"You know I'm you're hero, Martinez," he countered, smiling. He had never felt happier than he did at that moment, looking down at his beautiful girlfriend with her cheeks and nose red from the cold. This really was the king of thing dreams were made of. It was already the best Christmas ever. Leaning down, he kissed her softly on the lips. "I love you, angel."
"I love you too, Seth."
"Eww!" the boy next to them shouted. "They're kissing. I'm out of here."
After Seth helped her back up, Bayley made sure to hit the turncoat with a snowball as he ran across the street. "I'll never forget this as long as I live, Seth," she told him when they took cover behind the fence again.
"Neither will I, angel. But right now? We've got a war to win." With that, he scooped up another snowball and launched it across the street.