Téa looked up excitedly as the door bell rang. She practically flew to the door and threw it open, to find Tristan and Joey grinning like a pair of idiots at her. The two boys held up their bags of presents.
"Merry Christmas, Téa!" they cried in unison.
The girl laughed. "You just want to get some of Mom's homemade cookies, don't you?"
Tristan laughed. "Why would you think such a thing? I am so deeply hurt...."
"They're on the kitchen counter."
"Woo-hoo!"
Mai walked up to the open door just in time to see Joey and Tristan hurling themselves into the kitchen, and attempting to fit through the small door together.
"They're stupider then I thought," she muttered.
Téa spun and hugged Mai tightly. "You came!" she cried.
Mai blushed and nodded. "Well...yeah..." Then she winked. "Couldn't let you get all of the guys to yourself." The blonde woman set her gifts next to Joey and Tristan's and then went to watch as Joey choked himself on a cookie.
"C'mon big brother! Hurry!"
Téa smiled at the sound of that young voice, and smiled even greater at the one that came after it.
"Don't worry, Mokuba, we won't be late."
The brown haired girl opened the door to kind Mokuba and Seto Kaiba standing on her doorstep, the youngest one grinning up at her and the older one staying calm.
"Téa!" Mokuba hugged the girl so tightly that she almost fell down.
"Téa!" Mai called from the kitchen. "You might need more cookies!"
The brown haired girl sighed as Mokuba ran past her and into the kitchen. Seto started after him, but was stopped by Téa. "Don't worry, he'll be fine. All the people in there adore your brother."
The eldest Kaiba raised and eyebrow. "And who is in there?"
"Joey, Tristan and Mai." When he grunted, the girl just smiled. "C'mon Seto, relax. It's Christmas Eve!" Téa steered the older boy to a couch, where he plopped down as the doorbell rang.
"It's open!"
In walked Yugi and Bakura, bearing gifts. They put their's with the rest of the presents and then smiled at Téa. "Hey! Merry Christmas!"
Téa smirked. "The cookies are in the kitchen, but you'd better get them before Joey eats them all." Yugi and Bakura took the cue and hurried into the kitchen, not wanting their blonde haired friend to get all of the sweets.
"Téa!" Mai called again. "They're starting to get into the rest of the food!"
The girl sighed and collapsed down onto the couch next to Kaiba. "I love Christmas," she said. "It's so beautiful...with all of the snow and everyone has their lights up and..." She turned to the boy sitting next to her. "What do you think of Christmas, Kaiba?"
The boy sighed. "Please call me Seto. Kaiba was just the name that my adopted father gave me...and he wasn't the highest person on my list...." Seto leaned back against the couch. "Christmas used to be so much fun....but now...I guess it just doesn't hold the same fun that it used to."
Téa nodded. "I'm sorry....Seto, I shouldn't have asked."
"Joey Wheeler!" Mai's voice cried from the kitchen. "That is disgusting!"
"Yeah! Go Joey!" That was Mokuba.
Seto sighed and put his head in his hands. "Do you think we even want to know what's going on in there?"
Téa laughed. "Probably not...but here goes nothing!" She stood and bravely pushed open the double doors to see how badly her friends had trashed the kitchen.
It really wasn't that bad, if you didn't count the overturned trash can, the cookie crumbs that covered almost all of the floor and the fact that Joey was chasing Mai around the kitchen, his mouth open wide with fudge dripping from it. So if you didn't count that, everything was perfectly fine.
Mokuba was laughing hysterically and leaning on Tristan for support, but he wasn't being much help, as he could barely keep himself up. Yugi was sitting on the counter top laughing and watching Joey chase Mai, while Bakura was munching placidly on a cookie and taking in the sights around him.
"Oy..."Téa slapped her forehead. She swore that she heard Seto chuckling behind her, but maybe it was just her imagination.
"Hey Téa..." Yugi's voice brought her back from her thoughts on how many ways she could strangle Joey. She blinked and looked at the smaller boy questioningly. "You do know that you are standing under mistletoe...right?"
Slowly, Téa looked straight up. Yup, sure enough someone had put mistletoe there.....just as slowly, she turned to see Seto still standing behind her. "Um...hi?"
"C'mon you guys," came Joey's jeering voice. Apparently he had stopped chasing Mai long enough to realize what was happening. "You know the tradition."
"Go Téa," Mai teased gently.
The brown haired girl blushed and looked up into Seto's eyes. He looked paler then usual but nodded, ever so slightly. She stood on her tip-toes and he leaned down slightly. Their lips met in a short, tender moment.
"Woo-hoo!"
Téa blushed and pulled away. "Oh can-it Tristan, you sound like a cheerleader." Everyone in the room chuckled. "Time for presents anyway!" The eight friends moved out of the trashed kitchen, careful to move single file under the mistletoe.
The presents were distributed and the wrapping paper was torn off and thrown in to a reckless pile. Cries of joy and laughter emmitted from the mouths of teenagers unwrapping their presents.
"Hah." Joey said as he opened Mai's gift to him. "Real funny blondie." He pulled out a mask of a dog. "Reeeeal hilarious."
Mai giggled helplessly. "Don't worry, Joey, that's just the joke gift. The real gift is in there."
The blonde boy tore through the tissue paper, desperately looking for the real present. He found it in a homemade card at the bottom. As his friends watched him read it, his face turned from pink, to red, to a bright crimson and then to his normal color again...only this time a huge smile was plastered on it. "Thanks Mai," he whispered. "You are right, that was the best present ever."
Téa pulled a skirt from the folds of the wrapping paper and admired it. It was a black jean skirt that fell to her knees and had two roses embroidered on it. The two roses were intertwined with each other on the right side. The girl smiled. "Thanks Seto," she whispered. She moved aside as Tristan left the room, probably to use the bathroom.
"Thank you too," he said. He had just opened his present, a camera and some film.
"So you will always have pictures," Téa explained. "Even when you go away to college..."
Seto nodded. "Look in the pocket of your skirt, the rest of your Christmas is in there." He watched out of the corner of his eye as she pulled a piece of paper from her new skirt's pocket and read it. She read it once and then again.
'You have been formally invited to the Kaiba Mansion for a New Year's Eve party. RSVP as soon as possible please.' And then down at the bottom, in Seto's writing it read, 'If you do decide to come, Téa, will you come as my date?'
The brown haired girl smiled and leaned against Seto. "Of course I'll come, Seto."
He smiled, vaguely. "Good."
"Um..." Bakura looked up from talking to Yugi. "Has anyone noticed where Joey and Mai have gone?" Everyone looked at each other. Tristan entered the room looking slightly shaken.
"I...uh...found them They're um....rather...busy, right now...." he sat down beside Yugi. "I've seen Joey do a lot of things, but I've never seen him do that."
Everyone shuddered. Mokuba looked up at Tristan questioningly. "What were they doing, Tristan?"
"Um...ask Kaiba." Everyone looked to the famous CEO to see how he would react. He blushed and stared at the ceiling. Bakura chuckled and Yugi out right laughed.
Then the boy with multi-colored hair stood up. "I've got to be going, guys, me and Grandpa are going to go sing Christmas carols at the orphanage."
Bakura and Tristan also stood. "Yeah," they said in unison. "And we got dragged into it too."
Yugi sighed. "C'mon guys, I told you that it would be fun!"
Téa almost laughed. "Man...I would give almost anything to see that..."
"Wanna come?" Tristan asked, eager to add someone else to the same torture that he was sentanced to.
"I said 'almost' anything."
"Big brother!" Mokuba cried. "Can I go, too?" He looked pleadingly at his big brother, with huge sapphire eyes. "Pleeeeaaase Setooo..."
Téa giggled behind her hand, as did almost the rest of the people still present.
Seto nodded. "As long as it's ok with Yugi."
"C'mon! Let's go!" The four friends trooped out of Téa's home shouting their thanks and their 'Merry Christmases'. Seto and Téa watched their friends go with vague smiles on their faces.
Finally Téa turned to the taller boy. "So what time should I be ready by?" she asked.
"Seven-ish okay?" Seto asked.
Téa nodded. "Sounds good."
Suddenly Seto looked straight up and smiled slightly, something Téa still wasn't used to seeing on his face. "There's still some mistletoe here." Téa looked up and smiled. He leaned foward and she smiled as their lips met in a tender moment, this one longer then the first. "Merry Christmas Téa.""I guess that I have to go..." Seto smiled at Téa before leaving. He walked slowly down the walkway a thin smile placed upon his usually cold face.
Téa closed the door gently behind him and smiled. "Merry Christmas Seto...."
She lay on the couch with music in her ears, lost completly in her own thoughts. So lost in fact that she didn't even notice as Joey and Mai snuck out of the door, holding hands, their clothes dishevled.
In her mind, Téa was already imagining what it would be like on her date with Seto.
She couldn't wait.
A/N: Hey hey! Merry Christmas everyone! Yeah I know, very weak ending, and yeah I know Seto was a little out of character, but ya know what? A little love can do wonders to anyone. R&R please. Happy Holidays.