December 7th: Mistletoe

"How was Velo City?" Sheriff asked, seeing Flo and Ramone return.

"It was great!" Flo declared. "We got presents for everyone; some great toys for the toy drive and..." She pulled something out of one of the bags to show them all.

"Mistletoe", Doc observed.

"What's mistletoe?" Fudge wanted to know. She opened another door on her advent calendar and popped the little chocolate inside her mouth.

"It's a Christmas tradition", Ramone explained. "You're supposed to kiss under it."

Fudge made a face. "Ew!"

Ramone laughed. "You won't be sayin' that when you get a boyfriend, chica."

"I'm never getting a boyfriend!" the six-year-old vowed.

It was Flo's turn to laugh. "I said the same thing when I was your age, honey."

"Fudge is never having a boyfriend", Luigi spoke up firmly. "She is too young. She will always be too young. Besides, no boy in the world will ever be good enough for her."

"Ah, mistletoe." Red smiled fondly as he looked at it.

"What?" Ramone wondered.

If vehicles could blush, Red would have been at that moment. "Nothing", he lied and the fire truck was the worst liar.

"C'mon!" the Lowrider pushed. "There's somethin' you're not tellin' us!"

"You can tell us, honey", Flo told him in a tone that was just as encouraging, but much friendlier than her husband's.

"All right..." Red knew that there was no way he was getting out of this now. "Well, it was under mistletoe that I..." He murmured something that nobody could hear.

"Sorry, Red. We didn't catch that", Sally informed him.

"Yeah, spit it out, soldier!" Sarge added.

"I... had-my-first-kiss!" Red blurted out before he completely lost his nerve.

The others stared at him in amazement. "Really?!"

Red nodded, looking even more embarrassed. "I was twenty years old. Her name was Angela and she was an ambulance. She wasn't really my girlfriend or anything, but I did like her. I was leaving training one day in December and she had stopped to look at her training schedule and... I think you can guess what happened next."

Everyone smiled softly, except for Mater, who just looked blank. "What?" he questioned.

Sheriff gave him a confused look.

"Well, whenever you see this mistletoe, you will always remember that moment. Let's put it up in the doorway to the café", Flo suggested, doing just that.

She and Ramone smiled at each other and kissed, prompting cries of disgust from Mater and Fudge.

"Oh, grow up, soldiers!" Sarge snapped.

"Like you've never had a problem with PDAs!" Ramone retorted.

"He's right, you know", Fillmore put in with a teasing smile at Sarge.

Sarge just rolled his eyes.

Later that night, as everyone dispersed to go home (with the exception of Luigi, Guido and Fudge, who had gone home a couple of hours earlier, so the latter could have a bath and go to bed), calling good night to one another, Sally was about to follow when Lightning stopped her.

"Wait, Sal."

She looked at him in confusion. "What is it?"

Instead of saying a word, he just pointed upward. They were under the mistletoe.

Sally looked back at him. He had an eager look in his eyes and he was puckering up his lips. The Porsche chuckled and obliged. She gave him a very soft kiss on the lips.

"McQueen and Sally, parked beneath the mistletoe!" a familiar southern accent shouted. "K-I-S-S-I-N-O!"

Lightning turned in the direction of the voice. "Uh... You know that's not how you spell kissing, right?"

Mater grinned and shrugged. "I know. It just rhymes."