"Zwei, no! Don't pee on the tree!"
Watching Ruby chase her confused Corgi away from the house's new Christmas tree, Blake sighed before returning to her task of cutting paper snowflakes with Sun. While the girls were doing quite well with snipping intricate patterns, the monkey was out of his element with dozens of failed ornaments sliced in half at his feet. Blake smiled in pity when Sun tossed his scissors to the side in frustration. "Giving up already?"
"Already? Do you not see the pile of failure at my feet?"
"That's because you're cutting too much in the middle," Blake showed him her snowflake, pointing out the tiny cuts down its fold. She handed her scissors to Sun and took his hand in hers, guiding it a fourth way down the paper to get him started. "Just relax your fingers, and take your time."
"Wow," Sun grinned, "If I knew you were going to hold my hand, I'd have actually volunteered to do this instead of being forced too."
Blushing brightly, Blake bopped him on the head with her free hand. "You're on your own now for saying that."
"Ah, come on. I was joking! And I could seriously use your help with this. I mean, look how many you've made compared to me. If we work together, we'll be done in no time."
Unable to resist his stupid smile, Blake shook her head and took his hand again. "Okay, okay. But this is only just so we can get done quicker."
"Whatever you say…"
Across the room, Weiss observed Nora and Pyrrha placing shiny red ornaments on the tree. If they were going to be celebrating Christmas in this building, then Weiss was going to make sure this tree was adorned flawlessly. "Nora, move those two red bulbs four one branch up each, then bring that gold one down to where that green one is now."
"Uh… Could you write that down?"
"I've got it," Pyrrha said, saving Nora from the wrath of Schnee, "Why don't you put the star on top Nora?"
"Oh no, we have to do that last!" Nora said, slapping Ren on the back as he pulled out the star, "It's kinda Ren and I's tradition to do it together."
"My sister and I used to do something like that," Weiss said, "She'd always hold me up on the ladder to reach the top when I was little. Then my father and I would light the tree up together. We did that for years, until Winter left to join the military."
"What about you, Pyrrha?" Ren asked, "Did you and your family do anything special?"
"Oh, yes! We would always spend time on the beach, and sit around a fire until the sun set. The sky was always so lovely at that time of year."
"You go swimming while there's snow?" Weiss asked, taking a handful of garland from Ren.
"Oh, no. It's always too warm in Mistral for it to snow. I've actually never seen snow before in my life."
"What?!" Nora shouted, freezing mid-step in shock, "You've never seen snow?! Or gone sled riding, or built a snowman, or had a snowball fight?!"
"Unfortunately, no," Pyrrha sighed, studying her reflection in a shiny red bulb, "It's one thing I have always wanted to see, however. When it didn't end up snowing at all during winter break last year, I was quite let down. I would have loved to have shared my first snowfall with all of my friends."
"Why didn't you tell us?" Weiss asked, "I could have set up a trip to a ski resort so you could see a bit of snow."
"I didn't want to be a bother for something so simple. Really, it's nothing to worry about. Let's finish up this tree, shall we?"
Ren could tell her face said otherwise. As simple and as meaningless as a bit of snowfall might seem to him or Nora, Pyrrha dreamed of seeing the beauty in some frozen water falling from the sky.
And that gave him an idea.
When Nora walked away from the tree to pick up a bulb that had rolled away, Ren went up behind her and whispered into her ear about what Jaune had told her. He covered her mouth the moment her eyes lit up in excitement, and hushed her while pointing to the stairs. After Nora nodded when he told her to act inconspicuous (and not blurt it out to the world), he told her to go to Jaune's room and wait for him. The moment she zipped upstairs, Ren turned to Pyrrha and Weiss and made up a reason to depart. "It seems I left some ornaments upstairs. Nora's going to help me look for them. We'll be back when we find them. Keep working on the tree in the meantime."
"Of course," Pyrrha smiled, "We'll save the star for you then."
The moment he turned his back to Pyrrha, Ren smiled at the thought of Pyrrha's wish coming true much sooner than she would ever believe.
For the remainder of the day, the housemates spent the day as if it was actually Christmas. While Ren worked in the kitchen for nearly the entire afternoon on a ham dinner, the gang participated in numerous activities. The Christmas carol karaoke contest down in the movie room got especially heated, mostly because Weiss lost to Penny who had secretly auto tuned her voice at Ruby's advice. A few notable renditions of classic songs including Yang's take on "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" and Sun's "Jingle Bell Rock"; a less than enjoyed tune was the Lieutenant singing his favorite tune, "Santa Baby", complete with hip gyrations and winks at a disgusted Adam.
The egg nog drinking contest was also quite competitive, only because Qrow decided to drop in and participate (the promise of something semi-alcoholic was irresistible to him, even if the alcoholic content was mouthwash). Thankfully, only he and Torchwick took part in that one; both were throwing up slightly green nog by the game's end. Ruby and Yang had to drag their uncle back outside to the van since Ozpin couldn't come to get him, whereas Neo took the opportunity to draw some phallic imagery on a passed out Roman's face at Emerald and Mercury's suggestion.
Surprisingly absent from the day's activities was Cinder, Jaune and Nora. The latter's absence was brought up quite often, though many figured she was busy preparing some ridiculous event somewhere else in the house. Cinder being gone was not as surprising, even though she had actually greeted Pyrrha with a hello when they crossed paths this morning. The lack of Jaune bothered Pyrrha more than Cinder's 180 switch in attitude, but she hid her gloom well. She did her best to enjoy her time spent with everyone, though seeing someone else sitting beside her and laughing other than him tugged at her heart.
It was dark out by the time Ren finally finished making their Christmas dinner. Having set up some tables in the lounge near the shining tree, everyone's mouth was drooling at the assortment of holiday themed dishes including apple pie, gingerbread men, peppermint cake, and a big honey ham.
"Dig in, everyone!" Ren announced, removing his splattered cooking apron.
"You're the best, Ren!" Ruby exclaimed as she dumped all the gingerbread men onto her plate before stuffing her mouth with them. The proud chef quickly slipped away amidst the grabbing for food, rushing off to complete his next task.
"Never thought I'd enjoy Christmas for once," Emerald said, "Usually it's cold and boring. This was actually not so bad."
"Wish there was a mistletoe though," Mercury followed, "I could show you ladies the magical lips of a 5-star man."
"Will you stop calling yourself that?"
"Hey, not gonna hide the truth. Pass me that kettle corn, Nikos. Yo, Earth to Nikos!"
"…Huh?" Pyrrha exited her daze as Merc snapped his fingers. After handing him the dish, Pyrrha looked down at her own and felt her appetite disappear. Jaune not being around had never bothered her so much before; perhaps it was because of how he had brushed her off this morning when she asked for help on the tree. Had she done something wrong? Maybe she should go find him and ask-
"Hey, Pyrrha."
And like that, he had found her.
"Jaune!" Pyrrha gasped, dropping her fork on her plate, "Where have you been? You've been gone all day!"
Jaune laughed nervously, hands behind his back. "Yeah, I know. I did say I had something to take care of, and it took this long to get it done."
"What have you been doing?"
"That's what I came to get you for," Jaune said, walking away from the table, "Follow me and I'll show ya."
"But, what about dinner?"
"Ah, it'll still be here when we get back. Okay, maybe everything except the sweets. Looks like Ruby's already moving onto the cake."
Pyrrha giggled as she watched Yang try to stop Ruby from shoveling the cake into her mouth with her bare hands. "I was never a fan of sweets anyways. Let's go, then."
Jaune walked ahead of her as they went upstairs, avoiding answering her questions as he led the way to their destination. The girl noticed this was pretty unusual of him; most of the time he was aloof and didn't want to stop chatting about something. The hallways were surprisingly dark too, but only until they reached their destination: the doorway to the outside deck, a pair of lamps shining an orange glow onto the two of them
"Well, we're here," Jaune said, stepping aside from the door, "You can go first."
"Are you sure?"
When he nodded, Pyrrha walked by him and took hold of the knob. The last thing she expected to feel upon pushing that door open was a blast of cold air. Shielding her eyes from the sudden wind, Pyrrha's mouth dropped open when she finally saw it.
It was snowing.
The deck was covered in a thin layer of white, icicles hanging from the lit up railing over a frozen over pool. Even the fake palm trees were covered in clumps of white, Christmas lights wrapped around their trunks. A light flurry of cold, wet flakes fell from above, carried by the cool breeze and blowing out over the pool.
"Oh my God…" Pyrrha gasped, covering her mouth with both hands as her eyes teared up, "Oh my God… It's so… So beautiful!"
"We tried building a snowman, but the snow wouldn't stick together," Jaune blushed, rubbing the back of his neck as he tried to make conversation. Pyrrha looked back at him, wiping her watery eyes.
"Jaune… How did you...? Why?"
"Well, Nora and Ren told me about how you always wanted to see real snow, so we just kinda made some. I figured the best Christmas was a white Christmas, so we just got to work on it. You have no idea how many fans we have blowing cold air down there to keep it all from melting."
Pyrrha brought her gaze back to the wonderland around her, taking in the beauty of it all as Jaune slowly walked up beside her. "This is… This is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me…"
"You've done so much for me, Pyrrha," Jaune said, leaning on the railing as he looked at Pyrrha. He was distracted by the lights reflecting in the vibrant green of her eyes, twinkling like the stars in the dark sky above them. "I just wanted to show you how glad I am to have you around, and how much… How much I really care about you."
"..Jaune?"
Pyrrha felt her breath stop in her chest. Rising, Jaune grasped her trembling hands in his, looking in her eyes and ignoring the coldness flowing around him. The heat rising in his chest and face was because of her, like how it had been when she had shared his bed, when they had been at the pool party, and when they had shared this balcony just a few days ago to watch the stars. Why he had held himself back from this for so long, he never knew.
"Pyrrha," Jaune began, taking a deep breath to keep his nerves in check, "I don't really know exactly what to say right now, but I'm just going to say this… You've been the most important person in my life for a while now. You've helped me through so much at Beacon, and I wouldn't even be where I am right now without you. Whenever I'm not feeling at my best, I don't hear my own voice telling me to stand up and be strong: I hear yours. I… I literally can't get you out of my head, and I don't want to. There's nobody else I'd rather have sitting up in that empty space. You're more than my best friend, Pyrrha…. You're my-
Soft.
He had never expected her lips to be so soft. Even though Pyrrha had pulled him in so hard and suddenly to her face, she kissed him tenderly as she expressed her desire for him in her life. She could feel herself lean into his body even closer, pressing her chest up against his as she fumbled to wrap her leg around his. Pyrrha's fingers danced through his unkempt hair, and she let out a small moan in her throat as she felt Jaune's hand grip her back. She had been waiting so long for this, to free her feelings and let them introduce themselves to him. She never wanted this to end.
Jaune, on the other hand, was a bit more inclined to take a break. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy her kissing him; heck, he had been dreaming of kissing a girl like this his whole life! Tasting her, feeling her… It was amazing. Unlike anything he could have ever imagined!
But when he felt Pyrrha pushing him into the railing behind him, he had to start tapping out before she pushed both of them over the edge.
"I-I'm sorry!" Pyrrha panted, blushing as she helped Jaune balance on his feet, "I got… I got a bit carried away…"
"It's cool, Pyrrha," Jaune replied, breathing heavily as well, "I didn't fall, so that's another plus to this."
Pyrrha giggled, closing the distance between them again as she placed her hands around his neck. "Shall we continue then?"
"Just a minute…" Jaune said, holding up one finger towards the roof, "Okay Nora! You can speak-
"OHMYGODTHEYDIDIT!"
Leaping down from above, Nora landed on her feet and pulled the couple into the strongest Nora-hug of all time. Jaune and Pyrrha could feel their spines cracking under her grip, but thankfully Ren jumped down afterwards to free them.
"You guys were up there the whole time?" Pyrrha asked in disbelief.
"Who do you think was working the snow?" Ren jerked a thumb up above towards a row of snow cone makers, with bags of ice piled around them, "We couldn't just sit around while you and Jaune finally did, well, what you just did. We're a team, after all."
"What happened to the mistletoe?" Jaune asked, "I was waiting for one of you to lower it before Pyrrha did her thing."
"Actually, I'm not sure where it went I had it earlier when we were decorating, but it vanished into thin air."
"So should we leave you two lovebirds alone for a while?" Nora winked, nudging Ren with her elbow, "You gonna go start this new relationship off with a little bit of squeaky-squeaky back in your room?"
"Nora!"
"What? That's what you're supposed to do, right?"
"I think that can wait for just some time," Pyrrha blushed, tightening her hold on Jaune's hand, "For now, let's go back downstairs and enjoy Ren's dinner before it goes away."
"I call breaking the news to everyone!"
"You do that, Nora," Ren sighed, following behind her slowly, "I'm just happy to have helped out some friends."
"Now it's you and Nora's turn," Jaune smirked, to which Ren laughed heartily.
"One step at a time, Jaune. One step at a time…"
It was about midnight when Adam exited the shower. It was the first shower he had taken in weeks, and he had forgotten just how difficult it was to take one with his mask on. Maybe he should stop doing that.
Nah. It would remove the air of intimidation he held so highly.
Plus it made him look pretty badass.
Just as he prepared to enter his room and present Blake with his shirtless, ripped body (and probably get kicked out again by Yang), Cinder stepped out of her room to take her turn in the bathroom. Wondering why it was always the crazy ones she had to learn to be civil with first, Cinder forced a smile. "Hello… Adam. Merry Christmas."
"Ms. Fall," Adam nodded, "I would say a happy holiday to you right back, but I don't believe in such nonsense."
"…Right. I just wanted to tell you that there's a present waiting for you downstairs."
"A present, you say?" Adam asked, intrigued, "Is it from Blake?"
"I don't know," Cinder lied, knowing exactly who it was from and what it was, "Go find out for yourself."
His curiosity getting the better of him, Adam walked downstairs into the lounge, grabbing a cup of milk and a cookie placed conveniently on the coffee table. Taking a bite out of the cookie, he heard a rustling behind him, and turned to see a very, very large pink gift box sitting under the tree. Noticing the insane amount of glitter around and on the box, plus the wafting smell of baby oil in the air, Adam realized just who this present was from all too late.
"MERRY CHRISTMAS, BOSS!" the Lieutenant exclaimed fabulously as he burst out of the glittery box, wearing only a Santa trim vest and jingle bell thong. The sight of his subordinate's well-oiled body and jazz hands sparked enough internal rage and life scarring inside Adam to spontaneously set off the shock collar around his neck.
And thus ended the one and only holiday Adam would ever take part in again.
Happy Christmas in July to all, and to all a good night.
Except Mercury, because he's a douche.