'Joyeux Noel'
For: deanambooty
Pairing: Sami Zayn/Tessa Scobille (OC)
Year: 2014
Summary: Tessa finds herself in Montreal just before Christmas to meet her boyfriend's family. How much time they actually spend with his family is not important.

-21 December, 2007; Montreal, Quebec-

The whole situation was utterly terrifying but also equally exciting. She had never done the 'meeting the parents' thing. She'd never done the whole 'boyfriend' thing before Rami. Everything was an entirely new experience.

This meeting of the parents had taken nearly 12 months to happen but it wasn't through a lack of trying. The same issues had arisen with her unusual schedule, her boyfriend's unusual schedule and his parents always seeming to be overseas when their son was free. It was happening, though, and Tessa felt like she could vomit.

"Why are you nervous?" he asked, looking at her briefly before turning his eyes back to the road. Her bouncing knee was always the clearest sign of nerves.

"Am I not allowed to be?"

"I don't understand why."

"Because you were cool, calm and collected when you met mine," she said sarcastically.

She remembered the day clearly – it had happened back in September when they were in Michigan for both her birthday and a Ring of Honor show and she distinctly remembered him turning and walking back to the car 3 times before he made it to the front door.

They turned right into the street Rami's parents lived on and Tessa smiled at all the cars parked along the curb.

"Someone's having a Christmas party," she commented. "I'm going to throw one next year. It'll be huge."

"I think we might be going to this one," Rami said slowly as he noticed that the cars were particularly dense nearest his family home.

Tessa didn't say anything to him, just turned her head to look at him in mild horror. He hadn't even offered the possibility of this happening but the look on his face showed that he wasn't all that surprised. She held her head in her hands and sighed deeply.

"I was not ready for this."

"I know. I'm sorry," Rami apologised. "I should have figured."

Her nerves hadn't just stemmed from meeting his parents for the first time, she was nervous about stepping into an environment where English was not the primary spoken language. Now that she knew it was going to be more than his parents and his younger sister, she was positively terrified.

Rami parked the car and laughed when he noticed that Tessa was making no effort at all to get out of the car. She didn't even remove her seatbelt, just stared straight ahead with a blank face as every possible scenario flashed through her mind.

He got out of the car, ignoring the cold that quickly engulfed him, and walked around to the passenger's door, opening it and standing aside to see if she was going to get out herself. When she shook her head he rolled his eyes and leant into the car, unbuckling her seatbelt and taking hold of her hand.

"Come on, T," he encouraged. "It's not that bad. I won't leave your side at all."

"You have to translate everything."

"Most of my family speaks English."

"You sometimes struggle with English," she reminded him in quiet voice, knowing that that was going to be the night's biggest problem. He tugged at her hand and she took a deep breath and let him help her out of the car.

The light snowfall made Tessa smile – she was always a sucker for snow at Christmas time – and she lifted her hand up so that it was resting on Rami's bicep as he closed the door and started walking them towards the house.

Rami didn't bother knocking; he just pulled the front door open, walked the two of them inside and immediately shut it to prevent any more cold air from coming through. Tessa smiled up at him bravely when he asked her if she was ready. There was no backing out at that point. They had made it inside the house and people had no doubt heard the arrival.

They had walked only a few steps into the house when a woman appeared in the foyer with them. Tessa stood back when Rami was pulled into a hug tighter than she had ever seen. The sudden influx of Canadian French made Tessa freeze on the spot, trying to pick up any familiar words. Spending as much time with Rami as she did also mean spending time with Kevin Steen and the two frequently held conversations in their native tongue. This allowed her to pick up a few words and phrases but she had always had a hard time learning foreign languages.

"Mon Chère!" The woman gasped as she looked over Rami's shoulder and saw Tessa standing there. She spoke some more French but Tessa understood nothing – she got the gist when she was pulled into a hug as tight as the one Rami had been in.

"Mama!" Rami said with a laugh when Tessa stared at him, silently asking for help. "Mum this is Tessa."

"Hi, Mrs Sebei," Tessa said meekly, knowing that it was a weak introduction after having just been hugged like an estranged family member. Rami's mother smiled at her warmly and ushered Tessa forward, directing her into the living room, but not before Rami quickly grabbed her handbag and coat so that he could put them near the front door. The living room filled with Rami's entire family.

"Beautiful," Mrs Sebei said to Rami when Tessa was stood in front of them.

"I know she is."

Rami introduced Tessa to the rest of his family – his dad's side, as it turned out – before he led her into the kitchen away from everyone. She was grateful for it. She wasn't usually a shy person but she had already been nervous going into the evening, having so many people looking at her only made her more jittery.

In the quiet of the kitchen, Tessa wrapped her arms around Rami's neck and smiled at him.

"I am so totally in love with you," she told him.

"I am so totally in love with you," he repeated, lightly mocking her. Even at 21 she spoke like a teenager. He wouldn't have it any other way. "Want to see my room?"

"Rami!" Tessa scolded in a shrill voice, her arms dropping to her sides.

"What?" He asked before realising what she thought he meant. "With my whole family here? Even I'm not that stupid, habibti. You showed me yours so it's time to show you mine."

He took her left hand in his, leaving her right hand free to slap his arm. The very last thing she wanted was for his parents to hear his jokes.

They walked up the stairs, Tessa grabbing her handbag as they walked through the foyer, away from the music and conversation. She looked at the walls and the photos that adorned them. It reminded her or her own house, making her feel more comfortable.

When Rami opened the door to his bedroom, he peaked through to check if he had left it tidy, before allowing Tessa to see the entire room.

It was almost exactly what she had expected – music posters covering the walls, a small desk with an old computer, a shelf with wrestling figures and his twin bed tucked neatly into the corner.

"How many girls have you had in here?" She asked, half-joking, sitting down on his bed as he closed the door, drowning out the last of the music.

"Uh," he hesitated, scratching the back of his neck. "Three or four?"

"Three or four?" Tessa asked exasperatedly. "No wonder you looked at me so weird when I said you were the only one."

She knew that there had been more than three or four in total; he had been travelling for years now as a wrestler and sex pretty much came with the job description, but when she actually thought about it her insecurities surfaced.

"You're different," he said simply. "I didn't love the others."

"I'm sure that's what you told them, as well," she muttered, lowering her head. Rami came to sit down beside her, putting her handbag at the end of the bed so that he could sit right beside her.

"I never told the others I loved them. You're the first."

"You don't have to lie to make me feel better," Tessa said lamely. "I think it makes me feel worse, honestly, I couldn't even get a guy into my room just for sex."

"You didn't try hard enough," he told her with a knowing grin. "Believe me; if you had tried, plenty of guys would have been knocking down your door. And, no," he added when Tessa was about to protest, "Alex Shelley does not count because you were his friend's little sister and he was getting tail everywhere he went."

"So, I only had a chance with desperate virgins?"

"That's not what I meant," Rami said defensively. "You told me that you were too focused on getting a good SAT score but if I had been at school with you-" he paused to lean into her and didn't stop until she was laying down on his bed with him hovering over her, "-I swear to all the Gods out there that I would have tried my hardest to get you to notice me."

"Rami," Tessa said quietly, lifting her hands to cup his cheeks. "Your family-"

"I love you."

The first time he said it to her, they hadn't been dating for long at all – he had just won the PWG Championship for the first time as El Generico and instead of celebrating with his friends like she told him to do, he arrived back at their motel room half an hour after leaving and said it with so much sincerity that she had started to cry. It had been less than two months since he asked her out. Never, though, had he told her that he'd never said it to any of his ex-girlfriends. It wasn't a secret that 'Little Miss Perfect' June Jacobs had never been in a relationship before Rami – most people at ROH thought she was a lesbian because she attended an all-girls liberal arts college – so love was an all new experience for her. She couldn't express how she felt knowing that it was an experience they were sharing.

"You're my forever," Tessa said breathlessly as Rami captured her lips with his.

The kiss escalated quickly, with Tessa arching her body into his and Rami's hand pushing up underneath her skirt. Any apprehensions she had about his family disappeared immediately.

Rami flipped them over so that Tessa was straddling his waist and she smiled down at him innocently. Her smile was betrayed by her lustful gaze.

She kissed him again, one of his hands working on untucking her shirt while the other squeezed her ass cheek. As he did that, Tessa tried to undo the buttons of his shirt as quickly as she could manage. She could feel him straining against his jeans and every time she rolled her hips, even just a little, both moaned and attempted to undress faster.

There was a firm knock on the door and the couple froze instantly - Rami's shirt wide open, Tessa top pushed up over her breasts and Rami's hand still resting firmly on her ass.

There was another knock.

"Quoi?" Rami asked rather aggressively, wiping both his hands over his face.

The person on the other side of the door started speaking French and Tessa could tell from the look on Rami's face that they had been caught. While he was talking - most likely giving false reasons for their disappearance - Tessa, with a flushed face, climbed off him and onto the floor and attempted to make herself look acceptable.

"Yeah, okay, Johara! I get it!"

Rami sat up on the bed and began to button up his shirt.

"Your sister won't say anything, will she?"

"Would you say anything if you caught Jimmy?"

"He's 24, of course I wouldn't."

"Hopefully she feels the same way."

"How embarrassing."

"I've found her doing a lot worse," Rami said tiredly, standing up and helping Tessa straighten out her clothes. "If she does say anything, my parents won't think any less of you. It'll be all my fault for seducing you."

"Okay," Tessa said with a small but cheeky smile. "As long as I don't get in trouble."

When she felt like she could return to a room full of people, Tessa reached for the doorknob only to have Rami hold onto her wrist. She turned back around to ask him what he wanted when she saw a present in his other hand.

"I want you to open it now."

"We said we were going to wait until Christmas morning."

"That's a bullshit rule," he told her as he had done multiple times. "If I can't see your face when you open it then what's the point?"

Tessa nodded and reached for her handbag, pulling out the present that she had planned to leave under his Christmas tree.

"Together," she said, noticing that he was waiting for her. Simultaneously they started to unwrap their presents - Tessa doing so carefully as to not tear the paper while Rami ripped straight into it.

"Ray-Bans?" Rami asked in slight disbelief. "Did you read my mind?"

"You mentioned it a while back," Tessa explained. "I actually bought them back in October."

Rami put his new sunglasses on and kissed her lightly before prompting her to be quicker in opening hers.

She pulled off the last piece of tape, revealing a blue Tiffany's box, almost identical to the one she had received for her birthday.

"What did you do?" She questioned in a mildly warning tone. "We talked about this – no expensive jewellery! You're an independent wrestler you don't -"

"Shut up and open the box, T."

Tessa huffed but did as she was told; gasping when she saw what was inside. One of her hands lifted to touch the Tiffany's key necklace that Rami had bought her for her 21st birthday. In the other she was holding a pair of 1837 hoop earrings.

"They match," she said, trying to re-regulate her breathing. "You're unbelievable."

"I bought them back in September," he revealed. "I win."