Don't think the last chapter was all of it! These is more :D
Amy was looking out of the window, waiting for the snow to start falling. Back in Finland everything would be covered in snow by now and she could go out and have fun.
She sighed deeply and looked up in the sky.
"Do I have to go up there and squeeze the snow out of you?" she asked from the cloud.
The grey sky turned even darker and the wind started to blow.
Amy cheered a bit, remembering that this was always evidence that the snow will soon fall.
I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know
Where the treetops glisten, and children listen
To her the sleight bells in the snow…
I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
May your dreams be marry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white!
While she was waiting for the snow, Date was explaining Zhalia some Christmas stuff.
"So first comes the Advent time. That's counted from the first Sunday in December till the fourth Sunday. Every Sunday during the month we light a candle on the Advent wreath, which is made from Christmas tree branches, some ornaments and candles. The last candle is lit on the fourth Sunday of the month, which is Christmas" he explained sitting beside Zhalia.
She nodded with understanding.
Most of the times when someone was explaining her something she nodded so she would look like she's interested, but this time she was really paying attention. She found interesting and amusing all these new things.
"So, we make a wreath before December and then light a candle every Sunday till Christmas" she repeated the basic.
"Exactly" Dante said with joy.
It was fun to teach Zhalia about Christmas, and he felt proud that she learns everything so quickly.
"Alright, go on" Zhalia looked at him with a smile.
"So, there is Christmas Eve on December 24th. On that evening we decorate the Christmas tree with ornaments we want. Mostly the Christmas colors are golden, silver, dark blue, red and green" he went on.
"But you shouldn't wear any of these colors these days" Sophie looked up from the book she was reading till now. She was sitting in an armchair, being silent.
"Why not?" Zhalia looked at her.
"Because you will look like the tree itself" Sophie answered with a giggle.
"But I like green" Zhalia answered and looked at her clothes. She was wearing dark blue jeans and a knitted light green sweater.
"It's all good until you wear green with red or red with gold" Sophie smiled and went on reading. Zhalia nodded with agreement.
"So we don't have to decorate anything except the tree?" she asked looking back at Dante.
"Not exactly. I mean, you don't have to decorate at all, but it's much prettier when the house is decorated. We can start right away because even if we decorate every day a little bit, it's still going to be really nice looking" he said with a little smile and looked around.
"And how will we decorate and with what? With ornaments?" Zhalia asked and pointed at Amy's box, which was full of various ornaments, garlands and lights.
"With ornaments, garlands, lights… I don't know what else we could do" Dante shrugged.
"Paper snowflakes, paper stars, fake snow spray, lanterns, wreath, drawn things…" Amy said, still looking out the window.
"When can we start making things from paper?" Zhalia asked with a smile. She was really into these things now. Dante noticed as well and he smiled at her.
"Guys, I have to go now" Sophie said and stood up.
"You're already going?" Amy asked and looked at her with surprise.
"Oh, you haven't heard? I'm going on winter vacation to London" Sophie cheered.
"U-huh!" Amy said with a smile.
In a few minutes the team said goodbye to Sophie as well and she went away.
"Hey, now we only have to get rid of Amy and we will be all alone in the house" Dante whispered into Zhalia's ear.
Amy looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"I can go away if you want to spend some lone time with her" she answered with a little smirk.
Zhalia gave her a killing look and Dante started to laugh.
"I'm just kidding. I won't let you two girls go anywhere. You will spend the Christmas holidays here with me" he said with a smile full of joy.
Zhalia hugged him tight and kissed his cheek. He hugged her around the shoulder and pulled close to himself.
"So girls, let's do some Christmas decoration, shall we?" he asked with a smile. They both nodded cheerfully.
Dante went to bring some white papers, the fake-snow spray and the ornaments he had in the attic, while Zhalia went to find scissors, tape and some white strings and Amy went to turn on some music on the PC.
She made a Christmas playlist while Dante and Zhalia came back.
Dante had a bunch of papers and a few sprays in his hands. He put the down on the couch and went back, so he would come back after a minute with a box almost as big as Amy's.
"Wow! That's what I call decoration!" Amy said as she took out a few gold and red glass balls.
"How many Christmas things you have?" Zhalia looked at Dante with surprise.
"The whole attic is full with boxes, and I don't know which are filled with ornaments and which with other things. We'll go up later and look around if you would like to" he answered and sat down on the floor.
Zhalia nodded and did the same.
She looked over the bunch of paper and sorted it into three piles: white papers, gold papers and silver papers.
Amy started to make small strings and sat down on a pillow on the floor.
Soon they were busy making snowflakes from the paper Dante brought them.
There were various snowflakes: big ones, small ones, with hearts in them, with triangles, white, golden and silver ones.
The time was quickly passing by and they were slowly finishing with their fun.
At the end Amy took a white paper and started to draw a snowman on it.
When she finished it, she cut it out, following the lines and the eyes, mouth and other parts of it. At the end she put it beside the snowflakes.
"What will we do with him?" Zhalia asked and picked up the snowman.
"We can just paste it on the window or wall. Or put it on the window and spray it with fake-snow" Amy answered with a little smile.
"Oh, I love this last idea!" Zhalia smiled back and put the picture back on the floor.
Amy took the strings and started to put them on the snowflakes, picking the bigger ones. She gently tied them up one by one.
"Let's see the other boxes on the attic, alright?" Dante suggested to Zhalia and helped her stand up.
"I was never up there" she answered and looked upstairs.
"Well, now you will" Dante said with a little playful smile.
"Amy, do you want to come with us?" he turned to his protégée.
"Hm? Oh, no thanks. I'll go on and tie up the snowflakes and draw some more things" Amy smiled back at him.
She knew he wants to be alone with Zhalia a bit, and she was in the way right now. He gave her a thankful smile and nodded and her. Amy only giggled and went on with the task she gave to herself.
"Where is your attic in the first place?" Zhalia was curious.
Dante smiled at her in a flirty way, which made her heart skip a beat.
"Let me show you" he said and placed his right hand on her side and pulled her close to himself. He led her upstairs, on the second floor where was a long hall.
"How big is your house actually? It looks smaller from outside" Zhalia said looking around.
She was never on the attic or the second floor at all. She was all the time on the ground floor and on the first floor when being in her room, but she never dared to go to the second floor.
"The house has a basement, two floors and the attic. It's not going so much into high but into length" her companion explained while walking beside her.
"I got it now. That's how the house looks small, but it still has a lot of rooms and space" Zhalia nodded with understanding. Dante nodded back at her.
They reached the end of the hall and on the ceiling was a trap-door.
Dante let it down and stairs came down with it, allowing them to go upstairs.
He let Zhalia go up first like a true gentleman, which he was.
"I think I know why guys do this" she smiled at him and went up. He was surprised by this, but he followed her.
"Really? Why do we do that?" he asked with the everlasting smile on his lips.
"You let me go inside or upstairs before you do, so you could stare at my ass" she said with a little smirk. Dante started to laugh and hugged her around the waist.
"You caught me. And what now?" he asked and kissed her lips.
"Nothing. I don't mind actually" Zhalia answered and kissed him back.
She slid her hands around his neck and let herself completely go in his arms. He caught her in the right moment, right before her knees went weak and she almost fell. She broke the kiss and gasped.
"Sorry, wasn't on purpose" she apologized.
"It's alright. I love to hold you in my arms" Dante answered and kissed her again.
Now his arms were wrapped around her waist holding her body pressed against his. Zhalia broke the kiss and looked into his eyes.
"Aren't we supposed to find the rest of the ornaments?" she asked and blinked a few times, trying to get back to her senses and make herself stand on her own feet.
"We have a lot of time for that. I want to try something before that" he smiled back but helped her to stand on her feet until she found her balance.
Zhalia fixed her clothes while Dante walked to the light switch and turned it on
The sudden light made them blind for a moment but then everything got visible again. Zhalia looked around with surprise and curiosity.
"Do you like my little attic?" Dante asked as he approached her.
"Little attic? It's huge! Where do you have so much things from?" she asked with wide eyes, still looking around.
There were lots and all kinds and sizes of carton boxes, chairs, closets, desks, wooden boxes, toys, pictures, sculptures, beds, sofas, books, rolled up rugs and much more.
"This is an old house, belonging to my family for years. The Vale family is here from the beginning" Dante explained while looking around in some boxes.
"At least they say so" he turned around and winked at Zhalia.
She smiled at him with a little blush on her cheeks and walked over to him.
"So, looking for everything what looks like an ornament, huh?" she asked and looked around.
"Yup" he answered opening another box.
They were upstairs for a longer time, before they found two more boxes with ornaments and decoration in it.
"I suppose this will be enough. What do you say?" Dante asked and took both boxes.
"Sure. But let me help you" Zhalia protested when she realized that Dante can't see where is he walking.
"It's alright, I can take it myself" he was stubborn.
He barely made one step when he accidently tripped over another box and almost fell. Zhalia caught his arm in the last moment and made him get back his balance.
"Thanks" he smiled, though his heart was beating like hell.
Zhalia giggled as she saw him blushing from embarrassment.
"It's alright. I get clumsy around you as well, so I know how it is" she winked at him and took the upper box from him.
Dante laughed at this and went after her.
They went to the living room and saw Amy standing on a chair, putting a golden snowflake on the ceiling.
"Hey, here you are! I thought you are having… Um…" Amy started to say something but shut up.
She only giggled and both Dante and Zhalia blushed when they understood what is she talking about.
"We found two more boxes" Zhalia said to move on from the previous theme.
"That's great. What kind of things are in here?" Amy asked as she came down from the chair. She moved a bit away and looked up to see how the snowflake fits.
"I don't know yet. May I?" Zhalia asked from Dante and pointed at the boxes.
"Be my guest" he answered and let her open it. She opened it and looked at the thing she found in there with a bit confused.
"Why is this garland green?" she asked and took out a tick green garland. As she went on pulling it out it looked like it's endless. Finally she came to the end of it.
"It's for the staircases, to put it all around and on them" Dante explained and looked into the box.
It fulfilled half of the box, while one more was in the other half of the box.
He took the end of the first garland, stood beside Zhalia and started to gently tickle her nose and face with it.
Amy smiled in a naughty way, took the second garland out of the box and let the beginning of it fall on the ground beside Zhalia and Dante. Slowly she walked all around them, letting the garland wrap around them. When she came to the end of it, she pulled it and made Dante and Zhalia stumble into each others arms.
Instead of scolding Amy, they looked into each others eyes. They smiled softly and hugged. Suddenly there was a slight 'click' sound and a flash. When they turned to see what it was, they saw Amy holding a digital camera and smirking.
"You didn't" Zhalia said with a threatening tone in her voice.
"Of course I didn't" the younger girl giggled. Dante only laughed at this.
"If anyone sees that picture, you'll have one less protégée to look after" Zhalia smirked and laughed with him.
They finally managed to take off the garland and move away from each other, but not too far. Dante picked up the garland.
Zhalia meanwhile took Amy's job, hanging the snowflakes on the ceiling in every room.
"Could someone please help me?" Dante asked walking towards the stairs.
"I'll help you" Amy said and went after him.
"How should we put it on?" she asked and took one end of the garland.
"Don't know for sure. I'm not really decorating the house… This is the first time after a long time" he admitted and made a face.
"Oh…" Amy blinked at him a bit confused.
"I didn't have with who to celebrate, so I tried to forget that it's Christmas" he shrugged, like trying to explain why he didn't do it.
"It's alright" Amy nodded back with understanding.
She knew as well how is it to be alone for holidays. It was a lonely and depressing time for most people who don't have relatives.
"Hey, I have an idea!" she suddenly said and run up the stairs.
She started to wrap the garland around the staircase. Soon she finished the job and was beside Dante.
"It fits perfectly" she cheered as they looked upstairs.
"Yes it does. Let's do the same with the other on the second floor" he said with a smile and went up.
"He has a second floor as well?" Amy tilted her head a bit aside, trying to remember if she was ever there. She shrugged and went after him.
They wrapped the garland here in the same way as on the first staircase.
"Really nice" Dante smiled.
"It looks a bit empty" Amy shook her head.
"What do you suggest?" he looked at her with curiosity.
She sometimes had some really good ideas, and he was curious what will it be this time.
"We could put some ornaments on it. It would be cute" she answered and before Dante could answer, she run off to the boxes. Dante shook his head with a smile and run after her.
As he stepped into the living room he looked up on the ceiling. White, silver and gold snowflakes were hanging down and making pirouettes in the air.
"This is cute" he said not talking off his eyes from the ceiling.
"The whole house looks like this" Zhalia answered with a humble little smile.
"Great job sweetie" Dante smiled at her with approval.
"Oh, these are beautiful!" they heard Amy saying. They walked over to her and saw her holding a little box with purple glass balls.
"Where did you found these?" Dante wondered. He hasn't seen these ornaments for a couple of years.
"The box was in this big box" Amy answered and pointed at the big box.
There were more smaller boxes in it, beside and on top of each other. Zhalia took out another box and opened it. In this one were red balls.
"They are sorted by colors and shapes" Dante explained them.
"These will do" Amy said and walked off with the box in her hands. Zhalia looked at Dante with a questioning look.
"You'll see later" he answered and smiled in a mysterious way.
"Alright then. Let's go on with the decorating" she answered with enthusiasm and jumped in one place.
Dante nodded and helped her to take out the other boxes as well. Amy looked at them decorating the windows with lights and other stuff. They were laughing and having fun, enjoying each others company.
She smiled softly at the sight.
Dante turned around and smiled at her "Come on girl, we're waiting for you"
Amy's eyes started to shine with joy and she run to them. Now they were all having a great time, singing Christmas songs and having fun.
Believe in what your heart is saying,
Hear the melody that's playing,
There's no time to waste,
There's so much to celebrate!
Believe in what you feel inside,
And give your dreams the wings to fly,
You have everything you need,
If you just
Believe!