It's finally time for my DM OTP: Vaseshipping (Atem x Mana)!
"Atem! Atem! Look, look, look! It snowed last night!"
Atem smiled despite his grogginess. Mana had her face pressed up against the window, her eyes wide and sparkling.
"There's gotta be like, a whole foot out there! Look, Temmy, look how beautiful it is!"
"Only you would get excited about snow," he teased, getting out of bed and crossing over to her.
He slid his arms around her waist and rested his head on her shoulder. She giggled and leaned back into him.
"But I've never gotten to see snow for real, you know," she said. "It's only been six months since I came to the modern world! I didn't know it would be so pretty!"
Atem looked out into the dawning day, the sunrise sending sparkles of red and purple across the glittering snow.
"Well," he said. "I guess it is rather pretty. Too cold, though."
"You're such a Scrooge," she giggled, nudging him backwards with her hips.
"Where did you learn that phrase?" he said, smiling.
"From the Christmas specials I was watching last night! Oh, oh! Come on to the living room now!"
She popped away from him and ran down the hallway. He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Where does she get all that energy this early in the morning?" he muttered.
But he followed her anyway, padding down the hallway in his bare feet.
Mana was kneeling in the middle of the living room, where their Christmas tree was twinkling in the corner.
"I just learned about this one yesterday!" she said cheerfully at his approach. She had been like this for the past week and a half, finding out something new every day about Christmas and wanting to implement it. "Look! Stockings!"
She held up of their older socks with a huge grin. They were stretched out and one of them had a big hole in the center.
"We don't have a fireplace, but we can just hang them on the wall, right?"
Atem couldn't help himself. He laughed, and then tried to hold it and just shook silently.
"Whaaat? What's so funny?"
"I – I'm sorry," he said between giggles. "You're just so...you're so adorable and cheerful and it just makes me so happy."
Mana's cheeks deepened in color.
"Are you teasing me?" she asked, still blushing.
He grinned and crossed over to her, putting his hands on top of hers.
"Tell you what, I think we have some better looking stockings in the cabinet downstairs," he said. "Not that my old stinky socks weren't good enough but...I don't know how you dealt with the smell!"
"Oh, your feet don't smell that bad. Besides, I just washed these!"
Atem grinned. She grinned back, then threw her arms around his neck.
"Merry Christmas!" she said.
"Merry Christmas," he said, hugging her back.