Piers led Skyla into the living room and sat down beside the fireplace and waved her over. She walked over and laid her on his lap. Mrs. Nivans followed in shortly with the cookies and hot chocolate and eggnog. She sat down in a chair across from Piers and Skyla and observed them. Mr. Nivans came in a few minutes later with a newspaper.

"How's Chris doing?" Mrs. Nivans asked.

"He's doing well, he's having a time with one of our rookies," Piers said.

"Leave Finny alone, he's not as bad as he was. He's doing fine, plus he's pyrotechnics specialty, not combat," Skyla chastised him.

"A good soldier should be versatile in everything. If he were in my squad he would be gone, Redfield is too soft," Mr. Nivans replied.

"She's right Chris has helped Finn improve quite a bit. He just needed the confidence. Also its kind of hard keeping your concentration with Skyla around," Piers smirked down at her.

"That's another thing a female would never be allowed on my squad, too much distraction," Mr. Nivans stared at Skyla.

"She has saved my ass at least once in the field, she is just as capable as any male dad," Piers glared at him.

"When are you two planning on getting married?" Linda asked.

Skyla froze, and Piers slowly turned his head towards his mom.

"I'm going to call my sister and check on her, I haven't heard from her in a while," Skyla said getting up and walking out of the room.

Piers watched Skyla leave the room, he then turned his attention back to his mom and glared.

"What was that all about?" Piers asked.

Mr. Nivans cocked an eyebrow towards his wife.

"Yes, what was that all about?" William asked.

"Piers I saw the way you were looking at each other, and I just figured with you bringing her here for Christmas you two were planning on getting married soon, I assumed that you two had at least talked about it. Your 26 Piers shouldn't you be settling down soon?" Linda shrugged.

Piers shook his head staring at him Mom in disbelief.

"You assumed wrong mom, I'm not ready for that step yet and judging by her reaction she isn't either. We haven't gotten anywhere near talking about that. Now if you will excuse me I need to do some damage control," Piers said getting up.

He sighed getting up and shaking his head. He walked out of the living room, into the hallway. He saw the light on upstairs in his room; he walked upstairs to his room. Skyla was sitting on his bed with her head in hands.

"Hey are you okay," He asked walking in.

Skyla looked up at him and sighed, Piers looked behind him and shut the door and sat beside her.

"That wasn't your plan was it, when you brought me here?" Skyla asked looking down at the floor.

"No, I was blindsided by that question. Is that what you were worried about?" Piers replied.

"Piers promise me that if you plan on doing something like that warn me first," Skyla said to him.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Piers asked.

"I'm fine, I just don't want to be caught off guard like that again," Skyla replied looking over at him.

Piers look over at Skyla and smirked.

"Hey I got small early gift before tomorrow," He said getting up walking over to his bag.

Skyla stared at him curiously, he pulled out a small neatly wrapped box and walked back to her and handed it to her. She smiled at him and patted for him to sit down.

"You didn't have to do this," she told him as she started to unwrap the paper.

When she opened the gift, she looked over at him and smirked. It was a gold box that read 'Godiva' over the front.

"Chocolate?" Skyla asked.

Piers nodded, Skyla licked her lips subconsciously and pulled back the lid.

"Dark Chocolate, how did you know?" She asked.

"I pay attention," Piers smirked.

"Want one?" Skyla asked holding the box up towards him.

He looked in and grabbed one of the chocolates and took a small bite, Skyla grabbed one for herself.

"Wow this is really good," Piers smirked.

Skyla bit her bottom lip watching him and nodded.

"What?" Piers asked getting self-conscious.

"Nothing," Skyla replied putting the lid back on the box.

Piers looked over at the clock and saw it was 1:30, he leaned over and buried his face into her neck.

"Merry Christmas," He said into her neck.

"Mmmm Merry Christmas," She replied reaching up tangling her fingers in his hair.

He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to lay next to him. She buried her face in his chest and sighed softly.

"You seem a lot more relaxed now," Piers said looking down at her.

"Kind of hard not to be, I don't know what it is, but I know I am safe like this," Skyla replied rubbing his arm.

Piers stared down at her for a long moment, playing back what she said before smiling to himself.

"Good," he finally replied.

Skyla's breathing was even and soft. He looked down at her to see she had fallen asleep on him, he sighed and reached up switching off the lamp and adjusted so that they would both be comfortable. It didn't take long before he fell asleep as well. The next morning they woke up later than they usually would. Skyla was the first to wake up, her movement caused Piers to wake up.

"Hey," She said sleepily.

"Hey yourself," Piers replied.

Skyla sat up and looked outside, the sun was out, but it was snowing hard.

"What does it look like out there?" Piers asked.

"It's snowing," Skyla replied watching the flakes mesmerized.

"Want to go downstairs?" Piers asked.

"You're excited," Skyla replied turning her head to look at him.

"Maybe," Piers replied sitting up to kiss her softly.

Skyla smirked at him and nodded.

"Let me at least shower and change," she said as she got out of the bed.

"Ugh fine," he replied.

"Go ahead and go down I promise not to take too long," she said grabbing her clothes and heading into the connecting bathroom.

She kept her promise and showered as quickly as she could. She only towel dried her hair and came out of the bathroom. She took a step back when she saw Piers sitting on the bed dressed and on his phone.

"You didn't have to wait," Skyla replied going to her bag and putting her clothes away.

"It's fine, I got a text from Chris I needed to respond to anyway," Piers replied sounding annoyed.

"Everything okay?" she asked staring.

"Yeah, it doesn't affect anything until we get back so don't worry about it," he replied.

They made their way downstairs to the smell of breakfast being cooked. Piers smirked and dragged a reluctant Skyla into the dining room.

"Merry Christmas Piers and Skyla," Mrs. Nivans said with a big smile.

"Merry Christmas," they replied together.

Piers looked at Skyla and raised his eyebrow then back to his mom.

"Dad's cooking breakfast?" Piers asked.

"He insisted," Linda sighed.

"Shit, let me make sure there is something you can actually eat," Piers said getting up and looking to Skyla.

"Piers, Language!" Mrs. Nivans chastised him.

"Don't worry about it, I'm not even hungry I can just get some coffee," Skyla replied.

"Are you sure?" Piers asked.

"Yeah and I can get some toast or something later if I do get hungry," she smirked.

"What's the problem?" Mrs. Nivans asked.

"I may have forgotten to mention that Skyla is a vegetarian," Piers said bowing his head.

"Piers!" Mrs. Nivans yelled at him.

"It's honestly fine, as long as you have salad or fruit I am fine," Skyla said.

"What's all the yelling about now?" Mr. Nivans asked coming into the dining room with two platters filled with plates of breakfast foods.

"Your son forgot to mention ahead of time about his girlfriend being a vegetarian," Linda said to her husband.

"Honestly it's fine, I've learned to adapt and not have people need to make accommodations for me. I think the boys forget honestly," Skyla replied coming to Piers defense.

Piers looked to Skyla giving her silent thank breakfast, they made their way into the living room. Mr. And Mrs. Nivans sat close to the tree with Piers beside them and Skyla beside him. Mrs. Nivans handed Skyla a present, and she smiled at her.

"You didn't have to do this," Skyla said to them noticing the tag read it was from both of the parents.

"Sure we did honey, we encouraged our son to invite you into our home for Christmas," Mrs. Nivans replied to her with a warm smile.

It was a relatively small long rectangular box, wrapped in shiny red paper with a black bow. Skyla hesitated for a moment before she carefully slid the bow off and just as carefully tore the paper off. It was velveted black jewelry box; Skyla looked up to the three Nivans before opening it. Her eyes widened, it was silver Pandora bracelet that had a P and S charms with little divider charms in the middle of it.

"It's beautiful, but you really didn't have to do this Mr. and Mrs. Nivans, thank you," Skyla said looking up from the box still astonished at the gift.

Piers slid over and looked at the gift and smiled at her. Mr. Nivans grabbed decently sized present for Piers, handing it to him. Piers carefully unwrapped his gift and smirked at it.

"Dad I know this is your doing," Piers said pulling out a Desert Eagle .50 caliber pistol with Burris Pistol Scope attached.

"You need to be more versatile with your gun usage Piers," William chastised him.

"You know I can't take this on the plane; even with my BSAA license," Piers looked over at his dad.

Mr. Nivans shrugged; Piers grabbed two presents for his mom and handed it to her.

"Two?" Mrs. Nivans looked at her husband and smirked.

Skyla reached under and grabbed two for Mr. Nivans as well.

Mrs. Nivans unwrapped her gifts, one was a gold diamond necklace, and the other was a set of earrings to match.

"These are beautiful, thank you two," Mrs. Nivans smile at the two of them.

Mr. Nivans nonchalantly opened his gifts and was surprised to find a well-aged bottle of scotch and set of whiskey glasses and stones to go with it.

"I know Piers didn't come up with this idea," Mr. Nivans smirked at the two of them.

"You are correct dad, you almost got a gift card, but Skyla was the one that came up with that," Piers smirked.

Mr. Nivans nodded to Skyla and held the bottle up to look at it better. Piers and Skyla grabbed the gifts they got for each other while Piers' parents handed their gifts to one another. Piers look down at the box it was medium and a perfect square shape with black shiny wrapping paper and red bow.

"I must admit seeing this for the past few days has been driving me nuts," Piers said holding it up.

"Well open it," Skyla said staring at him smirking.

Piers slid the bow off and opened the paper and looked up and playfully glared at Skyla. It was a white box with no indicators of what could be inside. Skyla smirked, and Piers lifted the box lid. He pulled out a tan piece of cloth that felt really heavy. He inspected it further and realized there were a total of three things in the box, and looked up and glared at her again.

"Really, that's not fair. I only got you one gift," Piers said looking down at the gifts.

"Technically you got me two," Skyla smirked at him.

Piers inspected the cloth. Further, it was a light tan tactical shemagh. The other thing that was wrapped it in the shemagh was a scope for his sniper rifle; upon further inspection, he found that she had it engraved for him, 'Alpha Ace Sniper.' Piers smirked, the last thing caught his attention though, it was single silver dog tag with the BSAA logo imprinted on it. A heart was cut out of as well, and it was engraved with 'I carry your heart with me.' His chest tightened, and his breath hitched slightly, anything he knew felt for Skyla had changed at that moment. Piers discreetly put the dog tag on and tucked it under his shirt, he then looked up at Skyla who had started unwrapping her gift conveniently at that moment. He observed her, looking for where the cutout piece of heart could be, he smiled when his sniper's eye caught a glimmer of silver he hadn't seen earlier hanging just ever so slightly out of her pocket. Skyla looked up and caught his eye; she looked down at what he was staring at and winked at him with a shy smile. Skyla looked down at the box from the gift, she opened it and smiled. It was a simple silver necklace, with a small black diamond on it. She stared at it, biting her lip. Skyla felt her phone vibrate, she frowned and was half tempted to ignore expect she hadn't heard from her sister at all yet. She pulled out her phone and looked down and to see it was a text from Piers.

[Want to go outside for a little bit?]

Skyla raised her eyebrow at the question from him.

[Sure.]

Piers got up and looked at his parents.

"I'm going to show Skyla around the property for a little bit," Piers said turning to Skyla and putting his hand out to help her up.

Skyla took the offered hand which took Piers by slight surprise; they put on their jackets and walked out the door. They were both quiet for a while. After some time he grabbed her hand gaining her attention and stopping them.

"Any reason why we are outside in the snow freezing and not inside in the warmth?" Skyla asked teasingly.

"Wanted to talk in private, without being spied on," Piers looked down at her thoughtfully.

"Something wrong?" Skyla asked worriedly.

"No," Piers said pulling her against him.

"You're acting strange," Skyla said looking up at him.

Piers pulled out the dog tag from his shirt and smiled down at her.

"Thank you, I liked everything, but this meant a lot," Piers said holding it up.

A small blush played across her cheeks, and she buried her face into his chest. They stayed like that for a few minutes; finally, Skyla reached into her pocket and pulled out the small silver thing that Piers had seen earlier. She stepped back and looked up at him holding up to show it was the heart from the tag on small chain.

"Help me put this on?" Skyla asked.

Piers smiled and nodded, he grabbed the chain, Skyla spun around so he could place it around her neck and fasten it.

"After the mission when you came back injured, I wanted to find something that if we weren't on a mission together and no contact again we had something," Skyla replied turning around facing him.

Piers took a few steps towards and grabbed her face crashing their lips; there was a lot of desperation and passion. She ran hands up to his arm and squeezed and sighed. Taking advantage of the sigh, he dipped his tongue into her mouth and pulled her against him. She let him lead this kiss, knowing that this was lost cause of trying to battle for dominance, he would win he was already causing he legs to feel like jelly. After a few minutes, it became apparent that the need for air was necessary, a groan emitted from the back of his throat, and reluctantly he broke the kiss. He laid his forehead on her head while they tried to catch their breath.

Skyla backed away from him and stared at him then smirked. She leaned down gathered some snow and made a snowball and threw it at him and hit in the arm with it. Piers glared at her but smiled, he picked up some snow and made a snowball and threw it and hit her it in the back. Skyla laughed and then ran to close by tree and hid behind it. She made another snowball and tossed it at him and missed. He stuck his tongue at her and made another snowball throwing it and hit the tree she was hiding behind.

"You missed," Skyla stuck her head out to look at him.

"I wasn't trying to hit you, and you know it," Piers laughed.

Skyla made another snowball and threw it hitting him in the face.

"Oh, you're going to get it!" Piers said to her.

Skyla giggled and picked up some snow, Piers snuck around the tree and grabbed her around the waist. Skyla took the snow she holding and smashed it in his face. He playfully growled and pulled her down into the snow, he lost his balance and landed on top of her. He looked down at her, he leaned down about to kiss her, without any warning pushed a handful of snow into her face.

"Hey! That's cold!" Skyla squeaked.

"I know, how does it feel?" He replied smirking down at her.

"I almost don't want to go back to the compound," Skyla said to him.

Piers stared down at her seriously and pushed off of her, taking a few steps away from her. Skyla pushed herself into a sitting position and stared at him.

"What's wrong?" Skyla asked.

"We have responsibilities Skyla," Piers said seriously.

Skyla pushed herself up and stared at him.

"Hey, I didn't say that I didn't want to. I only meant that I was enjoying this, the two of us, it's not every day we get to just relax and let our guards down. Is this about that text you got from Chris this morning?" Skyla replied.

Piers features softened, and he turned his head away from her, feeling ashamed for losing cool.

"Talk to me," Skyla said taking a step towards him.

"Chris wants me to take over as Captain for a few weeks for him when we get back so he and Jill can go on vacation. They want to celebrate their engagement."