A Very Merry Cryptomis
"Would you just let me use my drone to put the star on the top of tree, so you don't get hurt." Natalie giggled as she stood on Tae Joon's shoulders, "Oh no, no, no. We must do it this way!" she said in the sweetest voice that made him crack a smile. Even though he really didn't understand her traditions he thought she was cute.
Even when she was angry, and she started speaking quickly in French it would make him laugh and it would make her even angrier. Then she would try to punch him, which never really hurt at all but, he would just play along and pretend to be hurt and then she would feel bad and kiss and hug him until he was no longer 'hurt.'
"Ahh Tae Joon, don't drop me!" He had let his thoughts wonder, only she could do that to him. Usually, he was always ready for anything but when he was with her the world seemed to melt away and take his focus as with it. All he could focus on was the time they spent together, nothing else seemed to matter but now it was back to reality so that they both didn't end up hurt.
He held onto her ankles while Natlie tiptoed on his shoulders to get a better angle to put a decent sized star at the top of a tree that they had picked out together. He had never really picked out a tree before. Even when they went to look at trees, she asked him a lot of questions about every tree that they looked at just to make sure that they got the one that was perfect for them both.
"Tae Joon, please, just a little higher." He sighed and got on his tip toes, which gave her enough height to get the star on the top of the tree just before she leaned completely too far forward and began to fall. Tae Joon released her ankles and caught Natalie as she fell, fitting perfecting into his arms. He laughed as she giggled, "We did it!" He eased her down to her feet not really wanting to let go of her. "Is this part of the tradition too?"
He pulled at the blue one-piece snowflake pajamas that were made of flannel that clung to his body. Complete with footies, a cat ear hood and the ease of a zipper. Natalie smiled and rubbed her shoulder against his, wearing the same exact pajamas. "Of course it is! We must match!" He wasn't so sure it was tradition to match, maybe it was a tradition of hers. Either way, she had somehow talked him into matching pajamas.
"Don't you have any holiday traditions Tae Joon?" She gently pulled a piece of gold tinsel from his jet-black hair. Her touch lingered longer than it should have but he didn't mind. He sighed and thought about it for a moment. He did have a few traditions that he shared with Mila but a lot was taken from his life when the syndicate ripped his sister from him. He spent most holidays alone and without any traditions.
"I thought you might ask me this. Wait here." Natalie smiled and waited by their beautifully decorated tree full of lights, ornaments of different sizes, tinsel, small lightning bolt decorations, and mostly Nessies. Natalie knew that you couldn't go wrong with a bunch of cute Nessies for any occasion except maybe adding more Nessies!
When Tae Joon returned, Natalie was surprised to find that he was holding two plates of delicious looking food. One plate was full of sugar candy, which looked like round sugar cookies with designs that were not fully cut out, they were also on a stick. The other plate had some sort of cooked pears on it. "I made this for you. The pears are called Baesuk and…" He stopped talking. "I just hope that they are okay."
Natalie clapped in excitement. "This is amazing Tae Joon. She kissed his cheek several times and then sampled everything that she could. "It's wonderful!" He smiled after setting the plates down on a nearby side table. "Should we light up the tree Tae Joon?" She stared at the unlit tree like she was on a mission that she could not detour from and then turned back around to look at him, waiting impatiently for his answer.
He could hear the excitement in her voice, and he could see the pleading in her beautiful blue eyes; it made his heart skip a beat, "Of course." Natalie gave him an innocent smile and took a few steps backwards towards the tree. She pressed her fingertips together and bit her lower lip to focus. Tae Joon almost cringed, "Please. Don't set the tree on fire. Remember when…" He stopped because he didn't want to make her angry and have her set the tree on fire.
Natalie pulled her fingers apart creating a light blue electrical current that sparked on occasion. Holding the charge she turned around, "Do you not trust me?" Tae Joon was silent because he really didn't want her to set the tree on fire. He had enough fires for one lifetime.
"Tsk. Tae Joon. You should know that I am currently at the top of my game." She giggled and brought the current in her fingers to an open-ended connection on the light cord, "It just needs a just a spark and…" She pushed the current into the cord and the lights lit up to an immense brightness that overtook the room and then eased down to their normal colorful tones. "See."
"Now we need pictures!" Tae Joon nodded as Natalie waited. "Oh, you mean of us and right now?" He asked. Natalie smiled and waved for him to come over next to her. "Fine." Tae Joon grabbed his drone and tossed it out as he made his way towards Natalie.
He stood next to her where she proceeded to tell his drone to take a million pictures. She queued him in on poses, but he mostly just stood there while she posed. Some of the pictures included having their hoods on so that they look like cats. He could only handle so many cat pictures and honestly didn't know when his drone had started listening to her, but he didn't mind because he trusted her.
"Okay, what about presents?" He had to be done with the pictures, he motioned for his drone and grabbed it when it came back to him. "But Tae Joon, that's not until tomorrow." He thought her childlike innocence was cute, "Natalie, you know that we have to work tomorrow." She sighed because they worked every holiday, "Okay but I want to give you your gift first!" He set his drone down and sat down on the floor in front of the tree, "Fine."
Natalie almost clapped again as she ran behind the tree and came back with a long, large box that was nearly as tall as her. It was wrapped and tied with a bow. The presentation was so nice that he didn't want to ruin the work that she had put into wrapping it. She sat down with him and set the box in front of him, "Hurry. I can't wait!"
Tae Joon purposely took his time to open the nicely wrapped box, pulling slowly the neatly tied bow and finding the perfect edges to pull on the paper so that he didn't rip it to shreds. When he finally got into the box, there was tissue paper that was neatly covering whatever was inside. He took his time to unwrap the tissue paper and found a blade with an intricate hilt attached to it. It almost looked like a samurai sword but more technologically advanced. He was very taken aback by it.
He pulled the blade out and hanging from the bottom of the handle was string with a small coin tied to it. He inspected the coin closer and found that there was an inscription on it that read forever family. "Natalie…" She smiled when he said her name, "It a Biwon Blade. It retracts. I prototyped and Mila and I worked on it together." Tae Joon was silent as she spoke. "Oh, and it's game ready. I got it approved for you to use during matches."
"Natalie, this means more than you'll ever know. Thank you." She smiled as he set the blade back into the box. It was the first time that she had seen him truly speechless. He was always quiet but never speechless. "I'm glad that you like it." They sat in silence for a moment before Tae Joon realized that she probably wanted her present as well.
Natalie, "Your present is somewhere in the tree." Natalie stood up with great anticipation, "Oh I love games." She quickly scoured the tree looking for something that might be a present, "Tae Joon. I can't seem to find it. Is it in a box? Does it look like a present?" He laughed at her digging through the tree, "I guess I will give you a hint. It's your favorite thing."
She stopped for a moment and then tapped a finger to her chin. When he realized what she was looking for her finger shot up in the air, "I think I know!" She rushed around the tree and came back to him. "It's my Nessie! Oh he's got a white and green Crypto Jacket on. Did you make that?" He smiled, "I knitted it." If he wasn't with her then he would have felt really stupid saying that he had knitted something for a stuffed animal.
"Tae Joon. I did not know that you knew how to knit." Natalie smiled and hugged her patched up Nessie, but when she hugged it, she felt something in the pocket of the Crypto jacket. She dug her ting fingers into the pocket and pulled out a ring. She tucked her patched Nessie under her arm so that she could get a better look at the ring.
She inspected the ring further and realized that the round part of the ring was clear but encased in it were shards of wood, some burnt, others not. The stone of the ring was cloudy and filled with blue and green electricity that sparked every so often. She couldn't even imagine where he had gotten this ring or how the ring could even do such a thing.
For the first time in her life, she was speechless. She stared at the ring for a very long time and didn't know what to say. Tae Joon spoke as she watched the electrical flares in the cloudy stone, "The wood is from the glass forest. From the day you made the arena dome. You are also not the only one that can make sparks." Natalie shook her head as she stared at the ring, "How did you get the wood?" She was almost in tears.
Tae Joon smiled, "I had some help from a ghost." Natalie's eyes widened because she knew who he was talking about. The ghost that saved her that day. She was finally able to pull her eyes from the ring and when she did, she found that Tae Joon was down on one knee in front of her. "Natalie, I have loved you since the day we met. I want to be with you forever. I want you and I to be a forever family. Will you marry me?"
Natalie's mouth dropped for a moment and then she bit her lower lip as it quivered. Warm tears struck her cheeks. She nodded, "Yes yes mon amour." He gently eased to ring from her grasp and slid it onto her left and ring finger. He then stood up and pulled in close to him. "I love you more than I could ever put into words," He whispered against her lips as he kissed her. She placed her hands on his cheeks and pulled him against her, kissing him back, never wanting this moment to end. Unbeknownst to her his drone was recording the whole time so that she would never have to forget the moment.