*** Mistletoes.

Christmas was never her holiday. She was more of a Halloween type girl; Anything that didn't involve love or family. Christmas involved both.

This year, though, she was celebrating it. It felt so foreign to her to be putting up decorations. She never went all out like she was this year. There were chocolate chip cookies in the oven and she was currently hanging up Christmas lights all around her living room. She liked how the lights effected the room.

After years of using her white tree, she finally caved in and bought a green tree. She liked the change, but didn't like the green-ness of the tree. She decorated it elegantly, though. It made it a little better. Red, green, and blue lights were wrapped securely around her tree. Instead of tinsel, this year she used gold ribbons. It made it look so much more... She couldn't even think of a word. Organized came to mind, but she scoffed at that. An organized Christmas tree? Was that even possible?

She shook her thoughts away and finished lining the red lights against the wall-ceiling meet. She climbed off of the ladder and rearranged the pile of neatly wrapped gifts under the tree. As she was moving around presents, she got the sinking feeling that she was forgetting something while decorating. What it was, she never figured out.

Once she was finished and tired of listening to silence, she clicked on her iHome and played My Chemical Romance.

She looked at the clock: Three hours, ten minutes and counting before her guests arrived.

She moved on to her next task: Finishing dinner. She was a vegetarian; Everyone respected that. So, when she (sheepishly) admitted that she had no idea how to make turkey or ham, they said not having any would be fine. She was so grateful for that. Instead, she was making her mother's famous lasagna recipe. She knew that the boys would appreciate that just as much.

As soon as she finished that, she started on the salad and desert. They were having oreo pie for desert, another thing her friends would love. She loved that they were so simple to cook for. She wasn't a great cook, and they respected that.

As soon as she was finished with dinner, she checked the clock once more: forty-five minutes and counting.

"Fuck my life," she mumbled, before rushing up the stairs. She pushed open the door to the master bedroom, and grabbed her clothes, before running to the bathroom. She stripped and jumped in the shower really quick.

As soon as she was dressed, she ran a brush through her hair quickly and ran downstairs. Not even a minute later, the doorbell rang and five guys barged into her house, shouting, laughing and fucking around. That was the norm for them, and she loved it.

"Oh, Alex! We're here," Matt called. His hazel eyes sparkled when he laid eyes on everything. The living room looked so beautiful and the smell of lasagna made him want to drool.

Brian was the next to join Matt in the 'stare-and-drool fest'. Soon after, Zacky, Jimmy and Johnny joined in. She was impressed with herself that she could stop them from talking for over forty-five seconds.

Before they opened presents, they ate dinner. They all complimented her cooking, which she blushed at. She kept insisting that it was terrible, but they refused to listen to her.

Then, they went to open presents. They were all great presents; They all had just decided to do all of the present exchanging there, at her house. It was great. They drank beer, messed around, watched Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer (which was the only Christmas movie Alex would allow) and passed out on the couch, recliner chairs, or on the floor, among the wrapping paper.

She was the last one to go to sleep. Even though it was going on three in the morning, she pulled herself up from the couch, next to Matt's head, and sluggishly moved out to the kitchen. She put away the leftover food in her refrigerator and started doing the dishes.

Someone cleared their throat behind her, making her jump and splash bubbles and soapy water everywhere. She spun around to see Brian standing in the doorway with a sheepish smile on his face.

"Hi," he said, quietly.

"Hi," she replied, just as quietly as he had. He moved over next to her. He grabbed a dish towel and started drying the dishes. She smiled to herself, and looked at him from under her eyelashes. He, too, was smiling to himself.

He noticed her looking at him and his smile grew. "What?"

She giggled slightly. "I never thought I'd see big, bad Synyster Gates helping out with the dishes."

"Well, I thought you'd want some help. We tend to make huge ass messes, if you haven't seen your living room."

They both laughed at that, before falling into one of those cliché comfortable silences.

"I didn't know what to get you," Brian stated, randomly. She looked up him.

"It's okay," she replied, sincerely.

"Er, well, I did get you something," he said, before digging through the pockets of his leather jacket. He never took that thing off. He finally pulled out a small, black box, before handing it to her, hastily.

She smiled up at him, before opening up the box. In it, there was a small, silver deathbat. In its eye sockets were little red jewels, which she presumed to be garnets, her birthstone. She grinned, before carefully taking it out of the box and pulling it on.

"I had it made specially for you. I figured you'd like it. I really, really hoped you'd like it," he was nervously rambling, and it made her smile.

"I love it." Just those words alone made him grin. "It makes my present look kind of blah now..." She pulled out a small box from her hoodie pocket and handed it to him. Inside were four guitar picks, with "Syn Gates" writing on it in a dark red, and the deathbat on the other side in the same shade of red.

His grin was just as huge as hers was when she put on the necklace. They met each others' eyes and they felt...so at ease. He lean down slightly, and she met him half way. Their lips met and they both felt an eruption of butterflies let loose in their stomachs.

"Hey!" Jimmy exclaimed, stumbling drunkenly in the room. He pointed at the two, accusingly. "I don't see a mistletoe! You can't kiss on Christmas without a mistletoe!"

Jimmy hiccupped, before lowering himself to the floor, crawling under the table and using his hoodie as a pillow. A few minutes later, they heard Jimmy's snoring.

"Shit. I knew I forgot something when decorating..." she mumbled.

Brian just smiled down at her, before pecking her lips once again. "Fuck mistletoes."