Mr. Winter

"Alyssa?"

...

"Lyss?"

"What?"

"Baby, wake up."

"Why?"

"It's December first, time to get in the Christmas Spirit!"

Alyssa sat up in bed. "Garrett, you woke me up at fucking seven just to tell me that?"

"Come on, stop being the grinch and get dressed, we need to start preparing!" Garrett said excitedly. Alyssa just flopped back down on the bed.

"No."

"Alyssa."

"Leave me alone, I wanna sleep," she whined.

Garrett didn't reply, instead his cold hands found their way under Alyssa's pyjama shirt and she let out a loud shriek at the cold contact.

"Jesus Christ, Garrett, I'm tired as fuck from work, why won't you let me sleep?" she complained as she snuggled down into the bed, pulling the duvet up over her shoulders.

Garrett got back under the covers, moving in close to Alyssa and wrapping his arms around her warm body. "You know how much I love Christmas, Lyss. And it's our first Christmas living together so I wanna make it extra special and we have a lot of things to do between now and Christmas Day," he said, kissing the tip of her nose.

Alyssa sighed. "I know you love Christmas baby, I'm just not feeling it this early in the month, or morning. We have over three weeks to get everything organised and I'm still at work and ugh, just thinking about Christmas right now is making me tired," she said, closing her eyes and resting her forehead against Garrett's chest.

"Come on, now you're awake we need to go in and find some decorations to start putting up."

Alyssa sighed again. "Fine."

* * * * *

An hour later, Garrett was dragging Alyssa around the store, excitedly picking up decorations and tinsel, while Alyssa sipped at the Starbucks cup in her hand.

Garrett tossed a small green object into the cart and Alyssa picked it up between her finger and thumb. "Mistletoe? Garrett, we're not seventeen anymore, you can kiss me wherever you want, whenever you want."

"Wait, I'm gonna need you to lift you arm." Alyssa raised her arm so that the mistletoe was being held over her head, and Garrett took the opportunity to lean in and press a soft peck to her lips. She raised her eyebrow at him and tossed the mistletoe back into the basket and followed him around as he added more things to the pile, internally sighing in relief when he headed towards the register to pay.

They arrived home and Alyssa slumped on the couch, exhausted from the early wakeup call and morning activities.

"Lyss, look up."

Alyssa grumbled, keeping her eyes closed. "Don't wanna."

"Lyss," Garrett whined. Alyssa begrudging opened her eyes and looked up to find Garrett holding the piece of mistletoe over her head. She let a small smile slip onto her face as he leaned down and her kissed her, longer than he did the first time. "Are you feeling festive now?"

Alyssa pouted. "No. I'm still tired and now that we have decorations they need to be put up and I'm too tired."

Garrett kissed the top of her head. "Go and have a nap for a couple of hours so you feel a little better, I'll wake you up at lunch time so you can have something to eat and we can start decorating after, okay?"

Alyssa just nodded and dragged herself off to the bedroom and flopped down on the bed, falling asleep quickly.

* * * * *

Alyssa felt something warm curl up into her side as she began to wake up. She opened her eyes to find Garrett peering back at her through his glasses and he pressed his lips to hers. She closed her eyes and let her lips mould to his and he pulled back with a smirk. She looked up to see his arm stretched towards the ceiling, the piece of mistletoe hanging from his fingertips.

"You dork," she teased and pushed his shoulder lightly, rolling off the bed into an upright position. She headed into the kitchen to find that Garrett had made her a cup of coffee and put together a plate of salad. She took the plate and mug and turned to see Garrett standing behind her, holding the mistletoe above their heads. She chuckled and pressed a quick kiss to his lips before side-stepping him and eating her lunch.

Garrett continued doing this the whole afternoon. Alyssa would secure a piece of tinsel to the door frame and when she would turn to get more, he'd be standing there with the mistletoe above their heads. The same thing would happen when she would string up the Christmas lights, he'd be waiting behind her with the mistletoe just to give her a kiss.

By the time they had finished putting up decorations, she had kissed him at least half a dozen times.

"Alright Garrett, you can't follow me around with the mistletoe forever. Where do you wanna put it?"

Garrett thought for a second, before dragging Alyssa to the living room. He reached up to attach the piece of mistletoe to the top of the fireplace and pulled her into a slow and sweet kiss, wrapping his arms around her waist. He pulled away and tucked a piece of stray hair behind her ear.

"I think it's the perfect place," he said. Alyssa nodded.

"So do I. This afternoon has been lovely, thank you Garrett."

He smiled and pulled her in to kiss her again. "Are you feeling more festive now?"

She grinned and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Definitely."