May Your Days Be Merry And Bright

AN: Happy holidays, everyone! Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it and happy fourth day of Hanukkah! Rose, I hope you'll like this fic!!!!

“Hey? Jai? Can I run something by you?” For the first time in two hours, Amorette finally looked up from her computer screen.

“Oh, of course.” The skin around his eyes crinkled from a smile she couldn’t currently see. “What are you thinking, butterfly?”

“I wanted to do something for the holiday season! A lot of my siblings are, I think. I know Hedone’s always busy… Anyway, I was thinking it all over, and you know what someone never does? Sparring matches!”

Jaiden fluttered his (unfairly pretty) eyelashes at her, bewildered by the statement. “Sparring matches?”

“Yes. Just picture it! What better gift is there than giving someone the tools to defend themselves?” Unable to contain herself, she waved her hands around with excitement. “I’ve been writing up an ad and everything for it! Hey, guess what I want to call this.”

“What?” He asked dutifully.

Amorette delivered her best pout in her direction. “Guess!” She liked to know his honest thoughts, and if insisting would bring them out of him, that was what she intended to do.

Her boyfriend chuckled lightly. “Oh, I dunno. Festive Fight Club?”

“Are you even trying?” She said between giggles of her own. “No! Come on, Jai! Don’t you have anything better knocking around in that noggin of yours?”

“Not really.” At least he was frank about it. “Seriously, what are you calling these, uh, sparring matches anyway?”

The girl peered at him with oodles of mirth, barely holding herself together. “You really want to know?” Prodding him like this probably wasn’t the best idea, but she felt no fear. Jaiden was nothing but sweet to her, and his response proved it.

“Well… Yeah. I do.”

“... Miss-letoe.”

“Eh?”

“Miss-letoe!” Amorette snickered, amused by her own sense of humor more than his perplexed tone. “Get it? Like missing a hit! I was thinking about something to do with blocks, but nothing really flowed properly-”

His loud snort cut her off. Normally, that sort of reaction would smart, especially with how enthusiastic she was about her little project, but she knew he didn’t mean her any harm. “Maybe I should call you cheesy little butterfly instead, hm?”

All she did was playfully roll her eyes. “You’re such a charmer. Gods, I love you.” Picking up on a sudden rush of euphoria from her beau made the situation all the better. She returned back to her work, satisfied that he hadn’t shot her down outright.

“So. Sparring.” Jaiden continued talking while she wrote. “You think people will go for that?”

“Some might! Stuff like this is always a toss up.” I’ve got a good eye for gambling though. Not to say that the practice was her cup of tea, but any card game reminded her of bonding with her grandfather as a child.

In truth, the entire affair made her think of him. Plenty of people thought about Aphrodite during this time of year, choosing to focus on strengthening romantic ties and forging new ones. Most of those lovers didn’t spare a single prayer to Ares. But she supposed that didn’t matter much. With what she was planning, maybe that would finally change.

“Good luck then.” He replied, earnest as ever.

Tickled pink by his support, Amorette glowed from the inside out. “Thank you, Jai!” It wasn’t exactly gushing, but it was a close substitute.

Affection radiated from him, a feeling so close to the warmth of the sun’s rays. “Anytime, my sweet little butterfly.”

''Are you or someone you know and/or love sick and tired of being afraid? Do you fear for your safety? Are there nefarious captors in your future? Then I have just the right thing for you!''

Introducing… Miss-letoe!

''This holiday season, learn the art of basic self-defense for FREE. Led by one of your local Cupids, this is a limited time opportunity to try out sparring in a safe and nonjudgmental environment!''

''Come to the lakeside bench on the 21st at 4 for our trial run session! Hope to see you there!''

Waiting patiently for people to come wasn’t something she minded in the slightest, but this was getting to be a little ridiculous.

Amorette could stand sitting around for 5, 10, even 15 minutes. 20 was pushing it, but even that amount of time was something she could manage well enough.

She had been sitting there for an hour. An hour.

This blows. She thought, kicking her heels. ''I didn’t expect it to be like this. Do people just not like Miss-letoe as a concept? Did I mess up somewhere?''

Honestly, Amorette wasn’t sure. While it had seemed like some of her classmates were interested, maybe they were just being polite. Could it be that sparring so close to Christmas didn’t have any appeal to them?

Chasing after those whys made the time stretch out even longer. By the time Jaiden stumbled upon her, it was a little closer to 2 hours than it had been before.

“Are you all done already?” He questioned sweetly, bringing her out of her stupor.

“Huh? Oh! Jai! No, sorry. Not a soul showed their face around here.” She sighed, more focused on the horizon. “I should probably keep waiting.”

“If you want to, butterfly.” Her boyfriend plopped down beside her sans hesitation.

Amorette spared him a tender glance. “What would you do in my position?” She leaned forward, invested despite already knowing the answer.

“Oh, I wouldn’t wait this long.” His expression temporarily darkened before evening out into the more smitten look she loved so dearly. “But I’m not you.”

Thoroughly enamored, she felt relaxed enough to rest her head on his shoulder. “I’m glad you’re not! It’d be awful. Dating another me, I mean. It’s nice that we’re so different. You know?”

“Absolutely.” His reply was simple, but the caring look in his eyes was anything but.

“Really though.” Amorette squinted at their surroundings. “It might be because it’s snowing that no one came.”

Jaiden made a little wave with his other hand, the one attached to his free arm. “Yeah, could be.” He agreed. “Next time, I think you should make people RSVP.”

“You’re so smart, Jai! That’s a great plan! Thank you!” To get the point across better, she carefully pressed a kiss to his cheek.

The way he reacted - slightly flushed and incredibly stunning - could keep her going for weeks. But today was a nice place to start.

“Do you want to head inside?”

“You know what?” She said through her first shiver of the day. “That sounds exactly like what I want to do. How’d you know?”

Once more, the hints of a smile made themselves known. “Just a hunch. After you, my sweet little butterfly.”

Miss-letoe will have to wait! The young Cupid thought, still very determined. Right now, I have someone else to pay attention to.

As they walked off and left her first failed attempt behind, the lightest of snow flurries swirled along behind them. Any time spent with her soulmate, she felt, was truly perfect.

And Amorette was right.