The Princess and the SEAL Chronicles will cover a series of 30 short fics, each prompted by one of the words below. The word each chapter is prompted by will be bolded appropriately. I have no idea how often I'll update - probably as soon as I finish writing each one, because I'm as impatient as you are. Reviews are always lovely, but I just hope you enjoy.

Beginning | Accusation | Restless | Snowflake | Haze | Flame | Formal | Companion | Move | Silver | Prepared | Knowledge | Denial | Wind | Order | Thanks | Look | Summer | Transformation | Tremble | Sunset | Mad | Thousand | Outside | Winter | Diamond | Letters | Promise | Simple | Future

Sean grunted and cursed as he tried to singlehandedly haul the Christmas tree up the stairs to the apartment. He glanced over his shoulder at Alex, leaning against the wall at the top of the stairs, hip cocked, lips quirked in a smirk.

"You're really just going to stand there, aren't you." He grumbled.

"Hey, this whole 'we need to have some life outside of Division, do normal things' thing was your idea. I never agreed to any heavy lifting." Sean managed, just barely, to resist the urge to stick his tongue out at her. He renewed his efforts and made it up the last flight of stairs. He'd grown up with real Christmas trees and never understood the appeal of the fake plastic ones. He was starting to reconsider that stance.

Once it was up the stairs, dragging it through the door and getting it set up in the old stand was easy. Within ten minutes they had a (rather majestic, Sean thought) Christmas tree standing in the living room, ready to be decorated. He grinned, looking all of twelve years old, and looked over at Alex expectantly. His smile started to fade when he saw her looking less than enthusiastic.

"Not a Christmas fan?" he asked, thinking maybe he should have talked it over with her first before coming home with a six foot tree.

"It's not that. I just…I haven't had a real Christmas since my father died. It feels a little weird to be doing it without him, or my mother," she admitted sadly. Sean nodded and sat down next to her on the couch.

"Decorating the tree used to be something we all did as a family when I was little," he said. "My dad died when I was ten. Car accident. The first Christmas after that was…my mom barely got through it, but she insisted we still do it together. When my sisters and I got older and weren't around as much, we would still go back home for Christmas. My mom wouldn't touch the tree until we were all there. When I started getting deployed and couldn't always get home, my sister Jill would take pictures and send them to me, even if I wouldn't get them for days or weeks. That way they still felt like I was there, in a way. Now mom's gone too, and…it's strange, to not be with them to do this." Alex put a hand over his.

"Why aren't you with your sisters?" she asked.

"I suppose without mom it just doesn't feel right anymore. And they have their own friends and family. I think they need to start moving on. Build new traditions for themselves." He looked over at her. "What about you? What did your family do?" She was quiet for a while, staring out the window. She seemed a million miles away.

"When I was really young, before Zetrov, I suppose we must have done more together, but I don't remember much. Once we were in the big house, my father hired decorators every year, so he could throw a big party for all his friends and business associates. The house was always beautiful, but my father was always busy with business things, and we didn't see much of him until right before Christmas. Every Christmas Eve we had dinner, just the three of us. No business associates, no friends or extended family. Just us. The cook would have the night off, my mother would do everything, just like she used to. And after dinner, we would make paper snowflakes to hang on the tree." She smiled and laughed. "My father was terrible at it. We always hid his in the back. But my mom? She was amazing. Hers were always so perfect. I would try to make mine as pretty as hers." She shook her head. "A lot of mine ended up in back too."

Alex looked over at him and smiled.

"I guess we could both use some new traditions."

Sean wasn't sure what was more miraculous – that everyone had managed to avoid going out on a mission on Christmas, or that everyone had managed to reach Christmas without any major injuries. Owen had had a pretty close call on their recent mission in Germany, but a last minute tackle from Alex had spared them having Christmas dinner in Division's infirmary.

He watched her now, running around the kitchen frantically, and tried to suppress a laugh. He doubted it would help the situation.

"Are you sure you don't want any help?" he asked. Alex shot him a quick glare.

"I think I can manage to cook one meal without assistance," she bit out, irritated. Sean had tried to help mix the stuffing earlier and had promptly been chased out of the kitchen at knife point. He probably shouldn't find it so endearing when she threatened him, but she looked so appealing with her hair messy and an enormous streak of flour across her cheek that he hadn't bothered to mention yet.

"I'm sure you're capable, I just don't want you to feel like you have to do all this work by yourself."

"My mother managed to do this every year, and she never had to help coordinate multinational operations to take down dangerous criminals. It's just dinner." Sean nodded agreeably and decided retreating was the best course of action.

Back in the bedroom, he dug in the closet until he found the small box he'd hidden in the back corner of the top shelf. Inside were old photos, of his family, of his military buddies, but what he was really after was buried at the bottom; a small envelope that had arrived a week ago. He'd debated when to give it to her, but in the end decided a Christmas surprise was just what she needed. He slipped it carefully into his pocket and went back to the living room.

The tree was decorated now, after a shopping trip the day after they'd put it up. When choosing ornaments, Alex had decided she wanted to rehabilitate the worst ornaments that nobody else wanted. It looked strange, dripping with ugly gnome things and knock off discount cartoon characters. It was nothing like the trees either of them had growing up, and it was perfect.

Hours passed, the cursing from the kitchen got less frequent, and finally Alex went back to clean up and get ready. After she'd given him a punch on the shoulder for not telling her about the flour she sat next to him, taking a brief moment to relax before their guests arrived. She always looked good, even with flour on her face, but there was something about the satisfied, accomplished look in her eyes that made Sean stare. She was never more beautiful than when she had that look.

"I have something for you."

"Presents are for later," she said, practically waging a finger in his face.

"This one is special. I know you don't want to risk exposing your mom while Amanda and Ari are still out there, but I also know how hard it is for you to be away from her. So I went to Birkhoff and Nikita, and I asked them to help me get a message to her, safely." He pulled the envelope out of his pocket. "She sent this for you."

Alex stared at the envelope long enough to make Sean nervous, but finally she reached out and took it. She opened it carefully, not wanting to tear even the envelope too much. From inside she pulled a folded piece of paper. Hands shaking slightly, she opened it up to reveal a small, delicate, lacelike snowflake. She looked up at him, tears in her eyes.

"It's important to move on, to make new traditions. But that doesn't mean you have to completely abandon the old," he said quietly.

"I…thank you," she said softly. She leaned forward suddenly and kissed him, a long slow lingering kiss with arms wrapped around each other. Sean's heart gave a little skip. She still had trouble initiating physical contact sometimes. It was so precious to him when she did.

"Thank you," she said again, resting her forehead against his. He smiled and kissed her again. A knock at the door interrupted them.

"That would be our dinner guests," she said softly, still pressed against him.

"Still happy you invited a group of people to invade the apartment?" She smiled and leaned in to kiss him again.

"Yes," she said instead, pulling away and standing to answer the door.

Michael and Nikita were first, wine and presents in hand. Everyone else arrived shortly after.

"What, Division is big on carpooling now?" Sean teased.

"I don't want to talk about it," Birkhoff grumbled, heading straight for the kitchen, where Alex and Michael promptly chased him away from the food they were getting ready to serve.

"He's just mad because I told Sonya she looked pretty before he did," Owen said, tossing Sean a bottle of scotch. Sonya rolled her eyes and went to help Nikita arrange presents under the tree.

"I'm just glad we made it without anyone pulling a gun," Ryan said quietly to Sean as he passed.

"And nobody better pull a gun now," Alex threatened. "Except me, if anyone screws up my dinner."

Cowed by the tiny Russian with good aim, everyone was on their best behavior as they grabbed the food and sat down without incident.

"I just want to say thank you," Alex began, raising her water glass in a toast. "It's important to make time to spend with your family. And that's what all of you are. Family." Her eyes seemed to linger on Sean as the rest of the table raised their glasses in agreement.

"Now, are we done with the speeches, because I'm starving."

"Shut up Birkhoff."

They laughed, and ate, and told stories, and opened presents. And in the corner of the living room the strange Christmas tree stood with all its ugly ornaments and its one perfect beautiful snowflake, hung right in front.