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This Christmas

Hang all the mistletoe

I'm gonna get to know you better

This Christmas

And as we trim the tree

How much fun it's gonna be together

This Christmas

— This Christmas, Donny Hathaway

Disclaimer: I do not own The Phantom of the Opera, or the song This Christmas.

Hey guys! No Christmas countdown this year, but I did manage to squeeze this one-shot out of my writer's block ridden brain! I've got the rest of Home for Christmas all outlined and the 2nd chapter roughly wrote, so that'll be updated sometime this week, (with the winners of course on the 30th!) So on the subject, only one more day to enter the holiday one-shot challenge! If you need an extended deadline just PM me here or on tumblr and I'll be happy to accommodate! There are so many wonderful entries so far and I've loved reading them all! If you haven't already, go read and review them!

So to keep a small bit of tradition- here's a short little one-shot (more of a drabble honestly!) of Christine exploring a new (to her! haha) Christmas tradition.

Before Christine had started work at the Opera house, mistletoe was a foreign word. They weren't found in the reaches of her memory anywhere; not in her childhood Swedish winters, nor had it ever really made an appearance in her caregivers' home either. It was an English plant, something that had to be imported— frivolous. She didn't have the money to be frivolous.

Yet here she stood, a bundle of the strange berry bearing plant wrapped in brown paper, concealed beneath her cloak. The ballerinas' gossip truly was hard to drown out. Mistletoe was much more than just a plant according to them; it was a fail-proof way to get a kiss from anyone she desired. She had blushed when Meg first explained the tradition to her. First of all, one must hang up the plant and hope the other person stood under it at the same time. Then, they would look up and both would realize they were standing under the mistletoe. Finally, the couple would have no other choice but to kiss, because one couldn't go around disregarding tradition. That would be just rude!

Meg found that the only flaw to the whole plan was that she could think of no one to for Christine to kiss.

Thankfully, Christine had someone in mind, a plan of her own already starting to take form in her head.

An hour or so after returning to her quarters in her dressing room, she had successfully managed to strategically string up all of the mistletoe branches. There was one above her mirror, another on her dresser, one hung above the chair, one over the door— and so many other places that Christine herself had nearly forgotten where they were all placed.

Erik would have no way to evade her this was.

She smiled smugly and draped herself on her chair. All she had to do now was wait.

"My deepest apologies for being late, I was tied up with other tasks—"

"Oh, that's quite alright, Erik, you were only a few minutes behind your usual schedule. I've been much later to lessons than that!" Christine cut him off with a slight laugh as the mirror turned on its hinges, Erik stepping through the threshold.

He is standing under the mirror mistletoe! Christine realized as she quickly stood from her chair, walking towards him.

She hadn't expected her mistletoe scheme to work so quickly! How perfect! But, what was she to say? How was she to make him look up at it?

Oh, Erik, doesn't the ceiling look lovely this evening? No, that's silly…

She had almost reached him, her lips already forming words that hadn't quite come forth—

He stepped to the left, a few inches away from the mistletoe.

"Blasted…" Christine uttered under her breath.

"Did you say something, Christine?" Erik asked, turning on his heel.

"Hmm? Oh…I, er, was just clearing my throat, that was all," she quickly lied, playing dumb.

Erik cocked his head to the side, a suspicious glint to his eyes. "I told you weeks ago that throat clearing was a nasty habit, not to mention murder on the voice if you keep it up," he curtly stated.

"Yes, of course….of course…" Christine mumbled in agreement as he looked down to check his cufflinks before starting to ramble off what he wanted to cover in their lessons that evening.

Christine nodded along as her thoughts began to take main focus. He had missed the mirror mistletoe, but he wasn't far from the vanity mistletoe. If she could get him to move slightly over just a step or two—

He began to walk the opposite direction. A frustrated sigh escaped Christine's lips as she followed him, looking around for the next closest mistletoe.

"And of course we'll need to begin working on your audition song for the Spring production. I know they aren't until the end of January- but it will be here before either of us know it!" Erik continued on as he walked, hands clasped behind his back, unknowingly missing every single one of Christine's neatly hung plants (much to her dismay).

Christine nearly gasped. He had done it. He was standing directly underneath her door mistletoe. Honestly it was a Christmas miracle, in Christine's opinion. Especially after trailing around the room after him for the past ten minutes.

"Finally!" she exclaimed, making Erik stop in his tracks.

"Finally, what? Really, Christine, are you feeling alright?" Erik asked, concern lacing his voice as Christine marched over to him.

Christine could do nothing but smile, shake her head, and point up at the ceiling. Though she couldn't see through the mask, she imagined that a raised eyebrow accompanied the squinted eyes that looked at her through Erik's mask. Slowly, those eyes followed the path of her finger and looked up at the mistletoe.

Then quickly snapped back to her.

Christine stepped closer to him. She wanted so badly to place a gentle hand on his chest, and lean in and kiss him, but she couldn't. She was froze to her spot on the ground, hands stiff at her side, awaiting his reaction. Any reaction.

"I wasn't aware you enjoyed the presence of plants so much," Erik spoke as though someone was squeezing his throat, his voice going slightly up at the end. His eyes were roaming around the room, looking at all the other boughs hung up in all the various locations. He tugged at the collar of his shirt. "Is it particularly warm in here to you—"

This wasn't how it was supposed to be. It was supposed to be magical and romantic, but Christine could wait no longer. She stretched high upon her tip-toes and placed an innocent peck on his lips.

When she pulled back, she could already see the tips of his ears glowing a vibrant shade of pink and had to suppress a soft giggle from rising up in her throat.

"That, um, that was, quite…quite….unexpected," Erik managed to choke out. Christine frowned, unsure of what to do from there when Erik began to speak again."Perhaps, um, perhaps we should try again, hm? I'll be a bit more prepared this time. Now, close your eyes and no matter, no matter what— don't open them until I tell you, understand?"

Christine nodded and closed her eyes, anxiously waiting for him to press his lips to her's. Instead, she heard the soft clatter of something hit the ground, and felt a gloved hand come under her chin. As gentle as a newborn lamb, she felt his lips brush against hers, and then again, and again. Slowly, she realized that she couldn't feel the hard cold edge of his mask, instead, only soft skin. She felt her face grow wet with tears that belonged to the Angel beside her and soon found that her own mingled with his as they stood under her door frame, simply holding one another. Her mistletoe kiss might not have been the romantic dream that Meg's stories had instilled in her imagination, but there in the moment, everything was perfect.

Perhaps, Christine thought to herself, mistletoe wouldn't be such a foreign tradition in her life after all.

The End