To make up for the past two years of missing Christmas, here's a (sort of) on-time update! Please enjoy this year's chapter of Mistletoe Midnight! (I swear, it hasn't turned into a horror story despite how the first section's ending.)

December 16, 2015, 3:59pm:

Seto Kaiba's fingertips were tingling as he fought with yet another uncooperative string of lights. He remembered—he did!—that they'd gone into storage straight off the tree and in perfect working condition from last year.

"No excuses," he muttered as he chucked yet another burned out bulb in the trash. He kept the socket and inserted a new bright pink light to replace the old. Only half of his current string was lit, and this new replacement did nothing to change that. Seto had rigged up a contraption out of a AA battery and some spare wires to check each dead light one by one to see if they were the culprit responsible for ruining the rest and methodically tested down the line until his fingers were pinched and stinging.

He'd started an hour ago and was only halfway done. It was a big tree.

Seto was beginning to suspect a wiring issue as the whole string caught and then guttered again when Mokuba walked in. He had a portable radio blasting Christmas songs in one hand and his phone in the other. "There was a blue bulb on the orange tree. Yeah, that was all it took. He had all the staff responsible for the Christmas decorations lined up in front of him and shaking out in the snow. It was like a firing squad in reverse," he described. "Now he's stuck doing the indoor lights himself."

"Is that Kisara?" Seto asked.

"Yeah," Mokuba replied. "Oh, we've been busy with the newest Christmas promotions. They're a whole new team this year, you know. Probably going to be another one next year if Seto keeps at it." He laughed at something Kisara said and flopped down beside his brother on the couch, sending sputtering strands flopping across the cushions around them. "So we had no time to do anything last week, and then Seto took it out on the staff, so now we're stuck doing the decorations ourselves if we want them up by Christmas."

"When's she getting back?" Seto mumbled around a tiny yellow bulb clutched between his teeth.

"When she's done with her interview," Mokuba said before turning back to the phone, and Seto didn't know if it was homegrown snark or Kisara's brand. Mokuba was quiet for a while, listening to Kisara and letting the radio belt out a pop song's beat that had no business being in amongst the classics.

"Cool," he started up again, "that will give you time to put the ornaments on the tree. No, I'm dealing with the garland and everything else not electrical, like I usually do. Can't have the staff doing everything; it's our Chritmas! I'm thinking of putting bells on every door this year. Give people a real jingle jangle. Ha! Can you believe we took the whole day off to do this?" Even Seto could hear Kisara's 'no' and couldn't help but grin around the tiny light. "I don't know if we're going to finish with everything, though. Seto's taking forever."

Seto spat the bulb out. "Tell her to hurry. I don't see any need to be courteous to him."

"Your boyfriend says to be rude to your potential boss and come oar with the rest of us on this holly jolly ship called Christmas Cheer. 'K, bye… She says she'll be home before it's tomorrow," Mokuba said as he hung up.

I can work with that, Seto thought.

While he continued tangling with the lights, Mokuba started arranging the ones his brother had already subdued around the tree and humming along with the Christmas tunes.

"IIIIII saw Mommy kissing Saaaaaanta Claaaaaus," the speakers crooned. "Underneath his beard so snowy whiiiiiiiite."

"I was so confused by this song when we were kids. Before I knew Santa Claus was a big lie, of course. Nice job keeping that one up, by the way," Mokuba said. "But I figured the mom had some sort of exemption when it came to Santa, seeing as he was famous and mystical and all. It made me wonder if our mom ever kissed the real Santa."

"Hn," Seto grunted. "You're spacing the lights too far apart."

"I don't want them to crowd and create great blotches of light. Negative space is important," Mokuba said

"Negative space doesn't translate to giant voids, which is what you're leaving." The other half the string died in his hands. "Damn it!"

"Just get a new box of lights."

"No."

"We can afford it."

"No."

"If your pride is at stake in the face of a few lightbulbs, you've already lost, bro."

Seto inserted a new blue bulb and suddenly the whole strong was alive. "Finally," he muttered. Mokuba gave him a round of applause. "Don't bang those lights together."

"For Christmas, should I just hold off and get you a pre-lit tree next year?" Mokuba teased.

"Next year I will let the staff take care of this." He stood, unplugged the string, and attached it to the ones Mokuba already had swathed around the tree.

"Why not let them do their jobs this year?"

"It's a surprise."

"For whom?"

December 16, 2015, 6:30pm:

"Mr. Pegasus," Kisara said. "It's nice to meet you."

"Ah, right on time, Kisara," Maximillion Pegasus greeted her. He extended his left hand to shake hers. When she reached out he turned her palm down and looked at her hand. "Not yet 'Kaiba,' I see. At least, I don't see a ring. What is taking Kaiba-boy so long?"

"Whatever's taking him is taking me as well," Kisara replied as she took a seat across from him.

A line of waitresses and waiters immediately began placing dish after dish on their table. Holiday-themed trifles and puddings began to pile up around them. Holly and mint garnished nearly all of it, along with dainty swirls of meringue that mimicked the drifting snow outside the restaurant windows.

"I thought we might enjoy some indulgences while I interview you," Pegasus said.

"How generous."

"No, not really." Pegasus waved off her platitudes, nearly overturning a platter dusted with nuts and dried fruit amidst dabs of cherry compote and smears of goat cheese. A pyramid of crackers followed behind with stenciled snowflakes of powdered sugar sifted onto the rim of its plate. "What I'd really like to talk about is Kaiba-boy's business rather than my own, but…"

"I doubt you need me to gather information on Seto. He found your latest mole in his HR department. It was difficult rooting them out, and I can't say Seto's all that happy with you."

Pegasus once again waved her off. "Kaiba-boy never is, but he knows it's just a game. He loves games!"

"He loves winning them," Kisara corrected.

"What a horrible loss for you to come to me, then." Whether he winked or just blinked with exceptional care was a mystery with his other eye covered by his hair. Kisara bet he knew exactly the confusing effect that had.

"You called me," she pointed out.

"And you came! How do you explain that?" he asked. "But first, would you like something to drink, my dear? This scrumptious licorice liqueur might tempt you, or perhaps a mulled something or other, in keeping with our spread's theme?"

"What teas do you have?" Kisara asked the nearest waiter.

"We have a loose black tea with orange rind, cloves, and other spices that might interest you, miss," they answered.

"That would be lovely. A pot, please." She turned back to Pegasus and watched him as he raised a piece of pepper-flecked cheese in the shape of a Christmas tree to his nose and sniffed it. "May I ask why you're conducting this interview yourself, Mr. Pegasus?"

"Just 'Pegasus' is fine, Kisara. And I'm sure you have your own theories, as does our Kaiba-boy."

"Seto knows he has nothing to fear from our interacting."

"But I might."

"You called me," Kisara reiterated.

"And you came." Pegasus studied her over the minute lip of his liqueur glass. "And after my mole in HR was removed, too."

"I'm far too visible to be effective as any sort of rodent." Kisara examined the cheese tray and selected a round of blue cheese to go with a rosemary cracker form the pyramid. "That you've called me to interview here is proof enough of that."

"I just don't see why you have to work at all if you're living with the Kaibas and no doubt enjoying all the various benefits that come with that." Pegasus popped a grape from a wreath made out of vines intertwined with sage and unpeeled tangerines still on the twig.

"I don't see why you have to interview me for an entry level position when you're the CEO," Kisara rejoined.

Pegasus ate several more grapes and Kisara helped maintain the silence by exploring the selection of dip-ables provided for the miniature fondue fountain.

Hours passed as Kisara and Pegasus jousted back and forth. Even though she held her own, it seemed less and less likely to Kisara that the job offer was in the least bit serious as they once again circled back to Seto. At least the snacks were delicious. Near the end of their interview a plate of Santa Clauses made from strawberries with beards of white chocolate fondant and dark chocolate chips for eyes was served.

"Would you like to stay for a proper dinner?" Pegasus invited as Kisara stood up. "I'm sure Kaiba-boy could spare you for a few more hours."

A waiter appeared with her coat and helped her shrug into it. "Thank you, Pegasus," she said while doing up the buttons, "but I'll let you have some time to consider my qualifications and get back to me about whether I have a job or not. Besides, I have a tree to trim."

December 16, 2015, 9:43pm:

The lights shimmered on the tree and the bells chimed on the door as Kisara came into the room Seto had chosen for this year's holiday celebrations. It had once been a music room, and some relics of that time remained and had been incorporated into the atmosphere. A harp was strung with tinsel and one of the boys had managed to make it look like the tree was growing from a tuba's bell. But Kisara bet Seto had chosen it for was its windows that looked out onto the back of the estate where the trees glimmered and glinted against the snow.

Neither Kaiba was in sight, but several boxes of glass orbs and metal nutcrackers with hooks piercing their military caps were open and waiting for her. Kisara set to hanging them with gusto. Seto found her nearly finished a couple hours later.

"Did you take the job?" he asked her right off.

"We'll see. Pegasus is rather…"

"Insufferable?"

"Unpredictable. He's both nothing like you said and yet everything and more. Even if he decides he wants me, I can't believe it would be for anything more than as a way for him to antagonize you through me."

"I can find you something at Kaiba Corp.," Seto offered.

"I could find something at Kaiba Corp. if I wanted it myself, thanks. But you'd root me out of whatever comfy position I'd nabbed and make me vice prez of the whole branch."

"Would not," he protested. He sat down on the couch and pulled her onto his lap.

"Yes, you would," she said. "Then Mokuba would be popping over all the time and giving my coworkers a horrible start."

"Everyone loves Mokuba."

"Not the point."

They became silent and continued staring out over the dozen or so trees that were so beautifully lit. Her first look of it took Kisara's breath away every year and the view from the old music room made the already dazzling display almost heartbreaking. She couldn't think of a sight in all her life that managed to capture Christmas so perfectly.

"Was a single lightbulb really that big a deal?" she asked.

"I wanted everything to be perfect."

Kisara smiled and pressed her face into his hair. "That's rather normal for you."

"More perfect than usual, and I was the only one I could count on to make it that way for you."

"For me?"

"If it weren't for you, I'd never put this much energy into Christmas. When Mokuba was younger, I would have tried a little, but I let it go the older we both got; it didn't seem to matter anymore. Thank you for helping me see that it did again."

"You're welcome. Mokuba seems to have thought it was past time for you to stop being such a Grinch."

Seto shifted under her and Kisara slipped to the side onto a cushion of her own. "I have a question for you, but I don't know if now's the right time for it," he confessed. "I wanted to ask you earlier, but the decorations and business at KC, then the interview…"

"I'll get over the interview. It's not like I'll be applying to Industrial Illusions again, so I can't imagine ever having one like this one again. I'll manage."

"It would be easier for you without me being an omnipresent footnote on your resume," Seto said.

Kisara shrugged. "Sure. But being with you isn't something I would ever trade a job for. I'll find something, but it won't be in spite of you any more than it will be because of you, of I have anything to say about it. And I do."

In the light from the tree Seto's smile was luminescent. "Then I have something else for you to put on the tree, but you have to open it first." He took her hand and placed something in it.

It was a small but heavy ornament. The sphere was a glossy royal blue with a coating of satiny snow on its upper half, above the golden hinges. It fitted in the palm of Kisara's hand like a partridge egg and had a sprig of mistletoe tied to its hook with silver ribbon. A small gold bow was its clasp.

When she popped it open, Kisara gasped. A band of platinum was nestled in midnight blue velvet. Seto had previously gotten her bits of jewelry with lazulite or moonstone at her request, but this time he had gone full-out with sapphires and diamonds. Underneath a similar band but with fewer and smaller gems circling its slightly larger circumference was nestled.

"Eternity rings are usually reserved for anniversaries, but I feel like we've already been together for far longer than six years, and I want us to be together even longer," Seto said. "Kisara, would you marry me?"

In answer, Kisara held out her hand and handed him the ring for him to slip it on her finger, and she did the same for him with the other ring. They admired their clasped hands for a moment with their new adornment. Then Kisara cupped his face in her hands and brought her mouth to his.

December 17, 2015, 12:00am:

It was a long kiss that only stopped when Kisara felt a tear trail its way down Seto's cheek.

"You're crying," she said. She brushed it away and Seto caught her hand and kissed it.

"So are you," he noted.

Again and again they kissed until finally they finally ended up dozing in the glow of the tree.

It was closer to dawn than midnight when Kisara got up to put her new ornament on the tree. Seto followed and wrapped his arms around her from behind. The ring on her finger glittered with the rainbow of the lights that he had fought with for so long. It was worth it to him.

"Merry Christmas, Kisara."

Thanks for reading! I figured it was about time their relationship moved forward, and so many people propose around the holidays.

We always take forever to put the lights on the tree because there's always half a string that won't light and we're perfectionists with just enough understanding of electrical to get us by.