Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or any characters there-in. Ryan Murphy does. The End

Eyes sparkling with glee, Tina Cohen-Chang dumped her armful of lacy black and red and green under-things onto her neatly made bed. She looked over her shoulder, paranoid, despite her locked and barricaded door, this was a private moment, for her alone. It was December First, a momentous day for Tina.

It wasn't her birthday, or anyone's she knew. It was much more private, much more special. Tina was a person of habit—every year since before she can remember, it has been her own special tradition to eat one of last year's candy-canes on December First. It was a secret, a precious moment of happiness that Tina never shared with anyone...

Well, one person knew. Tina's next door neighbor, Jake was 20, and in his second year of college. Two years ago, in Tina's freshman year and Jake's last year of high school, the two had been close—closer than anyone suspected. Jake had always been sweet, he went to Dalton, couldn't carry a note, and was rather handy with his hands. That year Jake had given Tina the best Christmas gift of all time. He had given her four small little pegs and a thin, flat, board.

It had taken all of fifteen minutes for Jake to drag her to her room, and begin to rifle almost cheekily through her bras and underwear. Not exactly something Tina was happy about—although that didn't mean she wasn't grinning and laughing like a lovesick fool. And she was, at least as much as a 15 year old could be.

Tina and Jake had grown up together—but not in the "I saw you naked" kind of way. It was more of a playing house and jumping in leaves together way. The closeness they shared was solidified later in life. Tina was a near genius—though she always played it down, never liking to be the center of attention—except with Jake. Jake knew things about her that no one else did—he knew she never had a stutter, and she never bothered to fake it around him. Jake knew she loved to sing and dance at the tender age of four when she demanded that the seven year old boy be her prince in Swan Lake. Jake was the only one who knew about her love of candy-canes, not just for the sweet peppermint, but for the sentimentality of them. They represented a clean, fresh start. It was Jake who had given her the first of the December First candy-canes, at the age of three.

So it was understandable that Jake would be the one who created her hiding space. Sitting cross-legged on her bed, Jake had smiled and talked happily with Tina as he glued the pegs in place before dropping in the board, creating a false bottom. Suffice to say it, that night at the annual neighborhood Christmas party, Jake and Tina kissed for the first time, but not the last, under a sprig of plastic mistletoe and peppermint drops. It was tradition now—for Tina and Jake to talk on December First, and for Tina to take her first lick of candy-cane with Jake on the phone—especially now that he was in college. This year was no different.

Nail file in hand, Tina dug into the small notch in the false bottom of her drawer, successfully popping the bottom up and revealing a stash of papers and photos and exactly one candy-cane, with a small note from Jake written on the ribbon tied around the crook.

Taking a long, languorous lick from the striped candy, Tina let the smile spread across her face, eyes slipping closed. Candy-canes were…Indescribable. They were everything that winter meant for Tina: sweet, cool, spicy. They were just what Tina needed, what she always had.

The ribbon with the December First message of love and friendship went back into the drawer and Tina reassembled her life—hiding her tradition and covering it with lace and silk.

Smiling brightly, Tina hugged her boyfriend of just over a year and a half. Mike grinned and lightly picked up Tina and spun her around. Mike knew Tina well enough to know that she loved Christmas, loved December, loved the chill in the air and the scarves and gloves, and loved sharing body heat with him. That Mike could heartily agree with. He lived for the days where it was chilly, when it stormed, or there was just a brisk wind or an over-active air conditioner. He enjoyed immensely just wrapping Tina up in his arms, tucking her head under his Chin and molding his body around hers.

He couldn't help but chuckle lightly when she kissed him sweetly, just a press of their lips together. Then he laughed outright as a suspiciously minty coolness fanned over his face. He had noticed it last Christmas—Tina was almost always found with a candy-cane during December. He had noticed that the First of December last year had also been accompanied by the minty sweetness on Tina's lips.

He wanted to know everything about Tina, wanted his curiosity sated. "How is it you manage to find candy-canes on the first day of December?"

She smiled that half-smile half-smirk that was distinctly Tina and swayed in place, "Secret."

He leaned down and whispered to her, "You can trust me."

Tina blushed lightly, before planting a cherry red kiss on his cheek, "Maybe."

His lower lip jutted out in a mockery of a pout, "Pretty please?"

"Will you go on a scavenger hunt with me," the petite girl asked a heavy note of mischief in her voice.

"Always," was his gravely, desperate response.

She spun, broad smile on her lips as she walked towards her first class of December. "I know," was the easy reply thrown over her shoulder as she sauntered away, leaving Mike to stare at the love of his life.

"This peppermint winter is so sugar sweet

I don't need to taste to believe"

― Owl City