[Note from the author: Hey Friends! Merry Christmas Eve! I wrote out a nice little story in honor of Christmas time last night (more like this morning at two am.. details, details..) and I hope you guys like it! Don't worry, I'm still working on my other story and I'm about a third of the way finished. It should be uploaded by tonight or tomorrow. Ah, the joys of a boring Winter Break, absolutely nothing to do and nowhere to go. Anywho. Onward!

I don't own the awesomeness that is -Man, because if I did, I would royally screw it up.

Happy Readings and Merry Christmas!

~animeobsessed001]

Mistletoe Confessions

I never knew that a monster like me could ever love someone. Ever since I was just a baby, I was hated for my deformity. I was cast aside by my birth parents mercilessly, forcing me to survive on my own. When Mana took me in, I had my first taste of love. The happy, bubbly sensation in your chest that makes you smile constantly. It was the greatest feeling in the world. After Mana's died and cursed me, I thought that I could never love anyone ever again. After all, love hurts. I engraved this into my brain. I swore to myself that I would never allow myself close enough to another person and love them, because love breeds pain. I kept my promise to myself for a while. I lived life normally, easily ignoring the emptiness inside me. I was content with loneliness. That is, until I met Lavi.

The first time I met Lavi, I was recovering from a particularly harsh battle that had almost cost me my left akuma scouting eye. Although I could only see him with my human eye, the first time I set my gaze on Lavi, I knew that he was something special. I thought that he was the most beautiful thing that I had ever seen. His fiery hair held back with his signature bandana was so appealing, his laid-back posture so inviting, his smile so heart warming, and his single emerald eye shimmering with life. I instantly knew that I loved him, because my chest had a tugging feeling. I wanted to know all I could about Lavi.

Time passed by and Lavi and I grew very close. We became best friends. Also, as time passed, I noticed the tugging feeling in my chest was growing stronger. I knew that I wanted Lavi, but I also knew that Lavi wouldn't want me. After all, I was pretty sure he wasn't gay. I came to this conclusion after I saw him in his 'STRIKE!' phase for the first time. I decided that I was going to tell him anyway. Even if I was to be rejected, it would be better than pretending I felt nothing towards him. Unfortunately, I could never find a good time to confess.

So many thoughts were rushing through my head that I hadn't noticed that the very topic of my brain's distress was staring at me. "Allen? Hello? Anyone there?" My mind snapped back into reality.

"Sorry, what?" I asked.

Lavi sighed and shook his head. "I asked if you would help me decorate the Dinning Hall. Lenalee is forcing everyone to decorate the Headquarters and she elected me in charge of the Dinning Hall. I don't want to do it by myself, so will you help me?"

"Oh, okay. Sounds like fun. Sure, I'll help." I shoveled the rest of my food into my mouth and disposed of my dishes. When I returned to my table, Lavi was waiting for me with a big box. I cringed at the amount of sparkly, overly happy decorations that were inside. I never really was the type of person who got extremely excited about Christmas. Sure it was my birthday also, but to me my birthday was just the day I turned another year older. Big whoop. Not.

"Okay, I'll start with the tinsel. You clear all the tables, then set up the table cloths and center pieces. Sound good?" Lavi asked as he untangled a huge amount of tinsel from inside the box. I nodded my head and picked up a stack of green, red, and white table cloths and set out to do my job. The job was fairly easy. After laying out the table cloths and smoothing them to perfection, I took miniature Christmas trees and set them in the center of the tables. Although, it didn't seem to be enough. I looked back through the box and found an abundance of sparkles and smiled. I walked to every table and sprinkled a few pinches of sparkles around the trees. When I was finished, I smiled at my work. For someone who didn't get totally jazzed about Christmas, I did pretty well.

"Hey, good job." I spun around to see Lavi standing behind me, grinning at my work.

"Um, thanks. I hope it'll meet Lenalee's standards. This is my first Christmas with the Order, so I don't know what she looks for."

Lavi gave me a reassuring smile. "Don't worry Beansprout, she'll love it."

I glared at Lavi for using the nickname I hate so much. He grinned and walked back to the box, unloading even more decorations.

"Come on, let's get the rest of this up, shall we?"

I nodded and walked over to Lavi, taking a sparkly snowman from him. When our hands touched, I felt a jolt inside of me. It was like that every time I made any kind of contact with Lavi. I had noticed that over time the jolts were getting stronger.

Lavi watched me curiously, obviously sensing something was the matter. "You alright?" he asked.

"Y..yeah. I'm fine. Let's just finish, okay?" Lavi nodded and we went back to work.

"There, that's the last of it!" Lavi called, backing up to give his handiwork a final onceover. While we were working, Reever had brought in a giant Pine tree with Johnny beside him holding a box of ornaments. They said that it was a order from Lenalee to set up the tree and make it as pretty as we could. We sighed at the extra work, but did it anyway. Now the tree stood proudly in the far corner of the Dinning Hall, shimmering in the dimly lit room. It was covered in multicolored glass spheres and wooden trinkets, making it look fancy. We had even found a few presents to place beneath the tree. It really was pretty, I had to admit. The entire room now sparkled in one way or another, and the dim lights just made it seem so magical. Ugh, why am I thinking like this? I thought to myself, shaking my head. I walked to the box that had originally held all the decorations and paused. There was something in the bottom of the box.

"Hey Lavi! We forgot something!" I reached down and picked up the tiny thing. It was a small branch of leaves with tiny berries on it. The stem had a red ribbon tied into a bow on it. I wonder what this is for.

Lavi walked to my side and took the small plant from my hand. He smiled at the sight of it. "Wow, how could I forget about the mistletoe?" he asked himself, still smiling.

"What? What's a mistletoe?" I asked, cocking my head in confusion.

Lavi looked stunned. "You don't know what a mistletoe is?" he asked, his voice shocked.

"Um, no? Is that a bad thing?"

Lavi lightly thumped me on the back of the head. "Yes it is! The mistletoe is one of the biggest and most cherished traditions of Christmas!"I rubbed my head and gave him a blank stare. Lavi sighed and grabbed my hand, pulling my towards the doorway leading out of the Dinning Hall.

"Just come help me set it up, I'll explain in a minute." I nodded my head and let him drag me. When we reached the doorway, Lavi handed me the branch. "Hold this. I'm gonna lift it up and you have to tack it to the top of the doorway, alright?" he asked, handing me a tack as well. I nodded my head, but I couldn't help but feel nervous. Oh God, Lavi's going to lift me up. What if he thinks I'm heavy? Without any warning, Lavi grabbed my hips and lifted me off the ground.

"Uwahh!" I yelled, not liking the feeling of being off the ground.

"Come on Shortstack, put it up." I nodded, my face growing red. I reached above my head and poked the tack through the ribbon of the mistletoe and pushed the tack into the hard wood.

"Okay, done." I said and Lavi gently set me down. I turned to walk away, but Lavi gripped my arm.

"Hey, you can't leave." He said, smiling mischievously.

"Huh? Why not?"

"Because you would be breaking the tradition of the mistletoe," he said, glancing up at the tiny branch above us. When I gave him a confused look, he continued. "The tradition of the mistletoe is that if you stand beneath it with someone else, the pair must share a kiss or face misfortune."

I blushed furiously. Me kiss Lavi? What? I can't do that! I haven't even told him that I like him yet! How can I kiss him? "L..Lavi, I can't.." I mumbled, looking at the floor hoping to not make eye contact with the red-head before me.

"Oh yes you can, and you will. I refuse to have misfortune because you're shy." Lavi said with a grin.

"B..but Lavi.." I tried, but was ignored.

Lavi cupped my chin with his calloused fingers and tilted my head up to him. Before I could stop him, our lips were locked together. His warm lips touching mine sent a wave of shivers throughout my body. He was so close to me, I could smell him. He smelled like I had imagined, a mixture of ink, old parchment, and sweat. A surprisingly comforting scent. His hand snaked it's way around my waist, pulling me in closer.

Just then, I realized what I was doing. I broke the kiss abruptly, staring at Lavi in shock. "Oh..my God.. Did.. did that just happen?" I was shocked. I touched my lips gently, not knowing why.

"Well, now we won't suffer from misfortune. You're welcome." Lavi walked away, leaving me standing there like a statute.

What do I do? Lavi just kissed me and acted like nothing happened. What do I do? Do I act like nothing's happened too? Or do I ask him about it. Lavi kissed me. Lavi kissed me. Lavi kissed me! I ran to my room, cursing my petrified brain. I thought I heard Lavi calling me, but I ignored him and booked it into my room and slammed the door, locking it behind me. I walked to my bed, panting. Flopping onto my bed, I decided that I had nothing better to so I allowed myself to fall asleep. Sleep didn't come easy, seeing as my brain was wailing in confusion, but when it did come, it was a blessing.

"Allen? Hey Allen? Ya in there Shortstack?" Lavi's voice woke me from my dreamless sleep.

I opened my eyes and allowed my eyes to adjust before examining my surroundings. That's right. I'm in my room. That's when the memory of my kiss with Lavi flashed into my head.

"Hello? Allen?" Lavi's voice was outside of my room.

"I'm not here. Go away." I mumbled loud enough for him to hear.

Lavi sighed from outside. "Allen, come on, I need to talk to you."

"No. I'm sleeping. Go away."

Another sigh from the red-head. "Listen, you have three seconds to open this door or I will kick it down. Capishe?"

My eyes widened because I didn't doubt that he would do something like that.

"One."

The countdown began and I bolted from my bed, scrambling to my feet.

"Two."

I was now standing and sprinting to the door.

"Three."

I grasped the doorknob and swung the door open to reveal Lavi with his right foot lifted in a kicking position.

He smiled at my panting self. "Good, you listened." He lowered his foot and stood in his usual laid-back posture, his fingers intertwined with one another and lifted them above his head and pressing them to the back of his head. "Mind if I come in?" he asked.

I grumbled, but stepped aside, allowing him entrance into my room. "What do you want?" I asked, closing the door.

"To talk to you." He replied, sitting at my desk.

"About?"

"What happened in the Dinning Hall earlier today." He wasted no time beating around the bush.

"What is there to talk about? You saved us from bad luck." I said, refusing to meet his eye.

"That's not what you seem to think. You ran off looking like you were about to cry. Care to explain?" Lavi was staring at me expectantly.

I gulped, praying I wasn't blushing as deeply as I thought I was. "It.. it's just that.. well.." I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, gathering as much courage as I could muster. "I like you Lavi. I have for a long time. When you kissed me, it just made it hard for me because I've been trying to find a way to confess and when you kissed me I just didn't know what to do and I-" my ramblings were silenced when Lavi pressed his lips against mine. My eyes widened in surprise. I hadn't even noticed that he had gotten up from his seat, let alone walk towards me. I turned my head to the side, "Lavi! What are you-" Lavi took my chin in his hand and made me look at him in the eye. His expression was soft. Almost.. loving?

"Allen, I have been waiting much too long for you to say that. I like you too. I have liked you since the first moment I saw you." I stared at him in shock. Lavi.. likes me? I must have looked skeptic because Lavi shook his head. "I mean it Allen. This isn't something I would lie about. Honestly, I'm not supposed to like you. Hell, I'm not supposed to like anyone! As a Bookman, its against my code to have emotions. But you, Allen, you are the one who made me feel. If it hadn't been for you, I never would have regained my emotions. I had to discard them as a child, I never realized how much they meant to me, but you reminded me." He wrapped me into a tight hug, nuzzling his face into the side of my neck. "Please, won't you be mine? Please?" His voice was pleading.

"I.. I.." I didn't know how to respond. The person I liked was clutching to me, asking me to be his. Of course I want to say yes, but what if this is all a trick? Or worse, what if I allow myself to freely love this man, only to have him ripped away from me? I wrapped my arms around him, hoping he would understand.

He lifted his head and looked at me in the eyes. "Is.. is that yes?" I nodded my head and he beamed. "Are, are you serious? This isn't a joke, right?"

I smiled. "No Lavi, it's not a joke. I really like you. Honestly." With that, I saw Lavi's hand rise above my head and he grinned his mischievous grin. I looked up to see him dangling a branch of mistletoe above my head. I smiled. "Well, we wouldn't want to be struck by misfortune, now would we?" I asked.

"No, I suppose not." He leaned down and pressed his lips against mine once again, making my entire world fade out in bliss.

[Note from the author: Hallo! Okay, I hope you enjoyed my little story. Sorry if it sucked, I was trying to go for cute and I'm not too good at that Dx Anyway, off to work on other stories! (yes, stories, as in plural ;D) Have a Merry Christmas everyone!

Until Next Time!

~animeobsessed001]