Just a little oneshot for you!! I forgot how to write Chris and Holly a little bit ): I really hope they seem like themselves!!

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           'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was snoring, not even a mouse.

            Which was only partially true. Because I was awake. And grumpy.

           "Chris," I whispered, squatting by his sleeping form. In the twenty minutes that had passed while I crossed town to my mom's house to get a surprise for him, he'd fallen fast asleep on the couch. I prodded at his cheek.

           "Mm, get off me Milkshake," he mumbled, turning his back on me.

           I rolled my eyes while the cat in question currently lying at Chris's feet picked his head up and stared at his daddy curiously. I still thought it was a dumb name for a cat. But he was our little baby.

           "Wake up! It's only seven o'clock!" I complained, flicking his back.

           "Vacation," he grunted back at me.

           "It's Christmas Eve, I have a surprise," I told him, smiling a little bit. It was something I'd always wanted to do with my boyfriend. "It'll be fun!"

           "Does it involve taking off your shirt?"

           I blushed. "N-no! Pervert!"

           He feigned snoring.

           I puffed out my cheeks in frustration. There was only one thing to do...

           "That's okay," I said, standing back up. "I think I hear Jeremy pulling up anyway."

           Chris immediately bolted up, nearly knocking Milkshake off the couch. "I'll lock the doors, you man the windows."

           "Aha!" I cried. "You're up!"

           Chris stopped mid-step, turning around and narrowing his eyes at me. "You tricked me."

           "I have a surprise for you," I responded, grabbing his hand and yanking him into the kitchen.

           "Did you really invite Jeremy over?" he asked.

           "No, tonight's only for us," I promised him. "Jeremy's probably out with Casey, anyway." Because Jeremy was a fun boyfriend and actually liked to go out and do stuff while my boyfriend liked to stay in...

           Chris flicked my forehead. "Your face is telling me you're thinking something mean about me."

           I grimaced. He was like a mind reader or something. I knew I should've been used to it by now, but it was unbelievable. "How do you know these things?" I demanded.

           "Because I know you, Holly," he replied easily. "So what's the surprise, you bought gingerbread houses?"

           My jaw nearly dropped to the floor. "How—"

           He chuckled, wrapping an arm around my waist. "See? I know you."

           Did he really know me that well? That was crazy! How in the world could he have figured that out so easily?

           "Since you look like your head just exploded, I didn't really know that. I made an educated guess since you've been saying you want to build a gingerbread house for the past two months," Chris said, pulling me from my thoughts. "Also, your mom told me you left a gingerbread house kit at her house the other day."

           I pinched his side. "Jerk."

           "There's two?" he questioned, glancing at the boxes I'd put on the table.

           "We're having a contest," I told him. "Whoever makes the best gingerbread house wins."

           "And who's going to determine that?"

           "Jeremy."

           Chris gave me a suspicious look. "You did invite him over, didn't you?"

           "No, we're going to send pictures to him," I responded, shaking my head. "And he's your best friend, you shouldn't care whether I invite him over or not."

           "He may be my best friend but he's also the best pain in my ass," Chris mumbled under his breath.

           I raised an eyebrow.

           "Wait that sounded wrong."

           "Ew," I deadpanned.

           "Holly—"

           I clapped my hands together. "Let's get started."

           "Just so you know, when I was younger I built a lot of gingerbread houses," Chris warned me. "I'm pretty experienced."

           "You did?" Somehow I didn't picture Chris as the gingerbread house type. He was more the piñata type. More smashy, less arty.

           "My old man and I used to do it— I wasn't always a gangster," he added, as if reading my mind yet again. "My mom loved when we built gingerbread houses, so we did it for her every year."

            "Sounds like a good family tradition," I said, smiling.

           He grinned. "Yeah, but my dad and I usually ate more candy then we actually put on the house."           

           "I usually do too," I admitted. "So you actually liked candy when you were younger?"

           "I probably ate too much and that's why I don't like it now."

           "Makes sense."

           "Ready to be beat?" he asked me.

           I raised my chin up at him. "You'll never beat me."

           "We'll see about that."

           "Let's get started then."

           I picked up a piece of the gingerbread and grabbed a packet of white frosting, deciding to do the windows and doors first. It was going to be a simple house, but it was going to be awesome.

           Chris, on the other hand, just stared at the pieces, eyebrows furrowed. I could already tell he was taking this too seriously. Must've been the competitiveness inside him.

           "But where would I put the canon," he mumbled to himself.

           I looked up from the part of the wall I was working on and gave him a worried look. "I think you're putting too much thought into this."

           "My house has to be able to destroy your house," he stated simply.

           "It's supposed to be cute."

           Chris got a faraway look in his eyes. "There's no such thing as cute on the gingerbread front."

           "Okay..." What exactly did his father and him do when they built their houses? Create mini gingerbread wars? Ignoring the weirdness, I returned my attention to my own creation.

           Ten minutes later, I was pretty much done while Chris finally picked up his first wall. I watched him for a moment as he carefully put a white line of frosting down the middle of the section.

           "Will you hurry up?" I'd wanted this to be something fun to do together. He'd been silent the entire time, too focused on his work.

           Instead of gracing me with an actual response, he gave me an incoherent mutter.

           Deciding to take matters into my own hand and move things along, I grabbed a bag of my own white frosting and leaned over the table, squeezing the bag hard so the frosting got all over his gingerbread wall and his hand. His head snapped up and he gave me a horrified look.

           "Holly, how could you?"

           "Here, I'm making a window," I said, squeezing more white frosting out onto his hand.

           He immediately turned the tip of his frosting bag toward me and squeezed it hard. The frosting shot out, landing in a zig-zaggy line on my arm. "You ruined the wrong gingerbread gang hide out."

           "The wrong gingerbread what— hey!" I cried as he squished more frosting out onto my arm.

           "You're going to get it," he warned me, standing up from the table and grabbing a tube of red frosting.

           I immediately snatched up the green frosting. "You'll make a mess," I warned him.

           "I'll make you clean it."

           "We'll see about that," I said, and quickly dashed around the table at him.

           He easily side-stepped me, grabbing the back of my shirt and squeezing frosting down it. I twisted around immediately, attempting to do the same to him, but he easily snatched my wrist up and stopped me.

           "Ow!" I complained.

           He let go of my hand. "Crap, sorry—"

           I smirked. "Sucker!" Moving swiftly, I pulled on the front of his shirt and squeezed almost half the tube of frosting out.

           He made a disgusted face, peeking down the inside of his shirt. "You're going to pay for that."

           I stuck my tongue out at him.

           "Mature," he responded. Then he lunged toward me.

           I let out a surprised squeak, snatching up some peppermint candies off the table. As he came toward me, I pelted the little candy balls at him. He acted like nothing was even hitting him. Typical.

           I knew to win this war I'd have to use low tactics. Chris was almost invincible— at least in my eyes.

           "Why are you running, Holly? I just want to have some fun."

           "Take this for fun!" I said, grabbing a fistful of sprinkles off the table and tossing them his way.

           He blew them out of his face with one breath.

           I chucked a few graham crackers at him.

           He didn't even blink.

           As a last resort, I snatched up the Hershey kisses and aimed them at his face.

           He caught one in his mouth.

           "Monster," I accused, narrowing my eyes.

           He smirked back at me. "Aren't I the devil?"

           With frightening speed, he reached out and caught me, swinging me around and against the fridge. After making sure I was completely pinned, he squirted frosting out onto his hands and spread it all over my face.

           "Hey! Stop!" I cried, trying to push him away.

           "Nope, you're stuck until I'm finished with you," he replied tauntingly.

           I wrinkled up my face in disgust. "I'm going to get acne!"

           "I'll buy you some face wash."

           "Chris!"

           "Now where are those candies...?"

           Holding me with one hand, he reached over to the table and picked up some gumdrops. Then he placed one on my nose, pushing the frosting around it so it would stay on. Then he grabbed a handful of M&Ms, placing them all around my face.

           I pursed my lips, still struggling for my release.

           "You're so cute, Holly," he said, pressing an M&M to my forehead.

           "You're a jerk," I grumbled. "It's not fair. You're stronger than me."

           "If you know I'm stronger, you shouldn't have started this," he said, sounding amused. He raised the container of green frosting, making a line of it on my face. After a few seconds he gave my face an appraising look before nodding. "Looks good."

           "What did you do?"

           "Hold still, I want to take a picture."

           Figuring it was no use to fight, when he let me go I didn't try to attack him. I gingerly touched my face, wondering what he had made. He pulled out his phone from his pocket and I pressed my lips together, refusing to smile for the picture. Laughing, he snapped one and then showed me his phone.

           Somehow, he'd elegantly created the outline of a Christmas tree in green frosting on my face. The white frosting was the background and the candies he'd stuck on my face were in perfect place, looking like ornaments for the tree.

           I couldn't help a little smile coming to my face. "Why couldn't you have done this to your gingerbread house?"

           "That wouldn't have even been half as fun."

           "This wasn't very fun for me..."

           Chris grinned, leaning down to give me a quick kiss on the lips. He tasted like sugar. "I'll go easy on you next time."

           My reply was to press my hand to his chest, rubbing in the frosting I'd squirted down his shirt earlier.

            "Gross," he moaned, peeling the cloth off his sticky skin. "This is going to take forever to wash off..." Pausing, he looked up at me, getting an evil look in his eye. "Or for you to wash off me."

           "No way," I said, putting my hands up in defense and backing away from him.

           "Come on, Holly, bath time," he cooed.

           The second I attempted to get away, he easily swept me off my feet and threw me over his shoulder. I beat on his back. "What about our gingerbread houses!?"

           "We'll finish them when we're nice and cleaned up," he promised me.

           "Mr. Heywood! Put me down!"

           He laughed, patting my bottom. "Mr. Heywood? Mm, that's kinda kinky."

           I blushed. "I hate you."

           "I love you too, Holly," he replied. "And you know, I was kinda right about the surprise."

           "How's that?"

           "It did end up with you taking off your shirt," he told me happily.

           I rolled my eyes. Jerk.

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           YAY CHRISTMAS. Just so you guys now, you can buy APR in paperback off Amazon or in an ebook off Amazon or Apple!!! Or gift it to someone who might like it :D You can also buy Gold Rush and pre-order Believe Me, I'm Lying in ebook editions as well! :D

           Merry Christmas!!! I wanna give these guys another oneshot so I can get to know them again. Maybe I should re-read APR and ASR myself. I sure do miss them ):

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