Christmas Eve on Olympus

Clearing the soot off his thumb by wiping it on his leather pants before picking up the first cookie, he looked over at the tree and all of the presents below in their odd shapes, sizes, ribbons, bows, and bright paper. "Any of those for me?"

"I thought you didn't like Christmas or Yule," she teased.
"Well, ya know, just to make it all appear real…for Raven."
"For Raven, yes, I see." Alena glanced toward the tree and then back at Ares with a wicked little grin, "Maybe one or two or three things under there might have your name on them."

"What? Let me guess. Aftershave? No, wait, you got me an electric razor."

Alena reached up to the well-trimmed beard on his face, "Don't you dare," she whispered as she ran her fingertips through the soft hair on his cheeks clearing away a few errant cookie crumbs.

"Neck tie?"

"Oh yeah, I'm sure you'd love a new neck tie. But no, darn, that slipped my mind. Sorry."

"Bummer," Ares whispered as his arms slipped around her, "Since Raven got to open a gift tonight I'd say only fair that I get to do the same."

"Do you now? Well, I don't know about that."

With her in his arms, he looked around the room again and began shaking his head. "My, my, my. Seems with all you've done it's still not perfect."

Alena pulled away from him, turned around, and took in the room.
"What?"

"You've forgotten the most important part, my Wife."

She did? No, she didn't.

Trees? Check.

Presents? Check.

Garlands? Check.

Cookies? Check.

As her mind feverishly searched for what she'd missed, a small bit of fluffy white and green came into her view and she felt relief as a smile broke out on her pretty face. "What's that?"

"Mistletoe, I believe there's some Mortal custom about standing beneath it and then being forced into kissing."

Alena glanced upward over her shoulder to take him in and marveled at how handsome he was. "Forced? How terrible."

"Awful," Ares holding the mistletoe over their heads with one hand and pulling her in close with the other. He lowered his head for the kiss he'd been waiting for all night. When their lips he was not disappointed but encouraged to probe deeper with his tongue and grasp the soft red velvet surrounding her tighter as the mistletoe fell to the marble floor and he grabbed her with both arms turning her fully around to face him. Her heart raced against his stomach, even through the velvet, he felt it as she pressed against him and reached up to grab handfuls of midnight hair. "You know, if you're lucky," Ares said breathlessly as their lips parted, "I think I might have a candy cane around here for you to suck on."

"Oh, really? I love candy canes," she winked up at him as she bit down on her lower lip, "where oh where could it be? Over there by the tree?"

Ares shook his head, "No," ran his hand through her silver hair. "Guess again."

"Did you put it in my stocking?"

"Not yet." That made Alena giggle like a schoolgirl. He always loved it when that titter graced his ears.