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Goddamn snow, goddamn senshi, goddamn lieutenants. Audrey was incredibly careful to never be late home, never give Elzo cause to worry that she might not be where she said she was going to, never give him reason to call and check up. Oh sure, the numbers that she gave him were all wrong and would lead him in a merry chase around the city before she got home and would, with great shock and outrage, state that obviously it was written down wrong. Tonight, however, had been a real killer. They'd lost a lieutenant, right in front of her eyes, to a damn super senshi. Not even an eternal! The failure had been reported and their weapon placed at the foot of Nealite's crystal. Someone would deal with it, and it had given Linarite an excuse to whisper a quiet Merry Christmas to her old friend.

Clomping back across town in the godforsaken snowstorm was not something that she had enjoyed either, for all that Audrey said she liked snow. So it was with a foul mood and bright red cheeks that she stepped into the warmth of the apartment...and stared. The sparse tree that the bluenette had forced upon her boyfriend had been beautifully decorated with shining ornaments, stockings were hung, the lights were low and a fire was going?! Unconsciously, just to make sure it was still there, her eyes flicked to the box containing her engagement ring. It was still there, safe above the stockings. No doubt Santa would admire it, when he came by. "Wow. Who are you, and what did you do with my boyfriend?" Laughing, eyes full of Christmas lights and wonder, the teen stripped from her heavy winter gear and slid over to press a cold cheek to his warm one.

"This is the best thing to come home to after the night I've had. You wouldn't believe the snow out there, the bus nearly got mired! I would say I'm sorry I'm late, but if you got to do this while I was gone, I am absolutely not." It was fantastic!

Cold hands slipped up under his shirt to press icicle fingers against warm skin in agreement that she was, indeed, close to ice. "I think if I hadn't gotten home when I did, you would have found me frozen in a block of ice, which is silly. I'm not a mage, I'm a warrior, geesh." This was silenced by a warm kiss, a purr in the back of Audrey's throat. "I didn't think you really ever had a reason but...wait." Looking up, gold eyes went to every archway in the mid-sized apartment, getting really wide. "And you were here all day with Marlo?" The laughter was a cover for the blush, and for the fact that at this rate they were going to spend a lot of time with lips locked together. As if they didn't already!

Audrey certainly had to lean against the corner until the giggles stopped, before reaching up to pull a mug from the cabinet to hand over. "Please. Hot chocolate would go a long way to thawing me out." Feet tangled in the dance as Elzo grabbed her wrist instead of the mug, and mentioning that Marlo would not be joining them tonight, the light in her golden eyes got somehow brighter. "Just you, me, the tree, and some turkey? If I wasn't already in love with you, I think I would be now." Hopping, Audrey threw herself into his arms and clung for a hug, overwhelmed to the core by all of it.

It made her grip a bit tighter than usual. "No one's ever gone through so much trouble for me...thank you. Really."

It was so ironic, and always would be. Only one other man had seriously touched Audrey's heart, and it was the man standing in front of her both times. Elzo was fighting his own alter-ego for her love, though if you asked the bluenette, she would have said clearly that Elzo had won that fight. After all, she was here with him, wasn't she? No, Audrey wasn't the sort of girl who could move in with a man and sleep with him every night if she wasn't serious and dedicated. "Fair and square? You totally cheated, you gave me daisies the first day you met me. It was cheating. I just couldn't help but imagine Marlo glaring at you, before punching you squarely in the jaw for trying to kiss him, that's all!" Pulling the mug and sipping the delicious warmth, she pulled her hair back to peer into the oven. "It looks good, the button'll pop on it when it's done." And that's about all that she could say, really, about turkey.

Pausing again for a moment, the ever-present ribbon that had been stuffed into her pocket that morning came out and twisted around the tail of hair Audrey'd moved out of the way, secured in a nice large bow. Elzo, for some reason, loved her hair in one of those childish bows that the teen had been adamant to leave behind in her eighteenth year. Now, she was wearing it as often as ever, somewhat amusingly.

"Just us? Whatever will there be to do, other than stare at the tree and wait up for Santa?" Now she was teasing, but truth be told, this whole thing was new and surprising. What was there to do on Christmas Eve?

The bow had been banished because when you were five feet, three inches tall, nobody took you seriously when you had a giant a** ribbon in your hair. People rarely took you seriously anyway, and more often than not she was still carded trying to go into R-rated movies with her friends. Wearing oversized clothing probably didn't help that illusion much either, but when you were petite there were not a whole lot of options in the style of clothing Audrey loved to wear. Wrinkling her nose, hips bumped back and pushed Elzo towards the living room instead. "Nice try, loverboy. I want to get warm, but not that warm. If Marlo started dinner, it's bound to be delicious. Can't stand his company, can't live without his cooking." There had been a quick flare at the mention of Cataclysm, however.

It was rejected, however, on the idea that if he wanted a night alone he sure was going to get one. There was so much to do in that damn game, so much rich lore that had had the bluenette more than a little tired from staying up late nights to experience it all as fast as everyone else. It would also bring about thirty other people into their living room through the guild, and their romantic Christmas Eve would be totally ruined. So through immense love, she pushed that idea aside and found another one that had her perking up. "Oh! Oh I have a good idea! I have a present for you that I was sorta embarrassed to give you in front of my family, this is the perfect time for it!" The flush came back into her cheeks, turning to burst into the spare room that was used as her computer area. "Wait here, okay?" She bustled into the other room, making a bit of rustling in her closet before coming back out with a squarely wrapped package hugged to her chest.

"Alright. I've never really had anyone to give stuff to before, alright? If it's really bad, just pretend to like it, okay? Please?" It was a little plaintive, and she looked more than a little unsure and pathetic. It was Audrey's first real Christmas with someone she cared about to give gifts to. Pasha had been easy, Pasha was happy with anything. Elzo was much harder.

Technically, it was two gifts. One was a three ring photo album, but the most prominent was the framed 8x10 picture of Audrey, bow crowning her head in all her curly blue-haired glory. She was wearing the exact outfit from her birthday, smiling prettily for the camera and as dolled up as Fallon would allow. Pushing that aside, the album had a few dozen pictures of the two of them from various places all gathered from friends in a desperate gambit of Audrey's to find something personal to give. "You said all you wanted for Christmas is me, so I sorta ran with it. I figure you know, you can put the picture up somewhere. The album we can just fill up over time?" There were pages of blank sleeves, enough to make up years of memories.

She was, in fact, giving him herself. In picture and in silent promise that she wanted to make more memories.

Sitting on the couch next to Elzo, fingers were clutching at the bottom of her sweater. Teeth worried her bottom lip with anxiety. He said he'd love it, but she just wasn't sure. Audrey wasn't entirely fond of the pictures, though she'd been reassured that they were fabulous, so how could he be?

Arms wrapped around Elzo's waist as he kissed her, jumping a little at the click of the camera. Normally, such things would have gotten at least a squeal and a lunge for the thing so that she could immediately delete the picture from its digital memory. But it was their first Christmas, and the photo album was pretty much giving him silent permission to take as many pictures of Audrey as he could. People really did do dumb things when they were in love, didn't they? Or at least, made compromises about their preferences for the other!

Instead of releasing him to go get her gift though, arms stayed wrapped tight around and she stood up on tiptoes to kiss Elzo again, lingeringly. "Maybe, but it's really warm and comfy right here, and one of those really slow songs is on." O Holy Night, the only churchy ones that Audrey could have called from memory. So instead she just swayed a bit, pulling him into it. "When the song is over, okay?" Truthfully, she was still overwhelmed, and was having a very hard time not bursting into tears. Her night had started with cold death, yet here she was celebrating warmth and life with someone who loved her.

Sometimes, it didn't seem fair. Always, she was thankful.

Elzo had tensed but she had not; Audrey wasn't afraid of the dark. The song swept around them both, the sound melancholy and yet so beautifully romantic as she swayed in the warm arms of her boyfriend. Lights or no lights, music or no music, it was a pristine perfect moment for her and the teen was engraving it all on her memory as lips lightly touched her own. Foreheads pressed together lightly and with a smile, she spoke in almost a whisper. "Maybe we'll be lucky, and there might be enough snow that we can't go out for a week. No one could come in, and it'd just be us." Sure, it would probably freeze them both, but they could always hope for the best?

Almost as if to spite her, however, the lights came back on in that moment with a surge and a winding up sound coming from the radio before the upbeat sounds of Mariah Carey's single Christmas hit came pouring out of the speakers. Lids closed over honey eyes and a long sigh expelled from her lungs. "I knew it. I knew I'd say something and the world would spite me. Obviously, I used up all my luck on hooking you." Who 'they' was happened to be a total mystery to even Audrey, but she had a feeling 'they' were out to ruin her life.

Though for a moment, his words about 'never wanting this to end' had eyes flicking to the box on the mantle. It was becoming an exercise in restraint, she hadn't opened the lid since the day Elzo had shoved it under her defiant nose to prove that he cared. If it were opened, odds are it would end up on her finger where it belonged. That was wholly impractical!