under the mistletoe

miles was pretty freaking happy. he was whistling about, putting up christmas decorations and decorating the towering christmas tree in the mess hall. with maddy. which made the whole thing, like fifty-gazillion times better. miles loved christmas. it was the best thing ever, apart from tacos. and maddy. miles remembered all the yummy sweets he got back in dublin... so many jelly beans. he buzzed about, occasionally cracking a joke at maddy and giving her a cheeky wink and a click of the finger, then moving about even more to talk with some of the lads. he was wearing this cute little floppy santa hat, a white t-shirt, a red flannel, a pair of lazy nike sweatpants and some flip flops. yup. flip flops. this kind of thing happened when you where a briareus kid. there was light snow outside, and right now miles was just staring out of the window with this big dumb smile on his face.

OOC: Warning, minor BoO spoilers.

BIC: Maddy was putting some golden stars on the Christmas tree while two Hephaestus guys battled with the candle strings. All the Campers who would be here during Christmas had to at least help out with the whole decoration stuff. The Demeters were arranging holly branches and poinsettia flowers, a couple of Apollo kids were singing Christmas carols in a corner with guitars and lyres, and the Khione's were putting up ice Santa's a bit everywhere.
Maddy hadn't yet decided if she'd stay here for Christmas -- after all, Christmas was about family and she didn't see her mother that often between school, sets and trips to Camp every couple of weeks. (Well, the trips had gotten more frequent now that she was dating Miles.) But still, her mother was travelling around too, going to conventions and wine tastings for the company she worked for, and that took a lot of time. Plus, her mother was now dating a guy called Weston Cobb, which made their apartment a bit, well, not as empty as she wished. Sure, Wes was a cool dude with a laid-back attitude who liked to sleep in and cook crazy stuff, but with him home, Maddy didn't have a lot of space anymore to organize parties when her mother was absent. Which sucked. She loved to throw a good party.
So yeah, she had seen her mom and Wes only on and off lately, and she knew she should spend more time with them. At least Christmas or New Year. And, they had offered to take her snowboarding again, which Maddy was all down with.

On the other hand, the campers here were her family too, on her dad's side. And whilst of course they weren't like her mother or anything -- more like, super distant cousins -- distant enough to date them, cough, cough -- she still felt bad at the idea of not celebrating with them. After all, they had won the battle against the giants not so long ago! She couldn't just ditch them on Christmas.

So, she was still making up her mind. For now she was spending the first week of her Christmas holidays here at Camp Half-Blood; some Romans would come over this week-end so that was cool. She caught sight of Miles near the window, in Santa hat and flip flops -- yeah, flip flops. In December. Go figure. Some kids were having a snow ball fight outside -- mainly Ares cabin versus Hermes cabin -- which looked rather violent. A couple of Hecate kids had cast spells on their snowballs so they would fly after a specific person, which was pretty fun to look at. Others of the same cabin were enchanting their snowballs to be invisible until they hit someone, so you'd basically not see them until you got one in the face. Maddy wished she could be out there too but there was plenty of time to stick Miles's face in the sno -- cough, have a snow fight later.

Maddy attached the last star to the tree's branch  and walked over to Miles, sprinkling some golden dust over his head. She was dressed in a large red wool pullover with black leggings and Christmas-themed leg warmers in red and white.

"Looking gooood, Santa," she told Miles, giving him a toothy grin.

She had a deer antler headband on her head, her curls brushed into a ponytail over her shoulder, mascara on her eyes and pomegranate chapstick on her lips. Pearl earrings graced the cartilage of her ears and she had some red pearls and rhinestone bracelets on her wrists.

miles turned around to see maddy sprinkling some golden glitter over his head. he took of his hat, shook his hair once, spraying the glitter all over. someone called, 'damn, boy!' and miles laughed. a few girls behind him giggled, but he just scowled at them and ignored it. he wanted to call out, 'taken!' right in their faces, but that might be embarassing to maddy, and he sure didn't want to embarass her today. nope. miles had some nifty plans.

he had been almost way too happy now that he was dating maddy. he was barely ever homesick, never angry (except for the time that hermes kid but whipping cream in his shaving cream can, he was furious) and he was even more go-lucky than usual. he grinned and patted her head. he put his santa hat back on, still grinning madly. "never as good as you, rudolph! oh, dear me, are you... uh, donder? or, maybe vixen? maybe prancer?" miles chuckled and gave her a kiss on the forehead before buzzing back about around the christmas tree. he helped a nymph up by the waist, huffing, and she gave him a flower for thanking him. he grinned and gave her a thumbs up, which she returned. whistling, he went on decorating.

he got hit by a snowball about three times as he went outside to collect some more deco. whilst making his way around the mess hall tables, putting up the silverware and cutlery around each silver and red plate, he called out to maddy. "hey, babe? why do the reindeers cross the road?... they don't, because they see rudolphs nose on the other side, and think it's a stop sign!" he gave some others a grin, who were snickering behind his back. corny jokes were his territory, man. he wouldn't let the day be ruined by some imbecile peasants who thought they were cooler than him.

miles laughed at her joke, and realized people were staring at him. he stopped laughing and a blush crept onto his cheeks, an awkward fake grin plastered across his pale face, bringing out the colour of his sea blue and green eyes. he smiled and picked up a glass of water, sipping from it occasionally. then an idea popped up in his head.

he had kissed maddy about a thousand times before, but this was going to be super cool. he would use his ultimate flirtatious-maniac skills to earn another one. he stood there for a moment, tapping his long index finger against his chin, lost in thought, but then grinning and bustling over to the decorations box. he fished out a small mistletoe; it's red berries vibrant against his icy cold, white palm. he smiled mischieviously and casually walked over to his girlfriend of... was it, two months? three months? time went by so fast he didn't even know anymore.

miles gave maddy a grin and put one arm around her, pulling her towards a quieter corner of the room. wow, this sounded so much like miles was about to rape maddy... what?! miles would never do that. anyways, he gave her a mischievious grin and softly placed her against the wall, one arm up against it, the other hiding the mistletoe behind his back. "well, it seems i've got to follow a tradition." he said and raised his eyebrows at her. he held the mistletoe up above their heads, letting it dangle above them for a bit. "sorry." he said and let his lips brush hers, a smile forming gradually on his pale mouth. warmth flushed through him; the air seemed cleaner, the colours of the room sharper. she smelled amazing as usual; a bit of perfume and a bit of alchohol. miles wanted to cuddle up with her and sing christmas carols to her all night and take her for christmassy walks through the woods and build a snowman and - okay, there was time for all that later -- right? he broke away and raised his eyebrows at her once more, and gave a short glance at the other campers, giggling, some of the aphrodites swooning. he wanted to smack those little giggles off their faces. they were probably planning to get them married or something. miles sneered a little at the thought, but happiness brushed up inside of him, like golden stars flickering on as the night drove in.

"we should build a snowman." he said and smiled shyly at her, brushing his hands off of his sweatpants, biting his lip to try and contain his happiness. he felt so great, standing here in the beautiful christmassy room; with maddy, the feeling of warmth and love tingling everywhere in his body.

miles grinned and shrugged. he pointed at his feet and wiggled his toes, to show that he had flip flops on. he raised his eyebrows at her like, 'i'm not gonna survive this, man' but he shrugged it off and pulled on a christmas beanie. red with white reindeer. he whistled some jingle bells and hurried outside, holding the door open for maddy as he closed it behind them. "well. uh, i guess i'll go get started?" he said and grinned crookedly, starting to roll up snow for the snowman. but instead of rolling on further, he grinned and threw the soft ball at maddy, hoping to get a good hit. he smirked and rolled up more snowballs. "i think i'm not in the mood to build a snowman, to be one hundred percent honest with'ya." he said, his irish accent mingling nicely with his words. he whistled innocently, turned around, but threw another snowball out from behind his back.

miles scanned the surrounding area and locked eyes with a giggling hecate camper. she blushed and stopped giggling as he caught her gaze. she muttered something to her friend and they both giggled hysterically. he narrowed his eyes at them, and focused on the snow. snow was somewhat water, correct? with a loud pop there was a head sized liquid/solid ball of water in his hands. he glanced at her, and threw.

the water hit her with a splash and when miles opened his eyes, much to his delight, her head was soaked. thank goodness she hadn't gotten her clothes wet, or miles would be kicked in the butt by chirons hoove all the way to olympus. he smirked at her and coughed sarcastically once. "so, you wanna try one of those fancy snowballs on my girlfriend again?" he said and cocked his head to the side mischieviously. he had made an emphasis on my girlfriend, so those twats could get it and move over. he was honestly thinking about wearing a sign with 'TAKEN' scribbled all over it.

miles smiled and gave her a kiss in the nose. "hot chocolate!" he said and his mouth formed into a surprised oh. "i think i should go take a shower too, to be honest with you." he said and scowled. he stared at maddy for a bit. the way the snow stuck to her hair, which was slightly wet and stuck to her face a bit, and her rosy cheeks just made her look, like, five thousand times more pretty. miles just gaped for a while before kissing her once more, this time on the lips. her lips were cold, and his were warm in comparison, and miles could still taste the pomegranate chapstick on her lips. he broke away only to press his lips to her cold cheeks once more, and then he straightened a bit, and gave her a playful salute. "commander madders." he turned around once and began walking to his cabin.

miles was already waiting for maddy when she came walking towards him. "aye, captain." he said cheekily. he had had a change of clothes; a pair of grey nike sweatpants, a green day shirt an a leather jacket, aswell as the same pair of flips flops. miles didn't care about the cold. he liked it cold. "looking good, cupid." he said and winked.

miles grinned as she lead them back in, getting a cup of hot chocolate for them both. he took a sip, surprised at the hotness. "nope, i left it at my bunk." miles casually said. "the santa hat, i mean." he whistled as he flipped open his book. 'it' by stephen king. it was kinda boring and way too long for miles' taste, but he was only at the start. he looked up from his book to maddy, and blushed as he realized he was supposed to be talking. he cleared his throat and put the book away into his grey laptop bag, smiling at maddy. "uh..." he found it hard to focus on her these days. she was just too pretty.

"a-after christmas?" he stuttered, scowling. he shrugged limply. he usually spent holidays with his mother; but for a few years he had stopped going there because she had a new boyfriend. he was actually quite cool; some guy named alex rider. or something along those lines. he didn't like the idea of idling about, pretending he was his son or whatever. miles shook his head once. "i... i don't suppose so, no." he gave her a weak smile and sipped from the chocolate gladly. he bit into a cinnammon cookie, his prominent jawline moving up and down and he ate them. he frowned and then grinned. "crunchy..." he murmered with a goofy grin on his face.

miles grinned. "snowboarding?" he asked himself in a low voice, a seemingly permanent goofy smile pressed on his lips. "i mean... of course!" he said out loud, and gave out a happy whoop! "snowboarding with you and your mum and stepdad?" he softly attatched his lips to hers, smiling into the kiss. he broke away. "this is the best offer for holidays someones given me since, like three years! and then you, my most precious girlfriend comes along and asks me. do you honestly expect me to say no, wine gal?" he said and laughed heartily, butterflies fluttering about in his stomach. "when do we leave?"

miles raised his eyebrows at maddy. he was used to her doing some pretty weird stuff, but shooting red wine into her hot chocolate? that was different. miles whistled happily as he glanced around the room, gawking at the decorations. he frowned at her. "thats only a bit more than a week away! i-i should go pack, because, well, i'm quite the procrastinator, and..." but then he realized that he was supposed to be enjoying himself. he snuggled himself into the crook of maddys neck, grinning up at her. "you're quite comfortable. i should stay here for a bit longer, y'know?" he said and gave her a cocky smirk, eyes flashing.