'Christmas is here

Brining good cheer

To young and old

Meek and bold'

_(:3 」∠)_

"-and that is why water is in fact not wet," Ray finishes her presentation with a proud smile, laying on the bed under the covers.

"I really didn't ask, but that was impressive," I give a loving smile. She smiles widely, gets her sweater from the floor and starts getting dressed shyly.

Taking that as my cue to leave so I don't ravish her there and then, I exit the room already fully dressed since I woke up before her.

As I wait for Jerry, my spy, to get me the information I need, I sit there and analyze everything that went down yesterday.

It was clear that whoever was keeping an eye on Ray was doing it on purpose. Even on the way back, I kept noticing a glare on the car's mirrors. Who would want to take her from me? I have too many enemies to pin point.

"Lose the serious face," I feel a pinch on my cheek followed by a gentle kiss.

I see Ray wearing my red sweater, leggings and green socks with wet hair smiling at me.

"Merry Christmas beautiful," I say softly, smiling at my golden prize.

"Merry Christmas," she smiles from her eyes, looking truly excited.

It was comfortable silence before a loud knock on the door. We both look at each other weird before we hear an annoying voice I regret letting into my life.

"I'll get it," I sigh and get up while she looks as if saying 'don't kill him'.

"Happy Hanukkah!" Blake yells and pops confetti the second I open the door.

He smiles wider at my annoyed face and pats my back whispering, "I'm not cleaning that," on his way in the house.

I debate whether I should end his life or wait a couple more years and follow him into the house as he hugs Ray enthusiastically. It bothers me to see them so easy going together, but I'm glad Ray doesn't have her episodes whenever she touches anyone.

"I thought you'll meet us at the guest house!" She exclaims.

"Thought I'd surprise you! Plus it would've been awkward if I showed you your present in front of everyone when I didn't get anyone else anything," Blake flops on the couch and only then do I notice the five bags he's carrying.

"You really didn't have to," Ray awes.

"Whatever," I mutter and pull Ray into my lap as I sit on the couch.

While he was explaining the gifts to her, I couldn't pay attention to anything but her. How her hair falls perfectly on her shoulder, how my sweater is too big for her so it falls down her shoulders.

I also didn't know how to tell her I found her real parents. It was much harder than I thought it would be since her dad now goes by another name and her mother is dead.

"Ace?" I snap out of my thoughts when I hear my name being called.

"Yes?"

"Blake got you something too babe," she looks at me concerned.

I clear my throat and give a tight smile to him before accepting the small bag.

In the bag was a shirt that had his face smiling creepily next to mine saying, 'I love you in the most heterosexual way.' I didn't look amused but Ray gasps and sings some weird song before hysterically laughing.

The bag also included some condoms with a sticky note on them, 'let's hope they don't break ;)'. I decide not to show that to Ray so I don't ruin her fun so I just glare at him while he winks at me.

"So what did he get you?" I ask out of boredom and need to hear her soothingly calm voice.

"Oh, some baby clothes and all the essentials to having a baby," she rolls her eyes.

"We would make pretty babies," I blurt out causing her eyes to go wide.

"Haha, I guess," she laughs nervously.

"In the future," I add.

"Right," she sighs.

"As entertaining as this is, we need to get going love birds," Blake laughs.

Ray gets off my lap embarrassed and goes up to get dressed.

"Y'all are adorable," Blake nudges me.

"If you would stop putting ideas in her head, it would be much better," I roll my eyes.

"So what did you really come here for?" I get to the point.

"Well," he sighs. "The business part of it, we lost our secretary, may she Rest In Peace, so we need to get a new one and I was thinking Ray would be perfect. We also have the traveling season coming up so you need to get your things ready," he says in one breath.

"As for the marshmallows," he talks about the gang. It is what they decided their official name to be. "We found more about her father and where he is. What surprised us is that he's also a gang member, though not very known. The people that were following Ray were identified as the west side gang. We killed their leader last year so I'm thinking they're out for revenge," he explains thoroughly.

I take a moment to think about all the information given at once and start making a list in my head to which is most important.

"How about you call the hacking-mallows and tell them to work on the west most importantly?" I whisper hearing heels click towards our direction. He nods quickly and erases his serious face back into his goofy one.

"Look at you guys talking and stuff," Ray gushes. She wore an off the shoulder dark red dress that's long sleeve, it ends mid thigh with an added thin black belt and skin tight. Her heels were black, matching the belt and her earrings were some dark green ones.

If Blake wasn't here, who knows what would've happened. It would've been something like, I would grab her, push her against the wall, kiss her neck as she tries to control her little moans that I love so much. I would then move on to kissing her lip—

"Ace! Jesus, you're so spaced out these days," I am once again, snapped out of my thoughts.

"Let's get going," Ray huffs.

Ace is worrying me. I've noticed how he's become stiff ever since last night. When he's stiff, I'm stiff, and it's an entire situation so I'm trying to avoid that.

As we approach the guest "house" that the party is taking place in, i can already see the cars and bikes parked outside.

"How's everyone here already? Who even opened the door?" I look up at Ace that already has his cold face on.

Feeling a shiver from the cold, I lace my arms with Ace's and cuddle closer to him.

"The maids let them in, love," he says looking down on me.

"Oh god, why? Why must I remain single forever??" I hear Blake yell from behind us, on his knees looking up at the sky.

Ace mutters something about killing him but I just ignore it as I see Jacob leaving his car followed by Marcus.

I drag Ace as I'm still cuddled into his torso to greet them.

"You guys made it!" I exclaim, starting to feel my teeth clatter.

"Merry Christmas," Jacob politely says.

"Where's Rose?" Mark asks, already heading inside.

"Inside, i think," I answer confused.

"Let's get you to warmth, you're starting to scare me," Ace whispers in my ear and I nod.

Once we're in, everyone stops what they're doing and yell a big merry Christmas to me and tackle me with pats and loving rubs on the head.

At the time, Ace manages to escape with one of the hackers of the gang having his work face on.

"You really are popular with the bad side," Jake whistles.

"Well, they protected me at my worst. They're family," I smile.

"You sure you're not being held hostage?" He whispers, getting really close to my face.

"I'm sure," I scoot back, feeling a tad uncomfortable.

"You dont look so sure, how about we go check?" He continues to scoot further towards me.

"Wait, what? No, I'm very sure im not being held hostage," I furrow my eyebrows, starting to get annoyed.

"I'm really not a douche, but you're making me act like one just for the better of your health," he puts his elbow on the bar that's behind me.

"Are you- wait, you're serious? Jacob, I'm the happiest I've been with these guys. Leave me alone now," I stand up planning on finding Ace.

"Wait, I'm sorry," he grabs my hand suddenly, causing me to have some flashes of Daniel that I haven't had in a while. I don't blame Jacob, he doesn't know better.

"Get off of me, please," my voice cracks.

"I'm just trying to help you. Did you suddenly remember something they did to you? Is that why you're getting nervous?" He asks, genuinely seeming concerned.

"Jacob, my bag, get the bag," I hyperventilate.

The next few seconds were black and white flashes and people speaking all at once. When I finally get my inhaler, I focus on Ace's voice soothing me after a night terror.

"We should get you out of here," Jacob tries to hurry me. He doesn't know many things, including that you shouldn't touch me when I'm trying to calm down, never do that.

So doing what felt like my survivor's instinct, i slapped his face hard.

I look up to finally notice a crowd has formed around us, looking at me worriedly and others looking at Jake murderously.

Jacob is backed in a corner, seeming confused to what is happening. I'm finally getting a hang of this panic attack but still feeling like someone is squeezing my heart, if that makes any sense.

Some of the guys start understanding the situation and help me to sit back on the bar stool while I just hear running footsteps, already knowing who it is.

"Everyone back to the party, everything is handled here," I say in between coughs.

As the crowd disperses hesitantly, Ace's worried face comes into view and Blake's stern face too. I would've thought the roles would be switched.

Ace approaches me, relying on Blake to go do what they want to Jake.

"What did he do? I'll kill him," his voice turns from sad to angry in a light second.

"Nothing, he really did nothing wrong. I'm sorry, I'm just dramatic and in need of constant attention," I try to joke.

Before I could tell him to stand down, I hear a punch getting thrown and whimpers following. I see Blake huffing on top of him.

"Blake!" I try to yell, but end up a coughing mess.

"Alright, enough fun for you. My turn," Ace kisses my head and walks to replace Blake.

"Are you okay?" He stresses.

"He didn't do anything, don't make me feel worse about this situation," I plead. "It's my brain's fault for putting two images together when it's not the same thing."

After ten minutes of me trying to touch Ace so he could calm down, I decide enough is enough and throw something at his head making him turn to glare at the person who threw it.

I give him my mean eyes and signal for him to come in front of me.

He looks back and forth from the unconscious body to me before sighing and getting off of him.

"When I say enough is enough, it means stop and report back to me! What would I have done if something bad happened?" I start rambling, feeling upset.

After yelling at all the mallows for not stopping it, they apologized like the good children they are and transported Jake to a hospital while the others continued to have fun.

"I'm having an abortion," I hear a clogged voice.

I turn to see Rose crying her eyes out and I immediately get worried.

"Wait what?" I sit her down and run her back soothingly.

"I'm not ready, the kid has little to no chance surviving the birth to begin with. I wasn't aware of being pregnant so I didn't drink the vitamins or something along those lines," she explains crying.

"Does Mark know? Are you sure about that?"

"What am I supposed to do Ray? I don't want to do it!" She defends.

"How about I take it from here?" A British voice startles me.

She cries harder when she sees his face and hugs him while they both look very broken. I decide to let them have this moment for each other and go upstairs to the balcony.

The night sky on a beautiful white surface and a slight breeze was all it took for all my worries to leave me.

"I wouldn't suggest to be out here by yourself," an unfamiliar voice says.

He was short, at least shorter than Ace and Blake by inches, though muscular and has tattoos going up his neck.

"I didn't know this was occupied," I stumble to get out.

"Just remember this, don't get too comfortable," he whisper and jumps to the ground when I see Ace approaching.

"What are you doing out here love?" He furrows his eyebrows and pulls me toward him.

"I love you, you know that?" I say, not letting that man's words bother me when I'm in Ace's arms, the safest place to be.

"Well, I love you more," he smiles down at me, his blue eyes have the snow reflection on them.

I go on my tip toes, desperate to get one of his kisses after this long day, and succeed. Merry Christmas to me.