It was the first Christmas Eve in the apartment.

The tree that had been set up since mid-November was surrounded by neatly wrapped gifts and glittery ribbons, music with the right amount of jingle bells swaying in the air, and the smell of freshly baked cookies from a lit candle wafted through every corner.

Solace's sock-clad feet slid down the corridor as she pulled at the plaid pajamas, her shoulders hunched, and her arms awkwardly pinned to her side. She mentally cursed Sage and his obsession with the holiday and herself for listening to that fool in the first place. He had thawed out any coldness directed towards him. She found it troublesome to say no to him with his cheek-aching grins and the mischievous glint in his eyes.

Emi clapped excitedly when she saw Solace. "And now we're all matching," she exclaimed, smiling down at her own red plaid pajamas.

"I knew matching pajamas were the way to go," said Sage proudly in his own set.

Her scowl lacked its usual power. In full honesty, she thought the pajamas were kind of cute. She hadn't known Sage had bought them in the first place until he pulled them out from behind the tree today. Besides, Christmas was in the air. It was almost impossible for her to be in a bad mood.

"And do you know what'll make it even better?" Emi asked in a type of way that she was not really looking for an answer. "Baking gingerbread men cookies!"

Solace was not much of a baker. It required accuracy, and she was never sure if you mixed dry with wet or vice versa. Reading the recipe sheet was confusing, and she was anxiously afraid of missing a key step. For some, baking was therapeutic. To her, it was stressful.

But for the sake of Christmas, she would suffer through it. "Sure, but do we even have the ingredients?"

Emi pulled out molasses, brown sugar, colourful candies, and a whole bunch of other ingredients. "I went shopping yesterday just for this," she remarked.

"How about we turn it into a friendly competition?" suggested Sage, a pointed look at her.

Her roommate groaned. "Do we have to? I saw you and Solace two days ago about to make people cry during charades, and I would prefer not to cry on Christmas Eve," Emi deadpanned.

"I'll keep the taunting to a minimum," waved off Sage unworriedly. He turned to Solace. "What do you say, Laurent?"

She couldn't turn away from a competition, especially when it was coming from him. The best gift she could possibly receive was crushing Sage at this game. Enough of being on the same side. It was not as satisfying compared to seeing his defeated expression.

"Prepare to lose, Reyes," she fired back with ferocity.

She was met with a smirk.

Emi sighed. "This is not going to end well."

The competition was put to a temporary halt, their vigor and fire premature as the cookies had not even been made yet. So, Solace and Sage waited impatiently, the possibility of winning on the tip of their tongues. The baking process was neither serene nor peaceful as Solace read out the recipe sheet far too quickly for Emi's hands to process or as Sage would seize the bowl from her grip, stirring and sifting and beating with impressive speed.

Countertops were tainted with flour as if the window had been left open and snow settled upon it. Broken eggshells laid in the sink, a strong probability of stray pieces of shell being in the dough. Vanilla extract stained the kitchen towel, and dirty whisks were abandoned as Solace and Sage sat by the cooling rack, willing for the cookies to chill.

"Staring at it is not going to help!" shouted Emi from her seat in the living room with a mouthful of chewy gummies.

"Not with that attitude!" Sage yelled back.

Solace narrowed her eyes at her roommate. "Just eat your candy," she said in a way that was far too menacing in the midst of gingerbread men.

The two continued their gawking, hunched over the counter, their heads resting in their palms. Royal icing had already been shoveled into make-shift piping bags. The Laurent and Kimura household were not fancy enough for pastry bags, so they simply used ziplock bags with a corner snipped off. A small space of the counter was sealed off for the decorating, the judge being the only other person in the apartment. Solace hoped that her years of friendship with Emi would trump her and Sage's newly formed relationship.

She wasn't above bribing, either.

Solace would happily wash the dishes for the next month or fold her laundry if it meant beating Sage in a decorating competition. They hadn't had a battle since high school. For the last few weeks, the two rivals were working together. That was against their whole livelihood, against the whole purpose of their complicated affiliation. Now, they were back to their roots.

And Solace was ready to obliterate him.

Sure, this wasn't exactly the Christmas mood where folks were giving and kind and all that lame bullshit. Was she possibly taking this whole challenge to a whole different level? Absolutely. Was she going to tone it down? Like hell she was.

It seemed that Sage had the exact thoughts when the alarm rang, signaling the cookies were officially cool. Immediately, he seized six cookies and got to work. She did the same.

Her hands moved with artsy precision, squeezing the piping bag and swirling white icing on the coffee-coloured cookie. She created curls and pink candied eyes. Some of her gingerbread men wore ties, and others had buttoned shirts with laced sprinkled sneakers.

"I just realized how unfair this is," muttered Sage, a glare thrown in her direction. "Emi, Solace is an artist. She should be disqualified."

"Fuck off, Reyes," she hissed, not taking her eyes off her cookies.

"And now she's using inappropriate and offensive language," he drawled with a mocking shade of his head.

Solace clenched the piping bag in her hand too tightly until excessive amounts of icing exploded on one of her cookies. She let out an annoyed sigh, scowling at him from across the counter. "You have no idea how inappropriate and offensive I can get," she threatened.

Sage leaned forward, his chain dangling with a playful smirk shaping his lips. "Is that a promise?" he said lowly.

She smiled a cruel smile and moved closer to him until she was in range and smacked him across the head. It made a satisfying thump.

A glower overtook his face. "Emi, now she's resorting to physical violence!"

"I'm going to resort to physical violence if you don't shut the hell up," warned Emi from her mindless surfing on the television. "There are no rules in this competition, so steal, cheat, and kill to your discretion."

Emi made a terrible, grave mistake.

Because as soon as she uttered those words, Sage sprang into action and swiftly grabbed one of her cookies and decapitated its head with one large bite. Solace stared at her headless gingerbread man with disbelief and the all too proud grin on the idiot's face.

Two could play at this game.

Solace picked up her piping bag and squeezed as firmly as she could over his displayed cookies, spattering loads and loads of icing, vandalizing his already abominable men.

Sage clenched his jaw, spitefully taking a dramatic bite of her gingerbread man's arm.

Just like always, an argument erupted.

"This is why we can't have nice things!" yelled Solace, clawing at his hands.

"You have no impulse control," he fired back, swatting her away like she was an irritating fly.

"Why do you make my life so difficult?"

"Why can't you act more giving in this holiday season?"

"Oh, I'll be giving," she seethed, shaking a wooden spatula in the air. "I'll be so giving, I'll give you a fucking concussion."

"Enough!" shouted Emi, scurrying over to the kitchen. The look on her face reminded Solace of her mother when Louis and she got into an argument over dinner. "The two of you are going to clean up the kitchen while I eat these." She gathered the remaining cookies onto a plate and held them close to her chest. "If I hear as so much as a peep, you'll be sleeping outside."

"At least tell us who won!" shouted Sage after her retreating body.

"Obviously me," muttered Solace, picking up an untouched bowl of chocolate.

Sage let out a shaky breath as if he was physically restraining himself from shoving a knife into his ear. "You make it very hard to like you sometimes."

She arched a brow, popping a quarter-sized candy into her mouth. There was a delightful crunch. "That implies it is easy to like me other times," countered Solace with a small victorious smile.

After opening his mouth several times to remark a subpar comment at best, Sage opted for busying himself with the mess they had created. It only widened her smile as she turned to leave for her bedroom.

"And where do you think you're going?" demanded Sage, shoveling a pile of utensils into the sink.

"To watch a movie and possibly take a nap."

"You have to help me clean."

Solace shook her head, tsking mockingly. "No, I do not. Lest we forget, you are the reason I almost had punctured lungs, and last time I checked, lungs need to be intact to fully function. I think the least you can do is clean my kitchen."

Sage drooped his head. "Yeah, okay," he sighed.

A twang of guilt erupted in her stomach. She knew he felt terrible about what happened. Pinning him with all the blame was not the way to go, but who else could she indict or taunt? Surely not the man who had a fetish for dismembering folks. Sage was present, and rebuking him was like second nature. Before, she never would have thought twice about how he felt, but now, purposely pulling at stitches and prying at his hurt only hurt her.

Tucking away her pride, she made her way towards the sink, pushing him out of the way.

"I'll wash, you dry," she grumbled.

Without sparing a look, Solace could already feel his ridiculous but bright grin searing into her.

***

Author's Note:

Hi everyone!

Double updates will probably start next week since I need more time to write a few more chapters! The plan is to finish SIAAF by the end of December or early January!

Until next time - m.k.t