#corogers

Gabriela Corona loved Christmas. It was a love that had been in existence since she first understood what the word Christmas even meant, the winter holiday season being one of the few times of the year where she was consistently happy. She wasn’t sure if it was the winter breaks she used to receive during her school years or the time she got to spend with her father without his work interfering. She wasn’t sure if it was her addiction to hot chocolate and eggnog no longer being seen as weird given it was the month to actually indulge in such drinks. She wasn’t sure if it was due to growing up in Manhattan, where she got to see winter snow and go ice skating at Rockefeller Center. She wasn’t sure if it was the presents or the giving spirit of the season or the fact that she got to binge all of her favorite Christmas and holiday movies. She didn’t know what made her love Christmas, but she did.

And more specifically, she loved Christmas music.

Case in point was that in her penthouse, holiday themed music was currently blaring at a somewhat unhealthily high tone. The current song at the moment was Last Christmas by Wham!, with George Michael’s story of holiday heartache crooning across her apartment. She was bobbing her head in amusement to the song as she put up a few more decorations on the Christmas tree that stood in the corner of her apartment, lights twinkling in the dimmed space. Taking a step back to grin at her work, a tall blond working to untangle a pile of ornament hooks caught her eye.

In all her years on this planet, she never once thought that Steve Rogers — Captain fucking America — would be in her apartment helping her decorate for the holidays. It was an amusing sight, watching the man who could more than likely kill her one handed struggle to untangle lights or make confused faces at her ornaments that referenced things that he had yet to experience. It also made her kind of sad, to be completely honest. It was his first Christmas since he had come off of the ice, into a world where he knew nearly no one.

Which is exactly why when she had decided that she was going to decorate her apartment on December 1st, she had made sure to basically tell Steve he was coming over. She worried over him, a lot. It was the beginning stages of their relationship, but she wanted to make certain that he knew that he was cared for and that he wasn’t going to be spending his first twenty-first century Christmas alone.

Glancing over her shoulder to make certain that Dax — who she had also roped into helping her apartment get holiday ready — was still in the kitchen getting a snack, she plucked a specific decoration out of one of her boxes. As she did this, the song switched to All I Want for Christmas Is You, the opening sounds of Mariah Carey’s voice easily coming through the speakers. Grinning to herself, she stepped over to where Steve sat on the couch, perching next to him.

Steve glanced up, an easy smile covering his lips. God, his smile could outrank Christmas on the list of things she loved any day. Gabriela grinned devilishly, before she revealed the decoration she had hidden in her hand, dangling it over their heads with a flourish. Steve glanced up in confusion, but a blush easily settled on his cheeks when he realized what it was.

A single sprig of mistletoe.

“You know, the rules on mistletoe and holiday etiquette say you gotta kiss me, Captain,” Gabriela told him, giggling.

Steve laughed lightly, but there was still a pinkness to his cheeks. This happened quite often. Steve was rather … unaccustomed to how forward Gabi could be sometimes. She’d never push him into anything he didn’t want to do, but God, sometimes she liked to watch him squirm when it came to things like kissing out of the blue.

“Well,” Steve started, a soft smile on his face. “I guess I have to follow the rules.”

Still holding the mistletoe, Gabi broke out into a wide grin, before tossing the mistletoe to the side. She leaned forward, looping her arms around his neck and pulling him into a kiss. Kissing Steve was like fireworks, electricity crackling in the distance. Actually, the electricity part was true. Even from a distance and her attention completely off of it, she could feel the lights on the tree flickering as she momentarily got lost in the moment. She normally had total control of her powers and didn’t make things flicker or spark involuntarily, but with Steve … sometimes she couldn’t help herself.

However, there was one disturbance that she did catch sight of, one she knew wasn’t her fault at all.

She abruptly pulled back from the kiss and glanced over her shoulder. “Dax Gonzalez, take your hand off of that fucking volume dial or I swear to God I will shock the hell out of you.”

And there stood Dax, complete with Christmas cookie stuffed into his mouth, looking like a deer in the headlights. His hand was half on the volume button for the speaker, but he quickly removed it under his best friend’s murderous glare. Swallowing his mouthful of sugar and chocolate, he told her, “But it’s so fucking loud, the entire building doesn’t need to hear it!”

“Mariah Carey did not make this song for it to be turned down, it is a goddamn classic and Steve will not be deprived of his first exposure to it,” she said sternly, nodding her head back at her boyfriend who looked like he wanted to laugh. “Now back away from that speaker because if you turn down the Christmas music, I’ll murder you.”