Christmas Cheer (Corbin)

[Axelle Flint]

In a small room decorated with vintage car pictures, plaid curtains, car parts and a worn carpet that looked like it had seen much better days, Axelle giggled and tackled her boyfriend backwards on her bed after he finished fastening the necklace he'd given her around her neck. She'd already tried on all the clothes he'd gotten her (mini fashion show complete with music), and took a good half hour to come to terms with the fact that he wanted to make sure her car wasn't going to explode around her which is why he'd bought pretty much everything she needed to make sure that didn't happen. Just because he'd provided the means for her to take care of her car didn't mean that she COULDN'T do all the work herself and she was, with her father and grandfather helping her because it was her project damnit and it was important to her. It had just taken 30 minutes to realize that Corbin knew that too and wasn't trying to take it away by just making sure she had quality parts to mess around with. So she'd forgiven him and then got embarrassed when she realized there were even more presents.

She'd never had this many presents...ever. She always had GOOD presents because her father and grandfather saved for them but this was...a lot. It made all of Corbin's apologizing for it really cute though, because Axelle could tell that he had REALLY wanted to get all these things for her and she usually put her foot down about random gift giving (because she couldn't always reciprocate monetarily which she KNEW he didn't care about but she did), but Christmas was...and it was their first Christmas. He'd gotten really nice presents for her father and grandfather too...and he'd brought food. Basically it prompted her father to give her that look that said "Yeah, fine I guess you can keep him." That had been a few hours ago.

"Thank you for the presents," Axelle smiled shyly as she kissed Corbin's cheek when they both sat up again. "I'm glad you liked your new toolbox, and helmet." she added. She'd wanted to make something for him but was stumped. The answer had come to her in the form of a welding helmet that she'd gone out and painted. It was cool, there was even a tiny heart hidden in the paint somewhere. She wiggled nervously and giggled again. "I love you," she murmured. She meant it too. But there was a tiny part of her that was afraid that one day she'd say it and he wouldn't feel the same way, or that someday she wouldn't feel that way. It seemed pretty impossible though because wow did she love this guy and if today at least was any indication he loved her too...a lot.

[Corbin Jacobs]

Corbin hadn't originally intended to go anywhere near as crazy on Axe as he'd gone on Christmas. He'd planned to get her one thing for her car and to take her some place nice during the after-Christmas specials so she could pick out some clothing... And if she wanted, he still planned to do just that. But he had gotten caught up in some online and local shopping.. Several times. And when he'd realized what kind of money he'd spent on Axe, he'd then gone and spent more money on her father and grandfather.. and then before half of the packages had even arrived he'd already bought food to cook as an apology.. then realized he'd spent even more money on food and began preparing apologies on the spot... At some point he'd put his foot down and simply decided that Axe and her family deserved a badass Christmas..

But then it hadn't occurred to him until her presents were literally taking up an entire corner of her living room exactly how overboard he'd gone. He'd expected to be slapped or shoved through a wall and so he'd started apologizing the third time he'd returned from his car with an armload of presents.. and continued apologizing while also explaining each and every thing Axe opened and why he'd gotten it for her.

Fortunately she'd gotten over the fact that he'd spent a small fortune and had even given him a full-on fashion show.. trying out more than a dozen outfits and appearing to love it. The icing on the cake, though, was when she'd finally settled on something comfortable and thanked him with a kiss. Up until that point he'd been worried about her getting anxious or depressed that he'd done so much more than she was able to, but afterwards he knew it would work out alright.

She'd gotten him an awesome three-tier toolbox (he'd actually been eyeing it on Black Friday because the price and value were both amazing) and a notably nice auto-darkening welding helmet likely around the same time.. which she'd then painted herself. Corbin hadn't realized Axe was as good with paints as she apparently was, because he hadn't realized she'd been the one to paint it until she'd asked if he liked her artwork.

"Are you kidding? You got me the toolbox I almost bought myself and, like, you actually payed enough attention in my shop to see that my old helmet is getting beaten up, ya know? That's friggin epic, Axe." Corbin loved the fact that Axe could bowl him over the way she did. And that over the past several months she'd become so comfortable with it. He felt like she was more comfortable in her own skin around him than she'd been able to be with anyone possible for her entire life. It was the greatest gift anyone could give him, feeling so comfortable with him and putting so much thought into the gifts that she'd scrimped and saved in order to get for him. "I love you back. So damned much.. --But.. uh.. s-sorry.. I forgot about.. ya know.. one more thing I got you."

Already in damage control mode, Corbin raised his hands up in surrender and leaned away from what he hoped wasn't too angry a face. "I-it's not a house or a new car or anything. I mean, it only cost a few dollars. I-it's just a card.. Um.. h-here.." He reached behind himself and rolled slightly to dig a small card from a back pocket and presented it to her with an embarrassed grin. "I, um.. I wanted to, like.. give it to you in private."

If she took and opened the card, she'd find that it was simple and eggshell colored with gold trim. Printed across it were five words. 'To the one I love'. Inside it was hand-written in very blue ink.. complete with a few places with some white-out where small mistakes had been made.

It read, "Axelle, Red, Beautiful. We've had six months officially together and it has been the most worthwhile six months of my life. I think I fell for you the first time you jumped into my arms playing frisbee and I don't want to know what my life would be like right now if I hadn't stopped to help some poor guy tow his car to your garage. I don't want to know where I would be, what I would be doing if you hadn't crushed that bell in my shop, and I never enjoy it more than when you're there with me.

"Axe, I want to start off the year making the best thing in my life better and more plentiful. I want to wake up next to you every day and bring you breakfast in bed on weekends and go to sleep knowing you're within arms reach. Will you move in with me?"

Hopefully Axe hadn't had an anxiety attack thinking Corbin was about to ask her to marry him... Would he? Yes. In a heartbeat. But it had only been six months! Surely someone as worthwhile as Axe was worth courting for longer than six months... Then again.. he.. did have one other thing he could give to her if.. she was disappointed that he hadn't asked her to marry him. Not with him, but he did have it. Because at some point, when the time was right..

[Axelle Flint]

Axelle wasn't ready to get angry but she was just a tiny bit flustered again until she realized he had gotten her a card. "A card is fine, silly," she admonished him as she took the white and gold card and flipped it open after reading the title. Maybe it was something he wanted to try but didn't want to say it out loud in case her dad heard. She began reading and soon found herself reading faster. Oh goodness was he going to ask her...oh...well...this was just as big and momentous as asking one to marry them. This is what people did BEFORE they got married anyway. Which meant that MAYBE in the future they WOULD get married and...Axelle had to remember to breathe. She did want to get married...she did. But she wasn't even twenty yet, she was barely an adult and getting married now would be terrifying and it had only been 6 months but recently, she'd felt that same longing too.

She wanted to spend more time with Corbin, between school and working at the shop she hardly had time to see him other than on the weekend and recently that just hadn't been enough. If she moved in with him they could be together a lot more and she wouldn't have to worry about bringing a change of clothes if she was planning on going to school, she wouldn't have to go home early in the morning or late at night if she stayed over...she could be with him and they could be together! Her head swam with all the possibilities. What would it be like living with him? What kind of person was she to live with? What kind of person was he? She really wanted to know! She realized she was nodding without saying anything or looking at Corbin, she'd been staring at some indeterminate point on the wall to the left.

"Ye-," her voice caught and she coughed when she swallowed wrong, while still trying to nod. "Yes!" she managed to spit out before she erupted into coughing again. When she was finished she laughed shakily. "Yes I'll move in with you!"

[Corbin Jacobs]

Corbin didn't move as Axe read the card. He didn't breathe. He just lay there with an Axelle on top of him, unable to see her face for the card he'd bought and wrote in blocking his face, her elbows on his chest and the feel of her chest and abdomen slowly expanding and contracting as she breathed slowly in and out. Why hadn't he gotten a clear one?? What face was she making? Was it too soon? No, no it couldn't be. He FELT that she wanted to be around him more, and this was the obvious option, right? Had he been too sappy? Shit, did she think it was leading to 'marry me' at the bottom? Was the freaked out as hell? WHAT HAD CORBIN DONE??

He was already admitting defeat when she moved the card and immediately started coughing. At that point he finished admitting defeat and was frantically trying to come up with a way to apologize for moving too fast because DUH of course you're moving too fast and being clingy and showering her with all sorts of stuff that you knew might make her all awkward and what were you th-- Oh. Nevermind. "Oh thank freakin god."

Corbin let his head fall back to the bed and breathed in a huge breath to sigh out. "Crap I was nervous for a minute there. Thought you were about t-- Nevermind. Like, fuck yeah, Red! This is awesome! ...Um.. But, like.. when? I mean, we could take all this stuff to my house right now if you wanted but.. Ya know.. Pops and Gramps and... And when? How soon is too soon? I wanna.. like, do this every night." He leaned up and planted a soft kiss on her forehead and tightened his arms around her. "I wanna take care of you and I wanna let you take care of me and I wanna know that no matter what else happens during the day I get to see you and be next to you and I wanna talk about stuff and hug you whenever the hell I want and keep teachin' you to cook and work out with you every day and... Yeah."

Corbin stared up into Axe's eyes like a huge weight had been lifted off his chest (and like Axe was quite the opposite while residing there) "When do we wanna do this?"

[Axelle Flint]

"I don't know!!" She gasped, laughing a little with the rush of it all. She and Corbin were going to live together! She couldn't imagine being any happier than this. "I just, I wanna do it now but my dad would kill me if I said I was moving out the day after Christmas." She thought for a moment as she laid back on Corbin's chest and considered her options. "We can wait until after the new year to do it. I have a week or so before the next semester is supposed to start so I'll have time to sort through things. I don't have a lot but I have a lot and..." she floundered. "Mostly kid stuff and stuff that should go back to the garage..." she eyed a toolbox sitting in the corner near her closet. "Wow, this is going to take forever!" she wondered out loud.

She actually didn't know. She never had a lot of "things" because it didn't appeal to her but she was certain that while she cleaned her room and put things in boxes lots of stuff would pop up. Well, even now she had a lot of new clothes...a lot. Which meant she should probably go through what she had and throw some stuff out. Most of it wasn't new anyway and had been worn to a pulp, hell, most of her jeans had holes in them anyway. "Just...wow, I'm so excited. You'll have to help me pack of course." she teased.

[Corbin Jacobs]

"I mean, it doesn't have to be a totally sudden thing, either, Red. You're gonna be over here all the time anyway.. You do a lot of work here, ya know? And you're the accountant.. And, I mean.. You could help me out with that too if you want? You already look over most of what I do as it is. I could .. like, make you an employee or something? Co-owner? Partner? Wi--" Corbin turned his head to the side and coughed as he scrambled for a word that started with W... "That is, uh.. w....orlds best.. um.. forklift?"

He gave her a silly grin and then dropped it. "I was gonna say wife. You know I was gonna say wife. Aside from being around you, I don't think there's anything I want more than that. But not yet.. Like, we have all the time in the world, yeah? So.. I mean.. After the new year. --For moving in. Let's say.. uh.. --Oh! Let's be officially moved in together by valentines day.. That way I can give you proper valentines day presents. You won't even have to get out of bed."

Actually, that made quite a bit of sense.. It was plenty of time for their schedules to shift, plenty of time to ease into coexisting and sharing a bed every night and give Axe's dad and grandpa time to adjust.. "Actually.. that sounds like a perfect plan. I mean.. It's just enough time without having to wait too long and people can adjust and stuff. We can take over a little every time you come to the house and I'll have time to make sure you have room and all that... Whadda ya think?"

[Axelle Flint]

Axelle turned scarlet when he almost said "wife" and continued to stay red even when he explained it. She nodded. She wasn't going to lie to herself and say she wasn't totally thrilled at the idea that he wanted to marry her but she also knew that marriage was a huge, massive deal. She didn't want to rush into it either. "Yeah, we have time," she agreed with a shy smile. "It makes me happy that you want to but...yeah we should take baby steps first...what if we..." she unexpectedly upset herself with the idea that they wouldn't work well together. She sniffed and scrubbed at her eyes. "No! I mean...sorry," she floundered. "I want it to work..." she assured him because she knew that he would do whatever it took to make her stop crying if he thought it was something he could control.

"By Valentines Day is perfect. It would help divide the labor a bit and Papa and Grandpa might be able to help more when we have some down time." she said once she'd finished stop trying to cry. "I'll even help with your accounts too. Now that I've put them in some kind of order it should be easy to keep them that way if I'm the only one touching them," she admonished. Axelle knew it was probably unusual for someone's girlfriend to invest so much of her own time into their business but she'd been hanging around his office and seen all the accounts just there and had felt the need to do something about it. When they weren't making out or eating she was forcing him to help her organize his stuff so it stayed that way. Then she started doing even more. Before she knew it she was doing his accounts (mostly on the side, he did plenty on his own) in addition to those in her family's shop.

"Can you imagine?! After class and work I can come home to you?" she asked excitedly. "You can make dinner and we can eat together," she sighed happily. "or like, if you're busy I can go and get food somewhere...or make noodles!" she added helpfully. "We get to live together!!" she said again with a squeal, knocking him backwards again, tackling him with joy.

[Corbin Jacobs]

Oh, but as much as Axe got it, she didn't quite get it. Not only would Corbin have done anything in his control to make sure Axelle had no reason to cry, he would seize whatever power was necessary from whoever it was necessary to take it from if it would make Axe happy. He would be cunning and vicious if that's what it took, he would be wild and violent, he would be anything and everything for her.. and do it gladly and without a thought. Fortunately, there had yet to be any reason that overthrowing a government would make Axe happy.. because Corbin was absolutely crazy about her.

She agreed, though.. and that was the most important thing in the world at that point. A close second was that she wasn't at all opposed to one day being his wife, even if she was a little reluctant to do so this soon. That was okay, though. More than okay. Marriage, even to the absolute perfect person, was terrifying. When the time was right, they would have the wedding that Axe always wanted and for the umpteenth time she would make Corbin the happiest man in the world by promising for all the world to see that she would be with him till death do they part.

As for the accounting work, well.. he'd meant to do something about it but... given his workload and absolute lack of training in the accounting field (and strange revulsion to math that didn't involve machining) he'd never entirely known where to even start. He hadn't begrudgingly helped Axe, he'd helped her thankfully. They'd found a dozen unpaid invoices and purchase orders.. things that could have eventually come back to bite him. Everything in Corbin's life that Axe touched seemed to be better when she released it from her grasp.

"I am looking so.. so forward to it. I mean I get to see you every day. To know where you are, that you're safe, that you're warm and comfortable and like, if you have an ache or pain I can help to fix it.. rub your feet when you've been on them too long, rub your neck when you've stared at paper for too long, hug you when you don't want to feel alone, laugh with you when something's funny.." It might seem that Corbin had been thinking a lot about spending time with Axe. "And don't worry.. I'll have you making spaghetti and cooking steaks and casseroles in no time, ya know?. The key is timers on your phone..."

When she knocked him back again, Corbin just smiled, craning his neck forward to plant a soft kiss on her forehead. "You just never stop getting better, ya know that? Every time I think 'wow, she is so freakin great' you just blow me away again with your amazingness." Axelle could stay with Corbin for as long as he had a place to stay, and afterward he'd shelter her with his own body if he had to. "We get to live together."

[Axelle Flint]

Axelle flushed red at his compliments, thinking that shed hit the jackpot somehow when she'd met him that day in the park. At first she'd been so embarrassed and a little shocked that someone like him could exist. She hadn't given him another thought until that day he'd arrived at her shop and after that, when she'd gone to his shop to pick up something and destroyed his bell on accident in the process. Even though their initial meetings had included accidents or almost accidents, maybe she should have been more worried about the outcome, but she just couldn't think that all these "almost accidents" were "fate" since without them it might have taken them even longer to realize they were perfect for each other.

She hugged him tightly and nuzzled into his broad chest, "I can't wait!" she squealed. "Oh but...hm, telling papa is going to be interesting. You should probably be there...the shop will be closed tomorrow so...um...do you wanna stay for a few days?" she asked shyly. Corbin didn't usually stay over (he had his own place so she understood why) and frankly her father was a bit scary about it but she really wanted him to accept Corbin as part of the family since it would most likely work out better for them in the long term. Not that they hadn't planned on him staying tonight, Axelle had dropped hints for a month that her boyfriend would be staying over for Christmas just to prepare her housemates for it but her father still seemed a little grumpy about it. She supposed that was fair since he was just being protective. It made Axelle really happy though that she had such a large bed.

In fact most of her room was her bed..."Corbin you need a bigger bed..." she commented offhandedly when she realized that if this was going to start being a nightly thing, there would be times when she would flop around like a sleepy fish and she really hated falling OUT of bed. Her father had solved the problem early on by simply buying her two twin beds and shoving them together in a custom made frame with an additional foam top to cover any seams. Right now the novelty of sleeping next to someone kept her somewhat calm but she knew that EVENTUALLY it would wear off and she was too active in sleep to stay still for long. Corbin's bed was big...it could be bigger.