Instead of, you know, working on my nano today I decided to write first!kiss!fic for Gadget Girl on the request of a nanomemer. Because lord knows, if I have to choose between writing about people dying in hilarious ways or cheesy romance, I'm going to choose the cheesy romance. :D:

This is set in the future, sometime, at Christmas.


"Oh my god, what are you doing?" Carrie asked. She leaned over to peer at Ray's laptop screen, bracing one hand on his shoulder and the other on the back of the chair. It was Christmas, and he was hiding up in her bedroom while the rest of her family bustled around the kitchen. It was kind of cute, how uncomfortable he still was whenever her parents invited him to a holiday gathering, even though they'd been doing it for years.

"I'm playing Oregon Trail," He told her, like she couldn't see that.

"I'm not blind, thanks. I mean what are you doing?"

He turned his head slightly to eyeball her, his face disturbingly close to hers. "What are you talking about?"

She stretched her arm across him to point at the screen. "You can't start the game without any medicine! You don't need that many oxen, either. And, seriously? Is that all the food you're getting?"

He pulled back a little to stare at her.

"I'm just saying." She paused. "And really, it doesn't count unless you start from Independence."

He turned around and pushed her away from the laptop. "I don't need your help."

"Look, it's either that or I have to go back downstairs and help Mom and Aunt Mary argue over cinnamon rolls." She tried to get back at the laptop again, laughing while he blocked her and saying, "I just want you to have a satisfying gaming experience, okay? You can't have that if you're not doing it right!"

"I think I hear your dad calling you," he said, blocking the laptop with his body.

"Ha ha. He already kicked me out of the basement. Apparently he doesn't need help wrapping presents. Which is dumb because he wraps things like a five-year-old."

"Yeah, well, we can't all be perfect like you." He closed the laptop cover and crossed his arms over his chest. "Now no one can play, are you happy now?"

She grabbed his elbows and pulled him out of the chair. "Come on, if I have to be awake and dealing with them you do too. Besides, it smells like the first batch just came out of the oven, and Mom'll won't give me any."

"And?" He was following her out of the room, though.

"And she'll let you steal some. And then we can go bug Dad some more and the two of you can compare shitty wrapping skills."

"I wrap presents just fine."

"Last year you wrapped mine in duct tape. It took me hours to get open."

"I know," he said smugly. "And it was hilarious."

"You know what?" she said, turning around on the stairs to look at him. "Go back upstairs. I need to rewrap yours. In a steel box. And then maybe bury it. Under the ocean."

He just smiled and pushed past her.

###

"I can't believe you got us kicked out," Carrie groused as she stomped through a snowbank.

"I got us kicked out?" That incredulous tone of voice didn't fool her. "You said she'd let me get away with stealing a cinnamon roll for each of us."

She floundered out of the snow bank to walk down the sidewalk next to him. "Yeah, well. Well. I wasn't the one who let her catch me."

Ray stuffed his hands in his coat pocket and didn't say anything. Every time she glanced over at him, he was looking up at the sky, like if he stared hard enough it would start snowing again. And, as they passed by snowdrift at the end of the sidewalk, she got a running start and shoved him in.

His hands flew out of his pockets as the snow puffed around him, and he flailed around for a moment before rolling out of the drift and onto his hands and knees. Then he was after her, and she was running across the yard like she was a kid again, shrieking and laughing and dodging clumps of snow he threw.

As she skidded across the pond, he was taking the long way around, hopping over the fence and pelting her with snow as she scrambled up the bank. She lunged across the distance between them, hitting him at the knees and taking him down. They rolled back down the bank onto snow-covered ice. Carrie ended up straddling Ray, her hands planted on his shoulders, like that would keep him pinned to the ice.

He was laughing, his breath huffing out in puffs of fog, his cheeks red with cold, his hat coming off and his hair all mussed, his eyes glittering. She was laughing too, and all she could think was that he looked so happy.

"We should really get going," she said, sitting back on her heels over his knees. He blinked at sat up, his face so close she wouldn't need to move much to lean forward and kiss him. "Mom's gonna be pissed if we don't get back with new lights in time for lunch."

"Okay," he said quietly. She could feel his breath ghosting across her face. She got up, and pulled him up after her. To the mall.

###

She wasn't quite sure what they were laughing about, as they pressed through the mass of bodies. She just knew that they were both laughing, and Ray wasn't paying attention to the looks some people were giving him, and she wasn't feeling as much how dare they rage as usual.

"Come on," she said, grabbing his hand and pulling him through the crowds of last-minute shoppers. "Christmas lights are down in the department store."

He followed her gamely, his fingers threaded through hers. Before long, they were standing in front of one of the big Christmas displays.

"Hey look," she said, turning to face him in front of a window full of animatronic Santas. "Do you think Mom would mind if I came home with..."

She drifted off, staring up at him. He was grinning, still laughing a little, and she felt something in her expand. Like she was the fucking Grinch or something.

"With what?" he asked, his brow furrowing a little. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I just- Jesus Ray." She reached up with her free hand and pulled his head down, pressing her lips to his. His hand clenched around hers as his entire body stiffened, and she almost squeaked in pain before he dropped her hand. She had just long enough to think that maybe this was a terrible mistake, when he relaxed and began kissing her back, his hand coming up to cup her cheek.

She was about to open her mouth against his, when she heard some asshole saying, "Oh my god, they're hiring people to kiss now? Corporate capitalism is so desperate." to his little asshole friends.

She pulled back to see some kid in skinny jeans staring at them. "Fuck you, hipster," she yelled across the open space, and suddenly he was very busy not looking at her.

"Come on." She grabbed Ray's hand again, grinning at the dazed look on his face. "Let's get those lights and go home."

THE END