12 Days of Christmas

Day 5

"Damon, would you bring down our sweaters?" Elena yelled from the parlor. She had spent the last few minutes setting up the tripod and camera she had gotten the day before.

She had discovered Shutterfly through Google, and thought using it to make Christmas cards was a great idea for their little holiday adventure. Her parents had always used a professional to have pictures taken. Those would be put up in the house and some would be sent out on Christmas cards to all their friends and families. It had been a tradition she loved.

However, going to a photographer to have pictures taken of herself and Damond didn't feel right, and she wasn't sure she'd be able to talk him into it anyway. So instead, she had decided they would do it themselves.

It had taken her a while to find the best place for it, but in the end she had decided to set it up in front of the fireplace. That was the most decorated part of the house, with stockings and garlands and everything, and it also held some significance to the two of them. How many life altering moments had they shared in front of the fireplaces of this house? This would be another memory to add to that list!

"Oooh, so you're finally agreeing to this?," Damon asked as he entered the room and saw her set up, "Are we filming down here? I have to admit, I prefer the bedroom, but I won't complain." His eyes turned dark and Elena elbowed him..

"It's not what you think," she said, taking the sweaters from him and kissing him softly, "We are not making a sex tape."

"But, why not? I've been good this year," he promised, grabbing her waist, "And look, you have the camera and tripod all ready to go" He gestured to the setup she had made, "And to be honest, this is kinda of a great place. We could just spread some blankets on the floor, light the fire, have some-."

"Damon, no. Now focus," Elena grinned, as she pulled away from him and put a sweater over her head, "we're taking pictures for Christmas cards!" The sweater had a picture of Santa doing yoga and the text "namasleigh". Elena had thought it was hilarious, since she had recently started doing yoga herself, so of course she just had to have it.

"Christmas cards?" Damon confirmed.

"Yeah. You know, you take pictures, and put them on cards and send them out to your family and friends," Elena said, handing a sweater to Damon, "And we're gonna take pictures with our sweaters on."

Damon reluctantly took the sweater and took off the shirt he was wearing.

"So we're clear, my idea was a lot more fun than just wearing our sweaters and taking a photo to send out," Damon said, as he put on a sweater Elena hadn't known he had found. It had a ton of decapitated reindeers and elves lying around in pools of blood and had the caption "Santa Slayed" at the bottom.

"Where did you get that sweater? I don't remember seeing it at Target," Elena asked, chuckling at the shirt. She had to admit, it was very him.

"I may have gone somewhere else to find this..." he trailed off.

"Oh my God, Damon Salvatore, did you go sweater shopping on your own?" Elena laughed, as he moved to the fireplace.

"Are we gonna take this picture or not?" he asked, struggling to keep a straight face.

"Not just a photo, we're gonna take lots of photos! So we have some to choose from and so we can make like a collage," Elena said, messing around with the camera. She had looked up how to make it time the photo and then also take more than just one at a time, so they'd have lots to pick from.

"Alright fine, where do you want me?" Damon asked, looking incredibly awkward in front of the camera. Elena couldn't help but hold in a small giggle. Normally, Damon was incredibly confident and always knew what to do - however, he hadn't grown up with selfies and cameras like Elena had. Even though Elena had taught him what he needed to know about phones, he never really understood the need to take photos all the time - especially not selfies, and it was a miracle when she could actually get him to smile for one.

"So, right there in front of the fireplace, and I'll just click this button on the camera and come join you, and then we pose!" Elena said, clicking the button and hurried to stand next to Damon. She put his arm around her and smiled, resting her head on his shoulder. When the flash went off, she hurried to change her pose.

The camera took ten photos of them, before Elena went back over to it.

"Alright, let's see what we got!" she said, scrolling through the pictures. Damon came to stand next to her as they looked at them together. Elena had managed to strike a new pose in every single photo, but Damon had the same awkward "I have no clue what I'm doing"-smile in all of them.

"Okay, that's a good start," Elena said, putting the camera back, "just try to change your pose every time the camera flashes! And don't worry about what to do, just have fun with it."

She clicked the button again and they returned to the spot they had been standing in before. The first flash went off, and Elena went to move, when Damon's hands found her sides and started tickling her. She instantly burst into laughter.

"What are you doing?" she laughed, trying to avoid his fingers, "Damon, we're taking photos!" Damon didn't stop his advances.

"You said have fun," he said, as the camera kept flashing, "I'm having fun!" His hands found the perfect spot to make her scream with laughter.

***

A little later they were sitting in front of her laptop, choosing the photos to go on their Christmas cards. Lots of the pictures that had been taken while he was tickling her had turned out great and they'd even managed to get a cute one of them just smiling in front of the fireplace.

"Now that that's done, what do you say we take the camera upstairs and have a little fun?" Damon said slyly, kissing her neck. Elena finished putting in the order for them and turned towards him, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"I guess you have been kind of good this year..."