** REBEL SIMMONS POV **
Dante looked more bored than ever when everyone began to open their gifts. The Christmas tree looked like it belonged in Times Square. It was frosted with fake white snow, and reached the top of the high ceilings within the house. The red string lights glistened against the gold ornaments. A lavish green ribbon was wrapped stylishly around the tree. Underneath the tree was more presents that I have ever seen, all wrapped in luxurious wrapping papers and tied with bows with large festive name tags.
The Vino family gathered around the tree, making sure to bring their desserts with them, and sat on the floor in the living room. Dante sat on the couch and rested his head on his hand as his eyes struggled to stay open.
I could relate to the feeling of disappointment of waking up on Christmas Day to an empty tree in a vacant house, and couldn't help but feel uneasy at the fact that Dante didn't get any presents from his family, nor did they get any for him.
"Dante, can you help me carry my gifts please?" I asked as I walked into the living room.
"You seem to have carried them inside by yourself just fine." He said sarcastically with his eyes closed. I grabbed the nearest pillow and started to smack him with it repeatedly. His family started to laugh in amusement.
"Va bene! Va bene! Enough!" He said as he angrily grabbed the pillow from my hands and shot me a deadly glare. I smirked as he stood up and followed me up the stairs.
My bedroom looked like Santa's workshop exploded. Scraps of wrapping paper decorated my wooden floors and glitter has managed to smother every inch of the room. Dante started to chuckle at me as I frantically walked over to the desk and tore open the drawers searching for a marker.
"Never would have taken you as the festive type." Dante said as he watched me search through the drawers. He clicked his tongue, causing me to look at him. He nodded his head towards the coffee table, where three markers were messily scattered upon the glass.
I quickly walked over, tossed a marker at Dante. I didn't label the gifts yet, and for once in my life, I was thankful for my procrastination. I labeled all the gifts with sticky notes, so I could remember which one was which. I grabbed the diamond necklace for Florence, and tossed it to Dante. He effortlessly caught it, and looked at it confused. I threw him a marker, which he also caught with ease.
"Oh, no fucking way." Dante said as he scowled.
"That's to your mom, from you. You're welcome." I said rolling my eyes.
"Why are you doing this?" He asked as he continued to look at the poorly wrapped gift in his hand.
"A gift from you would be better than anything I could ever give your family." I explained as I gathered the other gifts and started to place them in front of him. I decided to divide the gifts in two, one from Dante, and one from me.
"Why would I give them a gift when they have everything they could ever possibly want?" He scoffed as he walked over to me and sat down on the decorative chair.
"It's not about the gift, it's about the thought. You could literally give them a picture of your middle finger, and they'll still love it because you put in the effort to do something for them." I said as I started to label my gifts.
"That's actually rather brilliant now that you mention it." He said smirking as he looked at his hand. "Which angle would be better?" He said as he flipped me off then rotated his hand.
"Just label the damn tags." I said laughing. After examining all the angles his middle finger could make, he was silent for a moment as he looked down at the gifts.
"I'm only doing this for you, you know that right?" He said barely above a whisper. I looked up at him as he continued to look at the gifts on the floor. I walked over to him and wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek.
"I know." I whispered to him as I smiled. "I'll consider this act of kindness my Christmas present from you." I said as I kissed his forehead. His eyes closed and a small smile formed on his face. He grabbed my waist and pulled me down onto his lap.
"What about my gift, amore?" He whispered in my ear as he drew little circles on my thigh. He kissed my ear down to my collarbone. Making a shiver run down my spine.
"That'll be for later." I said as I poked his nose, causing him to frown like a child. I laughed as I freed myself from his grasp. He pouted at me before hesitantly labeling the gifts.
After we were finished, our arms were full of poorly wrapped gifts. We entered the living room, surprised to see the entire family waited for us to come back.
"Geez took you long enough! Come on! I can't wait much longer." Angelo whined as he rushed over and took the gifts from my hand and sprinted back to the massive tree. The perfectly wrapped gifts had all been separated, each person sitting in the middle of a massive pile of bows and shiny wrapped gifts. I looked over to a very tense looking Dante, and elbowed him softly in the ribs.
"What was that for?" He whispered angrily at me as he shot me a deadly glare.
"Hand out your gifts." I whispered back at him as I nodded my head towards the tree.
"You do it." He scoffed as he rolled his eyes, a bad habit he seemed to have picked up from somewhere.
"This is my gift from you, remember?" I whispered softly as I roughly pinched his tricep.
"Jesus woman, alright! Enough with the physical abuse." He whined as he walked over to the tree.
He grabbed Florences poorly wrapped present in his arm, and held it out to her. Florence looked up at him in confusion before grabbing it and looking at the tag. Her eyes immediately started to swell up with tears as she stared at Dante's messy penmanship with a giant smile.
He quickly made his way around to the other family members who were watching him in awe. Giana had the same reaction as Florence, Harry looked at his present like it was going to explode any second, the twins practically tackled him before his instincts kicked in and he side stepped them causing them to fall to the floor, Angelo slightly made fun of him before giving him a giant man hug, and Damon was shocked that he was included.
Their reactions were the most priceless thing I have ever seen. They were all genuinely shocked and excited that Dante not only joined them for dinner, but actually thought of them. I looked over to a pile of presents by the couch, and was surprised to see they were for me.
"Merry Christmas everyone. I'm so grateful to have such an amazing family and to be able to spend it with you all, and thank you Rebel for being apart of such an amazing day." Florence said as she was still wiping the tears from her eyes. I smiled at her words. I might not be apart of this family, but they've treated me like their own, and always went out of their way to make me feel welcome and accepted. I'd do anything to protect them.
"Can we open the presents now?" Angelo whined like a child.
"Yes, yes. Go ahead." Florence said as she sat down in the center of the maze of presents. I took my seat on the floor in the middle of the fortress of gifts
I saw my plain red and white wrapping paper getting ripped to shreds, everyone excited to see what Dante has given them. He was sitting directly behind me on the couch, looking as tense as ever with an emotionless expression on his face. I leaned back and sat in between his legs, wrapping my hand around his calf. He placed a hand on my shoulder, and his body physically relaxed as he rubbed smaller circles on my back.
"Oh my god Dante this is beautiful." Florence exclaimed as she opened the jewelry box and started to cry again. She walked over to Dante and hugged him in a soul crushing embrace. He hugged her back, still not letting go of my shoulder.
"Dante these earrings are beautiful. Thank you so much!" Giana said as she also came over to hug Dante.
"Dude! I've been wanting this console for months but they're sold out everywhere! Thanks brother!" Angelo came over put Dante in a chokehold. I looked up at Dante to see him slightly smiling as he wrestled his younger brother. The sight practically made my soul melt.
"Holy shit!" The twins squealed as the ran through the mess of presents on the floor and tackled Dante, successfully this time. He laughed as he stood up, causing the twins to go flying.
"This is probably now my new favorite sweater. Thanks Dante." Harry said as he smiled at Dante. He walked over and gave him a fist bump. Dante looked at the sweater and bit his lip, attempting to hold back a laugh.
"A bright blue sweater vest? Really?" He laughed as he whispered in my ear.
"Shhh he loves that shit." I said as I playfully smacked his shoulder.
"OH MY GOD OH MY GOD!" Damon yelled as he ripped off the remaining wrapping paper on his hard drive.
"120 Terabytes, 2600MB/s, 4K displays, Dual Thunderbolt 3... I'm in heaven." Damon said as he pretended to faint, holding his new hard drive closely to his chest.
"I'm so happy I could kiss you right now, Dante." Damon exclaimed, causing the room to erupt in laughter.
"Please, refrain yourself." Dante said as he rolled his eyes.
Everyone received tons of gifts from clothes, to jewelry, cars, new guns, knives, anything you could think of. Everyone loved the gifts I gave them, Harry started to cry when he held the limited edition of Wuthering Heights, causing Dante to laugh so hard he had to leave the room for a few minutes. Angelo laughed at the medical book I gave him, saying he'll cherish it forever as a remembrance of our friendship, making Dante almost punched him for some reason. Damon promised to clean his equipment now that he had the proper tools to do so, and Giana and Florence loved the new editions to the wardrobes.
I was shocked at the gifts I received. Damon gave me a desktop computer with the quickest software in the world, Angelo bought me a new body kit for my now tattered Dodge Demon That will he delivered next week, the twins got me five different kinds of guns with silencers (a gift Dante surely enjoyed), Florence got me a pair of expensive looking earrings, and Giana and Harry got me a collection of my favorite books to add to my library.
After a quick and delicious dinner, I retreated to my room to finish packing for my trip to Seattle. My flight was at 1AM, and it was 11:30PM right now. I packed enough clothes for the 3 days I'll be staying there. I looked at the guns sprawled across my desk, and hid two handguns and silencers in my check in bag, just in case. I looked at my desk and saw the gold wrapping paper of Dante's present. I didn't want to make him feel uncomfortable by giving him his present in front of everyone.
Figuring he'd be in his office, I started to make my way towards the familiar wooden doors. I knocked on the door, and didn't get a response. I cautiously opened the doors, and walked into the pristine, vacant office.
I walked over to the large modern desk that dominated the room. I moved the stapler and a few files, and placed his present in the center of his desk. I grabbed a pen and a piece of paper from the printer.
Couldn't help but think of you when I saw this.
Merry Christmas Dante.
- Your Little Vixen
I smirked at the note before folding it and placing it underneath the box. I walked out of the office and downstairs. The twins were waiting for me to drive me to the airport. I was never very fond of goodbyes, so I told them to tell the family that I'll miss them and be back in 3 days.
I couldn't help but feel a little homesick as I watched the lit up mansion fade off into the distance.