Can't believe I've actually finished this story to upload it for Christmas! So: Merry Christmas everyone and I hope you have great time 3


Under the Mistletoe

'Charlotte! Charlotte! I have the beeeest idea ever!' One could hear it screaming through the whole front wing of the palace. A few seconds after the shouting started one could make out the owner of the voice: Amilia Mignonette Therompolis Renaldi, Princess of Genovia.

The young woman was dashing down the stairs of the ballroom, which she helped decorating a few seconds before, and stopped in front of Charlotte, who was assisting the preparations for the Christmas ball on December 24th.

'Yes princess?', Charlotte asked, seeming to be confused because of the princess's behaviour. 'I… I….', Mia tried to response, but still heavily breathing, no proper words came out of her mouth. 'Breathe princess, breatheee!', the other woman said, now amused. 'I have the best idea ever!', Mia shouted again and at Charlottes confused look she added: 'You knoooow… our plan… grandma and you know who? Helplessly in love?' Charlotte laughed but nodded. 'And what's your oh so glorious idea?' 'I only say: decoration, mistletoe, door and kiss…' Mia whispered with a cheeky smile. Charlottes eyes went wide but her lips formed a smile that matched Mia's. 'You're a genius!'

Meanwhile one of the victims of the conspiracy that was being planned in the ballroom sat in her office.

It had been a long and tiring noon for Clarisse. She had been sitting behind her desk ever since she got up and had been scanning documents over documents over documents and now, she got to a point of working when she really just wanted to throw all those pieces of paper on the floor. She let out a groan of frustration and wanted to grab another pile of documents about the matters that had been discussed in the latest parliament- meeting, when suddenly there was a knock at the door.

Oh, damn it! Who dared to disturb her when she was in in such a mood and wanted to scream of frustration… Nevertheless, she tried to put up a relaxed fa?ade and pulled herself together. 'Come in!'

'Good day, your majesty.'

As soon as she heard his familiar voice her lips formed a small smile and she looked up. 'Hello Joseph.' 'I hope you're not too busy because I wanted to ask you if you could…' She couldn't supress a sigh at his words and her fa?ade dropped... no more work please, she thought… Joseph stopped and instead continued with a worried tone in his voice: 'Clarisse is something wrong?' She had hoped that he hadn't realized her exhausted and bad mood, but this man just seemed to notice everything. 'No no, everything is fine…' she answered trying to sound as happy as possible. 'Now what was that what you wanted to say?' He just ignored her last question and looked her directly in the eyes and simply stated.

'You're lying!' Oh, he knew her far too well… and his eyes... so deep… just perfect to get completely lost in them… oh, just pull yourself together Renaldi!, she thought to compose herself. 'And what do you think is the truth?' If he was able to be so straight forward, she could do the same. 'Well, I personally think you're very annoyed and tired of your workload and you definitely need a break or else you're gonna die of boredom', Joseph grinned amused and Clarisse's lips formed a smile of her own. 'You know me far too well Joseph." He only chuckled and made his way to the door. 'Come on, let's look what Mia and Charlotte come up with for the decorations of the ballroom.'

'Mia is helping?!', was the alarmed response of the Queen.

When they eventually arrived in the front wing, they stopped in the doorframe to overview the current situation. Clarisse couldn't but feel relieved when she realized that despite her granddaughters help, no big catastrophes had happened and everything seemed perfectly neat. In the middle of the busy decorations, she was able to make out Mia who was talking to Charlotte, both standing in the middle of the ball room with wide grins on their faces. At her glance, the two women came up the stairs and stopped right before herself and Joseph.

'Hello grandma, hi joseph!' was Mia's a little bit too enthusiastic greeting. 'Hello Mia, is there a reason for your, um, good mood?', Clarisse asked, even more confused and suspicious. 'Look up you two!' Mia grinned sheepishly and pointed over their heads. Oh no… mistletoe… hell she was in big trouble now… She turned her head to watch Josephs reaction but he just grinned and shot his head. 'Very cheeky princess, indeed.' And with that he suddenly bent down and kissed her.

Well, it had only been a kiss on her cheek but just this simple, soft kiss on her cheek made her feet feel weak and her heart beating faster. That was close… because if he had kissed her on her mouth, she couldn't have guaranteed that her actions would have stayed professional…

'Aaaah, come on you're boooring!', suddenly came from Mia, 'come one Joe kiss her properly.' Sometimes she really just wanted to walk up to this girl, grab her and throw her out of the next palace window!

'No! No Mia I won't participate in such an action! Not in front of all those people!', she tried to bring her granddaughter back to her senses, but regarding her look, Mia was far from giving in… god she could scream!

'Oh, come on grandmaaa just have some fun!', Mia wined like a little kid. Clarisse tried not to roll her eyes and turned to Joseph again, who seemed to be amused by the scenery before him, because he grinned. How was he so relaxed about this? And why didn't he say anything? And why didn't Charlotte help her out of this misery?!

'Amilia...', she started again, but the girl interrupted her: 'A little kiss won't hurt man! Or are you scared grandma hu?' Scared? Clarisse Renaldi was never scared… but this was a very, very dangerous situation…

'Alright!', came the sudden response of Joseph and he stepped closer… oh god… now she really was in big trouble… Joseph wouldn't dare? would he? …the best thing to do would to be to step back and just go but she couldn't… not when he had such a look in his eyes… and then he kissed her. Properly this time and before she had realized what exactly was happening, he stepped back again, his eyes never leaving hers. Mia's 'Whoohooo' and Charlottes 'Yes!' seemed far away… only thing that mattered was that Joseph, her bodyguard, her friend… and secret love of her life… had just kissed her!

Even days later, Clarisse still was close to frustration, but it was not her workload that bothered her, but the fact that she hadn't been able to concentrate on anything she did. Not on her work, nor the Christmas ball on December 24th or on her private Christmas party with Mia this morning. She had spent the good majority of the time thinking about what had happened in the ballroom three days earlier and now it was 9 pm on Christmas day and she still hadn't come any further. In addition to that she felt terrible because she had basically run away when the kiss happened, because she had been avoiding him those last days, because she had acted so cold and distant towards him and because she missed him and his company… But how could she change her behaviour when all she could do was thinking of the kiss?! ...his lips had been so soft… and the look he gave her after the kiss had ended…she could have melted right on the spot. How could she ever talk to him like a normal person again? She had always managed to keep those feelings inside of her and had denied them for a long time but now…

Another big problem was that there were two big issues connected to her feelings… firstly how on earth should she explain to others that she, Queen Clarisse Renaldi of Genovia, was in love with her bodyguard? And secondly, and that was even worse, what if he didn't love her back? The worst thing was: she had brought this all on herself, just because she hadn't been able to resist. Why? The answer was simple… because deep down she had wanted a kiss like that to happen for the past years.

Good she really was getting crazy…

A few minutes later Clarisse was wandering through the now calm and dark palace. At first, she felt a little bit bad about all the worry she could cause because she had left her office without telling anyone where she was going, but after a few second of feeling guilty, she decided that she simply didn't care now. Clarisse was glad that she didn't meet a lot of staff members in the corridors and when she did, she only nodded and tried to ignore their curious faces that showed the question that was in all of their heads: why is the Queen wandering through the palace alone on Christmas day?

After aimlessly walking through the palace, Clarisse made her way to the front wing, precisely the ballroom. She had acted childishly, she knew… firstly kissing her bodyguard, then avoiding him for days and even avoiding the place where he had kissed her, so going to the ballroom was her first step for her to stop running away from her problems, as silly the whole idea sounded.

What she didn't know that a certain bodyguard was also rushing towards the ballroom, trying to find his Queen, who had left her office half an hour ago and hadn't returned ever since.

When the ballroom came in sight Clarisse quickened her steps. She didn't know why but she had felt her heart beating faster as soon as that blasted mistletoe came in sight and she knew if she stopped, she would get even more distracted (if that was possible…).

She was rushing through the door, turned to the right… and suddenly bumped into someone, who seemingly just ran up the stairs to exit the ballroom. She fell into him and the two stumbled back, nearly crashing down the stairs, clinging onto each other. Everything went so fast so she hadn't even recognised who it was until they found their balance again.

'Joseph…'

'Oh, there you are Clarisse… we were worried about you!' Worried? Why would they be worried?

'Worried? About me?', she asked breathlessly. Then she realized that he was still holding her… and she that was still clinging to him… she blushed deeply and stepped back to bring some distance between them.

'Yes, you left your office half an hour ago and then you were wandering through the palace all alone…' Joseph started explaining but she interrupted him: 'It's fine, I'm fine as you can see… I just needed to clear my head and you know…' She blushed again and hoped it was already too dark in the dimly lit ballroom for him to see. 'I see', he simply stated. 'Yes…'

After those few words a heavy and awkward silence followed and Clarisse was glad that Joseph eventually broke it, so she could concentrate on his words and could draw her attention away from certain thoughts that went through her mind…

'Clarisse?'

'Yes Joseph?'

'You've been avoiding me.' It was a simple statement, not an accusation.

'I….' Clarisse had really no idea what to answer… she could lie to him yes, claiming that she just had been busy, but she knew that he would see right through her. He always did. 'I… yes…', finally came out of her mouth.

'Why?', Joseph asked with seemingly no emotions in his voice.

Oh no… how should she explain the whole situation? The easiest way to explain it, was to say: because I love you and I don't know whether you love me back and I'm scared of my own feelings because I don't even know how to explain them to others… but she just couldn't… the words just didn't come out of her mouth. Hell, why was this so difficult? His intense look didn't make it any easier and she looked down, because she couldn't look into his eyes that, even so he seemed to be composed on the outside, were full of confusion, hurt and… sadness?

'I see…', Joseph suddenly said calmly and turned to leave. 'Well, if you have nothing to tell me, I'm gonna go back to the security room to inform everyone that I you're save.'

No… she couldn't bear that their relationship would just continue to be like that… she quickly stepped forwards and just caught his right arm as he wanted to exit the ballroom through the door.

'Joseph wait… please.' She basically screamed and felt relieved when he really turned back to her with a doubting look on his face. He wanted to say something but she didn't let him speak. 'I do have something to tell you, you know? The truth is that I… I was scared. Scared of my own feelings… scared of how this whole… thing… would turn out. And when you kissed me… The kiss… I… it just meant so much to me and I… god I'm rambling… I… I love you Joseph and I really do not want to lose you… and if you don't love me…'She broke off, not wanting to think of such a case...

During her speech, she had looked on the floor, avoiding to look him in the eyes, when she carefully looked up to see his reaction, she saw that he was smiling.

'Oh Clarisse.', he whispered and brought up his hands to cup her cheeks. 'Yes Joseph?', she whispered back smiling herself. 'You don't know how happy you make me.' Clarisse laughed and leaned her forehead against his. 'I think I have a slight idea.' He chuckled and whispered: 'Clarisse?'

'Yes?'

'I love you too…'

She just smiled and hugged him tightly, feeling that she never wanted to leave his comforting arms again. She didn't know if she ever felt as happy as in this particular moment… Suddenly she realized where they were standing and grinned. She whispered in his ear: 'Look up.'

'Oh that mistletoe again…', Joseph grinned cheekily, 'well we better follow the tradition…' She giggled and slapped his arm playfully before leaning in for a kiss.

When the kiss ended, she smiled broadly.

'Happy Christmas Joseph.'

'Happy Christmas my love.'


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