Mistletoe

"Isn't that a bit of a hassle though?" Dite asked, grabbing another glass of cider as an elf with a tray passed by.

"Not really," Jacqueline replied, helping herself to a glass as well. "I mean icicles are a really hard medium to work with, of course, especially on a dress, but it really makes the look, you know?"

"Well for your fancy formal wear, I suppose…but I like the frosty dress a bit better," Dite said. "It looks less like it's constricting you. It is concerningly corset like, though the shape does suit you."

Jacqueline blinked. "I'm flattered," she said, smiling, a slight blush on her face. "And it's not constricting me, it barely touches the neckline! Honestly, when I did wear corsets, they weren't too bad if you laced them up proper. And after a while, you can barely feel them! But don't worry, this is just a bodice decal."

"That's relieving to know. I'm glad you're not being suffocated by your dress."

"Thanks, Dite." Jacqueline paused, staring at her friend. The goddess seemed a little off today, and she wasn't sure why. She kept glancing at Elle and Bernard, looking very thoughtful which could be a bad thing, or a good thing—it was hard to tell with a love-related goddess, especially Dite.

Jacqueline slid closer to the blonde, until her left wing was almost wrapped around the sprite. "What's got you so bothered?" she whispered.

"You told me that the North Pole Christmas party is for every elf to chill out," she whispered back.

"It sure is. You've been here all night, you saw how it was after launch. That was pretty chill, by my standards."

"Well look who is not chilling."

"Bernard? He never chills. Unless Elle convinces him to. Or he actually takes a break. I think he's going to work himself to death one of these days."

"Unless Elle convinces him to. Well, where's Elle?"

"She's right beside him—oh. She is not." Jacqueline paused, frowning. "I think I'm beginning to see your point."

"Why are we whispering?"

The two Legates jumped, both realizing at the same time that Elle had made her way behind them noiselessly.

"No reason!" Jacqueline said, clearing her throat and dusting off her dress.

"We were whispering? Wow, I didn't even notice!" Dite added.

"You sound spacey, Dite. Is everything okay?"

"Yes! I'm just dandy. What a lovely party! When Jacqueline told me how crazy it got here I did not believe her, I mean, I've seen crazy parties—deities are like that on a day to day basis, after all."

"I bet you believe her now," Elle grinned.

"I think for Christmas Elves, it's definitely crazy," she said, winking. "So how come you aren't enjoying the festivities?"

Elle's smile faltered. "I'm sorry?"

Jacqueline made a weird sound in her throat.

"You aren't enjoying the party! You're not relaxing with the other elves, or winding down, or anything! You haven't stopped looking after everyone, silly. I would assume, being Elf Number Two, you work exceptionally hard. So why aren't you winding down right now? More importantly, why aren't you winding down with your boo?"

"Well, we have lots of time to relax later. But since Santa is still out we've still got to work a little bit, the two of us. Something may happen and we may have to send a team to extract him from a sticky situation or break him out of jail, which happens…more than you would expect." She shrugged. "Then there's making sure everyone is enjoying themselves—Jacqueline, what's so funny?"

"Dite called B-Man your boo."

"You're so mature," Elle said, laughing.

"She's the picture of sophisticated grace," Dite said, smiling. "Now then, I can't sit around here and watch a match such as yourself and Bernard not have fun together. C'mon," Dite said, grabbing Elle's hand and rushing away.

"Now just hold on a diddly darn minute—" Elle began, but Dite paid her no mind. Jacqueline watched them go, thinking of what Dite might be planning and if she should go tell the love goddess to tone it down a notch, or not.

"So, Cupid's kid, huh?"

"What?" Jacqueline said, startled for the second time that night.

"You have…feelings…for Cupid's kid? Hedone?"

"You're reading into things, Jack. And you know she prefers to go by Dite."

The Legend shrugged, serving his sister with an infuriating smirk. "Am I? I mean, you did bring her along as your date, did you not?" A brief pause. "Why does she go by Dite, anyway? Doesn't that cause confusion for the real Aphrodite?"

"She goes by Dite because it pisses off her grandmother, Venus, who is Aphrodite's Roman equivalent. It was to get back at her for refusing to use her Greek name and giving her a Roman name she absolutely hates. Venus always calls Dite Voluptas and she really isn't a fan of how it translated over. Apparently Venus can't stand Dite's choice in name. Aphrodite herself thinks it's hilarious how mad it makes Venus, and "bestowed her blessings" or something like that."

"Wow. You really know so much about her, don't you Jacqueline?" Jack said, with a smirk and a quirked eyebrow.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean I have a thing for her."

"I don't know, you two were looking mighty cozy before Elle interrupted. And those wings do not look cozy."

"Dite's wings are soft and fluffy and make her hugs very great," Jacqueline defended.

Jack smirked. "I knew it."

"Can you just shut up for five minutes? Dite and I aren't like that! I don't have a crush on her! She's just someone I really like and would stare at for days and lately if I don't see her for a while it sometimes ruins my week!"

"You know what Jacqueline," Jack said, holding up a hand in defence, "you are completely right. That is definitely not a crush, how could I have been so wrong?!"

"You're the absolute worst."

"Oh shut up, I'm a delight!"

"Whoever told you that lied."

Jack rolled his eyes. "I can see I've hit a touchy subject so, I'll move on. At any rate, it's not like you were getting very far."

"I'm sorry?"

"Well you were all cozy up there but then Elle came along and so much for the coze, as you call it."

"My slang does not suit you."

Jack grimaced. "I know. It felt weird to say."

"I could very easily get the coze back, you know."

"Really now?"

"Are you implying that I can't?"

"Yes."

"Listen. I don't have a crush on Dite, but I would like you to know I'm totally capable of cozying up to anyone."

"Really now?"

"Really! And I'll prove it!" Jacqueline shouted, stomping off. "I have to go make sure Dite doesn't go love crazy anyway!"

Jack chuckled to himself, heading back to the dessert table.

By the time Jacqueline made it over to Dite and Elle, still in a bit of a huff, the two girls were giggling like mad.

"What are you two planning?" Jacqueline asked, eyebrow raised.

"Well, you promised me the whole Christmas experience," Dite said. "And do you know what's missing from the whole Christmas experience?"

"Eggnog? Because there's some over by the Naughty and Nice Centre—"

"Nope! Mistletoe," Dite said, grinning.

"Oh dear."

"And since Elle and her fine elven gent over there haven't wound down, and you said that usually Elle is the one to convince him to relax, I thought 'hey, why don't I throw them under some mistletoe?' and I told Elle and she thought—"

"I think it's brilliant!"

"And thankfully, I managed to come by some mistletoe," Dite added.

"Yes, because you wanted to make your peplos all Christmassy, so you had me help you put mistletoe on it. And the holly around the bottom which hurt a lot, why is that stuff so sharp?"

"We're actually working on a softer version of holly down in Botany—"

"Elle. It's Christmas. Seriously, stop thinking about work for a bit," Jacqueline teased.

"Hey, at least I'm not as bad as Bernard," Elle said, shrugging.

"That's debatable," Jacqueline said, sipping her drink.

"Speaking of, I've hung up the mistletoe," Dite said, pointing to one of the archways in the Workshop. "Go make some romance happen, Elle. Do me proud!"

"I won't let you down!" Elle said, saluting (a bit over dramatically, Jacqueline thought proudly) and rushing over to Bernard.

"I'm so excited," Dite said. "You know Jacquie, when I do my rounds around this time of year, a lot of mistletoe shenanigans tend to happen. They're all lovely, of course, but it's nice to see one that I didn't completely make happen myself, and in the most Christmas place you could possibly be in." the goddess said, smiling.

"Then let's get you closer! After all, you never work from too far away."

Dite grinned and grabbed Jacqueline's hand, rushing them over to the table filled with cookies nearest to her mistletoe. They watched as Elle ran by, dragging a very confused but smiley Bernard behind her.

"I just want to show you something, B."

"Elle, I have to go check in with Santa and—"

"Look up!"

"Is that mistletoe?"

"It would appear so."

"Well then, if I may?"

"I thought you'd never ask!"

The two elves smooched, and Dite grinned so wide Jacqueline was afraid her face would break in two.

"You know what Elle, it's Christmas Eve. Santa's fine, and you're right. I really do need to unwind. Want to dance?"

"Happily," Elle said, taking the hand he offered as the two headed to the large crowd of elves dancing in front of the speaker set up.

"That was even better than I thought," Dite said, picking up her robes and walking towards the mistletoe. Jacqueline followed, smiling to herself as she stopped beside Dite—right under the mistletoe. "Mind helping me put it back on? It was acting as one of my fibula," Dite said, tiring of holding up half her top by hand.

"Of course. But first I would like to point out that we are, in fact, underneath the mistletoe."

Dite blinked, then coloured. "Oh, geez, we are! Would you look at that!"

"Is it okay if I kiss you?"

Dite paused for a minute, then smiled. "Of course! Choose your mark wisely," she teased, winking.

"Hmm," Jacqueline replied smiling. Making her decision, she stepped on her tippy toes and gave Dite's nose a very light kiss, much to the goddess's delight. "Now you've had the full Christmas Party experience," Jacqueline said, grinning.

Dite laughed. "I almost have, you mean."

"Huh?"

"We're still under the mistletoe! May I kiss you?"

"Oh! Gee! Yes, absolutely!" Jacqueline flushed, too thrown to match Dite's earlier tease like she had wanted too.

"Hmm…I'll choose…there!" And with that, Dite bent down just a tad, and kissed Jacqueline's forehead softly.

Out in the crowd, Jack smiled to himself. "Boy Jacqueline, you sure showed me," he said out loud, to nobody in particular, as the two women giggled, Dite taking down the mistletoe and Jacqueline helping her pin it back to her peplos. He shook his head, smiling nonetheless, and turned back to the desserts.

Word Count: 1868 [Sans AN and Disclaimers]

Edited July 17th, 2019

A/N-I know this isn't Winter's Birthday like I SAID it would be, but I was recently rereading some tumblr-exclusive Smile Shots and decided to clean up my favourites and share them with all you lovelies! This was from a series of phrase-based prompts. The phrases that prompted this one were: "Can you just shut up for five minutes?", "Why are you/we whispering?", "Shut up, I'm a delight!" and my personal fave, "Now just hold on a diddly darn minute!"

I have lots to say about this one, but I ramble too much in ANs imo, so I'm going to try to keep it short and sweet. First, definitions: A peplos is a Greek garment worn by both sexes, the fibula fancy pins used to hold the peplos in place. The peplos is a garment that is about the size of the full body, folded over at the top to make it look like a second garment; it falls to about the ankles.

I've also fixed this smile shot up a tad to better reflect and sum up nicely Dite's whole shtick (which took me FORVER to figure out). As a Legate, Dite has existed nearly as long as Jacqueline. I just never properly looked up to see if Cupid had a kid, even while I was majoring in classics! I finally looked it up and learnt all about Hedone/Volupta(s) and Dite was like "Yay! You found me!" So she is Hedone, Greek Goddess of Pleasure, but chooses the name Dite, short for Aphrodite, to piss off her Grandmother Venus who refuses to call Dite by her preferred name. There's a bunch of other stuff involved with this story in my canon as I uh, I took a few creative liberties with the story of Cupid and Psyche here :)

Dite is one of my FAVOURITE Legates, and she's lots of fun to write! She also does end up in a relationship with Jacqueline, I just haven't decided when it happens. Anywho! I think that's about everything I wanted to say! I hope you enjoyed this fluff fest because it melted my heart, holy heck. Gotta love Jack challenging Jacqueline's romance game ;)

DISCLAIMER

I do not own The Santa Clause, Jack Frost or any other canon characters mentioned above. I am making no profit off of this, it is purely for my enjoyment as well as that of the readers. I do, however, own Crystal Springs and Jacqueline Frost, as well as Dite, Cupid's Legate. Any resemblance they bear to any specific person/place/thing is purely coincidental; please do not use them without MY permission.

I also do not own Elle. She belongs to Ana, aka etiquette-faux-pas. I am merely borrowing Elle and have vowed to return her (relatively) unharmed.