The Boy, The Girl, and The Game (Artemi Panarin)

Presents

-Artemis POV-

I sit in Annabelles house with Tyler as we played FIFA in the living room. She was out getting presents for Christmas and I promised to stay back with Tyler so he didn't feel lonely.

"You excited for the holidays" I ask as our fingers attack the buttons.

"Yeah, it's easy to forget about cancer and all that shit when you sister is basically Mrs. Claus" he scoffs.

Annabelle loves Christmas, I mean is obsessed with it. "How are you feeling today" I wonder.

"Pretty good. They've done tests to see if I'm in remission and I hope to hear some good news soon" he admits. Maybe we'll have a Christmas miracle on our hands. We continued to play until Anna got home a few hours later and I let him take over for a while.

"Hey babe, how was Christmas shopping" I ask helping her bring in bags.

"Great, no peaking in the bags though" she warns and I throw my hands up. I follow her to the bedroom where she puts a few bags in the closet then proceeds to wrap the rest of the gifts.

"Want some help" I ask and she nods.

"That would be great" she sighs.

"Ummmm any of these going in bags because I suck at wrapping presents" I laugh and she lets out a giggle.

"No, but I can help you" she claims. Yeah... good luck with that. She shows me a few times and I start to get the hang of it pretty quickly.

She puts on Christmas music and happily continues to wrap one of the seventeen thousand things she bought. "Why do you love Christmas so much" I wonder.

"It's so hard to be in a bad mood this time of the year. The hot chocolate seems to taste better and people's eyes seem to shine brighter. Plus it's the season of giving and no one likes to give more than me" she laughs. Don't I know it.

"Speaking of which, how many presents did you get" I ask pointing to our bed covered in gifts.

"I got one for each guy on the team, staff, and organization. All the wives and girlfriends and kids. I got gifts for my family and yours, and I think that's it" she replies going down the checklist in her head.

"We're going to be in here all day" I groan.

"We will with that attitude" she laughs tossing me some tape and I roll my eyes.

She hums along to the music and cranks out like 20 gifts in a hour, but that barley made a dent in the pile. "I'm hungryyyy" I whine as she looks up from the gift she was wrapping.

"Want to make cookies" she asks and I light up.

"Hell yeah" I say getting off the bed then helping her up. I help her get off all the paper scraps off before dusting off her butt.

"Should have known you just wanted to touch my ass" she laughs.

"Just trying to help you out" I defend.

We end up making sugar cookies and I loved watching Annabelle dance around the kitchen.

"Dance with me" she yells over the loud music.

"Ummm I really can't dance" I tell her.

"Everyone can dance, just not well sometimes" she laughs.

"I don't know, this cookie dough needs to be put in the oven" I trail off.

She takes the bowl out of my hands and sets it on the counter before grabbing my hands and pulling me into the living room. Tyler turns the music up and tosses Anna a fake microphone as she sings along to Jingle Bell Rock. I watch as Tyler and Anna dance around on the couch and other places of the living room. Eventually she makes her way over to me and grabs my wrist before spinning herself in my hand. She bobs along to the music and sings the lyrics to me as if we were in a music video. I couldn't stop the smile from forming on my face as she places my hands on her waist and she laces her hands behind my neck as we dance to the music. I feel her hips move under my hands as her fingers make their way into my hair and I go wide eyed. She knew what she was doing... and it was working.

"Hey... if y'all are going to fuck you need to let me know because I can go in my room" Tyler says and I feel a blush form on my face. After we were all danced out we return to the kitchen and place the cookies on a sheet before putting them in the oven.

"You're a mean mean person, you know that" I ask and she gives me a smirk. How I wish I wasn't so hung up on this girl. The cookies get finished and I grab some snacks as we return to her room to finish wrapping.

I just end up watching her wrap as I ate potato chips for a while.

"You should just move in here, like put your place on the market" she mentions wrapping probably the 60th gift.

"I don't know, I know you like your 'you' time" I say.

"Art, when was the last time you slept at your place" she asks with a laugh. I think about it and I was always either on the road or here.

"Okay, you have a point. But I'm still not sure you really want me here with you" I defend. She's the independent type.

"We're in a serious relationship, right" she asks looking up from a present she was wrapping.

"Of course. I want to have a family with you" I say.

"Then we would move in together some day, why not now?"

I take time to let what she says really sink it, I was scared I wouldn't get resigned and moving in together would be a bad idea if I have to leave. But at the same time I love her a lot and all I know is that right now, all I want is to be with her.

"Okay then, I'll move in" I finally say and she smiles. I help her finish wrapping then there was one more thing to do.

We enter the loft that was still filled with her sports memorabilia and seats, but now it holds a spot for a tree. Tyler helps be bring in the tree that we all picked out a few days back and set it up in the corner. We all decorate it with tinsel and lights and whatever else Anna picked up.

"This looks... unique" I laugh as I see the three of us decorated the tree in three sections three different ways.

"I like it. It's expresses individuality and union" Annabelle says and I smile down at her. I tuck her safely under her arm because I felt like I needed to protect her childlike innocence at this moment. We help her put all the presents under the tree and take a final look at it.

"I think it's cute" Tyler comments and we all nod in agreement.

"Well I'm exhausted" Anna says with a laugh. It's called 12 straight hours of Christmas spirit. We head to bed and she cuddles into my side to keep warm.

"Goodnight, princess" I whisper as her breathing evens out.

"Goodnight, love."