Kryptonite

The Blood of Ruby

James let out a breath as he climbed down a ladder.

"Why am I always the one in charge of decorating," he muttered to himself.

"Because you're the best at it," Lauren replied as she emerged from her room with a mug in her hand.

She smiled as she gazed around their tiny, but comfortable and now quite festive apartment.

James had begun decorating a few weeks prior, but was not content with how it looked and constantly kept adding in changes to make everything look more appealing. Apart from the tree, he had hung socks across the bricked part of their wall and numerous other wall decorations, Christmas figurines, and lights.

There was an empty spot by their window that bothered him, though. So he took it upon himself to fill it with a light stick that, when turned on, projected circular lights of various colors on the wall.

"Wow," Ivan remarked as he looked around the room. "Maybe you should consider being a designer as your next day job," he teased.

"If there's ever a mission that involves me needing to go undercover as that, I'd be interested," James replied.

"I mean, I knew you were good, but I didn't know you were this good," Lauren revealed. "Is there any other talent you've been hiding from us?"

"The real question is what aren't you good at?" Ivan complimented as he handed James a mug with hot chocolate.

"You guys are too much," James remarked as he rolled his eyes.

"No, but really, you got good grades when you went to school, best assassin in our group, good artistic eye. And that's on top of having a good personality and not looking that bad, I mean, what else is missing?" Ivan teased. "Though when it comes to looks, you're still second to me."

Lauren rolled her eyes. "Arrogance is probably the biggest thing you have over James, Ivan."

Ivan gasped and placed his hand over his heart. "Come on, Lau. Can we hold a ceasefire it's Christmas Eve. Besides, it's not that I'm too arrogant, he's just too humble."

James couldn't help but let out a chuckle. "We all have our strengths and weaknesses."

"I just didn't realize you were this good," Ivan said with a nudge.

"It's more like I was just really inspired," he replied as a smile spread across his face.

He had been helping Nadine, Tita Maya, and the other workers in the Lustre household with decorating as well when he came by. His role involved simply carrying out their plans as Nadine ended up solely taking charge of arranging everything.

While her ideas were different than how he would've envisioned things to look (he likes to think his aesthetic was simpler and he had a tendency to lean towards neutral colors), he still took some inspiration as he decorated their own apartment. For sure, it was flashier than other years, but he still saw his vision and ideas embedded.

"Must be nice when your target gives you a week off of work," Ivan added as he winked at James and leaned his arm on his shoulder. "Gives you a lot of time to think."

Ron had changed his schedule and gave him 10 days off with pay, which shocked James. As Nadine was going to have more time off during the holidays, James didn't have much to do anyways as far as bringing her to places.

And as there was no reason to really be around, he hadn't seen her in maybe 3 days, which felt like a long time already given how much time they've spent together.

So much time has gone by already, hmm? I wonder how much time I have left, he thought to himself.

"Since you're not going to be pretending to be that rich brat's lovesick driver from straight out of an Asian drama, how about you accompany Kyle, Ivan, and me on a mission?" Lauren remarked, interrupting his sudden thoughts.