A Quiet Life in Mystic Falls

Chapter 22:Auction of Men

"Isn't that a little early?"

"No ," she said as she struggled through the door with the Christmas tree. "I even waited till after Thanksgiving."

"It's not December yet," Alaric said, looking at his niece amused. "Is this roughly the time the castle starts to decorate?"

She nodded.

"The weekend before December normally," she said giving the tree another tug.

"A lot of pines will fall off before –"

Azalea raised her eyebrow, gesturing to her wand, which was tucked in her boot, and his eyes widened.

"Good point, let me help."

The two put the tree in the sitting room. Once it was in Alaric helped her get all the other decorations from the car. Which seemed to have an undetectable extension charm. Once all the boxes inside he turned to her.

"Where do you want this?" he asked, holding up the silver and green tinsel.

"Uh, I was thinking of weaving it along the banister. What do you reckon?" she said biting her lip.

"Sounds good to me," he started at the top of the stairs and began to make his way down, she began to tie holly above the doors. She wanted to stay clear from the mistletoe, and planned to only put it on the walls near the fire.

The two worked all day, talking and dancing to Christmas music as they worked. It wasn't till the sun had disappeared and the house didn't have an inch untouched by Christmas decorations did the two head to bed.

"I said I'd help Jenna set up," Alaric said as he took a large bite of his toast and gulped down the rest of his coffee.

Azalea smirked at him.

"Is Jenna the winner of Batchelors number 4," she said smugly, spreading marmalade onto her own toast. Her uncle turned around and made himself busy with the dishwasher, the redhead laughed.

"I can help too if you like? It's why I moved here right, normal stuff."

"No, you rest. Between school, the vampire stuff and trying to recover from your school years. The latter is the one I am not seeing you do. You need to process and find peace with it. Put it behind you."

"Yeah, yeah, what do you think my painting is?"

"Well then go paint," he demanded, but he was still smiling. She gave him a salute before making her way back up the stairs. The door had barely closed when her phone began to ring.

"Hey," she said brightly seeing who the caller was.

"Hey can I come over. I was talking to Jenna." Elena's voice sounded nervous. Azalea wondered what the brunette wanted to talk about.

"Sure, Alaric was just leaving to help her." She left the untouched art room and made her way down to the kitchen, boiling some water.

"Great I'll be right over."

The two hung up and as the kettle finished boiling, she heard the knock on the door.

"Elena, come in,"

Elena was smirking as she walked in.

"Who else was it going to be?" she said shrugging off her coat.

"Yeah, cause in this town you yell come in, when you don't know who is at the door." She said sarcastically. Elena opened her mouth with a small frown before quietly laughing.

"Good point,"

"Plus, Damon really wants to be invited in," Azalea pointed out offering the girl the mug.