Music played softly in the background as you stirred a bowl of cookie dough. Peeking around the room to make sure no one would catch you; you stuck your finger in the batter and ate some giggling. 'Christmas cookie dough just tastes different than regular cookie dough,' you thought as you continued to bake.
"__________, I'm back," Toris shouted from the door.
"In the kitchen," you shouted back. "How was your visit to Mr. Russia's house?"
Toris walked into the kitchen sporting a-.
"What is that?" you shouted dropping the spoon and running to your husband.
"Mr. Russia got angry that I wasn't going to spend Christmas with him," he said wincing as you gently touched his black eye.
Your heart broke, you remembered all the times you saw his scars and all the times he had come home from meetings with bruises, cuts, and or scratch marks. "Let me get you a cold cloth for you eye," you said running to get it for him.
"___________," Tois said on the brink of tears, "I'm so weak."
"No don't-."
Lithuania continued, "I can't even protect myself." He looked you in the eye. "Why do you still love me?"
You cupped his cheek gently and applied the cloth to his eye, "I don't need a reason I just do." You let him gently to the couch and sat with him ignoring the timer going off on the stove. Quietly you sang to him,
"O Come All Ye Faithful
Joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem.
Come and behold Him,
Born the King of Angels;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord."
By the time you had finished he was asleep. Smiling gently you got up and finished your cooking all the while thinking of ways to give Mr. Russia a piece of your mind once the holidays were over.