“Thank you,” said Avery, taking her seat in the dark wood chair, padded with green velvet, after Krampus pulled her chair out for her.

“Of course,” said Krampus, sitting across from his wife. “How’ve you enjoyed your cross-Atlantic excursion?”

“You know…when you said that you’d be taking me to Paris for Valentine’s Day, I imagined chocolates and the Eiffel Tower — not absinthe and the Bastille!” admitted Avery, sipping her Blue Hawaiian while looking into Krampus’ emerald green eyes. The pair had been sitting at the bar while waiting to be seated and had carried over their drinks. Well, Avery had carried hers over. Krampus’ beverage had to be made at the table, as he’d already finished off two cups of the stuff.

“So I take it you don’t want to enjoy luxury macarons with me tomorrow?” asked Krampus, placing a lump of sugar on a silver spoon on top of a chalice made of glass, with a pewter base, filled with an eerie green liquor. Krampus poured some ice water over the sugar, which melted through the runcible spoon, into the glass.

“Of course I do!” said Avery. “Why didn’t we do that today?”

“Because my reservations for our picnic in the catacombs are for tomorrow afternoon,” said Krampus, wickedly sipping at his absinthe — his third tipple of the day.

“You know, I’d thought all that absinthe would make you sweet as sugar — but it just makes your kisses taste like licorice,” said Avery.

“Then I’m going to have to put my mouth in other places, now, won’t I?” teased Krampus, raising a brow.

“If you talk like that in public, I’m gonna have to be the one to crack your nuts,” said Avery, rolling her eyes. “I swear — sometimes, I think you must be part incubus.”

The waiter came by with a menu, stopping Krampus from making Avery’s panties melt straight to the floor — from dirty talk or from demoncraft magic. Krampus and Avery put in their orders and chatted about their time in Paris. Although Avery had teased Krampus about ‘his Paris,’ she had to admit — she’d had a fun time. She’d been to Europe before, but, she’d never gone on a ‘demon-led’ tour before. Paris was just the first leg of their honeymoon. They still had many countries left to visit during their four-month honeymoon.

It was a long honeymoon, but, after over a decade of denying their interest in each other, they had earned it. Avery and Krampus finished their meals and chatted over their drinks. The waiter came by to check on their table.

“Would you care to see a dessert menu?” asked the waiter.

“Merci, mais non, merci,” insisted Krampus. “I…called ahead, so, we won’t be needing this — if you know what I mean.”

“Ah, mais oui!” said the waiter with a grin.

“What was that?” asked Avery, crossing her arms. “You don’t want to treat your wife to some frikkin’ dessert? Who pays for an expensive Paris vacation but skimps on the sweets?”

“Darlin’, the only thing skimpy about this vacation will be the lingerie — haute couture, of course,” promised Krampus. Krampus pulled a box out of his pocket, put it on the table, and popped it open.

Inside, there was something sparkly, on a pewter chain. Avery fingered the necklace. The necklace had a pendant hanging from it.

“Krampus…you got me a necklace?” asked Avery.

“I made it for you,” said Krampus. “You think I’d spend money on jewelry?”

“It’s beautiful,” said Avery, picking the box up and looking it over. The pendant charm was round and had nine diamonds on it – big ones.

“Look more closely,” said Krampus. “Look into the diamonds.”

Avery peered into the diamonds. At first, all she could see was glittering rainbows. Then, she realized, she saw movement in the diamonds. Inside each diamond, there was a tiny video of her dancing, from Krampus’ perspective.

“Please tell me you didn’t clone me and put miniature versions of me in the necklace,” said Avery.

“Of course not,” said Krampus. “I projected some of my most treasured memories of us, together, onto those diamonds…memories of us dancing.”

“Why dancing?” asked Avery.

“Well…you remember that old song, right?” asked Krampus. “The Twelve Days of Christmas?”

“Of course I do,” said Avery.

“What happens on the ninth day of Christmas?” asked Krampus, standing up.

“On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…nine ladies dancing,” said Avery with a smile, pushing her hair forward so Krampus could clasp the necklace ‘round her neck. “But why is the ninth day so important?”

“December ninth was the day we had our first date – and our first kiss,” said Krampus, going back to his seat. “Consider this a very early anniversary gift.”

“I love it, Krampus,” said Avery. “Thank you.”

The waiter came out, holding an ornate silver tray with a large silver bell-like top. He put the dish down in the center of the table.

“Hopefully, this meets your specifications,” said the waiter. “We only work with the best chocolatier in Paris. They say she fait des miracles avec du chocolat — makes miracles, works magic with chocolate.”

The waiter took the lid off of the tray, revealing an ornate structure. It was made of interwoven lines of chocolate that looked like they’d been laid by a machine, except there were small imperfections, only detectable to those with an eye for food, like Avery, that proved that the structure was made from scratch, without the use of molds. Avery wouldn’t have been surprised if some parchment paper templates had been used to create all the flat and slightly curved bits that lined up together perfectly.

In front of Avery was a piece of chocolate that looked like an exact replica of the Eiffel Tower. There were tiny cups of a dozen various dipping sauces that the couple could use to give the dark chocolate different tastes, from orange marmalade and raspberry puree to peppermint white chocolate sauce and a milk chocolate ganache.

The structure was even the same color brown as the Eiffel Tower at sunset.

“Krampus…” started Avery.

“I told you — I listen,”‘ said Krampus, raising a brow. “I heard you go on about chocolate and the tower, put two-and-two-together.”

“I didn’t even know I wanted this,” admitted Avery. “I’m always surprised when you know what I want, even before I do. Demoncraft?”

“True love,”‘ said Krampus with a smirk. “How many years have you and I played matchmaker for? By now, you should know all about true love.”

Krampus’ phone vibrated in his pocket, interrupting his monologue.

“Let me guess — work?” asked Avery. Her phone started to vibrate too.

“You start in on the dessert, and I’ll start in on the boss man,” said Krampus with a wink.

Krampus discreetly left the basement restaurant to answer the call.

“You’ve called the Christmas demon hotline — press six-six-six if you want to be directed to the birching department,” said Krampus. “If you’d prefer to be directed to the bitching department, please hang the fuck up.”

“Krampus, cut the shit,”‘ ordered Santana. “I need to talk to you about this…this…this thing on my lower back!”

“How long have I known you?” asked Krampus. “You should know by now — you should never make a deal with a devil, Santana. It might just come back to bite you…on the ass. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to go back to enjoying my honeymoon — and if you call Avery or me one more time, I won’t tell you the secret to getting that thing off your jolly posterior. Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas?” roared Santana. “It’s not even close to Christmas! It’s fuckin’ Valentine’s Day!”

“Oh, I know — but I have a feeling this Christmas is about to be the merriest one we’ve had in a long time,” said Krampus, before hanging up his phone. Krampus made his way back into the restaurant.

“What was all that about?” asked Avery.

“I thought we weren’t going to talk about work during our honeymoon,” chastised Krampus.

“Come on,” said Avery. ‘“Don’t think of it as work — think of it as drama.”

“Well, let me just put it this way. This Christmas, we might have our hardest matchmaking job ever,” said Krampus. “By the way…you wouldn’t mind if we swung by my cousin Perchta’s place, right?”