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by Chris Kenworthy (scoobyhq@fcmail.com)
Disclaimer: If it's been on TV, I didn't make it up!
"Good morning, beautiful." Those words started the process of rousing Willow out of a sound sleep. She... she was lying in bed, but when was it? Was this a special day?? And who the heck was talking to her??
After a few seconds, she felt comfortable enough to start getting some answers. "What time is it?" she managed to sleepily ask.
"Just a little after seven in the morning," the same charming guy's voice that had woken her up replied. Xander's voice.
Wait a second!! Why was Xander in her room, a little after seven in the morning? That wasn't a usual thing. Struggling up in bed, she croaked out worriedly, "Xander!! What are you doing here??" After a second, Willow decided to open her eyes, hoping that their information would be helpful too.
For a few seconds, her vision was bleary enough to be of no use whatsoever. And then focus and clarity started to come. Xander was sitting at the side of her bed, his every mannerism completely... decorous. He was wearing comfy-looking white jeans and a muted red t-shirt, which seemed somehow... out of character for him. And he was holding a box, wrapped in brightly printed colors and with several bows attached to it.
And with that, suddenly everything fell into place. "It's Christmas morning!" Willow whispered, feeling slightly foolish for not having remembered it earlier. She turned to take a closer look at Xander. "Santa claus, I presume??" she joked.
"Not quite," Xander said, a wide smile on his face. "Sorry for the, um, unexpected window entrance, but I couldn't wait to see my beautiful, incredile, amazing girlfriend on this holiday morning and give her her first present." He handed the box towards Willow.
"Uh, first?" Willow repeated, blinking her eyes and still trying to wake up. "Umm... is it possible to, without sounding greedy, ask you how many presents I'm getting??"
"Eight," he announced with a wide smile. "Like for the eight days of Hannukah, though I know I missed Hannukah because we weren't dating back then..."
"You didn't miss it," Willow corrected. "You gave me that sweet little card."
"Pfft," Xander pffted his sweet little card. "So you're getting the eight days of christmas."
"Only one a day?" Willow clarified, feeling a little disappointed. "Well, maybe I should save this one," and she tapped the box Xander had just offered, "to open at Buffy's place tonight."
"No, no, you've gotta open it now!" Xander urged her suddenly. "I, I... I suppose I can give you a second one for tonight?"
"Oh, no," Willow said, stricken. "I wasn't meaning to make you break the rules of your little game. It's the sweetest thing I've ever..."
"It wouldn't be breaking the rules, just re-interpreting them," Xander assured her. "We'll go by Jewish days - sunset to sunset. The second day of christmas hereby starts at twenty to six tonight."
"Uh, okay," Willow said, one of those cute smiles coming unbidden to her face. "I didn't know that you'd picked up so much about Judaism, Xander."
"Neither did I," he admitted. "Come on, open it!!" Once again, he pushed the box into Willow's hands, impatiently. "Oh, read the card first."
Willow did, finding and removing the small Christmas label card attached to the box. "From, your adoring boyfriend, Xander Harris. To, the prettiest girl in all the world, Willow Rosenberg. I know that you've grown out of these, but I asked Buffy, and she told me that you'd still like this one. So, if you don't, her fault!" Willow giggled at that.
"What have I grown out of?" she wondered. Turning to the box itself, she started attacking the vulnerable seams, ripping tape out efficiently and quickly yet not without a certain amount of neatness. With the wrapping paper disposed of, the box turned out to a toy package. A doll package, marked... "A 1985 beach bash barbie?? You found another one!?!" She looked more closely at the package. "A collector's quality in mint condition???"
Xander shrugged. "I know how much it upset you when I lost the last one." That was an understatement. When they were five, Willow had been pretend-dating Xander, and he had liked her enough not to disabuse her of the idea, no matter what his friends were saying about cooties. When Xander had stolen Willow's barbie, though, on a camping trip, (this particular model of doll,) and thrown it down a canyon, never to be recovered, Willow had been sufficiently upset to call the whole thing off.
And considering all of that, to Willow it somehow seemed that with this simple, almost foolish gift, the last dark chapter in her and Xander's lifelong relationship, (or was it the first dark chapter?) had been put to rest. She realized with only a little surprise that tears were streaming down her cheeks, and Xander was looking at her strangely. "Oh, I love it, Xander," she said between muted sobs. "And I love you too, Xander." Putting the box down to one side, Willow launched herself at Xander to wrap her arms around her in an affectionate embrace.
(At Buffy's place.)
"Well, that was an incredible christmas dinner, Joyce," Celia said with a smile. "Can I get some of your recipes sometime?"
"I don't know that I really have any recipes, Celia," Joyce Summers replied with a self-deprecating smile. "I just cook the way my mother taught me to."
"Then you'll show me some of your tricks, okay?" Celia pressed, and Mrs Summers gracefully gave in.
"Since it looks like we're done in here," Buffy said, looking around at the friends, family, (well, only her mom really qualified as family,) and acquaintances gathered around the Summers dining room table, most of whom had only just stopped reaching for extra helpings. Xander, Willow, Giles, Mom, Cole, Oz, Leslie, Faith, Celia, and Buffy herself. Quite a lot of extra plates to fill, Buffy reflected. She was glad that Mom had agreed to invite them all over for Christmas dinner - a lot of them wouldn't be getting a traditional family celebration at their own homes. Besides, it felt right being with all of these people on Christmas. In a sense, they were all her extended family. Buffy had to smile at the thought.
"Uhhh... since we're all done in here, then what, B?" Faith asked with a wink and just a little bit of irrepressible sass. Oh, that was right, Buffy had started to say something, and trailed off half way through, hadn't she?
"Umm... why don't we adjourn to the living room for beverages and presents?" Buffy managed to mutter out loud, blushing. "There's nog, hot cider, and christmas punch."
"Hot cider? On a warm California night like this one?" Leslie asked. "I'll have some of the punch, thanks."
In ones and twos, everybody drifted over into the living room, where with a bit of creativity, seats were found for everybody, and those christmas presents that had been saved for tonight started to get opened.
Willow presented Giles with a copy of "Hume's Paranormal Encyclopedia" that she had arranged to intercept from his occult reference connection in England, knowing that he would treasure it the more for having come from a friend. (Of course, she had almost died of mortification upon hearing that Gwendolyn Post had chewed Giles out for not having it, knowing that he would have had it by now if she hadn't intervened. The poor English guy had really gone to bat for Willow, insisting that he couldn't find a copy of a book he had several of, since Willow had already paid for her gift for Giles, and the whole endeavour would be pretty pointless if Giles just bought another copy.)
Giles took a little while to get the whole story straight after seeing the title of the tome, but he laughed away Willow's embarassed apology, saying that he would never have wanted it any other way, had he known.
Cole had found a pink cashmere v-neck sweater for Buffy that she thought was, in her own worlds, "just perfectly adorable - like you, Cole." Oz had seen a Blade sendup comic book that he thought Xander would get a hoot out of - 'revenge of the cheerleader vampire hunters.' Xander reciprocated with a little book - 'YOU CAN - turn yourself from a 3-chorder into a six-chord guitar player in just two easy weeks!!'
Suddenly, just as Giles was getting out his present for Celia, the doorbell rang. "Who could that be?" Xander asked as Buffy was already running hopefully to the door. Sure enough, Cordelia was standing out there on the porch, with an unusually vulnerable interpretation of her usual scowl.
"You meant it, didn't you?" the may queen asked cryptically.
"Of course," Buffy said, not sure whether Cordelia was referring to the invitation, to Buffy's declaration of friendship, or her apologies for the whole Cole situation, but Buffy's answer was truthfully the same in any event. "I'm so glad you came."
"Well, what the hell." Cordy shrugged as she stepped inside. "Got nothing much else to do tonight." She hefted a full plastic bag. "Besides, so many of you actually sent me presents, I thought I should open them in front of you. That way, if they suck, I can mock you about them immediately."
"Always looking for the silver lining," Oz commented from the living room. "That's our Cordy. Come on, pull up some couch."
"I hope you don't mind that I invited Cordy," Buffy said, glancing in turn at Xander, Willow, and Cole. If you mind, I'll have to kill you, she thought to herself, but managed to put that sentiment away. The situations were ugly all over, but Buffy really hoped that nothing came in the way of her attempted reconciliation with Cordelia.
"No, hey," Cole said with what appeared to be a sincere smile. "Hey, Cordy. Nice to see you again."
"Merry christmas," Xander offered, and Willow waved a hello.
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