Buffy and friends had gathered into her house to have a
small Christmas party until going home to spend a good, old-
fashioned family Christmas, or in Willow's case, Hanukkah.
Buffy had decorated the tree earlier that morning, and they
had watched the Charlie Brown Christmas special. Even
Giles had laughed to Xander's rendition of the Snoopy
dance. Willow and Buffy were still a bit uncomfortable over
Giles kissing him lightly afterwards, but they were getting
used to seeing those two together. Since they were happy, the
girls had no reason not to be too.

     The other one of 'they' was at the moment jumping up and
down like a puppy dog in the middle of the living room floor.
Buffy almost felt like throwing him a bone.

"Can we pleeeeze open the presents now? I'm dying of
excitement and I don't get to open any other presents until
Christmas morning and besides, I want to know who my
secret Santa is!" The Scooby Gang had decided to play
Secret Santa a lá 'Friends' this year.

"Okay," Buffy giggled.

"Yessss!" Xander had another round of Snoopy dance
around the tree, almost knocking it down. Willow and Buffy
giggled against each others' shoulders, and Giles laughed
openly at his silly sweetie.

     Xander tripped on his feet, landing neatly on the couch
and making it creak very suspiciously.

"I'll start," Willow said, pulling a small box underneath the
table. "Xander, it's for you."

"Wohoo!" The boy tore the wrappers impatiently aside like a
little child, opening the box. Inside was a neatly folded piece
of silky fabric.

"Danger Mouse boxer shorts! Willow, you're my girl!"
Xander reached out to give a light peck on the redhead's
cheek.

"Danger Mouse?"

"Oh, it's just an old childhood thing. Nothing worth sharing,
anyway," Xander said hastily, but there was no stopping
Willow any more.

"Xander was a huge superhero ho when he was younger, say,
up until his fifteenth birthday. Danger Mouse was his
biggest idol. He used to run around wearing his rubber boots
and a woolly blanket around his neck, even in summers. I
always - Willow rolled her eyes - had to be the damsel in
distress. But usually when he was rescuing me, he got into
more trouble himself."

"And all this happened up until he was fifteen?" Buffy tried
to hold the laughter. Xander's face was rapidly turning into a
pretty shade of crimson.

"Aha. There was this one time when he..."

"Aaaa... more presents! Giles, this is for you." Xander
interrupted quickly. Buffy mouthed 'tell me later' to Willow.

Giles opened the red wrapper, careful not to rip it.

"Giles, we won't be young forever! I wanna know what you
think of it." The Watcher pulled out a box and opened it,
revealing a beautifully crafted crystal prism.

"It's s'posed to bring good fortune," Xander added shyly.

"It's... beautiful." Giles swallowed. Unseen by the girls, he
mouthed 'I love you' to the boy and lifted a long, wrapped
box from behind the couch.

"Buffy, merry Christmas." The girl unwrapped the gift with
an enthusiastic gleam in her eyes.

"A... stake. Gee... great. It'll come in handy."

"Look more carefully."

The Slayer turned the stake around in her hands. "It has my
name carved on it!" she smiled, stroking the letters gently.

Giles grinned bashfully. "It's oak."

"Thanks. It's really pretty. Wills, for you," she said, tossing
the packet to the girl.

"I got a fish! A big, pretty, soft fish!"

"I know it's not a replacement for real ones, but at least..."
she didn't finish the sentence. The memory of Angelus was
still too fresh.

     Willow snuggled her cheek against the yellow toy.
"Thanks, Buffy, I love you."

"Love you too," the Slayer smiled.

**********

While the Slayer was celebrating Christmas with her troops,
her old archenemy was miserable as hell. For a demonic
creature that was highly appropriate, though, but knowing
that didn't make him feel any better. His Dru was gone, his
Angelus had his stupid soul back and all the game stayed
inside this time of year, so he couldn't go hunting either.

Oh well. If his Christmas was going to be miserable, the least
he could do was to return the favour to someone else. He
grabbed a full bottle of Scotch he had been saving for a
special occasion. This qualified as one as much as any other
moment. He took a swig and went outside in the snow.

By the time he realised he was quite close to the Slayer's
house, he had very little of the Scotch left. Looking back his
trails, he noted that he was still walking straight, and therefore
not drunk. Although he did find it a tad bizarre that the
landscape was winding.

He emptied the bottle and threw it away, breaking a lamp.
The fact that he had aimed at a car - or possibly both of them
- on the opposite side of the road, didn't seem to bother the
vampire at all. He did a small victory dance, barely ducking a
tree branch, and cleared his throat.

"Shtake the vamps with boughs of holly, falala la la
laaaaaaa..." Spike sang very loudly and very out of key.
"Christmas isn't all that jolly, falala la la laaaaaaa..."

     A flock of rubber ducks strolled happily past him. He
decided to join, wiggling his ass as he walked after the yellow
creatures heading to the Slayer's house. <What the heck,>
Spike thought. <I outh...ough... should ash well pay her a
visith.> He walked to the door, leaving the ducks and
trampling on a few flower beds on his way, and leaned on the
doorbell.

Buffy opened the door. "Spike! What are you doing here?"

"Sheleb- hic -rating Chrishtmash," the vampire managed
before collapsing.

"What are we going to do with him?" Willow yelped.

"Well, we can't leave him here on any account. Xander, you
take his legs."

"Are we going to take him in?"

"Giles is right. We can't leave him here to die - to freeze -
to... well, it's snowing and he'd be blocking the door and all!"

Grimacing, Xander took Spike's legs and Giles his arms,
lifting him up. But as Giles took a step backwards, the
vampire's head stopped at the doorway with an audible
'thonngg'.

"What now?"

"Oh faboo. He hasn't been invited in." Buffy looked at the
limp form suspiciously. "Well, um, I invite you in," he said to
the unconscious body. "This is the dumbest thing I've *ever*
done."

The men took him in without further obstacles and lowered
him carefully on the floor.

"So. Should we do something to him?"

"Naah. Just leave him there, let him sober up in peace."
Buffy looked outside. "It's snowing pretty badly. You can't
go out there in the dark. I'll just make a bed in the spare
bedroom for you," she said, looking at Giles, "and... um,
Xander. Willow, you can sleep in my room."

*************
Next morning

Xander stretched enjoyably. Surprisingly enough, he was the
first one to wake up, and it was still dark outside. Even his
bunkmate was sleeping. He ran his hand lightly across the
lightly snoring man's hair. <I could get used to this.>

He got carefully up, avoiding to wake Giles, and sneaked
downstairs into the living room. He noticed a tuft of tousled,
blonde hair which shouldn't have been there, but remembered
that they had had a late night visitor.

He squinted, not sure of his morning vision, but after closer
inspection realised that he did see what he thought he was
seeing.

"What on Earth are you doing to the furniture?"

"Huh?" Spike woke up at the boy's voice, in a very closely
touchy-feely relationship with the bean bag chair.

"If I were you, I'd let go of Mr. Gordo before Buffy wakes
up." As Spike was regaining his consciousness, he noticed
that he had snuggled his cheek against a stuffed toy pig. And
that he had very possibly drooled on it a bit.

Spike rose carefully up, peeling the sticky animal off his
cheek. "Please take this ping pong-playing brontosaur out of
my head," he groaned.

"I thought that vampires couldn't get a hangover."

"So did I."

"Coffee? Or does it work on your kind?"

"Dunno, never tried. Though I'm quite willing to test it now."

"C'mon." Xander helped him up, and practically dragged him
to the kitchen. He seated the vampire on a chair, propping
him approximately up and started making coffee. He took
out two cups, and after looking at the vampire again, put a
straw in his cup.

     Xander shoved the hot liquid in front of Spike and helped
the straw between his lips. "Drink."

Spike sipped and frowned at the boy. "Xander?"

"Yep, that's me."

"Good. I love you," the vampire blurted out, his eyes half
open.

" 'Love me', as in 'You're the greatest for getting me coffee'
type?" Xander grinned nervously.

"I love you," Spike continued his ramble, ignoring the boy. "I
love the Slayer, too. And the witch and the Watcher. And Dru
and Angelus, until they left me. I love you all, but most of all
I love you." The vampire, still in his drunken haze, grabbed
the boy's neck and pulled him closer, pressing a kiss on his
forehead and almost dipping his nose into the coffee. "Say
you love me too," he mumbled against the dark hair.

"Now Spike, be a good vampy and let me go. Spike?!"

"Not until you say you love me."

"Okay, okay, I love you and all, please let me go!" His face
was gathering steam from the coffee and the feeling was
overall very uncomfortable.

Spike let his grip go. "I knew it. I knew it all the time. Never
alone..." He looked like he was about to burst in tears any
minute, and Xander panicked.

"There, there. Now, be a nice boy... um, demon and drink
your coffee before the sun rises."

     Spike fumbled the straw back in his mouth and sucked
with expertise, draining the cup in minutes. As Xander
poured him another, he couldn't help but wondering that if he
*ever* repeated the past events to anyone, to whom it would
be most embarrassing...
 

*************