Title – Holiday Cheer Part 1 of 2
Author – JustSkipit - Debra
Note – I meant to get this cute story up by Christmas but missed my mark. Hope it’s cute anyway.
Rating – Part 1 - PG
Disclaimer – Guess what… I don’t own W&T, Buffy or the rest of the BtVS crew. Any similarity to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental and fortunate.
Thoughts in italics“Ok,” Buffy began listing, “I got mom this gorgeous scarf as well as a new jacket; Dawn a bunch of compact discs from boy bands; and you… I’m not telling” The blonde felt somewhat disappointed when her taunts didn’t even get a rise from her best friend.
“What about Giles?” Willow inquired.
“That’s a hard one,” Buffy answered, “Ooo, smoothies!” She turned quickly and got in the line at the mall’s only smoothie shop.
“So what did you decide on?” Willow persevered. She knew quite well that without her keeping the blonde on task, they would never finish their holiday shopping, particularly once Buffy had set her sights on food.
“Well,” Buffy considered, “either dusty books, mid-life crisis man-of-leisure magazines, or a gift card for the emergency room.”
Willow took her smoothie and led the two girls into the hall. “I’m sure he’d make good use of any of them.” She looked at her watch and let Buffy know the time. Buffy stopped as she saw a brightly colored blouse in a shop window and Willow let out an exasperated sigh. “We have to meet Dawn in like five minutes.”
“Grrr,” Buffy answered, frustrated that the find would go to someone else. Both girls started walking back the way they came, into the thicker and thicker crowd. “What about you?”
“Oh,” Willow responded casually, “I finished my shopping and wrapping last week.”
“Really?” Buffy answered in disbelief, “what did you get your parents?”
“Cell phones,” Willow answered smugly.
“Subtle, Willow,” the Slayer complimented, “very subtle.”
“I thought so,” Willow told her friend, “that way they have absolutely no excuse for…”
“For what?” Buffy said as she realized that Willow had come to a complete stop on the wrong side of the ice skating rink. “We’re supposed to meet Dawn by the foam hat stand side of the rink, Willow,” she reminded the redhead.
“Uh huh,” Willow answered in a daze.
Buffy looked around the mall trying to estimate what was causing Willow’s distraction. “What’s up, Will?” she asked.
“She’s beautiful,” the redhead muttered.
“Who? The figure-eight girl?” Buffy asked pointing at the pink-clad sparkly skater.
“Hey,” Dawn called as she stopped walking in front of the two other girls. “I thought we were supposed to meet on the other side.”
“We were,” Buffy confirmed, “Willow’s having some sort of episode.”
‘It’s not an episode,” Willow answered absently.
“What?” Dawn asked.
“That girl is just wonderful,” Willow again attempted to explain.
“What girl?” Dawn asked her sister.
“I have no idea,” Buffy answered.
“Right there,” Willow nodded her head in what she hoped was a subtle enough gesture to not embarrass herself.
The sisters looked in the direction of Willow’s surprisingly unskilled head bob. “Those are little kids, Willow,” Buffy said in complete bewilderment.
“Not the kids,” Willow whispered, “and don’t look over there. In front of the kids.”
“Uh Willow,” Dawn said jokingly, “that’s not a beautiful girl: that’s Santa Claus.” She started laughing.
“Yeah, Will,” Buffy agreed, “I know he didn’t come to your house much but let me explain: on Christmas night he comes down the chimney with presents for all the good girls and boys.”
“And you leave him cookies and milk and he drives a sled led by eight reindeer,” Dawn added as she continued laughing, joined of course by her sister.
“Plus Rudolph,” Buffy added, “don’t forget the most famous reindeer of all.” She started singing her line and she and Dawn launched into an impromptu rendition of Rudolph’s famous song.
“Look at those eyes,” Willow argued, “have you ever seen that color blue?”
“Willow,” Dawn argued, “the Santas are always just some drunk fat guy who has nothing better to do than sit in the mall getting paid to have kids sit on his lap and pull on his beard.”
“Creepy,” Buffy agreed.
“I’m sure they usually are,” Willow agreed, “but that one is not a drunk fat guy. Look at her face and her hands. Every time she picks up a kid to put him on her lap you can see how gentle she is about it.”
Dawn and Buffy watched for a few minutes. “Ok,” they agreed, “that could be girl.”
“It is a girl,” Willow reiterated, “and she’s lovely.”
“Why don’t you go say hi to her,” Buffy suggested.
“Oh right,” Willow scoffed, “just walk up and say, ‘hi beautiful Santa-girl. Want to go out for coffee, food, kisses and gay-love?’”
“I’d leave out the kisses and gay-love part,” Dawn advised.
“You didn’t hear anything about kisses or gay-love,” Buffy pointedly told her sister who rolled her eyes. As the Slayer spoke she began slowly winding her way alongside the long line of kids waiting to have their pictures taken and arrived on the side of the makeshift workshop. She knew that if she began walking, Willow and Dawn would follow and now the three girls stood 15-20 feet from the quite occupied object of Willow’s affection.
They quickly assessed the scene in front of them. Santa’s chair was centered in the workshop area. On each side he was flanked by an elf who directed the line and told each kid when his time was up. Santa’s workshop was behind and to the right of the setup and fake snow, obviously made of white stuffing littered the ground all around the area. The entire scene was marked off by a portable but very noticeable fence.
“I don’t see how you’re going to get close enough to ask her for kisses and gay-love,” Dawn concluded.
“You’re spending too much time with Anya,” Buffy admonished her sister. She looked at her watch before announcing: “I need to go pick up Xander’s video game and we need to leave in about 45 minutes.” She didn’t even ask Willow but turned to Dawn, “Do you want to go with me?”
“No way,” the teenager scoffed, “I’m going to see if Willow’s fixation turns to obsession and makes her burst into flames.”
“Great,” Willow muttered, “I see a girl I really like and it’s a point of amusement to my best friends.”
“Amusement,” Dawn said, “I’m thinking it should be a point of pride. You’re supposed to be this big bad lesbian but the only lesbian thing about you is your reading habits and your self-described title.”
“I’m a lesbian,” Willow argued with a insulted look. The three or four people who looked over at her statement made her blush but she repeated herself, this time in a whisper to the girl across to her: “I
am a lesbian.”
“Prove it,” Dawn argued with typical 14 year-old logic.
“Ok,” Willow agreed, “I’ll just wait until she takes a break and go talk to her. Ok?”
“Nope,” Dawn stated confidently, “mom’s going to be here soon and she may not have a break for hours.”
“Great,” Willow said feeling completely disheartened. “So there’s no way to meet her?”
“I didn’t say that,” Dawn smirked.
“What?”
“You could get your picture taken with Santa,” Dawn suggested with a barely suppressed giggle.
“Dawn Summers,” Willow began lecturing, “are you crazy? First off I’m Jewish and second I’m 18 years old.”
“So,” Dawn again answered with a childish look of triumph. When Willow merely glared at the girl Dawn shrugged her shoulders, “So I guess you don’t really want to meet her.”
“You’re making me look like an idiot,” Willow said with a growl as she walked back to the end of the line of kids waiting to see the Christmas icon. She saw Dawn of course watching her with a victorious look on her face.
Willow stood in line with two competing feelings. First, she felt like a complete idiot. She was by far the oldest and tallest person waiting to see Santa. A few parents bringing their kids to see him had tapped her on the shoulder and said that she should get out of line so the kids would get their turn. She ignored them but noticed a series of murmurs moving through the line. It was hard to control the blush of embarrassment that covered her face and became more and more pronounced as she moved forward in line. More importantly she felt completely entranced by the beauty behind the beard and red nose. She could see the care that the girl, whoever she was, put into each visit with each child, as if her reception would actually get the child the presents they sought.
Since she timed that each visit took an average of 2 minutes and 15 seconds, she would reach the front of the line in just over 13 minutes. She tried to think of something wonderful to say. Something pithy and charming and intelligent and socially responsible. Something… really great.
“Who’s next on Santa’s lap?” the red-clad character asked in a deep-throated voice.
“Oh,” Willow jumped from her reverie, “I guess that’s me.” She took a step forward and started to speak. “I’m Willow and I um.. wondered if maybe you um get a break or you know… smoothies are good.”
The redhead saw the unmistakable hint of a smile under Santa’s beard. “Santa doesn’t have time for breaks. Too much to do before Christmas.”
“Hey, are you going to get your picture taken or what?” the elf on Santa’s left asked.
“Um…,” Willow blushed again, “I didn’t really… I mean I was just…”
“Come here,” Santa beckoned the redhead. In moments Willow found herself gently easing onto the object of her affection’s lap.
“I hope I’m not too heavy for you,” she whispered as she took the opportunity to look more intently at the beautiful blue eyes she had seen across the mall.
Again Santa smiled as he asked in a deep voice, “Tell Santa what you want for Christmas.”
“Well,” Willow started nervously, “I never get anything because … well Jewish … but I wanted to meet you.”
“Of course you did,” Santa agreed, “many people wonder if Santa is really real.” Willow and the beautiful woman both smiled at her staying in character. “Tell me, Willow,” Santa asked, “have you been naughty or nice this year?”
Willow could see the laughter and mirth in the woman’s eyes as she asked the loaded question. “Definitely nice,” she answered with a squeak in her voice, “I’m very seldom naughty.”
“That’s too bad,” Santa whispered sexily. Willow felt her heart begin to beat even faster as she heard the overt flirtation. She knew that her waking and sleeping moments would be filled with that sound for a long time.
“You have the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen,” Willow said stupidly just as the flash bulb went off.
“Ok, there’s a long line so time’s up,” the elf announced.
Willow’s head snapped around to look at the smirking character in his costume. Seeing the look of determination in his eyes and the angry looks on the first 5 or so parents in the incredibly long line she slid off Santa’s lap. “But coffee?” she said quickly and almost pleadingly. Her spirits sank as the elf handed her an incredibly bad photo of herself sitting on Santa’s lap with her eyes shut and her mouth open. Before she could say anything else, he had ushered the next child onto Santa’s lap and the red-clad figure was involved with the child’s long and complicated list. Willow slunk off dejectedly glancing back once to catch a glimpse of those blue eyes again as they surreptitiously watched her leaving the area.
“Well? What did she say? What’s her name? Did you get her number? Does she have a girlfriend? Or a boyfriend?” Dawn and Buffy flung their questions at the redhead at breakneck speed and on top of each other so that Willow could barely make out their words.
“I don’t think Santa has time for coffee,” the redhead answered. “Don’t we have to meet your mom about now?” she asked hoping to change the topic from her incredible failure.
“Sure,” Buffy agreed, well aware that her own record with love and loss was nothing to be proud of. The three girls shared the load of Buffy’s packages as the made their way quickly to the curb to wait for Joyce to pick them up as agreed.
No sooner had the three girls set down their shared load on the bench to wait than Dawn looked around wildly. “Shit!” she cursed, “I left my gloves by the rink.” She was already jogging toward the doors as she shouted, “Tell mom I’ll be two minutes.”
“Some things never change,” Buffy smirked as she looked at her best friend.
Willow smiled back, “Some days that is way too true.”
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Edited by: JustSkipIt at: 1/3/05 1:51 pm