Dark. Very dark.

"Can I open my eyes yet?"

"No!"

"Why not?"

"Because.. Then you'll be able to see."

"Which would be the point?"

"One minute, okay?"

Silence. More darkness.

"Alright. Now you can look."

I opened my eyes and blinked as they absorbed the light and I was temporarily blinded. Faith stood in front of me, a proud grin on her face. She offered me what appeared to be a shoebox, sloppily wrapped in Christmas paper.

"It's a Christmas present," I said.

"Duh?" was her response. "Open it."

"Shouldn't I wait until, well, Christmas?"

"Just open it!"

"Okay, okay.." I pulled back one taped corner very carefully.

She huffed and rolled her eyes. "I can't believe you're one of those people."

"What people?"

"The ones that can't just open a damn present, they have to peel back the tape so carefully, like it can be used again or something. Just open the present before I open it myself."

"Fine, fine!"

It *was* a shoebox. I held it at chest level and quirked a brow at Faith. "The boots I wanted?"

She rolled her eyes. "Open. The. Box."

I set the box down on a table and popped the cover off. Right on top was a small bag of Jolly Ranchers-watermelon ones, to be exact. I looked up and she was flashing me an evil grin. I smirked and continued pawing through the box. A scarf.

"Faith?"

"Hmm?"

"It's a beautiful scarf, but.. this is Sunnydale. I'll never get to wear it."

She shrugged. "Keep going."

I dug around a bit more. A pair of winter gloves. I quirked an eyebrow at her. Then I got to the bottom, and there it was. An envelope with..

"Plane tickets?" I tugged them out-four of them-and gasped. "Vermont? Are you kidding me?"

She's got that grin on her face, that confident, playful grin that made me fall in love with her in the first place. "Marvel at the irony. But don't get any ideas," she smirked, "I just want to go skiing."

I burst into laughter and threw my arms around her. "You're insane and I love you. Why four?"

"Well, it's a whole lesbian thing. Figured we'd drag Red and Witchy with us."

"You.. are a Goddess." I shook my head.

"Yeah, I know. Get packing, we leave tonight and hit the slopes tomorrow."

"I can't ski."

"You'll learn."

"Oh god."

~*~

"Look! It's snow! Real snow!" Willow squealed at the top of her lungs.

Faith immediately cupped her hands over her ears. "A little higher, Will, there's a few dogs in Canada that didn't *quite* hear that."

Tara smiled, her shy-I'm-trying-to-act-included smile, and Willow must have sensed it because without even looking, she slipped her arm over the blonde's shoulders. Definitely a twosome of cuteness.

I noticed Faith looking at them as well, and she turned to me and winked, sliding her arm around my waist. She leaned over and whispered into my ear. "We're as cute as they are. Cuter."

I smiled and laid my head on her shoulder. "It's all you.. you know?"

She smirked and kissed the top of my head. "Nah. I'm the butch, you're the cutie."

"Ex-cuse me? I though I was the butch."

"Um, no. I'm on top, therefore, I'm the butch."

I shook my head and tilted it upwards, meeting her lips with mine. We kissed gently and I nibbled on her pouting lower lip, turning my body so I was facing her. Her arms looped around my waist, pulling my hips against hers.

"Come on, we haven't even left the airport yet. At least wait until we get a room, you two." I rolled my eyes at my red-headed best friend, who crinkled her nose at me in response. "Hey, if I can't molest my girlfriend in public, you can't molest yours either. End of story."

"Who said you couldn't molest yours?" Faith asked with a smug smile. She pressed her hips against mine again, causing a shiver to run up and down my spine.

Apparently Willow didn't have an answer for that, and she and Tara shared a chaste kiss then began reading over the vacation booklets together, Tara's head resting on Willow's shoulder.

"You people disgust me!" came a man's voice from behind us.

Faith whirled around with a deadly glare. "Excuse me?" I touched her arm lightly, praying that she wasn't about to go into Slayer-mode.

"You should be ashamed of yourselves. Acting like that in public, around impressionable young kids." This time the speaker was a tall, thin, blonde, picture of Americana who had looped her arm through the first speaker's, a slightly older man with hair that was just turning to gray.

"Impressionable young kids? There's not a person under twenty in the whole place!" Wilow piped up, squeezing Tara's hand.

"Well the rest of us shouldn't have to be exposed to your social deviance and horrible lesbian rituals."

"Lesbian rituals?" Tara offered quietly, her face confused. "We weren't doing anything."

"You weren't doing anything? You and your kind, all you ever think about is yourselves-flaunting your sex lives in our faces all the time, sinning freely."

I practically dug my nails into Faith's flesh. I wanted to kill them both, but I knew if either one of us would actually try, it'd be her. Her eyes blazed angrily and her hands were clenched into fists.

Poor Tara. She looked like she was about to burst into tears. Willow glanced at her and narrowed her eyes at the offending couple. "You listen here. We weren't doing anything that heterosexual couples don't do out in public. We weren't hurting anyone, we would never hurt anyone, and frankly even if there were kids here there's nothing wrong with being gay-it's just the way some people are. And not for nothing, Mister, but before you start flinging stones at me, what kind of house do you live in, because my gaydar is going off like crazy right about now."

The couple looked horrified, Tara was stunned, Faith was confused, and I was bursting with pride. Willow leaned over and thumped the man on the shoulder. "Have a merry Christmas and may you find your true self in the new year. Come on, Tara." With that, my best friend, whom I had never been more proud of in my life, took her girlfriend's hand, kissed her quickly, and strode off towards the baggage claim.

Faith quirked a brow, and following Willow's example, took my hand, flipped them both the finger, and pulled me away from them.

~*~

Later that night, after we'd checked in and dropped our stuff off in our cabin, we sat in the dining hall, munching on appetizers of onion rings and mozerella sticks.

"Man, that was fucking great, Red. You were so butch back there!" Faith hooted, slapping Willow a high-five.

Willow blushed, taking Tara's hand and biting into a mozerella stick. "Don't fuck with my Tara," was all she offered.

"Willow!" I cried out. I'd never heard her use that word before. She shrugged.

"Com'mon B, chick's got a point. I was 'bout ready to beat that point into both of 'em, but luckily Wills beat me to it. Damn they were annoying."

"We can't let them ruin our vacation though!" I said, and they all agreed, and Faith changed the subject.

"Okay, so we go skiing tomorrow, and then the day after is Christmas so we-"

"Wake up at 5 o'clock and run down the stairs in our pajamas looking for all the coal Santa left us?" Tara interjected.

Faith smirked. "Something to that effect."

"Sounds like a plan."

~*~

"This is a very, very bad plan!" Willow squealed, peeking over the edge of the slope.

"Com'mon, Red! Just tilt forward.." Faith winced as Willow followed her instruction and toppled over, landing face-down in the snow. "Um.. that was good! You fell.. really good."

Willow stood up, her face competing with her hair for the brightest color red. "Okay. I'm done humiliating myself for the day. I think I'm going to join Tara inside for some hot cocoa and snuggling by the fire. You guys can have the snow."

Faith opened her mouth, then shut it as Willow started to walk off, forgetting about her ski's and tumbling over again. She yelled an obscenity and pried the ski's off, then stormed up to the ski-rental window pulling them behind her. I heard another obscenity as she was informed that there were no refunds, and winced as she tripped once again on her way back into the resort.

Faith glanced at me, a borderline predatory look in her eyes. Oh shit, I thought. I'm her only student now. "Um.. Faith.. I.."

She ignored me. "Point your ski's this way. Okay, now lean forward-not that far!"

I now knew Willow's humiliation. And coldness. Snow is a lot colder then it looks, especially when your face is buried in it. Faith grabbed me around my waist and pulled me up.

"Faith, I really-"

"Okay, point them forward again. Buffy.. Okay now lean forward. Good! Now put your ski poles here. And push off!"

The next thing I knew, I was flying. My ski's were gliding gracefully over the snow, the wind was beating against my face, and I was heading towards a tree.

I screamed and flung myself over, into Faith's path, so Faith halted and ended up on her butt in the snow.

"Hot cocoa?" I asked weakly, buried in snow.

"Hot cocoa," she agreed.

~*~

Much snuggling, a few cups of hot cocoa, and a whole lot of teasing the boys who worked there later, we were heading back to our cabin for Christmas eve.

Tara started a fire in the fireplace and Willow hung her skiing goggles, which she'd bought especially for this trip, over a branch of our little Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

I sat in Faith's lap, nuzzling my head underneath her chin. "What are your Christmas rituals?" I asked out of curiosity.

"Being Jewish," Willow offered. I rolled my eyes.

"Drunken fights," was Faith's contribution.

I looked at Tara, my last hope. She delivered. "Well, my mom used to read me The Night Before Christmas every Christmas Eve. Um.. until after she died, and then my brother and I used to fight and my father would smack us both and send me to the kitchen to cook dinner."

I sighed. "Maybe we should just go to bed, then."

"Good idea," came the unanimous response.

~*~

Dark. Very dark.

"Buffy?"

I grunted.

"Buffy?" Louder.

I groaned and tried to roll over, but someone's arms were wrapped around me. Someone who was also groaning.

I blinked sleepily. It was still dark. "Tara?" I mumbled. "Wha-what's wrong?"

"It's Christmas morning," Willow's voice said excitedly. "My first Christmas."

"Congratulations. Now fuck off, I'm tired," Faith responded into the pillow.

I yawned. "Is there a reason why you're waking us up when it's still dark?"

"Santa came last night," Tara said.

I was gonna have to get up, wasn't I? I surrendered and sat up as much as I could with Faith's arms locked tightly around my waist. "What on earth are you talking about?"

Tara and Willow smiled deviously. "Santa came last night," Tara repeated.

"Dammit!" Faith said. She sat up as well, a glare on her face. "Didn't your parents ever teach you to let sleeping Slayers lie? What's all this shit about Santa?"

"Ho! Ho! Ho!" came a deep voice from the livingroom.

"What in God's name-?" I stumbled out of bed and flew into the livingroom with Faith hot on my heels.

A man stood in the center of the room, by a huge Christmas tree that I knew wasn't there last night, brandishing a bag that was full of gifts. He was dressed in red and white, with bells lining his black boots. He had a white beard and glasses and.. my god..

"XANDER?" I cried out. Faith skidded into my back.

Santa pulled the beard down and grinned. "Surprise!" Xander said. "We didn't want to have Christmas without you guys."

"We?" Faith asked, incredulous.

"Merry Christmas!" came a cry as Giles, Anya, Cordelia, my mom, Dawn, and Riley came in.

My jaw dropped. "Riley?"

He smiled and shrugged. "I dealt. If I can't have you, I'm glad it's Faith that gets to." I hugged him. "Merry Christmas," he offered.

Dawn shoved a package into my arms. "I wanted to get you a howler monkey, cause I figured you missed your real family, but mom said I couldn't. So here."

"Nice to see you too," I said, rolling my eyes.

Xander flung down his sack as my mom came over and hugged me. Everyone hugged everyone else, except for Giles, who was standing in a corner wiping his glasses, and Tara, who was passing out mugs of cocoa. She set the tray down, and, as an afterthought, embraced Giles quickly.

Everyone was talking and laughing and hugging and handing out gifts. I looked at Faith and kissed her cheek. "Merry Christmas."

She smiled. "God bless us, every one."