Rizzoli & Isles – I certainly don't own them. I give a lot of credit to the people that do and thank them for letting me mess about with them for a bit.

The story belongs to my addled little brain and are copyrighted as such.

Written as a holiday gift to all my readers who support me with all my various stories.

Sweet, fun, Christmas fluff warning...

Maura pulled open her back door and the frigid December morning rushed through her red sweater. She barely had time to step aside as pink cheeked Jane Rizzoli rushed in, arms overflowing with bags and what appeared to be a bright orange yardstick.

"Ahhh Thank God, let me in. Freakin' cold, wicked, freakin' cold. What is it with the weather this year?" Jane looked Maura up and down as she brushed by. "Well you look festive. Don't tell me you went and changed when I called?"

"No, I was feeling a bit of holiday spirit this morning. Please give me those bags so you can take off your coat." Maura looked at the snow over Jane's curls and shoulders that was rapidly melting in fat wet droplets, falling to her floor. "And leave it on the rack so the snow can melt off over the mat." She looked down at the salt and snow encrusted boots on Jane's feet. "Those too and leave them on the boot tray."

"You have a boot tray?" Jane shifted her arms, allowing Maura to slide the bags off her arms and noticed the new boot tray and coat rack near the back door. "Smart. The way we're in and out all the time, this will save your hardwood. I still think I should have paid to have the refinishing done this summer."

"And again, I'm telling you that is sweet but no thank you." The yardstick slipped from Jane's arm and clattered to the floor at their feet. Perplexed, Maura looked from the bags to the bright orange stick on the ground and then back up to Jane's face suspiciously. "I knew when you called and asked if I felt like doing something I should have asked for clarification. After our little misadventure in Great Brook Park, I should know that you acting evasive is never a good thing."

"That was last year and you said you had fun!" Jane pulled the Velcro on her winter boots free and carefully started to pull them free watching Maura's feet as she wandered over to the island to put down the bags.

"No I said it was an interesting experience." Maura made her way back to Jane, making sure both boots were on the tray. Curious she reached down to grab the yardstick off her floor. "There is a distinct difference."

"You had a good time." Jane placed her boots on the copper tray and made a quick grab for the yardstick only to feel it slide through her fingertips. "You were laughing."

"I always have a good time with you. You make me happy." Maura gave Jane a quick wink and stood up, triumphant, with the stick in hand. "But enjoyable company aside, perhaps some experiences are better had with a map."

"We made it out before dark!" Jane made a quick faint with her left hand and snatched the yardstick from Maura's fingers with her right.

Frowning, Maura considered the yardstick and the memory. "That was because eventually I forced you to let me use the compass on my phone."

Waggling the stick in the air between them, Jane held it up for emphasis. "Well this time I'm prepared. We won't need to worry about getting lost in a forest or needing a compass."

Maura shook her head slightly. "However you need a yardstick?"

"I do!" Jane's smile widened as she finally offered the yardstick over.

Plucking the piece of wood from Jane's hand Maura couldn't help but mirror the smile. "Whatever for?"

Jane finished unzipping her coat and hung it carefully up. "We're going to build a gingerbread house!"

"We are?"Maura gave a last forlorn look at her pristine kitchen.

"We are!" Jane gleefully started to rummage through her bags. "We had small ones from the bakery growing up on Christmas Eve, but this one is going to put all those to shame. It's going to be epic. Who needs to be a professional pastry chef to put together a gingerbread house?"

Maura decided the best course of action was to simply stay back while Jane's bags seemed to implode on her counter. When Jane started emptying the final one she stepped closer to the chaos. "I still can't understand what the yardstick has to do with the process."

Jane counted the spices and then started digging under the bags of brown sugar in search of the ground cloves. "Don't worry about that yet. That comes in step 4." She paused for a moment. "Or actually make that step three. It wasn't explicit."

"There are steps?" Maura watched fascinated as Jane slid bags of powdered sugar aside.

"Ah ha!" Jane held the bottle of cloves up. "I knew I didn't miss anything." She slid the glass bottle along the counter next to the other spices. "Yes there are steps. I googled."

Maura scanned the countertop but didn't see any paper. "May I see them?"

Jane piled the brown sugar next to the molasses. "I didn't bother to print them out. I'm out of ink at home." She tapped her head. "Don't worry. I have them all up here. There were only 5 steps. Gather the ingredients, make and chill the dough, bake the pieces, assemble the house and, finally, decorate it. Easy peasy."

Jane didn't see Maura's wince as she finally had everything sorted out on the counter. "After I looked at everything online, I have no idea why anybody thought it was any kind of challenge. I swear the networks are really reaching for content these days."

Maura groaned, everything coming together in her mind all at once. "You watched Food Network Challenge again last night, didn't you? I saw that episode myself."

Maura waited but Jane didn't say anything as she turned around and started scanning Maura's counter space. "Jane Rizzoli we are not building a 6 foot tall gingerbread house in my kitchen!"

"Don't be ridiculous Maura." Jane was now half in her lower cabinet, pulling out mixing bowls, one after the other. "Even I know your oven is good for like two feet max."

"Do you even have a recipe picked out?" Desperate, Maura grabbed the nearest bowls at Jane's feet and started restacking them. "I don't think you need every bowl."

"I emailed you the recipe earlier, stop worrying. And I'm not using every bowl. I need your biggest one for that contraption you call a mixer." Jane pulled another one out. "Where's that giant one that you have Ma use for when she makes pasta"

Finally there was a muffled exclamation and Jane straightened up, bowl in hand. "See? This is going to be the only one large enough and I still might need to make two batches."

Maura marched up and grabbed the large bowl out of Jane's hands and put it on the counter. "Hold it right there. We are not making two batches of anything." She spun around and grabbed the yard stick. "You certainly won't need this."

Jane had just started to open her mouth to argue when a firm tap to her chest from the yardstick made her close it with a snap. She looked along the bright orange wood up Maura's arm, along the red sweater right into Maura's narrowed gaze and widened her eyes.

"Not a word. If you can't use a regular ruler to measure something, you're not assembling it in MY kitchen." Maura tapped the wood lightly against Jane. "Do you even know how to make a gingerbread house?"

Jane grabbed the end of the yardstick. "How hard can it be? I told you it's only FIVE steps and I pulled that off one of those mommy blogs. People do this with their kids."

Maura sighed. "It's not that easy Jane." She looked over the items on the counter. "You don't even have a template here to use to cut the pieces."

"Kids Maura. Gingerbread houses are made by kids." Wiggling the end of the yardstick in her hand, Jane grinned. "And who needs a template when you have a yard stick. All I have to do is cut a cute little house shape out of some dough and stick it all together."

Maura pulled the vibrating yardstick back. "It's not that simple. You really should…"

"I bet you it is."Jane arched an eyebrow. "You're being ridiculous. This is going to be fun."

Maura leaned a hip against her counter. There was that word again. Fun. Five hours lost in the state forest had not been 'fun'. "Fine then. If you're not in the mood to listen, I accept."

Jane quickly went back over the conversation to see what she had missed. "Wait a second. Accept what?"

"Your wager." Maura gave her a crooked grin.

"I didn't offer you a bet." Jane chewed her lip the minute the word left her mouth. "Okay so maybe I sort of did." She crossed her arms over her chest, already liking the new element of a real contest. "Fine. What are we betting? Best house? First house standing?"

Maura tapped the end of the yardstick on her chin. "First house standing that stays upright and with decorations properly adhered and intact."

Jane nodded as she mulled it over in her head. "What does the winner get?"

Maura chewed the side of her check while she considered and dismissed options "I say we go with winner's choice."

The arched eyebrow was back. "Feeling a little daring there Maura?" Jane chuckled. "I could do so much with that."

Her challenge accepted Maura smirked. "It's only daring if I wasn't positive I'd win."

"Oh bring it, Isles."

Angela Rizzoli walked in the back door and slowly her eyebrows arched higher and higher as she watched the chaos.

"You're hogging the mixer!"

"I know I shouldn't be saying anything if I wish to win, but you really should follow the recipe or that dough is going to set up wrong."

"I still don't understand why it matters if I use extra sugar. Gingerbread is never sweet enough."

"Damn it, now this sweater is going to have to go to cleaners. You made me laugh on purpose! Molasses will never come out of cashmere!"

"What shape the dough is when it goes into chill doesn't matter. Stop trying to make perfectly measured pieces. We won't be decorating until midnight if keep this up!"

Angela shook her head and pushed open boxes of cake flour off the stove so she could put on the kettle. "What are you girls up to now?"

Jane tossed her wrapped lumps of dough into the fridge. "Gingerbread house smackdown." She went over and carefully picked up a perfectly proportioned ball of dough from Maura.

Maura gathered the rest of her dough and handed each ball one at a time to Jane. "We're competing to see who can get a gingerbread house successfully up and decorated appropriately first. Your daughter keeps turning on Food Network when she can't sleep."

Concerned Angela picked up the mug of fresh tea and moved close to Jane, studying her face. "You do look tired. Why didn't you tell me you weren't sleeping? Are you okay baby?"

Jane glared over her mother's shoulder at the smirk on Maura's face. "I'm fine Ma. Stuff on my mind with the holidays." She sighed when her mother patted her cheek. "Seriously, I'm good."

Angela rubbed her daughter's shoulder for a moment. "Well I'll leave you two to this…" she gestured to the mess in the kitchen with her tea. "…little adventure." She turned to face Maura. "I put you in charge of figuring out why she's not sleeping."

They both watched Angela leave.

Jane turned to Maura. "Using my mother against me is dirty play Dr. Isles."

"Well you haven't told me what is bothering you willingly and you're not sleeping well." Maura grabbed the sponge from the sink and started wiping down the counters. "I have to use whatever advantage I can get." She stopped cleaning and turned around. "What is the phrase. 'All is fair in love and war'?"

Jane grabbed the dirty mixing bowls and turned the water on in the sink. After a few moments of watching the dish soap bubbles climb the side of the stainless steel she finally glanced over at Maura. "Love and war? Who knew a battle of baking goods would bring out your competitive side."

Maura grabbed the first clean bowl from Jane's sudsy hands and started drying it off. "Which one of us challenged the other first?"

Jane rolled her eyes and they picked up a rhythm of washing and drying.

"I still think we should have let it chill longer." Maura spread flour on the surface in front of her and started rolling out her first ball of gingerbread dough.

"By the time you had finished your geometry demonstration the freezer chilled it quick enough." Jane held up a finger. "Not a word. Mr. Adverb can shove it."

Maura closed her mouth. "Irritating me is hardly going to distract me enough so you win." She bent over and held a ruler next to her first smooth stretch of dough.

Jane pushed her first piece out with a flourish and started to free cut a rectangle when she looked over and noticed Maura putting the first part of her template this way and that until she seemed satisfied. "We're building cookie houses here, not the Prudential."

Maura smiled over her shoulder, watching Jane put her first baking trays in. "Distracting me is still not going to work Jane." She carefully transferred each cutout pieces to baking trays as she worked.

"I think we should have made a height requirement." Jane pointed to Maura's trays. "Mine is going to win by default. It has double the height of yours."

"We can discuss it." Maura continued to roll and measure. "Since you're finished with cutting your pieces, would you mind getting me a glass of wine?"

"I'm hungry too. You want to order Chinese?" By the time Maura nodded, not even looking up as she carefully cut her last piece, Jane had already dialed. "Shredded spicy pork?"

"Too much garlic for tonight. Green tea flank steak please but you can get the house lo mien tonight if you want it." The buzzer went off on the stove and Maura pulled Jane's trays out and put hers in.

Jane placed their order and looked at her pieces and then out the kitchen window. "It's not snowing anymore. I'm going to put them out on the patio table so they cool faster."

She frowned at her boots and with a shrug walked out the door regretting her idea the second her feet touched the frozen brick. Sprinting to the table she put down the first tray and turned around to sprint back when her mother opened the guesthouse door.

"Jane Rizzoli you're going to catch your death!" Angela ignored Jane's expression and held out her empty mug. "But here, bring this back to the house."

Jane had her hand on the mug and was ready to sprint back towards Maura's back door when her mother cleared her throat. "Tip for you for when you start to put the house up…"

Shaking her head, Jane turned around. "I got this one Ma. Googled it. That was covered in step 4." She pointed to her feet. "Frozen… frozen… frozen toes. Gotta go!"

"Jane make sure you…." Angela suddenly shook her head as Jane sprinted away. "Never mind, I'm sure you have this."

Maura pulled open her back door in time to let Jane sprint past, dancing on the balls of her feet. She watched the other woman slide onto one of her kitchen chairs and curse under her breath, tossing a mug onto the counter as she started rubbing her toes.

Wrapped in winter gear Maura walked her own tray to the patio table. When she looked up Angela had opened her door.

Angela pointed to Maura's boots and then at the table where Jane's giant, slightly warped pieces were cooling. "At least one of you is sensible."

"I try to be." Maura laughed at the sheer size difference between Jane's house pieces and her own.

Angela followed her gaze and shook her head. "Tip for you. When you go to put your house together melt sugar down to syrup and it will glue it all together rock hard. My daughter is going to struggle like hell with hers but it serves her right the stubborn mule."

They shared a look and Angela gave her a quick wink before going back inside.

Maura checked the stiffness of the icing. "This is ready."

Jane loaded the last of their empty dinner plates into the dishwasher against the mechanical whir of the mixer. "I'm all set here."

"Hand me the pastry bags, I'll fill them." Maura opened the plastic bags and held one up to study it. "I have some but they're not disposable like these. Not very environmentally friendly. Where are the tips?"

Jane handed the tips over and leaned over Maura's shoulder to peer into the mixing bowl. "Do you think that's enough?"

Rolling the plastic down Maura slipped in the first part of the tip and started loading the bags. "Probably not but that is already a double recipe it will harden too quickly if I make a triple batch." She elbowed Jane lightly. "Go out and bring in our pieces." Before Jane went too far Maura grabbed her sleeve. "Careful with mine Detective. It had better come in exactly the way it went out. I don't trust you not to tip the odds in your favor."

"Hey! Do you actually think I would do that to you? I'm offended." When Maura looked up quickly, horrified, ready to apologize Jane winked. "I'm teasing. I'll even put on my boots this time. Your masterpiece is safe with me."

Maura had filled the last of the pastry bags and screwed on the tips when the incessant ringing of her back doorbell made her sprint over and yank open the door in time to see Jane barely manage to secure the top tray from sliding off by hunching over and using her chin.

"Jane!" Maura pulled the top two. "Multiple trips might have been a better plan."

"Do you know how cold it is out there? And yours is the one safe in my hands, mine was the one on top." Jane tried to pry her boot off with the opposite foot and gave up, watching Maura place her trays down before rescuing the last one from her grasp.

Jane studied her gingerbread house pieces. "I didn't think about what we should assemble these on." With a slight frown she looked around the kitchen for inspiration. "Do you have any cardboard?"

Shaking her head, Maura thought through her various platters. "We'll just have to use the baking trays. Cover them in foil please." Leaving Jane to cover the trays she started pulling out her double boiler and the sugar again.

Tearing off sheets of foil and stacking house parts Jane watched Maura measuring out sugar and water and turning on the stove. "What are you doing?"

"Your mother suggested I make a sugar syrup to hold the house together." Maura adjusted the heat and started gently stirring.

"That is all you." Jane tucked layer upon layer of foil. "I'm not messing with the steps. One of these days, you are going to learn to not listen to everything my mother says. Step four was clear. You start with the front and a side and that royal icing with stick it all together."

"How do you know these steps are correct?" Maura kept her eyes carefully trained on the sugar as it started to melt.

Jane grabbed her first two house pieces and a bag of icing. "Easy, the woman showed videos of her KIDS doing this. If a five year old can do this, I certainly have it under control."

Jane frowned at the cookies in her hand as she tried to get the edges to match up. She couldn't remember if the video showed the sides of the pieces on the lady's videos being quite this warped. She experimented with the other two. It was almost worse. With a long sigh Jane grabbed a kitchen knife and started shaving the edges

Maura winced the minute the shards and gingerbread powder cascaded over her counter. "Careful you don't take too much off."

"I got this." Jane checked the first two pieces again, nodding in satisfaction. She used a bag of icing just like she saw on the video and in a matter of minutes her first two pieces were assembled. "Ah ha! Just like on the internet. Better watch out Maura."

Maura decided not to respond as the sugar came to a low boil and she shut it off. Grabbing a pastry brush from her drawer and her tray, she stole another look at Jane. Now three sides were up and Jane was icing the fourth. She frowned.

Jane kept gentle pressure on her pieces, just like the kids had done on the video, and held her house together. While she waited she watched Maura paint her house with liquid sugar and curse under her breath when the first part wasn't staying upright on her own.

Their eyes met and a v formed between Maura's eyes. She hadn't thought this out well. Using an elbow to carefully keep the one part up, she studiously ignored Jane's stare as she partially dipped, partially painted the edge of the next piece. Quickly she transferred it to the tray and held the parts together.

Like magic, it was instantly stable and Maura could barely bite back the smile. Angela was a genius. Jane didn't stand a chance now. Quickly she grabbed the next two pieces.

Nervous, Jane watched Maura rapidly assembling her house. Maura was already starting on her roof. Jane went to let her house base go but could tell it wasn't stable enough for the roof. The icing wasn't hard enough.

Jane chewed her cheek for a second before sprinting through the living room and up the stairs.

Placing the last part of the roof carefully together, Maura looked up in time to see Jane run back through the living room and plug in her hairdryer. The buzzing drone broke the silence. The tip of Jane's tongue poked out as she put the blasting hot air over her house.

Jane poked the icing with a fingertip. The hairdryer was working. She could feel Maura staring at her and she ignored it as she grabbed her roof pieces and repeated the process.

Their eyes met.

It was game on.

Maura snapped out of her trance and stared moving rapidly through the kitchen. She grabbed an icing bag and dug through the various candies on the counter, opening bags as she glanced between the offerings and her house.

Jane let out a growl when the part of the roof started to slide off and almost crash to the counter. She turned her back as much as possible Maura's prying eyes and loaded on more royal icing. This time she flipped the hairdryer to high and tried not to steal glances at what Maura was up to.

She needed to stay in the zone.

Unable to help herself Jane stole a quick look at Maura's house. It was standing in perfect glory. She gritted her teeth and dragged her attention back to her own creation. With luck, Maura's inability to not do anything less than perfect would be her saving grace.

The vague rules said nothing about perfect candy in perfect order. She was positive Maura wouldn't be able to help herself from trying though.

Maura developed a pattern and counted off spice drops, so many of each color selected. She made certain the pieces were symmetrical. She stared at the roof and grabbed a box of nonpareils. The M&Ms were considered next but they were a confusion of color. She kept an eye on Jane out of the corner of her eye realizing the detective was already working on the last part of her roof.

Dragging her attention back to bags of candy and her own bare house, Maura realized there was no way Jane was going to pick out patterns of any sort. She forced herself to start grabbing handfuls of materials and putting them all into one big bowl.

Jane knew the roof wasn't dry enough but it looked like it was holding. Maura was already circling her standing house with a bag of icing. There wasn't time to waste. She muttered a quick prayer and grabbed a pastry spreader loaded with icing.

Their eyes met again.

From that point on it was dueling, furtive, glances and rushing fingers.

Absentminded hands brushed powdered sugar and icing over itching noses and cheeks.

There were exclamations and candy canes shattering on the floor.

Rapidly two gingerbread houses started to take form.

Hazel eyes darted over just as the far side of Jane's roof started to slip.

"Jane!" Maura dropped her pastry bag and rushed over in time to catch the sliding half of a roof and hold it in place.

"Ugh! Not again!" Jane put down the pastry bag and looked at her icing encrusted hand. "Give me a minute?" When Maura nodded she quickly washed her hand from where the lumps of icing had squeezed out of her overfilled bag.

Jane gave a long, defeated, sigh. "Thanks, you're a life saver." It didn't take much to see that the weight of the icing and candy on the roof made it too heavy to hold together until it dried. She looked at Maura's nearly completed house. "I got this now, you can go finish up."

Maura looked up at Jane, cataloguing details along the way. There was a mix of flour from rolling with powdered sugar from the frosting on her clothing. She looked all the way up and saw smears of icing along Jane's cheeks and just over defeated brown eyes.

She smiled, slow and sure. "I'll hold this for you. Go plug in the hairdryer again. I moved it over by the fridge."

Jane hesitated a second. "You know you have this in the bag right now if you don't help me, right?"

Maura shrugged. "It's hardly a competition if your house isn't standing. I don't appreciate winning by default. Besides, it was your mother's tip that made it so easy for me. So go get it before I change my mind."

Jane couldn't help but study Maura for a moment. Letting her gaze linger, enjoying the warmth and genuine affection reflected back at her. Finally she offered a small smile that was quickly returned before she went and picked up the hairdryer.

Standing shoulder to shoulder, Jane turned the power on low. She took her time until gradually the icing turned smooth. Finally Jane touched a pinkie to the roof and it was hard. "I guess it's done." She looked down at Maura and bumped their shoulders together. "Thanks for the help."

Maura leaned her shoulder against Jane's, enjoying the familiarity and the connection. "My pleasure." She pulled away and tapped the roof. "You need to learn to share the Necco Wafers better. At least 90% of them are on your roof."

Jane shoved her lightly away. "Uh huh. Look who is talking. I wouldn't have had to use all the Necco Wafers if somebody didn't hog all the nonpareils. What is that over there? A double layer?"

Strutting back over to her gingerbread house, Maura grabbed the pastry bag and another nonpareil. "You're just jealous of my shingles." She dotted the icing and pressed the candy in place. "Better hurry up. I'm almost done."

With an arched eyebrow and a smile, Jane grabbed another Necco Wafer, spread a path of icing and stuck it into place.

Maura pulled two wine glasses out of the cabinet and filled them with the cabernet breathing on the counter. She turned around with a glass in hand expecting Jane to be right behind her. Confused she watched Jane carefully balancing her gingerbread house as she took tiny steps towards the couch.

Jane placed the house on the coffee table and stood up with a flourish. Meeting Maura's eyes, she grinned. "After all that I want to see them while we relax. I can't do that if we leave them in the kitchen."

Maura rolled her eyes but smiled. "If you drop mine after all this you're so going on Santa's naughty list for cheating."

"Wouldn't be the first time." Repeating her careful, tiny steps with Maura's house in her hands Jane placed it down beside hers. "I still think it's early enough to make my mother come over here and play judge."

Maura patted the spot beside her on the couch. "Leave your poor mother alone. Besides, do you really want to have to hear her after I tell her about the roof incident? I can hear the lecture now about listening to her."

The threat was empty and Jane knew it, laughing as she flopped down next to Maura and accepted her glass of wine. "You make a good point." She held up her wine glass. "To the chefs!"

"To the chefs." Maura tapped her glass against Jane's. "We did a great job."

Jane looked at the two houses side by side. One with perfectly, proportioned pieces held together with decorative icing loops and the other slightly lop sided with thick icing cementing it in place. "Well one of us did. I think you're avoiding having my mother come over so my creation won't embarrass her."

Maura looked at the two houses side by side. One stood brightly, with spirited spice drops cheerfully lining the roofline, Necco Wafers colorfully covered the roof and candy creatively dotted the sides. The other sat beside it, uniform, predictable, with repetitive nonpareils over the roof and precisely placed M&Ms along the roofline with careful swirls of icing along the sides.

She gesture to Jane's house with her glass. "Leave your house alone, it has holiday spirit."

Jane shook her head. "Nice try. Holiday spirit is what parents say to their children after suffering through a screeching, half screamed, Christmas Concert."

Maura slapped Jane's shoulder. "Knock it off." She looked over at Jane and smiled when their eyes met. "I think we should call this contest a tie. Look at them." She waited until Jane turned her attention back to their houses and leaned against her. "They're perfect together. I love them."

Jane quietly sipped her wine and stared at the two houses. Chaos next to elegance. She leaned her head against Maura's and shook her head. "You're crazy."

"So crazy I'm right." Maura swirled the wine around in her glass, sipping at it, comfortable, enjoying the cheerfulness of Jane's creation against the austerity of her own.

Jane sat up to drain the last of her wine from the glass and leaned forward to put her empty glass on the coffee table. "Thank you for playing along today. I had a blast."

Maura polished off her own glass and reached over to put it next to Jane's. "Me too. I miss doing things together like we used to. We never seem to have spare time outside work."

Startled, Jane linked her arm through Maura's and pulled her back. "I didn't think you noticed. I was thinking about that last night while watching that show. It's partially where the idea came from." She thought about letting Maura's arm go but pulled her closer instead. "It's been a busy year hasn't it."

Maura simply nodded. There were so many things she felt burning at the back of her throat that she wanted to say. Instead she leaned back against Jane.

Sitting in silence, staring at the two gingerbread houses, Jane smiled. Each creation really was perfectly them and Maura was right. They were so distinctly different they were amusingly complimentary side by side. You couldn't help but enjoy the sight.

Jane shifted so she could see Maura out of the corner of her eye. "So I'm kind of curious." Maura met her gaze. "What would you have asked for if you won?"

Maura blushed slightly. "What would you have asked for?"

"No." Jane shook her head rapidly. "I asked first."

Chuckling, a little breathless, Maura chewed at her lower lip and stared at her fireplace. After a breath and a pause the words tumbled out. "For exactly this, again, next year." She looked at Jane quickly before looking back over her living room. "And every year after that. A new tradition for the two of us." Her throat tightened. "No matter what happens or where we go in life that we make the time to do something just you and I."

Startled at the emotion in Maura's voice, Jane shifted until she was partially turned towards Maura but the other woman was still staring at the fireplace. The gingerbread houses sat merrily side by side. She squeezed their linked arms and went back to staring at the houses in silence for several moments, thinking about her reply.

Finally, Jane exhaled softly. "We really haven't done much together, just the two of us this past year with how crazy life has been, have we?"

When Maura turned to look at her, Jane felt the blood rush up her neck but she didn't look away. She forced herself to keep talking. "I mean, between our families, your surgery and the madness of my personal life…" Jane shrugged. "I saw them building the gingerbread houses last night and remembered the ones from when I was a kid. It was one of my favorite Christmas traditions." She felt the hot flush reach her cheeks. "My first thought was making one with you."

Maura could see the heightened color over Jane's cheeks and restrained herself from reaching out and making Jane look at her. Instead she pressed closer into Jane's side and lowered her voice. "Your turn, what would you have asked for if you had won?"

Jane swallowed thickly and looked over. Maura's eyes were clear, pulling her in, so easy to get lost in.

She ran a tongue over dry lips, unable to look away. She had missed this.

Tentatively, she reached her hand up and rubbed her thumb over Maura's temple, watching hazel eyes flutter shut before opening up and holding her in place.

Jane gently rubbed the dots of icing along the arch of an eyebrow. "You're a little speckled. Did you actually put any on your house?" The icing finally flaked free and she reluctantly dropped her hand but Maura didn't move.

Maura watched the emotion filtering through Jane's eyes. "You should go look in a mirror." She grazed the spots of icing with a fingertip, mesmerized when Jane blinked slowly at each touch. She carefully stroked each dot away before cupping Jane's jaw. "I'm not even certain how you managed to get quite this much on you."

Jane's skin was soft under her palm and Maura took her time gently rubbing away a last line of white icing. When her fingers finally stilled, Jane opened her eyes but didn't move away. She had missed this.

As the moments slipped by there were a dark flashes of need mixed with an undercurrent of fear. Maura slid a finger intermittently along smooth skin, soothing, until Jane noisily exhaled and leaned into her touch.

Mouth dry and heart thudding sharply, Jane slowly reached up to trace a path along a soft lower lip. "There was little more. Right there." Maura's lips parted slightly at her touch and soft sigh floated through her. Gentle fingers flexed against her cheek, inviting her in.

Jane traced the angle of Maura's cheekbone. Her voice was soft, winding between them. "You were right you know." She yielded to the insistent pressure guiding her down and leaned closer. "Our houses do look perfect together."

Maura leaned in close enough to feel Jane's ragged exhale against her skin. "Jane." Her own voice was a whisper. "What would you have asked for if you won?"

The words vibrated against her lips and Jane sighed as her lips parted.

There were no five easy steps to follow right now.

The gentlest of pressure brought lips together, brushing once, twice.

Jane pulled away slightly, eyes heavy, meeting dark hazel as they lazily opened.

Maura's fingers wound into her hair holding her in place.

"This." Jane's fingers tightened slightly against Maura's neck as she leaned in again, needing. "I would have asked for this."

A/N - Happy Holidays and best wishes for the New Year from my home to yours.