Duncan glowers at the scene in front of him. Admittedly, it's not a bad scene. It's not even the people he's with. Well, most of them. Maybe it's because of where they are and how shitty the situation is.

Geoff gives him a friendly punch in the shoulder and tips his head at Duncan. "Come on, brah, get in the holiday spirit!" the party boy cheers. Duncan rolls his eyes in response. He's not sure getting in the holiday spirit would help the situation. The lot of them are back for another season of that god-awful reality show, and of course, of course, that slimeball is making them continue through the holiday season. Duncan vaguely remembers being allowed to visit his family during Action when the holidays rolled around. Granted, Chris was throwing a holiday party at that time, and nowadays everyone has realized how much of an ass he is that no one would come to a party if he threw one.

"Seriously, Duncan, not even you can hate Christmas," Gwen pipes up from her spot on a crate between Courtney and Trent. She shakes her head in amusement, and she and Courtney share a knowing look before looking back at him expectantly. He locks eyes with Courtney for a few seconds, and she gives him a small smile, a light back in her eyes that has been missing for the past few years.

That's another thing tugging at his conscience. Even though Duncan and Courtney had made up at the beginning of the season, being back in her life has shown him just how much she was hurting and how he never even noticed. So yeah, most days he feels like shit.

Duncan pushes himself off the wall, rolling his eyes yet again—seriously, why did everyone feel the need to gang up on him?—and walks closer to the circle of friends. He's not sure if he would consider all of these people his friends, but he wouldn't know what else to call them at this point. "I don't hate Christmas. I'm just pissed that we're on this hellish island instead of with our families." They had just finished filming the latest episode, and Chris said he wouldn't need them for a few days, so the group of young adults raided one of Chris's empty warehouses to . . . to . . . well, Duncan isn't sure what they're doing there. Bonding? It sounds laughable even to him.

He looks around at the remaining contestants. Most of the faces he's well acquainted with. Bridgette sits beside Courtney, the two sharing a blanket bundled together on a crate. Noah and Owen sit on the floor by Trent's crate. Alejandro and Heather lounge together on the pile of pillows they brought with them. Neither of them even bother him anymore; he thinks at this point any animosity between the first generation cast is now only directed at Chris.

The second generation cast gives Duncan mixed feelings. While Zoey reminds him of his younger sister, he can't deny that her boyfriend Mike—who isn't here, thank God—makes him uneasy. Duncan has grown fond of Scott, who has a track record similar to Duncan's, in these past weeks, but he's not sure what to make of the pixie girl Dawn, who seems to be making it her mission to save Scott's soul. There's also the weird beetle-whispering thing. Duncan just tries to ignore that. The only one left from the second gen cast is daddy's girl Dakota. He knows she had that mutation thing, but it was mostly fixed. Sometimes if she's mad her eyes will glow red, and rather than ignore that anything ever happened to her, she has green streaks running through her blond hair. But other than that, she's really harmless in a Lindsay kind of way.

Duncan dislikes the third generation cast. Only two remain, and that's because most of them irritated the other two generations. Sammy took a quick liking to Courtney, probably because of her take-no-bullshit attitude from anyone and Sammy stood in the shadow of her sister when they appeared on the dock at the beginning of the season. Amy left a few episodes into the season after Heather decided she didn't like some new girl trying to steal her title as resident mean girl. That had been one of Duncan's favorite eliminations this season.

The other remaining contestant from the third generation is Sky. She doesn't seem like much of a people person and mostly keeps to herself, though she does seem to like Dawn. Must be some naturey people thing.

Courtney sighs wistfully, and Sammy looks up at her from where she sits at the foot of Bridgette and Courtney's crate. "What I wouldn't give to be home right now," she says, eyes closed in a daydream and a smile on her face.

Alejandro looks over at her from his spot on the pillows. "Well, if you can't actually be there, just imagine it." He shifts his gaze to Trent, whose guitar rests in his lap. "Amigo, please provide some Christmas tunes." Trent raises his eyebrow at the term of friendship but obliges the Spaniard's request. Alejandro starts with the beginning of a song that everyone soon recognizes. "I'll be home, I'll be home for Christmas. I'll be home, I'll be home, oh. I'll be home for Christmas. You can count on me. Please have snow and mistletoe, and presents on the tree."

The smile on Courtney's face brightens as she takes over for Alejandro. "Christmas Eve will find me, where the love light gleams. I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams." At the chorus nearly everyone joins in. "I'll be home, I'll be home for Christmas. I'll be home, I'll be home, oh."

Bridgette and Sammy share a look before continuing together. "I'll be home for Christmas. You can count on me. Please have snow and mistletoe, and presents on the tree." Courtney, Alejandro, and Trent join them in the next part. "Christmas Eve will find me, where the love light gleams. I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams."

Again the group of friends all sing together. "I'll be home, I'll be home for Christmas. I'll be home, I'll be home, oh."

Duncan has yet to open his mouth, and he's dimly reminded of World Tour when he nearly refused to sing. Even though he's not ashamed to admit he can carry a tune quite well, Duncan just does not like to sing. He looks around at all the happy faces, and he finds Courtney's dark eyes trained on him. And he knows, he knows, all she wants is for everyone around her to be happy—"Because it's Christmas, dammit!"—so he makes a point of looking at her as he sings the last line. "If only in my dreams."

Later, when it appears that everyone's fallen asleep, she finds him where he's holed himself up in one of the corners of the warehouse. She drags her blanket with her, and even though his eyes are closed, Duncan smirks because he knows it's her. He reclines against the wall, waiting for her to announce her presence.

"Duncan?" she whispers into the dark. His smirk grows as she continues. "Duncan, are you awake?"

"Courtney, it's like three a.m." he whispers back, eyes still closed.

"Well, are you awake enough to talk?" The impatience in her tone amuses him more, and he opens his eyes, teal searching for onyx. When he finds her, he pats the space next to him, and Courtney doesn't hesitate to wiggle herself into the spot under his arm. Duncan remembers when they used to do this as more than friends, and a dull ache fills his chest at the thought. He tries not to dwell on it.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" he asks in the hopes of distracting himself.

"Um, well, I wanted to thank you for earlier," she says. "You know, with the singing. I know it's not really your thing, but seeing everyone come together like that, I really needed it, so . . . thank you," she finishes.

The shock must be apparent in his voice when he replies, "Oh, uh, you're welcome, I guess?" Courtney shifts under his arm to look up at him.

"You sound surprised," she notes.

"I didn't know that it meant so much to you," he reveals. She turns away again as she says her next words.

"You being here, talking to me, caring about my feelings . . . that means the world to me. You don't know how many times I wished I could just talk to you and not have you think it was another crazy ex-girlfriend thing. I just needed someone to talk to, to listen to me, and I'm not sure anyone else knows me as well as you do."

He tries to calm her down by running his fingers through her hair. She relaxes her tense muscles, dropping her head to his shoulder. He continues playing with her hair, more as a distraction for himself now than her. "I'm sorry I didn't pay close enough attention before, Court."

"Please don't do that," she whispers.

"Do what?"

"That. Blame yourself for all the bad things that happened after we broke up. Most of it was my fault, so please don't put it on yourself." She sighs, and he can hear how tired she is, not physically but emotionally. "Can we talk about something else?" Her voice is small, and again he's hit with the constant pain she's in.

"Uh, okay. What are your plans for Christmas?"

She smacks his chest. "You're not funny, Duncan."

"I know, I'm hilarious."

She chuckles at that. He's glad. He likes hearing her laugh. "Can't I just stay in this corner with you forever?" she says hopefully. It's his turn to laugh. She grins into his chest. "I'm serious. No responsibilities for once in my life, just the warm feeling of being in the presence of someone who cares about me." His throat tightens, even though her words are light and carefree.

"I think you should get some sleep, Princess. I don't think your brain is working right."

"My brain works just fine, thank you very much." He loves her haughty tone, her prissy little attitude. It reminds him of sixteen-year-old them.

Duncan feels her body relax a little more under his arm, and he knows she's beginning to drift off. He thinks she's finally asleep, too, until she speaks up.

"Oh, and Duncan?" She yawns, snuggling closer into his chest, their combined body heat suddenly making him very tired.

"Hmm?" He's half asleep at this point and not really listening.

"Happy birthday."

He smiles into her hair as he drifts off.

hey, if you're reading this, thank you! this was something sitting in my head the past few days and i finally felt it was appropriate to start posting holiday themed writing.

truthfully, when i started writing this, i didn't intend for it to be a duncney piece. it was mostly supposed to be the cast chilling and singing christmas carols. of course it had to take a much sadder turn (or bittersweet, depending on how you interpret it).

anyway, if you liked this, please comment any christmas songs and/or characters you'd like to see featured in one of these one shots (of the characters already mentioned here. the one shots will be chronological following this one). -hopeful :)