A/N: Alright, here it is! My last piece for the Joy to the World Christmas Crossover Collection! I know I'm about 24 hours late with this, but I was finishing out the fall semester and driving home for the holidays, just couldn't get the last of the words on the screen. However, I'm here with it now!

This story was prompted by the lovely xxDustNight88! Without her, I wouldn't be writing fanfiction. She's one of my best friends in the world and I hope she enjoys this little tale and that I did her prompt jsutice!

I apologize if there are any errors, this was self-betaed.

All of the usual disclaimers apply. I don't write for profit and I certainly don't own any of these characters. J. K. Rowling, Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg, and Greg Berlanti are wonderful human beings for supporting fanfiction and allowing authors to express themselves with the help of their characters and the worlds they created.

I hope you enjoy this tale! I can't believe it's almost Christmas. Where oh where has the time gone?

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Love always,
~starr

Leaning back against the couch, Laurel let out a long sigh as she stared intently at the Christmas tree that was currently taking up most of her living room. It wasn't that she hated the tree. No, not at all. The tree and all of its decorations were one of her favorite things about Christmas. Beat out only baking Christmas cookies with those she loved most. She enjoyed celebrating Christmas with her friends and family, but not this year.

This year was different. This was going to be the first anniversary of Sara's death, and if Laurel was honest with herself, she wasn't sure if she was going to be able to spread Christmas cheer this year.

All she wanted more than anything was to walk downstairs Christmas morning and find Sara sitting on the couch with her father ready to celebrate. Those happy memories all changed last year when she and her boyfriend came downstairs on Christmas morning only to be greeted by the somber faces of her father and Oliver Queen. She could remember everything so vividly, even now a year later.

Rounding the corner, Laurel dragged Draco behind her into the living with a cheerful smile on her face. However, as she entered the room, it wasn't the typical scene for Christmas morning. Her father was seated on the couch with his head in his hands, and Oliver Queen was sitting beside him with his hands knotted together in his lap.

"Ollie, what are you doing here?"

Quentin's head popped up at the sound of his daughter's voice. She noticed the tear stains that plagued his cheeks and the red tint that had overtaken his eyes. Something was wrong. "Daddy, what's wrong?"

Without a word, Quentin pushed himself up off the couch and crossed the living room, wrapping his arms tightly around Laurel. She, in turn, wrapped her arms around his waist and held tight. She felt his breath hitch as he buried his head into her shoulder, allowing a sob to rip through his body.

Laurel glanced over at Draco with a concerned look on her face. His only response was to shrug and direct his attention to Oliver. It appeared that he was the only person in the room that had any answers.

"Ollie, what's going on?"

"You might want to take a seat for this, Laurel."

She furrowed her brow as her father released his hold on her and ushered her over to the couch. Draco followed closely behind them and sat down beside her. Protectively, he wrapped an arm around her waist.

Oliver took a deep breath and scrubbed a hand over his face. Doing this right now was the last thing that he wanted to be doing. No one deserved to get horrible news first thing Christmas morning. This was supposed to be a time of cheer and love, but today it would be a day of sadness for the Lance family.

"As you know, Sara has been working with me as the Black Canary. Most nights we make back with only a scratch or two to show that we were even out protecting the city. But last night, things got really out of hand," Oliver said, pausing when he heard Laurel's breath hitch and directing his gaze to the floor in front of him. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he waited for the inevitable question.

"Where's Sara?" Laurel asked through gritted teeth. She could feel the tears starting to well up in the corners of her eyes. She hated when Sara went out as the Black Canary, but she couldn't blame her for wanting to help the city. Why did she have to go out on Christmas Eve of all nights?

"We were on our way back to the bunker to call it a night when we were attacked. Before I could do anything, they had already shot her in the back," Oliver replied, lifting his head slowly to meet her eyes. "She bled out before I could get her to Star City General. I'm so sorry, Laurel."

Oliver's apology still haunted her dreams. She didn't blame him for what had happened to Sara, but of all days of the year, it had to happen on one of her favorite holidays. Well, what used to be her favorite. Nowadays she didn't feel like celebrating.

"What are you doing in here?"

Draco's voice pulled her out of her thoughts, and she looked over to the doorway to find him leaning against it with his arms crossed over his chest and a smile on his face. She sighed and shook her head as she pushed herself up off the couch, making her way over to wrap her arms around his waist. Nuzzling into his shoulder, she mumbled her concerns.

"I didn't hear any of that," he said, pressing his lips to the top of her head as he laughed. He smiled as she pulled her head back and looked up at him.

"I was thinking about Sara."

"I see," he mused."Anything else on your mind?"

Laurel paused for a moment and shook her head. Telling him how she was feeling about Christmas wouldn't help her work through this. Christmas was a special time for them, but after the news of Sara's death, the holiday only brought tears.

Draco sighed. He knew she was lying to him, but he was going to let it slide. This time of year was going to be hard on her no matter what he tried to do to cheer her up. Losing someone close to you was never easy.

"Would you be interested in getting your mind off Sara for a little bit?"

"What did you have in mind?"

"Cookies," he replied, slipping his hand in hers and pulling her towards the kitchen. "We need them to take to your holiday party. And besides, creating a mess in the kitchen will distract you from your thoughts for a little while anyway."

She thought about it for a few seconds and jumped at the chance for the distraction, following him into the kitchen. It was worth trying anything at this point. Even if it only worked for a couple of hours, it was better than nothing.

Whey they entered the kitchen, Laurel noticed that the island of their small kitchen was covered with all of the supplies they needed to make sugar cookies. The last time she had checked their tiny kitchen, they didn't even have a mixer, so she was curious as to when Draco had gone out and bought all of this stuff.

She turned to look at him and noticed that he had been staring at her the whole time she was looking around the kitchen. She felt her cheeks flush momentarily as she reached up and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "When did you do all of this?"

"While you were lost in thought about last Christmas," Draco replied, squeezing her hand gently and leaning over to kiss her cheek before taking a few steps away from her. "Your dad told me that this was one of your favorite things to with your mum and Sara every Christmas, so I thought you might like to do it with me. I got all of the ingredients to make sugar cookies and snickerdoodles."

Laurel paused with a sigh briefly before she smiled widely and walked over to the island where Draco was now standing. Those memories that she had with her mother and Sara were some of the happiest memories she had growing up. There were often days she wasn't sure her father would make it home after putting his life on the line to protect the city, but he always returned. She would never have thought that it was Sara who she'd be missing at Christmas time.

She pressed up on her tiptoes and wrapped her arms around his neck. She leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. As she lowered herself back down, she looked up at him and noticed a sparkle in his eyes and the smile toying at his lips.

"I'm one lucky woman," she mused, resting her head against his chest.

"What makes you say that?" Draco inquired. "I mean I know I'm a great catch, but what makes you a lucky woman?"

"Just the fact that I have you," she replied, pulling back away from him and taking a closer look at the supplies that were laid out on the table. "It looks like we have a lot of work to get done this afternoon, so we should probably get to work. Those cookies aren't going to bake themselves."

. . . . . . . . .

Looking around the kitchen, Draco smiled proudly at the mess that they had created. It was the first time in months that he had heard Laurel genuinely laugh from having fun and not that fake laugh she did when she was trying to appease someone. All it took was him slipping on the kitchen floor and sending an open bag of flour flying into the air.

Not long after his arse hit the floor, the bag of flour landed on his stomach, and a cloud of white smoke puffed up around him and coated everything nearby. Draco's face was covered in flour, and as he reached up to scrub the powder off his face, he inhaled a small amount of it and started coughing.

Laurel just watched the situation play out with a smile on her face. Usually, it was her having accidents in the kitchen and making a mess everywhere. It was nice to see it happening to someone else. "I can't believe it wasn't me that made the giant mess this year."

Pushing himself up onto his feet, Draco looked at her with a furrowed brow and stuck out his tongue. "There's a first time for everything."

"Don't be so rude," Laurel teased, checking on the batch of cookies that were in the oven. "It looks like those have about five more minutes, and the last batch will be ready. Then you can start cleaning up the mess you made while I enjoy being completely flour free."

"Flour free, you say?" Draco asked, smirking as he took a few steps closer to her.

Laurel eyed him up and took a giant step back. "Don't you dare, Draco."

"Moi?" he asked, fluttering his eyelashes quickly. "I would never do such a thing."

She watched him for a few more moments as he continued to close the space between them. Every time he took one step forward, she took another step back. They repeated this process until Draco started to quicken his pace, and Laurel took off at a full sprint in the direction of the living room.

Rounding the corner into the room, Laurel stopped dead in the doorway as Draco chased after her. "Damn it," she mumbled.

Draco had a wicked grin on his face as he took a few steps closer. "You forgot about the mistletoe, didn't you?"

Laurel bit her lip and nodded her head slowly. Hanging her head, she accepted her fate as Draco wrapped his flour-covered arms around her waist and squeezed her tight until her body was flush against his. Soon her darkly colored sweatshirt had flour all over it.

She tilted her head back slightly as she waited for him to kiss her. "Are you planning to kiss me anytime soon?"

"I wanted to get as much enjoyment out of this as I could. I only do these things because I love you," Draco replied, leaning forward and pressing his lips to hers.

Sometimes, all it takes to turn a dry season around is a little bit of baking and some mistletoe. There's magic to be found at Christmas time that can turn even the deepest, darkest frown upside down.