The heat from the desert didn't stop Christmas from coming. We had just been on a raid, and Christmas décor was surrounding every building we came in contact with. Mel and I were ecstatic, and she made Burns and I promise to get as many Christmas decorations as we could; for Jamie. I knew they were for her, but adding those two little words onto the end of her begging, pleading, she knew she would have her Christmas decorations.

"What the hell?" Kyle exclaimed, examining the boxes Ian and I had just sat down.

"It's Christmas," Ian laughed at his brother, "Lighten up." He nodded behind him to Burns, Jared, and Mel. "This was all of the Christmas stuff. The rest is supplies. Check it out if you have too."

Kyle smirked slyly at his brother and started a light jog to help others unload our goodies, "Trust me, I will!"

It took longer than normal to unload our supplies, probably because I was tired. Ian smiled down at me as Jared and Uncle Jeb went through the boxes, deciding what would be fixed tonight for tomorrow's meals. Carefully -oh so carefully- Ian placed a kiss on the top of my head, and I felt the butterflies stirring in my stomach.

He was holding me in his arms, carelessly drawling patterns on mine. Ian jolted forward, a smile on his face when Jared lifted a yellow tub from one of our boxes. "Hand it over, Howe," I looked up to see Ian's sparkling eyes and brilliant smile. "Hand it over, and no one gets hurt."

Jared rolled his eyes, his own face contorting into a smile, "This excited over baking cookies, O'Shea? I worry about you."

"Not for him," Mel's smile was possibly the brightest of the three, "For Wanda. She's never baked cookies before."

Jared features softened as looked at Mel, from Mel to Ian and me. He was trying to hold back a smile as he gave Ian the tub and winked at him, "Have fun."

Ian stood up, picking me up with him, and placed me gently on the ground; rummaging through some of the bags and pulling out two bags of chocolate chips and smiling, "We will." He turned back around, wrapping his arm around my waist, "Let's go to the kitchen Wanderer."

I smiled up at him and curled into his side as we walked through our cave into the makeshift kitchen. My class had assembled for the night, ready for another story of faraway places they would never get to go. Burns was in the middle of telling them of the Fire Dragons when came in. "Sorry boys and girls," Ian grinned, interrupting someone's question, "Class dismissed for the night. We need to kick everyone out of the kitchen."

They were several complaints and several smiles. No one questioned Ian though, knowing this was just some form of attempt of normality with him; getting to be alone with me for a little while. Even Burns didn't question Ian. He simply smiled at me and gave Ian a smile that only read of happiness for us.

"Baking," I sighed when everyone was out of the kitchen, "Like the bread," I nodded my head slowly, "This should be fun."

Ian laughed and looked down at me, planting a kiss on my noise, "Wanderer anything I do with you is fun. Anything at all; even baking cookies." Ian held up the tub of premade cookie dough and grinned at me.

I rolled my eyes, feeling my blush before knowing it was there. Ian opened the plastic container and grabbed one of the glass bowls with reindeer on it that I had gotten for Mel today. "You go on and get the dough into that bowl, okay my lovely Wanderer?" He smiled down at me, and I found myself speechless. The butterflies still consumed me to this day. I simply nodded my head, taking the spoon he now held from his hands, "And I'll open these bags of chocolate and stir them in."

I frowned, holding a spoon full of dough, "Isn't that too much, Ian? What if we run out before the next raid?"
Ian smiled at me, and took one of the pieces of chocolate from the bag he just opened, "Wanderer, there is no such thing as two things: too much of chocolate and too much of you. "

I could feel my breathing increase as he placed the chip against my lip, willing my lips to part for it. My tongue slithered out, taking the chip from Ian's fingers. Who would have thought that little action could have so many reactions in this small body. Soon Ian's fingers were replaced with his lips, and as we kissed, the nothing else mattered; not the cookies, not chocolate. The only thing that mattered was his lips on mine. "And I enjoy enough of you to be an addict," He mumbled, pulling away from me. "Now, about those cookies?"

"Add as much chocolate as you'd like," I mumbled, pulling his head down to mine for another kiss, "As long as you're my present, I don't care about the chocolate."

And those were the best cookies I had ever eaten, and Ian was my favorite Christmas present.