Seasons Greetings, all. Relatively new at this so don't shoot me down too much. This story has been rattling around in my head for the past while. For time frame references, I'm making the whole Christmas tree trimming scene happen the day before Christmas Eve. And...I love Holly Holiday. I'd love Gwyneth back on the show full time but I'm sure they can't afford her! This will eventually end up being Will/Emma, though, no fear dear readers!

I don't own/have the rights to anything Glee. Damn.


Will Schuester wandered around his living room, disposing of soda cans and water bottles into the blue plastic recycling bag in his hand. Quite a night, he mused to himself as he gathered discarded pizza boxes and potato chip bags and carried them to the garbage chute down the hall from his apartment. He had been surprised and touched by Sue Sylvester's sudden burst of holiday spirit, gathering the glee kids together to help him get through one of the hardest Christmases he'd ever had. Their surprise visit had turned into actual Christmas party, with laughter, and food, and fellowship. And, of course, song. Will hadn't laughed that hard in a long time, especially singing "Twelve Days of Christmas" with everyone, and he and Sue getting stuck with the "five gold rings" verse. After grabbing a beer, Will settled on the couch in front of his newly-decorated Christmas tree and admired his students' handiwork. Tomorrow was Christmas Eve, and he was happy that the tree and his students had finally helped him get into a holiday mood.

A gentle knocking at his door broke him from his reverie. He opened the door to find a tall, pretty blond-haired woman standing before him, freshly fallen snow lightly dusting her hair.

"Holly? Hey, hi…what are you doing here?" Will greeted his friend with a peck on the cheek as he escorted her into his apartment.

"Well, I was at the school just now, Figgins had me filling out some last-minute paperwork….he might actually have a full-time position opening up for me after the holidays," Holly beamed as she removed her coat. "And, as I was walking to my car, I found this…" Holly reached into her coat pocket and retrieved a soggy, bloated leather-bound lump.

Will's eyes widened in surprise. "My wallet!" he exclaimed and instinctively touched the back pocket of his jeans, only to discover his wallet wasn't in its usual place. "I didn't even realize it was missing. Wow, thank you so much." Holly smiled a shy smile. "My pleasure."

Will shook his head slightly at his thoughtlessness as he rifled quickly through the wallet to see if its contents were intact. How could he have lost his wallet? To think of the aggravation of trying to replace all of its contents, especially over the holidays, made him doubly grateful his friend had found it. Thankfully, all of his credit cards were in place. His cash was still even there, though completely soaked.

After fetching a beer for Holly, the pair settled on the couch in front of the fire and the beautiful Christmas tree. "Nice tree," Holly said as she took a swig of beer. Will proceeded to tell her of how it came to be, and how she had just missed seeing the kids by a few minutes. "Wow. You are so lucky. Those kids love you." The two exchanged small talk until the inevitable question came up:

"So, what are you doing for Christmas?"

Holly looked slightly uncomfortable at the question but with a meaningful look from Will she said, "Well, I do pretty much the same thing every year. Tomorrow, Christmas Eve, I first hit the wine store, and stock up on some really expensive Merlot, then I hit Blockbuster and rent the six or eight movies I wanted to see this year but never got around to, and then I hit Yin Lee's for a whole whack of Chinese food. Then, I go home, I decorate my little tree, drink wine, eat Chinese food and watch my movies all night. When the sun comes up, I open my present, which I buy myself and is usually something frivolous that I wouldn't ordinarily buy for myself during the year, then I go to bed. When I wake up, it's Christmas night, and Christmas is done, thank God." Holly rolled her eyes at the end of that statement and took a large gulp of her beer.

Will regarded her for a minute. "Just, by yourself? Sounds kinda lonely."

"Yup," she replied, "just me." Holly looked down and continued softly, "My mom and sister were killed in a car accident when I was 10, so it was just me and my dad all these years until he passed away six years ago. It's not so bad." Holly shrugged and looked down at her bottle as she spoke. "Not much I can do about it."

Holly chuckled and then continued. "My mom loved Christmas. First, she marries a man named "Holiday", then calls me Holly, and my sister Ivy. My dad's name was Christopher but she called him Kris Kringle for the whole month before Christmas."

Again, Holly gave a small dismissive shrug and looked up at Will. "What about you? What are you doing?"

"Pretty much the same as you, laying low. My folks booked a Mediterranean cruise months ago, before I was divorced. My mom offered to cancel to stay home with me for the holidays, but they would've been out thousands, so I told her to go. It's funny, last Christmas I was married with a baby on the way…" Holly looked at him oddly. Will realized that she probably didn't know of the whole pretend-baby fiasco with Terri. "…and this Christmas I had thought I'd be with someone else, but that didn't work out as I had hoped."

Holly eyed Will. "But, you still love this someone else?"

"Yeah, I do. But there's not a damn thing I can do about it. She got married a few weeks ago." Will sighed. Now it was his turn to take a long plug on his beer. "So I guess it's just me."

Holly regarded her friend for a long while. "Quite a pair, aren't we?" she said quietly. Suddenly she looked up at Will. "So…do you maybe want to spend Christmas Eve with me? We could do the whole wine-movies-MSG-laden-food thing together. What do you think?"

Will looked Holly for a moment and a small smile crept upon his handsome features. "I would love to," he said softly.

Holly jumped up and whooped with joy. "Oh, this'll be great! Listen, come by my place tomorrow around noon or so and you can come with me to the wine store, and Blockbuster…what kind of movies do you like? Wait, let me guess. Musicals." She grinned sheepishly at her friend. Before Will could answer, she exclaimed, "Hey! I have something for you, something guaranteed to cheer you up over the holidays when you're feeling blue." Dipping her hand into the other pocket of her coat, she pulled out a small plastic baggie with some green foliage inside, and handed it to Will. "Here, this is for you."

Will stood and took the bag from Holly. He took one look at it and said, "Ohh, no thanks, I don't smoke…"

Before he could finish, Holly said, "Geez, Will, it's not pot, it's mistletoe. Look." She took the bag back, opened it and pulled out a small fresh sprig of green mistletoe, its delicate white berries still clinging to it. "See, what you do is you tuck this bad boy away in your pocket," Holly explained as she put it in the pocket of the vest he was wearing, "and you pull it out if you see a pretty girl you'd like to kiss. She has to kiss you, you know, there's some kind of Christmas statute, or something. This is from a mistletoe plant that used to grow in our house when I was a kid. I've actually kept it alive all these years and harvest a whole bunch every Christmas to give away to my friends."

Holly pulled on her coat and turned to leave. "Now, my address is 295 Westgate Street, apartment…" Before she could finish, Will spun her around by her arm until they were eye to eye. In his left hand he held the mistletoe sprig and brought it above her head, smiled slightly, then lowered his lips to hers and gave her a deliciously light kiss. "…3C," Holly finished breathlessly, when they broke apart. Holly was caught up in the most beautiful hazel eyes she had ever seen, when Will said, "Do you want to go get a cup of coffee?"

Holly smiled and said, "I thought you'd never ask."