AN: The song for this chapter is The Christmas Song by Owl City and I tried to relate it to the song - basically both Sam and Artie are a bit lonely around the holidays, Sam has a painfully obvious crush on Artie and...well you'll see what happens.

As it was drawing closer to Christmas, Mr. Schue had allowed them to sing Christmas songs for the next few weeks. Since they weren't being forced to go around to classrooms or obligated to do any specials on TV, they could finally just relax and enjoy the holiday. It was like Christmas caroling, but better because everyone actually knew how to sing properly.

In fact, they ended up decided that they would go Christmas caroling around town. The people who didn't go to their school would at least appreciate it and it would just be something fun to do. They decided on a date and Tina offered to let them all come back to her house afterwards so they could have hot chocolate.

They met up at Tina's house beforehand in order to get organized and make sure they knew what songs they were going to do. Once everyone was bundled up, they headed out together. Although everyone was laughing and goofing around and enjoying themselves, Sam couldn't help but feel a little lonely. He was still living in Lima and away from his family, and he missed them more than usual, since it was the holidays.

Artie was lost in thoughts of his own. While he pretended that he didn't care, he always felt lonely on holidays like this. He never seemed to be with anyone while everyone else was. Sure he had been dating Brittany that one year, but seeing as how that relationship turned out, the memories weren't quite the same. He enjoyed spending time with his friends, but he always felt a little left out since he didn't have anyone to share it with.

Both boys put their thoughts to the side when they got to their first house and the group began to belt out "Jingle Bells" to the delighted family that lived there. This continued as they made their way around Tina's neighborhood. At one point, they stopped to take a break – or more like discuss about where they were going to go next. Half the group wanted to keep singing while the other half wanted to go back to Tina's house where it was warm. Not really caring what happened, Sam walked a little ways away from the group to where there was a bench and sat down. Knowing these guys, they could be there for awhile and he wanted a little space from the boisterous group.

Looking up, he was surprised to see that Artie had followed him. He looked adorable with his knit hat and puffy winter coat. As he drew nearer, Sam could see his eyes sparkling behind his glasses and his cheeks were pink from the cold. It shouldn't be legal for one person to exude that much adorableness, Sam decided, but tried to ignore those thoughts. He knew that he would only make himself more upset if he reminded himself that he had no chance with Artie.

"Should we just ditch them and split an apple pie from McDonald's?" Artie said jokingly, flashing a grin at Sam.

"Sounds better than standing around in the cold doing nothing," Sam replied, smiling back. "But only if you're paying."

Artie laughed and Sam's heart fluttered a bit at how utterly cute he looked right now. It was infuriating and there was nothing he could do about it.

"So I have to pay on the first date then?" Artie said, pulling Sam out of his thoughts.

"Well I guess we could split the cost," Sam replied, realizing that he was blatantly flirting with Artie and mentally telling himself to knock it off – except it seemed that Artie was flirting right back.

"Any reason why you've been quiet today?" Artie asked suddenly, looking concerned. Sam sighed internally, mostly at himself for being obvious and bringing everyone down.

"I guess I just miss my family a little bit. It's hard around the holidays," he explained.

Artie nodded in sympathy. "It can be lonely around this time of year when you don't have anyone."

He sounded so dejected that Sam felt a flash of anger at everyone who had ignored him. How could anyone not see how amazing Artie was? He deserved to have someone who thought that way about him. Sam just wished he could be that person.

Sam didn't know it, but his indignation was showing on his face and Artie read it as that. He slowly realized that his suspicions about Sam were probably correct and before the other boy could really process what was happening, he leaned forward and kissed him.

The part of Sam's brain that was still functioning was hyperventilating and basically repeating, "ARTIE IS KISSING YOU," over and over. He wasn't sure what had just happened but Artie was kissing him and his hand was cupping his face and now Sam was remembering to react and kissing Artie back and nothing existed in the entire world except the two of them.

The kiss ended far too soon for Sam's liking but as he pulled back he could see Artie who was looking bashful and a little nervous. Sam just wanted to sweep him into his arms and never let go because Artie liked him and wanted to kiss him and everything was right in the world again. He grinned at Artie who stopped looking nervous once he saw Sam's response and it didn't really matter if they stayed out in the cold for another hour to sing Christmas carols or not because what really mattered had finally happened.