Sorry for the majoy gap between updates, I've been caught up in another project all month and everything else fell by the wayside. I'm back on track now though and hopefully regular with resume. This isn't a very long update I'm afraid, but I hope you enjoy it.

"It's just so beautiful!" Willow's eyes were shining with delight as they walked down the residential street.

It was mid-morning but every house was awash, inside and out, with the twinkling and sparkling of Christmas decorations. Lawns were lit up like neon bar-signs, pronouncing to the world that Christmas was open for business. The whole neighbourhood was one big shiny LED winter wonderland.

Kennedy was used to it being like this out here and she barely noticed the extravagance of the displays, but Willow was enchanted.

Kennedy squeezed her hand. "So you like it?"

"I do. I mean, obviously it's a garish exhibition of crass commercialism but . . . look at all the pretty lights!"

Laughing, Kennedy swung their joined hands between them, pleased that the vacation hadn't been found wanting so far. She'd been nervous about bringing Willow, but she was taking her crazy family in stride and genuinely seemed to be enjoying herself.

"So did you miss me last night?" she teased.

"Yep. Your bed is way too big for just one person. I was lost in the sheets. There was this one moment where I thought I'd never find my way to edge again." Willow grinned at her. "Oh, and I missed snuggle time."

"Me too."

"I kinda thought you might sneak up after everyone was in bed."

"I wanted to, I nearly did, but Heidi was wandering the halls and she's the only one of my Mom's housekeepers I've never been able to get around."

"Do you think your Mom will change her mind before tonight? Maybe if we promise her we just plan to sleep?"

"Would you believe that?" Kennedy thought about the conversation she'd had with her Mom the night before. "No, she's suddenly realised seven years too late that letting me have girls sleep over isn't great parenting. I think she's got it into her head that the reason none of my other relationships worked out was because I gave it up too easy." She laughed as she made finger quotes around 'relationships' and 'too easy'.

"Okay, not needing to hear more about those, but do you think she's right?"

"No. I think I was too young for serious relationships anyway and the few I tried to have she ruined by being insane . . . but Willow, I never met anyone I really wanted to be serious with until you."

Willow's beautiful smile made Kennedy feel shy for revealing that, but it was true. From the first moment she'd spoken to Willow she'd known this girl was different; and even if it had been all about the thrill of the chase to start with, it hadn't taken her long to realise her feelings ran so much deeper than ever before.

"So maybe you just have to tell your Mom that."

"I tried last night but I think she's waiting for some kind of divine sign that I'm telling the truth and not just saying it to get laid."

Willow chuckled, "Well, I can understand that."

"Yeah, I understand it, but it doesn't help either of us get laid tonight."

Willow let go of her hand to playfully push her shoulder and when Kennedy caught it again she tugged her towards the sidewalk. They'd reached the end of one road and rather than turning aimlessly into the next as they'd been doing for the last hour, Kennedy headed for a footpath that ran between two of the large houses.

"Where are we going? There are more displays that way." Willow pointed down the street.

"Stage two of the tour."

A few hundred feet beyond the houses was a road. Not a busy one, at least not right now, but they had to wait for a couple of cars to pass before they could cross. On the other side Kennedy walked across a wide snowy verge into a line of trees and bushes.

"This is the second stage of the tour? Making out in the bushes?"

"We're not making out in the bushes." Kennedy heard the words leave her mouth and stopped abruptly. "Although we can if you want. It wasn't where I was aiming for but I'm onboard with detours."

"Detours can be fun."

Hidden from the road and passers-by, they lost twenty minutes detouring. If they hadn't both been wearing so many layers it probably would have been longer.

"So where were you aiming?" Willow asked eventually.

"Through here." Kennedy didn't take her hand again because she needed both of hers to push through the bushes and bare tree branches. She held them back for Willow to pass through. "To my parent's country club."

"Your parents own a country club?"

"No, but the amount of fees they pay each year to belong to it they probably could have bought one of their own by now. Here, over this."

She helped Willow over the simple wooden chest-high fence and then with one hand on the upper-most bar she jumped over to join her on the other side.

"Is this legal? Are we trespassing?" Willow whispered.

Kennedy grinned, "I'm a member too, Will, have been since I was seven. It's just quicker to go this way than walk around to the front gates."

"Seven?"

"Well, eighteen officially, but they know me."

There were bushes and trees on this side too and again Kennedy held them aside for Willow.

"Wow!"

Kennedy looked to see what had caused the reaction but there was nothing. "What?"

"I've just never seen this much snow!"

In front of them was the golf course, gently sloping down and then up with just a few trees and flags dotted here and there. It was covered in fresh, virgin snow. The club house could be seen on the horizon, a creamy-stone building that looked small from this distance.

"We had this much snow in Boudenver," she pointed out.

"I know, but after the first day that was just a nuisance. I can't imagine ever getting bored of looking at this though."

Kennedy chuckled, "Come on."

"Wait!" When she looked back at her, Willow gestured at the ground before them. "I don't want to spoil it."

"But that's the fun of snow, Will!" When Willow didn't look convinced Kennedy walked a few steps into it – it was soft and came half way up her shins – and then turned around to face her. "Watch."

Holding her arms out she fell backwards, she landed with a smuuuch sound as the snow gave around her.

"Your turn."

"Isn't it cold?"

"Not really."

Dubiously, Willow gingerly high-stepped out and picked her own patch of deep snow. After a few seconds to psych herself up she fell backwards too, and then lay there giggling.

Back at Sunset Camp everyone was getting drowsy again. Reece knew why, the literature was too dull and the room was too warm, but he couldn't bring himself to open a window to the sub-zero temperatures outside. He was trying to think of a way to boost everyone's energy when Dawn wandered into the kitchen yawning.

"Oh, hey, what are you all doing up so early?"

"Research," Vi muttered, eyes half-closed.

"Cool." Dawn bounced over to the fridge. "Find anything useful yet?"

"Nope." Alison rubbed her eyes before going back to reading. "And I'm officially seconds away from giving up."

Dawn's head had been in the fridge but she pulled it out again fast to stare at the slayers in dismay. "You can't give up! Think of the kiddies!"

Rona shook her head and closed her book. "There's nothing in these, Dawn!"

"So you're telling me that in those . . ." she counted quickly. ". . . eight big, thick books there is nothing that could be anything like what we're dealing with?"

"Dawn, it's not a case of just . . ." Reece began.

Dawn cut him off by holding her hand up. "I believe I was asking Rona."

Rona didn't look uncomfortable about being put in the middle of them, she shrugged. "Well, I've got nothing."

"It's true," Vi said. "We can research until we're blue in the face but . . . Actually, I think I must already be blue in the face. Am I?" she asked Rachel, sat to her left.

Rachel just shook her head mutely.

"There are plenty of demons that like to eat little children but we have no way of narrowing them down."

"Have you tried widening the search area? What about demons from . . .?"

"Yes," Reece told her. "We've expanded the search to habitats all the way to the North Pole."

"Okay," Dawn took the orange juice from the fridge and went to get a glass. "What about demons that only strike in winter time?"

"We've done that too!" Reece snapped. "We've widened our parameters as far as they'll go."

Dawn hopped up onto a stool. "So what about narrowing them?"

"How will that help?"

"Well, for starters it will reduce the number of demons likely . . ."

"And what do you suggest we narrow them to?" Reece asked. "We've already tried looking for demons that only feed around Boudenver – there were none – and demons that are only present in Ohio."

"That was more than none," Naomi said. "In fact it was a surprising amount, considering how quiet the Hellmouth area is."

"Not really, when you think about it." Dawn shrugged, "All of the demons are slowly making their way here from Sunnydale, it was bound to boost the population, but maybe they just haven't made it all the way to here yet."

Rona sat back in her chair, more alert than she had been all morning. "But if this demon came from Sunnydale, how has it been eating kids here every year for decades?"

"Exactly," Reece said, trying to gain some control over his research session. "It has to be either a local demon or a demon that habitually resides in the colder climates. So we need to keep reading . . ."

Dawn completely ignored him. "Going back to narrowing our parameters. We've tried local, we've tried less than local, we've tried winter demons . . ."

"You didn't in fact try any of them. You were asleep until twenty minutes ago."

Now she glared at him. "And whose fault is that? Why didn't you wake me for the research? You woke everyone else."

Her question surprised him. "I wanted to let you sleep."

"Why? Expecting another call from your girlfriend?"

There were a few titters from the slayers but Reece ignored them. "I told you last night, Dawn; Patricia and I . . ."

"I didn't want to hear it then, I don't want to hear it now." She addressed the rest of the group again. "So what about really narrowing it down? Like, demons that only attack at Christmas or something?"

Reeling with anger, Reece snapped, "That's preposterous! There aren't any demons that only attack at Christmas. It's a Christian holiday, it's sacred, no demon would dare misuse it." When he received several sceptical looks he went on, "Look, it's like vampires and crosses."

"He's right," Naomi backed him up. "Demons can feed on Christmas Day without burning up but none of them would do it deliberately. They'd be too scared of the consequences."

"So what you're saying," Alison said, "is that a vamp could bite me on Christmas Day and he'd be fine, but if he planned to bite me specifically because it was Christmas Day he'd be in trouble?"

Naomi nodded, "Essentially, yes. I don't think there have been any studies into whether it would actually be dangerous for a demon to bite someone on Christmas Day, but that's only because no demons are prepared to take the risk and try it."

The kitchen fell silent as everyone tried to come up with a new approach to the problem. It was the last thing on Reece's mind as he seethed over Dawn's attitude. He understood that she was angry – unjustifiably so in his opinion considering she hadn't even given him a chance to explain the night before – but it gave her no right to make him look a fool in front of the slayers. All of this might be a lark for her, a welcome break from homework no doubt, but it was his career, and undermining him as she was trying to do was unacceptable.

So he was even more furious when she suddenly sat up straight and offered yet another ridiculous explanation that all of the slayers lapped up.

"What if we're not dealing with a demon exactly? What if it's some other kind of supernatural Being – one that doesn't have the same hang-ups demons do?"

"Like what?" he asked sarcastically. "The Tooth Fairy?"

She shrugged, refusing to rise to his jibe. "Or a Hell-God."

"You're forgetting the fact that Hell-Gods don't live on this plane."

She shrugged again. "Sometimes they do."

The snowball fight had started. Buffy and Faith had never intended to join in, they still had to go and find that elf-infested ski-lift, but they'd been jollied into it by their new friends. Aware that they had to be seen to be fitting in, the slayers had agreed with a subtle nod to just get it over and done with.

It was a pretty haphazard event. About thirty people were taking part and because everyone was allowed to choose which side they were on without intervention they were uneven, about twenty to ten. Buffy had used that as her excuse to pick the other team to Faith.

"It's only fair," she'd joked to Tim as she walked towards the opposing side, "Otherwise we'll slay them."

She felt a little bad at the thought of throwing snowballs at him and Jan and Olly, but not that bad because she was only planning on aiming at one person anyway.

She realised quickly, or at least after the fifth snowball landed on her face, that this might not have been the best idea. Her aim may have been deadly but her snowballs were less so, whereas Faith must have spent most of her formative years – in the winter months anyway – making these things. Plus picking the smaller side may have been noble, but it was also stupid because it just meant she had even more people chucking lumps of snow at her.

Finally getting the hang of it after ten minutes, she sent snowball after snowball at Faith's head. She was faster than the rest of her team, who were laughing and fooling around too much to be effective, and soon broke ranks to seek out fresh snow when that around her had been depleted or trampled on.

With more people on her side, Faith soon had to do the same, her aim as single-minded as Buffy's. Buffy spluttered and blinked as each snowball that hit her bare face stung like a bitch, but even half-blinded by flakes and watering eyes she didn't slow down her throws.

Days – no months – of frustration went into her assault, and knowing Faith was probably channelling the same just spurred her on to win. To settle this once and for all: I'm right; you're wrong, deal with it!

Faith wasn't getting the message though, not even when a particularly large ball smacked her straight in the eye. She fell back for a second, rubbed the sore orb, and then went straight back to launching snowballs at her.

A whistle was blown. Buffy didn't know what it was for so she ignored it; bending to grab another handful of snow.

A compatriot came to pat her shoulder, "Good show, thanks to you we nearly had them beat."

"Yeah." She slipped out from under his hand, barely hearing his words, as she found room to bring her arm back and let fly at Faith's head.

It was easier to concentrate now because there were less people around her and less people around Faith. A snowball socked her right in the mouth and she swallowed half of it in surprise even as she was scooping up more.

The whistle blew again.

She caught Faith in the throat hard enough to make her yelp. She ducked the next one aimed at her head while making her next. Olly squealed with laughter and Buffy looked up to see why. Faith had grabbed him up in one arm and was using him as a human shield! Even as she registered that, Faith's next shot hit her in the face again; right on the nose!

"Bitch!"

Using more strength than she had been, Buffy aimed between Olly's dangling legs and pulled off the perfect groin shot. Faith grunted and sank to her knees, releasing Olly to run, laughing, back to his parents.

Before Buffy could start crowing over her victory an Elf-man was running up, blowing his whistle in her face.

The rest of the hunting party were never far away, Xander realised, as Alex fired up his portable radio and the responding beep could be heard from deep within the trees to their left. This was good if trouble found one of the other groups - at least he, Robin and Giles would be within running distance - but it didn't say a lot for the sheriff's planning skills if they were all hunting through the same patch of forest – leaving lots of other patches of forest hunt-free.

As Alex asked the guy who ran The Mouth if they'd seen anything yet, Xander mentioned as much to Giles.

"I agree," the Watcher said softly, "but to be honest I don't think we're going to find anything in daylight anyway. They're hoping to flush a wolf from its den, which would make sense if there was a wolf to find, but if we're truly dealing with elves as Buffy believes, they'll be where the food source is, not out here in the woods."

"So the resorts?"

"I imagine so."

As they trudged past the lane that led to Mount Olwyn Farm, Craig bustled cheerfully between them. "Are we going to that?"

He was pointing to a poster stuck to the gate post. Xander gave it a glance and noticed it was the same as the one Giles had brought home the night before.

"I think we have more pressing matters than a Christmas fete," Giles said.

"I know that! My whole body's feeling the press of the bleeding freezing conditions you've got me traipsing 'round in, but it's still Christmas, en't it? We can have a little fun too."

"Not while children are being eaten we can't," Giles said firmly.

It wasn't easy to repress Craig's enthusiasm for life and Giles' words didn't come close. "Come on, Uncle Rubear! Look! Reindeers, carolling, Father Christmas! We have to go."

Xander grinned at him. Despite knowing his parentage, it was hard not to like the kid a little. Craig kinda reminded him of himself at that age – although he'd been less with the gayness obviously. "Aren't you a little old to believe in Santa?"

"I don't believe he exists, but what's Christmas without a jolly fat man in a red suit?" Grinning slyly, he added, "Some of my best childhood memories come from sitting on Father Christmas' knee."

Xander laughed while Giles groaned, "Please go back to pestering Andrew and leave us grown-ups alone."

Craig winked at Xander before doing just that, but called out, "Still think we should go though. It'd probably chill some of the slayers out if they sat on Santa's knee too."

Giles shook his head, muttering about the boy under his breath, until he saw Xander's expression. "What are you grinning about?"

"You just called me a grown-up!"

"My mistake. Perhaps you'd be more comfortable walking back there with the boys."

Alex was off of the radio now. "Jake's team is heading north towards the lake and Marlon's is gonna skirt around Pleasant Creek, so I say we take Juniper Lane to the west and follow it back to town. It's about another ten miles or so, you guys okay with that?"

Xander shrugged, "Sure, Al, whatever you think's best."

They must have already walked four or five miles, the most exercise he'd done in a long while. He knew he'd ache for it tomorrow but right now, with the crisp air in his lungs and his legs just getting warmed up, another ten miles sounded like nothing. There were groans from behind them though, which the 'grown-ups' ignored.

"Do any of those routes go near the local resorts?" Giles asked.

"Yeah, they all do, the local resorts being local and all," Alex said gruffly. "As I've said before Mr. Giles, we know what we're doing. Our route will take us within a mile of Snow Dunes. Jake will pass Big Fir and Winterlake. Bobby's group will practically cut through High Tops on its way back to town. The resorts are covered."

Xander latched onto one resort name only, and judging by the look that passed between Robin and Giles they did too.

With a slight nod, Robin said, "I just need to make a call." And then drifted back until he was walking behind Andrew, Craig and the other kid.

"City types, huh?" Alex said with derisive nod back towards Robin. "Can't cope without their damn cell phones."

Xander couldn't worry about Alex's intolerance, he was too busy wondering why Robin got to call Buffy instead of him or Giles, but then it clicked. Robin didn't seem like the pining type but maybe the opportunity to call a certain ex was just too good to resist.

Thanks for reading :)