We Three Kings
By Sauscony
E-mail: sauscony@forty-two.co.nz
Rating: G
Pairings: Buffy/Giles and others
Summary: Reply to a 2000 Christmas Challenge
Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel characters are copyrighted ©20th Century Fox, Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, UPN and the WB, and are used without permission. No copyright infringment is intended.
"Do you know what this is all about?" Buffy asked her husband, as they obediently filed into the rumpus room after Tricia and Jennifer.
He shook his head. "Not a clue. Just that Jake wants us here."
Tricia looked back over her shoulder, having heard the exchange. "I wonder what the little monster has dreamed up this time?"
"That's your brother you're insulting," Giles pointed out as they all found themselves seats. The dining room chairs had been dragged into the rumpus room and set up in a semi circle, arranged to face the braided rug on the floor beside the piano.
"They've been enterprising, I must say," Jennifer added as she sat down. "I think we're going to get a concert."
"Mom did get Jake to leave the trumpet at home, didn't she?" Tricia queried, sounding a little worried.
"Jake has a trumpet?" Buffy asked.
Tricia nodded. "He started taking lessons about three months ago." She lowered her voice. "Right now, he's awful."
"Don't forget, he started by trying to get Mom and Dad to let him learn the bagpipes," Jennifer reminded her sister. "It could be worse."
Giles groaned. "There is nothing on this Earth worse than badly played bagpipes."
"Angel singing?" Buffy suggested, and tried not to laugh when she heard her husband struggling to suppress a snort. "So we should be grateful for the trumpet?" she asked.
"The trumpet got left behind," Jennifer said firmly. "Whatever he's come up with, that's not it."
They were saved from making any further guesses by the arrival of Jake himself. He'd kept the party hat he'd been given at dinner, and added to it by borrowing a length of crimson tinsel from the Christmas tree and wrapped that around his neck as a tie. He was also wearing Kelly's coloured waistcoat that his brother had been foolish enough to leave lying across the back of a chair. It was several sizes too big for him, but he looked so serious no-one dared to even think of laughing.
He waved his hands for silence, and when he got it, he bowed floridly and straightened up again. "Ladies and Gentlemen," he announced, "Allow me to introduce the Scooby Christmas Choir." He clapped his hands, and everyone joined in, waiting to see what might happen next.
A procession of children marched into the room, each one dressed in some sort of put-together Christmas finery. Miri came first, wearing her mother's shoes and the spotted scarf Buffy and Giles had given her for Christmas. She was followed by the Harris grandchildren; Peter's three - Jack, Katie and Samuel - all wearing borrowed tinsel, and Jennifer's twins, Alison and Ann, sporting identical bows in their identical hair, also appropriated from the tree decorations.
"I think our Christmas tree is naked," Buffy hissed to Giles, and he shushed her with a quiet chuckle.
The children lined up, facing their audience, wearing expressions ranging from eager to bored.
"We're going to sing you a Christmas carol," Jake announced.
He turned back to his choir. "Are you ready?" There was a scattering of nods, and he waved his hands in the air as he imagined a conductor might. "Okay, one, two, three!"
With varying degrees of talent and an unexpected clarity, the children began to sing.
We Three Kings of Orient Are
One on a tractor, two in a car
One on a scooter, tooting a hooter
Following yonder star
Oh, Star of Wonder, Star of Light
Star of Beauty, she'll be right
Star of Glory, that's the story
Following yonder star
As they finished, Jake looked over his astounded audience and collapsed to the floor in a fit of the giggles. "Got you, got you, got you," he repeated breathlessly.
"Where did you learn that?" Xander demanded, not sure whether to laugh or play the stern father.
"From me," a small voice said, and he turned to look at Lisa, who was staring at the floor, her face totally scarlet. "It's really, really old. It's from around when my parents were kids. They used to sing it sometimes, as a joke. I'm afraid I taught it to Jake."
"I thought it was funny," Anya announced. "Well done, Jake. But there were four kings in the song, not three."
"Oh." Jake looked surprised. He obviously hadn't picked up on that discrepancy.
Lisa was starting to look a little less embarrassed. "You're right," she said in surprise. "That song's been around for sixty years or something, and no-one's pointed that out to me before."
"Were we good, Granna?" Samuel asked, and Anya nodded vigorously. "You were great, kid."
"How about we all sing some proper carols?" Dawn suggested. "Joy can play the piano, and Giles his guitar, and we can all sing."
There was a token protest from the two so named, but they didn't stand a chance of getting out of it and they both knew it. Resigned, Joy sat at the piano, Giles settled his guitar on his knee and they asked for the first request.
