Author's Note: Yes, this is just a random chapter I wanted to write...because I found an old chapter I printed out somewhere, and I thought, 'hey, I remember this story!' so I wanted to hurry up and write a quick one. The last time I started this chapter, it turned out really dark, depressing and angsty. Well...this chapter did, too, but it was a happy-bittersweet-fluffy-hugging chapter.

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Christmas came like a miracle out of the blue. Raziel was slowly getting used to Amanda's mispronunciation of his name. Since a couple of weeks ago, his name had become "Razzle" instead of "Raziel", because of how fast she had gotten used to speaking it. Now she spoke it too fast - and so the name was like a ray of light in his eye that he couldn't get away from.

The holiday was also a new thing. But to be honest, he saw little difference between this holiday and the ones they held in Nosgoth's darkest sanctuaries. Where there had been humans and cheerful celebration, there were vampires in humongous marble halls with bubbling vats of still-warm blood and great meals so unusual, nobody ate them. The trays just sat on the tables like forgotten ornaments.

Raziel didn't quite understand gifts, either. Amanda closed her eyes, rolling onto her back and flopping like a useless fish on the floor.

"No... You just give the other person a gift, wrapped in the paper. You don't have to keep the paper, it's just for show. I always hear 'it's the thought that counts!', but... I don't know. Sometimes I got really crappy gifts."

Raziel, sprawled on a rather comfortable chair, seated sideways with his legs hanging over the edge, glanced over, anxious and annoyed that she was so impatient. "Is it another family holiday, where everyone comes together and enjoys each other's company?"

"Yeah. Well... not at my house... Mom doesn't like Christmas." She didn't smile, and she was not sad. It was a fact of life for her that they never really celebrated Saint Nick's holiday together, but rather she went out with friends of the Mental Health Association. They were all very friendly people, not just the employees. It made her feel good to know that she didn't have more problems than she did.

Raziel watched her as she stared at the ceiling, tucking her hands behind her head in a slightly boyish fashion. She was not one to act as he was accustomed to. But by this time, he was accustomed to her earthly mannerisms. She went on, without waiting for his questions.

"Anyway... my gift to you was making your life easier, by having you be able to regenerate your body back to its normal state through eating souls. And... uh, yeah. I haven't been able to get you much else. Except call up some witches and sorcerers around the world and get really good advice. Next thing I'm going to need is a freakin' computer because I can't stand talking on the phone."

She jumped up suddenly, turning to face the door where the vampires slipped into the room, silent as ghosts. Their fearless leader, Darius, entered with a dramatic flair, presenting a box in his pale palm, about the size of a cell phone. The twins and Kafele were there. Kafele held a small kitten in her arms, with eyes as red as blood. It was probably blood-bonded, fated to go mad before it reached maturity.

Amanda knew so much about vampirism now, she was insanely depressed that the kitten would go crazy. She loved cats. Suddenly her throat tightened, and longing for the company of her own cat, she closed her eyes and swallowed. She took the box blindly from Darius's hands. "What is this...?"

"Just open it, child." Darius leaned against the female vampire, who enjoyed her kitten's attention by letting it hook her fingers with its deadly, hard little claws.

Amanda did so, peeling back the package's paper and sliding the box top off. The sight of green was also something she missed. There were probably one-hundred hundred-dollar bills in that box, all of them packed tightly together and wrapped with an elastic non-sticky band.

"This is a humongo wad of cash, dude," was all Amanda could come up with. Then she cleared her throat. "What to do with it, huh?"

"Get yourself that computer, my good lady. Perhaps you can get some respectable clothing for you and your friend, so we don't look like Halloween so much, eh?"

Darius chuckled afterward, moving like a ghost across the floor to their makeshift Christmas tree. It was adorned with mostly red electric lights, giving it more of a hellish example of Dante's Christmas in Hell. But there were trinkets and things... odd bits and bobbits, antiques that Amanda had trouble identifying their time-period.

Amanda couldn't resist looking longingly at Raziel. She had been aching to get him to a clothing store for ages. Not because he looked bad, per se, but just that she would have loved to see him in something a normal guy would wear. He met her gaze with a slight tilt of the head, catching the electricity of her excitement.

"We'll go tonight. I mean... surely I'm not going out just to buy myself stuff. I don't need much." She reached out, snaking her fingers through her shortened hair. She then reached out to grab Raziel's hand and pull on it, hard, her soft fingerpads scraping a little on his wicked claws. "Get...up!"

Raziel, who wasn't much for simple outings, just growled and closed his eyes. "Must I?"

"Yes. Get up. And I even know where we can go, too. It'll just take us awhile. In fact... pack your stuff. We'd better go." Suddenly dropping his arm, she turned to Darius, eyes flashing with resolve. "That's it. I'm tired of calling up strangers on the phone. I've been here too long. I don't want to sit on my ass anymore... plus, I'd like to go home and see my mom again for once in my life, before I get old."

Raziel sat up slowly, watching her scamper away into the darkened halls of their underground home. It was amazing to see her so energetic suddenly, so late at night. But then again, her sleeping habits required her to stay up with the vampires. Her research went well at night, too, because while it was midnight in New York, it would be midday on the other side of the world.

In less than fifteen minutes, Amanda was out and about with Raziel at her back, wearing a thick, heavy parka, two layers of pants and a couple of hats.. with big, poofy gloves. She carried a bag over her shoulder, a single-strap pack that carried a couple spellbooks and a good deal of components. It was easier this way... it looked normal to see a teenager carrying a back rather than nothing. It would certainly draw less attention.

She looked over her shoulders, seeing her breath... and stared at the moon rising. Her throat caught to see a clear night sky, so late in winter. Usually it was clouds, clouds, and dreariness throughout. But the moon was coming higher and higher, turning the trees blacker and the snow more blue. And the way it gleamed off of Raziel's translucent flesh, and his eyes burning, focused as he gazed at the snowy tracks before him...

"What're you thinking?"

He looked up, blinking his glowing eyes at her. "I am lost here, aren't I?"

She shook her head. "We've been through this. No, you're not lost... if you say you can travel through time, then there's definately a way I can get you back to where you need to go, even if it's another world completely." She stepped over a fallen pine, reaching down to balance herself, sliding over the snow and stepping into a rather deep snowdrift on the other side.

Ignoring her dilemma, she began pulling herself out of it, grunting in between words. "You've... got to keep up hope. Just yesterday -- ugh! -- I talked to a woman who said that she knows of a 'time machine' that sort of sounds like yours. I know where she lives and everything."

Raziel stood next to her, on a shallower patch of snow. He offered his arm, clad in a nice winter jacket, black and red, and she seized it tightly. He pulled her up and out, and set her down in front of him. But as she came down, her boot slipped on a thick branch from the same fallen tree and she inevitably staggered into his body.

In her heart, in her mind, she felt an ache of remorse during that second when she truly believed he would let her fall face-first into the ground. It was as though every part of her anger and short-tempered mask melted away and she wanted to weep, knowing so few people in the world would care enough to make a studied effort to catch her.

He caught her like magic.

She was hanging off of his shoulders, one arm crooked around his neck, and he was crouching slightly, as if to put himself in her reach, and his arms were around her, holding tightly, bringing his claws under her arms and lifting her up. He peered down, curious, becoming enthralled by the look of her eyes, still blinking at some inner turmoil he couldn't identify.

He realized again they were outside. It was cold. But being outside, Amanda was free to remember how much the world hurt her with its war and its suffering and misery. She was so sensitive to that sort of thing... it hurt. Shutting everything else out. Everyone. Her mother. Her tears started spilling without warning, and flooding her body was a sinking despair that could have dragged Raziel down as the strength left her legs. Her heart started pounding in her ears, and the pain was mixed with the relief that Raziel caught her. Someone alien and strange and beautiful, even in his most dilapidated form, could care so much and yet know so little about her.

But he wasn't a human being. This fact, though, did not mean he didn't understand on some level.

She straightened after awhile, choking down her crying until she let herself sob a few times. A chilling goodness coursed through her veins then. She looked up, tired and weary, into his face. They were moving a little bit. Raziel held her close and swayed back and forth very slightly, standing straight and bringing his right hand to her hat, brushing over it a little.

It felt... good. He felt himself grow fond of this moment, which was bizarre in his existence where time meant so little to him, he that jumped back and forth through time, spanning centuries and feeling all the time a growing hatred fused with loneliness and rage. Her eyes spoke so much of his story that it scared him. This moment was dripping with insight, and an emotion he felt growing like a solid weight in his chest that he didn't really mind, actually.

Amanda spoke up softly, her voice thin and wane, threading its way into his ears. "I'm a klutz, huh?"

The vampire lieutenant smiled. "A graceful one. Are you alright now?"

"Yes," she sighed, ending with a non-sensical grumble of disgust. "I'm so sick of crying. I shouldn't cry so much. Mom tells me I'm too empathetic... I let so much bother me and I need to control myself sometimes."

He slowly let his arms release her as she stole away from him. She took her gloves off if only to rub at her eyes. "It's way too cold to be cryin' right now, anyway. Freeze my tears to my face, and then I'd certainly be a sight to see, huh?"

He nodded, distressed to have her leave his arms so soon. And confused as to why he felt about it that way.

His chest ached again. It pinched, disturbed by the sensation burning itself against his heart. He swallowed, a burning realization that such a disturbance was slowly awakening the Soul Reaver. Confused, it touched upon the emotion and withdrew in alarm, twisting itself inside of him as if recoiling from the ambient noise of it. He pressed his claw against his chest, feeling a tingling in his arm. It would emerge again, regardless of his command.

It was just a matter, as it ever was, of time.