A/N: To follow.

Chapter 22: Gifts, Games, and Moments of Weakness

"You go first," Connor insisted, handing Dawn a medium-sized, nicely wrapped box. She didn't protest, unable to hide her excited grin as she accepted her present.

She gives it a playful shake, holding it close to her ear. "Hmm, what is this?" she says with a smile, tearing into the paper. After spending the entire morning catching up with the Angel Investigations crew as well as Willow, Xander, and Giles, Dawn and Connor had finally snuck up to one of the bedrooms to exchange their gifts for each other in private.

She removed a plain white box from the wrapping paper, glancing curiously at her boyfriend before lifting the lid. After peeling back the white tissue paper, she saw that the box held two tickets.

"Oh my God, you got us tickets to the opera in Italy?" she squealed, examining the tickets. "Connor, this is amazing."

"Do you like it? I just thought we could have a nice night out together," Connor said nervously.

"I love it. But Connor...you already gave me my present. You put your job on the line to bring me to my sister for Christmas. That was the best present that I ever could have asked for. And I know it wasn't cheap," she said, suddenly feeling guilty.

He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her close. "Don't even think about the money. You come first in my life. And besides, I got the opera tickets a while ago, before I even knew that Steve wasn't going to let me leave for Christmas."

She just stared at him, unsure of what to say. "Connor, I'm not saying that I don't appreciate this. I mean, I do. But if you're doing this because you feel like you need to, I don't know, prove something or make something up to me, you're wrong."

"It doesn't have anything to do with that," he said quietly. "You just deserve everything I could possibly give you. And besides, the smile on your face when I told you we were coming here for Christmas made it all worth it."

She couldn't help but smile as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "You're all I need. This, right here, just spending today with the people we care about. I couldn't be happier than I am right now."

"And when you're happy, I'm happy," he finished.

"Also, I think you earned some major points with my sister today," Dawn said with a laugh. "We gave her the best Christmas surprise ever and it was all thanks to you."

Connor looked pleased. "Well I guess it worked out for everyone then."

"Do you think Steve understands?" Dawn blurted. "I mean, exactly what did he say when you told him you were leaving against his orders?"

Connor shrugged. "At first he seemed a little pissed. But once he realized I was serious, I think he saw there was nothing he could do to change my mind. He had no right to tell me what I could or couldn't do for the holidays."

Dawn nodded. "I just hope that he doesn't..."

"What? Fire me?" Connor rolled his eyes. "If he does, there are always other jobs. If I've learned anything this year it's that there's more important things."

Dawn smiled at him. "Oh, you still have to open your gift." She reached over and handed him a square-shaped box with a red bow on top. "It's kind of silly, really, it's not as nice as what you gave me..."

He carefully unwrapped the box, pulling the lid off. As he reached inside, Dawn launched into an explanation of the gift. "That day when we went to the bookstore with the books in English I saw you looking at some of the classics. So I went back there and got you a few. I figured that you'd probably never really gotten a chance to read them growing up..."

Connor thumbed through a copy of The Great Gatsby before pulling out The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and several others. "Wow, this is really great." Reading the great classic novels was something he had missed out on growing up in another dimension and not attending school, and the thought that Dawn had put into this gift really impressed him. "Thank you so much. I love it." He leaned over and gave her a kiss.

"You're welcome," she said in between kisses. Things quickly escalated and soon she was being pushed back onto the bed, giggling as he crawled on top of her. The moment was interrupted when someone knocked on the half-closed door. They instinctively scrambled away from each other, looking up to see Angel standing in the hallway, looking sufficiently embarrassed.

"Um, uh...sorry. But it's time for dinner," he said awkwardly.

Dawn smiled. "We'll be right down." Angel nodded, not wasting any time hurrying back downstairs.

"Well I'm just glad we got our alone time in before we got on the plane," Connor muttered knowingly. Dawn nodded in agreement as they headed downstairs, hand in hand.

"Okay," Cordelia said, drawing out the suspense as she rolled the die around in her hands. "Ready...go!" She threw the multi-sided die across the floor of the Hyperion as Fred pressed the start button on the timer. Everyone scrambled to see the result: the letter "O".

"O? What starts with O?" Buffy complained loudly. The teams quickly bent over their sheets, whispering back and forth furiously. They were now on the fourth and final round of their heated game of Christmas Scattergories, and even those who had been skeptical at first were now very engrossed in the game.

"Name of a Christmas song. Easy, O Holy Night," Faith muttered to Andrew, her partner, as he furiously scribbled the answer on the sheet.

"Things mentioned in a Christmas song," Xander read off, staring expectantly at Willow, who held up her hands.

"Hey, don't keep looking at me, I'm Jewish! You're the one who should know this stuff," she hissed.

"No, no, don't put that, everyone will have that," Giles said with frustration snatching the paper away from Wesley as they debated over the best answer to a category.

While most of the teams bickered loudly, Dawn and Connor worked quickly and quietly, hunched over their sheet together. "Best thing about Christmas...opening presents," Dawn said quietly, scribbling the answer down.

"Worst gift to receive," Angel read aloud. His partner was Buffy. Neither of them had intended for it to happen, but everyone had ironically paired off so quickly that the two of them were left over before they could do anything about it, and Buffy had a strange suspicion that had not been a coincidence. The two of them were the farthest apart of all the pairs, due to a conscious effort on both of their parts to stay as far away as they could get away with.

"Oatmeal," Buffy blurted. Angel raised an eyebrow. "Hey, would you like it if someone gave you oatmeal?" she said defensively. Chuckling, Angel wrote it down. If he had learned nothing in his two hundred and forty plus years, it was that arguing with Buffy Summers when she had her mind made up was a fruitless task.

The ticking on the timer grew louder and everyone frantically hurried to fill in as many categories as they could. "Time's up!" Cordelia announced as the timer went off. Everyone muttered and groaned a little as they put down their pencils.

"Okay, first category: name of a Christmas song," Fred called out. "Cordy and I put O Christmas Tree."

"Us too," Xander announced, crossing it off on their score sheet. The trickiest part of the game was that if another team had the same answer as you, it was disqualified.

"Yeah, same here," Buffy added.

"We had O Holy Night," Andrew said hopefully.

"Dammit," Giles muttered to himself as Wesley scribbled on their sheet.

"So did we," Dawn said with a sigh.

"Anyone have something else?" Cordy asked.

"Oooh cooooome all ye faaaaiiiiitthfullll," Lorne belted in response, exchanging high-fives with Gunn as they marked a plus one on their sheet.

"Okay, things mentioned in a Christmas song: a one-horse open sleigh," Dawn announced, glancing around at everyone.

"How about Frosty's old silk hat," Willow chimed in. The game continued for a while until they reached the last category.

"Worst gift to receive. Any takers?" Cordy asked.

"Oatmeal!" Buffy shouted out. Everyone started to laugh. "What? It works!" she said defensively.

"How about old underwear?" Connor said with a laugh.

"Oven mitt!" Giles added.

"Okay, everyone hand their sheets in," Fred announced. Everyone waited in suspense as she and Cordy tallied up the points. So, it looks like the winner is...Gunn and Lorne!"

"Weee are the champioooons," Lorne sang triumphantly as everyone clapped.

"Well, that was fun," Connor said to Dawn with a laugh. "It's funny how wrapped up everyone can get in a silly game."

Dawn yawned in response. "I think the excitement can no longer overcome the effects of jet lag," she said tiredly.

He rubbed her shoulders. "Yeah, I'm pretty beat too. We should go to bed."

Dawn nodded. "That sounds great." She headed over to where her sister was standing, talking to Willow and Xander. "Hey, I think we're gonna turn in. We're still pretty beat from the flight."

"I'm sure you are. Come here." Buffy pulled her sister into an extra-tight hug. "Thank you so much for coming. You made my Christmas."

Dawn clung to her sister. "I love you."

When they broke apart, Buffy took a step towards Connor. "And thank you. What you did was really generous."

Connor smiled. "You're welcome."

"Good night everyone!" Dawn called out. A chorus of 'good nights' sounded out as she and Connor headed up the stairs.

"I so hate this separate rooms thing," Connor complained quietly. "Seriously, why do they always insist on that? I mean, it's not like we haven't..."

"It's because Buffy would feel like a bad sister if she openly encouraged it. And Angel would feel like a bad father. So I think we should just humor them." They stopped outside their rooms.

Connor studied her expression. "So, you're going to grab your stuff and sneak into my room before anyone comes upstairs?"

Dawn nodded earnestly. "I'll be there in five minutes." She laughed wickedly as she gave him a quick peck before they scurried into their respective rooms.

The hotel was dark as Buffy emerged from her room, wrapping her blue robe around her as tight as she could. She walked slowly down the hall in her slippers, past the rooms where her friends were quietly sleeping. She paused outside the room that was supposed to be occupied by her sister. When she had come up to go to sleep a few hours earlier she had stopped by to say good night one more time, only to find that her sister's room was empty. She couldn't say she had been surprised, and honestly, after everything Dawn and Connor had done in order to be here today, she hadn't had the heart to rain on their parade, as much as the thought still unsettled her sometimes.

She paused by the stairs, noticing a light on in the office downstairs. Descending the steps carefully in the dark, she wandered to the office, pausing in the doorway when she saw, unsurprised, that Angel was the only one awake at this hour besides herself. He looked up from his book when he saw her, marking his place and setting it down on the desk. "Buffy," he said. "What are you doing up?"

"Couldn't sleep," she admitted. "Thought I'd see if anyone else was awake."

He smirked. "Well, you know me. Not exactly used to sleeping at night."

She nodded. She knew, of course, all too well. "You like to hang out down here at night?" She wandered around the office, examining the various ancient books and rustic weapons that adorned the shelves.

"No, I usually just stay in my room, but, um, it's right next door to the one Connor's staying in, and I didn't really feel...comfortable staying there with my uh, enhanced hearing," he said awkwardly.

Buffy raised an eyebrow. "Ah. I don't blame you."

"You can't say they're not crazy about each other," Angel commented quietly.

She nodded, sinking into the chair opposite the desk. "They've been through a lot, and somehow they managed to come out even stronger. But it gets a little annoying how they can't keep their hands off each other." Her mind flashed back to the long-ago days when she and Angel had been the same way. All of those late night patrols turned makeout sessions almost felt like foreign memories now, as if they had happened to someone else. She caught his eye and she could tell that he had been thinking about the exact same thing.

"Today was nice," she said, eager to change the subject. "It was nice to have a holiday free of demons and drama."

"Well, unless you call Giles and Wesley's constant bickering during Scattergories drama, I agree," he said with a smile. She smiled back. A long silence followed during which they just enjoyed each other's company, each wanting to say a million different things but choosing to let them go unsaid.

"So how do you like Rome?" Angel asked finally, needing to say something.

"It's nice. I feel like I'm finally getting used to it now." Buffy paused. "But it does get a little lonely sometimes. Being so far away from home."

Angel stared at her curiously. "I thought that with Dawn there..."

"Yeah, I know. But sometimes I feel like I don't see her very much, you know? Between me working and her going to school and spending so much of her free time with Connor and her friends, the apartment is usually pretty quiet." A smile spread across her face. "Or at least, it was before Faith moved in."

"She seems good. Faith," Angel commented. "Definitely more subdued than before, but she seems like she's doing well."

Buffy nodded. "I know she's still in pain. Losing Robin was a major blow for her, even though she'd never tell you that. But I have to admit, it's kind of nice having her around."

Angel raised an eyebrow. "Now there's something I never thought I'd hear."

"I know, when she first showed up I had serious doubts about the whole thing. But we've all adjusted. And for some reason she gets along great with Dawn," Buffy said. She still didn't quite understand when exactly her sister and her former enemy had gotten so close, but whatever. It was better than if they were fighting all the time.

Angel nodded. "Well maybe after Dawn finishes high school you can move back here."

"It's a possibility. She's applying to some colleges in Rome and California. So I guess we'll see what happens. None of us have really thought that far ahead."

Angel looked down for a second. There was something he had been wanting to ask Buffy ever since she had arrived, but he had so far been unable to work up the nerve. "So I know you said Dawn has made some friends. How about you? Anyone...special?"

Buffy blinked at him. "Are you asking me if I have a boyfriend?"

"N-no, I was just, you know, wondering-"

"I know what you were wondering." She stared at him curiously. "No. I don't."

It may have been her imagination, but she thought she could see him relax a little. "Oh, well, that's good, I guess. I mean, if it's what you want."

"What are we doing?" Buffy whispered, suddenly feeling a little warm.

Angel looked down at his desk. "I don't know. I mean, I just...you know that I just want you to be happy."

She closed her eyes for a second. "I'm trying. I'm trying so hard. I mean, after everything that happened since I moved to Sunnydale...I thought that moving would be a fresh start." She looked at him. "But I keep ending up back here." Something had changed in the room as the conversation shifted. An almost electrical buzz from pent-up feelings and desires had formed, and they were both feeling the effects. Dangerous thoughts started to run through Buffy's mind, and she instinctively stood, turning for the door. "I should really-"

A hand landed on her arm, and she spun around to see him suddenly standing behind her, only inches away, his fingers wrapped around her wrist as he stared into her eyes. Before she knew what was happening, he was kissing her, and she was kissing him back. She grasped his shoulders as he ran a hand through her hair, the other on the small of her back. Somehow all rational thoughts had flown out the window, and Buffy couldn't remember thinking anything at all as she found herself being lifted onto the desk as he continued to kiss her, hands starting to roam to forbidden places as they lost themselves in each other.

As she felt his hand touch her bare skin underneath her pajama top, her first coherent thought in at least a minute came into her awareness: No.

"Angel," she breathed, pulling back from his lips. "We can't do this."

He stepped back, looking so frustrated that it almost frightened her. "Buffy, I-I don't know what I was thinking-"

"It wasn't just you," she said quietly, straightening her clothes as she moved off the desk. She could feel the tears coming, but she refused to let him see her cry. She had no excuse to cry. They had been apart for years, they knew all too well that they could never be together the way both of them wanted, and yet all it had taken was one mutual moment of weakness for them to come very close to crossing lines that had been drawn for so long. "I've got to go." She hurried from the office before he could stop her.

"Buffy, wait!" he called after her. She didn't turn around. He ran out of the office and into the lobby, watching her practically run up the stairs. "Buffy!" he yelled, not caring if he woke up the entire hotel. But she was gone. He turned and stormed back into the office, cursing as he grabbed the chair she had been sitting in and threw it on it's side in an outburst of frustration.

Upstairs, Buffy ran into her room, closing and locking the door behind her before sinking down to the ground. What on Earth had just happened? She and Angel hadn't lost control like that, hadn't come so dangerously close to doing something they would both regret in well...ever. She couldn't believe she had let that happen. She buried her head in her hands and leaned back against the door.

But it had it felt good to be kissing him again, his hands...

"Stop it," she said aloud, standing up and walking over to her bed. "It can't happen again. I don't care how lonely you are." It occurred to her that she was talking to herself in a dark hotel room in the middle of the night on Christmas. "Merry Christmas, Buffy," she muttered to herself, pulling the covers over her head.

A/N: I experienced some pretty intense writer's block while writing this chapter, so hopefully it turned out okay. I really think that part of the reason I've been struggling a little with this fic as of late is the disappointing lack of reviews. It's really discouraging when you post a chapter and see that although 77 people have viewed it, only ONE took the time to review. I mean, come on guys. You can do better than that. A quick note is all I ask. Just take a minute of your time and let me know what you think and if you're still enjoying this story. Please.

And I completely blame the whole Scattergories thing on my writer's block. I played that Christmas version at my friend's party recently and I decided to just go with it. :P