I know, I'm late. And frankly, you have no idea how late (in every sense of the word!). I haven't written Ocean's fics for a looong time now (SORRY! SORRY! SORRY! You know who you are!) - and this isn't anything like my still unfinished stories, which are far more serious and not as crackpot!silly as this one. I swear, I have no idea where this came from... ;D the fingernail tips are from a website... beautyden-dot-com or something...

Merry belated Christmas, I guess! Oh, and no, the title is not due to a stammering keyboard...

Twas the Night Before the Night Before Christmas

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"It's the twenty-third of December, Danny."

His eyes remained fixed on some article about French manicure. "I am well aware of that."

Silence, then: "It's Christmas."

If you do not feel comfortable with stark white tips, you can use off-white polish instead.

"Christmas, Danny."

"Technically, that would be tomorrow evening."

"What if we don't survive the night?"

"I guess we wouldn't really mi…" His eyes darted up. "Wait – what?"

Rusty shrugged innocently. "You never know."

And he realised he had no chance of winning the argument – simply because there wouldn't be one.

.

"Celebrating Christmas on the twenty-third means bad luck."

A smile flashed at him. "I was born on Friday the thirteenth."

"I never said you were particularly lucky."

Apparently, there was no space for grudges and bad mood: "It's the twenty-fourth in Japan. So stop talking and help me with the mistletoe over there."

.

"You know what's missing?"

Common sense.

He knew he'd be ignored. And he just didn't ask when Rusty got the saw and left through the backdoor.

.

"I was gone for ten minutes! When did this turn into Santa's bakery?" He had to yell, Rusty had hurled himself headlong into the depths of the larder.

"Did you fix the tree lights?" He re-appeared, carrying a bottle of rum.

"Yeah." He looked at the apron. "You really have no shame."

"And you," Rusty stated, "have no baking ingredients." Then he grinned. "Think we can do the cinnamon stars without the almonds and the cinnamon?"

Danny found himself actually pondering. "Got anything to replace them with?"

.

Rum stars were the best thing he had ever tasted. Or so he told Rusty. And then he waited under the mistletoe and Rusty grinned and walked over and they kissed the powdered sugar on their lips away and listened to Bing Crosby.

.

When they awoke the next morning, they were still alive. Danny felt like pointing that out, just for the sake of it.

"Which is good, because we have tons of cookies left."

.

There were Christmas miracles and then there was Rusty. And as Danny watched him watching "It's a wonderful life", he couldn't help but think If this is unlucky I don't care for luck anymore, and he could feel Rusty's smile dancing on his lips.