***Disclaimer: Some of the characters in this are from the show, Supernatural, which I don't own. Also, I wrote this story in a rush so it isn't up to my usual standards. Not to mention I have a hell of a time formatting my stuff on this site so if anyone could give me some pointers, I'll love you forever.

"You know, I've been thinking." Innocent enough words had they been spoken by anyone else. As it was, everyone paused and turned to Gabriel.

Marissa looked resigned to dealing with the aftermath, as per usual.

Lucifer narrowed his eyes at his brother as if he was expecting something to explode right then. It was possible.

Christina's expression mirrored mine, which was torn between excitement and horror.

Gabriel rolled his eyes back as far as he could. "Oh, come on. It's not that bad."

"And what exactly were you thinking?" Lucifer asked.

"It's almost Christmas, right? We should have a party." Well. That wasn't so bad, I thought.

"Oh! I love parties," Christina said.

"That would be cool. It's our first Christmas as a group, after all," I said, looking at Marissa.

"We could sing Christmas songs," she said. "And dress up!"

"I'm not singing." Lucifer stopped glaring at Gabriel and glared at Marissa instead.

"Spoil sport." Christina was probably the only person who could get away with poking him. He huffed.

"Whatever you like, muffin," Gabriel said to Marissa and clapped his hands together. "It's settled."

"I hate to put a damper on your plans but where will we have it? The mess hall is still pretty much destroyed." Everyone looked crestfallen. I don't like being the reasonable one. It didn't happen often. We all thought quietly for a bit. Suddenly Gabriel got that look which meant he had an Idea. Ideas and Gabriel didn't always mix well. He grinned widely at us.

"I think I know just the place."

Gabriel refused to tell us where he was planning to have the party no matter how much we wheedled at him. Realizing it was a lost cause, we decided to focus on preparing for the party. Marissa was busy putting together her costume and helping Christina with the decorations. Everyone in the camp seemed to have something to do. I was baking. A lot.

"Come on, sweetheart, you've made almost four dozen cookies. One won't hurt." Cas gave me his best puppy dog face.

"Yeah, right. Gabriel ate half a dozen yesterday. Not to mention Dean stops by and a whole pie goes missing!" I put my hands on my hips trying to look stern. The flour in my hair probably wasn't helping.

"One cookie."

"Dear lord, you're insufferable. Here," I said handing him one, "have the damn cookie."

"Thanks, sug."

"Welcome. Now don't you have something better to do?"

"Actually, for once, I do. I got to pick up my costume."

"Costume?"

"It's a surprise." I looked at him, shaking my head slowly, and sighed.

"This is going to be interesting."

"Of course it is," he said giving me a quick poke. "See you later."

"Right." Originally I had thought, "What could go wrong, really?" Those things were quickly piling up in my mind.

"I should have known better," I said to the gingerbread man. It just stared back with dead icing eyes, silently mocking me.

"Oh, crap! Amanda! Uh, we don't need that much tinsel," Marissa said, her eyes wide as she looked into the back of the van. It was filled.

"I bought everything they had."

"Yeah, I see that…"

"I actually thought we might need more."

"More!" she squeaked. "It's not like we're decorating Buckingham Palace or something."

I just raised my eyebrows.

"Oh dear…He wouldn't."

"Are you sure about that?"

She thought for a moment. "No. Maybe you should get more."

"My thoughts exactly, but the store was all out," I said beginning to pull the bags out. Since no one knew where the party was going to be, everything went in Gabriel's cabin. It was a good thing he didn't need sleep; the place was like the storage room for about ten Christmas parades. He flung the door open as we were coming up the stairs.

"Muffin! Pet! Excellent, you have more decorations!" He rubbed his hands together as if he was a kid in a candy store. It was just about the same thing. "Just put them inside."

"They ran out of tinsel, though."

"Ah, don't worry. I'm sure it'll be enough." I must have looked dejected because he gave me a pat.

"I know…It's just my favorite."

"I'll get you some more."

"Thanks!" Sometimes being 'adopted' by an archangel wasn't so bad. As long as he didn't snap it into my cabin or something. He looked around the inside of his cabin and grinned.

"This. This is going to be great."

The day of the Christmas party was a whirlwind of activity. Marissa lost her antlers and Saoirse was busy trying to pull the bells off Christina's elf costume. I barely had time to get into my Miss Clause outfit because I was trying to keep everyone out of my baked goods. We still didn't know where the party was going to be. Anytime someone asked Gabriel, he just wagged his eyebrows and said, "It's a surprise."

"How are we going to get there if we don't know where we're going?" I asked. According to him, the party was starting in an hour. I had already loaded the van and dropped Saoirse off at her babysitter's.

"Don't worry about it."

"Right…"

"Oh, hey pet?" I knew that tone of voice.

"Yes, dad?"

"Maybe you could go stop by Crowley's in a bit and try to convince him to come?"

"I don't really think asking him last minute…" I trailed off, thinking. "Oh, no. You didn't."

"No clue what you're talking about."

"Gabriel! He's going to kill us. Well. You."

"He could try."

"So it is true?"

"Get a move on, kiddo. You don't want to be late for the party." He was right. No way was I going to miss this. I started to say something about the possible blood shed but stopped when I realized I was alone. That's what I got for hanging around people who could vanish at a moment's notice.

"Yeah, yeah," I said, digging in my pocket for my keys and heading to the van. Marissa, Christina, Emily, Allie, Amanda, and Lauren were all waiting for me.

"Do you know where we're going?" Christina asked climbing into the van.

"I do." I eyed her and she gave me a sheepish grin. "Did everyone but me know?"

"Lucifer told me."

"Know what?" Lauren and Marissa both asked.

"Uh, you don't want to know." I drove out of the camp and headed towards Crowley's house.

"How bad is it?"

"The party is at Crowley's house," I told Marissa. Everyone paled and there was a general air of nervousness.

"Can I get out?" Amanda asked.

"Nope. The ride has started; please keep all limbs inside the vehicle."

"Great."

"This will end well," Emily said.

"Tell me about it."

When I pulled up to the King of Hell's house, I was surprised. In hindsight, I really shouldn't have been but I was. I had just been over yesterday to help feed Paisley and there certainly hadn't been Christmas lights or plastic reindeer. I knew immediately that Crowley wasn't home yet because nothing was on fire.

"Oh, nuts."

"It's, uh, festive?"

"Someone is going to die," I said. Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Sam and Dean are here already. I wonder if that means regular Castiel will be here?" Marissa wondered.

"No idea. I just hope Crowley doesn't go on a rampage," I said as I trudged up the walkway, carrying a few boxes of cookies. Marissa nodded vigorously in agreement with me. Christina the Christmas elf looked at us over the pie boxes she was carrying.

"I'm sure he won't mind too badly," she said going up the stairs. "Will he?"

Marissa and I looked at each other. "Probably," we said.

"Oh." The inside of the house contained every decoration that Gabriel had gathered. I felt a momentary pang of guilt over all the tinsel. It looked awfully nice, though. We all made our way to the ballroom where most of the noise seemed to be coming from. It didn't look anything like what it normally did. I think it was all the mistletoe and that fact someone had moved the couches along with the dining table, which was laden with all sorts of goodies. Christina and I spread out the cookies and pies.

"Hey! Pie!" I turned around to face Dean and he gave me his most charming smile. "I always love your pie."

"I know you do and this time you don't have to steal them." I was using my mother voice.

"Oh. That. Well…"

"Don't worry about it. I honestly don't mind." Pies were meant to be eaten.

"Want to help serve them up, Dean? I'm the Pie Elf!" Christina chirped at him.

"I'll let you two take care of that, then." As I walked away, I wondered exactly how much of the pie would make it past Dean.

Despite the fact that the ballroom was large, it seemed crowded. Everyone from camp was there though a lot of them looked nervous. They knew Crowley by reputation only and that was enough to make any sensible person nervous. I wondered where Marissa had gotten off to and I hadn't seen Gabriel either. At least not my Gabriel or Crowley's Gabriel. I was admiring a snowman wearing a rather familiar looking scarf when I was assaulted. That seems to happen often.

"Ho, ho, ho!" a figure in a Santa suit said as they lifted me off the ground.

"Cas! Put me down!"

"Aw, you're no fun, sweetheart," he said. As soon as my feet touched the ground, I whirled around and yanked the fake beard down.

"I'm plenty of fun, just not when I'm being man-handled."

"Pfft. That wasn't man-handling. I can show you man-handling." One look stopped that train of thought. "Fine, fine! We match, though. You can be my Mrs. Claus," he said tugging on my dress. I slapped his hand.

"Not a chance, hot stuff." He pouted.

"Where's your holiday spirit?" I narrowed my eyes, hands on my hips. He looked slightly concerned.

"I left it back at the camp. Now, go harass someone else," I said, giving him a poke in the ribs. He started to protest when there was a ruckus in the hall. We both turned towards the doorway.

"Uh-oh." I started edging back.

"He sounds pissed, huh?"

"Yeah…I'm thinking 'pissed' is an understatement, Cas."

Crowley bust through the door, his Gabriel trailing behind him looking amused. "What in the name of hell is going on here?"

"I think it's a party," Gabriel said. Crowley glared at him but he had his poker face on.

"Obviously. Who are all these people? Did you do this?"

"Well, not exactly…"

"Your double. Of course." He scanned the room and I tried to hide behind Cas, lest he think I had anything to do with the present shenanigans. Past behavior being the best indicator of present and all that.

"Come on, peach. It's Christmas!"

"I hate Christmas." The two of them meandered off to a corner. Since I was pretty sure that Crowley wasn't going to start exploding people or decorations, I decided I could focus on other things. Like the mistletoe that just hit me in the face. The culprit was Marissa in a Rudolph costume.

"Marissa. Why are you assaulting me with shrubbery?"

"It was just hanging there." Reasonable explanation is reasonable.

"Oh, hey! Mistletoe!" That was my Cas, always quick on the uptake.

"No," Marissa and I both said.

"But—"

"No."

"Sweetheart, I just—"

"Not a chance."

"Really?"

"Yes!"

"Grinch."

"That's pretty accurate," said Marissa, nodding. He looked dejected.

"I'm sure there are plenty of girls here who'd like a visit from Santa, Cas."

"Oh, good idea."

"You're encouraging him."

"Yup," I said watching him go in search of a willing victim, "but it's kind of fun to see the results."

"Amanda, you're terrible."

"Don't I know it."

"Know what?" There's nothing like having the Devil sneak up on you to really get the blood pumping.

"That she's a terrible influence." Marissa brought the mistletoe down from in front of her face.

"Ah. Good girl, flower."

"Thanks, I do try. Where's Gabriel?"

"I don't know. He said something about doing a better job than Tim Allen but I'm not sure what that means."

"It means he's playing Santa."

"I wonder if I'll get an Easy-Bake Oven?"

"I'm not sure I want to know what he's planning on getting me." Lucifer paused. "You don't think he could fit a unicorn in a box, do you?"

"Uh…"

"Er…"

"Thank you for your words of support. I feel comforted already," he said smoothing his jacket. No one could rock a red designer suit like him.

"You're welcome, Applesauce." By the look he gave me, I assumed he was trying to determine if I was being sarcastic or not. That happens to me a lot.

"Teacher!" A blur that was my sister came running up to us. She beamed at Lucifer. "Hey Sis, Marissa."

"Chrissey, you're looking quite festive today," he said with something bordering on a leer.

"Thanks! I'm an elf." He draped an arm around her.

"So you are. Perhaps you could use some of your elf magic to help me out?" I didn't want to know with what.

"Sure thing!" She turned to Marissa and I. "Oh, Emily and Lauren were looking for you. They want you to do a song."

"Uh…"

"It could be fun."

"Baby, It's Cold Outside?" I started grinning.

"Now you're talking."

Crowley seemed to have given up on keeping everything intact, so he didn't protest when Marissa and I used his dining table as a stage. That may have been because Gabriel was 'making' him dance to our rendition of 'Baby, It's Cold Outside'. Every so often, Gabriel would join in. Overall, it seemed to be a hit even with Marissa almost doing a pirouette off the table. Maybe that was part of the charm.

"I never knew re-enacting a TV show was such hard work."

"I think it's the choreography," Marissa said.

"Also the fact we're not fabulous gay guys."

"Yeah, there's that."

"It's not a bad party, though. Cas found his niche." I pointed. He had found himself a chair and was convincing people to sit on his lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas.

"At least someone is getting what they want for Christmas."

"And others are getting more that they bargained for." Allie was hurrying towards us with a look that kept dancing between confused and violated.

"I'm not sure I'll be doing that again." Her eyes were as wide as they could go.

"I don't really blame you."

"I need a shower…" She paused, her head cocked to the side. "Do you hear that?"

"What?" I asked.

"It sounds like bells."

"It's sleigh bells," Marissa said off-handedly and then realized what she said. "Ohnoohnoohno."

"I think Dad finally showed up." I couldn't keep the helpless tone out of my voice. There was the sound of something like a small plane landing then reindeers pulling a sleigh crashed through the wall. Marissa and Allie squealed.

"Poor Crowley," I said.

"I hope no one got hurt," Allied said.

"That too."

"Ho! Ho! Ho!" Gabriel said from atop the sleigh.

Marissa didn't say anything. She was working on her fish impersonation.

As Gabriel climbed down from the sleigh with a large sack, I looked around for Crowley. I was pretty sure he was about to spontaneously combust. Well. Someone was going to. Part of me thought I should go smooth things out but I didn't want to be that someone who was going to get set on fire.

"Boss!"

"Dad!"

"Hey there! Santa has arrived." He flung the bag down on the table. "Now, where's my milk and cookies?"

"Over on the table." I waved my hand. "If Dean hasn't eaten them all."

"Where did you get the reindeer?"

"The North Pole, of course."

"Can I feed them fruitcake?"

"Only if it's that talking fruitcake, muffin."

"Score," Marissa said and went in search of a talking fruitcake.

"I hope they like fruitcake."

"I'm pretty sure it's their natural diet." He rummaged through the bad and pulled out a package. "Here, pet, this is for you."

"Awesome," I said, tearing off the paper. "Easy-Bake Oven! You're the best adoptive dad a girl could hope for."

"Just don't lose a hand." I was about to protest when Lucifer came up behind him.

"Brother."

"Bro!" Gabriel spread his arms. "Merry Christmas!"

"I hate Christmas." It seemed to be a common sentiment tonight.

"Oh, come on. It's one day."

"Tell that to the people who start playing Christmas songs in October."

"Or the people with the year round decorations," I added. Gabriel gave us a look. When he set his mind on something there was no stopping him and he had obviously decided that this would be the best Christmas ever.

"Anyway! I got you a present, too." Lucifer started looking for an escape route. "Here you go!"

He handed Lucifer a package, who shook it before opening it. Based on the size of the present, none of us were expecting anything out of the usual to happen. That probably should have been our first clue. It wasn't until a full sized unicorn popped out of the box that we remembered this was Gabriel we were dealing with. Lucifer immediately tried to explode it but in all the confusion he missed and got a reindeer instead.

"Uh, was that a unicorn?" Marissa asked as he wandered back over. Fearing for her safety on account of the antlers, I have tackled her under the table. "Holy crap, Amanda!"

"Yes! Lucifer is trying to take care of it."

"Oh. Oh."

"Yeah."

"Why are we hiding under the table?" Allie asked. Emily gave us a wave from the other side.

"Hey."

"Rampaging unicorns."

"And exploding reindeer."

"Oh."

"Yeah," Marissa and I said. I was sitting on something.

"Anyone want a candy cane?" There was a loud explosion and some scattered screams. Most of the people here were used to things blowing up.

"Is it safe?" Marissa asked.

"Probably as safe as it ever is." It was true with this company.

"Good enough for me." The four of us crawled out from under the table and surveyed the damage. There was a sizable hole in the floor. I could only assume that was where the unicorn met its end.

"I can't believe you exploded my Christmas present to you!"

"That wasn't a gift, it was a stealth attack."

"I thought you were over the whole unicorn thing," Gabriel said as innocently as he could manage. That meant he only sounded slightly guilty.

"Obviously not."

"Well, there's always next year," he said, giving Lucifer a pat on the back.

"Don't touch me."

I had learned early on to stay out of their brotherly fights, lest I get caught in the middle. I was looking around at the scene when something odd caught my eye. Or rather, the fact I couldn't see whatever was drinking out of the bowl of eggnog caught my eye.

"I'll be right back," I said. It didn't take me long to find Crowley. He was pinching the bridge of his nose, muttering. I heard the word 'kill' a few times.

"Sir?"

"Hm?" He didn't look up.

"Where's Azzy?"

"Around, I presume." He rubbed a hand over his face and looked at me with a frown. "Why are you asking?"

"Um…" I really didn't want to add to his problems. That usually didn't end well. "I think he's into the eggnog unless there's another invisible entity running around."

"Doubtful." He sighed wearily. "I suppose I should go take care of it."

"Take care of what, sugar plum?" Gabriel leaned on Crowley's shoulder.

"The hound apparently has a taste for eggnog."

"Oh, fun. I'll take care of it for you." Crowley looked relieved.

"Do you need help?" I felt like I should at least offer.

"I can handle it, Mandybear."

"Alright." We watched him disappear into the crowd. "Do you think it'll be okay, sir?"

"He's not incompetent, generally; though it's not often we deal with intoxicated hellhounds."

"I wouldn't think so." He snorted.

"There shouldn't be a need to deal with it at all."

"True…Uh-oh." There were times when I wished I could see hellhounds; this was one of them. As it was, all I could see was floating lights and garland.

"This is why I hate the holidays." Gabriel was shooing people out of the way.

"Because your hellhound gets drunk on eggnog and then stumbles around covered in decorations?" I had gotten good at keeping a straight face around him.

"Cheeky." I was getting that look again.

"I'll shut up now."

"Good plan, darling." It was a plan I often implemented with him. I turned back to watch the show. Even drunk, Azzy was still capable of dragging an archangel around.

"Don't worry," Gabriel said between breaths, "I have it under control."

"Obviously," Crowley said as Gabriel was dragged away again.

"He got him out of the room at least," I pointed out.

"It's almost a pity. Some blood shed would have livened this party up." I nodded in agreement and bent to pick a piece of mistletoe off the floor. Marissa had been busy.

"Maybe you should check on him?"

"Hn. He's probably gotten himself tangled in the lights." I wondered which 'him' we were talking about now. He turned to leave.

"Oh, sir?" He looked at me with a waiting expression. I tossed him the mistletoe and he instinctively caught it. "It is Christmas after all."

"And is this the part where I wish a merry one to you and yours?" He looked displeased at the prospect.

"Typically, but we can just skip over that part."

"Good." As soon as he was gone, I twirled around with a chuckle. I spotted a trench coat.

"Castiel, how's the party going?" He looked bewildered.

"I'm not sure, Amanda. Some of the girls keep trying to get me to stand under a green plant that's hanging from the ceiling. I don't understand."

"Oh…Well. It's a tradition. If you stand under it with someone else, you kiss."

"Why?"

"You know, that's a good question."

"And?"

"No idea." I knew he was about to ask another question so I started looking for a way out. "Hey, Sam!"

"Your friends keep trying to put antlers on me," he said when he got closer. "Antlers."

"Which friends?" There were so many options.

"Not sure, I was trying to get away so they were kind of blurry."

"Ah."

"Why would they try to put antlers on you?" asked Castiel.

"Because he's a moose." I was happy to finally get a question I could answer. Sam turned his bitchface on me.

"You spend too much time with Crowley."

"Probably," I admitted. "You two have a good one." I left them as Sam started explaining that he wasn't actually a moose.

Everyone seemed to be having a good time. Lucifer and Gabriel had made up and were naming the surviving reindeer. The one they were calling Bob looked a little bit scary. I was slightly concerned about the amount of damage but overall it was a success. I measured that by the fact that no one actually died. Cas stumbled up to me and put an arm around my shoulder. I didn't bother protesting.

"Hey, sweetheart."

Hey, Cas. I see you found what was left of the eggnog."

"Oh yeah. 'Tis the season and all that," he said. I snorted.

"Like you need a reason."

"It's nice to have one, though. Hey! It's snowing."

"I think you've had too much—" I stopped because it was, in fact, snowing.

"It's a Christmas miracle." He gave me a squeeze.

"Actually, I think it's Lucifer." It was. He may have over done it a bit because the light flurry was quickly becoming a blizzard. I was about to suggest finding some shelter, which seemed weird because he were indoors, when I was hit with a snowball. It seemed to be a recurring theme and the culprit was once again Marissa. I fired back with a snowball of my own and then it was war.

The whole party devolved into a snowball fight quicker than you could say 'apocalypse'. Sides were chosen: There was Gabriel's side and Lucifer's side though some people switched back and forth. Forts were built and people fell. By 'fell', I mean got hit one too many times in the face and decided to get some of Lauren's and Amanda's hot coco. Marissa and I eschewed the fighting to make some snow angels.

"My butt is cold," I said.

"You're sitting on snow."

"Why didn't he make the snow not cold?" Marissa shrugged.

"Because if it's not cold, it's not snow?" She was busy packing snow into a cup.

"It would be snow but better."

"Uh-huh. Snow cup-thingy?"

"What if a hellhound peed on it?" She contemplated this for a moment.

"You probably wouldn't know."

"I wish it was cherry…"

"Wish granted, pet." Gabriel snapped his fingers from behind me and the snow was red.

"Awesome," I said as he plopped down between us and began scooping up more snow.

"What flavor do you want, muffin?"

"Um…Er…Strawberry?" Another snap and she had her snow cup-thingy.

"Watch out!" We turned just in time to see Christina and Lucifer hurtling down a small mound of snow on top of what used to be a table right at us. We scrambled out of the way.

"That was fun!" Christina said as they came to a stop.

"We didn't hit anyone," Lucifer grumbled. That would be his priority.

"Ah, cheer up bro! There's always next year." Marissa and I looked at each other then at Gabriel.

"Are we going to do this next year, too?" she asked.

"Of course," Gabriel beamed, "It can be a family tradition." Lucifer raised an eyebrow.

"Like Armageddon."

"Yeah but with less death and seas of blood and more snow."

"Maybe next year we can find some place else, though," I added.

"It isn't so bad," Christina said, glancing around the room. There was a hole in the wall, reindeer milling about and an angel passed out on the chandelier. I shrugged.

"I think it was more getting pelted by snowballs in his own house that set Crowley off." He had the misfortune to walk back in during a rather large assault.

"Yeah…But he didn't have to over-react like that," Gabriel said.

"Considering no one died, I think he showed restraint," I said. So a few people were singed; at least there was snow to roll around in. Everyone nodded in agreement. We all sat listening to the Christmas music that Amanda and Zena had found, in silence, and enjoyed being in the presence of family and friends that might as well have been family. I thought, Wasn't that what the holidays were about after all?

"Just think, it's almost New Years…"