Author's Note: Eh-heh...yeah. It's January. And I'm only on the sixth day of Christmas...I know, I know, I'm a little *cough*a lot*cough* late. But hey, I'm just extending the holiday cheer, right? :) Yeah, I'll keep telling myself that. Anyway, as usual, I'm sorry for any mistakes, they're all my own, and I hope you enjoy the story!

Also, thanks to everyone who reviewed, favorited, and followed this! I'm eternally grateful! ^_^

Me: Michael, it's your turn to sing now!

Michael: Uh...okay?

Me: Come on, show some excitement!

Michael: (But I'm not really excited...)

Me: ...Just. Sing. It.

Michael: O-okay...

On the sixth day of Christmas, the Founder gave to me...Lots of lights a-blinking

X

"Eve, did you find those extension cords?" Shane yelled through the front door, a tangle of lights in his hands. Eve yelled something unintelligible back. "What?" he shouted. "I can't hear you!"

"I said, 'What, I can't hear you!" Eve snapped, stomping down the stairs. "I can't hear a thing up there. I found the extension cords, by the way. Did you untangle those lights?"

Shane scowled at her. "Does it look like I've untangled them?" he snapped, holding up his mess of wires and colorful bulbs. "They're a mess! The only thing I've managed to untangle is the twinkle lights."

"Don't bitch to me, Collins. I didn't tangle them up."

"Yeah, but it was your brilliant idea to decorate the house. Are these lights even safe? How long have they been up in the attic?" grumbled Shane.

Eve rolled her eyes. "Bite me, Shane. And quit whining. You said it was a good idea."

"Only because I knew you were going to go full-out drama queen on me if I didn't agree, anyway."

She glared at him. He rolled his eyes. "Just grab some lights and help me untangle these."

She flipped him off, but grabbed a mess of lights and started to untangle them.

Half an hour and six broken bulbs later, they had managed to free two long strings of lights. Eve marched outside to the front of the house with one of them, where Shane was putting the ladder up.

"How are you going to secure these, anyway?" Eve asked him.

He grinned and brandished a staple-gun.

"Won't that mess up the house?" she inquired.

"Do you have any better ideas?" he countered.

She rolled her eyes and went back into the house to get the other string of lights. When she came back, Shane was already on the roof.

"Hey, toss me that roll of lights." he called down. Eve backed up a ways, then tossed the carefully rolled string she had just brought out.

It missed the roof by several feet, hitting the side of the house before falling and disappearing into the bushes.

Shane glared at her.

"You could have just carried some up with you!" she snapped defensively.

"You could throw like a normal person, instead of a sissy 5-year-old girl." he snapped back.

Eve flipped him off again; he returned the gesture. Grumbling, she stomped over to the bushes and rummaged through them until she found the lights.

She groaned. They were all tangled up again.

By the time Shane actually had some lights to work with, they were all in a tangled mess again from Eve's multiple attempts at tossing them up to him. He swore as tried to free one of the ends.

He finally managed to free an end, but it slid down to dangle off one end of the roof.

"Hey, Eve? Grab ahold of that and tug on it a little bit, will you?"

He felt the line pull tight. "Okay, that's enough...just keep holding it a second, okay?"

He tugged at a particularly persistent knot, and dropped the staple gun. He made a dash for it before it could slide of the edge of the roof, but tripped over the lights and got his feet tangled in them. He swore again as he felt them pull tight.

"Eve? Eve! Hold on a second, don't pull the line!" he exclaimed.

"Don't what?" she called back.

"Pull the line!" he shouted.

The lights were yanked hard as he tried to stand up, knocking him off his feet and sending him stumbling right over the edge of the roof. He managed to frantically grab the gutter, and hung on for dear life. He heard Eve squeal below.

"Quick, move the ladder!" he yelped, trying to yank his way up. "Hurry!"

He heard her heavy boots clunk as she ran off to the other side of the house. He tried to get a better handle on the gutter and pull himself up, to no avail. After a few seconds of struggling, he managed to pull himself up a little...

...Only to slip when the ladder hit him in the back.

"Oh sh-!" he yelled before face-planting into the bushes.

"Shane? Shane! Are you okay?" Eve cried, trying to fight through the greenery to get to him.

One of his hands appeared from the middle of the biggest bush. One finger was sticking up.

Eve glared. "No need to be an ass about it." she grumbled.

His other hand poked out, the same finger sticking up.

Eve sighed. If he felt good enough to flip her off with both hands, then she wasn't too worried.

xxxxxxx

"Why did you do that?" Shane demanded as Eve climbed up the ladder to join him on the roof. He was covered in scratches, small branches, leaves, and what he was dearly hoping was sap and not some strange dog's pee.

"The ladder slipped!" she protested. "I didn't do it on purpose!"

"I wasn't actually talking about that, I was talking about how you yanked me off the roof with the lights. Though while we're on that topic, what the hell. You could have killed me!"

"It was an accident! And you told me to pull the line!"

"No, I told you not to pull the line! You know what, nevermind. Just stay up here with me, where I can see you. That way I'll know before you try to kill me again." Shane sighed.

"I wasn't trying to kil- Ugh! Nevermind. What now?" Eve said in exasperation.

"We spread these out and staple them down. And don't push each other off the roof." Shane said, picking up one of the strings of lights. He frowned as he stared at what they had on the roof. "Hey, what happened to the twinkle lights?" he asked.

"Huh? I don't know, I haven't seen them since you said you untangled them." said Eve. "Are they still down below?"

Shane edged over to where the ladder was, looking over the front yard. "No...dammit, what happened to them?"

"Maybe they're still in the house?" suggested Eve.

"But I brought them out here!"

Eve walked up beside him and scanned the yard, then looked at the random scramble of lights they had on the roof with them. "Well, I don't see them..."

"Screw it, we'll use what we have. They'll turn up, I guess." Shane grumbled in resignation. He was too tired and sore to really care anymore. "Just spread these out so we can get down from here."

He bent over and picked up some lights, only to have them stick to his sap (God, he hoped it was sap) covered hand. He tried to yank it off with the other hand, only to have it stick there as well. He fumed and struggled for a minute before Eve finally walked up and yanked the lights out of his hands.

"Where's the staple gun?" she asked, choosing not to goad him for once. He groaned and smacked his forehead, then yelped when yanking his sticky hand away caused him to rip some hair off, too. He was also distraught to find it didn't smell like sap.

"It fell that way," he said, gesturing towards the back of the house. "I was trying to get it when you yanked me off the roof."

"I didn't- Ah, forget it. I'll go get it." she sighed, making her way carefully over to where he indicated. She wasn't gone a minute before he heard her call him.

"What?" he asked, treading carefully towards her. She pointed mutely to where the staple gun was, perched precariously at the corner of the house's gutter.

"I'll reach over and grab it, just hold onto my waist or something." she said. Shane nodded, wondering if he could maybe wipe some of the crap from his hands on her shirt. It would serve her right, for nearly breaking his neck.

She leaned over as far as she could, Shane holding her waist securely. "Just a little...further..." she said, her fingers brushing the end of the gun. "I've got-!" It tipped and fell off just as she started to say 'it'; she lounged for it blindly, which yanked Shane forward. Both of them lost their footing, and in a scramble of limbs and shouting, started to fall over the edge.

Shane managed to grab the gutter again, with Eve grabbing onto his waist in a death grip. He gulped. Both seemed too shocked to actually make any sound, otherwise Eve would probably be screaming bloody murder.

"H-hey, Eve?" Shane gasped, trying to figure out how to yank himself and Eve back up.

"Yes?" said Eve in a uncharacteristically small voice.

"I hate you right now."

Which was when the gutter pulled away from the roof, bending with their combined weight.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Michael walked into the living room to find Eve and Shane spread out on opposite ends of the couch, both with dazed looks on their faces. He noticed Shane was covered in what seemed to be lawn debris, and had a shiner on one eye; Eve looked ruffled and unkept, goth make-up smeared across her face. Both had ice-packs on various parts of their bodies.

"What happened to you guys?" Michael asked, eyes wide. "And what smells like garbage and dog piss?"

They both gave him glassy-eyed stares. Finally, Shane croaked "We fell into the compost heap. I didn't even know we had a compost heap..."

Michael looked between them, still confused. "Wha...? How did that happen? And why is the ladder out front?"

They both just shook their heads, clearly not in the mood to share.

It was June before anyone ever went back up to get the abandoned lights.

X

One crazy boss!

Four stubborn men

Three ancient vamps

Two nosy boys

And a play I hope no one will see!

Michael: Alright, was that okay?

Me: Yes! Thank you. Good job.

Shane: Why the hell is the line 'Lots of lights a-blinking' if we never got any lights up?

Me: Well-

Claire: (Myrnin, is that where you got those lights...?)

Myrnin: I really don't remember.

Eve: We would have gotten the lights up, if you hadn't been screwing around, Shane!

Shane: ...! ME?! You're the one who-

Me: Shhhhhh! You're all giving me a headache!

Shane: You threw me off of a roof!

Me: And if you don't shut up, I'll do it again. Now, BE QUIET.

Michael: But I didn't DO anything...

Me: Shush. Anyway, coming up next, Claire and Eve!

AN: We're half-way there! I wrote most of this in a fevered delirium (Afraid I'm sick, which is bad for me, good for you, as I probably wouldn't have finished writing this today otherwise), so I'm not sure how well it turned out. It wasn't a look into Eve and Shane's relationship, so much as me tormenting them by pushing them off of a roof for entertainment...eh-heh. Sorry, you two! I have absolutely NO idea when I'll be able to update again...hopefully within the next week or so, but no promises.

Song suggestion: Any version of 'Deck The Halls', though I like Manheim Steamroller's version.

Read and review, please! It encourages me to write more! And Happy New Year, everyone!

Edit (December 2014): A spelling mistake and a few other minor edits.