On Christmas morning they all gathered around the Christmas tree and Alia's father passed out presents. Alia soon had a cluster of small boxes in bright metallic paper and Tieran received a single box, which Alia looked at curiously.

"Alia didn't you get Tieran anything?" her mother asked.

"Yes, I did, but I had to give it to him early. Cara wanted it out of the apartment. She wanted the bathroom back."

"What?"

"I gave him a kitten. I had to keep it in the bathroom, because we're not really allowed to have pets. Cara wanted the bathroom back, so I had to give it to him last week. I wouldn't have been able to sneak it here anyway."

"Who's watching it?"

"A friend at my home," Tieran explained.

"Who opens first?" Albert asked, impatient to get on with it. They all took turns opening their gifts until only Tieran's one package and Alia's flock of six little boxes remained unopened. She had already opened the presents from her family – several books and a sweater from her brother – and had saved this set from Tieran for last.

"Open yours first, Tieran. I'm dying to know what they got you," she requested, for the gift was from her parents.

He carefully pulled the wrapping paper off, exposing a plain box. Lifting the lid off of that revealed a layer of tissue paper. He folded back the tissue and lifted a silver frame out of the box. The frame held a picture of Alia from a few years before. She had had it taken at one of those shops specializing in makeover photos and given it to her father as a birthday present. Alia remembered that what they had done with makeup had amazed her.

"But Dad! That's your picture!"

"We can always have a copy made. I thought he might like to have a photo of you."

"It is a wonderful picture. Thank you, I appreciate it very much." He wrapped it in tissue again and replaced it in the box which he tucked next to him in the corner of the couch. "Now open yours, Alia. The gold one first."

Alia picked up the small box tied with a gauzy gold ribbon. The lid and box had been wrapped separately, allowing her to simply lift it off once she untied the ribbon. Buried in the gilt-edged tissue paper she found a golden figure that she placed on the palm of her hand to examine. About the half the size of her palm, the griffin slept with wings folded, curled in a ball, lion's tail curled over eagle's beak.

Her face broke into a delighted grin. "Oh, Tieran, he's wonderful. Thank you so much." She hugged him.

"There are more, keep opening. The silver one next."

Alia pulled off the lid and pawed through it with her finger and to find a silver dragon about the size of her littlest finger. She pulled it out and admired it, "It's beautiful, thank you."

"Now the blue one"

Alia set the dragon on the table in front of her next to the griffin and picked up the blue box. In this one she found a horse blown from deep blue glass. "I think I see a pattern, but I can't think of the rest of the colors. Red, purple, and white?" she asked, looking at the remaining three boxes.

"Purple is next," Tieran told her.

She opened the purple box and pulled out a trumpet shaped flower carved from amethyst on a silver stem. Fine silver tendrils curled out from the stem, supporting it so that it would sit upright on a table. She frowned at it slightly. "A purple flower?"

"Oh, isn't that delicate," her mother exclaimed. "May I see it?"

Alia handed it to her mother and looked at Tieran still puzzled.

"Oh, look it even has a funny little blue caterpillar on it," she said as she showed it to her husband sitting next to her.

Realization dawned on Alia. "Oh, the worm and the cliff!" "Now which one? Red or white?"

"Red."

Alia picked up the red box, the largest and heaviest of the flock, and untied the ribbon. Instead of tissue paper, layers of black velvet filled the box. Alia pushed them aside and carefully lifted out a crystal sphere.

"Is this from who I think it's from?" she asked Tieran.

Tieran nodded.

"Who's it from?" Albert had to know.

"A friend. A neighbor of Tieran's," Alia told him. "Did he say what to do with it?"

"You will have to ask him."

"You're getting some strange friends at college," Albert said. "What are you going to do with it?"

"Look for my dreams, I suppose," Alia said absentmindedly as she tucked it back in the box, which really only made Albert wonder about her more.

For the last gift she had to remove the pearlized white paper and green ribbon to open the box. She broke the tape holding one end of the box closed and slid out a lump of tissue paper. Unrolling it, she found a white porcelain statue of a cat. She turned it over so that it lay face up in her hand and saw bright blue eyes painted on its pale face.

"It's the kitten! See that's what the kitten looks like." She showed her parents.

"I found it when I went shopping with Albert," Tieran explained. "It seemed to fit with the rest, so I bought it."

"Fit? How?" Albert asked. "I don't see how any of it fits together."

"The other four figures come from a story I told Alia just after we met."

"What is it?"

"It's a long story, B. Maybe one of these days when we have lots of time I'll tell you." Alia said.

.….

That night, after the parades, the Christmas dinner, and the football games, Alia felt like getting out of the house.

"I'm going to go for a walk. Do you want to come, Tieran?"

"Yes."

They got their coats and left by the front door, Alia leading the way.

"Where are we going?" Tieran asked.

"I thought we'd go to the park. It's just down the block. I used to play there when I was a kid." Alia tucked her hand under his elbow, walking close next to him. "I thought I'd show you how I spent part of my childhood. And it gets me out of the house."

"I thought you got along well with your family?"

"I do. I just can't take them for too long anymore. Here it is," she said, crossing the street to a tree-filled block. "Besides, I miss being with you."

"I have been here."

"But, with my parents around, I can't act the same way with you as I usually do."

"Why not?"

"I don't know. Inhibitions. I have an image to keep up for them, I guess. I have to behave the way I think they want me to behave. I don't feel as free to… to just touch you to reassure myself that you're still there and real."

"I will always be there. Do not worry about that."

"I know. It's probably just more of that heart versus head stuff. Look – the merry-go-round is still here." Alia walked up to the floating metal disc surrounded by its trench dug by the dragging of thousands of children's feet. "You hold on to these handles and push it around until it's spinning as fast as you can run. Then you jump on and ride it." She idly pushed one of the handles and the round table began to spin slowly.

"Was it fun?"

"Oh, yes, loads of fun for a kid. As long as you didn't trip or slip – that hurt."

"Show me."

"I don't know," Alia shook her head. "It's been a long time since I've done anything like that."

"Show me," Tieran said, sitting on the edge of the merry-go-round.

"All right. Pick up your feet so they don't drag." She started to push until she was running alongside it, then jumped on.

She laughed in surprise, having more difficulty staying on than she remembered. With a glance up from the metal surface she saw Tieran had braced himself against the crossbars and handles.

"Oh, my," Alia said, quickly looking down again after looking up at the spinning world. "That was a mistake. I don't have the equilibrium of an eleven year-old anymore."

She tried to pull herself closer to the center. Tieran held out a hand to her.

"Here. Come here."

Alia grabbed for his hand quickly and he helped pull her closer to the center.

"This is harder than I remember it being."

"You weigh more now. Simple physics, as your father would tell you."

"Ah, more force to throw us off. I hadn't thought of that."

"How long would you do this?"

"For as long as we could find someone to push it or stand up to push it ourselves." She wiggled a little. "It's not as comfortable, either. Another happy memory of childhood tarnished."

"No, it is not very comfortable. How do you stop it?"

"More physics. Friction. You drag your feet over the edge. Or you wait for it to slow down on its own."

Tieran brought it to a stop and stood up.

"Careful. I wouldn't recommend that," Alia said as she scooted to the edge.

Tieran swayed slightly, then stood upright, holding on to one of the handles. "I am fine."

"Well, I'm not," she said, lying back on the icy metal plate. "Look, the trees are spinning," Alia laughed, pointing to the branches over their head.

Tieran's balance surrendered after looking up at that suggestion. "Perhaps you have the right idea," he said, following her example and lying down on the merry-go-round nearby. "Tell me when they stop." After a moment he added, "When you close your eyes, it feels a little like flying."

"What else did you do as a child?" he asked as things settled back into place.

"Swings were fun. They were like flying, too. There used to be some around here."

She found the swings and sat in one.

"Shall I push you?" Tieran offered.

"No, I don't feel like it tonight. It's a little too cold."

"Do you want to go back?"

"No, not yet. Let's walk around some more." She left the swing with a rattle of the chains and strolled through the trees, vanishing in the black shadows and reappearing in the yellow light cast by the street lamps.

"My parents wonder what's going on with us," she said suddenly.

"I know."

"You do?"

"Your mother asked me about my intentions toward you." Tieran stopped and leaned against a tree.

"My father wanted to know about my feelings yesterday. And then today while we were fixing dinner, my mother asked me what you do to make a living." She scuffed her toe through the pine needles and leaves on the ground. "I said your family was rich, so she wouldn't think that you were a con-artist, but I got carried away with all the descriptions. She jumped to the conclusion that you were some rich guy trying to buy me, using me like anything else you might own."

Tieran caught her hand and pulled her over to where he stood. "You are a person. I could never own you. What did you tell her?"

Alia stood in front of him, swinging his hands to and fro slightly as they held hers. "That I thought the idea was ridiculous. That I hadn't slept with you, that you had barely kissed me, and that you hadn't given me things to buy me."

"I have not been very demonstrative, have I?"

"No, not really."

"I did not want to… offend you, frighten you."

"You didn't want to move too fast." Alia nodded. "I understand. Give it a try. I'll forgive you this once."

Tieran released her hands for her face and kissed her. Alia felt his hands burn against her cold cheeks, then forgot to notice anything else.

"Can we do that again? I could get to like that," Alia asked as she slipped her arms around his waist.

"Mm-hmm. If you will answer a question for me."

"Blackmailer. What is it?"

"What did you tell your father?"

"About what?" The previous part of the conversation had completely slipped her mind for some reason.

"Your father asked you how you felt about me. What did you tell him?"

"I admitted that this is serious, not just play dating. I said I didn't know what to do, but that I didn't want to hurt you." She looked up at him, but could not read his face in the shadows. "I don't, you know. That is the very last thing I want to do."

"You do not sound certain of your feelings," Tieran said carefully.

"I wasn't."

"Past tense? Is that significant?"

"Yes. I'm sure now."

"And?"

Alia kissed him. She was fairly certain of what he wanted to know, but she was enough of a romantic to want him to come out and say it. "Ask me and I'll tell you," she whispered.

"Alia, will you spend the rest of your life with me? Will you be my wife?"

"Yes. I will. I said I wouldn't leave you and I meant it more than I knew."

"Demonstrative enough now?" Tieran asked some time later after he had thoroughly kissed her.

"Mmm, yes, we're getting there," she answered with a shiver.

"Cold?"

"Only a little, but I suppose we should go home before they start worrying and send out a search party." She led the way back through the trees.

"Tieran. Um, not to be ungrateful or anything, but usually around here when people get engaged there's a ring. My mother will expect a ring. Cara will demand one. I can wait to tell them, but eventually…"

"I have a ring."

Alia stopped and looked at him. "You do? You're supposed to put that on my finger when you ask the question, you know."

"I was… preoccupied." He retrieved a faceted stone out of the air in much the same way Jareth would have produced a crystal ball and then changed it to a small ring. Alia peered at it nearsightedly in the darkness.

"Come over here where we can see," he suggested and pulled her by the hand to the nearest street lamp. "Do you want the full ritual again?"

"No, you don't have to. The ring is just the icing on the cake. We've already agreed on the important stuff."

"Will it fit?"

"It should. If not, I can fix it." He slipped it on her finger where it fit exactly. As best as she could see some sort of intricate solid goldwork surrounded the dark smooth dome of the stone, about the size of a large pea. Without a single diamond, it was nothing like any engagement ring she had ever seen and she never wanted to take it off.

"It looks so old. Is it from your family?"

"No, I made it for you. I thought you would like that design."

"I do. I love it. How did you know?"

"Conversations. Shopping," he added with mock innocence.

"Oh, so terrorizing the jewelry stores had an ulterior motive."

"It was a convenient coincidence."

"I'm sure it was. What's the stone?"

"Alexandrite from your rock, the same as your pendant."

"Will it work like the pendant and let me hear you?"

"Probably not. I do not think it is big enough."

Alia sighed, "I suppose I can't have everything. Still, I love it. It's perfect. And I love you, too." She kissed him for good measure.