AN: Set pre-canon, the Christmas before the show starts. No knowledge of Every End is a Beginning required.

MACGYVER'S RESIDENCE

LA

Mac smiled to himself as he slipped through the door between the house and the deck, heading back inside to grab a couple more beers from the fridge. (He really needed to get an Esky…maybe he could make one that would open itself…)

A moment later, as he opened the fridge door, he heard very familiar footsteps behind him. His smile widened a little, and he turned after grabbing the beer to find his girlfriend standing in the living room. Mac's smile widened further into a grin, and holding the beer in one hand, he strode over to where she was standing (very strategically, he might add).

Nikki smirked and pointed at the ceiling.

'Oh, look, mistletoe.'

(Penny had brought it and demanded he suspend it from the ceiling, as she seemed to do every year, no matter how few people they had over for Christmas.)

Mac gave a little chuckle, shaking his head fondly as a small smirk of his own grew on his face, and Nikki wound her arms around his neck, and he ducked his head a little to kiss her.

When they broke apart, breathing being necessary, Nikki stilled with her face only a couple of inches away from his, and smirking again, she reached up a little to whisper into his ear, brushing her lips just ever so slightly over his jaw as she did so.

'I got you a very nice present with some very special wrapping to unwrap later…'

And with that rather brain-frying promise (make no mistake, he knew it was definitely a promise), she stole one of the beers in his hand and sauntered away, that very special swing in her hips that he knew promised an interesting night.

Mac grinned, looking out onto the deck where Jack, Bozer, Penny and Patricia were all talking, laughing (well, at least the former three were, though Patricia had an amused little smile on her face) and nibbling on various Christmas-themed snacks, as Nikki joined them again.

He started walking back out onto the deck to join his friends, his family, grin widening further.

Life can't get any better than this.

AN: Yes, this is very, very sad…poor, poor, poor Mac...

And yes, this is also the moment when Mac decides to make his self-opening Esky as featured in Every End is a Beginning.

Tomorrow's ficlet: 'Of course it's you, Mac, I don't know why I even considered it could be a burglar…'

This one is a little tricky to guess, I think – but who says that?