Julie all but flew down the stairs. As she dashed down the hall she almost sent her mother's poinsettia flying. She halted in front of the door, panting for breath. She forced herself to breath, urging air into her tight excited lungs. Slowly she reached for the doorknob and pulled open the door. The cool night air swept over her face, doing little to lower the heat that bloomed in her cheeks.

Austin looked up from the porch swing and smiled, that small, quick smirk that came so naturally to him. Julie felt something flutter inside her, and then tighten as her breath quietly hitched. She smiled back and walked toward him. Before she could even sit his hands shot out and grabbed her around her waist. He turned her around in his arms as she fell, giggling, on his lap. He wrapped his arms around her and let her squirm around so she could face him.

"Hi." She said unable to stop grinning.

"Hi back."

Wasting no time he reached up and took her face in his hands quickly closing the gap between them. His lips met hers, but not in the normal frenzied way, this time it was slow. Her lips curved against his as she lifted her hands to frame his face.

When he pulled away Julie gave a moan of irritation. She opened her eyes slowly, frowning and slightly confused.

He just laughed and playfully bit her bottom lip that stuck out in a pout.

"All in good time." He whispered against her mouth.

Julie smiled lightly as his breath fluttered against her lips and rested her forehead against his.

"C'mon now, still got a job to do remember?" He said patting her thigh.

Leaning over he grabbed the box of Christmas lights and gave them a small shake.

Julie rolled her eyes. "Yeah because that's so much more fun."

"Priorities Meyers." He told her giving her a small push off his lap. "I'll start at one end, you start at the other, we'll be done before you know it."

She eyed him with an icy stare as he offered her an end of the horribly mangled clump of lights.

"Fine." She said frigidly, and snatched it from his hand.

As she began to viscously pull at the tangled wires and lights he quickly pulled them from her grasp.

"Whoa, what'd they ever do to you?" He asked, half laughing. "I had no idea you could be so violent. But I guess it's my fault, all that built up sexual tension-"

"Don't flatter yourself," She said rolling her eyes. "I am perfectly able to keep my sexual urges in check."

"Then I guess the lights just had it coming."

"Yes."

Austin looked at her with a bemused smile.

She sighed. "It's not just the lights, it's everything, I mean who really needs an eight-foot inflatable Santa on their lawn anyway?"

"I see," Austin said leaning back and resting his arm around her shoulders. "Someone doesn't like Christmas."

"It's not that, I like it, but something about this year just doesn't feel right. It doesn't seem like Christmas."

Austin groaned. "Don't tell me you buy in to that white Christmas, chestnuts roasting over the yuletide log hype."

She shrugged. "Maybe, how Christmassy can it be to decorate palm trees and stuff your stockings with sunscreen?"

"You're complaining about a day where you get free presents."

"Don't be so cynical, it's not supposed to be about the gifts."

"Well that's what so many Christmas specials would like us to believe."

She gave him a light slap on the arm. "Well it's not, it's supposed to be about family, at least it would if I had any family around this year."

"I thought it was about Jesus."

"Austin!"

He laughed and lowered his arm to her waist, pulling her closer. "So you really have no family this year?"

Even though she was still annoyed at him, Julie leaned in to rest her head on Austin's shoulder. "No, my mom and Ian are going away for a romantic Europe get away. She didn't want to go and leave me but I managed to convince her, someone should have a good time after all. And my dad's busy with some clients, you'd be surprised how many law suits there are around the holidays."

"Good will toward men is really outliving its welcome I take it."

"I can't help feeling that they don't care as much now that I'm older. When I was a kid it wouldn't matter what was going on, we would always be together, but now it's like it just doesn't mean as much to them anymore."

"Now who's being cynical?"

"I'm serious," She said throwing out her arm for emphasis. "I remember each year my parents would pull out every stop, the caroling, the baking, drowning the house in lights. But then my fifteenth birthday came around, my parents got divorced (a/n I'm assuming, god I know nothing of this show or when the hell Susan and Karl got divorced) and it just stopped being a family thing and more of a 'I wonder where I'm going to be spending Christmas and where I'm going to spend New Years' thing."

"See now I never had that problem, with me it was more 'I wonder if the heat's going to be turned on' thing." Austin said.

Julie blushed and stared at her feet. "I'm sorry, I mean here I am going on like an idiot about all the great Christmases I had, no complaining about them, while I don't even begin think about- I mean- I'm being a jerk- I'm so-"

"Julie," Austin said stopping her from babbling. "It wasn't like that, I wasn't poor or anything my mom had money, even though she was a single mother, it's just when it came to bills she never really enjoyed paying them, sometimes when something inconvenienced her she just wouldn't do it."

"Oh," Julie said softly, feeling like a bitch for just assuming Austin was some poor little latchkey kid growing up who always dreamed of Christmas. "Sorry, it's just…well I guess you don't really ever talk about your childhood."

He smiled. "Yeah and let's keep it that way."

When Julie didn't speak and quietly started pulling apart the lights he sighed. "C'mon Julie…why don't you tell me more about the Meyers traditional family Christmas?"

Julie smiled, she knew he was only trying to cheer her up but still it felt nice. "Well there was this one year when I was ten or eleven. It was around the time you could tell my parents marriage was starting to crack. Almost every day around thanksgiving they would be at each others throat, arguing about everything. Then two weeks before Christmas my Dad surprised us with a holiday at this gorgeous cabin in Vermont. Of course we almost had to get a second mortgage on the house to afford it but that didn't seem to matter to them because for the fist time in a long time they were happy. I mean so happy, they never fought, they were always smiling, my mom even started singing around the house."

She stopped and remembered how her mother would always belt out every note she sang, even if it would usually be off key.

"When we got there I was so upset that there wasn't any snow. My parents had promised me every night before we got there I wouldn't believe how much snow there would be, so it was a bit of a disappointment. Anyway the day before Christmas eve my parents tried to cheer me up by taking me to this party at the main chalet of the resort."

She pressed her finger lightly to her lips. "Got my first kiss under the mistletoe."

Austin looked up from the lights. "Excuse me?"

She rolled her eyes. "It was seven years ago and I was ten."

"Still," Austin said as he put a protective arm around her. "I think I'll better just kick his ass, for pride reasons."

"Well I'm sure your ego couldn't survive such a humiliation." She said sarcastically earning her a small pinch on her thigh. She squeaked and lightly slapped his hand away.

"Anyway," she continued. "That night my wish for snow came true, except it wasn't quite what I expected. The resort was hit by a freak blizzard, I think it was some sort of record, the worst storm in a decade or something. But even though I was thrilled at first it was short lived."

She paused and leaned back against the solid back of the porch swing.

Austin looked up again at her. "Well, what happened?"

She sighed loudly. "It turned out that all that snow was all it took to break the happiness between my parents. We were all trapped inside the cabin, the heat and electricity dead and all our Christmas stuff was in the car." She smiled, "Apparently my parents decided to hide all my gifts there since it seemed like such a good idea at the time. That night we were all freezing, my mom had all but drowned my in blankets but still I felt cold, and to make matters worse my parents had one of their worst fights. All night I could hear them screaming. It was at that moment how I knew my parents were really unhappy, for the first time I stopped being naïve and really saw what was happening."

"Not exactly a great holiday story so far." Austin said.

"I'm not done." She closed her eyes and tried to remember everything that happened next. "When I woke up it was light out, Christmas morning. I got out of bed and came downstairs and then I saw something I'll never forget."

"What?"

"They were sitting, in total silence just starring at the snow. They had been ready to kill each other all night but then it was like they called a truce, like just knowing what day it was and looking at the snow was enough. Like one day of the year is all it takes to stop everything, make it stand still…for a little while at least." She shrugged. "People are weird that way I guess. It lasted all day, they just smiled at each other, but it was genuine this time. By the afternoon the snow had melted enough so we could get outside. But I don't think we ever even got to the gifts, we just stayed outside. My dad disappeared for hours that day. When we found him he had built this little skating rink, it was so tiny but perfect for me. It was amazing."

"Certainly sounds like it."

"Of course it would have been better if I knew how to skate."

Austin laughed and threw his arm around her lowering his head to softly brush his lips against hers. Has he broke away he looked down at his lap. "Well what do you know?" He said holding up a perfectly untangled line of lights.

"We did it." Julie said smiling.

"What do you mean we?" Austin said teasing her. "I was doing all the work while you were talking."

Julie laughed and took his face in her hands giving him a kiss of her own. "I guess you're right." She turned and looked at the dark night sky. "Unfortunately it's too late to put them up. Sorry, you did such a good job though, I don't think they were this straight when we bought them."

He smirked. Then suddenly he had a thought. "Are you going to that party on Saturday?"

She blinked, put off balance by his question. "The Christmas eve party at Bree's? Yeah sure… uh why do you ask."

Instead of answering her he quickly kissed he open mouth. "Great, I'll pick you up then." With that he stood, the box of lights still in his hands and climbed off the porch.

"Austin wh-" But he was already walking away, leaving her staring after him.

---

Alright another chapter, so I'm really worried this might not be finished by Christmas, I hope no one would hate me if I got this done by new years.

Anyway reviews are welcomed, critique is appreciated, but praise is guiltily adored (I'm not ashamed)