A/N Feels like FOREVER since I posted something! RL sucks. I missed you guys though, I'm sad when there are no reviews to look at!

Disclaimer: Not mine.

SPOV

When I woke up on Saturday morning I realised two things. One, Eric was holding me really tight to his chest, and the second was that I really liked it. The lines of an old Split Enz song popped into my head, something like 'Now I wake up happy, warm in a lover's embrace.' I lay there trying to remember the rest, 'No more…doo doo doo possession. So I'll sing it to the world, this simple message to my girl…"

I was lying there trying to remember more of the song, when Eric murmured "You're humming."

"What? Was I?"

"Yeah, what is it?"

"Just a song I was trying to remember the lyrics to. Nothing important." I rolled over to face him. "Do you think we're early enough for a shower?" I asked, but Felicia's indignant wail from down the hall answered that before Eric had a chance to.

Eric still needed a car, so I sent him off in mine to try again, hoping I wasn't looking too obviously worried as I kissed him goodbye.

EPOV

Who knew that buying a fucking car was going to turn into such a test? After completely fucking it up the previous Saturday, there was no way I could afford to have it go so badly this time.

So I tried a different car yard, I figured it didn't really matter what one I went to, the cars were all pretty much the same. I decided that thinking too much about it was what got me in the shit last time, so I just picked a couple to test drive and bought a rather boring looking SUV. I just wanted to get back to Sookie and let her know it was OK this time.

Only she wasn't there, when I got back, which felt fucking odd. I wasn't used to coming back to an empty house, which made me wonder how I'd coped for all those years I'd lived alone. I was at a bit of a loss for what to do now I had no one to tell.

Thankfully I didn't have that problem for long, as Sookie arrived back with Amelia and Felicia in tow, looking rather hot and flustered. "Oh, you're back" she said, lifting Felicia out of the stroller and putting her on the floor. "We went to the park and it was warm out there. How'd it go?"

"Yeah, alright. I got something. I can pick it up on Monday." I hugged her. She was trying not to show anything I knew, but she held on to me pretty tight, like she'd been afraid I wouldn't come back.

"Is it lunchtime now?" asked Amelia.

"Yeah, guess so." said Sookie. "We went to the bakery on the way home."

I let go of Sookie and went to investigate what they'd bought.

The rest of the afternoon was marked only by Sookie's happy dance when she finally managed to get some laundry dry outside. "Yay, its summer!" she said, dancing around the backyard. "Now it's really starting to feel like Christmas!"

"Um, not so much" I said, kind of mesmerised by the shimmy Sookie had been doing.

"Phft. Of course it does. Who wants it to be cold at Christmas anyway? That's just wrong. When I lived in London it was just miserable all the time. You couldn't even go outside! Who doesn't go outside at Christmas?"

"Lots of people…"

"Yeah, well you're just being all…Northern Hemisphere-ist now. Just because it's cold there for Christmas doesn't mean that's right."

I snorted. Sookie was just trying to get me to bite, so I decided to give her what she wanted. "But Santa needs snow, surely? Otherwise the reindeer would swelter when they got here."

But I hadn't noticed Amelia sidling up to us and she overheard what we were talking about, and wailed "But there's no snow! If we don't have snow, Santa won't come! Mum we need snow!"

Sookie gave me a rather filthy look and said "It's fine, Santa doesn't need snow. Santa just lives where there's snow. He will still bring presents to all the good boys and girls."

"Yeah, that's right." I added, hoping to undo my earlier comment, but Amelia looked unconvinced.

"But, there's no snow…" she said again.

"And that's OK. Trust me, Santa will still come. If you're good that is!" Sookie said.

Amelia thought for a bit, and then said "Do you think he'll bring me some binoculars?"

"Possibly" said Sookie "You'll have to tell him that's what you want."

"Will he bring presents for Leesha?"

"Yes"

"Really?" Amelia looked shocked at that. "But she's a baby?"

"That still counts. Now go and find your shoes as we're off to Aunty Tara's shortly."

Amelia ran off and I picked up the laundry basket to follow Sookie. "Wow" I said "She takes that Santa stuff really fucking seriously."

"Yup, she's 3. It's life or death. So be careful what you say around her, because she'll take it all to heart."

"Yeah, I get that. I didn't mean to upset her."

"No, I know. It's fine."

SPOV

I was a bit nervous about taking Eric over to Tara's and introducing him properly. I hoped he was going to cope a bit better than Bill had, Bill wasn't really one to socialise, well, not with anyone he hadn't personally been friends with since he was about 15. Going to Tara and JB's could be a bit of an ordeal as Bill would clam up and it would be uncomfortable.

But Eric seemed OK. The stickiest bit was when JB offered him a beer, and I could tell he wasn't sure what to do, and he sort of glanced at me while trying to figure it out. In the end I guess the desire to fit in won over and he accepted one. I assumed he'd probably be fine while he was with me.

Amelia was off hanging out with Charlotte and Lachie in the backyard, which was filled with play equipment. Eric did the bloke thing and went to help with the barbecue, although from what I could hear he was mostly at Amelia's beck and call as she asked him to push her on the swings, lift her onto the trampoline and rescue her from her perch at the top of the climbing frame.

So that left me in the kitchen with Tara and Felicia. "Wine?" asked Tara, already pouring me a glass.

"Please."

"So, Eric seems to be fitting in OK." Tara said as she handed me the glass. We looked out to where he was playing with the kids.

"Yeah, he's fine."

"Just fine?"

"No, no. It's really good. I don't really know what it is, but it's good. Oh, is Felicia OK in that drawer?"

"Yeah, that's just plastic stuff. She was playing with that when I looked after her."

"Good."

Tara went back to making salad, but looked thoughtful. "So, is this like permanent then?" she asked.

"Oh, God. I think it's too early for that Tara!"

She shrugged. "Not necessarily, you're not getting any younger."

"Tara!" It was a good thing I'd known her so long because she wasn't exactly sugar-coating her observations.

"No, what I meant was that I don't think it has to work like it did when we were younger. You knew Bill for what, 10 years before you married him?" I nodded. "Yeah, when we were so young we wanted to wait to make sure. But I think now, you can just get on with it."

"But I'm not marrying Eric."

"Well, fine, don't marry him. But I don't think you have to go quite so slow this time around. Jeez, if you wait ten years this time you'll be ancient!"

"Thanks very much! Good thing I'm younger than you then!" Sometimes the problem with having known someone for so long was that you fell back into the same old patterns all the time.

Tara snorted. "I don't think 3 months makes all that difference anymore."

"It's a huge difference" I said smiling, and I crouched down so I could put all of Tara's plastic containers back in the drawer Felicia had just emptied.

Dinner itself went well, although Amelia tried to talk everyone's ear off and got a bit annoyed when she was upstaged by the older Charlotte. Lachlan mainly seemed to want to shout and try to shoot people. I was kind of glad not to have any boys; somehow Barbies seemed to be infinitely more manageable.

We ended up staying later than I intended, and it was starting to get dark when we left. Of course it was way past bedtime for both Amelia and Felicia who were probably going to be tired and cranky in the morning, but they'd both enjoyed themselves. Although it was hard to tell sometimes with Felicia. I guess the only time she'd cried was when we'd hauled her away from the drawer in Tara's kitchen to eat something, so that was pretty good for her.

I quite enjoyed the one, or possibly two bottles of sauvignon blanc that Tara had opened. Eric seemed to have stopped after one beer, so I let him drive home. I must have been a little bit on the tipsy side because watching him curse under his breath after he tried to get in the car without first putting the seat back was about the funniest thing I'd ever seen in my life at that point.

EPOV

I'd survived dinner with Sookie's friends, without any major fuck-ups. I wasn't sure what the rule was on drinking when we were out, but Sookie didn't seem fucked off by me having a beer. She seemed to be drinking more than her fair share of the wine while we were there, and ended up laughing herself silly at me trying to get into her car without pushing the seat right back. My knees ended up jammed under the steering wheel and she obviously thought that was the most entertaining thing she'd ever fucking seen. Amelia just kept repeating "What? What happened?" from the back seat, but Sookie just kept laughing, which annoyed Amelia no end.

I'd hung out with JB at the barbecue, which meant that I spent a lot of time co-opted by Amelia who was making the most of all the play stuff they had spread all over their lawn. I was really fucking regretting the afternoon's throwaway comment, because she kept asking me if Santa was really coming, and why wasn't there any snow if Santa needs snow? I had to keep reassuring her that it was all OK; I didn't think I could tell her that there's no snow because Christmas is during the wrong fucking season in this part of the world. Not that I was used to seeing snow at Christmas, but it did feel really wrong for it to actually be summer.

Fuck, I realised, I was going to have to buy Sookie a real Christmas present at some stage.

Right, now though I was mostly concentrating on just getting home. Felicia had gone to sleep in her carseat, and Amelia wasn't far behind. Even Sookie was a bit quiet now she was over her giggles.

I was driving down Mt Eden Road, when I saw something I hadn't seen so far in this country, mainly I guess because there was no fucking point when it's not dark until about 9 o'clock at night. There was a house that was all decked out with Christmas lights; they'd covered the front lawn as well. I had an idea and pulled the car over.

"What's happening?" Sookie asked, looking confused.

"I have an idea" I said, just as Amelia asked loudly "Are we home?"

"No, we're somewhere better. Santa's base of operations in New Zealand."

"What?" asked Amelia, looking confused.

"Santa's house. For when he visits here."

"Oh, really?" she asked.

"Yeah, come on, let's have a look."

Leaving Felicia to snooze in the car, I got out and helped Amelia out of her car seat, and Sookie joined us. The place was covered in all manner of lights and decorations, and mannequins. It was a fucking bizarre anomaly in the middle of Mt Eden, but I hoped it would help Amelia. I lifted her up to sit on my shoulders so she had a better view over the fence.

"So Santa lives here?" she asked.

"Santa visits here, when he's in New Zealand. Like when he goes to St Luke's so you can get your photo with him" said Sookie, who was catching on.

"But there's no snow?"

"No" I said, "there doesn't need to be snow. That's what I've been trying to tell you."

"Oh" she said. "So Santa will really come then?"

"Yeah" I said, "Santa will really come."

"But only if you're good" added Sookie.

"I'm always good!" Amelia said indignantly.

"Mmmm" Sookie said diplomatically.

So we stood there for a while, with Amelia excitedly yelling about all the things she could see, and then joined Felicia back in the car for the short trip home. Sookie leaned over and whispered "that was good thinking" to me, and I wasn't sure which made me feel better, that I'd fixed Amelia's funk about Santa, or that Sookie appreciated my efforts.

Drinking seemed to put Sookie in a good mood. A very good mood. So good that not even Amelia deciding that she didn't want to brush her teeth and get ready for bed, put her out of it. Luckily I was outside the bathroom and caught Amelia as she tried to make a break for it, although that may have just made it more fun for her.

Later on that night she was still looking happy. I was sitting on the bed, lying back against the pillows, watching Sookie as she rose and fell, riding me. She looked flushed and sweaty and fucking magnificent. And she was smiling like a fucking idiot.

I took one of her fantastic breasts in my mouth and rolled my tongue around her nipple, feeling her grip on my shoulders tighten in response. "Ohhh, that's good" she murmured, before putting both hands on my face and pulling me up for a kiss. She moaned again, and I felt her tightening around me. I'm pretty sure that I may have been smiling at that point too. I fucking loved this. Just before I came I had a thought that there was a fucking mountain of stuff I loved when Sookie was around, but I wasn't sure that I wasn't just caught up in the moment.

Sookie was still smiling when I got back from getting rid of the condom. "You look happy" I said, getting into bed beside her.

"Yeah, well this makes me happy" she said, putting her head on my chest.

"What, sex?"

"Sex with you." For some reason that made me feel a bit deflated, like maybe all she wanted me for was sex, but then she went on. "Actually, you just generally makes me happy." That was better.

"Well you make me very fucking happy too." I kissed the top of her head.

"Yeah" she said sleepily, "it's good when everyone's happy."

"Yeah, it is."

"Night, then" she said, kissing my chest.

"Night."

The song is Message to My Girl by Split Enz. The opening lyrics are "I don't want to say I love you, that would give away too much." Which is kind of apt. And the bit Sookie's trying to remember (because I guess lots of you won't have heard it) is:

Now I wake up happy
warm in lovers embrace.
No one else can touch us
while we're in this place.

So I'll sing it to the world
this simple message to my girl.

No more empty self possession,
visions swept under the mat.
It's no New Years resolution,
it's more than that.

Though I'm frightened by the word,
think it's time I made it heard.

So I'll sing it to the world
this simple message to my girl.

No more empty self possession,
visions swept under the mat.
It's no New Years resolution,
it's more than that.

Oh there's nothing quite as real
as the touch of your sweet hands.
I can't spend the rest of my life
buried in the sand.

Thanks Neil Finn, you're awesome!

And thanks for reading!