Z is for Zzzz
The lights on their Christmas tree blinked on and off, due to a questionable socket rather than the nature of the lights themselves, and the small candles on the coffee table flickered in the room's darkened interior, the sole sources of light. Wrapping paper was still strewn across the floor, as Santana had insisted that, although it was Christmas Eve, they could each open at least ONE gift, and she had refused to let Rachel immediately clean the paper. It was more fun, she declared, to leave it out for a day or two, and let it accumulate to the fullest on Christmas day, so people could kick it, trip over it, and bury themselves in it, ball it up and throw it at each other, and she had demonstrated, starting a paper fight that had lasted at least five minutes before Rachel's anxiety over their knocking over a tree or a candle had brought Kurt, at least, up short.
The three had settled down then, piling up together on the couch, and although Rachel had insisted that it was traditional, Santa Claus or no, to go to sleep early, the other two had vetoed her, staying on the couch watching Christmas shows into the early hours of morning. Somehow their attention had been diverted from television as they found themselves discussing the year overall, laughing quietly over the good times remembered, growing serious over the more painful memories that came up too. Their voices had grown softer and slower as time went on, and by the time they drifted off to sleep, none were sure who had dozed off first.
When Christmas morning dawned, the three of them were still sleeping, half sprawled over each other, on the couch, heads tilted awkwardly onto shoulders, arms and legs partly overlapping, hair tousled and strewn across others' faces, and yet despite the uncomfortable appearance this presented, they did not stir. Christmas would come on its own time for them, and however cramped and stiff they might be in the morning, for now, there was peace in their togetherness, in an all together different way than there would be when awakened.
The end