Note: I apologise for the lack of Cupcakes these past couple of weeks. I've been absolutely exhausted from my new job and so my writing time has been reduced to a minimum. I was determined to have this particular cake up before Epiphany and the end of Christmas, though. I know it's a bit late to be a 'Christmas' tale, but since half of it takes place at New Year's, it's not too out of season.

I hope you enjoy this festive offering. It gets slightly racy in places, but nothing too shocking.

Summary: Belle and Gold's first Christmas/ New Year together, prompted by Wingless Demeter.

Christmas Cake

It had just turned midnight, and Christmas Day was over. Belle curled her legs up beneath her on the sofa, snuggling into Gold's side and chinking her tumbler against his. She felt his free hand snake round behind her and come to rest on her hip.

"Now," she began. "You can't try to tell me that this wasn't better than getting drunk with your Aunt Elvira in Glasgow."

"Hmm." Gold sounded distinctly as if he was reserving judgement, and Belle thumped his shoulder playfully. "Ow! Yes, I admit, this was definitely better than getting drunk with Aunt Elvira. Just don't tell her that." He paused and took a sip of whiskey, gifted from the aforementioned aunt that morning. "I could've done without the wake-up call this morning though."

Belle laughed and fell to remembering. They'd had a rather unexpected start to the day courtesy of a slightly hyperactive Ruby…

The phone was ringing. Why was the phone ringing in the middle of the night? It could only be an emergency. Still half-asleep and wondering what could possibly be drastic enough to warrant being woken up early Christmas morning, Belle rolled out of bed and padded through the darkness towards her dressing table where she'd left the phone.

"Hello?" she said, although the last syllable was swallowed in a yawn as she made her way back across the room and got back into bed to keep her feet warm.

"Belle, it's Ruby, we've got a supply crisis on our hands."

"What?" Belle's brow furrowed. "Ruby, it's…" She reached over Gold, who gave an incoherent grumble in protest, and checked the time on her alarm clock. "It's only just gone seven o'clock. It's still dark."

"And I think we're going to run out of booze," Ruby said. "We drank a bit more than we intended last night and we need to know how much we can drink today so we've still got enough for Boxing Day. Will Gold want red or white wine with lunch tomorrow?" There was a pause. "Merry Christmas, by the way."

"Merry Christmas." Belle lay back against her pillows with a groan. "Gold won't want either, he'll be driving."

"Thank goodness," Ruby said, and Belle heard her calling to her grandmother. "It's ok, Granny, we've got enough!"

"Ruby, how can you and Granny, of all people, misjudge the amount of alcohol you need? You are unbelievable."

"I know," Ruby said cheerfully. "So, what have you got for Christmas?"

"I don't know." Belle yawned again. "I haven't opened any presents yet; I'm still in bed."

"But it's Christmas!" Ruby exclaimed.

"It's time for a lie-in," Gold muttered darkly from under the covers. He turned over and tugged the phone out of Belle's hand. "Merry Christmas, Ruby," he said, and promptly hung up. Belle gave a mental shrug as she pulled the blanket back up to her nose for another couple of hours' sleep before Christmas began properly. Presents could wait for a while.

"You didn't do yourself any favours there," Belle pointed out. "We're going to her house for lunch tomorrow and the fact you were in my bed on Christmas morning will provide her with enough ammunition to last till New Year's. Be prepared for lots of jokes about you trimming my Christmas tree."

"I consider myself duly forewarned." Gold stretched out his feet on the stuffed tiger. "I thought I'd seen the last of early mornings on Christmas Day when Bae realised I was Father Christmas and that the presents would still be there later than half-past six."

At this declaration, Belle was gifted with an image of Gold in a Santa outfit, complete with beard, and she burst out laughing, to the extent that he took her glass for fear of her upending his Scotch over the sofa.

"Don't tell me, you were imagining me dressed up as the man in red," he said drily. Belle nodded.

"Did you ever do what my dad did one year, and get so plastered on Christmas Eve that he fell over whilst trying to put my stocking at the end of my bed?" she asked. "Remaining 'asleep' during that was a masterpiece of acting, even if I do say so myself. I hung my stocking on my bedroom door after that, though, just in case."

Gold shook his head. "I never did that, but I did manage to drop half the presents on Liz's head one year." Belle gave him a perplexed look and he continued. "We used to hide the packages in the top of the spare wardrobe. Getting them down under the tree was an interesting exercise in logistics some years. Especially when we'd had a few."

Belle sipped her whiskey. She was not much of a spirit drinker, but whiskey at Christmas seemed to fit somehow, somewhere along with the image of candlelit Christmas trees, roaring fires and leather armchairs – none of which featured in their current tableau. The day had been a hotch-potch mix of traditions; its unorthodox beginning had been an indicator of the strange day to come in itself. They'd started the day in Belle's house and finished it in Gold's, unwrapping gifts here and there between long-distance phone calls. (Moe had spent Christmas with Brenda, as he'd done the previous year, and was half asleep on the sofa having eaten what sounded to be an entire Christmas pudding on his own when Belle rang. Gold's Aunt Elvira had spent half their conversation berating him for leaving her on her own with no excuse not to take up her weird neighbours' invitation to lunch, and the other half thanking him for her gin and telling him that maybe the neighbours weren't as bad as she'd first thought because they liked the Wombles.) But in the end, it didn't matter, because Christmas was a time for spending with people you loved, and the idiosyncrasies were all part of the picture.

Speaking of people in love, however…

"There's one present we haven't opened yet," Belle said conversationally. Gold looked at her through narrowed eyes.

"We?" he asked.

"Well, I bought it as a present to myself, but I rather hope you'll enjoy it as well," Belle replied. "You remember when Ruby and I went to London to see the lights and Harrods' Christmas window displays?" she continued.

"Yes. I came to pick you up from the station at three in the morning because you'd missed your train home and had to catch the sleeper."

"Yes, but that aside, whilst we were in London, we did a bit of Christmas shopping for ourselves."

"Yes…"

"And we might just have happened to have gone into Ann Summers…"

"Yes…" Gold sounded slightly strangled as he looked her up and down, taking in her warm and fluffy dressing gown, and only now realising that there was something definitely not warm and fluffy underneath. "Somehow," he managed, "I don't think you'll appreciate me ripping the wrapping paper on this one."

Belle stood and undid the belt of her gown, flashing him the briefest of glimpses of the red and white lace ensemble beneath before covering up again.

"Oh, believe me darling," she said sweetly, "if you can shred my dressing gown, I won't stop you."

"You want to be careful, Miss French." Gold was practically growling as he pulled her back down onto the sofa with him. "That sounded remarkably like a challenge…"

X

As tempting as it had been to cancel Boxing Day lunch at Ruby's in favour of spending the entire day in bed, the twenty-sixth of December found Belle and Gold in station road.

"Now, I know Ruby and Granny can be overwhelming," Belle began, "but Archie, Emma, Graham and Henry will be there as well, so you shouldn't feel too outnumbered."

"Ruby and her grandmother are not in themselves overwhelming," Gold said as he parked the car. "It's only when you put them together and give them alcohol that they begin to give the impression that they could eat you alive."

"Belle!" Ruby was waving from the doorstep of number ninety-three. Sure enough, there was a bottle of Bristol Cream in one hand and a sherry glass in the other. "Over here!"

"Ruby, I know where you live," Belle said. She raised an eyebrow as Ruby refilled her glass "Are you making up for lost time because you had to limit yourselves yesterday?"

"Perhaps," Ruby said. "Come in, warm up, have some sherry. Or not," she added as Gold came up the garden path behind Belle. She cocked her head on one side. "What do you drink when you aren't drinking Scotch or tea?" she asked, before waving the question away. "Ah well, Granny's in charge of everything that isn't sherry at the moment. I've been banned from the kitchen after my little misadventure with the sprouts yesterday."

"What happened?" Belle asked, hanging up her coat and accepting the sherry that Ruby had poured for her.

"You don't want to know," Granny called from the kitchen. "We have vowed never to speak of it again."

"It wasn't that bad," Ruby said airily. "Only five of them actually exploded. So, what did you get for Christmas?"

"There'll be no Christmas present discussion at the table." Granny came out of the kitchen to greet the new arrivals. "Since you two girls are both in the first throes of new love and Emma's in the first throes of newly-affianced status, there's far too much potential for making the ten-year-old ears present blush."

Belle thought of her mauled dressing gown – even Gold in the heights of ardour couldn't rip velour although he'd made a damn good go of it – and dutifully said nothing.

"Too much potential for making celibate septuagenarians jealous, more like," Ruby countered. Granny merely tutted and, having hugged Belle and gone to hug Gold but decided better of it, delved into the cupboard under the stairs in search of non-alcoholic refreshment. "So," Ruby continued. "I trust the contents of Santa's sack were satisfactory? Especially since he was still there at seven in the morning dispensing them?"

Gold suddenly became extremely interested in the Christmas cards hanging up in the hallway. Belle just laughed.

"Most satisfactory, thank you."

"Chocolates, silk underwear?"

"Yes, both of those."

"Excellent." Ruby grinned wickedly. "So what did Gold get you then?"

"And now I think it would be an excellent time for us to move out of the hallway and into the living room," Granny said loudly from the cupboard. "Archie'll be getting lonely in there."

Ruby ushered her guests into the living room, where they were greeted by Archie, who seemed extremely relieved to have a second male presence on whom he could rely to provide moral support once Granny really got started on the fortified wine. The usual Christmas pleasantries were exchanged before they were interrupted by a cry of triumph.

"Aha!" came Granny's voice from under the stairs. "I knew I had lime cordial in here somewhere. Ah… Went out of date in nineteen-eighty-two…"

Gold raised an eyebrow.

"I think I'll pass, thank you, Mrs Lucas."

"Well, at least it's supposed to be green so you can't see the mould." Granny came into the living room wiping thirty years' worth of dust off a bottle. "Hmm. Not sure it's meant to be so thick though."

Ruby took the cordial and turned it upside down.

"It has actually set solid," she mused. "We ought to send it to the government as a Site of Special Scientific Interest." She shook it slightly and a globule of cordial was dislodged from the bottom of the bottle. "Oh, it'll be fine once you stick some soda in with it."

Gold and Belle exchanged looks, and Belle just shrugged, as if to say 'welcome to my world'. It was still Christmas, after all…

X

It was New Year's Eve, and Belle was once more in Granny and Ruby's dining room – on Gold's lap, since there were nowhere near enough chairs for all the guests, who were packed into the terraced house like sardines. The majority of the people from the precinct who'd been invited to Astrid and Leroy's going away party the previous month had turned up to celebrate the passing of the old year with Ruby and Granny, along with several distant Lucas relatives whom Belle had met in various states of drunkenness the last Christmas, and some people whom she'd never seen before and who had probably been invited by August. Henry could be found hiding with Jefferson's daughter Grace under the buffet table out of the way, comparing Christmas presents and getting into an in-depth discussion about a book series they were both reading, their presence only betrayed by the occasional hand popping up from under the tablecloth to pinch some sausage rolls. Archie and Ruby were in the garden – the guests had spilled out of the house, there were that many of them – and Pongo was barking along in time with the music that was blasting out of Granny's ancient stereo in the kitchen. Perhaps the house was so full because they'd invited half the street so they wouldn't complain about being disturbed by the noise.

Gold pressed a kiss against her neck, bringing her back to the present.

"What are you thinking about, love?" he asked.

"Nothing," she replied. Well, that was a lie. "Nothing important."

She was thinking about Boxing Day evening, when he'd dropped her back at her flat. (They'd both been reluctant, but they were still in their honeymoon period and terrified of rushing things, so a night apart every now and then was probably healthy. Belle knew all too well the adverse effects of too much sex on top of eighteen months' celibacy.)

"Gold…" she asked, plucking a stray shred of tinsel from his coat and rolling it between her fingers.

"Yes?"

"What do you usually do on New Year's Eve?"

"Belle, I have spent every Hogmanay for the last ten years in Glasgow with my Aunt Elvira. We…"

"…exchange bottles of alcohol, complain about your various leg-related ailments and fall asleep in front of Miracle on 34th Street. Yes, I remember."

"No, that's what we do on Christmas Day. New Year's Eve is a different kettle of fish entirely. No, on New Year's Eve we do the rounds of the neighbours, see who's got the best party and stay there until sun-up. Or until the drink runs out, when we all decamp elsewhere."

Belle looked at him sideways.

"And you do all this with your eighty-three year old maiden aunt?" she asked incredulously.

"You've never met my eighty-three year old maiden aunt," Gold said. He gave her a sage look and Belle flicked the tinsel at him.

"So, if I were to extend an invitation from Ruby to come to her and Granny's New Year's Eve extravaganza, you'd come?" she asked.

Gold grinned.

"It's Hogmanay," he said. "Wouldn't miss it for the world."

Belle was jolted out of her little daydream quite literally, letting out a shrill squeal as Gold bounced her on his good leg.

"You were miles away again," he scolded playfully. "I had to bring you down to earth."

Belle was torn between hitting him and kissing him. She'd never seen him quite like this before; she knew Hogmanay was a strong tradition in Scotland, stronger than Christmas in some places, but she'd never experienced New Year's with a Scotsman before, and she'd assumed that Gold had lived so long in the South that his enthusiasm would have been tempered. The evening had proved her dramatically wrong, something shining in his eyes that she was sure had not been there on previous evenings.

Graham battled his way over to their corner.

"I've only just managed to get away from Ruby's Uncle Stanley," he said. "I've half a mind to join Henry under the table."

"You'd probably be better off trying to find Emma," Gold said. "It's nearly midnight and you don't want someone else grabbing her at crunch time." He increased his grip on Belle's waist, the movement imperceptible to the eye, but Belle could feel it. "Why do you think I've kept you so close all evening?"

Belle wriggled free from his arms so that she could stand and pull him up with her.

"We need some champagne," she said in answer to his unspoken question of 'why have we given up our chair?'. "Or at least, we need to try and find it before it's all drunk and we don't get any to toast the New Year in with."

Out of the corner of her eye, Belle saw Graham waving madly over the top of Ruby's Uncle Stanley's head towards Emma, who was absorbed in conversation with August and paying her fiancé absolutely no attention whatsoever. Someone was yelling from the living room, where the TV was on blasting out the live coverage of the New Year celebrations in London, that there was less than a minute of the old year left. Jefferson had managed to persuade Henry and Grace out of hiding, and there seemed to be far more people in the room than there had any business to be.

Gold caught Belle's wrist as she tried to get out of the dining room.

"It's not worth it," he murmured. "Let's just stay here."

He held her close against the crush, pressing her flush against him, and Belle slipped her arms round his middle under his jacket.

Ten… Nine… Eight…

Gold's mouth was looking incredibly inviting, but Belle was determined not to give into temptation until the year had ended.

Seven… Six… Five…

She decided her New Year's resolution was to spend as much time as possible in the arms of the man currently holding her.

Four… Three… Two…

And maybe buy some more underwear.

One.

Belle got as far as 'Happy Ne…' before Gold had captured her mouth in a kiss that went above and beyond the call of duty as far as the 'kiss the person nearest to you at midnight' rule was concerned. He finally released her and Belle rested her chin in the crook of his collar bone. Best to start early on the resolutions. Under the exclamations of Happy New Year, calls for champagne, fireworks and wildly inappropriate music, she made out a low Scottish voice rumbling next to her ear.

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind…"

Belle closed her eyes and nuzzled into Gold's neck, feeling him singing more than she could hear him.

"…we'll raise a cup of kindness yet for the sake of auld lang syne…"

"That was lovely," she whispered when he'd finished.

"I can sing it in Gaelic if you want," he said. "According to Aunt Elvira, the words mean the same thing, but it could be something completely different."

He was about to pull her into another kiss when his phone rang. He rolled his eyes but dutifully answered.

"Hello Aunt Elvira. Happy New Year. Yes, Bliadhna Mhath Ùr if you must." He raised his eyes to heaven and put the phone next to Belle's ear. A shrill Glaswegian voice that sounded as if its owner had had far too much gin was practically shouting down the phone over the noise on the other end. Aunt Elvira had obviously gone out on the town without her errant nephew for companionship and had managed to find a pretty good party on her own.

"… and my only relative is gallivanting off down South, leaving me with but my gin for company…"

"Just say Happy New Year," Gold mouthed to Belle.

"Erm, Happy New Year, Aunt Elvira," she said.

Aunt Elvira gave a squawk of alarm and Gold took the phone back. He listened for a few minutes, went decidedly pink and hung up with a gruff 'Happy New Year, I'll call you later'.

Belle gave a small, scheming smile.

"What on earth could she have said to make you blush?" she asked Gold, who shook his head. "You know, I'm beginning to like your Aunt Elvira. I'd quite like to meet her."

"I was starting to fear that," Gold muttered. He looked her straight in the eye. "If you really want to know, she told me to…"

"Happy New Year!" Ruby bounded up to them with Archie and Pongo in hot pursuit. However they'd managed to get in from the garden was beyond Belle, and she cursed her friend's sense of timing as she was summarily hugged very tightly. "Sorry, were you two in the middle of something?"

Belle rolled her eyes as Ruby released her and moved onto Gold, throwing her arms around him before he could protest and then skipping away before he could do anything to retaliate. Belle gave him a sideways glance but Gold just shrugged. New Year's could make fools of them all, it seemed.

X

The majority of the guests had gone by four in the morning, leaving Belle, Ruby, Archie, Gold and a small diehard core of celebrators tidying the house whilst an utterly exhausted (and not a little tipsy) Granny snoozed in an armchair in the living room. By the time the kitchen was in a vague semblance of order and Ruby's next door neighbours had put the carpets back down – having taken them up earlier in the day in case of accidents – it was close on seven, and Belle was dead on her feet. At least they'd left it late enough in the morning that there were plenty of taxis available.

Belle rested her head on Gold's shoulder and gave an enormous yawn. The first day of the year was going to be spent asleep, as long as she had anything to do with it.

Gold, on the other hand, seemed to have other ideas, the merry little glint in his eyes still undimmed after being awake for almost twenty-four hours, and when their taxi stopped in the middle of the town instead of at his doorstep, Belle knew that something was definitely going on.

"Where are we going?" she moaned. "It's nearly half-past seven in the morning, Gold, for crying out loud, I want to sleep, it'll be light soon!"

"Exactly," Gold said. "Hogmanay isn't over till sunrise on the first." They rounded the corner behind the library and he led them up towards the castle gardens and the bench on which they'd had their second date. "You've got to see the sun up on New Year's Day," he added. They could hear the occasional drunken reveller in the gardens still making their way home from one of the many parties that had been happening in various places all over the town.

"Just in time." Gold gave a satisfied sigh and sat down on their bench, pulling Belle down beside him.

"You ridiculous man," she said.

"You won't be saying that in five minutes," Gold replied. "Trust me."

X

The first of January dawned clear and bright, if a bit frosty, and looking out over the town, Belle had to concede Gold's point. It was a beautiful sight to behold. He kissed her cheek, and Belle snuggled into his side. Someone wise had once said that true love wasn't looking into each other's eyes, it was looking at the same thing together, and right now, Belle knew that they were looking forward to a bright new year.

"Happy New Year, Miss French," Gold whispered.

"Happy New Year, Mr Gold."

Note2: I'd like to take this opportunity to wish all my readers a very happy and prosperous 2013. WI x