A/N: Warm Bodies belongs to Isaac Marion.

Chapter 8: Christmas

It snowed all night on Christmas Eve, and when everyone woke up they were surprised to see several inches of snow on the ground. Marcus was expected to come over that evening, so Nora and R made a big breakfast, and were each thanked with a big kiss on the cheek from Julie. They all ate heartily and talked and laughed.

Afterwards, Julie (and her full tummy) laid down on the couch and fell into a slumber.

"God, she could sleep forever," Nora laughed. R covered her with a quilt and took a moment to stoke her hair. Him and Nora chatted for awhile, sitting by the window with the sun streaming out, warming their backs. They had become quite good friends. Nora had a lot to say about just about everything, and he liked to listen. She was different. R liked different.

"You still don't talk very much, R," she said softly.

He didn't respond right away. "Well...I like to listen. I talk a lot, I think. I talk enough."

Nora pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Hm. Well I like to listen, too. You're very interesting."

"You are, too, Nora."

"I think I talk too much, sometimes. It's just, like...no one besides Julie has ever really listened to me, ya know? Perry did, most of the time, but...I dunno, sometimes I talk and the person who I'm talking to acts like they're listening, but they're not really. And I just ramble on, so I get why no one would wanna listen, but," she chuckled awkwardly. "I dunno."

"You have a lot of thoughts. It's good to let those thoughts out. And people should listen. I'll listen. And Julie will listen. She does plenty of it, trust me."

Nora cocked her head to the side quizzically. "What does that mean?"

"At night, I have all these weird thoughts..." R chewed his lip, embarrassed. "And I ask Julie all these dumb questions, or I just ramble on about whatever. Like, 'what if one day I die again and come back as a zombie again?' or 'what if dogs get songs stuck in their heads? Can dogs understand songs?' Stupid stuff like that."

His friend laughed out loud. "We all have thoughts like that at night, R. I think our brains like to bombard us with the silliest ones when we're trying to fall asleep."

Julie awoke soon after that, peering over the couch at Nora and R. "Hi, cutie," R said for a change. Julie smiled.

"Hi," she replied, coming over to sit on the floor in front of them. "Is it still Christmas or did I sleep through it?"

"It's Christmas," Nora replied.

The blonde girl stretched, tilting her head back. R watched her hair fall back and her body curve, focusing on the way her back arched. She would be a good subject to draw...

"I gotta start getting dinner ready. Marcus should be here soon." Nora said, leaving the couple in the living room.

"Can you hand me that notebook?" R asked, and Julie did. She sat silently, happy to watch the snow and listen to the music Nora had put on.

"Sketching?" she asked.

He nodded, clearly focused on what he was doing. "I'm glad you found out you like to draw."

"Me too,"

"Are you excited to see Marcus?"

He nodded honestly in reply.

"I hope he's gotten...better,"

"Marcus will...always be Marcus." he said. "You'll like him. You barely met him."

While they talked, he sketched a rough facial portrait of Julie. He would work on full body portraits later, but for his first time it didn't look too bad. He debated showing her for awhile until he finally decided to just do it. "Look at this," he said, handing her the notebook. She gasped.

"R," she sighed. "Aw. Wow."

"Do you think it looks like you?"

"Yes. It's wonderful."

"I don't think I can capture all your beauty on a piece of paper," he said, joining her on the floor. "I tried."

She blushed. "You're so cheesy."

"You're so beautiful, Julie. I love you." She wrapped him up in her arms and kissed him, "mmmmmm"-ing happily as she ran her fingers through his hair. He tightened his grip on her and deepened the kiss, all the emotion he felt rising in his chest and biting and burning his eyes. She pulled away for a moment to grab some air and saw his watery eyes. "Are you crying?"

"I thought...thought I was getting better with that," he sniffed. She giggled and shook her head.

"It doesn't matter. I don't mind." she kissed him again, her skin flushing as he rubbed her back, his hands coming down to the small of her back, then the swell of her hips and butt. "Mm, yes," she moaned, quietly because she knew Nora was in the next room. "God," she gasped as his lips made his way to her neck. "You're good at this."

He gently laid her on the ground, lifting up her sweater and kissing her stomach, then coming back up to her lips. "We...maybe...maybe we should stop..."

"Do...do you wanna stop?"

He groaned, "God, no." He gripped her behind a little tighter, pressing his hips to hers. Julie released a real moan, not even caring at this point.

"Oh, God, R, I-I..." she never finished her sentence, because the doorbell rang. They quickly scrambled off each other and dashed to the door. Julie didn't even have time to fix her frizzy hair.

Marcus was standing in the doorway, smiling. He and R shared a hug. "You're looking better," Julie noticed.

"Y-Yeah...well...N-Nora has been a bi-big...help," he said, casting a wink at Nora, who had just entered the room.

"Hi, Marcus," she said, rolling his eyes at his comment. She eyed Julie's messy appearance and flushed face as well as R's, and raised an eyebrow at her friend. Julie pursed her lips and blushed, looking away. "Well," Nora began, "Dinner is ready, when y'all want it."

"I'm going to go change," Julie said, dashing upstairs.

"H-how a-are you doing...man?" Marcus asked.

R pondered that question for a moment, then replied, "Very, very good."

"Yo-you look...so...different...so...human," his friend commented. "I-I'm still w-workin' on...it..."

"You're getting there. And you're doing great." Julie descended the stairs in a red, form-fitting turtleneck and dressy pants. Nora had slipped off to change as well, appearing in a cream sweater dress, which showed off her miles-long legs.

"A dress? Didn't know those existed anymore," Julie said as they dished out dinner.

Nora smiled. "I've actually never worn this. It's practically centuries old. I'm surprised it still fit."

"Fits...pre-pretty well...t-too." Marcus murmured to R, who gave him a light punch.

R was glad to be with his friend again, to joke and talk. Marcus was definitely becoming-slowly but surely, and with a lot of help-human. Something about that excited him. He wanted him to be human and to experience the things he had and to have awkward first times.

Although Marcus did not eat, he was quite the entertainer at the dinner table, making jokes and telling stories about him and R's escapades in the airport. Nora giggled so hard wine bubbled in her nose. Julie talked about the happier days, when her and Nora and Perry (though she didn't talk about him as much) sat under blue skies and talked about nothing in particular, dozing off and smelling the grass underneath them. Nora told some stories about people she had met while working as a nurse and what they had shared with her.

"It's funny, how you encounter people in the weirdest places." she mused quietly.

"Definitely," Julie replied, brushing R's hand under the table.

Once dinner was done, they exchanged gifts in the living room. There weren't many, but they were thankful just the same.

To start off, Nora gave R a leather journal. "I got this for you before I knew you liked to draw, so I guess it works out." she smiled.

"This is beautiful, Nora," he said, giving her the present he had gotten her in return. It was an old, but in surprisingly good condition, teddy bear, something he had actually taken from his airplane. (he and Julie had gone back to retrieve some things earlier in the year) The bear was dresses up like a doctor, with glasses on his nose. Nora sighed.

"Aw, how cute!" she exclaimed. "I love it."

Next he gave a gift to Marcus, an awful erotic book that he had picked up from the airport. "I'll teach you to read it sometime," he promised, and Julie doubled over in laughter. The only thing Marcus cared about was the woman on the cover's breasts, which were popping out of her dress.

"C-cool."

Marcus got Nora a daisy hair clip (again, from the airport-it was amazing what you could find there), which she immediately put on. "Ooh! It's adorable!" Julie said. "Good choice, Marcus." Upon that, Marcus gave her a big, army green coat.

"Be-because it...looks...badass..and you're...badass." he exclaimed. Julie smiled and nodded in approval.

Marcus gave R a figurine of a red car. "Found it in someone's pocket...thought you'd want it."

"Cute," R said happily.

Julie gave Nora a big book on medical related things that she had apparently been wanting, Marcus a very old Playboy magazine, (to which he responded "Very...funny..." but she smirked in response anyway) and finally, she gave R a large set of art related things: pencils, colored pencils, pastels, crayons, and the like. "This was probably...so expensive..." R said.

"I wanted to do something special," she said softly, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

"Yeah, she went dashing out to get it last night," Nora chimed.

R gave Julie a beautiful necklace with an emerald pendant. It was simple but gorgeous. "Your eyes look beautiful with it on," he said, tucking her hair behind her ear. Julie blushed and looked away as he began to caress her cheek with the pad of his thumb.

"Hey...save it for the bedroom..." Marcus said, and Nora nodded in agreement. R glared at them.

When the night came to a close, R and Julie crawled into bed and Julie groaned quietly. "Are you okay?"

"I think I ate too much," she admitted, embarrassed. "My stomach hurts." R reached over and began to rub her stomach. She let out a contented sigh, and he rubbed her stomach for awhile more until she leaned over to kiss him. They did some of that, too, for quite awhile. "What do you want to do?" she asked.

"I just...I actually just want to sleep." he replied, an awkward chuckle escaping.

"Mm, me too, actually," she said, lying down beside him. "Are you happy, R? Did you have a good Christmas?"

"I am very content, and yes, I loved Christmas."

"I'm glad." They snuggled up together and fell asleep. Both of them had faint smiles turning the corners of their lips.

A/N: Unnecessarily long and even more unnecessarily fluffy. That's how I roll, I guess. :P I like reviews!