It was the last day of office hours before final exams started and it was the office day from hell.

As much as Nigel enjoyed teaching and sharing his knowledge, the number of students in the office at any given time in the day had been exhausting. Questions had ranged from topics Sydney had covered in her classes from the very beginning of the semester, right down to her lecture on Wednesday, and Nigel's personal favourites had been What's on the exam? and When is the exam? both of which could be found in the syllabus if one were to actually read it.

On top of that he had woken up late and was almost late to work, he had stumbled into a pile of snow on his rush into the office so his socks were wet, the coffee maker broke, a pile of exams had gone missing (temporarily, thank God), the printer jammed and IT had apparently deemed Ancient Studies to be low on their priority list, a headache had developed around 11:30, and the sought after and roguishly handsome Professor Bunstead had decided to visit Sydney in her office. For an hour.

"That's it," he exclaimed, throwing his favourite pen into the trash as it bled all over papers he was grading as well as staining his hand and cashmere sweater just as Sydney and Bunstead were leaving her office. Karen jumped in surprise and he put his head in his hands, guilt and irritation at war with each other. As such he missed the look between Sydney and Karen as Bunstead left the office, wishing Sydney 'Happy Holidays' as he went.

"Long day?" Sydney's voice came from in front of his desk and he slowly raised his head to see her standing in front of it, eyebrows raised and arms crossed, glasses dangling from her fingers. He cringed.

"Something like that." He pulled off his own glasses and rubbed his eyes.

"Uh huh." Her eyes scanned him and he wasn't sure he wanted to know what exactly she saw right now. "How many of those papers do you have left?"

"Erm, I think 20," he said, rifling through them quickly.

"Great. I'll take these," she pulled ten from his pile, "and you finish those, and we can all go home earlier."

Nigel could kiss her.

"I'll get some coffee from the cart," Karen volunteered, referring to the cart that existed on the other side of campus. It was the only thing that would still be open at this point in the day, the owner trying to make as much money as possible before campus closed for the holidays.

Nigel could almost kiss her too.

With Sydney taking half the stack and hot cup of coffee in hand, Nigel felt as though the day was looking up. Still, by the time they finished the last of the papers it was well beyond time to leave, the clear midnight blue sky mocking them as they made their way to Sydney's car, Karen having left shortly after bringing them coffee at Sydney's insistence.

The drive back to Sydney's was short and smooth. The suburban streets were quiet with the general public gathered downtown picking their way through stores looking for the perfect Christmas presents, or maybe sitting together at home watching the telly or playing games, a fire going to keep them warm against the colder weather (students were hopefully reading the syllabus and studying). The radio was playing Christmas songs, Mariah's Carey's voice grating to Nigel as it came through the car speakers.

All he wanted to do was curl up with his girlfriend and forget the day had ever happened. Tomorrow was a new day where he was proctoring an exam for Professor Yana as part of the exam collaboration between the departments, and he wanted to relax before the expected chaos of picking up another professor's exams and dealing with a bunch of unfamiliar students.

"Come on," Sydney said to Nigel once they were out of the car, "let's go for a walk."

Nigel stared at her front door, just feet away, and shoved his hands in his pockets against the cold, having forgotten his gloves that morning too. "Syd, I'm cold and I'm tired. Can't we just go in?" He turned to look at her and hung his head when he recognized the look in her eyes.

She ignored him as he had known she would and linking her arm in his, drew him down the street in a purposeful walk.

Feeling rather as though the day had peaked with hot coffee and getting out of the office, he walked with her sullenly. Stuck in his own head he wasn't paying attention to where they were going and definitely not thinking about why she suddenly wanted to go for a walk at 9pm, so when they suddenly turned onto a street that seemed to be glowing he stopped in his tracks, pulling Sydney to a stop as well, arms still linked as they were.

Every house on the street it seemed had Christmas lights in various colours hanging from the roof, wrapped around trees and railings and posts, framing doors, lining walkways. Decorations consisting of whicker and blow mould plastic included candy canes, reindeer, snowmen, and Santas, and plastic lanterns that looked as though they'd come from a Dickens novel, all of them lit up. Garland joined the lights in various places and appeared as wreaths on doorways, as did red ribbons. Christmas balls of different sizes and colours hung from garland and trees. Everything came together under a layer of snow that coated the ground from this morning's snow fall. People were milling about, walking slowly on the sidewalk and road when they ran out of room, and cars passed by slowly as the occupants both admired the decorations and watched the other denizens of the road. Nigel felt his eyes widen as he took everything in.

"What –?" He looked at Sydney, who raised her eyebrows, waiting for him to continue, a smile threatening her face. He felt the exhaustion of the day fall away and a smile broke out on his face. "This is incredible. How –?"

"They do this every year," Sydney explained. "The owners decorate like crazy and collect money for the food bank." Sydney raised her gloved hand to point to a bucket at the end of a laneway. "People usually put in money at their favourite houses and on the 24th they see who raised the most in a friendly competition. It's a big attraction in the city."

The holidays had been tumultuous after his parents had died, but before that they had often gone to look at Christmas decorations as a family. He and his mum had been the excited ones, willing to walk for hours to see as many as they could with Preston and his dad giving up partway through and disappearing to do some Christmas shopping. After his mom died he had simply tried to stay busy over the holidays and was generally successful, the days passing by with friends or a good book. Feeling buoyed by the decorations Nigel started walking, Sydney letting him set the pace.

They walked street after street, sometimes having to double back to go down another street as they intersected with each other. They pointed out certain decorations that caught their eye whether in a good way or not, putting some bills into the buckets at a few houses that really caught their attention (and that of a lot of other people it seemed as the buckets were stuffed all ready by the time they got there) as they meandered through the neighbourhood.

"I think we've hit every street," Sydney mused as they came to a stop at the end of a street. Nigel realized that the number of people walking about had greatly diminished as time had worn on. He had been so absorbed in the bright collection of lights that he had completely lost track of time and surroundings. Sydney checked her watch just as Nigel's stomach rumbled, making Sydney grin.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly. He realized he was starving, especially having skipped right over supper in favour of getting work done.

"There's a small Chinese restaurant that closes late around the corner we can go to," Sydney suggested.

Nigel agreed and soon the two of them were seated across from each other in the small restaurant, the owner himself coming out to see to their needs. Apparently Sydney had at some point helped him get some family documents authenticated and he was very appreciative. Nigel wrapped his hands around his cup of tea, sighing as the warmth seeped into his hands.

"What happened today?" Sydney asked him over dumplings and chow mien.

"Hmm?" Nigel looked at her askance, mouth full of food.

"You've been grumpy all day."

He swallowed hard, the feeling painful in his throat. "I don'tâ€Ĥ" he trailed off when Sydney raised an eyebrow at him, not buying it before he even said it. He put down his chopsticks and sighed. "It was just one of those days." He tugged at the ink stained fabric at his wrist. "Just, nothing seemed to be working right. There was the coffee maker, the exams, my socks were wet, and Bunstead –" he cut himself off abruptly, hoping Sydney hadn't caught that last bit. To his chagrin the look on her face said she had heard every word.

"Nigel," she put down her chopsticks and reached for his hand, "you have nothing to worry about with Bunstead. I'm with you."

He gulped trying to dismiss the jealousy that had been gnawing at him since Bunstead had gone into her office and made her laugh, Nigel watching through a gap in the blinds as Sydney had thrown her head back, delight on her face.

"He wanted to discuss some leave he might need to take next term. His sister got into an accident and needs help around the home. He ended up telling me a bit about their childhood, and we got carried away. He's not trying to date me." A smile tugged at her lips. "I'm not going anywhere, Nigel." She withdrew her hand and picked up her chopsticks. "Besides, he doesn't have your charm."

Nigel blushed at the compliment, somewhat reassured. It was taking some time for him to feel like he was totally worthy of her and could compare to the men she usually dated. Slowly he was overcoming that, but he couldn't help the flashes of jealousy when she was approached by possible competition.

They finished their food and left the restaurant, the night air colder than it had been before, Nigel was sure of it. He shoved his hands into his pockets again.

"You okay with the walk back? Or do you want me to call a cab?"

His headache was gone, his socks had of course long since dried even before they had left the office, the exams had been moved by Karen and not stolen, the printer would be fixed in the morning and he could pick some coffee up on the way in. On top of that the exam wasn't until 3pm so he didn't even need to go in until the afternoon. Despite the cold, the fresh air after weeks of being locked indoors with the end of term grading and prepping and creating the exam while writing his own papers was like a revival, and he didn't want to let it go just yet. "Let's walk." He offered her arm to Sydney which she took, and they started the walk back to her place. It was nowhere near as magical as the Christmas wonderland they had walked through to get to the restaurant, but it was peaceful and companionable, both of them lost in their own thoughts.

They reached Sydney's townhouse, pausing at the stairs leading up to her front door. Sydney withdrew her arm from Nigel's to dig into the purse she'd been carrying around for her keys and Nigel's breath caught in his throat as he watched her. The porch light reflected off her dark hair making it shine, and softly lit up her face. Her brows were furrowed in concentration as she searched her bag, her lips pressed together. All at once he realized that tonight had been her way of getting him out, of making sure he was okay, and just like that he felt an overwhelming love and appreciation for the woman in front of him.

"Syd?"

"Yeah?" she asked, glancing up and turning towards him.

In one swift move he pulled her close, one hand cupping the back of her neck and the other arm wrapping around her waist with his hand splayed over her back. He pressed his lips to hers and she responded immediately. Her lips moved under his, and her arm wrapped around his neck, her fingers skating through his hair at the nape of his neck, sending a shiver down his spine while the hand holding her bag rested on his bicep.

He eventually pulled away to breathe, gratified to hear her breathing coming faster than usual as well. He opened his eyes to find hers still closed as she caught her breath. He pressed his lips to hers again briefly, unable and unwilling to stop himself. "Have I told you I love you yet today?"

Sydney pulled her arm from around his neck to check her watch. "No," she teased him, placing her hand on his chest.

"I love you."

The smile she gave him was brilliant, and he felt butterflies in his stomach.

"I love you too."

He eyed her adoringly as she went to unlock her door, knowing that today would definitely be one he'd remember for all the right reasons.