Rating: G
Author: Trekker
Pairing: Giles/Joyce
Fandom: Buffy
At first, Giles thought he'd exceeded his limits on eggnog. As it turned out, the wooden reindeer on the mantle really was walking around. Thus, the Scoobie gang's Christmas party broke up in the usual fashion. The children scattered to various parts of town after the inflatable Santa Claus from the roof next door hopped down and started tromping around and they realized the phenomenon was not localized. Buffy left him there to protect Joyce and Dawn and to help clean up.
That had been hours ago. Dawn was long in bed and the house was spotless. He had decided that what he really needed was more eggnog, not less, and now he stood in the archway between the kitchen and living room with his glass. He watched the glitter-encrusted elves frolic on the hearth while the reindeer flew in dizzy circles around the room, occasionally colliding with walls and furniture.
Joyce joined him, also bearing eggnog.
"Well, as crises go, it is a festive one, at least," she pointed out.
"True," Giles said.
The reindeer swooped down and collided with a lamp. Before anyone could react, the lamp hit the floor in a crash of hopelessly broken porcelain. Giles winced. "Still a crisis."
Joyce nodded and sighed. "I just replaced that lamp."
Then one of the glitter elves hopped down from the brick hearth and scurried across the room towards them, leaving a sparkly trail in its wake. Expecting a possible elevation of the crisis, Giles braced himself for conflict, but the four-inch-tall ornament merely stopped at their feet and looked all the way up at them, with its hands planted firmly on its hips. It reminded Giles of his maternal grandmother.
It pointed firmly above their heads and said, in a high voice, "Mistletoe! Must kiss under mistletoe!"
Giles and Joyce looked up at the same moment. Sure enough, they had stopped under the small sprig of leaves and berries.
"Er..." Giles said, and they looked at each other.
"It's *traditional*," the elf stated, and there was a surprising amount of threat in that tiny voice. The reindeer had perched on the back of the couch and was hunched towards them like a small, wooden gargoyle.
"Perhaps we'd better--" Giles began.
"No way around it," Joyce agreed.
For a moment, they couldn't quite figure out what to do with their arms, until Giles put his around Joyce's waist and she put hers around his neck. Their eyes met for a moment, both nervous, then Giles leaned in, intending a quick peck and then a retreat. Their lips touched as briefly as he'd intended and separated. But then, for a few heartbeats, neither of them let go. He didn't open his eyes, he could feel her breath against his chin. Then the soft pad of her thumb moved against his shoulder. He tightened his arms around her and she gasped. He said her name softly, then both of her hands were in his hair, pulling him down, and they were kissing, deeply and for real.
Then the backdoor slammed open and Buffy's voice shouted, "Giles! Deal with this, will you?" and he and Joyce sprang apart, blushing, and a moment later, Buffy entered the room, shoving a not-at-all cowed-looking Ethan Rayne before her.
"Merry Christmas, Ripper," Ethan said with a grin.
The End