Comfort and Joy

             Willow liked LA. It was close enough to Sunnydale - or what was left of Sunnydale - to feel almost like home. The weather was similar, which was nice around Christmas (or Hanukah, or Solstice, because it seemed like she celebrated a conglomeration of all the winter holidays) when snow and icicles would have felt disorienting after a life in Southern California. One snowy Christmas in Sunnydale was enough for Willow. Pretty, yes. But too weird. Willow had had enough of weird to last her a lifetime and anything that added to the increasing weird in her life wasn't exactly welcome. The weirdness of not seeing Buffy or Xander or even Giles everyday was pretty big. Finding out that Angel, who seemed pretty evil-free at the moment, was in charge of a branch of a multi-dimensional, big, scary, evil law firm was even bigger. Wolfram & Hart, however, did have a lot of the information that the new watcher's council could use and Willow was happy enough to volunteer to be in charge of doing the research. Besides, she really did like LA. There was Angel, and Wesley, and Spike, whom she already knew; and Lorne and Gunn were nice, especially Lorne, he was fun, in a green demon-y sort of way.

             And there was Fred. And Fred was... well, she wasn't like Xander, or Oz, or Tara, even. But when Willow was with Fred, she got that same excited feeling deep in the pit of her stomach like she used to with Xander, Oz, and especially with Tara. That warm, fluttering feeling that spread to her lips and fingertips when she got closer to the other person. Autumn had come and gone, bringing with it whispered words, shared research time, kisses, touches and finally love making. Willow liked waking up next to Fred and knowing that she wouldn't have to go anywhere, that she could just stay with Fred until they both had to leave that morning and when evening came, they'd both come back to the same apartment. Angel had given Willow a place to stay, but she liked Fred's place better. It already had magazines and candles and posters and felt like somebody lived there. Like Fred lived there. Now it felt like Willow lived there, too, and she really liked that.

             One thing she didn't like was how long Fred felt like she needed to stay at the office. Not that Willow didn't put in a lot of late nighttime with her own research, but at least she knew when to stop. And having a bad cold was a pretty good sign that one should stop, Willow thought. Seeing Fred all sniffly and sneezy made her want to keep her girlfriend home and snuggled up in bed with tea and blankets. It was hard to keep somebody snuggled up warmly who was rushing about the evil law firm in a lab coat. Willow tried persuading Fred with her usual means - smooching her into staying home, promising her pancakes, bacon and grits for breakfast, offering to rent cheesy sci-fi movies and watch them with Fred, reminding her that she had the next few days off for Christmas - all to no avail. In the end, Willow packed up her notebooks and folders and simply went to work with Fred.

             By lunchtime, Willow had seen Fred for a total of fifteen minutes and had read through so many watcher's journals that was starting to wish she'd never see another watcher or journal ever again. Which would be hard, seeing that she still had a couple centuries worth of watcher duty to research and that she'd have to see either Giles or Wesley eventually. Plus, that whole thing about her maybe becoming watcher girl herself. More worrisome, however, was the way Fred looked when she got back to her office around noon.

             Placing a pile of papers and books aside, Willow walked over to Fred's chair and gently placed her hands on Fred's shoulders. She rubbed slowly, waiting until she got a small sigh from Fred to say anything. "Now, I know you're all about getting the job done and working the late hours, but don't you think the job can wait a little while? Until you don't feel so yucky?"

             "I don't feel yucky..." Fred's voice was quiet and roughened from her cold. She tipped her head back to look at Willow, frowned slightly, then sighed again. "Okay, maybe a little yucky. Do I look really yucky?"

             "Not really. Just... kinda like you should've stayed home for snuggles?"

             "Oh..." Another little frown creased Fred's forehead. She sniffled wetly a few times, reaching up to rub her nose as she did so. After a few seconds of quiet, she leaned forward and cupped both hands over her face. "ehhih...h'eisssh! eiSSHhh, hehISHshoo!" Strong and wet, the sneezes had Fred leaning forward in her chair and sniffling even more wetly into her cupped hands. Her shoulders trembled under Willow's hands as a final 'Tshooo!' burst out.

             "Bless you, sweetie." Willow leaned down to kiss the top of her girlfriend's head after she finished sneezing, but was still sniffling. To her, Fred could never look yucky. Not even with the tired eyes, pink nose, and pale face. Yucky did not inspire snuggling, whereas Fred was doing a really good job at inspiring Willow to snuggle her. "You've been all sneezy today, hm?"

             "Mmm..." Fred sniffled more strongly before reaching over to the tissue box on her desk. First she wiped her hands, then she blew her nose repeatedly into a handful of the tissues. "Not so sneezy earlier due to the mega-cold medicine I took. Thank goodness, because sneezing and coughing all over the demon skin samples?" Fred paused to throw the used tissues into the trash bin. "That would have been pretty yucky and the contamination would have set us back even further, and I just don't think I can manage putting in the extra hours tonight."

             "No... and I think extra hours this afternoon aren't such a good idea, either."

             "Willow, those hours aren't extra. I need ... need to..." Fred blinked. Sniffling a few times and wrinkling her nose didn't seem to take care of the tickle that was bothering her nose. She leaned away from Willow, her hair falling over her shoulder and her hands cupping over her nose again. This time she needed a few little sneezes to build up to a stronger, louder sneeze at the end of the fit. "hih! hi-ih, h'tsh! t'shih, tish, etishoo! hetSHOO!"

             "Sneeze?" Willow, walking around the chair so she could face Fred, drew her fingers through Fred's hair to push it off her face. "Bless you," she murmured and petted Fred's hair.

             "I was going to say finish the samples," Fred replied and sniffled thickly from behind a tissue, "but I guess sneeze filled in the blank all right." A short nose blow led to a cough. Fred rubbed her pink, ticklish looking nose into the tissue. "I do need to get the samples done."

             "You will. Later, when you're not so contagious."

             "I kind of wanted to get them done before Christmas."

             "What, are they a present for somebody? Did Angel want some demon skin in his stocking?" Petting Fred's hair again, Willow gave her a hopeful smile. "You can go home early today. I'll go with you."

             "I had a feeling you'd say something like that." With a quiet sigh Fred nuzzling into the petting and rubbed her cheek against Willow's hand. She was still sniffling, but more softly and less often, and when she wrinkled her nose, she nuzzled it against Willow's hand lightly. "Can we still have pancakes? With hot cocoa?"

             "Oh, I think so. And snuggling, and Christmas carols, and maybe even some bad afternoon television." Leaning against the desk, Willow stroked her fingers over Fred's cheek, down her neck, and past the white lab coat to the soft, pink sweater underneath.

             "Christmas carols?"

             "Well, I haven't gotten my Wicca Hanukah cd yet... and Christmas sounded more festive."

             Willow let Fred nuzzle against her a little longer before tugging Fred up out of her chair. She slid the lab coat of carefully then slid her arms around Fred's waist. Hugged close to Willow, Fred made a tiny, tired, whimpering sound and rested her head against Willow's shoulder. "Let's go home and have us some nice, festive pancakes and snuggling, okay?"

             "Okay... I guess I don't feel well enough to stay." Fred pressed herself to Willow. She shivered, the movement barely noticeable although she had tightened the hug. After a few minutes of cuddling and kissing, Fred moved out of the embrace and started to walk to the door with Willow. "Hey, maybe there's something on Sci-Fi we could watch... Like a Christmas sci-fi show, that would be cool."

             "TishSHOO!"

             "Bless you!" Willow squirmed in closer to Fred on the couch and pressed a kiss to her shoulder. "Hm? No thank you?"

             "hatSHOO!" Another sneeze into her tissues and then Fred giggled quietly. She tried to squirm away from Willow, but was stopped by a tickle that made her eyelids flitter and nose twitch.

             "I make you heaps of starchy goodness for lunch, listen to you sneeze all afternoon -"

             "Eissshoo! haSHOO!" Fred sneezed into her tissues yet again. Rubbing her nose, she sighed with feeling and turned to look at Willow. After a few moments of silence, she giggled again. "Thank you..."

             "Now that's better. And bless you. Again." Willow closed the space between them that Fred had created when she moved away from Willow to sneeze. More kisses pressed to Fred's shoulder, then to her neck where tendrils of hair fell from her loose ponytail. "Now, isn't this better than being in that nasty old office? More comfy and full of holiday joy?"

             "I always have more holiday joy with my girlfriend than at work." Fred cuddled in close to Willow. "Not that I've had one before this, but still. It doesn't take that much getting used to."

             "Not had what before? A holiday? 'Cause I could ... hey! I could do a spell, and we'd have snow, and it would be more holiday like."

             "A girlfriend." Fred smiled, leaning in to kiss Willow on the cheek. "Oh, no, I don't think snow would be good." She leaned away to rub her nose into a tissue, sniffling wetly and stifling a pair of tiny, wet sneezes into the tissue. "h'chssh! ch'ssh!"

             "Blesses. It wouldn't be real snow, like scarf and mittens snow, cause real snow would make you more sniffly." Blankets got tugged up closer to Fred and the tissue box moved closer at the idea of more sniffles and sneezies. "Magick snow."

             "You can magick snow?"

             "I can totally magick snow. Only for a minute, though. Maybe, when your cold's better, we can go do some spells together for snow."

             "Wow. We didn't have snow in Pylea. Or Texas. 'Course, we didn't have tacos, either, or felt-tip pens."

             "In Texas?"

             "Pylea, silly." Fred uncurled from her position enough to punch Willow in the arm. At Willow's offended look, she curled back in close and nuzzled up to Willow, sighing with content after taking care of the tickly sniffles in her nose.

             "Thought so." Snuggled in close to Fred, Willow kissed her softly on the tip of her nose and waited for the last few sniffly noises to quiet down. LA was pretty new to Fred, too, as a home. Willow liked the idea of the two of them making a new home here. "It snowed once in Sunnydale for Christmas. Angel ever tell you about that?"

             "No... was it magick snow?"

             "Hm, more like freak snow." Willow smiled at the eager look on Fred's face. Telling Fred about Sunnydale was going to be great. Way better than some Christmas special on Sci-Fi. "See, there was this big bad, The First, and it came back later, actually. Boy, we should have known, they always come back. Anyway, so, Angel and Buffy..."