I wrote a short for the Giles Advent Drabble Challenge. You can read it
on LJ at Giles Shorts, on
AO3, or
fanfic.net.
Preview:
He spent the early hours of the evening waiting (hoping) to hear the doorbell, but perhaps carolers didn’t sing at apartments and so Giles - after loading his pockets with a stake, a cross, and Holy Water - went out into the night. Even after four months, he wasn’t used to the weather, which was warmer than London’s by a good ten degrees. The brisk pace he set quickly took Giles into a neighborhood of single family homes.
Instead of the camaraderie of carolers at a door, The Carol of the Birds, sounding as if it had been recorded on synthesized instruments, blared out from someone’s front yard. The house’s Christmas lights blinked on and off in time to the music. Plastic reindeer pulling a sleigh looked about ready to fall from a neighbor’s roof. Looking further down the street, Giles wondered why even an American would display a large plastic chipmunk when the creature’s nose blink red. At least it wasn’t a chipmunk but it was, in fact, the final straw. Giles turned his feet back toward the flat.
The wreath on his front door seemed out of place. The collection of golden jingle bells that had glittered cheerily in the store seemed somehow detached from the traditions of the holiday when hanging on his door. The boughs of evergreen, draped throughout the apartment and topped with red bows, were more traditional and brought forth a nostalgic feeling reminiscent of Christmases from his youth.
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