Disclaimer: I do not own Austin and Ally.

Dedicated to the lovely Arielle, because she doesn't mind discussing story ideas at eight thirty in the morning during winter break.

Flickering Candles and Twinkling Lights

"I'm sorry honey, but our flight's grounded because of the snow. We won't be able to come for the holiday."

"It's okay, mom," Ally sighed into the phone. Today she was supposed to see her parents for the first time in half a year, but the snow in Wisconsin had made that impossible.

"Can you maybe fly out here?"

"I don't think so. It's Christmas Eve; all the flights will be booked. And anyways, it's snowing pretty hard in New York too; a lot of the planes are probably grounded here as well."

"Your father and I will try to catch a flight out as soon as possible, but it might take a while. Love you, honey."

"I love you too mom. Say hi to dad and the critters for me."

She hung up the phone and sighed again. She was in the middle of making a feast, as she had been expecting her mother, her father and her five younger siblings (also known as the critters) to come visit her for the holidays. The giant turkey sitting on the counter, waiting to be put in the oven, seemed to be silently mocking her.

The idea of being all alone for the holidays was rather depressing, but her disappointment stretched farther than that. Despite the fact that she was already twenty four, her parents had been against her moving out to New York all by herself, away from the small community in Wisconsin where her she had lived her whole life. Today was supposed to be her chance to prove to them that she was perfectly capable of living alone.

Shaking her head, she drew herself out of her melancholy thoughts. Maybe she'll be able to find a soup kitchen to donate the extra food to. In the meantime, the turkey wasn't going to season and butter itself. Ally pulled back her brown hair into a messy bun and set to work.

By four in the afternoon, most of the food was prepared and Ally was just about to settle down with a good book and a warm blanket on her couch when, all of a sudden, the opening notes of a song began playing in full volume.

I don't want a lot for Christmas

There is just one thing I need

I don't care about the presents

Underneath the Christmas tree

She gritted her teeth. Her next door neighbor was always playing music as loud as he possibly could, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the wall separating their two apartments was paper thin, but this was getting ridiculous. Ever since Halloween ended, he had been playing Christmas songs twenty four, seven (she was almost personally offended in the name of Thanksgiving), even though she had knocked at his door at least two times a week, begging him to turn the music down.

Looks like it was time for yet another visit to the Moon residence.

"Austin!" she yelled, knocking on his door. He didn't answer, and the music just appeared to get louder. "Austin, I know you're in there! Hell, anyone in a ten mile radius knows you're in there from that obnoxious wailing you call music!" yes, the music was definitely getting louder. How was that even possible? "Austin Moon! If you don't open this door immediately, I swear I'm going to-"

She was cut off by the door swinging open, revealing her smirking neighbor. Even though he always managed to annoy the heck out of her, Ally had to admit he was handsome. Austin Moon had blond hair that flopped just the right way, hazel eyes the always held an almost childish sort of glee and, when he wasn't smirking (which was rare, as that insufferable smirk seemed to be his default expression), he had a rather… charming smile.

"What can I do to help you, Ally Dawson of apartment 705?" another irritating thing Austin always did was call her by her full name and apartment number, which was how she had introduced herself the first time she asked him to turn down the music, way back in June.

"Austin can you please, for once, not play your music at full volume could? For the sake of my sanity?" she tried to be polite. Maybe this time the nice approach will work, as opposed to the last five hundred times she asked him.

Austin's smirk widened. Oh no. "Actually, that wasn't full volume. If you want I can show you what's-"

"No!" Ally cut him off. "I definitely do not need a demonstration." He was supposed to be younger than her by only a month, but she swore that, mentally at least, he was younger than her by twenty years.

Suddenly, a thought struck her. "Weren't you supposed to be away for the holidays?"

Austin's smile disappeared. "Yeah, but there's so much snow, my flight was canceled. So, instead of spending Christmas in warm and sunny California, eating my mom's awesome pot roast, I'm stuck in New York with only half a box of cereal and month old pizza."

Ally felt at war with herself. On the one hand, letting Austin die from spoiled pizza was rather un-neighborly, but on the other hand, if he was dead (or just seriously hospitalized for a few months, she really wasn't picky), she would finally get a break from his annoying, too loud music. Eventually, her humanitarian side won. "Listen. My family's flight was also cancelled because of the snow, even though I told them to buy tickets a week earlier, when it was clear, but my dad thought the hotel expanses would be too high, and my apartment's too small to host seven other people and-" she stopped talking when she noticed that she was rambling and Austin's infuriating grin returned. "Anyways, since you're alone this evening, and I'm alone this evening, and I have enough food to feed a family of eight, I was thinking we might have dinner…" she hesitated, "together. After all, it would be a shame to let so much food go to waste." well, there was no going back now.

Austin's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "You aren't trying to lure me into your evil lair with the promise of good food and okay-ish company just to poison me, are you?"

Ally scoffed. "If I wanted to poison you I would have let you eat your month old pizza."

"Fair enough. What time should I come over?"

"In about an hour or so. Oh, and Austin? I have two conditions for the good food and okay-ish company," she stopped him as he began to close his door. "No calling me Ally Dawson of apartment 705, and, under any circumstances imaginable, absolutely NO Christmas music."

Exactly an hour later, Ally heard a knock. She gave herself one last scan in the mirror. She was wearing a dark blue dress that reached her knees and a silver sweater. Two bobby pins kept her hair out of her eyes and she only put on a small amount of make-up. To be honest, she had no idea why she cared so much about her appearance when Austin had seen her with sweats, a giant holey t-shirt and bed head (the incident also involved a rock song at five thirty A.M).

"You clean up rather nicely," was the first thing Austin said when he entered her apartment, which was immediately followed by, "and why are you such a scrooge?"

"Thanks, you do too," was her response to the first half of his sentence, and it was true. As much as she hated to admit it, Austin did look pretty handsome in a pair of black jeans and a silver blazer over a red button up. "And what makes you think I'm a scrooge?"

"Well, you obviously hate Christmas songs, or you wouldn't yell at me to turn the music down every time I turn on the radio and a Christmas song comes on, and your apartment isn't decorated for Christmas at all."

"Austin, I don't hate Christmas songs, but when you play your music so loud that my eardrums bleed, I think it's fair enough to ask you to play your music just a bit quieter," at least he had the decency to look sheepish under her accusing glare. "And my apartment isn't decorated for Christmas because I don't celebrate Christmas."

"What?!" Austin gaped at her, shocked. She might as well have admitted she was secretly an alien, considering his reaction. "How can you not celebrate Christmas? Just because Santa didn't grant your wish when you were five and asked for a pony or a castle or whatever, doesn't mean you shouldn't-"

"Actually," Ally cut him off dryly, "I don't celebrate Christmas because I'm Jewish," she gestured to the menorah sitting on her kitchen counter with one candle waiting to be lit.

"Oh," Austin said, seeming slightly put off and bemused. Then he brightened up. "We should decorate your apartment!"

"What? Austin, did you not hear a word I just said? I don't celebrate Christmas; I celebrate Hanukkah because I'm Jewish. J- E-W-"

"I know how to spell Jewish, thank you very much. But if we're celebrating this evening together, both of our holidays should be taken into consideration here. Otherwise, I'll be the unrepresented minority!"

"Austin, we're only two here. You can't be a minority if you make up fifty percent of the population! And you're the unrepresented minority? When was the last time you entered a department store and heard a Hanukkah song playing?" she raised her eyebrows.

"But think how much fun it'll be!" Austin gave her the puppy dog eyes.

Ally sighed. "Fine."

Surprisingly, decorating her apartment was kind of fun, even if Austin insisted on hanging mistletoe ("You can't celebrate Christmas without mistletoe!") and hummed Christmas songs under his breath the whole time.

After they finished bedecking the tree with ornaments and Christmas lights, Ally light the menorah, singing what Austin thought some weird mumbo-jumbo, which she later explained to him were blessings over lighting the candles in Hebrew. When he asked her to say something else in the language, she reluctantly admitted that that was pretty much the only Hebrew she knew.

"Latkes?" she asked him when they sat down to eat.

"Lat-what now?" he wrinkled his brow.

"Latkes. They're kind of like potato pancakes," she explained.

Austin's eyes lit up. "Pancakes?" she nodded. "In that case, yes, I would like your weird potato pancakes."

His giddy expression changed into one of mild revulsion after he tasted the latkes. "What is this? These are not pancakes!"

"I told you, they're latkes. It's a traditional food for Hanukkah, and most people, I'll have you know, most people consider them delicious," she told him, miffed.

Austin took another bite. "I guess they aren't that bad," he chewed thoughtfully, "But those definitely aren't pancakes."

"I'm not even going do begin this discussion."

After dinner, they agreed to watch a movie, and they were currently standing in the middle of her living room, debating which one to watch.

"I want to watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas," Austin took a step forward so that he was towering over her.

"Austin that's a kids' movie," Ally tried to create some space between them by stepping backwards.

"I. Don't. Care." He pouted, walking forward with each word, forcing Ally to back up. "It's a Christmas movie, and in case you haven't noticed, it's Christmas Eve."

"When will you get it through your thick skull that I don't celebrate-" she stopped talking abruptly when she found herself with her back against the wall, and Austin's armed appeared on both sides of her, caging her in. She cleared her throat and finished her sentence. "Christmas?"

Austin's smirk, which she hadn't seen the whole evening, appeared again. "We're under the mistletoe, and even if you don't celebrate Christmas I do, and one of the most upheld Christmas rules is that if you stand under the mistletoe you have to kiss."

'Hang some mistletoe' he said. 'We won't get caught under it, we'll remember where we placed it,' he said, Ally thought bitterly, but then she stopped thinking altogether because there were a pair of warm lips on hers. For a moment she stood frozen, but then she threw caution to the wind and tentatively began kissing Austin back.

After a few moments, Austin pulled back. He cleared his throat and stepped back, awkwardly standing about a foot away from her, hands behind his back.

"I got you a winter holiday present," Ally blurted, wincing at how loud her voice sounded in her silent apartment. It seemed to do the trick though, and Austin grinned in amusement. "Winter holiday present?"

"Well, you don't celebrate Hanukkah, and I don't celebrate Christmas, so I wasn't exactly sure what to refer to it as," she explained.

"How about…" Austin thought for a few seconds, "Chrishanukkah?"

"Why is your holiday first? I like Hanukkmas much better."

"Christmas comes first because Christmas is obviously the awesomer holiday," Austin said in a duh tone.

"First of all, awesomer isn't a word. Second of all, Hanukkah is obviously way better than Christmas. It's eight times longer."

"See, I would love to stand here and explain all of the reasons why you're wrong, but I want to get my present already. Wait here while I go get yours," and with that he rushed out of her apartment.

"Giant man-child-puppy hybrid, I swear," Ally muttered under her breath.

She went to the hall closet, where she had stored Austin's gift after impulsively buying it a few weeks ago. She hadn't planned on giving it to him, but if he got her something maybe it was lucky she bought it.

Austin came back into her living room with a tiny wrapped box in his hands. He threw it at her and practically ripped his own present from her hands.

His smile turned from excited to amused when he finished tearing away the gift wrap. "Headphones?"

"You seem to not have any considering the fact that I can always hear your music, so I saw these and thought of you…" she trailed off, feeling slightly silly.

"I love them." Austin smiled at her, and she felt butterflies. "But they kind of make my gift useless."

"What did you get me, a new apartment?" she asked and proceeded to open the wrappings of the small box. "Earplugs?"

"That way you won't have to always come and complain about the obnoxious wailing I call music," he explained, quoting her from earlier today.

"Thank you," she said, and despite her slightly sarcastic tone, the smile she sent him was genuine.

Ally was woken up by a knocking on her door and a crick in her neck.

Last night she and Austin finally agreed to watch Home Alone, and they had evidently fallen asleep in front of the movie. A small smile appeared on her face when she saw Austin curled into a ball on the other side of the couch.

The knocking returned, pulling her out of her thoughts. She opened the door And found her parents and the critters standing on the other side.

"Ally!" her mom cried pulling her into a hug as everyone piled into her apartment.

"What are you doing here?" she asked them. She had assumed that they would be able to catch a flight over to New York only next week.

"Your father insisted on driving all the way here despite the snow," her mother sent her father a disapproving look.

"If we made reservations at the hotel, we might as well use them or the money will go down the drain," her father defended himself.

"But Ally," her mother's beam turned into a puzzled look. "Why in the world is there a Christmas tree in your house?"

"And who's this?" eight year old Adelaide, her youngest sister, poked a still sleeping Austin on the cheek.

Austin woke up suddenly and rolled of the couch in surprise. "What the fu…" he trailed off, seeing the eight year old standing above him, "…dge and sprinkles?"

Adelaide giggled, "He's funny."

"That's my neighbor, Austin. Since we were both alone for our respective holidays, we decided to celebrate Hanukkmas together," she shrugged as if it was no big deal.

"Chrishanukkah!" Austin called weakly from the floor. He stood up and brushed himself off. "I'll just… leave now."

"Austin, aren't you forgetting something?" Ally asked him.

"Err…" Austin paused at the door and looked around him.

"Your decorations?" she hinted, not sure if she was exasperated or amused.

"Oh. Oh! Right, my Christmas decorations. Yeah, I'll just take these and go," he scrambled around the room, pocketing the mistletoe and holly hanging on the walls.

"Austin?" this time it was her mother who called out to him.

"Yeah?" Austin froze in the middle of unwrapping the Christmas lights from his tree.

"If you're alone today as well, would you like to spend the day with us?"

"Yeah," Austin smiled, "I'd like that a lot actually."

Later that day, after her family left, Ally was wiping the kitchen counter when she felt Austin standing uncomfortably close behind her.

"Yes?" she turned around to face him, and saw that he was smirking. Funny how that expression didn't annoy her as much as it did merely twenty four hours ago.

"We're standing next to the menorah," he stated simply.

"So?" she wrinkled her brow. What in the world was he up to?

"So? Don't you Jews have a rule that if you stand next to the menorah or under a dreidel or something you have to kiss?"

"Nope."

"And you said Hanukkah was better than Christmas," Austin scoffed.

Before she could argue Austin reached into his pocket and pulled out some disfigured mistletoe. "Lucky for us, I've got back up," he waved it above their heads.

"Isn't that cheating?" Ally asked him, even as she was wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Ally," Austin began in a patronizing tone, "you're Jewish, remember? You don't celebrate Christmas, you celebrate Hanukkah. I do celebrate Christmas though, so obviously-"

"Just shut up and kiss me," she said, and he did just that.

So this is what happens when I get an idea for a Christmas fic at seven A.M. on Christmas Eve. I know Ally isn't Jewish, but I liked that this put a twist on the usual Christmas stories, where one person is a Christmas fanatic and the other is a scrooge in denial. As I wrote previously, I talked to Arielle who told me that this wasn't a terrible idea, and that it's cute how they overcome their differences and fall in love. I wanted to post this yesterday, but our internet was done, so… yeah.

As always, thank you for reading, and have a merry Christmas and a happy (very late) Hanukkah.