A/N: Merry Christmas! This is just a small Slibbs fic for the holidays. It's pure, overly fluffy Christmas sap.

He felt sleep pull away from him, his eyes fluttering open as he woke up. He squinted a little, the bright light of the morning flooding into his room, feeling extra bright to his tired eyes. He closed his eyes again, tucking his nose into her neck as he pulled her close against him. He smiled against her neck, enjoying the feel of her warm, bare body against his.

While others had spent their Christmas Eve in matching pajamas after eating cookies, he and Jack had spent their Christmas Eve in total nudity after drinking whiskey. He was pretty sure undressing her was a hundred times better than opening any present or wearing ridiculous looking pajamas he'd never wear again.

He pressed some kisses against her neck and massaged his hand up from her hip to her waist. She let out a light groan, stirring against him.

"Jack," he drawled, placing more kisses against her neck, trying to annoy her into waking up.

She let out a noise of protest and squirmed against him some more. He doubled his efforts, shaking her a little.

"Gibbs," she whined.

He just smirked, brushing his hand across her abdomen.

She shifted, turning to face him as she opened her eyes tiredly, glaring at him.

"Merry Christmas, Jack," he said softly, smiling back at her glare.

Realization slowly dawned across her face, her eyes opening much more.

"Merry Christmas, Cowboy," she said hoarsely.

She smiled wide at him and he kissed her slowly.

"Mm-I need to brush my teeth," she said, pulling apart from him.

"I don't care," he growled, rolling on top of her and trapping her underneath him.

"We both need to brush our teeth," she emphasized, giggling as he attacked her face with his lips.

"You sayin' my breath smells?"

"I'm sayin' it's morning and we're both human," she said as she laughed, shoving his face away from her lightly with her hand.

He growled again, nipping at her neck.

"You're naked under me, Jack. More important."

"I'm not saying we can't be naked after. Imagine us naked with fresh breath."

With that she was pushing him away more. He groaned, rolling off of her, knowing it was a battle he wasn't going to win. It wasn't often they both could wake up without having to go anywhere and could actually lay around in bed together for a while. It was rare they ever shared a day off in which neither one of them got called in.

Normally, their mornings consisted of a quick kiss good morning before they were both getting up and getting ready. Or, in some cases, one of them getting up and ready while they other enjoyed the fact that they could sleep in and not be at the office.

Thank heavens Christmas was the one day where they could all take a break on occasion.

She got up and he watched as the sheets slipped off of her and she stood up. He drunk her in, smirking when she turned and arched an eyebrow at him and held out her hand.

He didn't exactly behave when they brushed their teeth, valiantly doing his best to distract her from the dreary task. It wasn't long before he had her underneath him again in bed, her moans emphasized by the minty tinge on her breath.

He rolled off of her, out of breath, flinging his arm across her waist as he let his body relax and tried to catch his breath.

"Are you always this revved up on holidays?" she asked breathlessly, cuddling up closer to his side.

He let out a laugh, closing his eyes.

No. He wasn't. In fact, this was the first Christmas in a long time where he felt like he was enjoying the holiday. It wasn't tiring for a change. He wasn't just alone, drinking and remembering better times as he waited for the holiday to be over with. He didn't have to attend any dinners or get togethers this year—hell, he didn't even have to say "no" to any. For once, all of his coworkers and people he knew seemed to have all their own family plans, and no one was hosting anything. Most of the team was traveling and spending time with their families or in-laws.

He finally just got to relax, with a woman he loved, knowing he didn't have to go anywhere or do anything. He could simply be with her, feeling no obligations or guilt to anyone else or anything—and that was all he really wanted.

"If you forgot to get me a present, and last night and this morning are your way of making up for it, you're forgiven."

He laughed, feeling his breath come back to him as he turned to look at her, splaying his hand across her hip as he gave her a kiss.

"I got you a present," he mumbled.

"I know."

He pulled back and glared at her, wondering how the hell she knew.

"You hid it in the same spot I was going to hide my present for you," she explained.

"Ah," he responded, thinking of the present he'd stashed under the bed. "Where'd ya put yours?"

"My underwear drawer," she said with amusement, shaking her head. "You'd think we'd be more creative at our age."

He chuckled and turned to his side, smiling at her as he glided his fingers across her soft skin. The lack of stress in the air felt so foreign for Christmas.

"We should probably get started on our little two-person Christmas feast," she mused.

"Or we could stay here. All day." He tugged her close and kissed her again.

"No offense, but age isn't exactly on our side," she replied, caressing his cheek and stroking the stubble on his chin with her thumb.

He grunted affirmitively, knowing she was right.

Still.

She laughed, shrieking as he rolled back over her and attacked her with his lips again.

"Behave," she scorned with a smile, swatting his hand away from her plate. He merely smirked at her, eating the piece of prime rib he'd snatched away from her.

After exchanging and opening gifts, they'd put in the mutual work to prepare prime rib, mashed potatoes and gravy, steamed vegetables, and rolls. They'd kept it fairly simple, knowing there was only two of them and they really couldn't eat that much, so they'd only made their favorites. Then they'd stuffed their plates and retreated to the couch in the living room.

"There's more in the kitchen, you know," she commented, seeing him eyeing her unfinished plate again.

"Don't think I can get up," he said with a laugh, relaxing back against the couch.

She smiled as his hand went to her thigh, rubbing gently as he closed his eyes.

She couldn't remember the last time she'd enjoyed a Christmas that was this relaxed. There was no awkward family stuff. No mass gatherings. No parties. Nothing she felt obligated to go to that she really didn't want to.

Instead, she could just relax with her favorite Cowboy.

She felt like they hadn't ever spent this much quality, quiet time together. There was no work, no stress, no coworkers, no deadlines. It was just them, all day.

"I can get you more, if you want."

He shook his head, opening his eyes and looking at her.

"Probably regret it later if I eat more," he said. "In fact..."

She watched as he undid his belt and snapped the button on his pants open, taking a deep breath after he did so.

"Ah," he groaned in relief, relaxing even more into the couch and sticking his legs up on the coffee table.

"Seems like a good idea," she commented, putting her plate down on the coffee table and relaxing back into the couch against his side. He wrapped his arm around her.

"You didn't even finish your second plate," he grunted.

"The first one was really big."

"Excuses," he teased.

"This coming from the man who ate three plates and now has to undo his pants in order to breathe, just like my grandpa used to?"

He shrugged, smirking at her.

"Least I didn't waste anything."

She shrugged this time, giving him a smirk in return.

"Least I don't feel sick."

"Don't feel sick," he argued, turning more towards her and nudging her back against the couch.

She smiled into his mouth as he kissed her and got more comfortable on top of her. He nipped her lip slightly and she nipped him back, hearing him snort in amusement.

She was surprised by how clingy he was today. He seemed extra affectionate, extra aware of her. Even when they were making their dinner, he seemed to keep wandering over to her and touching her in some small way.

She wondered if it was just the holidays, and the bad memories that came with them. She knew that feeling all too well. Or, perhaps, it was just the unfathomable lack of stress. The lack of other eyes watching them.

She felt his hand slip up underneath her sweater and smooth up her side. She kissed a path up his unshaven jaw, and nipped at his ear.

"You plannin' to unbutton my pants now?" she whispered sultrily into his ear.

"You joinin' the club with me n' your grandpa?"

She laughed, laughing even more when his fingers tickled her stomach. She grabbed his fingers, her attempt to stop him thwarted when his other hand continued the assault.

"Gibbs," she breathed out, trying to stop her laughter. She dug her fingernails into his trapped hand, and he eased up on his attack.

He looked at her, and the amused smile on his face made her smile even more. The deep crinkle of his eyes, his lopsided smirk. Those deep, calming blues that seemed to always look right through her. She relished intimate, happy moments like this. She pulled him back down for another kiss.

A deep rumble sounded and he pulled apart from her, a pained look flashing across his face.

"You okay?" she questioned.

He cleared his throat and gave a nod, looking extremely uncomfortable.

"Be back," he grunted, pushing himself off of her and the couch.

She raised an eyebrow as he disappeared quickly, using his hand to keep his pants up. Realization dawned as she heard the bathroom door close. She chuckled quietly to herself and shook her head.

"Introducing Mr. 'don't feel sick'," she mocked quietly. "Mr. 'didn't waste anything'."

She sighed, feeling the fatigue that seemed to accompany eating a large meal. Perhaps a nap was in order when he got back, if she didn't end up falling asleep right now.

She sat up, trying to shake it off and let her eyes land on his tree. She smiled at the ornaments he still had from his little girl, and the ornaments she knew must have been Shannon's. He'd insisted that she put her few cherished ornaments on as well. It was interesting looking at a small tree that showed evidence of both of their pasts. Between his wife and daughter, his childhood, her family, and her childhood—it was a very mixed tree, but it showed a lot of history and love.

She reached up and grabbed the ornament that had "Kelly" painted on it in big and uneven childlike letters. Her heart hurt for him. She'd never understand the hurt he must still feel over his dead family. She'd lost a lot of people extremely close to her. She'd had to give up her own daughter. But she wouldn't know what it was like to truly lose her daughter and a spouse, all in one horrible, vengeful crime.

While she was dealing with the gut wrenching ordeal of having to give up her little newborn girl so many years ago, around the same time he was dealing with the torture of having to say goodbye to his two girls for good. She had a choice, and she made the best one she could, for her and Faith. He didn't have a choice.

She put the ornament back on the tree gently. If it weren't for their circumstances, horrible as many of them were, they wouldn't be where they are now. They wouldn't be the people they are. They would never have even met.

So, for that reason, she was strangely grateful for all those awful moments in the past. She couldn't imagine her life without him now.

The distant flushing sound brought her back to reality and she looked over to where she knew he would emerge.

When he came back into the room, she had to work really hard to not smirk at him. He looked annoyed now, and she didn't like teasing him and making him feel worse about things. She wasn't one for kicking people when they were already down.

"Help me up?" she asked, lifting her hand out to him.

He grabbed her hand and helped pull her to her feet. She leaned in and gave him a quick kiss.

"I'm gonna put the leftovers away, and then I'm gonna go sleep the potatoes off. Wanna join me?"

His lip quirked up and he gave a nod.

She'd woken up before him, enjoying the warm arm of his that had been wrapped around her. It was actually amusing how hard it was to get him up from his nap, and how groggy he was after. It suddenly made sense why he never took naps.

The rest of their day together was mostly uneventful. They'd spent some time in the basement, where he went back to working on the rest of his boat and she helped in any way she could. The evidence of his basement activities over the last several weeks was still around, little wood shavings and specks of paint were all over the place. He'd carved and painted all sorts of wooden toys that he had donated to the children's hospital a couple of days ago. He'd even made some for the adopted grandkids. There were still a couple of unfinished toys, as well as ones that had broken or not turned out the way he had wanted.

A couple of those mistakes were hers from some of the times she had helped him. She had some experience with wood and building from watching her dad and helping him on occasion, but she was definitely rusty now. Besides, it had always been her dad's thing, not hers. Gibbs was getting her familiar again though, and he was a good teacher on top of it.

After their basement activities they retreated back upstairs and ate leftovers for their evening meal. She'd noticed Gibbs hadn't gone as crazy with his portions this time, something which she had refrained from commenting on.

They'd quietly spent some time on the couch with an old John Wayne movie on in the background while they both read their own books. He'd noticed at one point that she'd stopped and had been absentmindedly looking out the window. He could see the lights reflected in her eyes.

"You wanna go look at lights?" he asked.

"Hm?" she asked, turning to him. He'd clearly interrupted whatever thoughts she'd been having.

"I asked if you wanna go look at lights."

She furrowed her eyebrows.

"Do you want to? I mean, it's pretty cold. You really wanna walk around to look at lights?"

"Never said anythin' 'bout walking," he said with a chuckle, rubbing her knee.

Long gone were the days where he actually wanted to walk around in the cold darkness just to look at lights he'd seen a billion times. Long gone were a lot of Christmas traditions he'd already repeated endlessly.

"Meant we could drive for a little bit."

Her lip quirked up as she looked at him. She put her hand on his and intertwined their fingers.

"Sure. Probably would do us good to get out of here a little bit today. Finally try and keep our hands to ourselves."

He laughed with her, and made sure to grab her ass as they both got up to get their coats and shoes.

By the time they'd even driven slowly past three blocks, he found himself smiling at her reactions to some of the lights. Her positivity had always been infectious. He held her hand in his while he drove with the other, watching her more than the lights.

When they got to a large, extremely lit up house she made him stop and pull over. There was Christmas music blasting, and all sorts of lights and decorations seeming to cover every inch.

"So beautiful," she enthused. "Come on."

"What?"

"Come on, let's go outside and look at it."

"We can already see it all from here."

"But not as well. Plus, I wanna get a picture of us."

He groaned, wanting to object more, but she was already getting out of the car and insisting he come with her. He looked down at his wrist and checked the time on the new luxury whiskey barrel watch she'd given him today. He grumbled and got out of the car, making his way to her on the sidewalk.

She was beaming at the house and listening to the upbeat Christmas music, her hands clasped in front of her chest.

"This must have taken them hours and hours. And their electricity bill must be insane."

He nodded, not even wanting to imagine the amount of work and money the whole thing would have taken. He wasn't going to deny that it was impressive though.

"I love displays like this."

He turned to look at her, shaking his head a little at her enthusiastic smile. She was grasping the new necklace he'd given her today in one of her hands. It was a happy looking sterling silver elephant accented with tiny diamonds, and a golden tail and ears.

She just looked so damn happy.

Hell, she made him so damn happy.

He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her to his side. She slung her arm across his lower back and rested her head against his shoulder. He tilted his head and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

"Merry Christmas, Jack."

"Merry Christmas, Gibbs."