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Mrs. McIlroy was getting drinks for her, her sister, and their husbands when the phone rang.

"Hello, McIlroy residence."

"Um, hi... Is Nate there?"

"May I ask who's calling?"

"It's me - er, it's Christopher Wa-"

"Oh! Christopher, hi! Sorry I didn't recognize your voice, I guess it's your new phone. Nathan went to bed early tonight, but that was literally just a minute or two ago, let me see if I can get him, he'll be so glad to talk to you."

"Thank you, ma'am," Cross replied, though Mrs. McIlroy only half-heard it, having pulled the phone away from her head already.

"Nathan!" she called out; without an immediate response she tried again "Nathan, dear! It's Christopher on the phone!"

The young lab's door opened at that, his head sticking out with a look of surprise on his face. "Wait, Cross?"

"Yes," his mom simply answered, which was enough to get Nate jogging down the hall and through the den to the kitchen. She held out the phone so it was easy for him to snatch up.

"Cross??"

"Oh, SO good to hear your voice, Nate."

The canine sank to the floor, the tension of the past few days completely flowing out of his body as a smile melted across his muzzle. "Cross..." It almost seemed surreal to Nate, even though he knew phone calls were perfectly normal things - it was just the notion of his lion moving away had seemed so final , now he was reveling in the fact that Cross was on the other end of the line. The feline wasn't saying anything though, making Nate sit up a bit straighter. Is he waiting for me? I trailed off earlier... "...Hi."

A good-natured laugh came through the earpiece. "Well, 'hi' to you too, waggybutt." The pet name made Nate check; yup, his tail was going. "How... how are you holding up?"

"I'm doing alright, I guess..." Sigh. No, tell him how you feel. "...I miss you."

Another chuckle. "It's only been a day!"

"I know, I know... It's just... Hey, who called who?"

"Point." Both of them laughed a bit at having the tables turned. When they stopped, there was a pause as they both waited for the other to say something.

Finally, Nate quietly said "I - I'm sorry my last exam ran late yesterday..."

"Hey, don't worry, it's not your fault.... I mean, right? I can't imagine you intentionally took long on your exam."

"Oh no, no no of course not. I finished early, actually, but you know that no-one's allowed to leave early, and Ms. Goether started us late because Spencer didn't show up until five minutes after the exam was supposed to start."

"Dammit, Spencer." Nate chuckled a bit at the way Cross said it: flat in the sense that it had been said so often that any anger in the statement had long been worn out.

There was another awkward pause after that. Cross made a noise to say something, but stopped, leaving Nate hanging until the lion spoke up again. "You got the box of my stuff, right?"

"Oh, yeah!" the Lab said back. "Thank you... You know I'll take care of it all."

"Yeah, I figured you'd be a good person to give it to. Hope you like it."

Another few moments of quiet. Come on, Nate, you stupid mutt, say something! "...sooo, h-how's the new house?"

"Eh, alright I guess. Still pretty empty."

"So no Christmas decorations?"

"Nope."

"Any presents at all?"

"The ones we already had on Monday we shipped ahead, so they got here today. Not sure about any that might have shown up at our old house yesterday or today."

"Hmm. Well, hopefully that gets fixed soon. Oh, you know what, I should get your new address so we can send you guys things."

"Oh! Uh, okay... You got something to write with?"

"Hang on a sec." He set the phone down on the ground as he heard Cross call out to his mother asking the lioness what their new address was. A moment later he was back with pencil and notepad, scribbling down the lions' new address. After that was done, though, the boys once again found they couldn't think of something to say.

Finally, Cross to a stab with "Well, I know it's getting late there and your mom already got you out of bed, I should let you go..."

"Oh, uh, sure." The Lab suddenly found himself a bit conflicted: on one hand, he didn't want to let Cross go; on the other, something about this conversation was making him feel uncomfortable - namely the inexplicable lack of conversation. Dragging it out might not be a good idea...

"Soooo... Depending on how much work on the house we get around to doing tomorrow, I might be able to call, but I'll probably be busy all of Saturday. I mean, Christmas mass in the morning, a big meal midday with some friends-of-friends-of-the-family that we don't even know, and a bunch of Christmas-related activities on the base for the afternoon and early evening, mostly to socialize with everyone dad's gonna be working with now... By the time we get home, it'll be way late for you back in Delaware...."

"...Yeah, I get it. Maybe Sunday?"

"Sure, Sunday, sure..." Pause. "Well, good night Nate, sleep well."

"You too, Cross..." Nate said quietly before hearing a click. It took him a moment or two to get up from his position seated against the wall and hang up his end of the line. His hand lingered before he shuffled back to his room. He could not understand why he had so much trouble thinking of what to say to Cross, after how much they talked normally... What could make it just dry up like that? Maybe the distance was as "final" as he had initially thought...

He lay awake in bed for a long time after that, and he didn't get a good night's sleep even when he slipped off.

The next day was a bit of a blur for him. Not that he was particularly busy; he just didn't absorb much of the day. A fair amount of the day was helping his mother put together a housewarming package to send to the Walkers, including a copy of the McIlroy Christmas card, in case the original was still headed to the Walkers' old Dover address. They also watched some Christmas movie on TV before heading out to Christmas Eve service. After that, he was more than ready for bed, even though he knew in the back of his mind that California still had a good three hours of activity left. Cross hadn't tried to call all day, apparently.

Saturday morning, despite being Christmas, didn't feel very festive either, but he put on a smile when he and his two little cousins opened presents over the course of the morning. As midday approached, his mother and aunt (and other aunt when she arrived) started preparing their Christmas meal; with the rest of the family also going their separate ways for the moment, he was left to break in his brand new Pokemon FireRed game. He camped out on the flight of stairs leading from the foyer up to the second floor, getting the door when some of his father's co-workers showed up through the snow.

Fifteen or twenty minutes later, they were putting the last dishes out on the dining room table and all taking their spots when the doorbell rang again. People around the table exchanged confused glances until Nate's uncle said "Who's that? Aren't we all here already?"

"Nate, dear, could you go see who's at the door?" Mrs. McIlroy asked her son from the kitchen, and he dutifully got up from his chair to go check.

Standing on the steps of the front stoop were six of his friends from school, all bundled up against the cold. Nate was taken completely aback at the sudden and random appearance, his mouth hanging open in surprise. "Wha - why - well, hi guys... What are-?"

"Merry Christmas, Nate!" Malo and Christie said at aaalllmost the same time, which caused a round of chuckles from the group.

"So... Are you guys caroling?"

"Dude, have you heard Mako or me try to sing? No way!" the raccoon laughed. (The otter girl said "Aw, Danny, you sound fine," to which her brother quipped "Oh, he's fine but I'm not?" "Sorry, bro!")

"We wanted to just come check up on you, actually," Christie said. "I mean, with Cross' family having to move so suddenly..."

"That's got to be the worst present ever, losing your boyfriend just days before Christmas," Verona completed. "We wanted to see how you were holding up, and give you some friendly company."

"You... you guys..." Nate was practically speechless, stammering a bit before realization settling in, making his shoulders relax and mouth screw up in a touched smile. "You all left you homes on C-Christmas and trekked through the cold just to visit m-me?"

The others gave various forms of affirmation, and he took an uncertain step forward, eyes closing as he felt tears coming up again - good tears, though, and a moment later found himself in the center of a big group hug, the three girls embracing him first and then the guys around them, making the Lab feel warm despite the cold weather.

Just when the light breeze was starting to get to him, he was distracted by a thought. "Oh! Um, I really, really appreciate this guys, but I don't know if now is a good time, we're about to sit down for our big holiday meal..."

"You all are welcome to come eat with us," he heard his mother speak up from the back of the foyer. "Or at least come in from the cold if you've had Christmas dinner already."

The teens all shuffled indoors amid a chorus of lines like "Yeah we ate"s and "I had lunch, our big meal is this evening"s, Nate moving almost in a daze. His mom provided them with paper plates as they took over the den, Nate excused from the dining room table to be with his friends. Mako and Malo the otter twins, Danny the raccoon, Verona the jaguar, Carl the Husky, and Christie the tabby... he was just overwhelmed, even as Carl and Danny talked about how it was all Malo-and-Christie's idea, making calls and checking houses on the way over to see who would come visit. They had come, after all, and were definitely adding to the fun, laid-back atmosphere in the den.

The TV was on, but no-one was really paying attention, all sharing what presents they had opened earlier that morning and debating whose house they would all go over to tomorrow for maximum enjoyment. For his part, Nate didn't talk much, content to sit back on the couch wedged between Malo on the end and Christie in the middle (were he to think about it more, he would have found it amusing that the two girls with boyfriends were the ones smushed up against either side of him); Verona sat on the other end of the couch, Mako and Carl in the easy-chairs, and Danny on the floor just below Malo. They ate, talked, laughed, and Nate even felt himself shed a few more tears, but it didn't feel bad; with he, Malo, and Christie all having their arms around each other and with the general warmth of the atmosphere in the den, everything felt like it was going to be okay. Even when the conversation somehow got around to him describing yesterday's phone call, re-opening a bit of a hole in him, it also felt good to just... release...

After a while, Mako looked back over the couch and asked "Hang on... did he fall asleep??"

Everyone looked over at that point: Malo was smiling, Nate's head on her shoulder with her hand on top of it, and Christine almost lying against him having been held there by his arm, which was now limp in his slumber.

"Aww, he looks so peaceful now..." Verona said, leaning forward to see around the tabby. "I'm glad; he seemed so shaken when we showed up; I get the feeling he hasn't slept well recently."

"Yeah... Man, I was gonna suggest we go out and have a snowball fight or something," the brother otter continued.

"I was starting to think the same thing," Carl added, "but I guess we can't now..."

"Well, we caaan," Mako said, "though it would involve either waking him up or just leaving him here..."

"You guys go ahead and pelt each other with snowballs," Malo responded, "I'd rather stay in here than go out in the cold again anyway, so I'm fine staying as his pillow."

"And I'm his blanket!" added Christine.

"I'm up for playing in the snow," Verona said, getting up from the other end of the couch, "so are you boys gonna come with?"

With that, the four teens went outside for an epic snowball fight while the remaining two girls stayed in to cuddle Nate, speaking in low voices until he eventually woke up. He stayed hugged between them for a good half hour more as they just talked, at which point the others came in for some hot chocolate. The others then took him to go ice skating with them at the skating center by their school. It was a great evening; he was still trying to absorb what all in the world had happened when he got into bed later that night, how he had come across such great friends. Cross crept back into his thoughts more prominently before he fell asleep, but at least he slept well.