It was a cold December afternoon in New York City and it had just begun to snow. Naomi stood watching the soft flakes twirl downward lazily, as if they were in no hurry to meet their final resting place. She gazed contentedly outside the frosty window, cupping her hot mug of coffee in both hands, just the very tips of her fingers peeking out from the long sleeves of her sweater.

It was Christmas Eve and the lobby of the grand hotel they were staying in was adorned festively with lights and garland and ornaments.

Naomi couldn't help but think of the lyrics to "Silver Bells" as she looked out the window.

City sidewalks, busy sidewalks
Dressed in holiday style
In the air there's a feeling of Christmas 

The song fit the scene before her just perfectly.  She loved Christmas.

The suite they were staying in was on the top floor and the view of the city was spectacular.  Naomi's gaze shifted to Central Park and the ice skaters going round and round Wollman Rink, looking tiny as ants from her lofty perspective.  It had been a long time since she had ice skated, though at one time she had actually been quite good at it.  As she watched, she remembered fondly the scrape of the blades against the ice and the feeling of the cold winter air on her cheeks. 

Oh, wouldn't it be fun to go...

A wave of spontaneity suddenly caused Naomi to spin around and exclaim, "We should go ice skating!"

L, who was busy with nothing more than a plate of cake, looked up.

"Umm, no," he responded flatly.

Naomi put a hand on her hip.  "Come on..."  Then she added hopefully, "...it's Christmas!"

L shook his head, his mouth full of cake.  "No."  He swallowed and added, "You can go."

Naomi brought her hand back up to hold her mug with both hands again and sighed.  "Okay, well nevermind. Sorry, I just got excited."  She turned back to stare out the window.

L hadn't missed the look of obvious disappointment in her face, but ice skating?  Not really his thing.

Watari cleared his throat loudly and L turned his head to look at him.  The old man was staring intently at the detective. 

L lifted his bony shoulders in an innocent shrug.

Without breaking eye contact, Watari tipped his head toward Naomi and raised his white eyebrows.

L looked at Naomi, whose back was turned to him, and then back at Watari.  He read clearly the message that was being relayed to him.  Naomi was more than deserving of a fun day out.  And the holiday did seem to be important to her...

But... ice skating?

With an audible sigh, L stood to his feet.  "Alright."

Naomi turned to look at him questioningly.

He stood with his hands in his pockets and cracked his toes into the carpet.  "We can go ice skating."  He turned to Watari.  "Are you coming?"

The old man chuckled.  "No, no, but I'd be more than happy to give you two a ride."

Naomi was grinning.  "Wait, really?  You're going to ice skate?"

L lifted a hand to scratch the side of his head.  "Looks like it," he answered uneasily.

"Oh, yay!"  Naomi set her mug down and moved with quick, excited steps toward her room.  She pointed at L as she did so and told him to find something warm to wear before disappearing into her little wing of the large suite.

Watari rose to his feet and moved with purpose to the coat closet.  He brought out a navy blue pea coat with dark brown buttons and a little box full of winter accessories.

L immediately regretted his decision.  He hated wearing extra clothing. 

In the end, he refused a hat and gloves but reluctantly donned the coat and a grey scarf.

Naomi stepped out of her room wearing a dark purple ski jacket and her jeans.  Her long, black hair hung over her shoulders under a white knit beanie and she had on black leather gloves.  She smiled excitedly.  "You ready?"

L nodded, his hands stuffed into the pockets of the coat.  He slid his bare feet into his sneakers, ignoring Naomi's, "Seriously, you are going to freeze."

Watari dropped them off, as promised, and Naomi's heart sang along with the festive music drifting through the bright, frosty air.  Her breath made little white puffs appear and disappear and she could feel her nose already turning red as she and L approached the outdoor rink.  But the atmosphere was alive and warm with laughter and cheer.

L had his shoulders lifted against the cold and his nose and mouth were tucked into the scarf as he walked.  Snow was collecting on his jeans around his ankles and Naomi marveled to herself how on earth this man was so stubborn when it came to his footwear.

They reached the rink and Naomi turned to L to ask his skate size.  Hands pocketed, he lifted his foot to read the bottom of his shoes.

"Um, 10 I think?"

Naomi grinned at the fact that he didn't know his own shoe size.

They rented their skates and sat down on a bench.  Naomi showed L how to tighten and hook the laces and then turned to do her own.

L finished with his skates and pulled his denim pant legs over them.  Without waiting for Naomi, he stood to his feet and took a cautious step onto the ice.  His foot slid forward and he swung his arms to regain balance.

Naomi laughed a little. "Careful!"

L looked back at her, his mouth still covered by the scarf.  Then, he turned and observed the other people on the rink.  He watched their feet and how those who seemed to know what they were doing kicked sideways ever so slightly as they glided smoothly along.  It looked easy enough.

He looked down at his own feet and gingerly stepped forward again.  Then he took another step, and another.  Within a few seconds, he felt like he had the hang of it.  He leaned forward and skated away, using his heightened senses of intuition and balance to imitate the movements of those around him, his hands pocketed in his warm coat.

Naomi watched in disbelief.  He had picked it up so quickly.  She finished with her skates and stood.  He was on the other side of the rink now, gliding along expertly.  She stepped onto the ice and waited for him to come back around.

But he didn't slow down as he approached her.  Instead, he swung over to the edge where she was standing and grabbed her wrist, pulling her alongside him.

"Come on, you're the one who wanted to do this," he said, his voice muffled behind the scarf.

As he began his second lap, L noticed that several people were holding hands with someone else as they went around.  He had never really taken part in any kind of social activity like this before and a part of him had always wondered what it would be like to do the things that other humans considered "normal."  He looked down at his hand that still held Naomi's wrist. He curiously decided to give it a try.  He innocently moved to take her small hand in his much larger one.

Naomi yanked her hand away, startled.

"What- what are you doing?"

A brief look of panic sparked in the young detective's eyes.  "Oh.  Is that not okay?"

Naomi was confused.  Did L just try to hold her hand?

His face retreated deeper into the scarf and his hand returned quickly to his coat pocket.  He looked down at the ice beneath his gliding feet and mumbled, "Sorry."

And then Naomi felt bad.  She understood that social graces were not among L's strong traits and that he had, perhaps, never even tried to hold a girl's hand before.  His gesture had been harmless and sweet.  She reached out and tugged at his sleeve.  He looked at her and she held her hand out.

"Sorry, I was just taken aback before," she explained.

Now it was L's turn to look surprised.  He looked at her hesitantly.  She bobbed her arm up and down a little to encourage him that it was really okay and he slowly took his hand out of his pocket.  He extended his arm and his long, cold fingers closed around her gloved hand.

Naomi grinned at him.  He relaxed a bit and the two of them turned their heads to look forward again, skating along with the flow of the crowd, side-by-side and hand-in-hand.

After a few laps, Naomi spun to face L and reached out to take his other hand.

"Think you can skate backwards?" she challenged.

L looked between his outstretched arms at Naomi's feet.  He watched her movements for a moment before lifting his eyes to her smiling face again.

"I can try," he said.

They turned in a half circle so that L was now skating backwards and Naomi forwards.  He was doing pretty well.  That is, until the rink curved and he tried to turn.  He lost his balance and his feet slid out from under him.  He landed hard on his back, bringing Naomi down with him.

"Wo-woah!"  In a flailing attempt to avoid landing on top of him, Naomi practically performed a split and caught herself on her hands on either side of L's head.  Their faces were inches apart as Naomi tried to push herself into an upright position, muttering "Uhh, uh sorry, lemme just- ah!  Sorry!"  Her rear end was in the air and her feet were sliding all over the place. The faster she tried to stand up, the more unsuccessful her jerky movements were.

Suddenly, L scrunched his eyes shut and just laughed.  A real, genuine laugh.  Naomi stopped her squirming and looked down at him, her long hair hanging down from her knit beanie and falling on either side of his face.  She realized she was hearing his real laugh for the first time. 

It was a nice laugh.  Deep and yet, at the same time, youthful. 

L shimmied out from under her and stood clumsily to his feet.  Once upright, he offered her his hand and she took it, pulling herself up to stand again.  Her cheeks were flushed and her head felt a little light from being upside-down.  She exhaled into a laugh, grinning.

"That was sufficiently awkward," she commented.

"That was funny," L replied.  Then he spun around and skated off, leaning slightly forward with his hands in his pockets and his scarf trailing along behind him.

Naomi grinned and followed him.

They skated until the winter sky turned a hazy, dark blue and the bright lights surrounding the rink .  Naomi could barely feel her toes and couldn't help but think of L and his lack of socks.  But he didn't seem the least bit fazed.

At last, they returned their skates and ordered some hot chocolate from a nearby food cart.  L asked if they had sugar and received strange looks from both Naomi and the vendor.  They moved to sit on a bench, L assuming his frog pose.  Naomi had gotten used to it but, being out in public, she was reminded how weird it was that he sat like that.  She watched as he tore open several sugar packets all at once with his teeth and emptied them into his hot chocolate.  He stuffed the empty packets into his coat pocket and took a sip.

"Mm," he said in approval, his lips.  "That's good."

Naomi shook her head and lifted her own paper cup to take a sip.  The hot drink was rich and chocolatey and delicious, but the idea of adding even more sugar made her want to gag.

"Did you have fun?" she asked.

L turned to look at her.  "I did," he answered simply.  "Much more than I expected to."

Naomi smiled.  "Me too."

They finished their drinks and called Watari to come pick them up.  As they waited, it began to snow, the downy flakes drifting gracefully toward the earth.  They were especially visible in the light of the lampposts that ran along the sidewalks of the park.

Naomi stood up.  "I need to move my legs, I'm freezing," she said.

L stood up also.  "I'm pretty cold too."

"Well let's walk over to where Watari dropped us off," Naomi suggested.  "Here, I'll take your cup."

L waited with his shoulders lifted and his lower face tucked into the scarf as Naomi went to toss the cups into a trash bin nearby.  As she returned, he turned and began walking to where they would be picked up.

The snow continued to fall softly. Somewhere, someone was laughing and Christmas music was coming from the illuminated rink behind them. Naomi was reminded of days long ago when she and her brothers would spend hours playing in the snow, returning at long last to a warm kitchen filled with holiday baking aromas. She smiled wistfully to herself.

L's footsteps crunched in the snow before her, but Naomi stopped to bend down and form a snowball with her gloved hands. She playfully hurled it toward him and it collided in a powdery explosion on the back of his head. He whirled around and she laughed.

"I'm sorry!" she said, still laughing. "It was just too easy!"

L stared at her, the white fluff melting and disappearing into his dampening black hair. He blinked his large, grey eyes. "Naomi,” he began calmly, removing his hands from his coat pockets. “One thing, you must know about me is..." He crouched down and began gathering snow with his red, bare hands. "I'm very childish...” Then, he looked her straight in the eye. “...and I hate to LOSE!"

With the last word, he stood in an instant and flung the snowball directly at her.

Naomi shrieked and turned to avoid the projectile, but it detonated into cold, white fluff with a thwack! on her shoulder.

She immediately retaliated with another snowball that hit him smack in the face.

Naomi lifted both fists into the air in victory.  "Ha!"

L had to top that.  He leaned forward and charged at her, causing her to turn gleefully and make a run for it.  But she hadn't been prepared and his momentum caught up with her in seconds.  In one swift motion, he bent down and wrapped one arm behind her knees and the other around her waist, lifting her up off the ground.  Naomi kicked and protested, her stomach aching with laughter.  And, almost as quickly as he had picked her up, he dropped her again so that she landed with a poof in the soft, frozen powder.

Naomi grabbed her stomach with one hand and with the other, the giggles convulsing her entire being.  She felt like a kid again and she loved it.  She looked up and saw L staring mischievously down at her.  She grinned and lifted her arm for him to help her up.

He took the bait and, as soon as his hand took hers, she yanked him down into the snow beside her.

"Woah- oof!"  He landed face first.

Naomi was grinning but suddenly, she was too spent to laugh anymore.  She laid back on the white ground and placed both hands over her stomach, looking up into the falling snow.

L lifted his head to look at her, then he rolled over onto his back.  His arms were down by his sides and his un-mittened palms rested in the snow.

They stayed there in contented silence until the sound of a car pulling up announced that their ride had arrived.

L and Naomi sat up, the backs of their heads wet with melting snow.  Naomi stood first and reached to help him up.  She pulled him to a standing position but she didn't let go of his hand right away.

They stood facing each other in the soft lamplight and the falling snow.  The butterflies that she had been ignoring for some time now were back, but for once, she didn't mind.  The smooth, baritone voice of Frank Sinatra drifted through the air from the rink behind them.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Let your heart be light

"Thank you," L said simply.

From now on our troubles will be out of sight

"What for?" Naomi asked.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the Yuletide gay

L looked down at his hand, which was still holding hers.

From now on our troubles will be miles away

"For this.  For tonight."  He shrugged.

Here we are as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore

Naomi smiled.  "Thank you for coming with me."

Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more

His eyes lifted to meet hers.  The snow continued to drift down around them.

Through the years we all will be together
If the fates allow

"Merry Christmas," Naomi said softly.

Hang a shining star upon the highest bough

"Merry Christmas, Naomi."

And have yourself a merry little Christmas now.