Fandom: The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Category: gen

Rating: G

Word Count: 196

Notes: Written for the LiveJournal group MFUWSS December 2009 Challenge #15 – “decorations”

 

He kicked the door shut and dropped his grip on the chair. This last affair had whisked him and his partner out of New York just before Christmas and had spun them around the world a couple of times. Finally the debriefings were over, the last reports written, and there was nothing more to do than wait for the stitches to come out.

He’d argued against the decorations. He hadn’t seen the point in putting them up, since he wasn’t going to celebrate the holiday — if he’d been allowed, like normal, uncommitted, non-UNCLE agents did — and if he did, he’d probably have spent the time at his partner’s flat.

Now here he was and Christmas was a month past. He looked at the small tree. A draft stirred the tinsel, surrounded him with the scent of pine and bayberry.

Ignoring the lamp, Illya lit the candles on the dry boughs. He brushed the dust off of the single unopened present beneath, reading the handwritten card with a smile. He held the package to his ear and shook it gently, wondering if he could guess what was inside.

“It seems we didn’t miss Christmas after all, Napoleon.”