"Yes! Cakes and sweets, and sometimes shiny items to trade," the pixie beamed. "Though I have only been invited once. My village is long gone, and no others wanted me," he added, smile fading a bit. "...This year will be good though. I have you."

And gosh was he smitten. He knew John saw him as a charge or a kid, but Winter did not look at John like a father or brother. ...He just didn't really know how to express that. He got flustered or overexcited, and he knew that only made him look more childish. But he wasn't a youth, he was very grown- He was just also a pixie, and pixies always had a youthful joy to them.