Christmas Shoutouts! : WeDidItForTheDead, for all her love and support; DreamxXxStealer for being so much fun; Obsidian Rush for all of his criticism, Princess of the Knight for her never-ending patience; Zexion12 for helping me improve a bit; Orchid Butterflies, just because! ; ThexsilXVI for being a wonderful new friend; Ichiakil especially, for her hilarity and the fun we have RP-ing; all the new friends I made on Tumblr (especially Rufus, Yazoo, and Namine); "Soren", my wonderful, amazing boyfriend; all my friends and family who will never, ever read my stories here; and to you, dear reader, for reading my stories. Thank you so much, everyone!


It was yet another Decemberian day in the Castle That Never Was, and Demyx was bored. All of the decorations had been hung; the Christmas cookies and cakes had already been baked; everyone's presents were hidden safely away from the nosy curiosities of Xigbar, Axel, Larxene, and, of course, himself; and the enormous Christmas tree had already been ornamented and lighted.

It had taken everyone an entire day to decorate it, as Axel was itching to light it on fire, Marluxia was having fun experimenting with the height of the tree (and watching with undeniable amusement as he grew the tree a bit more each time Xemnas attempted to place the paopu star on the top), Larxene was decorating it with too many strings of lights, and the Top Three were busy trying to restore order.

But looking up at it, the dirty-blond sitarist grinned, thinking that the hassle and disorder was worth it: it looked beautiful now, if a bit disorganized. The tree had been divided into thirteenths, similar to how the food pyramid looked; Roxas got to decorate the bottom, with Larxene and Marluxia decorating just above his area, Luxord, Axel, and himself decorating above them, and so on and so forth. He sighed as he stared up at the tree.

Looking at it hadn't alleviated his boredom one bit, though it did bring back humorous memories. Demyx made a face as he thought of the things he could be slacking off on (and was slacking off on), and walked towards the Grey Area to see if someone fun was there, like Axel, Roxas, or Xigbar.

Marluxia and Zexion would do in a pinch, but Kingdom Hearts help him if Larxene was there...

His lips quirked upwards in a grin as he saw that the sadist was not in the room, and that, in fact, the redhead, the blondie, and his favourite bookworm were sitting together in the same general area.

As there was no one else in the room, he could make as much noise as Zexion allowed; once absorbed in a book, the Schemer very rarely cared about his surroundings.

"Hey, guys!" he greeted, walking over to them. Axel, who had his tongue poking out of his mouth and a pen in his hand, looked up from the letter he was writing to give him a grin; Roxas looked up as well, smiling as the dirty-blond sat down in the sofa opposite them.

Zexion stayed put.

"Hey, Demyx. Up to no good?" Axel gave him a friendly tilt of his head to let him know he was only joking. Zexion rolled his eyes, and Demyx folded his hands behind his head.

"Not really... I'm just really bored." Roxas sighed.

"You and Zexion both. Hey! Why don't you do what we're doing? Write a letter to Sandy Claws!" Normally Demyx would have been excited, and would have agreed immediately, but this time, he merely thought for a moment and shrugged.

"There's nothing really that I want back, except my heart, and maybe a nicer Larxene, neither of which Santa can give me." But he craned his neck and gave the two a smile.

"What're you two askin' for?" Axel finished writing the last line and blew the ink dry for a second; he handed the letter to Demyx for him to read.

Zexion, having finished reading his book, scooted closer to Demyx and read over his shoulder, having nothing better to do. He furrowed his eyebrows as he finished reading (being a fast reader, he finished while Demyx was still only halfway), and glanced at Axel, who was looking at them smugly.

"It's Christmas, you idiot, not X-mas. Why abbreviate it, when you clearly have enough space to write it out?" Axel gave him a grin.

"Xemnas wants us to write is as X-mas. As I prefer not being a Dusk, I complied. Of course, I don't have the immunity that comes with being one of the original six..." Zexion tossed him a glare at his words, and raised his hand to hover over the letter, rearranging the letters into Christmas. Xemnas didn't need to be so conceited, especially during the holiday season. Someone could get confused, and think it was a new Nobody, originally named Sam. ((wink, wink, Ean!))

"There." He smiled. "Much better."

But Axel was not the only one who protested at his corrections; Demyx pouted childishly at his friend.

"Now I've lost my place!"


A/N: Uh... I have no excuse? ^^; I know the balance was off. The beginning was better :)

Have a very merry Christmas, everyone! Happy holidays!