For better or for worse, I heart the Riff-Cain-Merry triumvirate. X3 It makes me feel all warm and squishy inside. O.o And a little sad. Foo you, Yuki Kaori-sensei.

This three-part fic is an early Christmas gift for my neesan, from whom I got both the inspiration for it and the central question it revolves around: If you could have one wish, what would you wish for?

Disclaimer: I own only the barely-there threads of plot. Not Godchild, or the characters, or Deck the Halls.

All Good Things
I: Godsend

Fast away the old year passes. Fa la la la la, la la la la…

Just yesterday, leaves dusted the rooftops in what must have been a hundred different shades of red. Today, it's snow—virgin and immaculate where the leaves were—and you can't help but feel a little sad because cold white just isn't as forgiving, and thinking about beginning again must be the hardest part of all. Something always, always, always has to end.

That's the way of things, and you hate it passionately because you're never able to do anything. Still, sometimes you wish… then you stop yourself, because wishes have repercussions. Because wishes always cost something, even though they're not supposed to cost anything, and when you get down to the bare bones of the matter, they never become any more than what they are—little flights of fancy that warm your heart a moment or two before burning it.

Merry tugs on your jacket, white skin on black cloth melting into one for a split second as your vision slips back into focus. For a moment there, between seeing and unseeing, it's her dress that flames in a hundred different shades of red.

"Big brother, I have a question."

You condition your lips to twist into what might be a smile. There's still something foreign about it, but at least it doesn't hurt. "Mm-hmm?"

She crumples the cloth in her fingers for a few moments, apparently unconcerned that she's ruining a good suit. The question itself is innocent enough, but the words wash over you in a torrent as soon as they come together.

"Big brother, if you could have one wish, what would you wish for?"

"Oh. Oh my." You laugh a little, take her hand off your jacket and cradle it carefully between your own. Merry's hands are so small—you can barely imagine a day when she'll be the one holding you. "But Merry, there are so many things to wish for, and only one wish. And wishes cost so much."

"Really?" She frowns. "How much do they cost?"

"They ought to be free, really, but they always cost something. More often than not, they're the most bloody expensive things in the world."

This makes her laugh. It's the sweetest of carols. "Oh, you party pooper! But it's the season for wishes." She squeezes your hands, pulling them downward and you with them, so she can look full into your eyes. "Say you could have one for free. With nothing tied to it, because I know you hate that. What's the one thing you'd wish for?"

"Ah, then that's different."

There it is, right on cue. Your heart twists a little in longing. Some of it must show on your face, because your sister lets you go and pushes closer into the circle of your arms, whispering, "You can have anything, big brother! Anything you want, for nothing at all! You'd be mad not to take it!"

"Big brother's a little mad already, but since you insist on pressing the matter…" There's a little hitch in your voice as you whisper, but she doesn't seem to catch it, and soon enough you've forgotten it.

"I want one good thing that will never end."

"Then you're silly," she tells you, quite plainly, and taps you on the nose like you ought to be ashamed of yourself for not being familiar with something everyone else knows like the backs of their hands. "You have that! Riff and I and this house… We are good things, aren't we?"

"Oh," you say, a little sheepishly. "Well, when you put it that way, then yes. You are good things. The very best things."

"And we're not going anywhere!"

Her eyes catch the firelight, and for a moment they're washed with gold as yours are. It's nothing short of miraculous what you see there. You're apt to forget that, when you get to the bare bones of it, she sometimes is the one holding you, making sure that her idiot brother does get his wish in the end. No matter what he says.

Hail the new, ye lads and lasses. Fa la la la la, la la la la…