Title: Merry Christmas

Rating: PG (OT3 if you squint)

Notes: Christmas story for Althea SaDiablo. Apologies for the entirely uninspired title…. Also, I think I've misinterpreted the Santa thing, but for the story's sake I'll be keeping it as is.

**

Kairi blinked as her eyes adjusted from the bright consoles in the Gummi Ship to the bleached moonlight of their destination world. A howl sounded off in the distance, and the leaves shivered on their branches. The moment she regained her bearings she realized something: her clothes felt strange - tighter across some places where they were loose before, and vice versa, and when she glanced down she found them completely changed.

Her sturdy traveling outfit was replaced by a knee-length black dress, ripped at the sleeves and hem. There was a similarly ratty cloak around her shoulders and - she had to reach up to adjust it - a pointed witch's hat at a rakish angle on her head. Her keyblade had morphed into a broom, and she had black and white striped stockings.

Sora was next, and he materialized next to her with a black outfit she hadn't seen on him before, little bat wings on his back and a pumpkin...mask? hat? on his head, casting his brilliant eyes in shadow. She wasn't sure what he was supposed to be until Sora exclaimed delightedly, "You're a witch!" and grinned widely enough to show off his vampire fangs.

"And you're a vampire," she noted with amusement. "Is this normal?"

Before Sora could answer, there was another displacement of space as the Gummi-ship teleporter deposited the third in their trio. Riku blinked, taking in Sora and Kairi's new outfits.

"Nice hat." He said to Kairi.

At the exact same moment, Sora cried, "Tail!" and in a manner identical to any six year-old faced with a canine for the first time, grabbed for the silver furred appendage.

"HEY!" Riku protested, ears going flat against his head. Then he forgot all about Sora abusing his tail in favor of grabbing his ears, which were now perched atop his head and tipped in the same shade of silver as his hair. "What the...?" he muttered. Then, "Sora, let go of my tail."

"I think it's this world." Kairi offered. "Have you been here before?"

At the same time, Sora reluctantly released his prize and said, "I think you're a werewolf!"

"No," Riku answered Kairi, lowering his arms, and blinked at Sora's statement. He took a cautious sniff of the air and then ran his tongue over his teeth. Kairi could see he had fangs to match Sora's. "Huh." He mused, twisting around to look at his tail, swishing it back and forth a few times. "Weird." He finally pronounced, though it didn't sound like an 'I'm going to freak out now' sort of weird.

Sora made an exaggerated grimace which made both Kairi and Riku raise eyebrows. "I'm demonstrating," he said, dropping the expression temporarily to add, "I bet my fangs are scarier than Riku's!"

Kairi laughed as her boys started yet another one of their eternal competitions. Halloween Town seemed like a fun place already.

**

She would have giggled at the flustered expression still on Riku's face if she hadn't been a bit busy being shocked herself. Sora was bouncing a bit around them, grin as brilliant as the Christmas lights and decorations in the town around them.

"See?" He crowed. "Santa is real!"

Kairi peered back and was greeted with the sight of the red-clad Santa, still waving at them from his house. Despite the fact that she was sixteen-going-on-seventeen, she still felt a small surge of childish glee swell up inside her. "He wouldn't tell us if we were on his list though." Kairi said, trying to not skip a little in the giddy aftermath of meeting Santa.

Sora shot her a grin. "Of course not! We'll find out what he got us on Christmas, it's only October!"

Riku had his expression back under control and just looked mostly neutral even though his tail still twitched occasionally. But Kairi was glad that she had given him a haircut within the first week of their return, because it meant he couldn't hide his eyes behind his bangs. She could tell he was just as awestruck as she was beneath the seemingly cool exterior.

But Riku never stayed flustered for long. "I think we're a little out of his age bracket," he drawled as they made their way to the tree that held the jack-o-lantern sign that was the doorway back to Halloween Town. "Unless he's going by mental ages."

"HEY!" Sora protested. "What are you implying, huh??"

The world dimmed, and then reformed around them. The skeletal trees of Halloween Town greeted her eyes, dark and desolate after the colorful and cheery landscape of Christmas Town. Riku rolled his eyes.

"I'm implying that you're sixteen-going-on-six." he said teasingly.

Sora sniffed. "Sixteen isn't too old to get presents from Santa." He retorted haughtily.

"You are such a kid." Riku laughed, but Kairi caught a hint of wistfulness in it - like Riku thought that even if sixteen isn't too old to get presents from Santa, seventeen was, and presents weren't for bad children anyway.

**

On their way back to their Gummi ship, that and a quiet nudge from Namine was why she blurted out, "I forgot, there was something I needed to give Sally. You guys go ahead, I'll catch up."

Riku and Sora looked back at her, Sora with an eyebrow raised and Riku with an ear cocked. "It's no big deal, we can come with you." Sora offered.

"No, that's okay." She waved a hand. "I'll be fine."

They look unconvinced.

"It's a girl thing." She added, and the boys looked more mystified but less unconvinced. Kairi made a note to use the 'it's a girl thing' excuse more often. "I'll catch up," she repeated. "See you in a bit!"

As soon as they were out of sight, she reversed direction and made a beeline for Christmas Town.

**

"Ohohoho. It looks like you have a question to ask me, Kairi." Santa's eyes were twinkling as he smoothed out his long white beard, seating himself across from her. "But remember, you've already asked me to check the list for your name."

Kairi nodded. "I'm not here to ask about me, Santa. You said that you can't tell us whether we're on the good or bad list, but..." she had taken off her hat, and now ran a finger along the brim to try and gather her thoughts. It didn't help that she felt like a little girl again, wide-eyed and awed at even the prospect of Santa.

"But?"

Kairi took a deep breath. "If...if someone did bad things for good reasons, would they still end up on the bad list?" She almost twisted the brim of her hat but caught herself. "I don't think that's fair, because it's already bad enough that they had to do things they didn't want to without being punished on top of that. I'm not saying that it excuses the bad things they did, just that...the circumstances should be considered." She looked up hopefully at him. "Don't you think so?"

The pause seemed to drag on for eternity as she waited with baited breath, but in reality it was less than a minute before Santa's eyes crinkled in a smile. He patted her hand comfortingly and said, "I know so."

**

Later, when they were all back on the ship and en route to Destiny Islands, right before she fell asleep, Namine said in her heart, that was very kind of you to do that for him.

Kairi blinked sleepily, tugging at the blankets in the tiny bedroom cot that she was currently sharing with Sora, who was sawing logs. It took a moment before she realized what Namine meant. "Oh." She murmured, and thought, it's not just for him, it's for you too.

Oh. Namine echoed, her shock almost jolting Kairi until she drew herself in, curling into a tiny corner of Kairi's heart so that her reaction was muted. Kairi felt her trembling, confused and maybe a little happy. Oh. Thank you.

**

She forgot about the whole thing until almost two months later. Christmas day dawned like every other day on Destiny Islands - bright and warm, with brilliant sunshine and azure skies. Kairi rubbed her eyes as Sora bolted out of bed, yelling, "It's CHRISTMAS!" and racing for the stairs. Beside her, Riku hid his head under a pillow.

"Just like a kid," he muttered.

From downstairs, Sora called, "C'mon, guys! There are PRESENTS!!"

"We're coming, we're coming!" Kairi answered, relieving Riku of his light-blocking pillow. Now that she was a bit more awake, she was starting to get excited too. "Come on, Riku!"

Riku groaned, but grudgingly started stirring from his hibernation. "We went to bed like, two hours ago."

"We should have done our gift exchanges earlier," Kairi agreed, sliding out of bed. Their parents had left them to their celebration, which went later and later as they told stories and drank eggnog and kept nodding off but never quite staying asleep.

On her desk was the present that Sora and Riku had given her - a small wrought-iron locket on a keychain, synthesized by the moogles from rare materials. Her keyblade had morphed into sleek and beautiful lines to match when she equipped it.

Next to it was a small, spiral bound sketchbook, with the words 'Castle Oblivion' written carefully on the cover. Riku and Kairi had spent days remembering, recording, and Namine illustrating, so that they could give Sora back a little of the year that he had lost.

The thalassa charm strung together from shells with mother-of-pearl lining and Bright Shards that she and Sora had made was nowhere to be seen. Kairi suspected Riku had put it away in a safe place already.

"GUYS!"

Sora was practically bouncing with impatience when Kairi and Riku finally came down. "Slowpokes!" But he was grinning as he started attacking the pile of presents under the tree. Kairi rubbed at her eyes again, even though traces of sleepiness had already left her. Three presents does not a pile make, she thought.

"There are too many presents," Riku echoed. Sora shoved a brightly wrapped box in his hand in response. "Huh?"

"For you!" Sora pointed at the tag. "And this one's for....huh." She watched in confusion as Sora looked up from the present he was inspecting, closing his eyes and -

And then Roxas stumbled into view next to the brunette, as if some invisible hand had shoved him through and right out of his Other. "-the hell, Sora!" He blinked, and blinked again. "...the hell?" he repeated weakly.

"It's for you," Sora said cheerfully, ignoring Roxas' protest of 'that's impossible!'. "Kairi, hand." She obediently held out a hand and he deposited two packages in it.

She nudged Namine, who emerged with her hands clasped against her chest, and Sora's smile gentled. "There's one for you too." Kairi said softly, knowing she was probably beaming like an idiot but not really caring.

The cause was Riku's quiet grin as he held his present, Roxas' flustered and barely hidden delight, and Namine's tiny shiver of happiness. Even Sora, and herself: they were all children who did bad things for good reasons, and Kairi would give anything so they wouldn't have to make that choice again.

But all she said was, "Merry Christmas."

**End