Greetings and salutations! I have returned from the grave for not one, not two, but FOURTEEN separate fics spread across three or four fandoms! Each will be around 2k words, but possibly slightly less, such as this one. After this, the next fics I will write are on character's birthdays and requests, but that most likely will not occur until February or late January. Anyways, enjoy!

P.S., this fic is a bit rushed and is a one-shot, same as the other 13 fics.

Christmas 2017, Day 1: A Week Before Christmas

Aigis gazed out the window, her eyes resting on the somber streets. A blue butterfly flitted in and out of her sight, always close, but never in reach. It had been years since she had come to terms with his death, but, despite that, the result was always with her. She had once brought up the butterfly to the others, but it appeared as though she was the only one who was able to see it.

Snow continued to drift down, each one softly mixing with its predecessors on the whitened streets. As she breathed out, the android could see the fog that came from her mouth. Whereas ten years ago, she would not have batted an eye at this natural phenomenon, life, or more specifically, he taught her that this was one of the many signs that she was truly "alive".

Suddenly, a light rapping came from the door. Aigis shook herself from her thoughts and gently yelled at the entrance. "Come in!" she said, turning herself away from the window.

A man wearing a baseball cap, a white shirt, and a navy blue jacket opened the door and gently walked in. His nose was red and his cheeks were tinged a light pink from the cold. Despite his shivering posture, he looked absolutely radiant. Aigis, being her curious self, could only wonder what had Junpei Iori so happy on such a solemn day. "Why do you appear to be so... ecstatic?" she asked aloud.

Junpei just put on his classic grin and spoke, every syllable punctuated with pure, radiant happiness. "Chidori's alive! And she's awake!"

Though she herself had minimal interaction with Chidori, who had brought herself to the brink of death to save Junpei, Aigis could only smile along as the Iori pulled out a cross on a necklace from underneath his shirt. "I presume that she gave that to you?" Aigis inquired.

"Of course she did!" Junpei responded. "Where else could I have gotten this?"

Aigis shook her head. "I know this is a special occasion for you, but why show me first?"

"Three reasons," Junpei said, raising up two fingers to prove his point. "One, you're the closest to the hospital, so I thought I might tell you first."

"And you couldn't have waited a bit for everyone to gather?" Aigis thought to herself.

"Two, I couldn't wait for everyone to meet up somewhere, so I just thought to myself, 'hey, Aigis is around here, right? Why don't I just go tell her?'"

Aigis almost laughed. Had the Iori read her mind, or was this simply one of his antics? She assumed the latter as the tone dimmed down, Junpei's voice going from a happy yell to a hushed conversation midway through the sentence.

"Third, I thought it might make your more hopeful about... him..." He glanced at the android, who simply stared at him with her usual, blank expression. He pinched the bridge of his nose and continued. "If they could bring Chidori from the brink of death, then why shouldn't they be able to bring him back?"

Junpei suddenly felt a chill go down his spine as Aigis glared at him. She spoke slowly, choosing her words and forming her sentences in a deliberate manner. "He told me that he can't leave. He isn't dead, but he can't come back without the risk of the Dark Hour returning. If it came back, then his sacrifice would be in vain."

Junpei rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, yeah, sorry about that idea. I guess I was just a little too excited to see and talk to Chidori again."

Aigis nodded her head as Junpei looked at the nearby clock. The suppressive atmosphere suddenly lifted as Junpei began to yell. "Shit! I forgot! I have to meet Mitsuru in less than a minute! Shit, shit, shit, shit..."

His consistent cursing could be heard past the door as he opened it, ran through, then slammed it closed. Aigis chuckled at his antics; considering how long it would take for him to meet up with Mitsuru, there was a high probability that he would suffer yet another "punishment" for being late...

Shaking the thoughts out of her head, she returned to stare out the window. To her surprise, it appeared as though the window had been covered in frost during the time she had the Iori had their little exchange. As she placed her finger on the window, the cold seeped into her sensors, forcing her to pull away due to a small amount of frostbitten pain. A blue butterfly flitted in and out of her vision, landing on the finger that had just been touching the frosted window. As a sense of warmth filled it, she reached for the window again. To her surprise, the frost on the other side of the glass began to melt, and soon, the entire window was rid of the frost.

The moment the entire window was clean, the butterfly flitted out of her vision, leaving the mechanical maiden to be alone once more. Aigis took a look at her hands and tried to press her finger against the window again, only to pull it back in the same pain that had occurred not too long ago. A small smile tugged at the end of her lips as she thought to herself. "You really are watching over me, aren't you?"

"Yes. Yes, I am."

In an instant, the smile disappeared from her lips. "Did I just hear that...?" she muttered to herself. When she received no response, Aigis sighed before putting on her jacket, scarf, and other winter attire. "I'm going for a walk!" she yelled into the quiet, empty room. It had become a habit of hers, to pretend that she was living with another person and yell at the empty room whenever she left.

She pushed her way onto the bustling streets. Chatter rose everywhere, from the corners of the city to the main plaza. In the background, one could strain their ears to hear the incessant laughter of the joyful people. It was a wonderful time of the year.

As she weaved through the crowds and dodged the many salesmen, her thoughts were muddled with the voice. The voice. It was familiar, and she had recognized whose voice it was immediately. "Think rationally, Aigis. He hasn't been able to talk with you for years, and yet, all of a sudden-"

"I am here, Aigis. You just need to look harder."

This time, Aigis could hear- no, she could feel- the voice's source. The mechanical maiden spun on her heel, turning a sharp 90 degrees as she tried to trace the voice.

"Warmer. You're getting warmer, Aigis."

The tone of the voice was just as she remembered. A little bit of teasing, a little bit of timidness, and a little bit of bossiness mixed into every word. She began to pick up speed, walking faster and faster through the winding streets, until she entered a small alleyway.

At the end of the alleyway, there was a set of blue elevator doors. Unlike the other times she had seen the doors, they were fully open and inviting this time. Cautiously, she began to walk towards the door when she performed a simple, unconscious action: blink. And with that single blink, the Velvet Room was gone.

Despite having seen this happen multiple times before, Aigis took a deep breath. It had not been the first time she had been unable to access the Velvet Room, and she knew that it would not be the last. As she turned to exit the alleyway, she could hear the voice in her head again.

"Hey."

The android's joints tensed up. It had been too long- way too long- since she had heard his voice so close to her. Aigis nearly jumped when a familiar, warm hand was placed on her shoulder. Another hand grabbed hers, spinning her around gently. Suddenly, she was face-to-face with the one she had longed to see for so long. His blue hair still overshadowed one eye, and his clothes were still from the high school, but, in some way, he had matured. Minato Arisato looked Aigis straight into the eyes as he asked a simple question. "May I have this dance?"

Aigis nodded, recovering from the shock of seeing her lover in the flesh once more. As they two began a slow dance, music seemed to play from nowhere, changing itself to fit the style and speed of the dancing. A few minutes of calming, peaceful dancing had passed when Aigis was finally able to materialize the question she had wanted to ask. "How?"

Minato heartily chuckled, his short-lived laughter echoing around the alley. "Even gods can feel pity, you know." He laughed again, and Aigis felt her heart flutter again for the first time in way too long. "Sorry for… being so cliché, I guess. I barely have an hour to do this, and people would be really suspicious if I left this area."

"I don't mind. Isn't it-"

"-beautiful? Yes, Aigis, it is. Just like you."

The two kept dancing throughout their conversations, throughout all of their laughter, throughout all of their joy. Nearly a full hour had passed without Aigis realizing, only brought to her attention when the music and the dance began to slow to a stop.

The two separated before pulling each other into a love, loving embrace. As they broke apart, they once again pulled each other closer to each other, until their noses were touching and they could feel the other's breath.

Their voices overlapped in conversation before they pulled each other into a final, passionate kiss. As the kiss dragged on, Aigis could feel his grip loosen as he faded, back into the shadows and to the chains. As cliché as it was, only a few tears have begun to form on her cheeks, wiped away by a gentle hand.

"Don't cry..." he whispered, seemingly agitated by the tears. "Stay strong. For me, for Shinji, and for all the others. Don't cry..."

And with that, the ghost of the past was gone, transported back into the depths of the afterlife. She felt something inside of her break as he left once more, but the android held strong, refusing to shed a single tear. She backtracked through the busy streets and found her way back to her room. There, she took off all her winter attire, leaving only the jacket and the scarf. In the jacket's pocket was a gun; old and unusable, but it held a certain sentiment with the "S.E.E.S." symbol engraved onto its side. The scarf had not even been her's originally; it had been Minato's, but gifted to her on a fateful Christmas Eve.

And now, a week before Christmas, her only wish had come true; to see Minato Arisato once more. She exhaled, the satisfaction of the past hour's antics still fresh in her mind. As she sat by the window, her mind drifted off into a deep, human-like sleep, where the android dreamed of fact and fiction, legends and memories, of nothing, and of everything. She dreamed of what could have been, but, in her sleep-

-a tear found its way to the floor.

Christmas 2017, Day 1. I shall see you all tomorrow!