Eclipse of the Heart: Once Upon a Christmas

by FadedPhantom

It's Christmas Eve, and everyone is excited to attend the annual Wish Festival at Disney Castle! But can Aila's wish to have a perfect holiday really come true? A one shot about Aila's time in Disney Castle for the holiday season. Posted in the summer because I didn't want to wait until the holidays to post this story. SEQUEL. Contains major spoilers for Eclipse of the Heart.

This is a mini sequel to my story Eclipse of the Heart.

Please read the original story first, as this contains major spoilers.

Hello again, all!

I know it's not Christmastime lol but I warned you all that I'd probably post this in the summer! Use your imagination and pretend it's not unbearably hot outside as you read this.

Think of this story as a bridge between the original story and the sequel. It is lightly canon, in that I wrote it trying to keep it true to the universe I've created but the characters probably won't mention anything that happens here again haha so it's not required reading. The characters may allude to a few details, but if someone misses this it won't hinder their experience while reading the sequel.

But if you've been missing this story and want a lighthearted short dive back into it, then please enjoy!

I've gotten some AMAZING fanart since finishing the original story, but I'm going to wait and post those with the first few chapters of the actual sequel. If you have done any art related to this story I'd love to see it and share it when the sequel comes out, so be sure to send me a link via PM!

Okay, let's gooooo CHRISTMAS IN JULY YAY!

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"I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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Aila was excited.

Two weeks had passed since they'd defeated Xemnas. Two weeks since they'd left Sora, Kairi, and Riku on their island. Two weeks since Aila and her siblings had been brought back to Disney Castle. And ever since that moment, she'd been counting down the minutes to today. Oh, what was today?

Today was Christmas Eve.

"Eeeeeeee!" Aila squealed as she barreled down the castle halls, shiny holiday decorations glistening in the morning sunlight as she skidded around the corner.

"Aila, wait up!" her little sister called, but Aila didn't slow, barreling into the Audience Chamber with all the grace and manners of a six-week-old puppy.

"Slow down," Donald sighed, shaking his head at his young friend, though he couldn't keep his beak from tweaking up into a smile. He, Goofy, Minnie, and Daisy had been conversing in the middle of the large room, Minnie and Daisy giving instructions to various enchanted brooms and mops who were hard at work transforming the usually rather empty room into something more worthy of a holiday party. The rest of the castle had been decorated since practically the second Aila and her siblings had arrived, but, seeing how this room was usually for important King and Queen business, they'd waited until today to finish things up in here. Apparently this much-too-big room was also where they held parties on special occasions, which, in all honesty, made its size make a little more sense.

"I can't, we have so much to do!" Aila gushed, almost crashing into Donald and Goofy in her eagerness before bouncing in excited circles around them a few times. "We gotta go, come on, come on!"

Goofy laughed. "We gotta wait fer everyone else!"

Alex shuffled up to the group, watching her big sister with vague amusement as she brushed a few strands of blonde hair away from her flush cheeks. "Ailaaa you didn't wait for me!"

Aila stopped her bouncing to instead strike a cocky pose. "You gotta keep up, baby sis. I wasn't even using my Light."

Alex huffed, puffing out her little cheeks. "I'm not a baby…"

"Ohh, let me see you both!" Daisy said suddenly, turning away from the broom she'd been instructing about table placement to instead hurry over to the girls. "Ah! You look adorable!"

Aila immediately blushed, her cocky demeanor deflating at once under the weight of the sudden compliment. Daisy had surprised the siblings this morning with special holiday outfits she'd cooked up for them, insisting they change before the group headed out for the day. Aila's was a very cute (and super soft) bright red velvet dress with thick white trim along the bottom of the knee length skirt and a black belt cinched around the smallest point of her waist, clearly inspired by Santa's classic outfit. A cloak of the same material hung snuggly around her shoulders, the thick white trim of its bottom edge hitting just at her belt and elbows. The cloak was tied together in the front with a single white ribbon, and the hood on the back of the cloak, which Aila didn't have up at the moment, was complete with two cute little white animal ears (Aila thought maybe they were supposed to be like a dear's ears, but she liked to think of them as wolf ears instead). Black tights adorned her legs underneath super soft, super warm knee high red and white boots, also velvet, with little ribbons with white puffballs on the ends tied at the top of each. The outfit was finished off with soft red gloves, again with a white trim. All in all Aila was both very warm and very festive.

Alex's outfit was very similar in style, but still unique. She wore a crisp white shirt with sleeves that puffed out ever so slightly before ending about halfway down her upper arms, the bottom of the shirt tucked into a bright red velvet, high-waisted skirt. Matching red velvet suspenders sat snugly on her shoulders, holding her skirt securely in place. The thick white trim of her skirt also hit at her knee, and sparkling white tights wrapped around her legs underneath soft red ankle boots. Her little white gloves looked nice and warm, and Aila had helped tie small red bows on either side of her head. She was, indeed, adorable.

"Thanks, Daisy," the sisters chorused, Aila a little sheepishly, Alex rather proudly.

Donald snickered at Aila before beaming at Daisy. "You did a great job, Daisy!"

"Thank you, Donald," Daisy replied with an affectionate smile. "And how do you like your sweater?"

"I love it!" Donald insisted immediately. Aila and Alex weren't the only ones dressed up for the holiday. Donald was wearing a knitted red Christmas sweater with little white snowflake designs all around it, a striped green scarf wrapped around his neck and a Santa hat perched on his head. Goofy had on a striped red sweater over grey pants, his own Santa hat adorned with thick, lighter red stripes to match the sweater. Daisy herself had on a long sleeved red dress with a bit of delicate white lace along its collar, and a big red bow decorated with snowflakes (maybe to match Donald?) rested atop her head. Her matching red heels looked particularly snazzy. Aila was impressed that she was planning to wear those out all day, though as she looked to the queen she realized that Minnie was wearing bright red heels too. Whoa. They were both brave.

The skirt of Minnie's red dress danced as she turned to the group, a green Christmas sweater with a red and white stripe across the middle looking quite cozy on her upper body. She too had a big bright red bow between her ears, a delicate laugh escaping her as she returned her attention to the non-enchanted beings in the room. "Everyone looks so festive! I love it!"

"What about that brother of yours?" Daisy asked, eying the door suspiciously, like she expected the last of the siblings to come traipsing in wearing solid black rather than the outfit she'd given him.

"He's wearing his outfit too!" Alex insisted, rubbing the back of her head and smiling a little sheepishly. "He's just being slow."

Aila huffed, fiddling with her long black hair in its usual low ponytail. "We should leave without him."

"Careful, or Santa won't bring you your presents," Donald scolded, wagging a finger at her.

Aila's eyes widened and she quickly intertwined her fingers before her, doing her very best to look pious. "What I meant to say was we of course cannot leave my dear brother behind!" Goofy and Daisy chuckled.

"Besides, we're still waiting on a few more," Minnie reminded her with a small laugh of her own. "I'm sure they'll be here soon, and we'll have plenty of time for everything, don't worry."

"Isn't Mickey coming?" Alex asked, cocking her head innocently and glancing around, like she might have accidentally missed the king.

"He'll be meeting us there," Minnie replied with a warm smile. "He's probably still on his way to the islands." The king had left to go pick up Sora, Riku, and Kairi that morning – the group had decided to spend Christmas Eve together rather than Christmas Day to avoid taking the islanders away from their parents on the actual holiday. Apparently their parents weren't in a huge hurry to miss another holiday with them, even after the whole "your children are amazing heroes destined to save the universe" thing had been explained to them. Mickey, Donald, and Goofy had gone back to the Islands two days after the trio had been dropped off to help them explain the whole thing and had come back looking rather exhausted; Aila was glad she hadn't asked to go on that trip. She imagined there had been a lot of yelling and confusion involved.

Aila let out another excited squeal and pumped a fist as she thought of the island trio's arrival. "I can't wait 'til they get here!"

"Me too!" Goofy agreed. "Feels like it's been a long time, don't it?"

"It's only been a couple of weeks," Donald pointed out with a roll of his eyes.

"You've missed Sora too, don't lie," Aila said, poking Donald's arm and grinning down at him. Donald slapped her hand away, but didn't refute her statement.

"Sorry for the wait, y'all!"

The group turned to the door to see Clarabelle in a green dress and red sweater coming their way, the big green bow on her head bobbing happily as her red heels clicked along the floor. Aila raised a brow. Maybe she should work on wearing high heels too…? All these women wore them like they were nothing. They also all were really into bows. Should she start wearing bows…? Scurrying along next to Clarabelle were Chip, wearing a tiny red scarf and green Santa hat, and Dale, wearing a tiny green scarf and red Santa hat. And trailing behind them, finally, was Danny, his green Christmas sweater sporting a snowy mountain scene resting over black pants and dark red boots, his dark red gloved hands stuffed halfway into his pants pockets. Daisy had gone a lot subtler with him, which Aila thought was a wise choice – he definitely wouldn't have worn something any more festive than that. Aila secretly wished Daisy had gone a little more subtle with her as well, but… well, it must have been obvious that Aila didn't quite have the courage to refuse any outfit Daisy made for her, so here she was.

"Well bless my stars, everyone looks wonderful!" Clarabelle gushed.

"As do all of you!" Minnie replied, eying Danny particularly happily. Danny had been having somewhat of a hard time since he'd shown up at the castle – it was clear she was relieved to see him participating. Danny met her gaze and then quickly looked away, though Aila didn't miss the slight embarrassed blush creeping toward his ears. A few strands of his orange hair fell into his eyes and he shook them away before looking at his sisters. He smiled lightly, and Aila and Alex smiled back. Aila hoped her smile didn't look at all awkward.

"Okay! We're all here!" Donald declared. "Let's head out!"

"Yay!" Aila cheered, going immediately back to her excited bouncing. "Festival! Festival!" She made to start running to the door, but Donald caught her around the elbow and jerked her back.

"Stay with the group!"

"Ahh, party pooper…"

Minnie gave a few last instructions to the head broom and then they were finally off, heading out of the castle's front gates and down toward Disney Town. Aila broke away from Donald as soon as they were outside, rushing over to the nearest snow bank and gathering up a snowball almost immediately.

Everyone had been worried that they weren't going to get a white Christmas this year, but the weather had at last granted their wish three nights ago, the world suddenly covered in a blanket of fluffy powder so soft and clean it rivaled the snow Aila'd experienced in Christmas Town.

Donald started shouting warnings at Aila as soon as he realized what she was up to, sealing his fate as Aila's first target. In a matter of seconds snowballs were flying every which way, Alex squealing and ducking for cover behind Minnie as the queen nearly doubled over with laughter watching Donald try and take his revenge on Aila. The entire group spent a few minutes throwing snowballs back and forth, Chip and Dale quickly deciding they'd be Clarabelle's lookouts as they hid on her shoulders, being too small to make any effective snowballs themselves. Danny and Aila hit each other in the heads at the same time, she and her brother both bursting into laughter at once as they shook the chilly powder out of their eyes. They made eye contact, and their smiles softened. Danny nodded lightly, and Aila nodded back, their silent conversation not caught by anyone else. Aila glanced Alex's way, relieved to see her laughing with Minnie as Daisy very gently sprinkled a small handful of snow on the little girl's head. So far, her and Danny's plan seemed to be working.

Aila and Danny had had a long talk two nights ago. Alex had been getting increasingly upset as the holiday neared, their little sister wandering dejectedly down the halls lost in thought more and more. Both of them knew exactly what was getting her down – Christmas was about being with family, and they weren't going to be able to spend this one with their parents. It made Aila sad too, and despite Danny's attempts to play it off, she knew he wasn't happy about the situation either. He'd been having his own moments of disturbing quietness that made Aila worry. But it was definitely hitting Alex the hardest. So, they were determined to give her the best holiday they could, and had made a list of all the fun things they could think of that they were going to fill the next two days with. Snowball fight with friends, check. Despite the slight awkwardness that had settled between sister and brother since their journey had ended, it was nice to work together on this. They both wanted the best for Alex, and so it was an easy thing to agree on.

As soon as the town came into view Aila started her excited bouncing again, the big "Wish Festival" banner glittering at the town's entrance. As it turned out, the residents of Disney loved festivals, and there seemed to be five big annual ones: the Hope Festival at the start of the year, the Love Festival around Valentine's Day, the Dream Festival around the spring or summer, the Friendship Festival in the fall, and the Wish Festival on Christmas Eve. Aila had been told that the festivals really were a sight to see, with games and specialty foods and prizes to be won, not to mention fantastic fireworks shows when the sun went down. It all sounded awesome! She and her siblings had been exploring the town in the days leading up to the festival as the decorations went up, and now seeing it all done was very exciting. This would definitely keep Alex happy!

"Oh, everything looks perfect!" Minnie gushed as they breached the town, a giant, beautifully decorated Christmas tree standing proudly at the town square's center. Carolers were singing on the town square's stage, carts with special hot cocoa and hot donuts stationed at various intervals, and every building was decorated from top to bottom with festive ribbons and ornaments. They could see the top of a glittering ferris wheel in the distance as well, one of the handful of rides that had been set up – Aila was particularly excited to check out the racetrack later.

"Wow!" Aila and Alex gasped together, their eyes practically glittering as they took everything in.

"So what should we do first?" Donald asked.

"DONUTS!" the girls screamed at the same time, running off toward the nearest donut cart so fast that Donald was nearly knocked over.

"Wak! Girls, SLOW DOWN!"

"Yeahhhh they're long gone," Danny sighed. "And this is before sugar… So childish…"

"Well c'mon, we don't wanna be left out, do we?" Goofy asked, grabbing Danny's shoulder and half pushing him toward the donut cart his sisters had begun accosting.

"A-ah, I'm good, I don't need…" Danny began.

"Goofy's right, let's all get some sugar in us!" Donald agreed, coming up on Danny's other side and helping Goofy push the poor teen through the square. "Today a day to act your age, Danny!"

Danny huffed, allowing the two Disney residents to continue pushing him but not looking thrilled about it. "Usually people say that when they want you to act older."

"Ahyuck! You act too grown up already! You're a kid too, y'know," Goofy pointed out with a sideways glance at the boy.

Aila turned as they approached, a cinnamon donut in one hand and special holiday sprinkled one in the other. "Who's a kid?"

"Danny is," Donald replied, he and Goofy finally releasing the boy. Danny looked annoyed.

Aila laughed. "That's true! Was he trying to be all mopey and adult again? Pfft lame. Here try this!"

"No I—mmph!" Danny was cut off as Aila shoved the cinnamon donut into his mouth, her brother recoiling and choking a little as he tried not to breath in the delicious sugary dust. He swallowed and breathed a sigh of relief before glaring at his sister. "Hey!"

Aila just grinned innocently. "You're welcome! You owe me another donut now." Danny frowned before lunging at Aila and trying to push the sprinkled donut she still held into her own mouth as retaliation. "Ah! Ahhhhh! I'm being donut attacked! Help! Team!"

Donald just cackled off to the side while Goofy busied himself with paying the donut vendor the girls' purchases, Alex munching on a strawberry donut as she watched her brother and sister.

Aila wriggled away from Danny, licking the smooshed mess of frosting and sprinkles off her mouth before glaring at Donald and Goofy. "Hey! What kind of teamwork was that?!"

Donald chuckled a little more before waving a hand at her. "Pfft, we're not on a mission, ya dummy. You're on your own."

Aila pouted at him. "Rude."

"Besides, your team leader isn't even here," Alex pointed out. Goofy was receiving an entire box of donuts from the vendor now – looked like he'd decided to get more than they needed.

Aila glanced her way. "You mean Sora? Well when he gets here I'm gonna report to him about how these two almost just let me suffocate to death on donut crumbs!"

Danny shrugged. "Hey, you started it." Aila kicked some snow at him, and Danny kicked some back. Danny smirked.

"Looks like some sugar did ya good after all, Danny," Goofy chuckled, holding the box out to the group. "Yer actin' more yer age already! Who wants another?"

"Me!" Aila and Alex both exclaimed, searching through the box for what they deemed the best flavors to be. Danny rolled his eyes, but after a few moments he picked out another donut for himself too. Cinnamon. Aila smiled inwardly. That had been why she'd bought that first cinnamon one in the first place.

"Step right up and try your luck at our amaaaazing Snowman Shooter!"

The group turned to see Huey, Dewey, and Louie standing near a weird contraption that seemed to be part chair and part gun, Louie calling out to the crowd to get their attention while Dewey and Huey helped what seemed to be a customer out of the seat. A handful of misshapen snowmen were practically falling apart against a nearby wall in front of the gun. Aila raised a brow curiously.

"Boys, what's this?" Donald asked, waddling over to his nephews.

"Hiya Uncle Donald!" the three chorused together.

"This is our patented snowman shooter!" Louie explained excitedly, gesturing to the gun thingy.

"Thanks, come again!" Dewey said to the rather dazed looking cow man that he was sending away.

Aila yelped as Huey skidded in front of her, his "selling" grin plastered on his face. "It's a great way to spend some time! If you can make a snowman that looks close enough to our own, you'll win a prize!" He gestured to the wall of snowmen, specifically to the only one that didn't look like it was about to fall apart.

"The catch is, ya gotta do it to the beat," Dewey explained, hurrying to join his brothers. "The shooter won't fire snow correctly if you don't."

"A music game?" Alex asked, her eyes widening a little as her interest was piqued.

"That's right!" Louie said with a nod and a grin. He pointed at the siblings. "Right up your alley, right?"

The ducklings had come back to this world for a few weeks to be with family for the holidays (Scrooge was around here somewhere too…), and had been spending a good amount of time with Aila, Alex, and Danny since they were all somewhat closer in age than the other castle residents. Seeing how Alex liked spending a lot of time in the Concert Hall, the ducklings had quickly caught on to the musical affinity Aila's family had.

"Sounds fun!" Aila agreed with a nod. She narrowed her eyes. "What's the prize?"

"So materialistic," Huey scoffed. Aila stuck her tongue out at him, and he laughed. "Don't worry, it's good, I promise! Dewey, show 'em."

Dewey rushed over to a shelf with a little curtain over it. "We've got a few prizes to choose from!" He pulled the curtain back. "Stuffed animals, ice cream coupons…"

"Uncle Scrooge donated those," Louie whispered. "It was shocking."

Dewey continued. "…puzzle games, even a scooter!"

"Nice work, boys," Donald praised, seeming proud. "Has anyone won anything yet?"

"We've only had one winner so far this morning, they won a puzzle game," Huey said with a smile. "Some people have trouble with the music part apparently, but everyone's been having fun!"

"Can I try?" Alex asked.

Louie grinned. "Sure! Ten munny, please!"

Aila dug into her munny pouch and paid the duckling, noting that she probably had enough for just a handful of games today. She held back a frown. Maybe she should think about getting a part-time job since they weren't sure how long it would be until they went home…

The ducklings helped Alex into the chair gun thing and explained the controls to her before starting up a song that sounded suspiciously similar to "It's a Small World". It took Alex a couple of notes to get the feel for the machine, but once she found the rhythm it was an easy win. Her finished snowman sat next to the ducklings' in much better condition than any of the others that were leftover from previous customers.

"Hey, nice job!" Huey cheered as the machine powered down. Donald and Goofy clapped, while Aila flashed a thumbs up and Danny just smiled and nodded approvingly. Alex blushed, smiling back proudly as she stepped down from the seat.

"Your snowman is good enough for any prize!" Dewey said, ushering her over to their prize shelf. "Take your pick!"

Alex thought hard as she examined the prizes and Louie turned to the remaining members of their group. "So, anyone else wanna try?"

"You two should do it!" Goofy encouraged to Aila and Danny.

Aila glanced at her munny pouch tied to her belt and hesitated. "Well…"

"They'll both play," Donald interrupted, handing Louie the munny before Aila could say anything else. Aila opened her mouth to protest, but Donald just waved a hand at her and cut her off yet again. "It's the festival! We want you to have fun!"

Aila hummed thoughtfully before smiling sheepishly at him. "If you're sure…"

"We told ya we'd take care of things while yer here," Goofy reminded Aila gently as Louie turned to reset the machine. "Yer kids and we're adults, don't worry about it."

Aila caught Danny's eye. He looked uncomfortable, but didn't voice his feelings on the matter. Aila sighed and then smiled at Goofy. "Thanks. And for the donuts. We'll pay you back."

"Now is that not worryin' about it?" Goofy teased, patting Aila on the head with a chuckle.

"Hurry up, it's your turn!" Donald insisted, practically throwing Aila toward the machine. Alex, it seemed, had chosen a cute little purple stuffed kitten as her prize and was hugging it triumphantly as she rejoined the group.

Aila had to admit, the game was SUPER fun, and she and Danny both had very little trouble. Rhythm games were so easy. She walked away with a blue teddy bear, and Danny picked out a puzzle game. All and all it definitely put them in the festival mood. If this was how the whole day was going to be, it was gonna be awesome!

The group explored the festival a little more and tried out a handful of other games. Donald almost lost it when he failed to knock over some milk bottles with a ball for the fifth time in a row, Aila and Goofy doing their best to hold in their laughter as their friend nearly had a tantrum. He finally did win the little stuffed animal he was going for though, two swans whose necks were curved together to form a heart shape. Aila teased him, asking if it was for Daisy. He turned bright red but didn't deny that that was who he'd won the swans for, which Aila had to admit was pretty freaking cute.

They intersected with the rest of their castle group a few times, the people in each party changing up a bit depending on who wanted to do what. Eventually, Aila and her siblings found themselves exploring alone for a bit, all of them in awe as they walked through a small section of the town where the snow had been magicked to come down in every color of the rainbow, the colorful snowflakes kissing their skin as they made their way through.

"What a weird use of magic," Danny mumbled as they got to the end, examining some blue pieces of snow on his arm. Aila hmm'd and then stuck out her tongue, trying to catch a few pink snowflakes in her mouth. Danny sputtered. "Aila! What're you doing?!"

Aila laughed. "Relax, it just tastes like snow."

"Is eating magic bad for you?" Alex asked as the siblings shuffled away from the display a little.

Aila quirked a brow. "If it is I'm in trouble. I've drunk a lot of Potions and Ethers. …Drank? Drunk. Dranken?"

"Uh oh, it's already frying her brain," Danny muttered to Alex. "She's done for." Aila rolled her eyes and smacked him on the arm. Danny smirked at her. "Oh, right, your brain was fried way before this. Too many video games and computer screens."

"You're one to talk!"

"Tch. At least I played sports so I got some fresh air too."

Aila poked a finger into Danny's chest, ready to really get into an argument, but both she and Danny were immediately derailed by Alex's next words.

"Mom and Dad would have liked this."

Aila and Danny turned to Alex, who was looking back toward the rainbow snow with a forlorn look in her eye. She clutched the small collection of stuffed animals she'd won to her chest. "What do you think they're doing today…?"

Aila chewed on her lower lip and shot Danny a look that she hope conveyed something along the lines of 'Emergency! Our plan is failing!'

"They're probably working," Danny said casually. "They always try to work Christmas Eve so they can have Christmas Day off, remember?"

Alex nodded slowly, and then hung her head. "…But they did that for us. And we aren't there."

Aila's fist clenched around her new blue teddy bear, her heart thudding painfully in her chest. What were their parents doing today? What had happened the day they'd disappeared? Were they still looking for them? Had they given up?

Danny walked up to Alex and knelt down in front of her. "I'm sure they're doing okay, Alex. We'll see them again. But for this year… we've gotta focus on being here, okay?" He put his hands on her little shoulders and smiled when she looked up at him. "Wanna get some hot cocoa? We'll get it with extra marshmallows for you, how's that sound?"

Alex sniffled a little, but then nodded. "Extra extra marshmallows."

Danny chuckled. "There we go, that's my littlest sis." He stood and took Alex's hand as she shifted her stuffed animals to one arm. "Minnie said the best hot chocolate was that way, right? Should we try that?" Alex nodded, and Danny looked at Aila. "You coming?"

Aila smiled. "I'm gonna use the restroom, I'll catch up in a sec!" She undid her munny pouch and tossed it to him. "Order me one too, I've got enough in there."

Danny nodded. "Extra extra extra marshmallows for you, right?"

Aila giggled, smiling a bit too brightly. Did it look fake? "You know it!"

Danny seemed to hesitate for a second but then smiled tightly and began walking away, pulling Alex along with him. "C'mon Alex, let's get Aila the super bitter kind. Super dark chocolate for her."

Alex giggled. "Danny no! That's mean!"

Aila pouted. "Alex, don't let him do that!" she called after them, smiling until they'd turned the corner. As soon as they were gone, her smile dropped. With a sigh, she made her way over to a nearby bench and sat down, propping her teddy bear on her knees and looking glumly into its black eyes. She didn't actually need to find a restroom, she just needed to sit for a second. Worrying thoughts about her home world bombarded her, and she shut her eyes, trying to will them away. Today was about keeping Alex happy. Aila missed their parents too, but she didn't need to show it. She needed to be happy so Alex would be happy. And so Danny would be happy, too. She needed to keep smiling. For them.

She tried to focus on the sounds of people laughing and having fun all around her, trying to soak in the feel of happiness and magic and reminding herself that all of this was something so many people on her world would wish for. And besides, it was only for this year. She should be enjoying it! And Alex should be too. And Danny. They'd look back on this in the future and wish they were here again… right?

That question echoed in her mind and received no answer.

…How could it be so loud in the Square, but still feel way too quiet…?

A weight was suddenly pressing down on her shoulders, like an actual weight not a metaphorical one, and Aila's eyes snapped open as she whipped her head around to see what the heck was happening. Sora beamed down at her, his eyes crinkling with his usual cheeky smile as he laughed out a "Hey there, found ya!"

Aila's mood immediately did a one-eighty. "Sora!" She spun around on the bench and threw her arms around him, feeling the air crushed out of him as he was engulfed in her vice-like hug.

"Ah!" he gasped, tapping frantically on her head. "Can't breathe, need air!" She released him and he made a big show of gasping for air. Aila was pretty sure he was just messing with her, so she bopped him on the head. "Ow! Jeez, are you happy to see me or not?!"

"Of course I am you dummy!" Aila scoffed, laughing a little. She glanced over his shoulder to see Riku, Kairi, and the King making their way over to them, and her smile widened even more. "You guys made it!" she cheered, rushing around the bench to more properly greet the rest of them. Everyone else got a slightly less strangle-y hug. "I was starting to wonder what was taking so long."

"Sorry, that was my fault," Mickey admitted with a sheepish grin.

Sora sighed dramatically. "We had to stop to change our clothes. It was a requirement, apparently."

Aila finally registered the Christmas sweaters they all wore. Sora's was red with "Merry Christmas!" scrawled across the front in white lettering. Riku's was a dark green, adorned with snowflake patterns. And Kairi's was white with little cranberries embroidered all around it. Sora and Riku had on jeans while Kairi wore black tights and a red skirt, her boots suspiciously similar to Aila's. Ah, so Daisy had designed outfits for them too?

"Well, you three weren't exactly dressed for the snow," Mickey pointed out with a smirk, his own green sweater and blue pants combo tied together with a green Santa hat over one of his ears.

"We don't have snow," Kairi replied, and Aila noticed that she seemed to be very distracted as she gazed in awe at the snowy wonderland around them. Her eyes sparkled with fascination, and Aila didn't miss the way Sora and Riku shared a knowing smile. Seeing snow for the first time was a pretty amazing experience.

"You're all very Christmas-y," Aila said with an approving nod. "Now you'll fit in with the group."

"Seriously, you're the most Christmas-y," Sora noted, raising a brow at her. "You giving Jack a run for his money as number one Santa impersonator?"

Aila let out a nervous chuckle. "Heh, Daisy didn't really go subtle with me, did she…?"

"You look nice," Riku complimented. "But why're you alone?"

"Yeah, where is everybody?" Sora asked, scanning the surrounding groups of people like he maybe just missed his other friends.

Aila rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. "Er… Good question…"

Sora crossed his arms at her. "Don't tell me you got lost."

Aila glared. "No I did not get lost, I've lived here for two weeks, I know where things are!" She twirled a strand of her hair between her fingers. "Danny and Alex and I were looking at the rainbow snow and then they went to get hot chocolate. The others were doing something else, so I dunno where they are right now. We've been kinda meeting up and splitting up all day, our group is kinda too big to stay together the whole time…"

"But you didn't stay with Danny and Alex?" Kairi asked, cocking her head.

Aila's shoulders drooped a little. "Ah… I was just catching my breath…"

"Everything okay?" Mickey asked, his brows immediately knitting together in worry.

Aila waved her hands in front of her hurriedly. "Oh, everything's fine! Alex is just… ah… she's a little upset, and we've been trying to distract her!"

Mickey hmm'd. "Because you're not with your parents this year."

Aila rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. "Yeah, Danny and I had a plan and for the most part it seemed to be working but I dunno she started getting upset a few minutes ago and, ah… Danny took her to get hot chocolate so I think she's okay now."

"That… doesn't really explain why you didn't go with them," Sora pointed out with a frown. "Are you okay?"

Aila flashed him a grin. "Of course! This is what people on my world could only dream of! I'm awesome!" She turned away from the group and pumped a fist. "Come on, I gotta go get my munny pouch back from Danny before he spends all my cash! We'll probably find the others this way too!" She began marching off in the direction Danny had gone, hoping her friends wouldn't push the subject any further. Today was supposed to be happy. She was supposed to be happy. She was happy. She was.

It seemed they got the message, for Sora fell into step beside her a moment later, his hands behind his head and a big smile on his face. "If you got lost you should just say so."

"I told you I didn't get lost! Stop saying that!"

"Well you just get lost so often…"

"Not in places I've been before!"

"Hollow Bastion, Halloween Town, The World That Never—"

"Halloween Town was my first visit!"

"And the other two?"

"…I'm forgetting why I was missing you."

Sora laughed and pulled Aila's hood down over her head. "Aw, you're so mean!"

"Ahhhhh Sora stop it!" Aila flailed, pushing Sora away and slipping a little on the slick ground.

Riku steadied her, smirking down at her as she pushed her hood back again. "So this is what life would have been like if Sora had a little sister…"

Aila huffed. "I already have a big brother who teases me, no fair giving me another one."

Sora grinned at her. "You just make it so easy."

Aila stuck her tongue out at him and then turned to Kairi. "Kairi, get him!"

Kairi laughed. "Why me?!"

"He'll do whatever you say."

"Oh really?" Kairi mused, smirking at Sora. "Whatever I say, huh?"

Sora chuckled nervously, his cheeks turning a little pink. "Ha… uh… what?"

Riku full on guffawed at that, Sora hurriedly ushering their group to keep heading through the town as a way of changing the subject. Kairi skittered after him, giggling and teasing him and poking him in the arm.

Aila pulled back a little, walking between Riku and the King. "So," she muttered conspiratorially, giving Riku a side-eyed glance. "They dating yet?"

Riku snickered. "Not yet."

Aila sighed. "Jeez, they're slow."

Mickey chuckled. "They'll figure things out eventually."

Aila crossed her arms with a huff. "'Eventually' is forever away! But I guess we shouldn't force it…"

"Why do I get the feeling you're going to start throwing mistletoe at them until they kiss?" Riku asked, smirking at her.

Aila snapped her fingers. "That's a great idea!"

Mickey shook his head. "Oh boy…"

Aila grinned at him and shrugged. "What? I'm a romantic."

A crash sounded off to their right, everyone a little startled as they all turned to see what had just happened. It seemed like there was a light commotion coming from around the corner.

"Uh, what was that?" Sora asked, he and Kairi rushing back to rejoin their three friends that had lagged a little behind.

"Not sure," Mickey replied, his eyes narrowing. "Hopefully not trouble…"

"Let's check it out," Riku suggested, starting off toward the disturbance. Everyone followed him, the five of them hurrying around the corner. The scene that was waiting for them was… well, it was a strange one.

"MUAHAHAHA! That's right, that'll teach ya mooks not to deny Captain Dark!"

Aila blinked as their team came to a stop, her mind trying to process what the heck she was seeing. One of the churro carts had been knocked over, a small crowd murmuring around it as its owner held his head in distress. But that wasn't what was weird. No, what was weird was… well, Pete was there, and it looked like he was… cosplaying…?

"Pete?!" Sora gasped, looking equally as confounded. The villain in question was decked out in a black, pink, and purple bodysuit, complete with fuchsia cape and a weird kind of half mask thing with a red down facing arrow on his head. His belt buckle was made up of a big pink 'C' and 'D' clicked together around his large stomach. If he was trying to hide his identity, he was failing pretty hard.

"Oh, not again," Mickey grumbled, his expression one of intense annoyance.

"This has happened before?" Aila asked, baffled and still not quite sure what 'this' was exactly.

"Unfortunately," Mickey sighed.

"I told you, we didn't have the flavor you wanted!" the owner of the churro cart was now shouting at Pete. "You didn't have to go and knock the whole cart down!"

Pete scoffed. "A likely story! I know you were just hiding the best flavors from me!"

"No I wasn't!"

"You came looking for trouble!" a dog woman yelled, glaring hard at Pete. "Why else would you be dressed like Captain Dark?"

"I'm dressed like Captain Dark because I AM Captain Dark!" Pete retorted hotly, stomping his foot. He puffed out his chest. "But you're not wrong, I DID come looking for trouble! Because this whole festival is a sham, a disgrace, a, a… stupid dumb-dumb waste of space!"

"What in the world is happening," Riku deadpanned.

"Hey!" Sora shouted, getting Pete's attention.

Pete's eyes widened. "What the! You?! Why're you here?!"

"I invited them," Mickey said, crossing his arms and glaring hard. The small crowd murmured as they realized he was there, an aura of respect radiating off of the town's residents as they laid eyes on their king.

Pete's eyes narrowed. "Oh, so they get an invite and I don't?!"

"You would have been invited if you hadn't tried to ruin so many festivals," Mickey pointed out dryly. He shrugged. "You're the only person ever to be banned, and we gave you lotsa chances, Pete."

Pete stomped both his feet, and Aila could almost imagine smoke coming out of his ears. "It's not Pete, it's Captain Dark!" Aila laughed at that, which earned her a harsh glare. "Hey! Shut it, you brat!"

Aila tried to reign in her laughter. "Sorry but, couldn't you have come up with a more creative super villain persona name? What about…" She thought for a second before snapping her fingers. "The Pete-a-nator!"

Sora and Kairi doubled over laughing. "Aila – haha – that's so much worse!" Sora laughed.

Aila thought hard again. "Hm… Pete the Destroyer?"

Pete jumped up and down in anger. "I told ya, I'm not Pete! I'm Captain Dark, Captain Dark!"

"Well, 'Captain Dark'," Riku said, crossing his arms and smirking. "It sounds like you shouldn't be here, so why don't you leave before you cause any more trouble for anyone."

Pete glared. "I don't take orders from you!" He pointed harshly at Mickey. "Or you, for that matter!" The crowd didn't seem to like that much, boos and hisses starting to sound from the people nearby. Pete seemed slightly taken aback by that, glancing around a little nervously. "Uh, ah… h-hey all yous! Stop that! How dare you boo Captain Dark!"

"Just go home!" a man shouted.

"Stop trying to ruin things!" a lady cried.

The churro vendor put his hands on his hips, giving Pete a very stern look. "Are you gonna pay for this mess or not?"

Pete sweatdropped and then puffed out his chest. "I am not! And that's just the beginning! Prepare for your Christmas festivities to be…"

Sora, Riku, and Mickey all summoned their Keyblades. Aila kinda wished she had some popcorn to watch this beat down, not bothering to summon her own weapon – Pete was absolutely no match for the Keybladers.

Pete stumbled back a few steps in alarm. He seemed to consider his options for a few seconds before clearing his throat. "Captain Dark has decided to take his leave for now! But watch your backs! You mooks will regret banning me, you'll see!" He picked up the churro cart and threw it at Mickey and his friends, all of them jumping back to avoid the thing and getting sprayed with snow as it landed. Aila hurriedly brushed the powder from her eyes, but by the time she could see again, Pete was gone.

"Should we go after him?" Kairi asked.

Mickey sighed. "I'll let the guards know to keep an eye out for him, and we'll stay on alert. But…" He turned to the teens and smiled. "I don't want you guys to have to waste the festival on a nuisance like Pete. So I want you all to have fun, and don't worry about him!"

Aila frowned. "You don't think Maleficent is here too, do you…?"

"Nah," Mickey said confidently. "Pete has had a personal vendetta against these festivals ever since we banned him a few years back. The fact that he came as Captain Dark tells me this is something he's doin' alone."

"Sorry about your cart, sir," Sora said to the churro vendor. He dismissed his Keyblade and knelt down to grab one side of the cart. "Riku."

"Yep," Riku replied, dismissing his own Keyblade and grabbing the cart's other side. The two boys hefted the cart so it was upright again and moved it back to its designated spot.

"Thank you," the churro vendor sighed. He looked around sadly at all the sugar and dough littering the snow. "Guess I should just shut down for the day though… Ah, I don't think I even broke even…"

"Nonsense!" a woman said. "You just need more ingredients, don't you? I can run home and bring you what I have! I wasn't using a lot of it anyway."

"Me too!" a cow man said. "I don't live far!"

A lot of similar declarations rose up from the people that had witnessed the whole ordeal, the churro vendor looking awfully touched by everyone's generosity. "O-oh, well, thank you all so much! But um, I need to make sure the cart isn't broken, too…"

"Let us take a look," Mickey offered, walking around to the back of the cart and gesturing for Aila to follow. He'd noticed her hanging around the Gummi Bay and mentioned that she seemed to have a knack for mechanics last week. Aila smiled, feeling proud that he wanted her help, even if it was something small.

The vendor looked startled. "Oh! No Your Majesty, I couldn't…!"

"It's no bother," Mickey assured. Aila peered over his shoulder as he inspected all the cart's parts, flipping a few switches to see what did and didn't turn on.

"I think these wires got severed," Aila pointed out when the fryer didn't seem to turn on. "See? If we fix the circuit I think it'll all work. We could try and find some new wires?"

"Hm, seems like a clean cut," Mickey said, pointing his Keyblade at the offending parts. "Let's see…" Magic spilled out of his Keyblade, mending the wires with little effort.

"Whoa, neat," Aila breathed. She made a mental note to ask how to learn something like that. Her magic level probably needed to be a lot higher, though…

"There ya go, good as new!" Mickey announced, grinning at the vendor.

The vendor seemed close to happy tears. "Thank you so much!"

It only took a few minutes for people to start showing up with ingredients, and before long the cart was back up and running. It seemed everyone who had witnessed Captain Dark's mischief was now intent on buying a churro from this stand, as an act of unity to prove that Pete hadn't ruined anything at all. And so, as Aila and her friends walked away with fresh churros in hand, the churro vendor seemed to be doing better business than ever, the line of people waiting to purchase from him wrapping all the way around the corner.

"Merry Christmas!" he called to them.

"Merry Christmas!" they all called back.

"Re-Pete," Aila mused as she munched her treat. "His gimmick is that he always does the same attack twice."

"Are you still trying to think of better super villain names for him?" Sora laughed. Aila nodded.

"I think you're too caught up on the name Pete," Riku chuckled.

Aila sighed. "His name does not lend itself well to super villain names. I'm starting to see why he didn't use it. Maybe it would work better for a hero alias…?"

"His hero persona is 'Captain Justice'," Mickey said with a laugh.

"What!" Sora gasped. "He dresses up like a hero too?!"

"Wait, why would he do that if he's a bad guy?" Kairi asked.

Mickey shook his head. "He was pretendin' to be good so he could get votes during the Dream Festival one year. It was just to win a prize."

"Oh, so it was for bad reasons, then," Aila mused. "That makes more sense."

"Aila!"

Aila looked forward again to see Alex rushing toward her, the little girl skidding to a halt before her and glaring hard. "Where have you been?! We've been waiting for you for forever!"

Aila sweatdropped. "Uh… I was getting you this!" Aila lied, handing Alex the remaining half of her churro. "Surprise! Also I found some friends so that held me up."

Alex eyed the churro suspiciously. "Hmmm…"

"Sorry Alex, our bad," Sora laughed. "We also had to stop—"

"FOR CHURROS!" Aila interrupted, "Yes they also had to stop for churros because they looked really good and these guys were starving. Space travel makes you hungry, haha, you know…"

"Ha… uh, right," Sora said, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "There definitely wasn't any trouble around or anything…"

"There was trouble?!" Alex asked, looking suddenly alarmed.

"Smooth," Riku mumbled.

"No no no, there's no trouble!" Aila insisted, shooting Sora a quick death glare before flashing her sister a sugar coated smile. "Only the best day ever! Yay! Look, Kairi's here, you like Kairi!"

Kairi laughed awkwardly but then very smoothly transitioned into friendly mode. "It's great seeing you again, Alex! You look so cute!"

Alex immediately blushed. "Th-thanks, Princess Kairi, so do you…"

Kairi laughed. "Just Kairi! So, what's your favorite thing you've done so far today?"

"Um, well, there was this one game where you built a snowman to music, I won this kitten…"

"Oh wow that sounds cool!"

Aila snuck over to Sora while her sister was occupied and flicked him on the ear. "I'm trying to give her the best day ever, don't tell her about Pete!"

Sora whined quietly. "Sorry, sorry!"

"Hey, there you are."

Aila blinked as a cup of something was suddenly in front of her. Her brother rolled his eyes. "This is probably cold now, you know."

"Ah, right," Aila replied sheepishly, accepting the hot cocoa and taking a sip. It was lukewarm, but it seemed like it had at one point had a lot of marshmallows before they'd all melted. Phew, he didn't get her the bitter kind. "Thanks anyway!"

"Hey Danny," Sora greeted, holding a fist out.

"Hey," Danny greeted, fist bumping his fellow teen and smiling a little. "Safe trip?"

"Yep!" Sora replied. "How've you been?"

"Pretty good," Danny said, glancing away a little. Aila didn't miss the way her brother's expression flickered to something a little sad. He had been struggling a little since everything went down with Cyrus, but his plan with Aila to keep Alex happy during the holiday season had been a nice distraction. For all of them. He slipped his casual mask back into place, smiling calmly at Sora and Riku. "What about you guys? Heard your parents had a lot to say about everything…"

"Oh, don't remind me," Sora sighed, running a hand down his face. "I almost didn't get to come today…"

"We're all slightly grounded," Riku sighed. Danny and Aila chuckled.

"SORA!"

The wind was knocked out of Sora as Donald rammed into him, the duck crushing his friend in a hug.

Aila laughed. "Oh hey it's mister 'we just saw Sora a couple weeks ago'."

Donald pulled away and blew a raspberry at Aila. "Shaddup!"

"Hiya Sora!" Goofy greeted, pulling Sora immediately into another hug before the boy could recover from Donald's. "Hi Riku! Hi Kairi!"

"Hey," Riku greeted, smirking at Sora's rather woozy expression.

"Hi guys!" Kairi greeted, she and Alex ceasing their conversation now that so many new people had joined their group.

"Your Majesty, did everything go okay?" Donald asked.

"Yup!" Mickey said with a smile. "Say, Donald, Goofy, can you help me with somethin' real quick?"

"Of course, Your Majesty!" Donald and Goofy exclaimed immediately, saluting their king.

"We'll catch up later," Mickey said to the group, smiling warmly at them all. "You guys have fun! That's an order!"

The group laughed. "Aye aye!" Sora replied. Mickey, Donald, and Goofy headed off toward the nearest guard, Mickey no doubt filling them in about the low level Pete threat and enlisting their help to inform security. Aila appreciated how sneakily he'd done that. She really didn't want Alex feeling anxious. Pete on his own wasn't that much of a threat, but still. Aila didn't want to give Alex any reason to wish she wasn't here today.

"So," Sora said, lacing his hands behind his head and looking at the siblings. "What haven't you guys done yet? What looks the most fun?"

"Honestly, we've mostly been eating sugar and playing games," Aila said with a shrug.

"So many donuts!" Alex cheered.

Aila giggled. "We haven't even made it to the far side of town."

"Yeah, we were kinda working our way toward the racetrack," Danny added with a nod.

"There's a racetrack?!" Sora asked, looking immediately interested. He glanced at Riku, a smirk growing on his face. "…What was our score again?"

Riku blinked, and then smirked back. "Pretty sure I was up by one."

"What! No way, I was definitely up by at least one!"

"Here we go," Kairi sighed, smiling and shaking her head at her two oldest friends. "You two are still keeping score after all this time?"

"Of course!" Sora declared. "We didn't race all those times for nothing!" Riku snerked.

"Hmmm," Danny hummed. It seemed like he was trying to suppress a smirk.

"What is it?" Alex asked, cocking her head at her brother.

Danny breathed out a chuckle. "Just thinking about the game…"

Sora took a step toward him. "Did you see our score in the game? What was it? Who's right? I was winning, wasn't I?!"

Danny smirked. "It depended on who was playing." He shrugged easily and turned away. "When I played you were always winning, but when Aila played Riku was always ahead."

The Destiny Island trio shared a confounded look. "How was it different depending on who played?" Kairi asked, quirking a brow.

"Because you play the game as Sora, so it depends on how good you are at playing." Danny grinned cheekily at Aila. "And Aila wasn't very good."

Aila glared hard at her brother. "Yes I was! Those first races were always just really hard, I hadn't leveled up yet!"

"Neither had I, but I always won."

Sora put a finger to his chin. "Huh, Aila also said that she was never able to beat Sephiroth, but she'd watched you do it…"

Danny beamed. "Yep, because I was great at the game and Aila sucked at it!"

"No I didn't!" Aila protested, flailing in her frustration.

"Kinda sounds like you did," Sora teased.

Aila was about to defend her gaming honor against them both, but Riku stepped in instead. "Hm, sounds like I prefer the way Aila played, if she always had me winning."

Sora scoffed. "Only cause she apparently wasn't playing right!"

Riku shrugged. "Says who? Maybe you weren't supposed to win against me."

Aila held up a finger. "Actually, I think that's true! It kinda makes more sense if Riku wins, especially the first race. Sooo I always lost on purpose."

"Ha!" Danny laughed. "Yeah right!"

"What!" Sora cried. He pouted at Aila, feigning betrayal. "You made me lose on PURPOSE?!"

"Don't worry, she's just covering for how bad she is," Danny assured, waving a hand dismissively.

"Thanks, Aila," Riku said, smiling triumphantly and patting her on the shoulder. "I knew you were smart."

Aila chuckled sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck as Sora and Riku began to lightly bicker about what the score really had been in their long term rivalry again.

'It's nice being able to talk about the game openly with them all, huh?' Aila thought, smiling as the boys tried to get Kairi to weigh in and she made a real show of waffling on her answer.

No one answered Aila's thoughts, and Aila had to try really hard to keep her smile from faltering.

She had such a bad habit of asking questions to no one these days.

KHKHKHKH

So it turned out you had to sign up for a race time, meaning Sora and Riku couldn't settle their argument about who was the best at racing right away. Aila signed up too. It seemed kind of like a real life Mario Kart situation, which she was definitely down for. Kairi also signed up, but Alex unfortunately didn't meet the height requirement. She claimed she'd rather watch anyway because it seemed a little dangerous, and she'd much rather cheer them on from a safe distance.

"What about you, Danny?" Kairi asked.

Danny hesitated, glancing at Aila. "No, it's okay."

Aila frowned. Oh crap, she forgot… "I can sit out if you want."

Danny shook his head. "No, no, it's cool, you seem like you really want to do it."

"Why can't you guys both race?" Sora asked, quirking a brow.

Aila and Danny looked at each other awkwardly. "Uh, well," Aila began, rubbing her arm.

"We, uh, aren't allowed to compete against each other," Danny mumbled, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"Orders from Master Yen Sid," Alex said with a nod.

"Oh," Sora, Riku, and Kairi all breathed at once, glancing between Aila and Danny a little awkwardly now too.

"Something about how if we get too competitive with each other we might accidentally destroy the world or whatever," Aila chuckled nervously. "I dunno."

"Even with Alex here?" Sora asked, cocking his head questioningly. "And with something that isn't a physical fight…?"

"We were told not to risk it," Danny sighed. He looked at Aila again. "You do it, it's fine."

"If you're sure…" Aila replied uneasily.

"Mom and Dad would be happy about this rule I think," Alex mused, gathering some snow together into a little mound on the floor and poking a little face into it. "You guys got really intense about beating each other even before we knew about Cyrus and Celina."

"Hm," Aila mused lightly, fighting against the memories of home that that statement threatened to bring on.

"Let's go do something else while we wait for their race time," Danny suggested quickly, pretty obviously changing the subject.

"Okie dokie," Alex replied, brushing the snow off her gloves and hurrying after Danny as he breezed away.

"Hey," Sora said, catching Aila's shoulder before she could follow. He lowered his voice. "Speaking of Celina…"

Aila frowned and shook her head lightly, averting her gaze. "Still nothing…"

Sora frowned as well. "Ah…"

"Have you told them?" Riku asked quietly, indicating Danny and Alex, who were chatting as they walked back into town.

Aila hesitated and then shook her head again. "Not yet…"

Kairi frowned. "Why not?" Seemed like Sora and Riku had filled her in on the fact that Celina had kinda gone missing at the end of their final battle.

Aila sighed. "A lot of reasons, but… let's not get into it today, okay? Alex is still thinking about Mom and Dad, obviously, so I gotta focus on that."

"Are you sure you're okay?" Sora pressed. "You didn't mention this no competing rule… if Yen Sid ordered that it sounds like things are maybe a little strained still between you and Danny…"

Aila hesitated again before dipping her head. "…I just want Danny and Alex to have a good Christmas. Danny should do the race, I can sit out."

Sora bopped her lightly on the head and she blinked, startled. He was giving her a serious look. "Hey, you should have a good Christmas too. You're already signed up for this, so let's leave it. Danny was right, it looked like you were really excited. If there's something else that's competitive, we'll sign Danny up for that one."

Aila relented, nodding silently. Kairi took her hand. "You should come visit us. The Island is a great place to become un-stressed."

Aila smiled wanly. "Do I seem stressed?"

"Extremely," Riku supplied. Aila sighed.

"Hey, Hakuna Matata!" Sora said, the teens slowly starting to make their way after Danny and Alex. "Try that!"

"Hakuna Matata?" Kairi repeated.

Sora put his hands behind his head. "It means no worries! It's a lifestyle." He grinned at Aila. "Maybe Timon and Pumba could give you a refresher course!

Aila sighed again. "If I ask them to do that they'll probably just make me eat bugs. Their version of no worries is a little different than mine."

Sora made a disgusted face. "…Oh yeah."

"Eat bugs?" Riku asked. His eyes widened. "…Wait, you two didn't actually eat bugs just to fit in on a world, did you?"

"Well I didn't," Aila said, a smirk pulling at her lips.

Kairi squealed. "Ew! Sora!"

Sora groaned. "Well I didn't want to be rude!"

Riku laughed. "That is so nasty!" Aila noticed he was laughing a lot today, which made her smile a little more. He seemed so much happier than he had been before.

"Oh my gosh, remember that time Tidus ate a beetle because Wakka bet him thirty munny that he couldn't?!" Kairi gushed, putting her hands on her cheeks. "And he thought it would be easier if he didn't chew it but then it crawled back out!"

"Ew ew ew!" Aila cried, shaking her head as she imagined what Kairi was describing.

"Yes I do remember that!" Sora lamented. "Which is why I made a point to chew, and it was maybe even worse than having the bugs crawl back out!" He reconsidered that statement, looking a little sick. "…Maybe."

"You guys should have just said you weren't feeling good like me!" Aila laughed.

"Well we couldn't ALL use that excuse, and you used it so fast!"

"I can't help that I'm the smartest member of our team," Aila preened, flipping her hair cockily.

Sora scoffed. "You had a heads up about the bug situation that the rest of us didn't have. Cheating doesn't make you smarter than us."

Aila skipped ahead a little. "Jealousy is an ugly color on you, Sora!" Aila turned around, her eyes sparkling with sudden excitement. "Oooh, we should talk about all the embarrassing stuff you did on our journey! I bet Riku and Kairi would love—"

Sora ran up and placed both his hands over Aila's mouth. "Shush! Don't start an embarrassing secrets war with me, I've got dirt on you too! Where'd your siblings go?!"

Aila flailed and pushed him away. "Ahh okay truce, truce!"

"Aw, darn" Kairi sighed, smirking at the two. She glanced at Riku. "We were so close to hearing so much."

"Well now that we know there's more embarrassing stuff to be revealed, we'll just have to trick it out of them," Riku replied slyly. "They'll slip up eventually."

Aila and Sora shared a nervous glance.

"Oh! There you kids are!"

They turned to see Minnie hurrying over to them, Daisy and Clarabelle not far behind.

"Hi, Your Majesty!" Sora greeted, clearly eager to change the subject anyway. "Hi everyone!"

"Sora, it's good to see you!" Daisy greeted warmly. "Ah, and you must be Riku and Kairi."

"Oh, right, you haven't met," Aila realized.

"I'm Daisy," Daisy continued. She gestured to Clarabelle. "This is Clarabelle, and this, of course," she gestured to Minnie, "is Queen Minnie."

"Oh!" Kairi gasped, she and Riku both bowing. "Your Majesty!"

"Please, please, no need for that," Minnie giggled. "It's very nice to meet you both."

"Likewise," Riku said, straightening up and smiling politely at the new group.

"I'm glad we found you," Minnie continued with a little puff of a sigh.

"Is something wrong?" Aila asked immediately, her thoughts flickering to Pete.

"Oh! No, no, nothing's wrong! I just wanted to let you know what time dinner will be at! We're planning to stay at the festival until the fireworks around six, and then head back up to the castle for dinner. Of course if you'd like to go back early for any reason feel free to – the guards should let you all in with no trouble. Okay?"

"Sounds good!" Sora said, he and the other teens all nodding. Aila sighed, relieved.

"Yes, we heard about Captain Dark," Daisy sighed, not missing Aila's relief. "What a nuisance."

"I feel a little bad for him, to be honest," Minnie sighed. "Maybe we shouldn't have banned him from the festivals…"

"Yer Majesty, he was causin' such a problem at 'em all!" Clarabelle pointed out, crossing her arms with a huff. "You an' King Mickey gave 'im more than enough chances! All he had ta do was not be a troublemakin' brat, an' he could've kept comin'! Why, I turned over a new leaf, didn't I? It's not so hard if you really want to! Problem is, he didn't want to! He's trouble, though an' through."

"I suppose you're right," Minnie relented.

"There haven't been any more incidents with him today, have there?" Sora asked.

Minnie smiled. "Ah ah, I believe Mickey ordered you all to have fun, am I right? So don't you go worrying about Captain Dark!" At the group's hesitant glances, she chuckled. "But no, there haven't been any more incidents today."

"Oh, good," Sora sighed.

"You kids gonna race?" Daisy asked, noting the fact that their group was walking back from the racetrack sign ups.

"Yeah!" Sora exclaimed, pumping his fist. "Our time is in two hours!"

"My, the spots are filling up fast today!" Minnie replied.

"Where are Danny and Alex?" Daisy asked.

Aila pointed vaguely in the direction of town. "That way."

"Are they having fun?" Daisy asked, and Aila could see the probing question behind her eyes. It was no secret to any of the castle residents that Alex had been sad, and that Danny had been on edge.

"I think so," Aila replied with what she hoped looked like a confident smile.

"And you?" Minnie asked pointedly.

Aila blinked. The residents hadn't seen through her too, had they? Well, Sora, Riku, and Kairi sure had in practically no time at all, so maybe Aila wasn't nearly as good at hiding her feelings as she thought she was. She nodded quickly. "Yes, of course I am!"

Minnie smiled and nodded back. "Good! You let us know if you need anything. All of you! You're all our guests, and we want you to have a wonderful festival!"

"Thanks, Your Majesty," Sora said with a grin, the rest of the teens echoing the sentiment.

"We'll come watch your race later!" Daisy said as she and her companions turned to leave.

"Let Danny and Alex know about the dinner plan, will you?" Minnie asked Aila.

Aila nodded. "Will do."

"Hm, we're gaining an audience for our race," Sora mused, putting his hands behind his head as the castle residents walked away. He smirked at Riku. "So many people to watch me destroy you."

"You keep telling yourself that," Riku replied easily. Aila and Kairi shared a look and giggled.

"So should we play some games?" Sora asked as they walked back into the main part of the square. "Danny and Alex totally ran off…"

"I think we were too slow," Kairi shrugged.

"Ah, being back on the Islands has made me move at a more laid-back pace again," Sora replied with a stretch and a yawn. "What's the rush? We'll see everything."

Aila was only half listening. There was a crowd around the big Christmas tree, which wasn't so strange, but something about the expressions people were wearing made her take another look. They looked a little distressed…

"What's happening over there?" Riku breathed quietly, apparently having also noticed the crowd.

"Hm? You say something?" Sora asked, he and Kairi turning to their friend with questioning looks.

A lot of people seemed to be looking up, so Aila did the same. "Um… didn't there used to be a star at the top of the tree…?"

Her friends all looked up now too, their eyes scanning the top of the massive Christmas tree. When they'd first arrived, there had been a huge, glittering star resting atop it. But now, the top branches were bare.

"What…?" Kairi began, her brow furrowing in confusion.

"Stolen!" a man nearby was huffing to another man. "Can you believe it? How did no one see?"

"Stolen?" Aila repeated.

"Pete!" Sora declared. "He must have taken the star out of spite!"

"That's so childish," Riku scoffed.

"Childish seems right up his alley," Kairi shrugged.

"We should look for him!" Aila declared. "They're supposed to light the tree up when it gets dark, and it'll look incomplete if the star's gone. We gotta make sure it's perfect!"

"Yeah, let's get it back!" Sora agreed immediately. He glanced around. "Ah ha!" He ran off toward the edge of the square, Aila, Riku, and Kairi hurrying to follow him.

Donald and Goofy were whispering to each other very seriously on the edge of the square, neither of them looking very happy. They looked up as the teens neared. "Oh, hi guys," Donald greeted, clearly making an effort not to look frustrated by whatever he'd just been talking to Goofy about.

"The star!" Sora said, getting right to the point. "Pete took it, right? Where is he? We'll get it back!"

Donald immediately shook his head. "No, no, no way. That's not what the King ordered you to do."

Sora seemed taken aback by that. "You're not serious, right? There's trouble, so let's fix it!"

Goofy chuckled. "Gwarsh, we know ya always wanna fix things Sora, but yer our guests here! Donald and I will take care of it, we've already got people lookin'."

Aila crossed her arms. "But if we help it'll probably get found faster, right?"

"It's just a little mischief," Donald insisted, crossing his arms as well. "Nothing for you kids to worry about. Just keep having fun! We'll get it figured out in no time."

"Seriously? Without us?" Sora asked, seeming skeptical.

Donald scoffed. "Believe it or not, Sora, we solved lots of problems around here before we knew you. This isn't the first time Pete has tried to make a mess of a festival. We'll handle it." He pointed at their group. "Now go have fun or else you'll all be in trouble!"

The teens shared a skeptical glance. "Fine," Riku relented. Sora looked like he was about to protest, but Riku continued before he could, "But if he starts doing anything that actually puts people in danger, you'll let us step in, right?"

Donald grumbled, but then sighed. "I suppose if people are in immediate danger… but until then, just ignore this stuff! Got it?!"

The teens mumbled various levels of agreement, Donald and Goofy rushing off to go talk to a few more guards once they were satisfied Sora wasn't going to follow them.

"That's dumb," Sora huffed.

"They just want us to have a good time," Kairi pointed out.

"Yeah, but how can I have a good time when I know I could be helping?" Sora lamented.

"Come on, let's go win some prizes, that'll take your mind off things," Riku said, turning and starting off in the direction of the nearest games.

"Just like that?!" Sora asked.

"Yep. King's orders, right? Besides, you heard them, they've handled stuff like this before. You should trust your friends."

Sora sighed, but seemed to finally agree. Aila glanced up at the bare top of the Christmas tree and frowned. Stupid Pete. Hopefully Donald and Goofy caught him before he stole anything else. And before Alex or Danny noticed something was going wrong.

They played a few games, everyone forgetting about the potential trouble for a while. Alex and Danny had discovered a fishing game that the Islanders really liked and pointed it out as soon as Aila and the others finally caught up to them. Alex seemed to be having a good time again, laughing and cheering whenever somebody caught one of the fake fish. Aila sighed internally, relieved.

It was funny how animated Alex was now that she felt like she knew the Islanders a little more. Riku offered her the prize he won at the fishing game and she giddily accepted, adding it to her growing pile of stuffed things in her arms.

"Do you wanna drop some of those off at the castle?" Aila asked with a smirk.

"No way!" Alex insisted, hugging the stuffed animals a little tighter, like she was worried Aila might try and take them. "These are all my new friends and they need to see the festival, too!"

Sora chuckled. "Good point, it would be terrible for them to miss anything!"

Alex thought for a second and then handed a few of the animals to Danny. "There are a lot though, can you hold some?"

Danny rolled his eyes. "I was wondering when you'd start passing them off to me."

"Hold them nicely!"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Alex giggled. "Danny, there's real royalty around."

Danny sat a little puppy stuffed animal on his youngest sister's head like a crown. "I thought you were an honorary princess, though. You sure order me around like one."

Alex blushed, but just giggled again in reply.

"We do live in a castle right now," Aila mused, putting a finger to her chin. She turned to Kairi. "What do you think, does that qualify us for honorary princess or prince status?"

Kairi laughed. "I don't see why not."

Aila nodded. "You heard the royal! We have confirmation!"

Alex cheered, and everyone else laughed.

"Ooh ooh! Let's show them the rainbow snow!" Alex gushed, grabbing Sora's hand and pulling him in the direction of the rainbow show display.

Sora made a big show of looking excited. "Ooh, that sounds cool! Let's do it!"

They rounded the corner, Alex talking excitedly about the display she was leading them toward, only for her words to die in her throat as they came upon the spot they knew the display had been only to find a few frustrated looking festival workers standing around and no rainbow snow in sight.

"What happened to the rainbow snow?" Aila asked, quirking a brow.

The workers turned to her, a cow man at the front sighing heavily. "Sorry miss, but the machine we had been using to create the snow has gone missing."

Alex gasped, Aila exchanging a glance with Sora, Riku, and Kairi. Danny crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes. "How do you lose a machine that you were currently using?"

The cow man sighed. "I couldn't tell ya. One second it was here, and the next, well… it wasn't."

"That no good Pete," Sora grumbled, crossing his arms with a huff.

Danny quirked a brow at him. "Pete's here?"

Alex turned around, her eyes widening. "Pete's that bad guy Mickey fights a lot! He took the machine?"

Aila hesitated, but then sighed. "Yeah, he's been causing trouble all day."

"Whaaa?" Alex narrowed her eyes. "You knew and didn't tell us?!"

"Well we were ordered to not do anything about it," Aila shrugged.

"Why?" Danny asked.

"They want us to have fun and not worry about it," Kairi replied with a little sigh. "Though at this rate it's getting harder to ignore."

"Let's get him!" Alex declared, her expression suddenly one of righteous determination. "He can't ruin Christmas!"

"But Donald and Goofy won't let us help," Sora pointed out with a frown.

Riku seemed to consider their options for a few seconds. "Well… I know Mickey ordered us not to, but maybe… we can look around a little on our own. I don't see how that would do any harm, right?"

Sora's eyes lit up, the boy clearly excited that Riku seemed to have changed his mind about whether they should help out or not. "Yeah!"

Aila hesitated, looking at Alex. "Alex, if you and Danny want to keep playing games or something…"

"No way, I wanna help!" Alex declared, puffing out her chest. "No one ruins Christmas!"

Aila's lips thinned into a tight line. Danny punched her lightly in the arm. "Stop trying to steal the spotlight, dork. We can help too."

Aila sighed. "Fine…"

"Where should we look first?" Kairi asked.

The group set off with a mission in mind, searching down every alleyway as sneakily as they could and trying their very hardest to pretend they weren't snooping around whenever they saw one of the castle residents nearby. Aila saw Donald eying them suspiciously at one point and relayed that information in a whisper to the rest of the group, Sora immediately striking up a loud conversation with Kairi about wanting hot chocolate and how much fun they were having and how they definitely were only having fun and nothing else! Alex had to cover her mouth to keep herself from laughing at his poor attempts to throw Donald off, and so their group hurried away to another section of the town before the duck could come investigate their strange behavior up close.

"Ah, this is taking forever," Sora sighed.

"If he's moving, we might just keep missing him," Riku said, crossing his arms as he continued to glance around for anything suspicious.

"Maybe we should split up?" Danny suggested, hands in his pockets.

"Or maybe we need a better angle," Kairi mused, her eyes glued to something in the distance.

Everyone followed her gaze. Aila smiled. "The ferris wheel!"

"That's perfect!" Sora exclaimed. He smiled proudly at Kairi. "Good thinking!"

They hurried in that direction, doing their best to act casual as they waited in the short line for the ride. The benches sat two people each, Sora clamoring into the first one with Riku not far behind, Kairi and Alex claiming the next one, and then Danny and Aila hurrying into the third. Aila gripped the lap bar as it was locked in front of her, watching Alex's blonde hair bob back and forth as she and Kairi talked animatedly about how they'd definitely be able to find Pete once they were at the top.

"Something wrong?" Danny asked as the wheel started moving. Aila glanced at him. He was frowning at her.

Aila looked away and sighed. "…I wanted today to be perfect."

Danny crossed his arms atop the bar. "Yeah? So what's the problem?"

Aila frowned at him. "Pete's stealing everything, where have you been? That's hardly what I'd call perfect."

Danny smirked. "So? It's not like he's attacking people."

Aila huffed. "Yeah but now we're on some wild goose chase instead of having the best day ever with Alex."

"She doesn't seem to mind." Danny indicated the bench ahead of them, Alex squealing excitedly as they went higher and higher, Kairi giggling at her side. Danny glanced at Aila again, a smirk pulling at his lips. "I think she finds it exciting. How often do we get to hunt down Disney villains?"

Aila drummed her fingers on the bar as she thought. "I mean, I've done it a lot at this point…"

"Braggart," Danny scoffed. He smiled again. "Well, I'm having way more fun now that we're hunting Pete down."

Aila quirked a brow. "You are?"

Danny chuckled. "Yeah. Doing regular Christmas things… we're always gonna be thinking about home and comparing, you know? But this is… kinda funny, looking for Pete, and definitely something we wouldn't normally be doing. We wanted to distract Alex, right? Well, this is perfect for that. You should have just told us earlier, we could have started hours ago."

Aila hummed thoughtfully. "Searching for a thief wasn't on the 'distract Alex' list we made."

"Seems like we didn't make a very complete list," Danny shrugged. He flicked Aila on the forehead and she pulled back with a whine. "You're so uptight, Aila. Stop trying to shield us from exciting things. Everyone's having fun." He smiled softly. "…Sorry I've been so distant. I'm… I'm trying, you know?"

Aila smiled softly back. "I know you are. We all are."

"I see him!"

Aila and Danny looked over their shoulders, their friends' benches behind them now that they were all near the top of the wheel. Sora was practically standing in his seat and pointing wildly to their right, Riku clutching the lap bar in front of him and looking rather annoyed as their bench rocked back and forth a bit dangerously.

"Sora, sit down!" Kairi scolded.

"But he's over there! Let's get him!"

"You can't just jump out," Riku huffed. "Let's wait until we get back to the bottom."

Sora sighed and flopped back into his seat, looking distraught. Aila and Danny shared a glance and laughed.

They went around the wheel another time before stopping, Sora looking like he was going to go insane by the time they were finally able to get off. He ran past the ride attendant so fast that he nearly knocked the poor dog woman over, Riku apologizing profusely for his inconsiderate friend before rushing off and pulling Sora to a stop, scolding him for being oblivious and insisting he wait for everyone else. Sora was whining impatiently by the time Aila and Danny, the last ones let off the ride, joined the group again.

"Okay can we go now?!" Sora asked as soon as they were all together.

"Go where?!"

All six of them jumped and spun to face a very angry looking Donald, the duck's hands on his hips as he tapped his foot at their group. Goofy was at his side, looking a little more amused than angry.

"Uhh…" Aila and Sora both said eloquently.

Alex held her stuffed animals in front of her face. "Nowhere!" was her muffled reply.

"Let's go nowhere quickly," Danny mumbled, starting to inch away.

"Oh no you don't!" Donald shouted, pointing at Danny. He glared at Sora. "You're trying to find Pete, aren't you?"

Sora looked up to the sky for a second, seemingly weighing his options. Smiling, he lowered his gaze to meet Donald's. "Not trying to – we did find him! I just, uh, happened to see him while we were on the ferris wheel! So let's go get him!"

"Just happened to, huh?" Donald asked, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. Goofy chuckled. Donald huffed and put his hands on his hips. "Okay, tell us where he is and we'll handle it."

"Hmmmm no," Sora said, smirking cheekily. He held his hands up in a shrug. "I don't know this place well enough to describe where to go, but I'll know how to get there if I go myself."

"That logic makes no sense," Donald grumbled. "You just wanna get Pete yourself."

Sora grinned. "Well yeah, that too! So come on, we're wasting time!"

Donald seemed like he was about to protest again, but Goofy put a hand on his shoulder. "Aw, Donald, at this point we prob'ly shouldn't fight 'em on it. You even said yerself they'd prob'ly keep lookin' for Pete anyway!"

"Ha, you have no faith in our ability to follow rules," Aila chuckled.

"Well I was right, wasn't I?!" Donald retorted. He sighed. "Fiiiine. Let's make this quick."

"Yay!" Alex cheered, doing a little hop. "Saving Christmas, saving Christmas!"

"We won't save Christmas if we waste any more time!" Sora whined. "Let's go!"

Sora led the way, their rather large group not bothering to look casual anymore as they rushed through the streets of the town. On the way Aila noticed that a few other things seemed to have gone missing – a reindeer decoration that had been in front of city hall, the butter for a popcorn machine, the wheels of a donut cart… All very strange things to steal. Pete was really being more of an annoyance than a criminal. She couldn't tell if the people that jumped out of their group's way as they ran knew that they were heading to stop Pete or thought they were just a bunch of rowdy kids enjoying the festival too much. Having Donald and Goofy with them probably helped prevent anyone from telling them to slow down.

Finally, Sora turned and led them down a little alleyway between two buildings. And lo and behold, there at the end was Pete.

Er, or, Captain Dark.

"Heh heh heh… this'll teach those mooks…" he was muttering as he pushed the missing reindeer decoration up against a rather large pile or various things from the festival.

"Hey!" Sora shouted.

Pete startled, stumbling into the pile and sending everything flying. A wheel rolled toward their group and circled to a stop before them.

"Wow, talk about caught red handed," Danny mused.

"Pete! Stop taking things!" Donald scolded, eyes narrowed into a very annoyed glare.

Pete leapt up, his cape billowing out around him as he stomped his feet indignantly at their group. "It's not Pete! It's Captain Dark!"

Aila put an arm in front of her eyes as if she were holding up a cape and put on her best Batman voice. "I am the terror who flaps in the night…"

"Oh! You know who Darkwing Duck is?" Goofy asked with a laugh.

Alex gasped, her eyes practically glittering in excitement. "Darkwing Duck is real?!" Their parents had shown them some slightly older cartoons a few years ago, and Darkwing Duck had been one that they'd really liked. Even Danny looked mildly excited about this revelation.

"He's a character on TV," Donald said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

Aila and Alex both deflated. "Whaaat…?"

"He's not a real superhero?!" Aila asked, distraught.

"Guys. Focus," Riku said.

Pete pointed angrily at Aila. "Don't compare Captain Dark to some second-rate TV show hack!"

Aila gasped in offense. "Darkwing Duck is not second-rate! He's the best!"

Danny smirked at Pete, a hand on his hip. "His name is better than yours, too."

Aila laughed. "Heck yeah! Captain Dark is lame, right?"

"You're lame!" Pete shot back.

"I know you are but what am I?!" Aila retorted. Donald put his head in his hands.

"Do all your encounters with villains go like this?" Kairi muttered to Sora.

Sora shrugged a little. "Depends on the villain."

Pete stomped his feet again, looking so angry his face almost seemed to be turning completely red. "That's enough!" He widened his stance, clearly preparing for a fight. "You're about to fear the name Captain Dark forever, ya hear?!"

Sora immediately summoned his Keyblade, but Donald waved his hands frantically at him. "Hey hey hey, don't do anything that'll damage the buildings, okay?! This is a tight space!"

Sora frowned. "Well what do you want us to do, just let him go?"

Goofy stepped forward. "Aw, Pete, we're real sorry you weren't invited to the festival. But uh, we gave you lots o' chances. Though it has been a while. Maybe if ya don't go around stealin' stuff anymore, we can reconsider invitin' ya again."

"Goofy!" Sora gasped. "You'll forgive him just like that? What about everything else he's done?!"

Goofy frowned. "Well, uh, I don't like the way he's been runnin' around with Maleficent, and I'm not sayin' we should forgive him entirely… but it's Christmas, isn't it? An' even though he could've, he didn't summon any Heartless to hurt anybody here today."

"I bet he used them to steal all that stuff right out from under people though," Riku said, crossing his arms. "No one saw the thief because they just looked like shadows."

Pete puffed out his chest proudly. "That's right!"

"But he still didn't have 'em hurt anybody," Goofy said with a shake of his head. He smiled a little at Pete. "Yer feelin's were hurt because we didn't invite ya again, right? But I remember you actually love Christmas – so you don't want ta actually ruin it."

Pete blushed a little and crossed his arms indignantly. "I don't love Christmas…"

"Christmas truce!" Everyone looked at Alex, and she blushed, hiding a little behind her stuffed animals. "Uh, sometimes bad guys and good guys call a truce on Christmas… right?"

"Oh yeah, that happens in cartoons a lot," Aila said, nodding her head very seriously.

"This isn't a cartoon," Donald reminded her, crossing his arms with a huff.

"Riiiight," Aila replied. "…It's a video game." Kairi giggled. Donald sighed.

"Well I think a Christmas truce is a great idea," Goofy said with a sincere smile. He walked up to Pete and held out his hand. "What do ya say, Pete? For today, why don't we agree to get along? If ya stop takin' stuff, we'll talk to the King an' see about ya stayin' for the rest of the day as a kind o' trial run. An' if things go well, maybe we can do this again next year."

Sora looked extremely skeptical, not dismissing his Keyblade yet as they all waited to see what Pete would say to that. Pete hesitated, his eyes darting around as he seemed to think really hard about what to do. Very slowly, he reached out and grasped Goofy's outstretched hand, shaking it a little stiltedly.

"Just for today," Pete muttered. Aila thought she saw him blushing a little, but he ducked his head before she could really see.

Goofy beamed. "Just for today!"

"Oh brother," Donald sighed. "Let's go make sure the King is okay with this."

"I don't know about this," Sora huffed, finally dismissing his Keyblade but not looking too happy about it. "Are we sure he won't just ruin things more? That's what he usually does…"

Pete grunted indignantly. "Little brat… I oughta teach you a lesson…"

Sora glared. "Yeah? Go on and try it."

"None o' that, fellas!" Goofy scolded them both. "Let's all try ta get along. Christmas'll be so much nicer if we do."

Sora and Pete continued to glare at each other for a few seconds before they both sighed and nodded reluctantly.

The group took Pete to Mickey, sneaking through alleyways to avoid bringing Captain Dark out into the public eye lest he get mobbed by angry festival-goers. Goofy did a little more sweet talking to the king, making a good case about the spirit of Christmas and how it couldn't hurt to give him one more chance.

"Hmmm," Mickey hummed, fixing Pete with a very probing stare. "Are ya really gonna be good, Pete?"

Pete bristled. "It's not Pete, it's…!" He caught himself and deflated. "…I mean… I guess so… If I have ta… Since it's Christmas…"

Mickey smirked a little. "You did always love Christmas."

Pete blushed. "No I didn't!"

"Well, I think this is a great idea."

The group turned to see Minnie walking toward them, Daisy and Clarabelle trailing behind her. Both Daisy and Clarabelle were glaring lightly at Pete, but Minnie looked delighted. "Oh Pete, it would make me so happy if we could all get along at least for a day or two! I feel awful that we had to ban you in the first place, and I'd love to at least have you back for the Wish Festivals if we can establish this Christmas truce."

Pete crossed his arms and huffed, looking away a little awkwardly. "Yeah, well… I'd like that too, I guess… not because I like any o' you mooks! But 'cause, well… th-these festivals always have specialty foods an' I miss those, I guess…"

Mickey sighed and shook his head, but Minnie just giggled. "Of course." Her expression hardened a little and she held up a finger. "However ! We'll need to establish a few rules. Number one, you cannot come as Captain Dark. He's a troublemaker." Pete grumbled but didn't protest, so she continued, holding out two fingers now. "And number two, we'll need you to return everything you stole, and apologize to the people you took those things from."

Pete didn't seem to like that rule at all. "I'm not apologizin' to nobody!"

Mickey shrugged. "Welp, then this truce isn't gonna work. You heard Minnie, those are the rules."

Pete growled, balling his fists as he thought things over before his shoulders slumped in defeat. He sighed. "Fiiiine."

"Why don't you come as Captain Justice?" Aila asked, rather curious to see what his superhero getup looked like. She really couldn't imagine Pete looking heroic at all.

"Actually, I have a better idea," Mickey said with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. He winked. "After all, Captain Justice isn't very Christmas-y, is he?"

And so that was how Pete ended up donning a Santa costume and delivering every item he stole back to its original owner, apologizing somewhat halfheartedly to each person as the group kept a close eye on him to make sure he got it all done. Surprisingly, everyone Pete returned something to was very forgiving, many of them even offering Pete a free sample of something as a sign of peace and wishing him a Merry Christmas. Pete seemed rather touched by that, his apologies increasing in sincerity as he went on, until at last he, with some help from Donald's magic, helped place the star back on the Christmas tree just in time for it to be lit up. Everyone ooh'd and ahh'd as the Christmas lights all around the square came on, glittering and twinkling in the twilight that had descended upon the town.

"This isn't how I expected today to go," Sora mused as they all watched Pete awkwardly interacting with a small child who seemed to think Pete was the real Santa. "He's still our enemy… right?"

"Every day except today an' tomorrow," Goofy chuckled. "He'll be back to causin' trouble before the new year I bet."

Riku grunted. "Great."

"At least during Christmas we'll always know he won't do anything bad now," Aila offered.

"Yeah, I guess that's good," Sora sighed. "Better than nothing."

Aila glanced at Alex, who was giggling with Minnie and Clarabelle nearby as they admired all the lights. Aila smiled lightly. It seemed like Danny had been right; she'd had fun looking for Pete, and seemed very happy that their search had such a happy ending. That was good. Maybe things hadn't gone exactly to plan, but… they'd still gone okay.

"I can't believe you know who Darkwing Duck is," Donald said suddenly, crossing his arms and shaking his head. "Even that guy made it to your world, huh?"

Aila spun to face him. "Do you not like him…?"

Donald huffed. "He's pretty full of himself in real life."

Aila squealed and grabbed Donald by the shoulders, startling him. "You KNOW HIM?!"

"Get offa me! And sure I know him, but he's no one to get so excited over! He's just an actor!"

Aila deflated. "So he's really not a super amazing superhero do-gooder?" She sighed, standing back up rather gloomily. "That's a huge bummer… Like the death of one of my idols…"

Sora patted her forlornly on the shoulder. "I'm sorry for your loss."

"So wait, Darkwing Duck is real, but he's also just a character on TV here, like he is for us back home…" Danny mused, furrowing his brow. He glanced at Aila. "Do you think… we just got the exact same show they have here, then?"

Aila immediately was excited again. "Let's watch it and see! I hope the theme song's the same!"

She and Danny both struck poses like they were holding capes in front of their faces and chanted together, "Let's get dangerous!"

The siblings laughed, and Donald sighed. "Oh brother, don't idolize something so stupid."

Aila ignored him and turned to the Islanders. "Oh my gosh you guys have got to watch this show with us! Then you can finally know something we know! Don't listen to Donald, Darkwing Duck is SO COOL and he's really funny and he fights crime like BOOM POW BANG!"

Kairi giggled, Riku smirking at how excited Aila was. Sora grinned and nodded. "Yeah! I wanna see it!"

"Hey," Daisy said, coming up to their group. "Weren't you kids supposed to be racing?"

Sora grasped at his hair. "Ah! Oh no! I forgot!"

"I think we missed our slot," Riku said with a sigh. "Oh well."

"Oh well?!" Sora asked. "Now how will we settle who was winning?!"

"You could run to the castle?" Kairi suggested. "But be careful not to slip…"

Sora grinned confidently. "Yeah! That works for me!"

Riku rolled his eyes. "You really aren't gonna let this go, are you?"

"Nope!" Sora got up in Riku's face. "What do you say?"

Riku straightened up a little more and smirked down at Sora. "Fine, you're on."

"Don't run off just yet! The fireworks are about ta start!" Goofy insisted.

Right as he said it the lights in the square began to dim, and holiday music began to swell around them all. Fireworks started going off in the sky in time to the music, everyone immediately mesmerized. Aila thought she might have held her breath through most of the show; it was just so magical. It reminded her of the fireworks shows Disneyland and Disneyworld had back home, but like a million times more amazing, with actual magic kicking in and causing different colors of snow to sprinkle down on them at various intervals and glittering fairy lights to streak through the air.

Alex rushed over to her and Danny about halfway through and grabbed their hands, grinning ecstatically at each of them before quickly returning her attention to the sky. Aila and Danny smiled at one another. Alex was happy, and so, so were they. Aila squeezed Alex's hand, blinking a few times to keep the moisture that was suddenly pricking her eyes at bay, so happy that she could share this moment with her siblings. After all the moments of doubt she'd had over the past few months about the three of them ever being together like this again… this was perfect. And at least for that moment, she knew that all three of them were perfectly happy.

KHKHKHKH

The castle group left the square shortly after the fireworks were done, leaving Pete to his own devices and hoping that their truce held through tomorrow. The guards were told to keep an eye on him just in case, but, as Aila watched Pete jollily stuffing his face with caramel corn, she wasn't very worried. He was probably an hour or two away from a sugar coma, so she really doubted he'd be causing any more trouble.

The castle was beautiful when they arrived, any and all last minute decorations completed and lit up to greet them. The audience chamber was especially impressive, with beautiful tables set up on one side and a band on the other playing upbeat renditions of holiday tunes for them all to enjoy. Everyone who worked or lived at the castle was welcome, along with their families, the vastness of the Audience Chamber put to good use for so many people.

Dinner consisted of practically anything and everything Aila could imagine for a holiday meal, and by the time she was on her second serving she was thanking whatever magical cooking spells had been used to make so much food taste so absolutely delicious. Sora and Riku had forgotten about their race after the fireworks, but Aila could have sworn they were competing to see who could eat more, even if such a contest hadn't been verbally established. Some people got up to dance after dinner, Daisy whisking Donald away to do just that while Aila and the other teens tried not to move too much (their eyes had definitely been bigger than their stomachs).

"Ailaaaa dance with me!" Alex insisted eventually, pulling on her big sister's arm as Aila lay with her head in the crook of her other arm on the table.

"I'll dieee," Aila replied, feeling slightly woozy.

Alex rolled her eyes. "Why'd you eat so much then?"

Aila pouted. "It was too good, it's hardly my fault. Everyone else did the same thing."

Alex put her hands on her hips. "Not me! I ate until I was full and then I stopped." She narrowed her eyes. "You're just using being too full as an excuse."

"Go dance, Aila," Sora encouraged, smiling at the siblings, his chin in his hand. "You got all that practice in Atlantica."

"I didn't have legs in Atlantica," Aila protested.

"Aw, dancin' is easy on land, too," Goofy chuckled, coming up behind Aila and putting his hands on her shoulders. "C'mon, it's fun!"

Danny was smirking behind his glass as he took a sip of cider. "…So you danced in Atlantica, huh…?"

Aila glared at him. "I can see you making fun of me, stop it."

Danny held up a hand. "So paranoid! I was just asking…" He snickered as he put his glass down.

"There, you're making fun of me!"

"No, I was just thinking of something funny. Unrelated."

"Okay then, what was it?"

"…Remember that one time when your class put on that fairy tale play and everyone had to dance at the end? And you got so nervous that you tried to run away a few seconds in and knocked the entire set over?"

Aila's eyes widened and she felt her face turn immediately pink. Sora erupted into chortles that he ducked his head to try and hide, but he wasn't nearly quick enough. Aila kicked him under the table. "Ow!"

"Let's all go," Kairi suggested, standing and smiling encouragingly at the rest of the table. "It'll be more fun if we're all dancing together, right? And besides, I think we should all move a little bit after that meal…"

Riku sighed, but he was smiling. "Yeah, sure, why not."

Sora glared playfully at Aila. "You injured one of my dancing legs, how dare you."

Aila shrugged. "Then you can sit out with me."

"Noooo!" Alex whined, grabbing Aila's arm again and this time successfully pulling her onto her feet. "You heard Kairi, we're all dancing!" She looked at Danny. "Come on, pleeeease?"

Danny sighed, but very obviously was going to cave. He tended to give in to whatever Alex wanted him to do. He'd always been like that with her. "Fine, fine." He stood and walked over to his siblings, patting Aila roughly on the head. "Try not to break everything this time, okay?" Aila huffed.

The rest of the night was probably one of the most fun nights Aila had ever had, she and her friends all laughing and dancing and doing silly poses together. Just like in Atlantica, her inhibitions were very quickly thrown out the window once everyone was dancing together, and she actually found that maybe she kind of liked dancing. Kind of. Maybe.

Eventually, Goofy whispered for Aila and Sora to come outside, and so they left the group and followed him into the evening air. Donald was in the hallway outside the audience chamber waiting for them, four identical packages in his arms.

"What's this?" Sora asked, cocking his head curiously.

"Santa sent the four of us something special," Donald explained with a proud smile. "His letter said we should open them together. So, that's why they came a little early, since he knew you'd be here today, Sora."

Sora looked almost giddy. "No way! Well let's open them, come on, come on!"

"But…" Aila began, her brow furrowed as Donald passed the gifts to each of them.

"What's wrong?" Goofy asked, noticing her hesitance.

Aila took her gift and frowned. "…I didn't ask him for anything."

"What're you talking about?" Donald scoffed. "We wrote letters to him together two weeks ago."

"You sent mine too, right?" Sora asked, looking like it was very difficult for him to not tear the wrapping paper off of his gift the second he got his hands on it.

"Sure did!" Goofy confirmed. "As soon as we got back after explainin' things to all yer parents." He furrowed his brow at Aila. "An' we sent yers too, Aila."

Aila scuffed her toe on the carpet. "Well… but I didn't ask for anything for myself."

Sora was looking at her like she'd grown a second head. "Then what did you ask for?"

Aila glanced back toward the audience chamber. "…Well Danny wasn't on Santa's list because he'd said he didn't believe in him, but I didn't want him to be the only one who didn't get a gift from Santa cause I figured everyone here probably would, and so… I asked for my gift to be that he got a gift. He already feels out of place so… you know… I don't know…"

Goofy beamed. "Aw, Aila, that's so nice!"

"I think he and Alex had a good day today," Donald said with a genuine smile. "It'll be nice for them both to get presents from Santa tomorrow, too!"

Aila smiled a little too. "Yeah." Her smile fell, and she looked at her gift in confusion again, her name very clearly scrawled across the top in beautiful gold lettering. "So then, why is this here?"

Donald laughed. "These aren't from our lists. That's why they're here early. Santa said that they're more like a thank you."

"Oh," Sora breathed, looking at his own gift with curiosity again. He looked up and grinned at his friends. "Well what are we waiting for? Let's see what they are!"

The four of them started tearing into the gifts, very curious as to what they could be. The wrapping paper fell away to reveal a crisp white box. Aila pulled the lid of her box back.

"Whoa!" Sora cried, tearing his gift out of the box. It looked like they all got the same thing: a snow globe. Very carefully, Aila removed hers from the box and gazed into it, a perfect mini replica of Christmas town sitting within the glass globe. "Shake it, shake it!" Sora said excitedly, staring into the snow globe he'd just shaken up with nothing short of pure fascination. Aila did just that, tipping the globe over so the snow at the bottom began to swirl and flutter around inside. As she flipped it right side up again, something inside began to change. To Aila's amazement, scenes of her time in Christmas Town began to play, like a tiny little movie within the glass. The snowball fight they'd had outside the town, their attempt at wrapping presents going horribly awry, returning presents to Santa's workshop, even stopping Dr. Finkelstein's experiment. It was like all of their memories from that world had been preserved inside the globe, only fading when all the snow had settled once again.

"Wow," Donald breathed, shaking his again so he could watch some more memories, a smile tweaking the sides of his beak.

"Aw, look at the bottom," Goofy said, and Aila turned her globe over to find an inscription.

'To my dear friend Aila. May you never forget your time in Christmas Town. Thank you again for all you did – we are forever grateful to you and your friends. All my love, Santa Clause'

"This is amazing," Aila breathed, flipping the globe over again and watching as the snowball fight began to play once more. She breathed out a laugh. Jack had been so into it!

"Let's go back!" Sora declared, grinning at the rest of the group. "Someday. Let's all go back together."

"Yeah!" Donald cheered.

"That sounds fun!" Goofy agreed.

Aila smiled and nodded. "Yeah. I'd love that."

Sora nodded too. "It's a promise, then. But until then…" He looked into his snow globe, his smile softening into a very fond one. "We can keep these to make sure we remember how much fun we had before."

The rest of the gang agreed, everyone staring silently into their globes for another minute before they all shared another warm smile.

"Gwarsh, we've gotta take you home soon, Sora," Goofy said, glancing up at the sky. "I think it's gettin' pretty late."

Sora sighed. "Aw man. I guess so."

Aila frowned. "When will we see you again?"

Sora thought for a moment. "I'm not sure… but probably soon! Mickey mentioned that Master Yen Sid might want to talk to us in the new year."

Aila's mood lifted a little at that. "Oh, right! He mentioned that to me too. Do you think we'll all go?"

"Sure!" Donald said confidently. "After all, we're a team – we should all go together."

Aila smirked. "Oh, so now we're a team, but this morning when I needed backup it was all 'we're not on a mission so you're on your own!'"

Sora laughed. "What! Donald, that's mean!"

Donald rolled his eyes. "Ah, phooey."

They all laughed.

Goofy gasped. "Look fellas! A shootin' star!"

They hurried over to the ledge, gazing up into the star-filled sky.

"Maybe it's Santa!" Sora suggested excitedly.

"If that's the case then you kids need to get to bed ASAP!" Donald insisted, smiling at the youngest members of their team. "Come on, Sora. Let's get you, Kairi, and Riku back to the Islands."

"Can I come?" Aila asked.

"Gwarsh Aila, you'll be real tired tomorrow," Goofy chastised with a smirk.

"Yeah, didn't you hear me?" Donald asked, wagging a finger at her. "Go to bed! Santa won't come if you kids are still up!"

Aila huffed. "You guys are very bossy on Christmas."

"Don't worry Aila," Sora said, putting his free hand on her shoulder and smiling down at her. "We'll see you soon. Have a good Christmas Day, okay?"

Aila smiled. "Yeah, you too."

Sora beamed. "I plan to! And Kairi's invitation is always open too – in fact, you and Danny and Alex should all come to the Islands sometime! We'll relax and play in the ocean without tails! It'll be great!"

Aila laughed. "Swim in the ocean with no mermaid tail?! That'll be weird!"

The party wound down after that, everyone wishing goodbye to the islanders and insisting that anyone under the age of eighteen get to bed immediately so Santa could come deliver gifts. Aila shook her snow globe once more and set it on her bedside table as she got into bed, watching the memories inside it play out again as she drifted off to sleep. Part of her was so sad that the adventures she'd had with the boys were over, but at least now, everything was peaceful. Christmas was about to come and go, with even Pete agreeing to behave himself, if only for the day. All that was left to do now was to go play on the Islands with her friends, and go talk to Yen Sid eventually, and visit her friends on Radiant Garden and Twilight Town and… Aila smiled as she drifted off to sleep, content with the good day she'd had and the many more she could foresee in the near future, confident that the hardest times were behind her.

On a nearby world, Master Yen Sid sat in his tower, his fingers steepled before him as he sat in deep thought.

His dark eyes narrowed, his brow furrowed deeply in worry. With a heavy sigh, he breathed out a single sentence:

"…Time is running out."

---

Aila will return in Eclipse of the Heart: New Moon

Coming soon

---

Yes this was entirely silly filler fluff. If you expected something more intense I apologize, but rest assured, that will come in the sequel.

Please make sure you're on the email alert list for Eclipse of the Heart or, alternatively, the author alert list for me so you can get notified when I post the sequel! I'm planning to post chapter one around November, but, like Kingdom Hearts 3, I reserve the right to push that date back if I have to… Haha but I'll try not to!

Love you all, thanks for reading! Happy Holidays! Lol~

~Fade