Disclaimer: Digimon belongs to Toei and Bandai.

Notes: Beta read by Stained in Negativity, who rocks. :)
Christmas has come and gone, but it's still the holiday season, so I hope I don't look totally stupid posting this three days afterwards. If it isn't immediately obvious (and it won't be if you haven't heard some of the CD Dramas), it takes place in the year 2000 – which is why the 02 team are absent, Mimi still lives in Odaiba, and Takeru doesn't yet.

Digital Christmas

It was a summer morning. It was always summer, in this part of File Island. In other places it might always be raining, or perpetually covered in ice. But here, it was summer.

The sun was steadily inching its way further above the horizon. A slight breeze cut through the warm, humid air. Disregarding this, somebody had lit a makeshift campfire on the lakeshore, and now a group of assorted Digimon were gathered around it. They sat in silence, watching the fire crackle merrily, but avoiding each other's eyes.

These were the self-proclaimed Chosen Digimon. A year ago - more than a year ago - they had said goodbye to their partners by this very lake, and watched their train soar into the hole in the sky. Into the Real World.

Sometimes the Digital Gate would open again. Not with any regularity, and never for very long, but it was something. And on occasion one or two of the children would drop in and spend some time catching up with their partners, just like old times.

"Last time Taichi came here, we had a game of football and he said if I kept practising I'd be better than him in a few years," Agumon said aloud. It might have seemed like a non sequitur, but the other Digimon didn't comment. Agumon was the leader of their little group, which was also self-proclaimed, and nobody liked to argue with him. Besides, being a partner Digimon meant that the partner in question was always the first thing on your mind. They all understood that.

"Last time Jou came here, the Gate closed and he got stuck here for a week," countered Gomamon. A couple of the others sniggered, but then silence fell once more.

The Gate closed. It always closed - maybe after a day, maybe even less – and whenever that happened, the children would be forced to go home. It never stopped being painful, having to be separated from their partners like that, but the Digimon always had next time to look forward to. They always had each other, too. That was the main reason all of the Chosen Digimon stuck together, really. So they could have someone else to hang around with until the Gate opened again - maybe in a week, maybe in a month.

Six months ago, all the kids had turned up at once, which was a rarity. And they'd talked, and Gennai had talked, and they had given up their Crests. None of the Digimon had objected then; they all wanted to see the Digital World restored to its former glory, and with Apocalymon gone, they didn't need the Crests any more. After all, what were the chances of a new evil overlord rearing his ugly head? Pretty slim, that much was certain.

But the Gate hadn't opened since then.

Palmon stretched her leaflike arms. "It's not the same without any of them around," she said. "Every day just goes by like the last one."

"Hey, nobody said that it was the Crests which closed the Gate," Piyomon pointed out. "Could still open again, right?"

Gabumon looked sideways at her. "You think so?" he said. "After all these months?"

Tailmon coughed. Various eyes turned to look at her. Although everybody acknowledged Agumon as their leader (especially Agumon himself), they also respected Tailmon. She was the only natural Adult-level in the group, after all. It nearly always paid to listen to her.

"If I remember correctly, today's when they would be celebrating Christmas Day in their world," she said.

Her words were met with general muttered confusion.

Patamon blinked. "Christmas Day?" he said curiously. "Sounds familiar, but... what's Christmas Day?"

"Hikari mentioned it once," Tailmon said. She put a paw on her chin, trying to dredge up old memories. It was difficult enough keeping track of a calendar invented for an entirely different world, let alone the little details. "It's... a day. A special day, happens once every year. It's when people like to buy other people stuff, and wrap it up in paper..."

"There's a tree in it somewhere," said Agumon. He looked at all the puzzled stares he was receiving, and blanched. "I just heard that off Taichi last year," he added hastily. "He said he got told off by his mum for nearly pushing one over."

"It'd be pretty hard to push a tree over, though," Palmon said, looked thoughtful. "I mean, they have roots to hold them down... and they weigh tons, too. I'm sure Taichi doesn't weigh that much."

"Oh, I don't know," said Tentomon. "You could always push it with a chainsaw."

"Or a hammer," Gomamon supplied.

"No, no, that'd be a Christmas tree. I heard about those from Hikari, too," Tailmon interrupted, reasserting her seniority. "They aren't ordinary trees, either. They have to be... a certain type. Those ones which have needles, I think. And people decorate them, too. Lights, candles, presents, shiny things."

"Shiny things..." echoed Patamon wistfully. There was a faraway look in his eyes.

"Why did you bring this up, anyway?" Gabumon asked.

Tailmon shrugged. "I don't know," she admitted. "I just thought... well, maybe we can't be with our partners on their Christmas Day, but..."

The others considered the sense of this. After all, if their partners were celebrating Christmas at the same time that they were, it was just one step away from being able to celebrate together, wasn't it?

"So, it's decided!" Agumon said excitedly. He pulled himself to his feet. "All right, so anybody got an idea of where we can find some shiny stuff which we can put on a tree?"

Piyomon giggled. "Agumon, slow down! We don't even have a tree yet!"

"Ah... right, right." Agumon looked embarrassed, but he persevered. "In that case, anybody got an idea of where we can get the tree? Because..."

He glanced round at the trees which circled the lake. On this shore, there was nothing but tropical jungle and the occasional irrelevant road sign. But on the other side... Agumon craned his head, trying to see more clearly. He tried to stand on tiptoes, almost lost his balance, and thought better of it.

"Hey, I think those are the right type of tree!" he said, pointing. "Who says we go have a look at them?"

As an answer, Gomamon dived into the lake, showering the rest of them with water. He didn't resurface, but a barely-visible trail of bubbles began to head towards the opposite shore.

"Show-off," Tentomon muttered. He opened his wings and took to the air. Patamon and Piyomon jumped after him. The three of them rapidly turned into shrinking silhouettes above the lake's surface.

Tailmon got up as well. "We'll take the long way round," she said. "If we run, we'll probably get there before they do."

"Well, I..." Agumon started to say, but gave up. "Let's go, guys!"

As the sound of their footsteps died away, a partly-doused pile of sticks smouldered on the lakeshore by itself.

On the other side of the lake, Tailmon studied the trees critically as the rest of the Digimon watched. They were all, very obviously, fir trees. They were also, very obviously, about two hundred feet high. This posed a small problem, and she was waiting for one of the others to point it out.

"Well, I think they look like the right sort," she said after a while. "Triangle-shaped, green, needles -" she jumped up quickly and swiped something off one of the lower branches, "- and these cones, I think they're meant to have those too..."

"So what's wrong with them?" Agumon asked.

Tailmon sighed. Agumon was friendly enough for a dinosaur, but he couldn't take a hint if it slapped him in the face. Just like his partner, she supposed. She dropped the fir cone onto the ground, and spread her paws. "Agumon," she said as calmly as possible, "how tall are you?"

"Me? Uh..."

"And how tall do you think the tree is? Compared to you, I mean?" She pointed up at it.

Agumon backed away, realisation dawning. "Ah... uh," he managed to say.

Gabumon was examining a different tree. It was slightly shorter than the others, although not small enough to make a difference. "We could cut one down and then chop the top of it off, so we can decide how big it wants to be," he suggested. "It'd be easy enough to cut through the top bit, at least."

"True," said Tailmon. "It's the bottom bit that's the problem."

"If we all attacked the trunk at the same time -" Piyomon began tentatively.

"- the whole tree would catch fire," finished Tentomon. "It's not worth it."

Agumon had by now recovered his self-confidence, which could never stay squashed for long. He folded his arms. "Man, if I could evolve, we wouldn't have to worry about this," he said.

"That's the point, though, isn't it? I mean -" Gomamon paused to spit some lake water out of his mouth, startling a passing fish, and carried on, "- if we could evolve, that would mean our partners were here. And if they were here, we wouldn't bother with this whole Christmas thing."

There was a thoughtful silence as the other Child-levels contemplated how much easier things would be if they could all evolve. Patamon broke it. "Then why don't you try, Tailmon?" he asked innocently.

"What? Me?" She looked taken aback. "Why me? I'm not any taller than the rest of you..."

"But you're an Adult-level, so you'll fell it no problem," Patamon said. He turned away from Tailmon and winked at the other Digimon. "Right, guys?"

"Look, what -"

"No, I agree," Agumon said quickly. "Remember when she took all of us on in Vamdemon's castle? And we're tougher than any stupid trees!"

"Except for not being able to cut one down?" Gomamon pointed out.

"Except for that, yeah..."

"All right, I get the picture!" Tailmon said. It came out a little louder than she had intended. They knew she didn't like being reminded of her old life, if it could be helped. But they were right, too. She was a level higher than the rest of them, and it was just a tree.

She walked over to the nearest fir and tapped the trunk experimentally. It didn't make much noise, but she wasn't expecting it to. Then she took several steps away, drew a paw back, and charged...

It was like running headfirst into a brick wall.

"Uh, Tailmon?" Gabumon asked. "Are you all right?"

Tailmon didn't respond. She stood there for a few seconds, one arm still outstretched. Then it fell limply to her side, and - abruptly, without fanfare - she keeled over backwards.

Agumon looked disappointed. "Well, there goes that plan," he said.

At this time of year, the park would normally have been more or less empty except for the occasional man walking a dog, or possibly a dog walking a man. There were several good reasons for this - it was out of the way for most people, it was freezing outside, and there wasn't even much snow to show for it. Nevertheless, there was a small group of children hanging around there now, all wrapped up warm.

Taichi Yagami yawned widely. In deference to his mother, he was wearing a coat. In deference to his own self image, he was also wearing a t-shirt underneath, and had a battered football under one arm.

"Okay, guys!" he said cheerfully. "Now that Jou's here too -" he shot a quick look at the newest arrival, who appeared to be wearing at least ten scarves and was still shivering, "- I think we'd better get in line again and -"

"Everybody's here except Takeru," said Sora, without looking up.

Taichi scowled at her. "Why can't I have some fun too?" he complained. "It's Christmas!"

"Because, Taichi," Sora said, "you've already made the rest of us line up and count off four times this morning, and it makes us feel stupid."

"It was only thr- look, what are you laughing at?"

"Nothing," Yamato said meekly.

Taichi's instinct told him that now would be an appropriate time to change the subject. He cast around for something to say until his short-term memory caught up with him. "So, uh," he said, "why isn't Takeru here? We said ten, didn't we? And the time right now has to be -"

"Ten thirty," said the bespectacled pile of clothing which was Jou.

"He has to take the train here, remember?" Yamato reminded Taichi. "And then he has to find his way here by himself, I'm not even sure he knows where this is..."

"By... himself?" Hikari asked, looking slightly worried. "What about his -"

"She'll be working," Yamato said dismissively. "Count on it."

"So you didn't feel up to going round to his house and walking him all the way over here while holding his hand?" Taichi laughed. "Yamato, that's not like you!"

"Oh, shut up," said Yamato, but he looked vaguely flattered by the suggestion.

"Speaking of which," Sora cut in, "is there any real reason why we're all out here in the cold instead of somewhere more, you know, indoors and not so hard to find?"

So much for Sora telling him not to keep ordering everyone else around, when she had taken every possible opportunity this morning to remind him about what happened last year. "I already said, it wasn't my fault!" he said hotly.

"Not your fault? How can it not be your fault, Taichi Yagami, when you were the one who knocked the tree over?"

He avoided her eyes. "It wasn't even a big fire," he muttered.

"Well, if Takeru does end up getting lost, it'll be on your head -"

"Uh... Sora? Taichi?" Koushirou ventured. He and Hikari were craning to see something over Taichi's shoulder. "I don't think that's going to matter."

The others turned. A small white dot was heading towards them, over the grass. As it approached them it became a hat, which by degrees turned into Takeru. He waved at them.

Taichi smirked at Sora. "So how about it?" he said. "Will you drop it now?"

Sora looked offended. "I was just -" she began.

"Aw, come on. It's Christmas."

After the failure of Plan A, a Plan B had been decided. The fir tree Tailmon had knocked herself out on was now encircled by several thick green vines. At the base of the vines was Palmon.

Agumon walked over to her while the other Digimon were busy hauling Tailmon out of the way. "You're... okay with this?" he asked.

"It was my idea, of course I'm fine with it!" she said. "But can you hurry up with this? My arms hurt already."

"If you say so... Hey! Everyone!" Agumon called. "Get ready to pull on my count!"

"What about Tailmon?" said Gabumon.

"She'll live. Come on!"

Obediently, the rest of the Chosen Digimon came over and took a vine each. There were seven of them, without counting the inert Tailmon, and Palmon only had six fingers. Agumon compensated for this by grabbing her shoulders instead.

"Count of three!" he yelled. "Three, two, one - pull!"

They pulled. They carried on pulling for almost a minute, but the tree refused to move.

Agumon shook his head sadly. "No good... okay, guys, you can stop now."

The Digimon let go. Palmon retracted the vines and gingerly rubbed one of her arms. "That went well," she said acidly.

"I thought I heard it make a noise," said Patamon.

"I did too," Piyomon said. "It sort of creaked."

"But it hasn't actually fallen over," said Gabumon, "which was the point."

Agumon snorted. He walked over to the tree. "Why did we even decide to do this, anyway?" he said irritably. He kicked the tree trunk. "Come on, move!"

There was a creak, followed by a steady rumble as ancient roots dislodged themselves. Slowly, majestically, the fir tree toppled over sideways until it was pointing diagonally up. It fell the rest of the way. The watching Digimon cheered.

"All right!" Gabumon said happily. He stepped forward and cleared his throat authoritatively. Tailmon was out of the picture, but he could at least take an opportunity when he saw it. "Okay, we can cut the top of the tree off now. Not too much of it, remember, or we can't decorate it - and then we ought to move it a little closer to... to..." He stopped. "Where did Agumon go?"

"Under there," said Tentomon, gesturing with two of his legs. Underneath the fallen trunk were a pair of orange feet. They were emitting indistinct noises which, if you listened very carefully and used your imagination to fill in the gaps, could have passed for "help, help, I'm stuck".

"...Alright then, scrap that plan. First we pull Agumon out from under the tree, then we cut the top of the tree off, then..."

"Tailmon?"

Tailmon blinked. A pair of large blue eyes blinked back at her. She sat up, slightly dazed, and the rest of Patamon swam into focus.

"Are you okay? You were out cold for a little while."

"I... y-yes, I'm fine." She tried to recall what she had been doing prior to blacking out, but for some reason, thinking had suddenly become a much harder exercise than it had been before. "The tree?" she managed. "What happened to the -"

"Oh, we knocked it down all right," said Patamon. "Eventually. We moved the small bit to somewhere else so the big tree wouldn't get in the way. You want to come and see?"

Tailmon finally remembered how to stand up, and did so unsteadily. "Well, all right then," she said.

As the two of them walked round to where the tree was standing, Agumon's voice could be heard. "All right, let's get this over with!" he was saying. "Gabumon, stand there - Piyomon, here - no, no, what if we all lined up - wait, Gomamon, I think you should sit out, stay over there -"

"What's he doing now?" Tailmon wondered aloud.

"Oh, don't mind him," Patamon said airily, "he's just getting everyone in position so we can set fire to the tree -"

"Set fire to the what?"

"The tree! Because... well, you just said "lights", and Agumon kind of figured..." Patamon trailed off, sensing that he might have said the wrong thing. "But all he really said was - huh? Tailmon? Hey, where are you going?"

Meanwhile, Agumon had finally managed to get everybody in a circle surrounding the tree. "Okay, after me!" he shouted, and inhaled deeply. "Baby Fl-"

"Stop that!"

Agumon looked over his shoulder. Tailmon was running towards them. "Oh, you're awake?" he said.

She came screeching to a halt next to him. "Yes, I am!" she snapped. "And what are you doing?"

"We're setting fire to the tree, aren't we?" he retorted. "You told us yourself, we need lights on the branches, and we don't have any candles around, so -"

Tailmon closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. She was feeling strangely light-headed all of a sudden, which wasn't helping matters. "Agumon, this tree is right on the edge of a forest," she said finally.

"Yeah. Where else would it go? You don't get trees just sprouting in the middle of nowhere, do you?"

"And, trees - well, they burn pretty easily, don't they?"

"...Yeah?" Agumon said again. He wasn't entirely sure where this exchange was headed, but he didn't like it much.

Tailmon folded her arms. "So, you see," she said, "the thing about setting fire to that tree near a forest is that it's not going to go out."

Agumon didn't say anything. Tailmon sighed. "You know what, never mind the candles. Don't we have any other decorations?"

"We had a fish," said Gomamon, after a collective silence.

"A fish..." Tailmon repeated.

"It's here," said Tentomon. He held it up. It was about ten inches long. One of its eyes was missing. "Only when we tried putting it on the tree, it fell off..." He faltered underneath Tailmon's glare. "It's shiny, isn't it?"

"And you couldn't find anything else?"

"Not really, no," said Gabumon. "That's mostly why we agreed to set fire to it first."

"...Oh." Tailmon pondered their possible courses of action. There weren't many of them. She gave in. "All right, go ahead and light the tree," she said. "But why don't you... I don't know, break a branch off or something instead of setting fire to the whole tree? And... make a wish first."

Agumon paused, his hand halfway to one of the lower branches. "A wish?"

"Yeah, I think so." Tailmon wasn't certain about this one, and her head still felt strange, but she couldn't let a bunch of Child-levels run circles around her, could she? "You make a wish, and you light the candle - branch, whatever - and then you stick it on the tree."

"Right!" Agumon took a branch. "I wish..."

"Not out loud!" Tailmon interrupted.

"Lay off me, would you?" He stared intently at the stick in his hand for a moment. Then he inhaled. "Baby Flame!"

It was Christmas, and not anyone's birthday, but the Digimon didn't know that. And sometimes, against all the odds, wishes do come true.

"Okay, so now Takeru is here, I think we should line up and -"

"You got here all right, did you?" Hikari asked, pointedly ignoring her brother.

"Yeah," said Takeru. "We had to take the train and everything." He brightened up. "But once we move here, I won't have to do that any more!"

"Wait, wait, what?" Jou adjusted his glasses and continued. "You're moving here? How come? Since when?"

"Well, not for at least a year." Takeru looked sheepish. "But we will eventually. I just found out this morning..."

Mimi waved a hand dismissively, as if suggesting that moving to Odaiba was nothing special. "Guess where I'm moving, people?" She clapped her hands together. "This time next year, I'll be in America! Isn't that the best thing ever?"

"Well, whatever." Taichi cleared his throat. "So, we're all here. What do we want to do?"

Yamato stared at him in disbelief. "You mean, you dragged us all the way out here without anything planned?"

"I brought a football," said Taichi. He pointed at it with his free hand, just in case the others hadn't noticed.

Mimi looked horrified. "What? In this weather? And getting this new coat all muddy?"

"Come on, it's just a coat!"

"She's right, though, big brother," Hikari said. "It's too cold and wet out here..."

"Bah, none of you are any fun! If Agumon was here, I know he'd -"

He stopped. The others had started looking slightly depressed.

"The Gate hasn't opened since May," said Sora.

Jou nodded miserably. "It was the Crests, wasn't it?" he said.

"It's not like we had a choice," said Yamato. "We did the right thing."

Hikari stared at her feet. "I want to see Tailmon again," she whispered.

Taichi waved his arms, desperately trying to lighten the mood. "Come on, guys!" he said. "I know, why don't we -"

He froze. There was a shrill beeping coming from somewhere near him.

"Taichi? What's that?" Koushirou asked.

Slowly, almost mesmerised, Taichi dropped the football onto the grass and pulled his Digivice out of a coat pocket.

Agumon opened his eyes. He tried to count his functioning body parts and see if there was anything missing. Legs, check. Arms, fine. Head, not so much. And he seemed to be lying on grass. Wet grass. He was pretty sure there had only ever been mud down by the lakeshore.

Then the cold hit him. He scrambled to his feet, shivering, and looked around. It looked like a normal forest clearing, except for the bench. And the path. And the lack of trees. So, really, not that much like a forest clearing. There was no sign of anyone else around.

"Gabumon?" he called timidly. "Patamon? Tentomon? Someone?"

A paw shot out of the nearby bush and dragged him backwards. "Everyone's here," somebody whispered. "Don't make too much noise."

Agumon looked around wildly, before noticing the speaker. "Oh... Tailmon? Where's -"

"Shh! What if a passer-by hears you and tries to take a closer look?"

"What do you mean, a passer-by?"

His gaze followed Tailmon's pointing claw. Above the bush, there were a few bare trees, blackened by frost. Beyond those were... skyscrapers? There had never been any skyscrapers around the lake either... What had happened? Recent events replayed themselves in Agumon's head. He remembered trying to light the stick, and then he'd set fire to the tree by accident, and then a hole had opened in the sky, and then he'd sort of been sucked towards it, and then... well, he'd woken up.

"That was the Gate?" he asked, confused.

"Must have been. Or we wouldn't be here, would we?"

"But I thought - six months ago -" Because that had been when the kids had arrived to give up their Crests, and the Gate hadn't opened afterwards. But now he thought about it, nobody had told them it was the Crests which had caused that. They'd just... assumed.

"Guess we were wrong," Gabumon said, walking up to them. He nodded towards Agumon. "We're all back here, somehow," he added. "We were wondering where you were, actually."

"Mm," said Agumon, not really listening. His mind was racing. If the Gate really had opened, that meant they were in the real world. And if they were in the real world, that meant their partners would be somewhere around here...

He started to run off, but Tailmon yanked him backwards by the arm. "Where are you heading off to?"

"Where do you think? To find Taichi and the rest of them!" The other Digimon were looking at him oddly. He spread his arms. "What?"

"Agumon, how do we know we're even in Japan?" Gomamon said patiently from behind him.

"Can't we take our chances for once? Anyway, look at you all!" Agumon spun round, glaring at the rest of the group. "Gomamon, don't you want to see how Jou's been doing? Gabumon, I know you've missed Yamato - Piyomon, you -"

"Shh!" Tailmon hissed. Her ears pricked up. "I can hear people coming..."

The red light on the Digivice was flashing more frequently now, and its frantic beeping was beginning to speed up. Taichi looked at it with increasing frustration. It was Agumon, he thought. It had to be Agumon! And he was definitely nearby, which was even more aggravating. Why couldn't Taichi see him? Where was he hiding?

"Taichi?" It was Sora. "Are you sure it's not just the Digivice?"

"It's Agumon!" Taichi snapped. He knew that the rest of the team must be wondering what had come over him, but for some reason that didn't matter. "I know it's him! But I don't know where he is!"

"Sora's got a point, Taichi," Koushirou said. "Our Digivices always functioned erratically outside the Digital World, remember?"

"I don't care! It's him! I -"

Taichi froze mid-rant, and stared into the bushes a short distance away. Just for a second there, he'd heard... a voice. A familiar voice. And it had been calling his name... He looked back at his friends for confirmation. "Hey, uh, guys," he said nervously, "any of you hear that?"

"Hear what?" asked Hikari with a concerned expression.

Yamato frowned. "Now that you mention it... Was it a voice?"

"Yeah, that was it!"

Taichi glanced at his Digivice again, although he didn't really need to. Its beeping noise had become faster than ever. Whatever was causing it, it was getting closer. Best to run out and find it now.

"Big brother -" Hikari began to say.

He sprinted towards the bushes, not caring what the others thought. "Agumon!" he yelled. "Agumon, where are you?"

For one horrible moment, there was nothing. The Digivice suddenly fell quiet. Taichi stopped dead in his tracks. Had he been wrong? Maybe he'd just been hearing things. Maybe Agumon really hadn't been here, all along...

At that moment, Agumon launched out of the bush into his partner's arms.

"Taichi! I knew you were here! Aw, man, it's been a while..."

Taichi nodded wordlessly, hugging the little dinosaur as tightly as he could. He couldn't cry, not with the footsteps of the other kids approaching and the watching Digimon in the bush, but he could smile.

The Gate would open again. It always did. Maybe it would open again in an afternoon, maybe even less. When it did, the Chosen Children would have to say goodbye to their Digimon, at least until next time. But for now there could only be the kids, their partners, and the best Christmas ever.