Hey guys, I decided to do a side project for the holidays! After writing last year's Christmas special What is this Christmas?, I decided to carry on with the tradition this year (not to be confused with Give Me Your Heart for Christmas, which is one of my longer ongoing stories that I plan on completing this month).

Ever since seeing KH2, I've always wondered what Riku's reaction to seeing that Santa Claus is real would be, so I wondered how this should be done. I thought riding the Polar Express would be perfect for this! I decided not to put it as a crossover because the only returning character is the conductor, and I wanted this story to be easier to find for my regular readers.

This will be a short story, likely no less than 3 chapters and no more than 5. I hope you enjoy :)

Riku Rides the Polar Express

We were out looking at the big holiday display on Destiny Islands that Christmas Eve night. Walking through the park, I was amazed at all I saw around me. Beautifully decorated Christmas trees towered high above us, and light displays were everywhere. Frogs were leaping into ponds, gingerbread men were dancing, and elves were working in Santa's workshop. Being here put me in the Christmas spirit (not that I hadn't been for weeks, but my love for Christmas is another story, haha), and it made me really look forward to the next day's events.

After all, this was my first Christmas on the Destiny Islands.

"Woah..." Sora said, taking everything in.

"It's lovely," a visibly pregnant Kairi responded.

"Riku?" I asked my fiancé. He had a blank, almost sad, expression on his face. "Are you alright?"

"Huh?" He responded. "Oh. right. I'm fine."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"Those lights are great and all," Sora started as he looked in the direction of where children were lining up to sit on Santa's lap in the outside Christmas village, "But they made Santa way too tall! He's much shorter in person!" I had to giggle at Sora's reaction to the lights. The moment I had first met him, I fell in love with his happy and spirited personality. He always made me laugh.

You see, I've only lived on the island for the last several months. After Riku proposed, I packed up my stuff and moved into Kairi's old apartment. She was now married to Sora. Even though they and Riku have known each other almost their entire lives, I never felt like I had trouble fitting in. I think it may have to do with each of our personalities. Sora is the silly, funny, and positive one in the group. Kairi is the sweet and kind one. Riku is the serious, protective, yet caring one. And my personality is kind of a combination of all three of theirs. Because of this, I never had a problem clicking with any of them.

"Right," Riku responded, "Just like how the Easter Bunny is made of chocolate, right?"

"But he is real, Riku! I saw him myself!"

"Right. Just like how you were able to fly, huh?" he joked.

"I did that, too!"

"Yeah, sure."

"Gee, looks like someone has lost their Christmas spirit," Kairi giggled.

"Yeah," I answered, "Did you get a lump of coal in your stocking as a kid?!" I joked.

"Look, I like Christmas," Riku responded, "I just don't believe in imaginary toy makers flying through the sky and going down our chimneys."

"Santa doesn't make the toys, his elves do!"

"Oh, sorry. My bad," Riku answered sarcastically.

"Gee, way to kill his spirit," I said as I playfully punched his arm.

"Alright. Let's go ahead and head out."

As we left the park, we headed towards Sora and Kairi's apartment where we were planning on exchanging our gifts and enjoying some champagne (except for Kairi, for obvious reasons) and Christmas cookies. While Sora and Riku walked in front of us, Kairi and I began to talk.

"So do you think Riku will like it?" I asked as a took a sip of my hot apple cider.

"Of course Krissa," Kairi answered, "I think that's a great gift idea! What time are you leaving tomorrow?"

"Early," I answered, "While it's still dark." Early on Christmas morning, I was planning to fly to my hometown on Earth to spend Christmas with my family.

"That will be fun."

"Absolutely, especially since this is the last Christmas in which we will perform all of our usual traditions." I was really looking forward to this Christmas, not just because this was my first time going home since moving to the islands, but because this would be the last time I did Christmas the same way I had done it my entire life: waking up so early and opening presents at my parents house while it was still dark, going to my grandparents' house afterwards while still wearing our pajamas, eating a breakfast of sausage patties and biscuits, opening our presents in the living room, eating a prime rib lunch, and spending the entire day together. It was my favorite day of the year.

"Not that I'm not looking forward towards Riku and me making our own traditions," I quickly added, "but I will miss our usual ones." I would be lying if I said that I wasn't excited about spending the rest of my Christmases with my soon to be husband, but I did want to take my time enjoying what was likely my last full-time Christmas alone with my family.

"I understand," Kairi said, "Change can be difficult to get used to."

"Yeah."

"Sora, don't touch that, you don't know where it came from!" we could hear Riku yell. He and Sora were already by their front door.

"Yes I do, It says so right here in the note. From Mr. C!" Sora exclaimed.

"Sora...there is no Santa Claus!" Riku exclaimed.

"What's going on?" Kairi asked as we caught up to the doorstep.

"A complete stranger left him this 'gift' with a note," Riku answered.

"It's not a stranger, it's from Santa!" Sora answered.

"Let me see that," I said, grabbing the note. I read it, and I could not blame Riku for being worried. It did seem a bit bizarre:

Dear Sora,

I leave you with this gift that you can share with your friends.

All you have to do is shake it. The rest will come to you.

Use it well.

-Mr. C

"Well that's...interesting," I said. I then noticed Sora was now holding a snow globe. It appeared to have an train inside of the dome, along with a red and white striped pole next to it.

"Someone could have infected it with dark magic or something for all we know," Riku said as a warning.

"Well I trust Santa!" Sora said. He then shook the snow globe.

"SORA NO!" Riku screamed. The next thing I knew, we were being warped somewhere. As I screamed, I heard the others yelling nearby as well. Not only were we moving extremely fast, but the warp we were traveling on was extremely jerky. Finally, we landed on the ground.

"Good job Sora, now you've done it," I heard Riku say near me.

"Look around, it's peaceful!"

"It looks that way, but it could be a trick."

"I think Sora's right Riku, it just looks like a neighborhood." I heard Kairi say.

As I got up, I looked behind us, and I could not help but gasp due to my shock.

"Sora is right. This is my old neighborhood." We were standing on the street in front of my childhood home. I looked back behind me at my house, which sat up on a small hill in the middle of our neighborhood. There was a fence that went around our backyard, and at the very front of our front yard, there were carefully placed juniper bushes. Assorted bushes also lined up next to our front porch by my one-story house. "And that would also be the home I grew up in." Once I got over my shock, I looked over at the others and gasped at the sight of the others.

"Baby," I said to Riku, "You're hair got longer!" Riku then grabbed his hair in shock. I had never seen him with long hair!

"And Krissa, your hair got longer too!" Kairi exclaimed. I grabbed my hair also in shock. My hair had been slightly shorter than shoulder length ever since I was 19 years old.

"Kairi, you're hair is shorter!" Sora said. Kairi's normal long hair that went to the middle of her back was now about shoulder length.

"And Sora," I said, "You're...shorter." Sora shrugged as he laughed nervously. "I didn't have a growth spurt until later in life," he said bashfully."

"Nice pajamas," I said. We looked at each other and we noticed we were all wearing our night clothes. Sora was wearing red-plaid PJ bottoms with a navy blue robe, Kairi was wearing a purple and green vertical striped long-sleeved night gown with purple slippers, Riku was wearing black sweat pants and a gray robe over his white t-shirt, and I was wearing pink pajama bottoms with red polka dots, a pink robe, and black fuzzy slippers.

"Shouldn't there be snow?" Sora asked. "I always thought Christmases on earth always had snow. At least according to the Christmas specials the King sent me!"

"Sora, this is Georgia," I answered, "If we get only a half inch of snow here in the middle of February, that is considered a miracle!"

"Well this is nice," Riku said, "We're stuck in our teenage bodies wearing only pajamas, and we're lost!"

"We're not lost," I said, "I told you exactly where we were. Why are you acting so grumpy?" I asked. I had never really seen Riku act so cross before.

"I'm not grumpy..." he mumbled. Just then, the ground began to shake heavily.

"EARTHQUAKE!" Sora screamed. We tried to summon our armor to protect ourselves, but we quickly realized that our armor plates weren't even on our arms like the normally would be. We backed up onto my front yard in front of the juniper bushes, then held onto each other.

"Look!" Kairi finally said, pointing down the street to our left. To our surprise, there was not an earthquake. A simple train was merely going down my street.

"I have no idea where that came from considering my street ends in a cul de sac down there..." I said. Finally, the train stopped in front of us.

"Woah..." Sora said.

"Are you kids going to get on the train or just keep gawking?" We heard a voice to our right say, making us gasp. Next to us was what looked to be a train conductor, complete with hat and mustache.

"Where are we going?" Kairi asked.

"Where are we going?!" The conductor responded, "WHY, TO THE NORTH POLE OF COURSE! THIS IS THE POLAR EXPRESS!"

"ALRIGHT! SANTA! AND CHRISTMAS TOWN!" Sora said excitedly as he ran onto the train. "C'MON!"

"Sora, you don't know-" Riku started.

Too late. Sora was on the train. Kairi and I could not help but giggle.

"Well...aren't the rest of you coming?" The conductor asked.

"Yeah," Kairi said as she climbed aboard while the conductor walked onto another set up steps on the car next to us on our right. I began to follow, but I turned around to notice Riku still standing in the front yard.

"Aren't you coming?" I asked.

"What if this is a trick? Maybe we should think this through."

"Well..." I decided to say something that would definitely get Riku aboard the train, "If it is a trick, others could be in trouble, and they may need our help. Maybe theres heartless...and we will need you to protect us." With that, I walked inside the train and took my seat. I looked out the window to see what my fiancé would do next. As the train began to movie, he jumped onto the steps. I knew he would never leave us behind if he ever thought we may be in danger. As he made his way onto the platform connecting the cars, he stared out into the distance as if something was on his mind.

"Perfect," I said.

Just in case any of my regular readers are wondering, this story takes place either during or after Destiny and Dawn: Book III, I really haven't decided yet lolI know I haven't even finished book one yet...but I didn't want to wait until then to write this :) Anyways, Sora and Kairi are about 24 in this book, and Krissa and Riku are 25. In case you haven't figured it out, they took their KH2 appearances on Earth. Anyways, why is Riku acting like such a grump?! Stay tuned and it will be explained! Since I want this finished before Christmas, expect the next chapter to be up soon!

If you like where this is going, or if you think I need to improve, just let me know in a review :) (bedahdahdeedoo!)