Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts and Characters © Square Enix and Disney Interactive.
Svarog Universe © Is Og Ild.
OC and Plotline © Arisa Kiryuu.

A/N: And we are back with another Rayku oneshot! Is Og Ild has given her fabulous permission to allow me to play in her world pre-Svarog and this idea wouldn't go away. XD So here we are. How far will teenagers go to get the attention of the one they like? Find out now! On a side note, please, please, please read Svarog to avoid spoilers. This takes places 8 months before Svarog.

~A Svarog Christmas~

A Svarog Oneshot

"That is the stupidest thing that has ever come out of your mouth, Axel."

Oh how I wished I had been kidding — I mean, I had known Axel for four years now. Pretty much since I had been shipped off to this island of Misfit Toys. So the fact that I was actually saying that this was the stupidest thing he'd ever said spoke volumes — especially considering Axel had said some pretty dumb shit in the years I'd known him and been his friend.

"I take offense to that statement — also, you mispronounced the word brilliant."

Just another typical day at Yen Sid's Institute for the Gifted — well, for me at least. Chilling in one of the school's many alcoves, hanging with one of the three friends — or was it four? Still wasn't sure on how this whole "friend" thing operated — I had while Mother Nature herself decided to give us freaks a freak blizzard to trap us in our prison of wonders.

Mutant school? Check. Bunch of hormonal teenage mutants trapped due to the blizzard? Double check. Bored out of our already messed up minds? Triple check.

I stared dully at Axel — biting my tongue to tell him that no, his plan was not brilliant and was in fact quite stupid — and watched as he then drew a card from my hand from where we were playing a round of Old Maid. Not much else to do with it snowing like crazy outside and since Yen Sid wasn't a total loon, he'd given us a break from classes for the holidays — not that things were really festive here. Being rejected from society and most of us cast out from our families or orphaned kind of put a damper on Christmas cheer and made most of us Grinches and Bah Humbugged the place up.

Well, most of us. I could see my brother decked out in a makeshift Santa suit of his own creation running around passing out gifts to everybody that he knew — which was practically the whole school. Where the hell Sora got the time or how he'd obtained so many presents was quite a mystery — but at least he was trying to raise morale. That was one of my brothers for ya. Walking ball of friggin' sunshine that one was. And the other?

Well, he was the complete opposite. The yin to Sora's yang. Darkness to light. Evil versus good. Actually, no, that was wrong. Vanitas wasn't evil — just a classy asshole at best. He actually was quite the emotional basket case, so that ruled out him being a complete sociopath. He was just as imbalanced and messed up as me.

And I had the lucky grace to be their misfit sister, the one who didn't get the ability to suggest amazing — or terrifying — emotions to others, but rather I got the fun ability of stripping them away. That's right — one wrong move and it was buh-bye feels. Which was kinda, sorta how Axel Moyasu and I, Rayne Vevila, came to be friends. He liked to give me some practice with my powers — and even though it was only temporary, me stripping Axel away of his feelings for a brief period of time helped with the mansion of monsters he called his head, apparently.

So in exchange, Axel humored me and hung out with me sometimes. Though most of the time we ended up just pranking the other students for shits and giggles or did stupid shit like this. And sometimes, Axel came up with conspiracy theories or stupid plans like the one that had so graciously spilled out of his mouth in a horrid case of what could only be described as word vomit.

"Seriously, Ax, I'm not doing that."

I reached forward, avoiding the card he purposefully had sticking up and picking another one. He made a face — his poker face was garbage. His face alone was garbage. Also, the stupid ponytail he'd pulled his mess of spikes into was ridiculous and, also, garbage. Also, he looked like a walking Christmas tree with his bright red hair, Christmas lights green eyes, and that ridiculous red and green and the stupid as hell light up sweater he was sporting. I was ashamed to be seen with him — hence being tucked away in the darkness of one of the alcoves and just out of sight.

"I'm giving you a foolproof way to get Prince Charmless to notice you. It's the best Christmas present ever."

"By pretending to be my boyfriend?"

"Correction, that's the best Christmas present ever."

"Try worst. Besides, that totally is not going to work. He'd never get jealous of you "dating" me — much less anyone else dating me. I'm not exactly at the top of the list of cute girls here, Axel."

"You're cute — in a little sister kinda way. Dammit, I don't want this freaky old lady and her children eating face!"

"Too bad. Play the game or I'm feeding your cards to Ziggy."

"Can that thing even eat?"

"Oh yes. His favorite thing to dine on is mouthy pyros!"

Axel gave me a dull stare before eyeing where Ziggy was sitting in my lap, my free arm wound around his waist. He hadn't been too happy that I had dragged along my "creepy purse dog" to hang out, but I wasn't really going to give a shit if Axel was comfortable with Ziggy fully or not.

Ziggy and I were a packaged deal. We had been for four years. So Axel could suck it.

"Seriously, tell me again what's so wrong with my plan?"

"Number one, it's stupid. Number two, you're stupid. Number three, Riku isn't stupid and also doesn't see me that way. It'd just be humiliating and burn whatever shard of a decent rep I have to a crisp." I replied, dropping the cards.

Axel rolled his eyes as he leaned against the stone alcove wall we were sitting in, eyes glancing out the window panes and at the snow outside. I looked down at where Ziggy was just staring at Axel — he seemed to do that a lot. I think he sensed it creeped Axel out. My fingers worked on fixing Ziggy's little scarf that Xion had gotten for him as a Christmas present — though it raised the question on whether or not Ziggy could get cold. Either way, he looked adorable in it, especially since it was black and white stripes.

"You ain't exactly at the top of the list of noticeable. I am. Yeesh. Between you and Thing Two being the InvisiTwins 'round here, how the hell am I supposed to marry either of you off?"

"I'm not gettin' married. I'm also not going to be your girlfriend — fake or otherwise. That's just creepy."

"Do you want Riku to like you or not? Cause you're about as desirable as a rock right now."

Way to boost a girl's self-confidence, Romeo. I didn't think I was that unattractive — but apparently, in the eyes of the mighty Firelord, I was as attractive as the Creature from the Black Lagoon. I mean, I knew I kinda, sorta looked like my brothers but that wasn't my fault we were triplets. I didn't have much to work with here.

"Ow. My pride." I deadpanned.

Ziggy twitched in my lap, extending his arms out as if to swipe at Axel. He immediately crossed his legs and put some distance between him and the Shadow. Unblinking yellow orbs bored into him as I then reached up and tightened my ponytail.

Grave mistake on my part. Ziggy apparently didn't like his mistress being reduced to a rock in looks and was out for blood. I hastily and narrowly grabbed Ziggy by his waist as he tried to lunge for Axel. The redhead had the "eff this, I'm out" look on his face as he about booked it away from me and my adorable prince of darkness. Naturally, Axel remained promptly where he was — not wanting to look like a big chicken afraid of the tiny Shadow the size of an infant.

Coaxing Ziggy, I felt him cease his vigorous squirming after I stroked his head for a few seconds. He then chilled in my lap, antenna twitching as he resumed his staring contest of sorts with Axel. I could see Sora was getting closer to us. That giant bag of presents he had didn't look any emptier either. Kairi and Riku has joined him — though the latter looked less than enthusiastic to be passing out gifts and kept twiddling with the buttons of his navy and silver striped cardigan sweater and the black elf hat he wore for Sora's amusement looked utterly ridiculous and yet also painfully adorable on him.

Okay, if it wasn't completely obvious, I was head over heels for Riku Kage. Even dorky elf hats looked adorable on him. Yes, I had it bad. Was I so desperate enough to cave and give in to Axel's madness and crazy shenanigans to even have a sliver of a chance in hell with my triplet's best friend?

"Okay, I give."

Apparently, desperation was a strong persuader. What could I say? I was a teen girl who apparently couldn't let go of a silly little crush that had been there since I was old enough to talk.

"Hell yeah. Operation Jelly is a go!"

Insert instant regret.

Hanging my head, I looked up at the redhead under my bangs before blowing them out of my eyes. I was seriously desperate to even consider doing this. Another glance at Riku sent my heart pounding though and my face warmed unpleasantly. Riku was rolling his eyes and smiling as Sora and Kairi danced around the corridor, singing Christmas carols at the top of their lungs. I didn't know how or why, but Vanitas has joined them and he was also wearing his own Santa suit, though his was as black as coal and he was throwing half-assed wrapped presents at people while going "Merry Fucking Christmas" and ignoring Riku trying to chastise him.

"So what's the game plan?" I dared to ask, locking eyes with Axel, who was wearing an impish grin.

Regret intensifying.

"Follow my lead!"

He held his hand out to me and I eyed it reproachfully.

"C'mon. Hold my hand."

"I'd rather chew mine off."

Axel rolled his eyes at that. "C'mon. Do it."

I grimaced, finally caving and taking Axel's hand. Honestly, I was more afraid of him accidentally setting me on fire than the prospect he had cooties or something. Axel didn't exactly have as much control as he claimed he did over his powers. I mean, how could he? He half-assed a lot of things — including taming his powers. He spent more time napping and shoving ice cream in his gob than anything else.

Seriously, why was I crazy enough to entrust my love life — or lack thereof — to this kook?

One look toward Riku and the desperation won once again. I mean, I'd spent the past decade of my life wanting Riku to look my way — and anytime I thought that maybe, just maybe, I had a shot he would suddenly do a complete 180 and leave me clueless. I didn't know who was more bipolar here — me or Riku. The mixed signals I had been getting since we arrived here at the Institute had only gotten worse since we were kids.

"Okay, so what's the plan?" I dared to ask again.

"I said follow my lead, didn't I? Yeesh, have some faith in me."

Putting my faith in the hands of Axel Moyasu — yup, I was now clinically insane.

Axel yanked me to my feet, and Ziggy had barely managed to dive into the safety of my satchel bag as I staggered. Axel was a head taller than me and those long legs of his in strides meant I was practically jogging to keep up. Still, I watched as the distance between Riku and us was becoming smaller. Kairi was now perched on Sora's shoulders while they attempted to fix some of the decorations that Vanitas had knocked down while throwing presents at people's faces. Riku now had him in "jail" — using some of the candy cane decorations as a makeshift cage that Vanitas was now sitting in, still throwing presents at people as they came within walking distance of them. Naminé had joined her sister, wearing a white elf costume. Naturally, Vanitas and her were exchanging snark — gods, their cover-up of them secretly being together was so transparent.

Loathe each other in the streets, freaks in the sheets those two.

The moment we were close, I watched as Axel called out to Riku — who apparently was either ignoring Axel or hard of hearing. Annoyed, the redhead then suddenly let go of my hand to dive for my satchel bag. I wasn't fast enough to stop him from snagging Ziggy and then — much to friggin' horror — he threw Ziggy at Riku.

Ziggy went flying through the air, smacking Riku square in the face just as he happened to finally turn to look at us. Panicked, Ziggy scrambled up Riku's face and then got on top of Riku's head, claws entangled in tuffs of silver as Riku locked his eyes on Axel in a glare.

"What the hell do you want?" Riku scowled.

"I just wanted to happily inform all of you—" Axel was now yelling. Awesome. "—that Rayne and I are madly in love!"

Oh gods, I actually gagged.

Vanitas and Sora immediately locked their deadliest glares on the redhead — and if not for the fact that me being within a ten foot radius of them negated their powers, I was pretty sure Axel would be on the receiving end of a beatdown from weapons of pure light and darkness right now about now just from holding my hand, let alone proclaiming love between us. My face was burning so badly I didn't even have to fear Axel setting me on fire now — I was going to spontaneously combust at this rate.

There were only a few seconds of awkward silence before Kairi snorted. "Yeah right. What sort of prank is this? It's gotta be your lamest yet."

I shot Axel a glare, mentally shouting at him that I had told him so. He laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head before hastily releasing my hand. Then, with a quick "See ya~!" Axel was straight up abandoning my ass, taking off down the corridor at breakneck speed — seriously, he was running as if the Beast was on his heels.

Leaving me to be the star of the show, all by my lonesome.

"What the fuck?" Vanitas demanded a second later.

"Yeah, seriously. What was that about?" Sora asked, our identical eyes meeting.

I cleared my throat. "I...uh…"

I tried desperately not to look at Riku, looking at everyone but him — which only made it obvious to everyone and their brother — more specifically mine — that Riku had been the reason for this stupidity.

Seriously, why couldn't I strip away my own feelings? I legitimately wanted to die right about now. Stupid powers. Stupid crush.

And I was the stupidest one of them all, thinking I would ever have a chance with Riku Kage. He was a prefect. He was perfect. He was everything I wasn't.

Oh, gods, I was about to cry. I couldn't even stop my vision from blurring or the lump burning in my throat. I looked away, wishing I had to the ability to turn invisible as I stepped back. I was about to turn and take off myself when I felt someone grabbing my wrist. I dared only look back when I realized it was Riku. He had Ziggy held in one arm.

"Don't forget Ziggy."

I nodded slowly, reaching to take Ziggy and holding him close. I pressed the lower half of my face against the Shadow's bulbous head, ignoring the smell of eggplant juice that coated to his strange body of shadow. Riku then cleared his throat a bit, causing me to look up at him. He was scratching at his cheek and shifting his eyes away from me.

"You okay?"

I hesitated and gave a slight nod, not really noticing anything else other than Riku. I felt touched that he was even checking on me — that to him, my feelings had validation and even mattered to him. My emotions were twisting, meshing into a strange harmony of sad and happy that Riku seemed to care. But deep down, I knew it was only because I was his best friend's sister. It wasn't personal.

Hell, I wasn't even sure if Riku and I were friends. After my brothers and Kairi and her sisters had arrived from Destiny Islands, the friendship that had been just Riku and me had been disintegrated into casual hellos and awkward how are yous in the halls. No longer was Riku the boy who handmade me dolls to play with or had tea parties with me.

Still, the way he looked at me only made me want to hope even more that maybe one day I could tell Riku how I felt about him.

Today was not the day though.

So when I turned to walk away, I found myself bumping straight into another's chest. Wincing, I rubbed my nose and looked up the several inches that separated me from blazing green orbs — and then I felt horrified as my eyes locked on the leathery-leaved parasitic plant and bore white glutinous berries in Axel's hand.

Mistletoe.

And it was being held right above Riku's and my heads.

"Pucker up, buttercup!" Axel hissed in my ear before I was being grabbed by the shoulder and unceremoniously whirled around.

Then, I was staring into wide aqua eyes and saw fair cheeks being flushed magenta as our lips were pressed together. We both jerked back the moment we could — I saw Kairi and Sora darting away from Riku in a mess of giggles while Vanitas sputtered and pointed at us while trying to say the word "blasphemy" — that or some new swear he had come up with. Axel was snickering behind me while all I could do was hide behind Ziggy.

I kissed Riku!

My first kiss — and it had been with Riku.

I didn't know whether or not I wanted to thank or murder Axel right now. So, with my conflicted emotions, I did the only logical thing I could do. I turned and fled, running away as fast as I could. I didn't stop running until I was in the safety of my dorm, putting Ziggy down before flinging myself onto my bed and then squealing and giving mortifying cries into my pillows.

I kissed Riku!

Gods only knew if I could ever be able to face him again — but for now, I would take Axel's Christmas gift with joy and murder him another day.

A/N: That's it. That's what my cracky brain came up with. Honestly, this was really fun to write and I can't wait to write more little Rayku moments pre-Svarog and delve more into their complicated relationship. I hope you enjoyed reading this Is Og Ild — thank you again so much for letting me play in your universe. ;D Can't wait to see your review!

~Arisa