A.N. I found this holiday special, a version of the song 'The Twelve Days of Christmas', listed on Wikipedia and was fortunate to find it on YouTube. I loved it right away, especially Hollyberry due to his sense of humor. It inspired me to write a sequel, but here's the joke: I did not preplan to post this during December! Seriously, I set up the order of stories to post months ago and never thought that I would get to writing this story during December let alone post it. Go figure. XD

The story of Hollyberry's gifts to Princess Silverbell had spread all over the land, as well as the song that accompanied the gifts. Well okay the gifts were from Sir Carolboomer, or so he said, but Hollyberry did all the work so of course he earned all the credit. As well as Silverbell's hand-in-marriage.

Hollyberry, now a prince instead of a mere squire, still couldn't figure out his luck. Twelve days ago he was just a squire to the pompous egotistical Carolboomer, then he was Carolboomer's errand and delivery boy (and that was his nice way of putting it), and now he was Silverbell's fiance and true love. He did love her, despite the way she treated him when he brought most of the gifts, but deep down felt bad. When he heard about King Firwreath's crossword puzzle he realized that it was the answer list to the puzzle he stole, not Silverbell's Christmas list. So all those gifts he brought her were mistakes, even though every thing worked out. He did know her temper, and so was at first scared to tell her the truth, but his love for her as well as his guilt won.

Silverbell was on the balcony, admiring the Christmas tree outside. Hollyberry, now dressed up as a prince instead of a squire, quietly drew nearer and stopped. He was still a little nervous, but eventually regained his courage and joined her.

"A beautiful sight." Silverbell smiled.

"Not as beautiful as you." Hollyberry smiled weakly; his smile quickly faded.

"What's wrong? Don't tell me you caught the melancholy from me." Silverbell joked, chuckling.

Hollyberry chuckled too, but a weak one.

"No, but I do have a confession to make." He said.

"What is it?"

"The truth is, those 'presents' I brought you...well, Sir Carolboomer and I actually thought you wanted them. But they turned out to be the answers to your father's crossword by mistake." Hollyberry hung his head.

"What are you-?" Silverbell then remembered that she had lost the answers to the crossword puzzle when she was bringing them to her father...or so she thought. "Wait a minute, you stole the answer list thinking it was my Christmas list?" She said, shocked.

"Yes." Hollyberry never felt so ashamed in his life. "It was Carolboomer's idea but I should have never agreed to do it...it was dishonest."

"It certainly was." Silverbell frowned; then she softened. "However telling me the truth did take great courage, and I am proud of you for that."

"Well, the other truth is that I really do love you." Hollyberry admitted, now smiling genuinely. "Despite the way you treated me when I brought you those so-called presents I fell in love with you. I couldn't help it."

Silverbell kissed him on the cheek. Steam came out of his ears again.

"Maybe I was a little hard on you when you brought those presents." Silverbell smiled. "After all they eventually made me laugh."

"Yeah, well, you didn't know they would. And even though I didn't know about your feather allergy at first your dislike to the bird presents were understandable." Hollyberry smiled, lovestruck but apologetic. "I should have taken a tip there and switched to fake birds."

"Well, it's okay." Silverbell shrugged. "Those geese eggs do make good omelets, and Clara has become a good friend of ours."

Clara was the partridge, who indeed had become a good friend of Silverbell's and Hollyberry's. Her pear tree was replanted in the castle orchard and Silverbell and Hollyberry would often walk through the orchard and converse with her.

"I'm glad you've forgiven me...it would have broken my heart if you hadn't." Hollyberry admitted.

"Well, you are my true love, even if those presents did come from a mistaken assumption." Silverbell replied. "So, how is it being a prince now?"

"It's great, at least the 'no more running errands' part." Hollyberry chuckled. "Of course I have to get used to being called a prince or 'your highness'."

"Oh you will, you'll at least be hearing the 'your highness' one for the rest of your life." Silverbell chuckled back. "The prince one won't last too much longer."

"Oh...right." Hollyberry became wide-eyed; he'd forgotten that marrying Silverbell would make him the next king. "I hope I'll make a good king."

"Of course you will, you are a hard worker and honest." Silverbell smiled. "And if you ever need help remember: I'll be right there by your side."

"Thanks." Hollyberry relaxed. "So, only a few more days until 'the thirteenth day of Christmas'."

They decided to call their wedding day 'the thirteenth day of Christmas' since it was the original twelve days that played a part in their ending up together. Of course the wedding was going to take place in January, days after Christmas, but they didn't mind the 'break between Christmas days' conflicting with the name.

"Yeah, go figure with the irony huh?" Silverbell chuckled. "Thirteen is supposed to be an unlucky number but for us it will be lucky."

"My kind of irony." Hollyberry chuckled in agreement.