A/N: Merry Christmas everyone! This story is for penguin-chan, who gave me the prompt, candy canes! Milk and cookies! Kaito! Boxers! Stockings! Elves! to write a Christmas fic on, and also all the friends I've made on ff this year: Gemmie-chan, Jun-chan, Sara-chan, Katie-chan, Butterfly-chan... (Sorry if I've forgotten anymore... bad bad memory I have!) Anyways hope you all enjoy this!

Disclaimer: The usual

Cookies, Candy Canes, Presents

It was Christmas Eve, and Aoko was busy making her famous Christmas cookies for tomorrow. Kaito had adorned the house with all sorts of Christmas decorations, which now resembled a very bright and colourful snow globe. He had even gone so far as to have a Santa climbing into their chimney.

"Aoko Aoko Aoko!" said Kaito happily, running into the kitchen. "I hid candy canes all around the house! Why don't you go look for them?"

Aoko laughed. When it came to Christmas, it was as if Kaito had turned into a four year old boy again. Not that he wasn't, ninety percent of the time anyway. "Okay, just let me put this batch of cookies in the-" Aoko stared at Kaito. "Kaito, what are you wearing?"

"I'm an elf, can't you tell? Santa's little helpers were elves, weren't they?" said Kaito, jumping up and down in excitement. Honestly, how was he so chirpy all the time? And he hadn't even consumed all the cookies and candy canes and chocolate yet…

"Kaito, wearing your green boxers and Santa hat does not make you an elf." Said Aoko, half laughing, half exasperated. "And plus," she added, "Elves don't go around half naked either." Not that she minded of course, but he didn't need to know that. Of course, she didn't want him to catch a cold either…

"Yes, but I thought it would put you in a better mood if I didn't, you see." Grinned Kaito cheekily.

Aoko blushed, wondering how he had known what she was thinking. "Baka! Go put something on before you catch a cold."

--

When a fully clothed Kaito re-emerged in the kitchen, Aoko had just finished putting the last batch of cookies in the oven. Real, homemade cookies, not like those cookie dough ones that Kaito had become so fond of. Not that she had anything against cookie dough, but there was something more exciting about making cookies yourself from scratch.

"Candy cane hunting time!!" Kaito said in a singsong voice.

Aoko laughed, allowing Kaito to take her to the various rooms of their house, finding candy canes in the most bizarre places, such as inside every cushion and pillow case, hanging onto handles and stuck onto lights. There were also two extremely large stockings hanging over the fireplace, which Aoko assumed had being made by Kaito. Stockings simply did not come in pillow case sizes, and when Aoko had looked at Kaito questioning, he had simply said, So more presents can fit into them. Aoko chuckled. The bigger stocking would be better suited to the presents she was giving him, but he couldn't have found out what she was getting him, could he?

Kaito had even managed to spell out an I love you using the candy canes, which were floating in the middle of the bathtub of rose-petal filled water. Aoko squealed in delight upon finding his message in the bathtub, giving him a hug and a very enthusiastic kiss. Just as Kaito was about to deepen the kiss, Aoko gave a loud gasp and pulled away, yelling "The cookies! They're going to burn!" leaving a slightly disgruntled Kaito in the bathroom. Stupid cookies, he thought. Why did she have to worry about them? Burnt cookies were just as edible as un-burnt cookies, though he'd have to admit he liked the latter better.

Warm arms hugged his waist from behind, and Aoko said in his ear softly, "Sorry, I couldn't let the cookies burn, you know that."

Kaito smiled and turned around to face Aoko, pulling her close to him in a tight hug. "Yeah I know. It's okay." They stayed like that for what seemed to be hours to Aoko, before Kaito gently pulled away and grabbed her hand, leading her to the kitchen, where the pile of Christmas cookies and two glasses of milk were waiting for them. Milk and cookies were a tradition of the couple since Aoko had started making her famous Christmas cookies, which Kaito happily declared every year to be the best cookies he had ever tasted, when eaten with a tub of chocolate ice cream, jelly beans and any other form of sweets that happened to be in the house at the time. Personally, Aoko thought that plain cookies and milk were delicious; she really couldn't understand why Kaito had to add all the other ingredients as well…

Aoko woke up on Christmas morning to a white world outside, something she hadn't seen for a few years. She turned over, wanting a few more minutes of sleep. Kaito however, had other ideas. He nudged her nose with his, giving her a kiss before saying excitedly, "Merry Christmas Aoko! Can we go open presents?"

Aoko mumbled something incoherent, burying her face in her pillow to fall asleep again. That proved to be impossible when Kaito began singing Christmas carols at the top of his voice, in an attempt to make her get up.

Jingle bells, batman smells, robin…

"Kaito! Five more minutes please! And don't sing that!"

We wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you …

"Kaito! Didn't you hear what I just said? And don't sing that either!"

Rudolph the red nose reindeer…

"Kaito!"

Silent night, holy night…

"KUROBA KAITO!!" Aoko yelled one last time. Honestly, where did he learn these carols anyway?

"Okay okay, I'll stop. But can we please go open presents now then?" said Kaito hopefully.

Aoko groaned. So much for five minutes of sleep. He wasn't even going to let her have five seconds of sleep, was he? "Fine, fine, let's go open presents," she said as Kaito half dragged her out of the bedroom in excitement, to where the two huge stocking were, filled with presents.

"Merry Christmas, Kaito." Said Aoko with a smile as he took the presents out of his stocking. Kaito unwrapped it eagerly to find a scarf and what seemed to be a recipe book. The scarf was one that Aoko had knitted herself, and Kaito immediately put it around his neck, giving her a thank you kiss. He then picked up the recipe book and read the title,

Fish Cuisines 101.

Kaito stared at the book in horror. He hadn't noticed it before, but there was a massive picture of a fish on the front cover, seeming to be grinning at him.

"Gah!" yelled Kaito. "W-what's this for?"

"You know, Kaito, this phobia of yours is getting out of hand, and I thought it was time I cured it." Said Aoko, shrugging her shoulders. "We'll do this slowly, and I promise you, next Christmas your fish phobia will be cured! What do you think?"

Aoko looked so eager that Kaito didn't have the heart to tell her no. so he hesitantly nodded his head, while thinking of ways to make the evil fish book disappear without her noticing. Or maybe change the contents of the book, perhaps?

"Merry Christmas to you too, Aoko." Said Kaito half sheepishly. He knew he shouldn't have woken her up the way he did, but he was dying to give her his present. He only hoped that she would like it; he had given her present a lot of thought.

Aoko unwrapped the present to find two boxes; one long and rectangular, the other a small square box of a very familiar blue, with a matching white ribbon. She opened the rectangular box to find a beautiful red rose made of glass, with the words, Everlasting Love engraved on the stalk. Aoko gasped; she had never seen anything so beautiful, and she was now feeling a little guilty about the recipe book she had given him.

"Open the other one," said Kaito gently, placing the box in her hands.

Slightly nervous, Aoko untied the white ribbon. Was he giving her what she thought he was going to give her? Cautiously, she lifted the lid of the box to find…

A miniature figure of KID?

Aoko blinked in confusion, and looked at Kaito. "It's a ring," he said happily. "With KID on it! Do you like it?"

"Kaito!" said Aoko laughing, feeling just a little bit disappointed. "Just because I accepted the fact that you're KID, it doesn't mean I'm going to not be anti-KID anymore. That's going to take awhile to change."

Kaito's face fell. "You don't like it? I thought it might be a bit too much, but the rose as well, you know…"

"Oh no no no," said Aoko quickly. "Of course I like it, anything you give to me I'd love! I'd probably just not, wear the ring out in public."

Kaito's face immediately lit up again. "So you don't hate it?"

Aoko laughed, and gave him a kiss. "No, silly, why would I?"

So it wasn't exactly what she'd been hoping for. But he'd obviously put in a lot of effort into giving her something memorable, and in the end, that was all that really mattered.

Fish cuisines and a KID ring. You really couldn't get any better than that.

A/N: Tada! I know it's a little long, but I hope you enjoyed this and tell me what you think of it. Should I actually write up one where Aoko is trying to cure Kaito's fear of fish?

Merry Christmas again ^^