A/N: Wow. Yay for eager responses! I'm glad this is getting the reaction it is. I figured this fandom was Christmas fic starved. Seems I was right. I don't think this one is as good as the first, but hey, what can you do?

Inspired, in part, by the song "All I Really Want For Christmas" by Steven Curtis Chapman. Thank save changes to normal for introducing it to me.

The Perfect Christmas

Chapter 2/25: Shopping

Ben's first mistake had been assuming that because New York was famous for it's shopping it would actually be fun to do his Christmas shopping there.

His second—and possibly fatal—mistake had been to think that taking Riley with him would be a good idea.

Nobody cared about the kid more than he did, of this Ben was sure, but if Riley said his feet hurt one more time then he was taking his next trip down an escalator head first.

"What are we even looking for," Riley complained from the other side of an isle of shoes. "We've been in a hundred stores and you've only bought your dad a new glasses case. Which, by the way, is the lamest present ever."

"He needs it," Ben explained, reaching up and opening a box of shoes and frowning at the contents. He wasn't sure, but he thought Abby probably already owned a pair just like these.

A bunch of the boxes were shifted around, and Riley peered at him through the hole that was made. "Ben, you don't buy people presents that they need. You buy them fun stuff."

"You've obviously never spent Christmas with my father."

"Well, it's not my fault you never took me home to introduce me to the family," Riley smirked at him. Ben wished there wasn't a wall of shoes between them so he could whack his best friend upside the head.

"I can't take you anywhere, without getting strange looks, can I?" He pushed the boxes back, getting some small satisfaction of hitting Riley's nose with it.

"That's all you, Ben. Someone your age following around a handsome young guy like me…people start to wonder."

"Why do I bother," Ben muttered to himself, meeting up with Riley at the end of the isle. "We're trying to find Abby's Christmas present, remember?"

"So we're looking at shoes?" The younger man raised an eyebrow at him, not bothering to hide his scoff. "Ben, she owns more shoes than any woman possibly needs. Even you can't argue that would make a good Christmas present."

"You didn't approve of the jewelry stores either. Can I not win with you?"

"Hey, it's not me you have to win with," Riley shrugged, sticking his hands in the pocket of his black hoodie. "I'm just trying to make sure you don't have to sleep on the couch until Spring."

"Abby's not that petty," Ben argued back, picking up a leather purse.

"Yeah, tell that to me again when you're sleeping on my couch," Riley grinned at him.

"Ha, ha, you're very cute," came the muttered response. "Alright then. If you're so smart, what would you get her?"

Riley shrugged, side-stepping a couple of kids that were dashing down the department store isle. "I just think of her as a female version of you, and find the appropriate item."

"That's really weird. You know that, right?"

"Weird, maybe, but accurate. Unfortunately for you, you already gave her the perfect present before you were even going out. No idea how you're going to top that stupid button."

"Pin."

"Whatever."

Ben frowned. He'd actually had that thought himself. What could he get Abby that would be better than the Inaugural button? It would have to be special, and have a story.

Things you bought in department stores didn't come with stories. "We need an antique store."

"Then why did you drag me all the way up to New York City to walk around for hours?" Riley's tone wasn't really quite a whine. He actually sounded pleased. "You so owe me for the blisters on my feet."

"Well, then, I'll get you a decent pair of shoes for Christmas, how's that?" Ben grinned, looking over in time to catch Riley's indignant look.

"First of all, my Converse are the best shoes ever. Secondly, didn't we just discuss that you don't get…" Riley was cut off as a kid bumped into him, nearly knocking him over.

"Excuse me," the kid muttered before taking off down the aisle.

"Yeah, but I still disagree with you," Ben said, looking up from where he'd bent to pick up the bag Riley had dropped, but when he went to hand it to his friend Riley wasn't there. He was halfway down the isle, chasing after the kid.

Confused, Ben dropped the bag holding his Father's present into Riley's large bag and started to chase after him. Normally, Ben could keep up with Riley easy, but in such a large crowd Riley's smaller size gave him a distinct advantage. When they turned and reached a slightly less crowded part of the store, Ben put on a burst of speed to catch up with his friend. "What are you doing?"

"That kid pinched my wallet," was the terse reply before Riley yelled down the isle. "Hey! Kid! Get back here!"

The boy put on a burst of speed, and soon he was nothing but a blue blur as he made a sharp down another isle towards the front door. Riley was right behind him, nearly sliding on the slick tile and leaving Ben to struggle along behind.

Once they were out on the crowded street, it was even more difficult to keep up. The best Ben could do as they turned corners and drifted further away from the clean and popular streets was to keep his eye on Riley and mutter 'excuse me' as he bounced off two people for ever three steps he took.

It seemed that Riley had no problem navigating the bustling streets. In fact, if Ben didn't know better he would have sworn that Riley had done something like this a thousand times before.

The expensive shops and nice apartments steadily gave way to more run down and shabby buildings; some of them probably hadn't seen any kind of touching up on them in the last half century.

As they turned down one final alley, the historian saw Riley standing in front of him, not running anymore.

Ben was panting when he finally caught up with Riley, who was staring up at the run down building in front of them. He ignored the boys playing around in the street and on the front steps as he put his arm around Riley's shoulder, "Riley, what is going on?"

He felt Riley swallow hard and watched him blink rapidly several times. When he spoke, his voice was tight and strained. "There are a lot of memories here…"

Still frowning, Ben looked up at the sign hanging above the main door. Miss Louis's Home For Boys.

He could take a guess here about the significance of this place to his friend. He was fairly certain that this is where he'd grown up after his mother had lost custody of him. That information, though, wasn't supposed to be known to him, since Riley had never told him, and Ben wasn't about to reveal that he hadn't trusted Riley for even a few moments when the kid had always trusted him completely. "Riley…"

"I spent so many Christmases…so many letters to Santa even though I never believed in him…" Riley laughed, but it was wet and possibly closer to a bitter sob than a laugh.

Sighing, Ben tried to pull his friend away. "Come on Riley…"

"You know what I asked for…every single Christmas?"

"…No."

"I wanted my Mother back." Riley shook his head, finally looking at Ben with tear-glazed blue eyes. None of them had fallen, and Ben doubted any would. "I begged, pleaded, that she would come and get me and we'd be a family again. Not that we were much of a family to begin with, but there were days and…and I loved her…I don't know why she…"

Riley bit down his tounge, as if realizing he was saying far more than he wanted to. Even knowing the bit he did about Riley's past, Ben couldn't get more than the feeling of abandonment and loneliness out of his friend's rant. It didn't matter. It was enough.

"Hey, we going to go get your wallet or not?" Ben motioned to the boy sitting on the front porch, talking non-chillingly with one of the older boys already there.

Riley shook his head, looking back at the building with an unreadable look on his face. "Nah, he can keep it. I'll cancel the cards…and that cash probably means the world to him right now."

With a half-smile, Ben tugged on his friend's arm. "Come on, Riley. Let's go home."

At this, Riley smiled and the unshed tears vanished.