"Okay… so what does Kairi like again?" Sora asked.

"She likes bracelets," Riku said. "Namely, ones that are somewhat gaudy."

Sora gave him a skeptic look. "Well, you would know, wouldn't you?" He laughed at his funny, but Riku slapped him so he shut up about it.

"Do not insult my fashion sense!" Riku snapped. "It's a lot better than yours, anyway."

"Well, at least I don't wear chaps," Sora said. "In fact, I don't think I'll ever wear chaps!"

"You never know," said Riku and they both looked at the camera with thoughtful expressions.

"Anyway," Sora said, "are you sure she'll like these bracelets that look oddly like a Cetra—I mean, CERTAIN person's little bracelet things?"

"She'll LOVE them," said the clerk, leaning over the glass counter. "They're FABULOUS, boys!"

"Thanks, umm…" He squinted at the clerk's name-tag. "Steven."

The blond girl nodded, smiling.

Riku's eyes widened at 'Steven.' "Oh. Well, we'll just be paying for these, then."

After they had left the jewelry story, they decided to go back to Sora's house.

Why? I have absolutely no idea, that's why! …That's a stupid reason. Let's say because Sora's mom makes good cookies.

"Great cookies, Miss… umm… Jones," Riku said, having finished several sugar cookies a few seconds ago.

"Well, I'm glad you like them, Riku," she said, taking another tray out of the oven. "Sora, can you get the cookie cutters for me? I know how you love your Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Christmas cookies!"

"Darn straight," Sora said, then rummaged around in some cupboards looking for said cookie cutters. "Here you go, Mom!" he said, handing them to her.

"Thank you, dear."

Riku scoffed. "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?" he snickered.

"Hey, you like them too," Sora said with a very serious look, pointing at him accusingly.

"Yeah, I know," Riku replied dejectedly, glaring at the table.

"Sora, I think your Christmas specials are on," his mom said.

Sora squealed with excitement and ran to the living room, where he flung himself on the couch and turned on the television, where indeed whatever Christmas special was currently on. He laughed amusedly.

Riku stared after him.

"Don't you want to go watch that cute little reindeer stop that bastard wizard?" Sora's mom asked, her eyes narrowing when she said 'bastard wizard'. She smiled sweetly. "I thought it was the most consequential Rudolph movie."

"I didn't know you openly cursed, Ms. Jones," Riku said.

"Oh, only sometimes!" she laughed, going back to making the TMNT cookies. Wow! Spell-check ignored the acronym.

Meanwhile…

"Bah! Them and their Christmas party," Donald grumbled, covering his head with his pillow in a vain attempt to block out the chorus of Jingle Bell Rock. "Don't they know some people have to get sleep?"

"Well, maybe they don't," said a voice from nowhere.

Donald sat up in bed. "Who's there?" he asked.

"It's me!" said a man in a lab-coat, bursting through his window. He had shackles on his wrists and ankles for no apparent reason. "I'm the Ghost of Christmas Past!"

Donald pulled his blanket up so that only his eyes were uncovered. "All I see is a crazy person!"

"No, no, no," said the man. "I'm the Ghost of Christmas Past! I'm here to show you the error of your past."

"What's your real name?" Donald asked, gaining a dubious look.

"It matters not!"

"Your nametag says 'Xehanort'," Donald pointed out.

Xehanort looked at his nametag and ripped it off violently, leaving not only a gaping hole in his pocket protector, but he also got a crazy look on his face as he threw it across the room. "I said it matters not!"

"Okay, okay, don't have a seizure," Donald said.

"Now, Donald Duck—I'm here to show you the error of your past! What made you such a Scrooge to begin with…"

And suddenly, they were on a bright country lane in the middle of winter.

"Here we go," said Xehanort. "Guess which Christmas this is."

Donald saw a small version of himself run down the lane with some of his buddies. "Oh, this is when I was five!"

"Exactly," Xehanort said, nodding. "I think this is what made you bitter about Christmas to begin with."

As Xehanort spoke, the scene changed to that night, and Little Donald opened a package, looking disappointedly at its contents.

"Aww, but I wanted a choo-choo!" he said, tossing the god-awful but thoughtful sweater one of his relatives made aside. He crossed his arms, pouting.

"Oh, Donald, don't say that!" his mother said, picking up the sweater and grimacing at it. "It's… it's lovely!"

"Yeah, right, Karen," Donald's father said sarcastically. "And the scarf your sister made me was the freakin' Mona Lisa of scarves."

Karen glared at him.

"Wow, I never noticed that they hated my aunt Lori so much," Donald said. "They never made it apparent to my small, childish brain."

"Of course not!" Xehanort said. "Parents are like that."

Meanwhile…

"Sometimes I wish I was never born, you know?" Wakka said to his dog, Scraps, as he glared at his ceiling. "I just do good to everyone, and they still don't seem to want me around? You know what I mean, Scraps, mon?"

Scraps gave him a sideways look and left the room.

"You, too? Mon, this day is such a drag!" He rolled over and buried his head in his pillow. "I really wish I was never born!"

"Oh? Is that so?" said a voice from behind.

"GASP!" gasped Wakka. "Who's there?" He sat up, and saw a brown-haired young man leaning up against the wall by his door. "Ah! Don't molest me!"

Squall rolled his eyes. "I'm not here to molest you, kid. I'm here to show you what it would be like if you never existed."

Wakka blinked and looked away awkwardly. "O…oh."

"Now, I'm your guardian angel, all right?" he stood up straight and put his hands in his pockets.

"Guardian angel?" Wakka repeated in wonderment.

"Is there an echo in here?" Squall asked. "Yes, guardian angel."

"But why? Why are you doing this?"

"You know what? I really don't know." He sighed. "But, come on." He snapped his fingers, and it didn't look like anything happened.

Wakka looked at him expectantly. "Well, mon? What did you do?" He looked around. "And why are all the colors muted?"

"This is the world without you," Squall said. "And right now you're sitting in Lulu's room."

"Lulu? Who's that?"

"A girl your mom would have had if she'd married that rich guy," Squall explained. "You know, your old rich neighbor, Vlad Whatsisface."

"Oooh, yeah…"

"Lulu's a prodigy. She's an expert at virtually everything; note the differences there, as you are—were—bad at practically everything."

"Wow… What else changed?"

Squall snapped his fingers again, and they were standing outside of Wakka's house. Wakka looked around, then noticed Sora, Riku, and Kairi walking down the road, laughing and such.

"Well, they don't seem too different," Wakka said, shrugging.

"That's only what's on the outside," Squall said. He snapped his fingers once again, and they were standing outside of Sora's house. It was considerably bigger and fancier than it had been, and Sora walked in, waving good-bye to his buddies. "In a world without you, Sora's mom and dad got married. He's the happiest kid in the world."

"Well, he seemed pretty happy to… Wait, why did they get married in the world I'm not in?" He gave an appropriate 'wtf' look, because, really, that's a good question.

"Your dad was a friend of Sora's dad," Squall said. "Since he didn't get married to your mom, and thus couldn't give Sora's dad advice about avoiding children, Sora's parents got married. Happily, I might add. It was the best wedding ever."

"That sounds wonderful. But I'm depressed that it's only in the world where I don't exist."

"Eh, what can you do?"

"I… I don't know…"

"Exactly."

Meanwhile…

"Hey, Miss," said a voice. "Wake up! You'll catch your death lying in the snow like that!"

Kairi opened her eyes, and noticed immediately that her clothes were wet. "Oh, dang! What happened?"

"You passed out!" said the snowman.

Kairi screamed, and covered her eyes. "Possessed snowman!"

"No, no," chuckled the snowman. "I'm Frosty. Frosty T. Snowman, to be precise, Miss."

"Wait, as in, the Frosty?" Kairi asked.

"Yep! The one and only," Frosty said, looking very proud of himself.

"Wow!" Kairi said. "Wait… it's still creepy."

"Well, yes," Frosty said, laughing slightly. "I am a sentient snowman. But thank you for putting that magical hat on me, and bringing me to life! This hasn't happened since the 1970's. I'm very grateful."

Kairi stood up, shivering. "Brr! I'd better get home and change… I'm soaking wet!"

"Well, you were out for about an hour."

"An hour? Oh geez…"

"I tried waking you up, but you just wouldn't come to!"

"I need to get home! I need to help Granny bake the Christmas pam!"

"…Pam?"

"Oh, it's picnic ham, but my grandma calls it pam for whatever reason."

Kairi hurried home, with Frosty following her closely. As she opened the door, she looked at him, a sorry look on her face. "Gee… Are you sure you can come in? Wouldn't you melt? It's like, eighty in here."

"Nah, I'll just stay out here. I'm content in the snow, remember? What with me being a snowman and all."

"Oh… right." She entered the house, looked back at Frosty, then closed the door. "Granny, I'm home!"

"What happened, Kenny? Did you get caught up in the snow?"

"My name's Kairi, Granny. And yeah, I kind of did get caught up in the snow."

Kairi's granny came out of the kitchen and put her hands on her old lady hips. "Why are you soaking wet, Missy?"

Kairi stared blankly for a second, then came up with the excuse, "I fell into a neighbor's pool."

"In the middle of winter? Wouldn't it be empty?"

"Well… well, well… there was snow in it, and it melted."

"Wouldn't it be shallow? Wouldn't you have gotten terribly hurt?"

"No, I'm fine, Granny!" She walked past her grandmother. "Now, I'm going to go change, all right? You just keep preparing that pam!"

Kairi's granny narrowed her eyes at the girl. "Fine. But hurry up, we don't have all day."

"Yeah…"