A/N: It continues...

Fox looked up from the book he was checking out for Peppy and his eyes wandered around the mall, searching for something. Krystal noticed and asked,

"Something wrong Fox?"

"Huh? Oh, no. I just thought I heard someone yelling Peppy's name."

He stuffed the book under his arm and payed for it at the front desk. He lead Krystal out of the book store when she suddenly stopped.

"Fox?"

"Yeah?"

"What this?" She asked, pointing to something above them. Fox looked up and saw a piece of decoration hanging from a string. It was an assortment of some sort of holly leaves and berries that belonged to the Santalaceae family. Or as most call it, Mistletoe.

"Oh that," Fox snickered. "That's mistletoe."

"Missile toe?"

"Yeah."

Krystal looked confused and stared at the plant on the string. Why was it hanging from a string? There must be a purpose to it she thought.

"What it for?"

"Basically if two people are under the mistletoe then they have to kiss."

"Kiss?" Krystal asked, a small smile creeping on her lips. Fox noticed her reaction to the word and suddenly his throat felt very dry. And at that point he also noticed that the two were indeed under the mistletoe. When he brought his attention back to Krystal, she was already standing nose to nose with him. Gently, she placed her hands on his face and pulled him into a soft kiss.

Even though it only lasted for a few seconds, Fox felt like he was in heaven. Krystal broke away and smiled brightly at him.

"Like that?" She asked playfully. Fox could only nod, trying to regain his composure. Krystal laughed at the vulpine and gently intertwined her hand into his own. Fox looked down to his hand in Krystal's then back to her. She gave him another playful smile and Fox couldn't help smiling back.

"Let's go Krys." He said. The two walked hand in hand through the mall, picking out presents for their friends until Krystal saw something that made her squeal in delight.

"Santa!" She cried. Fox looked over to where she was pointing too and saw a small cardboard set of Santa's Village and little kids were lined up to sit on the lap of the big guy himself.

Fox chuckled. Krystal had really taken a liking to the Santa stories Fox had told her the other night. She seemed excited about the fact that a fat man could travel around the world in one night, sliding down chimneys and delivering toys. Of course Fox didn't have the heart to tell Krystal the "truth" about Santa but he could see no harm in her enjoying her first Christmas like anyone else when they first learn of the holiday.

Krystal looked at Fox with big hopeful eyes, causing him to laugh.

"Ok Krystal. Go ahead."

She hugged him tight and gave him another kiss, which caused Fox to turn redder than Rudolph's nose. She hurried to the line and stood with the kids, excited to meet the man she has heard so many wonderful things about. Some of the kids gave her strange looks as well as some of the parents.

Fox smiled as he watched her pick up a little girl who was trying to see Santa and lifted her high above everyone else's head.

"God she's wonderful." Fox thought. But he frowned at his thoughts. Something just didn't feel right.

"Get real Fox. You've only known this girl for less than two weeks. You can't be having these kind of feelings for her already. She doesn't even understand you half the time and vice versa! You know that kiss didn't really mean anything. She just wanted to try out the holiday traditions."

Fox shook his head, trying to loosen the thoughts from his brain. Why was this so hard? Why was he having these doubts?

Fox soon snapped back to reality when he noticed that Krystal had gotten to the front of the line. He moved in a little closer so he could hear if Krystal was going to ask for anything. Although what happened next certainly wasn't what Fox expected.

He noticed that "Santa" was tipping from side to side in an unusual manner. Whenever he asked a child what they wanted, he would slur his words slightly or burp. There was even one kid who said that Santa "smelled funny."

"Good lord," Fox said to himself. "He's drunk."

Then, the moment Santa laid eyes on Krystal, his fake beard nearly shot off his face.

"Ho, ho, HO." He purred in a rather seductive yet disturbing manner. Krystal looked quite timidly at him and then to Fox. Fox could she that she was having second thoughts about this and in all honesty, so was he.

"Why don't be shy beautiful. Come sit on Santa's lap and whisper what you want for Christmas in Saint Nick's ear." He said in the same manner, roughly patting his leg and letting out a huge belch.

Krystal could not understand parts of what he was saying but was picking up some very inappropriate signals from the man in red. He smelled awful too. This was not the Santa she had heard about.

Fox came up behind her and grabbed her hand. She looked at him then back to Santa, then back to Fox and said,

"Go?"

"Yes Krystal. We can go." Fox told her, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze. She had a small look of relief and both foxes started to leave but Santa wasn't finished yet.

"Hey, where do you think your going?" He bellowed, standing up. He grabbed Fox by the tail and gave a hard yank. Fox let out a yelp and spun around, yanking his tail out of the Santa's grip.

"Let her be with a real -hic!- man." Santa challenged. Fox wanted to really take this guy down but he noticed many children and parents watching the scene. It wouldn't exactly be the best headline stating that the leader of Star Fox gave Kris Kringle a black eye in front of dozens of children.

Fox pulled the Santa close and whispered, "Listen boozy, I got no problems knocking out a drunken Mall Santa but don't make me do it in front of a bunch of kids."

"Oh really?!" Santa spat, slapping Fox's hands away.

"Well come on foxy! Take your best shot! Come on, I dare ya! Don't you know who I am?! I'm Santa Clause!! I'M INVINCIBLE!!"

Fox shook his head and started to leave but Santa wasn't done yet.

"Yeah. That's right. Walk away. Walk away with that -hic!- blue floozy!"

Fox stopped dead in his tracks and his ears flattened against the back of his skull. He turned towards the crowd and shouted,

"Hey kids! Isn't that the Sasquatch doing Hindu squats with Jack LaLanne?"

All the kids turned around to see this bizarre sight as well as the parents.

POW!

A loud impact like sound caused them to focus their attention back to Santa and his rival. What they saw was Santa sitting back in his chair and Fox and Krystal walking away. A little girl ran up and hopped onto Santa's lap. She noticed a huge swollen mark around his right eye.

"What happened to your eye Santa?"

"Santa..." He looked over nervously to where Fox and Krystal were heading. Fox turned around and gave him a mean look.

"...Santa fell."

In another part of the mall, more children were enjoying themselves in a giant ball pit. They were throwing multi colored balls at their parents or each other. Some were even diving into the colorful sea of plastic spheres. One kid dove into the pit and hit something hard.

"Ow! Watch it kid!" Falco yelled shoving the tyke off him. Slippy emerged beside him and looked around.

"Do you think he's still there?"

"I don't know Slippy." Falco sighed. He looked around, studying his surroundings and shook his head.

"So why are you afraid of those...things."

"When I was eight, my Dad took me to a circus," Slippy began. "It was great until these horrible looking clowns came out and started to spray people with water. One came right up to us and just drenched me. Then he started to pop balloons all around me, laughing his head off. I was eight for cry'n out loud! I thought he was going to murder me."

Slippy shivered at the memory then asked Falco the same question.

"No reason really. They just creep the hell out of me. Like they're going to eat your soul or something."

Falco let out another heavy sigh. He picked up a ball and studied it, staring at his reflection in it's shiny surface.

"How did it come to this Slippy?"

"Come to what? Us hiding from a clown in a children's ball pit?"

"Yeah. That's pretty much it." Falco grumbled. But then he had a moment of enlightenment. Something deep inside him pushed away his fear and awakened an arising courage. He stood up from the ball pit and looked down the crowds of shoppers to where that clown was still parked in front of that store.

"Slippy. Get up. We're getting Fox his gift."

"Uh...how so?"

"I'll tell you how," Falco said, grabbing Slippy by the collar and lifting him to his feet. "We're going to face that clown head on! We're going to peer back into that disgusting face and laugh!"

"So...we're going to do exactly what he wants us to do?"

"Yeah! He'll never see it coming! Listen close Slip, I got a plan." Falco exclaimed and whispered his plan into Slippy's ear. Slippy looked at him funny saying,

"Are you sure that will work?"

"Positive. You just gotta be quick."

Slippy had a look of doubt on his face as he thought about it. Would it really work? It was either that or Slippy would have nothing for Fox.

"Alright. Let's do it."

Falco nodded and the two stepped out of the ball pit and onto the battlefield. He nodded to Slippy who hid behind a Christmas tree. Falco took a deep breath and called out,

"Hey! Clown!"

The clown looked over to Falco and another horrible grin spread across it's face.

"Hey Mister Birdman person! Back again I see!"

Falco clenched his sweaty fists together and whispered some words of encouragement to himself. "I...want you to make me a-a-a..."

"A what Mister Birdman?"

"...A bunny!"

The clown clapped his hands together in glee. "A bunny! I sure can do that for you!" He pulled out his balloons and started to go to work when Falco suddenly stopped him.

"Wait! I don't want any ordinary bunny."

"You don't?"

"No! I want mine to be six feet tall with machine guns attached to it's arms and able to shake martini's for me!"

As Falco was giving the clown his ridiculous demands, Slippy slipped by unnoticed into the electronic store. He ran through the isles as fast as he could to find the parts he was looking for. He grabbed them in a manner of seconds and dashed to the cashier.

"Ring these up, quick!" He shouted at the clerk. An elderly weasel peered at him behind her glasses.

"Sing teacup to Nick? Who's Nick?"

"No! I want to buy these! It's an emergency!"

"Yeah, you do need currency to buy these."

Slippy ripped his hat off his head and was nose to nose with the senile clerk. "I WANT TO BUY THESE NOW! MY FRIEND IS FACING A CLOWN OUT THERE! SO JUST RING IT UP GOD DAMMNIT!"

"Oh! Why didn't you say so! That'll be twenty credits young man." She said.

Slippy slammed down the money and took off, not even bothering to get his change. The weasel watched him go, shaking her head.

"I hope his friend made it. There's nothing worse than feeling brown without any underwear."

Slippy made it out of the store just in time to see that the clown had indeed finished Falco's balloon animal. A six foot tall rabbit with machine gun arms was shaking a martini in front of an awe struck Falco. The clown noticed him and Slippy felt his breakfast threaten to come up.

"Hey again Mister Frog Man person! What would you like?!"

Slippy turned around to bolt, only to come crashing into the chest of his leader. "What's the matter Slip?" Fox asked as a confused Krystal and Peppy joined his side. Slippy hid behind Fox and Falco rushed up to them motioning it was time to leave.

"Hey! You brought your pals! What can I make them!?" The clown shouted, hopping up to them in a silly mater. He looked at Krystal and pulled out a balloon.

"What can I make you pretty blue lady!?"

Krystal gave him a hard stare. What was this annoying creature? It wiggled some noisy material in her face then proceeded to twist it. She then noticed a pretty flower on his chest. It looked just like the ones they had on Cerinia. She leaned in for a closer look when suddenly a spray of water shot from the flower and into her face.

"Hahaha! You like my flower pretty lady?!"

Krystal's response was that of a sickening head butt right to the clowns face. He swooned for a bit and fell flat on his back unconscious. Everyone looked at her with mouths hanging open.

"Fox," Falco said. "Marry this woman."

Fox could only stare as Krystal nudged the clown's body to make sure it wasn't going to get up. She turned back to them and smiled.

"I like Christmas!" She suddenly cheered.

Fox had noticed a large crowd had seen the whole thing and figured it was probably a good time to go. He grabbed Krystal's hand and they all rushed towards the exit. They hurried out into the cold air and called another cab.

Fox watched the mall get smaller and smaller as they sped away from the madness that had ensued there. He let out a sigh of relief and looked to Krystal. He frowned. Her usual cheery demeanor was replaced by a sad and quiet one. Her hand was placed on a spot on her neck where her necklace once resided. Fox sighed. She must of been having such a good time that she forgot all about it.

"Oh crap!"

Fox suddenly thought. In all their time there, he had forgotten to get Krystal a gift. The vulpine slumped in his seat. This was turning out to be a pretty weak Christmas.

A/N: Poor Fox. Anywho, I'll be away for a little bit so it will be a while before I can update the final chapter. Cya in a few!