It's Christmas eve and I still don't have a tree. Why? Well the school pays for my apartment, but apparently they won't cover me buying a freaking Christmas tree!!!!

I spent the last couple days doing nothing. School let out and every ones at home with the family. Christmas shopping was a bust. The gang asked me to go shopping with them but really who would I be shopping for? Myself?

It was the last day of school before winter break and I told them there was no reason for me to shop. Layla went nuts…

"WHAT?! But you can't be all alone for Christmas!" She gasped.

We were at the lunch table and we had been discussing what to buy for our families.

"It's no big deal Layla, I'll just stay in and watch a movie or something." I said, my face buried in what I think is macaroni and cheese.

"But that won't do. People should be with family on Christmas." She says.

I gave her a look that says 'don't go there'. That definitely stopped her.

When we were leaving the cafeteria she stops me and say, "Come over to my house for Christmas, you don't have to, but our door is open."

So here I am. Its Christmas eve, I have no tree, and no family to celebrate with. This is seriously depressing.

I run over to the phone and call the number I know by heart…

"Hello," a small voice answers.

"Hey, it's October." I say. This follows a series of squeals from the other end of the line.

"Merry Christmas Toby!! We miss you. Where are you Toby? Toby, Toby, lemme talk to her!" I could hear the kids on the other line in the back round trying to get the phone, I chuckled to myself.

They were my family, this foster home was the only one I had stayed over a year at. I loved the kids, but I had to leave and come to Sky High. Of course they think I left to go to Europe…

"Hey guys, I miss you too, I'm in – uh- Paris!" I told them.

"Oo is-is it pretty Toby?" They asked.

"It's beautiful, I miss you all so much, but you know your not suppose to answer the phone." I said.

"Hey Toby we have to go, it's dinner, were having spaghetti!!! Bye, we love you Toby, bye, byeeeee."

"No wait-, but they already hung up." And then it hit me. I'm all alone for Christmas.

I put on a light jacket and snow boots and head out. I don't know where I'm going, so I just walk around randomly in the middle of the night on Christmas eve.

Before I know it I'm in front of Laylas house and I can see my breath it's so cold out here.

I also see her and her mom by the tree through the window. They're singing Christmas carols to the radio. I don't want to interrupt…

I walk away. I walk a few blocks and now I doubt my toes have any blood pumping in them. I think they're frozen solid.

Ahead I see exactly what I need. A Chinese restaurant. And before I even get inside, it starts snowing. I make a run for it. My hair is covered with the stuff already and now I'm inside.

I take a booth by a heater and grab a menu. No one else is here. I guess even the Jewish folk are ordering in tonight.

I can here the wind picking up outside.

"What are you doing here?" Asks and all to familiar voice.

"I'm in the mood for Chinese." I answer, looking at the menu in front of me. "I'll have, the family feast." I told him.

"That's for five people."

"Well I'm hungry." I finally look up and see him with his hair pulled back in a low ponytail and wearing a black muscle tee and jeans with a white apron around his waist.

He walks away, and I stare blankly out the window, watching the snow fall into the dark. When he comes back, my table is full of food, and suddenly I'm not so hungry.

He sits across from me, "What are you reading?" He asks. I had pulled out my old and worn copy of A Silent Night, and taken it with me. It was always tradition to read it to the younger foster kids.

I showed him the cover.

"Why." He asks. I had begun to poke at my food with a pair of chopsticks.

"Tradition." I answer. He looks at me. REALLY looks at me, it feels like I'm being scanned.

Suddenly, the lights go out, and all the light is coming form the single flickering candle between us. "Damn storm," I mutter to myself.

"Your stuck here till the lights come back on, no lights mean no street lamps means you can't walk home, especially in he storm. I'd ask the owner to give you a ride but every ones gone." He said.

"So what? It's just you and me?" I asked.

"Just you and me." He mused to himself.

"Fine then," I walk over the fire place at the back of the restaurant and sit down across from it, and Warren follows me.

He sits down next to me, a little too close for comfort. Our elbows are touching, and it may seem a little childish but I think I'm actually holding my breath.

I start to read the book to myself, thinking about my past Christmas'. They never seemed like much. Now I wish I could have them back. We only ever had small, fake trees, and one year with a old couple they got (what seemed to me) a huge real live Christmas tree.

Now I had neither. "Why do people make such a big deal outta Christmas." I asked myself out loud.

Warren answered me, "Family and junk I guess. It's suppose to be about coming home for the holidays…"

"But what if no one comes home. Or you don't have family. Why do people like that make such a big deal. It would be a whole lot more easier to just ignore it if there weren't lights around every corner." I pouted, but I guess I was one of those people with no family.

"People do and don't celebrate for different reasons. My mom is out saving the world somewhere and my dads in solitary. What's your excuse?" He turns towards me.

"Who says I'm not celebrating, maybe this is my version of a Merry Christmas!"

"Stuck in a crummy Chinese restaurant with one lit candle, but hey at least there's a heater." He remarked sarcastically.

"That's the spirit!" I replied. He glared at me. "Fine, the school pays for my apartment and they wouldn't buy me a freaking Christmas tree. I have no decorations and Sandy was asleep. It was just too depressing. I don't' really have any family. No tree and means no presents." I stated simply shrugging my shoulders.

Suddenly he gets up and walks out. When he comes back he motions for me to lay out my hand, "Close your eyes," he says.

I do what I'm told and he sits down next to me and something cold hits my hand.

I open them to see a bronze metal choker necklace with a half sun, half moon as the charm.

"Stupid people leave jewelry here all the time, we have a stash of the stuff in the back. Merry Christmas October." He whispers.

I look up at him and silently thank him with my eyes. I turn forward and put on the choker. It fits perfectly. "Thanks hotshot," I mumble.

WARREN POV

"Thanks hotshot," she mumbled. She leans back against the wall behind us and falls asleep after awhile. She leans her head against my shoulder and cuddles into my neck.

I wrap an arm around her to keep her from falling over. The lights have come back on, and I strain my neck to look out the window and see a white blanket of snow covering everything.

I pick her up bridal style and she mumbles something and turns to me resting her head on my chest.

I laid her in the backseat of my car and drive her home, all the while thinking about what made me give her the necklace. She had looked so lost, like a dog that had been kicked when she said she had no family to celebrate with.

It wasn't much, the necklace had been around for a while and no one had claimed it. It looked good on her.

He carried her to her apartment and fond the door open. Laying her down on her bed, he did it quickly before she could get a grip on him with her powers. I watched her for a second. Her blonde hair wildly sprayed about her. She was like a Christmas angel.

Shit, did I really just think that? God I'm going soft, damn girl and her damn sparkly eyes…

I leave. I make sure to lock her door and just leave. Again. This is getting to be a bad habit…

TOBY POV

I wake up to a white Christmas in my apartment. Warren was nowhere to be seen, but no surprise there. I walk out to the kitchen and find a card.

I smile, thinking its from Warren. It reads,

Dear October,

It hope you have a very merry Christmas indeed. Enjoy it, I'll be seeing you very soon.

Yours truly.

Shit. It doesn't even have a name! He was in my house. That ass was in my house, well in my apartment but whatever! I need help. I'm not gonna be some idiot who gets herself killed from doing nothing.

I call someone I really didn't want to talk to.

"Hello?" they answered.

"Yes, Principal Powers? I need your help…"

WELL THAT'S IT!!! HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!!!

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