Yo! So I goofed and started uploading these one day earlier than I meant to, so this fic is ending Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day which is kinda bumming to me since I wanted it to be aligned with the 12 Days that lead to Christmas, but whatevs! :P So enjoy it anyways! -xoxo Tak

On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

Separate colleges in separate states with separate new lives and separate thoughts. That was the theme of Kendall and Jo's lives now. Jo had gone off to college at UCLA and Kendall had stayed at University of Minnesota. Everyone said it was the ultimate wedge to come between the two, but only they knew the real issue. It was untimely love.

Jo had expressed her sentiment to Kendall openly before spring had arrived. She told him she loved him, and was willing to stay with him her whole life if he wanted her to, but he let her go. He told her it was best for the both of them to not get involved. He told her to go, to leave for UCLA and live her life to its ultimate potential. She didn't understand. She didn't want to either. She asked him whether he loved her back or not and he said no.

She was crushed, broken, bruised, and unaware that he was lying. He didn't want to be the reason why she dropped the best opportunity in the world. He knew she was destined for greatness and only UCLA could lead her there, so he had to make her hate Minnesota and everything about it, including him. It was probably the hardest thing he had ever done.

He let her believe he was in love with Lucy and that he didn't want anything to do with Jo anymore. He let her stay home on prom, alone and hurt, in hopes she'd have made her final decision. On graduation, when she tearfully gave her final goodbyes to her friends, she ignored him glacially. And though she didn't know it, he had it worse than ever. He was beginning to hate himself for the pain he was causing her. He wanted to stop, but by the time he came to his senses, she was gone.

They hadn't talked in over half a year, but they thought about each other constantly. Despite what Kendall had done, Jo still held strong emotions for him, as did Kendall for her. And though she hated him for his doings, she still wanted to see him when she returned for Christmas.

Her plane landed on Christmas Eve and her parents, Camille, and the guys minus Kendall greeted her. They were all happy to see her, bombarding her with questions about California and college and her life, which she happily answered.

She arrived home and went straight to her bedroom. She had missed the large spacious area that held all her fondest memories. She collapsed on the bed and felt at home. After she took a quick nap, she woke up and unpacked. She had a feeling that someone was watching her. She looked up around the room, but there wasn't anyone there, but the feeling stayed. She realized the only other way it was possible. She glanced over at the window and saw Kendall in his room, but he wasn't staring. He was sitting on his bed looking down at something.

She walked over to the window and opened it, not sure what she was about to do. She took some snow of the closest branch and made a snowball. She used it to catch Kendall's attention. When the snowball hit his window, Kendall jumped, causing Jo to laugh. She waved at him and he waved back. He walked over to his window and opened it too.

"Hey." He said.

"Hey." She replied.

"I didn't know you were back." He lied.

"Just got back this morning." She politely answered.

"Well, welcome back." He told her. She smiled at him thankfully. Kendall cleared his throat and said, "So I guess I should let you rest."

"And I'll let you go back to looking at whatever you were looking at." She responded. They waved goodbye at each other and closed the windows. They both turned around and frowned to themselves.

Kendall wiped a small tear from his eyes that had been threatening to spill since he had seen her. The whole time he had been looking at the photo album his father had made of the two of them. He had been trying to finish it up since Jo had given it to him, but there weren't enough pictures to fill all the pages, so he gave up after she left. He never forgot about it though. Whenever he would miss her, he'd look through it. His father must have known he'd need it to remember her because it was full of those moments that Kendall knew for sure he'd never be able to wipe from his mind.

Jo's throat had formed a giant lump in it when she had seen Kendall. She tried to clear it but she ended up crying instead. She couldn't believe that things between them were so bad that they could barely keep up a polite conversation. She didn't want this. She wanted to be able to go over his house, sit on his bed, and tell him all about college life in L.A. She wanted to tell him that it was always warm there, even as she left to come home from the winter. She even wanted to tell him she had missed him so much that everyday she'd go out to the closest ice rink, and pretend he was playing hockey. She wanted to be friends with him again, the way they used to be.

On Christmas morning, Jo had decided she was going to go over to Kendall's to talk to him. Turned out Kendall had a similar idea because he was already at Jo's doorstep when she opened the door.

"What are you doing here?" She asked politely.

"I wanted to talk to you." He said. "Can I come in?"

Jo let Kendall in and they went into her living room. Mrs. Taylor kindly brought them both hot cocoa and left them alone.

"What do you want to talk about?" She asked, though she already knew.

"I want to say sorry Jo." He began. "I'm sorry for everything I did back in March. You didn't deserve it and I shouldn't have done it, but I didn't know what else to do. You told me you loved me and I got scared."

"Why would you be scared?" She asked, listening to him intently.

"I was scared that if I told you that I loved you back and you stayed here, you'd never be able to accomplish the great things I know you're meant to do. You deserve better than a small town city in a small town state. You deserve the world and doorways to it. I didn't want to be the one to hold you back from them." He explained.

Jo stared at him, confused. "If that were the case, why'd you try to make me hate you?"

"I didn't think I had any other way. I thought if you hated me and everything that reminded you of me, you wouldn't want to return. You'd go to California without anything holding you back." He concluded. "I wanted the best for you, but I was stupid to hurt you to get it you."

She bit her lower-lip, trying to hold back her tears. "Why did you let me believe the worst in you? Why didn't you just tell me to go nicely? Why did you have to break my heart in the process? I waited day and night for you to tell me you were sorry, and when you didn't I gave up. I fell in love with you, thinking you had always been in love with me, but then you went around and made me think otherwise. Didn't you love me Kendall?"

"I've always loved you Jo. Since the eighth grade when we stopped being little kids and I learned that girls don't have cooties. All those years, I ran around following you, hoping one day you'd see me the way I saw you. "

"Why didn't you tell me?" She cried. "Why didn't you ask me to dance that night at the Christmas dance? Why didn't you stop me from being with Jett?"

"I couldn't okay!" He yelled. "I couldn't deny you happiness that you wanted from Jett. You wanted him then and not me, so I couldn't just tell you no."

"Why are you always trying to do what's best for me?" She demanded. "Why can't you be selfish for once and do what would make you happy? You have just as much right to being happy as me."

"Because my happiness isn't what I care about. It's yours." He stated. "It's always been yours. When I first met you, I saw a sad little girl who I never wanted to see sad again, so I made myself a promise to always keep you happy, even if it meant getting hurt in the process."

"I hate you Kendall Knight. You are stupid and naïve and the most perfect human being in this world and I hate you for it." She sobbed. She went over to him and slapped him weakly.

"I deserve worse Jo, so don't hold back." He half-joked.

"I will never be able to forgive you for the past, but I don't want to be without you in the future." She said. He wrapped his arms around her and apologized again. "Never do that again, or else I'll kill you."

"I promise I won't Jo." He whispered. She hugged him tightly, not wanting to let go.

For the rest of the day, they tried to catch up as best as possible without any awkward interjections. Later in the night, Kendall invited her to come watch him play hockey with the guys and the rest of the Minnesota Maple Leaves for their charity game. Jo happily agreed. She loved watching the guys' kick-ass on ice. It was like ballet with ten overly tough men and less leaping, but more twirling.

After they played, they all went to Logan's for dinner. In the entrance to the dining room, Logan had placed mistletoe for when Camille would come over, but Kendall and Jo were caught under it. Though things had been pretty rough for them, Kendall took a hold of Jo and kissed her with an intense amount of passion and emotion. Jo happily obliged, kissing him back. The guys erupted in cheer, elated to see their best friends finally get together.