U/N: I've written as Emiko before, so I did read her 'Moment' before going into this but honestly she's the most ridiculous person I've ever had to write as. Keep in mind that I write Michael. But it was still a lot of fun to be her, and to see her reactions to everyone else.

Title: Here Comes Santa Claus

By: UrazamayKing

Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.

Chapter 14: Christmas Eve With You

Emiko Kido:

So it was Christmas Eve already, and that was pretty unfortunate. For me, at least. I was really hoping that I would have found a way to trick everyone into getting me a present, even though they already knew it would have been a desperate rebound prank. I just really loved getting presents, and it was almost unfair that I was only getting one.

Sure, everyone else was going to get only one too, but that didn't mean I had to be on the same level as the rest of them! I was much older, which meant I needed more magic to satisfy me, and if Christmas was as magical as Louisa was making it out to be, then I wanted to feel that. I needed as many presents as possible! But I couldn't, because it was too late now to pull any pranks over everyone's heads. I had thought about pretending to be deathly ill, but Azura assured me that it was offensive. It didn't matter now anyway. Even if I could pull off a prank, I was missing my trusty sidekick, Monmon. He had left with all the other digimon to some rave or something.

Or maybe it was just a civilized party in the Coliseum, but in my head there were strobe lights, loud music and lots of alcohol. I would never know exactly how the party was going though, because I wasn't allowed to go see. And why were they there on Christmas Eve if it was a Christmas party? I mean, really, it was rude—like everyone wanted to get rid of us as quickly as possible.

"We have to go," Taichi insisted, "Neo doesn't like when people are late."

"You're rushing away to Neo's house?" I asked dryly. Taichi looked to me and seemed to realize how ridiculous it all sounded but he slowly nodded his head, trying to seem convincing.

Rei took over for Taichi as they both backed toward the door, "Emiko, you and Azura are the oldest, so you're in charge, we'll be back later tomorrow, and hopefully we'll have a home to come back to?"

"Of course," I said, waving him off, "I'm super reliable."

"Mhm…" Taichi said, sounding unsure. That was pretty rude in my opinion. "Okay everyone, have a good time—Nikko, don't let anyone break anything." Nikko saluted his father and then the two of them were making their way out of the house.

"Tell Nevelen they're adorable for me!" Louisa called out as the door was finally closing.

The digimon left a few hours later, but with much more fanfare.

"Is everyone in line?" Agumon barked, "You're not, I can see you're not." They all shouted out to say that they were in fact in straight line. Aika's Yokomon was particularly aggressive, while she was the furthest from in place. "Please just straighten out?"

"Mwahahaha!" Pal shrieked, flying above everyone with an armful of water balloons. Pul followed behind with another armful, laughing all the while.

After a few minutes of screams filled with pure unadulterated terror, Pal and Pul had been wrestled down by Kotemon and Bearmon. They had nearly had them once, but Monmon let them go, and then Agumon had been forced to restrain Monmon.

It was all very funny. Eventually though, the digimon found themselves in a much more orderly line and Agumon finally took them out the door, each of them shouting a quick goodbye to their partner as they went. Monmon waved to me and then I saw a rather wicked glint in his eyes.

I could only hope that Monmon was crafty enough to play a massive prank on the entire Coliseum party that I wasn't invited to. I still really wanted to go.

But I couldn't, because I was babysitting a bunch of kids who didn't even bring me presents! That was just completely rude, really. I didn't want to spend one of the most romantic days of the entire year playing house with a bunch of kids who were too old to pretend to be my own children. I wouldn't even want most of them anyway!

I wouldn't mind having kids with Azura one day though. I was a little worried they'd be troublesome like me, but I was pretty sure I might just find that funny anyway, so would it really be an issue? Probably not. I found myself watching Azura actually. I was so happy that he was here. Not only was I happy because babysitting was dreadful, and having him around would make it more fun. And not only was I relieved to find that one of the most romantic holidays was a time I was actually going to spend with someone I thought of romantically. And not only was I happy to see that he was handling the more annoying of the children—Madlyn especially. I was also happy to know that he was willing to come hang out with a bunch of children when we weren't supposed to be, because that was amazing. It meant a lot to me that Azura was so confident in our relationship that he would spend so much time doing things he probably didn't want to do. He was the very best.

He supported my dancing more than anyone, and was the least surprised to find out I had been successful in the end. I was happy he was a vet too because the look of happiness he had on his face every day having been given the chance to help animals out was just wonderful. I did dread the day that he had to put one down for the first time though.

"It doesn't matter," Louisa growled. She was like twelve or something, so surely I wouldn't have to watch her as closely as the others. Wait—she looked way too old to be twelve. I mentally shrugged, not really caring how old she was. She was speaking with her brother who was maybe actually twelve? Or maybe he was the older sibling. I shrugged again. I didn't know.

"I'm just wondering, calm down," Elliot said defensively, "Calm yourself."

"I'm curious too," Nikko added from his place next to his friend Elliot. This was Nikko's house. I wished he wasn't here so I could do some uninterrupted exploring. "I mean, Koromon doesn't like awkward silences—what if no one is talking to him."

"I bet Chapmon's keeping him company," Elliot assured Nikko who nodded.

"Look," Louisa said, "It doesn't matter what our digimon are doing, we're not going to see them, okay! We're going to spend a nice happy American Christmas in the Digital World, and if our digimon don't want to be here, that's their choice."

"Oh so they get a choice?" Nikko asked, quiet enough that Louisa seemed not to have heard, but her brother stifled laughter.

Louisa sent a glare toward her brother before resuming her decorating. She had taken to being in charge of all of the festivities. It made babysitting a lot easier. Louisa had separated the entirety of the children into three specific groups. There was one group—Haruki and Renjiro—that had been asked to go cut down a tree to act as the Christmas tree, which was actually hilarious to think about. I kept visualizing Renjiro with an axe compared to Haruki and I was always unable to hold back my laughter, snorting into my lemon tea. The second group was Louisa's group which also consisted of Kana, Elliot, Nikko, Makoto, Osamu, Taro and Yukai. This group was unpacking all of the decorations that Louisa had brought with her, and preparing them for the tree and the general decorations for the house. The third group was probably having way more fun than anyone else. Louisa had put Tenshi and Mai in charge of that group, but they had roped Azura into helping too. Aika, Shouta and Hiro looked like they could not be having less fun as Izumi, Madlyn and Iris snipped away with the scissors. Louisa had asked them to create some new decorations—not trusting them with the ones she had bought probably. Josei was in this group too and she had an entire supervisor to herself, with Mai doing all the cutting for her.

As I was watching through all the children I realized that Chika was missing.

Slowly I got to my feet and stood on the arm of the chair I was sitting on for a better view. It seemed that she was gone. That was just like her, too. I sighed and began making my way through the house on my search for the little weirdo. I found her in the kitchen where she had her head pressed against the island counter. In front of her was a glass jar containing a single snowball.

"What are you doing?" I asked her, sipping my tea through a straw as I waited for her to respond.

She sometimes took a while to notice that someone had spoken. She was so entranced in what she was doing usually, but eventually she did look over to me. "This is James," she said, poking the jar. "I read about James and the Giant Peach and thought it was a lovely name. Mom had the book, you see, and I wanted to be just like him." She sighed, "Only I didn't have a giant peach, so I grabbed a snowball instead. But my name isn't James, either. So I named the snowball James."

"That's great," I offered, not sure really what to say.

"Is it?" she asked sadly, resting her head down again to stare at James the snowball. "He's dying."

I rolled my eyes and decided to leave Chika alone to mourn the death of her melting snowball friend, but since she was occupied, I figured now was as good a time as any to take her shoes. They were easy to spot because they were ridiculously patterned clunky winter boots. I decided to switch the liners with Josei's. It was a tough fit to get them into the smaller boots, but Chika was going to think her feet grew and that was pretty funny.

As I returned to the main room I found that Haruki and Renjiro had found a nice tree. They hadn't made it inside yet though. I could see them through the large window and Haruki offered the axe out to Renjiro who nodded nervously. I heard a lot of complaining going on around me, but I wasn't interested. I had to see Renjiro cut a tree down. After a few moments of Haruki explaining how to hold the tool—also hilarious—Renjiro swung back and all at once the axe was flying toward the tree.

Only it went right through the tree. It was a itty-bitty hiding tree! I spit my drink out, spraying it all over the floor in front of me, and I felt some of it go up my nose too but I couldn't stop laughing. The sight of Renjiro falling face first into the snow was too much.

Makoto and Hiro rushed over to the window to see what had happened, but only caught the tail end of Haruki pulling Renjiro to his feet—it was still funny though.

"Em," Azura had snuck up behind me and was suddenly wrapping his arms around my middle. I hummed happily as I rested my head on his shoulder. "The kids are getting restless." I looked over to the craft table where Josei was pouring a big pile of glue while Madlyn cheered her on. He was right. We would have to do something about this of course.

I nodded and slipped away, finding Louisa who was stringing brightly coloured lights around the big open window. I noticed her gaze out to Renjiro a couple times, probably expecting him to fall again. He was pretty smart though, so I doubted he would make the same mistake twice. Besides, the two were moving further into the trees. "Louisa," I said, startling her. "We need to shake things up, the kids are bored."

She looked back to the others as if she had forgot anyone else was present and then she nodded, climbing down the step ladder she had climbed up on. She hurried to a nearby table and grabbed her clipboard, "Okay, we still need to make nine snow reindeer outside—make that eight, I want to make Rudolph." I rolled my eyes, but she continued, "You could have the younger ones hang up their new art work—oh, I guess they're a bit short, aren't they?"

"Young too," I added. Besides, their art was hideous. I had faith that even Chika could make something nicer than they had. "Anything else on that list, or should I just think up a game or something?"

"Oh no," Louisa shook her head, "You don't have time for games. We need everything ready for tonight so we can tell stories around the fireplace."

"Ooh!" I said excitedly, thinking up the best ghost stories I could think of.

"Stories about family and togetherness," She added hastily, pointing her pencil in my face, she looked back to the list and looked confused. I didn't see how that was possible. It was pretty clear to me that Louisa had not made the schedule. Kana's name was written all over the organized sheet. "Well, there's cookies—"

"Done," I declared with as much vigor as I could, "Where are they?"

"It's not for eating," Louisa said, rolling her eyes, "You have to make them for Santa!"

"That sounds awful," I groaned. In what world would I want to make cookies for someone else? I barely ever made food for myself. Louisa was looking to me like I was a child though so I straightened out my back, "Sure, I can do that," I said, trying to sound as mature as possible.

Louisa smiled and took a step out to see around me. She held the pencil to her lips as she scanned the room in thought. Then when she finally nodded she pointed dramatically to the air with the very same pencil. "Everyone!" she called loudly, easily catching everyone's attention. Even Elliot's, and he seemed to enjoy ignoring her as much as I enjoyed pulling pranks on Renjiro. It seemed that everyone was just so bored, that anything Louisa had to say was bound to be more interesting to them. "We're changing the groups up," instantly they began looking to her with fiery eyes, desperate for her to not split them apart from their closer friends. "So," Louisa said, "Emiko will be baking cookies in the kitchen," several children's faces lit up, "And she will take Izumi, Madlyn and Iris." Madlyn pumped her fists in the air, but her sister simply smiled softly. Izumi, with hands on hips, looked side to side to her backup girls with a sly smile, like baking cookies was being asked to prom by the quarterback or something. "As well as Taro and Yukai, and also Hiro." Nikko and Elliot sighed, releasing each other's arms, saved from Louisa's split. "Hmm, yeah, you'd better go too Nikko."

"What?" Elliot groaned, "You're so mean—let him stay!"

"It's his kitchen," Louisa argued, "He'll know it better than anyone else."

"True," Nikko sighed, getting to his feet. Makoto and Osamu were quick to take Nikko's place as he wandered over to Hiro, who I was pretty sure was also his friend. Hiro seemed pleased to be taken away from Tenshi, but both boys seemed annoyed that they'd been grouped in with the children.

"Kana, you will string the popcorn I have in the kitchen," Louisa said, humming, "And everyone else will resume decorating until we have completed the theme and style I'm going for. That's 1950s glam Christmas, if anyone was wondering."

They probably weren't, but I didn't say anything. Louisa was one person who just wasn't fun to upset. I was following the lead of Nikko as he wandered off toward the kitchen with the rest of our group in his wake. Azura stopped me by grabbing my hand and kissed my cheek. "Save me a cookie," he cooed.

"Sure thing," I winked. "Have fun decorating."

"I'll try," he said, and I could tell he was actually trying to have fun which was pretty amazing. I slipped away from him then though, making my way to the kitchen where I immediately saw that the group had been split in a way I wasn't expecting. Izumi and Hiro had wandered over to where Chika was staring to a jar half filled with water, half with snow and the three were conversing in secret. They weren't even being subtle about it though.

I would have found it strange if I hadn't known they were talking about that cello that Izumi had supposedly promised them today. Obviously she didn't have a cello, but maybe it was still coming. The day was not over yet. As I walked by I heard her say, "It took longer than I thought," in a whispered tone, "Daddy says it's here though." So the cello had come in secret. I would have congratulated them all on a trick well played, but I caught sight of Nikko. He had his head pressed in between his hands as he glared toward the group of them. I didn't know why, nor did I care why.

"Hey!" Yukai barked, ripping the massive cookbook out of Madlyn's hands, "You got the glue first, so I get the book first!"

"Fine," Madlyn decided, releasing the book and causing Yukai to fall backward. He would have toppled out of the stool he was resting on if Taro hadn't caught him. "Then I get to taste the cookie dough first."

"No!" Yukai shrieked in a panic, "Let me! You can have the book!"

"Nope," Madlyn refused, "I don't even want it."

"Cookie dough is unhealthy anyway," Kana shot out, stopping the kids from arguing as she pulled up a massive bag of popcorn. I eyed it hungrily, but Kana caught sight of me and pulled it closer to her, preparing to string it up.

The discarded book had been collected by Taro and Iris who began reading it together, finding a recipe for sugar cookies. Apparently Santa liked them. I wouldn't know. Chika grew excited about the prospect of baking and she wandered off to supervise the four younger children. Chika was the last person I would have left in charge of an oven, but I didn't really care. Nikko was here, and he was trusting her. It was his house, so whatever.

Izumi stayed back, standing with her arms crossed as a devilish smile played on her face as she watched the four children arguing with one another. She obviously had something to do with it. That girl was more evil than I was!

Kana sat silently in her chair at the island counter and I joined her, sneaking a piece of popcorn every few seconds or so. She noticed, but didn't seem to mind that much. Across from us, Hiro sat, watching the kids bake, and after a while, Nikko joined, glaring at Hiro as if he had been the cause of the apocalypse or something. That obviously wasn't true. I think I would remember the apocalypse happening. I was a pretty heavy sleeper though, and I had slept until noon that day, so maybe not.

"Why don't you care that I'm angry with you?" Nikko asked.

Hiro seemed startled, like he hadn't even noticed the boy was there at all. "You're angry?" Hiro asked, "What did I do?"

Nikko shook his head and let his eyes flick over to Chika as she dumped a bunch of sugar into the bowl claiming that you didn't need to measure if you didn't want to. Her mom never did anyway. "You're my cousin!" Nikko growled, "I can't believe you're going to take her."

"Wha-what?" Hiro stammered, looking back around to Chika, "Oh—no, Nikko—"

"Don't try to explain yourself—" Nikko cut in.

Hiro wasn't finished though, "I promise I'm not stealing her from you—"

"She isn't an object," Kana said sharply, "And in case you haven't noticed she has a mind of her own. A rather vivid and strong one. You can't steal a person. She will make up her own mind and you'll both have to live with that."

Hiro and Nikko stared to Kana with wide, unblinking eyes, annoyed. Then both shrugged her off then turned back to each other, "You're a jerk, Hiro."

"You know," Hiro snapped, "Everyone seems to think that, but no one has taken a moment to actually think about what they're accusing me of!" He caught my eye and knew I was thinking about the cello. I wouldn't say anything because Kana was here. I knew she would tell Renjiro and ask if he thought Tenshi deserved to know and I knew Renjiro well enough to know that he would tell Tenshi, then Hiro would get in trouble. As it stood, Hiro owed me. I wasn't going to risk that.

I heard a rather aggressive growl and turned in time to see Yukai whack Madlyn over the head with a wooden spoon. For a moment, in the room that fell dead silent, I thought Madlyn was going to cry, but instead she turned slowly to Yukai and kicked off the floor, leaping toward him. She slammed him to the ground near Izumi who took one calm step aside. I thought she was the antichrist, honestly, until I saw the look of panic on her face. So she wasn't such a demon after all. She had a heart somewhere in there.

"Emiko!" Kana insisted.

Oh right! I was babysitting! I jumped to my feet, dropping my handful of popcorn and rushed over to the children. Iris was backed against a wall in fear as Taro screamed at Yukai and Madlyn to stop fighting. Neither were listening though. When Yukai had rolled over so he was on top I scooped him up and into my arms, dragging him away from the fight. He nearly hit me in the head with a spoon which I was just not okay with. I set him down at the other side of the room and grabbed his arm when he tried to race back toward Madlyn.

"Kana," I said, "You're in charge of baking." She looked confused and held up her string of popcorn, but I ignored her. "There is too much aggression in this room. We're going to have a snowball fight."

Nikko was already on his feet. "I'm on the opposite team as Hiro."

"Fine by me," Hiro snarled, following him out of the room to get ready. The rest of the kids seemed to immediately forget that they hated each other and rushed off after them to get ready to go outside. Chika seemed worried that she hadn't been invited so I waved her along and left Kana alone. I was sure she wouldn't mind. Probably. I didn't know her that well honestly. For all the time she spent at my house you'd think I would.

Before the snowball fight I had a pretty good laugh at Chika trying to squeeze into her boots, but eventually Nikko helped her out, explaining what I had done. Chika laughed along, which was why she was so fun to play with. But then we were all outside, throwing snowballs around. Nikko had teamed up with Chika, Taro and Yukai against Hiro, Madlyn, Iris and Izumi. Izumi mostly stood back and watched, which was fair since Chika had wondered off to compare snowflakes to one another. Yukai aimed solely for Madlyn, while she was furiously firing at anyone she could hit—including me and I wasn't even playing. Hiro and Nikko were in their own separate world though, getting their anger out by hitting each other with snow.

Oh, children. They were so easy to deal with. After a while the kids were laughing and having fun, which was much more Christmas-like, I thought, and yet no side seemed to be hell-bent on winning anymore, and that just wasn't fun. I needed fear and panic.

I rushed to the house to borrow Azura's mittens, because I needed to join the game as my own team if they were going to have enough competitive drive stringing them along, but as I reached Azura's bag, I found his mittens were missing. I kept looking of course, and eventually found them in the bottom. Stupid place to keep mittens really—but they weren't alone.

There was a tiny black box waiting just underneath and my heart skipped a beat. And in that skipped beat, my head had thought of a plan.

Featured Evolution Line: Emiko: Pafumon—Kyaromon—Monmon—Apemon—Gokuwmon—Zamielmon