U/N: So this is the last duo chapter of the story, and it's got some pretty obnoxious characters going into it, but that's alright because they had to narrate sometime. Hopefully they found some way to redeem themselves. I dunno, but I hope you like the story anyway.

Title: Here Comes Santa Claus

By: UrazamayKing

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

Chapter 21: All I Want For Christmas Is You

Elliot Washington:

"He seems happy," I said as we stared toward Shouta and Iris. They had walked off to the corner of the house where they were not visible through the windows in the living room and could be unseen by Izumi and Madlyn who were likely searching for Iris now. Shouta was laughing as Iris fell into the snow before throwing some up to him. They were working together to build a snow... something. It kind of looked like a shark, but it was also maybe a turtle?

"He is," Aika said in a quiet voice. She had one hand resting on the tree next to her to help her duck into hiding in case Shouta looked our way. She didn't want him to know we were watching him because it would probably ruin his day or something since he was so shy all the time. Shouta was pulling Iris to her feet when Aika turned to me, leaning back against the tree. "Thank you for that, Elliot."

"Well it's not really special," I admitted, shrugging my shoulders. "I had him in the Secret Santa draw. It was just part of the game I guess." Aika nodded her head and I felt kind of stupid for throwing that off. I'd worked really hard all day to set up the perfect situation for Shouta to slip away with Iris and while it wasn't maybe the best present ever it was still something! Aika looked once more to her brother and I sighed. She was really pretty actually and there was just something about the way the faded sunlight was hitting her hair that sparkled really nicely.

I was waiting for the perfect moment to be all gentlemanly and stuff, and hadn't even buttoned up my coat because I was sure she would state that she was cold soon and I would give it to her so she could stay warm. I wanted to compliment her too but I'd learned the hard way—several times—that Aika did not like compliments much.

"Aika, I love your longer hair," I said to her.

"You hated it short?" she snapped, "You're so rude."

She was just like her mother in that way, but I couldn't see many other similarities. She was more like her dad probably in that she was rather distant and liked to close her feelings off to others. I was trying to learn from her because her dad had given me his Crest and I wanted to do it justice, but since she wouldn't open up for friendship it was really hard to learn. I was probably the worst choice for friendship too. I could be pretty mean—but I didn't actually mean to be mean, I was just sometimes caught up in my head and trying too hard to be cool. But I guess that was probably the point, and that I was supposed to learn to be a good friend and be myself because friends are only your friends if they know the real you or something else random like that. The universe was pretty cheesy like that, so maybe that's what it wanted for me.

I hadn't wanted the Crest of Friendship though, I'd wanted Destiny or Miracles because they were so easy.

"That isn't fair," I pouted, but Louisa elbowed me to shut me up. Willis was on his knees to get closer to Yukai's eye level but Yukai was still pretty young and looked nervous, like maybe he was going to get in trouble.

Willis reached out and took Yukai's shoulders, "I don't know why, but I feel someone tugging me toward you," Yukai looked relieved to hear he wasn't in trouble, but I didn't feel quite so pleased. I already had my Crest so it didn't matter, but this kid got off so easily it was hardly fair. "The Crest of Miracles wants you Yukai. I feel Alice telling me that. I haven't even been able to think clearly for a while because she keeps sending me signs. The Crest of Miracles is yours and I fear that if I don't give it to you now, Alice won't understand that I already read her signs loud and clear." Yukai giggled and Willis nodded, "So, this is for you, okay?"

"Sure," Yukai nodded.

Then, two separate lights shot from Willis, the golden one hitting Yukai square in the chest and the bronze light of destiny petered off to the other side of the room where Taro caught it. I hadn't even noticed he was there, and by the looks of it, no one else had either.

"Oh," Willis said, looking rather surprised, "I hadn't known that was yours, sorry..." he had forgotten Taro's name and tried to play it off as himself just ending a sentence but he hadn't done it well.

"That's f-fine," Taro said, stretching his fingers out to feel his new Crest. A moment later Yukai had taken his hand excitedly and dragged him off to tell their parents the news.

Friendship seemed so easy, but it wasn't. It was hard. Life would have been easier with a Crest that sorted itself out. Then again, everyone else seemed to be having trouble with their Crests too. Aika didn't understand Desire, Shouta certainly didn't know what it meant to be brave and, well, Iris didn't even know what Crest she had! Haruki, strangely, did understand the Crest of Love—or it seemed so anyway—and I was jealous because Love seemed like the hardest to understand.

I turned to Aika when I felt her pull on my sleeve and she motioned with her head for us to walk away from her brother. I was glad to see Shouta still having fun though. Tsunomon and Budmon were watching from the porch because the snow was too cold for them, and they smiled to us as we passed. Aika led me along the side of the house and I thought maybe there was a garden over here, but I couldn't quite remember, so I stepped carefully anyway.

I saw the broken remnants of our childhood clubhouse off into the trees when Aika stopped in her tracks I knew that she had seen it too. We stared for a moment and reminisced. "I saw you with the others," I said quietly.

Aika nodded, "Yeah, Nikko brought me over." I looked to her with wide eyes that she apparently saw over the top of my sunglasses and she laughed. I felt embarrassed that she had seen my animated expressions, which I could hardly control. That was why I wore the sunglasses. I didn't want people thinking I was like my dad. "Crazy, right?" she sighed, "It was Osamu's idea though. Makoto was trying for a while too, but I guess in the end it was a group effort."

"It'll be nice to have a girl around again," I said, smiling to her, "I'm not one for girl talk or idle gossip, but Nikko and Hiro can be such boys sometimes."

"I'm so glad you changed this conversation into one of stereotypes," Aika said sarcastically as she rolled her eyes, "But," she sighed, like this was hard for her to say. "Thank you for noticing that I am in fact a female."

"I know, I have crazy super vision, right?" I asked, a grin forming on my face.

"Must be the glasses," she joked, walking backward away from me. I saw a smile form on her face just before she turned off and then I hurried to follow her. "You'd better get used to having girls around though, because Chika's part of the team now too." I didn't respond because I was lost in thought about what it would be like to have Chika around. She was so weird, but fun. She was the least wounded person ever and could take a joke like nobody's business. She was pretty cool, but Makoto would have to get over having her around. I knew that I wouldn't want Louisa in our group. "That's not a problem, is it?"

"Of course it's not," I told her, smiling again. Aika had pressed herself against the wall of the house next to the open window and I saw that Yokomon and Chapmon were both pressed against the glass looking toward us and I stared at them for a while as they made faces, trying to make me laugh. I wasn't going to budge though.

Aika finally turned to see them and instantly erupted in sudden laughter because Yokomon was so close to her. I couldn't keep the laughter in myself at the sound of her laughs. Aika bumped into me and turned to me to apologize before looking back to Yokomon. There had been no awkwardness there—and we'd like, come in contact with one another. That was pretty cool too. "Yokomon wants to digivolve," Aika said, tilting her head and making a face back to her digimon so she wouldn't suspect we were talking about her. "She's worried she'll be a Biyomon and I won't be able to tell her apart from Mom's Biyomon."

"Oh I don't think she will," I told her, "Digimon evolve based on how they are cared for. You're so different from your Mom, so I doubt you'll get the same result. I'd guess maybe a plant digimon since you're so delicate."

Aika punched my arm in a response to my sarcasm but I simply laughed it off—but seriously it hurt. "Where did you learn all this stuff?"

"Mom," I shrugged. "She's some kind of digimon expert or something." It was true. She worked in the Temple, composing an ever growing pool of digimon information that she liked to teach us when she came home each night. It was boring sometimes, like how apparently Sukamon like apples. Sometimes it was really interesting though, like about how digimon life cycles did not have to follow the same path again but it became easier a second time, because the path had been laid out. It was like water following the path of the drop that came before. I just knew a lot about digimon.

"And here I thought you'd actually read a book," Aika said with a smirk. I didn't learn anything on my own, and found reading quite boring. In fact it wasn't even me who had thought up how to make today perfect—that had been Iris all along.

"I'm sorry, Aika," I blurted out. I was shocked myself so the look on her face didn't confuse me too much. I knew where I wanted to go with it, but I hadn't intended to bring it up so suddenly. "I'm just sorry for being really obnoxious all the time. I don't really know how to not be. It's who everyone wants me to be and being that person becomes really easy."

"Well, you can tell who someone is by looking in their eyes," Aika said, "Your facade behind the glasses doesn't have to be ever present. You could take them off every now and then to show me who you are." I felt my heart begin to race and I tried to chance the subject. I didn't like taking my glasses off.

"Look," I said calmly, "I'm sorry for being pushy. I guess my desperation really came from me wanting you back as a friend. First and foremost, that's what I want, Aika. I want you to be my friend, and our friend. I missed having you around." Aika smiled to me, but looked back to Yokomon when she saw I wasn't taking the glasses off. "And I'm sorry for not understanding that 'no' means 'no' because seriously that's insane."

"It is," Aika agreed, "but you're being a good person now, so maybe I'll change my mind."

I had no idea how to respond to that, and my glasses slid down my nose as I stared blankly to her. She reached up to my face and took the glasses, and I let her. She put them on her own face and turned to me, adjusting her posture, "I'm Elliot," she said in a low voice that I had to laugh at. "I'm gon' date you. Let me hold your hand." She lowered the glasses and added in her own voice, "Say 'no' okay?"

"No?" I tried.

"That means yes, right?" she said in her low voice, reaching out for my hand.

"Ha ha," I said sarcastically, "very funny, Aika." I reached for my glasses but she caught my hand and her fingers were suddenly tangled with mine. I stared to the union for a moment and then back to Aika who pulled me closer to her sharply and planted a kiss right on my mouth. I was shocked but I wasn't going to screw this up since I'd wanted it forever. I threw my arms around her and held her for a moment.

She then backed up and winked at me from above the glasses. She took my hand and started leading me off again. I didn't mind going wherever she wanted to go at that point because I trusted her and her mind. I had been seriously wrong. Aika understood her Crest just fine. She knew exactly what she wanted.

Hiro Takaishi:

"Tenshi," I said weakly, my voice barely carrying toward my brother who was sitting with his friends. Renjiro and Kana were sitting with each other's digimon in their lap while Hopmon and DemiVeemon giggled at Haruki and Louisa who were keeping rather close to one another. Mai was the focus of their attention as they all watched her dance with her dad. Miyako was happy and had Hawkmon and Poromon with her as she watched them. It seemed—from where I stood—that her family loved her anyway and found that her being gay was okay! Which was good, because if they hadn't, they'd have lost a friend in Kiyoko and most likely Hideto too.

Tenshi turned to me and he was smiling, but the moment he saw me his face fell to one of discomfort, like he was unsure if I was going to blow up again. I hated that face. I hated how wounded he could get whenever I was around. Just because I yelled at him didn't mean I hated him.

"Can we talk?" I asked. He looked to Louisa who sat next to him, and she pulled herself away from Haruki long enough to nod at him encouragingly. Salamon wandered up to Tenshi and he took him into his arms. I had Tokomon with me which was probably why Tenshi thought to bring Salamon. He didn't need to if he didn't want to, I just thought I'd need Tokomon for support. I wasn't very good at confrontation—well I was, when the other person was in the wrong, but that wasn't the case here.

I swallowed thickly and began leading Tenshi through the throng of people. Jou and Koushiro were playing a board game with several of the digimon—Tentomon, Gomamon, Palmon and Biyomon—and Sora and Mimi watched them, laughing all the while and taking pictures every time one of the drawn cards required them to do something ridiculous. Hideto and Mari were watching all of Allias III's digimon dance around the Christmas Tree with Dracomon being the most outlandish. Kiyoko was off talking to Evelen who was trying to pick the perfect muffin to eat, but Kiyoko had the perfect suggestions for her. Rei, Neo and Taichi were all sitting together with Agumon held tightly in Rei's arms. Nikko, Osamu, Tanemon, Koramon, Makoto, Minomon, Chapmon, Chika, Motimon and Yokomon were all waiting by the window now, watching to see if Aika was going to kiss Elliot again—something we'd all seen through the window—while Yamato and Dad sat on the couch with their partners, probably complaining about how annoying kids could be or something. I didn't know what old people had to talk about since their lives were practically over. Mom was with Gatomon, Labramon and Kurayami as they organized a cleaning party that Armadillomon, Pal, Pul and Veemon were all happy to help with. Wormmon was trying to help too but he was pretty slow and... well he had no hands. Daisuke had taken Elliot's place in playing with the children, but the game was now much more oriented around seeing who could get their digimon to hurt him the most. Taro wasn't particularly invested in hurting him so Leafmon was simply bouncing on his back with Chibimon, but Gummymon was gnawing at his leg—but since he had no teeth it was pretty painless probably. DemiMeramon was tickling him with the low heat of his flames and Daisuke was laughing like crazy, which Yukai thought was hilarious. Tatum and Momoe were working together to stop Monmon from being insane—but that was a lifelong struggle really—and Bearmon and Kotemon were doing all they could to help them out. Monodramon was glaring to Emiko who was using a remote control car that someone had gotten as a gift to run into his foot over and over again, while Azura sat behind her, his head in his hands, apparently embarrassed. Josei was singing loudly with Pururumon and their new dolls for Terriermon, Lopmon and Betamon who were all forced to listen along, while Iori, Willis and Michael watched them from afar, probably feeling pretty bad for them.

The house was crowded. There wasn't anywhere to talk privately—at least not in that room, so I was leading Tenshi somewhere safer. We came out into the area that Louisa had set up for the adults. They weren't using them though which was annoying. I mean I loved my parents, but who wanted adults around at a party? Okay, it was Christmas, so everyone, but couldn't we maybe separate a little? There was no reason to be so crowded.

I reached for the nearest chair that was labelled for Neo but when Tokomon pointed out the mistletoe up above I moved down the table to where my mom was supposed to sit. Tenshi sat next to me at Dad's spot and we both set our partners on the table.

"What's wrong?" Tenshi wondered.

"Nothing," I said honestly, "It's just..." I looked over to the cello against the wall and sighed. I didn't know how to explain this away. It had been a pretty rough week, but we had everything I had gotten everything prepared except for perhaps a present.

"Voila!" Izumi said, throwing open the back of the delivery truck. I looked inside with Chika hanging over my shoulder. "One exact replica cello, express ordered by yours truly."

"Is there an adult around to sign for this?" The delivery man asked. Izumi took the paper without question and began signing her name. "Aren't you a little young—?"

"Yes," she said, "yes I am." The man shrugged and turned away to pull the cello out of the truck for us. "Thank you," Izumi said to him before sending him on his way. I was busy trying to think of a way to get the cello in the house undetected and had sent Chika away as a distraction but Izumi simply rolled her eyes. "Amateur," she droned as she took my arm and began dragging me to the side of the house. There was a door to the cellar which she had me open since it was too heavy for her. And then we worked together to get the cello safely inside.

"You know," I said as she passed it down to me, "You don't have to do this, you don't have to be so nice to me."

"I promised you a cello," she said, shrugging.

"And you've delivered," I reminded her. "You don't owe me anything." She didn't answer, so I simply smiled. "You know," I said, "you're a lot nicer than I thought."

She looked to me sharply. "Don't ever let me hear you saying that again," I looked up to her, shocked, "I have a reputation to uphold."

Izumi had been more help than I could have ever imagined and while I assumed her Dads had something to do with the actual cello purchasing, that didn't mean she didn't help out and I was thankful for her assistance. I really needed her and she pulled through, which was something no one thought she'd be able to do.

As the flash of magenta soared across the sky to Izumi, Nikko looked shocked. "Seriously?" he said, "she's literally the meanest person ever. How is she supposed to get kindness."

"Kindness is from the heart," Ken was saying to Izumi, "I know you'll use this well."

Nikko was wrong, as it turned out, and Ken had been right. Izumi may not have wanted anyone to know that she was kind, but that didn't mean she wasn't. She was certainly a lot nicer than I was anyway. She hadn't ruined her brother's future career because of some selfish need to be noticed.

I guess I'd been staring to the cello because Tenshi finally looked around to it and he gasped at the sight, jumping to his feet. "Hiro, did you get this for me?" he asked as he looked it over.

"I did," I nodded sheepishly, "I know it seems nice, but it's not. I was the reason your cello broke in the first place." Tenshi looked to me and tried to fake surprise, but I could tell he already knew it was me who did it. He was really nice to have not said anything to Mom. "I didn't mean to," I told him, feeling my eyes start to sting. "I... I guess I was jealous of you because Mom and Dad love you so much. They think you're the best thing since... whatever the most recent prodigy was, I dunno. I don't know how old people think, they're like a hundred years old. I don't know why they like you so much—well I do, and it's because you're perfect, but I wanted to be liked too. I guess I realized a while ago that you got all their good traits and I got all their bad ones. I got Dad's anger and Mom's self doubt..." Tenshi was staring to me now, having forgotten his cello entirely. Salamon and Tokomon were looking too and I felt pretty pressured suddenly. "I'm just sorry, Tenshi. I'm sorry that I broke your cello and I'm sorry I had to buy you a new one and I'm really sorry that I was so focused on getting this for you that I forgot to buy you a present. I'm your Secret Santa. I'm the worst—"

"Mom and Dad don't love you more than they love me," Tenshi said seriously, but I was having trouble believing him. "Honestly, Hiro they' love you a lot and all they ever talk about is how to make you happy. They love you so much." I broke eye contact to look to the floor, embarrassed. "Hiro," Tenshi said softly, "You don't need to get me a gift. Maybe you could just come to my audition. That would be the best present." I looked confused and Tenshi smiled moving toward me again, "Do you remember when we were younger? We promised to always support each other even if Mom and Dad didn't. I don't know what we were thinking since they're supporting all the time, but Hiro I've been supportive of your friends and your life. Why don't you just come see me perform?"

"Because I'm not supportive of you throwing aside what you actually like to do just to play an instrument that you only want to do as a hobby." The words came out of my mouth like they'd been waiting at the tip of my tongue for years. It felt good to have said them and I hadn't even known I wanted to.

Tenshi looked surprised, and I was afraid he might get angry but instead he laughed. "You're right," he said, patting Salamon on the head, "You're absolutely right..." he looked over to the cello and smiled, "What do you say we leave that cello here for the night?" I grinned at him. "Mom and Dad won't have to know, either. Maybe I don't have to go to this audition after all..."

"Tenshi, I don't want you to throw away your future," I told him flatly.

"I don't graduate for two years, Hiro," Tenshi said with a low laugh. "I have time. And if I want to go back to the cello I can always audition again sometimes, right?" I knew it was a really prestigious school and the audition process took forever but it was Tenshi's choice. "So I won't go this year, I think."

"And we can go hiking instead!" Salamon exclaimed.

"Can we come?" Tokomon asked. "Will you take pictures?"

"Of course," Tenshi nodded, looking up to me for clarification. I nodded because there was no way I was going to miss out on this. "We'll go together."

Featured Evolution Line: Izumi: Mokumon—DemiMeramon—Candlemon—Flarerizamon—SkullMeramon—Boltmon