Marie and her keyblade:
www.swirl3y.deviantart.com/art/Marie-and-her-Shooting-Star-Keyblade-38350 2787

Marie's Halloween outfit:
www.swirl3y.deviantart.com/art/Marie-Halloween-Town-261014843?q=gallery%3ASWIRL3Y%2F29599925&qo=20

Marie's Christmas Town outfit:
www.swirl3y.deviantart.com/art/Overhaul-Marie-s-Christmas-Town-costume-37 6281638?q=gallery%3ASWIRL3Y%2F29599925&qo=6

A/N:
Ahh, Halloween Town. This place really brings the romance I think, even though it's creepy as muck. Still, the Christmas Town part will be very romantic, and who knows?

I highly suggest you listen to Jason Chen's cover of Mistletoe near the end after they fight the boss, and I know it's a Justin Bieber song[the only song I like, but it's a cover lol], but I've picked out Jason's cover because I like it a lot better, to be honest. But if you like JB, then go listen to his version, either one works. Mistletoe ;)


Chapter Fifty-Two

Under the mistletoe

The next place on our list was Halloween Town, and we landed right outside the door to Christmas Town. We noticed there were presents around, and I wondered what was going on. We saw Jack walking towards us picking the presents, and he was in his Santa Claus outfit. He waved over to us and asked if we could help him pick up the presents, since he assumed they belonged to Santa. I gotta admit, it was a bit weird for these presents to appear, and I think Sora found it weird too.

"You just happened to find them?" he asked. Jack was perfectly sure he was done with the Christmas fantasies, and walked away with the presents. I looked at Sora and he still didn't seem convinced, even crossing his arms to prove a point. "You thought you'd hold on to the suit?"

"What? This? It's just a costume, and Sally worked so very hard making it!" he said. Well, it's true she made it, but I still wonder about Jack. He told us to come along, and although Sora still seemed suspicious, we followed Jack towards Christmas Town. He handed us a couple of gifts while he picked up the rest, and I looked at it. It looked really pretty wrapped, and I wondered what was inside—I shook my head, I shouldn't be thinking about opening it.

But I was curious…

-x-

After walking through the door and down towards the factory, we entered Santa's workshop and saw him pacing around and about. Jack, Sora and I placed the presents down on the table, and Santa asked where we found them.

"In Halloween Town. You'll be needing them for Christmas, right, Sandy?" asked Jack. Santa looked over the gifts, and he nodded his head, but there were more gifts out there that were stolen. We were shocked to hear that they were stolen, and I saw there heads turn towards Jack. He quickly caught on quickly though. "Oh, Sandy… you don't think it was me?"

Santa commented on his outfit, but Jack told him he only wore it for the occasion. He placed his boney finger on his chin and thought for a moment until telling Santa that we would have to find out who really stole the presents. Santa agreed, but then we suddenly heard a voice coming from the factory. We walked over towards the area, and noticed a door atop the room. We walked up there, and saw those three little brats messing around.

"This looks good," Barrel said as he pointed at a teddy bear. Lock and Shock turned it down, and kept looking around. "This one?"

They kept throwing gifts around and turning them down from Barrel, and I wondered what they were doing here in the first place, but it quickly hit me that they probably stole the gifts. Donald called out to them, and they slowly turned around until they jumped at our appearance.

"So you three took them!" Sora scolded. They shouted back and played ignorant, not knowing what they took, and Jack told them. They said they didn't take it, but Shock snickered as she told us that it sounded like a good idea. She shouted for them to run for it, and they ran around the room.

Are you kidding me? These brats don't know when to quit. They ran around trying to take as many presents, and I spotted three large boxes. I wondered about it, and an idea popped into my head. I looked over to Sora and the others, and explained how we could trap these kids inside those boxes. Sora gave a nod, and the other three agreed. We all ran around trying to catch the kids, and I took the liberty of trying to catch Shock. She called my costume ugly last year, and now it's time for payback! I ran up to her, and she hid under the table for a bit. I bent down to try and catch, but she laughed behind me and stuck out her tongue. I groaned, got up, and ran after her, and I heard her giggle.

"Bet you can't catch me!" she said in a tune. I ran around looking for her, and I suddenly fell flat on my face to the ground, and I saw Shock behind me with her foot stuck out.

"You sneaky little witch!" I growled in annoyance. She just laughed, and I quickly got up and started running faster. She was right by the box, and I sped up even more as I jumped right on her.

"Oww!" I heard her shout. I picked her up with difficulty, since she was kicking me, and I put her in the box. The lid sealed shut, and I saw Sora, Donald and Goofy finishing with Barrel. Lock was already in a box, and I sighed out of relief. When the kids calmed down, Sora and Jack took them out of the box and they surprisingly behaved.

"Where'd you put the presents?" Sora asked. Shock retorted that they didn't have them, or that they didn't steal them, but Donald asked why they were in the factory. They confessed saying they were looking for parts for the experiment, and my thoughts went straight to Dr. Finkelstein—somehow crazy experiments always linked straight to him. I got out of my thoughts and went back to the kids, who explained that the Dr. was making them a friend to boss around.

"It's true the doctor's been hard at work making something lately…," Jack trailed off. The kids got up from sitting down, and were bored with the presents anyways. They weren't scary or gross, and there was no fun in Christmas Town. The kids started walking out of the factory, and I watched as they left. They changed a bit from last year, but…not by that much. We decided to head back to Santa's place, and we told him how the kids weren't responsible. Santa seemed concerned, but we saw Sally come walking in.

"Oh, thank goodness! You're all here," she said. Sora asked what was wrong, and she told us how the heartless were back in the town square. Sora looked at us, and we decided to head back to deal with the heartless, but Jack was still concerned about the gift-napper. Sally turned to him and explained about it. "Actually, I saw some of the heartless playing with the presents."

"Aha! We have out culprits!" Jack shouted. He started running towards the town square, and we all sighed as we followed. Jack seemed so concerned about finding the kidnapper, and I wondered if he still couldn't get the idea of Christmas out of his head. I won't lie that Christmas looked absolutely breathtaking with the snow and lights all around, but I really needed something to make it special for me. Every time I think of Christmas I'm just reminded of the times I could've spent it with the people closest to me, and I frown because of that.

-x-

We ran towards the town square once we were near enough, and we saw the mayor shouting for the Heartless to stop and get out of town, but they weren't even listening to the poor guy. He saw us and shouted for Jack to help, and we saw the Heartless with the presents. Sora quickly took out his keyblade while the rest did the same, and I stuck out my hand as I willed my keyblade. Luckily, these weren't the stronger kind of Heartless, but I was still cautious. I ran towards one of the Heartless holding the present and started attacking, it was the mummy Heartless with the stretched limbs, and it could hit pretty far. I managed to block a couple of attacks, but I saw it was going to hit me again, so I leaned back—maybe too far back, and I was about to fall. My keyblade disappeared as I touched the floor with my hands, but my legs kicked up and I felt them kicking the Heartless. My legs went over, and I managed to do a back-flip by accident. I smiled to myself, but it wasn't time to celebrate, so I quickly brought my keyblade out and attacked it. The present fell to the floor as the Heartless dropped, and I went around fighting off the rest. I keep forgetting that I could do cartwheels, and since I felt a bit more confident with fighting maybe it's about time I actually incorporate them in my fighting.

When I finished dealing with the lesser half, I looked over to the rest, who had finished up as well. I looked around to see if there were more, and I saw Jack walking up to the present. I looked down and saw a doll lying on the floor, and Jack just walked all over it. I brought my hand to say something, but he spoke when he kept examining the gift.

"What a shame! It looked like such a lovely present," Jack said. I tilted my head and wondered if he honestly didn't know the present was below him, or just chose not too. We heard the door to the Doctor's lab open, and he came rolling out shouting how someone stole his latest experiment. Seriously, who's stealing everything around here? We climbed up the stairs and into the lab, and the doctor explained that he was brainstorming when he got attacked. He passed out and later woke up to find that his experiment went missing.

"The Heartless probably took it with those presents," I said. Jack nodded, and assured the doctor we would get his thing back, but he seemed doubtful.

"Preposterous! This was nothing like a Heartless!" he retorted. Well, I'm a bit stumped, if the Heartless didn't take it, then who did? I saw Jack thinking for a while, and he looked at us with a plan. He said that if the kidnapper liked gifts so much, then we should place more presents so we can draw him into a trap. I didn't know if it would work, but Jack said he would scare a confession out of him, and I suddenly got the chills.

"What do you say we go with Jack's plan…just for now?" Sora asked Donald, Goofy and I. I shrugged my shoulders and nodded, since we didn't have anything else at the moment. Donald and Goofy also agreed, and we headed back to Santa's to fill him in on the plan.

-x-

"Presents as bait? Goodness…I don't like the sound of that," Santa said as he placed a finger on his chin. Jack lowered his head in disappointment, and I felt bad for him. I looked around, and wondered about something. I called out Santa's name and he looked at me, and I asked if I had any presents while I was younger and before I went into a coma. He stroked his beard and walked over to his desk to look for something, and when he brought out a piece of paper he looked at me. "Well, actually…I do have a couple of gifts from when you little. Your parents asked you to write a letter which you wrote you wanted blankets, sandals and a pretty nightlight."

My face flushed when he read about the nightlight, and I heard Goofy and Donald chuckling. I sighed and walked over to Santa as he showed me the letter, and I laughed at how funny my writing looked. There were about five gifts for me when I was young, and I was shocked at how many gifts I had for just one year, but glad for them at this moment. "Do you think we can use these gifts, then? I know you probably worked hard on them, but at least we won't be using your factory just to make decoy gifts," I asked.

Again, Santa stroked his beard as he thought for a moment, and he took quite a while. He asked if I was sure, and I nodded my head a bit too eagerly, I mean he probably wasted a lot of material losing the other gifts, so I didn't want him using more. He went back into thinking, and finally agreed. He walked to the factory to get the presents, and I went back to looking down at the letter. I heard footsteps approaching, and I looked up as I saw Sora walking to me. He looked at the letter and laughed too, which made me chuckle, and then he looked at me.

"You wanted a nightlight?" he asked. I felt myself blush again, but he wasn't making fun of me or anything. He wondered why I needed one, and I couldn't really remember why, but I did remember crying at times while it was night. "Nightmares?"

"Maybe," I replied. I brought the letter a little closer to my chest and looked up towards the ceiling. "It's weird though, because I remember not crying after I met Stella, which was after being kidnapped."

"Maybe she got rid of the nightmares for you," Sora suggested. I smiled at him, and wondered the same thing. I was about to say something, but I saw Santa come out with my presents, and we helped him by grabbing them. Goofy asked where we should leave them, and Santa told us he knew a good spot. He started walking outside his place, and we followed him towards a corner in the town that led into the plaza.

"This plaza should work well for your plan," he said. he asked what Jack's plan was, and the guy stated explaining it all, but when he got to the part about delivering the gifts Sora came in and placed his hand over his mouth.

"And on that note, we'll be going," he smiled at Santa. Jack was trying to get out of the grasp, but Donald and Goofy helped Sora as they dragged him into the plaza. I followed along, but thanked Santa before going. He smiled and thanked me for not having to use any other presents, and I told him it was no problem. He walked back into his workshop, and I ran towards Sora and the others.

-x-

"Stop kicking, Goofy!"

"It's not me, Donald."

"Patience, friends."

"Shhh!"

"I said cut it out!" Donald shouted again. He stumbled a bit and it made the box move. I gasped a bit, and I gotta say…being in a box with four other people was a bit overwhelming. Jack came up with the idea that we should also be bait, and I was starting to think that maybe…it wasn't such a good idea. Jack was hovering over us, Donald was trying not to get kicked, and I don't know what Goofy was doing. Sora held my hand when we got in, so I was glad for that.

"How come we have to be the bait?" I heard Sora ask. Jack thought it was a good plan, and I heard Donald yelping out in pain. I raised my eyebrow and just wondered who was hitting Donald, since I was pretty close to Sora and stayed close to him. I didn't touch anyone else, so it probably was Goofy or Jack, maybe even Sora hitting the poor guy. We all stopped talking once we heard clanking noises, and we kept silent until the noise got louder. We heard his clanking right outside the box, and we all jumped up and hopefully surprised the guy.

"Huh?" Jack said. We looked up and saw that the thief was a big floppy robot, and I sighed when I knew who it belonged to. "Doctor Finkelstein's experiment did it!"

Jack jumped out of the box, and it caused it to tumble over. I shouted when Sora, Donald and Goofy fell on top of me, and I yelled for them to get off. When they did I lifted my face to find it covered in snow, and I groaned in annoyance as I got up. I wiped it off though, and quickly took out my keyblade as we all prepared to fight the robot. He was flinging his arms around, since they were springy, and it was obvious to note that we'd have to watch out. Sora ran straight towards it, and I stayed behind a bit to cast some spells at it with Donald. He flung his spring arms around, and I jumped up in time to block the attack and ducked after. I rolled out of the way and got on my knees as I went to cast a few more spells. Sora jumped up to attack it with Jack, and because Jack was so tall, he was able to attack more fluidly.

Goofy spun around with his shield to attack, and I ran up to deal some attacks. I pulled the trigger of my keyblade, and the stars from it shot out to attack the guy. They came back, and I jumped out of the way when the robot attacked again. Sora and Jack were dealing the most damage at the moment, and the robot looked like it was about to keel over at any moment. I ran beside Sora as we both attacked it, and Jack came in with Donald firing some spells. I was thankful that this was just an experiment of Dr. Finkelstein and not a ravaging Heartless, or this would have taken a lot longer. Sora was about to deal the final strike, but he tripped over the robot's arms. I was going to help him, but I heard metal hit against metal, and I looked towards the robot.

I saw a white keyblade standing in front of the now lying robot, and I knew who that keyblade belonged to. Donald and Goofy gasped as they saw it, and Sora got up as he took a glance at it. I looked around, but I couldn't find her anywhere…Aura was no where in sight, and I knew that keyblade belonged to her.

"Aura!" I shouted, hoping she'd come out of the shadows. The keyblade disappeared, and Sora walked up and asked if it belonged to Aura. I nodded, and he looked around as well. No one spoke a word, but I couldn't hear anything from that girl. No footsteps or snow crunching…nothing. I sighed, and heard Jack cheering about how we solved the mystery. We heard jingle bells and I looked up as I saw Santa flying down to us on his sleigh.

"Did you catch the thief?" he asked. We nodded, but Sora questioned why the doctor's experiment would go around stealing Christmas presents. Santa didn't know about the experiment, and Jack explained about it to him, saying it was a moving puppet made by him. Santa walked up to it and examined it, and commented on how Dr. Finkelstein was always tinkering with stuff. Is that ever true.

"Now listen, Jack. I'd like to thank you, and while delivering presents is something only I can do," Santa said as he turned around. "I can give you an idea of what it's like."

Jack was so excited that he literally jumped from where we were to the sleigh, and I raised my eyebrow at it. Santa turned around and told us that the puppet, or robot, whichever, just wanted a heart. He got back on his sleigh, and we watched as he and Jack soared through the sky.

-x-

Sora

"Interesting! So the puppet wasn't stolen after all! It ran away on it's own. In other words, my experiment was an overwhelming success," Doctor Finkelstein said. Sora explained what Santa had said, and how the puppet was trying to find a heart. The doctor agreed saying how, unlike Sally; the puppet was made without a heart. Sora wondered why it was stealing presents if it wanted a heart.

"Maybe because," Sally said as she walked up to Sora, Donald and Goofy. "Presents are a way to give your heart to someone special."

Sora placed a finger on this chin, and started to feel bad for the puppet when Sally put it like that. They heard jingle bells again, and looked around to see Jack jumping from the sky. He landed perfectly on his feet, and Santa wished them all a happy Halloween as snow began to fall. Sally gasped in awe and thought it was a lovely gift, but Jack didn't understand since it didn't come in a box or wasn't tied in a bow.

"Jack, it's not about the box or the ribbons, it's about what's inside the box!" Sora explained. Sally shook her head, and corrected Sora by saying what was truly special was the act of giving the gift—to wish deep within the heart to make someone else happy.

"Right…of course! Thank you, Sally, you're absolutely right," Jack said. He started feeling weird right after, and told them how he felt very happy. Goofy told him that it was probably Sally's gift, and Jack's expression softened. He walked up to her and placed her hands within his, "Oh Sally! You've given me the nicest present in the world! And I've nothing to give you in return. What would you like? Just name it. Absolutely anything."

"The nicest present I could ever ask for, Jack, is just to be with you." Sally placed her hands on top of Jack's, and smiled at the skeletal man. Jack smiled, and told her that it was a gift she didn't have to ask for. He took her hands and started dancing with her around the town square, and Sora watched as he thought about what Sally said. He looked down and sighed.

"Maybe… I never gave her a real present," Sora said aloud. Donald and Goofy looked over to him, and Goofy placed his arms around Sora's shoulders as Donald told him that Marie really liked the gift he gave her last year. Sora still wasn't sure, since Marie liked a lot of things, and she wasn't the type to put someone down because she didn't like their gift. Goofy laughed, and shook Sora a bit.

"Well, as long as Marie is with you, she won't need anything else," Goofy said, recalling how Marie said the same thing herself. Sora smiled at the memory, and continued to watch Sally and Jack dance. He closed his eyes for a moment, and imagined him dancing with Marie, and he chuckled a bit to himself before widening his eyes. If all she wanted out of this was to be with him, then he had somewhere to be. He told Goofy and Donald that he'd be back, but they already knew, and told him to take his time.

-x-

Marie

I stayed behind because I wanted to take in the snowy scenery before we left, and I told the guys to get me in case I took too long, which I think they might have to do. I was on the carousel, and I noticed that the top of it was growing some kind of plant, but I couldn't make it out. It didn't really matter, since I wasn't paying attention, and the only thing I could do was use my magic as it made the carousel move around. I smiled as it did, and I looked around as the snow fell, which started falling not too long ago. Maybe it was because I remembered my Christmas clearly at Hollow Bastion with Ansem, but the snow, lights and buildings made for a lovely and serene landscape. It helped that I was sitting across on the horse that I was on, that way I was able to see everything as I spun around. I kept looking around until I saw Sora running towards me, and I stopped making the carousal spin so I could look at him. I smiled when he came closer, and the carousal came to a full stop. "Are we leaving already?" I asked.

"No, I just wanted to be here with you," he said. he walked up to the horse I was on and sat on it as he held the handles, and I was still sitting across, but now I was in front of him—kind of like how someone sits across someone's lap. He had to spread his legs a bit so that we were both sitting comfortably, and I smiled at his politeness. He used his keyblade to make the carousel spin, and I gave a content sigh as I placed my head on his shoulder and wrapped my arms around his waist—it's a good thing he's tall and I'm not. He chuckled and placed an arm around mine, and we kept spinning. "So, what's this place have that you like so much?" he asked.

"The scenery is beautiful, and I really like the whole snow with Christmas lights," I chimed. I grew a bit sad, just because I didn't celebrate Christmas like any normal kid, and Sora knew that. I told him how I really only remember Christmas with Ansem, and I also remember spending it a bit with Cid, Lea and Isa. It was such a magical Christmas because it was the first I could remember, and I spent it with people who I loved, even if they weren't related to me. I gave a soft smile as I looked down to the snow, "I can't wait to spend Christmas when we all go home…hanging out and just creating memories. How's Christmas like on Destiny Islands? I can't remember much."

"It doesn't snow this much, but it gets chilly," he said. He lowered his head on mine, and gave a sigh that sounded like he was reliving Christmas. "They lit up my street with so many lights, same thing with the square. I liked the parades… Riku, Kairi and I went every year."

"Sounds amazing," I said. We kept spinning around, and Sora told me how he was looking forward to spending Christmas with me, and my face started to turn pink. He started telling me about how he and everyone started talking about gifts, and how Jack thought it was about the box with wrapping and pretty ribbons. I laughed at this, since it didn't surprise me, but then he got to what Sally was saying, and I listened.

"She said that what really is special about a gift is the act of giving, to wish deep in my heart to make someone else happy," he said. He looked a bit down, and I asked him what was going through his mind, "I just feel like the necklace wasn't enough…"

The carousel stopped spinning, and I got up from leaning against his shoulder. He still looked down, so I used my finger to lift his chin so we were staring at each other, and I smiled at him. "Sora, you're the best gift I could ever ask for. You're what I needed after years of being caged up feeling sad and lonely; you make me so very happy."

Sora stared as he gave a really genuine smile, and I returned the look. We stayed like this for a bit, until something fell from above Sora's head. It fell right in between us, and we both looked down towards it…it was a mistletoe. He picked it up, and we just stared at it… was that mistletoe the plant that was growing atop the carousel? I looked up, and saw that it wasn't dangling off anything—so how was it here? I saw Sora holding it above our heads, and my face started turning red along with his. He gave a slight chuckle, and pointed at the thing. "Well, it is Christmas…"

I smiled as he kept staring at me, and I noticed how his eyes shined brighter than usual, but they had such a lovely color of blue to them in the snow. I mean, they were the same blue, but the snow and lights around us gave them a shimmer of crystal and I found myself wrapping my hands around his shoulders. He placed his arms around my waist and like at Hollow Bastion, we started getting closer. I had to lean down as he looked up, and when his eyes started to slowly go down I did the same. My heart was pounding faster than anything before, and I felt my breathing getting a bit short. I noticed his breath was getting shaky as he opened his mouth, and I was almost a bit too nervous to open mine, but I did it anyways. When we started getting closer I felt the heat coming from his lips, and not a moment after we touched lips. I brought one of my hands up as I cupped his cheek, and the kiss felt…right, it felt wonderful. His lips were warm and they were very soft, and I felt my stomach flutter with butterflies as our foreheads touched. We kissed for just a few more seconds until we parted, and we stared at each other as we were catching our breaths from the nervousness. He smiled at me with soft expressions, and I placed my forehead against his.

"Merry Christmas, Marie," I heard him say as he brought me into a tight and warm hug. "You went through ten years without Christmas, so I'll give you a special one. I love you."

"Thank you so much." I wanted to cry, not because of anything bad, but because of how wonderfully beautiful this boy can be. Giving me a Christmas like this to make up for the ones I didn't have those years… I'm a lucky person. I'll never forget this memory.

"I love you so much, Sora."


Sorry if Sora seemed OOC…but kiss scenes! MISTLETOE YOU SAVED THE DAY FOR ME, YAY!

Now to deal with the awkwardness that is Atlantica.

Grapejuice101:
Lol I still have the second pride Lands and second visit to Tron's world after Atlantica I think. After that it's Twilight Town then The World That Never Was.

JoojKA:
I'm glad that Aura appeals to you the most; since she's a character that I really enjoy writing about. She is a mystery, but what I like writing is the fact that she is a strong girl with thoughts of her own and is fearless. Haha yea I like writing her interactions with all them too, even though I'm torn between Axel/Roxas or Riku for her.

Aw, yea we call it Sorie I guess haha! I hope the kiss was up to par, I really wanted to make it with mistletoe and Christmas since Marie loves the snow and the whole story with this world just fit in so perfectly.

Aw thank you! I'm really glad you like my style of writing, even though the fight scenes are annoying to me haha, but I do love writing so I put my heart into writing a very meaningful story. I'm still new to adding in a lot of details and such, but for the emotions part I get those written as I imagine myself in types of situations with Aura or Marie. Aw, I'm really honored you think of me as an inspiration, keep the love going! :D

Shadow 1n2:
Haha pretty much if you think about it, I just switched a button and BOOM! Oh, Saix does know Marie, and she does too—but as Isa, not as Saix. I see a lot of crying on Marie's part, since those two were about her only friends when everyone started leaving her [Riku, aqua, Ansem, etc.] and it's always sad when you have a friend who changes for the worst. Yeah, I'm still thinking of how I'm going to write that out, I know Marie will be super ecstatic to see Riku and super annoyed at how tall he got lol. I haven't seen the new spider-man since it didn't appeal to me, but if they add spider-man I want the good o'l Peter Parker. Lol, I can see a lot of jokes with iron man or Tony Stark since he's a funny guy.