Have you heard? There's a rumor in St. Petersburg! Have you heard what they're saying on the streets?

I couldn't stop myself from humming the tune merrily, song stuck in my head from the moment that we had decided to set up shop in St. Petersburg for a while. I'll admit, I was half-happy I still remembered anything from Anastasia, seeing as it was one of my top five favorite movies of all time, historically inaccurate or not. The other half of me was still worried about the feeling I was going to forget everything. I didn't even remember when that fear had cropped up, but it had dug its roots in at some point and hadn't let go since.

After all this time, only a few things had slipped away, but it still bothered me.

I had enough issues having a clear memory already.

I put my musings aside for t he moment and continued on.

Although the Czar did not survive, one daughter may be still alive―the princess Anastasia! But please do not repeat…

My humming didn't stop for a while, even after I had run out of other songs from Anastasia. I continued through a few other movies I loved, including the Nightmare Before Christmas, which prompted me to check the date once I got to 'Making Christmas'. Only three days left until said holiday…

So of course I immediately started humming 'You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.'

It took another few hours to arrive in St. Petersburg, by which point my mind had run dry on movie soundtracks to hum. And we still had to drive around for a few hours in order to find a spot to set up shop, so by the time we finally, finally found a spot I was humming 'Under the Apple Tree' from freakin' Crisis Core, which says a lot about how far my brain had gone reaching for something to hum.

Lindsey looked at me sort of funny while she started setting things up, but I pretended I didn't notice. If she was giving me that look over catching me humming, then she was a hypocrite because I couldn't count how many times I'd caught her doing the same thing.

Though it's always possible she was giving me that look for another reason, I guess.

Either way, once we had the hideout set up, we decided we should celebrate Christmas early, just in case. Who knew how busy we'd be after we actually started looking around? Better to make sure the celebration happened.

My family didn't usually celebrate Christmas, I'll admit, so having the opportunity was… Nice.

We bought a bunch of boxes of hot chocolate, a bunch of food, some sparse last-minute decorations, and separated to buy each other any gifts we were going to buy. It didn't take me long to pick gifts for the others not because I knew any of them very well, but because, well… I suck at picking out gifts and just went for the first thing that I thought they might appreciate.

Usually I'd probably just give them the money to buy their own gifts, but all of us were loaded so it was the actual gift-giving and the thought that mattered.

Which was weird.

On my way to check out with all of our supplies, I decided I'd go ahead and buy one of those small trees and size-appropriate decorations.

And, thus, we all ended up back in the hideout with a couple of bags each that we closely guarded from the others until we could wrap up the items in wrapping paper or stick them in a gift bag instead. Lindsey put up tinsel and a sprig of mistletoe, and Rajan and I worked on making the hot chocolate and whatever food that needed cooked.

Rudy, for his part, mostly held things for the rest of us and wagged his tail.

When we didn't need him to help out, he worked on wrapping up his gifts to us.

Once Lindsey was done hanging up decorations and setting up the tree for me, she went about doing the same, and I took only a couple of moments stuffing the others' gifts into gift bags because I suck at wrapping gifts almost as much as I suck at picking them. The easiest one to pick something for was Rudy because, y'know, in spite of all of his intelligence, he was a teenage boy and he was easy to please to boot. With Lindsey, it was sort of a matter of figuring out what she might want that she didn't already have. And Rajan… Well.

If I'd thought about it a little further in advance I probably would have been able to come up with something decent for all of them, but I'd ended up just picking while in the store which severely limited my choices.

Then, finally, with everything set up and the food and first serving of hot chocolate ready, we all sat down around the table and ate and teased each other and, here and there, sang along to the Christmas music that Lindsey put on.

Rudy's tail didn't stop wagging once and I was starting to get worried he was going to sprain it. And wouldn't that be hilarious to have to go to the doctor for?

I could just see it then―"Well y'see, Doc, my friends and I were celebrating Christmas together for the first time since we didn't get to do it last year, and I just got so excited…"

Seemed like Rudy.

I almost snorted at the thought, but refrained until there was a lull in conversation… At which point I teased him about it, and he just grinned and his tail wagged harder. Not deterred at all.

Ah, that was my little brother for sure. Cute dude.

After we finished eating I made another batch of hot chocolate, this time with spices, and we all curled up on the couch with a projector hooked up to my old laptop to watch Christmas movies.

Then, since none of us wanted to wait until morning, we passed our gifts around to each other and opened them after I made a third batch of hot chocolate.

I received a coat from Lindsey, a new laptop from Rudy since Lindsey had long-since commandeered my old one, and a pile of very nice loot from Rajan. Lindsey got some assorted tech and electrical components from the three of us, which made her laugh, but she nonetheless immediately started brainstorming on what to do with the new items. Rudy got almost a full outfit, between the three of us―a coat from Lindsey, driving gloves from Rajan, and a scarf from me. And Rajan got a coat from Lindsey, as well, a handheld video game console and a handful of games from Rudy, and a pile of nice loot from me, which made both of us laugh.

We all also sort of thanked and chided Lindsey for her lack of creativity, but it was all in good fun and I didn't feel I had all that much room to talk. Besides―a coat was weather and location-appropriate, and all of us having one and not just a couple of spare jackets and blankets lying around would be great if the others got too cold. I could just toss my coat at them! And, you know, a scarf was weather and location-appropriate too but mostly I'd gotten it for Rudy because it was soft.

After draining our fourth batch of hot chocolate for the night, we all bid each other goodnight and settled down to sleep, since we would need to be in top form to start our newest mission in the morning.

Still, I was both nervous and oddly pumped, so I had a very hard time actually falling asleep.

Thankfully, it only took that same old deep breathing exercise and a few extra minutes for the need for sleep to nag my adrenaline into submission so I could get some rest. I'm not even sure exactly when I fell asleep, because one moment I was awake and the next I was dreaming.