I made a mistake.

Bart writes the letter later in the series, not during the Christmas episode. I changed last chapter to reflect that. It's a relatively minor change.

In other news, I graduated college. Now, if only I had a job lined up...

Christmas eve.

It's noonish, but since the celebrations start at midnight only a few crew members are still up, and I'm one of them. By choice rather than by job assignment though.

The garden park area near the bridge is really nice. Right now, the view is spoiled somewhat by the currently broken snow generator, but otherwise...

Stars. And a comet, but so many stars.

Tons of them, stretching over my view from treetop to treetop, letting me imagine that I'm lying down outdoors back on Earth. Not this universe's Earth, mind you, but mine, the one back home.

I used to go camping with my family once a year in the summer, and we'd go hiking up and down trails to see waterfalls for a few days. The days it wasn't raining, I could look up at the sky, but it looked so much different from this. Not just the layout of the stars, but how clear they are. Even when I was camping out in the boonies, the stars were never as vivid as they are right now. Lacking significant atmosphere between me and them, they also don't shimmer or twinkle like they do on Earth.

It's Christmas time. If I was back home, I'd be wrapping presents and putting them underneath the plastic tree we set up every year. I'd be re-watching Toradora for the fifth time. Maybe sitting next to the fire to keep warm, depending on how cold it gets this year.

The temperature on the ship is generally around 25 degrees Celsius, which is nice and comfortable. It does make it feel less like Christmas though.

I finally got all my presents sorted today. Meia's present took way too long to figure out, given... well, I really don't know either of the three girls that well. I tend to think about me and not anyone else, and talk over other people. I'm working on it, but...

Anyway, it's really nice lying here on the ground. Peaceful. Quiet.

Too quiet. My ears are humming slightly from the quiet.

I start humming gently to myself, breaking out into song once I reach the lyrics.

It's Christmas and we walk alone
Two strangers with no one to miss us
On our own, out in the cold

Trudging onward, braving a harsh winter storm
You and I met passing by, and now our spirits feel warm

I don't have anyone at home to talk to
And you don't have anything to do
So I'll spend my Christmas with you

I'll spend my Christmas with you

It's Christmas and we are in love
With the way that the soft snowflakes kiss us
From far above the blustery breeze

Trudging onward, braving a harsh winter storm
You and I met passing by, and now our spirits feel warm

I believe that Haruhi's truly the only way
And I celebrate Christmas because it's her birthday

I don't have anyone at home to talk to
And you don't have anything to do
So I'll spend my Christmas with you

I'll spend my Christmas with you
I'll spend my Christmas with you
I'll spend my Christmas with you
I'll spend my Christmas with you

I might have changed the lyrics slightly.

Haruhi was born in October as well, so it's not even correct.

Whatever.

I close my eyes and continue to hum to myself, occasionally breaking out into songs or parodies of songs, keeping my voice low enough that I shouldn't be bother anyone unless they got within maybe fifteen feet of me.

"Mister Alien?"

It looks like Dita's excited for Christmas. "Here."

"Ah!" She comes over and knees down next to my head. "Enjoying the view?"

"Yup." I close my eyes again. "It's nice and peaceful here."

"Um..." Dita hesitates. "Do you want me to leave?"

I open my eyes back up. "No, that's fine. Why don't you lie down too? It's nice."

She does as I asked, lying down right next to me, close enough to feel her body warmth.

"I like Christmas. Everyone's always so happy." Dita says quietly.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. The captain is going to dress up, and everyone will exchange gifts." Dita's hand finds mine and she entwines her fingers before I can react. "This year, I have someone special to give something too."

"Same here." I squeeze her hand.

"John? What's your home like?" Dita turns on her side to look at me.

"Uh... I don't know how to describe it. Where do you want me to start?"

"What are your Ohma and Fama like?"

"Heh. Mother and father for me, woman and man respectively. My mom is a teacher, and my dad works to make sure electricity goes where it need to go." I reply. "They're both hard workers, and I like to think they like me."

"Are they kind?"

"Yup." I nod.

"Do you have any sisters?"

"Yeah, one, two years younger."

This continues back and forth for a few minutes, Dita asking question after question and me responding best I can about life at home. At the end, Dita looks up to to stars wistfully. "I wish I had a family like yours."

Oh, crap. I forgot she doesn't really have a family. "Hey." I turn sideways and put my opposite hand on her shoulder. "I don't know exactly what happened in the past, but I'm here now, and so is the rest of the crew. We'll take care of you, okay?"

"I know." DIta's eyes have small tears in them, but her face has turned into a weak smile. "Thank you."

I pull her closer into a hug and wait as she shudders against me, valiantly trying not to cry.

Once Dita had calmed down, she hands me a small box with "Open exactly at midnight!" written on the top. Then she left to finish decorating with everyone else, but not before I gave out a small package to her as well, telling her if I was to open at midnight, she was under the same conditions.

It's about seven PM, and everyone's waking back up. Looks like my spot isn't going to be very peaceful for long. I get up to head for my room when I see something outside the ship.

Meia's Dread is racing towards the comet.

Swearing to myself, I race for the hangar. I need to make sure Meia makes it out.

I pass Jura in the hall. She starts running beside me, which is quite impressive in those heel-boots she wears. "What's the rush?"

"Meia's headed out to fight the thing in the comet. I asked her to wait for me, I guess she's too impatient."

Jura nods. "Sounds like her. I'm going with you."

I glance at the blonde. "You sure?"

She grins. "I have a chance to save Meia and raise my personal stock even higher. I'd be a fool not to take it."

I shake my head, but don't do anything to hinder the woman. We reach the hangar and get into our separate vehicles.

It's been a while since I've been in the Vanguard. The familiar Paksis chill is there, but it's not as bad as usual for whatever reason. And here I was thinking it would be appropriate for the season.

"Okay, time to save Meia." I mutter, and the Vanguard comes to life... Looks like the Paksis is in a good mood, I have more controls again. Looks like I have access to some sort of radio system- This isn't the time. I move up to the catapult and crouch down to lower my center of gravity to behind the launch rail, allowing me to avoid spinning end over end when launched.

As if reading my thoughts (Through the chip, I suppose it is) the Paksis tells the ship to launch the catapult and suddenly I'm out in space.

"John?" Meia's voice comes over the comm. "What are you doing out here?"

"I told you I was going to help you." I grumble. "When I saw you had already launched, I came to assist you."

"You say that," Jura's voice comes through the radio as her ship launches. "but he ran as fast as he could from the deck of the ship down to the hangar. He must have been really worried about you."

I can feel my face buzzing... Jura's snickering over the radio.

"Er, thanks John." Meia's voice comes through a bit strained. "But I should be fine."

I shake my head to clear the feeling and focus. "Well, I'm already out here. Might as well tackle it together."

"Hey, is John a Tsundere?" Jura asks.

"NO." I growl.

"What's that? I've heard Dita mention it." Meia asks.

Our three ships enter a rough formation with me in the center and Jura to the upper left and slightly ahead of me, and Meia in the lower right quadrant, also ahead of me slightly. This way, I can quickly choose the most appropriate person to merge with. It's one of the formations I hashed out with Meia a while ago.

"It's someone who's callous to the one he or she likes, then once you get to know them there open up they are nice and sweet." Jura elaborates.

I sigh. "If I was Tsundere, I would've been obligated to say 'It's not like I made you cookies, I just had some left over' when I was cooking around Halloween." I add. "It doesn't matter that we were in the kitchen, and I was obviously making cookies and could make even more, but I would be obligated to say that while blushing and attempting to look haughty."

"Also, he need to grow two long ponytails. Then he'll have the blonde twin-tail effect." Jura continues.

"...What are you two talking about?"

"It's an anime thing. I'll tell you about it when we get back." I answer. "For now, let's deal with this icy robot."

We approach the trail of the comet, which is breaking off at a prodigious rate. I don't actually know how it hasn't dissipated completely yet, the volume of ice being left behind is enough to hamper efforts to enter the stream of the comet.

"Meia, have John merge with me." Jura says. "We can make a shield to get into the comet's trail."

Meia grumbles a bit. "Yes, that does make sense. John-"

"On it." I respond, and head on a collision course for Jura's ship. As usual, the cabin suddenly loses all video feeds from outside and once the panels open up I'm already inside the cockpit with Jura. I look at where the panels receded into the floor. "How integrated are our two machines right now?"

Jura has a malicious glint in her eye. "Closer than two lovers, I'd say."

"Look, we both know that combining is a euphemism." I point out. "But I refuse to get embarrassed by two machines linking together."

"Whatever you say."

"John." Meias voice comes through the comm again. "What are you doing in there?"

"Setting up a shield." I say. It's true too, I'm pressing the buttons as I talk. "Jura's harassing me though. I'd like to file a workplace harassment suit against her."

"...Meia, John's saying weird things again." Jura looks at me with a calculating gaze. "I think he needs his head checked."

"Do you not have anti-harassment laws on Mejare?" I ask. "Shield's up." The shield is only set up to cover us and Meia, but it's still about a hundred meters radius from Vandread Jura.

"We do." Meia says. "But we don't really care about them. After all, we're pirates."

"...I keep forgetting that." I say.

We push through the edge of the comet. ahead of us, there is a single red robot with eight long arms. I mentally dub it waterstrider.

"Huh." Jura mumbles. "I was wondering why the comet was breaking apart."

I glance at the blonde. She looks at me and points at the enemy robot. "See, it's breaking the ice off with that saw in front of it. Otherwise, it wouldn't be making a trail this far from a star."

"Ah." I look at the robot and there is indeed a saw of some kind turning around the the comet, grinding the ice away.

Suddenly, the robot turns around, focusing its camera lens eye on us. Two of its arms stretch out and a red web shoots out between them, cutting us off from Meia. Its other arms wend their way around Meia's Dread.

"Jura, we need to take that thing out without getting stuck in the web, and without letting Meia get smashed into oblivion." I say.

"Already on it." Jura hits a few buttons and the shield suddenly jumps and surrounds Meia's ship, cutting off one of the arms that was about to crash into the white Dread.

Okay, but now we are exposed.

The robot changes targets and Jura starts putting us through a series of evasive maneuvers. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Jura's dread is quite fast enough to get completely out of the way.

"Alright." i say. "Meia, can you go around the back of the web and come get to us? If I link up with you, we can dodge better, and Jura can fade back out of range to enable us to get out."

"Working on it." Meia says. Instead of retreating and coming around, she crashes into the web which entangles itself around the shield.

I drop the shield, and Meia's Dread makes it the rest of the way through before the web can close on her ship. "I guess that's one way to do it."

Jura slides up to me. "Alright, here's your chance. Go get her, Loverboy."

I glare at her. "Figure out the bowkini yet?"

Before I can get more into it, the Paksis starts separating us, blocking my line of sight until I'm back in Vanguard drifting through space. Immediately, Meia's dread swoops in close and the merging process starts once again.

Once the panels drop, Meia is right behind me. I glance up at her, and she smirks down at me. "Ready?"

"Let's go."

Meia hits the throttle. We dodge up and around the arms, the increased speed of Vandread Meia much too quick for the arms to catch. The eye is attached to the rest of the robot by means of a long red cable that curls around it like an absurdly long neck. We fly right up to that and grab it with the claws of the Vandread.

It screeches, audible through the radio. I wonder if it's broadcasting on all channels as some sort of jamming technique or if we damaged some sort of internal systems.

I release the arms and we fly off before it can retract the arms and swat at us again. Meia pilots us around a few more times before diving in again, this time ripping the eye portion from the rest of the robotic frame.

Jura snickers over the radio. "You two look like a hawk swooping down to grab a snake."

The robot snake lashes up to us with the severed end of its neck, knocking us away.

"Fights like one too." Meia says. "John, Get ready to grab some ice."

"Ice?"

"We're going to ram it with a chunk of the comet to crush it."

I sigh. "Why doesn't Vandread Meia have guns?"

Meia shrugs. "Maybe because Dita does?"

"But guns are so useful." I complain, but I use one of the appendages to grab a chunk of ice. Meia pilots us on a collision course with the enemy robot, and I ram the chunk of ice into its ugly head.

And then it explodes.

Meia and I are tossed away, outside of the comet's trail along with significant quantities of ice. It creates quite the nice blooming effect, I must say.

Jura's voice comes over the radio. "You two alright?"

"We're fine." Meia responds. "Are you able to get out?"

"Mmm, The explosion created some holes. I'll be able to find my way out." Jura replies.

"And nobody got stuck in the web." I say happily. "So we did better this time."

Meia nods. "Jura, we're going to make another round to ensure the areas clear before coming back, you head back to the hangar."

Jura's voice comes back with a teasing tone. "Ah, really? A patrol, just the two of you? Do you need a chaperone?"

I look back at Meia, whose face is turning steadily more red. "No, thank you."

Jura breaks off, and suddenly the two of us are all alone together in the vastness of space.

I lean back, only for my head to hit Meia's stomach. Ah, right. Forgot we're this close. Before I can get up, she lays a hand on my chest keeping me where I am.

"So..." She says, not quite looking me in the eyes. "How are you doing?"

I smile. "I'm doing alright, same as yesterday. How about you?"

"I'm fine." She clears her throat. "I got you a present."

I blink at her. "Okay. I got you one as well."

She looks surprised, and I reach into one of the pockets of my cargo pants, withdrawing a small box.

Meia takes it and opens it, revealing the silver necklace within. It's plain, with small loops that are slightly twisted so that they can lay flat. The clasp is one of those fiddly ones with the ring and the loop with retractable pin.

"Merry Christmas." I say.

Meia wordlessly reaches behind her head and attaches the loops together. Once her hands come back down, they rest back on my chest. "Thank you."

"No problem." I say. "Er, I have a question."

"What is it?"

"Do you like to hike?"

"I've never gone." Meia says.

"Huh. Well..." I look out at the stars. "If we get the chance, we should go hiking. I know a great spot near where I live-"

"In a different universe?" Meia asks wryly.

"...Yeah."

"Oh, your present." Meia grabs something from behind her seat and hands it to me. It's a small crystal cube. "Here."

I examine the cube. It doesn't have any markings, and it's not laser etched or anything. "Thank you."

"You have no idea what it is." Meia says with a smile on her face.

"Not a clue."

"It's a data storage device. It's got all of the pictures I have of me and my family on it. I thought you'd like to see it."

"Wow. That's thoughtful." I hold the crystal up to the nearest light source, one of the rails on the side of the cockpit. "I can't see how it's storing the data."

"You'd have to ask Dita or Parfet or someone else form engineering." Meia smiles. "Merry Christmas."

I gently place the cube in one of my pockets. As much as I'd like to just sit here... "Well, do you think the sector is clear?" I ask teasingly.

"I suppose it is." Meia leans over me. "But first-"

She leans down and plants a kiss on my lips.

Back on the Nirvana, I get accosted by Zan. It's getting towards ten, and preparations are almost complete.

"Hey, John. Come here for a second." Zan says.

I follow her into the cafeteria, where the stage has been set up. "I'm going to be performing here tonight." Zan says. "While everyone's eating dinner, I'm gonna be singing."

"I look forward to it." I say, giving her a thumbs up.

"Actually, I was hoping you'd join me." Zan says. "I know a few songs that we could duet."

Hmm. "Sounds like fun to me." I roll my shoulders. "So, what songs do you want to sing?"

Zan picks out a few Christmas song and we practice on the stage a few times. It takes the better part of the remaining time until midnight. To be honest, I probably wouldn't even have noticed the time until people started to file in due to how much fun I was having, but Del showed up about fifteen minutes to midnight and told us to "get to the bridge, or we'll miss the best part."

When I asked her what the best part was, her obnoxious grin got a bit wider.

As we arrive at the bridge, The lights dim and a spotlight is shone on the entrance to Magno's chambers.

She comes out dresses in... not only dressed up like Santa, but with a whole sled and two reindeer setup attached to the outfit. She has a bag slung over her shoulder, which looks like it has a lot of stuff in it.

She heads up to the stage where Gascogne waits, and the two of them start talking in whispers.

I walk up to the balcony, with Zan beside me. Below, everyone is gathering and preparing small crackers. Off to the side, I can see Duelo and Parfet working on the snow machines. Duelo has a large square thing with him, which I suspect is a painting.

"I'm glad I met you." Zan says.

"Yeah?"

She nods. "You're so much different from everyone else, it makes everything interesting."

I laugh. "Yeah, well, being in space is completely different for me. Back home, less than a thousand people have been to space."

"No way." She looks up at me. "Why not?"

"It's expensive to reach orbit." I say. "And we don't have the same technology you do. We have to burn tons of fuel just to get to orbit, so much that adding a single pound of payload costs a massive amount."

"Wow. So this really is new for you." Zan turns around and sits on the rail. I instinctively get ready to reach out and grab her should she start to fall. "I guess that means you weren't one of the thousand?"

I shake my head. "That would require me to take a completely different path through life. I went with desk jockey, not 'strap yourself to a giant explosion hazard and hope you get to space'."

She smirks. "I see. Well, now you don't really have much of a choice."

"Nope."

The clock clicks over to 11:59.

I reach into my pocket and pull out my present from Dita. Zan looks at it curiously. "It's from Dita. She said to open it at midnight."

Zan nods. "I'll give you my present later then."

"Same."

Dita suddenly comes out from the crowd, panting. "There you are, Mister Alien!"

The countdown on the balloon clock overhead starts.

"I was looking all over for you-"

I hold up the present, and get ready to open it.

Dita scrambles to get her present from me ready to open as well.

"3... 2... 1... Merry Christmas!"

Crackers pop, snow shoots up from Parfet's contraptions, and the captain and Gascogne start throwing presents out to the crowd, and above my head, a small UFO spins around saying "Merry Christmas!" In Dita's voice.

Dita looks down at the lump of plastic in her hands in a bit of confusion.

After catching the small device Dita had made for me, I reach over and press a button on my gift to her. It slowly inflates to be the classic disk shaped UFO, a tiny internal fan keeping it inflated. As it heats up, it begins to float. I move DIta's hand around the controller I had made and give her a quick tutorial.

She delightedly pilots the disk around, with several of the other crew members pointing and laughing at it. It currently has some lightweight Christmas lights hanging off of it, making it festive.

"Thank you!" Dita jumps at me, bowling me over and sending us both to the floor.

She grabs my face and helps herself to my lips.

In the background, I can hear Zan gasping in surprise and Del laughing, but I don't really have the focus to care.

The concert goes pretty well. The rest of the the crew ate their meal or danced while Jura selected the songs and Zan and I sung. Occasionally, the crowd would join in, singing classic Christmas carols that had made it through the years.

In my pocket, Zan's present bumped against my thigh every time I move. It's a small music player, one that actually works with the modern devices.

Once it hits about three AM, people start to wander off. I know that when there's a party, they tend to just drop where they stand, so we close up the night with "I LOVE XMAS" By Tommy Heavenly6. What a classic. I finally understand the lyrics!

"Alright folks, that wraps it up-" Zan starts after the music fades.

"Actually," I take the Microphone from Zan. "I have one more song to sing." I nod at Jura, who queues up the song I had previously selected. I turn to Zan. "This one is for you, your Christmas present."

Several of the girls in the audience go "wooo!" and someone whistles.

I take a breath as the drums come up, and tap my foot to the beat.

I hold on so nervously
To me and my drink
I wish it was cooling me
But so far, has not been good
It's been shitty
And I feel awkward, as I should
This club has got to be
The most pretentious thing
Since I thought you and me
Well I am imagining
A dark lit place
Or your place or my place

Well I'm not paralyzed
But, I seem to be struck by you
I want to make you move
Because you're standing still
If your body matches
What your eyes can do
You'll probably move right through
Me on my way to you

I hold out for one more drink
Before I think
I'm looking too desperately
But so far has not been fun
I should just stay home
If one thing really means one
This club will hopefully
Be closed in three weeks
That would be cool with me
Well I'm still imagining
A dark lit place
Or your place or my place

Well, I'm not paralyzed
But, I seem to be struck by you
I want to make you move
Because you're standing still
If your body matches
What your eyes can do
You'll probably move right through
Me on my way to you

Well, I'm not paralyzed
But, I seem to be struck by you
I want to make you move
Because you're standing still
If your body matches
What your eyes can do
You'll probably move right through
Me on my way to you

I'm not paralyzed
But, I seem to be struck by you
I want to make you move
Because you're standing still
If your body matches
What your eyes can do
You'll probably move right through
Me on my way to you

You'll probably move right through
Me on my way to you

You'll probably move right through
Me on my way to you

By the end, Zan had started dancing to the tune with me, and the crowd had started joining in as well.

The song comes to a close, and Zan swoops in, grabs me in a tight embrace, and plants a kiss on my lips.

The crowds cheering again, but I don't really hear that.

That's three for three, so I'm doing something right. Or wrong. Depends on you're point of view.

Merry Christmas or whatever you celebrate.