Nana woke up, just like she did any other day. What was surprising about today though was that when she took a look out her window, all she saw was white. Everything was covered in the white, powder looking, substance.

"Mayu!" Nana screamed as she ran to the girls room, bumping into Caboose on the way.

"Oh, good morning, Nana!" Caboose happily exclaims.

"Caboose! Theres a bunch of white stuff outside!" She screams at him, clearly panicked.

"Snow!" Caboose exclaims before taking off with incredible speed outside.

"Snow?" Nana questions before running back on Mayu. "Mayu! Mayu!" Nana cries out.

"Wha- What?" A Now awoken and groggy Mayu asks.

"There this strange stuff outside that was never there before. Caboose called it snow. The world must be ending or something!" Nana cries out.

"Snow?" Mayu questions. She then opens her curtains to see the white stuff covering everything. They see Caboose run out and belly flop into the cold substance. Mayu then closes her curtains to relieve her eyes from the brightness.

"See! I think this God person Sarge mentioned is erasing the world and that's why everything is white. What happens if he erases us!" Nana cries out.

"Calm down, Nana. Nothing is getting erased. It's usual for snow to appear this time of year." Mayu assures her friend. "Wanna go see it up close?"

"Is it dangerous?" Nana asks.

"It fine, Nana. Just make sure to put on a coat. It's cold outside." Mayu says.

Kaede watched the snowfall and the blue soldier playing outside from the dining room, waiting for some hot tea.

"So, it's that time of year, huh?" She asks.

"Yeah! We're gonna have an awesome Christmas!" Donut exclaims.

"You said that last year." Kaede flatly states. "Just before you burned everything down short of the base."

"Hey, candle mishaps can happen." Donut defends.

"And with Caboose, they WILL happen." Kaede retorts.

"Sorry, have you guys ever had a Christmas without disaster?" Yuka asks as she brings the three their tea.

"Well, let's see... no." Kaede simply answers.

"Oh, come on Kaede. They weren't all bad." Donut says.

"Yes. They were." Kaede says with finality.

"I hate to ask..." Yuka starts.

"When I was in the orphanage, we did celebrate Christmas, but I never got anything since the other kids would steal my present some way or another." Kaede starts.

"That's pretty mean." Donut voices.

"Eh, I didn't mind to much. All I got was a low quality toy each year cause the caretakers didn't know what I wanted." Kaede says. "I was pretty much the only kid who knew Santa was actually the caretakers."

"*Gasp* That's horrible!" Donut exclaims. "Every kid should get to experience the magic in believing in Santa!"

"Well, some kids are more lucky than others." Yuka says, looking out to Caboose. "Does he-"

"Yep." Kaede answers. "My first Christmas in Blood Gulch, the air conditioning broke, so I spent the whole day trying to keep cool."

"It doesn't snow in Blood Gulch?" Yuka questions.

"It doesn't even turn night time." Donut answers.

"There's the time Kaikaina brought her friends over and filmed a Christmas theme'd pornagrahy that we all had to witness."

"Who's Kaikaina?" Yuka asks.

"Grif's sister." Donut answers. "Speaking of, Grif was knocked out for that whole thing, and Tucker and Simmons seemed to enjoy it anyway."

"Then there was the big argument over what Christmas was really about." Kaede says.

"The birth of Christ." Donut answers.

"Not everyone there is religious, so it got very heated." Kaede says.

"Oh my. Well don't worry. I'll be sure to give you he best Christmas I can." Yuka assures Kaede.

Kaede smiles. "Thanks you, though I wouldn't be surprised if something happened to ruin it."

"Did you hear that?" Tucker asks, just outside the dining room.

"We all heard it. I keep telling you guys, it's rude to eaves drop." Kouta scolds them.

"Kouta. You're here too." Sarge says.

"I know that, but I just came for morning tea when you guys show up and tell me to not interrupt the conversation, and here we are listening in!" Kouta quietly exclaims.

"Dude, we were here. We know how it went down." Tucker says.

"Thats so sad, though. She NEVER had a good Christmas?" Kouta questions.

"Good thing we can't say the same for birthday party's. Those went off without a hitch." Sarge says.

"Yeah. She actually cried for her eleventh birthday." Tucker says. "But we're getting off topic now."

"We have to try to give her the best Christmas possible." Kouta says with determination.

"Hey! Thats just what I said to my subordinates last year!" Sarge exclaims.

Flashback

"We have to give her the best Christmas possible!" Sarge exclaims to his fellow red team members.

"Aw heck yeah! Lets do it!" Donut exclaims.

"Esto va a ser contraproducente." Lopez says.

Present

"And then Red base almost went up in flames." Sarge says.

"Yeah. I could hear Grif crying 'Nooooo' about all the stuff he lost all the way from blue base." Tucker says. "He was doing it until midnight."

"Yeah, he passed out after that." Sarge said. "Unfortunately, he survived the incident."

"Yeah, we've finally decided to take a hint and stop trying." Tucker says.

"You guys don't have to do anything. I'll make Kaede has a good Christmas. Whatever it takes." Kouta says with determination before walking away.

"So... we watch with snacks?" Sarge questions.

"It's the only thing to do at this point." Tucker agrees.

"Snow! It's so fun!" They hear Caboose exclaim.

"Come on, Nana." Mayu urges as she walks into the yard. Nana takes a few tentative steps forwards until she walks on the snow. Satisfied that she isn't gonna disappear or anything, she walks further into the yard.

"Wow. It's so pretty." She comments as she watches the snow fall. She grabs a handful of the stuff of the ground and makes it into a ball.

"Snow ball fight!" Caboose cries out before lobbing a ball into Nana's face.

"Wha! Cold!" She exclaims. "Hey! That was mean!"

"Let's get him back Nana." Mayu says preparing her own snow ball.

"Yeah." Nana agrees, making another one.

"Hey, that's no fair!" Caboose cries at his numerical disadvantage. He then looks to Washington who just so happened to be outside with them.

"Ah, what the heck." Wash says before he joins them.

"Say Yuka, are you sure we have everything for Christmas this year?" Kouta asks his cousin.

"Now that you mentioned it, no. I always used my mother's things but I guess we're on our own for that." She says. "How could I forget?"

"I'm sure it's nothing a good shopping trip can't fix." Donut assures.

"Right. Let's go right away." Yuka agrees, and with that, the two head out.

"That takes care of one thing. Now, what else did I need to do?" Kouta says to himself.

"Food." Grif says from no where.

"Right. We all need to have a good Christmas supper." Kouta says. "Christmas is still aways away, so I have quite a lot of time to prepare." He then leaves the room.

"Huh? I mean't I want food right now." Grif said, still unseen, sitting in the corner of the room.

As soon as the four were done their snow ball fight, in which Nana dominated due to the use of her vectors, Washington took off while Nana had a great idea for another activity.

"I know! Lets make a snow fort!" Mayu exclaims.

"Yes! That sounds awesome!" Caboose exclaims. "If only Church could be here to help... he would like that."

"Uh, I don't think so." Mayu giggles. "Let's get started."

With that, the three began packing up snow for their snow fort. Progress was fast because of Nana's vectors.

"Wow, you are so good at this Nana!" Caboose exclaims.

"Thank you. It's because of my vectors. Guess they come in handy for building as well as snowball fighting." Nana responds. Before long, the snow fort is done.

"Wow, you three did such a great job." Said three turn to see Yuka along with Donut carrying a bunch of shopping bags.

"Aw. Makes me wish I was here to help out, but shopping is fun too." Donut says.

"What's in those bags?" Nana asks. "Is it lunch?"

"No, they Christmas decorations." Yuka laughs.

"What's Christmas?" Nana asks.

"Simmons!" Sarge cries out.

"Yes, sir!" Simmons stands at attention.

"You know where we can find that Bando person?" Sarge asks.

"I think he hangs out at the beach sir, why?" Simmons asks.

"Simple. I'm inviting him over for Christmas dinner." Sarge explains. "I'm sure he'd love to see whatever disaster occurs this year."

"Sir, Brando's quite a violent man. Are you sure having him here during the possibility of a disaster is a good idea?" Simmons asks.

"Maybe it isn't a good idea. But one things for sure, it'll make it a whole lot more entertaining." Sarge says before taking off.

"Yes, sir." Simmons sighs.

True to Simmons word, Sarge found the ex-SAT soldier sitting alone on the beach

"Good evening, soldier." Sarge greets him.

"Hmm, what the hell do you want?" Bando asks.

"I've coming bearing an invitation for a Christmas party on the 24th." Sarge says.

"And what makes those brats think I want to come to their party?" Bando harshly asks.

"This isn't from any of them. It's from me." Sarge explains.

"Heh, alright. And why bring me over to the house we're a good lot of people hate me live?" Bando questions. "Besides, who gives a damn about Christmas. It's overrated and cold anyway."

"For starters, you'll be out of the cold." Sarge starts. "We'll have some actually good food there. And finally, there's almost guaranteed to be a disaster of some kind that occurs at the party."

"I'm in." Bando says. "Just don't expect me to do any holly jolly crap!"

"Bando. I wouldn't have it any other way." Sarge says

A few days later

"Everything all ready?" Kouta asks.

"Almost. Donuts been a great help to me, cooking the dinner." Yuka says.

"This Christmas is gonna be awesome! To bad everyone banned me from putting out more candles though." Donut says.

"Good cause I don't think we have fire insurance." Kouta scratches his head nervously.

"Oh, don't worry, we do. Though that doesn't mean go burn the place down." Yuka says.

"Yeah, I know." Kouta says. "I'm going to check on everything else we have prepared." With that, Kouta leaves the dinning room.

"So, tell me about that plan for New Year's Eve you said you had..." Donut starts.

Kouta didn't have to venture far when he found Nana and Caboose admiring the decorations they helped put up days ago.

"I know its been several days since we put these up, but I can't help but stop to admire them often. Christmas makes me so happy!" Nana happily exclaims. Kouta smiles at Nana's bliss. Hopefully Kaede will feel the same.

"Yes. Always so happy. I'm gonna go get Church to look at them again!" Caboose exclaims before running of. The same can't be said for the little blue A.I.

"Caboose! I've already seen the damn decorations!" He hears Church yell. Kouta reaches the door to see Bando barge in.

"Bando! What are you doing here?" Kouta asks the larger man.

"I was invited by the sergeant. Promised a show." Bando says before shoving a bottle of alcohol into Kouta's arms. "I'mma go find the man."

"Please don't cause any trouble." Kouta begs to him.

"Hmph. Won't need to. Don't worry about me." He says before walking inside.

"Okay. Even though he and Kaede don't get along well, I can still make this work." Kouta says to himself. Then, there was another knock at the door. Opening it up revealed Kurama with Mariko.

"The director was kind enough to let Mariko out to enjoy Christmas. May we come in?" Kurama asks.

"Uh, sure, sure." Kouta says ushering them inside.

"Mariko!" Both Caboose and Nana cry out. Mariko runs to join them but is stopped by Kurama.

"Remember the golden rule, Mariko." He prompts.

"No killing anyone." Mariko recites before joining the blue soldier and older diclonius.

"We're not intruding are we?" Kurama asks. "I know Kaede and I don't get along the best..."

"Its fine. Sarge invited Bando so I'm more worried about him." Kouta says. "I'm actually relived you're here."

"Thats good to hear. Thank you for allowing us to spend Christmas with you." Kurama says.

"Yeah. Oh I forgot something, I'll be right back. Why don't you go meet with the others." With that, Kouta rushed off to his room to retrieve his present for Kaede. Just as he was walking to put it under the tree, he bumped into Tucker causing him to lose his grip on the present.

"Shit. Sorry man." Tucker apologizes.

"No need. I wasn't looking where I was going either." Kouta says. Looking to where the present fell he saw... two of them, both with their tags fallen off. Grabbing his tag and the present nearest to him, Kouta quickly slapped the tag back on. "Where are you going with your present? The tree is the other way?"

"This isn't for anyone here." Tucker explains. "It's for that Saito chick at the facility."

"You dating her or something?" Kouta asks.

"I will soon. This is for next Christmas for when it happens. Gotta be prepared." With that, Tucker rushed to his room.

"Poor Saito." Kouta says, familiar with Tuckers idea's of asking women out. He then neatly places his present under the tree.

"Suppers ready!" Yuka calls put.

"Come and get it!" Donut adds. With that, everyone gathers in the dining room. Kaede is the last to enter with someone else.

"Hey guys, I hope you don't mind one more guest." Kaede says.

"The more the merrier. Besides, we made plenty of food." Donut assures.

"Have we? Both Grif and Nana are at this table." Simmons states.

"Hey! That's mean!" Nana accuses.

"But true." Grif adds. With that, Aiko enters the scene.

"Hi guys! I brought more presents." She greets. He then joins them in the supper.

"When's the shit hit the fan?" Bando asks Sarge, the two of them sitting the most distant from the large group.

"Who knows. But it's coming... probably from gifts if I were to wager." Sarge answers. After that, the dinner was pleasantly uneventful. Caboose explained to Mariko more about Christmas with Nana chiming in about her own experience so far. Aiko had a very animated conversation with Kouta about art while Simmons was conversing with Kurama. Grif and Lopez kept to themselves as Washington thanked Yuka and Donut for the food, asking how they made it so good. Kaede and Carolina talked of what their previous holidays were like as Tucker shared his plan to ask out Saito (Which unfortunately started with a pickup line) with Mayu who tried to respectfully tell him it was a bad idea.

Once all the food was done, which didn't take long, everyone headed to the living room to open their presents.

"Mine first!" Aiko declares handing out her gifts to all but Mariko, Kurama, and Bando. "Sorry you three, if I knew you were going to be here I would have prepared something for you three."

"Aww." Mariko says with disappointment.

"Don't worry Mariko. There are plenty of other presents for you." Kurama assures his daughter. The presents were all flat shapped. Probably another of her pieces of art, everyone thought. When they were opened she was met with reactions of shock, horror, embrassment, confusion, and quiet cackling , all of which she was oblivious to.

"I hope you like them. I worked supper hard on them and made them just like mother made her paintings. Everyone got a painting of themselves completly nude, as was Aiko and her mothers custom.

'Should have expected this.' Simmons thought.

"*gasp* It's so good!" Nana exclaims.

'Good thing she didn't make one for Mariko.' Kurama muses as he carefully watches to make sure his daughter doesn't get a view of any of the boys presents.

"That's pretty fucked up." Bando says.

"Ye-yeah, Aiko, They're pretty good." Kaede says, trying to be polite.

"Not that I'm complaining, but why did you have to draw us all naked?" Yuka uncomfortably asks.

"That's how myself and my mother do things. She helped some with the paintings." Aiko explains. Luckily, the rest of the presents were more... normal. Then, it came to the last present, Kouta's present to Kaede.

"Here Kaede. I worked real hard on it." Kouta smiles as he hands it to Kaede.

"Hey, now that I look at that thing, you used the same wrapping paper as the present I had. Sure hope they didn't get mixed up." Tucker muses.

"What was in that present?" Kouta asks.

"Uh, not important." Tucker clams up.

"I'm sure it's fine." Kaede says before unwrapping the present and opening it up. Her face immediately went redder than her hair. The others couldn't see what was in the box. "Uh, Kouta..." she prompts him over. when he gets close she whispers something into his ear.

"WHAT! I would never do something like that!" Kouta exclaims.

"Okay... just had to be sure." Kaede says as she closes the big and hands it to Tucker. "You have my present." Both her and Kouta shoot the teal soldier angry looks.

"OH... uh... did that have-"

"Yep. Get rid of it." Kouta demands.

"Hey! Show us what it is!" Sarge demands.

"Yeah! Don't be a pussy!" Bando adds.

"Fuck you guys!" Tucker exclaims as he retreats to his room. When he is sure no one is looking, he checks on the present to be sure Kaede didn't break it or anything. Sure enough, the sex toy vibrator was still in pristine condition.

'Heh, me and the lucky woman are gonna have a lot of fun with this when we get hooked up.' Tucker thinks. 'And hey, if things don't work out with Saito, there's always that Shirakawa chick.' He then sadly places the package out of view and grabs Kaede's real present.

Back with the rest of the group, Sarge was telling Bando about one of their Christmas's in blood gulch.

"Simmons was so blinded by rage, he took the tree and all the present under it outside when we weren't looking and blew it up with the spare explosives! Nobody got anything that day!"

"Haha! Wish something like that happened this Christmas!" Bando laughs. Kaede shoots him a real annoyed look. Tucker than returns with Kouta's present.

"Uh, here's your actual present." Tucker meekly says. Kouta roughly grabs it, eyeing Tucker with disappointment. His gaze turns hopeful when he turns back to Kaede to hand her her present. When she opens it, her face struck with pleasant shock. Inside was a black scarf with pink details on it and writing in gold that said 'Lilium', her favorite song.

"I worked hard on it. Spent a lot of time learning how to knit without anyone knowing. I hope you like it." Kouta says. He is caught by surprise when Kaede quickly brings him into a hug. He is also surprised when he feels six arms around him, Kaede's vectors, as if she wanted to hug him closer than humanly possible.

"Thank you for making this the best Christmas ever." She whispers to him. Kouta returns the hug.

"Anything for you."

Outside, two people sat together with their cups of hot chocolate. One was a man clad in purple armour while the other was a long black haired girl in more traditional winter wear.

"This isn't so bad." Nozumi says.

"See, I knew you would like it " Doc says.

"Yeah... it sucks that they forgot to invite us to the party, but spending this Christmas with you... I can honestly say it's the best Christmas that I can remember." Nozomi says.

"What a coincidence! This is the best Christmas I've had!" Doc exclaims.

"Yeah... thanks for spending this day with me." Nozomi blushes.

"Yeah, and thanks for spending it with me." Doc cheerfully replies.

I wish all of you a happy Christmas and a good time playing Halo Infinite... a game I can't play... because I'm not an xbox player...