The Gift
Xion's PoV
"Hey, Roxas. I bought you something for Christmas," Xion told Roxas, as the two of them sat beneath the Christmas tree and waited for Lea, Isa, and Naminé to wake up and join them.
What Xion had gotten for Roxas was her attempt to be selfless—even though she would have gone with something else, but it was fun—and to think about the family's needs and not just her own. But especially Roxas' during this time, since Xion knew she had originally died near Christmas and all… though she still hated thinking about that stuff, and it made her shiver now.
"Really?!" Roxas questioned. And it was almost as though he'd forgotten that one of the things about Christmas was reciprocity… and that since Roxas had already given her her gift of butterscotch Jello shots—to help her unwind during this difficult time of years—of course she was going to return the favor. "Is it the dog you've been wanting? Because if so, Xion… I'm not gonna lie. I want a pet, too. And it would be a great thing for the whole family to have." Just as Roxas said that, he reached for the green colored gift that Xion had gotten for him. But he then got distracted for a moment by the huge blue present in the corner there—that Xion guessed was a drum set for him—and as he did, he missed that said gift right in front of him was moving.
Xion's lips twitched into a smile at that. Roxas was close to cracking the code, but hadn't sorted it all out quite yet. And as he was now even walking over to the blue gift to try and shake it some and see what it was, Xion quickly grabbed his present that had a mind of its own and called him over again.
…But apparently, Roxas' gift from Xion wasn't meant to be a surprise down to the last second. For as soon as Roxas tried to remove the hole-filled-lid, something else knocked it off and then settled itself on Roxas' lap in the form of a shock of orange fur and the sound of light purrs.
Roxas laughed when the dear nuzzled his face and walked all over his legs, trying to get comfortable. And it was music to Xion's ears. "You bought me a cat, Xi-Xi?"
"I bought us a cat," Xion corrected with her own giggle now, while she petted the kitty's head and the volume at which he was purring got all the louder. "But to be honest... Mr. Love here is mostly for you. It's an apology... for when I acted like I was going to kill you and then had you end me instead."
And Xion knew that it was a testament to how Roxas was still traumatized by that, that he didn't immediately tell her that she'd been through just as much as he had and it was fine.
And as it then started raining outside, with branches scratching against the windows, Xion prayed that Roxas' silence here wasn't a bad omen, as this seemed to be.
Thankfully, it wasn't.
"Thank you, Xion," Roxas whispered—sounding a little like Sora had when Kairi had saved him the first time, Xion thought—before he kissed her cheek. And oh, how Xion leaned into it to try and give Roxas yet another gift, perhaps.
And a bit later, when Lea and Isa came downstairs and brought some spray snow to paint the windows with—and Naminé carried with her a CD player she'd bought herself, that was playing calming music—it was all enough. It was more than enough.
And Mr. Love seemed to agree that it was all good, for he ended up jumping atop Roxas' head, Xion saw, and didn't try to climb the Christmas tree just behind him.
Author's Note: I wanted to write something for Christmas, of course (sorry that it's late:(). And ended up writing this Christmas Eve, when I realized my one Dark Angel fic won't be done in time. I went with RokuShi, because I've already written a Namiku Christmas oneshot (even though I didn't write that at Christmas), and since I'm out of SoKai ideas at the moment.
And I think it probably works, since Xion probably did die around Christmas. So that probably was something hard for them to get around at first, maybe.
The idea here was supposed to be that Roxas and Xion bought each other more intense things—to try and deal with that pain—since they were the ones who experienced it firsthand, while Lea, Isa, and Naminé are bringing a more calming presence into the scene—so that it all sort of evens out in the end?—but I don't know if that came through at all. Oops.
Also, Xion bought Roxas an orange cat, because I'm headcanoning he prefers cats—and the family was just happy to get a pet in general, even though Xion would have preferred a dog—and she got him an orange one to match Roxas' hair. And she named him "Mr. Love", because love is what they all are aiming for in their new lives. Yep.
Edit: I'm worried the line mentioning Naminé bought the CD player for herself will make people worry that no one got Naminé anything for Christmas. That's not at all true. It's just that no one has opened their presents from each other yet… well, except for Roxas and Xion, who are somewhat being "bad kids", in having given the other their gift already;)