AN/ MERRY CHRISTMAS! This is a special Christmas themed chapter to celebrate (and is quite the contrast from the previous chapter, isn't it?)

"Where is it? Stupid thing! It should've been here…"

Riku slammed the drawer shut, angrily. He'd made this special trip just to come and get the stupid card, and now he couldn't find the darn thing. What a pain.

"What did I do with it?"

xxx

"What's that?" Toby asked, pointing at the plant Joseph was holding.

"Mistletoe," Joseph replied, grinning mischievously. "I'm gonna try and get Riku and Namine under it."

"Why?"

"'Cause it's Christmas tradition that two people standing under mistletoe have to kiss," Joseph explained. "Duh."

"But…" Toby frowned. "It's not Christmas…"

Joseph wasn't listening. He was currently brainstorming ideas.

xxx

"Aha," Riku muttered, pulling a tattered and still slightly bloody pair of pants out of the back of his closet. This would be the pair of pants he'd been wearing when he arrived in this universe, though why he hadn't gotten rid of them…

No matter.

He quickly checked the pockets.

It wasn't there.

He grimaced. "Really?"

His annoyance was short lived, however, as he noticed something lying on the ground in the back of his closet. He picked it up and, much to his relief, it was a card. Specifically, the World Card he was looking for. Finally.

Only pausing to throw his pants back into his closet, Riku headed for Castle Oblivion immediately.

xxx

"You sure this is going to work?" Toby asked.

"Positive," Joseph replied.

They were "hiding" just outside Namine's door, above which they had hung the mistletoe. In theory, both Riku and Namine were in there, and so when they walked out, they'd be under the mistletoe. Toby didn't understand how some silly Christmas tradition (when it wasn't even Christmas) was going to get Riku and Namine to kiss (nor did he understand why Joseph wanted them to) but… Well, there really was no deterring Joseph once he got an idea in his head.

"Any minute now…" Joseph muttered, eyes fixed on the door. "C'mon…"

After quite a while of waiting, the door finally did open. Namine stepped out.

"Namine, wait!" Joseph said, quickly.

She paused, frowned at him, but didn't move any farther.

Joseph stared at her. Then he looked at the still slightly open door. He looked back at Namine.

"Where's Riku?" he asked, finally, slowly, drawing the question out.

"Haven't seen him all day," Namine replied, just as slowly. "Do you need him or something?"

"Well…" Joseph said. "No, just… I don't know."

"We just thought he was with you," Toby added, trying to be helpful.

Namine shook her head.

"Well, that's okay," Joseph said. "You can go now."

Namine raised her eyebrows, laughing slightly. "You sure?"

"Yup!"

"Okay…" She shook her head, and headed off.

Toby waited until she was gone before asking: "Now what?"

"Uh…" Joseph made a face. "Well, first we need to get the mistletoe down."

"Can't we just leave it there?" Toby said. "'Cause if we leave it there—"

"'Course not!" Joseph interrupted.

Toby sighed.

xxx

"Hey, Alpha," Riku said, pausing in the doorway of Alpha's office.

"Yeah?" Alpha didn't look up from his computer.

"Can you tell me if this is going to work?" Riku asked, handing the card to Alpha. Alpha took it, examining it.

"What's this?" he asked.

"World Card," Riku answered. "From the other universe."

"It's torn…" Alpha observed.

"That's always been there," Riku replied. "It hasn't ever affected the way card worked, that I know of. I wanted to know if the card would work in this universe, since it came from the other one…"

"Oh." Alpha handed the card back. "I don't see why it wouldn't."

Riku nodded and started off.

xxx

"We could always put it over their couch," Toby suggested.

"But have you seen the ceilings of Castle Oblivion?" Joseph replied, throwing his arms up in the air. "They're way too high up to reach! Besides, how would we make it stay, huh? We'd have to, like, dangle it through a dark corridor or something!"

"You could always just hold it over their heads once they've already sat down…" Toby muttered.

Joseph paused, considered this for a moment, and then shrugged. "Yeah, I guess that'd work." He sighed. "But they're not there now, are they? So, until they are, we're going to try something else!"

"Like what?"

Joseph thought about this for a bit longer. "Well… we could… We could always just follow them around and hold the mistletoe over them as soon as we get a chance."

"Or we could wait…" Toby said, slowly.

"Well, yeah, but if we do it while they're in the Main Room, then they'll be in public and there's a less likely chance of it working," Joseph explained. Toby pretended this made sense. "But if we catch them in a slightly less populated room, then I think Riku'll be less likely to punch me in the face."

Toby wondered why Joseph was even bothering this if it was likely to end with being punched in the face, but decided not to ask.

xxx

"Namine, I want to show you something," Riku said. She couldn't help but smile at the excitement in his voice as he took her by the hand and lead her off.

"Where are we going?" she asked, his excitement creeping into her own voice.

"You'll see," Riku replied.

Namine only smiled wider as she allowed herself to be dragged through the Castle. Finally, they paused in front of a door. Riku reached into his pocket and pulled out a card. He grinned at her, then held the card up to the door. There was a flash of light, and the door opened.

"C'mon," Riku said, stepping through. Namine followed.

They stepped out into a different world—well, a world fabricated by Castle Oblivion using the data found in the card. Namine knew about this, and how it worked, but she'd never actually been to one of the Card Worlds before. And, from the way Riku acted, this World was special.

She couldn't help but grimace as something crunched beneath her feet. She glanced down, and was surprised to find that the ground was covered in snow. She turned to Riku, questioningly. He was staring up at the sky, a similar grimace on his face.

"That's odd…" he whispered. "It should've been… night."

Given the fact the sun hadn't set yet, it clearly wasn't night.

"Should there be snow?" Namine asked.

"That-" Riku began, and then frowned. He turned to her, surprised. "Snow?" She nodded. He glanced around, and groaned. "What the…"

"It's cold, too," Namine said. She shivered slightly, and hugged herself, trying to fend off the cold.

Riku was shivering, too, though he was trying not to show it. "You want to head back?" he asked.

She shook her head. "No. What was it you wanted to show me?"

Riku sighed, but then smiled and pulled her forward. "Just up here," he said.

They hadn't walked far before they reached a hill. Riku headed straight for the top of it. Namine gasped when they reached the top. The hill overlooked a small valley, which Namine had a feeling was actually a meadow, though the flowers were covered by snow. Even so…

"It's beautiful," she breathed.

"Yeah," Riku said, absently. His gaze was firmly fixed on the sky.

"Something wrong?" she asked.

"Mm?" He turned to her, then shook his head, smiling. "Nah." He slowly sat down, grimacing slightly, probably at how cold the snow was. After a second he opened his arms, inviting Namine to sit in his lap.

"You sure?" she asked.

He raised his eyebrows. "You want to be cold?"

She chuckled, and went ahead and sat down. She snuggled closer to Riku, realizing just how cold she was. He wrapped his arms around her, held her close, using his own heat to shelter her from the icy cold that nipped at them.

"Aren't you cold?" she whispered.

"No," he told her, though she could feel him shivering.

xxx

"Where are they going?" Joseph asked, craning his neck as he tried to see through the closing door they had just gone through.

Toby shrugged.

"Let's follow them!" Joseph exclaimed, running to do so.

"Don't we need a-"

"World Card?" Joseph finished. "We shouldn't. They just went in. Rooms tend to last as long as someone's in them, unless you change the settings to allow for otherwise. Now c'mon! This'll be perfect!"

Joseph threw the door open. They were immediately confronted with a blast of cold air. Toby flinched. Joseph squinted.

"Is this…" Joseph began. "That's snow! Why is it snowing?" He turned to Toby. "Where the heck did he take her that had snow?"

Toby shrugged.

"Oh well!" Joseph skipped forward. Toby followed hesitantly after him, not liking how the snow crunched and shifted beneath his feet. It was worse than sand, and it was cold. He shivered, and wondered how Joseph wasn't freezing, too. Either Joseph was really good at hiding it, or…

Toby didn't know.

"Look!" Joseph pointed at a hill not far in the distance, on top of which Riku and Namine were sitting. Actually, now that Toby really looked, he was pointing at a tree. A few of the tree branches were hanging over Riku's and Namine's heads. "There, that'll do it!" He started towards the tree.

"What are we doing?" Toby asked, warily.

"Gonna climb the tree, and then hang the mistletoe from there," Joseph replied, grinning. He then shushed Toby before he could ask another question. "They'll hear us!" he hissed.

Toby closed his mouth.

Joseph stared at the tree, trying to figure out how to climb it. After a second he handed the mistletoe to Toby. "Hold that while I climb up," he instructed.

Toby looked at the mistletoe curiously. It was an interesting little plant, he decided. It reminded him of a bush, though there wasn't really enough of the stuff for him to tell. It had green leaves though, like all plants did. And it… smelled kinda funny.

He sniffed it, curiously. That turned out to be a mistake.

He sneezed, and a pain shot through his nose. He dropped the mistletoe and clutched his nose, wincing.

Joseph dropped out of the tree (not that he'd gotten far up it) and turned to Toby, shocked. "Did you… did you just sneeze lightning?" he asked, his voice suggesting an emotion between surprise and awe.

"Yeah…" Toby said, slowly. "I don't think I'm supposed to, though. That hurt! Lightning isn't… ow…"

Joseph bent down and picked up the mistletoe from the ground. It was charred and smoking slightly. "Aw man…" he muttered.

"I think I fried my boogers…" Toby groaned.

Joseph sighed, and then looked over to where Namine and Riku were sitting. "Well…" he said, slowly. "I guess we should just leave them alone. It's getting kind of cold anyway."

"Okay," Toby agreed, still rubbing his nose.

And the two of them left.

xxx

"The sunset's pretty," Namine said. "Look at the way the light reflects on the snow!"

He had to admit, even if this wasn't what he'd brought her here for, it was beautiful. The light of the setting sun turned the snow a red color, and it was breathtaking. "Yeah," he said, holding her closer.

Still, though… If the sun was setting now, maybe they'd arrived early or something. After a moment, he explained this to Namine and added: "It was supposed to be night when we got here, after all. The timing must've gotten messed up."

"And the snow?" He could hear laughter in his voice.

"No clue," he told her, shaking his head.

They sat there a while longer, and eventually the sun set, and the stars came out. Riku cast his gaze up at them, hopefully. They merely twinkled back at him, and no more.

"Riku?" Namine asked, quietly.

"Yeah?"

"Why'd you bring me here, anyway?"

He waited a moment before answering. The stars remained perfectly still. If there were any shooting stars tonight, they must've been in the wrong place to see them.

"Well," he said. "There was…" he trailed off, sighing. "You know what? It doesn't matter."

"You sure?" She sounded concerned.

"Yeah…"

He wasn't sure if Namine was convinced, but she didn't say anything for a while.

"When are we heading back?" she asked, when she did speak.

"Can we wait a little longer?"

"Okay."

So they waited. Riku kept his eyes on the stars, hoping. None of them moved. He wondered if they knew the trouble they were causing. Maybe they were mocking him… His thoughts were distracted when Namine shivered and snuggled closer to him.

"It's getting cold," she whispered.

He held her tighter, though he was freezing himself. He sighed. "You want to head back?"

"I know you were waiting for something…" she said, slowly.

"Don't worry about it," he told her. "The data probably just got messed up."

"Sorry," she muttered.

He shook his head. "Don't be. It's not your fault." He let go of her and shifted slightly. She stood up, and he followed after. "Let's go," he said. "My butt's frozen…"