Author's Note: Alright, here's the next day. Enjoy!!

Reindeer Games

Chapter Two: December 21st

When Sora crept through his apartment in the first silent seconds of Thursday, he made a pit stop at his Charlie Brown Christmas tree to grab eagerly at the gift he'd placed there the previous morning. Hugging it to his chest and smiling gleefully, he continued his tiptoed way to his small bedroom, where he flopped down on to his bed and admired his present.

It was neatly wrapped in a festive paper, that seemed slightly more birthday than Christmas, but Sora did not care, as his focus was instead drawn to an absurdly large, green bow that was at least three times the size of the package it adorned.

Laughing quietly, Sora plucked the bow from its perch and tossed it to the side, enjoying the fact that Riku had known this bit of silliness would be appreciated by his younger friend.

But as Sora looked down at the patch of white that lay where the bow had torn away from his gift, he froze. It was morning, yes, but somehow Sora knew this was not what Riku had meant when he'd asked him to wait. Riku usually allowed him to open his Christmas presents right away, and Riku usually loved to watch Sora joyfully rip through carefully wrapped packages and ravenously open boxes. For some reason this year was different. Riku had asked Sora to wait; Riku was nervous about whether or not Sora would like this gift.

But Sora knew that some part of Riku would still want to witness the opening of this present, in some way.

And so, the brunette set it carefully on the small night table next to his bed, drifting off to sleep and knowing that his friend would call in the morning, wanting to hear Sora's praise and thanks.

Sure enough, Sora was awakened some hours later by the ring of his phone. Bounding out of bed, he hopped across the room to fumble at the receiver and bring it to his ear.

"Hello?" he mumbled sleepily, yawning and rubbing at his half-closed eyes.

"Did you open it yet?"

At the sound of Riku's question, Sora's energy was immediately restored, and he padded slowly to his bed, sitting on the edge of his mattress and cradling the phone with his shoulder as he lifted Riku's present from the table.

"No, not yet. I figured you'd want me to wait until you called."

Riku laughed. "You read me like a book, Sora."

"Not always," the brunette mumbled with a small, inaudible sigh. If only he could read Riku as easily as the silver-haired man seemed to think he could. Dancing around quick glances and over-analyzing seemingly innocent questions would have been nice to avoid for the past few years since Sora's feelings had started sloshing around in his stomach.

"Open it," Riku urged breathlessly.

Sora smiled, pushing away his thoughts and digging his nails into the thick paper.

When it had been peeled away, he was greeted by a plain white box, which he eagerly lifted the top of off.

And inside, nestled on a satin lining, was a Christmas ornament. It was simple, a shining golden paopu fruit with a metallic Santa hat on the top point. It was simple, and yet, somehow, it was perfect.

"It's not much…" Riku murmured almost apologetically.

"It's perfect," Sora murmured back, a wide, satisfied smile playing across his lips as his heart swelled.

"Are you sure? You can return it if you want."

"No, Riku, really. It's…"

As Sora trailed off he could faintly hear his friend's sigh of relief.

"I don't know," Riku explained. "It just made me think of you."

The brunette nodded, chewing a little on his lower lip. He knew Riku could not see his nod, his smile, and he knew that right now it was killing the older boy.

"What do you want for Christmas?" he asked after a long moment of silence.

"I haven't decided yet," Riku answered. "Do you want to go to the mall tomorrow so we can get that done?"

"Sure," Sora sighed, feeling guilty that every year Riku somehow managed to get him the perfect gift.

For six years now, it had been a tradition of sorts for Riku to pick his own present and simply have Sora pay for it. Ever since they were children, the brunette had been plagued with an utter lack of intuition and skill when it came to gift giving. And so, since the age of fourteen, Sora had let Riku do his own Christmas shopping.

But Sora wished that just once he could get Riku a real gift, that he could make Riku's heart stop and breath catch as he unveiled something perfect.

For now, it seemed, Sora would have to continue praying for his missing miracle, and hope that next year he could find Perfection for sale.