We've finally made it! Christmas has arrived... over a month late... sorry. Anyway, I hope you enjoy! The next chapter will be the last one, and then I'll be heading back over to my much more popular Power Rangers story! I hope to see you all over there once I start it back up again!

Enjoy!


Chapter Seven

Christmas Day

Nat woke slowly on Christmas Morning. The tree lights were glinting against the still-dim window, and the TV was still tuned to the Hallmark Channel with the sound turned down. She blinked gently, shifting slightly under the blanket on the couch where she lay. A hand moved on her shoulder, and she looked up with a smile.

"Zaoshang hao, Xing," Zitao's gentle voice rumbled through his chest beneath her hand. "I hope I made a good pillow."

Nat laughed at the return of her own line to her. "Good morning to you, too. And yes, you made an excellent pillow." Zitao grinned and leaned forward to kiss her.

Nat had realized that she was just letting her fear control her. Something she knew was a problem she had. However, just as she had determined that she needed to get over her fear of heights, she also realized that she couldn't let her fear of complications keep her from the guy she liked. In the past weeks, she'd grown even more fond of him than she had been before, when she only knew him from the internet and his music. She'd grown to love him. And now, they were going to make this work.

Breaking away from the kiss she sat up and stretched, rubbing at her hair and laughing when she felt how mussed it was. Zitao wasn't much better as his long fingers combed the blonde strands out of his eyes. His eyes drifted over to the tree and he blinked in surprise. "Where did all those presents come from?"

Nat looked over and grinned. Several more brightly wrapped presents were nestled beneath the tree than had been there the night before. "North dropped them off! Not all of them will be from him. He likes to bring me any presents I get from people in the Cooperation."

"Who's North?"

"Oh, right, you haven't met him yet. Nicholas Saint North. Better known as Santa Clause!" Nat stood and headed toward the tree to inspect the presents while Zitao collected his thoughts.

"You're saying Santa Clause is real?"

"Of course! He's the Guardian of Wonder. The Easter Bunny is Guardian of Hope, the Tooth Fairy is Guardian of Memories, and Sandman is Guardian of Dreams. They're all Guardians of Childhood like Jack. You'll get to meet all of them at the party later. Jack is amazing at parties!" She returned to her present inspections, and then exclaimed happily and held up one wrapped in shiny, green paper. "Hey, look! North left you a present too!"

Zitao was still trying to wrap his mind around the facts he'd just been bombarded with, but he moved to sit next to Nat when she beckoned him over. She shifted so she was facing him and set the present in his lap, eager to watch him open it and see what North had left him. Having decided to push aside his confusion, Zitao slowly ripped the paper from the box, then lifted the lid. Inside, a jacket lay folded neatly.

Nat grinned. "Awesome! The Yetis make the best clothes! There'll be some cool surprises in it. I got most of my fancier clothes from North. You can wear them at any time of year and never get to warm or cold. They'll fold up really small for transport, and they always look amazing." She encouraged him to try it on, and he stood so he could do so. She was right, despite the warm room, the addition of the jacket didn't make him feel uncomfortable. It fit him perfectly, and it would work well with many of the costumes they wore onstage.

"It looks great!" Nat exclaimed happily. "Come on, let's see what else he left." They spent the next hour opening the presents that had been left under the tree. There weren't any more for Zitao, but he happily took pictures of her reactions to various gifts. Many of the presents were exotic artifacts from various universes and worlds. Some were articles of clothing or jewelry, and one was a box of brightly-colored, metallic hair dyes.

Nat deliberately left Zitao's present to her for last so she could give him hers at the same time. They propped the camera up so they could video the moment, and then Nat insisted that Zitao open his first. When he lifted the lid of the box, he grinned. Inside, was a leather bracelet set with a metal piece that was embossed with his power symbol. As he lifted it from the box, his fingers brushed over the hourglass and activated the holographic display hidden beneath. "It's a communicator, like mine," Nat explained, lifting her wrist for emphasis. "I got one for each of the members."

"It's beautiful," he said, smiling. He strapped it to his wrist and was pleased to find that it fit perfectly. "Thank you," he said, leaning forward and pulling her into a kiss.

Nat sucked in a happy breath, smiling as he pulled away from the kiss. "You're welcome."

Zitao laughed gently, then placed her present in her lap. "You're turn."

Nat blinked, forcing herself to concentrate. She eagerly pulled the silver paper off and lifted the lid off the box. Inside, was a velvet jewelry box, which she dumped into her hand and opened. She gasped. On a slender, silver chain hung a silver oval etched with characters in both Chinese and Korean. Two words. The Korean word she could read as 'Forever' 영원히. The Chinese word though, she didn't recognize. 一起

"What does it mean?" she asked, brushing her finger over the beautiful charm.

"Together Forever," Zitao murmured, watching her face as he translated the words. He gently took the box from her hand and extracted the necklace from its velvet bed. He moved behind her so he could clasp the necklace around her neck.

Once it was secure, Nat turned and kissed him soundly, her fingers sliding into his hair as she did so, eager to thank him for his beautiful gift. "I love it. Thank you."

Zitao grinned at her and kissed her once more. "You're welcome."

With all the presents opened, Nat focused on the next part of the day, the party. The two of them enjoyed a breakfast of cinnamon rolls and egg nog before she showed Zitao to the guest room so he could get freshened up. It had its own bathroom, and she showed him where the towels were before giving him some quick instructions on how to work the replicator set into the wall of the room. "It'll make you any clothing item that you want, so feel free to experiment a bit. I'll return anything you don't want later."

Assured that he would be fine, Nat left him alone and went to shower and change her own clothes. They reconvened in the living room and admired each other's outfit choices. Zitao had settled on a simple, white, collared shirt with a blue tie, and black slacks with his own shoes from the night before. Over it, he wore the jacket from North, which looked vaguely like leather, but felt like cloth and looked amazing.

Nat had tried out some of her new gifts, and was wearing an almost-knee-length skirt in layers of a kind of material that seemed to be floating on its own a bit. The top she wore with it was designed with a collar to accommodate the bow tie she wore, but otherwise flowed beautifully into the floaty material of the skirt without seeming stiff. She was wearing leggings underneath, and silver boots which went perfectly with the layers of blue and silver material of the skirt. The shirt and leggings were white, and the bow tie was blue with silver edges. Her own jacket was white and lined with blue fur that didn't look like it had been dyed that way, but was naturally occurring. Her hair had been dyed with silver and blue from her new box of metallic dyes, and her eyes were lined with frosty, white eyeliner.

Zitao stared for a full minute before Nat's giggling finally broke him from his trance. "You look spectacular!" he exclaimed, and she blushed, ducking her head cutely.

"You look rather sharp yourself," she complimented, reaching for his hand. "Shall we go?"

The party was spectacular, and all the Exo members were enjoying themselves. Minsoek finally got to meet Jack Frost, and the two were enjoying comparing powers. Yifan had stumbled on Hiccup, dragon trainer from the island of Berk, and was fascinated with the dragons that lived all around the islands the younger boy lived on. Yifan had had a dragon of his own, back in his universe and was eager for the chance to befriend one again.

There were so many people, that Zitao was surprised the area was big enough. Nat explained that the area had been chosen and marked out two years ago, and that they'd made sure to pick a place that was big enough and could be easily expanded if needed. So far, they hadn't needed to.

The Doctor showed up about half-way through the party, and Zitao found himself stolen from Nat's side as the excited Time Lord drew him into a conversation about Zitao's powers and the results of some of the scans the Doctor had taken.

Nat made her rounds, talking to as many people as she could before she made her way back to her new boyfriend just in time for the present exchange. There were so many people that, of course, not everyone would give gifts to everyone else. Many people simply brought gifts for the friends they had whom they didn't get to see often. Nat distributed the communication bracelets to the rest of the Exo members. They were thrilled, and excited that the bracelets were specific to each person. Baekhyun gave her a giant hug and practically commandeered her for almost the rest of the party.

Yifan watched her interact with Zitao and Baekhyun, a little sad. He had hoped to confess to her today. But he could see that Zitao had beaten him to it. He decided to push his feelings aside and focus on being to her what the other members were quickly becoming: her brother.

The remainder of the party went well. Everyone enjoyed themselves, and Baekhyun had to be pried off Nat when it was time for them to go. Most of the guests had already left, using various methods to return to their homes. As she usually did, Nat offered to remain and help clean up. This time, however, a couple wizards who'd attended used a few cleaning spells to easily whisk the mess into garbage cans, and straighten everything else up.

Yifan knew this would be his last chance for a while to speak to Nat. Even though he'd decided to not push anything, he needed her to know how he felt. While the rest of the members said good-bye to their Camp friends, Yifan pulled Nat off to the side.

"I'm really glad you said yes to Zitao," he said quietly. "You two deserve to be happy."

"Thank you. It almost didn't happen. I was scared. Our lives are so separate. You guys are always doing something with your schedules, and I'm all over the world all the time. Not to mention when I go to other Universes to keep relations strong. But he convinced me that we could make it work."

Yifan nodded slowly, then gripped her shoulders gently. "I need you to know. I- I really like you. And, I wish I'd gotten to you first. But I won't interfere. I just want you to know, so you don't wonder what's wrong if I do something strange."

Nat wasn't sure what to say, she nodded and gave him an understanding look. "I… I'm s-."

Yifan placed a finger on her lips, stopping her before she could finish. "Don't. You don't have to say anything." He pulled her close and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I'll see you around, Nat." He turned and went to join the rest of the group as Zitao approached from where he'd been saying goodbye to Annabeth.

"What was that about?" he asked, watching as Yifan said goodbye to Jason.

"Nothing we need to worry about," Nat assured him, pressing against his side. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders without hesitation. "I'll text you later, okay?"

"Okay." He pulled her into a full hug, dropping a kiss on her hair before she pulled away for a proper one. Suho called to him, and Zitao reluctantly left Nat to join the group to be transported away.

Nat wrapped her arms around herself as she watched the group vanish in a flash of light. Clara came and stood beside her for a moment in silence. "Are you sure you can do this?"

"I have to," Nat replied, determined. "I can't live in fear. And losing him is far scarier than just not being able to see him very much." Little did Nat know that becoming involved with an international star was going to be far more complicated and difficult than she'd ever imagined.

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