Axel walks into the room, his hands jammed into his pockets and with a content smile on his face.
He admires the fifty foot tall pine tree in one corner of the Gray Room, gleaming magnificently with its hundreds of tiny glass ornaments and the many strings of lights twinkling beautifully from their places nestled in between the branches of the pine.
He admires how the fireplace, taken from its place from the basement for just this occasion, is filled with a soft red orange glow from the dimming embers burning inside of it and how homey the red, green and white stockings look against the leftover light of the nearly extinguished flames.
He takes a seat on one of the several white couches scattered around the room and watches as the two kids, his very best friends in all of the worlds, sleep quietly at the foot of the Christmas tree.
Someone had draped a blue blanket onto the slumbering Xion and Roxas; they looked as if they'd been there for several hours.
Two mugs of tepid hot chocolate sits heavily on the table and the uneaten plate of cookies waits patiently as the old and battered record player sings gentle songs out to the slumbering duo.
Axel smiles at them, feeling a bit of brotherly warmth as he gets up and adjusts the falling blanket back over their shoulders.
He closes his eyes and remembers their very first Christmas together at the Castle That Never Was.
It had all started with a simple question.
"Axel, what's this date on the calendar?" Roxas murmurs in confusion as he squints at the calendar hanging on the wall of the Kitchen that Never Was.
Axel shakes his head and mutters sarcastically how there were a LOT of dates on the calendar.
"No, this one's circled! What's that mean?" Xion pipes in, putting down her bowl of cereal to look over at the calendar.
Axel glances over at the calendar and sees the date: December 25th.
"Christmas? It's gonna be Christmas soon!" Axel cries out in excitement as he claps his hands eagerly as if he was a very little kid.
Xion and Roxas just stare at him in shock as he gets up and starts shouting excitedly to anyone who would hear:
"Christmas is coming! Christmas is COMING! IT'S COMING!"
They can only watch as the overly excited pyromaniac runs out the door, shouting his Yuletide greetings and cheer through the entire Castle.
About thirty minutes later, Axel comes back, face completely red but still extremely excited.
"This is great! Our first Christmas at the Organization! Don't worry; I'll make sure Xemnas gets a tree and everything!" He assures the teenagers as he smiles eagerly to himself.
The next words that come out of his friends' mouths are the last he expects.
"But Axel, what is Christmas?" Xion and Roxas ask in unison, their brows furrowing into twin expressions of confusion.
He stares at them in shock as if they had just uttered a blasphemy against his favorite holiday… except perhaps Halloween; Christmas was his favorite time of year.
"Christmas is… It's a…you know! Christmas!" Axel attempts to explain but he only gets more confused looks from the two.
Zexion walks in just then and Axel hones in on him quickly, dragging him to Xion and Roxas.
"You're smart, explain what Christmas is!" He commands.
Zexion looks at him and looks at the calendar.
A very rare smile crosses the lips of the Cloaked Schemer as the memories of past Christmases come to mind. It quickly sours when he realizes that Axel needed him to explain what just the holiday was.
"Are you telling me that our comrades have no idea what this holiday is about? You must be joking." Zexion says in absolute disgust, glaring disdainfully over at Roxas and Xion.
They shuffle their feet nervously and look up expectantly at them.
"Well, Christmas is when a very important guy was born. On the twenty fifth of December, a long long time ago, this man was born. His name was Santa Claus." Axel explains.
At this, Zexion hides a snicker and shakes his head in amusement.
"Wrong." He murmurs, his shoulders trembling from the effort of not laughing.
Axel gives him a withering look before continuing:
"And in honor of this, every year, Santa brings presents to all of the little boys and girls from all of the worlds to reward them for being good. And he swoops down on his sleigh and goes into the chimney to give his presents!" Axel says.
This only merits him more confused looks from his friends and another concealed laugh from Zexion.
"From ALL of the worlds? Are you sure?" Roxas asks innocently, his eyes brightening in amazement as he ponders this impossible feat.
"Yup! All of them, Roxas!" Axel says proudly.
Xion's own dark eyes glisten over with tears as she looks around the room in dismay.
"But… we don't even havea chimney, Axel!" She states in disappointment, looking completely heartbroken.
Axel looks at his friends and glances over at Zexion who was laughing in silent hysterics.
"Actually, December 25th is the supposed date of- AH! What in Radiant Gardens are you doing?" Zexion shrieks as Axel drags him into the hallway outside of the kitchen.
"It's their first Christmas. First ever. So shut up and let them have a nice one!" Axel warns in a threateningly quiet voice as he glares viciously at the much smaller Nobody.
Zexion looks down at Axel's hands, which were starting to spark with embers, and nods.
When they come back into the Kitchen, Zexion quickly gives them a story which has the two younger Nobodies looking even more eager with each word that comes out of his mouth.
"So we all have to get each other presents? That's so cool! I want a Christmas!" Roxas says in excitement, looking around the kitchen as if he could already see the brightly wrapped boxes on the counter.
Xion on the other hand looks dreamy and happy as she exclaims:
"And then there'll be peace and love and happiness between all of the members of the Organization! I want a Christmas too!"
Axel smiles as the two immediately start whispering together, occasionally looking up at Axel as if they were afraid that he would overhear.
"I'm gonna go talk to Superior. I'll ask if we can have one." He says in an affectionate voice. The two teenagers immediately tackle him in a thrilled hug.
So it was with a little bounce in their step, Axel and Roxas and Xion go to Xemnas' office to ask for a Christmas.
Of course, Roxas and Xion don't go any further than the door; after all, the two were frightened nearly stiff about the leader of the Organization.
Being used as pawns for his evil schemes would have that effect on a person.
Axel knocks on the door patiently.
"Xigbar, if this is you asking for a firing range again, you can march right back into your room." The icy voice informs the door.
"Uh… it's Axel. I need to ask you something…sir." Axel says in his most respectful voice, twitching mentally about having call Xemnas 'Sir'.
"Oh really?" Xemnas's voice asks in a smug way, instantly sending Axel into a murderous rage and gets him ready to send the annoying Jedi wannabe straight to hell via an extremely painful fiery death.
Then he sees the hopeful looks on Xion's and Roxas's faces as they watch the door nervously.
They really wanted to celebrate Christmas with the Organization; after all, the (roughly) first year that they had had together had ended pretty badly… Xion dying and Roxas running away along with several of the other members being eliminated.
Axel grits his teeth and forces his infamous temper into submission as Xemnas opens the door.
With a curious look in his amber eyes, Xemnas motions for Axel to come in.
"So what do you want, number VIII?" Xemnas asks calmly as he looks Axel over as if he was thinking that this was some sort of joke and he was looking for the camera.
Axel represses the urge to slam his Chakrams right where the sun doesn't shine and asks in a very solemn voice:
"Can we celebrate Christmas?"
Xemnas raises an eyebrow.
"Christmas. You came to ask me about Christmas?" He demands with that same monotone voice.
Axel turns blood red and nods.
"Well, I suppose that we technically can. After all, just because we do not have Hearts does not mean that we cannot celebrate a holiday. Why did you ask?" Xemnas explains in a bored tone as he goes over to his desk and starts rummaging through one of the drawers.
Axel stares at him in confusion and then realizes that Xemnas thought he was asking if Nobodies could celebrate Christmas, not if they could celebrate it.
"No! That wasn't what I was asking! Can WE, the Organization, celebrate Christmas this year?" Axel clarifies, putting his hands together pleadingly.
Xemnas stares at him and blinks rapidly.
"Us? The Organization?" He asks in confusion.
Axel nods furiously and gives Xemnas his best puppy eyed look.
"Please? We'll be good! And I'll take care of everything! I swear!" Axel adds as a bonus. Xemnas nods.
"Alright." Xemnas says calmly, a slight smile creeping across his face.
"And I swear to you… no pranks! None whatsoever!" Axel continues, still thinking that Xemnas needed a little sweetening to say yes.
"Axel, I already said yes. We shall be celebrating the holidays this year." Xemnas interrupts, chuckling to himself at the pyro's eagerness.
Axel grabs the Superior's hand and shakes it eagerly.
"Thank you thank you thank you thank you! You totally won't regret this, sir!" Axel shouts as he runs out the door to the cheering Xion and Roxas. The excited trio quickly runs off, already planning their Christmas together.
Xemnas chuckles as he pulls out what he had been looking for in the drawer. He puts on his Santa cap and smiles happily.
"I love Christmas!" The normally icily calm Xemnas squeals, looking as if he had just been made extremely happy.