U/N: Elliot was really obnoxious. We knew that from 'Happily Ever After' and we knew it even more while going into this story. It just became super apparent that he was the most annoying thing ever as the chapters started coming and I was really angry with him actually xD I love Michael and Tatum and Louisa and I just wanted to like Elliot too. I definitely DO like him now after getting to write as him but good lord he has a lot to work on.

Title: Here Comes Santa Claus

By: UrazamayKing

Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.

Chapter 12: Yes and No

Elliot Washington:

"Elliot, where are you going?" I jumped at the sound of Louisa's voice, thinking momentarily that it had been Mom that had caught me. I'd been really jumpy ever since we had come back from the past. It wasn't that I was afraid of doing things that were against the rules, it was just that I didn't want to be caught and punished for some stupid ploy of Nikko's to get Chika's attention. Especially when Chika's attention was so easy to capture.

I would know.

"Elliot," Emiko said sharply, "I need you to distract Chika."

I followed Emiko's gaze and found her staring toward the girl who was splashing in a puddle in bare feet. Motimon was roaring with laughter as he splashed back at her, and somehow it actually seemed fun, though it seemed illogical since the puddle was so dirty. I sighed and nodded my head, "Fine I'll do it."

"Oh good," Emiko grinned, heading off to initiate whatever she was planning.

"But first," I stalled, she hesitated and turned back, "What do I get out of it?" Emiko hesitated and looked frustrated as she glanced over to Chika who had sent most of her puddle flying through the air already. Soon there would be no puddle left to play in. "I'm waiting," I told her seriously.

Emiko groaned, "I can get you Renjiro's journal," she offered.

I thought for a moment that I would have no purpose, but I was running low on reading material, so why wouldn't I want to invade someone's personal thoughts to fix my own issues? "Sure," I agreed. Emiko grinned and rushed off, leaving me to do as was asked. I was on my way toward Chika when she noticed me, waving dramatically. I had my umbrella held around me to protect from the rain, so I didn't go too close, afraid of getting wet before going to Osamu's house. I didn't want to sit in his house soaking wet again—his mom hadn't seemed too happy about it last time. "What's up?"

"Playin' around," she said brightly, "What about you?"

"Oh, I'm just heading to Osamu's house," I said, adjusting Chapmon in my arms so he was held more like a soccer ball, under one arm. "But first, he's allergic to these candies," I reached into my pocket and pulled out some brightly coloured snacks. "I just need somewhere to throw them out, because I can't bring them to him."

"I could throw them out for you," Chika offered as she and Motimon hurried out of the puddle, leaving their things behind. "Or maybe instead I could eat them?"

"Oh that could work," I said, acting as though I were thinking about the offer. I saw, over Chika's shoulder, Emiko reach around the tree Chika's things had been leaning against. She grabbed Chika's shoes and slipped off, stealing them. "Okay," I decided, handing the snacks to Chika who looked ravenously to the package.

She giggled and looked down to Motimon excitedly, and then as she turned back to her things she looked startled, "Oh did I leave my shoes down the street?" Motimon shrugged his shoulders.

It took only candy. There was no reason to jump through hoops and go back in time to appease someone who was so easy to please. Chika was like a bundle of easygoing nature, so Nikko's constant complaints were just kind of annoying.

See, Aika on the other hand was complicated and frustrating. Surely Nikko could remember what it really meant to have to work with someone who wanted nothing more than to be upset. Well that wasn't fair. Aika maybe really was upset all the time, but it sure seemed like she found a way to turn everything into a personal attack.

"Aika, I really like your hair today," I told her.

"I'm wearing a hat," she said, looking back, confused. "Are you saying my hair is ugly?"

No Aika, no I was not saying that. But she didn't seem to get it. Girls were so confusing! And Aika was a girl, which I actually knew, unlike Nikko. She dated him, so what was wrong with me?

"Hello?" Louisa wondered, waving her hand my way. Sometimes I just tuned her out completely which she probably found annoying, but it wasn't my fault. It was so hard to pay attention to everything she said. She talked an awful lot. "Mom and Dad said you have to stay home tonight."

"I didn't do anything wrong!" I defended, my mind flashing back to the half-built pyramid. Louisa could see I was lying, and that I had done something that I wasn't supposed to, but without any proof she'd never go to Mom or Dad. I for one wasn't about to give her the information she would need. "And I'm leaving anyway, tell Mom you missed me, and I was already away."

Louisa shook her head, folding her arms across her chest, "No way," she objected, "I don't want to be here alone when they come."

I felt dread and disappointment seep through every part of my body. No one had told me they were coming! I was still a little shaken up from our adventure, and I really didn't think I had enough energy to put up with the lot of them. I was instantly scanning the office for my digivice, looking over the cluttered desk and the computer stand, but Louisa saw my plan and lunged forward.

I gasped, looking back but saw she was just faking. She didn't see my digivice either—I would have to find it before her! We began rampaging through the office—which was probably why it was always so messy—scouring ceiling to floor in search of my escape, and as I was pulling open the pencil drawer, Louisa let out a triumphant cry. She held the digivice high in the air and rushed over to the door. "Looks like I won," she grinned, "See you at dinner, Elliot!" with a final wink she had disappeared, closing the door behind her.

I groaned and slumped into the black leather chair and began spinning it in circles.

"What are you doing," Chapmon asked nervously. "Have you gone insane?"

"Probably," I admitted simply. I was actually thinking that maybe if I spun around enough I could get myself sick and not have to eat dinner with the others. I didn't want to anyway, I had plans with Nikko. I had my typical excuse in mind, but Mom wasn't falling for it anymore.

"Mom, my crest is Friendship," I told her, "That means I have to go see my friends and not be stuck here in America. The fate of the worlds depends on me."

It had only worked a few times, but it had been years since she'd fallen for it. I thought it was pretty stupid that we still lived in America anyway. Dad's job was here, sure, but all of my friends were in Japan. Of course, my school was here, and blah blah blah—but it still made a lot of sense to me to move away. I probably would when I grew up. Who wanted to live in America as an adult anyway. There were like, taxes and stuff that I didn't understand. I'd never heard Nikko complain about taxes, so Japan probably didn't even have them—or maybe it was the Digital World...

"We should probably hide the valuable things in your room," Chapmon suggested, thinking a lot more clearly than I was. I nodded my head and hopped to my feet, letting him follow along behind. "Betamon!" Chapmon shouted, catching his attention from down the hall, "Hurry we have to clean!"

Betamon looked skeptical, like he wasn't sure why he had to clean, but he came along anyway. When we got to my room he saw that it wasn't so bad. I liked to think not. I always kept my room relatively neat so just in case someone—Aika—came over, she would be impressed with my ability to focus and to be detail oriented. Or something. I wasn't really sure why—it was mostly because Mom wanted it clean.

"So what do we clean?" Betamon wanted to know.

"Well," I told him, "Anything breakable. Iris and Madlyn are coming." Betamon nodded, fully understanding, and then we got to work.

"Can we see your room?" Madlyn asked loudly. I shook my head, "I'll find it anyway." She ran off, waving for her twin sister to follow. Iris looked up to me and I shrugged. She smiled and followed along, carrying both Gummymon and Budmon too, since Madlyn had left her partner behind. "I bet this is it! I see a soccer ball! Elliot plays soccer! Let's break stuff!"

My stomach dropped and I ran down the hall, sliding to a stop in the open doorway as Madlyn chucked some lame porcelain wolf across the room where it shattered. Iris let out a shriek of horror, but Gummymon was pleased with the mayhem.

I wasn't though, and I grabbed Madlyn, carrying her out of my room.

That hadn't been the only incident, either. When they had been younger they were both so gentle—well kind, not gentle really. I was pretty sure the sociopathic alien that wandered the Earth claiming to be named 'Izumi Fujimoto' was behind their shift in personality. That, or since Iris was actually really nice, it could have been Gummymon's fault for tainting her partner with insanity. Her name really fit though, since she was really mad. Like, crazy mad, not angry mad.

"So what are you guys doing for Christmas, then?" I asked Betamon and Chapmon. They looked to each other nervously, then looked away. "You're not good at hiding things."

Chapmon laughed in an embarrassed sort of way and said, "Well there's this really cool party—"

"Wait," I cut him off, "you're going to a party without me?"

Betamon smiled nervously, "It's a digimon party at the Coliseum. Babamon is planning it and she wants to make sure Taichi doesn't come, so no people are allowed."

"You're ditching me on Christmas?" I asked, annoyed. It was a pretty big deal for me since Christmas was my favourite day of the year, rivalled only by my birthday. Chapmon was just going to leave? But I figured he should enjoy himself too... and if that meant he had to be in some weird Coliseum party with only digimon—which was super racist honestly—then that was what he would have to do.

When I made my way back to the living room, with Chapmon and Betamon saying behind to prepare a suitable hiding place just in case Madlyn chased them again, I found Louisa sitting on the couch, hugging Hopmon like a pillow as she talked to Monodramon who sat across from her, listening to her problems again.

He was a great listener since he never talked, but because Louisa talked so often and never listened well, it was like a perfect match! I was convinced Monodramon was actually her partner, and that somehow Mom and Louisa swapped.

"It's just that he won't even look at me in the eyes," Louisa complained, "He just keeps ignoring me and I keep trying to fight for him and I've even taken all the appropriate first steps. I read about them in a magazine, see, and he just isn't interested." Monodramon nodded his head. "I think he's dating someone else... probably from college—ooh! I wonder if I could find her on social media? What if I already know her—" Louisa gasped loudly, "Oh my god, it's Mai, isn't it?"

"I don't know," Hopmon said, sounding skeptical, and rightly so.

"No, it is." Louisa was absolutely sure of the fact and judging by the way she was pouting, she wasn't too happy about it. "He picked her over me—I always knew he would. Best friend trumps that one girl who has a crush on you. I wonder if that means Tenshi and I should get together."

"Please don't," I groaned, startling Louisa. She glared at me. "That poor guy can't handle all of..." I motioned to the mess that was Louisa, "you."

"Hey!" she snarled.

"At least Haruki's older and kind of crazy too," I reasoned with her, "he'd be able to put up with you I bet."

Louisa held her hands over her heart and was immediately swooning at the thought. "You really think so?" I nodded along, but didn't say anything, because all eyes were suddenly on the door. There had been a sharp knock. I swallowed thickly and decided to brave it out, marching over. I looked back to the others and they seemed to know that this would be their last chance to escape. "We should help Mom in the kitchen, right?" Louisa suggested, and both Monodramon and Hopmon agreed silently. I groaned and pulled the door open sharply.

I was greeted by a scream of pure joy and fury—which was an odd mixture that would only work with Madlyn. Her mess of blonde hair was flying behind her as she leapt through the open doorway and into my arms, "Hey cousin Elliot, what's shakin' bacon? Haven't seen you in a while, Crocodile. You let the cat out of the bag. High as a kite. Pay the piper—out of the blue!"

"What are you doing?" I asked, groaning under the weight of my cousin. She was a lot heavier than she looked, and she was only a few years younger than me.

"Learned about synonyms in school today," Madlyn nodded her head fervently, "Mhm, yes I did."

"Those weren't synonyms, they were idioms," I rolled my eyes, "And not all of them were even that." Madlyn shrugged and slid back down to the floor where she skipped past me and into the house. I saw the crowd of digimon making their way in after her with Terriermon joyfully calling out "I beat you!" to which Lopmon replied, "We weren't even racing, Terriermon." They were always arguing about something, but as they led the procession, Iris waited patiently outside.

When she finally got the chance to come in, she looked back to her parents, wondering if they might want to go first, but Mari ushered her along. Iris grinned and hurried inside, smiling to me on her way past. I waited for Willis and Mari to make their way inside and I finally closed the door, letting it click behind them. I noticed Dad popping up at the top of the elaborate staircase and he waved to Willis, calling to him, and telling him to follow him upstairs. He was probably going to show him his new theater chairs. He had just bought them and wouldn't let Louisa or I use them until Willis got to see them.

Mari was following in Louisa's footsteps and heading toward the kitchen while all the digimon hurried outside excitedly, I even noticed Chapmon and Betamon going. I was jealous that everyone was leaving, because that meant that I was along with—

"Hey Elliot!" Madlyn shouted, holding a thin black book in the air, "Look what I found?"

"What is it?" Iris sounded curious.

"It's his diary!" Madlyn sang.

I shrugged and fell into the comfort of the couch. "That's Renjiro's actually," I shrugged. Madlyn groaned angrily and threw the book wildly behind her. She ran full speed toward the couch before jumping and landing, just shy of my legs, on her knees. I made sure not to flinch away even though I was so scared she'd land on me. When she finally settled in she leaned forward, "Can we play?"

"No," I told her, "I don't play pretend. I'm an adult."

Madlyn laughed, "Yeah, sure!" her laughing continued as Iris came to sit on the coffee table, politely waiting for something to be decided upon. "What if we play video games?" I shook my head. I had a game on still, but had been interrupted while playing. "Board games?" I shook my head again. This wasn't the 1500s, we weren't going to play monopoly! "You're boring."

"Why don't we talk," Iris suggested thoughtfully. "I often find that talking aloud helps me clear my inner most personal thoughts." I stared to her, blinking and thinking all at the same time and wondered if maybe that would help me. I had a lot of inner demons to fight out—mostly my issues with Aika.

I nodded, "Talking could be fun," I agreed. Madlyn groaned and laid her head back. I didn't pay her any attention, and instead started telling Iris—and to some degree Madlyn as well—all of my problems. I started with Aika and Nikko's relationship of course because they were where it all started. Now if I dated Aika, then Nikko would hate me, and if I didn't choose Aika, then she'd hate me. It was a pretty tough decision since my crest was Friendship, but Aika seemed to have made the choice for me. All I wanted was her undivided attention, but for some reason she just kept getting mad at me.

Whenever I paused in the story Iris politely waited for me to continue, lost in thought about my words. She was a great listener. Madlyn always took my pauses as an opportunity to talk—but didn't she know that this conversation was for my benefit? Or was that not obvious enough yet?

These two girls were so opposite, which I supposed made sense, given their delegated crests.

"This is very important," Hikari said softy, patting Madlyn's shoulder, "my crest is the embodiment of light and it means a lot to the world, just like all the crests."

"But," Kurayami said to Iris politely, "Darkness keeps the balance in check. You need to be very careful and wary about how the two crests intertwine with one another. They are opposites, but they're the same."

"Like us," Madlyn giggled. Hikari nodded, poking Madlyn's nose.

"What do we do?" Iris wanted to know.

"You just be yourself," Hikari explained. "You won't always know the best way to handle the situation, but in the end, good will always prevail."

Iris and Madlyn looked to each other with big wide eyes and then grinned. I didn't think it was fair that everyone gathered around to watch the two of them get their crests because for mostly everyone else it was a kind of private affair, but for this it was apparently more important. Iris and Madlyn finally looked to their elders and nodded, ready to take the crests.

Kurayami and Hikari both reached out, but hesitated. They didn't know which child was to receive which crest. There was a bit of commotion before they crossed their hands over so they were each holding both girls hands. Then with a flash of light, the crests had been passed off.

To this day we had no idea which girl had which crest, but in a lot of ways it was safer that way. I had read Takeru's books. I knew the struggles Hikari and Kurayami went through. They were similar, but very different. If Madlyn and Iris never really knew which crest they were representing they would always be themselves with less pressure. Hopefully that helped ease the ache of bearing such important crests because Iris didn't deserve that.

"Maybe if you hadn't embarrassed her brother," Iris suggested with a quiet voice, when my ranting was finally completed. "Aika cares very much for Shouta, and you made him feel uncomfortable."

"I was trying to help," I groaned. "I just want her to stop playing hard to get."

"Maybe she isn't playing hard to get," Madlyn said, sounding actually angry with me for some reason. "Maybe she doesn't like you because you're conceited and angry. Maybe all the other girls you meet think that's charming, but I certainly don't. You should stop being so arrogant and maybe she'll see that you're not so bad after all. But if she says 'no' you need to back off! Even if she means 'yes'!" Madlyn was shrieking by the end of her rant and she slipped off the couch before storming away to go outside to play with the digimon.

I watched her go, internally debating with myself. Was she just being Madlyn and saying nonsense again? Somehow I didn't think so. "She's right, isn't she?" I asked Iris.

She nodded slowly, "I'm afraid so," she admitted, "If you try to be who you are right now, instead of who you think your friends want you to be—"

"What do you mean?" I asked, cutting her off and puffing my chest out.

Iris sighed, "I mean stop that," she groaned, pushing me back into the couch. "You're silly when you're with your friends. When you're at home you're a lot nicer and you just opened up about your feelings. A lot of boys think it isn't okay to have feelings, but that's not true. A boy can cry, and a girl can fight. A boy can wear makeup and a girl can cut her hair short. There are no limitations, Elliot. You need to be yourself and then Aika will like you, but you need to focus on being her friend first."

"Uh, Elliot?" Yamato said, sounding far too nervous for someone his age.

"Who are you?" I asked, looking up to him and trying to remember where I had seen him before.

He seemed surprised that I didn't know who he was, but then nervous that I might be frightened. I wasn't though. "Look, the two of us have a conn—"

"Do ya teach at my school?" I asked, interrupting him. Yamato shook his head, "Do you have a kid?"

Yamato nodded, "Yes, two—Shouta and Aika."

"Oh I know Aika!" I shouted, clapping my hands together. "She's my friend."

"Sure," Yamato nodded, "Now anyway—"

"Nikko loves her."

Yamato seemed to be getting angry now and he reached out to grab my shoulder, "Louisa has a crest right?" I nodded, pouting. The bully always rubbed it in my face. "Now you do too, okay?" with a flash of blue my entire body warmed up and a grin formed on my face, "Don't misuse it. And hey—always be a good friend to Aika." I was still grinning, thinking of how cool it would be to show Louisa and Nikko my new crest, as Yamato walked off to Sora.

"What was that?" she asked in a whispered tone, "That wasn't very motivational."

"I'm sure he gets it," Yamato shrugged, "It's Friendship, how hard can it be?"

"You're right!" I exclaimed, thinking about Iris' words. I did need to focus on being Aika's friend before we could date! She needed friends more than she needed another stupid boy to slip in and ruin her life, which I was sure to do a few times with how dramatic she and I could both be.

Iris nodded because she knew she was right. "Madlyn says you remind her of Izumi," Iris said, which was like really rude. Izumi wasn't a nice girl at all. "But she only means when you're at school. See, Izumi feeds our hatred toward Taro and Yukai. I don't even know why we hate them anymore. We just do. Izumi is the boss and everyone does as she says and she doesn't listen to what people say when they tell her 'no'. She just does it anyway."

I hummed softly, despising the comparison to the demon child that was Izumi. I mean she wasn't horrible, but she once spread a rumour that I was born with claws instead of fingernails and somehow it spread all the way to New York and then it was in the tabloids that the famous man, Michael Washington, had a werewolf son. It was pretty rude of her actually. "Izumi's such a bad person."

"She isn't," Iris shook her head, "Right now she's doing all she can to help out a friend. She's a really good person who makes really bad impressions."

Like me.

"Okay, so I should get her and Shouta to get to know each other," I decided, clapping my hands together. It was perfect! Shouta was who had I had drawn for the Secret Santa anyway, so if I could get him a girlfriend, obviously he would be happy! Then Aika would be even more happy and maybe she'd be my friend again!

"Don't do that," Iris shook her head.

"No, trust me, Shouta loves Izumi," I told her, trying to assure her that my idea was golden. But her face fell in such a sad way that I couldn't help but stare and actually wonder why she looked that way. It didn't take long to figure out though. Iris was sad because Shouta loved Izumi and not her!

Then it hit me. I had seen Shouta staring at all three girls.

Shouta loved Iris!

Man, I had the perfect gift for Shouta! And it had been under my nose the whole time!

Featured Evolution Line: Elliot: Datirimon—Chapmon—Kamemon—Gwappamon—Shawjamon—JumboGamemon