Y/N: This is the second time I wrote as Louisa and Osamu both. I liked the way their characters sort of developed. They didn't have a very long journey, but then, the stories not very long itself. I hope you enjoy their story, however short it is!

Title: Here Comes Santa Claus

By: YukiraKing

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

Chapter 15: Deck the Halls

Louisa Washington:

"We should turn the lights on!" Renjiro suggested, really getting into the excitement of Christmas. He was wrong of course, we couldn't turn them on yet. It just wasn't the right time.

"It has to be the perfect moment," I told him, shaking my head quickly. "It's so important. We'll do it later. Everything's looking pretty good so far, everybody."

"Thank you," Josei said, as if I'd been talking only to her. She was such a cutie pie. She was also annoying and self centred, but it was a cute look on her, so I didn't even care. Her glasses were far too big for her face, since her parents bought them that way, hoping she'd be able to grow into them, and it just made her look smaller and helpless. She was too precious for words, and her little lilac pigtails just added to the general affect. She was wearing a crimson velvet party dress, with bright green tights with little red, gold and silver presents sparkling on them too. She was the most invested in my perfect Christmas. Even Elliot wasn't as excited as she was. He was just wearing his normal clothes. That didn't even make any sense.

Christmas had been Elliot's favourite holiday since he was two and actually understood what was happening. And instead of celebrating properly, he was trailing along behind Aika as she and Shouta strung lights around the mantelpiece, winding the light strands around the pine boughs that Mai had already put in place. Aika's eye was twitching, but since Shouta seemed so happy to have her helping him, she refused to walk away, making Elliot think she didn't mind his attention. It was a vicious cycle really.

It was a comfort, at least, to know that Elliot was even more hopeless than I was when it came to romance. I was watching Haruki sort through red, green and white pillar candles, trying to glue little holly leaves around their bases, and attaching them to square mirror's I'd found to make sure the wax wouldn't spread everywhere. I was more than a little distracted by the sight of him. Mai was sitting right next to him, laughing every time the holly leaves fell off, but he didn't seem to be getting annoyed by it at all. I was starting to revisit the idea that they were secretly dating. It was the only thing that made sense.

"This is pointless," Makoto groaned, as he tried to attach little candleholders to the boughs of the tree that Haruki and Renjiro had picked out. It was gorgeous. It was perfect. And since Renjiro had already wound strands of lights into it that would cast a warm glow when the tree was finished, the rest of us were able to decorate the tree. As it turned out, the kids' handmade decorations were kind of horrible, so I let Osamu hang them around the front door, out of sight of the main Christmas location, but still somewhere that the kids could see them and be proud of them. Once Osamu had finished with that, he had gone to the kitchen to collect the popcorn and cranberries that I'd initially asked Kana to string together, but she hadn't managed to do so.

That was because Emiko had abandoned her in the kitchen, leaving Kana to do all of the baking by herself, which was stressing her out—so Tenshi volunteered to give her a hand.

"It's not pointless, it's fun!" Josei corrected.

"I guess," Makoto sighed, having difficulties with keeping the candle holders upright. "Aika, could you give me a hand?"

"Me?" Aika asked, narrowing her eyes at him and looking to Elliot, who was one of Makoto's closest friends, but Makoto just shrugged.

"Yeah, you, get over here," Makoto said, rolling his eyes at her. She looked suspicious, then confused before she settled on tentative happiness. She was being included, and it really was beautiful. I knew the power of Christmas was spectacular. She looked to Shouta, who hesitated before assuring her he was fine on his own. He glanced at Elliot, and then firmed his resolve, continuing to hang lights on the mantle.

Aika managed to sort out whatever issue Makoto had been having with ease—which made me think it was partially fabricated, and a ruse to get Aika to be his friend again. The tree was really shaping up. I was hanging pretty balls of solid, metallic colour on the tree. I wanted a specific colour scheme with the balls, so that the popcorn and cranberry garland that Osamu was working on wouldn't clash. It was a delicate balance.

"Looking good, Josei," Haruki complimented, leaving Mai to figure out the rest of the candles. I straightened up, since Haruki was so close to me. I had to look my best in hopes of catching his eye.

"Thank you," Josei said politely, while using a tone that said she already knew how great the tree looked—and it did look great. It was almost perfect. "I want to put the angel at the top now."

"What?" I asked sharply. "But I put the angel at the top. It's my job."

"Now, who can put the angel at the top of the tree?" Dad said dramatically. He threw his hand to his forehead. "Oh, woe is me, I can't do it alone. It's just too far for me to reach."

"Don't look at me," Mom said holding a hand to her heart. "I'm shorter than you. It's way too far for me to reach too."

"Pick me up Daddy!" I said, giggling at them. "I can reach really high!"

"You can, can you?" he asked. He put his finger to his chin thinking really hard about it. "I think she's right, Tatum." He picked me up as high as he could, and Mom handed me the angel. I put it on the top without any trouble, because I was an unusually dextrous two year old. And then Dad pulled me down, spinning me in a circle and tickled my belly. "She did it Tatum. Our angel put the angel on the tree. How about that?"

"She did good," Mom said happily. "I think that should be her job."

"I think it fits," Dad agreed, tickling me again. "You think so, angel?"

"Uh-huh," I said with big grin, happy to have been of help, since they were so hopeless without me.

"You've been doing such a great job with the place," Haruki said, glancing at Renjiro over my shoulder. I couldn't see what Renjiro was doing, but it didn't matter. Haruki was talking to me. He was complimenting me. I tried to remember what my magazines told me to do if a situation like this came up, but my mind was blanking. The only thing I could think of was that he was looking at my eyes. He wasn't avoiding them. He was looking directly at them. I felt like I was on cloud nine.

"You think so?" I asked, sounding like an idiot, and berating myself internally. That was so lame. I needed to leave an impression.

"I really do," he said, smiling softly. He looked hesitant for a second, but he glanced to Mai—breaking my heart a little bit as he did—and then nodded to himself. "What you're doing, what you're sharing with us, it's beautiful. The tradition of family and togetherness and love, it's important. It's kind of the most important thing in the world to me."

"Because of your Crest," I said, nodding, remembering that his was Love. Mine was Strength, and unlike everyone else, I didn't get it from a random Digidestined. My Dad gave it to me. I was both proud and embarrassed by that fact. I was embarrassed because no one else thought I was good enough for a Crest, and my dad had to give it to me. But I was proud of keeping it in the family.

"Louisa, I need to tell you a story," Dad said, setting me down. I was eleven, and I was way too old for story time, but I sat down anyway, because it looked like this was important to him.

"What is it Dad?"

"My mother died, when I was young," he said. "But she had strength that couldn't be equaled. I was so happy and blessed when I was given the Crest of Strength. It was a connection I was able to feel with my mother that I never would have had without it. It kept me going through the toughest of times, because I knew that she was out there with me."

"That's beautiful," I said, wiping the tears from my eyes.

"I can't keep the Crest forever, Louisa," he said sadly. "I felt it the moment a certain someone was born. I felt a deep connection through the crest. It took longer for me to realize it than everyone else, because I thought the connection was just eternal love, which made sense to me, and it's still true too."

"Dad, you're rambling," I reminded him helpfully.

"The point is," Dad said after taking a deep breath. "I knew who the Crest needed to move on to, and I know that it's the right time to pass it on."

"But Daddy, what about your connection with Grandma?" I asked, worried for him.

"I don't need the Crest to feel her anymore," he said. "But maybe you do. Maybe the Crest can help you feel her around you all the time. You're a strong little girl. Not physically, but that's not the point of the Crest anyway. You have inner strength that I know you're just discovering."

"But what about that kid that you felt connected to, won't whoever they are come and take it from me?" I asked. "I'm not actually all that strong. They'd be able to take it."

"Louisa, you're missing the point. You are that baby," he said. "That's why it took so long. I just thought that connection was because you were my daughter. But it was more than that. Now take the Crest, and be good to it. Try to live up to its meaning, and always know that you can come to me if you need help. I wished that I had that choice when I first learned about my mother, but I didn't get to do that. It's not weakness to ask for help."

"I promise to live up to the family legacy," I told him.

He'd given it to me in such a touching way with a heartbreaking speech that I couldn't even feel disappointed that I didn't get one of the easier crests—in my opinion—like Desire, or Friendship, or Kindness.

"It's more than just my Crest," Haruki insisted. "But then again, maybe those feelings are why Sora gave the Crest to me in the first place. I can't really separate the two inside me. Not anymore. I've had the Crest for awhile."

"Yeah," I said. I sighed though. "I wish I could help Hopmon digivolve with it though."

"DemiVeemon keeps guilt tripping me about that too," Haruki said with a laugh. He looked over my shoulder and smiled. He reached out and touched my shoulder—I almost died!—and pointed up to the top of the tree. The angel glittered brightly at her perch, and I looked to Haruki and glared. He'd been distracting me. "Sorry," he said, sheepishly. "But I couldn't break her heart. Look how happy she is."

I did as he asked, and saw that Josei was looking so full of happiness that it was pretty much pouring out of her. She was smiling so brightly, looking so proud of herself while she was in Renjiro's arms. I knew then, that Haruki's look to Renjiro was a signal for Renjiro to help Josei put the angel at the top of the tree, and I couldn't find it in me to be angry about it, like I thought I would. Josei was only six, and she was shining so brightly, that I couldn't fault her for taking my job from me.

And also, I was pretty much an adult, and she was just a little kid. It would've been selfish of me to take that opportunity from her, and Christmas was about being unselfish.

"That's great, Shouta," Elliot complimented. I was proud of my brother for being so nice for once, but Aika didn't see it that way. She shoved the candles back into Makoto's hands, and stormed over to Elliot and poked him in the chest.

"If that's all you think it will take to make it better, think again," she said, emphasising her words by poking Elliot again and again. Shouta looked embarrassed by the whole thing, and retreated to the kitchen where he could help Tenshi and Kana, who were pretty quiet most days. Aika saw that Shouta was gone and gave a "I told you so" look to Elliot, before storming off to a different room to look for him—completely bypassing the kitchen.

"You're an idiot," Makoto told Elliot. "I was making progress!"

"What did I even do?" Elliot wondered, confused. I was confused too.

"I'm going to see if I can help," I told Haruki, regretting the words as soon as they came out of my mouth. I didn't want to leave him when he was actually willing to talk to me, but I had to make sure Elliot's crush wasn't too angry with him. I was a nice big sister and all...but mostly, I just wanted to see if Aika was okay or not.

"I'll hold down the fort until you get back," Haruki said. I might've died, because he gave me a quick wink. I practically floated out of the room, after Aika. I found her grumbling in the hallway, looking up the stairs trying to decide whether Shouta might've gone up or not.

"He's in the kitchen," I told her.

"Oh," she said. Her shoulders relaxed.

"You know Elliot can be a royal pain in the butt, but he's actually a pretty nice guy. He doesn't compliment people if he doesn't mean it," I said, defending my brother. "Shouta was more embarrassed by the fighting, than anything."

"I don't think Elliot has a single nice bone in his body," Aika said, completely ignoring the fact that Shouta was embarrassed by her instead of Elliot. "I've never seen him do anything for anyone. I know he can be nice, but if he's not mature enough to show it, then it's not even worth it."

"Yeah, I can understand that," I said, allowing her that win. She was right. If Elliot wanted her to treat him seriously, then he needed to be open with her. "Boys can be dumb."

"Don't tell him anything, okay?" Aika asked. I was confused. "I don't want you to feed him the answers. I want him to figure it out by himself."

"Okay," I agreed, though I felt like she'd foiled my plans. I wanted to have a serious heart-to-heart with my brother, and now I couldn't. But I gave her my word, so I wasn't going back on it. Part of inner strength is sticking with decisions that I knew were right, and a promise totally counted. Aika wandered off towards the kitchen, and I peeked through the doorway to see Haruki was now helping Josei put Christmas balls on the tree. They were so cute. He was so sweet, helping her when he had so much school work he could be doing instead—Mai was trying to be secretive while she worked on a project, but I could see her pad and paper on her lap, and she wasn't even pretending to be working on the candles anymore.

It almost felt like Haruki was giving his all to this Christmas celebration just because it was important to me. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Osamu Ichijouji:

I was glad to escape the hustle and bustle of the Yagami house. There were too many people and so many voices; it was just so much easier to think outside. Emiko had brought all the kids inside, and they were much happier than when they'd left. Hiro and Nikko weren't trying to hurt each other anymore, and Madlyn was so tired that she didn't have the energy to be her usual wild self. They were all dripping snow everywhere, leaving puddles in their wake, and it was irritating Louisa. Haruki was keeping her from blowing her top, but even he didn't have enough magic to keep her calm forever.

Obviously, I feared the fallout. Mai wasn't thinking very straight, and she wasn't eyeing the upcoming explosion with her usual vigor, so I suggested maybe we could go and get Aika's present, since I needed it for the next day. I had really waited until the last minute, which wasn't a good idea, because it was just stressing me out more. But I couldn't help it. It was so hard to think of something that Aika might like, because I didn't know her anymore.

We'd been good friends, once upon a time, before she'd made that dreadful ultimatum and then made assumptions before we'd had a chance to do anything about it. Somehow, Makoto, Elliot, Hiro and I got sucked into the feud that was happening between Nikko and Aika, and our silence—after she'd nearly bashed Nikko's head in with her phone—was all it took for her to walk away, thinking that we were the ones that were abandoning her.

I couldn't understand her logic. I also couldn't understand her. What was I supposed to get for her, when the Secret Santa was meant to be something special? I didn't know her secret desires anymore, I didn't know what she liked to do with her spare time. I didn't even know if she had any clubs that she attended. She had avoided us all, and because she was the one that walked out on us, we hadn't exactly done anything to remedy the situation—well, until recently.

Elliot's crush made him determined to get over that rift, and Makoto was doing all he could to mend the gap in our friendship that time had pulled further and further apart. I didn't know how I could help. It wasn't like I was willing to get up there and just do something. I wasn't capable of that, no matter what Mari had told me.

"Tenacity is hard," she said. "And I spent years resenting the fact that the Crest was given to me. I didn't think I deserved it, and I didn't think it made any sense at all. There are so many layers to it, Osamu. It's really confusing some days, but once I got it, once I understood, I realized that it wasn't so bad."

"Okay," I said, not understanding where this was going. She'd just called me away from my friends and I came, because I didn't want to make her mad. I only really knew her because she was my mom's friend, and had been since they were little kids.

"It's not just being fierce and protecting yourself," she said. "It's more than that. It's the counterpart to Honour, and while Honour is doing the right thing for the situation, and for others, Tenacity is more personal. You need to do the right thing for you, but you also have to understand Honour at the same time, and work with it."

"That's two Crests," I said. "Why would you need to know two?"

"Because Tenacity is complicated, like I said," she told me with a sigh. "And it's not just me that needs to know two Crests. You're the new owner of Tenacity, congratulations or whatever. I just hope it's easier for you. Telling you to be aware of Honour is actually pretty decent of me, since it was what caused me the most trouble."

"Wait, what?"

She'd given me the Crest, and told me to do what was right for me, while taking into account what was right for others. What did that mean? I still wasn't sure. I talked to Mom extensively once, so that I could try to understand her Crest, but she didn't really help me at all. It was unfortunate, but I couldn't do anything about it.

"Do you have any ideas at all?" Mai asked. I shook my head. She sighed. "Of course not."

"What do you mean?" I wanted to know, feeling defensive.

"I mean, that you wouldn't tell me if you had an idea even if you did, so there was no point in asking," she said, rolling her eyes. "I know you, Osamu. I understand how you work. Sometimes, I just hope that you'll figure out what you want and actually go for it, that's all."

"Sometimes I know what I want," I said, and it was true. I had a lot of opinions and ideas, I just didn't share them in case there was a conflict of interest. I was all about keeping the peace—which in reality was what the Crests were all about, so I was already way ahead of everyone else on that front...kind of—and opinions were tricky things. Not everyone was always on the same page. Several times in the last month alone I was on a different page than all of my friends—including, but not limited to that time we went back in time and were nearly killed by ancient prison guards, the fact that we never allow for time with homework after school and choose to hang out as long as possible instead, that time I'd accepted a hug from Emiko because I didn't want to hurt her feelings and walked around with a paper sign that saidKICK ME on my back and my friends didn't bother telling me. There were a lot of things I had strong opinions on, but for the sake of everyone else, I kept them to myself.

I was trying to follow Mari's advice and be aware of Honour. I was doing a pretty good job, as far as I was concerned. My Crest had another opinion, but I couldn't argue with that one either.

"Sure you do," Mai said, sounding like she didn't believe me. I didn't really like the way that my sister viewed me. I wasn't indecisive, I was just pacifistic. There was a difference. "Now, tell me about Aika. What do you know about her?"

"She and Nikko used to date, and there was a bad breakup, because Nikko didn't realize that she had feelings or something," I said, sounding as confused as she looked. "I just know it was messy and we were all caught in the middle of it."

"Okay," Mai said, thinking hard. "Well, clothes aren't an option. Her mother designs clothes for a living, that wouldn't be interesting to her. Music might be out for similar reasoning. Why did they break up? Do you know that?"

"He liked another girl," I said. She winced and frowned. "And then she lost all of her friends when she stormed off, and none of us talk to her anymore, and she doesn't want to be around any of us anymore. I don't know what to do to fix that either."

"Okay, that's harsh," Mai decided. "But you've got to do what you feel is right in order to get anything done with that mess. Don't listen to anyone else's ideas. Do what you think is right."

"Easier said than done," I grumbled.

She was walking around the mall with practiced ease, which I found strange, because we were in America. We were near Elliot's house actually, since we were allowed to visit that part of New York without supervision, so long as we told a responsible adult that we were going. I guess Mai counted as that adult. "Oh no."

"What?" I asked. She turned around and ducked behind a plastic shrub. She peered over the shrub into the store across from us. There was a girl there, and that was it. I wondered if Mai knew this colourful individual. Her hair was purple, and shaved on one side, and she looked fun, even in her drab brown uniform, which I thought was a pretty impressive feat. "Do you know her?"

"Yes," Mai said, squeaking when the girl came over to us, having spotted Mai through the shrubs. She walked over and crossed her arms, tapping her foot.

"I'm Osamu," I offered.

"I'm No One," she said, looking meaningfully to Mai. I found it all to be really confusing. I looked to Mai, hoping she could relieve the tension in the air, but she didn't seem to have any intention of doing it. She just looked at her feet.

"I didn't think you'd be working today," Mai said eventually.

"I'm not supposed to be," the girl admitted. "But my co-worker called in sick, so bye-bye grandma time."

"That must suck," Mai said awkwardly. She looked to me, and I decided there were a lot of other places I could be right then, instead of in the middle of that awkwardness, and so I wandered into the store that the girl worked at. It was a girly store. There were nail polishes and jewellery all over the back walls. There were clothes taking up the majority of the centre of the space. One wall had shoes, another had hair accessories. It was in front of those accessories that I found myself. I picked up a butterfly shaped barrette, and turned it over in my hands. It was just so girly.

But then...wasn't that what they'd been fighting about?

Aika just wanted Nikko to think of her as a girl. It was the reason they started dating in the first place. But then he'd fallen for some other girl, one that was girly and pretty, and he'd dropped her like a hot potato because he'd found a 'real' girl.

I flipped the barrette around again, and smiled to myself. I knew exactly what needed to happen. I had my present for Aika.

Featured Evolution Line: Yukai: Chibomon—DemiVeemon—Gaossmon—Greymon (2010)—Paildramon