Y/N: This is the last time I write Nikko. He's reached the end of his arc, and while I think he's got a long way to go, he might have made a nice step forward. I hope you enjoy the chapter!

U/N: This is the only chapter in this whole story we actually collaborated on, so that's weird, I guess. I wrote Renjiro again and honestly I love his little group of friends a lot, so I liked this. Tenshi, Louisa, Kana and Renjiro are all just like... better people than the group that follows them in age. It's also my last time ever writing for Renjiro. That might be sad if he had more than two parts :P

Title: Here Comes Santa Claus

By: Urazamay and YukiraKing

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

Chapter 18: Christmas Wrapping

Renjiro Kido:

All at once there was a deafening scream.

I couldn't help but fling into immediate action, sitting upright in a moment, my eyes darting around the unfamiliar surroundings. The sun had just risen in the sky and the dimmed early light was being cast through the windows over the tall elaborate tree that Louisa had composed. Under that tree, shielded by the needles and ornaments that cluttered the branches, were presents. Each was wrapped in a unique paper, with fancy bows or ribbons tied around the outside to make them just that much more special.

I could see nothing more though, because my eyes were still fuzzy from sleep, and I had yet to put my glasses on my face. As I reached for them I felt someone push past me, still screaming and saw a tiny form of a girl with lilac hair. Josei. Of course she was excited.

Before I had even finished putting my glasses on my face Madlyn, Yukai and Izumi had joined her, with Izumi standing behind them rather dramatically with her arms crossed, but even she was looking rather excitedly from present to present, desperately searching for the one with her name on it. I had seen enough Christmas movies to know that having one present wasn't the typical American tradition, but I almost liked it more this way. I didn't want too many things, and I knew it wouldn't be right to spoil the younger kids and besides, there were so many of us, it would be almost impossible to fit even just two presents for each of us under that tree.

Keeping true to the American Christmas we promised Louisa to experience—and I had no problem with this because learning about new cultures was never a bad idea—I had purchased several presents myself. One for each of my parents, and Emiko, as well as their digimon, Bukamon of course, Kana, Louisa and Tenshi each got one too, and I even got a little treat for each of their digimon, and obviously Makoto got one too because of the Secret Santa game Louisa had set up. As I looked to the children, wildly tossing presents aside, half heartedly aiming them to whomever's name was written on the tag, I wondered how many of them had actually kept the secret of who they had drawn. Kana knew that I had Makoto, and I knew she had Louisa. It didn't take a genius to figure out who Tenshi and Louisa had drawn.

"I'm having a bit of trouble," Tenshi admitted shyly, "I don't know much about who I've drawn."

He knew a lot about everyone because he was the only person I knew that would listen to anyone talk about anything. He obviously had Ryou, the only person in the draw that Tenshi never got a chance to speak to. Louisa was even more obvious.

"Okay, I'll give you a hint," Louisa groaned, "the person I have is absolutely insane, but it isn't Chika. And don't ask for any more clues, I won't give them."

"No one asked though," Kana pointed out.

She had Madlyn, and calling her insane was kind of an understatement. Even now she was shrieking with joy and excitement as she led the rampaging children. Taro had joined them now with Iris standing off to the side. Shouta was nearby too, but he was far too shy to ever join in the hunt. Eventually his present would come to him, just like the rest of us.

The presents themselves had drawn my attention though. These were not the Secret Santa presents, I knew because Yukai called out to Makoto and chucked a gift his way and I knew very well that his present was wrapped up and concealed in my suitcase upstairs. Who had these presents come from?

I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see Tenshi with a big smile on his face. His hair was a mess and he looked like he too had just woken up, but he was holding a blue box with a green ribbon on the top and offering it to me. I took it and adjusted myself so I was sitting properly. "That's yours," Tenshi told me, pulling out a pink one and looking to someone in the distance. I turned my head to see Louisa dragging Kana across the floor.

Both of them fell to the floor next to me and Tenshi did the same, handing both Kana and Louisa their gifts. Louisa's eyes widened with hunger and desperation as she stared to the gift, but Kana's attention was on Tenshi. "Where is yours?"

"Oh, these are from me," Tenshi said with a nervous smile. Kana gasped in a rather surprised way, but Louisa tilted her head and let out a rather loud 'awww' to show how cute she thought it was that Tenshi had gotten us all gifts. I made a mental note to not give her a present until later, when enough excitement had run its course, straight out of her system. "It's not much," Tenshi admitted, "but open them. I think you'll like them."

The three of us looked to each other and nodded pulling the top off of the small boxes and looking inside. It was a necklace. A small gold piece tied to the end of a thick black cord. "Tenshi," Louisa cooed, pulling hers out of the box. I saw that there was a little design engraved on hers, so I flipped mine over and saw half of a medical staff, with serpents surrounding it. I turned to Kana and she reacted instantly, putting hers together with mine to finish the staff. "Oooh!" Louisa shouted out, lunging forward to join in. She placed hers under Kana's and I saw that hers had an image of a heart. Tenshi reached into his pocket and pulled his own out, to finish the circle.

"The images don't match," he admitted, "but they fit together right. We're all kind of different too, so that's why I thought it was such a good match."

My eyes fell to the image on Tenshi's piece and apparently that was where Kana's mind went too. "Photography?" Tenshi nodded, embarrassed. There was a tiny engraved camera on the end of his necklace and I felt a giddy feeling bubble up inside me before it spread on my face. There was something about Tenshi picking the camera over a cello that made the morning just feel that much better. "What about the cello?" Kana wondered.

Tenshi looked sad for a moment, then he finally said, "I'm still going to play, and I'm going to my final audition. I just don't want to be known as that boy who plays cello. That's not the person I want to be. I want to go take pictures of animals in the wild, or something. I don't know."

"How are you going to do your audition without a cello?" Louisa wondered.

"You still haven't found it?" Kana gasped. Tenshi shook his head. "It'll turn up, I'm sure it will."

"The audition is in two days," Tenshi said, looking rather nervous again. "I won't get in anyway. I haven't practiced in days. I'm just really nervous."

"I'm nervous too," I blurted out, hoping to distract him for just a moment from his own nerves. I didn't know why I was going to open up about this now, but it seemed right somehow. "I... I've pretty much given up on getting into that school. That's okay though. I don't mind, because there are other schools. I can live with that, and..." my mind was elsewhere as I stared to Makoto. He was looking to me—and listening to my words—like he had been caught in the headlights of oncoming traffic. He blinked twice and then slipped away, leaving Aika alone with his sister.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and when I turned I saw Izumi, handing me a hastily wrapped book. I knew it was a book just by looking at it. "This is yours, it's from Santa." Izumi looked over her shoulder to Iris who was glaring to Taro, and to Yukai who was holding Madlyn's toy up above her head. She swallowed thickly and then set off in the opposite direction. Had I just witnessed Izumi feel bad for the mess she had been causing?

A hand wrapped itself in with mine and I was pulled way before I even had a chance to open my present. I stumbled to my feet, nearly tripping over my sleeping bag and looked up as Kana dragged me after Louisa and Tenshi. Louisa had her 'I have to tell you something' look on her face so I knew it was important to her. Eventually, when we had found safety in the kitchen, she turned to us all with a smile.

"So," she said with a smile that was threatening to burst. "I'm Santa."

"I know," Kana rolled her eyes. Louisa glared at her though.

"Shh!" she insisted, "Guess who was Mr Santa?"

"Santa is a boy though," I said, confused.

"Can you guys just guess?" Louisa asked, annoyed.

"Hmm," Tenshi said, pretending to think hard, "Could it be... Haru—no... hmm... It was Osamu, wasn't it?"

Louisa turned her glare to Tenshi but it fell quickly. No one could glare at him, he was the nicest person on the face of the planet. Unrivaled. "It was Haruki," Louisa said, swaying on the spot. Her cheeks turned pink and she bit her lip, but she didn't seem like she was going to stop talking any time soon. "He said we should talk." Kana and I exchanged a look. That didn't sound good necessarily.

"Is that good?" Tenshi wanted to know.

"Well he kissed me, so..." Louisa said, and Kana gasped—again—and Louisa squealed with excitement, taking Kana's hands spinning in a circle before latching herself to Tenshi to jump up and down excitedly. He simply looked startled to the bumbling jellybean of a friend that she was. "It basically means we're in love or something," Louisa declared, releasing Tenshi and walking across the room, "Of course we'll have to invite everyone."

"W-where?" I turned to the sound of the voice and saw Haruki in the doorway to the kitchen looking rather tired, but Louisa wasn't paying attention as she spun in place.

"To our wedding!" she declared loudly, but finally she caught sight of Haruki whose entire face turned bright red and he turned from the room immediately. "Oh—oops! I was kidding!" she shouted, chasing after him.

Tenshi, Kana and I looked to each other and shrugged. It felt like a moment to laugh, but we couldn't. We were all obviously pleased for Louisa, but Kana was stressed because I was stressed because I couldn't get into school, and Tenshi couldn't either if he couldn't play his cello that apparently ceased to exist at all... Well, from where I stood, the Christmas could have been better, but so far it wasn't the worst day ever.

Nikko Yagami:

Everything was chaotic. I'd already opened up a bunch of presents from my friends and it was mostly candy. I loved candy, so that was alright. I didn't need anything special anyway. We didn't usually exchange gifts at this time of year, so this was just a bunch of free candy to me, and it was awesome.

Josei was wearing the bows off of all the presents. They were sticking to her lilac hair, and getting all tangled up. Osamu was wincing at the sight of it, knowing that it would be up to him to fix it. Mai had disappeared at some point, and so he couldn't pass the job off on her. She was clutching a doll and grinning because the doll had a pink dress on, just like her nightgown.

Iris was sitting on the couch, glaring at Taro, who was also seated there, both of them were holding puzzle boxes, and both of them wanted to be putting their puzzle together on the coffee table, but they didn't want to share, because that would be too simple. Yukai was holding a box of jacks and Madlyn had marbles. She was throwing them at him one by one, and he kept turning around to see who it was, but she kept hiding behind the back of the couch just before he could see her. Izumi wasn't anywhere near them, though I would have expected her to be. She was over by the kitchen door, talking with Azura who was trying to figure out what to do for breakfast.

Tenshi, Renjiro and Kana all came back from another room, each wearing some sort of friendship necklace which was kind of lame really, but they all seemed happy, so I wasn't going to judge them. Louisa was following after Haruki, who was red in the face. I didn't think I wanted to touch that with a ten foot pole. Shouta and Aika were sitting together, exchanging gifts of their own. Aika got Shouta a journal so he could write his thoughts down and he got her some sort of board game. She looked at it and tried to smile, but I could see it was a game you needed at least four teams to play. Maybe Shouta wanted to play with their parents and partners, but it would be hard for her to play on a regular day, since she really only had Chika, Yokomon and Motimon to play with...

Makoto, Hiro and Elliot were lounging on a pile of sleeping bags while Osamu sat beside them, watching his younger sister. They already had their candy open and were eating as much of it as possible before Azura caught sight of them and made them stop—since Emiko wasn't about to do it. She would've been a hypocrite, since she was stuffing her own face with sugary treats.

Chika though, she was opening her first present still, peeling the tape off as carefully as she could so that she didn't rip the paper. She was talking to herself, trying to psych herself up for the task at hand. There was a pile of four or five presents, but she wasn't paying them any attention, fully dedicating herself to the one in her lap from Santa. Santa had gotten me a wrist watch, which I was sure was just a ploy to make sure I got home on time after school instead of dawdling around.

I was admiring her dedication and trying to guess what Santa had brought for her when Osamu dropped himself down in front of me. I glared at him, trying to watch Chika around him, but he wouldn't let me. I sighed, wondering what had gotten into him. He wasn't usually so forceful, and he never wanted any attention, so this was really strange.

"Here," Osamu told me. He shoved a sparkling butterfly barrette in my face. I took it from him and looked down at him.

"I don't know, do you think it matches my eyes?" I asked, feeling ridiculous.

"It's not for you, jerk," he said. "It's for Aika. I'm her Secret Santa."

"Then why are you giving it to me?" I wondered.

"Because I had a revelation in an American mall, and I've decided to start speaking up and sharing my thoughts when I think they're needed, and this is exactly where they're needed," Osamu told me. "You're going to give this to her, and you're going to talk so that we can all be friends again."

"I am?" I asked, wanting to cross my arms and huff. I didn't want to be the one that offered the olive branch. It wasn't fair. Yes, I hurt her, but she was the one that walked away—after trying to decapitate me with a phone! She wasn't the only one hurt in that scenario, and I didn't want to have to be the bigger person. But I made the mistake of glancing back to her and her board game, where she was talking with Shouta, and trying to make him feel better since she wasn't able to be as enthusiastic as she wanted to be.

"Yes," Osamu said more firmly than I'd ever heard him before. He'd never been forceful, but I knew he wasn't going to take no for an answer. I supposed he'd finally learned what his crest was. Keeping that in mind, I tried to channel my own, since I was going to need it.

"Fine," I said, taking the clip as I got to my feet. "But don't cry to me when she throws this thing in my face." I was pretty sure she would throw it too. But I needed to have hope. Uncle Takeru told me so.

"Have hope, kiddo," Takeru said, settling in beside me on a blanket spread out on the grass. We were supposed to be watching a meteor shower, but the clouds were covering everything and it was so boring. I had been so excited about getting to stay up super late to watch the sky light up, but it just didn't seem to be happening. Aunt Hikari had already fallen asleep with Hiro, and Tenshi was looking to follow soon. Koromon was snoring up a storm, which was probably the only thing that was keeping me awake at all.

"What hope is there to have?" I asked him.

"There's always hope," he assured me. "Even in the darkest of times. You just have to look for it. See?"

"What?" I asked.

"There," he told me, pointing up to the sky. The clouds parted and the sky was filled with falling stars. I gasped and Tenshi was quick to snap a few photos with his beginner camera. "See buddy. You just need to have hope, and good things can happen. But you've got to keep your hope alive."

Keeping that miraculous cloud movement in mind, I marched forward towards Aika and tried to focus all of my positive energy into that one little hair clip. Aika looked up to me. She glared when she realized who it was. I sighed, and took a deep breath.

"This is for you."

"Is it really?" she asked, rolling her eyes. "I saw Osamu give it to you."

"I didn't say it was from me. He was your Secret Santa," I said. "He picked this. I guess he was always better at remembering things. I'm sorry, you know, for forgetting sometimes that you're a girl."

"That wasn't the main problem," she said, looking down at the clip with a sort of glint in her eye.

"I'm sorry for forgetting that you had feelings," I added, even though I knew that she never had feelings for me, just as I'd never had feelings for her. We were a relationship of friends. I figured I'd have an easier time remembering she was a girl if she was my girlfriend, and she liked that title, since it said girl right in it.

"I guess I'm kind of sorry too," she said. "Just for the phone thing though."

"That was terrifying," I pointed out.

"Well, you deserved it," she said with a sigh.

"Everyone misses having you around," I told her.

"Everyone?" she asked, looking at me skeptically.

"Yeah," I said. "I guess I kind of miss having you around too. You were one of our best friends for years, it's always been kind of weird not having you around."

"It's always been weird not being around," she said. "I can't forget what you did."

"I don't expect you to," I told her honestly. "Just maybe, if it was to happen again, you could remind me instead of freaking out and throwing things and everything."

"I could probably do that," she said stubbornly looking away. "Maybe."

She was quiet for a little, just playing with the barrette. She bit her lip and then for the first time in a really long time I saw the tiniest bit of a smile pulling at her lips. I smiled at the sight of it, which prompted her to let go of her hesitation. I reached my hand out and she took it without delay and I pulled her to her feet. I pulled her over to our friends and flopped down on top of the sleeping bags. Elliot had gone (he was busy with his cousins), but that didn't matter. It was symbolic, not everyone needed to be here.

"You guys remember our friend Aika, right?" I asked, sounding pretty smug, but I felt that way. I felt pretty great to have offered the olive branch, even though I hadn't wanted to. I supposed Uncle Takeru was right, there was always hope, even when girls freak out and throw phones at you and declare that they won't ever be your friend again.

"You guys go over all that?" Makoto asked. Aika nodded once. His face lit up. "Great, then you'll be the director for my play. We're going to be rehearsing every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. I would've had it every night, but I've been told that would make me a slave driver, and I just can't have that."

"Whatever," Aika said, awkwardly. Makoto didn't seem to care, he was just pretty happy that she was around. Aika smiled to Osamu and showed him the clip. His returning smile was very bright. Hiro just gave her two thumbs up and got back to eating candy. They were cousins, so they'd never been fighting too badly. "Hey, Nikko, this is for you."

She threw a small package to me, and I had to rip open like an entire roll of tape just to get to the present inside—which I assumed she'd wrapped when she still hated my guts, but it was still annoying—and found a tiny keychain with a soccer ball on it. There was a little key attached and I looked to her, shocked.

"I figured you'd want to open it eventually," she said, embarrassed. It was the key to the time capsule we'd put in my basement. She had the key, so that I wouldn't be tempted to open it. We were meant to open it on my birthday last year, but since we weren't friends, we'd never gotten the chance. We all had stuff hidden in there, but I couldn't even begin to remember what it was.

"Wanna go right now?" I asked.

"Better wait for Elliot though, yeah?" Makoto asked, looking around for him.

"We'll do it later, when all the little kids are going crazy from the sugar and our parents are here to look after them," Aika decided, while she put the barrette into her hair. "How's it look?"

"Perfect," I told her, but we both knew we weren't talking about a simple clip. We were talking about our friendship, and how it made us both so much happier than being miserable together all the time.

Featured Evolution Line: Iris: Popomon—Budmon—Sistermon Blanc—Sistermon Awakened—Sanzomon—ClavisAngemon