U/N: Tenshi again! I like Tenshi a lot, but I don't really like Aika a WHOLE lot. I mean, I wrote her, so I have to like her a bit obviously, but ultimately she's bitter and not in the fun kind of way. I know she's bitter for a reason that she thinks is suitable but I think she's over reacting :P But STILL I do like parts of her and since I know the person she ends up being, I like her a lot, but at this point she's such a teenager. Anyway, I hope you like this! We're getting close to the end, which means Christmas is preeeetty close too!

Title: Here Comes Santa Claus

By: UrazamayKing

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

Chapter 20: Blue Christmas

Tenshi Takaishi:

The day was going well, but I was still caught up in how anxious I felt about the upcoming audition. I still had not found my cello and because of that I could not practice, it had however given me a chance to experiment with my other hobbies including, but not limited to, photography. Salamon and I had been out and about for hours at a time taking pictures of all kinds of wildlife, or people or even buildings. Anything was alright by me because I was just having tons of fun.

I missed Salamon though because he was still not here. Checking the clock told me that he was late, as well as all of the rest of the digimon and our parents. They said they would be here over an hour ago but they were yet to show up, which meant that I could not give Ryou his present—which was an old fashioned pocket watch, since he was always losing track of time—and since I had yet to receive a gift from my Secret Santa, whoever that was, I was gifted with time to admire the gifts I had gotten. Renjiro had gotten me some new earmuffs, which was perfect because he had taken mine apart for the metal inside to perform an experiment, and Louisa—aka Santa Claus—had framed a picture of the eight of us. The four of us being Renjiro, Kana, Louisa and myself, and our digimon. Louisa called us her 'Inner Circle' which was why I thought my necklace present was perfect.

I was happy about the present Louisa gave me because it became quickly apparent that she had spoken to the parents to find the perfect gift but if she had spoken to my parents, then I could have received more cello sheet music, which would have been lovely, really, but I think I liked the photo more.

Looking around the room was wonderful no matter what presents anyone had gotten though because everyone was in such a joyous mood—except perhaps Elliot—and the feeling of warmth and happiness was spreading and growing throughout the entire house. No matter where I went I could feel a magnet pulling me back to the atmosphere that was this room. The younger children—Iris, Madlyn, Izumi, Yukai and Taro—were playing with Elliot who was doing his very best to keep them all entertained, but finding it to be rather troubling because he was only one person among five rambunctious children. Chika had dragged Nikko to the window and they were staring out to the falling snow, while Aika, Osamu and Makoto watched them, probably gossiping about the new blossoming relationship. Emiko and Azura were watching the children, but just barely, and were eating some of Chika's forgotten candy out of the canopic jar, which seemed rather unsafe and perhaps a bit morbid. Haruki and Louisa had gone out looking for Mai who had actually vanished in the middle of the night, and I was glad to see Haruki warming up to Louisa again, forgiving her for her slip up about marriage. Kana and Renjiro were celebrating with some kind of cider about Renjiro's acceptance and I wanted to join them, but would of course wait until they were finished their private session. Josei was running around and screaming while playing with a toy dinosaur and a princess doll, and of course there was Hiro.

Hiro and Shouta were talking over by the fire and laughing about something, and while I was happy to see Hiro smile, I only wished that he would smile to me sometimes. I missed having him be my friend across the hall. He was my best friend for a long time, before we each went separate ways with our newer friends, and while I loved my friends—and wouldn't trade them for anything—I still missed Hiro. Christmas as Louisa wanted it to be was fun, but I thought that the one thing I really wanted was Hiro and I to be on good terms again.

Chika's sudden shriek of excitement brought me from my thoughts and I turned to the big window. "Motimon!" she exclaimed with sudden vigor. She ditched Nikko a moment later and rushed to the front door, clearing up a space at the window for me to see the army of figures coming up the path to the door. I moved closer when I spotted my dad and I saw that he was holding Salamon.

A bubble of excitement formed in my chest and I hurried after Chika where Louisa was ushering people inside with big arm movements. She and Haruki had just returned too it seemed, but Mai was still nowhere to be seen. I saw Chika's excitement spill overboard as she reached out to Motimon who was bouncing alongside Palmon and Tanemon. Tentomon was nearby with Biyomon and several bird digimon—well, Yokomon wasn't a bird, but from what I'd seen they usually turned into one—and Gabumon was nearby with Melga. Uncle Taichi and Aunt Rei were standing by the open door, welcoming everyone into their house as the flow thickened. Mimi and Koushiro came in and nearly bypassed their daughter who caught their attention by shouting out with excitement. Sora—holding Tsunomon—and Yamato were next with Gomamon nearly tripping them as Monmon chased him through the house. Bearmon was soon to follow with Bukamon held tightly in his arm, scolding Monmon all the way. Warg was with the rest of Allias III digimon as they searched for Melga in the crowd and Mari, Kiyoko and Hideto all walked in together, laughing about some story told outside, while Willis dawdled behind with Michael and Tatum. Terriermon and Lopmon were poking fun at Betamon who was laughing in good humour while Monodramon skipped along behind. Veemon, Hawkmon, Armadillomon and Wormmon made up a group of rather excitable digimon who just wanted to see what kind of celebration they would be joining. Labramon was being annoyed by Pal and Pul who were just rude and everyone knew that, while Goblimon came in rather peacefully holding Upamon and Hopmon. Chapmon was talking up a storm to his group of friends, Koromon, Tokomon and Minomon. Poromon and DemiVeemon stopped halfway through at Haruki's feet as he waited for Louisa to finish at the door. Jou and Momoe were with Iori and Natsuni as they came in to join our fun and just behind them was Daisuke and his wife Kurayami. Miyako had tripped in the snow it seemed and Ken was helping her through the door while the remaining digimon—Gummymon, Chibimon, Leafmon, Budmon and DemiMeramon—waited behind them.

Finally, after the massive army of newcomers came through the door and joined the excitable children in the other room, Taichi and Rei felt comfortable coming inside. They took each other's hands before stepping out into the room where everyone had gathered, preparing themselves mentally before seeing what kind of mess we had brought into their house. I felt bad, but I was happy that we had kept the house relatively in order considering the events.

"Wait a minute!" Louisa called after the two of them, "is that everyone?"

"I think so," Rei said, stopping in the doorway to count the faces, "Wait..."

Louisa was pleased at the slight hesitation in Rei's voice and she turned to look outside where she found what she was looking for. "Nevelen!" she shouted out, waving dramatically, "Yoo hoo!" I looked out the door and found that Neo's face turned bright red, but Eleven smiled at the excitement and waved—much less animatedly—back to Louisa. I was still slightly confused because not everyone had come inside, but when I poked my head around the door I saw Mom making her way up the steps of the porch and Dad was right behind her.

"Tenshi!" Mom said with a big smile, she hurried over and pulled me into a hug, "My baby, how did your day go?"

"It was fun," I told her, hugging her back, "How was your night?"

"We prepared a dinner and were going to see a movie, but we fell asleep early," Mom admitted sheepishly. "I needed a good long nap." Gatomon and Patamon slipped past me and into the house.

"It was still nice," Dad said, though he still looked to have a bit of bed head, like he had slept in too. I smiled to him and he patted my head kindly.

When Salamon leapt into my arm I packed out of the way so everyone else could get inside. "I was so scared at the party," Salamon was telling me, "There were a lot of digimon and everyone was loud and screaming, but there was cake and Babamon and Jijimon were there—they're the best." I did know how much he loved the two of them so I was pleased he got to enjoy his night as much as he did.

As Mom and Dad got out of the way for Neo and Evelen I noticed that the two of them looked a bit upset, and I could tell there was something wrong. Both of them looked to one another like they were wondering who was to give me the bad news, but it was Dad who took the weight of the news. "Tenshi," he said, "Son, we found your cello." I felt a confused sort of flutter in my heart. I was glad they'd found it because I really needed to practice, but it just meant that would have less time for everything else. That was okay though because I knew how important my cello playing was to my parents. "It... was broken, quite a lot actually. We think you may have left it outside."

I couldn't remember ever playing my cello outside, but I knew that if I told them that, then Hiro would get into trouble because he was obviously to blame—or perhaps one of the digimon, but both Gatomon and Patamon would have come clean, and Salamon would never lie to me. So, either way, it was Hiro or his partner. "Oops," I said weakly.

"Excuse me," a mostly unfamiliar voice said and Dad stepped aside to allow the man through. As he did I saw who it was and I smiled to him. It was Ryou, and he was basically the coolest person ever. He was so nice, and understanding and kind and literally cool. He was wearing necklaces that I could never pull off and he had elaborate gloves too. His arm was around a pretty girl who looked rather tough. I'd never met her before though.

"Sorry," I said to Mom and Dad, "I'll be right back, okay?" they both nodded and I hurried toward my suitcase upstairs and pulled out the small box for Ryou. I hurried back downstairs and found him with his girlfriend and their two partner digimon, Cyberdramon and Renamon. So that was Ruki! I had not seen her for a long time, and she looked so different, but knowing who she was now it made a lot of sense. "Ryou," I said, stepping into his view. "This is for you."

"So you're my Secret Santa," Ryou said with a big grin, removing his arm from Ruki's shoulders, "Couldn't have asked for a better one, honestly."

I smiled back to him and then his girlfriend caught my eye. "You're Tenshi, right?" I nodded, feeling guilty for not knowing who she was immediately. "Right, I can see it then," Ruki said, leaning back in her chair. She looked up to Renamon and smirked, "You see it?"

"S-see what?" I asked nervously.

"The sparkle of a thousand suns hidden behind your eyes," Ruki said, stifling laughter. Renamon joined her in her suppressed amusement, but I was still quite confused. "You know Shaochung Lee? The girl in your class?"

I thought briefly to ensure I was not missing someone, "If you mean who I think you do, she isn't in my class. She's one year younger than I am."

"Oh," Ruki said, nodding her head, "That's probably her. She talks about you an awful lot."

I felt my face flush and I tried to shake off her words. "I see her sometimes, and she's quite energetic, but kind and very pretty."

Ruki grinned, "I'll bet she'd be happy to hear you say that," she said, "I think she has a crush on you, honestly." My face turned redder and I turned my attention back to Ryou who let out a loud laugh as he opened his gift, and I was proud to say that it was a good laugh and not that he was laughing at me. He understood the humour in it then, which I was happy about, but as he was thanking me, the music that had started playing stopped abruptly and a loud voice called out to everyone.

"Hello?" Mai shouted, catching my attention, my first thought was that I was glad she was okay. All eyes were suddenly on her—and that was a lot of eyes—and I saw that she was holding hands with Clio, who I did not know well. "Hi," Mai said, her face turning red too. "I'm gay!"

Aika Ishida:

The room was silent for a moment until Miyako moved across the room to embrace her daughter. She then began whispering into her ear and I didn't know what she was saying but it didn't matter because it was none of my business. And none of Makoto's either.

"I wonder if I move closer if I could hear—" I elbowed him sharply as he began to crawl toward them and Yokomon laughed loudly in my lap at Makoto's squeak of pain. Tanemon shot me a dirty look but I was sure she wasn't too upset. Nikko and Chika had joined us once more, this time with their partners and Osamu, Hiro, Tokomon and Minomon were all sitting against the wall. Our pile of blankets had been moved to accommodate all the newcomers, even though it was totally unfair because all the adults could just go away to the room Louisa set up for them. They didn't need to be so... everywhere.

I felt someone behind me and flopped my head back to see Mom. She grinned at me and kissed the top of my head, so I let out a mandatory groan. It just made sense to reject familial love while in public, but that didn't mean I didn't secretly enjoy it. "Hey Mom," I said to her.

"Hello," she said quietly, "Did you have fun?"

"Still having fun," I told her, motioning to my friends. She bit her lip to keep from smiling. I knew she was excited for me to see that I was with the others again. She had been the one telling me to swallow my pride and ask them to forgive me—of course I'd told her a story about how I was the bad guy in the situation. I couldn't have her being mad at Taichi or Michael, Ken, Rei, Koushiro, Mimi, Miyako, Tatum or Uncle Takeru and Aunt Hikari because their children were being mean to me. She was just happy to see that things were moving back to the way they ought to be.

Mom motioned with her head over to Biyomon who was bouncing up and down around Shouta who was, once again, sitting by himself. I felt a pretty big weight in my chest at the sight of it all because I just felt so bad for him. He hadn't made any friends in school and because of his age he just didn't quite fit into any of the groups of the Crest bearers. "He's just shy," Mom said to me. "Could you help him out? I think he needs some cheering up, and I'm not sure Biyomon knows exactly what kind of care an introvert like him needs."

"Sure, Mom," I agreed, passing Yokomon off to her. She smiled at me and patted my shoulder to give me room to make my way over to my brother. She wasn't wrong either, he was really shy, like maybe the shyest person I'd ever seen.

"Are you sure?" Shouta asked in a weak voice, "Seriously I don't want to m-make you give it to me if you're not sure."

"You're not making me do anything," Taichi droned on, "honestly Shouta, the Crest is yours, I didn't pick anything."

"Oh you haven't picked yet," Shouta said, wiping his brow, "good! Because I don't want one—not Courage anyway."

"Oh come on, it'd be so cool!" Tsunomon argued, but Shouta was firm in his decision.

"I'm just not brave," Shouta said quietly.

Taichi took Shouta's shoulders into his hands and looked him dead in the eyes, "You will be," then as the two of them began to glow orange Shouta began to panic, "Sorry Kid, but you'll thank me later, I swear."

"Shouta," I prodded, startling him into nearly dropping Tsunomon out of his arms. Biyomon looked up with a big smile—but she wasn't really smiling, since she was a bird, but I knew what she was trying to do—and stepped back. "You alright?"

"He's sad, I think," Biyomon said, "but I can't quite figure out why and he won't tell me which is just annoying because how am I supposed to figure it out if he won't tell me—of course I've guessed but he won't even tell me if I'm right or wrong and oh I just don't know what to do—" Biyomon caught on to my gesturing and she nodded, "I'll just let you give it a go." She winked dramatically and I was sure Shouta saw her, before she fled, rushing off to join Tentomon again. I knew Shouta didn't want to talk so I was just going to sit with him and when I sat by the fire he nodded and sat down too, ready to watch everything going on around us.

"What does gay mean?" I heard Yukai ask nearby.

"It means that you love a boy!" Taro told him, "But not Mai—it means she loves girls."

"Cool!" Yukai shouted, rushing off, but Taro suddenly looked upset which was sad. Oh how I missed the simplicity of being a child. Everything was 'yes' or 'no' or 'right' or 'wrong' and there was nothing complicated about anything. Mom seemed to disagree with that claiming that her life had always been complicated and judging by the character based on her in Uncle Takeru's books it sure seemed to ring true to me. Maybe I was more like her than I thought, but thankfully I had a bunch of Dad worked in too. Sometimes I felt like I had all their bad qualities where Shouta got the good ones, but I still liked who I was.

Taro watched as Yukai rushed off to his brother who tried to brush him aside, "I'm eavesdropping," Haruki told him, as he stared toward his best friend who was still talking to her mother about her recent announcement.

"But I got you this," Yukai told him, "It was me! I was your Secret Santa all along!" Haruki finally took his attention away from Mai to open the gift. He was excited because he was such a good big sibling—way better than me—and when he opened it a smile broke out on his face. "See it's a ticket book—and you can turn them in whenever you want to hang out with me!" Haruki was grinning foolishly as he flipped through, "That's my favourite!"

"One ticket to sit in silence with Yukai and think about super heroes," Haruki snorted as Louisa read over his shoulder, smiling along too. "That's awesome, I think we'll use this one tomorrow."

"Awesome!" Yukai shouted, punching the air with both hands.

My eyes wandered back to Taro who was standing along watching his friend laugh and play with his brother now. I felt bad that he was left alone too, but my obligations were to Shouta first and foremost. He wasn't alone for long though because Iris slipped away from Madlyn, Izumi, Josei and Elliot—who were all playing with dolls, which was hilarious—to greet him. He looked to her, and smiled before remembering Izumi told him to hate her, but she didn't glare back. Instead, she handed him a small green bag. He looked inside and smiled.

"It's a magnifying glass," Iris said with a giggle, "Because you like to look at the finer details." Honestly that girl was way too thoughtful and mature for her age. "I hope you like it."

"I do," Taro said in surprise as he looked up to Iris, "thanks." He seemed genuinely shocked that someone had noticed something about him and that was honestly just so depressing. He was often so overlooked. Izumi seemed to notice him in that moment though, as she stepped away from the group that was playing with dolls and saw Iris and Taro begin laughing.

A smile began to form on her face which I was surprised to see—but it certainly wasn't unwelcome.

Taro then began to tell Iris that he wanted to give his present to Yukai, but he wasn't even listening to him, and as he said it Madlyn grabbed Iris and pulled her away leaving Taro alone once more. The poor kid. A moment later Yukai rushed past, ignoring Taro and jumping toward the girls with the toy dinosaur in hand, preparing to destroy their perfect doll life.

"Shouta, I'll be right back," I assured him, thinking quickly. I hopped to my feet and rushed over to the girls. "Whoops," I said as I pulled Madlyn into the air. She screamed and began laughing loudly. Elliot looked up with a grin on his face at the sight of me and I smiled back. He acted quickly and grabbed Izumi leaving Iris to defend her friends. Yukai laughed at the sight of the two of them being carried off but I saw Taro sneak up behind him, just as I wanted.

Taro tapped Yukai's shoulder and thrust the present into his hand. Yukai lit up like a light bulb and unwrapped it quickly, tearing away at the paper until he revealed another dinosaur toy. "That's awesome!" Yukai roared loudly, handing Taro the old one he'd been playing with. "Come play with me." Taro smiled and followed after his friend.

My work there was done, and when I turned to Elliot to hand Madlyn off to him I found that Izumi was leaping up to me and Elliot was nowhere to be seen. As the three girls hung off of me, I managed to turn enough to see Elliot talking with Shouta now, sitting with him against the wall. I was worried because Shouta was so nervous already, but Elliot's Crest was Friendship, surely he would know enough to not hurt Shouta again. I wasn't so sure though because I hadn't learned much about my own Crest—not enough anyway.

"I dunno," Kiyoko admitted, "It's confusing, isn't it?" he sighed as he slumped down into the couch beside me, "When I first used my Crest it was really Sigma doing it, see, and then I'm not even sure I ever used it right, but there was always those times when I got to Piedmon... I wonder if that was a Dark evolution—I sure hope not, because I'm quite fond of Piedmon... hmm... well I was never too good with these things, but it shouldn't be too hard, right?"

"You just have to want things," I agreed, "that sounds easy."

"The things that sound easy rarely are," Kiyoko sighed. "I dunno, Aika. I really don't know."

I spotted Elliot moving toward me now holding a familiar box. I had seen Shouta wrap it. Elliot had his gift, but I knew that Haruki had gotten Elliot's name, so something else was going on. Elliot looked to me over the top of his sunglasses—that he wore inside which was supposed to be cool but was kind of silly—and winked, "Okay, Izumi, this is your gift. If you want it, you'll have to get it from me!"

"Get him!" Izumi ordered, pointing after Elliot as he ran. Izumi, Madlyn, Gummymon, Budmon and DemiMeramon all chased after him, leaving Chapmon to laugh as his partner raced around the room.

Iris began to laugh too but she soon diverted her attention to the boy standing behind her. He poked her shoulder and his face was already bright red as he waved politely to her. "Hello," his voice broke as he spoke but Iris didn't laugh which I was happy to see. I adjusted Josei who was still hanging off my back and stepped back to avoid stepping on the blob that was Pururumon, and continued watching my brother. "Would you like to go outside? We could build a snowman or something." Tsunomon smiled up to Iris from Shouta's arms and she turned her sights to Budmon, waving him over.

"I'd love to," she said kindly, reaching out for his hand. Shouta's face grew redder, if that was even possible and Iris led him and Budmon toward the door. Hopefully they would get some good alone time before the others found him.

"Psst!" I turned at the sound and saw Elliot hiding behind the unlit Christmas tree. Louisa said we could light it after dark and the sun was soon to set, so hopefully we would finally get to see her creation at its best. I moved—with Josei—toward Elliot and crouched down. "Are they coming?" I looked over my shoulder and saw the girls looking around for him still. I shook my head. "Oh good," he breathed a sigh of relief. "Kids are hard to take care of... remind me not to be annoying anymore."

"As if you'd listen," I joked. I was worried it came across harshly because everyone apparently thought of me as rude or cold, but Elliot laughed. "Hey, you did this for Shouta didn't you?"

"Of course I did," Elliot nodded, "I'm awesome."

I rolled my eyes, "Do you want to go for a walk with me?"

Elliot's eyes lit up and he jumped to his feet, "Izumi, here's your present!" he shouted, tossing it across the room to her. She shrieked and jumped up to catch it, but it did not come close to her. Hideto caught it though and handed it off to his daughter who thanked him. "Chapmon, you wanna come?"

"No way," Chapmon shook his head, "It's way too cold out there. Have fun though."

Elliot turned to me and smiled gesturing to the door, "Shall we?"

Featured Evolution Line: Shouta: Punimon—Tusnomon—Commandramon—Sealsdramon—Tankdramon—Darkdramon