A/N: I'm not even gonna apologize for this one. I just want all my ships to be happy and together and also it's writing holidays soooooooo yeah.

Sollux didn't know how it happened. And neither did anyone else, he thought. Or rather, he knew what had had happened, but definitely not how. Much like Aradia had telepathically chucked them all in the transportalizer just before their scratch, the three Space girls working together had split the trolls and kids – some dead, some alive – up randomly into several "spacebubbles," which seemed to resemble pocket universes more than anything else, just before some vital parts of the universe finally splintered under Lord English's influence. The spacebubble he shared with 12 other players was about the size of a small moon, with a living complex eerily identical to the one on the meteor in the Veil sweeps ago. And, most importantly, it was peaceful.

He didn't know how long they'd be there – although Kanaya predicted they'd be there for 12th Perigee's – and he didn't know what would happen when they got out, but he wasn't complaining. And to his knowledge, neither was anyone else.

Another significant thing that had happened after his mysterious retrieval from the Furthest Ring was his, Aradia's and Feferi's entry into a polyamorous matespriteship. He harbored red feelings for both of them, which they both reciprocated, and their own relationship tended to resemble a moirallegiance that occasionally drifted further red, so it worked out well.

Their little group of…well, if not exactly friends, at least allies, had been in the spacebubble for about a week. The complex didn't have enough rooms for everyone to have their own, so they more or less shared with whoever they wanted. This of course meant that those in romantic relationships and with close friends slept in the same room, if only because no one could tell them not to. Sollux didn't know if this included any shenanigans and vehemently did not want to know.

One morning – or it still could have been night, there wasn't any way for him to tell the time what with being blind and all – Sollux woke with a shivering jolt. There was a cool, solid mass behind him, which meant Feferi, but no soft warm mass in front of him, which meant Aradia was gone. The spacebubble got cold at night, which usually was someone else's problem because he and Fef had a living heating pad for a girlfriend they could cuddle up to at night, but now said living heating pad was nowhere to be found.

He shivered and pulled the blanket up over him and Feferi, who was snuggled against his back with her arms around his chest. Aradia was probably in the bathroom or something, she'd be back soon. He curled up into a ball to preserve the maximum amount of heat and tried to go back to sleep.

Eventually, he guessed, his shivering must have woken Feferi up. She shifted, yawned, and buried her perpetually cold nose in Sollux's hair. "Where's Aradia…?"

"No idea, woke up and she was gone."

Feferi made a concerned hmmm that Sollux could feel vibrating against his skull. "She's knot usually an early riser. D'you think somefin's wrong?"

Sollux shrugged. "Dunno. Hope not. She's been doing really good since we met her in the Furthest Ring."

"I know, but I worry aboat h – wait. Do you…hear that?"

"No, what? Do I hear what?"

"You have to stop talking and listen, silly."

So Sollux shut up and listened. He couldn't hear anything, except the sound of his and Feferi's soft breathing, and the humming of the complex's pathetic excuse for a heating system, and…singing?

Yeah. Singing. Specifically, a very faint, off-tune but spirited rendition of "We Need a Little 12th Perigee's."

"Is she kidding? What time is it, like 5 AM?" Sollux tried and failed to keep the hope out of his gruff words. Aradia had lived for holidays before she died, always getting into the spirit way earlier than everyone else, but had lost all interest in them after the incident. The day Sollux had informed her that it was Halloween only to have her respond with a dull "Is it?" had broken his heart the first time it happened.

But she was alive again, now, wasn't she? He'd known, of course, but it hadn't occurred to him that maybe, just maybe, this meant that the old, festive Aradia was back. And it could have been the sheer relief of knowing that she was okay, or his barely concealable joy and excitement that she was back, or that he was still too tired to fully process anything, but that faint singing might have been the most beautiful thing he had ever heard.

"Come on!" Feferi squealed, bouncing out of bed and tugging on Sollux's arm. "We should really go kelp her!"

By the sound of her voice Feferi was grinning like an idiot, and he knew that he was too. He finally gave up on keeping that coolly disinterested façade and jumped out of bed after her, catching her hand to avoid walking into the walls. Feferi opened the door and pulled him into the hallway, where his nose was met with a barrage of smells he identified as Aradia and grist and a lot of red and green. (His smell-seeing lessons with Terezi were progressing well, but he still had a long way to go before he'd be used to this blindness thing. Hopefully it wouldn't lead to eating chalk like she did. Ew.)

"…right this very mo-ment, candles in the win-dow, carols at the – hey!" Aradia set down what sounded like a lot more boxes than she could carry – telekinesis, probably – to envelop Sollux and Feferi in a tight, warm hug. She was wearing a new, long-sleeved, red and green sweater dress she had probably alchemized recently, and Sollux vaguely remembered her in a similar fashion disaster in 12th Perigee's parties past. She kissed both of them on the noses and clapped her hands together. "I couldn't find any decorations in storage, so I alchemized some last night! Want to help me decorate? I've got holly, and wreathes, and tinsel and lights and candy canes and these little motion-activated music box things and…"

"That's fintastic, Aradia!" Feferi let go of Sollux's hand and twirled over to one of the boxes, pulling it open and throwing a length of something silver at his head. It turned out to be tinsel, he discovered after retrieving it from the floor.

By this point a few others had emerged from their rooms to see what the noise was about. There was Karkat, letting out his inevitable mumbled stream of swearwords at it being five in the morning, can't any of you behave sanely for once, there was Terezi, smelling the air and grinning excitedly, there was Nepeta, being very distracted by a branch of holly Aradia was dangling carelessly over her shoulder. They ducked back into their rooms to alert their roommates, or the roommates woke up by themselves, until everyone – he thought it was everyone, it smelled like everyone – was gathered in the cramped corridor. Aradia climbed onto one of the taller boxes and cleared her throat loudly.

"Who wants to help me decorate for 12th Perigee's?!"

Maybe it was the fact that Aradia and her holidays were back, maybe everyone was tired of being far too mature for their 7.4 sweeps and wanted to act like wrigglers again, but Sollux was promptly overwhelmed by a surge of teens all trying to get at a few cardboard boxes. He backed away quickly and into a wall, and stayed there until Feferi came to help him through the crowd. Aradia was trying halfheartedly to spearhead the operation, fluttering over people's heads and helping to find favorite decorations. Sollux was given the responsibility of putting wreathes on doors. It wasn't very demanding work, so he listened to snippets of the others' conversations as he hung brightly colored wreathes on doorknobs.

"Aradia, what should we do about the behemoth leaving?" Nepeta asked, looking up from her strands of tinsel with a worried expression.

"Great question, Nep, I really have no idea! Hey, guys!" This last sentence was shouted out to the general population of the spacebubble. "What should we do about the leaving?"

"The what," John muttered.

Karkat explained, in hushed and irritated tones. John made a small noise of confusion. Karkat sighed.

"There are obviously no behemoths on this meteor," Kanaya observed. "In fact I do not believe there are any other living things besides us."

"Hey…" Rose looked up from digging in one of the boxes. "Humans have a tradition of bringing a pine tree in for Christmas and decorating that. We could get one of those, I know there's a forest outside."

Sollux scoffed. A pine tree? That was the most brainless thing he'd ever heard. Wasn't it usually Egbert who came up with these pranks?

"It's true, we do!" Jade verified. "And there's plenty out there, we could borrow Kanaya's chainsaw and cut one down easily!"

"Ooh! Can we do that, Equius? Aradia? Can me and Equius go get a tree?!" Nepeta bounced lightly on her toes.

"Nepeta – " Equius coughed. "I hardly think that it is proper – "

"Come on, Equius! It's 12th Perigee's!" Aradia grinned. "Lighten up for once!"

Sollux snorted. So they would be going through with this ridiculous "tree" plan. Nobody could resist Aradia at her most fervent, not in the first of her holiday moods for over a sweep, and definitely not Equius.

"Fine," he said eventually, in that low voice that meant he was frustrated and needed a towel. And, sure enough – "I need a towel," he added, and rushed back to his and Nepeta's room.

After that it was a blur of laughter and happy smells and Aradia and Kanaya teaming up to make sure he didn't screw up the festive aesthetic of the decorations too much. (At one point he purposely replaced his white candles with orange ones, just to mess with them, and Kanaya's reaction made him wish for his sight back.)

"John, what the fmmgmph – " Karkat's expletive was drowned out with uproarious laughter and Aradia yelling in shock as John and Dave accidentally-on-purpose overturned a box on his head. Aradia scurried over to tell them to clean up, and Kanaya sighed long-sufferingly.

Terezi was singing loudly and monopolizing all the red decorations, someone had produced Christmas music out of nowhere, and Jade and Callie were giggling helplessly at something they had pulled out of the stack of boxes. Callie…Sollux narrowed his useless eyes. Something wasn't right about the new troll girl, something off about her scent. According to Feferi and Aradia, she looked like a normal troll girl, if dead. But her smell didn't smell anything like the others.

Sollux shrugged and went back to decorating. Jade trusted her, and he trusted Jade, he supposed. But if she turned out to be some kind of Lord English alien or something in disguise…he'd be ready.

Time passed in the weird timeless way that it does when you can't see a clock or anything else, and soon they had run out of Aradia's decorations and ideas for other ones to alchemize. Callie, who wasn't used to being around people, had gone back to sleep, and a few of the group had decided to see what they could find for breakfast. Sollux noticed he could tell how big Aradia's grin was without her saying anything – probably the biggest it had ever been.

"I can't believe you guys actually helped me with 12th Perigee stuff this sweep! That never happens!" Aradia could hardly contain herself and bounced on the balls of her feet as she and Feferi walked with Sollux to the kitchen.

"I guess we all subconsciously missed your obnoxious enthusiasm for things," Sollux teased. "But do you actually think we'll be here for 12th Perigee's Eve itself? I kind of hope so. Better than spending it back out in the Furthest Ring, you know?"

"Jade says we probably will, which is why I decided we needed to decorate!" chirped Aradia.

"That's fintastic! I'm so happy!" exclaimed Feferi. Aradia laughed and took Sollux and Feferi's hands. "I know, right? Come on!"

"Come on what? What are you – aah!" Sollux's arm jerked in Aradia's grip, and he jogged to keep up with the girls, who were suddenly – skipping? Were they seriously skipping?

"We're skipping, Sol," said Feferi helpfully.

"I cannot believe this," Sollux muttered.

"There's literally nobody else in the hallway," Aradia said.

"Oh."

Sollux may or may not have skipped a few steps. Just a few. Just to keep his arm in its socket. If they even happened. Which they probably didn't. And if they did happen, who could blame him? Aradia was back.