May your troubles be less, your blessings be more, and nothing but happiness come through your door."

-unknown author

Work Text:

"What's going on?" Sidus asked whenever he poked his head into Noctis's offices in the repaired citadel.

"What do you mean?" Noctis asked looking up at Sidus. It was still a bit startling for Noctis to see his own face looking at him like that, especially with that longer hair.

"There's lights everywhere and sparkly…things and someone put a large pine tree in the Citadel Ballroom and covered it with lights and stuff?" Sidus said.

"Did you ever learn about holidays?" Noctis asked gently.

"Not really, beyond the definition of the word," Sidus replied.

"Well, in Lucis we have a major mid-winder celebration called Yule, but we sort of celebrate it in the month leading up to it as well. It's not the only celebration either. Lestallum has a festivals called Saturnalia they celebrate as well," Noctis said, "It started off as a solistice thing to honor the Astrals, but it's changed a bit."

"Oh. So that's why it looks like there was an explosion of shiny sparkly metallic plastic everywhere?" Sidus asked.

"Huh?" Noctis stuck his head out of his office and saw that someone had gone overboard with the icicle tinsel. He had a sinking suspicion whom to blame.

"Normally not this much," Noctis said.

"What's with that plant above Lunafreya's door?" Sidus asked.

"It's another tradition. Says if people are under it together, they have to kiss," Noctis said. He warped up and yanked it down, "Very funny, Prompto!" Said blond stuck his head around the corner.

"Hey, you left me in charge of this, your fault!"

"No, I left Iris in charge!" Noctis said.

"Actually, you did let Prompto have free reign of this floor." Ignis had arrived with a stack of papers in his arms.

"Why'd I do that?" Noctis asked.

"Must have asked you first thing in the morning," Sidus speculated.

"It's not bad. A bit…much but it's the spirit of things," Lunafreya arrived giving Noctis a small peck on his cheek. He was still holding the mistletoe. He subspaced it.

"Plus, Iris thought it might be a good idea to let those parts of the Citadel that house different departments decorate as they see fit and have someone judge each floor to decide a winner," Gladio had arrived with arms full of lights and some wreathes. Noctis shook his head.

"Just keep it out of my office. I'll decorate that myself." He went back in after a few moments. Lunafreya followed him.

"Why didn't we do anything about this…holiday before?" Sidus asked.

"In the darkness? Might have seemed tacky and we did, but it was really small. Ever noticed how we never did anything on the winter solstice if we could help it. That was it, kid," Gladio said.

"Oh," Sidus replied.

"So, this is like your first Yule?" Prompto said.

"Yeah, I guess," Sidus said.

"Oh, and it's Mercury and Diana's as well!" Prompto looked very excited about this prospect.

"Is this going to be like the Assassin's festival all over again?" Sidus asked Gladio.

"Yeah."

Sidus slipped out of the Citadel without seeing Prompto and if he used a bit of magic via warping to achieve that, what Noctis didn't know wouldn't get Sidus a twenty-minute lecture on not using his magic like that which boiled down to,

"If I'm not allowed, you're not allowed."

"That was extreme," Diana said sidling up next to him.

"Prompto's a bit too…eager because we've never really experienced this holiday," Sidus said.

"It's nice that he's excited," Diana said.

"Guys! Look at all this stuff!" Mercury ran up to them.

"It's Yule season, apparently," Sidus said.

"What's that? I bet Prompto knows!" Mercury raced off searching for his older brother. Sidus shrugged and kept walking with Diana out the side gates into the repaired Insomnia streets. While it never exactly got cold enough in Insomnia to snow, it was still cool enough that they'd had to put on heavier jackets. Which meant they were headed to get warm drinks.

"Look at all these new flavors," Diana said once they arrived at their usual coffee shop. Being often frequented by high ranking Citadel officials and the Crownsguarde, the Prince of Lucis and the sister of the Queen, didn't even get much of a second glance.

"Care to try some of the Yule flavors?" the barista asked once it was Sidus and Diana's turn.

"Maybe that ginger bread one," Diana said.

"I'll take a hot chocolate," Sidus said after a moment. He paid for their drinks and they shuffled off to the side with others. They got their drinks and walked out.

"This is really good," Diana said. Sidus shrugged.

"A what?" Sidus asked.

"A Yule time movie marathon!" Prompto said that night in Noctis's private living room. It was lightly and tastefully decorated, likely by Lunafreya. There was even a small fake pine tree in the corner covered in interesting ornaments.

"We'll put on the classics while we make our own ornaments," Prompto said, "Noct and I did that in high school." That explained the weird ones. There was a very nice crystal star on top though.

"What about that?" Sidus asked.

"It was my mother's," Noctis said, "Whenever I moved out of the Citadel, the old man gave it to me for my own tree." Sidus shrugged to the others.

"One last touch to that. We have to wear really ugly sweaters," Prompto said.

"Oh! An ugly sweater party!" Lunafreya seemed to be excited. Diana, Sidus and Mercury exchanged looks.

"Are we missing something?" Mercury asked.

"Yule tradition that is more of an our generation thing," Noctis said.

"I fee like we're getting a crash course in Yule or something," Sidus said.

"Pretty much," Prompto said, "Also, you need to each make one handmade present for the gift exchange."

"Gift exhange?" Sidus, Mercury, and Diana asked.

"Yeah. We draw numbers out of a hat and then we put them back and the next time through whoever draws that number gets that gift," Prompto said.

On Yule, they gathered together, Noctis had to given an address, but beyond that, it was a day to spend with family. The only security detail in the Citadel were those who volunteered. They were holding it in Sidus's apartment, formerly Noctis's apartment, but the King and Queen had to move back into the Citadel, but the Prince was allowed to stay put. Diana, Prompto, and Mercury still lived on that floor, and the vacant apartments were left empty for security purposes. That, and for privacy, was why they were celebrating Yule there.

Prompto'd arrived early to help set things up. He'd also jammed an extra large and ugly sweater over Sidus's head. Accepting defeat, Sidus slipped his arms into the sleeves pulling the fabric down.

"Your decorating skills suck, dude," Prompto said. So the lights on the walls weren't the nicest and the tree looked like someone had tried to strangle it with the strands of lights on it and the star was a little lopsided.

"My first Yule, what did you expect?" Sidus asked. Prompto shrugged and in a few minutes Prompto had fixed the decorations and had his phone playing festive music, or so he claimed. Diana arrived with Mercury and she already had the ugly sweater on, so did Mercury. They had crafting supplies which were set up on the table while Prompto sorted out his DVDs of the holiday classics and seemed to be debating over which one to put in first. This was decided for him after Noctis pushing his way in and just grabbed one at random off the couch and put it in.

"Dude! I was trying to get it lined up properly!" Prompto said.

"You would have taken half the day," Noctis said. At first, it didn't look like Noctis was wearing an ugly Yule sweater until looking closer at the overly large black sweater he wore revealed there were lights inside of it that blinked from time to time. Lunafreya arrived with a few bags of goodies in tow. Behind he was a surprise guest. Cindy Aurum.

"Heard Y'all were having a Yule party?" she said.

"Cindy!" Prompto ran over which meant his annoyance over the movies was done.

"Oooh! It's The Snitch that Stole Yule!" Cindy said pointing at the TV where a cartoon was playing.

"That's what you lead off with, Noct?" Prompto said.

"Why not?" Noctis replied. Sidus was curious and soon he, Diana, and Mercury were on the couch caught up in watching it.

"Haven't they never seen that one before?" Cindy asked.

"Nope. You guys might have been stuck thirty years behind, but those guys weren't taught anything," Gladio had arrived with Iris. Both wearing equally ugly sweaters.

"That's terrible." Cindy said this as Talcott arrived with his own arms full of goodies.

Sidus looked up to see the other stuff was set up for the ornament creation and it was funny to see how bad at arts and crafts everyone was, except Ignis. Even blind, he put them all to shame with his lovely candle. Though, Talcott's popsicle stick Cactuar was a decent effort. It was better than whatever Noctis had tried to make.

"Is it a Cat Sith?" Lunafreya asked.

"It was supposed to be Carbuncle," Noctis admitted. Gladio was still working on his vaguely cup noodle shaped clay ball. Iris had attempted to make a moogle, but it was a bit lopsided. Prompto's chocobo looked like an alien. Mercury's ornament was by far the most misshapen.

"Bro, what was that supposed to be?" Prompto asked.

"A Snitch!" Mercury said pointing over at the TV. Diana had given her best effort. Hers was a barely recognizable tree. Lunafreya's syllablossom, however was almost as good as Ignis's candle. Sidus looked at his little lumpy star and nearly squashed it but he left it. Cindy's was a wrench. Those who'd used clay made little holes for the wires to hang them with before they set them on a tray.

"Channel fire magic, but not too much," Noctis said. Sidus nodded. With this shortcut, the ornaments were ready for their painting. With paint, Noctis's deformed Carbuncle looked a bit more like one. Sidus chose to try to make his star silver. There was almost a paint fight but Ignis diffused it.

"What else do we make?" Sidus asked after he hung up his cheater dried star on the little tree with everyone else's ornaments.

"Popcorn garlands," Noctis and Prompto said in unison.

"How much of that ends up on the strand, though?" Lunafreya asked. The pair shrugged. It was something that was required to be a group activity but it could and was done while watching one of the other Yule movies. This one was called It's a Beautiful Life. Because of the last time they'd gotten engrossed, Noctis took a seat next to them and was the one feeding the popped corn onto the strand with the needle to prevent any accidents. By the end of the movie, they'd filled up one garland worth. Since it was a small tree they only needed one.

"Looks like we're gonna to need to eat all this extra popcorn," Gladio said taking a bowl for himself. Ignis shrugged.

"Let's put on another movie and start in on the food," Noctis said. Talcott nodded and eagerly grabbed a tin and passed around some cookies.

"Uncle Dustin's recipe," he said.

Sidus was nervous whenever they were supposed to exchange gifts. His skills….weren't good. The ornament exercise made him feel slightly better, but he'd blanked until he'd surfed through some Yule special on TV.

"Ok, time for numbers!" Iris held up an empty cookie tin. She held it to Noctis first who reached in and pulled out his slip. Talcott had a notebook.

"Three," Noctis said. Lunafreya drew hers.

"Eleven." Gladio and Ignis pulled theirs out. Though, Ignis handed his off to Gladio.

"Seven and Iggy's Eight," Gladio said. Diana grabbed hers,

"Ten." Mercury fished around,

"Nine!" Sinus pulled out his paper,

"Six." Prompto grabbed his.

"One!" Cindy reached in,

"Four." she read. Talcott took his next.

"Five." He jotted that down.

"And I'm number two!" Iris said.

"So, do we go in that order?" Mercury asked.

"Yeah," Prompto said. They tossed the numbers back in the tin. Prompto reached in.

"Four!" Cindy smiled and handed him her package. He opened it. It was a metallic something with a clock face.

"It's a handmade clock, made from old gears," Cindy said

"I'll treasure it always," Prompto said.

Iris drew seven. She groaned.

"Tough luck sis," Gladio said. He handed her a lump package. It was actually a half-decent homemade cap.

"I thought that foam fashion disaster was for this," Iris said.

"Nah, that one's special," Gladio replied. Noctis pulled out the eleven. Lunafreya smiled before she handed him the gift. It turned out to be a syllablossom flower crown, which she placed on his head. Prompto snapped a photo, which earned him a look from Noctis. Cindy drew the five. It was a wooden cactuar Talcott had made. Talcott drew an eight. Ignis nodded to a box that was the neatest wrapped. Talcott opened.

"Wow! Mini-tarts!" Talcott said. They were in jars for safety and storage. Everyone else groaned.

"Way to make everyone else's gifts look bad," Prompto said. Sidus reached into the tin and pulled out a three. Noctis shrugged and handed the badly wrapped box to Sidus.

"I'd hoped you'd be the one to get this one," Noctis said. Sinus looked at him before he pulled off the paper and opened up the box. It was a picture frame. A bit rough in the nailing, but the center had an even space for whatever photo was placed inside. The paint job was black with stars on it.

"It's great," Sidus said. Gladio went next and got the two.

"You rig this or what?" Gladio asked Iris.

"No way," Iris said she offered him the bag and he was unsurprised to find a plush moogle in it. Ignis drew number one. Prompto shrugged and placed it in Ignis's hands. He opened it.

"A blanket?" Ignis asked.

"Yeah. A no-sew fleece thing. I saw it on tv," Prompto said. Mercury reached for one of the last ones.

"Mine. No." he put it back, "Ok ten!" Diana handed Mercury the box. He opened it and it was a bracelet with different Yule themed beads on it.

"This is great!" He put it on with a grin. Diana reached for one of the two remaining numbers and drew the six. Sidus embarrassed held up his package for her to take. She opened it and it was a really lumpy scarf-thing. It was sewn together somewhat amateurishly, but it looked nice. It was mostly black with a few pops of color here and there.

"Are these old t-shirts and stuff?" Diana asked.

"Yeah," Sidus said. She looped it around her neck with a grin. Mercury handed his gift to Lunafreya without wasting time. Lunafreya opened the box to find a home made pillow. It was stuffed really inconsistently but the thought was what counted, she supposed.

"I'll trade ya?" Gladio said offering her the more well made moogle for that pillow.

"No way, I couldn't possibly trade this away," Lunafreya said.

"No re-gifting, that's the final rule of Yule, not unless it would be meaningful to do so," Prompto said.

"Huh?" Mercury asked.

"It's hard to explain, but you'll know what we mean when it happens," Noctis said.

"Oh, ok!" Mercury replied.

"More movies?" Sidus asked.

"Sure," Noctis said.

"We have to get going to other parties," Iris said as she and Talcott stood, "Lots of friends and family to see."

"Yep. Me too," Cindy said, "This was fun!" They hugged people before they left. Gladio stretched a bit.

"Gotta go see my girlfriend," he said, "Be back later."

"Ok!" the others waved distractedly.

"I too must attend another celebration," Ignis said. He patted Noctis on the shoulder on his way out.

"More like he has to go see Aranea," Prompto said.

"Didn't exactly see Cindy sticking around for you, lover boy," Noctis said.

"That was cold buddy, real cold," Prompto said.

"What else do we do on Yule?" Diana asked.

"We spend time together and we also eat far too many cookies and it's the only time of year Iggy won't yell at us for it," Noctis said.

"In Tenebrae, when I was child we did have snow on the ground and we'd build snowmen and make shapes in the snow," Lunafreya said, "Most of all we'd tell one another stories on Yule night. Sometimes scary. Sometimes true, and sometimes a bit of both."

"Really?" Mercury asked.

"Yes. Ravus had a gift for the scary ones," Lunafreya said. The silence that passed, "Anyway, perhaps we should exchange our family gifts."

"Well, in that case, we'd better head to our place for a little bit," Prompto said to Mercury.

"Sure!"

"Be back later, and don't eat all the oatmeal cookies!" Prompto said before he and Mercury walked out the door.

Diana pulled out something small.

"Since you told me this one didn't have to be handcrafted I got it for you," she said. It was a jewelry box and a replacement for Lunafreya's crescent moon necklace was in it.

"I noticed you wore one like that in old photographs and you came back from the dead without one….I figured it must mean something, so I tracked down a Tenebrae jeweler," Diana said.

"Thank you, Diana. That's so sweet," Lunafreya said. Diana accepted her package and smiled.

"A weapon maintenance kit!" Diana smiled up at Lunafreya, "How did you know?"

"I recalled hearing you were fond of weapons," Lunafreya said.

"You didn't get her a weapon for Yule?" Noctis asked Sidus.

"No. Those are a birthday only sort of thing," Sidus replied. He handed Noctis a large envelope.

"It's not something cheesy is it?" Noctis asked.

"Nah. Thought about it but I was serious," Sidus said. Noctis also handed him an envelope of a similar size. Sidus opened his first to see it was a photograph of the group shortly after the dawn, together at Hammerhead.

"Thanks," Sidus said with a slightly watery smile. Noctis's reaction was also a bit teary.

"Where did you find this?" Noctis asked.

"The one time you were sick and couldn't tour the Citdael during repairs, I was taken through the lower levels and it was there. I took it to Prompto who restored it." It was a picture of a young King Regis, the still living Queen Aulea, and an infant Noctis.

"Thank you," Noctis said, "And thank you too, Prompto." Prompto had peeked in with Mercury.

"You're welcome, Noct," Prompto said. Prompto was wearing a chocobo themed Father Yule hat. Mercury meanwhile had a new yellow leather wristband with a chocobo face on it.

"Maybe Luna should tell us a story," Diana said turning the movie off.

"I wouldn't even know which one to tell," Lunafreya said.

"Maybe a traditional one about Father Yule or something," Noctis suggested.

"Alright, It was the night before Yule….."

Gladio returned and saw everyone was in a sort of cuddle pile on the floor in front of the couch. He shrugged and laid on the couch and dozed off joining them.

MP:

Happy Holidays to all who have something to celebrate this time of year to those holidays that have already finished or have yet to take place. May your New Year be filled with joy and good fortune as well.

This was The Three Clones' Chris-Yule special.
I chose to go with Yule because, in a universe without Christianity, there isn't a Christmas.
Though, Santa/Father Christmas still exists as Father Yule.

The title is a reference to my personal favorite version of A Christmas Carol