Dudes the Christmas cheer got onto me! I'm all happy and merry and yay-ish these days and spent so much money on charity! (If people wanna help me with that, text to 3333. The message can be whatever you want and the 0.90 cents it costs will be given to the Red Cross to help victims of sexual assault in conflict areas). But because of this major Christmas-goodness I decided to write my last chapter on How to Chase Away the Cold sooner than planned. Not that you mind.

Please enjoy!

April and I are hiding on her room upstairs for hours . The guys have called for dinner but neither of us is very hungry right now. I think Ape is as angry and fed up with this as I am and I'm glad for that. Finally someone gets what I mean!

"Hey Mikey?" April says. I look up from my comic and watch her curiously. Her voice sounds a little sad but I don't get why. We've had a lot of fun these last few hours. She's my best human friend after all, sorry for that Case, and I kinda forgot how much fun it is to hang out with her. Sometimes she even plays along when I get lost into one of my crazy fantasy-thingies. She's also a very good listener.

"I'm sorry for not being there anymore. I should've seen you struggling to keep the family together."

My jaw drops and for a moment I can almost hear Master Splinter saying something about catching flies with it. I quickly shake my head and sit up.

"What do ya mean? You've helped me all the time, you were a rock when Leo was in coma and Raph and Donnie tried to seclude themselves."

She slowly nods but refuses to look at me which scares me a little. She isn't really that sad, is she? I hate it when she is, it's been bad enough when her mother… Oooohhh.

"Is this about when your mom turned out to be some weird, crazy, Kraang monster?"

She nods and shows a bit of her eyes through the bangs covering the upper part of her face. They are filled with regret.

"C'mon Ape, it's only logical for you to feel bummed about that. I would too and I'm sure everyone here will understand."

A soft sigh escapes her lips and it's quiet for a little while. "It's not about me being depressed but about all of us brushing you off, even accusing you, when you just tried to help out. We yelled at you while you tried to protect us from her and never properly apologized. I want to be the first one to do that so, I'm sorry."

A smile grows on my lips and I silently grab one of April's shoulders. They're small and fragile under my hands but she's getting stronger. Ninja training does that to you.

"Apology accepted. I did a long time ago already. That's what family's for."

I wink which makes her smile up at me. "You're crazy you know that?"

I laugh when trying to pull a convincing pout which makes April laugh in return.

"Yeah, you're just crazily sweet. I can't stand it when the guys treat you like you're not."

The bitter feeling returns in the room and I can see the regret on April's face. This isn't the time to talk about this. We're both hurt by what my brothers and Casey did but I think for April it is worse. I'm kinda used to the rough treatment. I know my brothers are there for me when I need it but that they'll never understand me. It's how it is though.

A soft knock on the door. "April? Mikey?"

It's Raph and he sounds surprisingly soft and gentle. Does he know about our fall-out in the barn? Probably he does, especially since neither of us has gone downstairs after.

"Can ya come out? We want ta show you somethin' in tha livin' room."

April looks at me, giving me the choice of what to do. I give her a nod and a small smile and stand up. There's no need to keep moping inside this room when you can also patch things up with your family and best friend.

I open up the door and stare into Raph's serpent green eyes. He smiles when he sees my face and for once he doesn't try to cover it up. I can see the relief on his features and feel like hugging him, but that would probably ruin the message me and April try to send across. He gives us both a nod after which we follow him down quietly.

Just before we turn around the corner and step into the living room the rest of the guys jump half on top of us shouting: "Merry Christmas!"

My eyes widen when I stare around the room. There is a Christmas tree in one corner, beautifully decorated with slightly dusty garments and ornaments. There is wreath hanging above the television and a mistletoe in the middle of the room. Garlands are hanging around the windows and through them I can see the outside lightened up with Christmas lights. The room's lights are off and the soft glow of the tree's lights combined with the candles standing everywhere give the place a homey feeling.

Leo, Donnie and Casey are wearing Santa hats and within a matter of seconds both me and April are wearing one as well. I turn around and snort at Raph, crossing my arms. He glares at me, then pleads at me and eventually he stomps off, grabs a hat lying on the sofa and puts it on while grumbling. I snicker and turn towards the rest of my family. They did this all for me. Just to cheer me up. And what happening can bring people better together than Christmas?

"Thanks, you guys," I whisper.

Leo and Donnie come over to give me a hug while Raph playfully rubs my head. "Sure thing knucklehead. Someone had to place a wicked grin on your face again. Doesn't look right when it isn't there."

Leo gives him an elbow in his stomach before looking back at me. "What Raph means to say is, we're sorry. When Donnie told us what happened between you, well it got us thinking. About everything you told us and about what we did and said to each other. I'm sorry I, we, brushed you off again but you know what? We heard you loud and clear now, little brother."

He squeezes my shoulder firmly but gentle and I nod my head at him. No I think back, the other promises didn't sound as much as promises. This one does. It's sincere and true and makes me forget all the anger I had against them. They didn't do it on purpose. They just needed a wake-up call.

"And next time," Donnie adds while looking at me seriously. "We will listen. Remind us of this if you need to but never, ever try to stuff it away okay? And try not to yell next time, it sounded awful to hear that from you."

"Sorry Donnie," I mumble while hugging him another time to show him that I'm also feeling bad about what happened.

While he pulls away I look around the room for the calendar. I was sure it was… yup the twenty-third of November. Christmas is still a month away.

"Yeah the guys said this was your favourite holiday," Casey suddenly says, following my gaze. "I thought it was ridiculous to celebrate this early but I guess you can never have enough Christmas in a year. And having a mistletoe around for so long also ain't bad." He adds with a smirk while looking at April.

We all laugh, even Donnie, and I know that they'll try. In the end we are a family and that means we take care of one another, we all proved that these last few weeks. The good and the bad times, as they say.

While being pulled away I slightly wonder how, for the first time in forever, even while having an immense fever, I haven't felt so warm as I feel now. And when I see the disastrous food they prepared, consisting of a very burned turkey and vegetables of which I can't even see what they originally where supposed to be, I laugh and decide I wouldn't change these guys for anything.

So yeah as I said, the Christmas-feels got to me. I hope everyone's got them too now and has a very good holiday so far! Have fun and give your family an extra hug just because you can ;)