AN: A shamelessly fluffy winter piece, because I'm (finally) getting into the Christmas spirit. It's taken long enough. As ever, if you recognise the characters, they don't belong to me.

"Kairi?"

"Go back to sleep, Axel."

"What's all this white stuff outside?"

Kairi groaned and reluctantly dragged herself out of bed. When she reached the window, her tiredness disappeared.

"It's snowing!"

"What's snow?"

"You mean you've never seen snow before? Get dressed in something warm – we're going outside."

He looked at her like she was mad, but did as she said. It was best not to argue when she was this excited. When she tossed him a pair of gloves, he was completely confused.

"Put them on, it's cold."

Shaking his head, he complied. And was immediately grateful when they stepped outside. It really was cold. Kairi started piling up the snow, and called for Axel to help her.

"We're building a snowman!

"Do I want to ask?"

"You missed out on so much stuff I did as a kid."

"Not exactly my fault, Kairi."

"I know. Which is why you should do it now instead."

He was busy piling up the snow and making it into a human-like shape when something cold and wet hit him on the back of the head. He turned round to find Kairi laughing as another lump of snow flew towards him. Gathering up a handful of snow, he packed it down tightly and threw it in Kairi's general direction. She dodged it easily and threw one back.

"You can do better than that, Axel."

He growled, and they ended up chasing each other around the garden, throwing snowballs; the snowman completely forgotten.

Eventually, Axel managed to catch Kairi, and dumped a handful of snow in her hair.

"Ok, ok, you win."

He grinned – it wasn't often she admitted defeat at anything. She pulled him back inside, and headed straight for the kitchen.

"One good thing about going out in the snow is that you get to come back inside and have hot chocolate."

"I thought you liked the snow anyway."

"I do, but it gets cold out there really quickly."

"You're mad, Kairi, you know that?"

"Yes."

He didn't complain when she handed him a mug of hot chocolate and sat down with him in front of the fire. He enjoyed these cosy moments with her, when it was just the two of them and they could forget about everything they'd been through before.

Today, they weren't trying to save the world, they were living in it, enjoying it, and that made a change. When the snow melted, it would be back to business as usual, but for now…

……………………

Anyone looking in at them would have seen two redheads curled up in an armchair in front of a roaring fire. And that's all Kairi and Axel wanted to be.

AN: Do you prefer fluff or angst? Review and tell me. Or if you think I really messed up on this piece, let me know. Or if you liked it.