Author's Note: Happy New Year everyone! (throws sparkly confetti up in the air in celebration) And isn't it fitting that my first post of 2010 should be the final chapter of this little tale? I apologize for the lateness as well. I meant to have this out last week, but between post-holiday activities and family stuff, I just never got a chance to start typing. But it's here now, and that's all that matters, right? -is shot-

Finally, a great big THANK YOU to all my readers and reviewers out there. You guys all brightened my day (not to mention my Inbox) with your kind words of encouragement, and made my holiday great. Love you all!

DISCLAIMER: My holiday presents this year did not include the rights to "Kingdom Hearts." Way to let a girl down, Santa! -_- "Kingdom Hearts" still belongs to Tetsuya Nomura, Squeenix, and Disney, Inc. I own nothing and make no money off writing this Fic. Also, I don't own "SantaLand Diaries."

DEDICATION: In case anyone out there wasn't paying attention the first four times, this entire Fic was a Christmas gift for moon maiden of time. I'm glad you enjoyed it, and I hope this last chapter meets your approval. ;)

And now…the conclusion of "Go Elf Yourself."

"Sora! Wait, please…just stop for a second and listen to me!"

Sora turned around in the doorway of the locker rooms to glare at Riku, and the older boy had to suppress a shudder at how furious the younger one could look, even while wearing a jolly green elf costume. Even the brown spikes of hair sticking out from beneath his jingle bell cap were quivering with suppressed rage.

"And why," Sora ground out through clenched teeth, "would I want to listen to anything you have to say anymore?"

"Look, I'm sorry about what happened two nights ago. I was shit-faced drunk, and I don't remember much other than entering the bar and then waking up at home the next day with a splitting headache, and a voicemail from your brother threatening me extreme bodily harm…" Riku knew he was babbling, but he couldn't think of anything to say that would win back Sora's forgiveness. When the silver-haired boy had figured out what he'd done from Roxas's message, he couldn't have been more disgusted with himself. All that mattered to him now was getting Sora, that perfect and amazing boy who made him so happy, back.

"Riku, I really don't care about what happened the other night anymore," Sora turned away to enter the locker rooms. "Just leave me alone."

"Two minutes, Sora! Please!" Riku was getting desperate now. "Just give me two minutes to explain myself."

The brunet rolled his eyes at the ceiling in frustration, but relented. "Fine. Two minutes, and that's it. Then I have to go on Santa duty. With you, unfortunately."

Riku immediately lunged into an explanation. "Look, what I did was terrible. I know it was. I ran into a friend of mine from college, someone I've always had a kind of…rivalry with, I guess…and he challenged me to a drinking contest at the bar while we were catching up."

"Of course he did. Then you showed great judgement and maturity by taking him up on it, obviously. Tell me, Riku, have you and this guy ever had anything in the past?"

"Well…uhh…" Riku was suddenly finding the dirty floor tiles absolutely fascinating, much more so than the growing fury in Sora's eyes. "Maybe? But it was a really long time ago, honestly! Leon was going through kind of an awkward period then. He doesn't even consider himself gay now, not really, more what you might call 'confused…'"

"So your friend's name is Leon, hmm?" Riku hadn't thought Sora could get any angrier, but apparently he'd been wrong. He could practically feel that deep blue glare boring into him. "I see how it is here."

"Y-you do?" Riku looked up at Sora again, hopeful for the first time now.

"Yes. You're obviously a selfish asshole who doesn't care about anyone but himself. So how many other guys have you been kissing other than Leon and me when you're out getting drunk, huh Riku?"

"But I can't turn Leon down when he challenges me to something, Sora!" Riku all but wailed. "He always calls my manliness into question."

Sora snorted derisively. "We're through here, Riku. You better get changed, your shift starts in ten seconds." And with that the brunet stormed into the locker rooms to finish getting ready, leaving Riku alone and miserable in the back hall.

www. KeybladeMaster .com
Blog Entry 143
December 24, 2009, 11:15 PM

Today was my last day of work, and it was the craziest day we've had so far. For some reason, I hadn't thought too many people would be coming to see Santa on Christmas Eve. I was kinda figuring they'd opt for some last minute shopping instead. Boy, was I wrong. The line was so long that we had to send Demyx (who miraculously somehow remained our happiest, peppiest elf all night long) down by the elevators to tell people that no, it would not actually take them an hour to see Santa Claus. The line only looked longer than it really was. I was grateful that we were able to keep things moving; I've already witnessed how crazy people get if they can't see Santa and I don't ever wanna go there again.

Today was better than yesterday, but only by a little bit, because I had Santa duty with that evil pretty boy Riku, of course. It would have tolerable if he'd at least stuck to his job and hadn't been trying to get me to forgive him all day long. But he did, and I've never been more embarrassed in my life.

It's not like I was gonna forgive him at all, anyway. After yesterday morning, I can't believe he even had the nerve to try and talk to me at all. I mean, I woke up crying yesterday, which is something I hadn't done in years. Roxas had been trying to talk Axel out of making a Riku voodoo doll and sticking the pins in a rather sensitive area. But when he heard me he came in, took one look at me and called the department store to tell them I needed a personal day. (Since Roxas could send a deranged, evil zombie back to its grave with only a look when he's in a temper, it worked and I got the day off. He also got the assistant manager instead of Larxene on the phone, which helped.) I spent the rest of that day lying in bed and staring out the window at nothing, hoping and praying that Riku would call me. He could beg for forgiveness, or tell me I'd only dreamed up the whole thing, and that he would never, ever kiss a man in the gutter while drunk. Either way, I'd forgive him, because that's just how I am, and all would be well again. But the only time the phone rang that day, it ended up being mom checking up on us.

As I lay there, unmoving, Roxas and Axel sat and talked to me. Axel suggested we go and set Riku's apartment on fire, while Roxas alternated between swearing violently and telling me it wasn't my fault and that I'd find someone else soon, someone better. And I started to get angry. Riku had no right to upset me this way. He had no right to make me get all broken up inside and have to take off work. Who was he to decide how I felt by his selfish actions? I decided I'd be better off without someone like him in my life. There was no point in even bothering with him anymore. From now on, I wasn't going to think about Riku ever again. I was going to move on with my life, leaving all my memories of him locked away in the dust of my mind.

(For some reason, it kind of hurt to write that. But then, yesterday wasn't an easy day for me period.)

This morning I got up and got ready for work as usual. As I was getting my usual toast from the toaster on my way to the door, Roxas came into the kitchen and asked me how I was.

"Fine," I said, even flashing him a big, cheery grin to prove it.

Roxas was shocked, obviously not believing I could be "fine" after what Riku had done. "Are you sure? You're not gonna forgive him, are you?" He asked. After all, I've forgiven much worse. I forgave Wakka, after all, for somehow drowning my goldfish when I was ten. He was supposed to be watching it while I went on vacation with my family. (No wonder his parents never got him a pet.)

"Nope. I never wanna see Riku's stupid face ever again," I said, and headed out the door, leaving my brother completely nonplussed behind me.

At work, Riku tried the usual "I'm sorry, please forgive me," crap that never works, not even in the movies, on me. I wouldn't have any of it, of course, and Riku ended up being late for his shift. When he finally came out he was dragging his feet, and even his fake beard seemed to be drooping with despair. I almost felt sorry for him, until I remembered how I'd felt over the past two days. Then I just turned back to entertaining the kid in front of me.

But Mr. Pretty Silver Hair just couldn't give up, oh no. He started actually using the kids to try and get me to forgive him. For example, after one little girl climbed on Riku's lap and asked him for a pony for Christmas, she said, "Hey Santa, you always ask kids what they want for Christmas every year. I wanna know, what do you want for Christmas?"

Riku sighed and looked at the girl with a wistful smile behind the beard. Even I leaned in slightly, curious as to what he'd say. In all my time here as an elf, I'd never once heard a kid ask Santa Claus what he wanted for Christmas before.

"Little girl," Riku said, "I'd like my boyfriend to forgive me. You see, I made an absolutely horrible mistake a few days ago, and he's quite angry with me now because of it. I'd love, more than anything else in the whole wide world, to have a second chance with him."

I couldn't say or think anything for a moment out of sheer surprise. Then the girl, eyes as big as saucers, cried out, "You have a boyfriend? But…but what about Mrs. Claus? Does she know about him?"

"Uhh…" Riku shifted uncomfortably in his seat for a moment before reaching into his pocket and taking out a ten dollar bill. "I'll give you this money if you promise not to tell anyone we had that conversation," he whispered to the girl.

"Hey! The girl cried, suddenly indignant. "You promised me twenty dollars if I asked you what you wanted for Christmas!" She leapt off Riku's lap and ran out the exit, shouting, "MOMMY! SANTA CHEATED ME!"

Riku shot me a sheepish grin, but I just rolled my eyes and glared up at the ceiling. Bribing small children to try and get back into my good graces…what a bastard. I don't even know what I saw in him to start with.

Just before my lunch break, three small boys ran up to me and pulled on my tunic to get me to bend down to their level. Smiling, figuring they just wanted to whisper "Merry Christmas" in my ear like a few of the other kids, I crouched down on my knees for them. "OK guys, what's up?" I asked with my best and most cheerful elf smile.

"Santa asked me to tell you that you're the cutest little elf in here," one of the boys said with a giggle, and I felt my cheeks heat up.

"He also wants to know if you'll 'guide his sleigh tonight.' What does that mean?" The second boy said. I was so embarrassed, I wished the floor would just open up and swallow me whole. Hell, I had no idea what that meant, and it still sounded full of innuendo!

"Finally, Santa would like to know if you'll meet him under the mistletoe tonight, Mr. Elf," said the third boy, the very picture of politeness. Certain I was beet red by now, I got up and ushered the kids out the exit.

"Go on home kids, Merry Christmas, and just forget you ever even looked at that man!" I cried. Turning to glare at Santa's throne, I saw Riku give me a little wave before the next kid got up on his lap.

Words could not express how angry I was with Riku at that moment. Since I wasn't allowed to hit him at work, I just flipped him off. I think Cloud saw me though, because he told me I could go on lunch break then.

"And you're on cash register duty when you get back, Sora!" Cloud called after me as I went off to the food court. "I don't know what it is, but something you're doing is distracting Riku, and he needs to focus for the last half of his shift."

While I was working the register I managed to set off the store alarm four times by pressing the wrong buttons, each time causing the people waiting to see Santa to yell at me and at each other. One old lady standing near me started shrieking her head off about the world ending and something called "Jenova" coming to eat our souls. Sephiroth had to go up and down the line reassuring people that the sound of the alarm did not, in this case, mean that a crisis was imminent. "It just means there is a small internal problem that will soon be fixed by management," he said, giving me a look that I'm sure meant he wished me a slow, painful death.

(Note to Self: Watch out for Sephiroth.)

As the evening wound down and the department store started to announce that it was closing over the intercom, people finally started to leave. When there were only three kids left to sit on Santa's lap, Demyx was asked to clean the loose change out of one of the robot nutcracker's mouths.

For some reason I don't really understand, people seemed to think that the holiday-themed robots surrounding Santa's throne were the equivalent of some kind of wishing well. So they were always tossing their spare change into the nutcrackers' mouths and down the little holes around the brims of the robot snowmens' hats. For the past two weeks, one or two employees have been removing the coins from the robots every day. I had to do it once, and it was really horrible. I don't know when the last time they cleaned the nutcracker robots was. Probably back when Larxene was actually nice to her employees or something.

I asked Cloud once where the money went, and he told me the store donates it to charity. However, I saw Larxene stuffing some coins down her bra once, and the kids are always sticking their hands in the robots when the parents aren't looking and pulling out nickels and quarters. I heard Sephiroth complaining about the janitors in here snitching dimes as well, so I don't think much of the change, if any, actually ends up going to charities.

Anyway, I had to turn off the register and lock the cash drawer for the night, so I wasn't paying any attention to Demyx. That is, until I heard him screaming bloody murder only a few minutes later. Looking over, I saw Demyx standing stock-still and looking like he was in a state of extreme panic. The robot was toppling over, its hinged mouth agape, and if Demyx didn't move now he'd be crushed under that heavy metal thing.

There wasn't time to get help, and no one else was around, so I started over to grab Demyx and pull him away. But before I'd taken two steps, a green and grey blur raced over faster than I had thought possible and shoved Demyx aside, literally two seconds before the robot fell to the ground with a loud metallic clang.

Two feet away from the fallen nutcracker lay Demyx and Zexion, sprawled in a heap on the floor. For a moment nobody, including me, could move. My heart was practically leaping from my chest, and I'd be willing to bet this week's pay Demyx and Zexion both felt the same.

"Zexy," Demyx finally said, quieter than I've ever heard him before. "You…you saved my life."

"It was nothing," Zexion grunted, picking himself up and extending a hand to help the other boy to his feet.

"Yes it was! That thing started wobbling when I stuck my hand into it to get the money out…must not have been secured to the floor, I guess. It tipped over, and I couldn't believe it was even happening to me! I was scared, I thought I was gonna die or lose my job or become horribly, horribly disfigured…and then you came out of nowhere and saved me. Why, Zexy, I thought you hated me…?"

"You talk too damn much," Zexion all but growled, and then two seconds later he was attacking Demyx's mouth. For a moment Demyx looked like he was going to fall over from pure shock. But then he sort of sighed a little, wrapped his arms around Zexion, and kissed him right back.

As I watched this, I felt something constrict in my chest, as if an iron band was tightening around my heart. All I could think of was Riku, and how him and me had never even gotten to the kissing part of our relationship before it ended. Then I felt tears in my eyes again, so I quietly slipped into the locker rooms, changed clothes in a record five minutes, and left for home. Demyx and Zexion didn't even know I saw them.

So that's my Christmas Eve for you. Everyone around me seems to be coupling up, and I'm all by myself. Well, at least Cloud said he'd be able to get me a permanent job in the sock department because of my good work as an elf, so at least I don't need to look for more work after this gig.

(Oh joy. Socks. Well, I shouldn't be complaining, any job is better than nothing.)

Anyway, I'd better hit the sack now, because it's getting pretty late. Roxas went to bed half an hour ago, and Axel passed out on our couch after drinking too much (non-alcoholic) egg-nog, and singing a horrible rendition of "Silent Night." So a merry Christmas Eve to anyone out there reading, and may visions of sugarplums dance through your heads!

Whatever the hell sugarplums are.

www. KeybladeMaster .com
Blog Entry 144
December 25, 2009, 8:33 PM

gabxaabsacjbacjbwjdw…I can't even believe today really happened. O.O

Yeah, I know, I just did the universal line of incomprehensible text that means I can't string together a decent sentence. Followed up by an emoticon, too! I said that when I started this blog that there would be no chatspeak and no emoticons ruining its flow, only good, Standard English. (English was what I majored in during college, you know. And does anyone remember that song from the "Avenue Q" musical, "What Do You Do With a B.A. in English?" It's true. So very, very true.) So chatspeak followed up by an emoticon in my blog can only mean that something completely and utterly epic has just occurred.

Let me start from the beginning.

Since it's Christmas Day, I woke up at the insanely early hour of 7 AM. Then I went and woke Roxas up by yelling that it was Christmas and he had to get up right now so we could exchange presents. As usual, he threw a pillow at me and told me to go back to sleep, but I just jumped on his bed saying "it's Christmastime, Roxy!" in that really annoying sing-song voice he hates.

Finally he sat up yelling, "Fine Sora! We'll do presents now, OK? Then I'm going back to bed, dammit!"

I've been doing this every year on Christmas since we can both remember. I'm not planning on stopping, either, so you'd think Roxas would learn to grin and bear it by now. Well, what can I say, he's stubborn. (Roxas never actually goes back to bed after presents though. He's always too happy and excited by then, which means I've done my job as a bringer of Christmas joy at incredibly early morning hours.)

We both headed into the living room, Roxas grumbling the whole time about crazy sadistic twin brothers who wouldn't let him sleep. We found Axel already up, wearing nothing but old pajama pants, and drinking more egg-nog straight out of the carton.

This was not exactly what I wanted to see first thing Christmas morning. Not that Axel's ugly or anything, he's just not my type. "Ugh, Axel, put some clothes on, will you!" I cried, shielding my eyes from the sight of my half-naked neighbor right in front of me.

"Aw, come on Sora, Roxas loves this!" Axel cried, spreading his arms to show off even more bare skin. The pajama pants slipped a few inches down his waist, and I really hoped they didn't fall off and leave nothing to the imagination. Oh, the horror.

Roxas snatched the egg-nog out of Axel's hands. "Put a shirt on, will you?" He muttered. "And don't drink from the carton, that's disgusting."

"So you don't like having my spit on the carton, then?" Axel smirked and turned back to the freezer. "I was going to make you guys breakfast, but all you seem to have in here is ice cream. Is that some sort of fetish I should know about?"

I could sense what was about to come with my amazing Twin Intuition (or maybe it was just the way Roxas's eye started twitching.) So I went quietly back to my room and quietly shut the door, trying to drown out the sounds of Roxas hitting Axel over the head with the egg-nog carton and swearing at him.

Finally, after Roxas had calmed down and Axel had changed into a decent shirt and pants, we settled down in the living room and exchanged gifts. I gave Roxas a fire extinguisher with smiley faces on it, which we both agreed was a very practical yet still incredibly cool gift. Roxas gave me the last season of Man vs. Wonderland on DVD. (What can I say, it never gets old watching a guy try to fight his way out of a pack of vicious living playing cards.) Axel gave Roxas the biggest box of fancy assorted chocolates I've ever seen in my life, as well as a bunch of very secretive looking DVDs that I think were porn (Roxas went scarlet when he opened them up, which only furthered my suspicions.) Axel gave me a present too, which I thought was really nice since he's only known me about a month now. It ended up being a book called Arson for Beginners.

Well, it's the thought that counts, right?

We spent the rest of the morning relaxing around the living room and listening to Christmas carols. Axel kept trying to get Roxas to make out with him on the couch, but my brother kept shoving him away. "Sora's right there!" Roxas hissed, pointing at me.

"Sora can join in! I don't mind, he's pretty cute," Axel said, throwing me a huge wink.

I cracked up, practically falling off the armchair I was sitting on. "You're terrible, Axel!" I managed to gasp out.

"You really are," Roxas laughed too after a few minutes, lightly smacking his boyfriend on the arm.

Then there was a knock on the door. Roxas and I looked up, brows furrowing in confusion.

"Who could that be?" Roxas wondered.

"You weren't expecting anyone?" Axel asked.

"Nope," I said, as I got up to get the door. "Our parents are back home in Destiny Islands, and we don't really know a lot of people here yet…" I opened the door.

On the other side was Santa Claus.

For one brief, insane second, I thought it actually was Santa on the other side of the door. All my childhood dreams had finally come true! Now the man in red was actually paying me a visit, because I was a good person and still believed in him, deep down.

Then I noticed the silver hair peeking out under the red and white hat, and the exotic aquamarine eyes sparkling above the white beard, and I knew who it really was.

"Merry Christmas!" Riku said in his best jolly old Santa voice. He must have been really nervous though, because he was stuttering. So it really sounded like, "M-mer-ry Ch-Chris-ist-mas!"

I tried to shut the door again, but Riku grabbed it. "Please Sora, just let me in for a minute!" He said, eyes pleading.

"No! Go away and leave me alone! It's Christmas, for Heaven's sake; don't you have anything better to do?!" I muttered. We battled with the front door a moment, me trying to shut it and Riku trying to keep it open.

"Sora, what's going on? Is everything OK?" Roxas asked. I turned my head an inch to see him and Axel behind me, both craning their necks to see who was at the door.

That gave Riku the advantage he needed. While I was distracted, he gave the door a last good shove, sending it flying open and me stumbling back a few feet. I managed to catch myself before I fell, luckily. Axel's and Roxas's mouths fell open to see Riku, in a Santa suit, come in and fall down in front of me on his knees, head bowed.

"Sora," said Axel, sounding more confused than I'd ever heard him before, "who the hell is this clown?"

"Guys," I said, not sure what to do now, "you remember Riku."

"I'm calling the cops," Roxas said, making a run for the kitchen phone.

"Could you let me have a moment to speak first, please?" Riku asked softly from his spot on the floor. "If…if Sora is still angry with me after that, I'll go. You can call the police, get a restraining order, whatever you want. I won't ever bother Sora again."

"After what you did to my brother? No way!" Roxas yanked the phone off the hook and punched a button.

"Roxas." I laid a hand on my brother to calm him, and he lowered the phone, regarding me warily. ""It's Christmas. Let him have his say." I had to give Riku a chance. He'd come out here dressed in a Santa costume for me, when he could have easily just given up after what had happened at the department store. The least I could do was listen to him.

Roxas looked annoyed, but hung the phone up anyway. "This better be good," he growled at Riku.

"Thank you, Sora." Still on his knees, as if he felt he didn't deserve to do this standing, Riku began to talk. "I don't think I ever told you how much I care about you, Sora. This bothers me a lot. So let me start now, from the beginning.

"From the first moment I saw you at the café, you looked more amazing than anyone I'd ever met before in my life. Sitting there and eating, looking out the window and smiling like you didn't have a care in the world…I was surprised by how much I just wanted to hold you and never let you go, right then and there. I just had to talk to you.

"And you were so easy to talk to, Sora. It was like we'd known each other forever. But when you left that night, I was practically beating myself upside the head. I hadn't gotten your phone number, your e-mail address, or even your last name. How was I going to talk to you again?

"Then I remembered you said you'd gotten a job at Radiant Garden as an elf. I ran over to the store and begged them to let me have a job. Sephiroth wasn't too eager about hiring me, because they already had all the Santa Clauses they needed for the season and I was too tall to be an elf. Then Cloud came in, took one look at me, and said I passed the sanity requirement to work as a Santa. He told me I was hired. Then Cloud and Sephiroth started arguing about it, but I didn't care, because I was in. I was going to see you again, and I felt like I could have scaled mountaintops from sheer joy.

"When we started dating, I was on Cloud 9, as cheesy as that may sound. I woke up thinking about you and fell asleep thinking about you. You were perfect for me. You were cheerful when I was sad, sweet when I…wasn't, and smart when I was being stupid. I was going to do all I could to make sure I was perfect for you as well. Then I messed up my perfect relationship. I took what made me happy and threw it away. I-"

"He cries himself to sleep at night!" A guy with chin-length dirty blond hair and bright blue eyes stuck his head in the door and grinned from ear to ear, giving us all a little wave.

"What the fuck?!" Roxas cried. "This is an apartment, not a library! Why are so many people coming in here?"

"This is Tidus. My roommate," Riku growled out. He was blushing tomato red from the roots of his hair all the way down his neck from embarrassment. "Tidus, this is everyone. And you weren't supposed to come in here, you idiot!"

"Hi everyone!" Tidus said cheerfully. "Riku had me come along as moral support. He was really nervous about this. But I was waiting in the lobby for ten minutes already, and your landlord was starting to give me funny looks, so I decided to just come on up. And Sora…whichever one of you guys is Sora…"

"The brunet."

"Well, you should really just take Riku back. He couldn't stop talking about you while you guys were together, and now he can't stop crying over you now that you're not together. All he does is mope around the apartment, being more emo than he usually he is. It's really annoying, lemme tell ya."

"Tidus…" Riku groaned, falling face-first onto the floor.

Tidus just kept going, though. "Whatever he did, don't take it personally. Riku does stupid shit all the time. But he really, honestly cares about you, Sora. You should take him back."

"Tidus." Riku said again, voice muffled slightly because his face was buried in the carpet.

"Want me to leave now?"

"Yes please, before I castrate you."

"See ya at home, buddy!" Just like that, Tidus was gone. Axel and Roxas just stared after him. No one said anything for a few minutes, out of shock and (in my case) the roiling mess of feelings flinging themselves around my intestines.

"I didn't even know people like that existed," Axel finally said after a few minutes.

"Sora," Roxas said, turning to me with an expression of concern, "you're crying."

I touched my face, and sure enough, my fingers came back wet. "Oh," I mumbled, quickly wiping my cheeks with the back of my arm. "Guess I am."

"I got you something," Riku said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, black velvet box, which he then held up to me.

"Oh Riku, you didn't. I forgive you already, sheesh." I groaned, reaching down and pulling him to his feet. I yanked off the beard and Santa hat while I was at it, revealing Riku's face. "I missed you a lot too. Just ask Roxas."

"If you ever do anything stupid like that again…" My brother said in his best (read: scariest) warning tone. Good ol' Roxas, always looking out for me.

"I won't. I promise," Riku said, completely serious. He pressed the box into my hand. "Take it."

I opened up the black velvet box to find, resting on a little cushion inside, a silver crown-shaped pendant hanging from a thick chain. "Riku!" I yelled, throwing myself at him and hugging him tightly around the waist. How he'd gotten that…We'd passed one of Hollow Bastion's high-end jewelry stores weeks ago when out walking, and I'd been admiring that very necklace in the display window. But the price tag attached had been too much for me to even think about buying it. I thought it had been too much for Riku, too.

Riku chuckled, a deep rumbling sound in his chest. "I knew you'd like it," he said, wrapping his arms tight around me.

"I love it! You shouldn't have spent so much…"

"Don't worry about it. One of my paintings sold well, so I had some extra money around." Then Riku gently lifted my chin up so that I was facing him, and we kissed for the first time.

It was indescribable. No really, it was. There were no fireworks, no violins in the background, no twinkling stars and fat moon overhead. Just me and Riku, in a quiet apartment on a quiet Christmas morning, sharing this moment together.

"Aw, that's so sweet. A happy ending," Axel said cheerfully behind me. "Hey Roxas, wanna go fuck?"

And…well, that's about it. We all had dinner together like a big family at the Cetra Diner this evening (it was the only place that was open, and no one had time to cook anything, what with everything that happened today.) Riku's staying in my room, and Axel is staying in Roxas's. I'm not quite sure what's going to happen tonight, but Riku and I will take it nice and easy, don't worry. (Oh crap, there's more innuendo…) Riku's actually calling for me to finish up and come to bed now, so I will.

All in all, this was the best Christmas ever. I hope you readers out there all got what you wanted for Christmas too.

Much love,
Sora Aoyagi

P.S. Thanks to all the people out there who made this one of the most highly read blogs this year! I appreciate it!

Authors' Note: It's…it's done. IT'S DONE!!! -flailflailflail, followed by Happy Dance- I wanted to split it into two parts, since this chapter is, according to Microsoft Word, FOURTEEN PAGES LONG O.O, but I didn't for several reasons. One, it's already way past Christmas, this is way overdue, and splitting it into two parts would only have kept it unfinished longer. Two, one part would have been filled with ridiculous amounts of angst, thus keeping all my readers miserable even longer. This is a Christmas Fic, therefore no one is allowed to be miserable. ;)

So it's done. Again, thank you for reading. If you reviewed, go eat a cookie right now and pretend it's from me. :)

REVIEW CORNER Thanks for Reviewing: becoafamu, Neo Lady Sakura, Jellicle-Wishes, Solo-chan, Enli, XIIIAnonymous, Nekotsubasa, MrMissMrsRandom, mociusagi, moon maiden of time

Sayonara for now! (bows)

~LWD~