AN: Well, it's here everyone! Christmas! The last day of this countdown~ and so, I present you with this present! I hope you all like it! It's entitled - 'ASGZC Home for the Holidays'. Sequel to 'It's a Wonderful ASGZC Christmas' from last year's calendar, but it can stand alone :3

~x-x~ MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE! ~x-x~

December 25, 2012

The windows were frosted over, fogged up almost white with the cold of the outside air. It was impossible to see through them.

Cloud stood leaning, shoulder pressed against the chilled glass, attempting to stare past the opacity. A frown tilted his lips downward and he could see his lightly glowing blue eyes staring back at him forlornly in the window. A sigh left him. He missed Sephiroth.

"Cloud," Genesis suddenly appeared behind him in the window's reflection. Cloud didn't turn but met the other's eyes in the glass. "It's nearly midnight." Cloud did turn then, leaning on his back fully instead of his shoulder, uncaring of the chill. He remained silent. Genesis sighed.

He drew closer, almost nose-to-nose with the younger male, and wrapped his arms loosely about the blonde's waist. "What's wrong?" he asked, but, of course, he already knew. He just wanted to hear Cloud say it, and then attempt to cheer him up. Even if Genesis was feeling somewhat the same.

"I miss Seph," Cloud muttered, closing his eyes and resting his forehead on Genesis' chest. Gen nodded. He missed Sephiroth, too. They all did. He pulled pack an inch to plant a kiss to Cloud's spikes.

"I miss him, too." He cursed ShinRa a thousand times over for sending the General on such a long -and in his opinion, pointless- mission. It wasn't fair, not having Seph here on Christmas day. They were supposed to be together for things like this.

Cloud nodded to the statement sadly but pulled himself together. It was Christmas and he was going to enjoy it the best he could, even with the twinge in his chest. He knew all of his lovers were feeling it, even if they dealt with it a little better than he did. It occurred to him that it had to be five times worse for Sephiroth. The silver-haired man had only his troops and a place that wasn't home to spend this day in. At least Cloud had the others here with him. Seph was all alone. The thought made him that much sadder. He wished he could call him, but reception there sucked; always on and off, their calls usually ended being dropped.

"How long?" Genesis looked down at him quizzically for a moment, unsure what he was asking, before he caught on. He smiled and pulled away to lead the blonde toward the tree where Zack was already sitting, as usual, watching the clock.

"Four minutes!" Zack announced when the other two reached him. Cloud had to smile when faced with Zack's enthusiastic grin and joyous excitement. They sat around and waited as the minutes passed. Soon, Angeal came into the room with a plateful of freshly baked cookies and a tray of mugs each filled with hot cocoa topped with whipped cream or marshmallows.

There were two minutes left.

"How are we doing it this year?" Zack suddenly asked, tilting his head in question up at Angeal. How would they countdown like usual without Seph?

"I think we should do it the way we always do." It was Genesis who chose to answer. "We'll just skip Seph."

"But, that would leave a number missing, unless we start at '5' this year," Angeal had to point out.

"Why don't we just stay quiet for Seph's turn and not say that number at all?" Cloud spoke up, not wanting to make it seem like they were leaving Sephiroth out even though he wasn't even there.

"Sure, Cloudy, we can do that," Zack beamed.

A minute had passed.

With the seconds quickly passing ever forward to midnight, the anticipation that always accompanied these moments grew. Nobody even noticed the near silent beep that rang once somewhere in the apartment.

Thirty seconds.

A clatch, barely audible, sounded.

15 seconds.

10 seconds.

"Ready?" Angeal asked.

It was time.

"6"

"5" Genesis stepped in after Angeal to fill Seph's usual spot. Zack continued with the "4".

"3" Cloud managed to keep himself from nearly whispering, sad but not wanting to seem forlorn in this moment.

"2" There was a sudden voice when there should have been silence and every head turned in the direction of the room's entrance, various degrees of pleased shock on their faces.

The "1" was quickly forgotten as they each recovered and rushed toward the figure standing there.

Cloud reached him first and he nearly tackled him, throwing himself the last foot forward and wrapping his arms around Sephiroth's neck, legs about his waist, clinging to him. Sephiroth chuckled, not caring that he'd just dropped the bundles he'd been carrying, and quickly claimed Cloud's lips for a long overdue kiss. Cloud practically melted into it.

"You're back," Cloud panted, happy tears clinging to the corners of his eyes. He was smiling widely, not about to let go of this man who had been gone for months. Sephiroth smiled just as widely down at him.

"I am," was all he said before he was once more kissing the little blonde.

"Hey, what about us?" Genesis tried to pout at the silver-haired man but he was entirely to overjoyed at this moment to even pull off pouting. He was grinning ear to ear. Sephiroth actually smirked as he walked over to the redhead and pulled him abruptly forward to mash their lips together roughly. They kissed like they'd been in the desert forever and only each other's lips could provide them water. They pulled apart to the sound of Angeal's chuckling. Beside them Zack was grinning, for once waiting patiently for his turn.

"You want one, too, Puppy?" Sephiroth smiled at the spiky-haired First.

"Of course!" Zack cheered and rushed forward, maneuvering around Cloud, still clinging to Seph, to get at the man's lips.

Sephiroth didn't bother to move when they broke apart, simply sending a look toward Angeal, one eyebrow raised. The raven-haired man shook his head with a smile and walked over, managing not to crush Cloud or Zack -who had chosen to become a leach-. With one large hand, Angeal reached behind Sephiroth's head to burry his fingers in long silver strands, bringing the man's head forward and running his own tongue along fine sculpted lips. Their kiss lasted longer than the others.

Sephiroth finally got a chance to move further into the room and took a seat on the long wrap-around black leather couch. Cloud was now firmly in his lap while Zack had bounced away to collect the things Sephiroth had dropped upon his initial entrance.

"Hey, Seph, what're these?" Zack asked excitedly, examining each one as he placed them on the coffee table.

Sephiroth grinned. "They're presents."

Genesis plopped himself in the seat beside him. "Presents? From where? When did you have time to buy presents?"

"Wutai. I managed to find some time a couple days ago. Right before the flight back here." They weren't much, seeing as he hadn't had that much time, but it was the thought that counted. He hadn't been sure he would even make it home in time for Christmas.

"Can we open them?" Cloud asked, not really caring what the answer was. He already had what he'd wanted more than anything today. Sephiroth was home.

"I don't know," Sephiroth shrugged. "Were we going to do the normal thing or did you want to open these instead?"

It was Angeal who chose to answer. "I think we can make an exception and open two this year." He smiled when Zack whooped in obvious approval of the idea. Sephiroth shrugged, that worked for him. He hadn't bought himself a present anyway so he would still only get the one.

"Well then," Genesis clapped his hands together and stood, moving over to the tree. "As tradition goes, Angeal, you go first." He handed a neatly wrapped package to his best friend. Sephiroth did the same with a crudely wrapped box from the coffee table.

As usual, Angeal took his time with the wrapping, taking care not to rip any part of it. When he finally had them unwrapped, he smiled. In the box that had been labeled 'To: Angeal, From: Zack/Gen/Cloud~' there sat an assortment of small things. It was always more than one little thing because his lovers said he was the hardest one to shop for.

Angeal pulled two books, one a cook book, one a book about preventing wear, tear, and rust, -he was sure those three had had a laugh at that- from bottom of the box. Next he found some new gardening gloves, as well as a new pair of normal leather gloves, and some pine tree seeds. That gave him pause and he looked up at Genesis in question. Where would he plant something as big as a pine tree in Midgar? But Genesis said nothing and simply pointed to the box. There was more.

Still confused, Angeal reached into the box again and pulled out a keychain. There was a plastic chibi of himself and one of each of his lovers hanging from the ring. He smiled at it, recognizing them as the novelty keychain set that PR had developed only this year. They weren't even on sale to non-ShinRa affiliated persons yet. But that apparently wasn't the main point of this gift, he realized, as he spotted three keys hanging from the ring as well.

"One's to your new truck, you can go check it out later," Genesis decided to enlighten him, "and the other is to the shed that sits in our new backyard in Kalm. The shed that is yours and yours alone. The last one's the key to the front door."

Angeal's stared at the auburn-haired man for a second. He was pretty much just told that he had an entire backyard to work in from now on. As well as a front yard probably. Wait… "We have a house in Kalm?"

Zack grinned. "We do now! Gen and I decided that we should have a home away from home and Kalm seemed like a nice place. Cloud and Seph helped with that, too. You'd be surprised how much the Chocobo knows about buying houses." He laughed when Cloud pouted but Sephiroth just chuckled and placed a quick peck on the blonde's cheek.

"We have one of the SOLDIERs there on missions every so often to keep an eye on the place," Genesis supplied, already moving back to the tree for his own present.

"And to take care of Azure," Cloud added. "That's why she hasn't been here in the last few weeks. We sent her over there."

Zack laughed. "Yeah, she has way more room to run over there than she did here. She loves that place." Zack grinned, remembering how his one-year-old wolf had been so excited when they'd first taken her to the house.

Angeal shook his head at his lover's spontaneity and reached for his second gift. He didn't mind so much about the wrapping on this one since it was only plain brown packaging paper, but he still took his time. He just liked to watch his lover's get impatient. When he finally had it unwrapped he was stunned. There was a care-kit for his Buster as well as a new whet stone, but it was the last thing that had him smiling fondly. It was a wutaian wall hanging, hand woven, with the characters for 'Dreams, Pride, Honor' in beautiful calligraphy written upon it. There was no way Sephiroth had just picked this up, it had to be custom-made.

"Thank you," Angeal smiled, meeting each one of their eyes. "All of you."

"My turn!" Genesis suddenly called out. He was always second, too impatient to ever let anyone besides Angeal go before him. He made quick work of the wrapping paper on Sephiroth's gift. "Loveless!" He beamed as he pulled the leather-bound book closer to him. It wasn't just any loveless, but an original copy from Wutai. It was the one thing he could never boast owning when it came to his beloved play. Now he could. And Sephiroth had gotten it for him. He practically flew at the silver-haired man as he rushed to hug and kiss him in thanks for the marvelous gift

"You still have one more present, Gen," Sephiroth reminded the redhead when he was finally released. Genesis smiled and nodded, turning to his other gift. The one from Zack, 'Geal and Cloud. He ripped the paper from that one even quicker than the first.

"Wow," he stared at it for a good long while. "Thank you," he breathed, pulling it from the box. It was a brand new leather duster, red just like the one he usually wore but darker and somehow more elegant. He wasn't sure he could wear it into battle, but of course he would, that was what it was meant for.

"Plus 20 ATK and MP," Angeal pointed out.

"And it's resistant to physical damage, like armor but more fashionable," Cloud added with a cheeky little grin.

"Thank you," Genesis said again and beamed at them all.

"Here you are, Cloud," Sephiroth broke Gen's reverie and handed Cloud the package from him. Genesis swiftly dug the blonde's present from Zack, Angeal, and himself from under the tree and passed it to Cloud as well. Cloud smiled, unable to keep himself from planting a small kiss to Sephiroth's cheek, and directed his attention onto the two gifts before him. He was still beyond happy to have Sephiroth back. He would've been happy not to get anything else. But he had, so… he ripped into his presents, ignoring, as always, the tag that read 'to our Chocobo, from Geal, Gen, and Zack.

He laughed when he pulled a stuffed chocobo from the confines of the box. For some reason he always laughed even though he knew what it was, more or less. It was the same thing he got every year but it was somehow always different. Even if they weren't though, he'd love it regardless. He had an ever-growing collection of chocobo plushies sitting in one corner of his bedroom. This year was the best so far. The chocobo he now held was as large as half of him and wide enough to wrap both arms around snugly. It was fluffy as hell. But what he loved most about it were the wide blue eyes that were obviously meant to resemble his own and the embroidery along the edge of its left wing that read 'Cloud Strife' in flowing cursive in royal blue stitching.

Without so much as a pause between gifts, he was ripping into the other present's wrapping. The one from Seph. He giggled when he saw what it was. Another chocobo. This one was palm-sized and it took him a minute to realize that it could talk. He pressed the little button on its wing and it warked. Just the one time, but Cloud just about cracked up when the tiny choco-plush actually tilted its head as it warked. He absolutely loved it.

"Thank you," he smiled cutely at all of them and was actually met with several pecks to his cheeks and forehead, as well as a few on the lips, and one on his nose.

"You are very welcome, Cloud," Sephiroth's deep baritone reverberated in his chest against Cloud's back.

"You're always so easy to shop for, Chocobo," Zack grinned.

"And easy to please," Genesis added, leaning forward and claiming their youngest lover's lips in another quick little kiss.

"Here you are, Sephiroth," Angeal handed Seph his only present. Even though the man wasn't expected to be present, the other four had still found it necessary to get him something. They would have given him his gifts whenever he did come home. Seph reached for it and neatly but quickly divested it of it's wrapping.

He'd been sure he knew what it was when he'd spotted it. It had been long and slim and rectangular. It had to be a blade of some kind. He'd been right, of course, but exactly what type of blade it was had thrown him. It was a katana. Not quite as long as Masamune, but definitely on equal footing with her and obviously crafted by a master. He was stunned. "Who…?"

"It's a legendary weapon. Muramasa."

That was all Sephiroth needed to hear. He knew everything he needed to from just that fact. He simply sat there running his eyes over the blade with adoration, appraising the fine craftsmanship and beauty of it. He managed to utter a silent 'thank you'. He met each of their eyes, the love for them prevalent in his gaze. They all looked back with equal love in them.

"Finally, It's my turn!" Zack cheered and grabbed up his gifts. He wasn't sure what could top the present they'd given him last year, but he was sure he would love it. Whatever it was, it probably wouldn't beat a puppy. He pulled over the smaller one first. Sticking his hand into the box, he pulled out two thick spiked collars, one teal and one a deep purple color with black trim. He stared at them, a bit confused. Were these supposed to be for him? He knew he was nicknamed Puppy but still… if they were for him he would've at least liked something a bit more kinky. Maybe they were for Azure? But then, why were there two.

"Yip!"

No way. Zack quickly pulled open the second box. It was almost as long as the coffee table and about as high. He was met with two glowing violet eyes. He grinned widely, knowing what he was seeing and entirely expecting to be licked by a slobbery tongue. Instead, he was quite suddenly tackled by an overly excited violet-silver furred wolf-pup. It looked to be just a little older than Azure and male.

"Another puppy for the Puppy," Genesis drawled with amusement. "A companion for Azure, so she won't get lonely when we're not around."

"He's about five months older than Azure," Cloud supplied. "Tifa found him around the base of the mountain one day."

"I love him," Zack's smile grew as he sat up and scratched behind the pup's ears. "I'll name you…" What should he name him? "Teru!"

"Are you sure, Pup?" Angeal had to ask. He was always a little wary about Zack naming things. With Zack you were never too sure you wouldn't end up with a canary named Bilbo Baggins or a Three-headed dog named Fluffy.

"Absolutely," he laughed when he was once again tackled and licked, "See? He likes it!"

"Merry Christmas, Zack," Sephiroth chuckled.

He was so entirely content at this moment. It was beyond perfect, being home and with the ones he loved on this day of all days.

Merry Christmas, indeed.

END DAY TWENTY-FIVE

AN: Off the top of my head in deference to the Shuffle Challenge :3 I hope you all enjoyed that as much as I did writing it, as well as all the drabbles I wrote counting down to this day. I wish all of you the happiest Christmas possible. I hope that all of you have your loved ones around you this holiday, but if you don't I still hope that you have a wonderful day. It's hard, I know, not having those you love close by on days like these. It's a sad thing. But I hope I was able to provide you with just a little bit of happiness with this Christmas Present.

From me to all of you: Have a Fabulous Christmas Day~ May it be Merry and full of Joy!