Merry Christmas! I have another Christmas one-shot that I hope to write before December is over but we'll see if that actually gets done or not lol. For now, enjoy this one!

Disclaimer: I don't own KH or Santa Claus.

xOx

FIRST SNOW

xOx

"Keep your eyes closed." I nudged Kairi forward and led her out of the gummi ship, my hands hovering in front of her face.

She wrapped her arms tightly around herself, "I'm trying, but it's so cold!"

"You'll get used to it after a while." I continued leading her down the ramp, almost reaching the end before saying, "Okay, stop."

Placing her hands on her hips, she asked impatiently, "So can I open my eyes now?"

I shook my head, smiling to myself, "Just hold on a second." Lowering my hands from her face and moving myself to her side, I said, "Okay, now you can look."

I watched as she blinked her eyes open, staring out curiously before a look of excitement took over her face. Turning to me, Kairi yelled out, "Snow!" I only had the chance to nod before she ran over to me and wrapped her arms around me tightly, "Thank you so much, Sora!"

I replied sheepishly, "I knew you'd like it since we don't really get snow on the islands and no regular present seemed good enough. So… Merry Christmas." I finished with a grin.

Kairi looked up and smiled back, "That's so sweet of you."

"You're welcome." I returned the embrace for a few seconds before Kairi released her grasp on me and stepped backward and bent over to collect snow in her hands.

Before I realized what she was doing, I felt the snowball hit against my chest and heard her call out, "Gotcha!"

"Hey, that's not fair! I wasn't ready!" I crossed my arms in fake annoyance.

"Too bad." She stuck her tongue out and started reaching down to make another snowball.

I quickly reached down to make one and tossed it at her while she was about to stand up. Giving me a glare, I smirked, "Now we're even."

Kairi shook her head, "Not at all." She hurled two snowballs at me.

I managed to dodge one, but got hit on my side by the other. "Fine, it's on!" I picked up a handful of snow and went running towards her. Kairi screamed, running away and attempting to hide behind a tree but the snowball still hit her in the back. She quickly retaliated, which completely missed. "Nyah," I stuck my tongue out at her. The next one nearly missed my head. "Geez, Kairi." I put my hands up defeat, "You win, you win."

She jumped up and down excitedly, "Yes!"

"Anything else you wanna do?" I took a few steps closer to her.

Kairi put a finger up to her lips in thought, "Hmm…" Her face then lit up, "I know! Snow angels." With that, she plopped downwards.

Smiling, I lowered myself down into the snow as well. Hearing Kairi call my name, I looked over at her, "Hmm?"

"You just do this?" She stretched out her arms and legs, moving from side to side.

"Yeah, just like that." I replied, imitating her movements.

After a few more minutes, she jumped up said, "Okay, let's see how we did."

"Okay." I repeated, pulling myself up and stepping back from my snow angel. Looking between mine and Kairi's, I commented, "Yours is a lot better. Mine just kinda looks like a giant blob."

Kairi giggled, "Yours isn't that bad. But mine did come out pretty nicely." She wrapped her arms around herself, shivering, "It's kind of cold now, though…" She dusted the excess snow off of her pants legs and sleeves.

"C'mon, I have a place we can go warm up." I extended my arm to her, offering my hand.

"Lead the way." She grinned, taking my hand in hers. As we started walking down the hill, Kairi caught sight of the lights from the town, "Oh my gosh! That little town is so cute." She looked at me shyly, "This is so much fun. Thank you."

"You're welcome." I kept my eyes on the path ahead of me, feeling my face grow warm, "I'm glad you like everything as much as I thought you would." We walked in silence the rest of the way till we finally reached the entrance of the town. Right away, Kairi noticed it's residents.

Feeling Kairi's hand fall back to her side, I turned to see her gaping, "Are those…Elves?"

"Mmmhm." I watched her in amusement.

"Does that mean…?"

"Yep." I grabbed her hand and began pulling her forward, "I'm going to introduce you to Santa Claus."

She hesitated, dragging her feet in the snow, "Sora, I can't—"

I stopped and turned around, raising an eyebrow, "Why's that? I'm sure you're like in the top ten of his nice list."

Kairi gave me a look of disbelief and laughed, "Not that. It's just—it's Santa. What do I do, what do I say?"

"Just be yourself." I shrugged, "What else is there?"

"I know you're right," She let out a sigh and ran her free hand through her hair, "I'm just nervous."

I let go of her other hand and put both of mine on her shoulders, looking into her eyes, "You'll be fine." She gave a light nod, letting me take her hand again. When we reached Santa Claus's door, I announced, "Here we are."

Kairi inhaled deeply and gripped my hand tighter, "Okay. I guess I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

I knocked once and the door was almost immediately opened by an Elf who greeted me, "Hi, Sora. Santa is waiting."

"Thanks." I replied with a grin.

"You can hang your coats there." The elf pointed to a rack to the side of the door before quickly rushing off to the workshop.

I nodded and called out, "Okay, thanks again!"

As Kairi was unzipping her coat, she asked nervously, "So you planned all this with Santa too? He knew we were coming?"

"Yeah, I came here a few weeks ago and talked to him about it." I took off my coat and hung it on the rack, already feeling much warmer.

"Sora, I don't even know what to say anymore. Thank you just doesn't even seem like enough." Kairi looked up at me sheepishly.

"Heh," I laughed nervously, "It's okay. You don't have to say anything; just enjoy it."

She smiled back, then looked up. Seeing her expression change to thoughtful, I stared in curiosity. "I know what I can do."

"What?" I questioned eagerly.

She wrapped an arm around my neck, tilting me downward as her other hand lightly grasped the side of my head. My eyes were still wide open until I felt her lips on mine and I finally realized what was happening. Closing my eyes, I lightly wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her closer as I returned the kiss. When we pulled away, I let out a quiet, "Wow." Scratching the back of my head, I added, "Well, that's definitely better than a regular thank you."

Kairi laughed, "I saw there was mistletoe, that's how I got the idea."

I looked up and sure enough, there it was. "Nice." I replied with a grin. "Oh, we should head for Santa's office." I ushered her forward.

"Right, right." She blushed, walking quickly through the hallway and into the other room. She stopped just before the doorway, letting me go in first.

I knocked on the door frame, peaking in from around the corner and announcing, "Hey, Mr. Santa Claus. I'm here with Kairi."

"Come in, come in." He greeted warmly, putting down his list.

I turned around, waving towards Kairi to step into the room, "Go on."

She flashed me a nervous smile before walking in and introducing herself, "It's so nice to meet you." She gave a small bow.

"The pleasure's all mine." Santa smiled, "It's not every day I get to meet someone who's never stopped believe in me, not even once."

Kairi smiled back, "I didn't let Riku get to me." She nudged me with her elbow, "Unlike someone."

"Hey!" I frowned, rubbing my arm, "I couldn't help it."

They both laughed at me, Santa adding, "It's perfectly alright, Sora. You know the truth now, that's what matters." Looking back down at his papers, "Any way, it was very nice to meet you, Kairi. But Christmas is very close and I need to be getting back to my work."

She nodded, "I understand. It was very nice to meet you too. Goodbye."

"See you soon, Mr. Santa." I started to head out the door.

"By the way, thank you two for making it easy on me this Christmas." I heard him say after I turned around.

I looked back, tilting my head, "Wha?" I glanced at Kairi, who looked just as confused.

Looking surprised himself, Santa replied, "Well, I know your delayed entrance was because of the mistletoe by the front door, correct?" Kairi and I smiled shyly at each other and nodded, "What both of you wanted most was just being with each other, and you made that happen all on your own. So thank you."

"You're welcome." Kairi replied, embarrassed, looking down and rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet.

"Y-yeah, you're welcome." I added, taking Kairi's hand and taking her out of the room.

Once we put our coats back on and stepped outside, Kairi let out a "Umm…"

"What is it?" I quickly asked, worried something was wrong.

"Can we have one more snowball fight before we head back home?" She grinned widely.

I smiled softly, "Of course."

"Thank you," She leaned in for a quick kiss, leaving me disorientated as I was still not used to her kissing me.

While I was mentally spinning, she of course took the opportunity to surprise me with one of her snowballs. "Kairi! Not fair!"