The Planet Wishes You a Merry Christmas

AVALANCHE...the whole group of them, even Vincent, managed to get together for the holidays. The AVALANCHE members totaled 8, of course, 10 if you count the two kids, 11 if you count Shera. All of them had given gifts to everyone else, and somehow, nobody managed to duplicate anyone else's gift. Cloud was there, having been convinced by the majority to get his spikey self to sit down and enjoy Christmas Eve. But though he was there, he never really smiled. Material things weren't what he needed. Not really.

It's not that he was a Scrooge, necessarily, trying to take happiness away from others, he just had some trouble accepting happiness for himself. Still, he did his best to be reasonably participant in the holiday festivities. Fortunately, he didn't have to do much of the work. Tifa, it turned out, was doing most of it, holiday baking and all. Shera did most of the assisting with that mighty workload. And that was for the best. Neither the men nor Yuffie were particularly good to send into a kitchen. Not if you wanted to survive to the next day, anyway. Not that it was entirely true...Cid and Barret could do an awesome BBQ. But that wouldn't be till tommorrow.

Eventually, of course, the Christmas Eve party started to disperse. Not that anyone had their own rooms. Tifa found herself sharing with Shera and Yuffie, Cloud found Vincent, and Barret, and Cid in his room, while Cait and Nanaki ended up with the kids. And thus passed the beginning of the night...

Now, you can say there's no such thing as Santa, but...perhaps, in some cases, some other force might play the role.

For, after everyone had gone to sleep, a huge present appeared by the tree. It was a very odd present, too, because the wrapping was all green. A pale, glowing sort of green. The ribbon was the same color as the wrapping of the present. And so was the bow. On the package was a tag. It said, 'To Cloud, from Gaia.'

As luck would have it, Cloud woke up first. He felts something he couldn't quite explain, early that Christmas Morning. It was almost like being drawn into Whitespace, except...it felt more visceral and real then the experience of Whitespace. He somehow found his way downstairs, past his sleeping friends...until he saw the box. That box that...rather eerily reminded him of the Lifestream.

Then he saw the tag on the box, and concluded Lifestream was exactly what it reminded him off. But why on earth should the Planet have cause to send him a present? And why would the Planet need such a huge box for whatever it was it wanted to give him?

There was only one way to find out.

Unable to restrain himself, and not caring if anyone else was awake or not, he found himself unwrapping it. And as the ribbon fell away, he lifted the top off the box and looked inside.

The whole box collapsed into the Lifestream it was originally made of, and disappeared. But the contents with in it, however, did not disappear.

And suddenly, the spirit of Christmas became evident to Cloud, who had not known happiness in 4 years or more. But he knew it that morning, as he pulled his present into his arms.

The aforementioned present, still with a pink bow in her hair, opened her eyes. "Mer..."

She didn't even get the phrase out before her lips were caught, and she couldn't say anything at all. Of course, considering what Cloud was doing to her, perhaps no words needed to be said at all. Not with a kiss like that explaining to her that the Planet was right all along about what it would take to make him happy.

But it was a Merry Christmas after all.

This is very.... cute. Yes, I said that.

Awww... :fangirl: There that is out of my system. Great job! There are very few stories that make me squee!