[Concluded] Kingdom Hearts - BOTR - Special Holiday Episode

[[XIII] Roxas]

"Uh-oh, Axel, you hit Isa," Xion ducked down behind the barricade to get out of the way of the imminent rampage that was about to begin.

Isa had a completely dumbfounded expression as he was struck by Lea's stray snowball. "I was going to sit this one out, but if that's the way you want to play it, don't expect me to go easy on you, Lea!" He grabbed up a fistful of snow forming it into a ball and charged onto the battlefield to lob it into Lea's face.

Riku, meanwhile, was struck in the back of the head by Apocalypse's overlarge snowball and that caused him to stumble, tripping over Sora who was still down splayed out in the snow, and then into Namine, although he managed to twist around at the last second so that when they hit the snow Namine landed on him and not the other way around. Then they heard the telltale whining from the once again appearing Zero with his sprig of mistletoe still in his mouth.

"Huh, looks like they got me," Riku gave a slight chuckle while laying there in the snow as Zero circled overhead looking entirely too pleased with himself.

"That's not so bad though, is it?" Namine gave him an amused smile.

"Heh, I guess not," Riku admitted while casting a vague glance up at Zero and then waving him off. "I know, I know. I haven't forgotten that part. I'm not dense like Sora." That didn't mean he wasn't blushing as he pulled Namine down to kiss her though. Honestly, it was a surprise that Roveth was missing all this.

Sora wasn't missing this. Especially not after Riku called him out for being dense like that. "At least I'm not rude," Sora pouted mildly. He finally managed to pick himself back up to glance over the side of the barricade. "It looks like Shiro is really getting into this... oh and Isa is going after Axel."

Roxas inevitably got hit by Shiro's sniping snowball and started to slide backwards behind the barricade, but then Crystal tried to help him regain his footing and then she got hit by the second sniping snowball and they both went down landing side-by-side in the snow, although they didn't seem to be too bothered by it as they simply started laughing. Of course, Zero was still hovering over Riku and Namine so he hadn't gotten to them yet.

"Come on, we've got to get back at Shiro!" Xion tried to motivate the pair to get back up. With Roxas and Crystal both down and Axel about to get the snowball pummeling of his life from Isa she was the only one left to defend the fort and that didn't bode well at all, although she did still toss a snowball or two in Shiro's direction before ducking for cover again.

"Okay," Roxas was still laughing, but he did manage to sit up so he could crawl back up to the top of the barricade. "Let's see what we can do about Shiro."

"And Apocalypse," Crystal added as she also scrambled back up to the top of the barricade to have a look at what was happening.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Axel of course blinked, and looked over to the barreling in on the field Isa, before grinning a bit "bring it on Isa, you're just making yourself fair game being in the middle of the battlefield!" he said, before riveting up his snowball throwing game, and starting to barrage Isa with snowballs now, taking a fair few as well during the fight, but cackling all the same. of course, this did not do anything to hinder things, as he still threw at Team Destiny Islands, and maybe one at apocalypse's direction nailing the poor guy in the eye.


Shiro would meanwhile eep as he ducked from the barrage coming at his fort now, with Apocalypse taking more than a few snowballs "yikes, i think we capitalized too much Apocalypse!" he said, while the demon sword sputtered on the one hitting him in the eye "Naw, Ya think!?! still, we aren't gonna take this lying down!" of course, cue Apocalypse making more snowballs, more his size and not the oversized one he threw at Riku, but still larger than Shiro's, which were smaller to have more speed anyway to show the varying difference between Apocalypse's power throws and Shiro's snipes, and yet it was still indiscriminate on who they aimed at, hell, Apocalypse even threw a few at Isa since he was now in the middle of the battlefield!  

[[XIII] Roxas]

Isa was taking his punishment and dishing out his own retaliation without complaint. And was that... a smile? No, probably a smirk. Probably about the closest anyone is going to get to seeing him actually looking happy for a change. His main target was Lea, of course, but he wasn't about to let Apocalypse get away with nailing him without taking a few shots at him and Shiro as well.

"Maybe we should get Roveth out here to help us," Crystal suggested although it seemed dubious whether or not he'd actually come out to help considering he was probably enjoying himself doing those workshop renovations for Santa.

"I'll try sending a few Samurai Nobodies to go fetch him for us and--" Roxas trailed off as when summoned the Samurai Nobodies totally ignored them and wandered off to begin making ice sculptures of all things a safe distance away from the ongoing snowball fight. "What the heck?"

"I didn't know they had this kind of hobby," Xion pointed out.

"Me neither," Roxas responded while staring off in confusion.

Of course, all this idle conversation was getting the three of them nailed by any snowballs that made it over the barricade.

"Okay, we really need to start fighting back again," Crystal glanced over the edge of the barricade. "Right now Shiro and Apocalypse are the main the threat, but Sora isn't out of the game yet... oh great, what's he doing now?"

Sora had jumped over his team's barricade and was rushing at Shiro, lobbing snowballs as fast as his arms would let him while issuing a needlessly loud battle cry.

"Sora, you idiot, get back here!" Riku called after him. He and Namine were back to watching the battlefield from behind the barricade now that Zero had flown off somewhere to hide himself again.

"It looks like he's taking the fight to Shiro," Kairi shook her head watching Sora go. Somehow, she just knew he was going to live to regret this.

"Looks like Riku is back in the running too," Roxas observed from behind the opposing barricade.

"Alright, new plan, we'll let Shiro have Sora while we go after Riku some more," Crystal decided as she prepared some more snowballs to begin tossing them in his direction.

"Sora has no idea what he's getting himself into," Roxas agreed while also readying some more snowballs to begin tossing at Riku.

"He's definitely going to regret it," added Xion. She prepared some more snowballs too, throwing some toward the Destiny Islands snow fort, but also giving Axel a little cover fire to give him a little bit of breathing room against Isa.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Apocalypse would easily take anything Isa threw at him, but given he was now sufficiently distracted it once again went to Axel vs Isa, with Axel giving no quarter at all to isa, even though with the extra breathing room he had more time to at least line up his double shots now while he could focus solely on Isa, though smirking seeing Sora pop out from behind cover like an idiot.

Shiro of course did notice the incoming Sora, and smirked "change targets Apocalypse, focus on the charger!" of course, Shiro would start supplying the snowballs, with apocalypse grinning "hey Sky-boy! CATCH!" with that, he'd be throwing large snowballs at Sora being supplied by Shiro, focusing directly on Sora and no one else, Shiro of course fueling the snowballs for pelting Sora's recklessness quickly.


Roveth of course would honestly come out to take a break from the work inside santa's workshop for the moment due to waiting on parts needing to be fabricated and brought in from Twilight Town, to see the chaos going on outside he would sweatdrop a bit and scratch his head ".... wow, and i didn't instigate this? well now i just feel like a third wheel." he said, seeing the carnage going on and all and just enjoying it as a bystander currently.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

Sora made a valiant effort to evade the first few incoming snowballs from Shiro and Apocalypse, but once the first few hit their mark it was all over. Sora went down and the snowballs kept piling up until he was buried up to his neck in the snow struggling to free himself.

Riku was taking plenty of hits from Roxas and Crystal both ganging up on him again, but that didn't stop him having enough time to laugh at Sora's misfortune at the hands of Shiro and Apocalypse. Of course, then he also noticed Roveth had come out to behold the spectacle of the snowball fight and that he seemed like he was feeling pretty left out and that simply wasn't going to stand so Riku did what he does best, he balled up another fistful of snow and lobbed it hard in Roveth's direction aiming to nail him in the face. "Come on Roveth, don't you think you've sat this one out long enough?" After all, someone had to provoke him into joining the fun and Riku was getting pretty good at pissing him off.

Kairi and Namine decided to leave Riku to his inevitable punishment from Roveth while going over to help dig Sora out of the snow so they could drag him back to the fort. Meanwhile, over on the Twilight Town side of things, the group decided to lay off Riku while Roveth was likely going to pound him into a snowbank and started focusing more on Shiro and Apocalypse again.

"Hm... even though Apocalypse makes them both an easier target, actually landing a solid hit on them is still going to be difficult since he's got so much throwing power," Crystal observed with a slight frown. "All we can really do is gang up on him for some good minor hits I guess."

"I guess we really don't want to be the ones to start cheating with magic since he'll probably go ballistic on us if we try it," Roxas had to agree. He didn't want to get buried alive like Sora just did.

"Then I guess continuous bombardment it is," Xion naturally seconded that.

And then all three of them started hurling snowballs at Shiro and Apocalypse, varying in size and rates of speed based on who was throwing them, but there were so many being thrown that it would be difficult for Shiro to do much to avoid all of them.

With the others preoccupied elsewhere, Isa and Axel were now locked in a real one-on-one snowball brawl. "You seem to be enjoying yourself," Isa quipped with an amused smirk between snowball tosses. "And here I thought you didn't particularly like the cold."  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Axel thankfully didn't need to dodge much "keeping myself warm with a bit of inner core temperature, besides, i only dislike the cold, i -hate- water even more." he said plainly, while continuing his assault, never giving in at least "least i'm not like Sora recklessly charging in on a fortress that's well defended." he'd say while glancing over to the being dug out Sora with amusement.


Roveth however had at least kept himself calm and amused, up until he got pelted right off his feet by Riku in one shot, causing him to splutter and spit out snow, before sitting up looking a bit annoyed at the fact that riku was the one dragging him into this "oh it's on now!" he said, quickly scooping up snow and flinging a decent sized snowball right back at Riku and continuing to barrage him much like sora was getting barraged, only slower, due to roveth also running to duck under cover and join Team Twilight Town.

Shiro meanwhile yelped, and fell backwards as he was similarly pummeled like Apocalypse had pummeled poor sora, smashing the rhythm he had going, though Apocalypse did focus his attention on flinging smaller snowballs again to snipe at Team Twilight town in return "Gah! we've been sniped! take cover~!" of course, Shiro was now scrambling to get back under cover quickly, so he could go back to simply sniping, now that punsihment has been dealt with to Sora for recklessly charging in.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"Yes, Sora was quite careless, wasn't he?" Isa was also rather amused by that. Not that he was anywhere close to letting up on Lea with his own barrage of snowballs.

"That's the spirit!" Riku called over to Roveth even as he was being bombarded with snowballs and countering with a barrage of his own.

Kairi and Namine finally managed to free Sora from his imprisonment in the snow. He was still squirming a good amount, trying to pull his way toward the fortress belonging to Shiro, but the girls each took him by an arm and bodily dragged him back to their fort before he could get into any more trouble.

"Honestly Sora, those three are making us look bad," Kairi pointed out with regards to team Twilight Town where Roxas, Crystal, and Xion who had been working together flawlessly from the start, particularly before when Axel was lending his services as a human shield lending to their unpredictable hit and run strategy.

"Yeah, it's kinda hard to compete when they really don't have any traitorous tendencies between them," Riku had to agree. It was partly his fault too for all those times he'd given Crystal those motivational speeches about how she needed to take charge as leader. Their cooperative abilities were even better than he could have ever anticipated. "We need to stir up some dissent in their ranks if we're going to win this."

"Don't forget, you just made that a lot more difficult by dragging Roveth into the fray," Namine reminded him.

"Ha! Bring it on!" Sora leaned over the barricade, flinging snowballs in an uncontrolled flurry toward Roveth and the opposing fort. "We can still take them!"

"Looks like Sora still hasn't learned his lesson," Roxas immediately changed targets seeing as Shiro was concealing himself again anyway.

"Or Riku either for that matter," Crystal shook her head. "Here I was hoping we could wrap this up soon so I can grab some hot cocoa from inside, but it looks like now that Roveth's in on the action we'll have to prolong this and knock that smug smirk off Riku's face while we're at it." She got pegged in the face by a snowball and stared in considerable surprise at the one who'd thrown it. "And now Kairi is getting serious too!" Oh, it was on now. Team Twilight Town was totally focused on Team Destiny Islands again, leaving Shiro to snipe attack whoever he liked at his leisure as they'd all stopped paying attention to him for the moment.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

of course, not being outdone, Axel would still continue, despite his arms growing numb and tired, numbness from the cold setting in and tiredness burning through em from all the throwing, but he didn't stop with his one on one duel either "i have a funny feeling that this will end soon and in rather spectacular fashion." he said, seeing that Roveth had now joined in on the snow fight, thankfully he wasn't using magic, but at the same time knew it was only a matter of time, since Shiro did say he was going to act as an impartial party between both teams when teams are even to ensure no shenanigans were to be tollerated.

Roveth meanwhile took the punishment from Sora rather gracefully, and actually pulled off the human shield tactic Axel had going rather well, but that didn't mean he didn't give what he got, as he aimed some spectacular throws right for sora's face and riku's chest area to keep them guessing on who he'd fire on next, especially aiming for Kairi and Namine when he saw a clear shot "I'M THE WALL, AND YOU CAN'T KNOCK ME DOWN!~" was his battle-cry, even if it was completely ludicrous and silly at least to be the main target due to making himself one.

Shiro of course took a moment to take that breather, with Apocalypse shaking off some of the leftover snow gathered from being barraged by team Destiny Islands "jeez.. you brats can be relentless huh?" he said down to Shiro, who snorted "only when we're too stubborn to lose, though i'm sure someone will get impatient soon and i can end this on a fair note." he said, while glancing over the fort a moment which did look like it took a battering from Crystal, Roxas, and Xion's barrage on him earlier "now... back to sniping, and bee indiscriminate." Apocalypse giggled, going to a smaller, thinner form then in this case, and picked up a couple more snowballs, and would while shiro hid, unnerringly aim for Roxas and Crystal with two, then Namine and Kairi with two more, before hiding once more rather quickly from the sniping.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"Oh yes I can!" Sora had grown impatient and finally forgot this was supposed to be a friendly competition. He snapped his hand out to his side summoning the Kingdom Key and pointed it defiantly at the opposing snow fort. "Freeze!" he declared casting Blizzaga to blast the hell out of Roveth with ice magic.

Roxas grabbed Crystal and Xion, dragging them both down behind the barricade when Sora finally lost it so they would all be safe. Roveth was going to have to fend for himself though.

"Sora, what the heck are you thinking bringing magic into this?" Riku berated his smaller friend while decking him in the back of the head.

"It looks like you may be right about this being over soon," Isa had to agree with Lea's assessment of the situation now that Sora had brought magic into the equation. That was definitely going to cause some trouble for everyone. "How about we call a truce?"  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Axel of course stopped when he heard Sora shout out the blizzaga spell, and winced, glancing over to the deadpanning apocalypse hiding behind their fort, knowing who was back there "yep, truce. besides, i'm sure after this they're going to need to pick up the Sora pieces... or dig him out of a mountain of snow..." he said, proceeding to drop his snowball he was about to throw, knowing full well anyone now being hostile with snowballs was moot.

Roveth of course went wide-eyed from being surprised by Sora's Blizzaga, and promptly sent flying away a Roveth-cicle and certainly KO'ed after that hit... which would alsp robably signal the end of the fight given no one else seemed to be firing any snowballs.

Shiro had heard the command, and saw Roveth go flying via the spell, and inside his mind, the black Shiro looked to the white shiro, and slapped each other's hand "Tag, you're in Black Madness, and take a page out of that golden b*****d's book." the white Shiro said, as the black shiro faded in starting to come to the forefront of the consciousness, Shiro's eyes would go from icy blue of rage, to blood red, and the arcane arrays spinning in front of each eye as the ground rumbled underneath him ,and out shot up a large pillar, with him quickly standing up on it as his hair temporarily went midnight black and spiked up into a flame like pattern much like Gilgamesh's own hair "you Wretched Plebean! how dare you break the unspoken rules of this snowball fight and caused physical harm to another person, my precious treasures... ZASSHUN!" uh-oh... cue golden armor forming on Shiro's body, and golden portals opening up pointing right at team Destiny Islands, as somehow, snow weapons and armaments would start poking out from the gate itself "For this Transgression, Team Twilight Town is the winner, NOW BEGONE, MONGREL!!!" he called out, before hundreds of snowball-style swords and knives began flying right for Sora at a machinegun pace, DEFINITELY much faster than what Shiro did to bury poor Sora with Apocalypse's help, and the possible force blows of each hit will definitely sting as well, as he was quite indiscriminate on where he aimed at Sora at this point.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

Sora went wide-eyed seeing the incoming snowball-style swords and knives while Riku grabbed Namine and Kairi, pulling them away from the area immediately surrounding Sora. There was nothing he could do to help Sora now and frankly the idiot had brought this on himself so he was just going to have to take his punishment. "Ow... ow... ow..." Sora's mantra of pain began as he started getting pummeled by the incoming projectiles until he eventually toppled behind the snow fort and started getting buried beneath the crumbling barricade as it was eviscerated by the barrage of snowball blades.

"That looks like it must hurt," Isa commented watching the carnage unfold. "At the very least those blows are going to leave some nasty bruises."

"Are you both okay?" Roxas looked to Crystal and Xion now that the threat of Sora's rogue magic had been thwarted.

"Yeah, we're fine, but Roveth wasn't so lucky," Xion confirmed.

"I can fix that," Crystal rolled over and held out her hand toward Roveth with a small flourish of healing magic that would serve to unfreeze him, "Esuna!"

Once that was done they would peak over the barricade to see what had happened to Sora. "Oh man, that looks brutal," Roxas winced a little on Sora's behalf.

"At least Shiro is holding back enough to just use snow instead of the actual weapons he's basing those designs on," Crystal pointed out. "It could be a whole lot worse. Still, I'd say the snowball fight is definitely over now."  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro, thankfully, would at least stop once Sora was buried underneath the barricade and probably unable to move from both the blades and the snow and all as he stopped the barrage, and dismissed the portals, before returning his hair to his normal white, and eyes back to normal blue in color, and jumping down off the pillar, which he did eye it and pulled out Kanshou, igniting a fire rune onto the blade to cut down the pillar to size and turn it back to flat snow at least, before dismissing the blade, and looking over everyone, making sure everything was fine now, Apocalypse was already back inside shiro to rest some as well as resume being shiro's 'heater' of sorts.

Roveth of course would ley out a yelp and curse as his frozen state was shattered, leaving him shivering a bit "Gah! f-f-f-f-f-freezing!" he'd say, before quickly using a Sparks magic card to set himself on fire, for some minor damage, but to also snap out of the shivering phases, of course, with that he would take out a Red Medicine card and poof it to potion form and drink it, regaining the life he lost doing that as he sighed "okay then... note to self, never be in a snowball fight with Sora in the mix ever again." he said, before getting himself up and giving off a small glare at the pummeled Sora before grumbling a bit "well, definitely ready for some hot cocoa before i get back to work in upgrading Santa's workshop..." he said, sighing and shaking his head with amusement.

Axel of course just cringed in seeing the decimation of Sora, and shook his head "i think that goes to show not just Roveth is overprotective of Shiro, but it's vice versa too, then again he was pretty vicious on Vanitas from what i heard during angel Grove for what he did to Roxas and indirectly crystal..." he shuddered a bit, shaking his head "oh boy.. i wonder who should tell Shiro about the fact Riku was an accomplice to the whole DiZ mess with Roxas? much less Crystal, i mean, mthey can't get at Ansem the Wise, but they -definitely- can get at riku..."  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"Shiro might not be aware, but I'd be surprised if Crystal doesn't already know about Riku's involvement with that," Isa pointed out to Lea. "She managed to access the files in Ansem the Wise's computer, giving her access to detailed information about his research on the darkness in people's hearts, the Organization, his secret reports, and even the reports left by Xehanort as his imposter. More importantly, she understood the implications of all that data she uncovered. Think about it, in the era she comes from, there was no record of the existence of Nobodies. Xehanort's experiments with the artificial creation of Heartless is what led to their creation, most likely. Roxas was simply a boy she saw sometimes in Twilight Town. She had no reason to assume he was anything different. Similarly, she had no basis for thinking Xion wasn't human either. Although, the more interesting part in all of this is the fact that she was insightful enough to realize that there was falsified data in some of the reports. She knew it was wrong. She had seen Roxas. And, being empathetic the way she is, she had sensed what he was feeling, when he felt sad, when he felt alone, when he felt scared. We kept telling him that as a Nobody without a heart he couldn't feel anything, but it was all a lie, a means of keeping the lower ranks within the Organization complacent so they would follow orders. I should know, as the former second in command, because I was spreading the brunt of that misinformation, even before being possessed by Xehanort's power. I'm sure Crystal must have known that too, but she never said anything. As much as she might hate what Ansem the Wise did to Roxas, she understands why it seemed necessary to him at the time, and while she might never forgive him I think she's probably past doing anything too drastic about it. As for Riku, from what I understand he was doing everything in his power to allow for Roxas, Namine, and Xion to all be able to continue to exist after Sora woke up, but of course he didn't have the right kind of power to see that through, especially not after the actions of the Organization forced his hand. And, obviously, Crystal doesn't seem to hold anything against Riku except for his meddling with her and Roxas after the fact of Roxas's reappearance. She must have wanted very desperately to be able to see him again, enough that her wish resonated with the goddess's power sleeping inside of her, and he was given this second chance to exist, and all without bringing any harm to Sora. Of course, once the opportunity did finally arise that they did finally meet again the timing couldn't have been worse, what with the rise of the Heartless Generals out to conquer the worlds forcing Crystal's hand into accepting her position as cosmic peacekeeper all so her new friends, not that she was forward thinking enough to consider them to be actually friends at that point, could continue to enjoy their peaceful days on the Destiny Islands."

Isa spotted Zero's outline over the door frame leading into Santa's workshop where everyone not working to dig Sora out of the snow was headed to get some hot cocoa from the eagerly hospitable elves. Roxas and Crystal had naturally taken the lead so Isa gestured broadly in that direction to make sure Lea would spot the mistletoe toting ghost dog as well, "But just look at them now."

Zero barked enthusiastically to get the attention of the pair as they walked beneath him. Roxas and Crystal both looked up, not really seeming to be particularly embarrassed given they had been expecting this would happen to them eventually, and giving a quick laugh to Zero's antics as he continued to bark insistently while floating up to circle overhead.

"Looks like he got us," Roxas was all smiles as he was fully inclined to be a good sport about this. After all, none of the others, with the exception of poor paranoid Shiro, were making any effort to back out of it.

"It's about time too. I was beginning to feel a little left out," Crystal was also looking pretty happy with this arrangement.

"I know what you mean," Roxas had to laugh a little at that before finally leaning in to kiss her properly. It wasn't going to devolve into anything crazy or extravagant since this was purely meant to be in tasteful good fun as part of the tradition and all. As such, it wasn't anything over the top and only barely lasted long enough that Roveth might have been able to snap a picture if he really wanted to and was motivated enough to get his hands moving to work the camera for it. Once they broke away from each other and headed in to see about getting some of that hot cocoa Zero flew off somewhere else to go about concealing himself in the snow again.

Of course, just because Roxas and Crystal weren't embarrassed and seemed totally okay with this didn't mean it wasn't awkward for some of the innocent bystanders. Xion had lagged behind when she first noticed Zero's outline over the door frame and she was blushing hard enough for the both of them. Riku almost missed it while he was busy digging out Sora, but he happened to look up at just the right time to see the pair kiss while giving off a slight smirk of amusement. Riku then glanced back down at Sora shaking his head. "This is going to take too long," he nodded to Kairi and Namine. "Go ahead and take a step back... and maybe have a Potion ready for once he cools back off."

The girls did as they were told, moving away from where Sora was still buried behind the barricade. "Dark Firaga!" Riku called out hitting Sora with the purple colored fireball and setting him inexplicably on fire while he was still covered in snow.

"Ack! Hot... hot... hot!" Sora wailed as he began running around in circles rolling around in the snow trying to put himself out. This naturally earned him a laughing fit from Riku and some suppressed giggling from Kairi and Namine. Sora's frantic yelling also got Xion to turn back around to see what was going on with him only to cause her to have to suppress her own laughter seeing him rolling around in the snow whilst still on fire.

Isa also looked unnecessarily amused at Sora's expense. "Never a dull moment."  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro of course -did- spy Zero the moment the ghost dog barked, narrowing his eyes lightly, before moving to take a -different- way inside, clearly -not going to get suckered into the tradition too easily, given he was the type to at least be observant of things, it'd take much more sneakiness to catch Shiro with Xion at least, but for now, he would at least avoid this round since Xero managed to get Crystal and Roxas instead. yeah, he was embarrassed however as he did catch from the corner of his eye the kiss roxas gave Crystal, hence he was quickly moving around to take another entrance into Santa's workshop as quick-like as possible to avoid both Zero, and anyone questioning shiro's blush and all.

Roveth of course blinked, and looked around while Zero got Crystal and Roxas, he did take a picture via a flashless noiseless camera though, for some holiday smiles. of course, he also caught a few pictures of Sora getting his arse set on fire by Riku for later blackmailing and laugh purposes as well though. cue smirk of amusement before sneaking inside quietly without being accosted by the mistletoe.

Axel had chuckled a bit shaking his head lightly with a smirk "and Zero strikes again, he's three for three it looks like, but getting Shiro is going to be the hardest." he said, crossing his arms while looking to Zero and motioned to head off, cause he wasn't catching Shiro now that he was aware of that entrance "both amusing and frustrating seeing him dodge the tradition like that though... i wonder why?" he said, scratching his cheek a bit.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"He's being awfully skittish about it, isn't he?" Isa agreed with some amusement. "Why, that kind of avoidance almost makes it seem like he's actually uncertain of his feelings and not just embarrassed to take part in the tradition itself. Now wouldn't that be something?"

By the time Roxas and Crystal stepped back outside with their mugs of hot cocoa in hand to go check out the ice sculptures the Samurai Nobodies were busy working on Sora was thankfully no longer on fire, although he was certainly comically singed in the aftermath. Kairi stepped forward to give him a Potion to heal away the damage that had been caused by Riku's Dark Firaga and once that was taken Sora was more or less back to his old self, although he was still going to be feeling the bruises from the pounding he had taken from Shiro's extreme snow-blades. The extreme temperature whiplash between being buried in snow twice and then being set on fire had also tired him out a good amount so Sora decided to simply wander inside for his own mug of hot cocoa without pestering Santa about his list for once. He was followed shortly thereafter by Riku, Kairi, and Namine. Xion was still inside with her own mug of hot cocoa waiting to warm up a bit more before heading back outside to see what was going on with those ice sculptures herself. The sculptures being made were Christmas-themed in design being shaped into pine trees, giant ornaments, gift boxes, wreathes, nutcrackers, and so on.

"Who knew they were so talented?" Roxas was genuinely surprised and rather impressed.

"Well, they don't exactly talk much," Crystal pointed out. "Still, it's nice to see them getting into the spirit of the holidays. And they look like they're having fun too."

They were of course huddled up together to ward off the cold, although the hot cocoa was also helping with that tremendously.

Meanwhile, a suspiciously Jack Skellington shaped snowman could be seen sneaking into Santa's workshop via the same alternate entrance that had been used by Shiro to evade Zero. This went entirely unnoticed by Roxas and Crystal who were too preoccupied with admiring the ice sculptures. It was also largely unnoticed by those who had taken the main entrance to get at that hot cocoa to warm up from the snowball fight, particularly since Riku was the only one actually spying out the window and his attention was more on Roxas and Crystal trying to catch a glimpse of anything he might be able to use to tease them both later. Although, the more he watched them, the more he was beginning to doubt whether he'd catch a glimpse of anything he might be able to use against them.

"They probably know you're watching," Xion pointed out to him seeing the way Riku kept glancing out the window and all. "They've been trained for that pretty good by being around Roveth all the time."

"While I wouldn't doubt that, I don't really think that's it," Riku smirked in mild amusement. "I think right now they really are just being that innocent. They certainly aren't holding back to avoid the attention. I mean, they weren't exactly shy about the mistletoe. It also seems like they've managed to get past that combination of awkwardness and desperation to make up for lost time that they kept stumbling over in the beginning. Yeah, I think right now they really are just taking things at their own pace."

"That's true," Xion agreed. "It's definitely been getting easier for them to just be together."

"Sora could really learn a thing or two by watching them," Namine added with some amusement as said person squirmed in defiance as Kairi made sure Sora was sitting himself down to rest after his ordeal in the snowball fight, in part, by planting herself firmly on his lap so he couldn't move.

"Wah! Kairi, what are you doing?" Sora flailed hopelessly.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm keeping you out of trouble," Kairi informed him.

"Um..." Sora blushed rather profusely. "Wouldn't you rather find out what it is the others are talking about?"

"No, I think I'm fine right here," Kairi smiled at him pointedly.

Sora gulped slightly and just sort of melted back into the armchair he was sitting in going even more red in the face upon realizing his exceedingly close proximity to Kairi.