But somehow, even with the fear that Syaoran would be angry at her for it, Sakura could not seem to smile. She decided that rest was the best thing for her. If she didn't go to bed soon, her big brother would surely give her a hard time about it. Especially on Christmas Eve! Sakura finally fell asleep, when the floor boards of her bedroom began to creak. At first, Sakura thought it would be Syaoran, as she had been dreaming, and she was about to jump out of bed to greet him. But common sense or hopelessness told her otherwise, and she pretended like she was still asleep.

It came as quite a surprise when she felt her brother sit on her bed.

"I always gave you a hard time about that brat. But... It was because I thought that he would take you away from me. And I could sense that emptiness inside of him, the clone that the other you loved. Instead, he became filled with love. He did everything he could to bring you back. Alive. Man. I really owe it to that kid, as much as I hate to admit it. But don't worry, I've got the best present in store for you." Touya stroked her head and then was gone.

Sakura, of course, was left in bed awake for the rest of the night, contemplating the confession and guessing what the gift could be.
************
"Keep your elbows to yourself, you vampiric giddy wizard!"

"I'm not a vampire anymore Kuro-ran, so if you've been experiencing a loss of blood recently you should really get that checked into."

"Mokona didn't do it!’Mokona has baby teeth,' is what Kurogane told me at Hogwarts. Baby teeth can’t cut paper!"

"No one’s blaming you Mokona, those two are just picking on each other like usual."

The four of them were literally squashed between four layers of red and green tissue paper, in an enormous brown box, covered by candy cane wrapping paper and golden bows. Don't ask how they all got in, Syaoran was still trying to figure that out. As soon as they had arrived in the castle, they have been surrounded by the palace gaurds, and Prince Touya. Then everything went black as the box closed up around them.

“Would you shut up for a minute,” Kurogane said to silence a rambling Fai (“Do you see three-foot long claws? Do I have any fangs? Are you color blind, Kuro-chan? Is one of my eyes not blue?”), “I think I hear people
coming!”

Sakura was descending the stairs, eyes widening with every step. How she wished Syaoran could be there to see this giant gift!

Touya led he too it and made a small curse. “Ah, I was supposed to have you blindfolded, with classic style.”

“No,” Sakura said enchanted by the glittering gift under the enormous tree. “I like it this way. Thank you, Touya!”

Touya laughed. “Squirt, you haven’t even opened it. I’m not going to give it away, but let me just say this: Whatever is inside there is ready to come out.”

“Amen,” Kurogane said under his breath.

“SHH!” Fai said.

“Shuush you both,” Syaoran countered.

“Syaoran, don’t encourage them,” Mokona said, squirming from in between them all.

[BREAK]

“That's odd.I hear…” Sakura said, as she pulled the paper from the box and untied the bow. Her fingers were nimble and it wasn’t long before the box was open. “You guys!”

“Surprise~” Fai shouted.

“We were supposed to say Happy Christmas!” Kurogane growled.

“Happy Christmas.” Mokona peeped, hoping to pacify the ninja.

Syaoran slapped his forehead. “Merry Christmas. It’s Merry Christmas! Not that it really matters now.” Syaoran stepped out of the box and rushed to the princess’s arms.

“I dreamed you would come,” Sakura said, holding back her tears of joy. “I didn’t dare to believe it was true!”

“I missed you so so much!” Syaoran said. He embraced her with all the love he had stored up from being away so long.

Fai began the applause. When no one else joined his corny response, his claps died awkwardly.

Sakura spun around to look at Touya.“Thank you, brother! How did you…?”

Touya shrugged. “It was nothing. They showed up, I just got them
wrapped under the tree. I knew you would like it that way the best.”

“I’m so glad to see you all!” Sakura said. She ran to the others to initiate a giant group hug. Fai pushed mokona out of the way to be the first in line.

“Come on, tough guy,” Fai taunted and extended an arm to Kurogane. Kurogane swatted Fai’s arm, but followed after them to contribute a pat on the back to the sharing of compassion.

“We all missed you too, Princess,” Fai said warmly. Kurogane smiled.

“Oh! Sakura, Syaoran has something for you!” Mokona said happily.

“He does?” She broke the hug and walked toward Syaoran. “Aw, he didn’t have to bring me anything. All of you coming here is the greatest gift in the worlds.”

Syaoran looked sheepish.”I wanted to bring you snow,” he said quietly.

“Eh?”

“The other you loved it so much. I wanted you to bring you something special, something you never see in the desert. But… well, as you might expect, it melted. It was stupid, I should hav—“

He couldn’t complete his thought because suddenly Sakura had pulled him into a kiss. "And that is my gift for you, Syaoran-kun."

“Weet,W--!”Fai was muffled by a Kurogane’s mitten.

Kurogane brushed his hair back and grabbed Mokona. “Come on, peanut gallery, let’s go find the hot chocolate."

Touya was more than happy to lead them to it.