Kingdom Hearts; The Dark's Keeper

Chapter XXVIII; Gifts From The Heart

X didn't know what was going on with this world, but he really didn't like it. They were in a dark and gloomy looking forest. There were boxes placed randomly that looked like Christmas presents but X wasn't focused on that. He was more focused on the way everyone's appearance had changed, and only he seemed concerned about it.

Sora looked kinda like a vampire. He had ashen skin and his clothes were all black with a set of wings coming off his back and a pumpkin mask on the side of his head. Donald was a mummy, his bandages missing around the middle so it looked like he was in two pieces. Goofy looked like some kind of Frankenstein monster, with a large screw coming out of his head.

X himself was wearing all black, save the long purple scarf wrapped around his shoulders and falling to the ground. He had long gloves tipped in sharp claws. His hair was falling in his eyes, covering the right eye entirely. Around his neck was a broken bell. That wasn't too strange, his biggest problem was the two cat tails and the ears he could feel moving on his head. He frowned, cutting his lips on one of his teeth, that had apparently sharpened as well.

"What is this place, and why do I look like I'm half cat?" X asked looking over his shoulder at his two tails that flicked in annoyance. Sora laughed looking at him.

"This is Halloween Town," Sora explained.

"I don't like this," X decided. His tails flicked again and his ears flattened to the top of his head. "I really don't like this."

"Huh?" Donald said. X glared at him but stopped seeing an even stranger thing than the group he was with.

It was the skeleton X had seen in this world a few times, now that he realized where they were. But unlike previous encounters, he was dressed in red. It took X a moment to register he was dressed like Santa Claus. X blinked a few times and looked back to the group. They didn't even flinch.

"Perfect timing gentlemen! Lend me a hand, won't you? These presents must belong to Sandy Claws. So I thought I'd better return them."

X looked up at the skeleton who had called out to them. He looked again to Sora, his tails flicking behind him. Sora crossed his arms looking at the skeleton with a frown.

"And you just happened to find them?" Sora asked.

"Of course, Sora. I'm finished with Christmas fantasies. You know that," the skeleton said calmly.

"But you thought you'd hold onto the suit?" Sora asked. 

"What, this? It's just a costume. And Sally worked so very hard making it! Come on. We've got work to do!" the skeleton said, easily deflecting whatever accusation Sora might have been directing at him. X followed behind as they picked up as many of the presents as they could carry. A few times he hissed as someone stepped too close to one of his tails. He even stepped on one a few times himself, it was hard keeping track of two tails.

"Oh, I almost forgot to ask. Who is your new friend?" the skeleton asked as they headed toward a circle of trees.

"This is X, we told you about him last time," Sora answered with a smile. X frowned, narrowing his eyes at Sora.

"You were talking about me?" he asked suspiciously. Sora nodded, looking away.

"Yeah, we were wondering if we made the right choice asking so many questions," he said. His smile was lost as he looked down at the ground. X looked away, feeling his face flush.

"Oh, I see," he said. He felt his lip cut on his tooth again as he frowned.

"Yeah," Sora said with a nervous chuckle. "Sorry."

"Please enough of that apologizing thing. It's not that big a deal," X said keeping his eyes off to the side. He didn't see the way Sora looked at him with worry. And he didn't want to see him.