"Come on, May, we've been Christmas shopping forever. Aren't we done yet?"

May laughed. "Max, you are such a wimp. It was your idea to go shopping in the first place." She closed her eyes and stuck her tongue out at her brother. "Didn't you say that you still needed Christmas gifts? Christmas Eve is tomorrow, so you better hurry."

Max grumbled as he followed his older sibling down one of the mall streets. He doesn't know how she does it but she can go shopping for hours and find everything in the first half. Max? He's down the first ten minutes. He just needs one present and he just hasn't found it yet. What does she want for Christmas anyway? He slid a glance to his sister who was avidly looking back and forth between shop windows. She's the type that either gets it herself or doesn't tell anyone; which is why it's so hard to shop for her!

"So who are you shopping for, Max?" May looked at him with a curious light in her light-blue eyes.

Max startled, thinking of a lie and coming up short he deftly evaded the question. "Uh, well, that's for me to know and you to find out! Hmph!" He crossed his arms and pouts like he did when he was a kid.

His sister looked at him like he's weird. "Uh, oookayy. Oh! Hey! Max! Look! It's Santa!" She points to the little corner of the mall all dressed up for Christmas. A big comfy chair with a child sitting on Santa's knee was surrounded with Christmas decorations. A big tree was all lit up with a bunch of fake presents under it to make it look full. He felt her tug at his arm. "Come on, Max! Remember we used to do that when we were kids? Let's do that again!"

He angled his head at her. "Please, May. We're too old to sit on Santa's lap."

She pouted. "You're never too old for the Christmas spirit." Smiling gently she tugged on his arm once again. "Let's go act like kids again, Max. Please?"

Rolling his eyes he relents to her begging. She pulls him over to the short line. When it was his turn she pushed him up to the mall Santa. He turns around to see that she didn't follow but grinned from her spot in line. Seeing people look at the older boy going to see Santa he tried to hide his burning face.

Looking into the Santa's green eyes he awkwardly stood next to the red chair with his fists stuffed in his pockets. Santa looked at him with what looked like a smirk behind the obvious fake beard. Max shuffled over and sat on the arm of the chair opposed to his lap. "Hey… Santa."

"Hi Max." Came the muffled voice.

Max's head snapped up. The voice sounded familiar. He leaned in and saw tufts of green hair peeking out from the hat. The green eyes, the obvious smirk behind the beard…

"Drew? What the heck are you doing dressed up as Santa?"

"Hi Max. Aren't you a bit old to sit on Santa's lap?"

"Say cheese!" They briefly stopped their inquisition to flash cheesy smiles at the cameraman. Not even as the flash died down Max went back to interrogating Drew.

"Yes, now answer the question."

"Is it really hard to believe that I did this out of the goodness of my heart?"

"Not when you're dressed like that. You're costume sucks."

'Santa' shrugged. "The mall's budget is tight. Is your sister with you?"

"Yeah she's—" Inspiration struck, Max could practically picture the light bulb over his head. "Hey, Drew, could you do me a favor?"

Drew gave a wary "Yesss?" through the beard. He didn't like that grin on that boy's face.

"I don't know what to get May for Christmas and she wanted to sit on your lap—well Santa's lap— like we did when we were little. Afterwards you'll tell me what she wanted for Christmas."

"What do I get out of it?"

"You get to have my sister sit on your lap?"

Drew just looked at him like he was crazy, but Max could see the reddening of Santa Drew's cheeks behind the probably itchy beard. Drew pinned him with a glare. "Just get off and get you're candy cane."

"But Santa will you give me what I want to Christmas?" Max said in a loud voice. He tried to make his eyes go large and puppyish too; it's more difficult to look cute now that he's older.

Drew's emerald gaze flickered over to the people in line. In a low booming voice he responded while his eyes tried to kill May's only brother. "Ho ho ho! Of course little boy! Now hurry along and get your candy!" In a whisper Drew said just before Max left, "meet me at the employee's lounge outside of Sawsbuck's Coffee at five."

Max collected his candy cane and signaled to May, who was making her way to Santa Drew, that he was going to do more shopping. She waved, letting him know that she saw him. He wandered for the most part, he tried to get into May's mind on what she wanted for Christmas but doesn't it seem the closer you are to someone the harder it is to shop for them? He was thinking about a contest ribbon case or something but she already has, like, two of them. Soon it was five and Max went off to see Drew. Loitering outside of Sawsbuck's he searched for the entrance for the employee's only door, he found it but didn't find Drew.

"Where is he? The mall's going to be closing soon." Max muttered to himself. Thinking he was going to wait for him inside he opened to door and saw Santa kissing his sister!

"Holy Arceus! What the hell!" Max could feel his heart stall in his chest as the couple broke apart and started stuttering out apologies. "I did not just see that! Holy crap, I did not just see that." Slamming the door shut Max slapped his hands to his ears to keep their voices out and to blank that incident out of his memory. "I'm just getting her a contest case, can't have too many of those right?"

A/N: Gah, sorry. I don't think this is that good but I haven't written anything in a long time and I just need to get back in my groove. Gotta start with small steps again. Small steps. I like the scenario but not the story x.x blarg.