'Twas the night before Beaconmas,
When under the starry sky,
Not a creature was stirring,
Not even a Zwei.'
Horati would have been pleased to know that he was the first of Team HRSN secret santas to wake up and sneak towards the small tree River had smugly stolen from the Emerald Forest with his gift for Noir. He grinned at the abundance of decorations exploded around the room where they had left them.
Next rose Noir, silent as always and invisible to anyone looking as her semblance increased the shadows around her. Silver's gift was wrapped up under her arm, the bright wrapping paper a stark contrast to her pyjamas, all black even now.
Silver had resist making it colder in an attempt to bring winter into the dorm but decided to wait till River was up so she could help him. Her present was easily hidden by his pyjama sleeve as he tried to carefully walk to the Christmas tree without bumping his head on the low hanging tinsel.
River nearly gave away the game by crying as her 3 alarms rang through the headphones. Luckily her love of surprising people beat her hatred for waking up and she grabbed Horati's present, stumbling somehow quietly through her stuffed santas and reindeers, mumbling choice quietening words in Greek to the darkness.
'Then from the dorm room,
There came a great bang,
It was loud enough,
That it could have been shot by a Yang.'
"Oiphos!" River yelped as she fell to the floor on her face after tripping on a bauble. The other 3 turned in silence.
The 2 boys shone flashlights over her face as she groaned and sat up, all 3 quickly hiding their presents.
"Noir, the abundance of shadows shows exactly where you are." Silver laughed at the black hole where Noir was stood.
"Ughh it's too early for big words H." River mumbled as she stood with a sigh.
"Sooooo, secret Santa I'm guessing?" Horati laughed and everyone nodded. "Not so secret eh?"
"Wasn't even a pun I'm surprised, also I said this wouldn't work, too hard to be secret santas when we live together" Noir shrugged "Could just give presents normally."
Horati grinned, "So Claus-traphobic Noir!" He laughed, laughing into his hand when he remembered how late it was as River joined him.
"There it is." Silver shook his head failing to hide a grin "Hey Noir can you just cover the bottom of the tree in shadows and we can just put everything down without seeing?" The shadows fell instantly as Noir was the first to put the presents under the tree, Silver following, then Horati and finally River, who limped slightly from the fall.
"So I'll see you all in the morning and we can guess who got us what." Everyone nodded at Noir as she let her semblance down and hit the bed and the 4 hunters fell into the final sleep before Christmas.
'A man dressed all in red looked at the tree,
"Why they've got their own presents", he shouted with glee
So he shouted proudly to beacon as he flew out of sight
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"'
"It's Christmas!" River all but screamed as she jumped from bed to bed, waking her team up in the process. "Wake up!" For once she didn't fall, even with all the tinsel on top of her Christmas pyjamas and light up jumper.
"Is today the only day you wake up early?" Silver laughed and she grinned and nodded as fast as possible, now sitting in front of the tree.
"Alright guys let's get this secret santa opened!" Horati sat down next to River, joining in the enthusiasm as they both grabbed their presents. Silver and Noir sat too and Silver opened his first.
The deep blue and silver boxset of his favourite show, Doctor What, glinted out when he opened the wrapping paper. "How did you get this!? It's super rare! Oh it's my favourite season too. This is so cool!" For a few minutes it was quite as Silver read every detail on the back of the case, looking at every episode, before he finally guessed who had got him it. "Oh this is super hard everyone knows how much i love this show. Hmm I guess… Horati?" He exclaimed but Horati simply shook his head, River already starting to open hers.
The much smaller package didn't curb her enthusiasm and the small piece of plastic that fell out made her grin massively. "Free noodles! From my favourite shop too!" The team laughed as she fawned over the gift voucher to the noodle bar in beacon town, as they did a pair of solid silver chopsticks fell out too which mad River even happier as she inspected the beautiful design. "Oh I think this is Silver, the chopsticks are my only lead?" Silver clapped twice and nodded, smiling happily as River punched the air.
Noir gently shook her vibrant blue, green and red present, an obvious nod to her usually all black ensemble which River had dutifully added a gold string of tinsel to. "Hmm already thinking River with the colours." She quickly got through the paper and pulled out a lint roller first, with a bright label 'for Zwei hairs and River glitter'. She tried it against the glitter that had inevitably made it onto her pyjamas from the decorations and it magically removed everything it touched. "This is amazing." Underneath was a book full of the greatest murder mysteries of all time, signed on the cover by the 2 authors. "Holy Remnant this is the best thing ever, I've been looking for this book for ages!" She ran across and put it next to her bed, the posters of horror movies having been adjusted with tiny santa hats by River earlier that week, or month, or maybe November. "River there's no way you could've bought this and not told me after this long, Horati was it you?" Horati shot finger guns towards her as he grabbed his present.
"You know it Noir! So mine is either from you of River," he gently opened the present as prompted by the fragile sticker. There was a large poster of the Hedgehog from the posters on his walls, but this one was hand drawn and painted. "Woah that's amazing," underneath was a smaller booklet which on closer inspection was actually a handmade Comic book, with 2 stories about the team and their future fights. "This is honestly amazing I can't wait to read it, and this," he held up the poster, "is going straight on the poster wall!" He walked up to his bed and tacked up the picture, leaving the comic on the table. "I'd recognize that art anywhere, thankyou River."
River looked confused, "No idea what you're talking about." Horati looked shell shocked till Noir knocked Rivers shoulder and they fell across the floor laughing. "Oh your face was priceless." They carried on laughing till Nora was heard running down the hall followed by Ruby.
"Foood!" "Christmas Lunch is ready!" They shouted and Team HRSN noticed the time and Silvers stomach gave an agreeing noise.
"Merry Christmas to the best team at Beacon, now let's go eat until we die!"
Merry Christmas to you two (You know who you are) and i promise i will do more HRSN in the new year- Tcshuss