Countdown to Christmas
Lady Moon-Chan
AN: Christmas fanfic challenge. Challenge can be found at FOS fanfiction(url: w ww. fos-ff. net, just delete the spaces). The challenge called for "25 one-shots, any anime, any pairings", so, lacking any real stories in the FullMetal Alchemist section(which isn't right, considering it's my all-time favorite anime), I decided to make this a FullMetal Alchemist book o' one-shots. Sigh. Merry Christmas, people. Feliz Navidad! Happy Hanukkah! Happy Kwanzaa! Happy Hanuchristmakwanzaa!
Disclaimer: Don't own FullMetal Alchemist, and I certainly don't own Christmas. I do, however, own the ideas for these one-shots. Except this first one. The idea for this came from hunting through my basement looking for those little to and from labels you put on presents and wondering what Ed's reaction would be, when he crossed the gate to our world, to the Christmas holiday.
Warnings: Language(for the one-shots Ed is featured in), yaoi
Rating: PG-13
Christmas Traditions: HeixEd
"Hey, Alfons."
The pale-blonde looked up from the notes he'd been writing(while muttering under his breath in German to himself). "Yes, Edward?"
The golden son of Hohenheim gestured at the snowy world outside the window of their apartment. "What's all that activity about?"
Alfons Heiderich faceplanted. When he picked himself up off the floor, he asked, "You really do live in outer space half the time, don't you, Edward? It's Christmas!"
Edward merely gave Alfons a blank look from behind his slim gold reading glasses.
Alfons's eyebrows rose. "You've never heard of Christmas?"
Edward shook his head. "What's it about?"
Alfons sighed. "It's a religious holiday, to celebrate the birth of the Christian messiah, Jesus Christ. And, somehow, the children's tale of St. Nicholas became part of it, too."
"St. Nicholas?" Ed asked, looking confused.
"The story is that St. Nicholas was a toymaker who gave such joy to the children in the town he lived in that he was given a mantle of immortality, so that he could continue to deliver presents, and with the help of the flying reindeer he was lent every year on December 24, he could deliver his toys to children all over the world."
"That is a child's tale. You don't still believe, do you?"
Alfons shook his head. "I learned a long time ago that it was my parents putting presents under the tree and saying they were from St. Nicholas." He came to sit by Edward in the wide windowsill, dangling one leg over the ledge and folding the other up to himself so that his chin rested on his knee. "But I guess it gives them some kind of comfort to believe."
"So who would one by Christmas presents for?" Ed asked.
It took Alfons all he had not to smile. When Edward talked like he had just then, it was a sure sign he was planning to do something pertaining to his question. "Well, Christmas is the season to be with family and friends, so I guess that would be who you'd give presents to."
"So I'd only have to buy a present for you then." Edward said, more to himself than to Alfons.
"Hmm? Why only me?"
"It'd be extremely awkward if I tried to send my father a present, considering the relationship we have, I don't know how to get a present to my brother, and as for friends...you're the only one a present could reach." He stood up and stretched. "I'm going out for a bit. We need anything from the market?"
Alfons shook his head.
Edward gave him a sad half-smile, put on his coat and left.
Alfons waited about four hours, then got up, put on his coat, and went out to look for Ed. He found the boy passing under a bridge(the pond had frozen, preventing the water from rising and filling the concrete shelter beneath the bridge[1), as a shortcut back to their apartment.
"Hey, Alfons. You didn't have to come out. I was on my way back."
Hiederich resisted the urge to bash his head against one of the nearby bridge supports, telling himself if he did, the bridge could break, and he'd have to pay a hefty fine when he could barely cover the rent and utilities from month to month. Edward may have been a genius, but he could be so dense sometimes[2! "Edward," he said. "You've been out four hours for one present. Anyone in their right minds would get worried and come looking for you."
Edward scowled. "Yeah, well. I couldn't decide what to get you, okay?"
Alfons's eyes widened. "Sorry, Ed."
Edward still looked angry, but then the anger turned to confusion as he stared at a spot over Alfons's head. "Hey, Alfons. What's that?" he pointed.
Heiderich turned, and gulped when he saw the familiar green-and-white sprig someone had tied to the supports of the bridge with red ribbon.
Edward poked him. "Oi, I asked you a question."
That meant he'd taken too long a pause for Edward's liking. "That Edward," he said, and he was proud of himself for making his voice so steady, "is mistletoe."
"Mistletoe?" Edward asked.
"It's another Christmas tradition. When two people meet under the mistletoe, they're supposed to kiss." He couldn't help blushing as he said the last words.
"Kiss, huh?" Edward said. "Well, best not to mess with tradition."
And since they were, in all technicality, under the mistletoe, Edward leaned up slightly and gave Alfons a kiss.
And the two were sheltered from the view of onlookers by the swirling snow.
AN: Ah! It is finished! My first FMA yaoi. I'm proud of it, too. It came out well. I think I want to write more Hiederich sometime. He really is kawaii, though not so much as Al or Ion-kun. Oh
[1 I'm not sure if there's a place in Munich like this. All I know is that I was basing it off the bridge and pond in my grandma's old development.
[2 This is my dad. According to family lore, in the first years of his marriage to my mom, whenever she sent him to the kitchen to get the milk out of the refrigerator, he'd look around like "Where's the fridge?" And he could make a computer do anything he wanted it to with barely any effort. He's a dumb genius, just like Ed!