Author's Note: I posted this a few days before Christmas, in such a hurry that I missed a few minor mistakes. I also neglected to update it for over a month (bah...) Well, I corrected/edited/added to this chapter a bit, and the second chapter is almost done! It's also fairly long compared to this one, hopefully that makes it up to the few people who might have been waiting for it crickets chirp...So, enjoy!
It was but a few days before Christmas, and the Smash Brother's Mansion had not yet seen a single flake of snow. Every other sign of winter could be found; the grass around the house had lightened to the color of straw, and any outdoor source of water had thoroughly frozen over, but it still lacked the customary blanket of white to add the final touch.
Inside the mansion, however, the atmosphere was warm and comfortable, with sounds of movement and speech giving it the feeling of chaos that had become perfectly normal.
Chestnuts roasting on an open fire
Jack Frost nipping at your nose...
Link glanced around nervously. He hated singing, yet every year he found himself thrown into the "Annual Melee Men's Choir" only to be thrown back out again for his horrible singing voice.
...Yule tide carols, being sung by a choir-
"STOP!" Dr. Mario, the self-appointed conductor bellowed suddenly. "What's that horrible noise? It sounds like a broken chain saw with a roll of duct tape wrapped around the blade!" Link blushed, but the Italian doctor snapped his fingers and said"Continue."
As the singing continued, however, Dr. Mario walked around, listening to each individual singer as he went along. When he reached Link, he paused and rubbed his chin.
"Hmm..." he muttered, and Link braced himself for the inevitable. "'Allo, what's this..."
The plumber/doctor reached behind the Hylian warrior and pulled out a broken chain saw, with a roll of duct tape wrapped around the blade.
"Well!" Dr. Mario exclaimed, giving Link a playful nudge. "That's not something you see everyday, is it?"
Unsure of whether to feel relieved or cheated, Link forced a smile as the choir resumed singing yet again, only to be stopped within two seconds of beginning. Dr. Mario tapped his foot impatiently, looking sternly down the long line of fighters.
"Okay, now I know it's one of you people this time," he insisted angrily. "So now I'll have to listen to each of you individually. Link, why don't you start?"
Defeated, Link shuffled his feet and prepared himself for the worst. When he was finally ready, he opened his mouth...
-
Meanwhile, the Children's Melee Choir was practicing under the direction of a less-than-enthusiastic Pikachu. It was a small choir, made up of only Ness, Young Link, and the Ice Climbers. The twins and the psychic were happy enough, but Young Link hated singing, especially Christmas carols. He sulked during most of the breaks Pikachu gave them, and was tempted to ignore Nana while she spoke to him during the twenty-seventh one (which the frustrated Pokémon spent slamming his head against a nearby wall).
"Hi, Young Link!" she greeted him cheerfully. "How are you?"
"I've been better," the young swordsman muttered.
"Oh." She frowned, but quickly reverted to her former mood. "Well, at least it's almost Christmas and we get to do fun stuff, like singing. I like singing, don't you?"
"No..."
"Oh." she began to fidget nervously, before changing the subject. "Well, what do you want for Christmas"
"Nothing."
This last answer caught the attention of Popo and Ness.
"Nothing!"
"How can you not want anything for Christmas?" Popo demanded.
Young Link shrugged. "I dunno, I just don't."
"Pika-PI!" Pikachu commanded angrily. Before they could carry their conversation any further, the four children were whisked back into their singing positions.
During the last twenty minutes of practice, Young Link was painfully aware of Nana's gaze, which rested on him whenever the little Ice Climber thought he was not looking. His nerves were on edge by the time the dinner bell rang, and he bolted through the door before Pikachu could dismiss the choir, leaving the Pokémon's agitated cries behind.
"He's so weird..." Ness exclaimed as he watched the Hylian's green hat disappear down the long hallway.
"And grumpy," Popo agreed. Nana frowned thoughtfully.
"I think he's just sad," she suggested, and Popo laughed.
"You think everyone's sad" he pointed out, before turning to Ness. "Remember that birthday party she threw for Mewtwo, when his real birthday was three months off" Ness nodded eagerly.
"Yeah, and she dropped his cake on him!" Nana blushed as they laughed, and Popo wrapped his arm around her.
"Hey, don't worry about it, Nana" he insisted. "Compassion's a good trait to have. Come on, let's get some food before Kirby eats it all!"
-
The dining hall of the Smash Brothers Mansion was very large, but quite plain. The only decorations were an old chandelier and an extremely unattractive Sonic the Hedgehog centerpiece, which had been sliced, burnt, bent, and partially melted during many dinnertime brawls.
Efforts to make the giant room somewhat presentable had been abandoned a long time ago, and it was easy to see why. Table manners ranged from great to atrocious, with food flying in every direction: Bowser breathed fire onto his food before emptying the plate into his mouth, and Kirby simply sucked up anything unlucky enough to cross his path, catching Pichu on one occasion. Peach sat calmly between both of them, cutting her food into sections and making sure she was using the right silverware.
When most of the fighters were finished (which took all but five minutes), Mario stepped up to the stage on the north side of the dining hall and began testing the microphone for the seventeenth time that night. "'Allo? It's-a me, Mario!"
"We know who you are, damnit!" Falco shouted from his seat between Fox and Jigglypuff.
"Umm, okay then!" Mario replied, fingering the microphone stand nervously. "My fellow Smashers, I have an unfortunate announcement to make: due to the cuts in our budget, our annual Christmas tournament has been canceled."
"What?" Captain Falcon cried, but he was the only one to react. The rest of the fighters whispered to each other in confusion before Fox stood up.
"Umm, Mario?" he asked. "None of us knew we had a Christmas tournament."
"Well, we did," Captain Falcon insisted. "And I won it every year by forfeit."
"That's because you were the only one who knew about it, you dolt!" Samus pointed out angrily, before rounding on Mario. "And since when did we have a budget?"
"Umm...okay, forget I said that," the plumber muttered quickly, tugging at his mustache. "Because I have another unfortunate announcement: As you all know, Christmas is coming up."
For dramatic effect he created a pause, during which Luigi pointed out, "that's not exactly unfortunate..."
"Silence!" Mario screeched. "As I was saying, Christmas is coming up this week, and as you know, we all like to decorate the mansion during this time. No, that's not the bad news!" He added, as Zelda opened her mouth to speak. "The bad news is that our decorating and gift budgets have been cut, which means we'll have to - oof!"
Mario's announcement was interrupted as the angry Smashers began lobbing stale dinner rolls and forks at him.
"Hey, hey!" he protested, dodging a chair. "Don't shoot the messenger!" The throwing stopped immediately. "Thank you," the plumber huffed.
"Anyway, our decorating budget has been cut, so we can't buy a tree this year. However, Link, Marth, and Roy have offered to cut one down for us!"
"What!" Link cried, looking up from his plate and giving his younger self a chance to swipe his cupcake. Marth and Roy looked at each other; the only languages they knew were Japanese and Korean, so they had only picked up their names from Mario's speech. "I've never cut down a tree before!"
His protest was drowned out by cheers from the other smashers. Zelda beamed at him, Samus gave him a thumbs up, and Marth and Roy still looked confused.
"Great" he muttered, sinking further into his chair.
-
Where is it? She tore eagerly through another pile of laundry. The sun had gone down a long time ago, and the laundry room was so infrequently used that no one had bothered to install a light, making her search almost impossible. She finally gave up, and decided to check the one place she had not searched already: the kitchen.
It was quite normal to find Kirby trapped in the refrigerator at this hour, but she had not prepared herself to find someone sitting on the counter.
"Aahhh!" she cried, as she turned on the light and noticed the lone figure staring wistfully out of the window.
"Ahhhhh!" Link agreed, reaching idly for his sword and then pausing when he realized who had interrupted his moment of peace. "Oh, it's just you."
"What do you mean, 'just you'" Samus snapped playfully. "I was ready to sink your head in!"
He smiled and returned to star-gazing as she opened random cabinets, drawers and appliances until it was obvious that what she was looking for was not there. With a heavy sigh, she joined her friend at the window and found that her headphones were around his neck.
"Were you looking for these?" he asked, noticing her quick glance.
"Nope," she lied. "You can listen to them if you want."
They sat quietly for a couple of minutes, watching the wind blow away a few pine trees and a cow, before Samus decided to break the silence.
"Thinking deep thoughts, my stiletto-eared friend?"
"Nope," he lied. "Just thinking about cutting down that tree."
She smiled. "You aren't looking forward to that, are you?"
He shook his head. "No, but since I obviously 'volunteered', it looks like I'll be doing it anyway."
Samus peered up at the sky and discovered something of interest on the ceiling above them.
"Don't you love how our budget's been cut," she mused. "Yet someone found a way to put mistletoe up anyway?"
Link followed her gaze as she winked and added"You know what happens under the mistletoe, don't you?"
His face reddened slightly before he smirked and held out his hand. "Umm...friendly handshake?"
"Well, aren't we generous?" she accepted with a hearty laugh. Facing the window once more, she quickly changed the subject. "So, Dr. Mario kick you out of the choir yet?"
He nodded. "Twice."
"Twice?" Samus demanded, raising an eyebrow. "What, did you try to rejoin?"
"No, I mean twice as in, 'Link, you're fired! Twice!'" he explained, pulling off a perfect imitation of Dr. Mario's high-pitched voice.
"Oh."
They sat in silence for another five minutes, broken only when Samus leapt off of the counter, leaving it to creak under the absence of her weight.
"I think I'll call it a day, and you should probably be off soon, too. G'night" She returned his wave and exited the kitchen, feeling strangely disappointed.
He watched her leave before returning his attention to the cloudy night sky, reveling in the soft glow of the moon at the occasional star that twinkled through the haze. His concentration was shattered, however, when a huge farmhouse went sailing by, guided by the angry wind.
"Oh yeah," he muttered. "Definitely time to go to bed."
Did you like it? If you did, please review, and if you didn't, well...review anyway! I could use some feedback! Next chapter should be up shortly (and I mean it this time!)