I don't own Starship.

Hello there! This is my first story for Starship, so I'm a little nervous about my characterizations and whatnot, but I'm pretty happy with it. I basically got inspiration for this because—well—it's almost Christmas and I thought it would be cute to explore Bug's first Christmas with February and the Rangers. There is some mention of religion but not much and the full Christmas story never actually gets told, haha. It gets a little off-topic towards the end (more Taz/Up-ish than originally intended, so those who aren't fans ought to skip the last section…) but I think (hope) it still works.

If you're reading, thanks so much and please carry on! Reviews would be great and…er…have a very merry Christmas :)

Because It's Christmas

"February? Would you mind explaining this to me again?"

February rolled her eyes, dropping her hands and smiling at her boyfriend, "Oh, Bug. It's a Christmas tree! It's, like, the easiest thing ever!"

The confusion on Bug's face did not clear up. Slowly, he looked from the box labeled DECORASCHIONS in February's curly handwriting, to the green plastic leaves of the so-called Christmas tree. Bug had lived on Earth for many months now, and had hoped that he now understood all of the humans' bizarre habits and rituals.

Unfortunately, nobody had ever explained this Christmas thing to him.

"But—February—it doesn't make sense…" Bug stammered, "Why would you want a dead tree in the G.L.E.E reception hall? Why cover it in these weird doohickeys?"

"Because it's Christmas," February replied happily, "It's what we do."

"But why?"

February hesitated. Then she threw up her hands, "Dead God, Bug! You sure are asking really difficult questions today! Didn't they have Christmas on Bug World?"

Bug shook his head so hard that his antennae swayed long after he had stopped. February huffed.

"Wow. That sure is depressing, Bug. Did you even get presents?"

"Well, sure," Bug said, "We bugs gave each other presents all the time! Whenever someone went to the surface on the Overqueen's missions and came back alive, that was always cause for celebration! Just before I left, actually, Bugette—" he abruptly cut himself off, an odd sadness clouding his huge blue eyes, "Never mind."

February pouted; she knew he still missed that girl bug a little, even if he was her boyfriend now. "Oh, come on, Buggy, decorate the tree with me. It'll be fun!"

Bug eyed the tree suspiciously again, "I still don't get it."

"We can Google it later," said February dismissively, "Now come on. Grab some tinsel and wrap it around the tree with me."

Uncertainly, Bug reached down into the crate of decorations. His claw briefly brushed over the colourful spheres and the pictures with string pulled through their heads. Taking a wild guess, he picked up the doll of a humanoid with wings sprouting out of its back.

February cackled, a loud, strident sound that startled the Ranger in the red-and-white hat behind the reception desk, "No, Bug, that's the angel! It goes last."

"Oh," Bug glanced at this angel fellow again and dropped it unceremoniously back into the box, "Well, which is the tin-sel?"

"This!" grinned February, and seized the long, flimsy trail of fuzzy silver material, "Ta-da!"

Bug stared at it, "That's tinsel?"

"Yep!"

"…it looks like glowworm excretion."

The smile slipped off of February's face. Thirty seconds or so was spent in silence as she looked between Bug and the tinsel dangling from her hand.

"On second thought, Bug," she said finally, "Maybe I'll get Krayonder to help."

After being kicked off of tree duty, Bug found himself wandering the halls of the Academy, reluctant to return to his and February's room just yet. It was not just the tree in the front hall, Bug soon realized; lights and tin-sel and signs proclaiming Have a GLEE-ful Christmas! were strung up everywhere. Bug would be lying if he said he did not like or appreciate these decorations—he had always loved lights, and colourful lights were even better—but he simply did not understand. Had some event transpired recently that he had missed? Was every human on Earth aware of what was going on or had this madness only affected the Starship Rangers? Was Bug even a part of this, now that he lived here?

He briefly wished that Roach had accompanied him. His best friend would love all of these sparkly things. He would have loved the tin-sel, even if it did look like glowworm excretion. Roach would have known what to do.

Unfortunately, Roach was not here. Roach was with the Overqueen back on Bug World, where everything made sense and nothing extraordinary happened (until the Starship Rangers had landed, at least).

But that was what Bug loved about living on Earth. He loved being with humans, watching what they did and how they behaved. This new culture was fascinating to him. This meant that, even though he did not currently understand, he would learn everything there was to know about this Christmas.

And he knew exactly where to start: with his other best friend, Up!

Up was in the Commander's quarters, watching The Karate Kid with Lieutenant Taz, when Bug found him. (He narrowly avoided a spinning knife to the thorax for his trouble.)

"Evening, Bug," Up greeted him cheerily as he disentangled himself from a clearly annoyed Taz and lifted himself off of the sofa.

"Hey, Up. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt…" Bug started hesitantly.

"Dat's nice. Now deje."

Up cast a reproachful look behind him at Taz, who had now curled up with a cushion and was watching the film with a clenched jaw. Then he glanced apologetically at a meek Bug.

"Sorry 'bout her; she hates Christmastime, says all the fairy lights and good cheer give her the willy-nillies."

Bug leapt at his chance, "That's what I wanted to ask you! Up, I have literally no idea what is going on. Could you help me out with this?"

Up frowned and placed his hands on his hips, "Bug, are you telling me that you don't know what Christmas is?"

Bug blinked, "Um, yeah, I guess so."

"Well, Bug," Up proclaimed, reaching one hand down to pat Bug's back and sending the ant stumbling forward, "Whoops, sorry—if you want me to, I'll tell ya all about it. Taz, you—?"

"NO!"

Up and Bug ducked out of the room just as a second flying knife embedded itself into the wall. Up muttered something about not knowing where she hid all her knives as he led Bug down the hall back towards the reception hall.

"Y'see, Bug," Up began, "Christmas is something that's been celebrated for thousands—thousands of years here. Every twenty-fifth of December, we like to cook turkey and open gifts and be with our families and that's because—"

"But February doesn't eat turkey," Bug interrupted, "How could she—?"

"Well, it's not always turkey, is it? We just like to eat more than we should because it's Christmas, so we're allowed."

"That's what February said," Bug said sadly, "'Because it's Christmas'. I still don't fully—"

"Well, like I said," Up said, "Christmas is a special holiday. We've had it for thousands of years. Before the Robot Wars, our forefathers would put up tres in their homes and decorate them. They'd make huge dinners and buys everyone presents and sing and then listen to a speech made by the Queen—"

"I though you guys didn't have an Overqueen."

"We don't. She was the Queen. She was British."

"What's British?"

"A human from Britain. Keep up, Bug."

Bug shook his head in confusion, "Okay, go back to Christmas."

Before them, the end of the hall opened out into the wide reception of the Academy. Bug could faintly see Specs rifling through the box of decorations and February on a stepladder, grinning down at Krayonder as he handed her that angel thing. The fairy lights lining the ceiling made February shine multicoloured and Bug felt something speed up in his dorsal vessel.

"Anywho, it's been different since the Robot Wars," Up continued slowly, "Since trees are now endangered, we've had to manufacture artificial ones…and not everybody celebrates Christmas. You know about religion, don't you?"

Bug nodded. He had had most of the planet's history and more important cultural aspects explained to him within weeks of arriving at the Galactic League of Extraterrestrial Exploration. He had read so many Earth books on all the different subjects. He considered himself fairly book-smart about human life but seeing it—like he was seeing February reach up and balance the angel on top of the tree—was something entirely different.

"Yeah, yeah…and then there are people like Taz, who just plain don't like it. But it's just something we like to do in the middle of winter, to remind us that there is light even at the darkest point."

"Except in black holes," Bug pointed out quietly, still transfixed on the scene in front of him. February had climbed down the ladder now and was giggling at Krayonder, who, having noticed Specs turned away from him and bending down over the box, was now frozen and slightly slack-jawed. Up chuckled and patted Bug on the back again, once again forcing him forward a few steps.

"Well, Bug, there's a lot more to say about Christmas, but I think you get the picture," Up concluded happily.

"Uh-huh. Light, turkeys, black holes, I get it," Bug assured him distractedly as February looked up and waved at them.

"Yep. Well, it's also traditionally the story of the birth of Christ, but I'll save that for another day," Up smirked, "Now I better go make sure Taz doesn't hate me. See you later, Bug."

And with that, Up turned on his heel and strode back towards his room. Bug almost immediately snapped out of his trance and spun around.

"Wait. Wait, Up, who's Christ? Up? UP!"

That evening, when February wanted everybody to come and see the tree, Bug was alongside her, happily conveying to any Ranger that would listen the story of this remarkable man named Jesus and how pretty the decorations were now that he understood them, even if the tinsel did resemble the excretion of a glowworm. At some point, Specs and Krayonder had managed to rewire the PA system to blast Christmas carols ("February? February, I don't get these songs. Who's Rudolph?") and everyone was leaving the hall with a smile on their face and a bounce in their step.

"It turned out pretty good, didn't it?" a delighted February trilled, clutching Bug's claw as they looked up at the tree. At least, February was looking up at the tree. Bug had turned his head up to watch her instead.

"Beautiful," he said honestly. February squealed a little.

"Oh, Buggy, I'm really looking forward to Christmas now!" she exclaimed, before tearing her eyes away from her masterpiece and fixing Bug with a serious look, "What did you get me?"

Bug's eyes—if possible—widened further. I had to BUY her something?

"I—er—I—"

Out of nowhere, February cackled again, "Bug! I'm just kidding! We're going shopping tomorrow!"

Bug breathed a sigh of relief. Thank God.

Overhead, the final notes of Jingle Bells died out over the chatter of the Rangers. The iPad-23 from which the songs were being transmitted over the PA system whirred momentarily, before a new song began. Specs and Krayonder, now perched on the desk happily watching the Christmas tree, were unaware of what music was being played.

It was almost Christmas time
There I stood in another line
Trying to buy that last gift or two…

Commander Up, who had been contentedly watching his crewmates, suddenly went very still.

Oh sweet dead God, no.

Standing right in front of me
Was a little boy waiting anxiously…

Despite himself, tears pricked at the corners of Up's eyes; frantically, he rubbed at them, lowering his head to hide his face, but, if anything, it made it worse. His throat ached with the effort it was already taking not to sob.

Up had been making such progress lately, becoming less soft, less of an old gal, but this stupid Christmas song threatened to be his undoing. If anyone saw him—!

Abruptly, there was a pew sound, a burst of zapper fire, and then the hall went deathly silent. Tootsie Megagirl, who had been obliviously attempting to waltz his baffled and stiff wife around the room, jumped and turned, with the rest of the Rangers, to stare in the direction of the front desk. Krayonder, in his attempt to turn and see what had happened, nearly tipped himself and Specs off the desk.

Taz merely pushed her gun back into her holster and blew half-heartedly at the smoke now wafting from the destroyed iPad.

"I hate dat song."

Slowly, the audience turned away and began to separate and return to their dorms, murmuring about how annoyed Admiral Albain was going to be when she found out that the crew of Starship 15A2 had basically broken the public address system. A baffled Bug turned and asked February if this was a Christmas ritual as well; for once, February knew what the right answer was ("No"). Up scrubbed his eyes furiously and turned to Taz, who was surveying the mangled machinery before her indifferently.

"Thanks, Taz," he muttered lowly. Taz flicked her eyes up to him and—somewhat to his surprise—smiled.

"Feliz navidad, Up."

Congratulations if you made it this far :) Thank you!