Today is the 21st of December; just a few days before Christmas. In Mochinoki City everybody is getting prepared for the holidays whether it's setting up lights or going Christmas shopping. Today a black haired genius and blond haired idiot are getting Christmas decorations ready together. Zatch is currently working on hand craft items to hang around the house such as paper mache snowflakes and candy canes. Kiyo found out that the Christmas lights won't light up and is checking each individual bulb to find the broken one.
"Man this would be so much easier if I could use my answer talker ability." Kiyo thought. His answer talker ability can find the answer to any problem in an instant; all he has to do is think of a question and the answer comes to his mind. As amazing as this ability may be Kiyo's answer talker is unstable and hasn't yet learned how to use it on his own free will.
Unlike Kiyo, Zatch was having a blast. Zatch always loved arts and crafts so the thought of making all of these paper mache items and then hanging them all over the house for all to see made him overexcited. "Kiyo this is so much fun! Are you having as much fun as I am?" Zatch said enthusiastically.
"Zatch I have never been this happy." Kiyo said sarcastically although Zatch took his word for it.
Zatch stopped what he was doing to express his happiness to Kiyo and walked up beside him and with sparkling eyes Zatch said, "I can't wait to set up Christmas decorations! When all of this is done the house is going to look amazing! When can we set them up?"
Kiyo was almost at his breaking point and was so close to yelling at Zatch although all the annoyance he has faced up until now was nothing compared to how he was about to feel from Zatch's impatience.
Zatch couldn't stand it anymore, "Kiyo let's put up the decorations now!" Zatch happily yelled as he grabbed the lights that Kiyo wasn't done checking which caused Kiyo to lose his place.
Kiyo sat there in disbelief; he had been checking those lights for thirty minutes and had almost finished checking all of them. Kiyo's disbelief turned into unforgiving rage and with a demonic face he screamed, "ZATCH!"
Zatch's happiness instantly turned into extreme fear and shouted, "AHHH!" as he ran from Kiyo. Zatch ran out of the house only to slip on ice and land on his head.
After seeing Zatch cry Kiyo thought Zatch had learned his lesson and finally said, "Come inside Zatch. I'm going to show you how to check the Christmas lights. You do want our house to look nice don't you?"
"Un-Unuu." Zatch said as he silently cried from the pain.
They went back upstairs into Kiyo's room and Kiyo showed Zatch how to check bulbs with the multimeter. Zatch questioned, "Why do I need to check every bulb? Wont it be fine if only a few don't work?"
"Well." Kiyo started, "You see the bulbs interact with each other and create a circuit. When a bulb goes out it breaks the circuit and the electricity isn't able to..." Kiyo saw Zatch's confused face and realized he was explaining this to a child. "To put it simply if one bulb doesn't work the rest won't."
Zatch could see that, when he hooked the lights up to an outlet only to see them still not work, "Unuu..." Zatch said in agreement but questioned, "Why don't you do it Kiyo?"
Kiyo felt annoyed again, "Well I tried doing it before I had to go with mom to get a Christmas tree but somebody ruined all the progress I made. So now you can do it."
"Christmas tree?" Zatch said, "I want to help pick one out!"
"No." Kiyo said immediately, "We already talked about this. You're going to stay here and set up most of the decorations. You agreed and you were happy about it remember?"
"But, but..." Zatch protested, he didn't want to stay behind now because he knew checking the lights would be boring.
"We'll be back in a few hours Zatch. Be a good demon now." Kiyo said as he walked out of his room.
"Unuu..." Zatch managed to say. He began checking the lights as instructed but it was more painfully boring than he originally thought. By the time he checked the third light he childishly thought, "If these three work then the rest must work too! I fixed them!"
Zatch grabbed all of the lighting decorations and started setting up outside. The lighting decorations included: a Santa, a reindeer, a few candy canes, and hanging lights to put around his house.
Zatch grabbed a ladder and placed it in front of the house so he could start setting up the hanging lights and placed his special toy the "Vulcan 300" at the base of the steps. Zatch instructed, "Okay Vulcan, make sure you hold the ladder steady okay?" Zatch trusted that Vulcan could understand him.
Zatch climbed the ladder and reached the top. "Aha!" Zatch shouted. "Okay, now it's time to start-" Zatch was cut off from another voice.
"Hey Zatch! What are you doing up there?" asked a familiar voice.
Zatch recognized who that voice was; he turned around to face the person below and shouted, "Hey Tia!" and started waving to her. This was all a mistake because he shifted his body weight back a little but it was enough for the ladder to start falling backwards.
"Nuu?" Zatch said in confusion as the ladder started losing balance. Then once his fall picked up speed he screamed, "UOOOOO-" before crashing into the ground. Zatch didn't make the ladder slant against the house which led to his eventual plummet.
"Zatch! Are you okay?" Tia yelled as she run over to aid Zatch.
Zatch was underneath the ladder with his back facing the ground. His eyes were spinning but managed to say "Un-Unuu..."
Tia lifted the ladder off of Zatch and inspected his body for any harm. "Zatch you're hurt!" Tia said with worry in her voice, "Come on, let's get you inside." Tia helped Zatch up.
"No... I still want to... to decorate..." Zatch said, losing his balance.
"You can do that later." Tia said, trying to compromise with him, "But right now you're in no condition to decorate anything. You can barely stand-" Right when Tia said that Zatch started falling over but she caught him with her arms. Tia started blushing; she was holding Zatch.
"C-Come on, we're going inside." Tia embarrassingly said. Zatch knew he couldn't win so he just said, "Unuu..."
Tia led Zatch to the couch where she laid him down on. Tia inspected his body once more and discovered that snow hid cuts and bruises from her earlier. Tia went into the kitchen and brought back some band aids.
"Zatch you have some bruises but I'm going to make you feel all better, okay?" Tia caringly said.
"Unuu..." Zatch replied. Normally Zatch would be terrified at the thought of Tia treating him but this time she only had band aids at her disposal but then...
Tia slapped one of the band aids fiercely onto one of Zatch's bruises.
"WAAAAH! Tia that hurts!" Zatch screamed.
"Sorry!" Tia replied, "I'll be more gentle this time, I promise!" Tia then very carefully put another band aid on Zatch; making sure she took her time and put it on as slowly as possible.
Once it was finally on Tia asked, "Better?"
"Better." Zatch replied with a smile.
Tia smiled and made sure she put on every single band aid as softly as possible; she didn't want Zatch to be in pain. There was one last bruise on Zatch's cheek and Tia popped an idea in her head that would leave her blushing.
"H-Hey Zatch? Can you close your eyes for a second? I have something to put on your cheek that would make it feel better." Tia said nervously.
"Unuu..." Zatch replied. He was really scared about the possibilities of things that she would put on his cheek. He was so scared that he didn't even question why she was making him closer his eyes. "Will it sting? Will it burn?" Zatch questioned fearfully in his mind but then he felt something soothing and a little wet against his cheek. Then Zatch felt something being put over his cheek and realized it was a band aid.
"O-Okay Zatch, you can open your eyes now." Tia said even more nervously. She didn't want Zatch to find out what she just did.
"Thank you Tia! I feel all better!" Zatch announced but felt curious and asked, "What did you put on my cheek?"
Tia's slight blush was gone and was replaced with a bright crimson face. "Ummm... uhhhh..." Tia was trying to find a way to cover it up. She felt cornered until she thought of a childish excuse, "Oh, that was just my secret 'Tia Medicine'!" Tia was worried, she knew Zatch was an idiot but she was scared that maybe even he could see through this.
"Oh. That makes sense!" Zatch obliviously said with a childish smile. He believed Tia's story one hundred percent.
Tia was relieved that Zatch believed her but also felt bad that what he believed was actually a lie.
They then heard someone entering the house and they heard a noise that went, "Meru meru me!"
"Ponygon!" Zatch and Tia said together. Ponygon went out for a walk since Zatch and Kiyo were so busy earlier.
"Meru meru me!" Ponygon said happily as he walked up to the other two demons.
They spent a few minutes talking until Tia remembered Zatch on the ladder and asked, "Zatch? What were you doing on that ladder?"
"Well I was trying to hang up Christmas lights but I fell." Zatch said.
"Zatch... you're not supposed to have the ladder like that. It needs to be slanted against the house." Tia said as it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Nuu? Slanted?" Zatch said in confusion.
"Meru?" Ponygon said equally confused.
"I'm with a bunch of idiots." Tia thought. "Never mind. Just let me set up the ladder so you don't fall."
"Unuu! Thanks Tia!" Zatch said with a smile, "So will you two help me set up decorations?"
"Of course!" Tia said happily.
"Meru me!" Ponygon said confidently.
The three children went outside and Tia found out Zatch was a better visual learner because when she showed him how he set up the ladder compared to how he should set up the ladder he understood his mistake. "Wow an idiot can still learn." Tia thought as she giggled.
Zatch was back on the ladder while Tia was holding it steady because she was still worried over earlier events. Ponygon was happily setting up other outdoor decorations. After an hour had passed the three of them managed to set everything up successfully with the hanging lights above the house, Santa and his reindeer in front of the house, and the candy canes along the walkway.
"Yay! We did it!" Zatch announced.
"Meru meru me! Meru meru me!" Ponygon said joyfully while jumping up and down.
"I can't wait until night comes so we can see all of our hard work paid off!" Tia happily said.
"Unuu!" Zatch said, "Our house will be the prettiest one around!" he said proudly.
"Hey guys. Did you set all of this up by yourselves?" a familiar voice asked.
"Megumi!" Tia said as she went to give her book owner a hug. "How did the film shooting go?"
"It went smoothly." Megumi happily said, "And now that we got that taken care of you know what that means."
"Christmas break!" Tia happily announced.
Zatch's eyes started sparkling again, "Does that mean we get to spend more time with you guys for the holidays?"
Megumi looked up and thought for a second, "Now that you mention it I never did think about how I was going to spend the break. But it would be best spent with friends." Megumi looked back down at Zatch and said, "Yes, you can see us every day if that's okay with Kiyo's mother." Megumi smiled.
"Alright!" Zatch shouted with happiness. "Isn't that great Tia?" asked Zatch
Tia couldn't contain herself; she ran over to Zatch and tackled him into a big hug. "I'm so happy!" Tia shouted while smiling like an idiot, but a happy idiot nonetheless. Zatch returned the hug and after a few seconds Tia opened her eyes and realized what she was doing. She let go of Zatch and started blushing wildly but there was still a smile on her face as she pressed her hands against her cheeks.
A few seconds later they saw three people walking toward the house carrying a tree.
"Hey they're back!" Zatch happily announced, "But who's the other person?"
As they grew closer Zatch recognized the mystery person, "Ouuu! It's Mr. Sunbeam!" Mr. Sunbeam was carrying the tree from the front while Kiyo supported him from the back.
"Hey guys. It's good to see all of you." Mr. Sunbeam said.
"Hey Mr. Sunbeam." Tia and Zatch said together while Ponygon started running up to his book owner.
"Meru meru me!" Ponygon happily yelled as he licked his book owner's face.
Kiyo and Mr. Sunbeam went to the back of the house and put down the tree. "Thanks for helping us Mr. Sunbeam." Kiyo said gratefully.
"Not a problem. That's what friends are for." Mr. Sunbeam replied. Mr. Sunbeam was walking home from work when he found Kiyo and Mrs. Takamine carrying the tree home and decided to lend a hand.
Zatch wanted to put up the tree so he asked, "Kiyo are we setting up the tree tonight?"
"No Zatch." Kiyo replied, "Mom has to trim the tree a little bit and we're tired so we're going to take it easy tonight. We'll set up the tree tomorrow."
"Unuu..." Zatch said a little disappointedly; he wanted to hang up the tree today.
Megumi could tell Kiyo was tired; she didn't know how long Kiyo had to carry that tree but she could tell that he needs rest so she grabbed his hand, "Kiyo let's get you inside; you look really tired." Megumi said with a slight blush.
"Al-Alright." Kiyo said with a blush forming at his cheeks.
They went inside and chatted for a good hour while Zatch, Tia, and Ponygon played together until it started getting dark and then Zatch said, "Everybody let's go outside and turn the lights on!" Zatch really wanted to see the fruits of his labor.
Everyone went back outside to see the lights that Zatch, Tia, and Ponygon set up. Before going to turn on the switch Kiyo put a hand on Zatch's head and said, "Good work Zatch, I'm proud of you."
This made Zatch incredibly happy, "Thanks Kiyo!" It was rare for Kiyo to acknowledge Zatch's efforts so every time he did it was precious to Zatch. Kiyo flipped the switch; the Santa lit up, the reindeer lit up, the candy canes lit up, the hanging lights however remained dark.
"What?" Kiyo said in confusion. He made sure everything was connected and tried again but to no avail. Kiyo looked at Zatch, "Zatch you did check every bulb, didn't you?"
Zatch was in shock, "Unuu... I mean I checked a few bulbs and they seemed to work so I thought they all worked."
Kiyo snapped, "If they all worked I wouldn't have asked you to check them! ZATCH!"
"I'm sorry!" Zatch yelled in fear.
Everyone helped take down the hanging lights for Kiyo to check them once again and once Kiyo checked and replaced the broken bulb everyone helped hang the lights back up.
Once everything was set up again Kiyo went to go flip the switch, "Please work this time." Kiyo thought. He flipped the switch and everything worked perfectly. The house looked wonderful and Zatch was really happy at the results.
Zatch ran over to Tia and gave her a hug, "We did it Tia! Thank you!"
Tia was stunned, "Zatch is actually hugging me." Tia thought. She started blushing and returned the hug, "N-No problem Zatch. Anything for you." Tia said, the last part in a whisper that no one could hear. She was happy to be in his arms. Zatch released Tia to give Ponygon the same thanks.
Megumi and Kiyo stood side by side admiring the house. Slowly Megumi's hand was drawn to Kiyo's until their hands finally met and Megumi locked her hand with his. Kiyo looked over to see Megumi holding his hand and became nervous; seeing this Megumi asked, "Am I making you uncomfortable Kiyo? I'm sorry it's just that my hand is a little cold." the Idol lied, trying to cover up her desire the hold Kiyo's hand.
Kiyo felt Megumi releasing her grip on his hand. He gripped back and said, "No it's okay Megumi. If your hand is cold then just let me warm it up for you." Kiyo said with a smile and slight blush.
Megumi started blushing too and said with a smile, "Thank you Kiyo." Megumi looked back at the house and started to grip Kiyo's hand tighter.
Tia was watching Kiyo and Megumi and started feeling a little jealous, "Why can't Zatch hold my hand like that." Tia thought and looked at Zatch. "I'm sure he wouldn't mind..." Tia thought hesitantly as she started walking over to him until she stood beside Zatch and felt really nervous. Tia blushed as she reached for Zatch's hand and finally she was able to grip his hand.
Zatch felt something grip his hand, "Nuu?" He asked and then saw that a blushing Tia was the one holding his hand. Zatch then said, "Hey Tia! Do you like the lights?"
It seemed to Tia that Zatch didn't mind that she was holding his hand, "Umm, yea! I think they're great." Tia said as she tried refocusing on the lights.
Zatch laughed, "Yea me too!" Then Zatch wondered about something, "Tia? Why is your face so red? Are you sick?" Zatch asked worriedly.
"What?" Tia asked but then realized that she was blushing. "N-No I'm not sick. I'm just... happy." Tia said softly as her blush intensified.
"Oh, well Tia being happy makes me happy. Thank you for helping me today Tia; I couldn't have done it without you." Zatch said.
Tia felt all warm inside and was extremely happy. She felt like this whenever Zatch complimented her on anything, "You're welcome Zatch. I'll always help you with anything." Tia said softly.
After watching the lights everyone said their goodbyes and headed home. Megumi and Tia wanted to stay a little longer but didn't mind leaving knowing they would come back tomorrow. Megumi and Tia were back at their apartment. Right before falling asleep Megumi smiled and thought to herself, "I have a good feeling about Christmas this year."