Okay, this is my fist fic, so be nice. It's song fic for one of my favorite Christmas song ever, My Name Is Christmas Carol. It's really sweet, and I figured it would be a perfect Yu Yu Hakusho Christmas fic. Kurama is the only YYH character in this story, though. I may do another one next year, I may not. Who knows?
Disclaimer: I own nothing except the thirteen sheets of paper I wrote this one and the pencils I used to write it. And my finicky computer that I used to type this. Pretty much everything else belongs to someone who is not me. Although the little girl may just show up again in another fic. Don't know yet.
The lyrics will be in italics. And just for the record, some of the lyrics are spoken by the characters. They will be typed in bold Italics.
So anyway, on with the fic!
I was playin' Santa Claus
Downtown on Christmas Eve
Kurama blinked at himself in the mirror. Boy, did he look different in this outfit. He'd been skeptical that he would be big enough for this job, but the red suit was padded so that helped. (He could tell it had been designed so that even the skinniest of people could pull off this role.) And with the hat and white beard, he really did look like Santa Claus. The only thing about him that looked even remotely familiar was his emerald eyes peeking out from under the white hair and hat through the wire-rimmed glasses.
There was a knocking at the door then. A young woman in an elf costume stuck her head in the room and giggled. "'Santa', are you ready?" She giggled again.
"Yes, I'm ready," Kurama said in his best Santa voice.
"Okay, come on then."
Kurama followed the woman out into the mall, to a large red and gold chair in the middle of a North Pole scene, surrounded by a very large group of parents and their little kids yelling, "Look, Mommy, it's Santa Claus!"
Kurama smiled at them and did the best impersonation of Santa's signature "Ho ho ho!" that any of the parents or the woman in the elf suit had ever heard.
Kurama spent the next several hours listening to little kids tell "Santa what the wanted for Christmas. After that long and that many kids hopping up on his lap and sliding back down again, his knee was starting to hurt and the skin on his leg was just about rubbed raw under the suit. He looked up after a moment and readjusted his Santa Claus glasses, happy that there was just one more kid standing thee with an old woman who looked like she should have been the girl's grandmother, not her mother. But Kurama didn't think much of it at the time.
When a little girl of three or four
Climbed up onto my knee
The little girl struggled up onto Kurama's lap, helped along by "Santa" and the old woman. Kurama smiled at the little girl/ thinking how cute she looked with her blond hair hanging in bouncy, think curls all around her little angelic face.
I could tell she had a Christmas wish
Behind those eyes of blue
The girl looked up at him, big blue eyes shining. Kurama could tell that she wanted something very special for Christmas this year.
So I asked her, "What's your name?
What can Santa get for you?"
Still smiling at the sweet little girl, Kurama asked, "And what's your name, little one? What do you want Santa to bring you for Christmas?"
Kurama was expecting her to ask for a pony, or a baby doll, or maybe to be a princess (he'd gotten a lot of that today), so he was shocked by the child's answer.
She said, "My name is Christmas Carol.
I was born on Christmas day.
I don't know who my Daddy is,
And Mommy's gone away.
"All I want for Christmas is
Someone to take me home.
Does anybody want
A Christmas Carol of their own?"
The old woman smiled at Kurama's stricken face. "She's been rehearsing what she would say all month," she explained, smiling at the little blond child.
Well, all that I could say was
Santa'd do the best he could
And I set her down and told her
"Now remember to be good."
Kurama managed to halfway compose himself long enough to say, "Santa will do his best, little one," before setting her back down on the ground. "Remember to be good now, understand?"
She said, "I will," then walked away,
Turned, and waved good byeAnd I'm glad she wasn't close enough
To see old Santa cry
The little girl nodded, curls bouncing, and said, "I will."
The old woman took her hand and led her away. After they'd gone several feet, the girl turned and waved good bye at him.
Kurama waved back at her, thankful the child couldn't see the tears in his emerald eyes.
~*~*~*~*~Later That Night~*~*~*~*~
For the rest of the day, until he went to bed that night, Kurama couldn't get the image of the girl's face or her words out of his mind.
She said, "My name is Christmas Carol.
I was born on Christmas Day.
I don't know who my Daddy is,
And Mommy's gone away.
"All I want for Christmas is
Someone to take me home.
Does anybody want
A Christmas Carol of their own?"
What she'd said to him kept ringing in his ears. He had an idea about what he could do, but it was a big decision to make.
He laid there for the next hour thinking things over. By the time he finally drifted off to sleep, he'd made his decision. He had something very important to do tomorrow.
Early Christmas Morning
I got up and dialed the phone
I made a few arrangements
With the county children's home
The next morning at seven o'clock sharp, Kurama was up and running to the phone, almost crashing into his Christmas tree in the process. Once he'd found the phonebook and dialed the number, he sat tapping his foot impatiently until someone on the other end picked up.
"Hello?" He immediately recognized the old woman's voice from the mall the day before.
"Um, hi. My name's Shuuichi Minamino. I was the Santa Claus at the mall yesterday."
"Oh, well . . . I'm sorry, but what was this call about?"
"Well . . . I was just wondering about the little girl, Christmas Carol?"
Yes? What would you like to know?"
Kurama wrapped the phone cord around his fist nervously. "Well . . . I was hoping I could adopt her. Would that be possible?"
He could almost see the woman on the other end's face light up. "Oh, yes! Of course!"
They told me it would be all right
To pick her up today
Their conversation continued for a few more minutes
"So it's okay for me to come get her today?" Kurama asked.
"Of course. We'll have the paperwork ready for you when you get here."
"Thank you. I'll be there in about an hour or so." Then he realized he was still in his pajamas, which were actually just his boxers and a T-shirt. "Um, better make that an hour and a half."
"Is there a problem?"
"No. It's just that I was in such a hurry to make this call . . . I'm kinda sitting on the couch arm in my underwear." He sweat-dropped and rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.
"Oh, well . . . If you wear nothing but your underwear around the house . . ."
"Oh! No, it's not that! I just need to wash clothes today is all. I meant to do it yesterday, but . . . time kinda got away from me."
"It's all right," the old woman chuckled. "I'll see you later today then?"
Yes, I'll see you in a bit."
He took a quick shower, dresses in the only clean clothes he had (Which just happened to be black pants and a red coat that made him look like a skinny Santa. Oh, the irony . . .), and hopped into his car, stopping to but a new coat for Christmas Carol on the way.
When he reached the children's home, the old woman had everything ready for him. Kurama spent the next hour filling out paperwork. The ink had barely dried before the woman was leading him into a large room full of excited, squealing kids. Most of them were playing with toys he'd seen at the local Dollar Store, and some were playing in mounds of wrapping paper. Kurama guessed that the toys were the Christmas presents that the local's had bought and donated to the local stores.
He immediately spotted Christmas Carol sitting by a window, staring out at the falling snow. The girl's blond curls stuck out in the dim room like a yellow daisy in a bed of weeds.
"Carol," the woman called above the noise of the kids.
The little girl looked up.
The woman motioned her over.
The little blond skipped over, curls bouncing, a smile on her little angel's face. Kurama felt his heart melt when she looked up at him with her big blue eyes.
"What is it, Ms. Campbell?"
The woman knelt down in front of her. "Carol, this man just adopted you. He's going to give you a home, sweetheart."
She looked back up at him, eyes alight. "Really?"
Kurama nodded.
Christmas Carol cocked her head and stared at him for a moment before asking, "Are you Santa Clause?"
Kurama blinked. "Excuse me?"
"You're dressed like Santa."
Kurama glanced down at his outfit. "Oh. Well, no, I'm no Santa exactly. But you could say I work for him. He told me you had a special Christmas wish, and he made it my job to make sure it came true."
"Okay! What do you have behind your back?" She pointed.
Dang, the little squirt was perceptive.
Kurama whipped out the package he'd wrapped in his car. "It's something for you, Christmas Carol."
"Thank you!" she squealed. "And you can call me Carol." She unwrapped the little red coat and her eyes lit up. She squealed again and hugged the coat to her chest. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
"I was hoping you'd like it. I had to guess at the size, so I hope it fits." He picked the girl up in his arms.
"But how did you know I wanted a home?"
"Well, Santa said that you told him a special poem yesterday."
The girl smiled. "Really?"
And now my little Christmas Carol
Won't ever have to say
Kurama smiled and nodded, happy that the little girl wouldn't ever have to say her poem ever again.
But before he realized it, the girl was reciting,
"My name is Christmas Carol.
I was born on Christmas Day.
I don't know who my Daddy is,
And Mommy's gone away.
"All I want for Christmas is
Someone to take me home.
Does anybody want
A Christmas Carol of their own?"
Kurama had to smile again. The little girl was so cute, he couldn't help himself. "So, what do you say we go shopping? We need to get things for your room, and maybe some other things that you'd like for Christmas? Or a birthday present for you maybe?"
"I get my own room?"
"Of course you do. And you can have any theme you want in it."
"Theme? What's a theme?"
"Well, it's the main design in a room. Like a princess room, or Barbie, or-"
"I like flowers! Can a theme be flowers?"
Kurama smiled. "Yes. What kinds of flowers do you like?"
"Roses!"
Kurama could swear this little girl was after his heart.
"Roses? Then you'll love my house in the summertime. There are roses everywhere."
Her eyes lit up and she giggled. "Yay!"
Kurama looked up for a moment at the other kids in the room. "Carol, do you want to say good-bye to your friends before we go?"
Carol waved at the other kids. "Bye-bye, everyone!" Then she turned to the old woman. "Bye-bye, Ms. Campbell."
Ms. Campbell smiled. "Good-bye, Carol. You be good for your new father, understand?"
She nodded. "I will."
Kurama took Carol shopping for the next several hours, letting her pick out things for her room along with some extra Christmas/birthday presents, all the while sporting her new coat. Kurama was so glad that the stores in this city didn't close even for Christmas.
Eventually, the two made it back to Kurama's snow-covered house. As he pulled his sleepy new daughter from the car, he heard her mumble, "Daddy?"
He hefted her into his arms. "Yes?"
"You know, I didn't really think that I'd get my Christmas Wish this year. *yawn* Ms. Campbell said Santa's awfully busy, and he might not be able to find me a home this year."
"Well, that's why he has helpers like me."
"I'm happy he does. Without his helpers, lots of people wouldn't have a very merry Christmas."
Kurama smiled down at her. "No, I guess they wouldn't, would they?"
"But I am . . ." Then she fell asleep.
He unlocked the door and pushed it open. As he stepped inside with a a sleeping Christmas Carol in his arms, he said,
"Well, Merry Christmas, Carol.
I love you.
Welcome home."
Well, there it is! My first fic. And it's a Christmas fic at that! I just thought that it would be nice to write a fic about how we can always do something nice for others during the Holiday Season. It doesn't have to be big, like Kurama adopting Christmas Carol. It can be something as simple as sending a Christmas card, or even donating a one- or two-dollar toy for kids that are less fortunate than you. There are typically drop off bins in Dollar Stores (as mentioned above). And you know, it really makes a little kid's day when they get something for Christmas, even if it's just a little teddy bear. So please remember to think of those less fortunate this holiday season. Thank you.
So anyway . . . If you review, be nice. If you don't be nice, Christmas Carol will cry, and you don't want that, do you? If you point out any spelling mistakes, I will acknowledge them, but probably won't fix them any time soon. Sorry! If you want though, please review! Reviews are all I want for Christmas!