Author: I'm having a block on my Halloween fanfic, as the season has already passed. So, I've started this Christmas special for all of you wonderful readers. Enjoy!
It was a little after midnight on December twenty-fifth. Kisshu hovered outside of Ichigo's window, watching her sleep. It was something that he could never tire of doing. Surrounded by the silence of the night, he sighed contentedly. He listened to the soft sound of her breathing, his sharp ears able to hear it through the glass of her window. He listened to the soft sound of the wind as it blew about the snow. He listened to the absence of sound. It reminded him of his home planet where everyone huddled underground to avoid the freezing weather. He closed his eyes and remembered. He hoped that everyone was okay. He hoped that they would survive while he was here. As he remembered, he felt like himself again. This mission kept changing him. He wasn't who he used to be. But at that moment, it felt like he was.
His serenity was interrupted by the racket made by something he had heard the humans call "jingle bells". His golden eyes snapped open in anger as he searched for the source of the sound. It was coming from somewhere above him, which seemed strange. Humans couldn't fly. They shouldn't be able to ring their stupid little bells in places that were above his head. As he searched, another sound echoed across the sky. This was the noise of merry laughter. "Ho ho ho!"
Kisshu grit his teeth and scowled. "Don't mock me!" he snapped.
The sound came again. "Ho ho ho!" It seemed to be coming from the same place as the jingle bells. Frowning, Kisshu rose upward and followed the noise. It led him to a rooftop a few blocks from Ichigo's house.
The bell sound had come from the harnesses of some strange creatures with antlers. Kisshu had no idea what they were called, but they looked like they might make pretty good Chimera Animas.
The laughter had come from a human. He was a very strange human, sitting in a vehicle that seemed like it was pulled by the antlered animals. The human was very fat, and quite old. He had red cheeks and a thick, white beard. He wore an outfit of red velvet trimmed in white fur. "Ho ho ho!" he chuckled gleefully. "Ho ho ho!"
Kisshu teleported directly in front of the old man and startled him. "I'll teach you to laugh at me," Kisshu said sinisterly. The alien held out his hand and generated a pulse of vacuum energy, stealing the old geezer's spirit. Kisshu smirked and looked at the white crystal in his hand. His eyes widened upon realizing something. "This is a very pure spirit. It would create the perfect Chimera Anima!" Kisshu smiled joyfully.
A motion from the back of the strange vehicle caught his eye. There was a sack stuffed full of colorfully wrapped packages. The movement had come from this sack. The sack continued to wiggle until something that slightly resembled Kisshu's own race poked his head out. The creature had skin that was about the same color as a human's; it was slightly paler than a human, but not as pale as Kisshu. His eyes looked human, as the pupils were round instead of slit. But this thing, whatever it was, had pointed ears just like Kisshu did.
The creature was wearing a green hat and holding a rather large package and looked toward the unconscious old guy. "Hey, Santa, I found the-" The elf dropped his package and stared at his boss in disbelief. "Wh- What happened? Santa! Are you okay? Santa!" The elf shook the old man and was extremely panicked to find him unresponsive. It was then that he noticed Kisshu.
"You!" the elf pointed a finger at the green-haired alien. "What did you do to Santa?"
Kisshu raised a single eyebrow as he slid the spirit into his pocket. "I only took something from him."
"That doesn't explain why he's unconscious…" the elf muttered, rubbing his chin. "Wait! You're a gift thief, aren't you? You knocked him unconscious so that you could steal all of the presents. Well, nothing doing, Buster! I won't let you get away with it."
"What's a present?" Kisshu asked.
The elf's face drained of all color. "You can't be serious."
Kisshu gave the elf a look of confusion.
"A present is…" the elf was at a loss to explain. He picked up one of the wrapped boxes and tossed it in Kisshu's direction. "A present is this. It's something that someone really wants that they get to have without paying for it."
"Ah, I see," Kisshu nodded. He sat the gift box down on the rooftop before glancing into the sack. "It seems like you have quite a lot of them."
"Of course we do!" the elf snapped. "It's his…" he gestured to the man in the red suit, "… job to deliver presents all over the world tonight. Tokyo was our last stop in Asia, and now thanks to you," the elf glared at Kisshu, "we won't be able to deliver to Australia or Europe or North and South America. Thank goodness that we start with Africa, or else the people there would have no gifts either."
Kisshu shrugged. "Not my problem," he turned away, preparing to fly off of the rooftop. He was stopped by a tugging on his clothing, and he turned back around. The elf had leapt out of the sack and was pulling on one of the ribbons that hung from Kisshu's pants. Kisshu cackled at what he saw. "You're shorter than Taruto!" he laughed.
The elf frowned and growled a bit. "It is your problem! If you don't fix this, you go on the naughty list permanently!"
Kisshu looked confused. "What's the naughty list?"
The elf huffed in frustration. "It's the list of all of the people who don't get presents."
"And why would that bother me?" Kisshu asked nonchalantly. He pried the elf's fingers from his garment and began to take off again.
The elf was getting desperate. He really needed this guy's help. An elf couldn't deliver presents all by himself! "Wait!" the elf called. "Please, help me! If you do, when we're finished, I'll give you anything you want."
Kisshu paused and turned around again. He cut his golden eyes at elf, and the elf gulped at the lust that he saw there. "Anything?" Kisshu asked.
The elf was scared, but he nodded. "Anything," he confirmed.
Kisshu grinned at the thought of Ichigo wrapped up in one of those pretty present ribbons and not much else. He envisioned his own hands untying the bow and blushed with excitement. "Okay! I'll help," he readily agreed. "What do I have to do?"
The elf sighed in relief. "You have to drive the sleigh. The reindeer will stop at every house that contains someone on the nice list. I will hand you certain gifts, and you have to put them under the tree that will be somewhere inside the house. Basically, you'll have to fill in for Santa until he regains consciousness."
"That doesn't sound hard," Kisshu mused aloud.
"Oh! You also have to drink the milk and eat the cookies that will be left out. And above all, make sure that no one sees you!"
"No problem," Kisshu waved away the elf's worries. The alien wondered what cookies were, but decided not to ask.
"Alright," the elf hopped back into the sack of presents. "Get in, and let's go."
Kisshu climbed into the driver's seat of the sleigh. "How do I drive this?" he asked.
"Don't worry. The reindeers' magic puts them on autopilot. All you have to do is slap the reigns when you're ready to take off," the elf replied. He added something, as though he had just thought of it. "Oh! Try being jolly."
"Jolly?" Kisshu asked.
"Yeah," the elf explained. "Be happy. Smile, laugh a lot, and stuff like that."
Be happy? That didn't take much. All Kisshu had to do was think of his reward. He slapped the reigns and the sleigh took off. Maniacal laughter filled the sky.