Once Upon a Mistletoe
a/n: Holiday story! Whee!
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters used. I'm sorry for misleading you.
Once Upon a Mistletoe
They were confused. Simply put. The Cephirans were confused. It had happened over night. Literally. There was fake snow in every spot imaginable, Clef's study had multicolored strings of lights everywhere, a rather large pine tree with decorations and even more colorful light strings in the entrance area and the smell of gingerbread wafted through the castle. The girls had outdone themselves this time.
The look on Clef's face when he opened his study and a fat man in a red suit started to sing and dance, was priceless. Completely priceless. Of course, after he had regained his senses, the diminutive mage had said some words in the Cephiran native language that would make a sailor blush.
Ascot gasped. The trees in the garden had this fake powdery white stuff all over them and lights. Lots and lots of lights. His friends seemed to have enjoyed it though. Once in a while, that stuff would fall from the trees and his friends would roll around and make snow angels.
Ferio spent twenty minutes playing with a snow globe. Shaking it up. Watching the snow fall. Shaking it up. Watching the snow fall. The only words that came out of his mouth was "Ooh...pretty..." and more shaking and falling occurred.
Caldina and Presea enjoyed this surprise more. They had found a secret stash of gifts wrapped up and bagged in pretty colors and proceeded to tear the ones with their names on it open. Of course, Fuu had caught the two by the time Caldina and Presea began to chomp down on a box of chocolate covered cherries and promptly rapped their hand with a tree branch.
Hikaru had discovered Eagle in the kitchen eating cookie dough. And lots of it, while Umi's back was turned. When Umi turned back around, the sugar cookie dough was missing and all that was left was the spatula and bowl, both licked clean. Umi sighed and made another batch of dough while Eagle had meticulously attacked the gingerbread dough. Umi turned, hearing something clatter to the floor, and...let's just say the next scene was not pretty.
Lantis and Lafarga had taken the shock quite easier than the others. Of course, after answering Clef's call, the two had went in search of those blasted fat red suited men and destroyed as many as possible until Umi had attacked with her own frying pan of doom.
Zazu however, was another story. He had found the eggnog cartons and well, went to town. By the time the girls had gotten everyone gathered into a room with another singing fat man, Zazu had gone through five and half cartons, and was clinging to a bottle of vodka. Geo had also shared in the eggnog fun, but decided against it after Zazu had drank all but a cupfuls worth from the first carton.
"Could you all please shut the hell up?" Umi asked, holding her frying pan menacingly. All the chatter went away, even the fat man seemed to have shut up.
"Thank you. You see, there's a holiday on earth called Christmas. It is celebrated once a year where people give and receive gifts by their friends and family."
"The little kids get gifts from their family and Santa Claus."
"Who is the 'Santa Claus'?" Clef asked.
"He's that guy." Hikaru answered, pointing at Dancing Singing Santa.
"He knows if you've been naughty or nice. Naughty people get lumps of coal and nice people get whatever they wanted." Fuu explained.
"He's also the deliverer of gifts on Christmas Eve, the night before Christmas where the kids put out cookies and milk for him to eat and drink before, during or after he sets out the presents. Then he leaves and goes to the next house." Umi said.
"How does he get in?"
"The chimney."
"How does he fit?"
"What's a chimney?"
"How far on earth does he go?"
"Hey::hiccup: beautiful, wanna ride?"
"all right, a chimney is where people light fires to keep their houses warm. He fits by magic. He goes all around earth. And Zazu, you're hitting on the Christmas tree."
"How does he get around the world?"
"A sleigh, pulled by eight reindeer."
"Dasher, Prancer, Donner, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Blitzen and Dancer. Sometimes Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Depends on who you hear it from."
"And since today's Christmas Eve, we thought we'd spread Christmas cheer here!"
"That sounds like fun."
"Can we help?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because, it's your first Christmas."
"But you guys need to go to bed. Santa won't come until he's sure you are all asleep." Each Cephiran bolted out of the room and the girls smiled to themselves.
"Time to make Santa's magic happen." Umi said once she was sure everyone had left. The girls spread throughout the castle, picking up Christmas presents from various closets and rooms, bringing them to the big tree.
The morning far to early in the Magic Knights case. It was about 1 am when they made it to bed and at five, an anxious Cephiran or three shook them awake.
"Umi! Umi wake up! Santa came and left us presents!" Ascot whispered. Umi's eyes fluttered open and she looked at Ascot.
"So?"
"It's time to open presents."
"Fine." she muttered, dragging herself out of bed. She grabbed her robe and slid on her fuzzy blue slippers and walked out of the room followed by Ascot.
"I'll be out in a minute. Don't touch anything." she said, going to the community bathroom to brush her teeth and hair.
"They woke you up too?" Hikaru yawned, reaching for her toothbrush.
"Yes, I never thought I'd see the day where Ferio would be up before me."
"That's a feat, Fuu. Even for Ferio."
"Do you think they'll touch anything?"
"Yeah. We'd better get out there." the other two nodded and all three girls walked to where the castle inhabitants waited anxiously by the tree.
"He ate the cookies!"
"And he drank the milk!"
"And he left us presents!"
"Go ahead and open them." Fuu said, settling down in an armchair. Umi walked out of the room to come back in shortly carrying three mugs of coffee.
"Hey! This looks like me!" Caldina said as she held up a paper doll Caldina ornament.
"And this looks like me!" Each Cephiran held up their paper doll selves to show the knights.
"Merry Christmas you lot."
Within the next five minutes the floor was covered in wrapping paper, ribbons, bows, tissue paper and discarded boxes.
"Pu?" Mokona puued. He was pointing up at the door frame where a small leaf like thing hung down.
"What's that?" Geo asked, standing under it.
"Mistletoe. Its a tradition on Earth when a couple stands under the mistletoe they kiss." Umi explained, pushing Fuu and Ferio under it. Fuu turned red as Ferio pecked her on the lips.
"Like that?"
"Exactly like that." Over the course of the next few minutes, Caldina and Lafarga had found themselves under the mistletoe frequently. A few unplanned scenes between a stuttering Ascot and an ever so cooking Umi had been a sight for those who wanted a good laugh when Ascot turned red as Umi kissed him on the cheek Even Hikaru, Eagle and Lantis found themselves in a threesome-ish situation. Presea had managed to get the nerve to pull Clef over to her and kiss him. Of course, Mokona had gotten Primera under the mistletoe and...
The rest of the story was all she wrote.
...Fin
a/n: And happy holidays to you all. Bye bye!