It was Seedos's first Christmas since he came out of the swamp. His first time waking up in his old bedroom for however many years it was. He blinked, almost hardly believing this was real. But it was. He sat up, looking around the room. It was a small room, underground with walls made of the roots of the tree his family lived in, wooden planks to fill the gaps and various crayon drawings of Shellybeans scattered all over. The floor was wooden too, with a small patterned rug at his feet. He was sat on the bottom bunk of a bunk bed. His bed, he supposed, even though it wasn't really, not anymore. Then there was the bookshelf, with a mix of children's books and gardening manuals scattered on it. Lying next to it was his seed pack. He immediately got up and stepped over to it, looking inside, murmuring merry Christmas's to all of his seeds. They seemed happy. Seedos smiled. He stood up and noticed he was covered in dust, as the whole room was coated in a thick layer of it, which was only natural, this room hadn't been touched in years after all.
He wandered over to the door, stepping over all the dusty clutter that was his and Stardos's old toys. Dastardos, he corrected himself. Stardos was Dastardos now. He stopped at the door, trying to push his now evil brother out of his mind.
He was the only one who knew who Dastardos was, apart from Pester. When the Ruffians had attacked the garden he ran off to find Stardos, and instead found Dastardos. His brother had then proceeded to snatch one of his shellybeans, shoving a sour sweet into it's mouth, creating the first sour piñata. Seedos had ran away, terrified that the same fate would come to his other Shellybeans. He'd ended up in the swamp and that's where he stayed.
He scowled at himself. No! He wasn't going to think about Dastardos. Not today. It was Christmas. Christmas with his family. No matter how unreliable and annoying they could be, they were still his family and it was still christmas. He wasn't going to let the Reaper take that from him.
Determined to have a good Christmas, he opened the door and went upstairs into the living room, grabbing the seed patterned stocking that was hung on the door handle on his way.
Seedos was actually having a good time! They were opening all their presents and despite the odd looks whenever he talked about seeds, some snarky comments from Jardiniero and getting a large bar of soap from Leafos, he was having fun so far. Storkos had gotten him a set of shellybean christmas jumpers, and Jardiniero had gotten him a survival cookbook. That had made Seedos smile, maybe his father cared after all, deep, deep down.
"Hey, what's this?" Storkos spoke up suddenly, holding up a present. Seedos leaned over to look at it, because it just looked like a normal present. Leafos turned away, embarrassed. "A-ah, That's..." She bit her nails nervously as Seedos finally realised what was wrong.
On the label, were the words "To Stardos."
Seedos gasped and snatched the present, ignoring his father scolding him for snatching, and looked at the label again to make sure he'd read that right. Storkos turned to Leafos, looking confused. "Leafos, Stardos is... Not here. Why is there a present for him?" Leafos fiddled with her pigtails. "You never know... I mean Si-Seedos came back, so who's to say Stardos isn't still out there as well! I-I was hoping that the magic of christmas would somehow get his present to him..."
Seedos raised his eyebrows, he seriously doubted that Dastardos would accept the gift... Storkos however, grinned. "Oh yeah! That's a great idea Leafos. And here I thought I was the optimistic one!" Leafos smiled. "Christmas is all about hope." Jardiniero sighed and pulled a present out of his beard. "I got one for your mother as well..." Seedos's eyebrows raised even higher at that. He knew Stardos was still around murdering sick piñata, but his mother was most likely a skeleton at the bottom of the ocean. He can't have possibly inspired that much hope just by showing up, could he?
Leafos then grabbed a blank christmas card off of a shelf. "I was actually hoping we could maybe write a christmas card to go with it." Storkos nodded enthusiastically "Yeah, then if he does get it, he'll know who it's from!" Jardiniero grumbled something under his breath, and Seedos stayed sent as Leafos and Storkos began scribbling on the card. When they'd thrown it into his hands he signed it, and Jardiniero signed as well.
Seedos looked at his sisters' hopeful faces as he handed back the card, and he felt a sudden wave of fear.
He would have to be the christmas magic that gets Stardos his present.
Seedos shivered as he exited the tree that night. And not from the cold.
He trudged through the snow in his tattered wellies, small flecks of the falling snow landing on his big winter poncho. He stopped in the middle of the wreck that was the old garden, looking at his tree.
He'd snuck the present for Stardos out from under the tree into his seed pack while getting ready to leave after christmas dinner, and maybe it was just him but his pack felt much heavier than usual. He shivered again, making sure nobody was looking as he headed over to a tree that was most certainly not his. He was shaking completely now, a sudden panic making him hesitate. What if Dastardos thought that Seedos had told everyone who he is? What if he laughed in his face and smashed the present like a sick piñata? What if he simply attacked him for daring to knock on his tree? Should he just leave the present outside the tree? No, then he'd be more likely to think Seedos had told everyone, if someone else didn't find it first and put two and two together. No, he'd have to knock. He gulped, silently praying that his seeds would be okay if he died, and knocked.
Seedos was shaking now, his heart quickened and his stomach clenched. There's still time to go back! Just run away and pretend you were never here!
But it was too late. Dastardos's lopsided glowing eyes appeared behind the curtains. Seedos felt his knees go weak as his brother opened the curtains, glaring at him. "What do you want?" He snapped, his high pitched voice cutting right to the chase. He sounded nothing like Stardos used to.
"Uhh, well I, I mean, s-since I came out of the swamp, uh, apparently Leafos has hope you-I mean, Stardos, is still alive, and kind of uh got a present. They said stuff about the 'magic of christmas' and I just... Here" he rambled as he pulled out the wrapped box and card out of his backpack.
Dastardos looked between the gift and Seedos, studying his face. The present was wrapped in snowflake patterned wrapping paper, and the card was taped on top and had Stardos written on it in Storkos's handwriting (who always preferred writing in all caps) after deciding that Seedos was sincere and that his brother was still the only one who knew who he was he tentatively grabbed the box, gripping it roughly but cautiously. He then turned around and floated back into his tree, leaving Seedos in the cold without a single word.
When the ends of Dastardos's scarf disappeared into the darkness of the tree Seedos frowned. Of all the things he was expecting it wasn't it. When he'd thought about if Dastardos did accept the present he'd say something like "now get lost!" Or question him about his sincerity, or take it and kill Seedos anyway, or, God forbid, say something nice like "Merry Christmas"
But no, he just... Took the present... And left...
Seedos was suddenly aware of how cold it was after a few minutes of standing there. Suddenly realising his precious seeds must be freezing by now and turned around to head back into his swamp...
Dastardos sat on the tattered sofa he had inside his tree, staring at the gift. He hadn't even realised Christmas was today. Or was it Christmas Eve today? Not that it mattered. He picked up the card, tearing the wrapping paper as he pulled at the tape that had been used to stick the two things together. He examined the card all over, it was a plain white envelope with light patterns around the edges. He read the name written on it in capital letters again. Stardos.
What on earth would drive them to get a christmas present for someone who was presumed dead? Heck Stardos was dead in a way, he had been corrupted and twisted into Dastardos. But did they honestly think just because one brother came back that the other miraculously would too? It made no sense to him.
He opened the card, it was a simple design with a christmas tree on it. Opening it up he found that it had been signed by all four of them. Leafos, Storkos, Seedos and Jardiniero. He scoffed, if they knew who they where actually giving a card to they wouldn't have bothered.
He set the card down and picked the present back up. A sudden flashback came to him of Stardos always trying to figure out what gifts were by shaking the boxes. He automatically moved the box to his ear and shook it. It sounded soft whatever it was, but he couldn't be bothered trying to detective it like Stardos would.
He went to open the box, and suddenly realised he was shaking, and his eyes were dampening. God what was wrong with him?! It was just a box! A present. His first present in years...
He scowled at his emotional reaction and viciously tested into the wrapping paper with his long, chipped fingernails and yanked the lid off.
His sudden fury vanished in an instant.
Inside was a hand knitted Macaracoon toy.
AN)
Merry Christmas! i wrote literally all of this on Christmas eve, so it's probably a bit rushed but whatever XD it's EASILY the fastest I've ever written anything! a Christmas miracle i didn't just stop at the summary. so yeah, there's my Christmas present to all my fellow Viva Pinata fans haha, hope you liked it! ^^