Day off
A/n: 'Lo, it's me, your faithful but cranky fic-writer. This fic is specially made for ThresherII in exchange of being nice and leaving her e-mail. That's how you win my heart, guys ^^;; . She plays a lil' role in this, btw, but, don't run away, she's real nice in the fic. Hope's she's so in real life since Xelloss very OOC… gomen dear peeps, I shall try a little more XD.
Disclaimer: I don't own Xelloss, nor Thresh…
Christmas was coming soon, in fact it was expected to arrive tomorrow, but no snow had dared to make its way down from the grayish sky. Though no snow, the air was chillier than ever, biting in the rushing people's cheeks, making their feet go numb as they went Christmas-shopping. Dispute the gray clouds hiding the usual star-rich, winter's night, people was rather happy. Carrying tree's, presents, small gnomes of wood or stone they headed of to their warm and comfort homes, probably seating themselves in front of the sparkling fire resting and massaging their numb feet, warming themselves with a glass of Whiskey or two. Because these people had surely their days off from work… Day off… Just those words made his tongue tickle off amusement. Having his first day off for a great while, Xelloss Metalium felt rather cheerful he too. Sure doing dirty works for a beast-master could be a thrill, but to actually spend a whole weekend home at his almost empty apartment could become a real adventure. Now he would just lie down and let others do the work; he was having a day off…
***
The smell of ginger cookies met him in the hallway as he carefully closed the door. This was something he had never eaten but he had always breathed in the sweet scent of it every day, making up an excuse for not spending the holiday within the rooms of the apartment. Now he wouldn't go outside, if not to explore the wonders of Christmas. That was what everyone was doing during Christmas anyway, relaxing…
Rubbing his numb fingers he entered the kitchen where he found it as if a tornado just had came and visited. There were dirty dishes everywhere there was space, the thrash can was over-full of empty pizza cartons and those who wasn't lying there, had a corner beside the door he was leaning onto, and he loved it. It couldn't be more perfect.
In the center of the mess he spotted his roommate with her gray-blue eyes glued on the transparent oven door wherefrom the ginger scent had escaped. She sat there with her legs crossed and her loose reddish-brown hair reaching down to the floor, looking more solemn than she used to be. She mustn't have noticed him standing there eyeing her, cause she jumped to her feet as he cleared his throat to confess that he was in the house.
"Hi there, roomy!" She addressed him with a big grin across her face. "Almost scared me out of your pants there, you have to tell me its you or I would have given ya a smack with the frying-pan."
Xelloss mouth curved into a smile, there wasn't a day going by without her borrowing his jeans. The cause why she didn't wear her own was because they was probably in the laundry area, but none of them hadn't made an initiative to actually clean them for about two weeks. And they would surely be lying there 'til after the holiday was over.
"I'm off baking in here." She explained proud as she gestured to the oven. "And I have got things to tell you!"
Not bothering to sit in the messy kitchen they moved to the living room/bed room to "discuss" the things but knowing his roommate she would more likely force him to listen to home-made Christmas-carols, so loudly played the neighbors would start to complain. He enjoyed that…
The tornado had shown no mercy. The complete floor was hidden under what looked like papers, crayons, ink-spots, CDs, and on the bed sofa lay an old but cherished guitar. The looks of it were all complete by a sign in the doorway, that said: "Thresh's room", with large purple letters. Looking rather nervous but still wearing a big grin she explained what she wanted to talk with him about.
"You know what you do during Christmas, right?" she asked looking younger than she was by twirling her waist-long hair round her fingers.
Xelloss smiled amused, oh yes he knew…
"That's easy, Thresh. Relaxing," he said shortly, shrugging.
Thresh ran her fingers through her hair and bite her lip.
"Well, that's a thought… Yes!" she added as she saw Xelloss' startled face. "You are supposed to relax during the holidays, but do you know what you're doing before that?"
Xelloss shook his head in fear of what might come.
"No?" she watched him with disbelief. "You clean up the house, otherwise Santa will say you're a dotty gull."
"What?" he watched her with a blank face. "Eh, what do you mean by clean up?"
The somewhat cheerful smile had suddenly ran of her and she stood in front of him with her arms crossed looking rather bossy.
"C'mon, we have to get things done for the Christmas day," she snatched a notepad from her drawer and took a crayon from the floor and started making small notes. "Since you haven't spend a single Christmas at all, as it seems, I have to make all the shopping, trees, stuff etceteras, etceteras. And you…" she pointed at him as she looked down at the pad seeming to think really hard. "You will be in charge to clean up the apartment!"
Xelloss was looking rather startled again but spoke with a soft tune, hoping to melt her heart.
"Aww, Thresh-hun do we really have to do that…?" he purred giving her a glowing look that made her smiling nervously again. "Sooner or later it'll be like this again. I see no need to do anything unnecessarily, hmm?"
"Well," darned it, he was trying to tie her up and was going to succeed, if not… "Hey, do I smell newly baked ginger cookies?"
She retreated to the kitchen in great hurry and Xelloss saw no more to do but follow (since his room lay on the other side of the kitchen and there he might just lock himself in the rest of the year). But as he walked through the doorway, he was met by the sweet smell of cookies and he looked longingly at Thresh who were about to shove her third baking plate of ginger cookies in what looked like a bathtub in miniature wearing a pair of overlarge mittens. She noticed his concern of the sweets and she smirked. What if…?
"Xelloss dear," she said grinning wide a little too wide, he thought. "Would you like to have a newly baked so-fresh-you-can-feel-the-taste-by-only-looking-at-it ginger cookie?"
He nodded as in trance and tried to reach it slowly, but she ignored him, leading the cookie to her mouth numbing it.
"What if we can do a trade?" she continued. "You get a cookie and clean the apartment, sounds good?"
To a mazouko whom had always dreamt of taste the forbidden sweets of the humans it wasn't really a hard choice, he considered it done.
"Great!" she cheered as he nodded and shoved the vacuum cleaner in his hands. "I'll be back by eight then, Ciao!"
She had suddenly flown through the door halfway in her jacket and with her wallet in her mouth, leaving him both alone and very hungry. But there were no chances in the world that he could've eaten a cookie or two, since she seemed to have put a heavy padlock on the jar with the treasured sweets inside, and if he knew Thresh, she had probably eaten the keys to it, what a day off.
***
Two hours later in the apartment Xelloss had tried his best to clean up the worst mess. His room had been no problem besides a couple of jeans lying spread on the floor and the kitchen was just cleaned up. Now to the big challenge, Thresh's room.
He made his way through the piles of papers and the hard crayons that he constantly kept trampling on. Her room wasn't that bad if you got it cleaned up. You could actually see the whole floor after an hour and a half and an hour later he had everything under control. Exhausted by the fact that he had been working without any breaks in four and an half hour he sat down in his roommate's bed. But he didn't watched what he was seating himself upon and when he heard a sound of a guitar going into pieces he prayed that it wouldn't be so. But of course it was, what else could have sounded as a completely trashed guitar if not a completely trashed guitar.
"Damn it!" Xelloss watched the broken instrument, this was Thresh's most precious thing. If she got to know that he had totally vandalized it he would never see either her or her cookies ever again. He sighed.
But the second later he lightened up. Why couldn't he buy her an indentic one and pretend that it was the original, hmmm? It had worked with other stuff before (A/N: you should know what I mean *hint hint*) so why would it fail now?
Said and done he rushed down the stairs keeping a worried eye on the watch, only half an hour until eight, he would have to hurry if he wanted to get back before her. With red cheeks he finally arrived at the music shop known as the only in this town. He stepped to the counter and eyed the man with his violet eyes.
"Can I help you?" The man asked rather startled by the look in Xelloss' eyes.
"Yes, I would like to have a guitar!" he said in a panicked sort of way.
The man behind the counter eyed him carefully waiting for him to say what kind of guitar he would like to buy, but as we all know Xelloss hadn't a clue that there could be different guitars.
"What are you looking for?" he asked helping him as little on his way, he may never have entered a music-shop.
"A guitar," he repeated getting rather annoyed by this old man's bad hearings. "G-U-I-T-A-R."
The man shook his head, this man had surely never entered a music-store. Well, there was no other thing to do but ask him the question in slow motion.
"Are you looking for a specific one?" the old man asked. "Anything named perhaps?"
Xelloss not understanding what the git meant lost his temper and took the last of his breath to let the man understand what he meant.
"Give me the cheapest guitar you've got, and be quick!" he spoke keeping the smile he always wore, but giving the man a look which was only comparable with an eagle about to dive down and tear the heart out of it's victim's chest.
The man ran of to fetch it and Xelloss started to turn his pockets inside out to see were all the money had gone. The man arrived with the guitar, trembling and shaking by the look Xelloss had at him, he wasn't beast-master favorite-pet for nothing.
"Okay, 200$ and this baby's yours," he forced a smile upon his lips to hide the fear he radiated.
"200?" Xelloss shifted his weight to the left feet. "I don't have 200$"
The look upon Xelloss face was price-less, he was now comparable with the small boy looking longingly through the store's window., watching the present of the year being taken by another kid whom wouldn't want half as much as he. This made the man slight calmer, seeing that this young fellow was human.
Xelloss could've put this man to sleep, snatched the guitar and run of, but it was his day off, for crying out loud, he weren't supposed to lift a finger. Heck, he had lifted the complete apartment and turned it upside down, but still…
"Well, what do you have then young fella? The man behind the counter felt just a little more comfortable than before.
"50$…"
The man stood as in deep thoughts making every wrinkle in his face become more wrinkled making him look more and more like one of Santa's elves. Then he suddenly dove down behind the counter, seeming to look for something, mumbling and muttering to himself.
"Keep saying there no magic in 'em, but still. People has grown out of these, seems like they prefer plastic ones that last in eternity. The would only know…"
He threw a light box upon the counter making a reappearance shortly after it, opening it slowly revealing what was in there.
"I'll take one!" the voice of Xelloss Metalium spoke.
***
He had made it home without any problems and Thresh appeared as predicted at eight, not long after he had been out taking care of the garbage, Thresh's ex-guitar included. They had both been able to get the newly bought tree up in the middle of Thresh's room and there were two boxes wrapped in colored paper lighting up the whole apartment from underneath the tree. One was big and wrapped in paper with purple spots and pricks all over it, the other one was pretty small and clothed in paper with small yellow chickens on. Finally they sat in the bed-sofa watching their work, drinking mulled whine and munching a gingerbread cookie each. He had finally got to taste it and it was a pleasure he would look forward to next Christmas to enjoy. They're going to sleep in the sofa tonight both of them, Thresh had told him the strategy of her own; put the alarm on 12.01, wake up and rip presents! After drinking the last cup of mulled whine they dozed of head to head.
***
"Beep-beep beep-beep!"
The sound of Thresh's alarmclock could've woken up the complete building, if it weren't for the neighbors down-stairs whom had started a party about an hour earlier. They stared at each other, one with the heavier eyes than the other, but were soon overcome by the fact that it was Christmas and there were presents waiting for them. Thresh was the one who reached the tree first but as she tugged onto the box with the yellow chickens on Xelloss spoke firmly.
"Wait before you open that. I have been taught how to deal with the thing in there so I would appreciate if you've waited until I'm done with your present."
Pouting a little but still thrilled by the excitement, she put the box safely in her lap and watched Xelloss opening his present. In the dim light from the lamppost outside the window he eyed the present carefully as a boyish grin grew larger on his lips and took the guitar out of the box placing it in his lap. Still with not a word spoken between them, he handed the guitar over to her. A puzzled and perhaps hurt look appeared upon her face as she held the guitar meant to him.
"You don't like it?" she asked with her voice trembling.
Xelloss smiled, of course he liked it, what was the matter with these humans nowadays?
"It belongs to you, Thresh," he answered. " You see, I accidentally threw away your old one so…"
He had imagined she would have started yelling at him at the moment but she said nothing. She just sat there and smiled at him.
"S'okee," she said after a while. "But if you don't mind I'm freaking curious of what's in this!"
"Well then, before you open, I'll have ask you to wear this," he took a long piece of clothing and tied it around her head, shielding her eyes, making her see nothing. "Now you can start."
With shuddering fingers she managed to open it and as she held it as he guided her, up in the air, he helped to her feet making them stand face-to-face and then, with soft hands, he let the clothing hiding her eyes from the world, fall to the floor.
As if she was to excited to see what the box had been hiding she remained with her eyes at Xelloss chest. A light hand on her shoulder reminded her of his presence, as if it was necessary.
"Won't you look up and find out what you get?" he asked. "The man I bought it from told me that there's magic in that thing plus that girls loves the ritual."
That was enough for Thresh, she was now deadly curious and looked up letting her own hand reveal the secret.
A green, slim stalk with small leaves and even smaller white berries met her gaze. He had bought her a real mistletoe…
"That man must know a loads of things…" she murmured. "Cause all girls do love this ritual."
With that they had leaned into a kiss. It wasn't that sort of kiss you se at the cinema or read in books as the lovers shares their first kiss, no, it was just a simple kiss shared between to people being very close to each other, there were no special things with that.
But as they kissed a white flake danced to the ground outside of their window, spying at them, calling its friends to come and see. And so they did and it became a white Christmas this year.
--The End--
A/n: Hoped you enjoyed, please review and please please please, leave your e-mails!!! I don't write stories to them who don't want me to, promise! And NO I don't write hate mails… Ja ne ^__^ !