It had been another successful year for the Time Squad unit #6212, which you might already know as Officer Buck Tuddrussel, his robot partner the Larry 3000, and their, uhh "unofficial" apprentice agent, Otto Osworth.
And our story begins one day after finishing an early morning mission. Tuddrussel sat in the living room in his armchair wearing that vaguely pissed look that he always got when he read the paper. He grumbled, "Can you believe it's December? I mean, where did all that time go?" The sound of newspaper rustling followed.
Larry was dusting the chandelier above his head, his left leg daintily turned up as he stood on the ladder. "I can," Larry said, carefully glancing at Tuddrussel as he dusted.
"Especially since we were too busy being cooped up for weeks last year to notice that anything was going on . . ." Larry drug out the now rarely mentioned electric toothbrush fiasco that Tuddrussel caused that lead them to being without missions, and without total connection to the outside world for months. It used to bother Tuddrussel, but the wound seemed to have healed, as he didn't even bat an eye over it.
"My bad." Tuddrussel nonchalantly replied.
Larry frowned, turning back to his work. He was quiet for a few minutes before a hint of a smile appeared as he daydreamed.
"But, December means that the holiday season is here- Christmas, Hanukkah, Festivus. And that means the parties are coming up too," Larry added, dreamily.
"Yep." Tuddrussel replied.
Larry was unimpressed. He urged on, "Oh! We should go down to the Christmas party that headquarters throws, we haven't been in years!"
"Nuh-uhh. No way am I getting all dressed up to go to some stuffy party where you, "accidentally" light the tree on fire "once" and then you suddenly "become the asshole"!"
"Language, Tuddrussel!" Larry scolded him with the duster in his hand.
Otto laid on the fluffy red rug near the coffee table, his chin resting on his hands as he read for a homework assignment on the 3100's. He overheard the guys talking about Christmas parties and his interest peaked. They really do Christmas still? He wondered. Drifting his thoughts away from the book, he began to try to imagine it. It seemed strange to celebrate Christmas, considering how old the holiday would have been.
At eight years old, he was filled with a lot of naively hopeful ideas. Some that worked out in his favor, and then there was some that backfired spectacularly. And as the guys continued to talk about Christmas amongst themselves, a shooting star of an idea fell across Otto's mind, that maybe it wasn't too late to actually enjoy that one thing he never really experienced before, that feeling of warmth and excitement, and that ever elusive childhood wonder of opening presents on Christmas morning that was promised to every child by television specials every year, but was never received due to the harsh reality of living in the orphanage.
A chill ran up Otto's spine at the sudden intrusion of his former life, shivering as he remembered how he spent his last "real" Christmas. Which basically amounted to being miserable, freezing, and depressed as Sister Thornly made him stand outside on Christmas day instead of playing with the toys they did get from charity. He seemed to recall that being his punishment after being caught helping himself to the uneaten scrapings of powdered eggs when he was supposed to be washing the breakfast dishes. Ick! No more of that! He shook his head to convince himself to block it all out. Otto looked at the guys who had taken him away from that cruelty, which seemed so long ago now. And he felt a little better in knowing THAT kind of treatment was over with for good.
"You guys celebrate Christmas too?" Otto interrupted their conversation.
Larry looked down at him with mild bewilderment for a moment before stepping down from the ladder.
"Why, of course we do!" Larry said.
"And you have parties?" Otto asked, earnestly intrigued.
"Well, sometimes . . ." Larry replied quietly.
"And do you cut a tree and decorate it?"
"Wouldn't be Christmas without it, kid." Tuddrussel piped up, not even breaking contact with the newspaper.
Otto hopped up from the floor to talk more directly at both of them, excitedly asking, "And food? And gingerbread cookies and presents?!"
Larry smiled. Finding the excited, urgent questions to be amusing in this particular instance. "Why, Otto, I think you know that it wouldn't be Christmas without those things."
Otto's mouth went dry for a moment, and butterflies fluttered in his stomach. He didn't know that I had it in him to be so nervously excited for something that up until now had been degraded as a fantasy. But he was only a kid, and in his short existence which was filled with disappoints he had wanted this to be real for once. "Are we gonna do it this year?" Otto asked timidly.
Larry raised an eyebrow in wonder to the request, taken totally by surprise from it. It had been years since he or Tuddrussel had celebrated. And they certainly haven't celebrated together since being assigned to this satellite. 'It'd be too much work, and no good will come from it.' Larry thought. They had no reason to really take part in anything, not when you're so busy with work, and without any real friends or family to celebrate with . . . 'People tend to forget about you up here,' Larry thought bitterly.
"Oh. Well, it's HARD to celebrate a holiday when you're out in space." Larry said, looking to Tuddrussel for backup. "It doesn't usually have the same feeling as it does on Earth. Right, Tuddrussel?"
"Huh? I guess so," Tuddrussel said absentmindedly. He finally put down his newspaper, only to crunch it up into a complete ball before tossing it behind his chair. "But, I reckon that'd be a good change of pace to do somethin' for once. Let's do it."
Otto smiled so hard at Tuddrussel's comment. He looked to Larry for an answer, hoping that Tuddrussel had helped just a little. Larry drug out a rough sigh in retaliation. And Otto knew what that meant, as that robot made that particular passive-aggressive sigh at least five times a day to whatever they requested from him.
"Can we, please?" Otto asked.
"Well, I don't know," Larry said, crossing his arms. "You two will have to help me."
"Sure, we'll help," Tuddrussel said as he got up to join Larry. "And we can have a tree, and while we decorate it we can watch those lame puppet specials on the TV while eating shortbread cookies that come from the tins." He patted Larry on the back, urging him to give in.
Larry glanced at both of them, and seeing their eager faces pushed him to try to loosen up a little. He looked around the living room with ideas floating around in his head and smiled at the potential fun he could have in decorating this drab satellite. "I suppose our home is due for some sort of festive fun. It'd certainly brighten up the place."
"Soooo?" Tuddrussel playfully asked, nudging him a little roughly. "Are we gonna have Christmas? Or are you really going to deny this poor child that?"
Otto snickered at him. Larry narrowed his eyes at Tuddrussel for having the nerve to imply that he would be so mean to not let Otto have some fun.
He looked back at Otto, who was impatiently waiting for an answer.
"Fine! Fine, we can do Christmas this year." Larry relented.
"Yeah! Thanks Larry!" Otto said, he ran up and hugged Larry by the legs, to which the robot squirmed for a moment as he was taken back by the surprise affection.
"Careful!" Larry said gently, patting him on the head. "Yes, we can have Christmas but you two have to promise to be on your best behavior, I won't stand for your super extreme spy tag or other shenanigans. If you two have the urge to kill each other you'll be civilized and do it outside."
"In outer space?" Otto asked.
"What? No, don't be ridiculous." Larry said, oblivious to the other previous times where Otto asked for clarification when he told him to go play "outside".
The historical instability alarm went off, interrupting the special occasion.
"Aww man. . ."Otto grumbled.
Larry covered his mouth with his hands, trying to stifle his laugh over Otto's very rare disappointment about getting a mission.