AN: I'm a little late for a Christmas serial I know, but I intend to finish this multi-chapter story by tomorrow night at the latest. I'll be up all night anyway, mourning the lack of magic in my own Christmas, so I may as make a little magic of my own for all of you guys. I hope you all enjoy. Much love, merry Christmas (and just like always, the sentiment stands no matter what you celebrate, or if you do at all.)

Keep a look out for more chapters. I'll be trying to update regularly all night.

Love to all of you,

Sable

The Reindeer

The tree was beautiful. Magnificent, really. Its presence overwhelmed the hotel's lobby in the best way possible, suffusing every nook and cranny of the gigantic room with warmth and merriment. The twinkling lights cast out any lingering shadow, the shining red and golden ornaments called to the heart of every patron and employee who saw it.

The size of the tree alone was enough to inspire awe. The lobby's ceiling was open and vaulted, extending up to the third floor where it was decorated with a mural of traditional Japanese artwork depicting the old creation myths. The tree's star, a lovely abstract creation of clear white quartz, was level with the top rail of the second floor balcony. Any guests staying on the second floor could look directly out of their door and see the wonderful star balanced atop the tree.

Considering the number of Europeans and Americans that Tokyo's White Dog Hotel hosted over the winter, it had been a brilliant idea to import the Western traditions. Besides crafting a feeling of home for the foreigners, the decorations had drawn in even larger numbers of nationals. Westernization was becoming a beloved trend among the rich and famous. Some socialites even left Japan entirely to celebrate the winter holidays. Now, with a respected hotspot like the White Dog supporting the fad, the popularity of both the hotel and the overseas traditions would billow.

Kagome Higurashi tipped her hat to this intelligent maneuver as she stood as the very base of the great tree, examining the minute details of the thing.

Each bauble was immaculate, flawlessly similar to all those around it. There was nothing so homey or intimate about the tree as a homemade ornament, a few presents underneath, or any single touch of individual personality. As magnificent as it was, Kagome could find only a generic, symmetrical sort of pleasantness about the perfectly tied bows, the meticulously placed balls, and the immaculately polished spirals.

And so it came as a great surprise when she saw, tucked away into the fake plastic needles where not every eye would catch it, a clumsy reindeer made of pipe cleaners, felt, and, apparently, a great deal of Elmer's glue. It was placed right around knee-height, innocuous, innocent, and entirely out of place.

Bemused, Kagome knelt by the tree, tugging her black pencil skirt along with her so that it would allow the movement without revealing anything too intimate. Balancing precariously on her wine-red, microsuede stilettos, the curious young woman reached out to pull the handmade craft more clearly into view.

It was clear that the little reindeer had been made by a child's hand. White bubbles of glue around the corners of the ears, eyes, and antlers spoke of inexact exuberance whilst the enormous smile (a thick piece of string glued to the brown pom pom ball face) told of unrestrained eagerness.

"Now who could have made you?" she wondered allowed, ignorant of the curious stares she was receiving from passersby. Careful not to yank the string from its branch, Kagome turned the ornament around and examined the plain body of the reindeer. To her surprise, she found not the fumbling attempts of a child, but the precise knots and wraps of an adult. The pipe cleaner body, she surmised, had been fashioned by an adult whilst the head and face of the reindeer had been put together by a child.

A smile graced Kagome's face, causing her blue-grey eyes to soften and warm. As she placed the reindeer back in its original position, she tried to imagine the circumstances of the child who had hung it there.

Would they be a guest's child? Someone important, who secured permission for their son or daughter to place their craft on the tree? Or perhaps it would be an employee's doing, one of those who had access to the tree…

Her train of thought was suddenly cut short by a curt cough from beside and above her.

Startled, she jerked her head up and was surprised to find a well-dressed man towering over her. He stared down at her impassively, a single pale brow arched elegantly above its fellow. The effect was devastating on his handsome face.

"Um…" Kagome, still crouching on the floor, could not take her eyes away from him.

"If you are quite finished?" prodded the man, his voice soft and uninflected. A slim, pale hand dropped to hover in front of her nose, held in offering.

"Y-yes," Kagome said, quickly slipping her hand into his. The grasp he had on her was firm when he pulled her up, the hand itself cool and dry. Kagome was surprised by the grace his touch seemed to loan her, for with his help she rose without a single wobble or falter. When she was up, he did not let go of her hand. She stood carefully poised, one foot slightly in front of the other, less than a foot away from the stranger, meeting his entrancing gaze over their clasped hands.

"May I inquire as to your interest in the tree?" he asked.

She hesitated, his words not fully reaching her until his grip on her hand tightened slightly. His voice had been gentle music to her ears, an enchantment she had been hard pressed to ignore.

"I- well… that," she said, forcing herself to step away from him, releasing his hand and pointing to the happy reindeer whose happy brown face stuck out from the green, red, and gold surrounding it. She glanced back at him as he leaned closer to examine the object, noticing for the first time that the pale silvery hair she had only barely noticed wasn't grey, but instead a fine platinum blond. She wondered briefly if he was a foreigner. "It was so strange, next to all this splendor, that I just had to give it a closer look," she explained, tearing her eyes away from the man and refocusing them on the reindeer. Nostalgia and sentiment swept her again as she stared at it, and the smile she had earlier worn blossomed anew across her red lips.

"It's lovely, isn't it? Not at all in the same grand way as the rest of the tree, but don't you think it loans a certain amount of intimacy, nevertheless?" she asked, not daring to look at her impromptu companion again. He was silent, and she allowed her mouth to continue. "For all of its meticulous, carefully planned out beauty, this tree is impersonal, it's meaning a bit hollow. It was designed that way, so as to be able to appeal to whoever looked at it, regardless of their investment in what it stands for. But here's this little craft, made by someone who loved it enough to believe that it should hang right up with all the splendor and sparkle of this tree. Somehow, it makes all the difference: that little show of genuine caring."

When she finally did glance at the man again, a warm blush spread over her cheeks to heat her ears. The bland impassivity in his gaze had been replaced by a warm shadow of amusement. His thin lips twitched minutely in a manner that could almost have been a smile.

Kagome grinned sheepishly. "I'm sorry to blather," she apologized, extending her small hand out in front of her. The handshake was an interesting mannerism that Kagome had adopted with gusto, relishing in the familiarity and immediate modicum of intimacy it bestowed on its participants. "I'm Kagome Higurashi," she informed him as he took her hand, giving it a gentle shake before bowing ever so slightly over it. Kagome smiled at the show of compromise between the old ways and the new, and returned the half bow.

"It is my pleasure, Higurashi-san," he said, releasing her hand without any show of reluctance of eagerness.

She held her tongue for a moment, expecting to receive a name form the stranger, but he was reticent. When she was just about to push the boundaries of etiquette and ask for his name, he spoke up again.

"The reindeer was made by the little girl who lives in room 3984, which encompasses half of the 58th floor."

Kagome's eyebrows lifted. "How do you…?"

"If you'll excuse me, Higurashi-san," he interrupted, turning swiftly on his heel without any further adieu. Kagome watched him walk swiftly across the enormous lobby, its crowds moving almost instinctively out of his way, and disappear into an elevator that was just closing its doors. The last she saw of him was the swing of the braided end of his long, unusually colored hair. Restlessly adjusting the fit of her stark white blouse, Kagome Higurashi shook her head, clearing her mind of the lingering traces of the mysterious stranger's strange affect on her, and continued on her way to the information desk, resuming her earlier mission of contacting and locating a certain friend of hers who was a permanent resident of the White Dog.

She couldn't help but send a single acutely curious glance back at the clinically cheerful tree and its tiny, genuinely spirited interloper.

-end chapter-