MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Lol it's not even Christmas, xD But you get my drift. This was the present I was talking about in my latest chapter. I really hope you guys loved it, or even enjoyed it. And I wish for the merriest of all Christmas's to each and everyone of you.
Oh, and a happy new year.

A Christmas Tale

Kid, Kid! Tell us a Christmas story please!"

"Yeah, a Christmas story! Pleeeaase?"

Children around the ages of 5 and 12 danced around Eustass Kid's feet and tugged on his black sweatshirt. The redhead grumbled underneath his breath at their persistency—couldn't they see that he was busy with something else? The lights that were entangled around his fingers needed to be dealt with, plus the stockings had to be hanged around the small chimney he carved in the other day.

The kids' persistency egged on further, to the point where one was brave enough to deal a soft jab on the left side of his hip. "C'mon Kid, you gotta tell us a Christmas tale. It's tradition!"

Eustass dropped both of his arms to his side and turned on the kids, gently pushing them away with his lights-entangled hands. "I'm kinda busy right now, guys. These lights need to get hanged up before the day's over with—"

"No one's ever too busy for a Christmas tale."

A soft feminine voice reached the redhead's ears. The child that appeared behind the crowd of children was revealed to be Mocha; she was a very young girl with black hair that reached her ears in large curls, and had a sizable red bow positioned on the right side of her hair. Mocha had soft brown eyes that lit up underneath the golden lighting of the room and she wore a simple red and green dress with black flats.

The other children murmured their agreement and crowded around Eustass once more. "Yeah, Mocha's right! No one's ever too busy for a Christmas tale!" He could feel the fabric of his dark blue jeans begin to pull away from the wall he was attempting to add lights too and over to a large wooden chair equipped with maroon cushions.

Eustass started taking apart the Christmas lights around his fingers and carelessly threw them in the box next to the wall. His grumbling, though the kids couldn't hear it thankfully, was overhead by another man presented in the room. A large and playful smirk was spreading across his lips, the corners noticed out of Kid's peripherals. "What're you smirking over there for, Law? This isn't funny—hey!"

A blonde haired boy, along with several others, pushed Eustass into the wooden seat. Instantly they formed a circle around him and looked up to the redhead with big eyes of multiple colors; green, brown, hazel, and blue. Eustass could hear a small chuckle slip from the man across the room, and another incoherent grumble passed through his lips. "Now, now, Eustass. You can't let the children down before Christmas; go on and tell them a story."

Eustass shot Law a narrowed glare, but the anger within him passed as he got a good look at his body. Trafalgar Law was tall and packed fewer muscles than the redhead, but made up for it in his looks. The tufts of bluish-black hair was peeking underneath his wide brimmed fur hat, completed with black dots and had soft white fur covering it. The man wore a pair of faded jeans and had a white and red striped Christmas sweater over a light grey t-shirt.

The redhead rolled his eyes and returned his attention back to the waiting kids. "You're lucky I'm doing this to get honor chords for graduation, asshole."

The blonde haired boy up front heard the muttered curse word and immediately put his hand to his mouth. "Ooooh! Kid said a bad word! Did you hear that guys? Kid said the a-word!"

"Be quiet Sind! Or Kid won't tell us a Christmas tale." A girl with bright pink hair silenced the boy, though he did throw accusing glances at her. Eustass ran a pale hand through his red locks, doing his best to remove the fatigue that already encompassed his face. Just tell them a story and get this over with. They're kids; they'll listen to damn near anything.

With a loud sigh, Eustass removed his hand and faced the sea of children with his best, non-scary smiling face. "Alright, so you guys want me to tell you a tale?"

"Yeah!" they all shouted in unison.

Eustass cleared his throat and reached over to the small bookstand beside his bed. Grabbing the first one his fingers brushed over, he placed it in his lap and skimmed over the title. "Well look at that. Looks like we're going to be reading about Rudolph the Red-Nosed Rein—"

A collected "Nooo!" reached Kid's ears quicker than he opened to the first page. Sind rolled his eyes and quickly shook his head before pointing to the thin book in the redhead's hands. "No, not that one! A Christmas tale, not some stupid book off the shelf."

Eustass threw the book back to the shelf and it landed with a dull plop! on the carpeted floor. He reached over for another one, hopefully the one the kids would actually shut up and listen to, but Sind stopped him again. The blonde haired boy had help from another boy, this one with dyed green hair pulled up in a small Mohawk. "No, no, no! We don't want to hear a book from the shelf! We already read those books—like a thousand times!"

Eustass made an exasperated sigh and murmured into his hands. "Then what the heck do you guys want me to read, huh!?" It was hard to censor a foul word when anger and impatience was broiling in one's veins.

The children rolled their eyes with some of them smacking their lips. Eustass never expected for every single finger to come pointing straight at him after he had asked the question, and part of him wanted to crawl in a hole and never come out. "You tell us a Christmas tale!"

"You got to be fu—"

Just then, a hand came over Eustass's shoulder and started pushing him out of the chair. The redhead looked up into the slightly peeved gray eyes of Law, half covered by the rim of his spotted fur hat. "Get out of the chair, idiot. You obviously can't keep children entertained."

While he wanted to snap at the man with a harsh remark of his own, the scent of Law's cologne stopped him from doing so. It was rich, smelling of dark chocolate with a hint of light musk that had the redhead's stomach quivering inside of him. "Instead of giving them trouble, let me handle the story. You go finish up with hanging the lights around the room."

He didn't need to be told twice. Eustass got up out of the chair and started heading for his neglected wall, glad to be away from the needy children. Law sat down in front of them, a wide smile stretching across his lips. The crowd instantly brightened up. "It's Law this time—he's going to tell us a Christmas tale! Right Law?"

The man nodded slowly and widened out his arms for the others to come closer. "Alright, gather around and huddle in. I have a feeling you don't want to listen to boring old Christmas books, right?" A shouted "No!" startled Law. He chuckled underneath his breath and reached for Mocha who was the closest to him. "Well," he said as he sat her on his lap, "I got a Christmas tale for you. It's famous in a little town known as Flevance, and kids up there definitely love to hear it around Christmas Eve."

Eustass had just started nailing in some of the lights when he heard the town up in the north being mentioned. A ball of lead started to settle in the center of his stomach, and he turned around to take a look at Law's face.

It was smiling, though his eyes started to darken underneath the rim of his hat. Don't tell them something you're going to regret later, Law. He resumed to gently hammering in the lights, his ears listening to the tale being told.

Law cleared his throat before he started the tale. "The title of this story is Un Noel Conte, which in English is A Christmas Tale."

"Why is it given such a boring name? We have better Christmas titles than that!"

"Because Un Noel Conte is a story that can be told in many different ways—you can add in things, subtracts things, and warp things in different places. That's why it's given such a basic name."

"Does that mean you're going to give us your version of the story, Law?" Mocha piped up, her brown eyes shining in anxiousness. Law nodded slowly. "That's right. Now, stay quiet, and try to keep all distracting comments at a minimum. It's been a long time since I retold this tale to anyone."

The children gathered in closer and did as told; Law could see the excitement escaping through their shoulders in clouds of smoke. He chuckled lightly and began the tale.

"Like I said before, the story starts in a little town known as Flevance. The place was always blanketed in snow, whether it would be a thin layer or a full five-inch off the ground. But the people there didn't mind the abundance of the snow or the fact that it permanently stuck to their buildings and turned them white. They didn't even care that it stuck to their skin and gave them blotches.

They were happy that way, and continued being happy all the way to Christmas Eve. Now, the whole entirety of the tale doesn't really revolve around the town of Flevance; it actually starts in an orphanage just north of the main plaza, simply named Maison d'Enfants. In English, that's Children's Home."

A small hand slowly went up in the air, and Law nodded at it. The kid that raised his hand was boy with a small tuft of black hair. He spoke through a nasally voice and sniffled before he asked his question. "Um, what's an orphanage…?"

Law grinned softly as other kids repeated the question through murmured voices. Sind replied loudly, "It's like a home for infants, right?" The raven haired man noted that the boy's definition was determined by the term sounded like, and he chuckled underneath his breath.

"Very close, Sind. An orphanage is a place much like a daycare, but the children that live in orphanages have no parents waiting to pick them up. They simply wait to be adopted, and that's where they go home to their loving family."

Mocha and the rest of the girls whimpered softly, an "Aw.." passing through them. Law's chuckle was light to push away the bitter and dark feeling bundling up inside him. "No, no, don't get saddened by that. At this orphanage, Christmas was a big deal. The maidens there did their best to make the holiday appealing and exciting for everyone, including themselves. They decorated the place in Christmas lights, baked tray after tray of cookies and brownies, and had the kids decorate the large Christmas tree as a tradition before Christmas."

"That sounds a lot like what we do…" the boy with the dyed green Mohawk replied. Law nodded and continued with the tale. "While Christmas was a big deal to everyone, a little boy thought completely otherwise and made sure it was known to everyone. One would call him a social outcast, and the other would call him the Scrooge's Mini-Me."

"What's a social outcast?" Mocha questioned this time. Once again, Sind answered her question. "Someone that's out of their cast, probably. Perhaps he had a broken bone, and then got out of it before Christmas Day."

Law couldn't help but laugh at that. "No, not quite Sind. A social outcast is someone who's not a part of groups and rejected from others. He could be known as a reject, but that's for another time.

Anyways, this little Scrooge—that's what the maidens at the orphanage called him—did nothing to help with Christmas decorations, or baking, or even cleaning up in the kitchen. He neglected to eat the large Christmas dinner that occurred as tradition, mostly because he hates the breaded foods that's always there, and when night came he would go outside in the snow abundant area to be alone."

"Did he have snow stuck to him?"

"Oh yes, all the time. It would get worse each and every night, until the day before Christmas, he looked like a living, breathing snowman!" The girls gasped while the boys awed. Eustass, having moved to the other side of the wall, had a wan smile form upon his lips. "None of the other children had snow stuck to their bodies, and so they thought it was cool that someone was completely covered in it.

They tried letting the little Scrooge join their groups and get him into the Christmas spirit, but he wasn't having any of that. And so, he did what all little Scrooges would do—curse the name of Christmas and hid away into his room to be unbothered with. It worked for the time being—no one, not even the maidens of the orphanage or the kids—dared entered his room, so he was able to sleep in peace. But, one night, all of that had changed."

Anxiety clawed at the children's stomachs and they pressed forward, longing to hear the rest of the seemingly interesting Christmas tale. Law, while he was able to keep the group of kids entertained, had a dark shadow going over his face. He kept it all down with a forced smirk and resumed the tale.

"'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the orphanage, not a thing had been stirring—not even the village. Everything was silent and nonmoving, except for the soft pitter-patter of snow gently hitting the windows and roof. That, and a particular busy-body that was going down the empty hallway in nothing but white furry socks, a white t-shirt, and black pajama pants."

"The Little Scrooge, wasn't it?"

Law nodded. "Correct, it was the Little Scrooge. That night, he wanted to find out what was so big about the Christmas holiday and why everyone loved it so much. He traveled down the empty corridor and reached one of the rooms he neglected to decorate. Can you take a guess at what that room was?"

Shouted answers crawled over one and another, and Law raised his hand for silence to return. He picked the first hand that shot up; of course, it was Sind. "The kitchen! Everyone knows it's the second best place on Christmas Eve, right next to the Christmas tree!"

Law chose another kid with his hand raised. It was the boy with the green Mohawk. "No, it's the Christmas tree room, Sind! Who would go into the kitchen the night before Christmas?"

"You're both wrong! It's the girls' room! The Little Scrooge probably wanted to take a sneek-peek in there."

"Ew, and come out dressed like a girl with cooties? No way Ginko! I'm going with Doran's idea about the Christmas tree room."

"Well, I say Sind's correct!"

"You guys, it could be back outside again. Maybe he wanted to look more like a snowman."

"And freeze to death? Yeah, right Konbu."

The children's answers kept Law entertained rather than the story he was telling. "You guys sure know how to come up with extravagant answers for story-telling. Use those answers to tell this story in your own way so you can pass it on to your children.

Now, back to the story. The Little Scrooge in fact was heading to the living room, where the large Christmas tree was placed at. It filled the entire space in golden lights, where the largest star he had ever seen in his life was set at the top. The star was so large that it looked like it came from space itself and was brought down to earth to be used as a decoration.

The Little Scrooge got nearer and nearer to the large, golden glowing tree, eyeing the ornaments and other decorations that were attached to its green pine needles. They looked exotic, but the Little Scrooge knew that the orphans and maidens created them their selves. He scanned the Christmas tree, perhaps in search of his own, but after circling the tree twice he didn't come to find it. And that's when the little boy realized that he didn't create an ornament to decorate the tree, because he didn't believe in the holiday. Believing can mean a big thing to some people, just remember that when you meet a Little Scrooge of your own.

Now, with the Little Scrooge realizing this, he reached up to grab a golden glass ornament from the tree. In his mind, he was thinking 'If my ornament is not up there, then why should anyone else be? It's not fair, so I'm going to make it fair.' With a show of hands, can anyone tell me how this is wrong?"

Ginko raised her hand before everybody. "Because he's giving into jealousy."

"Right, and jealousy is an ugly thing in this world. The Little Scrooge grabbed another glass ornament, this one red and green, and threw them both to the ground to be smashed to smithereens. He took two more and smashed them on the ground, then ripped off a string of popcorn and crushed them beneath his socked toes.

This went on until half of the decorations on the large tree were missing, and all that was left was the golden Christmas lights. The Little Scrooge felt proud of what he did and started to head back to his room until beams of golden light brighter than the tree erupted behind him. He could hear glass being sifted through and later put together, and paper being rustled like it was floating in the wind.

When the Little Scrooge turned around, he saw the tree glowing brighter than what it was before and saw that the ornaments and other decorations he had ripped off rebuilt and back on the tree again. The Little Scrooge was angry that this happened, so he went right back to the tree to do it again.

And he did—or at least, tried to do it again. A glowing, pale hand had reached out and grabbed him before he could rip off a golden ornament and slowly pushed it away from the glowing tree. 'W-Who are you? A-A-And what are you doing here?'

The hand removed itself from around the Little Scrooge's wrist and stepped out of the tree. In the eyes of the little boy, the being before him looked like it came straight from Heaven. He was cloaked in white and gold, and had a large bulging bag by his side. His feet were dressed in black pointed shoes that had gold lining the bottom, and with each step he took closer to the little boy, it left behind a golden imprint on the ground.

'I asked you a question, invader! W-W-Who are you!? If you don't tell me, I-I-I'll call the maidens in here!'

'There's no need to do that, child.' The man's words were soft and gentle, different from the Little Scrooge's yappy and high-pitched voice. The little boy, unable to move or speak, could only stare at the person in front of him, the question going through his mind once again.

'I'm known by a lot of things, child. Noel, Saint Nick, Pere Noel—'

'You liar! Santa Claus is dressed in red and white, and he's not even real!'

The man dressed in gold and white had laughed, unhurt by what the Little Scrooge had said. He stepped closer to the little boy and stretched out a hand to him, clasping his shoulder gently. 'But I am standing right in front of you, child. Therefore, doesn't that make me real?' The Little Scrooge had his throat closed, unable to make words. The Santa Claus imposter—if you will—removed his hand from his shoulder and turned back towards the tree.

'You know, my job is such a hard thing to do on my own. To climb down narrow chimneys and then stash presents underneath Christmas trees like these—if it weren't for the delicious treats at the end I would have fainted a long time ago.'

'You're not Santa Claus, you imposter… Santa Claus has white hair, and you have…' The Little Scrooge was paying little attention to what the man was saying; he did have a point, though. The man had wavy blonde hair and pale blue eyes, a complete opposite of Santa's white hair and brown eyes. But once again, that didn't affect the man.

He turned back to the Little Scrooge, a large smile on his ever-glowing face. 'Would you like to come with me and help deliver presents to others around the world? It's very a strenuous job, but with two it'll be easier for the both of us.'

'Ha, no way! And even if I did, how would we even travel? There are no magic flying sleighs, and reindeers live in the tundra, not the North Pole.' The Little Scrooge kept degrading and degrading the Santa Claus imposter, and still he said or did nothing. The smile was still on his face after the little boy was finished, and he knelt down in front of him and gently plucked his white stained nose.

'You're right. I don't have a magic flying sleigh, or reindeers—I hate animals, in fact. Plus, the cold is not my friend, so why on earth would I live there? The way I deliver my presents is simple; I walk.'

The Little Scrooge wanted to laugh, but he couldn't. He wanted to say something, but he couldn't because he wanted to laugh. The Santa Claus imposter spoke truthfully, but it sounded like a lie. Walk all over the world? You could die from that, right? But part of the Little Scrooge wanted this adventure. He wanted to walk around the world with this man, Santa Claus imposter or not.

But something was keeping him chained to the orphanage. Fear? No way—he was fearless, scared of nothing. Friends? No, he made sure not to have any of those. What do you think, Mocha? Why do you think he didn't want to leave the orphanage?"

The black haired girl, so engrossed in the story, didn't even hear her name. "W-W-Well, because he was frightened that he was going with a stranger?"

Law nodded slowly. "At the time, kidnapping of children was frequent, and the orphanage kept children safe from such. But, that wasn't what was keeping the Little Scrooge at bay."

"He should just leave anyway! I mean, the Santa Claus imposter could be like an elf working for Santa, so he'd get a chance to see him and such." Sind was also engrossed in the story and fed up with the boy's choices. Law's grin spanned across his face. "I guess that would be normal in our time, huh? Well, what was keeping the boy at bay was that he did not believe in Christmas. He was scared that if he went out with the man, he would disappear just as he reappeared, and be left behind in a cold world.

The Santa Claus imposter knew about the boy's fear. 'Come with me, child. If you come with me, you'll never be held back by such fear. You'll never be behind the iron gates of the orphanage, and you won't have to be alone anymore. You'll be free—isn't that something you want. The only thing you want?'

The Little Scrooge was shocked that his number one wish in the world was revealed to him that night. He glanced into the Santa Claus imposter's eyes and saw the freedom he longed for, the freedom he wanted. I guess you can conclude that on that night, after dropping an abundant of presents underneath the Christmas tree, the Little Scrooge and the man walked out into the snowy night to deliver the other presents.

And that, in conclusion, is Un Noel Conte."

As like every other Christmas tale, questions came up one after another. "Were they able to deliver the presents before Christmas day?"

"What about the maidens and kids at the orphanage? Did they worry about the Little Scrooge disappearing from them?"

"Did the snow get stuck to the Santa Claus imposter's skin?"

"Did the Little Scrooge ever come back?"

Law raised up his hands in hopes of toning down the questions. Before he got to one, the door of the small daycare opened up, and an orange haired woman escorted several parents into the small room. "It's time to go now, kids! Hope you have a wonderful day!"

Several aww's escaped the mouths of the children, but they got up and ran to the expecting arms of their mothers and fathers. Law gave Mocha a brief hug before she hopped off his lap and ran to her awaiting father. The children left, chattering incessantly about the story Law had told them until silence returned to the small room.

The orange haired woman sighed softly before exiting as well. "Looks like our hours are finally up, Eustass. Are you done with everything?"

Law got up from his chair and turned around to see Eustass leaned up against the wall. His reddened eyes were soft, and a small smile was folding across his red tinted lips. Law made his way to his lover and nuzzled underneath his chin. "I didn't expect to hear a censored version of how you came to the states in a Christmas tale, Law…"

The man underneath him sighed and continued to bury his head into the redhead's broad chest. "Maybe they'll tell their kids a better version one day." The two sat leaned up against the wall like this for several minutes, Law in Eustass's arms and Eustass resting his chin on top of his hat.

The redhead had begun to stir, moving his hands up and down to gently caress the other man's back. "I meant to ask you—did you ever find the freedom you were looking for?" Law didn't reply—he didn't know how to explain it to his lover that he was the freedom he was looking for.

When he was at home, the freedom came when Vergo wasn't there, or Doflamingo wasn't bothering him. When he was at school, the freedom came when he was in BETA club, or when he was at break with his group of clowns.

But, when he was in the arms of Eustass Kid, the freedom was there; it was a weird, bubbly sensation that couldn't be described, but it was definitely the freedom Law had been searching for ever since his father died and Corazon was killed.

Through a muffled sigh, Law raised his head from Kid's chest and stood up on his tiptoes to peck the man on his reddened lips. "I have found it—it's been in arms reach all this time."

Kid's lips fell into a wide smirk before they reattached themselves onto Law's lips in a passionate kiss.