A little holiday ditty just for you guys. Merry Christmas. :) HnKnA does not belong to me.
* Christmas at the Clock Tower *
Strange sounds were coming from the large workroom as the residents of Clover Tower awoke. Gray had been brushing his teeth when he'd heard it; Nightmare had wrapped himself up in another blanket and been searching for a box of Kleenex when he heard it. And Julius had just woken from a rare full night of sleep, but he was irritable from lack of caffeine. All three came out of their rooms at the same time and crept toward the workroom. Looking at each other for confirmation that they indeed were not going crazy, Julius stepped forward and carefully opened the door to the workroom.
The usually drab room had exploded with light and color; red and blue ribbons hung from the corners of the room; garland haloed the windows and what looked like little toy men with strangely boxy mouths sat on different empty spaces. In the cleanest corner of the room was a large evergreen tree, halfway decorated with lights and beautifully colored ornaments, and standing beside the tree with two glass balls in her hands and ribbon wrapped around her shoulders was Alice, humming a merry tune as loud as she could. She reached up and placed both of the glass balls on a branch near the top of the tree and turned for another ornament when she finally saw the three men standing at the doorway.
"Oh! I wasn't expecting you guys to be up yet."
The three stepped into the room, getting a better look at the transformation. Julius rushed over to check his tools and was both surprised and pleased to see that they were unharmed. His unrepaired clocks remained untouched in the box where he kept them.
"What is all this?" Gray said.
"Christmas decorations!" Alice said gleefully. "I was hoping to finish before you guys woke up, but I guess I didn't get started early enough." She walked around to the other side of the tree to place a candy cane ornament near the bottom.
Nightmare walked around to the tree and said, "This is nice. Explains all the dreams you've been having lately."
"Thank you."
Gray had wandered to a window and was examining a garland, and when Alice was sure he was wasn't looking stole a glance at him; he looked pleased. A small smile spread on her face and she looked away before she could be caught staring.
She looked over at Julius, a little worried on his reaction. The main problem with this surprise was whether the Clockmaker would appreciate his workplace being disrupted. But his expression remained relatively neutral, and because he didn't look upset she assumed his consent.
Nightmare spoke up and woke Alice from her musings. "I can handle breakfast if you want to finish up."
"Okay," she replied. "Thanks!"
"I am making the coffee," Julius said sternly, pulling out his tools and the box of pending clocks to work on later.
"What's wrong with my coffee?" Nightmare said defensively, wrapping the blanket around him tighter as he pouted as the blue-haired workaholic.
"Other than it's undrinkable?" Julius snapped, settling down at his clear work bench and looking sternly over at the incubus.
"Gray!" Nightmare whined, coming over to his assistant. "Julius is picking on me again!"
Gray ignored his boss and offered, "I'll cook."
"NO!" came the collective shout from the group.
"Really, Gray, that's alright," Alice said, an uncomfortable grin on her face. "I'll handle breakfast after I finish up in here."
Nightmare and Gray stood in the middle of the room pouting and Alice tried not to grin at their expense.
xoxox
Alice had managed to sneak out of the Tower later that afternoon. Nightmare and Gray were buried in work and Julius had holed himself up in the workroom again. It was the perfect opportunity to go shopping.
It was cold out; Alice wrapped her scarf more securely around her neck, observing some the decorations the little village below had put up. Lights brightened the dreary winter sky and Alice could smell something wonderful drifting from a restaurant nearby. A few wayward snowflakes floated in front of her, but that was all the snow she was going to see that day. Patches of ice glittered over the sidewalk and in puddles on the road. A chill breeze blew by, and Alice picked up the pace of her walk, seeking a place to find her gifts. She saw a sign for a bookstore and hurried towards it, a little bell ringing as she passed through the doorway.
She stood looking around the small shop at an assortment of different volumes, different genres crammed together in the tight space. There was barely room to move, and two people couldn't pass each other inside the rows. The store smelled of dust and the must of old books and leather and binding glue; Alice smiled. She loved books. In fact, she might pick up something for herself while she was at it. Clover Tower's library left a lot to be desired.
She had already founds gifts for Julius and Nightmare; it was the workaholic lizard that was giving her a hard time. She'd never seen the man relax. She had no clue what kind of things he liked or was really interested in.
She paused by the mystery section, staring at a set of novels—a series. She picked up the first novel in the set and read the synopsis on the back cover. She checked the price on the set and found it was on sale. Picking it up, she browsed other parts of the store, picking up another two books before walking over to the cashier.
Alice left the store, satisfied with her purchases, and just missing Gray going into the same store not a minute after she'd left.
xoxox
She had one more present to wrap when there was a knock at her bedroom door.
"Alice, you in there?" Nightmare called. "Dinner's ready, if you're hungry."
"Just a minute," she said through ribbon clenched between her teeth. She placed a last spot of tape on the corner of the wrapping paper and tied the ribbon secure. Grabbing all her gifts and stacking them on top of another she nodded in satisfaction before hiding the gifts under her bed.
"Alice?"
She opened the door and said, "Hmm, smells good."
She walked into the kitchen and found she was alone. "Where is everyone?"
Nightmare sat down across from her at the table and began to dig into his bowl of soup. "They're busy, like usual. I already dropped off a bowl for each of them."
Alice picked up the spoon and tipped it into her soup, blowing on it before eating. "I wish that the two of them would rest once in a while. At least long enough to eat together." She took a sip of her soup and, finding it delicious, began to eat without hesitation.
The dream demon glanced up at her. "How do you like living here?" he asked.
Alice looked up at him, surprised at the question. He'd already seen the answer in her head, but wanted to hear it from her.
"I like it," she answered after a moment. "I'm comfortable here, with you and Gray and Julius."
Nightmare hid his pleased smile behind his hand, before having a small coughing fit.
xoxox
It was Christmas Eve, nearly midnight. All the lights in the Tower were off. Wind could be heard whistling between cracks in the architecture. Nothing stirred in the night.
Save one little mouse.
Alice crept quietly down the stairs, packages carefully balanced in her arms as she made her way to the decorated workroom. Opening the door slowly so as not to make a sound, she entered the room and breathed a small sigh of relief. The workroom was deserted.
Odd. Normally Julius would be tinkering away at this hour of the night. It wasn't unusual. But Alice thanked her lucky stars that tonight he'd decided to retire early.
She placed her packages under the tree and was turning to leave when she heard the door open.
Crud, she thought and, not knowing what else to do, dashed under the table, praying that whoever had just entered didn't see her. She moved as silently as she could to see who the midnight creeper was.
Even in his pajamas and robe Gray was a recognizable figure in the gloom. He seemed to be holding something in his hands and placed it carefully under the tree before leaving the room. He made no sound at all, probably a skill picked up from his days as an assassin.
Alice breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the door close behind him. Her heart was hammering in her chest, but she hadn't been caught. She felt giddy and silly and moved from underneath the table before heading back to bed.
xoxox
It was just an hour after dawn when Alice came down to the workroom on Christmas morning. When she opened the door there was a loud shuffle and a BANG! as something fell to the floor. She rushed in and over to the tree to see Julius sprawled out on the floor, groaning.
"Oh my god, what happened?" she cried, bending down to him.
He looked over at her and sighed deeply. "Oh, it's just you. You scared the hell out of me," he added and Alice helped him up from the floor.
"What happened?" she said.
"Nothing to worry about," Julius replied gruffly. She glanced at his face and saw his cheeks were inflamed.
"You were peeking at the presents under the tree, weren't you?"
"I was not," he said indignantly. With his face flushed like that, and his tone of voice, and the fact that he wasn't meeting her eyes—Alice laughed. He blushed harder and looked pointedly at the floor, trying to hide behind his hair.
"You're adorable, Julius, did you know that?"
The blue-haired Clockmaker shrugged her off of him and said, "I made coffee. You want some?"
"I'll have hot cocoa, actually. With peppermint."
Julius nodded and escaped to the kitchen. Alice chuckled. He was a five-year-old at heart, that one.
The door to the workroom opened and Alice turned to see both Gray and Nightmare in the doorway. They smiled at her and Nightmare said, "Merry Christmas, Alice."
"Merry Christmas, Nightmare. Merry Christmas, Gray," she returned with a broad smile. There was no use in hiding it: Alice was excited.
"Where's Julius?" Gray said, taking a seat the table.
"Getting coffee," she replied. Gray had a small smile on his face, as if to say, 'Of course.' Nightmare bent down to the tree and said, "When he gets back, we begin opening presents, isn't that right?"
"Yep!" Alice said. She clapped her hands excitedly.
The door to the kitchen opened and Julius came in with two coffee mugs, setting a steaming cup of hot cocoa in front of Alice before wandering over to the tree with his brew, observing. "Shall we get started, or do you want to eat breakfast first?"
"Presents!" Nightmare and Alice replied at the same time. Julius and Gray looked at each other, and Gray shrugged.
"Presents it is."
"Alice, you go first!" Nightmare said, handing off a brightly wrapped box to the brown-haired girl.
She took it and read the note. "From Nightmare to Alice. Happy Christmas."
She shook the box slightly and began ripping away at the paper. After peeling away the tape on the outside she opened the box and gasped, pulling out a stuffed teddy bear. It was brown with a worn red ribbon round its neck. In fact the entire bear looked worn and well loved, signs of patching and stitching in different places and uneven stuffing, especially around the middle.
Alice's eyes filled. "Where…?" she said, choking up.
"I thought it might be something you'd like," Nightmare said with a small smile. Gray and Julius looked over him, perplexed. "It's her most precious toy from childhood," he explained softly, "and it's called—"
"Merry!" she exclaimed, hugging the bear tight to her chest. "Oh, thank you Nightmare!" she cried out, coming to her feet and hugging the incubus tightly. Nightmare pat her back and began to cough violently. Releasing him quickly she said, "Oh I'm so sorry, I forgot—!"
They spent a few minutes calming the poor guy down before opening another present. Nightmare opened his present from Alice and read to the group, "Coupon for One Day of Free Care, No Hospitals Required." He looked up at Alice and thanked her. "Although I'll probably need to cash this in pretty soon."
Gray went next. He opened his gift from Alice and paused a moment, the look on his face odd. He glanced from her to the set of mystery novels and back to her.
"Do you not like it?" Alice said worriedly.
"No, I do!" he replied quickly, suddenly looking rather uncomfortable. "It's just…um, why don't you open yours?" he suggested lightly.
Hurt but trying not to show it, Alice picked up her present from Gray and ripped at the paper, though much less enthusiastically than before. She paused. Glancing from the gift to Gray and back to the gift, she slowly finished unwrapping it.
It was the exact same set of mystery novels she'd given him. She held up the set and Julius and Nightmare glanced between the two. Nightmare burst into laughter and Julius cracked a grin.
"Classic!" Nightmare said, wiping a tear.
"That has never happened to me before," Alice said, slightly embarrassed but giddy with laughter.
"You thought I didn't like your gift," Gray said in a teasing tone.
"Well, yeah!" Alice responded defensively. "I thought you hated it, you scared me so bad when your face fell like that!"
"I'm sorry," he said, and Alice could tell he meant it. "It just took me by surprise."
Julius reached over and handed his gift to Alice. It was small wooden box with just a ribbon tied over it. Alice paused to admire the woodwork: intricate vines and flowers had been carved into the side of the box, and a small brass latch kept it closed. Alice carefully removed the ribbon and unlocked the clasp, lifting the lid slowly.
Music chimed from inside the box, which was empty but had a small slot to watch the mechanism inside work. Small pieces of metal struck their way across a metal board, ringing different notes into a melody Alice recognized as 'Silent Night'.
"Wow," she said, her voice muted in awe. Gray and Nightmare looked just as surprised. "This is…beautiful, thank you."
"Merry Christmas, Alice," he said, and a genuine, soft smile spread across his features. When Alice looked up at him he quickly covered the smile with another swig of coffee.
Setting the music box down carefully Alice handed Julius his gift. Putting down the cup with a clunk on the table he took it and began to carefully peal apart the paper. Unlike Alice, who ripped at packages with wild abandon, Julius was the type of person that tried to preserve the wrapping paper. In that almost utilitarian way he had, Alice believed that he would try and salvage the paper for use next year.
Finally finished with unwrapping Julius pulled out from the lumpy package a wool sweater, dark blue with green and gold threads wrapping a pattern round the shoulders and down the sleeves.
"For when you get cold from working late at night," Alice explained.
"Thank you, Alice," Julius said, and he surprised them all by taking off his robe and slipping the sweater over his head.
The men exchanged gifts between each other: Gray gave both men books as well—crossword puzzles for Julius, and a manual entitled 'How to be A #1 Boss: Skills for Management' for Nightmare. Apparently the bookstore was a one-stop shop for him. Nightmare gave Gray a signed contract promising a week of vacation uninterrupted, with a one-use limit; he gave Julius a tool care set. And Julius gave Gray and Nightmare each a little wood carving: Nightmare received a hookah-smoking caterpillar, and Gray a lizard wearing a waistcoat. Neither works were painted but the detail was exceptional.
The rest of the day the four residents of Clover Tower lazed around; no one worked. They sat together in the workroom, a roaring fire blazing in the fireplace, cups of cocoa and coffee. They all told stories, Alice doing most of the talking about different incidents from her world. Embarrassing stories about each of the three men spilled out and Alice got a helping hand from Gray for Christmas dinner, although it was strictly to chop vegetables and carry the turkey.
It was late evening now. Alice sat curled up in a comfy chair in front of the fireplace, a book in hand, fast asleep. Nightmare walked into the workroom on his way to the kitchen for a midnight snack; Gray and Julius were already in bed, the day having worn them out. He paused by the fire to push about the dying embers with a poker when he saw Alice.
He smiled down at the girl, and lifted the blanket from his shoulders, draping it carefully around her. She released a deep sigh as she slept and cuddled into the blanket, still warm from its former occupant. Nightmare smiled and bent down, brushing a little kiss on her forehead.
"Merry Christmas, Alice. And sweet dreams."