Père Noël
"I literally hate this."
Ulrich was dressed as an elf, working part-time for a mall Santa to scrape together some extra cash for Yumi's Christmas present.
"I can't believe my father cut me off because I wouldn't come home for the holidays," he grumbled. "He's the whole reason I'm staying at Odd's anyway!"
"Smile!" his coworker, Sabine, said way too enthusiastically as she shoved a handful of candy canes at him. "We're doing this for the kids. I'm sure they won't be too thrilled if they see a grumpy elf."
"I'd rather be the Grinch," he said under his breath in German, not that she could understand him. He nodded begrudgingly and took the candy canes to hand out to each child as they left with their parents and photos.
"Oh, Jeremie, please?" Aelita begged as they exited yet another store. "You know how nuts my father was — he never really let me out of the house, let alone to a mall to meet Père Noël!"
"Aelita," the boy started, adjusting his grip on the bundle of shopping bags. "We're a little old for this, don't you think?"
"That's what you said about trick-or-treating," she accused. "But you still showed up!"
He sighed. "Alright. We'll go wait in line. But if it's all the same, I'd rather sit this one out; I'm not really big on the whole Père Noël thing."
She cracked a smile. "I can live with that."
Luckily the line wasn't too long, and Ulrich was just ushering a family away when he spotted two of his friends. Aelita always stood out like a sore thumb with her pink hair.
"I'm taking my break early," he asserted, shoving the candy canes back at Sabine. He turned on his heel.
"Oh, no," the girl spat, grabbing him by the collar. "I don't get paid enough to cover both of us." She looked past him. "You know those two, don't you?"
"Who?" he asked innocently.
"The only people around our age who are standing in line without a kid," she deadpanned. "The girl with the pink hair and the guy next to her who looks like he'd rather be anywhere else."
That's them, alright, he thought. He nodded.
"And you're afraid they're going to mock you for working as one of Père Noël's helpers."
He let out a sigh. At least it's just them. They're understanding. If it were Odd and Yumi, however… "No. I guess I have nothing to worry about."
She gave him back his share of the candy canes. "Good. We only have about an hour left until we're done for the day, anyway. Think you can handle it?"
"Yeah, whatever."
"Isn't that Jeremie and Aelita?" Odd asked, exiting a store and pointing off into the distance. "In line for Père Noël?"
William looked up from his phone. "Yeah, I guess. Aelita's hard to miss." He gave the blonde a sidelong glance. "Why do you think they're waiting for a photo? Wouldn't her parents have done the Santa thing with her when she was little?"
Odd remembered just how new William was to the whole Lyoko-XANA thing, and how he only knew fragments of Aelita's past. "Her father didn't exactly provide the most stable home environment," he alluded. "Come on; let's go say hi!"
Rolling his eyes, William stuffed his phone back into his pocket and readjusted the few bags he was carrying, following Odd as he weaved through the throngs of people. He stopped short, his eyes roaming away from the couple and to the two people around their age, playing elves and handing out candy canes to the kids.
"Hey, Odd, tell me if I'm crazy: Does that one elf look like Ulrich?"
"Huh?"
He stopped short, colliding with an older woman and knocking her purchases to the floor. She started shouting at him in English, berating him for not paying attention to where he was going, though he couldn't understand a word.
"Sorry, ma'am!" he repeated over and over in French, he and William assisting her in gathering everything. The older boy said something to her in English which seemed to quell the anger, earning Odd a curt yet sympathetic nod.
"What did you tell her?" he asked once she was out of earshot.
"I said you were in a hurry due to a family emergency, and that you were sorry for any inconvenience you might've caused her."
"Really?"
He nodded in sincerity. "Now, seriously: Doesn't that elf look like Ulrich?"
Odd slowed his pace, really focusing now on the duo near Père Noël. "Yeah," he said, astonished. "And he looks like he hates himself."
William let out a low chuckle. "Well, how would you feel if you had to be one of Santa's helpers?"
"Actually—"
"Don't answer that."
They'd finally made their way to Jeremie and Aelita, standing on the other side of the red velvet rope barriers so people wouldn't mistake them for waiting in line.
"Hey, Einstein," Odd said casually. "Here to tell Père Noël what you want for Christmas?"
"I'm here for Aelita," Jeremie asserted. "I stopped believing in Père Noël when I was eight."
"You're kidding," William droned.
"Shut up."
"Are you guys doing some last-minute shopping, too?" Aelita interjected. "If we had known, we could've split a cab!"
"Yeah, you know how it is," William said. "And, I drove. You're both welcome to come back to Kadic with us."
"Hey." Odd leaned on a gold barricade post, discreetly pointing to his right. "Doesn't that elf look like Ulrich?"
The duo nodded.
"He told me he needed a part-time job to get Yumi a Christmas present, but I never imagined it would be this," Jeremie commented.
"Don't say anything," Aelita warned. "He probably doesn't want to be here as much as you do, Jeremie."
The boy made a face.
"Alright!" Sabine said all too cheerfully. "Who's next to see Père Noël?"
Aelita had reached the front of the line, and smiled brightly as she ascended the three steps up to where Père Noël sat in his grand red and gold chair.
"Hello!" the man said, matching her enthusiasm. "And what is your name, Miss?"
"Aelita," she responded, her smile never wavering. She stood next to him — though she'd had this moment at the back of her mind since she was a little girl, she was a teenager now, and there was something about sitting on a grown man's lap that made her feel uncomfortable.
"Well, Aelita," Père Noël started, "what would you like for Christmas this year?"
She blushed. "I know this is silly," she said, leaning in and lowering her voice to a near-whisper, "but I'd really like my mother back."
His smile faltered. "I see." He cleared his throat, covering one of her small hands with both of his larger, gloved ones. "That's not silly at all, Aelita. I promise you, my elves and I will do our best."
"Thank you."
"Smile!" The photographer said. Aelita faced forward, lending the man behind the camera a genuine smile, and thanked the man playing Père Noël once again as she stepped to the side to collect her candy cane and a polaroid copy of the photo.
"No charge," Sabine said. "Merry Christmas!"
Aelita blushed once more. "Thank you." She took the photo and the two candy canes offered to her — she'd be sure to give one to Jeremie, for his effort. "Hi, Ulrich," she said casually, walking past them and rejoining her friends on the other side of the barricade.
The brunette clenched his fists around the bundles of candy canes so hard, they almost snapped — they weren't the giant, fancy ones after all — and muttered a greeting to his friend as she disappeared.
"What did you say to Père Noël?" Jeremie inquired later on as the group made their way outside to William's car. Ulrich had just gotten off his shift and was downing a coffee.
Aelita avoided eye contact. "It's dumb," she said dismissively.
"No," Odd prodded as he took a macaron from a paper bag and bit into it. "Tell us."
They piled into William's car and slowly merged out into the city, away from the mall. She looked out the window at the twinkling lights, the sun having set about an hour ago. "I asked to have my mom back. It's just… I don't know if she's even alive. She's been gone for years, having been kidnapped — you all know the story. It's tough. With her gone and my father dead…"
They lapsed into silence. William had considered turning the radio on, but it obviously wasn't the right time. He kept his eyes on the road, a steady grip on the wheel.
"That's not dumb," Ulrich said quietly.
They reached the school, having made it back in time for dinner. Aelita was alone in her room after the meal, packing for another holiday with Jeremie and his family. It had been their tradition for the last few years, though Odd and Yumi had offered their respective homes to her as well. But there was something about Jeremie's mom; she almost reminded her of her own.
There was a knock. "It's open," she said.
It was Jeremie.
"Hey," she greeted, glancing up briefly from her suitcase. "What's going on?"
He closed the door, keeping his hands behind his back. "I was going to wait to give this to you — it's not really a Christmas present, but I figured now was as good a time as any."
He extended an arm, holding a small rectangular box wrapped in dark red paper with a silver ribbon. The girl wavered a moment before taking the gift from him. He sat on the edge of her bed.
"Open it."
She daintily undid the ribbon, placing it on the desk next to her computer. Unwrapping the box, she found a framed photo inside, her eyes widening as she slowly sank down beside him.
"Where did you get this?" she asked, astonished.
The photo was of her and her mother — just the two of them, her father most likely having taken the picture — outside their winter cabin in Switzerland. Aelita was probably about five or six in the picture, the two of them bundled up tight and standing in the snow. She and her mother appeared to have been laughing at or about something, she couldn't remember what, as the afternoon sun shone through the tall spruce trees behind them. The picture had been placed into a gold frame.
"I found it on a solo trip to the Hermitage," he explained. "It was before we knew about Franz being your father and all that; I wanted to keep it a surprise."
"I love it," she said, wiping away a tear. "Thank you, Jeremie!"
She placed the photo delicately on her nightstand before kissing the blonde on the cheek. He blushed again, as was customary, and mumbled something about it being "no problem."
"Don't sell yourself short," she teased. "I know it's not for a few more days, but Merry Christmas, Jeremie."
"Merry Christmas, Aelita."