Disclaimer: Death note cannon characters do not belong to me, but the OC Angel does. Carys belongs to our own LaurenxJeevas on , Soar belongs to our own masquerade5020, and Aly belongs to sangoruless on deviantart.
Author's note: MERRY CHRISTMAS!
~Don't They know it's Christmas?~
Chapter 1: The Fights
She danced around her apartment with the music being heard in every room. She hummed and spun around with lights in her hands. Her hips shook side to side as she sang her favorite song during this time of this year.
"I don't want a lot for Christmas; there is just one thing I need. I don't care about the presents underneath the Christmas tree, I don't need to hang my stocking there upon the fireplace. Santa Claus won't make me happy with a toy on Christmas day. I just want you for my own, more than you could ever know…make my wish come true. All I want for Christmas is you baby!"
This is how he found her. She was shaking her hips and singing aloud with the music. He thought for only a second he entered the wrong apartment but as he saw with a wide smile of his long time girlfriend he figured it was merely a alternate universe.
She turned to face him and winked at him acknowledging him but continued to sing along with the horrid music.
"Oh I don't want a lot for Christmas this is all I'm asking for: I just want to see my baby standing right outside my door. Oh I just want you for my own more than you could ever know. Make my wish come true, baby all I want for Christmas is you!"
She sang this before greeting him as she usually did. With a small peck on the cheek and a hug, only this time there was a pair of colorful lights between them. He automatically wrapped his arms around her waist but looked at her still confused.
"Hello to you too?" he mumbled.
He then walked over and turned off the music that was hurting his ears, especially the high pitched note near the song's end.
"Why'd you do that for?" she said wrinkling her nose in annoyance.
"It was hurting my ears" he said.
He looked around their home and noticed a lot of things out of place. For one thing there were colorful lights down the stairway that were blinking so fast it could possible give someone epilepsy. And where his favorite chair once was, was now a six foot pine tree. He turned to face her quickly, wanting an explanation, and instead he found himself in a lip lock with her.
He soon forgot what he was angry about, and gladly kissed her back. He knew her to be eccentric…yes that was the word for it. She got easily excited about holidays, and many times over was he dragged to do thing he loathed to do, but this was their first Christmas together and he wasn't expecting this.
As she pulled back she looked at him with her big bright brown eyes and let out a smile.
"What do you think?" she whispered.
He looked confused.
"About the kiss? It needed to be longer" he said.
She cracked a smile and kissed his nose.
"No pervert. I meant the apartment" she whispered.
"It's…..colorful" he said.
She frowned and pulled back and sat herself down on the white couch. She knew her boyfriend very well, and if there was one thing he didn't like much was color. He liked white….and white, and even more white, and for some reason colors never attracted him, the closest thing she got was the color champagne. She puffed out air in a childish way that moved her bangs in a light motion.
"Nate" she said frowning.
"It's not bad…just really bright"
"But…it's Christmas time" she added as she showed him the gingerbread cookies she had baked.
"Angel…it's very…cheery, and you know I love your…enthusiasm" he said murmuring the last part as if he quickly changed the word he was going to use " but isn't this childish?"
She immediately sat up straighter at his comment. Did he just say her decorations were childish? She looked around; the house had bright lights that made the room livelier, the tree glowed with different shades of colors that simply brought a smile to her face, and the balcony had a Winter Wonderland theme going on by the snowflakes that hung. Outside the door was a large red bow on their knocker. All in all, it looked like the Christmas she always wanted.
She didn't find this childish, instead she found herself being defensive. How dare he call it childish, when he was the one carrying the damn robot all over the place and having Lego sets with dolls all around the place?
"Did you just call me childish?" she asked softly.
He knew that when her voice softened to that tone he was backed up in a corner. He looked at his girlfriend fast and reminded himself once more who he was dealing with. Angel McCartney was a cunning and bright girl. Her body language spoke to him and it said that she was being defensive, defensive about what he wasn't so sure. But her eyes showed hurt.
He had been with her long enough. There were gaps where they went on and off as a couple. Usually it was his fault….at least he was told that by their friends, but he never knew how. All he knew was that she was probably the only girl…woman he corrected himself that could stand up with his quirks and at this point in their lives, he should appreciate it.
"I didn't call you childish swee-uh-darl-uh love?" he said.
He hated pet names, but he was told that it was the best for a relationship and Matt once told him it got out of a lot of trouble countless of times. But at this very moment it seemed that this wasn't the case.
"Is that a new nickname?" she said dryly.
"Well…"
"Well I guess Puddin' will now be used by me hm?" she said smirking.
"Look! Back to my point…all this, aren't we too old for all these decorations?"
"Are you calling me-"
"Not that you're old! I'm old, being twenty and all….I'm going in circles and this is very frustrating" he mumbled twiddling his white hair.
She frowned.
"You're the one carrying toys at twenty, I don't see how my cheery decorations are in any way childish. I always wanted to decorate like this with people I love" she said frowning.
"Well Christmas is just….for children who still believe in those childish things like Santa. And adults find it materialistic and another-"
He heard the door slam and he winced. He never noticed her getting up and leaving, that is until the door was slammed. Had he said something wrong?
Angel stomped through the streets with a frown on her face. It was four days till Christmas and he was being as annoying as ever. Why did he hate Christmas? She felt like a kicked puppy.
"Merry Christmas!" she heard a Santa dressed man yell.
She threw some money in his collection box and continued on her way. Why couldn't he be as happy as the people around her right now. Children were ice skating and others were caroling in churches. Her lips twitched as she fought a smile.
She decided that she needed to talk to someone. So she decided to call her long time friend, Carys Jeevas.
"Simply having a wonderful Christmas time! Simply having a wonderful Christmas time!" she heard the music and let out a full blown smile.
She then heard some movement and the song was off.
"Hello?" a voice said.
"Hey Chica" Angel said softly.
"Well hello to you too lovely, what's up?" she said.
"Nate.."
"What did the idiot do now?" she growled out.
Angel laughed softly and shook her head, as if Carys could see.
"He hates my decorations for Christmas" she said with a pout.
It seemed as if Carys saw it and she sighed.
"Stop pouting. What did you do?"
"I simply decorated around our boring and abnormally white apartment with lights and candy canes and decorative things! I even got a tree and he didn't like it. He called it childish and he ranted about materialism and something like that. I didn't hear the rest because I just left. That bastard"
Carys laughed and Angel smiled, she couldn't help it Carys had a wicked laugh.
"He's always such a grouch isn't he? Well tell the idiot that he better like the decorations or else!"
"Or else what?"
"I don't know mash up his toys or something"
Laughter was what Carys heard as Angel's response.
"I'm serious!"
" I know….but this is our first Christmas together" Angel sighed.
"You mean this is the first year you guys aren't either working apart or broken up?"
"You're such a bitch"
"I'll take that as a yes" Carys replied with a smirk, at least Angel saw her with a smirk.
"Well….shut up"
"That's not nice on Christmas, Santa will put you on the naughty list"
"….."
"Okay so I pushed it. Anyways, I think you should just cool off, and once he sees you he'll say he's sorry like he usually does"
"You think?"
"Yeah thankfully I don't have to deal with it with it. Matt loves Christmas!"
"Really?"
"Well….I don't really know. We usually never had time to celebrate Christmas…because of-"
"You also breaking up time and again?"
"Now whose being the bitch!"
"Still you" Angel replied with a smile.
"Ugh. You're so annoying. Oo! Matt is coming! Hey baby!"
Angel sighed as she heard the phone being put down. She wasn't expecting was the screaming.
"What's all this crap?"
Angel winced hearing Matt's scream.
"What do you mean crap! It's called decorations you ungrateful troll!"
"All this cheery crap, it's crap Carys! You know I hate Christmas, it's so stupid!"
"Look idiot we're together this time of year and you better fucking appreciate my hard work!"
"Take it down"
"No way!"
"Take it down, my eyes hurt from this gaudy shit!"
"That's it Mail Jeevas, you shove it up your ass! I'm leaving!"
"What well!"
She heard the door slam.
"Hello?" She said softly knowing it was no use.
"What!" she heard Matt yell.
"Never mind" she murmured.
"Shorty?" Matt asked.
"The one and only"
"Can I just say, your friend is a nut job? I mean Christmas is so stupid!"
Angel immediately frowned and anger began to rise once more.
"Look idiot! If you're going to be such a Grinch, then you better go shove your head up your ass like Nate did. I am not taking yours or anyone else's crap!"
"What the hell is wrong with you? You're just like her ugh"
"Goodbye Goggle-head" Angel said before hanging up.
Immediately after hanging up, she heard her phone ring once more.
"All I want for Christmas!-"
She immediately responded not wanting to hear the song once more.
"Hel-"
"Where are you?" Carys barked.
"Why?"
"We're not the only one with this problem. Soar just called me in tears, apparently even L didn't take this well."
Angel frowned and sighed.
"Where do you want to meet?" she asked.
"Soar's flat, L left her there with tears"
Angel winced, it seemed unlike them, after all they were the ones that were the most…normal.
"I'll be over in twenty"
"Twenty?"
"I…I walked out with nothing but my keys and my gingerbread cookies?"
"Idiot, where are you, I'll pick you up. I got the car, that bastard was not going to keep me without my baby"
"E 68th street" she replied.
"By the coffee shop?"
"Yeah"
"Be there in ten"
And in less than ten Angel was in Carys' car, hearing her rant.
"And I had mistletoes everywhere! And still! STILL! That bastard didn't appreciate anything" she growled stuffing another gingerbread man in her mouth.
Angel winced and nodded.
"Yeah…I don't know what's wrong with him. I mean Nate usually goes with whatever I say and-"
"Oh yeah he's whipped…pass me another cookie will ya?"
Angel frowned but did as asked.
"You didn't cry though right?"
Angel bit her bottom lip and shook her head.
"Good. I hate when you cry"
"I can't help it!"
"You pushover."
"Look! When I get mad I cry, they come hand in hand"
Carys laughed softly and patted her leg showing she understood.
"Don't you miss the times when those bastards were off somewhere and it was just you and I decorating our crappy apartment?"
Angel laughed softly and nodded.
"No one ever complained there"
"Mph-yeah" Carys said with another cookie in her mouth.
Angel wrinkled her nose and bit into her gingerbread man.
"We're here! Now get out of my car"
Angel smirked and slipped out. She grabbed her colorful tin of cookies and walked towards the door. Before she could even knock Carys had already entered and walked towards the living room to find a sniffling Soar and Christmas music still playing.
"Believe in what your heart is saying, hear the melody that is playing, there's no time to waste, there's so much to celebrate! Believe in what you feel inside, and give your dreams wings to fly…you have everything you need if you just believe."
Immediately she was being held by Carys as Angel closed the door. Soar was the oldest of their trio, always the strong one and the more down to earth one. When she cried, that's when something really mattered.
Angel placed her cookies aside, turned the music off, and immediately integrated herself in the hug. She wiped her friend's tears and frowned feeling that the Christmas spirit had simply disappeared from their little family.
"What happened?" she asked softly.
Soar simply hiccupped and Angel wiped even more tears.
"He-he"
"What did that tight ass do!" Carys growled.
"Carys!" Angel yelled trying to quiet her down.
Carys grumbled unintelligently but stayed quiet.
"He" she hiccupped once more. "He didn't u-understand why I did it"
Angel rubbed her back comforted, and thankfully enough Carys didn't interrupt.
"I decorated this place…I mean it looks just like what I imagined it. I wanted us to have a regular Christmas. There were no random cases in Sweden, or anything that could prevent us from having a normal Christmas, but he…he didn't take it t-too well" she soon had another flow of tears flow.
"What did he say?" she asked softly.
"I told him that I wanted us to have a normal Christmas and he…he didn't reply like how I expected him to."
"What did-uh" Carys softened her tone. "What did he say to that?"
Soar took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down.
"He said to me 'When in our time together, or any time at all, when have we been normal Sora? When? Stop kidding yourself that we could have a normal life!"
Soon she was back to crying and Carys hugging her tighter, leaving Angel to think.
This was more than a simple comment, this was deeper than just Christmas. Yes this definitely meant more. Normalcy was what Soar wanted more than anything, everyone who was close to her knew that. She wanted the white picket fence, the 2.5 children, the red door of a white house, she wanted to integrate herself in society without fear of being killed. She wanted this, with not just anybody, but wanted this with L himself. And the fact that he said this to her before slamming the door shut affected her badly.
"That's not what he meant Soar" Angel murmured.
Mismatched eyes and dark brown eyes immediately where one her and she shifted uncomfortably. She bit her bottom lip to think her words out before saying them.
"T-that's not what he meant." Her seriousness made Soar hide her face knowing that she understood the underlying fear.
Carys nodded agreeing with her, finally understanding.
"He was just…just being a Grinch. Christmas just doesn't seem to play well with the guys…I personally, I always wanted a real Christmas, with family and people I love…a-and I know that now that we're a family…we can't just…we can't just allow this to go to waste!"
Carys nodded and knew that Angel also had a deeper meaning to her comment. She always wanted a normal Christmas as Carys soon learned she wanted too. When they were younger in Wammy's she would always hear Angel ranting to her about her perfect Christmas.
Flashback…
Six year old Carys was looking at her young roommate, four year old Angel. She usually wasn't too talkative but this time it seemed she kept talking.
"You know what my dream Christmas would be?" she asked Carys.
"One where I could sleep peacefully?" she muttered back.
Angel pouted and threw her a stuffed animal.
"Hey!"
"I'm serious Carys!" she squeaked.
"Okay, okay…" Carys said smiling. "What would be your dream Christmas?"
Angel smiled pleased that she got what she asked for.
"Well…I'd want a Christmas with a family" she said softly looking out her window.
That rose Carys attention to the young girl, and she felt herself following her gaze. She knew that Angel's dream was very childish, after all when would Wammys allow a young prodigies with such potential for more, be at the hands of normal, average parents.
"Go on.."
"I'd want a family that's you know perfect. With people happy and decorating and singing. Oh! I love singing Carys, I really do" she squeaked in excitement.
Carys, despite her grumpiness could not help but smile at her friend's childish glee.
"And you know…one day I'd like…to be happy in a normal lifestyle and love."
Carys couldn't help but add something teasingly.
"With Near perhaps?"
Angel's whole face turned red, and she shifted uncomfortably looking away from Carys and once more towards the window showing the cold winter outside.
"One day perhaps" she murmured.
Carys' eyes brightened and Angel ignored her, cheeks still red. She placed her hand on the cold glass and sighed soon pressing her cheek on it.
"What are you doing?" Carys asked.
"I want to get out of here…sometimes..sometimes I wish to have a family, not be so…so freakish, and instead be a normal kid my age you know? I know being a prodigy is a gift and we're very lucky to have it, but I crave to be average."
Carys had no choice but to crawl over and wrap her arms around her friend and squeeze tight, pulling her back from the window.
"I do too"
"Hey…Carys?"
"Yeah?"
"Would you be my family till we get a real one?" she asked softly.
Carys was surprised and looked at her young friend. She had said "we" as if they would both be the lucky ones here. Angel's eyes were bright with hope, and that little glint of innocence, that Carys admitted bitterly, she had lost a while, she had seen how dark the world could be with BB's help.
"Sure kid"
Angel smiled and hugged her tight, earning a hug back.
End Flashback..
Now as Carys looked at Angel, she saw that that glint had not disappeared. Even now at nineteen she had not lost her innocence at all, instead it still glimmered bright in her eyes.
"She's right" Carys said squeezing Soar's hand.
"Y-yeah" Soar said softly.
Their quiet moment was interrupted by Angel's cellphone once more. She shuffled around in her purse and she noticed that it wasn't her private line, but the SPK line. She was surprised and immediately she answered it.
"A speaking" she said in a more serious voice.
"Uh….A-Aly speaking" she heard the voice say.
"Aly is there something wrong?" she said nervously.
Aly had been one of the newer members of the SPK, very hard working and essential to the task force. She was a brunette beauty, that cared very much about her looks, Angel noticed, her clothing was always impeccable. She had long brown hair, and her eyes were a mixture of brown and amber giving her a unique feature. She was very friendly, but usually kept to herself, not wanting to get any help at all. What she said surprised Angel more than anything.
"I need your help…in a non-SPK related case?" she said nervously.
Angel got up and walked away from the group with the girls trailing her. She walked towards the kitchen and plopped herself on the counter now curious towards the call.
"Do tell"
"Well…Mello" that should have been her first guess towards what it was dealing with. "He….oh this is kind of awkward to say but…well you know him very well right?"
Angel smirked and held back her laughter.
"Yes why do you ask Aly?" she asked.
"Well..you see…he and I are-uh…well"
"Dating?" she said trying to help the poor girl.
Despite Aly being older than Angel, Angel was not oblivious to the constant interaction between Mello and Aly. They were always talking, and subconsciously seeking physical touches, whether it be a hand on the shoulder, some hand brushing, a strand being caressed lightly and flushed faces as they exited a "meeting" did not help at all with their discretion.
"W-well…h-how"
"I know everything" Angel said. "Forget the formality and tell me what brings you to call me?"
"He hates Christmas" Aly let out a huff that was very abnormal about her.
She had heard from Mello these things about Aly that she had never shown her. For one thing she was a hothead like her friend Carys, and that she was impatient as well.
"I see…we're on the same boat then Aly" she said.
It was not normal for Angel to allow someone new into her personal life, but she figured that Mello was practically bringing her into the group that she might as well try to create a friendship out of their work relationship.
"O-oh?" Aly said.
"Yes, would you like to come over to Soar's house to discuss your problem?"
"I-I don't know if I should" she said uncomfortably. "I feel like I am already pushing the boundaries between professionalism and personal life."
"Well if you want my help, I suggest you come over"
Silence was heard at the other end, soon there was an answer she was waiting for. Angel smirked knowing what was next.
"Give me the address and I'll be right over"
Angel did as asked and she hung up. She hopped off the counter only to crash into the girls who seemed to be eavesdropping. She placed a hand on her chest showing her surprise and glared only to receive sheepish looks.
"Well?"
"Aly's coming" Angel said shortly.
"As in-"
"Yup" Angel said.
"What?" Soar said confused. "Aly SPK Aly?" she repeated. "Is it anything related to the case?"
"No…she's not coming as 'Aly from SPK'" Angel said with quotations "but as Alessandra, Mello's girlfriend"
"No fucking way" Carys said surprised.
"Wow" Soar said surprised.
"Seems the man whore found himself caught" Angel said smiling.
"That sure lifted by spirits" Carys said.
Angel laughed and nodded.
"I can't wait for the juicy details" Soar found herself saying.
"Neither can I" Angel said. "Come on I have a plan"
Soon the girls were cleaning up, deciding that they were going to need Aly's help at the end. After all, how could they bring Christmas spirit to the boys, if they didn't have Mello's main squeeze? Seems like the boys were going to get something that they weren't expecting, something they deserved.