Author's Notes: Yes, yes, it's the 29th, but you know, the Twelve Days of Christmas actually last until Epiphany.
This began as a variant of the iPod Shuffle Challenge—I put on my local 24-hour Christmas station and decided to write ficlets about ten songs that came on. The whole "only write for the length of the song" part didn't work out, though. (Christmas songs are short, okay?!) The subject is Billy Batson, because he's one of my favorite characters. These are set from before the events of season one to shortly before season two begins, and have been rearranged to rough chronological order. I hope you enjoy, and happy belated holidays!
(Warnings: Fluff and a ton of canon, both from the show and other Shazam-based media.)
Last Christmas by Taylor Swift
Last Christmas, Billy was some six-year-old kid living on the street.
He woke up early—there was probably something inherent in a kid's DNA to assure that happened—but he didn't have any presents to open, and his "tree" was basically a broken branch in the corner of his dilapidated room. Santa apparently had a hard time keeping track of him. Or maybe it was the fact that he was living in a condemned building right now; who knew if the chimney could support somebody coming down it?
He spent a few hours listening to Christmas songs on his battery-powered radio before going to the church soup kitchen, and stayed an hour or two late helping to clean up afterward. He crossed his fingers when he lied to the minister, claiming that he had come here with family and that they knew he was here. Then he came home and went to bed, more or less repeating the schedule on Boxing Day.
One Christmas later, Billy was the most famous superhero in Fawcett City.
Kids stopped playing in the snow to watch as he flew overhead. He found a family whose car had broken down and carried it home for them (with said family riding inside!) The grown-ups were so thankful that they loaded his arms with Christmas cookies as the kids showed them the presents they had gotten earlier that day. After that he went to that same church soup kitchen from last year. He didn't eat—Captain Marvel didn't need to, with the Stamina of Atlas and all—but he shared his cookies with the other kids, and then spent an hour taking them for flights around the block. "You sure are good with kids," the minister commented as Captain Marvel helped him clean up.
Billy was hungry when he turned back into a kid, but he crawled into bed with a grin on his face. The Wizard had given him a better gift than Santa Claus ever could.
Please Come Home for Christmas by the Eagles
"Hey…you okay?"
Zatanna looked up; she made a noise like a scoff, but Billy noticed her dismissive hand-wave flicked away a tear. "You're the fourth person to ask me that tonight," she said quietly. "I'll be fine."
"Oh." Billy hesitated, wondering, as he often did, what he would say if he was in Captain Marvel form and had the Wisdom of Solomon at the moment. Its advice often came down to "keep quiet," but the Wisdom of Billy Batson found that inadequate to the sight of a friend crying.
"Are you upset about your dad? I know this is your first Christmas without him..."
The Wisdom of Billy Batson was an idiot sometimes—Zatanna turned away coldly, sniffling. "I really don't want to talk it right now," she whispered.
Billy winced, then hesitated; he knew he should probably just go, but...
"Can I show you something?"
Zatanna looked up and Billy, not waiting for an answer, sat beside her and took out his wallet, which contained three dollars, a bus pass and a single photograph. He took out the latter, a worn portrait of a couple with a girl and a boy. Zatanna immediately recognized the child sitting on his father's shoulders.
"Is that you?"
Billy nodded. "Yeah. This was a little while before my parents went on a trip overseas." He very carefully returned the picture to his wallet and put it away. "After that they disappeared for months. I think. All I remember was staying at my Uncle E's house that year, asking him a million times if they were going to be home in time for Christmas."
Zatanna pushed her hair behind her ear. "Did they? Come home, I mean." Her tone was somehow both curious and defiant.
Billy faltered, looking away. "No. It turned out they died." There was a pause. "B-but, I mean—I have my Uncle Dudley to take care of me now, so Christmas is fun anyway, if you have...you know, other loved ones. Oh, I know! You can spend Christmas at our house, if you want! I mean, if you don't want to spend it here at the Cave or anything...?"
Billy's slightly desperate tone was enough to earn a withering look from Zatanna, who could only laugh at the nervous, holy-moly-I-made-it-worse smile on his face.
"I don't know about the invite, Billy, but I think you're right—having other loved ones certainly helps."
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer by Gene Autry
Billy really didn't have any reason to want to help Lagreen.
Lagreen had been Billy's biggest enemy a few years ago, back before he had Black Adam or Dr. Sivana to worry about. A wiry but tough street punk, Lagreen had stolen money from Billy at least a dozen times and beaten him up about as often. He terrorized everybody who lived in his "territory" of Fawcett City, but the defenseless seven-year-old had always been his easiest and favorite target.
It wasn't like Lagreen was doing something good when the other street punk attacked him. He was just some guy from a rival gang. There was no "helpless civilian" for Billy to help in this scenario; it was one bad guy hurting another bad guy. So really, he should just stay out of it, not help either one.
Except that the guy holding Lagreen to the wall was a lot bigger, and was pointing a gun right in Lagreen's face.
Lagreen closed his eyes fearfully, but he was thrown to the ground before the killing shot came, the back of his head slamming against the alley walls. He was disoriented, but could still make out sounds of gunshots and an angry cry, followed by a series of SLAMs, POWs and CRUNCHes.
He opened his eyes to find the other criminal unconscious in the arms of Captain Marvel, Fawcett City's resident do-gooder. Lagreen blanched, sputtering stupidly as the hero just glared at him.
"You're welcome," he said, uncharacteristically sarcastic, before flying away.
The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole
"Holy moly! Ninety-two?!"
Jay Garrick laughed. "Don't say it that way, boy! You're making me feel old!"
Captain Marvel grinned sheepishly. "Sorry—I didn't mean it like that. I just—thought you were more like...seventy or something."
"Well, I'll take that as a compliment." The former Flash smiled wanly, glancing at the clock; the two, along with a few other superheroes, were backstage at a fundraiser to buy toys for needy children. The commencement speaker was onstage now, introducing them.
"You know, this is actually my first real public appearance since the JSA split up. Just like back in the '40s when I was touting war bonds."
Captain Marvel blinked. "Really? Why'd you come out of retirement now."
He chuckled again. "Well, I never wanted to retire in the first place, for one! It's the government and m'wife who made me. But neither of them can object to helping kids at Christmastime, right? And we're all sort of kids at Christmastime, you know what I mean?"
The younger hero only grinned again as the commencement speaker called him onstage.
Jingle Bell Rock by Bobby Helms
"So the League doesn't have any kind of Christmas party?" Wally looked at Billy incredulously. "That is just wrong."
"Keep in mind, Wally, Christmas is foreign to Aquaman and myself. The same is likewise true of Wonder Woman, Hawkman, Hawkwoman..."
"Uncle J'onn and I aren't part of this religion, of course, but he started celebrating the holidays after he came to Earth. I'm really enjoying my first Christmas, too!"
"Hey, you could have celebrated it last year if the you all hadn't abandoned me here to go to the circus!"
"Oh, give it a rest..."
Artemis swatted Wally on the shoulder, following it with a kiss on the cheek a moment later. M'Gann smiled at them while snuggling into Superboy's chest; she had morphed her clothes into a green elf costume while someone (Wally) had forced him into a Santa outfit. Raquel and Zatanna were both levitating around the Christmas tree, laughing about something as they added more ornaments to the upper branches.
Billy sat amidst them all, oddly quiet even as he felt jittery with excitement. He took a sip of his hot chocolate, a smile on his face. It felt weird, speaking up and being the center of attention like this. He always felt the need to stay quiet in the Justice League. At first it was from worry that they would realize how young he was; now that they knew, he couldn't help but get the feeling that most of them were talking to him, like...well, like he was a kid. Not that there was usually much to talk about except for missions and stuff.
"Well, we always have the party at the end of the year, when they let the new members in. But they don't seem to care about holidays much. Did you know we had to work on Thanksgiving? And not even for a mission, just for a boring old meeting."
"Eh, they're all a bunch of old geezers. None of 'em know how to have a good time."
"Spoken like someone who's never seen Green Arrow drunk."
Everybody laughed, including Billy.
The truth was, he loved being in the Justice League. But he liked hanging out with kids his own age even more.
Walking in a Winter Wonderland by...some woman, I missed the radio saying who it was. You know the song, though.
The yellow streak froze as Wally West came to a stop, quirked his head to one side, and listened.
After a moment he heard a slight sound, like a certain ninja-best-friend of his shifting ever so slightly wherever he was hiding. Wally picked up one snowball from the bundle in his arms, gazing through the trees. "Is that you, Rob? 'Cause you're not being nearly as stealthy as you usually—whoa!"
A Batarang flew inches from Wally's head, jamming itself into the tree trunk behind him. It was enough to make Wally jump, and in the process, drop all the snowballs that he had been carrying. Immediately he heard Dick's voice screaming "NOW!"
A shadow fell over Wally. He had just enough time to look up before—
SPLAT!
"AGH!"
Robin gave his trademark cackle as Wally was covered in a mountain of snow. The speedster struggled to poke his head out, immediately glaring up at Captain Marvel as he floated above him.
"Et tu, Billy?"
The younger hero merely stuck his tongue out, then dodged, laughing, as Wally tried to throw a snowball high enough to reach him.
Silver Bells by Stevie Wonder
Billy had been a lot of places during his superhero career, but in his opinion none of them were as beautiful as Fawcett City, and Fawcett City was never as beautiful as it was at Christmastime.
The snow was glistening on the ground. The distinctively weird looking buildings (Art Deco, they were apparently called) were all strewn up with lights and garland—even businesses in this town went out of their way to look festive. Lit-up Nativities were in front of every church, and smiling snowmen seemed to be on every lawn. Carolers went door-to-door, their trembling voices echoing to the sky.
And at least once a day Captain Marvel would fly by, skimming just above the roofs, taking it all in. Pedestrians would stop on the sidewalk, gazing up and grinning like children catching a glimpse of Santa's sleigh. Billy was grin back and wave at them. And that was all it took to make the season a little nicer for all of them.
Holly Jolly Christmas by Burl Ives (?)
Cassie "Wonder Girl" Sandsmark was on the lower floor of Mount Justice's hangar, completely unaware of the fact that she was standing under a sprig of mistletoe.
Billy Batson, standing on the upper floor, was more observant. Also, he had a habit of talking to himself.
"Okay, Billy...just walk down there, strike up a conversation about the last mission or something, and then say 'Oh, hey, are we standing under the mistletoe?' Just act cool, and hope that she doesn't think this sweater looks stupid. I mean, I think it looks alright. Just because it has Rudolph doesn't mean it's babyish, M'Gann even said..."
He was so lost in thought that he walked right past Gar without noticing his tail lying right in his path on the floor.
"YOW!"
Gar jumped back, slamming into Billy and causing him to stumble off the edge of the walkway. Billy let out a cry of surprise and closed his eyes—he managed to stutter a brief "SHA—" when his fall suddenly stopped. He opened his eyes to find Cassie floating above him, holding him up by the scruff of his neck.
"Uh...thanks," he said awkwardly, feel his face heat up.
"No problem," she said, floating down until his shoes touched the floor. "Nice sweater, by the way."
Merry Christmas Darling by the Carpenters
Billy was walking the streets of Star City on Christmas Day when his cell phone alarm rang, alerting him to the fact that it was now noon back in Fawcett City.
He scowled down at the screen; they'd been at this for twelve hours, now. Dinah said something about checking in with Captain Atom; Ollie wondered if it was time to give up this lead and go home. "How you holding up, Bill?" he asked suddenly, startling the teenager out of his thoughts.
"Huh? Oh...fine."
He glanced at the time again as Dinah called back to the Watchtower. Normally on Christmas morning, Billy would wake up at 5 AM and force Uncle Dudley out of bed by 6. They would make chocolate chip pancakes together before Billy was allowed to tear into his presents. At some point Dudley would slip away and come back in dressed as Santa, and even after all these years Billy would pretend to be fooled. (Billy had never been fooled. The real Santa was obviously taller.)
Of course, Justice League duty came first. The Kroloteans still had all those hostages; Billy could hardly go home and enjoy Christmas with Uncle Dudley if there was any lead they could follow to return those missing people to their own loved ones. But still...
"We have one more lead," Dinah said, shutting off her communicator. "Let's check it out before we call it quits."
Billy sighed, but gave her and Green Arrow a curt nod and a forced smile.
Oh well. Maybe at this rate he would be able to catch a Zeta-beam home in time for Christmas dinner, at least.
Celebrate Me Home by Kenny Loggins
When Billy finally got home he found Uncle Dudley sitting on the couch, dressed in his Santa outfit, sleeping.
"Shazam."
He whispered the magic word, but there was no way to mute the crash of thunder that came as he returned to his fifteen-year-old body. Dudley sat up, startled as the light and sound faded and he found his foster-son standing before him.
"Merry Christmas, Uncle Dudley." Billy was whispering without quite knowing why. "Sorry I'm late. You weren't—sitting up all night waiting for me...were you?" The thought gave him a pang of guilt—Uncle Dudley usually knew not to worry about him, but then again he had never been gone over Christmas before.
"What? No, no..." The old man forced himself onto his feet, straightening his Santa hat. "Just—taking a little afternoon nap. So did you, uh...find those people you were looking for?"
Billy sighed. "No. Another lead turned out to be a dud. Batman and Nightwing are already looking into new possibilities, though." He paused, his gaze shifting over to all the unopened presents under the tree. "I'm sorry I was gone so late," he repeated.
"Ah, no problem, sport, no problem. I know it's not exactly fun for you to have to work on Christmas." He suddenly grabbed Billy in a sideways hug, giving him a playful noogie. "So, the turkey still won't be done for another few hours—whuddya say we spoil our appetites with some pancakes before we get these presents open?"
That was all it took for Billy to forget about his exhaustion and perk up with Christmas cheer. "Sounds like a great idea, Uncle Dudley."