One night, while the december snow fell softly in the city, five-year-old Lan Hikari was fast asleep in his warmbed, dreaming of what he'd be getting the next day, for tonight was Christmas Eve. Downstairs, his mother was reading a book, waiting for her husband to come home. He said he had something for Lan, but he wanted to show it to her first. A smile slowly spread across her face, she knew Lan would love anything his father brought him. She got up and went into the kitchen, where she made herself a cup of cocoa and quietly turned on the radio. The 12 Days of Christmas was just ending, and then she almost laughed out loud. The song they were playing was the same one Lan had been singing for weeks, I Want a Hippopotomus for Christmas. It sounded almost exactly the same as if Lan had been singing it. When the song ended, she saw a pair of headlights turn into the driveway. She threw her arms around the husband as he walked in the door, then noticed he was carrying something big and bulky in his right arm."What is that?" She asked him. He grinned and pulled off the blanket he'd covered it in. Haruka smiled,
"Is that for Lan?" He nodded.
"Where should we put it?"
She thought for a moment, "Hmm, Oh! Lets put it in his chair at breakfast tomorrow after he opens the rest of his gifts, he'll love it."
Dr. Hikari pulled his wife close, "You know what?" he whispered in her ear, "I think you're right." Then he reached in his pocket and pulled out something green. Holding it above his head, he told Haruka to look up. When she did she laughed and playfully slapped his chest.
"You silly rascal," She said, but she kissed him anyway."We should probably put the presents under the tree now" So they went and grabbed all the presents from their various hiding places, put them under the tree, and went to bed. The next morning, and ecstatic Lan jumped up and down of his parents' bed. "Wake up! Wake up! It's morning! Christmas! Presents! Yaayy!!" And with that, he ran off, loudly jumping down the stairs to get to his presents. His parents looked at each other, then smiled and rolled their eyes, because that's the wayfive-year-olds are. Lan went through his gifts in a fast flurry of flying wrapping paper, ribbons, bows and boxes. His mother called him for breakfast, and obediently put down his new toys and ran to the kitchen for the Hikari family's traditional Christmas Morning chocolate-chip pancakes. But when he pulled out his chair, there was already somebody in it. A huge purple hippo plush that when standing on all four feet came up to Lan's chin. His face split into a wide grin and he immediately wrapped his arms around it.
"Yaayy! I got a hippo! He's gonna be my best buddy. I'm gonna call him Bud! We'll do everything an' go everywhere together!" Lan climbed into his chair and pulled 'Bud' into his lap."But first, I'm gonna have some pancakes." His parents couldn't do anything but laugh. After breakfast, Lan stayed true to his words, and after putting on his snowgear, he wrapped one of his scarves around Bud's neck and ran out the door."C'mon Bud, we're gonna make snow angels, build a fort, and have a snowball fight!" As he ran next door to maylu's house, you could hear that he'd started singing once again. But this time, it was slightly different...
"I got a hippopotomus for Christmas..."
FIN
A/N: yeah, so the name's not very original, but it's the best I could do on short notice. Review! 3
