Title – Three Tired Elementals.

For Sparky955

Prompt - Sapphire and Steel: "Yes, Astra, there IS a Santa Claus."

"Mommy?"

Sapphire, in a near doze, jerked her head up and looked sleepily at her daughter. Although Astra was nearly five, she still seemed her little baby to Sapphire. "Yes, sweetheart, what is it?"

"Is Santa Claus real?" Astra climbed up into her mother's lap and yawned. It had been a very long day.

Sapphire's first impulse was to scoff. Of course Santa wasn't real, at least not in the way he was currently represented. There was no jolly red suited man who visited all the children in the world on Christmas Eve. It was ludicrous to even entertain such a thought. Then she looked into her daughter's very blue and so much like Steel's eyes.

"Why do you ask?"

"Elizabeth says there is, but Candace says there isn't."

Sapphire still wasn't certain that sending Astra to a human school was the right path to follow, but They were firm. They wanted Astra to be raised with as much consideration for her human side as that of her Elemental side. "What did your teacher say?"

"We sang a song about being on top of a house and playing with reindeers."

Sapphire had given up trying to make sense of human responses. Steel walked into the room, carrying Kyan. The baby was crying and thrashing about. Steel was doing his best to hold him and not crush the infant.

"What's wrong?" Sapphire managed to swallow her yawn.

"I think he might be hungry. He certainly isn't sleepy." The bow in Steel's shoulder spoke of his exhaustion. The last few assignments had been physically demanding on them and they showed upon his face and she supposed hers as well.

"You need to sleep."

"We both do, but first he needs to stop crying." Steel stopped when he felt his hand grasped.

"Daddy?"

"Yes, Astra?"

"Is Santa real?"

Images of being lost in a storm and of being found by a man in a red suit, a sense of flying, and of being safe and warm flooded unbidden into his head.

They said it wasn't real. Sapphire's thoughts were gentle but firm as she held Kyan to her breast. She winced as he latched on.

They weren't there. I know what I experienced. What we experienced. He leaned down to be on Astra's level. "I believe in certain aspect of the man, yes." Steel chose his words carefully. "Why do you ask?"

"Candace said he doesn't," Astra murmured, sounding sad.

"Candace is young and human, what does she know?" Steel lifted his daughter easily and stated to carry her to her room. "You must decide for yourself whether he exists or not."

"How do I do that?"

"Look with your heart instead of your eyes." He settled her in her bed and offered her Blue, the stuffed aardvark that Lead had given her for her last birthday.

"I don't understand." She hugged Blue close.

"You will someday." Steel leaned down to kiss her forehead. "If you are very lucky."

"I love you, Daddy."

"I love you, too, Astra."

Astra woke up with the funniest feeling in the pit of her tummy. She wasn't sick and she wasn't hungry. She got up and walked over to where Kyan was sleeping in his crib. She watched him for a minute, but the baby didn't stir. She sighed and left him.

What good were babies if they only sleep, eat and poop? She wondered as she walked into the main part of their home. Maybe Mommy or Daddy could tell her what was wrong…

Her thought trailed off at the sight of a stranger in their living quarters. He was big, but not as big as Uncle Lead was and his hair was white. He was wearing a red…

"Santa?" she gasped unconsciously and the figure turned around.

"Well, Merry Christmas, Miss Astra."

"Merry Christmas, Santa, but Candace said…" She forgot about her tummy and just stared.

"Well, Candace is a bit too grown up for her own good." He knelt before her the way Daddy did. "Is something wrong?"

"My tummy feels funny."

"That's called excitement. You are excited about tomorrow morning."

"I am?"

"You are." He stood up and offered her his hand. She took it and he led her back to her bed. "Now you climb back in and dream sweet dreams, okay?" He tucked her and Blue back in under the covers. "Tomorrow there will be a surprise for both you and Kyan."

"And Mommy and Daddy?"

"Even your mommy and daddy."

"Daddy said you were real and all I had to do was look with my heart." She touched his face and then stroked his face. "And here you are."

"That's right."

Astra yawned and closed her eyes. She fully intended to leap back up in a few minutes to see what Santa was talking about, but she was so warm and she supposed everything could wait a little while longer. Wouldn't Mommy and Daddy be surprised that Santa had found them!

"He really is real, Blue," she whispered and hugged him close. And her heart sang.