Disclaimer: I do not own The Santa Clause, I wished I owned Bernard (my sexy little head-elf), and I own both Kaleigh and the plot to this story.
This is my first Santa Clause fanfic, so I really hope I did these poor characters justice. The next chapter will be from Kaleigh's or Bernard's point of veiw but since this is the prologue, it's in third person. It just gives you a little insight into their relationship.
Prologue
3rd Person POV
"I can't believe you, you-"
"Me? You're the one who is a-"
"pig-headed-"
"completely muddle-brained-"
"arrogant-"
"disorganized-"
"conceited-"
"deranged-"
"overbearing-"
"lazy-"
"egotistical-"
"indolent-"
"control-freak!"
"procrastinator!"
"Oh was that supposed to be an insult?"
"Yes! Yours were practically compliments!"
"I don't think pig-headed is a compliment, Bernard!" She spat his name out, slipping from her mouth like acid. It was so strange to hear such hatred in the voice of an elf. Even Bernard sounded strange when fighting with her.
Curtis just sighed. Bernard and Kaleigh were fighting… again. It wasn't a new thing for them. It had all but become the elves twelve o' clock afternoon ritual. There was such strong tension between them; it was almost comical… almost.
"You are so aggravating!"
"Me? At least I work for a living!"
"What do you call work? Huh? Ordering others around?"
"There's more to being head-elf than what you think, Kaleigh."
"Oh, so I'm the only one you bother ordering around?"
"I never said that!"
"It was implied!"
"Was not!"
"Was too!"
"Was not!"
"Was too!"
"Was not!"
"Was-"
"That is enough!" Curtis shouted. "You two fight nearly every day. How do you live in the same house without killing each other?" Kaleigh looked to Bernard, whose dark eyes met hers.
"We don't talk outside of the factory," Kaleigh admitted. "It's kind of… unavoidable here." Curtis was beyond annoyed, as was almost every other elf in the factory. "Sorry for bothering you today, Curtis."
"So now you're polite?" Bernard snapped. "Why can't you do that on a regular basis?"
"Oh, shut up Bernard. Stop denying the fact that you're just arguing to cover up the sexual attraction you have to me." Bernard's face flushed a million shades of red, each one darker than the last. Curtis struggled to muffle the laughing that was begging to explode from his mouth. Bernard glared at him.
In a way, Curtis admired Kaleigh. She was the only one who even tried to stand up to Bernard. Her sarcastic, questioning attitude clashed with his controlling one, making them hard to live with. The two of them alone shared a house in the North Pole, due to the fact that it was crowded there, most homes housing 4-5 elves.
Kaleigh didn't do much around the North Pole. She was good with numbers and used to help Bernard keep track of all the toys made and keeping the elves production schedule on track. Out of nowhere, Bernard flipped out on her, criticizing her and blaming her for the slow production schedule that year. Kaleigh stopped helping Bernard and instead began working on engineering things for Santa. Her new job kept her a lot less occupied than her old one, giving Bernard the impression that she was a lazy elf who did nothing. From then on, the two of them fought like there was no tomorrow.
As of right now, she was working on improvements on Santa's sleigh, making the ride both easier on the reindeer and more efficient. Anyone who wasn't Bernard, could easily tell she had been working by the black smudges that covered her pretty face and the stray hairs that had escaped her ponytail.
None of the elves denied that Kaleigh was rather attractive. Unlike many of the other elves, she had an exotic beauty about her that made most people forget her sarcastic attitude and almost instantly love her. She had long, curly, dark hair that fell to about her waist. She usually kept it pulled back and wore headbands or beanies, so it wouldn't get in the way of her work. Her dark hair was balanced by dark skin and brown eyes so dark, they would be mistaken for black. Her eyes, dark as they were, sparkled like snow in the sunlight. She was petite, small even for an elf.
"Well, Bernard, I'm going back to our house. See you there… or not, I prefer," Kaleigh said as she turned and walked away.
"Gosh darnet, Bernard. Can't you do anything right?" Curtis questioned. He saw Kaleigh's humor, her beauty, her funny quirks that made her likeable, but would never understand why Bernard didn't see them too.
"I don't know what you are talking about Curtis. She's a disgrace to elves everywhere." Curtis just sighed and walked away. Bernard looked around, wondering how much attention he and Kaleigh had called to themselves. He saw some elves still stunned from the exchange while others were working diligently on their toys, not wanting an already angry Bernard to have any reason to yell at them for lack of production.
"Curtis, wait up!" He called. Curtis turned around. "For now, you can oversee everything. I need to go uhh… think."
"Yeah sure," Curtis replied, with an unimportant wave of his hand. "Go do whatever you got to do." Bernard nodded once in thanks, and proceeded to go outside into the lightly falling snow, in hopes that the cold fresh air might clear the scattered thoughts from his head.
He knew that apologizing to Kaleigh was the right thing to do, but the child in him was taking over, telling him that revenge, not apology, was what he really wanted.
"I need to apologize," he told himself reluctantly, but his body was screaming not to. "I need to do something." That was better. Revenge was certainly something. He walked quickly to their house, where he quietly entered. The door was unlocked, as it usually was when one of the two of them was home.
He walked in as silently as he could, listening for Kaleigh to be doing something. His quiet footsteps sounded like thunder in his head and he sauntered to her room. Her door was only slightly ajar, but even the little crack allowed him to see and hear what she was doing.
Her small from was sprawled across her bed, holding a throw pillow tightly against her chest. She was sobbing, and in her attempt to be quiet, her lip quivered and eyes slowly leaked sparkling tears.
"I'm sorry," she sobbed, biting into her pillow to muffle any noise she would have made. "I'm sorry." She kept repeating the two words, over and over, and Bernard couldn't seem to understand why. Her body was shaking, convulsing as she sobbed the words one more time. Then her body went still, her eyes peacefully shut.
For the first time, Bernard felt like an intruder in a moment to private for him to handle. He entered to room anyway. He sat next to the sleeping Kaleigh and gently removed her shoes, jewelry, and hat. He pulled the many pins from her complicated hair and smoothed it down with his fingertips, while his free hand reached for a blanket to spread over her. For some reason, he couldn't bring himself to cover her body. Her smooth curves were covered by a fitting v-neck sweater and a loose skirt with leggings. Not wanting to look at her and confuse himself more, he spread the blanket over her and left as quickly as possible.
He still hated her, and wasn't sure why he did what he had just done. He exited the room quickly and stealthily, the mystery that was Kaleigh still baffling him.
Kaleigh was different than many other elves, probably why she bothered him so. She did things that others didn't dare do, or at least to Bernard. She treated him as if he were just another elf on the street, not the arch-elf he was. He pulled his slouchy hat of his small curls and set it on the table next to him, needing to think.
His head fell into his hands as he closed his eyes and sighed. He hated Kaleigh, right? Yes, he hated her. She was a no good lazy, good-for-nothing elf who disrespected him daily and hated him almost as much as he hated her. His thoughts were settled… for now.
"You kill me Kaleigh!" he whispered angrily to anyone listening. He hoped that she hadn't woken up yet, and prayed that she wouldn't while he was still hanging around the house.
Quickly, he made himself a hot chocolate and downed it as fast as he could. Re-energized for the rest of the day, he left the house, not trusting himself to be there with Kaleigh anymore.
xxx
Kaleigh woke up in a little bit of a daze. She was hugging a soft, red blanket to herself but couldn't ever remember going to sleep with it. She remembered a few things. Crying… yes, there was crying. Apologize? To someone? No. She never apologized to anyone. Her motto was not to live life in regret of the things you do, because if you did you aren't really living. She looked down at her shirt. From the way it hung on her she could tell that it had been rather wet from her tears but had dried while she was asleep.
She shrugged, ignoring the few facts that didn't quite add up in her head. She was confused as it was, and the few things she didn't know would probably come to her later in the day. She didn't plan on doing much else that day, since she'd finished all her alterations on Santa's sleigh earlier.
Her eyes flashed quickly over to the clock next to her bead to catch the time; 5:45. She'd slept nearly 6 hours. Groaning, she pulled herself up from the bed and dragged herself to the kitchen. Her hands pulled random things out of their nearly bare fridge. There was alfredo sauce, pesto, chicken, onions, pasta noodles, garlic, and red peppers. She threw the noodles in a pot to boil and used the other ingredients to make a sauce for them. When it was done, she prepared two plates, one for herself and one for Bernard. She wasn't going to apologize but the least she could do was make her roommate dinner.
After she had finished eating, she heard their door close. It sounded too quiet, like it as trying not to be heard.
"Hey, Bernard."
"Oh, I thought you were sleeping." He looked at the food set out on the plate. Obviously for him, because Kaleigh was just finishing hers. "What's this?" he asked, rather surprised by Kaleigh's sudden kindness.
"Umm… dinner? Don't expect this all the time, I just thought you might be hungry after work."
"So you admit that I do, in fact, work?"
"I'm too tired for this right now, just eat your damned food. I'm going back to bed." And Kaleigh walked out of the room, leaving a stunned Bernard behind her. He had never been so confused in his life.
She never even mentioned the blanket. He'd finally done one thing, just one, to show that he cared for her, and she didn't even mention it.
Okay, so they do care for each other but disguise it pretty well with hatred. They aren't exactly fully conscious of the fact either, which is why they are both oh-so-confused.
So did you love it? Hate it? Need to read a little more to find out?
Then hit that pretty little button and please review!