Artificial snow was shot into the air and began to drift down from the sky as the various shops in Chryse glittered and sparkled from being stuffed with as many tacky decorations and trees into their windows and interiors as possible. A fat man with a white beard sat on a chair with little kids sat on his lap, gushing about how they wanted the new Graze action figure for Christmas while other people wandered past, some wearing red hats with little balls of fluff on top of them.
"Christmas," Orga sighed. "Ain't it funny how they all wander around trying to find little toys and trinklets for their families?" he asked the boy next to him. Mikazuki wasn't particularly focussed on the antics of the passerbys, rather observing the area in case any potential dangers or threats were hiding in the crowds around them. He wasn't sure why Orga had asked him to come out here but he wasn't one to question orders.
"Heh. Biscuit always used to talk about how he would buy gifts for his family despite how little the CGS paid us. Wonder what he'd think of us now, with what we are planning to do." Orga said.
"What do you need me to do, Orga?" Mika asked simply, growing bored with Orga's reminiscing. In response, Orga pulled a red bag out of the satchel he had brought with him from the base. It had the same material on it as the hats the people in the crowd were wearing, Mika had noticed.
"There's a card inside this bag that has been linked to an account for what we are going to do. We're gonna take that card and buy some stuff for the younger guys in Tekkadan. That way, they can get something out of this year's Christmas. We have some money left over from the last job, so why not make them happy with it?" Orga explained.
"Right." Mikazuki nodded. He turned to look at Orga, who had a manic gleam in his eye.
"Alright Mika, let's go!" Orga stalked off into the crowd, with Mikazuki close behind.
...
"No, no, no... This is all wrong..." Atra muttered in frustration, throwing another card into the pile that rested on top of an overflowing rubbish bin. A knock at the door rang out, and Atra sighed and recomposed herself as the door opened and Takaki poked his head in.
"Is everything okay, Atra? The guys said you had been in Orga's office for a while," he explained.
Atra gave him a small smile. "Yeah, everything's fine. Sorry, I'm just getting frustrated with this is all," she explained. Takaki took a step into the room, closing the door behind him.
"What is it? Maybe I can help?" he offered. Atra looked sheepish but turned back to the table the stack of cards was on anyway. Takaki took it as a sign he was allowed to help. He wandered over to the table.
On the right side of the table sat a pile of neatly stacked Christmas cards in their envelopes. The most recent one had 'To Akihiro' written on it. A very small pile was stacked on the left of her. Takaki watched as she grabbed another card out of the left pile and started writing in it.
"Pardon me for asking, but who is that particular card for?" Takaki asked.
"It's for Mikazuki. I've been trying to write it for a few minutes now but I can't get it right," she explained.
Takaki looked puzzled. "If it's for Mikazuki, can't you say "To Mikazuki, From Atra" or something?" he asked. Atra shook her head, a slight tinge of red creeping on her face.
"It's not that easy. I've been writing down the good things that each person has done and how I'm glad for them to be here. With Mikazuki, it's a lot of things to write down and I keep messing it up," she told him. Takaki still looked puzzled still, but nodded nonetheless.
"Ah. Well, maybe write down a list of things he's done on a seperate piece of paper?" he said. Atra picked up a sheet of paper from the pile of finished cards next to her, holding it up to him.
"I have done. It's just... Getting them written down in the card in a way that makes sense is the hard part. I'll get it right eventually," she said, smiling at Takaki.
"I hope so. I'm gonna go let the others know you are alright." Takaki walked towards the door.
"Thank you," Atra said as he walked out the door and closed it. Turning back to the card in front of her, she started to write in the card "To Mika, you have done so much for us ever since we met you..."
...
"So, what do you think of the haul?" Orga asked as he put a couple more trinklets in the red bag. The two had been at this for a few hours. The sight of the two of them walking around buying various wooden figures and boxes of buildable action figures must have been a weird one, but they didn't mind.
"You think it'll be enough?" Mika asked.
"Should be. Can grab a few more things on the way to be sure." And with that, Orga walked back into the crowd, Mika following behind him. He wasn't sure where Orga was going, but if Orga was going somewhere, he was going to follow.
Or at least, until he was grabbed out the crowd by his bad arm.
"Ho ho ho! How about this little one! How about you tell Santa Claus what you want for Christmas?" A fat man with a white beard and red outfit had grabbed hold of Mikazuki on his way through the crowd. Mika was not impressed at all by this. Nor was he happy about being dragged onto the fat man's lap in front of a crowd of people, some with their own children.
"Now don't be shy! Why don't you tell me what you want?" The man asked him with a jolly expression on his face. Mika scanned the crowd, looking for Orga or a way out of the situation.
"Mikazuki!" Mika saw Orga emerge from the crowd with a look of utter confusion on his face. Good. Now he could leave.
"Well?" The man asked again.
The Devil of Tekkadan turned and gave the poor man his coldest glare while pulling the handle of his gun out of his sling, showing to the red man that he was armed. "For you to let go of me."
The man's expression changed from one of joy to pure fear as he immediately let go of Mikazuki. Mika hopped off the poor man's lap and walked over to Orga, stowing his gun back into the arm sling and grabbing a Mars Palm out of it.
"You okay, Mika?" Orga asked him. Mika nodded and nonchalantly ate the Mars Palm.
"Yeah. Where to?" he answered. Orga shook his head and walked back into the crowd with Mika behind him, leaving behind a fearful Father Christmas.
"What happened there?" Orga asked him as they continued walking.
"He grabbed me so I told him to let go of me," Mikazuki said simply. It was then Orga noticed that the handle of the gun Mikazuki always kept on him was slightly hanging out of his sling, indicating that it had recently been pulled out or used.
It didn't take Orga long to figure out what had happened with the jolly red man. "...Of course you'd pull a gun on Father Christmas, Mika," Orga said in disbelief. Mikazuki just shrugged and the two of them kept walking until Orga saw the next shop he wanted to go into, and gestured for Mikazuki to stop.
"Here. This is where we wanted to go. Wait here." Orga quickly walked into the shop as Mika waited outside, eating a couple more Mars Palms while Orga was busy inside. Soon he walked out with a box that had some red wrapping paper with a snowflake pattern wrapped around it.
"Do me a favour, Mika. Give this to Atra tomorrow," Orga told him, passing him the box.
"Will do." Mika replied. Orga seemed a bit miffed by Mikazuki's lack of response.
"Aren't you gonna ask what's in it?" Orga asked. Mika shrugged. Orga shook his head and walked back towards the exit of the shopping mall.
"That's all we needed, Mika. Come on, we need to head home and get the rest of these wrapped up." Orga told him. Mika nodded and set off towards where their car had been left.
...
Mika awoke to the sound of a ruckus going on in the main hall of the base, causing him to sit up fully alert and start reaching for his gun, until he realised that it didn't sound like intruders. They weren't shouts of anger or pain, more of... joy?
Oh yeah, today's Christmas, Mika remembered. He hopped out of bed, pulling his jacket and shoes on. He debated struggling with his arm sling, but decided not to. Pausing to grab the box out from where he had stashed it, Mika made his way to the main hall, the cheerful voices growing louder and louder until he arrived at the hall.
A giant tree was in the middle of the hall, covered with gaudy decorations and spheres. On the tables many of the younger members of Tekkadan were showing each other the gifts that "Father Christmas", as Orga had called him, had brought them in the night.
"Mikazuki, Atra was looking for ya. Last I saw of her, she was heading over to Orga's office for something," Akihiro said as he walked over to Mika, a bobbled red hat similar to the ones the people in Chryse had been wearing yesterday sitting on his head.
Mika nodded. "Got it." With that, he set off towards the office, leaving the rest of Tekkadan to celebrate. He arrived at the office quickly and walked through the slightly ajar door, causing the occupant to jump and turn to face him.
"Oh hey, it's you, Mikazuki," Atra said, a hand resting on her chest as she let out a sigh of relief. Mika noticed a pile of envelopes next to her.
"I was going to give these cards to everyone as thanks for all their help. Hang on..." Atra explained as she quickly looked through the pile, but stopped as Mika put the box on the table.
"Who's that for?" Atra asked. Mika looked at her, then the box. "For me?" Mikazuki nodded. Atra walked over to the box with a look of puzzlement and surprise on her face and carefully unwrapped it. She opened the box, finding a piece of material with the Tekkadan symbol on it within the box.
"What is this?" she murmured, gently pulling it out of the box. The material fell open, revealing itself to be a jacket.
Mikazuki immediately realised what it was. "Oh hey, I was wondering when that was ready," Mika commented. Atra quickly put on the jacket.
"This is so cool! Thank you Mikazuki!" Atra told him, beaming all the while. Mika looked at her, the smallest little smile forming at the corners of his mouth. Atra seemed to hesitate for a moment, before slowly walking up to him and giving him a hug.
"Huh?" Mikazuki asked.
"Oh! Sorry, just sometimes if some girls get a gift they like she'll hug the person who gave them the gift," Atra explained.
"Oh." was all Mika said. Atra soon let go and smiled at Mikazuki again. She turned and picked up the cards, handing one to Mika.
"Here. This is for you." she told him. Mika took it and nodded. Atra turned towards the door and headed out of the office, walking past Orga as she went.
"Did she like the jacket, then?" Orga asked as Mikazuki walked out after her.
"Yeah. She seemed happy to get it." Mika replied. Orga turned to look out over the hall, where the rest of Tekkadan were celebrating.
"Guess this is what Christmas is about, celebrating with our family," Orga said as he leaned on the rail. Mika stepped forward and leaned on the rail too, watching as Atra gave some of the other cards to Ride, Shino and Akihiro.
"Yeah. This must be Christmas."
...
Author's Note: So this was written all the way back in May, funnily enough, which is why it might not be as good as my current stories. As far as I'm aware, the show never explained how Atra got her Tekkadan jacket and she didn't have it in season one, so I opted to make a story about how she got it, with a Christmas backdrop because it felt like it'd make for a nice, fluffy story, and Iron Blooded Orphans could do with a bit of fluff sometimes.
If the characters are OOC, I apologise. I hope you enjoyed it!