Title: Present
Rating: T, mostly for Language
Genre: Undecided
Summary: A classic Christmas story told with our favorite little ninja bugs! Santa met with an... unfortunate accident thanks to Kowai and it's up to Sokudo to save Christmas!
Author's Comment: I feel sooo bad for not updating my main series for so long. So whilst I finish up the next chapter, I'll put this out to give my readers something to do! Plus, with it being December, I HAD to make a Christmas special with these two! X3 Enjoy!
"Kowai! Get your ass in here! Quick!"
The little Shedinja's head pops out of the snow it's currently buried under, purring as the snow falls from its halo onto its face. It can't help it. It's witnessing all this for the first time, and it's more than a little fascinated by the weather phenomenon. In fact, it's been spending the last few hours playing in it, digging and plowing through it enthusiastically, not at all bothered by the cold it brings to its shell.
But now with its brother calling for it from within the house, it forgets all about the white stuff its playing with and hurries inside to its sibling eagerly, wanting to be of some use to its Ninjask. He's started a project earlier in the day and had ordered the shed to wait outside until he's done, supposedly to keep it from causing some unintentional damage. It wonders what this project is and it shivers excitedly as it floats along. However, when it arrives to the living room, it jolts back with a hiss.
Its brother is next to some weird looking tree with shiny stuff and lights all over it. Getting over its startled state quickly, it inches towards the strange tree in wary curiosity as the Ninjask turns to it.
"Help me out here," Sokudo tells it. "I need you to-"
"Brother?" Kowai interrupts. "What's this?"
Blinking, Sokudo knows he shouldn't be as surprised as he is. Kowai never knows anything, after all, and clearing his throat, he looks to the tree. "It's a Christmas tree, dumbass."
"What's a Chrrrrrriiiiii...istmas?" Kowai continues to question, not understanding. Shaking his head, Sokudo takes a moment to answer, fixing up some of the ornaments.
"It's a holiday, for the winter solstice," he starts, earning a blank stare of confusion and he rolls his eyes impatiently. "Basically, we put up Christmas trees, give each other presents, eat until we explode, all that good shit. Oh! And there's Santa Beak, of course."
"What's a Santa Beak?"
"Fuck, don't you know anything?!" He's getting a bit tired of always having to explain things to his shed. Placing a few more pieces of decoration of the tree, he feels a smirk grow on his mandibles as a thought hits him. If he's gonna be Kowai's constant source of information, he might as well have some fun spicing up the explanation. He always did love filling its naive little head with nonsense.
Turning back to Kowai, he tries to keep the snickers out of his voice. "Santa Beak is some fatass Delibird, but a ninja, just like us. Tonight, he's gonna trespass our property, break into our house, steal all our cookies, and then make a mess by leaving all his shit under the tree. He does this to everyone in the entire world, all in one night without ever getting caught. In fact..." He leans a bit closer to his shed, his voice reducing itself to a near whisper. "He's never been seen, or at least nobody's lived to tell the tale. They say he wears red from the blood of the children who saw him. That's how fucked up he is."
Grinning, he backs away from his Shedinja. "You get it now?"
Kowai is silent for a bit, letting all this new information sink in. And when it does speak, its voice is toneless. "Yes, I think so..."
"Good! Now," He pushes Kowai towards the tree. "Get your ass up to the top of the tree and stay there until midnight tomorrow. With that goddamn halo of yours, I think you'd make a decent enough Christmas angel."
Not questioning its brother, Kowai floats to the tiptop of the tree and roots itself there, its mind swimming as the satisfied Sokudo leaves the room...
Sokudo remembers way back when he was a Nincada, how difficult he used to find it to fall asleep on the night of Christmas Eve. And when he did manage to doze off in his little burrow, he would always find himself waking up constantly. Although the childish excitement has dulled down quite a bit now that he's a Ninjask, he still can't help but look forward to the next day. Flying to his bed, he flops onto the blankets before restlessly shifting his position and rearranging the sheets. Eventually settling on burrowing into his comforter, he curls up and closes his eyes to drift off.
Hopefully, Kowai's keeping to its job and is still atop the tree. He needs to remind himself in the morning to take a picture of such a priceless moment. Idiot bug shell...
After a few hours of silent, blissful sleep, the Ninjask doesn't notice the slight rustling noise from the living room, nor does he notice the small crash of an ornament. But he does hear the piercing shriek that shakes the house's very foundation and he jolts awake with a cry. So startled he is that he tumbles right off his bed and grunts as he hits the floor, his blankets draping over him. Another shriek sounds, along with a scream that cuts off abruptly. His heart racing, he wonders if he should investigate and knows that he has no choice.
Swallowing a bit at the uneasy silence that falls over the house, he flies out of his room and down the hall towards the living room. And what he sees when he gets there horrifies him...
Blood is splattered all over the place, with a feathery bundle laying in a pool of it by the tree. Floating over the bird is a purring Kowai, yet more blood spread over its face and mouth. Flying a bit closer, he sees the unfortunate victim is a Delibird and...
"Santa Beak?" He whimpers, poking the corpse a bit before glaring at Kowai. "WHAT THE FUCK?!"
"Brother," the husk coos, as if unaware of its brother's displeasure. "I out-ninja'd Santa Beak. He won't be trespassing our home anymore."
"OF COURSE NOT! YOU KILLED HIM, YOU PSYCHO!" Fidgeting, he gives Kowai a useless swipe over its head before turning back to the body. "Shit! How am I gonna get myself out of this one?!"
"Brother?" Kowai starts again insistently, confused as to its brother's reaction. Surely, its Ninjask should be proud of it! "Brother, I proved myself the better ninja! And I defended our home from the enemy! Plus, since I saw him, I had to kill him before he killed me."
"What?!" Sokudo shrieks, staring at the Shedinja in disbelief before it clicks in his head. "GODDAMMIT, Kowai! I was just joking around about all that shit!" Growling in frustration, he turns away and flies back and forth across the room. "Leave it to a dumbass like you to believe everything that comes out of my mouth! Fuck! Shit! Damn!" He continues on a whole list of curses, Kowai listening to all the new words it's learning, before the Ninjask takes a breath to calm as best he can.
He can fix this.
"Alright, we need to hide the body or something... Maybe take it back to his sleigh." Landing by the corpse, he grunts as he starts dragging it out the door. "Kowai, help me out!" Kowai hesitates before helping its brother with its black mist, succeeding in carrying the bird outside. Looking up at the sleigh on the roof, he curses softly when he sees an unaware Stantler standing by the sleigh. Shit, he forgot about that blasted reindeer!
"Kowai, distract the deer so I can get Santa Beak up there quickly." Kowai saying nothing as it floats up, Sokudo buzzes his wings as hard as he can, carrying Santa Beak to the sleigh as stealthily as he can manage. Fixing the corpse onto the sled so as to make it difficult for the reindeer to see, he doesn't notice what his brother's doing until he hears another scream.
His eyes darting upwards, his mandibles gape at seeing Kowai steal the Stantler's soul! He quickly dashes forward and tackles the Shedinja onto the roof, but it's too late. Looking back at the deer's body, Sokudo curses again. "Kowai! WILL YOU STOP WITH THE MURDER SPREE?! I told you to distract it, not eat it!"
"Hungry," Kowai responds in a simple grunt, as if that'll help its case.
Growling at the shed, Sokudo hits it again out of sheer anger before turning away. "Fine, we'll get rid of the deer too... But I swear Kowai, if you hurt anyone else tonight, I'm Aerial Ace-ing your fuckin' ass!" Grumbling as he and Kowai pull the Stantler onto the sled, Sokudo crosses his arms and looks about as he thinks to himself. "Alright, we'll take the sled someplace far, so we're not suspect."
"But brother," Kowai pipes up. "This thing is big, how can we possibly move it?"
"Shut the fuck up, Kowai," Sokudo hisses. "And just help me!" Flying up to the Stantler's discarded harness and reigns, he grabs them in his claws and blinks when the sleigh actually moves a bit from that movement alone. Pulling a bit forward, he's stunned to find that the sleigh is extremely light... criminally light. Must be some sort of magic; it is Santa's sleigh after all.
"Alright, Kowai, you sit in there while I'll pull," he orders, knowing that he alone should pull the sled, as the Shedinja will only slow him down. Bobbing up and down in annoying cheerfulness, Kowai plops itself onto the bloodied seat before the Ninjask takes off as fast as he can. It feels extremely strange, towing such a large object with little effort. Sure, bug Pokemon like him are strong for their size, but this is ridiculous!
Whatever, it's making this whole thing easier than how it would've been otherwise and that's what's important.
Sighting a beach, he stops in a hover, the sleigh hovering along with him in some defiant act against physics and he turns to the ghost bug. "Alright Kowai, dump them."
Purring, the Shedinja pushes the two bodies off the sled and watches them tumble right into the ocean. Sokudo winces a bit, unable to get over the deaths despite the fact that they're only two of Kowai's many victims. He just never thought he'd ever meet Santa Beak, much less take part in covering up his murder... Regarding Kowai, he twitches his claws a bit as he speaks up. "Alright, we can do either one of two things now... We can crash this sled, go back home and pretend none of this ever happened. Or we can do the right thing, and start delivering these presents to their rightful owners..."
"Let's go home," Kowai says with no hesitation and Sokudo nods.
"Good choice. If anyone ask, you don't even know what Santa Beak is..." Taking the straps again, he pulls the sleigh inland, his head swimming. Why is he feeling such guilt over this? He's covered for Kowai so many times that he oughta be used to it by now. But... But this was Santa Beak, the very icon of Christmas! And he can't stop the images of sad children from flashing within his mind... "Ah, goddammit!"
"What's wrong, brother?" Kowai asks, its purrs trailing off a bit.
"Just... ugh!" Slumping as he comes to a stop, he glares at his shed over his shoulder. "There's a list in the sled, Kowai. Give it to me..."
"List...?" Confused, the little Shedinja ducks into the sled, its black mist spreading from its back to scour the cart. Finding said list, it takes it in said mist and reaches out to give it to its sibling. Snatching it rudely, Sokudo's eyes scans the list, opening it a bit... then a bit more, and then a bit more. This list seems to be increasing in size and he starts growling in frustration as it reaches more then ten feet long.
"Fuck it!" Sokudo barks impatiently, balling up the list and throwing it over his shoulder. "We'll just do this my way."
"Do what?" the husk questions, not understanding why Sokudo's doing any of this.
"Save Christmas." is the only answer it gets before Sokudo takes off towards the first house he sees. Circling it, he comes in to land on the roof, cringing automatically although the sleigh makes no sound upon touching down. Dropping the harness, he flies to the small bag situated in the sled and opens it. Before his disbelieving eyes, presents materialized and it takes a good long moment to comprehend this. Taking the bag in his claws, he holds up a claw to his brother. "Stay here."
"But-" Kowai goes to object, only to be cuffed over its muzzle.
"But nothing! You've done enough damage and someone has to guard the sled and act as look out." Sokudo explains, hoping it'll be satisfied with its purpose enough to shut up and follow his orders. Luckily, the reluctant Shedinja complies and he flies towards the ventilation grate. He always did favor that over the chimney. Regardless of his preferences, he'll have to do this quickly and quietly, which is pretty easy. No way is a fatass Delibird a better ninja than him!
Arriving to the Christmas tree, he pushes his way out at the overhead grate and in less than a split-instant, every present is neatly arranged under the tree and Sokudo's heading back outside. Flying back to the sleigh, much to the relief of Kowai, he takes the reins and takes off to the next house in a mere second. Three seconds later, they're off to the next house, then the next house...
Now if he can just keep up the pace for the entire night and the entire world...
"Ugh! I give up!" Sokudo yells as he lands the sleigh in the middle of a clearing. He makes a slash at the grass beneath him as he continues to vent. "This is stupid! How the hell can I save Christmas?! I'm not moving fast enough! We'll never get this done tonight!" Sitting down with a slump, he mopes a bit before he feels his brother cuddle against him in what's supposed to be reassurance. He growls, but doesn't pull away.
"Brother, you can't give up..." Kowai tells him. "You wanted to save this Christmas thing and that's what you're going to do!"
"Says you," Sokudo hisses. "This is all your fault. Why don't you try to save Christmas yourself?"
"You know why, silly brother," Kowai coos as it nuzzles him.
"Yeah, yeah, you're too slow to make a difference here."
"That, and the fact that I don't care enough about this 'Christmas'. We got our presents, and who cares about the other Pokemon." the Shedinja tells him, Sokudo blinking at the confusing mixed messages he's getting from his shed.
"If that's the case, then why the fuck are you encouraging me to continue?"
At this, Kowai chuckles a bit. "Because riding around in a sled is fun, especially if it's pulled by you!" This earns a glare from its brother and it cuddles tighter for a moment before pulling away. "So don't give up brother! You're a Ninjask, the fastest thing in the entire world!"
"Well-"
"If any Pokemon can get this done, and make sled riding fun, it's you!" It flies back to the sleigh, settling itself into the seat. "Don't let Santa Beak be the better ninja!"
Blinking at this conversation, he shakes his head a bit before looking at the harness. Despite Kowai's attempt to cheer him up, he still has doubts about this. Yeah, he's a Ninjask, and yeah he's a member of the fastest species on the planet. But he's not Santa Beak, he's not magical in any way. He's just a bug...
Taking a breath, he opens his wings and takes off again, pushing his wings as fast as he can as he moves to the next town. Ditching the sleigh midflight, he no longer bothers to sneak inside the house properly and instead crashes through the window, throws the presents inside and rushes back out to the sleigh to the next dwelling. He doesn't care about the property damages he is causing, focused only on getting this done before the sun comes up.
After a couple of minutes, he finishes the city and takes off to the next one. But he doesn't go for the nearest house this time and instead crashes on the snow just within the city's borders, gasping for breath.
"Brother?" Kowai mutters worriedly. "Brother, you're hurt!"
Sokudo doesn't respond, trying to catch his breath. He can feel a little blood trickling from some cuts he sustained from crashing through so many windows so carelessly. He can feel Kowai licking his injuries gently, but is too exhausted to push it away. What time is it? He can't even gather the energy to glance up at the sky. He shivers, suddenly aware of how cold it is. He's been able to ignore it and now that and his own exhaustion and pain is all he can think of.
"Brother?" again comes Kowai's concerned voice.
"So... tired..." he manages to choke out between his breaths. "Can't... Can't..."
Whimpering, Kowai nuzzles against its brother's face, giving some of his cuts a few more licks. "Brother, we're going home now. Get in the sled, I'll pull us home."
"No... No..." Trembling harder, he forces himself back to his claws and takes the harness. He attempts to take off, only to fall back down to the ground. He simply can't get his wings to beat anymore. "I... I have... to... to"
Against his will, he sinks back onto the snowy ground and closes his eyes as he falls unconscious.
Cold air brushes against his face, the first sensation he feels as he regains his senses. Opening his eyes, he sees that he's laying along the seat of the sled, a blanket tucked around his body. Sitting up, he sees that they're moving through the air and only glimpses his brother's back before jolting his gaze away to prevent his soul from being taken. His night's pretty shitty as it is and there's no need to top it all off with death.
"K-Kowai, where... Where are we...?" he manages to ask, his voice thick.
"Brother!" Kowai exclaims, flying down to the ground below to land the sled. Turning to its sibling, it shakes the harness straps off its wings and hurries to him to snuggle. Sokudo leans away, not fond of the cold shell, before wincing at the pain now sparking up. His Shedinja stays close despite his rejection, purring softly to its tired sibling. "Brother, we're going home. You go back to sleep now."
Sokudo only grunts, inclined to do just that before he jolts. He can't sleep now! "Is it still night? Is it still Christmas?"
Kowai doesn't answer for a moment, watching him before muttering reluctantly. "Yes. You've only been asleep for an hour, maybe two..."
"Shit!" Sokudo curses as he hurries to the harness, pushing his discomfort to the back of his mind. Just as he goes to grab the straps, Kowai pushes itself in front of him.
"Brother, no!" it barks firmly. "You're hurt, you're tired, and you need to rest."
"Fuck off, Kowai," Sokudo growls. "I need to do this."
"No, you don't!" Kowai argues, keeping itself between the Ninjask and the harness despite his efforts to push passed it. "You don't NEED to do this, brother, but you DO need to rest, SO GO BACK IN THE SLED!"
Sokudo cringes at the Shedinja's demanding screech, staring at it with a stunned expression before narrowing his eyes, not liking his shed to boss him around even if it's for his own good. "No! I'm gonna keep at this until the sun comes up and you can't do anything about it! Besides, weren't you the one who was telling me to keep going a while ago?!"
"That was before you got hurt!" Kowai tells him, starting to whimper as it attempts to lick his wounds again, only to be pushed back. "It's not worth it. Getting these presents to a bunch of ungrateful brats isn't worth you getting hurt..."
"Like you have any room to talk about being ungrateful..." Sokudo grumbles. Kowai doesn't respond to this jab for a moment before muttering softly.
"Perhaps not, brother, but..." it trails off a bit before carrying on. "I may not know much of anything about this whole 'Christmas' thing. And maybe the whole point to it is getting presents. But you know what?" It starts to purr. "I spent all night riding around in a sled, having fun knowing that I'm spending time with my brother. And that time is worth a lot more than some colorful box with a shiny ribbon." It turns away a bit. "And if all those other Pokemon don't appreciate time with their brothers, then they don't deserve colorful boxes with shiny ribbons."
Sokudo doesn't have anything to say to this, his eyes flicking downward. As much as he hated to admit it, especially with a sappy speech like that, Kowai's right. Who cares about these stupid presents...? He's done what he could, as best as he could, and isn't that good enough? Taking a breath, he feels his tense body relax in resignation. "Fuckin' bug shell, the one fuckin' time you're right about something..."
Kowai coos softly as it nuzzles against its brother's neck without too much resistance this time. "Come now, brother. Let's go home."
"Sure, whatever..."
The front door of the house opens slowly, letting in the light of the day as Sokudo flies inside after a long flight back home. And almost immediately, his headache increases a hundredfold at the bloody mess that greets him in the living room. He completely forgot about the murder scene and the work that lays before him to pick up the pieces. Rubbing his face, he feels Kowai fly up beside him and the Shedinja looks back and forth between him and the ruined room.
"Don't worry, brother," the husk starts in a whisper. "You head to bed. I'll clean this up for you."
"Bullshit," Sokudo grunts. "You'll only make the mess even worse, like you always do."
"Not this time," Kowai chuckles, its tone gentle. "It's Christmas, and it's the least I can do for you."
Not having the will to argue, Sokudo only nods before flying off into the halls and towards his room. Closing the door behind him for some privacy, he hovers over to his bed and flops down into it. Pulling the fallen blankets back onto his bed, he shifts it into a proper nest and lays down in it. He revels in the warm comfort it gives him for a moment before his eyes dart to his nightstand.
There's his journal and pen, ready for a new entry.
Reaching out a claw, he takes the book and flips through it wearily until he finds an empty page for his new account. Taking the pen, he thinks for a long moment about how he should start this one out, wanting to record the whole thing as soon as possible, while the feelings and memories are still fresh. Finally, he clicks his pen and starts writing as a tired smirk grows on his mandibles.
"On its first year of Christmas, my brother gave to me
The rotting corpse of Mr. Santa Beak."