Jingle

- - - - - - - -

Tsuzuki opened the door, walked into his bedroom, and stopped as soon as he caught sight of his bed. Or rather, what was on it.

Of course, he had been expecting a gift. It was nearly Christmas, and the Earl took every opportunity he could think of to dote upon his favorite Shinigami with presents. It was usually some kind of sweet, or an expensive suit, never-

He hid a grin, knowing to show any amusement at this would be signing his own death warrant.

There, on his bed, was Hisoka. His partner was, thankfully, clothed, though he wouldn't of put it past the earl to have left him naked. Thank God for small favors. The boy's arms and legs were bound together by a long, red ribbon – tied rather artistically around the boy's neck in a large bow. The tag next to him on the bed said, in elegant calligraphy, 'to Tsuzuki, .' The empath even had a fuzzy Santa hat on his head.

Tsuzuki couldn't help it, really. He started laughing anyway.

"Tsuzuki."

Oh, yes. Hisoka was most definitely pissed. But seeing Hisoka with those green eyes glaring, from underneath that hat

Fresh laughter.

"Tsuzuki. Get me out of this. Right. Now." That was one unhappy empath.

Tsuzuki coughed and attempted to compose himself. He stopped laughing, but couldn't get rid of the smile. He took a good look at his 'present', wanting to have a good memory of this, as he certainly would never see Hisoka like this again.

He bent over and started to untie the gaudy bow from around the boy's neck, still smiling. "Ah, sorry Hisoka…" he tried to sound sincere around his smile, "The Earl did this, I take it?"

An angry nod. Hisoka wasn't glaring quite as much now that the ribbons binding him were coming off. 

The nod made a little bell on the end of his Santa hat jingle merrily, and Tsuzuki choked back another laugh. "Ah, well," he said, trying to cover up his amusement, "you know the Earl.... I think this year he got a bit carried away with his present. Usually he just sends me some chocolate." The last of the ribbon came off, and Tsuzuki set it aside.

Hisoka still looked, understandably, pissed. "Why does everyone feel the need to kidnap me!?"

The violet-eyed man knew better than to answer that one.

"Because you're so cute." Grin.

Or maybe he didn't.

Hisoka glared and reached up to take off the ridiculous hat.  Jingle, jingle. The empath pulled at it, but the stubborn head covering refused to budge and continued to jingle away with each tug.

"Nice hat." Tsuzuki couldn't help it.

"Baka." Jingle, jingle.

"Need some help?"

"No." Jingle.

"Are you sure?"

Glare. Hisoka felt Tsuzuki's amusement over the entire situation, and it naturally made him grumpy. Tsuzuki reached out to help Hisoka with the hat.

Tug. Jingle, jingle. Tug, tug-

"Ow!" Jingle.

"Sorry! It's stuck."

"I know that."

Jingle.

"Stop pulling at it! You're not helping."

Tsuzuki sat back to think. The Earl had obviously used magic to keep the hat on, but how could they get it off? Tsuzuki was, of course, quite a strong mage, but the Earl practiced a completely different type of magic than his own. It was unlikely he would be able to undo any spells with magic.

Unless…

Oh.

Oh.

It would be just like the Earl to…oh, now he knew how to get the hat off, but…

He better do it quick. And then, quite possibly, run away.

"Hisoka…"

"What? I cannot believe he went through all the trouble of sticking a hat to my head… this is ridiculous…"

Tsuzuki took a deep breath, grabbed the red velvet hat carefully at the back, leaned forward…

…and pecked Hisoka lightly on the lips.

Blink.

The hat jingled again lightly as Tsuzuki set it down on the bed.

Blink.

The violet-eyed man smiled.

"What are you- why did you-"Ah, it seemed Hisoka had started to process again. The empath then seemed to rethink his words, and grew silent.

"I thought that would break the spell." Tsuzuki said, somewhat proudly.

There was silence for a while.

"Seems I got a very nice present this year." The brown-haired man looked thoughtful.

"I'm not an object."

"I know.  Of course you aren't." Tsuzuki quickly reassured. He then reached out, very carefully, and pulled Hisoka into a loose hug from the side. "Sorry you had to be involved in the Earl's crazy schemes…"

The boy had been tense from the unexpected contact, but let himself relax. Just a little. "…it's fine."

And it was.

fin.

---

I don't have the slightest clue where that came from. I think my fluff muse is leading a revolt. Anyway, I know that chances are they don't celebrate Christmas in the Meifu, but I think the Earl would use any excuse to give Tsuzuki stuff. And Hisoka in a Santa hat is just cute. Come on. ^^

As always, I'm worried about having my idea come across clearly, so in case you were confused or something, just tell me and I'll try to rewrite things to make it clearer. I didn't think the hat's 'spell', as it were, came across right. The Earl made it so that hat wouldn't come off without Tsuzuki getting a kiss (the Earl probably hid cameras in the room to get pictures ^^; Perverted little invisible man). Make sense?

Constructive criticism is worshipped.