A/N: Wow, 5 favs and 8 follows? I'll be honest, I was not expecting such a response from this. Just...wow. You guys are great.
Anyway, here you go, as promised, the next short in the saga. I was planning to save the Christmas special for a higher chapter number, but the timing just became too perfect.
Enjoy!
Of Trees, Lights, and Socks
"Uh...Josh? Jacob?" Fox yelled throughout the house. "Why is there a tree in the living room...?"
It was Black Friday. Everyone, including Josh and Jacob's dad, was out looking for the best deals out in the commercial world. The two Lylatians still didn't understand why a day of consumer consumption directly followed a day of being thankful for what you already have, but confusion like that was actually quite common. Such is the pitfall of hosting anthropomorphic aliens from a different star system.
Now, they had already had an analogue to Thanksgiving in Lylat, so that holiday was simple enough. It sounded to the twins, though, that explaining Christmas wouldn't be as simple.
Josh and Jacob heard the question at the same time, and they both wound up exiting their rooms at the same time. They made eye contact in the hallway on their way to the living room.
"Oh, this is gonna be fuuuuun..." Jacob muttered excitedly to Josh.
"Heh, yeah," he said, before Jacob's sinister tone caused him to add on a little more.
"Don't you dare give them any bullshit."
"Trust me, Josh. I'm your brother."
Yeah, that's what concerns me the most, Josh thought as they stepped into the living room. Fox was standing next to the tree, which sat next to the green couch on the left side of the room. The vulpine was obviously perplexed. He paced around the coniferous tree, examining it, sniffing the branches, and just puzzling like crazy.
Wolf ambled in from the other side of the room. He, too, was confused at the presence of the tree, but he was content enough with watching Fox try to figure out what was going on.
Fox's ears perked in Jacob's direction, and soon his entire head did the same. Jacob smiled at the bewildered expression that was now staring in the humans' direction. The vulpine had been expecting an immediate answer, but when none came, he had to start the conversation himself.
Again.
"Well? What's it doing here?" he asked, poking a thumb at the tree.
"That, my friend, is a Christmas tree," Jacob answered cheerfully.
"What the heck is a Christmas tree?" Fox asked back, sensing an incomplete answer.
"Christmas is a holiday celebrated on the 25th of every December."
"...Really? This vague answer gag again?"
"Just tell him the whole story, man. Christmas is a wonderful thing, not something to make jokes about," Josh told his brother calmly.
"Why do you have to be a killjoy, Josh?" Jacob accused with a disappointed tone.
"We piss them off enough most of the time, Jacob. Just be nice this one time. Besides, isn't that the Christmas spirit anyway?"
"Yes, sensei," he said, bowing jokingly. Josh was a smart little bastard sometimes.
Fox still stood there, waiting expectantly for some kind of explanation. His ear twitched. Wolf kind of sat there in the background like he usually does, arms crossed. He was mildly interested, but only because this holiday required plastic trees to be in one's house.
"Anyway, Christmas is, from a religious standpoint, a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. I think you've tagged along to our youth group enough to know who that is, right?" Jacob started.
The Lylatians nodded slowly in fuzzy remembrance (no pun intended).
"But, there is a legend that many tell. A very well-known legend, and it's one that embodies the spirit of Christmas. It is the legend of Santa Claus."
"Should've known," Josh muttered under his breath. He sat down on the piano bench in preparation for the surely long-winded tale. Not because it was long-winded by nature, more because Jacob tended to be long-winded when telling stories.
"Now, people tell of this Santa Claus all the time during the Christmas season. He is a jolly, old, fat man. He wears a big red suit and a red holiday hat with a little white ball of fluff hanging off the top. His entire ensemble is lined with the white fluff, and he also sports jet-black boots and a long snow-white beard.
"They say he lives at the North Pole, out of sight of anyone who ventures up there. Now, kids around the world write letters to Santa, telling the guy what their Christmas wishes are. You may ask, 'That's well and good, but what can he do about it?' Well, also at the North Pole is an entire workshop, full of short, pointy-eared elves, who are employed by Santa to make the toys that these kids want. These toys get delivered on Christmas Eve."
Josh sighed out of boredom.
Fox was kind of captivated by the cute story so far, even though it got him no closer to the answer of his original question. Jacob just put so much heart into his verbal storytelling, though; the way his hands moved, the way his eyes glazed over as he described the colorful character of Santa...Hell, that kid could make a blank chalkboard seem interesting.
And as for Wolf, well, he didn't know why he was sticking around. The lupine's legs didn't want to move, though, so neither did the rest of him.
"You might ask how he does it. I mean, he has to deliver the right toys to the right houses of every kid in the world. Definitely no small feat, right? Well, he doesn't do it alone.
"Every night on December 24th, Santa packs up his sleigh with a sack full of every toy his elves have built. This sleigh is pulled by eight magical reindeer that can fly. No wings, no jetpacks, no nothing, they just fly using Christmas spirit.
"At each house, Santa lands on the roof, grabs his sack full of toys, and you know what he does? He jumps down the chimney. Yup, the big, old, jolly fat man jumps down the chimney. Then, he sets his carefully wrapped presents under the Christmas tree"-Jacob motioned towards it-"fills the stockings with candies and such, and goes right back up the chimney to move on to the next house.
"There is a catch, though. You only get presents if you're on Santa's nice list. If you're on the naughty list, and you've been bad all year, then Santa fills your stocking with coal."
"At least the naughty kid's family can have a barbecue with his stocking contents," Josh interrupted. Fox smiled quickly.
"-shut up, Josh. Now, in time, we'll decorate the tree with colorful lights, ornaments, and tinsel so Santa can see it in the otherwise dark room. The tree's not just going to stay a plain old tree.
"But I digress. Santa will go house to house like this all night and leave his gifts behind for the girls and boys to awaken to on Christmas morning. And that's the story of Santa Claus."
Fox shrugged his shoulders. At least Jacob had explained the tree's purpose. That aside, Christmas sounded like a neat holiday. Who would pass up free gifts? And all just for not being like Wolf.
The lupine, though, noticed the dreamy way Jacob had told the story. The realist inside him felt the need to point out this little fact:
"...You know that story's a crock of bullshit, right?" he said gruffly.
"Well, duh, Wolf, it's told to little kids as a cheap way to get them to behave," Josh pointed out. "But the story embodies the true meaning of Christmas."
"Yup. Giving to others without expecting anything in return, family, and all around good will towards men," Jacob said.
"Couldn't have said it better myself," Josh complimented.
Jacob walked over to Fox and put him in a sudden headlock.
"Yup. Good will towards men, and this year, furries as well," Jacob said happily, giving Fox a noogie.
Fox didn't like it. No, not one bit. Instead of sneaking into houses and stealing Christmas decorations, though, he used a pretty epic karate move. The next thing anyone knew, Jacob was spread-eagled on the floor, moaning in pain, with Fox standing over him.
Josh started laughing uncontrollably.
"Do that again and there won't be any good will coming your way this year," Fox threatened. Nobody in the room could tell if it was a well-made joke or a serious threat.
"Damn, pup, nice one," Wolf said contendedly. Fox acknowledged the compliment with a nod and a smile.
"Ow….." Jacob continued to moan.
Over the Thanksgiving weekend, everyone decorated the house with fever. Josh and Jacob got to teach the Lylatians about hanging ornaments, putting up stockings, and baking Christmas cookies. They seemed to enjoy it, even Wolf, surprisingly enough.
But now, it was Sunday evening, and there was one final step.
Josh, Jacob, Fox and Wolf convened in Josh's room at 7:00 pm, as requested. Josh formally distributed a sheet of notebook paper and a pen to everyone, including himself.
"Alright, here's the best part of Christmas," Josh explained excitedly. "The consumerism."
Fox and Wolf exchanged glances.
"Simply write down what you want to receive as a Christmas present, and when you're done, post it on the fridge using one of the little magnets. You can take as long as you want to decide, but be warned: the later you post it, the less chance you have of getting what you want."
"Alright, fair enough," Fox said. "Maybe I can get one of those little Cessna propeller planes, or—"
"Within reasonable price, Fox," Jacob clarified. "Sure, my dad's decently rich, but he's not gonna buy you a plane."
"Aww, fine." He hung his head in dramatic sadness.
It only took three days for everybody's Christmas lists to be posted. Josh wanted a new iPod Touch, the new Muse CD, and a GameCube with Super Smash Brothers Melee because he was in a nostalgic mood; Jacob put down a new scanner, several more sketchbooks, and a "StarFox Coffee" T-shirt; Fox listed a high-end graphics card for his laptop, a copy of X-Plane (a flight simulator), and some Wii Points; and Wolf selected only some Disturbed CDs and a bass guitar.
At first, Fox didn't really see what the entire buzz about Christmas was for. Sure, there was free stuff, and sure, it was a good excuse to bring forestry into the living room, but why did it turn everyone crazy with anticipation? All this music, all the decorations, all the Christmas specials on TV, it just seemed over the top to the vulpine.
As the days rolled on, though, he started to warm up to the entire thing. Fox would stare at the lighted tree for hours; taking it in, absorbing it, admiring the growing pile of gifts underneath it. It filled him with a feeling that he couldn't quite describe, but he loved it nonetheless.
Josh had been noticing this behavior as well. Many times he would saunter into the living room to find Fox relaxing in the recliner, with a paw on his cheek, staring at the tree. Every time, he would get a warm, approving smile before continuing on his way.
The vulpine also had a hunch that Christmas was growing on Wolf, too. He never made it very obvious that he was enjoying the season, but the lupine always seemed to be watching one Christmas special or another. Wolf also seemed a bit less confrontational too, but that was up for debate.
The first snow of the year came on the 16th of December. It was more of a blizzard, actually, with eleven inches of snow blowing about like crazy. For once, it was enough for a snow day.
Fox noticed the storm starting while going through one of his 'staring at the tree' episodes. An inch or so had already accumulated, and the snow was falling quickly and diagonally across the orange beam of the streetlight. To the vulpine, the scene cemented the awesomeness of Christmas into his mind. It was so peaceful, so silent, and yet so chaotic and picturesque at the same time. The scene reduced his rational brain to tiny weeping fragments.
During the snow day, everyone got outside and enjoyed the fluffy white stuff. And I doubt you'd be surprised if I told you that the two kids and two furries got into a hell of a snowball fight. Josh and Wolf versus Fox and Jacob. The stakes: winners get to dry off with the hair dryer, and the losers get to make everybody's hot chocolate.
Nobody was safe. What started as a fun little activity to kill time turned into a freaking full scale combat operation. Both sides used deception, stealth, planning, the whole nine yards in their attempt to win. It was controlled chaos on the Chase lawn.
The battle was long and well-fought, lasting the better part of two hours. Jacob and Fox probably would have fared better, though, if they hadn't let Josh and Wolf be on the same team. Josh's out-of-the-box thinking, coupled with Wolf's super-powered cybernetic eye, proved to be one hell of a combination. It gave them the upper hand throughout most of the battle, and they finally ended it with a very clever pincer move in the front yard.
But this was simply a minor distraction on the road to Christmas. Josh and Jacob were forced to deal with one hell of a major distraction, though: finals. Winter break didn't start until the afternoon on December 20th, and the meantime was study time.
Oh, well, more Christmas spirit for me, then, Fox thought that week.
Finals week passed quickly for the twins, compared to any other week in December. It was amazing what dreading huge, important tests could do to the passage of time.
On the contrary, the remaining four days before Christmas passed slower than a slug carrying a 16-ton weight. Josh and Jacob sprawled their bodies over each piece of upholstery in the house and groaned, expressing their boredom in the most obnoxious ways possible. Even with Brawl and their collection of computer games, they still couldn't overcome the boredom that plagued them.
Fox sympathized with the humans. The hope for the new stuff he asked for clung to his brain like a tumor, preventing him from thinking about anyone else. Soon, the vulpine joined in the show right along with Josh and Jacob (to which Wolf just rolled his eye).
Time always moves forward, though. Such is reality. Therefore, the four pals found themselves congregated in the living room late at night on Christmas Eve. They mainly watched the Adult Swim Christmas specials in silence, but Jacob opened up some idle conversation during one of the commercial breaks.
"So…tomorrow's the day…"
"Yup," the other three muttered.
"Uh…everybody ready…?"
"Yup," they muttered again.
"You guys are no fun."
"Yup," Josh muttered with a smile.
Jacob sighed and went back to focusing on the TV.
Soon, the anticipation got the best of everybody, and they all headed off to their respective rooms for bed. As Fox and Josh settled into the bunk beds (Fox on top, Jacob down below), the human decided to give his fuzzy buddy some fair warning.
You see, the vulpine always slept. A lot. It was not a problem of anatomy, or laziness, or anything like that. As it turns out, a Cornerian day is a little over 30 Earthen hours. Therefore, Cornerians have a circadian rhythm which requires about 12 or 13 hours of sleep a night to function properly. Since nights generally don't last that long in North Dakota, and even when they did, there wasn't enough daytime to make the vulpine and lupine tired again, you'll find their sleep schedules sort of rotate around the day.
For example, the Cornerians will sleep from midnight to noon, stay awake for about 18 to 20 hours straight, then back to sleep for another twelve hours. Then the cycle repeats, and eventually they'll be back to a midnight to noon scenario.
Conveniently, tonight was a night that, under normal conditions, would last from 10:00 pm to 10:00 am.
However, Christmas probably doesn't fall into the category of "normal conditions."
"I hope you're not expecting much sleep tonight, Fox," Josh warned.
"No worries. As long as you stockpiled some Amp, I'll survive," he replied with a smile.
"I did. You do realize how you get when you have more than one at a time, though, don't you?"
"Hey, it's not like I was trying to duct-tape Jacob to the wall. It just…sorta…happened…hmm…"
"Yeah, and you're lucky your heart didn't give out from all the caffeine and chemicals in your system."
"You are terribly mistaken if you think drinking merely ten cans of Amp in one day is enough to kill me," Fox responded with a confident grin.
"Oh, shut up, Mr. I've-been-through-hell-and-back-and-I'm-fucking-arrogant-about-it McCloud."
"If you want to hear arrogance, go talk to Wolf about Fichina."
"Oh, come now—"
"No. You should hear the excuses he gives for being shot down that day. They are freaking pathetic."
"I heard that!" an angry, gruff voice called from the next room. If there wasn't a bedframe and mattress between the two, a couple wide-eyed glances would have been traded. They laid there silently, waiting for some enraged footsteps, but they never seemed to come. Josh could feel the adrenaline pumping through his veins as he prepared himself for self-defense.
But alas, Wolf did not leave his room.
"Well, shit, we're gonna hear about this in the morning," Josh said quietly after their paranoia started to subside.
"No kidding…" Fox agreed.
"…Stupid anthro ears…always so much more sensitive than you think…" the human swore.
"The strength isn't that the ears are that much more powerful, we can just move them around, remember?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah…anyway, don't be surprised if everyone's awake at 5:30 in the morning."
"I won't, no worries."
"Goodnight, Fox."
"Night, Josh."
As they imagined, sleep was fleeting, and whenever they managed to grab it, it was fitful. Like every year before it, Josh's brain was filled to the brim with anticipatory thoughts, completely preventing him from sleeping. Instead, he just tossed and turned, trying to listen to music on his iPod Nano.
Fox pretty much wound up in the same boat, except for the fact that he owned an Android instead of an iDevice. But, you know, same difference.
In the next room, Wolf had fallen right asleep, surprisingly enough. In fact, the lupine seemed to be subconsciously cocky about it, at least from Jacob's point of view.
"How could he be subconsciously cocky about anything?" one might ask. "He's asleep, right?"
True, Wolf is asleep. However, Jacob thought he was cocky because the lupine was snoring in the most abhorrent, repulsive, obnoxious way imaginable. So, if there was any hope of sleep for the human, Wolf dashed it right then.
Jacob knew he had to get revenge somehow, but he had no idea how to go about it. Of course, the snoring didn't help the human think clearly, and neither did the impending Christmas celebration. Therefore, the best he could come up with was to wake Wolf up way earlier than he thought Josh and Fox would get up, and hope it pissed him off just a little.
So that's what he did. At about 4:30 in the morning, Jacob put on his happiest face, jumped off the top bunk, and practically shook Wolf awake.
"Come on, Wolf, get up, get up, it's Christmas!" he said like all the Christmas special characters before him.
The lupine gave one final snort. A barely perceptible black dot flew out of Wolf's nose. He then started coughing as if someone had just saved him from drowning.
"Aughh.." he groaned, still coughing. "I think a fly flew in my nose…"
"…Ew," Jacob said, leaning backwards. "Well that explains the snoring…"
Wolf stared upwards while using his left paw to blindly feel around for his cybernetic eye. During this, Jacob got the rare opportunity to get a decent view of the lupine's bad left eye. Instead of lavender, it was a sharp ice blue. Three parallel scars, normally hidden under the cybernetic eye's band, led downward to his iris. In fact, they sort of continue onto the iris. Rather than being circular, there were two little protrusions out of the bottom. It was kind of a neat effect.
Before too long, though, everything was hidden again. Wolf tiredly maneuvered into a sitting position and searched for the alarm clock. When he finally saw the time, he fell backwards onto his bed again.
"Ugh…Christmas can wait another six hours, I think," he moaned groggily, trying to get back under his blankets.
"No, it can't. Come on, nobody sleeps in on Christmas," Jacob begged. "I'll bet Josh and Fox are already waiting."
That was a lie. Every year, Josh would stalwartly wait until 5:30 am to get up, no matter how excited he was. Of course, Jacob had no idea what Fox would do, but if he was anything like Wolf, he'd be sound asleep.
"No. Go back to bed before I chain you to it."
He almost did. Halfway up the little ladder, Jacob had a change of heart. He grabbed Wolf by the forearms and started dragging him towards the living room.
The lupine wasn't making it easy. He didn't speak, he didn't protest, he didn't struggle. He just let all of his muscles go limp. Jacob might as well have been dragging a 210-pound sandbag.
"You can be a real bastard sometimes, you know that?" Jacob grunted out between shallow breaths.
Wolf just smiled as his head lolled with each pull.
Meanwhile, Fox's ears perked backwards as he heard the noises of dragging and swearing. Seeing as he was excited as the next guy about Christmas, he pointed it out to Josh in the hopes that he'd get up as well.
"Sounds like Jacob and Wolf are up already…"
"Yup," Josh simply said.
"…So…don't you want to join them?"
"You can do what you want, Fox, but I always make it a point to resist until 5:30 as an exercise in self-control. That's an hour away."
"Even though there are presents waiting to be opened, and stockings to be unstuffed, you're just going to sit there and do nothing?" Fox asked in disbelief.
But Josh wasn't listening.
The vulpine sighed. For a moment there, he almost did what he wanted. He almost left for the living room, but a couple facts stopped him. First, Josh was going to wait until 5:30 no matter what, it seemed. And Fox was sure the twins' dad was going to wait right along with him. Either way, he would be waiting. Second, he didn't really want to deal with a sleep-deprived Wolf. The regular one was bad enough.
So, he stayed in bed, curled up, and tried to catch a few Z's.
Back in the living room, Jacob had finally finished the chore of dragging Wolf out of the bedroom. Since he refused to even sit up under his own power, Jacob just tossed him haphazardly onto the couch. For all anyone knew, the lupine might as well have been dead.
But Jacob knew he was just being an idiot. He went to the kitchen to look for a drink. When the human opened the fridge, he was pleasantly surprised to find four cans of Amp lined up on the top shelf. A sticky note was attached to the rightmost can. It read, in Josh's familiar handwriting, In case of Christmas fatigue.
"Hey, Wolf, good news," Jacob said, grabbing two cans. "No need for Christmas to wait anymore."
"You told me Josh and Fox would already be up," Wolf said, still lying limp on the couch.
"Yeah, I lied. I was pissed because you snored like a bear in heat last night."
"I told you, a fly flew into my nose in the middle of the night."
"Well, I didn't know that until after I woke you up. But look, Amp!" Jacob dangled one of the cans by Wolf's face.
First, he saw the eye dart sideways, then it widened, and then Wolf finally moved under his own power. He reached out for it, turned himself into a more comfortable, non-spread-eagled position, and then he opened it up and took a nice, long drink.
"Hallelujah, he's not dead!" Jacob exclaimed sarcastically, opening his own can. The lupine just glared at him silently.
The stockings, each filled with goodies, were hung from the wall opposite the couch. Low light from the living room lamp cast long shadows everywhere as they sat there waiting. Nothing much was said, but both Amp cans were empty within twenty minutes.
Both of them stole glances at their presents frequently. The colorfully wrapped boxes sat there underneath the tree silently, unmoving, mocking the waiting duo with their presence. A single bead of sweat slid down Jacob's face.
After what seemed like an eternity, Josh and Fox bounded down the hallway in excitement. Josh saw his twin and the lupine sitting on the couch, two empty Amp cans at their feet.
"Merry Christmas, guys. I see you found the 'In case of Christmas fatigue' Amp?" he remarked.
"Indeed we did. Great idea, by the way," Josh responded.
"Speaking of which..." Fox started, then trailed off. He slunk towards the kitchen, acting as if no one could see or hear him. When the sound of the fridge door opening echoed through the house, though, it was pretty damn obvious what the vulpine was doing.
"I'd better save my Amp from Fox's wrath..." Josh said after a moment of thought. Both Jacob and Wolf nodded in agreement.
Josh stepped into the kitchen to find Fox chugging one of the remaining two cans. It appeared he was already at least halfway through the energy drink, and the vulpine was holding the refrigerator open with one bare foot. All these observations told the human he was just in time to save his own can.
"Y'know, maybe if you slowed down enough to taste each sip, then you wouldn't feel the need to drink so much of it," Josh said while sneaking his hand into the fridge and grabbing the last lonely can.
Fox finished the drink, gave a satisfied sigh, and tossed the can into the sink before replying.
"Oh, please. It's just too good to warrant multiple sips," he argued with a big smile.
Josh rolled his eyes as he went back to the living room. Fox soon followed, and after only five minutes, the twins' dad joined the party.
"Oooooaaaghhh," he yawned, stretching his arms out over his head. "Good morning, everybody, and Merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas," the four of them replied simultaneously.
"So, what are we gonna do first? Gifts or breakfast?"
"Gifts!" Fox shouted almost immediately. The Amp was already getting into his system.
Everybody else just sort of stared at him.
"You sure? My homemade cinnamon rolls are to die for," the father tempted.
"Hey, that's true," Jacob agreed.
Fox just looked at everybody like, Are you really debating this? Really?
"Alright, alright, Fox, we'll do it your way. Everybody go ahead and get your stockings down."
So they did. Everybody dug through them with haste. They were filled with customary holiday Peeps, Ghiradelli chocolates, and several simple stocking stuffers (try saying that five times fast). The stockings were always a nice appetizer, but you don't go to a restaurant to just eat the breadsticks. You come for the main course.
However, there was one little tradition they had to get out of the way first. After turning the radio to a Christmas station, the twins' father announced the commencement of Christmas Roulette.
Basically, everybody took one object out of their stocking loot and set it aside. Then, the father would take each gift out of the room and put a sticky note on them. This sticky note would have a number between one and four. Without peeking, each participant chooses a number between one and four. Who gets first pick? The winner of the coin toss, of course.
It was a fun little game, and if you were lucky, you could make a nice little trade with someone else. Or you could get your contribution back. Whatever works.
Finally, though, they made it to the entree of present-opening. In the Chase household, each person got all their gifts at once, taking turns opening and watching. Who goes first now? Whoever got the gift labeled '1' goes first, whoever got number '2' goes second, and so on.
As it turns out, 2012's order was Fox, Jacob, Josh, Wolf.
Expectedly, Fox was extremely happy about being able to go first, and he got a pretty good haul. The vulpine got his Nvidia 700 series GPU, a copy of X-Plane 9, twenty bucks worth of Wii Points, and a Steam Wallet gift card. Again, not surprisingly, before Jacob started digging into his gifts, he ran off and grabbed his laptop so he could start installing X-Plane.
Jacob also got everything he wanted. The new scanner and sketchbooks pleased him very much, but he seemed strangely more excited about the StarFox Coffee T-shirt than anything else. He even made a pledge right then and there to wear it the first day back from winter break.
Josh, on the other hand, was left disappointed. To his credit, he did get a fifth generation iPod Touch and the Muse CD "The 2nd Law," but the GameCube was nowhere to be found. In its place was a card for 4000 Aeria Points, which was still ok, but...the lack of Super Smash Brothers Melee made Josh sad.
The best moment of the day, though, had to have been when Wolf was ripping through his presents.
The bass guitar was pretty obvious; not only was it the largest box around, but it was also the most elaborately decorated. The lupine was very happy with it, though. It was a high-end Ibanez Gio Soundgear, one of the best starter basses out there. Fox's gift to Wolf, though, was definitely the most surprising.
At first glance, it was just an oblong grey box. Upon closer inspection, though, five CDs were placed inside of it like books in a bookshelf. They weren't just any CDs, though. They were all five Disturbed CDs that have been released. And the oblong grey box wasn't just an oblong grey box. It was the box for the Disturbed Studio Album Collection.
Wolf was left speechless. He had only asked for two of the five albums, and now all five were lined up, ready to be played in chronological order. The craziest part was, though, that it was all were one gift.
From Fox.
The lupine wasn't sure how long he sat there, jaw hanging open, disbelieving his eyes, before he finally decided to get some verbal confirmation.
"So this is all...from you?"
"Yeah," Fox replied.
"...And this is all of Disturbed's albums?"
"Yeah."
"Wow..."
He couldn't believe how close he felt to the vulpine right then. It was something he hadn't felt for ten years; something he hadn't felt before the fight that finally separated the two for the longest time. It was something that sadly took a forced living arrangement on a primitive planet to finally be resurrected.
And it felt...good.
"I never thought I'd hear myself say this again, but...thanks, pup. Thanks a lot."
Fox put on a warm grin and opened out his arms out for a hug.
"Okay, don't push your luck, Fox," Wolf said, suddenly looking stern.
"Aw, come on, Wolf, it's Christmas. Have some spirit," Josh said. He really wanted to witness an event that could possibly render over half of the Star Fox canon invalid if they ever got back to Lylat.
"No. I'm not going to hug him," he asserted. But everyone's hopeful stares and Fox's open arms began to pound away at that stonewall like so many wrecking balls. It became incredibly unbearable after an incredibly short period of time, and eventually, the lupine gave in. He leaned forward and accepted the embrace, if still a bit begrudgingly.
The twins and their dad literally broke out into applause and cheers once the moment was made. But all of it was drowned out by three little words that Fox uttered during the hug:
"Merry Christmas, Wolf."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah..." Wolf replied, not wanting to feel any more embarrassed than he already was.
"Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good NIGHT!" Josh yelled happily, getting a couple of laughs and more applause out of it.
...
And I hope the same to you, too.
...
Merry Christmas.
A/N: Welp, how was it? Got any fun Christmas stories you'd like to share? Feel free to answer any of these questions with a review.
Ok, maybe that's kind of a cheap way to ask for reviews, but who cares? It's Christmas.
And if you're not a celebrator of Christmas, then Happy Holidays, for what it's worth.
Peace, ya'll
-Brandon
