SHIP: Velvet x Eleanor again I know / FxF

A/N: Merry Christmas you all! Although it's kinda 3am on the 26th here. Hope you all got awesome presents (unlike myself who didn't get anything) or at least had fun with family and friends! I have no freaking idea what I wrote and I'm tired now.

The crew of the Van Eltia including Velvet's band of misfits were sitting through one of Eizen's long explanations on his discoveries from the Far Continent once again, although Velvet wasn't around as she decided she wanted to go farm some materials from Dire Foes alone so the rest of them were stuck with listening to the First Mate's lectures, although Magilou, Rokurou and half of the crew seemed to be asleep already whilst the young Malak was fully drawn into his idol's stories.

"And while we were at the Far Continent, we happened to hear of a certain day known as Christmas, a time of the year when people give presents to each other and celebrate with family and friends."

From the sudden mention of Christmas, the self proclaimed magnificent witch instantly jumped up. "Ah, Christmas. Who hasn't heard that word before? Ah, Christmas..."

Surprised that the witch had heard of such a term that nobody else had ever come across, Eleanor was rather surprised and was intrigued by the celebration known as 'Christmas' they were talking about. "You know about such a celebration Magilou?"

Clearing her throat, Magilou pointed her hand to her chest and stood proudly in front of her audience. "Of course I've heard of Christmas! I'm surprised you all don't know about it!"

"So what do you do on Christmas...?" Laphicet perked up, wearing a confused expression on his face.

"It was just as Eizen said. You would get together with family members or friends and celebrate the day with a feast and the gifting of presents! Although there's also a twist to the present gifting event."

"A twist?"

"Yes! Traditionally, you would gift yourself to the one you love!"

Eleanor widened her eyes hearing what Magilou had said as well as many of the members of the Van Eltia. "Y-You mean..."

Magilou scampered towards Eleanor and whispered as softly as she could into her ear, "Yes, you would give yourself to Velvet, darling! I'll help you out later, alright?"

After explaining all they knew about the festivity known as Christmas, they all returned to their free time. As promised, Magilou met up with Eleanor in Eleanor's room to help prepare the present. "Don't you think it would be easier if I just bought Velvet a normal present..."

"No, no. You must give her yourself! I'm sure she'll appreciate it more than anything else! Alright. Come with me, we're going to buy supplies." Pulling Eleanor by her hand, Magilou dragged her off the ship into the marketing area of Hellawes. "We'll buy some paper and we'll hunt some ribbon from some low level eagles."

After walking around the stalls, they finally came across one which sold decorative paper. The shopkeeper who instantly fell in love with Eleanor blushed bashfully while offering to sell her two rolls of wrapping paper for the price of one. "Miss Exorcist, if you'll marry me, I'll supply you with all of your needs for the rest of your life!"

Like the professional she was at turning down men as she was hit on by all sorts of men no matter where she was, she quickly replied: "Thank you for the offer but as I am an exorcist, I plan to put myself after the people I must protect. I hope you have a good day." She placed down the 100 gald for the wrapping paper and walked away.

"Look at you, turning down these marriage offers. You plan to put yourself after the people huh? I wonder what are we doing right now then... Is making yourself into a present for Velvet going to help the world?" Magilou teased, passing all of the paper to Eleanor's bag without letting the girl notice somehow. The witch was way too sly.

"T-That's different! I-I just want to see her happy!"

"Isn't that basically because you love her?"

"W-What?"

Pondering to herself, Magilou skipped a couple of steps forwards and turned around to face Eleanor, "Let's say Velvet confessed her love to you. Would you be able to decline like you did with that random dude over there?"

"As I said, that's different!" Eleanor side stepped, avoiding Magilou and stormed off into the Fighal Icecaps, wiping out a couple of Eagles by the time Magilou even caught up with her.

"Girl, you're mad. It was just a joke okay?" Sighing, she pulled out her Guardian and started casting while Eleanor fought front lines with occasional switches.

"Look! A shooting star!"

"Maelstrom!"

Soon enough, they gathered enough materials as they were a couple dozen levels higher than monsters that Magilou even suggested turning up the difficulty to chaos so that the monsters wouldn't die in a single hit. "If only we were from the Far Continent. There's apparently something called Online Shopping and that they can get all this stuff delivered to your door- or ship in a matter of hours."

"Magilou, that laziness is no good. You should be glad we get our exercise this way. Now let us return to the ship and get started with this present you've been talking about."

As the dock was not too far from the Fighal Icecaps, they managed to make it back within a couple of minutes and retreated to Eleanor's chamber once again. Magilou had also brought in a rather large box she found and some adhesives. She laid down the wrapping paper and tried wrapping it around the box it was nowhere near big enough. In all honesty, the box looked better without the paper. Magilou suggested that they just screwed the paper. It was too much effort especially for herself and Eleanor couldn't get anyone else to help her so defeated, she had to give up on the paper. It was only 100 gald anyway. They used the adhesives to stick together the ribbons they had gotten from the monster drops until they had one long enough to tie up the entire box. "Phew, that took some time."

"But it was fun."

Eleanor tried claiming into the box after they finished setting it up however Magilou grabbed her wrist before she got in. "We also need to tie you up. Now strip."

"S-Strip?"

"Yeah it works better that way?"

"I hope you're not thinking of anything indecent Magilou..."

"I'm serious that this is part of the tradition. Now strip."

Reluctantly, Eleanor decided to go with it and took off her clothes while Magilou was checking her our, nodding her head in approval. "Could you not stare..."

Once she was fully undressed, Magilou masterfully tied her up in some sort of pose you'd see in some BDSM porn and made her climb into the box herself as apparently she was too heavy for Magilou's fragile arms.

The witch used her magical telekinesis powers to wrap the ribbons around the box -in all honesty, she just made Bienfu who was surprisingly quiet the entire time tie up everything-.

"Right you're all ready!"

"Onee-sama, what do we do next?" Bienfu finally said his first sentence of the day which was a surprise. He had no reason to be quiet. Maybe it was just because he had nothing to say?

"We're going haul Eleanor off into Velvet's room and then hide in the closet."

"S-Shouldn't you ask someone like Rokurou or Eizen to help?"

"Nah we'll be fine."

After a couple of tries to pick up the box, it seemed that Magilou had given up. She collapsed to the ground and crawled out of the room and knocked on Rokurou's door, hoping that he was in as she was in a near-death state. She thanked the Empyreans for her luck when the door swung open. "Why do I have a dead witch at my door?"

"Rokurou. Eleanor's room. Help. Move. Box. To. Velvet's." She crawled back with Rokurou following her and together -but she really just pretended to help- they carried the box into the Lord of Calamity's room and placed it down on the ground, without Rokurou even noticing Eleanor was in there. Probably because he was too dumb of a perso- daemon.

"Okay your job is done. Bye~" The witch shooed him out of the room once he was not needed anymore and Magilou and Bienfu shoved themselves into the closet and left a gap to spectate from.

Soon the sun had set and a creaking could be heard, although by then, Magilou and Bienfu were fast asleep in the closet. Velvet had certainly took her time. Eyeing the present in the middle of the room, she cautiously approached it as it could've been a trap from the Abbey or one who despised her for killing one of their loved ones.

"What is this...?" She unwrapped the ribbon as carefully as she could and opened the box.

"...Merry Christmas, Velvet..." Eleanor squeaked out, embarrassed from the way she was tied up and the fact that the one she loved was staring at her nude body.

Worried for Eleanor's health as she didn't know how long she had been in the box nude for, Velvet pulled the poor girl who had been kneeling in the box for the past few hours out and sat her down on her bed. "What are you doing? Are you cold? Are you hurt? How long have you been in-"

Leaning into Velvet's arm, she cut Velvet off, without answering any of her questions. "Merry Christmas Velvet... I-I love you..."

"Okay but that doesn't explain anything."

"Well..."

Eleanor ended up explaining everything that happened on the ship while she was gone. Sighing in exasperation she slammed open the doors of her closet and used Break Soul, unleashing Consuming Claw and grabbed the witch by the waist. "So how much of that was true?"

Gulping the witch and her Malak replied: "a lot of it actually. You're meant to give gifts to loved ones on Christmas..."

"And so the giving yourself off and the bondage surely was not necessary was it?"

The therion stormed onto the deck and flung the two off the ship into the icy cold waters. Magilou concluded tricking Velvet with fake festivities was not a good prank after all.