Sorry this chapter's so short. And for the lack of chapter titles. I suck at those.


A Tale of Devoted Vigilance
Fourth

"Merry Christmas, Peanut!" Clopin called excitedly as Semmary opened the door to her family's caravan. "You'll never guess what I got you."

Semmary's eyes widened. "You actually got me something?" she gasped.

Clopin raised an eyebrow. "No, I was saying I did for no reason all. I thought it would be fun to get your hopes up and watch your face as I utterly crushed them." He rolled his eyes dramatically. "Get it together, Imp, and come with me."

He led her to Notre Dame, stopping before they entered. Suddenly he seemed nervous. He glanced at his younger friend, then bit his lip.

"Er," he muttered. "Stay here for a tic?"

Semmary nodded.

Clopin ran to a gargoyle and took a flying leap at it. He did a full rotation around it, then let go and hooked his knees on another one. He did this until he reached a rope, where he swung onto the bridge between towers. He landed gracefully on his feet and ran to the hunchback's bell tower. He put his mask on before peeking in through the enormous ventilation window.

"Quasi?"

A little boy—smaller than Semmary—looked up and around from his place in the corner of the room. He had a deformed face, but it was still obvious that he was sad.

"C'mere," Clopin whispered, waving a hand in his direction.

Quasimodo limped over to the gypsy, eyes wide in question. "Y-yes?"

"Do you remember me, Quasi?" Clopin asked, fixing his cloak.

"No…."

"Good." Clopin seemed slightly perturbed by this. "It's good to know that you'll greet complete strangers with no thought at all." He let out a breath, having been taken aback by the hunchback's answer. "Well, anyway, I'm not a complete stranger. I wanted to know how you're doing."

Quasimodo shrugged half-heartedly. "I'm a little lonely in here. I wish I had someone to talk to."

Clopin tilted his head to the side and glanced out onto the balcony. His eyes locked onto a trio of amusing-looking decorative gargoyles sitting side-by-side on the ledge. He had a sudden moment of insight. "Oh really?" He looked back to the ten-year-old and grinned. "Well, since I can't be here all the time, and since it's Christmas and basically the one time in the whole year where I care about anyone else," he added jokingly, "I'm going to make absolute sure that you're no longer as lonely up here."

With that, he leapt off of the wall and landed beside the gargoyles. He crouched beside them, throwing them an impish little grin. He reached in his cloak and withdrew a clenched fist.

"Live, friends," he murmured, throwing what was in his fist at the three gargoyles. "There's a hunchbacked little boy who needs you."

Suddenly the stone creatures came to life, choking and spitting on the dust Clopin threw at them.

"Hey, hey, hey!" the one resembling a hog with horns spat. "Watch where you're throwing that dirt!" He brushed his tongue with his hooves.

"You wouldn't have gotten it in your mouth if you kept it shut every once in a while," the monkey-ish old gargoyle snapped.

The last and tallest gargoyle examined his stone nails idly. "She has a point."

"You," the old gargoyle said to Clopin as he watched them with an eyebrow raised amusedly. "You're the one who brought us to life. Don't you think you should give us names?" She crossed her arms. "Unless you think we should go around calling each other The Big Scaredy Cat, The Old Cranky One, and The Fat, Stupid One with a Big Mouth."

Clopin chuckled. "Although that would be amusing, I guess names would only be fair." He stroked his chin. "Alright. You're Laverne." He looked at the hog. "You look like a Hugo. You, mon ami, look like a Victor." He suddenly looked at the ground of Paris. "Mon Dieu, I must depart. I have other Christmases to destroy," he joked. "There's a lonely young boy in that bell tower I want you to befriend."

"Bye, Santa!" Hugo called as the gypsy leapt off the balcony. "Nice kid."

Laverne smacked him. "He's not a kid, you moron."

Clopin climbed down to the ground again and approached Semmary, but quickly hid when he noticed she was writing something idly in the snow. He looked silently over her shoulder and his eyes widened.

It was a big heart with the letter C in the middle.

Clopin slowly smiled, covering his face with his hand.

oOooOo

"Thank you for the dyes, Clopin," Semmary said earnestly as they headed back to her caravan after Clopin gave her a set of cloth dyes and the two of them engaged in a fun snowball fight.

Clopin smiled. "L n'y a pas de quoi," he replied, winking at her.

Semmary blushed moderately and bit her lip. "Oh," she remembered, "what were you doing at Notre Dame?"

"There's a boy who lives in the bell tower," he answered. "He's two years younger than you are. He's a hunchback; the poor kid is forbidden from leaving the cathedral." He then sneered. "Frollo is raising him."

Semmary frowned.

"Anyway," Clopin continued, "I went to go check on him because I'm his unofficial guardian. I gave him a few friends to talk to because he's always so lonely up there."

"Oh," Semmary said again. "That was really sweet of you."

Clopin arched an eyebrow. "How do I know you're not just saying that?" he teased.

They arrived at Semmary's caravan in good spirits.

"Thanks again, Clopin," Semmary echoed herself, fidgeting on her front step. She quickly leaned forward, gave him a peck on the cheek, then just as quickly disappeared into the caravan.

Clopin touched his cheek, grinning and shaking his head.