The next morning dawned, bringing in the perfect Christmas Day, bright and delightfully chilly, with big, fat snowflakes dancing down to kiss the ground. It was the kind of Christmas morning that everyone, young and old, dream about. It put you in the mood for big Christmas dinners, for eggnog and sleigh rides, for snowball fights and presents. And this was the Christmas morning that came upon the Varia base on the morning of December twenty-fifth.
Like most other mornings in the Varia, it was noisy from very early one. Lussuria, as always, was the first one to wake up, followed closely by the rest of the members. As always, there was the fight to see who'd be the first to the dining room, minus Xanxus, who of course was the first to go anyways. And the first to see, closely followed by the other members, the holiday miracle that had apparently happened over the night.
The Varia base was fully decorated and not in Lussuria's tacky ornaments anymore. There was a gigantic tree in the corner of the living room with piles of presents underneath and several smaller trees in select places throughout the Varia base, all beautifully decorated in various colors, each with its own corresponding angel. Garlands, cranberry strands, and tinsel were artfully arranged and the stockings that Lussuria had worked so hard on the night before were carefully hung around the fireplace in the living room. It kind of looked like an extremely gay, yet extremely talented interior designer had been allowed to run loose inside the Varia base.
"Oh my! It's beautiful! What's been going on?" Lussuria squealed out, hands clasped together in glee as he gazed around the redecorated living room, where the core members, minus Fran, had somehow all ended up.
"They're illusions. It's to replace the tacky decorations you put up yesterday," Fran said, walking into the living room to join the others. He'd spend most of the last night trying to make a good Christmas, illusioning decorations and gifts, setting up a complete Christmas feast for lunch, and just generally trying to get into the Christmas mood. He'd definitely learned his lesson. "Oh," he tacked on, "Merry Christmas by the way."
The other Varia members just gawped at him for a second before, with an almighty squeal; Lussuria tackled him in a bone-crushing hug, picking poor Fran right up off the floor.
"Aww…Fran-chan is finally in the Christmas spirit!"
Fran could hear Belphegor snickering in the background as he awkwardly patted Lussuria on the back, returning the other man's hug in his own little way before the other man released him. The maid's bustled in at that moment with fresh coffee and tea and various lovely-smelling breakfast dishes.
That's when the conversation (and inevitable fighting) broke out and Fran was mostly forgotten. Squalo and Belphegor headed straight for the presents under the tree while Lussuria went after them, crying out about how he'd hand out the presents and how the two over-eager and very loud Varia members weren't allowed to just rip everything to shreds. Xanxus sat sprawled in a chair, coffee in hand while Levi stood silently and anxiously behind him like a loyal lap-dog. Fran just stood watching the scene quietly.
"VOOOI! FROG-BRAT! COME AND GET YOUR STUPID PRESENTS!"
Fran chuckled inwardly as he headed to join the rest of the group…no, the rest of the family.
Maybe, weird and fucked as it was, there was something to this Christmas thing after all.