Just a quick mention in case: this has no purpose for the plot. It's basically a bonus chapter especially for Christmas, with a side-story of first generation Wammy's kids. Enjoy!

"What's up with you?" laughed K, punching her friend on the shoulder.

Slo was typing frantically into his laptop as he sat on the couch, running his fingers through his hair occasionally whilst Damnation threaded glittering tinsel around the Christmas tree standing in the corner of the main leisure room, also known as the common room. Nancy kept throwing baubles at him, trying to knock him off the chair he was standing on.

"I'm trying to find some stuff to buy you guys off Amazon for Christmas," he admitted. "Oi! Don't try and look! That's cheating! Don't you like surprises?"

"I kind of figured out where Roger hides our Christmas presents when I was about four," she grinned. "I don't think I get surprised easily anymore."

"I'll surprise you this Christmas, then," Sky called out from about fifteen feet away. He was hooking fairy lights around the normal wall-lamps. "Dummy, we've got about three more rooms to decorate and then that'll be all of Wammy's completely Christmas-ified."

"This looks absolutely gorgeous, guys," Rebel said. "Good job."

"Nearly done," Sky informed her. "Thank God. Do you know how heavy those fucking trees are?"

K chuckled and stopped bullying Slo. "I've been organized this year. All I need to do now is wrap everything. Honestly, I swear my wardrobe has become a stationary closet with the amount of Sellotape, scissors and wrapping paper stuffed in there."

Sky jumped down from the chair he'd been standing on. "Do I get a present from you, K?"

She shook her head, laughing. "Of course you don't."

"Scrooge," he muttered.

"You absolute banana," she snickered. "Sure I got you something. I get everyone something. I might as well."

Ludo entered the room, a huge grin already spread across his face. "Wow. This place is awesome! I forgot how great Wammy's looks in the holidays. Whether it's Christmas, Halloween or Easter, they always make a massive thing of it."

"So what was Christmas like for you at Wammy's when you were there?" Slo asked casually.

"Oh, you know," Ludo shrugged. "Pretty uneventful. It was kinda relaxing." He frowned for a moment in thought. "I mean, of course we enjoyed it. It's just not a lot happened, you know. We were all at peace at Christmas. Even L came back from cases to spend Christmas here."

XXX

December 25, 2002

"Oh my freakin' God!" yelled Bess in her highest-pitched squeal. "It's freakin' Christmas!"

"Yeah, yeah, we get it," groaned Irina, shoving the pink-haired girl away from her bunk. "I think the whole building heard you."

"Bah, humbug, Irina," Bess pouted. "Bah, humbug."

"Piss off, Bess, or I'll shave those pink curls right off-"

"Ludo!" Bess bellowed. When Ludo turned up in their room, he raised an eyebrow. "Irina is being grumpy on Christmas Day! She's not allowed to be grumpy!"

"Tell her to grow up," Irina spat. "She's seventeen, for goodness' sake…"

"Now, now, Irina, there's no need to be so miserable," Ludo chastised the girl. "I know just what you need – presents! Come on, come on, come on! I have a feeling something special's going to turn up this year!"

"You're just as childish as she is," Irina grumbled, rolling out of bed. "Fine, I'm coming."

The three, along with approximately twenty others, either skipped or trudged (depending on the level of coherence in the individual) towards the hall of the main building. They all sat around the Christmas tree in groups, going to the tree to search for the gifts with their nametags. Bess clapped her hands excitedly, causing several of the younger students to giggle. She planted herself beside a silvery-blonde Flint. A pair of protective goggles were strapped to his head as he removed a pair of rubber gloves caked in ash.

"Hey, Flint!" she squeaked. "How's the jet-pack going?"

"I don't have enough energy without wiping out the national grid," he shrugged, "so I thought I'd take a break for Christmas."

"Aw, that's too bad, man," she sighed. She immediately brightened up again. "Have you opened any of your presents yet, Flint? Have you?"

"I only just sat down, Bess," he pointed out shrewdly.

"I've opened two and I only just walked in," she countered eagerly. She waved at Ludo and Irina with both hands. "Dudes! Over here! Come on! Hurry up!"

"I'm going to sit with Jenna," Irina said. "You guys are just… insane."

"Hell yeah!" Ludo shouted.

"Woo!" Bess added, punching the air.

Suddenly, an old man opened the door and Bess let out an impossibly enthusiastic shriek. "Wammy!" She almost tackled the man to the ground with her hug. He steadied himself, chuckling at the girl's happiness. "We haven't seen you for ages! Merry Christmas, man!"

"Merry Christmas to you too," he smiled. "How are you, Bess? You appear just as gleeful as ever."

"Dude, why wouldn't I be? It's Christmas!" she enthused.

"I see you're into the festive spirit, young Bess," he said. "Would you mind keeping an eye on some new students for me?"

"Awesome! Who are they?" she asked.

"In you come, boys," he called into the corridor. Through the door entered two boys fighting playfully, a blonde and redhead. Bess beamed at the two of them. She noticed the youngest of the Wammy's students, seated by himself in the common room, tilt his head in what could have been interest. She would start by introducing the boys, both around twelve or thirteen, to the eleven-year-old genius. He was closer to their age than she.

"This is Bess," Wammy explained to the pair. "She is our number four."

The blonde one shuffled his feet, folding his arms across his chest. It was difficult to tell whether his reaction was nerves or arrogance. However, the redhead grinned at the pink-haired girl and shook her head, introducing himself as Matt and the other as Mello. It seemed they had been in the same orphanage before they had been brought to Wammy's.

"I'd go talk to that kid first," Bess pointed to the albino boy. "He's Near; he's probably around your age."

"I've got a surprise for you lot too," laughed Wammy.

A tall, pale girl with black hair in a pixie cut appeared in the doorway. Bess let out a gasp and tackled her in a hug, winding the sixteen-year-old fleetingly. "Rin!" she squealed. "Oh my God! I haven't seen you in months!"

"Damn it, Bess," she choked out, amused. "You almost killed me!"

"Aw, whatever," she giggled. "You gotta come say hi!"

Rin glanced once back up at Wammy. "Do you mind if she steals me for a bit?"

"Of course not," he chortled. "It's not as if she's a serial killer."

"Serial killers won't ever get to me," she said defiantly. "I'll make sure of that."

"Reassuring." Bess rolled her eyes. "Come on, Flint and Ludo are gonna wanna see you!"

"Sounds like I haven't a choice," Rin said mock-seriously. "If it is that urgent, we must depart immediately!"

Irina snorted derisively at the sight of the two new boys talking with Near, one of the most antisocial people ever to grace Wammy's House. She shook her head when the red-haired boy, Matt, took out a Gameboy and began to play on what sounded like Pokémon Gold. She rose from her seat next to Jenna, who was unwrapping a book on exercises before gymnastics. Irina went to sit next to Matt.

"You ever tried computers?" she sneered.

"Whoa, your accent's weird," he said, staring at her. "Where are you from?"

"Stockholm," she answered. Her tone was laced with poison. "Got a problem with that?"

"Nah," he shrugged. "So what did you want?"

"I was asking whether you'd ever tried computers," she muttered. "My mistake."

"Computers?" he grinned. "Are you kidding? I can hack 'em!"

"A child like you? You've got to be joking," she snickered. "There's no way you can hack, not properly anyway. You're probably into emails and that sort of thing. I'm talking important databases. Government databases."

"Easy," he admitted. "I did it last week."

She cackled once. "You got guts, kid, but you're not that good."

"Try me," he said calmly.

"All right, then," she nodded. "Come with me."

"Hey! Matt!" snapped the blonde. "Where are you going?"

"Hacking contest," he said shortly. "I'll be back in a little while, Mels."

It was twenty-five minutes later when everyone in the common room suddenly heard Irina's indignant scream of, "No fucking way did he just BEAT ME!"

"D'aw," Bess sighed. "Merry Christmas, guys."

XXX

"Yeah…" Ludo murmured. "Pretty uneventful in the long run…"

Slo frowned, going back to his laptop. He bit his lip, then typed in 'camera'. He ordered a Nikon for K, a English-French dictionary for Damnation, a silver butterfly necklace for Rebel (he remembered her once saying she had never seen a butterfly in real life), an amplifier for Sky (the one who played electric guitar) and a pair of pink stilettos for Nancy.

"Ludo," Slo mumbled, "did you miss Wammy's when you left?"

"Yeah," he admitted. "It's home, isn't it? And all these fucked-up numbskulls are my family."

"I'm finished with my Christmas shopping now," Slo breathed. "Do you reckon Sky and Dummy will kill me if I finally help out with the decorations?"

"Damnation looked like his arms were going to drop off any second," Ludo said.

"I'll take that as a no," Slo replied, getting up off of the couch to go join them.

XXX

"I fucking hate Christmas songs," Sky muttered. "They're so unbelievably annoying!"

"They're upbeat," Damnation sighed. He began to laugh. "Of course you wouldn't get that, Mr. Antidepressants. You have to be on fifty pills to not slit your wrists every ten minutes."

"I wonder how much damage this staple-gun could do?" Sky pondered out loud. "What if I shot it right at your eye…?"

"Please put your gun away," K told him, finishing off a colorful paper chain. "This is meant to be a children's environment, after all-"

"You and your dirty mind," Slo said.

"Oh, so now you turn up?" Rebel scolded. "We're nearly finished."

"You'll be as prickly as those holly leaves if you hold grudges," Slo pointed out. "Do you need a hand with those, by the way?"

"Smooth-talker," she accused. "Can you just knock some more nails in to hold these bunches up?"

"Sure I can," he agreed. "I'm not just a pretty face."

C walked in, a huge smile on her face. "Oh, guys, this looks phenomenal. How long has this taken you?"

"Are we talking just this building, or every single building that's part of Wammy's?" asked Damnation.

"Jesus Christ," she said.

"It's for his birthday; he'd better like it," Rebel muttered.

"Well, if you look outside, I think you'll see that everything's been made just the tiniest bit more festive," she said. "Go on, all of you. Look."

And, true to her word, white had begun to sprinkle prettily over the grounds. They could see fairy lights put up outside, threaded through the trees, which only added to the effect. The ground was fairly dry, and definitely cold enough for the snow to settle. Damnation suddenly let out an awed gasp and pointed out of the window toward the sky.

"Holy shit! Look!" he shouted. "It's Santa!"

Out of instinct, all by the window leant forward to see what was there. Damnation immediately cracked up laughing. He wiped his eye after laughing so much.

"Oh my God…" he said between laughs. "I can't believe… I can't believe you actually looked… you bunch of absolute pea-brains…"

"You git," K muttered.

"Dummy, that was mean," Sky said, though he was smiling a bit at their own stupidity too.

"What was mean?" asked L.

"Never mind," Slo shrugged. "It's just Damnation being a bit of a twat, as per usual."

"Honestly, you're so immature," Rebel grumbled.

"You want immature?" Sky said. "Every year, Nancy runs around wherever we're staying and brings out a sprig of-"

"Merry Christmas!" Nancy squealed as she ran into the room.

"-Mistletoe."

"Pucker up or fucker off," she said brightly. "L and C, you first."

C face-palmed, laughing. She kissed L, then watched as she skipped over to Damnation and had him kiss her. Sky had retreated to his stepladder to get back to stapling Christmassy pictures to the wall. Slo kissed Rebel, then K, who knocked her forehead against his.

"Kissing you is still overrated," she reminded him.

"Still don't appreciate Botticelli, huh?" He shook his head. "You have no taste."

"Screw you." She stuck her tongue out at him and went to collect the remaining pictures to be put up.

"Hey, come on," Nancy snapped at Sky. "Get down from there; that's cheating!"

"Oh, for Christ's sake," he muttered. Whilst standing on the stepladder, he bent down and pecked Nancy on the lips. "Better?"

"No! Get down here, Scrooge!" she commanded.

"Nancy, seriously…" he sighed. "Let me just finish this."

"No, you'll run off." He appeared to be ignoring her now. She poked him in the side, trying to catch his attention. He reached down to pick up another picture just as she tugged so sharply on his jacket he lost his footing and fell off the stepladder – onto someone who had been trying to gather up the last of the decorations. He knocked all of the air out of her, barely managing to support himself with his elbows to stop himself slamming into her with full force.

She blinked up at him in surprise. "Ow," she whispered.

He now looked rather nervous. He jumped up and brushed himself off as hastily as he could. He was running his hands through his hair and glancing around sheepishly. Slo lifted K to her feet and tried not to look at how she was blushing crazily. She grimaced underneath a hand that covered her face.

Nancy giggled. She ran over to stand directly in front of Sky, forcing him to turn around. At the same time, Damnation, understanding where his girlfriend was coming from, pushed K in his direction. Nancy held mistletoe as high as she could and the two of them scowled, first at her, then at each other.

"You guys worry too much," she said. "Loosen up."

K let out a strangled, "with him?" at the same time that he emitted a horrified, "with her?"

"Yes. Precisely."

They glared at her.

"You know, I'm not going anywhere until you two honor this well-known Christmas tradition. It's just a kiss, unless…" She tilted her head to one side. "It's not just a kiss, not to you two…?"

"Fuck off," Sky laughed.

"Good luck with that," K added, amused. Both shook their heads, then easily walked past Nancy and out of the room. They lingered in the corridor, bursting out laughing. They had to lean up against the wall to stop themselves doubling over.

"Ridiculous…" K said, wiping her eyes from laughing too much. "As if we would kiss of our own free will-"

She was stopped by Sky crashing his lips against hers and forcing her mouth open so he could kiss her properly for about ten seconds. When he drew back, his eyes glittered with amusement. She pressed her hand to her lips, astonished. He straightened his jacket, grinning.

"I told you I'd surprise you for Christmas," he said triumphantly. With that, he easily set off down the corridor towards the door that would take him out into the snow.

Slo stuck his head out of the door, taking in her frazzled form. "What happened to you?"

She sank down against the wall, her mouth still hot.

"I think," she mumbled, "Sky just won a game of tonsil tennis."

Next chapter it's back to the harder stuff. I tried to make this as much unlike a conventional Christmas oneshot as I could. I probably failed. Listening to Christmas songs will do that to you.

Again, Merry Christmas, people!

Preview

"Oh, fuck, I feel sorry for my mother," C groaned. "If this is bad..."

"Why?" Slo asked.

"Well, if it's this bad with one... Mum carrying me and my twin sister must have been absolute hell."