Christmas Special: My Little Drum

A/N: Merry Christmas everyone! Here's a Christmas Special written by SpaceCat. It's canon, but not really related to the main story, for those concerned with that sort of stuff. Takes place after Foxy shows up in the Hellmouth, but nowhere specific.

Argos felt a small shiver crawl across his synthetic skin.

The ambient temperature had gone down dramatically. So much, in fact, that small flakes of snow had blown in from the mouth of the cave, shimmering in the morning sunlight as they fluttered in the cavern's draft.

This could only mean one thing; winter was here.

Or, the nuclear winter aftermath at the end of humanity, but he wasn't hedging his bets.

The lizard opened a nearby closet door and removed a tan jacket covered in sewn fabric patches, before pulling it over his shoulders.

'Not designer material by any means, but it works.'

The clothing had been a gift from Horton, who managed to patch it up after his fingers got too many needle holes pricked into them. To Argos, it may as well have been worth its weight in gold, as his advantage in the summer heat was met with a severe lack of fuzz in the winter.

He closed the front door behind him, feeling the frigid air flow across his face as he descended the steps.

The lizard was in a thinking mood today.

The gifted jacket he wore in the winter always reminded him of one thing; the act of gift-giving just before the end of the fiscal calendar year, in celebration of some guy's birth in one of those books Horton found.

Or was it the one about the eight really good candles?

Either way, the Winter Solstice was upon them.

As far as Argos was concerned, the more important part was the gift-giving, but the even more important part was who he was gift-searching for; or more specifically what gift to get them.

More important to him, at least.

Argos blushed briefly, forcing his face to cool down with a few deep breaths as he made sure no one was looking.

It's not like he was motivated by wanting to further a relationship with someone he cared deeply for, it was just a simple gift from one friend to another; nothing more, nothing less.

Right?

Who're we kidding, when it comes to Liz, it's 100% about furthering a relationship.

'Shut it, narrator.'

Make me.

Argos shoved his hands into the sewn-on coat pockets, his stub-tail swaying behind him as he walked down the path toward the city center. Any potential gift for anyone special would likely be found there anyway, so he decided he might as well walk around and find some inspiration.

A short walk past his usual places led him to one of many alleyways, all leading into the big circular common at the heart of the Hellmouth. The lizard stopped as he glanced around. A litany of shops lined the walls that sloped down toward the stone and dust floor in the middle, all selling different items on different levels of scaffolding while several crowds made their way in between. Warm light emanated from the shops against the cold rusted metal and surrounded the people. Some of them had even grouped up around fires here and there to keep warm, which was far more friendly than the Hellmouth usually was.

It seemed as if the change in season had more people in a good mood than usual.

Wanting to have something to bring to his special someone before sundown, Argos started walking again. He climbed the first set of ladders up to the highest level, inspecting what each store had to offer through their thin metal grating for makeshift windows.

Mugs were too boring, and overdone. Easy pass. Weapons or armor were already off the table; Liz, Scarlet, and Penny already had plenty of those. That, and it seemed too shallow for what he was going for.

On the other hand, what constituted too much?

Argos pondered the question as he passed by the majority of the establishments along the top row, not giving them any thought as they all had everything he didn't feel was special enough. Half of all the stores were only selling fighting gear, so even finding a shop worth browsing proved to be troublesome. Most of them were filled with trashy armor and brittle blades.

'Course they're all selling junk.'

Maybe he could start a machining school. One where he'd teach everybody how to not make welds that looked like they'd break if you sneezed on it.

The reptilian reached the end of the ring around the common, before climbing down the wide ladder to the next row.

Argos passed by a shop, spotting a crude mannequin loaded with polished metal jewelry, cut with better precision than any of the weaponsmiths he'd seen earlier. Earrings, Bracelets, Necklaces, you name it. What caught his eye most was the necklace. Simple enough rope with a intricate helix-like heart shape made from metal

The image of Liz wearing the polished, stainless steel necklace he saw on the mannequin made his heart flutter, before his brain crashed the party and decided that this was the meaning of 'too much.'

He sighed, and continued down the metal path. A couple of decor shops, some craft stores selling "raw" materials, and several places selling apparel woven out of hempen cloth, even a few snack stores selling goods taken from the surface by the scavengers.

The lizard had no idea why, but everything just seemed like one big maybe. There was no big yes screaming out to him like he wanted, only maybe's or flat out no's.

This was not ideal.

He wasn't sure if Liz even had any idea that Argos had been planning a gift for her, but a goal was a goal, and he wasn't going to let it go unfulfilled.

Argos nearly finished his circuit around the innermost and lowest circle, finally beginning to accept the fact that he probably wasn't going to find anything to get for Liz; not here, at least. He knew of a few places that small shops were scattered about, though going alone in those types of places wasn't exactly the best idea.

Even then, he doubted that he'd find much of anything useful around rougher parts of town.

Just as he was about to get to the last few, he noticed something in one of the stores up ahead.

It was a jacket, much different than the simple, locally-made woven kind. It very clearly had a puffy liner, accentuated by its padded arm and neck holes.

Someone must've snagged this from the surface.

Argos eyed the jacket in approval as he circled around it, running his fingers over its padded surface as he got lost in the mental image of it being worn by its intended recipient.

It seemed like the most foolproof idea, until he glanced down and saw the amount of scrap scrawled on the note tied to the collar.

It appeared that there was another aspect to "too much."

As much as he hated to admit, he couldn't blow the earnings of Foxy's next few matches on a coat someone probably stole from who-knows-where.

The lizard let out a disappointed breath, before pushing the shop door open and stepping outside with pursed lips. He stopped and sat at a makeshift bench near one of several metal barrels lit aflame for warmth, returning the heat to his hands as he thought about what else he could do.

"Oh. Hey, Argos."

The voice caught him off guard. More so than he'd have liked. He glanced up to see Liz standing there, the fire reflecting off of her scaled face like hundreds of tiny mirrors. Argos immediately regretted not trying to get an I.O.U. in for the coat since it became abundantly clear that the blue lizard didn't own one. Although she didn't show it well, her long-sleeved shirt didn't do her much justice in terms of thermal insulation.

"Hello, Liz."

She was certainly the last individual he'd expected to find out here.

"I see you found my usual spot," she said as she sat down on the bench next to him.

"Hm. Never thought I'd find you out here," Argos returned.

"I suppose that makes two of us."

The two sat in awkward silence for a short while until Liz spoke up again.

"What brings you this far out, anyway? I haven't seen you venture out to the common in a while."

The greener of the two reptiles leaned back, having gotten his fill of heat from the fire.

"Not a whole lot, just thought I'd walk around a bit," Argos mused. "Just been wandering about, lookin' at all the stuff to buy."

"Don't see why you'd want to buy any of the poorly-made junk around here," Liz joked.

Liz was the only person that Argos had taught to form and machine metal properly as part of their agreement. Ever since then, it became apparent to her that nobody else in the entire Hellmouth could weld a joint or turn a wrench to save their life.

"Tell me about it. It's like all the gear is made out of duct tape and swarf."

"Sounds more like the food," she said, cracking a small smile as she laughed for just a second.

Her laugh sounded as smooth as it was calming. Argos only had the fortune to hear her laugh once, being taken off guard that someone as huge and brutish as her had a laugh like that. Even a small chuckle from her was enough to make his day. Hell, his entire week even.

"Seriously though, what's got you on this level of the shops?" she asked, gesturing at him, "I thought you liked that coat?"

"I do," Argos said slowly, taking extra care to pick his next words. "I'm just looking for a gift."

As annoying as it was to be as stone-faced as he was, it had its perks on rare occasions like this. Certainly helped to not give him away.

"Oh? Yeah, yeah that tracks."

Argos furrowed his brow ever so slightly.

"What's that mean?"

"Oh, uh," Liz stammered, "you're just a very gift-giving kinda guy, I suppose. I… didn't mean anything by it."

'Shit, did I sound pissed off by accident again?'

The two sat in awkward silence, eyes jumping around to avoid contact before Argos forced himself to continue the conversation.

"...Sorry. What brings you out here?"

The jade lizard fidgeted for a moment.

"Looking for a gift as well, I guess," she trailed off as she stared into the fire.

Argos raised an eyebrow."You guess?"

"Yeah… I haven't had much luck either."

"Well… Maybe we could help each other out here," Argos suggested. "Who are you getting a gift for?"

Evidently, this was the last thing Liz wanted to answer. He watched as the taller lizard stammered in her seat, beginning to blush as much as she tried to hide it while staring at her clasped hands.

"I… Uh… I-It doesn't matter," she forced out.

Argos looked away briefly.

"Do you want to talk over a drink," she blurted, diverting the question as soon as possible.

The lizard quickly turned back to look at her. That was an offer he wasn't about to pass up, even if he already had a hunch he knew what she was up to.

"I'd be happy to."

Argos set down his empty mug on the counter next to the other. After thanking Diamond (who shot him one last wink before leaving), the lizard left the bar and joined Liz who was waiting outside.

"So, anyway, that's how I ended up here," she offhandedly mentioned, continuing their conversation from earlier.

"I guess we're not too different in more ways than one," Argos sighed.

Liz's eyes perked up at that, "Is that so? Y'know, you never did tell me how you ended up down here."

"Well, it's not much of a story to tell."

"I'll be the judge of that," Liz said, nudging his arm gently.

Gentle to her, at least. It was a full-blown punch to him, but he took it in stride.

The two of them continued their walk through the labyrinth of alleyways as Argos told her about his venture into the giant hole in the ground they both called home. After being deemed too out of date by his original owner, he was promptly sold to a recycler, before meeting Marionette who brought him to the Hellmouth.

Despite knowing he was terrible at fighting, the skills from his metalworking instruction turned out to be invaluable when it came to repairing both himself and others. While Spring Bonnie's lightning-quick power grab didn't exactly make things easy, it did give him a small 'job' repairing fighters alongside an awkward, anti-social owl, if you could call it that.

It was when said owl began seeing the quality of Argos' work that his potential beyond simple repairs came to light. Horton would give him schematics for ideas he had, and lists of parts he'd want Argos to make. Argos would forge them to the exact specifications without fail, and Horton would assemble them. Long after that, Marionette and Horton had let him in on their grandiose plans.

"Plans? What plans?" Liz asked.

"Nothing that ever worked out," Argos said. "Not yet, anyway."

"Point is, you fast-forward a few years, past you and I meeting, and now we're here," he finished.

The two of them continued walking, the frigid breeze blowing past made Liz shiver, something Argos took note of. The thoughts of what he could do to remedy that were both exhilarating and terrifying.

'Time to do something incredibly stupid.'

The green lizard silently slipped off his jacket, before draping it over his walking partner's shoulders.

Liz jumped a little, causing his hands to freeze and withdraw before he felt her own hands gingerly take hold and pull the garment the rest of the way on.

Argos watched her breath create small clouds in the air as she timidly turned to face him, blushing like mad.

"T-Thanks, Argos."

The mechanic felt his pulse skyrocket as she said his name, briefly glancing away and shoving his hands in his pockets. The way she stared at him made him seem even shorter than her than he already was.

"...Any time," he smiled. The pink color began to creep onto his face as it did hers.

"I… Had fun tonight," she stammered. "Even if it wasn't exactly planned."

Argos had to stop himself from having a heart attack, or jumping so high into the air that he could reach the surface. Or both.

This is the part where you grow a pair, Argos.

'I'm working on it!'

The lizard wracked his brain full of loose bolts as fast as he could before he finally got a grip on himself.

"Would you… want to do it again next week?"

She stared at him for a solid second or two, her face growing redder than incandescent metal.

"...Y-yeah, I'd like that."

Argos smiled more than he'd ever thought possible for himself.

"I'd… just have to find a present for you first," she mumbled.

'Called it.'

The shorter of the two lizards nervously scratched behind his neck.

"Add that to the list of similarities," he joked.

"So… Same time next week?"

Argos gave a simple agreement, waving back at her as she trotted off toward her home.

It wasn't until she was out of sight that he realized that she still had his coat, and his skin was freezing.

'Ah… shit.'