Disclaimer: I don't own anything but Jingles. If I did, Mamoru would never
exist!
The Twelve Days of Christmas
Chapter Four: Can You Lose a Guy in Twelve Days?
The clock stroke midnight as the couple sat near the fireplace, though not in the warmth of each other as you might expect. No, Usagi and Seiya were on opposite sides of the couch, trying to forget the moment. Usagi shook her head out of her hands and sighed. "Looks like you're not going anywhere tonight."
She rose from the couch, Seiya's eyes trailing her in question as she headed to the linen closet and pulled out two blankets and a pillow.
"What are you doing?," Seiya asked as he also rose from the couch and followed her as she laid the blankets on the couch.
"Making you a bed," Usagi grunted and instantly regretted it. This wasn't Seiya's fault for being stuck in her house and it wasn't his fault that she was bitter that night either. She turned around and faced him, saying, and "Sorry, I'm just stressed right now." She turned back to the makeshift bed hurriedly before she could see his expression. If this was Santa's idea of a Christmas present, he needed to brain surgery or something.
Although, if she could get past the thought of her old boyfriend, Seiya was every single girl's dream of the perfect gift. His raven hair that was pulled into a long and thin ponytail at the nape of his neck and his dark blue eyes made him seem like a dream. Usagi dismissed the thought to stare at him and finished the bed. She stepped back to admire it. She then bid Seiya goodnight and departed to her bedroom to get some sleep.
* * * *
Santa frowned at the letter he received from one of his elves. At the moment, he was resting from his big night out with a mug of cocoa and a good book. The letter, however, was a surprise. Nobody for the last hundred years at least had ever regretted any present that he had delivered under his or her tree. Santa felt the beginnings of a headache as he rang for an elf, which hurriedly went off to fetch Jingles.
The second best elf came as he was told, this time looking disappointed and rejected. Jingles floated silently to a chair on the opposite side of the room and looked like he was going to cry any second. "I failed," he murmured softly. "I'll never get that head elf position."
Santa almost felt sorry for Jingles, but kept silent until the elf finally got a hold on his crying. "You need to officially apologize to that girl, you know," Santa said. "And, she doesn't know about our policy either."
"No, she doesn't," Jingles gasped and half-jumped out of his chair in a mixture of joy and hope. "I'm off, Santa!," he shouted as he sent a large cloud of dust into the air and disappeared.
* * * *
"Am I not good enough?"
The question rippled through her dreams as images flashed before her. Usagi and Seiya at their first meeting. A concert with Seiya singing with an unknown passion. The date at the amusement park, his question, her confusion. His kiss on her cheek. They all came flooding back as if the floodgates of her memories had been let open.
Usagi woke up and stared around the room. She felt tears on her cheek and swiftly wiped them away with her hand. Seiya's visit had brought all her old feelings for him back from the surface of her heart. She placed her hand over her chest and felt the rapid beating as it pulsed. Her mind was awake and her heart was racing, so she couldn't get back to sleep. The clock read four' o' clock in the morning. She rose out of bed into the morning darkness.
She took a shower and a morning walk, careful not to disturb the soft snoring of Seiya in her living room. As she set out, she thought it quite funny that she had never seen the sunrise before. She ended up back at her front door and stopped to view the dead flower garden. She must have spent more than two hours walking through Juuban neighborhood! The walk, however, had given her time to think.
'I wonder how long Seiya will be staying with me," Usagi thought. "I might try to contract his princess, but that might take some work.' Usagi stopped thinking and felt a unfamiliar presence behind her. It wasn't Seiya, because the small shadow was small and slightly off the ground. She whirled around quickly to stare at an elf.
Jingles smiled and bowed in front of the odango-haired girl with a small flourish, taking off the small elven cap he wore as well. "Good morning to you Usagi," he said.
Usagi didn't know whether to hit the elf, scream, or run away. Elves just didn't come along the street after Christmas and pop out of bushes to surprise you. This particular elf also seemed to know her name as well.
The elf watched interested as Usagi peered around, making sure that nobody else saw Jingles. The elf coughed for attention and got it. "I'm here to discuss about the little problem you had with one of Santa's presents. And also to apologize for the slight mistake as well."
"Um, yeah," Usagi said, secretly wondering how Santa had figured out her little predicament.
Jingles pulled out a long list out of nowhere, which was almost as long as Santa's "Naughty or Nice" list, which swept past Usagi's feet and into the bushes behind her. Using a finger to find the selected clause, Jingles read from Santa's Return Gift Policy, "If any such receiver of a gift on Christmas Day desires to exchange their gift, the receiver must keep the specific item till the last day of Christmas ends, when Santa will come and either take it back or leave it with the receiver. No other requests will be considered." Jingles rolled the list back up into its past condition and snapped it away.
"So you're telling me, Mr. Elf, that I have no choice but to keep Seiya at my house until Christmas ends, and then you can take him home," Usagi asked, trying to make sense of the whole situation. "But, Christmas Day is already over. Shouldn't he be gone already?"
The elf shook his head. "No. There are twelve days of Christmas, which apparently means that he'll be staying with you for almost two weeks."
"Two weeks?!," Usagi almost screeched. Anything could happen in two weeks. Her parents might come home one night, where her father would shoot Seiya's head off for being in the house. There were her friends, Ami, Rei, Minako, and Makato, who would start being suspicious about the two being together.
Suddenly, she heard someone open the door from the inside of the house. Seiya, dressed in the clothes he had worn last night, was about to say something when he spied Jingles floating above the front lawn. "It's you!," Seiya shouted at the small elf. "You apprehended me off my planet!"
"Let me explain," Jingles said calmly. "Usagi wrote Santa Claus a request for her, as she put it, true love. We answered it as closely as possible."
"With what," Seiya asked nonbelievingly. After all, Seiya hadn't even heard of Christmas before, so all the business about Santa didn't make sense to him.
"With our supercomputer 2004, improved," Jingles answered, ignoring Seiya's tone. "It helps our staff come up with toys for the children of the world who do not write letters, but still believe in Santa. We also use it to order the really rare items asked for by kids off the internet." He waited a moment for added affect, then continued. "Anyway, the results for Usagi's present came up with your face, and we concluded that you were Usagi's present."
"Well, if that's the best you can do, then we'll just have to accept it," Usagi said. She walked back into the house, leaving Seiya to face Jingles. Seiya followed after her, having nothing more to do with the elf.
Jingles vanished until nobody human could see him. 'Time to play matchmaker,' he thought to himself, and followed the two into the house.
The Twelve Days of Christmas
Chapter Four: Can You Lose a Guy in Twelve Days?
The clock stroke midnight as the couple sat near the fireplace, though not in the warmth of each other as you might expect. No, Usagi and Seiya were on opposite sides of the couch, trying to forget the moment. Usagi shook her head out of her hands and sighed. "Looks like you're not going anywhere tonight."
She rose from the couch, Seiya's eyes trailing her in question as she headed to the linen closet and pulled out two blankets and a pillow.
"What are you doing?," Seiya asked as he also rose from the couch and followed her as she laid the blankets on the couch.
"Making you a bed," Usagi grunted and instantly regretted it. This wasn't Seiya's fault for being stuck in her house and it wasn't his fault that she was bitter that night either. She turned around and faced him, saying, and "Sorry, I'm just stressed right now." She turned back to the makeshift bed hurriedly before she could see his expression. If this was Santa's idea of a Christmas present, he needed to brain surgery or something.
Although, if she could get past the thought of her old boyfriend, Seiya was every single girl's dream of the perfect gift. His raven hair that was pulled into a long and thin ponytail at the nape of his neck and his dark blue eyes made him seem like a dream. Usagi dismissed the thought to stare at him and finished the bed. She stepped back to admire it. She then bid Seiya goodnight and departed to her bedroom to get some sleep.
* * * *
Santa frowned at the letter he received from one of his elves. At the moment, he was resting from his big night out with a mug of cocoa and a good book. The letter, however, was a surprise. Nobody for the last hundred years at least had ever regretted any present that he had delivered under his or her tree. Santa felt the beginnings of a headache as he rang for an elf, which hurriedly went off to fetch Jingles.
The second best elf came as he was told, this time looking disappointed and rejected. Jingles floated silently to a chair on the opposite side of the room and looked like he was going to cry any second. "I failed," he murmured softly. "I'll never get that head elf position."
Santa almost felt sorry for Jingles, but kept silent until the elf finally got a hold on his crying. "You need to officially apologize to that girl, you know," Santa said. "And, she doesn't know about our policy either."
"No, she doesn't," Jingles gasped and half-jumped out of his chair in a mixture of joy and hope. "I'm off, Santa!," he shouted as he sent a large cloud of dust into the air and disappeared.
* * * *
"Am I not good enough?"
The question rippled through her dreams as images flashed before her. Usagi and Seiya at their first meeting. A concert with Seiya singing with an unknown passion. The date at the amusement park, his question, her confusion. His kiss on her cheek. They all came flooding back as if the floodgates of her memories had been let open.
Usagi woke up and stared around the room. She felt tears on her cheek and swiftly wiped them away with her hand. Seiya's visit had brought all her old feelings for him back from the surface of her heart. She placed her hand over her chest and felt the rapid beating as it pulsed. Her mind was awake and her heart was racing, so she couldn't get back to sleep. The clock read four' o' clock in the morning. She rose out of bed into the morning darkness.
She took a shower and a morning walk, careful not to disturb the soft snoring of Seiya in her living room. As she set out, she thought it quite funny that she had never seen the sunrise before. She ended up back at her front door and stopped to view the dead flower garden. She must have spent more than two hours walking through Juuban neighborhood! The walk, however, had given her time to think.
'I wonder how long Seiya will be staying with me," Usagi thought. "I might try to contract his princess, but that might take some work.' Usagi stopped thinking and felt a unfamiliar presence behind her. It wasn't Seiya, because the small shadow was small and slightly off the ground. She whirled around quickly to stare at an elf.
Jingles smiled and bowed in front of the odango-haired girl with a small flourish, taking off the small elven cap he wore as well. "Good morning to you Usagi," he said.
Usagi didn't know whether to hit the elf, scream, or run away. Elves just didn't come along the street after Christmas and pop out of bushes to surprise you. This particular elf also seemed to know her name as well.
The elf watched interested as Usagi peered around, making sure that nobody else saw Jingles. The elf coughed for attention and got it. "I'm here to discuss about the little problem you had with one of Santa's presents. And also to apologize for the slight mistake as well."
"Um, yeah," Usagi said, secretly wondering how Santa had figured out her little predicament.
Jingles pulled out a long list out of nowhere, which was almost as long as Santa's "Naughty or Nice" list, which swept past Usagi's feet and into the bushes behind her. Using a finger to find the selected clause, Jingles read from Santa's Return Gift Policy, "If any such receiver of a gift on Christmas Day desires to exchange their gift, the receiver must keep the specific item till the last day of Christmas ends, when Santa will come and either take it back or leave it with the receiver. No other requests will be considered." Jingles rolled the list back up into its past condition and snapped it away.
"So you're telling me, Mr. Elf, that I have no choice but to keep Seiya at my house until Christmas ends, and then you can take him home," Usagi asked, trying to make sense of the whole situation. "But, Christmas Day is already over. Shouldn't he be gone already?"
The elf shook his head. "No. There are twelve days of Christmas, which apparently means that he'll be staying with you for almost two weeks."
"Two weeks?!," Usagi almost screeched. Anything could happen in two weeks. Her parents might come home one night, where her father would shoot Seiya's head off for being in the house. There were her friends, Ami, Rei, Minako, and Makato, who would start being suspicious about the two being together.
Suddenly, she heard someone open the door from the inside of the house. Seiya, dressed in the clothes he had worn last night, was about to say something when he spied Jingles floating above the front lawn. "It's you!," Seiya shouted at the small elf. "You apprehended me off my planet!"
"Let me explain," Jingles said calmly. "Usagi wrote Santa Claus a request for her, as she put it, true love. We answered it as closely as possible."
"With what," Seiya asked nonbelievingly. After all, Seiya hadn't even heard of Christmas before, so all the business about Santa didn't make sense to him.
"With our supercomputer 2004, improved," Jingles answered, ignoring Seiya's tone. "It helps our staff come up with toys for the children of the world who do not write letters, but still believe in Santa. We also use it to order the really rare items asked for by kids off the internet." He waited a moment for added affect, then continued. "Anyway, the results for Usagi's present came up with your face, and we concluded that you were Usagi's present."
"Well, if that's the best you can do, then we'll just have to accept it," Usagi said. She walked back into the house, leaving Seiya to face Jingles. Seiya followed after her, having nothing more to do with the elf.
Jingles vanished until nobody human could see him. 'Time to play matchmaker,' he thought to himself, and followed the two into the house.