I don't own the rights to Medabots. I'd love to get them for Christmas, but I somehow doubt it.

The following holiday offering originally began as a Random Meda-Short, but quickly evolved beyond the main planned gag. I played around more with the concept and let it really wreak havoc. This is the result. Happy holidays.

~ * Stubbed Mistletoe * ~

The Christmas spirit was alive and well at Dr. Aki's house that afternoon, thanks to the efforts of Karin. The pigtailed pretty girl was staying with her uncle for the holiday season, and insisted that they should hold a party in celebration of the season. While the doctor balked at the thought of the sheer expense of holding a gala like the one his niece seemed to have in mind, eventually he agreed to go along with it – with several conditions, of course.

The most important of the conditions was that she couldn't hold a huge bash in his house. Aki didn't mind the idea of having her close friends over for a simple little celebration – especially since the alternative might well be her inviting Riverview and Rosewood's entire student population, plus the staffs as well.

Compared to that, having a handful of kids and their medabots come for a party was a much more alluring concept.

Besides, the small group she'd invited over had a hand in saving the world as they knew it several times. The least he could do would be to invite them to a simple, small Christmas party.

Plus the ever-economical Dr. Aki had figured out several other ways to cut costs.

"Now be careful with those decorations, kids," he chided, peeking into the living room to check on their progress. "They've been in the family for generations."

"We can tell," Samantha remarked dryly, holding up a ratty holly wreath that had clearly seen better days.

Dr. Aki just smiled and left them to finish setting up. After all, he was certain the saviors of the world could handle putting up a few measly decorations! Right now, he had more pressing business to attend to: there was a fresh box of pudding pops sitting in the freezer with his name on it.

Seriously. He'd written it there in black magic marker himself.

"I can't believe the nerve of that man!" fumed Koji, nearly ripping the holly garland he had been draping over the doorframe in half. "Forcing a young man of my stature and rank to hang silly Christmas decorations…"

"Oh, Koji!" Karin walked through the door underneath him and smiled up at her longtime friend. "Thanks so much for all your help!"

"Think nothing of it, Karin my sweet!" beamed the boy with a charming grin.

Sumilidon, holding the ladder for his medafighter, was thankful there was a visor over his optic sensors instead of having visible eyes. Otherwise, he doubted Koji would react well to his rolling them at the boy.

"Thank you, all of you!" Karin continued, facing the room in general and smiling her charming little smile.

She failed to notice Koji face-faulting off the ladder directly behind her.

"No problem, Karin!" Ikki exclaimed, his cheeks turning red instantly as he rubbed the back of his head with one hand.

"Yeah, no prob Karin!" chimed Rintaro.

"Oh, please," commented Samantha, rolling her eyes at the boys' antics. "Good thing the Screws gang doesn't bother with such silly crushes, right gang?"

She turned to see Sloan and Spyke staring at Karin and blushing. Samantha grimaced.

"Boys…"

"Nice outfit, Karin," Erika commented sarcastically. "Really works well for the holiday season."

"It does, doesn't it?" Karin missed the sarcasm entirely.

The redhead was clad in a short green dress, red stockings, green slippers, all with fluffy cottony trim – the perfect 'Santa's Little Helper' outfit. She even had matching green ribbons on her pigtails.

Erika rolled her eyes and returned to rummaging through the box of decorations in front of her, fantasizing about telling Karin she should stick a candy cane up her…

"Miss Erika, what exactly is this?" asked Brass.

Erika looked over at her medabot, her previous train of thought derailed. The SLR-type was holding a small sprig of a leafy plant.

"Oh! That's mistletoe!" she exclaimed.

"Mistletoe?"

"It's a Christmas tradition for you to kiss anyone that you see under a bit of mistletoe like that," Erika explained, cinnamon eyes gleaming as she imagined herself caught under the notorious little plant.

"Really?" Brass blinked her wide rose eyes.

"Here, I'll show you…"

Erika turned toward Ikki, holding out her hand, mistletoe dangling from it. Ikki turned and looked at her oddly, blinking his deep blue eyes twice, before he noticed the mistletoe sprig. Then his eyes lit up with understanding.

"Thanks, Erika," he smiled – and snatched the mistletoe right out of her hand. "This'll work great to get a kiss from Karin!"

"But Ikki…!" Erika protested.

Too late, for her childhood friend was already hurrying over to where Karin and Neutranurse were handing decorations up to Koji. All Erika could do was fume, thinking murderous thoughts about the boy.

(This is perfect!) Ikki's mind trilled, completely ignored of the death glare he was currently receiving from Erika. (Finally, I can get a kiss from Karin!)

Standing behind the girl, he grinned widely, then closed his eyes and leaned forward, lips puckered, holding the mistletoe over his own head.

Karin, however, had her back turned to him and failed to notice. Picking up a box of decorations sitting in front of her, she carried them over to where Rintaro and the Screws were currently working on the tree. Ikki remained standing where he was, eyes squeezed shut in anticipation, unaware the object of his affection had just walked off.

This fact did not escape Koji's notice, however, and he hurried down the ladder to follow her, unaware that Ikki was still waiting at the bottom for his kiss.

He figured it out pretty quickly when he turned around and found himself mouth-to-mouth with his puckered-up rival.

His initial shout of surprise was muffled by the fact that he was a bit closer to the boy than he might have liked. Once he jerked back, however, there was no such impediment.

"HOW DARE YOU SULLY MY VIRGIN MOUTH WITH YOUR COMMONER GERMS?!" he asked as calmly and politely as was normal for him.

This, of course, attracted the attention of everybody in the room to where they were – save Karin, who had left to retrieve more decorations from the attic. They reacted in the manner that was typical for them: Samantha pointed and laughed; Spyke and Sloan stared; Rintaro burst into laughter; Erika grinned and grabbed her camera.

As for the medabots, they were all very confused by this turn of events. Only one of them felt the pressing need to respond immediately to the scene unfolding in front of them.

"Gk-gk-gk-gk-gk! What the hell do you think you're doing, Ikki?!" demanded Metabee as he charged forward, grabbed Ikki by the ponytail, and yanked him back. Hard.

"Owww!" Ikki dropped the mistletoe and whirled on his medabot, screaming, "What was that for?!"

"You're embarrassing me, Ikki! Keep the PDAs to a bare minimum, will ya?!"

"It's Koji's fault!" Ikki sulked, rubbing the back of his aching head and neck with both hands. "He's the one who walked under my mistletoe…"

"You hopeless commoner," Koji snarled, fixing his rival with an icy amethyst glare. "You can't even perform a simplistic holiday tradition correctly."

"I can too! It's your fault this happened!"

"Humph." Koji picked up the sprig of mistletoe and held it between two fingers, sticking it in the boy's face. "You see this? Do you understand how this is supposed to work?"

"Yes," replied Ikki sullenly.

"I don't believe you!" hissed Koji, yanking his hand away and holding it off to one side, gesturing wildly as he spat out, "You are supposed to hang this over the head of somebody you want to kiss – not just stick it up somewhere and kiss anybody who happens to walk underneath it blindly!"

"Really, now," Samantha remarked coolly. "Sounds good to me!"

"What?"

Something in her tone alerted Koji to the fact that something was not quite right, and he looked over at the girl. He instantly froze, staring in horror at the Screws leader – and at the current position of his own hand, and the mistletoe he was holding. In his furor, he had waved the arm holding the sprig a bit too close to the group around the tree to his liking.

Samantha smiled predatorily and wrapped her arms around his outstretched arm, picking out the sprig of mistletoe that he had been waving over her head.

"Well, if that's all you wanted, you could have just asked," she purred, quite obviously enjoying the expression of complete terror on the rich brat's face.

Koji screamed and flailed his arm wildly, dropping the mistletoe in his attempt to shake the Screws leader off. He failed to dislodge her, however, and Samantha grinned before lunging at him, trapping her squirming crush in both arms.

Ikki, Erika and the others stared openly as she planted a kiss smack on the terrified Koji's lips. He was not nearly as entertained, and screamed bloody murder as he finally wrenched away and tore out of the room. Nonplussed by his reaction, Samantha smoothed out her hair and licked her lips absently.

"Well," she commented lightly after a pause, "I didn't expect him to taste like that."

"Like what?" Erika asked, fighting back laughter.

"Octopus balls," Samantha informed her blithely.

"Hey! TMI!" screeched Metabee.

Ikki, meanwhile, enjoyed a hearty laugh at the expense of his long-time rival. The expression he had glimpsed on Koji's face when Samantha planted one on him had been too classic. The decorations were temporarily forgotten as he delighted in the memory of Karakuchi's embarrassment.

His laughter was suddenly cut off when he felt something lightly brush the top of his forehead, followed by a pair of soft lips crushing against his own. Ikki's eyes flashed open in shock as Samantha deepened the kiss, then pulled away, waving the sprig of mistletoe absently in one hand.

"Ah, so that's where it came from," she observed lightly, smirking at the stunned Ikki.

"Dude, give me that!" Rintaro shouted, snatching the mistletoe from her grasp. "That's like a dangerous weapon in your hands!"

Samantha shot Metabee a calculated glare, privately deciding whether or not she should go after the mistletoe again. Apparently deciding against it, she instead smirked and leaned up against Ikki, holding onto his arm with a death grip much like the one she had used on Koji.

"Mind if I try a taste test again?" she purred, giving the boy a seductive look.

Judging from the way Ikki wrenched his arm away and fled the room screaming, he did mind. Samantha shrugged and went after him, deciding that finding him and/or Koji would prove far more entertaining than returning to work on the Christmas tree.

Erika couldn't decide whether she was more pissed off or amused by the situation. She opted for a compromise, biting back her giggles and returning her attention to the box of decorations in front of her. If nothing else, she could tease the boys about it when they returned… or better yet, inform Karin that two of her suitors were currently busy with another girl.

As she bent over the cardboard box, rummaging through the ornaments within, she felt something lightly brush the top of her head. Then something else nearly as light and fleeting brushed her cheek, and all thoughts of decorating flew out the reporter's mind.

Turning her head about sharply, she stared at a red-faced Rintaro, feeling her cheeks flare crimson as well. The short boy brought back his hand, revealing the sprig of mistletoe pinched between his fingers.

"Rintaro…" she gasped, cinnamon eyes growing misty with emotion.

Rintaro, face the same bright shade as his colorful bangs, looked up at her and grinned, violet eyes twinkling.

"Think nothing of it, dude!" he said, beaming. "After all, I've gotta practice with somebody for when Karin gets back!"

Erika's flaming face immediately turned frosty, and with a scream of frustration she upended the box and its remaining cargo onto Rintaro's head. The short boy squealed, dropping the mistletoe and stumbling blindly backwards.

"What'd I say, dude, what'd I say?!"

Erika just snorted in disgust. Scooping up the mistletoe from the floor, she fixed it with a cold glare, as if blaming it for all her problems.

"This stupid thing doesn't work right," she muttered, tossing it over her shoulder and storming away.

Spyke, Sloan and the medabots stared after her, while Rintaro continued to stumble blindly about with the box on his head. After an awkward pause, Spyke turned to his fellow Screw member, confusion in his eyes.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" he asked, pointing up at the sprig of mistletoe that had landed on top of his hair.

At that moment, Karin walked back into the room and looked around. The redhead was quite confused at the fact that most of her friends appeared to be missing, but shrugged it off, deciding they must have taken a break. She carried the box of ornaments she had retrieved over to the others, set it down by the tree, then turned to face the remaining helpers.

Her eyes lit up when she noticed the little decoration resting in Spyke's hair.

"Oh, that's so cute! And such a nice seasonal touch, too!" she giggled, then leaned over and pecked Spyke lightly on the cheek.

Spyke's entire face instantly turned a bright crimson, and he stared incredulously at the beaming Karin. In the adjacent hallway, Koji and Ikki stopped dead in their tracks and stared into the room in shock, then were tackled from behind by Samantha and knocked back out of sight.

"I think it's working just fine," Sloan commented lowly, keeping his gaze focused on the tree with a faint smirk on his face. "Maybe you've just gotta use it right…"