O Christmas Tree
They all had to admit it, and even Jackpot managed to look slightly awed, the tree they had chosen to grace the living room was very impressive; pretty damn tall, pretty damn wide and just…well…damn pretty. It had taken the best part of an hour to decorate, mainly because Jackpot had decide to help which meant he dragged tinsel around the house until everywhere he went twinkled beautifully and all he had left in his mouth was a bald string.
"It's massive." Dante said bluntly once they were all done.
Vergil nodded and turned to the box of decorations to fish out the angel which was yet to be put in its rightful place at the topmost point.
Dante spotted it and instinctively began to attempt to wrestle it off of him. "I wanna put it up!"
"I got to it first, so let go!"
"But you did most of the baubles!"
Sparda reached between them and easily plucked the winged doll out of their hands. "This again? Eva, you said that we'd get a star for this year."
Her husbands face reminded Eva of a hopeful puppy. "We never got around to it, I'm sorry, we'll get one next year."
Now he had the face of a puppy that had been kicked. "Oh…"
Just like all of the previous years Sparda hoisted both boys onto his shoulders so they could wedge the angel on together. Then they all stood back and admired the completed tree.
But Sparda was scowling…
"What's up dad?" Vergil enquired.
"Flamin' angel." He grumbled. "Look at it; perched up there with its holier-than-thou little smile."
"Um…dad?" Dante piped up. "A snail is holier than you; you're a devil."
Eva shook her head…they were really going to have to get a star next year or Sparda would spend every Christmas making faces at the tree.
-Later That Day-
While Eva was in the garden talking over the fence to a neighbour and Sparda was out walking Jackpot (alone, as he'd wanted some thinking time) Vergil was reading in the font room and Dante was stumbling into the aforementioned room with his arms very fully.
"What are you doing?" Vergil asked, taking in all of the items he could see. "Aren't those the devil things dad gave us?"
"Yup." Dante agreed. "I figured we could swap the angel for one of the star shaped ones and then dad can't moan anymore. And the rest of them would make cool decorations."
Vergil smiled and then both of them went about re-decorating the tree…with the aid of sticky tape, blue tack and a tall stool from the kitchen. And when Sparda came back he could do little more than stare at the make-over.
"It's…uh…different, I'll give you that. Oh nice, no angel!" he announced, clapping his hands.
The twins gave each other a firm nod to signify a job well done.
When Eva came in came in and saw it she had nothing much to say though did wonder what had possessed her sons to think that those odd stones carved with screaming faces would make nice decorations.
And that would have been the end of it if it were not for Sparda's small accident with a mistaken bottle of holy water, leaving him weak enough so that…
-Three Days Later-
…he caught a cold. Not a particularly bad one, but it was enough to make him sneeze on the Chrsitmas Tree and involuntarily let go of a little bit of power. It was quite pretty, the way the Gold Orb, the White Orb and the Devil Star all glowed brighter and then exploded like fireworks, but then things became very ugly when the tree began trying to eat poor Sparda while it turned into something that wouldn't have looked out of place in Little Shop of Horrors.
"Aghh!" was Dante's cry as he dived out of the way of one wildly whipping root which had burst its pot.
"What did you do!" Vergil screeched, heading for the door.
"Uh…owww!" was all Sparda had to say.
Eva was already rummaging in a cupboard but then stopped when she remember that they had locked all of the holy water away in a box on top of the fridge in the kitchen because of Sparda's earlier 'incident'. "What do we do! How do you deal with an evil demonic Christmas tree!"
But it seemed Jackpot had the answer…after his barking hadn't made the monster pine go away he got in close and sparked up.
Needless to say; the tree did not last five seconds under the blaze of a protective hellhound. The fire alarm blared until Sparda wrenched the battery out and then they all gathered to look at the smoking pile of ash and melted glass that had previously been their tree. The fire extinguisher Sparda had squirreled away under the stairs not long after introducing Jackpot to the family took care of the still burning carpet, curtains and other bits of furniture. Jackpot, now 'normal', looked pretty proud of himself for saving his masters and mistress.
"I guess were getting a plastic one now, huh?" Dante suggested…noting that the remainder of the devil items were still intact, nestled in the warm cinders. They'd dig them out in a while.
Eva was…stumped. Mouth hanging open she stared almost blindly at the family pet who wagged his tail and panted back at her. "Wha…?"
"Oh, um, yes…well…" Sparda coughed. "…I…err…Eva, honey…there's…uh…something you aught to know…"
End
Author's Note – Oh…my…god…that was terrible. I'm sorry that this one took so long to get here, you see I have hit what my friend calls my 'Annual Wall' which is like Writer's Block, but not…o.O I have plenty of ideas but I can't seem to write them down and if I do I instantly bin them. It nearly killed me to post this as I'm really not happy with it but it's all I've got. I'm halfway through two others and there are going to be a few more Christmas ones (yes, you heard me correctly; multiply Christmas chapters…basically one chapter arc that got too long and has to be divided.)
At around this point I would do my replies…but FF has decided that it's not allowed anymore…poop. So, instead, any review I get will be replied to with the 'reply' feature that come with reviews now. I promise to reply to every one I can. Ooooh, this is a long message…I'd best be off now. Bye-e! And thank you all for reviewing and reading my randomness! Cookies! Enjoy!
