Author's Note: Season's greetings, everyone!
I hope you're all having a lovely Christmas Eve Eve :-P
Since Christmas weekend is almost upon us, it dawned on me that I probably won't be near my laptop for three days. So I decided to upload the final chapter of this story as well as a new chapter for my Jori fic 'Cupid's Misfire'.
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Victorious, the zany plots or the character. If I did, Liz, Ari and Vic would've sung loads more amazing Christmas jingles.
#12
Robbie woke up on Christmas Day with a heady feeling of happiness and anticipation.
He dressed at lightning speed and stepped outside to an alluring sight. His house along with the rest of the neighbourhood was covered in a thick blanket of snow.
Well, not real snow anyway.
It was LA after all.
The local council made snow out of mashed potato and sprayed it across the palm trees and the side-walks lining the street.
Robbie was in such a good mood that he stopped briefly to shovel fake snow out of the driveway. His parents regularly had to beg or blackmail him to do chores like this.
It had been an exhilarating 11 days of mayhem with Cat.
After the misadventure at the Ferguson's house (one of Hayley's labradoodles bit Robbie on the butt and made a giant hole in his favourite skinny jeans and Galaxy Wars boxers), the two teens slowed down and did more good deeds for the residents of West Hollywood and for themselves.
The sixth wish was spent indoors at Robbie's house (just in case the police were hanging out at Cat's house to ask them questions about the disturbance at the mall, the parade mishap, the vandalism of Ms. Twill's garage door, or the theft of Mr. Ferguson's Christmas decorations).
He and Cat baked a giant Gingerbread man for Santa to put under the huge Christmas tree outside City Hall. Cat even got her brother to create a massive plate for the cookie and a tall enough glass to pour close to 20 gallons of milk into.
In Cat's own words, her brother learnt glassblowing in therapy. It was the only activity that stopped him from screaming incessantly while driving.
After Cat's brother finished his glassworks, Cat and Robbie transported the goods to City Hall in the dead of night with the help of Robbie's environmentally-friendly bicycle.
Needless to say, there was quite a spectacle to behold when people and Fistaham-enthusiasts alike clamoured outside City Hall and took pictures (and selfies) of the milk and cookie left by an anonymous person underneath the big Christmas tree.
Cat's seventh wish was best forgotten when she and Robbie both got severe stomachache from drinking gallons of egg nog on a stupid dare.
When Beck and Andre come over in the evening to see if their friends wanted to grab dinner together at Nozu's, they stood in shock at the grotesque spectacle before them:
Robbie and Cat lay spread-eagled on the kitchen floor, sporting milky moustaches, yellow egg nog spilt on tiles around them.
Andre collapsed to his knees. "Sweet mistletoe – they're dead! All my friends are dead!"
"Dre, calm down!" Beck knelt beside Robbie and felt the curly-haired boy's wrist. "Look, they're still breathing."
Andre let out of a whoop of relief before containing himself. "Sorry, bro. I've been livin' with my grandma too long – her wonk got all over me!"
Cat's eyes fluttered open and she emitted a low moan. "Too. Much. Calcium."
"Let's get you kids to the hospital." Beck scooped Cat easily into his arms and carried her bridal-style to the front door.
Andre, on the other hand, struggled to get Robbie to climb on his back. "Holy chizz, how much egg-nog did you drink, Rob?"
After Breck drove them to the ER at St. Schneiders and they were given some probiotics, Robbie and Cat were advised by Dr. Levinson (who laughed hysterically throughout the consultation) to eat plenty of sardines and drink chamomile tea to counter the rest of their symptoms.
Dr. Levinson gave them each a prescription and slipped an extra note into Robbie's pocket. When Robbie read over it later, he was amused to find a love letter to one Trina Vega from Dr. Levinson's son, Lendell, begging the teenage girl to have another romantic lobster dinner with him.
The eighth and ninth wishes were spent doing more altruistic things.
The elderly occupants of Elderly Acres were gratified that two high schoolers willingly gave up their free time to spread some Christmas cheer during the holidays. They enjoyed Cat and Robbie's duets so much that they kept requesting encores of popular carols like 'The First Noel' and 'O Come, All Ye Faithful'.
When he got tired of doing 'Little Drummer Boy' the traditional way, Robbie went off-script and launched into a comical acoustic version (followed by some questionable break-dancing) of the classic, which had Cat giggling like crazy.
When it came down to giving away their oldest toys to a local orphanage (Robbie got cold feet at the last second about giving away his prized Nug Nug figurine and Cat had to bribe him with freshly baked red velvet cupcakes), the proprietors were extremely grateful. So much so that they invited the two teens to play with the children and their new toys for the rest of the afternoon.
Cat smiled secretly to herself while watching Robbie get into an epic robot fight with an 8-year-old boy who'd been depressed about not being adopted yet. She'd always known that he had the biggest heart and it seemed to expand all the more during the festive season.
This was proved all the more with her 10th wish and Robbie put his heart and soul into helping Cat at the local homeless shelter. She watched the curly-haired boy take smile at each homeless person he served food to. He even went the extra mile by going to each table afterwards and talking to those lowly people like they were human beings and not just 'useless' or 'in the way'.
Seeing how desolate some people's living situations were made Cat all the more grateful for her loving family and her caring friends who'd never let her get too down and out about life and its endless problems. It made her realise just how much further she still needed to go with reaching out to people and showing them that someone, no matter how strange the circumstances were, cared. And she was given that opportunity right there at the homeless shelter when two hobos tried to stab each other with styrofoam cups fighting over who got to eat the last slice of Christmas ham.
One that same day, Cat and Robbie visited an arts and craft store called The Paper Route to buy clay and some art utensils. Then they got to work on making miniature snowmen. Robbie wasn't the most artistic person in the world, so Cat help him create something half-decent.
After destroying nearly 5 kilograms of clay with his lack of skill, Robbie finally made a snowman that didn't look like a deformed 'Creature from the Black Lagoon'. It was more fascinating for him watching Cat make her snowman. He'd always enjoyed watching Cat work on a new artistic project at school, whether it was painting or sculpting.
It was the only time when she wasn't daydreaming about purple tigers or starting a new feud with Tara Ganz. He watched her for hours, drinking in her petite hands stained with rainbows, utterly absorbed with transforming the most mundane objects into stunning works of art.
She was mesmerizing in those moments of tranquility.
When they were finally done making their snowmen and painting and glazing them, they glued them inside empty glass jars and filled them with water and glitter. Cat called them their 'special snowman-globes', which now rested above the fireplace on the mantle in Robbie's home…
His mind was still on those snowman-globes and everything else he and Cat had accomplished in just 11 short days.
Now it was the 12th day and Robbie had no idea what was in store for him this Christmas.
He'd read the last wish on Cat's Christmas list, but he still puzzled over it before falling asleep last night.
Who could possibly hate Cat? Not even Sinjin or Tara counted as people who actually hated his kooky friend.
Whoever it was, Robbie was going to help Cat track them down and try to fulfil her Christmas wish.
And after that?
His heart twisted in agony when he realised it was the last day he and Cat would spend together for the rest of their vacation. And when Christmas was over, they'd go back to pretending everything was ok between them, never once delving into why they hadn't talked or been alone together for nearly two months.
After everything that had driven them apart, the past 12 days had given Robbie a tiny spark of hope that just maybe they could be friends again.
But for now, he'd just have to see.
Robbie retrieved his Pearphone and checked the messages Cat sent him earlier that morning. She asked him to meet her at the outdoor ice rink by Pershing Square.
Since Pershing Square was close to 10 miles away from his home, Robbie decided to take the bus instead. On his walk to the nearest bus station, he chuckled when he walked past Ms. Twill's house and saw her furiously painting her garage door a new shade of beige. He jogged past the Ferguson's home and saw Mr. Ferguson opening his Christmas present from Mrs. Ferguson through their living room window: Santa sitting on his sled to put on the roof.
Robbie grinned when he watched husband and wife hugging, wondering idly where Hayley was this morning.
During his bus ride through the City of Angels, Robbie saw numerous signs that it was indeed Christmas: tweens dressed in their winter attire throwing more mashed potato snowballs at each other; the young kids lying on the beach making sand-angels; Santas on rollerblades littering the sidewalks and singing Christmas carols; total strangers giving each other compliments of the season.
He finally arrived at Pershing Square. The promenade was filled with people enjoying the cool sea breeze on Christmas morning.
Robbie was surprised to see several people from school and a few acquaintances at the Holiday Ice Rink. He gawked stupidly at Jade and Beck who were ice skating together.
He didn't even know that Jade liked skating — or ice.
Naturally, Jade was dressed in black from head to toe and deliberately tripping people on their skates whenever Beck wasn't looking.
Andre had a new girl on his arm who he was trying to impress with his stellar skating skills.
Tori and Trina skated past Andre and his date, bickering loudly about the fact that the eldest Vega sister had insisted on wearing 10-inch Fazzinni ice skates.
Even Sinjin and Burf were at Pershing Square too. Except they were skating in their sneakers and falling everywhere (thanks to Jade's outstretched leg).
Robbie stared in amazement at Hayley Ferguson looking cute as a button in a trendy pink winter coat, skating hand in hand with a blonde girl. When the two moved closer and shared an intimate kiss, Robbie realised with a jolt that it was Tara Hayley was locking lips with.
When he got over his shock, he noticed Cat waving at him from the sidelines.
While walking closer towards her, he noticed Tara and Hayley moving off to the edge of the ice rink too to remove their skates. Cat and Tara caught each other's eyes for the barest moment and Robbie fear that they were going to start fighting. But what occurred next shocked him even more. Tara pursed her lips and nodded as if to say 'thanks' and Cat smiled genuinely back at her.
Robbie shook his head and laughed as he stood next to Cat. "What the chizz was that?" he asked, referring to Tara and Hayley sitting on a bench, their hands interlaced.
Cat shrugged and smiled. "It's the magic of Christmas, Robbie. It brings people together. Either that, or the Christmas card I sent Tara got her so excited that she just had to kiss somebody."
Robbie sniggered at this, remembering an accompanying picture that Cat had sent him earlier that morning too. It was of a Christmas card Cat made from the picture he took of her and Tara kissing which she'd had the audacity to send to her arch-nemesis.
Cat really had more balls than a game of Quidditch when it came to waxing people off.
He watched the two lovebirds kissing once more and squirmed awkwardly. "Yip, it's probably the second reason. So…how are we going to fulfill your 12th Christmas wish?"
"Before we do that, I want to give you something."
Cat reached into her purse and retrieved a neatly wrapped Christmas present.
Robbie took it from her with a quizzical look on his face and opened it. There were actually two gifts inside, the larger of the two being a picture of him and Cat the day they made the giant Gingerbread Man for Santa.
In the picture, they were stood inside Robbie's kitchen with Cat's arm around his waist. Even though his nose was covered in flour, they were both smiling and enjoyed their time together.
Robbie now thought that this was easily his favourite picture of the two of them. And resting on top of the beautifully framed picture was a wooden figurine Cat made which looked just like –
"Nug Nug!" Robbie exclaimed in awe.
The details on the figure were unnervingly accurate from the colours down to Nug Nug's panicked expression.
"I saw how bummed you were about parting with your favourite toy, so I made you a miniaturized version which you never have to give away." Cat proclaimed with pride in her voice.
Robbie looked extremely bashful. "Cat, this is amazing, and I love the picture too, thank you. But I didn't get you anything for Christmas."
Cat waved off Robbie's concerns. "Don't worry about it, Robbie. Spending the past 12 days with you has been the best Christmas gift of all."
When Cat said things like that, it was easy for Robbie to believe her.
He felt strangely elated and wary all at once. He glanced around the ice rink at his friends, trying to figure out why Cat wanted to meet him here.
"So where's the poor wazz waffle you have to charm so they'll forgive you?"
"Right here."
Robbie stared at Cat.
She was smiling at him (albeit nervously), her hands clasped together like she was saying a silent prayer.
What was going on?
"Me? Why would I hate you?"
"You know why, Robbie."
Robbie stepped back a fraction, his jaw tightening with every passing moment. "Don't, Cat."
Tears formed in Cat's big brown eyes. "Please just let me say this. We've been best friends since we were kids; you were my 'person', the only one who knew my secrets and my flaws. And when you told me you were in love with me after the Cow Wow, I hurt you in the worst way possible by running away after you kissed me. The truth is that I felt the same way, but I was scared of losing my best friend if we dated and Rex tried to break us up. So I started dating Tug again after he gave me a discount on bath bombs at Bed, Bath and Yonder. I tried to pretend everything was fine. But it blew up in my face like the game show we were in. You started dating Gabriella after Sinjin kicked her in the face at the Cow Wow too, and then you stopped talking to me. I'm a selfish grunch who never deserved your love or your friendship. I wanted to apologise for weeks and I finally thought of a creative way to do it — to remind you of all the fun we used to have together and show you how much I've missed you."
Robbie was dumbfounded to say the least.
Cat's words were still ringing in his ears long after they'd left her lips.
The past few weeks had been wazzier than the disgusting boy's bathrooms at school. Sure, dating Gabriella had been fun and a major 'chizz you' to Cat after she rejected him for Tug.
But deep down, he'd known that Gabriella wasn't the one for him.
He got his heart broken by the only girl he'd ever loved and he ended up pretending she didn't exist for two months.
Now, he stood in front of that same whacky girl, and she was saying everything he'd always wanted to hear, on Christmas day of all days too.
Which brought him right back to what had been bugging him for 12 days.
What about Tug?"
Cat shook her head ruefully. "I broke up with Tug weeks ago. I was kinda over the relationship by the time my bath bomb dissolved…"
"So your Christmas list was just some grand scheme to get me to forgive you?"
Cat giggled self-consciously and tucked a stray strand of her red hair behind her ear. "Yes. But mostly, I wanted to prove to myself that I could be different this year, that I could become a better person. You were always like my better half and I wanted you to show me how to be good. Because I finally wanted the opportunity to tell you how much I've loved you this whole time, even when we weren't talking."
She took the Christmas list from Robbie's hands and held it in her own. "This is my love letter to you."
Robbie was positively floored. And yet, it was just like Cat Valentine to concoct a nutty and elaborate plan to get his attention. With that said, he'd never felt closer to her than in these past 12 days and the thought of giving that up an hour ago had made him really depressed.
So where did that leave them?
"You're insane," he muttered in disbelief. "I mean, you have got to be the craziest and most inconsiderate person I know."
Cat was stung by Robbie's words, but she put on a brave face and ploughed on. "I know, and it's wazzed off to hope for another chance with you. I just had to say it once so you'd know. I'm not chizzing around this time. Robbie Shapiro, I want to be with you and go on dates where Rex isn't around and we hopefully don't steal any more Christmas decorations."
"That wasn't a date," Robbie spluttered. "That was just your run-of-the-mill Christmas theft! What are you even saying right now? And why would you pick Christmas Day to twist my heart into a chizzing pretzel?! With all this Yuletide spirit and romantic…fake snow."
Cat giggled adorably and it made Robbie's heart spike with sudden adrenaline. He'd missed her so damn much.
"You think fake mashed potato snow is romantic?" She asked quietly, daring to step closer to Robbie.
Robbie blushed hard at this and tried to keep up the pretense of not being that concerned with Cat's excruciating proximity to him. "Well, not as romantic as the holiday itself and roaring fires and mistletoe and um…you."
Cat pressed her advantage and slipped her hands into Robbie's warm jacket pockets. "I like mistletoe too. Did you know that most varieties of mistletoe berries aren't even red? They're like white or invisible. I mean, how would you even begin to kiss under berries that you can't even see—"
"For chizzing sake, please stop talking."
Robbie wrapped his arms around Cat and kissed her hard.
Cat's hands slipped out his jacket pockets and hung limply at her sides while her curly-haired guy attacked her lips with fervor.
Robbie's heart thumped wildly when his mouth tasted a soft undercurrent of sweetness from Cat's lip gloss. Was that cherry? It made him wish that he'd stolen a kiss from her a hell of a lot sooner than two months ago.
Andre watched the two lovebirds, smiling widely. "That's my boy."
When Cat's brain finally alerted her to the fact that Robbie was actually kissing her and liking it, her hands moved up to caress his cheeks, tracing over the scratchy stubble on his chin and along his jawline. And then she was kissing him back with just as much elation, like she'd always wanted to all along.
Her heart dipped into her stomach when Robbie's lips sketched a perfect picture over her closed eyelids and her cheekbones till she purred with satiation in his arms.
Jade looked positively nauseous at her best friend kissing a dweeb. "That is so gross…"
Beck took a decidedly different perspective. "Cat had better be careful. Rex is totally going to try and break them up."
Trina gawked stupidly at the two teenagers. "I can't believe Cat is kissing Robbie! Did he suddenly get…cool?"
Like Andre, Tori's smile radiated Christmas cheer and happiness for her friends. "It's cool that Cat hasn't run away yet."
Trina patted her baby sister's shoulder in a condescending way. "Give it time."
Burf began taking notes on Robbie's 'romantic game' in his journal while Sinjin put an arm around a random girl's shoulder and laid down some game of his own:
"Did you know that my hair wasn't always this luxurious? This was the miracle of chemotherapy..."
When Robbie and Cat finally pulled apart, they were both blushing and a little unsure of how to proceed.
"Uh, so that was um…really good," Cat fumbled, looking very pink under her winter beanie.
Robbie couldn't resist grinning like the Cheshire Cat. For the first time ever, Cat Valentine was the one at a loss for words.
"Interesting. I guess you should've put my kisses instead of Tara Ganz's at the top of your little Christmas wish list." Robbie teased.
Cat recovered long enough to punch him in the arm for old times' sake. Robbie's eyes twinkled with happiness when he realised that he'd gotten more than what he'd bargained for this Christmas: he had his old friend back and even better than that, she was finally giving him her heart in return.
"For the record, I could never hate you." Robbie said in a serious voice, briefly reflecting on the weeks of hurt and confusion he'd suffered through ever since he and Cat stopped talking. Now he was finally ready to put it all behind him.
"I'm glad you feel that way, because we probably have to pay damages to a lot of people for all the chizz we pulled in the past 12 days."
Robbie laughed heartily at this and drew Cat into a tender, one-sided hug. "I change my mind. This is the most amazing Christmas present I've ever gotten."
Cat smiled radiantly and rested her head on Robbie's shoulder as they walked hand-in-hand very slowly away from the ice rink and through Pershing Square.
Christmas bells rang merrily from somewhere in the distance.
It looked like it was going to be a beautiful day.
Author's Note: And that's a wrap on this whacky Christmas story :'-) Now to explain some of the references I made:
1) 'Fista-ham' is a parody of Instagram.
2) Dr. Levinson first appeared in the season 1 Victorious episode 'Rex Dies'. He was the doctor Tori asked to fake kill Rex in the E.R. and who asked Tori to go on a date with his loser son Lendell. In the end, Tori got out of the date and tricked Trina into going instead, lol.
I hope you liked the appearance of the other characters from the show. I wanted to make this fic Cat and Robbie-oriented, but it just wouldn't have had those Christmas vibes without the rest of the gang :-D
Thank you to everyone who read, favourited, followed and reviewed this story :'-) I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a happy new year. Pip, pip cheerio!