Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

This is cross-posted on The Adventures of Sinko and Her Eight Generals! (And Co). (Though Sinko only shows up for one part of the story.)

Enjoy!

It's that time of the year again.

The time of love.

The time of joy.

The time of- peaches!

Wait, what?

That's not right.

Except, where Judal was concerned, it was. And that's how our story begins on a sunny day in Kou Empire Castl.

(Except do Kou citizens even celebrate Christmas?)

(Wait, does Christmas even exist in this universe?)

(Whatever, let this author tell the story like she wants to.)

"Judal…" Kouha said slowly. "You know Christmas trees are not supposed to look like that, right?"

"Yes, they do!" Judal snapped. He gestured at the rows and rows of decorated Christmas trees lining the halls of Kou Castle.

Except that instead of lights and ornaments, the trees were decorated with peach ornaments of every shape and size, and endless garland strings of-you guessed it-peaches.

Even the star had been replaced with a peach that, strangely enough, was in the shape of a star.

(At least have the decency to paint the peach-star gold!)

Kouha rolled his eyes. "Judal, peaches do not represent Christmas!"

Judal scoffed, "Yes, they do!"

"No, they don't."

"Yes, they do!"

"No, they don't! They don't even have anything in common."

"Yes they do!" Judal was indignant. "Christmas," he sneered, "is about good things, like peaches. Only," he spat, "Christmas is about giving lame presents" he shuddered, "and about eating disgusting food!"

"Peaches, on the other hand," he puffed up his chest proudly, "Peaches are fun, delicious, juicy, and taste good on anything! They're better than Christmas!"

Kouha stared. "How does that represent Christmas?!"

Judal shrugged. "It doesn't; Christmas is flat out boring." He deadpanned.

Kouha sweatdropped. "You don't even celebrate Christmas at all, do you?"

"Nope." Judal shamelessly admitted. "I just came for the peach cobbler."

Kouha sweatdropped again. "Of course, you did…"

Just then, there came a very loud, "HELP MEEEE!" as a whirlwind sped by them, followed by a pack of rabid men. Wait a minute, that whirlwind looked familiar-!

"SINKO?!"

Sinko, Former King, now Queen, of Sindria turned to glance at them. Well, more like, she glared at Judal.

"Damn it, Judal! When I get my real body back, I'm gonna string you up by the tail of your stupid braids!"

"MY BRAIDS AREN'T STUPID, IDIOT QUEEN! TAKE THAT BACK!"

But Sinko had already ran out of the castle, still followed by the pack of drooling men.

Wait, why was she being chased in the first place?

"Judal," Kouha was almost too scared to ask," what did you do?"

Judal scoffed again, "Whattya mean, 'what did I do?'" He rolled his eyes, "I made Christmas better than it was before, look," He pointed straight up at the ceiling.

Kouha was not ashamed to admit that he did not want to look up. After all, this was Judal he was talking about, that magi's deviousness knew no bounds!

But as a prince of Kou and the reluctant (self-appointed) best friend of Judal, he had little to no choice.

So Kouha glanced up at the ceiling in confusion. And then he saw it.

You know how people usually taped mistletoe to the ceiling in order to ambush innocent couples in-the-making to kiss/make-out/create blackmail material?

What Judal did was worse.

There was mistletoe taped to the ceiling all right. But these mistletoe had a little extra something to them.

These mistletoe had bits of peaches glued to the leaves.

And not just any peaches. These peaches were the ripe, juicy kind that released an aphrodisiac scent that drove people crazy.

Welp, that explained why those crazy men went after Sinko. And why Sinko was running away.

Who wouldn't after realizing there was a ceiling of mistletoe-peach berries hanging right above your head.

In fact, there was one right above...

"Judal," Kouha whispered, "whatever you do, don't look up."

A sane person would have heeded his words.

But if there were three things people knew about Judal, it was that one: he wasn't sane; two, no one told him what to do; and three: NO ONE TOLD HIM WHAT TO DO!

So, naturally, he looked up.

And saw the mistletoe-peach hanging right above his head.

When people see mistletoe, they kiss.

What does Judal do when he sees mistletoe-peach?

"Ooh, a peach."

He reached up, plucked the hanging mistletoe-peach, and shoved it whole into his mouth. "Delicious!"

Kouha was horrified. "Judal, you can't eat mistletoe berries, they're poisonous!"

Judal burped out. "What?"

...right before he keeled over.

Kouha slapped his forehead. "Idiot.."

"WHAT WAS THAT?!"