Lamp Entertainment presents…

Chapter 24: Merry Christmas!

Earth….

December 24th.

Despite her best efforts, Navy's plan to destroy Christmas was a total failure on all fronts. There was some collateral damage, sure, but not a single gem had been shattered or even cracked during White's rampage. Nor did she succeed in stopping Operation Christmas. The space ships loaded with gifts all left on time as planned and made their way towards Earth.

All over the Earth, gifts were delivered and dropped off to pleasantly surprised humans (and a few spooked ones as well).

Among the many millions of ships filled with gifts was one very special ship commissioned for a very special household…

It was late in the afternoon and the sun had already set over Beach City. Exuberant Christmas decorations covered practically every building, both in the beachside town, but also in Little Homeworld. The Crystal Gem Temple and beach house were also covered in decorations, of course.

The gems in Little Homeworld were having a great party. There were singing and snowball fights, foods and fun. All the families and people of Beach City were celebrating in different ways with odd little traditions that inevitably form in different families. The Crystal Gems, Greg, Connie, and her parents were all gathered in the beach house.

Steven was busy helping Amethyst and Pearl preparing dinner when they heard something outside. The sound of jingle bells passing by over the house. Outside the window, they saw a flying sleigh pulled by nine reindeers landing on the beach, right where Steven had put the "Landing Zone" sign.

It was Santa Claus. No person on the planet could mistake the person in the sleigh. The red clothes and hat, the white beard, the cheerful smile. The reindeers, including one with a glowing nose. The large sack filled with presents sitting in the back of the sleigh.

Everyone gasped at the sight, save Steven. He only smiled. He was expecting this.

Steven rushed outside to meet the figure.

"Hohoho!" laughed the jolly figure in the sleigh. "Merry Christmas, Steven Universe! And to everyone else as well! A very merry Christmas to you all!"

Steven turned around and looked at the big hill behind the temple. Three very large heads quickly hid behind it.

"White!" Steven shouted. "Yellow, Blue! Spinel! You can come out! I know you're there!"

"No we're not!" Blue yelled back.

"Shh!" Yellow hushed loudly.

"Quiet you two!" White whispered harshly.

"I think they already heard us…" Spinel said defeatedly.

Slowly, the three Diamonds and one Spinel walked out from their hiding spot.

"How did you know we were here?" White asked, legitimately confused as to how anyone could've heard or seen them.

"I figured you probably wanted to see this," Steven said and gestured towards Santa Claus, who was now looking very awkward. So did the reindeer, who were all glancing at the three Diamonds. "I mean, you must've worked very hard to put all of this together."

"Whaaat?" White said nervously. She waved her hands dramatically. "Steven, it sounds like you're implying that we, the Diamonds, who just so happened to be here at this particular time, have something to do with this visit from Santa! Almost like you're saying that's actually a group of gems that have shapeshifted into the image of Santa and his reindeer." She paused for a moment. "Which I can assure you is most definitely not the case."

"Those reindeers are red, orange, and purple," Steven said and pointed towards the nervous herd of reindeers.

"I fail to see how that is in any way indicative of them being gems and not authentic Earth reindeer," White said stubbornly.

"White, I know Santa isn't real," Steven said.

It took a few seconds for the Diamonds to process these words.

"WHAT!?"

Everyone laughed, except for the Diamonds themselves. White's face turned bright pink.

"B-b-but…" she stammered. "You were so excited for Santa's visit!"

"Oh, White," Steven said, wiping a happy tear from his eye. "Just because something isn't real doesn't mean it isn't important. Get it?"

"No?" White said, confused. Yellow started laughing as well and Blue giggled a little.

"I think I get it," Yellow said. "It's the 'idea' of Santa Claus and what he represents that's important. Not whether he actually exists or not."

"I guess…" White mumbled. She waved towards the group of shapeshifted gems. "Well, I guess you can all return to your normal forms."

"Nah," one of the reindeer said (actually an Amethyst). "I think we'll stay like this."

"I kinda like this new form too," said 'Santa Claus' (actually a Carnelian and Amethyst fusion). "People always seem so happy when they see us like this… Besides! I didn't even get to deliver the gifts yet!" She enthusiastically reached into the large sack and started picking up presents wrapped in colorful paper. Rather clumsily. The Diamonds and Spinel themselves had tried to wrap them. Which… could've gone worse. Could've gone better too.

Everyone got their gifts, though when it came to Steven's gift, the Santa Claus gem needed some help.

Blue pulled something about the size of a parachute from the sack and handed it to Steven. And by "handed," the author means "dumped it on top of him so he disappeared underneath a mountain of cloth." It was an enormous knitted sweater.

"We know it's a bit big," Blue said. The three Diamonds were smiling proudly; they had made it themselves. "But I'm sure you'll grow into it."

"Thanks," Steven said after he finally managed to crawl out from underneath the sweater. "Hey, why don't you come inside? I got a gift for you guys too."

"R-really"?" White said, her face briefly lighting up with excited yellow light.

"Of course!" Steven said. "Now come on! We were just in the middle of getting dinner ready."

"But…" White hesitated, eyeing the (to her anyway) way too small beach house. "How are we going all going to fit inside your house?"

Steven shrugged.

"I dunno, can't you just… shrink down or something?"

The Diamond trio shrugged. They grabbed each other's hands and closed their eyes. Yellow lit up with yellow electricity which spread to the other two. Slowly, the massive gems started shrinking down to more reasonable heights. Well, reasonable by gem standards. Yellow and Blue were still well over two meters tall, and White's hair at its peak was just shy of three meters tall. Still, they were small enough to fit inside the house.

"Have we always been able to do that?" Blue asked after they finished shrinking.

"I don't know," Yellow said, stretching her arms experimentally. "But I have to say, this feels… odd."

"I'll say," White mumbled, tapping the point of her gem. She had to rotate it so most of it was inside her head. Only the sharp tip was pointing outward.

They started walking toward the beach house, stumbling a bit in the snow, unused to having such short legs.

Steven turned to the Santa gem and her reindeers.

"You're welcome too," he said.

"Hohoho!" the Santa gem laughed. "Thank you, but I'm afraid we have other places to be!" She whipped the reins and the gem reindeer started running. The sleigh rose into the air and started flying away, the Santa gem's laugh mixed with jingle bells echoing over the town. Steven pondered for a moment exactly how those shapeshifted gems learned how to fly, but decided that he didn't need to know.

He hurried after the three Diamonds.

"Hey, White," he called out. "Could I just talk to you for a minute?"

"Hm?" White said. "Sure."

Yellow and Blue looked at Steven, then at White, and then at each other. They continued inside.

"I…" Steven hesitated for a moment. "I just wanted to ask you… are you okay? I don't remember much, but I saw some of the things Navy made you see…" he shivered, but not because of the cold.

White smiled warmly.

"Yes, I'm fine," she said. "I talked about it with Yellow, Blue, and Spinel. And I'm doing fine now." That conversation between the four of them had gone on for several hours. There was much crying from everyone involved. "I see now that what the Winter Shadow… Navy made me see… it was nothing more than empty lies. And I know that she's wrong."

There was a pregnant pause. None of them said a thing for what seemed like several minutes. They just stood there and looked into the distance, up at the starry sky.

Finally, White spoke up.

"Steven, I'm sorr-"

"I'm sorry," Steven blurted out, interrupting White.

"F-for what?" White asked.

"Navy used my powers to take control of you," Steven said. "And that was my fault. I should've woken up, or sensed that something was wrong, or… or… I could've just locked my front door so she couldn't just waltz right on in!"

"Nono, it's all my fault!" White said. "It was my idea to keep Operation Christmas secret from you and the Crystal Gems. If I had let them know about the Winter Shadow, they could've protected you. Or I could've just let you know from the beginning!" She sighed deeply. "Or maybe I shouldn't have let her take control of me like she did…"

There was another pause, a silence filled with tension. It was interrupted by Yellow poking her head out the door.

"Are you two done blaming yourself for things that aren't your fault yet?" she asked sarcastically. "Because if so, I could use your help keeping Blue away from the mulled wine."

Steven and White looked at each other.

"What do you say? Should we just forget about all the sad stuff for today?" Steve asked with a smile.

"That sounds good," White said, smiling back.

The inside of the house was warm and inviting, with the rich smell of Christmas food hanging in the air. The large group of gems, humans, hybrids, and a lion sat down to eat. Well, most of them anyway. Lapis and Peridot still didn't like eating. Pearl would occasionally nibble a little at something. Very little. Barely a mouse bite. White flat-out refused to put any food or drink in her mouth. Blue was not a big fan of chewing, but she liked to drink, especially hot drinks. Yellow on the other hand turned out to be something of a glutton. She and Amethyst actually ended up having an eating competition. Amethyst won, based on her superior experience.

After dinner, it was time for gifts!

Greg and the Crystal Gems gave Steven a brand new electric guitar, which he went starry-eyed over. From Steven, Greg got a collection of Kerry Moonbeam LP:s. Also from Steven, Connie got the entire series of The Good Witch Azura, a pile of five massive books. Lapis gave Peridot some exotic seeds and Peridot gave Lapis some paint she had made. It would start glowing or change color depending on the lighting.

Someone gave Spinel a unicycle, which was about as good of an idea as you think it was. Unless you thought it was a good idea. Because it really wasn't. At least she didn't break anything that couldn't be fixed.

To Steven's horror, the gems continued to support his girlfriend's obsession with deadly weapons. Pearl and Bismuth gave Connie a katana.

So in one end of the room was Spinel on her unicycle. On the other end, Connie practicing with her new katana. Honestly, it was a miracle no one ended up being poofed.

Yellow and Blue revealed what they had been working on for White. A pair of giant winter boots.

"Since you always look so uncomfortable whenever you're out and walking in the snow," Blue explained.

The boots were suitably fancy and sexy for White, of course. The author isn't sure what constitutes as "sexy" when it comes to winter boots, so he'll leave that up to the imagination of his dear readers.

For the Diamonds, Steven got them each a painting of Rose. Vidalia, Lapis, and her art students had spent a lot of time working on those paintings. They showed Rose both as Pink Diamond and as Rose Quartz.

The celebration continued for many hours, well into the night. It only stopped when some of the humans started dozing off. Only then did the Diamonds and Spinel decide to head back to Homeworld. They headed out into the night, growing back to their regular sizes.

Down on Earth, Christmas parties and celebrations still continued, or they were just getting started. Out in space, trillions of gems were all celebrating as well.

But as they were walking on that stretch between Steven's house and their ship, the night was silent and still around them. Blue was carrying Spinel, who had finally tired herself out. Yellow got tasked with carrying everything else. White was walking ahead, lighting the way with the happy yellow shine from her face.

Blue yawned.

"This was so much fun," she said. "We should do this again next year."

Neither Yellow nor White said anything back. They didn't need to. Because all of them already knew the answer. Of course they'd do this again next year.

The End

AUTHOR'S NOTES

And there we go! I actually finished something! Woo!

Firstly, before anything else, I'd like to make another shoutout to my friend Toonfreak. That joke about the Diamonds giving Steven a ridiculously oversized sweater was something she came up with. And I stole it.

I would also like to thank all of you who have been reading, following, and commenting on this story. You guys rock!

I've had so much fun writing this story, I might just do this again next year! Probably not, but who knows~

For the foreseeable future though, I'll have to get back to working on JoJo and the Crystal Gems as well as my liveblog (link in my profile, hint hint). There's also an idea I had for a Lapis and Peridot story… But that's all in the future! Today, I will celebrate Christmas!

Maybe we will meet again someday, maybe we won't. Regardless, I'm The Lampman, and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas! And a Happy New Year! Thank you for reading!