The American opened his blue eyes slowly. He'd actually gotten some sleep. Sitting up on his bed, Dempsey rubbed his eyes sleepily, then looked beyond his curtains. White dots fell from the sky. Some big, some small. They stuck to the ground, covering it in a pale blanket. The sky was still shadowed. That probably meant that he'd woken up early. He didn't know why. It was only Christmas.
Holy shitballs. It was Christmas.
Dempsey rolled out of bed in his camouflage pajama pants and white tank top. He stood to his feet and looked at the clock before leaving the room. 7am. Yes! The blond tiptoed out of the room and down the hallway. Christmas, Christmas, Christmas. It turned the Marine back into a little kid.
He remembered when he and his older brother would wake up bright and early, just to pull the teasing paper off of those toys and play with them all day long. Then, they'd fall asleep before the afternoon even arrived, sleeping the rest of the day away. Their parents would tuck them in, just to make sure that they were asleep for a long period of time, so they could prepare dinner.
Tank tiptoed into the dark living room, looking at the twinkling Christmas tree in the corner near the front door. What a work of art Takeo put together. He took a seat near a present and picked it up. Whoa. It was heavy. What could it be?
Suddenly, the bright tree in front of him shook. He glared at it questionably, placing the gift down on the carpeted floor. The Marine slowly crawled around the tree, edging himself closer to the wall. The Christmas symbol shook once more and a small, yellow-eyed, zombie baby crawled from behind the tree, greeting Dempsey with a confused face.
"Oh, it's just you. Hey, kid."
"Da da..." Milz whispered.
Tank looked back up at the tree and jumped back, clamping a hand over his mouth to muffle his startled yelp. Richtofen sat behind Milz, a frightening smirk on his face, as if he wanted to puncture something with a sharpened candy cane.
"Merry Christmas, American." he whispered, petting the babe's head.
"Yeah, whatever. What the hell are you doing behind the tree anyway, Ed?"
"Milz voke up crying and vanted to sit here in front of all of zhe blinking lights. And I vanted to scare you shitless." Edward admitted, rolling his eyes and following Milz out from behind the tree.
Dempsey snaked his way back over to the front of the tree and picked up the gift he once held in his hands. Reading the sticker on top of the gift that sat near the bow, Dempsey grimaced in disgust.
"Oh, vunderbar. You're going to open my gift first?"
The blond looked over to his right and there Richtofen was, leaning in near his face. Tank leaned away, placing the gift back down on the floor.
"Tsk. No. Might be something to kill me."
"You could be right, you could be wrong~" the sadist sang, giving an innocent smile and looking towards the ceiling.
The crazed man looked even more innocent in his snowman-printed sweater. In fact, Milz and Richtofen were actually wearing matching sweaters. Of course, with Milz being the little guy that he was, the sleeves were really long on him, but he crawled about nonetheless.
"Where'd you get the matching sweaters, kraut?" Tank questioned.
"Zhe nice voman next door brought zhem over yesterday. She-"
"Wait, wait, wait. We have neighbors?" the blond interrupted.
"I asked zhe same zhing! Ve haven't had neighbors since ve've moved in." the dark-haired man replied, shrugging his shoulders.
"Maybe she's hot..."
"See? Zhis is vhy you're stupid." Richtofen scoffed, ending the conversation as Takeo walked in with a stumbling Nikolai.
"Merry Christmas! Is it time for drinking yet?" the sleepy Russian asked, wobbling back and forth.
"Not yet, my dear Nikolai! Have a seat! Ve have to open zhe presents first!" Richtofen explained, offering Nikolai a seat on the floor.
Nikolai sat on his bottom, smiling joyfully to himself. Takeo followed, crisscrossing his legs and sitting up straight.
"Nikolai will go first!" the Soviet exclaimed, raising a hand.
"No, Milz will." Tank told him, pushing a medium-sized box over to the undead baby that sat in Richtofen's lap.
Milz flapped his sleeves excitedly, looking at Dempsey. He babbled something, then ripped the paper off with ease. The Doctor assisted him in taking off the lid of a white box and in the box was a blue and white stuffed panda.
"Merry Christmas, kid." Tank smiled, reaching into the box and taking the panda out, handing it to Milz.
The child took the stuffed animal and hugged it to his chest, then nibbled at an ear upon it's head. He leaned back onto Edward's stomach, content with everything in the world around him.
"Is so cute." Nikolai grinned.
"I'm going first." Dempsey announced, reaching past Richtofen's present and picking up one that was just about the same size. It was short and wide, wrapped neatly in green & red stripped paper and had a white bow stuck to the corner of it. Reading the sticker on top, Tank smiled to himself. "From: Takeo, To: Dempsey. Thanks, Tak."
Takeo responded with a nod as the Marine unwrapped the present, then opened the box underneath. He pulled out a grey, black and white camouflage jean jacket with metallic buttons and a buckle at the very bottom to hold the jacket securely closed. And to add a little "bad boy" to it.
"This is pretty fuckin' sweet!" Tank complimented, pulling the jacket on.
"I am glad that you like it." the Samurai told him, proud of himself.
"You go next."
The Japanese man looked at the choices with his names on them. He picked up the smallest one, entranced by the sparkling, light blue wrapping paper and white bow. He pulled off the paper without even reading who it was from and saw before him 2 pricey chopsticks. They were white and had designs of cherry blossoms wrapped around them.
"Um..."
"Zhat vas from me. You're velcome." Richtofen said, glaring at Takeo.
"Arigatou."
"Vhatever zhat means. My turn!" the sadist grinned devilishly, wrapping his lanky fingers around yet another small box. This one was light, very light indeed. Ripping away the paper and flipping the lid off of the box, he gasped loudly. Then, he hung his head down low.
"Da da?" Milz whimpered.
"Richtofen?" Nikolai muttered.
Soft, chuckles emitted from the Doctor. The chuckles turned into berserk laughter as the Doctor threw his head back. He cackled to the ceiling, eyes wide with insane happiness.
"A scalpel! You got me a scalpel!" Richtofen yelled.
Milz crawled out of his lap, somewhat frightened by his German father's actions. Edward took the shiny, silver scalpel from the box and bit his lip, concealing his laughter.
"Took me a while to find it. I'm surprised you like it." Dempsey spoke, crossing his arms over his chest.
Richtofen's laughter died down and his face turned into one of unamusement.
"Nevermind zhen. It's shitty."
"I swear to god, kraut. One day, I'm going to murder y-"
"Nikolai's turn!" Nikolai shouted, picking up a bottle-shaped gift. Pulling off the wrapping paper, he looked at Dempsey happily.
Dempsey just shrugged, beaming back at his Russian friend. A bottle of vodka. Nikolai's favorite. What else would he get?
"It's mein baby's turn. Enough viz zhe smiling and awkvard silence." the German interrupted as Milz ripped his way to another gift: a doll. That looked like Dempsey.
"Hey, that looks like me! He's handsome. Oorah, me. Oorah." Tank smirked.
Milz stared at it, then thrust the head of the doll into his mouth, chewing at it and drooling all over the stuffed Marine. The sadist threw his head back again, this time laughing with joy.
"That's it!" Tank growled.
"Not on Christmas, Tank." Takeo whispered, bringing the enraged Marine to a halt, as he nearly leaped onto Richtofen and clamped his hands around his neck.
The blond sat back down and picked up the Doctor's gift, eying it suspiciously. He looked over to his right and there the man sat, his eyes aimed towards the ceiling and an innocent smile on his face. The American sighed and released the gift from it's paper. His blue eyes went wide, almost as wide as dinner plates.
"Ho. Ly. Shit. An Xbox One! I am gonna play the crap out of thi-" he stopped, witnessing the smug look on the Doctor's face. The black-haired man raised an ebony eyebrow. "I mean, this sucks. Seriously, this is shitty."
"Vhatever you say, American. By zhe vay, I took zhe controllers and hid zhem." Edward lied.
"You little basta-" Dempsey stopped again, realizing the man's lie. He turned his head elsewhere, holding the boxed game console to his chest.
Takeo became amused by the sight. Seeing one be nice to the other while the other denied their care was actually kind of funny. It was rare, but amusing. The Samurai picked up a wide, yet flat box. It was concealed by bright red wrapping paper and on top, held a black bow in the corner and a sticker right next to the bow.
He divided the lively crimson paper from the box and lifted the lid off of the brown case in his hands. Takeo's eyes lit up. Not a lot, but just slightly enough to let one know that he was dumfounded by what he uncovered.
Small, round, blue lanterns. The lanterns were made from tough paper and cased gently in styrofoam petals.
"I am greatly honored to be receiving... this..." the dark-haired Asian murmured, his mouth unable to make words.
"You left one of your magazines on the couch one day and had a fat red circle around those. Thank me later." Dempsey grinned, fiddling with a button on his new jacket.
"Is it Nikolai's turn yet?" Nikolai wondered, watching Takeo's astonished face.
"Of course, Nikolai! Go ahead!" Richtofen said, cuddling Milz to his chest.
Picking up the last two gifts that sat underneath the glistening Christmas tree, Belinski undid the noisy paper from them and gave a hearty laugh.
"More vodka! Is from German and stupid Asian!"
The American, German and Japanese men looked at each other questionably.
"Okay. He opened my gift first, so you guys need to stop taking my ideas." the American claimed, pointing a finger at the two men that sat on opposite sides of him.
"I hate you, Dempsey. I hate your ideas as vell. Zhey're all stupid. Just like you." the Doctor growled, squinting his eyes at his enemy.
"Says the dumbass who took my idea. Wait. I didn't get a single gift from Nikolai." Tank pointed out, counting in his head over and over how many gifts he'd acquired that morning.
"Neither did I." Takeo agreed.
"Ja, me neizher." Edward said.
"Bah." Milz chimed in, holding his Dempsey Doll and panda.
The Soviet halted his drinking of the famous Russian beverage and gawked at the 3 men and little boy in the room. He thought slowly then, placed his vodka down.
"But gift from Nikolai is right in front of you."
"What is it?" Takeo questioned.
"Nikolai!" the Russian gleamed, toppling the three men that sat on the floor onto their backs. He wrapped an arm around Richtofen and Takeo, then hugged them tightly.
"Seriously?" Dempsey asked, being squished between the skinny Doctor and honorable Samurai.
"да!"
"Well, this gift smells." Takeo said.
"And it's heavy as hell." Tank complained.
"I love it! Zhis is zhe best gift ever! Zhank you, Nikolai!" Richtofen squealed, petting the Russian's brown hair.
The other 2 sighed, utterly annoyed, and Milz watched the snow fall outside through a window. He nibbled at the stuffed panda in his right arm and became mesmerized by the ashen petals that swiftly fell to the ground, even though he couldn't see it. He was far too short. The undead baby became lost in the world again. His thoughts drifted away from the commotion behind him from his fathers as Dempsey shouted something along the lines of, "That's like the 5th year in a row, Nikolai!"