Title: All I want for Christmas is you
Author: Doubleplusgoodduckspeaker
Summary: Don't open until Midniiiiiiight! Dungeonshipping PegasusxRyuuji.
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!
Notes: Written for Round Four of Compy's YGO Contest. Set in America; more things make sense this way. Enjoy the holiday story in the middle of July.
"It's that time of year
Leave all our hopelessness's aside
If just for a little while
tears stop right here
I know we've all had a bumpy ride.
I'm secretly on your side"
--Just for now, Imogen Heap
Ryuuji was working late. Again.
It was bound to happen; winter was the busiest time of the year for all the gaming companies. It was when cash-strapped parents would actually consent to buying toys for their children, and many of the Dungeon Dice Monsters products flew off the shelves as if magnetically attracted to parent's wallets. They would become wrapped in bright paper and placed under trees or in stockings to be opened later.
Tomorrow.
He checked the handsome wooden clock hanging on his wall and sighed. It was a matter of hours until midnight, and he should have been asleep, like practically everyone else who worked in the building. Even the night maintenance crew was off work this week. With everyone given (or taking) their vacation leave, Ryuuji had stepped in to pick up the slack. It wasn't too bad, he just had to answer emails and check that the package shipments had all made the journey to their designated locations. He didn't mind the work, or the fact that he was awake on the night before Christmas. It wasn't like he was expecting anything from St. Nicholas anyways.
He worked in silence for another hour; the sound of his fingertips on the computer keys interrupting the silence reminded him of falling snowflakes. There weren't any of those here either. He stifled a yawn; if he wasn't going to get much done he might as well pack up and go home—
His secretary walked in to the room to find her boss half-slumped over the desk, the glow of the computer screen making the dark circles underneath his eyes even more pronounced. "Sorry to interrupt, but… this package arrived for you." He hadn't even noticed the cardboard box she was carrying under one arm.
"Who's it from?"
"Somebody dropped it off earlier today, there's no return address." She left the box on his desk and informed him that she was leaving for the night. He nodded, engaging in a staring contest with the box that sat ever-so-innocently on his desk. He wondered what was inside. Probably copies of the agenda from last week's board meeting. Or the finished game guides to the newest DDM computer game. Grabbing a pair of scissors from one of the drawers of his desk, he sliced through the tape keeping the box closed, opened the cardboard flaps and peered inside.
It was… a present.
Pulling it out of the box to get a better look, Ryuuji looked at the object in his hands. It was a fair-sized square covered in patterned paper and ribbons. A bright red bow topped it all off like the cherry on top of an ice-cream sundae. He had been intrigued before, but now he was completely unsure how to react. For starters, the packaging of the present clashed terrifically with the color of the bow. The wrapping paper had… pictures of rabbits on it? They were dressed in red overalls and yellow tube socks, and each one (although in different poses) carried a shovel.
Ryuuji was officially scared. He could only think of one person who would even think of wrapping a present in such a way, and after looking at the tag, all signs pointed to one man. It couldn't possibly be anyone else but Pegasus Crawford.
Ryuuji-boy:
Remember: Don't open until midniiiiiiiight!
It was unsigned, but somehow Ryuuji just knew. He eyed the present in his hands warily, then raised it up to the side of his head, and shook it gently.
Hmm… well, at least it's not ticking. He crossed 'bomb' off his mental checklist, but he still wasn't any closer to figuring out what was inside the wrapped box. He set it back on the desk and paced around his office. Now he knew who, but he still couldn't figure out why. He hadn't even seen Pegasus in the past two weeks. Hell, he would have been surprised to receive a Christmas card from Pegasus. Knowing him, it'd be one of those traditional ones with the posed family photos on one side. He shuddered, thinking of a card with Pegasus and funny bunny in Christmas costumes. Scary.
He froze, his eyes locking onto the present once more. He didn't even know what was inside it yet! It could be anything… Pegasus was known to be eccentric to a fault, and as much as Ryuuji admired him for helping him when he was just starting out, there were some things about the man he could never hope to understand. Some things he didn't want to understand. Still, he couldn't help but think; in living and working in America, the person here he knew the best just might be his boss.
He checked the clock once more. It was a quarter to midnight; the minute hand moved agonizingly slow to him. Despite all his reservations, there was a small part of him that was curious as to what was inside the package. He would wait. Maybe he could actually get some more work done.
Every time his fingers drummed their cadence on the keyboard, he couldn't help but look at the present, sitting harmlessly on his desk. With every email he read he felt the gaze of a hundred funny bunnies staring him down. The collar of his starched dress shirt felt prickly, and with a cry of anguish he flung the keyboard tray closed and threw his hands up. There was no way he was getting any more work done!
The minute hand moved its last and now it was the twenty-fifth, and Ryuuji rose to his feet, reached out his hands, and plucked the bow from the top of the box, a piece of wrapping paper tearing off with it. The rest of the paper was discarded, ribbons pulled aside, and Ryuuji opened the lid of the plain white box with breathless anticipation and saw—
Tissue paper. As he sifted through the forest of paper he pulled out the object nestled within. It was a video monitor with a screen not unlike a portable DVD player. The red light that had been glowing steadily began to blink, and the screen suddenly switched to static, then became an image.
Pegasus Crawford was looking back at him.
Ryuuji stared only because he didn't quite know what else to do. Pegasus' voice boomed from speakers that were hidden somewhere inside the device. "Merry Christmas, Ryuuji-boy!"
"Uh… Merry Christmas to you too?" This man was his boss; he had to maintain some semblance of professionalism.
"No one should be alone on Christmas, so I thought I'd give you the gift of company. You can also keep the screen." Ryuuji knew from experience that even though Pegasus' tone of voice was lighthearted, he was also completely serious. What a Samaritan.
"Well, uh… that's a nice gesture."
"Isn't it?" The background of the screen changed; was he… moving? "Seeing as I'm giving you the gift of, well… me, it's only fitting because…"
The door to Ryuuji's office was thrown open and standing in the doorway was Pegasus Crawford himself. "…All I want for Christmas is you, Ryuuji-boy."
Looking at the man standing imposingly at the threshold to his office Ryuuji's overworked and assaulted mind overlaid an image of St. Nicholas himself standing before a roaring fire (but of course there was no fire there, it was his office door) which quickly morphed into a more gruesome, Grinch like figure as Pegasus laughed; in Ryuuji's mind it became more like a cackle. The reddish gleam (or was it a twinkle?) in Pegasus' eye was the last thing Ryuuji saw before he felt his surroundings begin to swirl around him, before everything became too confusing; too much for him to keep his eyes open any longer.
The bed was soft, 300 thread count Egyptian cotton. The curtains were open, giving Ryuuji a clear view of the outside world, where snow was blanketing the entire ground. It's a white Christmas after all… Instantly awake, he leaned up in his bed.
Did I drink something funny last night? He had his fair share of bad dreams, but that certainly qualified as a nightmare. All the details were fresh in his mind, unlike most nights—there was a host of mental pictures he couldn't shake, try as he might to clear his head. He didn't really want to think about the dream. It was Christmas… he should be enjoying the holiday, not sleeping in.
Had he dreamt all of that? It wasn't too far of a stretch; he had been putting in very long hours. He swung his legs out of the bed and into his trusty worn slippers. Slowly he made his way into the living room. He had put up the tree himself, and presents from the Yugi-tachi as well as his own family lay underneath its boughs.
Ryuuji froze, staring at the quintessential Christmas scene. Something was off. There, placed inconspicuously beneath a die ornament, lay an all-too-familiar box dressed up with funny bunny wrapping paper and a bright red bow. He pinched himself.
"Ow!" Damn. If he wasn't sleeping, how did that package get here? What was going on? He half-expected a Pegasus jack-in-the-box to break out of the package any second. Come on, Pegasus Crawford, you've got to try harder than that. Besides, where's the fun or the challenge in it if I just give in right away? He smirked at the package, wondering if his dream was any indication of what actually was inside the box. He hoped it wasn't the monitor… Pegasus had been far more creative than that last year.
He picked up the package, walked calmly into the foyer and opened his front door. He placed the box upon the mat on the floor; and, brushing his hands, stepped back inside. He'd let the postman deal with it tomorrow. And Pegasus should be glad to know that his gift would keep on giving. It was that time of year, after all.
He wondered if Pegasus had found the gift that he'd gotten him yet.
How's that for some peppermint and eggnog-flavored crack!fic? I would have never written anything like this if not for the contest; but I must say, that was such fun to write! Again, please leave a review to let me know what you thought of it! Thanks for reading!