Author's Note: This idea was sort of a "Christmas Special" that turned into one of my oneshots. I'm proud of how it turned out as a pre-Little Shop story, since these days I really only get to write post Little Shop movie stuff. It seems like that's the only way to go with the story, you know? Anyway, I hope you like it as much as I liked writing it. And happy holidays!

*S. Snowflake (12/12/09)

A Gift From the Heart

-A Little Shop of Horrors Story

The winter chill swept through Skid Row that December 24th. The ice made the sidewalks slick and blurred every shop window, including the little flower shop with the address 1313. It would be a sick joke to call this place merry, since the jolliest things on Skid Row at Christmas were a holiday wreath that Al Shmendrik put up at his diner and the poinsettias fading in the flower shop's window. It was a dull beginning to winter.

Mr. Mushnik, the owner of the flower shop, sighed as he looked out the window. He was hoping for someone, anyone, to spare his shop a passing glance, but no one was on Skid Row today. Not even a wino would stay out there in the cold.

Audrey, one of Mushnik's two employees walked in from the back room, carrying a new floral arrangement that sparkled in the light from the green glitter glued to it. She hummed "Carol of the Bells" softly to herself, gently walking her piece over to the shop front. She almost matched her creation, wearing a deep green dress that contrasted her platinum blonde hair, and had gaudy holly-shaped earrings on her ears. Mr. Mushnik was grateful that she was wearing one of her more conservative outfits today. It meant (hopefully), a better impression on customers for him and a night away from that whorehouse, The Gutter for her.

Next came Seymour, Mushnik's other employee. He was dressed in a turtle neck sweater today with little diamond-shaped designs on the chest. It looked too warm to wear indoors, but the little man caught chills so easily. He was so pathetic. It reminded Mr. Mushnik of his bleak situation.

Taking one more look outside, Mr. Mushnik finally turned over the open/closed sign and walked over to his misfit employees.

"Audrey? Seymour?"

The employees looked up quickly and darted across the shop floor in unison.

"Yes, Mista' Mushnik?" Audrey asked with a mouse-like, chipper voice.

"Look, er… we all know that the poinsettias haven't been sellin'. I have a feeling the holiday rush just isn't comin' this year." He pointed to the wilting red flowers in the shop front for emphasis. "-So, I figure, since it is Christmas Eve, you two get the rest of the day off along with tomorrow."

Audrey smiled and made a small squeal under her breath from the news. She looked over to her coworker Seymour, who didn't seem to notice.

Then Mr. Mushnik looked Audrey straight in the eye. "-But, I'm warning you. You'd better be here on time December twenty sixth or you're fired." Audrey was about to protest, but he raised his hand. "I don't care what crazy shift you have at that other job of yours, Audrey. You need to be here everyday unless it's an absolute emergency. Got it?"

Audrey frowned. "Yes, sir."

"Good," said Mr. Mushnik as he fingered through his keys and found the shop key. "See you after Christmas," he said and locked the shop door.

Audrey smiled and grabbed her bag out of the back room, still humming that song. "Ooh, it's Christmas! Bet you've got alotta stuff to do today, huh, Seymour?" she asked her coworker.

"Err, not exactly," Seymour replied quietly. "I'm probably just gonna take care a' the plants."

"What?" Audrey asked, surprised. "You mean you're not gonna go visit ya' family today? It's Christmas Eve."

Seymour looked up at her with a sad look in his eye. It told his story with one glance: I have no family.

"Oh," said Audrey. "I see…" She paused, looking down at her high heels, then back up at Seymour. "Maybe you'd like to come with me? I'm gonna drop off a present at my mama's, then I might go walk around town."

Seymour held still in his spot. Audrey had just invited him to walk with her? It was a dream come true! His heart thudded in his chest, and he almost forgot to answer. "Sure, A-Audrey. I mean, if that's okay," he finally said.

She smiled back at him. "Of course. No one should be alone on Christmas."

She grabbed her coat and covered up her slender arms up in the sleeves. Seymour wished he had the courage to just hand her the coat and get her attention before she had done it for herself. For some reason, he always was trying to get her attention.

"Mr. Mushnik says that there's nothin' special about Christmas. It's all just a way to get business," he told her.

Audrey pouted, looking something like an upset schoolgirl, and grabbed a wrapped package out of the back room. "Oh, no. There's a lot more to Christmas than that. At least t' me." She opened the door. "C'mon, let's go."

Seymour nodded and followed her out into the cold, breezy air. He crammed his hands into his pockets, trying desperately to keep them warm. His sweater would keep him warm enough today, but what he wouldn't give for a pair of gloves. Still, he kept walking and let Audrey lead the way. He noted how the bums had signs today that read, 'Help the poor,' and 'If you haven't got a penny, then a haypenny will do.' They must have been from Christmas songs, though he hardly knew those ones. Mr. Mushnik wouldn't approve of Christmas carols.

Audrey tried to be nice to her coworker and smiled at him as they walked together, though she had to admit that he was more than a little awkward. He probably wasn't used to talking to other people, let alone women. Any guy could be awkward that way, but Seymour was exceptionally so. At least he was sweet to her.

When she saw the building up ahead, Audrey stopped thinking about Seymour and went back to reality.

"Mama's room is upstairs. I hope you don't mind the walk," she told Seymour.

"Oh, not at all," he replied.

With a touch of personal melancholy, Audrey walked up the steps, headed into the hall and up three flights of stairs with Seymour watching her all the way. She was so somber that Seymour found it disturbing. At last, Audrey stopped outside a simple door and knocked three times. They waited together for someone to answer the door. The seconds turned into minutes before Audrey tried knocking one last time.

"I was hopin' she'd open the door this year," she muttered with a sigh. "But 'dat's why I wrote a letta' in case." She pulled out a folded piece of paper from her pink coat pocket and tucked it under the ribbon of the package. Seymour only caught the words, "To Ma" on the outside before she left it near the door without a word.

"C'mon, let's go, Seymour," Audrey said with a tiny smile. Somewhere underneath that smile, he could see Audrey's pain as they began their downstairs descent.

Why couldn't Audrey's mother just open the door and take the present? That was clearly what Audrey wanted. If there was one sentimental idea Seymour liked about Christmas, it was family coming together, and this was nothing like that.

* * *

When they reached the outside world again, Seymour was surprised when she asked, "What do you wanna do now?

"Umm… I-I don't know," he stuttered.

She bit her lip shyly. "Let's just walk around."

"O-okay."

And so the nerd and the blonde did walk around Skid Row together that Christmas Eve. Although they were still a little shy, they knew that they didn't need to feel self conscious about being together. There was nothing and nobody to be embarrassed over here. It was the slums, the humblest place to be.

When they came to a lot with three strings of Christmas lights up, Audrey's eyes seemed to glow with them. "Oh, aren't these lights gorgeous, Seymour?"

Seymour smirked at the flickering lights. "They're… nice."

"-Makes ya' think a' Broadway and Time Square, doesn't it?" she asked, obviously fantasizing.

Seymour looked up at the lights again and stared at them, finally smiling a little. "Yeah, I guess it does." Suddenly, he felt something cold hit his back. He turned to see Audrey faking innocence with powder on her glove.

"D-did you just…" he was cut off as another snowball hit him on the nose.

Audrey laughed heartily. "Guilty." She found some more clean snow and held it in her hand. "Wanna play?"

Seymour smiled sheepishly. That was enough of a yes for her, and she threw another snowball at his arm and ran before he chased after her.

Seymour found himself in something of a challenging snowball war with Audrey. She was a formidable opponent, and the battle never seemed to end. When the snow would be all used up in one lot, they'd race over to the next lot for another round. They laughed like children as they hurled the cold snow puffs at each other. In the end, they were both tired from their game and walked back to the shop, breathing harder than normal in the cold night air.

"That was so fun, Seymour," Audrey said just outside of Mushnik's Skid Row Florists. "Why, I haven't played in the snow like that since I was sixteen!"

Seymour grinned back at Audrey, still feeling shy about what exactly to say. "It was fun, Audrey."

He opened the shop door with his key and she followed him inside. They stood in the doorway, pausing slightly.

"I…" Audrey paused. "-I should be going home soon. I have to go to my otha' job." She watched him nod with disappointment. "Merry Christmas, Seymour."

He laughed. "I don't believe in that."

Audrey was just about to leave when she looked up and made a small chuckle. "Would you look at that? Mista' Mushnik even put up mistletoe."

Seymour looked over his head and saw, sure enough, a sprig of mistletoe hanging there. It must have been a last touch his boss tried to win his customers' sympathy. He was about to add something to that when he felt Audrey's breath on his neck and the next thing he knew, she had placed her soft lips onto his cheek. If the moment seemingly couldn't get better, Audrey made it so by gravitating those lips over his and gently placing a peck there. It wasn't really a kiss, but it was enough to make Seymour blush beet red. Strangely enough, she blushed that red too.

After an awkward silence, Audrey opened the door. "I really have to go. G'night, Seymour. And Merry Christmas."

Seymour looked up and grinned wide as he opened the door and shouted back, "Merry Christmas, Audrey!"

The nerd couldn't get a wink of sleep that Christmas Eve, and this time it wasn't because his little basement room was freezing cold. He was thinking about Audrey. He wanted to do something for her, just to show her how much this Christmas meant to him. Suddenly, an idea struck, and he went into the shop floor, scraping for the best floral materials he could find from the fridge, and headed into the back room...

* * *

Audrey awoke that Christmas morning to the warm sunlight coming in through her apartment window. She yawned and sat up in bed gracefully. After a long night at The Gutter, this plain morning would just have to do. She rubbed her back and winced from the pain of last night's incident, then poured herself some coffee and read over her Better Homes and Gardens magazines for awhile. After getting dressed warmly, she decided she would go out and go walk along the finer shops uptown, just to dream about what she could never have or live to be because she had no money.

When she set her foot out the door though, she was met with a tiny glimmer from a package just outside. Gasping, she saw a flower arrangement was there in the hallway with a tag on the side that said, TO: Audrey.

Gently, she picked up the gift and looked all around. The arrangement was made of several different kinds of flowers inside a simple basket. Red carnations played the main role, stealing attention away from the rest of the flowers at the first glance. Goldenrod strands sprung out and blended with the foliage. Creamy white rose buds projected from the sides. The true gem though was a large white lily that looked like a star among all the other blooms. Wrapped around it all was a red ribbon that made the arrangement look like a pretty wrapped box.

Audrey smiled faintly, a tiny tear emerging in her eye. Whoever gave her this must have cared for her a lot. She looked at the tag again, but the portion that said LOVE: was blank. There was no signature.

She brought the flowers close to her bust and muttered, "Thank you, my Santa."

* * *

Three hundred and sixty four days later, that same young woman was once again humming Christmas songs to herself in an equally attractive (but far less skimpy), green dress while placing poinsettias on a Christmas tree like she was making an arrangement. She was looking far healthier and happier since she had left Skid Row and settled down.

"Seymour, honey?" she asked softly in the living room and turning down the radio that was playing the Christmas carols she was singing along to, "Can't we just open the presents one day early?"

Her husband emerged in the doorway. He was still the same little geek, but now he was wearing a red button-down shirt and looked just a little more like an adult than he had a year ago.

"Audrey, didn't you learn that you have to wait for Santa Claus to come to open your present?" he asked playfully.

Audrey giggled and nudged Seymour's shoulder when he sat beside her. "Oh, stop it with the Santa stuff. Just one little present? I have something I really want ta' give you."

Seymour shook his head. "Fine. If that's what you really want."

Audrey jumped up. "Race you back to the couch!"

Seymour chuckled and ran off to go find his gift for Audrey. He loved how she acted like a child playing tag with him. It made him more in love with her to know that they both were still children inside.

He came back to the couch first, surprising for his clumsiness. "I won!" he declared when Audrey came back, holding something behind her back. He smiled slyly. "You owe me a kiss."

Audrey giggled. "I know." She looked at the present Seymour had in hand. It was a stuffed dog with a red ribbon around its neck.

"Oh, how sweet," she said with a grin.

Seymour smiled. "I figured your friend could use a buddy. Merry Christmas, Audrey." He tried to peek at what his wife had behind her back. "Now, come on. I can't stand the wait!"

Audrey bit her lip before bringing her gift from around her back. It was a flower arrangement. Seymour might have just accepted the gift there, but then he looked at the flowers more carefully. He recognized the red carnations, creamy white rosebuds, goldenrod, and snow white lily. They were the same flowers from an important arrangement he had made a long time ago, but now there were little sprigs of holly on the basket's sides, glitter was sparkling on the petals, and a light green ribbon was tried around the arrangement. Those were trademarks of Audrey's designs.

TO: Seymour, the tag said with a blank LOVE. He looked up to Audrey with a stunned look on his face. He thought he had been so secretive, but she definitely knew now that he had been the one to give her the arrangement from last Christmas.

Audrey smiled again and pulled Seymour close, kissing his lips faintly. "Merry Christmas, my Santa."

The End.