Merry Christmas! (Or at least to everybody who celebrates it) This was a quickie Christmas Special! Takes place a bit before the seal falls, just because Christmas for the year 2012 is entirely questionable for the gargoyles and demons fighting. As much as I hate to admit it. at least this isn't angst!
Christmas Special!
In which a heartfelt (on one side, at least) conversation is commenced, and Jingle Bells becomes the demon's ally.
Eden was not very happy. This was shown with the large scowl on her face, something that was completely reasonable, thank you very much. Because Mircea was an idiot, no doubt about it. With only three hours until the seal would break, the demon had called her over saying that he had something very important tell her. Expecting it to be key information for when they invaded hell, and preparing to yell at him for not saying anything useful earlier, when they were discussing strategy, she had gone along.
That was one moment when expectations differed from reality greatly.
Mircea had grabbed hold of her hand first thing, and if not for the fact that she was extremely shocked, Eden would have had no trouble either dodging or shaking off the offending hand. But of course she was too surprised to react, and then the world became nothing but pretty lights similar to the jump in Star Wars and the echoing sound of Mircea laughing his head off. Again.
Ley-line travel, then.
To more of Eden's surprise, when Mircea finished making the jump, everything was still white. And covered in snow. This wasn't really a problem, since gargoyles were pretty much immune to cold (or hot) weather, but the fact that she was in what she recognised to be the Himalayas instead of Rome, where she was supposed to be preparing for the upcoming invasion was indeed, a problem.
And the fact that she was stuck there with Mircea.
The nephilim was about to make the jump back to the nearest vortex in Rome, when the most annoying person on the planet spoke up.
"You know that I care about you."
Eden stared at him. "What?!"
"What we have is special." continued Mircea, ignoring the brief interruption in his monologue.
"I don't think so!"
"We might never see each other again."
"Good. I hope you die."
"I'll-Hey!" Mircea yelped, looking at Eden with a hurt expression. "That hurt! You were supposed to say something like 'Impossible! I'll go to hell and back to find you!"
"But we'll already be in hell." Eden returned, feeling completely exhausted before the fighting even started.
"Yeah, well-never mind." Mircea sighed. "Ahem, I'll miss you."
"Well, I won't miss you."
"Will you at least try to play along?!"
"Probably not."
The puppy-dog expression was directed at Eden. She didn't flinch, though her eye did twitch. The demon sent a slight glare her way before quickly finishing his speech without leaving any room for interruptions. "Which-is-why-I'm-giving-you-a-parting-good-bye-early-Christmas-present!"
He shoved the 'present' at her. Eden looked at the thin package-an envelope in surprise, having already reflexively stepped back to avoid being conked on the face.
The surprise turned to suspicion. "What is this?", she asked, mind already trying to come up with ways that Mircea could have rigged the envelope.
"I told you already; an early Christmas present!" Mircea looked significantly happier.
"No, I mean 'what's in it?'"
Eden was met with an affronted stare. "I can't tell you! That's like, a spoiler! Now open it!"
The nephilim looked at the package warily. On one hand, Mircea was insane and a tiny bit (very much) sociopathic. On the other, the envelope was practically flat, with no large bumps where anything hazardous might be. And as crazy as Mircea is, he had his best interests at heart, and definitely would not want to lose his heavy-hitter before the fighting began. She took the package, ignoring the cry of "That's the spirit!"
Eden ripped open the sealed envelope flap (hoping that it was sealed with water and not…Mircea cooties), to reveal what must have once been a store-bought card, now murdered and covered in bits of construction paper, glitter, and globs of glue. 'Merry Christmas' was emblazed on it in bright (and sparkly) writing, and underneath was a drawing of what appeared to be a Mircea-Santa holding a demon head in one hand, making a peace sign with the other. She opened the envelope, avoiding the still wet-looking glue spots, only to be met with a loud cry of 'Jingle bells!'
Which meant that the dumb card was a music dumb card. Freaking brilliant. Eden closed the card, only for the music to not stop playing. She looked at the tab, fully out of the card's slot and too flimsy to slip back in, and at Mircea, who was attempting to stiffle his laughter with his fist in order to not drown out the song.
"So, do ya li-"
The nephilem used the opening Mircea provided to stuff the card into his mouth, envelope and all, then ley-line traveled back to the vortex in Rome.
Eden could only hope that she didn't have Jingle Bells stuck in her head as she was fighting against the demons.