Holiday Special #5: Christmas

Christmas may have only been James' second favorite holiday, but it was his very favorite season. Few things gave him the same sense of satisfaction as finding or making the perfect present for someone. Seeing the look on their face was always the icing on the cake. So finding himself with multiple invites for Christmas day left him with a bit of a choice on his hands. In the end, he delivered packages to several mildly disappointed parties on Christmas Eve and saved Christmas Day itself for the Heberts.

The Hebert house looked better than it had in years. James had discovered a [Repair] skill and spent nearly a week grinding it by fixing everything he could get his hands on. And frequently re-breaking it just to do it again. Suffice to say, the bad step got repaired. And the fridge. And the shutters. And the roof. [Fashion Design] was finessed into working for the Christmas decorations by Taylor, making the Hebert house the best and most tastefully decorated house north of downtown.

"Wow! Your tree is gorgeous, Mr. Hebert, did Taylor help with it?" James made a beeline for the pile of presents and tucked his various packages into the stack.

"How many times do I have to tell you, just call me Danny." Taylor's father smiled over his eggnog. "Taylor refused to design the tree. She said it would be 'cheating'."

A weight settled onto James' shoulders. "So I did it instead. 96.38% chance Taylor couldn't do a better job of it."

"Dinah! Still telling everyone how much safer you are living here?" James craned his neck to try and see the girl on his back.

"99.74% chance I stop training with you guys within two weeks if I move back home," she reported. "100% chance I'd be BORED."

"And we've fought far too hard saving this city to unleash the S-Class threat that is a bored preteen precog with [Knife Throwing] and an AGI score in the 90s." Taylor plucked Dinah off James' back and set her onto the freshly-reupholstered couch.

Danny placed a tray of cookies on the coffee table and settled into his new armchair (dropped by Lung for no apparent reason when they prevented his breakout). "That would be terrifying. Now, are we just shooting the breeze, or are we opening presents?"

No one was upset with their presents. Taylor had made each of them a bespoke silk suit that could stop small arms fire. Before anyone could comment, Dinah primly informed the men that she had known what Taylor was making and had requested a suit instead of a dress. Dinah herself had bought them each an Earth Aleph movie and informed them that these would be their new favorite movies. James got Resident Evil, Taylor received Starship Troopers, and Danny got a documentary called Superbarrio Gomez: Union Superhero. The union head was still laughing as he handed out keys. Between all the repairs and cash from Illusion Barriers, he'd found expenses much lower than expected over the year. Taylor got a panel van that the dockworkers had modified with hundreds of small terrariums and concealed vents to let insects swarm in and out readily. Dinah was delighted and entirely unsurprised by her new grey bicycle and lock. She'd apparently spent the last month dropping hints about hating pink. James got a motorcycle and a speech about how Gamer's Body or not, helmets are required by law.

James was very happy with his presents, but even happier with the thought that he was going to give the best gifts of the year. [Crafting] may be unfair, but as long as the presents are good…

It took nearly 300 subjective hours of grinding, but James managed to put together a surprisingly cute dragonscale charm bracelet with two charms: a crystal unicorn that granted high level poison resistance (no more worries about 'candy') and a silver ladybug with a GPS tracker hidden in it. Peace of mind in jewelry form. James found it a little suspicious that he got a silvery-white baby dragon as an award for crafting her present, but her squeal of joy when it popped of its box told him he just the best present she'd get that year. One for one.

Danny was a little harder to find something for. No significant trauma to counter and adults don't usually want something toy-like. Building a new ferry was bigger than he could handle by himself. Using any of his influence to push a well-known pet-project of Daniel Hebert, Head of the Dockworker's Union. Taylor agreed that they didn't need that kind of scrutiny. In the end, James spent a subjective week grinding STR and [Rising Strike]. The video him launching a diminutive tugboat out to sea and certificate promising to 'take care of' the other ships as soon as he could steer a battle that way. The following hug was hard enough to actually overpower James' Physical Resistance a little. Two for two.

"Taylor, finding a present for you was… difficult. Your habits are kicking ass and collecting bugs. We've already done everything either of us can think of for you there. Every book that might contain a skill and exotic bugs from all around the world, bought with boss drop money. Dragon bone and scales were used to replace or repair every part of your gear. Your laptop is absolute top-of-the-line. It took forever to think what else you might want." James handed Taylor a long, thin box. "In the end, I had to ask Danny what you would want most in the world and get Dinah's help finding it."

As Taylor opened the box, she froze.

James continued his speech apologetically. "It's been rebuilt so completely it might not even count as the same thing, but it's nearly invulnerable now."

Taylor began crying.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to mess it up!"

The glomp caught James by surprise. "Thankyouthankyouthankyou…"

Three for three. Recovering Annette's flute was totally worth it.

Author's Notes: This really wasn't supposed to be or take this long, but I rewrote the ending with different presents like three times and this was the best one. Merry belated Christmas!