Merry Christmas Eve, everyone! Hefty chapter of Tricked Too is going up tomorrow as a Christmas gift, but since there's always a gift the night before, enjoy this...

December 15th, 1994

Christmas Town (North Pole: 90.0000° N, 135.0000° W)

4:15pm

"Ok, that's good – now, bend your knees – "

"I am bending them- "

"Well bend them more, you look like a damn beanpole- "

"I am trying to concentrate, so if you'd kindly – AH!"

Ivy sighed and shifted her weight backwards, letting herself sit back into the snow. Next to her, Jack Skellington, Pumpkin King and Master of Frights, spit snow from his mouth as he fought to untangle himself from his skis.

"Look, Bone Boy, we can call it a day," Ivy offered, squinting down at the twinkling lights of Christmas Town. A strange light hovered at the horizon line, far away and eerily flat. "The elves may be creepy, but I bet they can make a mean cup of peppermint hot chocolate."

"Absolutely not," Jack said, sounding far more determined than anybody laying face-down in the snow ought to be. "This is an important part of winter activities, is it not?"

"Yeah, but – "

"And did I not say I would learn to do this?"

Ivy rolled her eyes. "We've got a few more days here, Jack, there's time to -" Jack's glare interrupted her. "Ok, fine, you did."

"Then I will not be giving up halfway through." (Personally, Ivy thought they'd gone far past the halfway point.) "Unless – are you cold?"

Typical. "I've been hauling your boney ass across the mountain all day; I'm sweating. I'm great. It's just – I know this isn't easy, ok? And you've made a lot of progress today."

It was true. That morning (though with the polar night, it was hard to tell the time), they'd taken the lift to the top of the strange mountain range surrounding Christmas Town to begin Jack's lesson. Ivy still couldn't look at his skis without fighting a laugh – they'd been made in some workshop in the Town, since 7-foot skis were hard to find in the natural world. Jack had looked so thrilled, too, wrapped up in knitwear that he absolutely didn't need. He'd strapped the (ridiculous, so ridiculous) skis to his impossibly tiny feet, taken one step, and had somehow managed to tumble down the entire length of the mountain, Ivy chasing after him once she'd finished laughing.

"I never imagined," he'd puffed, "that simply being upright would be so difficult!"

It took a lot to deter Jack, of course, which meant they'd been up and down dozens of times. Ivy took off her helmet and goggles, idlily wondering if steam was erupting off her head. Beside her, Jack finally managed to sit up, tapping his skis together absent-mindedly.

"I suppose I have," he sighed. "But I'd like to stay upright a bit longer, if possible. I seem to go awfully fast."

"You've got to bend more than normal people," Ivy insisted, "or the Wind is gonna just blast you away."

Jack narrowed his sockets at her. "And you couldn't ask for that not to happen?"

"What ever happened to learning things the 'natural way'? No cheats, dude."

Jack muttered disparaging something under his breath and toyed with his knee pads. (Ivy knew he could probably withstand anything, but the sight was too funny not to insist upon.) "Well," he begrudgingly said at last, "I suppose there's no harm in taking a break for a moment."

They stared out at the horizon once more. It was strange, being literally on top of the world. There were no mountains on the other side of Christmas Town, just the ocean merging into the sky. It was pitch black – as it apparently had been since September, but the darkness was no trouble for those with night vision. It did, however, make the endless sheets of ice seem all the more expansive. It was a new sort of weird (which was Ivy's new sort of normal). She thought longingly of the Alps back home, of the Dolomites, of anything that might break up the strange endlessness of it all.

There was one benefit, however. The stars above them were incredible. Multicolored and almost close enough to touch, with some seeming to sparkle from the inky blue velvet of the sky. Light pollution didn't seem to be a thing in Christmas Town, leaving the two Halloween Citizens to marvel at the display above them.

"I can't believe we haven't seen the Northern Lights yet," Ivy said, her voice breaking the stillness of the air. (That was the other thing – other than the faint carols, it was so quiet up here. Nothing like the constant bumps and screams of Halloween.) "You've seen them before, right?"

"A few centuries ago," Jack replied softly, tilting his own head back. The starlight made his skull glow faintly and the snow around them sparkle. "I was doing a specialized scare on some boy in Iceland. It started when I was leaving."

"Lucky. Well, maybe before we head home… anyway, how're you feeling about all this?" She gestured to his skis.

"A bit frustrated," Jack admitted. "But it's nothing I can't overcome."

God, some days she just wanted to bottle his optimism and knock it back like a shot of Cat's Eye. The skeleton shook himself, jaw set. "I will get this," he said, mostly to himself. Then, to Ivy: "How long did it take you to learn?"

The human shrugged, blowing a tuft of hair that had come loose. "Not sure – I wasn't good good for like two years, but I was also little, so. Adults could probably learn it faster. Anton picked it up pretty quick - little kids just love to go fast, I guess. End of his first season- he was like four or something - he was way more comfortable than I was."

"Really?" Jack turned to her, sockets wide. "I'd think you'd be adapt at this time of thing."

Ivy thought back to her own first season, four years old and staring at the end of her blades, frantically repeating pizza pizza remember to pizza. "I hadn't started skating yet, so I didn't have the balance for it." She patted Jack on the shoulder. "You're the best Scarer in the world and you taught yourself Latin for fun. You can do this, no problem."

"Hmm." Jack stared at his skis. "When you've talked about balance – do you think our scaring balance could work?"

Ivy hadn't considered it that way, but perhaps Jack was right. All Scarers needed a good sense of balance when creeping up on a target – the slightest shift of weight could give away their position. "Let's try it!"

She turned onto her stomach and pushed up, letting her board stick itself into the snow. Hopping a few paces in front of Jack, she turned her back to him and waited.

"Don't go too fast this time, alright?" Jack said nervously. "Nice and steady."

"Yeah, that's me," Ivy snorted. "Just hang on, alright?" She strapped her helmet back on as Jack shuffled to his feet, Ivy positioned between his two skis. His height and skinniness allowed her to move around pretty easily, even when he didn't have a death grip on her shoulders.

Like he did now. "C'mon, Jack, find the balance. I won't move until you do."

"Bossy, bossy," Jack muttered again, but Ivy sensed he was focusing all the same. She took the time to prepare herself as well, breathing in the fridged North Pole air and allowing herself a moment to recognize that this weirdness was her life now. It may drive her insane and make navigating the Human World a lot harder, but she wouldn't trade it for anything.

She sensed rather than heard Jack's readiness and responded accordingly. Bracing her core and leaning forward, the Citizens shot down the slope. Jack gave a rather undignified screech but maintained his balance, his skis staying straight. Ivy shifted her weight back and forth to keep them level, feeling the wind thrash against her jacket as their speed increased.

Then, one of Jack's skis hit a rock.

It was a quick thing – one foot went out, then the other. Ivy's body tightened, ready to dive into the nearest powder bank and avoid the bone-filled collision, but then –

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" she shouted, North Pole tranquility be damned. "GET OFF!"

"EYES FORWARD!" Jack shouted back, which was rather rich of him to say when he was the one clinging to her back like an overgrown spider monkey. Ivy fought the urge to pinwheel her arms at the new weight distribution, but by some miracle they remained upright, continuing to rocket towards the bottom. Jack's legs wrapped around her middle and his arms snapped to her helmet, blocking her goggles.

"JACK, I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!" She smacked at his arms to clear her vision, back protesting. Sure, Jack wasn't really heavy – having no muscle or fat made it easy – but he was too damn lanky, and his limbs were god damn everywhere. He wanted to do this? Fine.

"Alright, now, if you could just point us towHERE ARE WE GOING NOW? IVY? IVY KUNZE!"

The human cackled, bending her knees and sending them into a series of sharp turns. Jack yelped, one of his skis smacking her helmet but Ivy pressed on, wishing there was some sort of incline for them to go flying into the air on. She leaned forward even further and swore the Wind was at her back, the snow appearing so fast beneath her board that the sparkles became a blur. She gave a wild whoop, adding her screams to Jack's as they left their mark in the snow.

Deep in her stomach, despite the euphoria, Ivy felt a prodding of her Halloween instincts. Not now, she thought, as she took them through a thicket of trees. She cackled as Jack's face made acquaintance with a low hanging branch of snow. Then, because curiosity was a part of Halloween and being human, she asked: what is it, then?

Wipeout, came the thought.

Wipeout? What wipe –

The snow had become such a blur, in fact, that the difference between ice and snow became indistinguishable. Ivy's board shot to the side and she lost control, sending Jack tumbling over her shoulders. She hit the ground hard and failed to keep in a swear as her gloved hands hit the ice. She tumbled a bit (always a strange sensation when there was something strapped to your feet) before shooting out an arm and digging it into the snow, slowing her decent and piling up powder until she stopped, bruised and ragged.

Gingerly, she lifted her head to see where Jack had ended up.

The Pumpkin King was detangling himself once again, taking off his skull and shaking out the snow that had fallen into it. "Brain freeze," the skull swore as a large hunk of ice slid from one of the eye sockets. He stood at last, cracking his back. "How are you?"

"Eeejh," was her response. Groaning, she pulled herself into a sitting position and tested her limbs. Nothing broken, thank God, but she knew her shoulder and neck would hurt come morning. "Ok. I think we're done for the day."

"What, one bad fall and you're done?" Jack spread his arms, grinning. "I've had my bones scattered across the slopes and I'm still standing."

"Shut up, Jack." She flopped backwards into the powder, staring at the stars through the gaps in the fir trees. "Some of us still have flesh to bruise."

Jack clicked his teeth in mild sympathy, then appeared over the edges of her foggy vision. Fumbling with her goggles, she set them to the top of her helmet and blinked at Jack. Sure, it exposed her to the frigid winter air, but she felt better making proper eye contact with him.

Or – socket contact? Whatever.

"Come on now, get up," Jack urged, one ski poking her in the shoulder. Ivy groaned again but complied, wincing as her shoulder stretched. Jack considered her a moment, and briefly Ivy thought he was going to hug her or something before his hand shot out and grabbed the neck of her jacket. Faster than he had any right to move, Jack poured a handful of snow down the back of her coat, grinning at her shrieks.

"YOU BONEY ASSHOLE!"

"You looked like you needed a wakeup," he dismissed easily as Ivy jumped about, hands clawing at her neck. "And we're almost at the bottom, anyway."

They were. Ivy could see the warm lights of Christmas Town as individual buildings in the distance, rather than the haze of light it had been at the mountain's top. Ivy shuddered with the chill and squinted at the lights, her spirits dropping further than the snow on her back. A flat strip stood before them, long before the next dip in the snow, and she felt her energy dip at the thought of walking. Sighing, she bent down to unstrap her board and begin the humiliating stamp through the snow, only for Jack to clear his throat.

The skeleton was standing upright, perfectly balanced on his skis. He held two large branches in his hands, one dug deep into the snow, and the other offered to Ivy.

"I believe," Jack said with a twinkle in his eye, "that we might be able to work out an easier way."

Still embarrassing, Ivy supposed, but it beat the alternative. "Oh, so now you decide to be nice." Jack didn't move, aside from his craggy grin growing, so she grasped the end of the branch and allowed Jack to pull her along behind him as he walked across the flat plane. Unable to resist, thought, she snarked, "an easier way would be finding a Gateway, or you shadow-fading us to the lodge."

Jack hummed, seeming to consider it. "Well," he began, "the easiest way would've been for you to not send us careening down the mountain, but you never were fond of 'I Told You So's'."

Ivy's jaw dropped. "Excuse me? YOU were the one who tripped over the rock and jumped on me!"

"You were the one who didn't slow down."

"Oh, my GOD, dude, you liked it."

"I don't think I said that."

"What's that, Halloween magic?" she gasped to herself, cocking an ear to her chest. "You know Jack's just a skinny liar?" Jack shook his head as she laughed, using the branch to drag her closer to Jack. "C'mon, admit it. You had fun."

Jack looked down at her then, his snarky smile fading into something genuine. "We did, didn't we?"

Back at the lodge, Ivy would shake off snow like a wet dog and Jack would complain the entire time. They'd raid the hot chocolate bar, add far too many chocolate chip shavings to their whipped cream, and Jack would pester her about the inevitable bruise. They'd avoid the carolers and huddle by the fire before Ivy passed out, Jack's lap used as her pillow as the Pumpkin King tapped into the ancient magic that sat quietly at the top of the world.

But for now, the world was quiet and still once more, broken only the occasional sound of laughter from the two Citizens who didn't quite belong here, but that was alright. The North Pole wrapped its magic around them all the same, breathing out through the Wind.

And far above the pair, the Northern Lights began to dance.

In the quest of skiing/snowboarding, I taught myself snowboarding after nearly impaling myself on my skis and it went about as well as Jack's lesson is going. Meanwhile, Ivy is like those kids who skied their way out of the womb and looked disgusted that I was inching my way down the slopes.

Happy Holidays to all, and hopefully your own mountain adventures go well!

-Aria