Snow is falling softly outside the window of the di Angelo Manor, the soft crystals of water speckle the grounds with iridescent glitter, alighting the gardens with an icy glow. Nico sits inside the warmth of the manor house, idly watching a snowglobe. It has a gold base, shaped like a crown, with two figures dancing together amidst the falling 'snow'. A princess, wearing a plum pink dress; and a prince, with beautiful short blonde hair that falls softly in waves around his head, a sharp jawline, perfectly sculpted nose, and freckles. His bright crystalline blue eyes seem to sparkle with warmth and life, despite the plastic figure's inherent lack of it.
Nico sighs, wishing beyond all hope that the prince inside the snow globe could come to life and dance with him. Alas, Nico doesn't think Saint Nicholas can gift living people as presents, and so all he can do is daydream. However, it seems at the moment he couldn't even do that.
"Candles! We need more candles!" Nico hears his Grandfather call from just outside the doorway. The elderly man walks into the room and notices Nico's daydreaming. "Nico, please, no more daydreaming! We have to finish decorating before our guests arrive!"
Nico turns around sheepishly, hands behind his back, "Yes, Grandfather."
The doorbell chimes, catching the attention of the Grandfather. He pulls out his pocket watch to check the time.
"Twenty-two minutes early. Such bad manners." He mutters disdainfully, yet still moves to the door. Nico turns around to help their maid finish decorating. He retrieves a pink box from the box of decorations and opens it to reveal a glass ornament of a ballerina.
"Oh it's beautiful, young sir!" The maid comments, admiring the pink clad woman in a relevé.
"Thank you. My mamma gave this to me the Christmas I saw my first ballet." Nico explained. The maid smiles at him, then turns around to grab more decorations from the box behind her. Nico carefully hangs the delicate ornament on one of the highest boughs of the tree that he could reach (which was, admittedly, not that high). He hears the maid mutter an 'Oh, dear!' and turns around to see what the matter was. The maid is holding a gingerbread house and soldiers, all with small, noticeable bite marks taken out of them.
"The mice have found their way into the Christmas boxes!" She huffs, annoyed. Nico comes over and picks up one of the half-eaten gingerbread men.
"You haven't seen Hazel, have you?" Nico says, suspicious. The maid and Nico glance around the room, listening. In the now quiet room, the sound of chewing can be heard. Nico leans over the side of a nearby couch, finding his little sister, Hazel, in the act of eating one of the gingerbread cookies. He reaches down and snatches the gingerbread man from her hands.
"Hey!" Hazel yells, angry. She folds her arms irritably as Nico and the maid circle around the lounge to her.
"Mystery solved," Nico says pointedly, laughing at the look on Hazel's face, "You might want to wash that icing off before the mice take a bite of you."
He reaches forward to brush some crumbs off her face, but she swats his hand away.
"You can't tell me what to do!"
"No, but I'm sure Grandfather would insist on a bath." Hazel quickly turns and runs out of the room to wash her face. Nico turns to shrug at the maid with a small smile. The two turn around to continue decorating the living room, however before they could do so, the door to the room opens, and in walks Nico's Grandfather and his Aunt Hestia.
"Nico!" Aunt Hestia calls out in joy, rushing forwards to swoop Nico into a hug.
"Aunt Hestia!" Nico replies, just as enthusiastic, and hugs back.
"You're at least a head taller!"
"I thought you weren't coming this year?"
"And miss a chance to visit you and vex my father?" Aunt Hestia chuckles.
Nico's Grandfather groans, "You're already conspiring against me!"
"Don't worry, I'll wait until after your little party before I do any mischief!"
The Grandfather frowns disapprovingly, huffs and walks away. As he does so, Nico pulls away from his Aunt, yet still clutches at her arms. "Where did you go this time? I want to hear all about it!" He asks excitedly.
"Well, let's see. I met an emperor, I sailed on a junk, I had my first rickshaw ride, and I hiked The Great Wall of China." Aunt Hestia replied.
"I'd appreciate it, Hestia, if you'd stop filling Nico's head with your stories! Just because you go traipsing all over the globe rather than stay put like a sensible person!"
"There's a world full of wonders out there Father, and Nico deserves to experience them!"
The Grandfather points a finger at Hestia, his mouth open ready to continue arguing with her, however is stopped by the doorbell ringing. He pauses, and looks at the door before turning back to say something to Hestia, who stops him, "Your guests are waiting," she says.
His eyes flick from Hestia to the door for a moment, before he huffs and walks away to greet his new guests. Hestia turns back to Nico and sighs, "Some people never change. But, we can always hope!"
Later that evening, Hazel, Nico and Hestia are sitting in the living room. Hazels plays with her dolls on the plush maroon carpet, making the characters have an argument of some sort, and Hestia is regails Nico with more stories of her travels.
"Then, he bowed and asked me to dance," she says, a nostalgic smile on her face.
"Did you?" Nico asks curiously.
"I couldn't say no to the king!"
"You must have felt like royalty! I wish I could've been there…" Nico says, forlorn. Hestia looks around, making sure Nico's Grandfather wasn't listening.
"Maybe next time you can come with me." She proposes.
Nico frowns, "Grandfather would never allow it."
Hestia stands up and walks to a table that has neatly wrapped presents layed out upon it, "Well, surely he won't object to these."
"Here you go Hazel," she says as she hands a gift to Hazel, who stands to take it from her Aunt. She turns to Nico with the second gift, "And for you, my dear."
Nico takes his gift and unwraps it slowly as Hazel plays on the ground with her new doll. Once the wrapping paper is removed it reveals a lovely handmade nutcracker.
"A nutcracker!" Nico exclaims in delight. He moves the arm up and down lightly to open and close its mouth. "He's wonderful. Thank you, Aunt Hestia!" He stands and hugs her.
"He sure is ugly," Hazel states.
"On the outside, maybe… but on the inside beats the heart of a prince." Hestia replies.
Hazel stands up to look at the nutcracker quickly, bumping into Nico, who, startled, drops the fragile doll onto the hard wooden ground. A snap echoes in the room and the group look down to see the nutcracker lying on the ground, an arm snapped off.
"Sorry Nico…" Hazel apologises shamefully.
Nico sighs, "It's fine. Pass it here, would you."
Hazel picks up the nutcracker doll and his severed arm and passes them up to her brother. He takes them from her and reaches for a nearby ribbon and fashions it into a mini sling for the nutcracker's broken arm, "Please don't be too mad at Hazel. She didn't mean to hurt you," he whispers to it. As he picks it up to inspect his tying skill, the nutcracker's blue eyes seem to twinkle for a moment, unnoticed by the boy holding it.
The old grandfather clock on the wall ticks away as another minute passes; it's nearing midnight. Nico's grandfather leans over the lounge to gaze at a sleeping Nico, nestled comfortably into the deep burgundy velvet pillows. Hestia enters the room from behind him.
"It's time we wake him, he needs to sleep in his own bed, goodness knows the back pains he's going to have tomorrow." The Grandfather comments.
"And spoil a beautiful dream? No, let him sleep. Nico's not a child anymore, he deserves the chance to do as he wishes, and if he chooses to sleep on the lounge, who are we to disturb him?" Hestia replies.
"A young man needs to be responsible and practical!"
"Nico is responsible. You raised him well, father. It's time you trusted him to grow up and make his own choices."
The Grandfather grumbles to himself as he adjusts the grandfather clock on the wall, "It's late. I'll see you in the morning."
The grandfather turns to leave the room. Hestia throws the blanket resting on the back of the lounge over Nico's body, adjusting to fit snugly around his frame. She smiles fondly down at him before leaving. After she leaves, the grandfather clock's hour hand slowly ticks over to 12 o'clock, the carved wooden owl atop of its eyes becomes aglow with green light, the chime of midnight echoes hauntingly around the room. As the chimes end, light explodes from a tiny mousehole at the bottom of the Christmas tree, beams of light – magic – flick through the room. The mousehole glows blue as teeny tiny mouse soldiers flood into the room. They begin to attack the Christmas tree, destroying ornaments on the lower boughs. As this is happening, another magical beam shoots out from the mouse hole, engulfing the nutcracker in its glow, causing him to awaken. His eyes blink as he looks around himself, his eyes falling upon the mice.
Jumping up, the Nutcracker pulls a sword from the sheath by his side with his uninjured arm.
"Damn mice!" He yells, rushing to engage said vermin in battle. The noise awakens Nico, who notices that his nutcracker is missing, and glances around the room for it. He spots a mouse on the arm of the couch, eating one of the gingerbread men,
"Oi, put that down you rat! Go away!" Nico shoos the animal off the lounge, it falls to the ground with a yelp.
Down on the floor, the Nutcracker is still fighting off the rest of the mice, severely outnumbered, "Back off, you traitors!"
Hearing this shout, Nico glances to the bottom of the Christmas tree and spots the battle currently happening.
"I must be dreaming. Or insane…" He mutters to himself. He looks towards the mousehole as it glows once again, this time spewing out two more soldiers and a large mouse (Nico suspects is actually a rat) dressed in royal regalia. The soldiers stand aside as the King? Mouse (rat?) moves forward, scanning the room. It sees the Nutcracker and growls.
"Even as a nutcracker, you're a thorn in my side!" The mouse – no that's definitely a rat – announces. The Nutcracker looks down at the rat and points his sword towards him.
"And to you, I will stay a thorn!" The Nutcracker shouts back. The Nutcracker kicks over a book onto the rat. Its little mouse underlings protect it as it draws its sceptre. As the two continue to fight, Nico snaps out of his confused state of dissociation. He is so, so confused. He focuses on the fight as the Nutcracker kicks the rat into the wall. The rat regains its footing and charges at the Nutcracker, unexpectedly, and disarms the Nutcracker, his sword clattering across the ground, landing in front of a couple of mice. The rat points its sceptre in the face of the Nutcracker, wounded on the ground.
The rat smiles maliciously, "It's time I turned you into something useful," the rat says, turning his sceptre into an axe, "like kindling!"
Before the rat could strike the Nutcracker, Nico approached from behind the rat with a large glass jar, "Not in my house." He says.
The rat turns to face Nico, turning its axe into a sceptre again, "Meddling human towering tall, let my sceptre shrink you small!"
"Look out!" The Nutcracker warns.
The rat thrusts its sceptre forwards, golden light shooting from its tip, hitting NIco. The rat chuckles as Nico begins to shrink. He drops the jar he's holding as the weight gets too heavy to bear as his – already admittedly small – stature becomes even more miniscule. The rat begins to walk towards Nico, who retreats nervously.
"Well this isn't good." Nico mutters to himself.