Merry Christmas everyone...
Deck the Halls
A story on a shamelessly holidayish theme (and thus best read while listening
to Christmas carols)
by Sionna Klassen
Shuu hummed "Jingle Bells" absolutely tunelessly as he stretched out
an arm and put the star on the top of the tree near the window. A perfect
amount of frost decorated the panes.
"Don't you know any other Christmas carols?" Signal complained,
shaking his hair to try and get it out of reach of Artemis, who regarded it as
the best plaything to come along since the mice who had been inhabiting the
chimney up until a few weeks ago. Signal was starting to take seriously
Kurama's playful offer to braid it to get it out of the cat's reach. He glared
at the white furball. "Will you stop that?" he demanded. Artemis only blinked
blue eyes at him and pretended to have no interest in him whatsoever.
"I can't help it," Shuu answered Signal's first complaint. "It's stuck
in my head."
"Fine, but do you have to subject the rest of us to it?" Hiei asked,
holding up a red ball decorated with swirls of gold glitter so that Shuu could
put it on the higher branches. He could have just leaped up there but Shuu was
already on the ladder and serious mayhem had been threatened against anyone who
even accidentally messed up the room.
"I'll put something else on," Shin offered, putting down another box
of ornaments on the table.
"Can we listen to the Loreena McKennitt one again?" Quatre asked,
pausing in his search for the best place on the tree to put one of the glass
snowflakes.
"I like the traditional stuff," Ryo commented from where he was trying
to get the red tinsel wreath up over the window without falling off the chair
or getting tinsel all over the place. He was being fairly successful, at least
so far.
"You people can't agree on anything," Pulse said from where he was
sitting in a tangle of Christmas lights, trying to get all the knots out.
Signal snickered and plugged the lights in, making Pulse look like a liberally
decorated plastic dwarf in someone's yard. "Hey!" Pulse complained, annoyed
that Signal had revealed just how tangled the lights were.
"Let me help," Shin offered to forestall any hostilities, unplugging
the lights again and tugging on the knots.
"A robot with no grasp of electronics?" Seiji asked.
"Oh, Pulse just has a ton of bugs in his programming--ow!" Signal
yelped as Artemis pounced on his hair again. "Cut it out, you furball! Ow!"
"I think you had that coming," Touma informed him, stifling a snicker
and refraining from mentioning to Signal that Artemis was anything more than an
ordinary cat. This was more fun.
"So what music are we putting on, before Shuu can start subjecting us
all to his caroling again?" Kurama asked, picking up a green ball and handing
it to Eagle.
"Maybe we should have a vote," Eagle commented, glancing at Signal as
he yanked his hair out of reach of Artemis' claws and tried to twist it up
somehow, grumbling.
Duo snickered. "Oh here, let me help you out. Remind me not to let my
hair grow as long as yours." Signal surrendered, since he was getting nowhere
(not having been programmed to deal with styling hair), and sat down and let
Duo braid it.
Ryo yelped suddenly as he dropped the tacks and they spilled all over
the wooden floor. "Look out guys, loose tacks..."
"Weird stuff," Duo said, hands full of blue strands. "Doesn't really
feel like hair..."
"Well, it isn't really, it's my cooling system..."
"Anyway!" Hiei almost shouted. "Can we get back to the point?"
"We had a point?" Kurama asked.
Lantis stretched up a hand and put an ornament on the tree. Eagle
peeked over his shoulder and smiled when he noticed that it was an eagle made
out of light balsa wood. "What's your opinion on the music, Lantis?"
Lantis shrugged. "Either way. It doesn't matter to me."
"Maybe we should get Hikaru to pick it."
"Why, she wouldn't be able to hear it in the kitchen anyway," Kuroi
said, sliding a present under the tree, wrapped in paper decorated with
intricate Celtic designs and labeled "for Kaname."
"Hey, I want to know why we got kicked out of the kitchen," Yuusuke
complained.
"They were probably afraid that Shuu would eat everything before they
could finish it," Seiji observed. Shuu shook his fist at him.
"There seems to be a common misconception afoot that men are no good
in the kitchen," Mamoru said with a shrug. "I just hope Usako's not making too
much of a mess in there."
"Well, I suppose it should be heartening that we haven't heard the
smoke alarm yet," Kurama replied.
"But isn't it weird that we do all the decorating and the women do all
the cooking?" Ryo asked in puzzlement, picking up the last of the tacks.
"I think they're gossiping about us and that's why they don't want us
in there," Trois said. This being the first time he had spoken in several
hours, everyone glanced at him before getting back to what they had been doing,
which was mostly all trying to fit around the enormous tree to decorate it.
"That sounds like the most likely theory I've heard so far," Touma
said, picking a blue star out of the box of ornaments that hadn't yet been put
on the tree.
"This isn't working," Clef suddenly announced in exasperation.
Everyone turned to look at him and Ferio, who were attempting to get a fire
started in the fireplace, without much success and with a lot of soot getting
all over them. Clef asked plaintively, "Are you *sure* it just wouldn't be the
same if I started it magically?"
The soft strains of vaguely-Celtic music filled the air. Since no one
had noticed anyone in the vicinity of the stereo, they all looked over and saw
Hiro snapping the CD case shut. "Since no one could agree on anything."
"I didn't think you liked Loreena McKennitt," Kurama observed.
"I don't."
Quatre smiled happily at Hiro and then turned back to Kaname, who was
looking quizzically at a pair of miniature mittens to drape over the branches,
wondering what they were supposed to be.
"No, wait, pull on this one here..." Shin said, trying to extract
Pulse from the cords.
"I think I'm stuck."
Several more people converged on the mess of lights. "This is more
tangled than when you started," Seiji cried in exasperation, kneeling on the
floor to help.
"Here, let me get this fire going," Kuwabara said, rolling up his
sleeves and shoving past Ferio and Clef. "You got the wood stacked all wrong..."
"If it's going to turn into such a big deal, maybe I should light
it..." Ryo said.
"But you've almost got the tinsel up," Eagle said. "What about Hiei?"
"I don't do cute little flames," Hiei replied stonily, picking a red
dragon to hang on the tree before Wufei could get it, and delivering a smug
look which made Wufei look severely annoyed.
A knock sounded on the door. "I'll get it," Kurama said, moving toward
the hall. He opened the door to a perfect snowfall and quite a few people on
the steps. "Finished your last-minute shopping?" Kurama asked with a smile.
"Would have been nice if those scatterbrained women hadn't forgotten
all those things they needed..." Sanosuke complained as he carried bags into
the room.
Kenshin shook snow from his hair. "It wasn't so bad..."
"Except for the traffic," Sorata elaborated. "But at least I found the
perfect present for Arashi!"
"Waiting until the very last moment to finish Christmas shopping is a
time-honored tradition," Kurama said. He looked past them onto the doorstep.
"Hello, glad you could make it."
"I'm very sorry we're late," Kotori said with a deep bow. "The trains
were late because of the snow."
"It's all right," Kurama said. "We're still decorating." He invited in
the new guests with a wave, watching Kamui smiling shyly at Kotori as she
shrugged out of her coat and revealed a white dress that was surely her best.
"You might not want to go in the kitchen with that on," Kurama
cautioned as they moved into the living room. "There are all sorts of arcane
cooking activities going on, and it wouldn't be pleasant if your dress was
ruined."
"Oh, I brought a change of clothes," Kotori assured him. "I just
wasn't sure if everything would be ready by the time we arrived."
"Well then, why don't you go get changed and help, and we'll join in
decorating the tree," Fuuma said with a smile for his little sister. She agreed
brightly and hurried away with her bag.
Kenshin had undertaken to help Ryo with the tinsel, and Sano had
already been drafted into assisting with putting ornaments on the tall branches
by those who were substantially shorter, which was almost everyone except for
Eagle and Lantis. Nobuhiko, Jun, and Yahiko were playing with Byakuen in the
corner, and Kurama had overheard them debating earlier whether catnip would
work on a tiger. He hoped they'd decided not. He moved toward the door as he
heard another knock, since there was no room for him at the tree anyway.
"Can we come in too?" a rather chilled-looking Nataku asked, holding
onto Kakyou's arm.
"I don't see why not..."
"Hello," Kotori said, poking her head into the kitchen. "The rest of
the groceries are here too..."
"About time!" Umi said, brushing flour off her hands. "What *were*
those guys doing for so long?"
"I'm a mess," Fuu said, looking up from where she was mixing more
stuffing. Her hands and wrists were covered with butter and spices. "Someone
else will have to get the bags..."
"I would, but Sorata will be all over me," Arashi said with a sigh.
"If someone will take over stirring this gravy, I'll do it," Hikaru
volunteered.
"You look pretty blocked off," Nasuti said to Hikaru, who was fairly
well trapped at the stove by the press of people. "I'll get them." She opened
the door and went into the living room.
"By the way, hi!" Usagi waved to Kotori. "We got started late, so
we're all cooking full speed!"
"I get this feeling that I should be in the living room," Haruka
muttered, looking uneasily at the turkey in front of her, which apparently she
was supposed to pull the entrails out of.
"Haruka, you're so squeamish," Michiru teased. "Let me do it." She
reached calmly inside the turkey as Haruka made a vaguely disgusted face.
"Oh!" Minako suddenly gasped in surprise.
Makoto looked over from where she was mashing the potatoes. "What's
wrong, Minako-chan?"
"The cap fell off the sugar and it all went in the cranberry sauce!"
"All of it?" Setsuna repeated, slightly worried. "You mean the whole
jar?"
"There goes that batch of sauce," Ami sighed.
Nasuti came back in, giggling. "They're doing as badly on decorating
as we are on cooking," she reported.
Keiko peeked out the door and laughed. "They haven't gotten half the
lights untangled yet!"
"Not the ones that were supposed to go on the tree, I hope!" Botan
exclaimed.
"No, those are all on," Nasuti said. "If they'd been silly enough to
put the ornaments on *before* the lights, we would all have had to hit them
with pillows, I think."
"Oh, that sounds like a good idea anyway," Hotaru said mischievously.
Elara dug through the bags and handed Yukina some more celery and
onions to chop for another batch of stuffing. She kept most of them for
herself, chopping them at a miraculous rate. The one thing that Elara and
Yukina could both do fairly reliably was chop vegetables.
"Here, pour just a little milk in for me..." Makoto was saying to
Kaoru, standing next to her at the sink.
"You don't think we have enough food yet?" Haruka asked, opting to
peel potatoes instead of deal with turkey. "I mean, that turkey's going to take
hours to cook..."
"That's why we already did two," Lilina explained. "But even that
won't be enough for all of us, so we're putting on two more. But we can only
cook two at once." She gestured to the two ovens. "So by the time we finish
with everything else and everyone's had their first helping, the next two
should be ready."
"I can't believe how many people are here..." Fuu said.
"I think this was a great idea, don't you, Fuu-chan?" Hikaru said in
excitement. "Christmas is a time to be together with other people!"
"Well, not everybody likes to be around other people at this time,"
Arashi said softly.
"Or ever, if you're thinking of who I think you are," Karen said,
helping Umi to roll out more pie crust.
"I do wish Sumeragi-san had decided to attend," Arashi confessed. "He
needs some brightness in his life."
"Well, we can't change his mind," Umi said, pounding dough for the pie
crust on the table.
"Um, how are you going to bake the pies when the turkeys fill the
ovens?" Kotori asked.
"We're going to put them on afterwards and hope people are willing to
wait a while between dinner and dessert, that's what," Umi answered. "Here, do
me a favor and start chopping apples, will you?"
"Of course," Kotori said, sitting down and picking up the knife.
"I have to be careful who I ask to chop things," Umi confessed in a
low tone. "Usagi almost cut her finger off already and you saw what Minako did
to the cranberries..." she looked over at where Ami and Minako were trying to
salvage the sauce and shared a conspiratorial giggle with Kotori.
"Ohh, I'm hungry," Usagi complained, sniffing the air. "Those turkeys
smell so good..."
"Try to contain yourself, Usagi," Luna said acidly from the floor,
tucked into a corner to avoid getting her tail stepped on.
"Hey Luna, why aren't you in the other room with the other cats?" Rei
asked.
Luna sniffed. "Artemis is more interested in playing with that robot's
hair and Byakuen is hardly of a size for me to be associating with. Besides
which, we don't speak the same language."
"And there's always the risk that Jun would step on your tail, I
suppose," Rei said.
"He wouldn't do that on purpose," Nasuti objected.
"Um, excuse me?" a soft voice asked, as a blond head poked in the
door. "I'm sorry, but I don't know if I should be in the living room or the
kitchen..."
"Well, let's be practical about it, dear," Karen said to Nataku,
showing no surprise at its entrance. "Do you know how to cook?"
"No," Nataku confessed.
"Then out. We have enough unskilled hands in here as it is. Oh yes,
and you're sworn to secrecy about whatever you saw in here," Shizuru put in.
Nataku looked puzzled. "All right, if you say so." Nonplussed, it
closed the door again.
"Done," Duo said, releasing the end of Signal's now-braided hair.
"It feels weird," Signal said, running his fingers across the top.
"You'll get used to it. Hey guys, got those lights untangled yet?" Duo
asked, moving toward Pulse, Shin, Seiji, and Touma, who were all working on
them.
"I think we may have to concede defeat at this rate..." Touma said,
holding up a string of lights that was free for about a foot before vanishing
into another knot.
"Hey, I don't want to be stuck like this for the rest of the night!"
Pulse complained.
"Tinsel's up!" Ryo reported cheerfully.
"Oh good, maybe you can help us with these lights..." Shin said.
"Sure," Ryo said, then glanced over at the fireplace, where Kuwabara
was being no more successful than Clef and Ferio had been. Clef and Ferio
couldn't help looking vindicated.
"I think at this point we should forget about lighting the fire the
old-fashioned way, guys," Ryo said with a laugh, looking at Kuwabara's
soot-streaked face.
"Every time I get it started, it goes out!" Kuwabara complained.
"All right, maybe we'll do it your way after all," Kurama said to
Clef. "Since I think you're the least likely to set the house on fire..."
"I wouldn't do that," Ryo protested.
"But your friends need your help to get the lights untangled," Kurama
said helpfully, pointing out where the Troopers and Duo were surrounding the
beleaguered Pulse attempting to free him.
Ryo shrugged. "Okay. I just hope we don't make it worse again." He
headed over to help.
"Finally," Clef muttered, and picked up his staff, casting a spell
with a muttered word. Fire arced from the stone in the staff and landed on the
wood, immediately starting a full blaze.
"Perfect," Ferio said in satisfaction. He looked down at his sooty
hands and arms. "Except that now we need a shower."
Kakyou held a crystal star in his hands for a moment, glancing at
Kamui with unreadable golden eyes. Then he reached up to put it on the tree, in
a place where it caught the blue glow from a light and glittered. Kamui held a
tiny wooden angel, searching for the best place to put it. He suddenly looked
back as Signal gave a yowl of protest, discovering that his hair, though
braided, was still long enough that it was well within Artemis' reach.
"Why won't you leave me alone, cat?" Signal cried, yanking his braid
up. "I'm missing out on all the decorating!"
"Obviously it isn't short enough yet," Kurama said. "Will you let me
try?"
"Anything to get this cat off my case," Signal said as Artemis
endeavored to look innocent.
Kurama got Signal sitting down again and unbraided his hair, then
looked over Signal's head at Duo and beckoned with a wicked grin. Duo abandoned
the mess of lights, nearly getting his foot caught in the process and joining
Pulse in captivity. He managed to extricate himself and walked over. "Hey, you
undoing all my hard work?"
Kurama whispered something in his ear. Duo broke into a huge grin and
took half of Signal's hair. "Hey, what are you guys doing?" Signal asked
suspiciously.
"Getting your hair out of Artemis' reach. That's what you wanted,
isn't it?" Kurama asked innocently.
"Yeah..."
"Done," Kaoru said with a sigh, flopping into a chair. "Now we only
have to wait for the turkeys to finish cooking."
"Should we call the boys in and tell them dinner's ready?" Nasuti
asked.
"Naah, not yet," Rei said. "It's nice to just sit still for a while..."
They looked at the perfectly arranged table with a group sigh for how
quickly it would be demolished, and then stood up to call in the others.
"Hey guys, look!" Duo said happily, showing off his and Kurama's
handiwork. The Troopers and Pulse looked up from the lights and broke into
snickers.
"What's so funny?" Signal demanded, reaching up to run exploratory
fingers across his hair, which was short as promised, but was now arranged in
coiled braids on either side of his head. "What the heck is this?!"
"You look like Princess Leia," Shuu informed him just prior to
bursting into laughter.
Signal ran off to look in a mirror and came back steaming. "I look
like an idiot! Take these things out!"
"Why don't you do it yourself?" Kaname asked ingenuously.
"Because I don't know the first thing about what to do with hair..."
"I don't know, I think it looks sort of good that way," Eagle said,
wearing such a cutely innocent expression that no one could ever dream of
taking offense. He was good at that.
Nobuhiko stuffed his face in Byakuen's fur to try and stifle his
laughter at seeing his older brother so put out. Unfortunately right about then
the anti-allergies he'd taken before the party started to wear off, and he
sneezed loudly.
Signal was replaced in a puff of smoke by a little stuffed-toy version
of himself. The braids, though shorter, were still in place, however.
Chibi-Signal looked at the gathering cluelessly and said hopefully, "Chocolate?"
"He looks even funnier like that," Shuu hooted, holding his sides.
Chibi-Signal suddenly noticed the Christmas tree. "Wai! Pretty!"
"Uh-oh," Pulse said. "Somebody stop him before he wrecks the tree!"
Eagle made a grab for Chibi-Signal, but missed as the miniature robot
bounced out of the way. "He's worse than Mokona..."
"I'll get him," Kenshin cried, reaching out to catch him.
Unfortunately he tripped over the trailing edge of the cord of lights and
landed heavily against Hiro, spilling both of them to the ground. Kenshin
smiled and gave a sheepish apology as Hiro gave him a potent glare.
"Got him," Hiei said. There was a blur and Chibi-Signal was suddenly
dangling from his hand by the scruff of the neck. Chibi-Signal scrunched up his
face, just about ready to go into full wail.
"Oh no," Pulse said, cringing. "Nobuhiko, sneeze again! Hurry!"
Nobuhiko quickly stuffed his face back in Byakuen's fur, hoping he
wouldn't mind, although the tiger seemed uninclined to protest. He sneezed
again and Hiei dropped Signal unceremoniously on the ground, braids coming
loose and in a mess, looking confused.
"Hah!" Seiji suddenly exclaimed. As they looked over, he pulled the
strings of lights free of Pulse at last. "Got it!"
"It *would* be Seiji who untangled the lights," Ryo said.
"We should have put him on the job in the first place," Lantis agreed.
"I hate to interrupt your fun, boys," Shizuru said, opening the door
to the kitchen and dining room, "but dinner's ready. And you guys haven't
finished decorating the living room *yet*?"
"Plenty of time after dinner," Kuroi said with a shrug.
"Yeah, I'm starving!" Shuu contributed.
"Can somebody *please* take my hair out of these stupid things?"
Signal pleaded. "If Elara-san sees me like this..."
"What do you think, should we make him suffer some more?" Duo asked
with a grin.
"It being Christmas and all, I suppose we should be generous," Kurama
replied, moving to untie Signal's hair.
Kamui put the last ornament he was holding on the tree and walked
toward the kitchen with Fuuma ruffling his hair. "You've been quiet tonight,"
Fuuma commented.
"Everything was so nice I was afraid to ruin it," Kamui confessed. As
the table came into view his eyes widened. "Wow."
"Now just assuming that Kaoru managed to not poison the food..."
Sanosuke muttered. Wufei gave him a subtle (by Sano's standards) elbow to the
ribs.
"Don't do anything to tempt them..."
"Hey, enough talk, let's eat!" Shuu said exuberantly.
*********
Author's Notes: Yes, all these anime characters did decide to have a party in
my general vicinity. It's not my fault! :p This is meant to be somewhat a
tribute to those who are kind enough to grace me with their presence, although
I didn't include *everybody* who's ever stopped by, as that would have just
gotten too complicated. Merry Christmas to everyone!
(
geocities.com/himurasan)