Archive of Our Own ^beta

One of the more bizarre phenomenons that mankind had never quite managed to drop was the idea that as soon as it had struck midnight on October 31st, it was automatically Christmas season. It seemed that even in the year 2185, people immediately jumped into the holiday mood, causing retailers to shove their shelves full of Christmas-related goodies. The problem with the habit of celebrating festivities so early was that by the time the actual day rolled around, you would've already gotten sick and tired from seeing the same typical images for the past two months.

Though the atmosphere appeared to get more annoying during the winter season, Sol didn’t particularly mind it. After a year of working hard, people tended to get antsy and just wanted a chance to relax. And if their way of relaxing involved decorating Christmas trees with cheap decorations that would inevitably get boxed and never to be seen again for an entire year, then as long as that wasn’t bothering him directly, he couldn’t have cared less.

When Sin had asked about the concept and Sol had ‘attempted’ to explain it to him through a long series of short vague responses, the kid had brought up the question of why people couldn't just act like this every day of the year.

Sol shrugged in response. “It’s not socially acceptable or something like that.”

“Oh. That’s dumb.” Sin said, and then went back to his task of touching every single bauble in the Christmas decoration section. There was always something odd about kids and their inability to refrain from touching shiny things. Then again, the damn Gear genetics probably contributed to that trait too.

One thing that kids did have that certainly had no correlation to Gear genetics was their relatively low attention span, which was proven when Sin was suddenly captivated by a toy glimmering at the back of one of the shelves, causing him to stop whatever he was doing and pull it to the front. “Can we get this?”

Sol glanced over at the object in Sin’s hands, which turned out to not be a toy but instead a large angel tree topper. Sin’s gaze lingered on the angel’s sparkling wings, his hands tracing the soft outlines of each feather. It would have been a pretty thing if not for the blank, seemingly empty look in its eyes, though Sol wouldn’t have gotten it for him anyway seeing as they didn’t even have a use for it. Besides, the kid would probably lose interest within the first few hours of buying it.

“We don’t even have a tree to put it on.”

“Then can we get a tree this year?” Sin looked up at him eagerly. “Last year we didn’t have a tree.”

“Because last year we didn’t celebrate Christmas. And no.” Sol took the angel from Sin and put it back on the shelf. If the kid dropped it, he sure as hell wasn’t paying for it.

“Why didn’t we? It would’ve been fun.”

“Because we don’t have anywhere to spend it,” Sol said, turning to see Sin properly. The kid still seemed pretty fixated on the angel, his eyes not tearing away from it even once. “Why do you want that thing anyway? It’s not a toy.”

"I thought the sparkles were cool,” Sin explained, which still didn't justify why he wasn't looking at toys which were practically made for playing with, compared to a decoration where the only thing you could do with it was shove it on top of a Christmas tree.

“Not a good enough reason. C’mon, we’re going,” Sol said, and then started walking away to another section of the store. They were only here to buy some basic essentials anyway. Sol had mainly tried avoiding the whole Christmas thing in order to prevent Sin from getting obsessed over it, but given how there always seemed to be one snow-related thing in the corner of his peripheral vision at all times, it was practically a lost cause.

It took a few moments for the sound of running footsteps to catch up to him.

“But we do have somewhere to spend it,” Sin answered back. “You said last year that people usually spend Christmas with their family, and that people are allowed to because they get permission from their bosses to take the holiday off. So even though we’re not allowed in the castle without dad’s permission, can’t we go to spend Christmas with him?”

Sol hadn’t actually been intending on telling Sin the entire history behind the holiday the previous year, but when the endless amount of advertising and Santa pictures couldn’t escape Sin’s wandering gaze, Sol had realised the topic couldn’t be evaded and decided to go for a more realistic approach. The bullshit with Santa was probably going to lead Sin on a perilous quest to trek to the North Pole himself anyway, and Sol already had too much on his hands to be unwillingly dragged along as a sidekick.

He should have really dodged explaining it when he had the chance to, because trying to describe the intricacies of what made the holiday special ended up being more work than it should have been.

Sol sighed, and made a mental note that from now on he seriously needed to stop telling the kid so much.

“Normal people get a break. Ky doesn’t count. He’s too busy dealing with self-entitled assholes to deal with us.”

“But if he’s the King, he can do whatever he wants,” Sin pointed out. “So he can ask for a day off, right?”

Technically Sin was right, but knowing Ky, he would much rather do anything but take a break given his workaholic tendencies. “He doesn’t like taking time off. The more work he gets done, the happier people are. Or at least that what he believes anyway.”

Sin didn’t seem to find this answer satisfactory enough, and he shifted uncomfortably. “But we count as people, so we deserve to be happy too. Doesn’t seeing dad make you happy?”

Saying that Ky made Sol happy was not exactly a very accurate statement, given that the boy tended to do a lot of things that pissed him off half the time. Actually, make that the majority of the time, with all his holy righteousness and prissy mannerisms that he stubbornly refused to give up. But then again he had certainly made life a whole lot more bearable for Sol, and it was nice to have someone decent hanging around to keep his sanity in check. Ever since the whole kid business with looking after Sin, Sol was missing out on a lot of one-on-one time with Ky anyway.

“Fine,” Sol huffed. “But this whole thing was your idea.”

“Okay!” Sin's eyes lit up with excitement for a moment, before something clicked in his mind. He gave Sol a wide smile.

“Can you buy me that angel now?” he asked, and Sol instantly knew what that look meant. It was the kind of smile that made ladies passing by coo over how cute he was, and subconsciously influenced people to carry out whatever the kid wanted them to do. Fortunately, Sol had for the most part become immune to that so-called innocent gaze of his, and so felt absolutely zero guilt when he shut that suggestion down.

“Yeah right, nice try. You know what, if Ky actually lets us stay in that damn castle of his for Christmas, you should bug him to get a toy for you.”

Sin seemed to take this comment as a sign of agreement, and he gave a celebratory whoop.

--

The plan was to arrive at Illyria Castle during the early hours of Christmas morning, sneak in through the back gate and surprise Ky, who would by chance somehow graciously allow them to stay over. Then they would do some activities to keep Sin pre-occupied for a couple of hours until he got exhausted and fell asleep, leaving Sol and Ky with some much needed catch-up time.

Admittedly, it was not a very well thought out plan, because the whole thing firstly required Ky to let them stay over, and the boy certainly wasn't going to be that easy to convince. The other issue with the plan was that Sol was pretty sure Ky had never properly celebrated Christmas before, so trying to actually carry out the usual traditions with Sin was going to be hard given that one parent hadn’t celebrated anything in over a century and a half and the other only spent it by attending Church before shutting himself in his study like some sort of hermit.

However, many things in Sol’s life consisted of not very well thought out plans in the first place, and if there was a plan it mainly consisted of punch it with brute force until it does what it’s supposed to do, so when they rocked up at the palace in the early hours with no clear idea in mind, Sol figured the whole thing was going to go about as well as he thought it would.

The kid ran up to the gate and gave it a few experimental tugs. “It’s locked.”

“’Course, we weren’t invited. Move out of the way for a second," Sol motioned Sin off to the side. "I'm gonna bust this thing down like last time."

Sin gave him a confused look. "I thought we were going to sneak in. Won't we catch the guards' attention?"

Getting their attention wouldn't have really been an issue; two overpowered Gears taking on a whole army of the King's personal guards seemed like an easy enough task. Sure, Sin was extremely small and young, but it wasn't as if Sol didn't let Sin assist him in their regular bounty hunts anyway. "'S fine. I'll handle it."

"You know dad will get mad at us, and then he won't want to spend Christmas with us," Sin said, giving him a disapproving pout. Ah right, things had to be more complicated because of the boyscout. Despite how inconvenient it was, Sol had to admit that the kid sort of had a point.

“...Alright, what's the plan then?"

“Hmm..." Sin took a step back to examine the gate properly, craning his neck upwards. "Usually there's a latch on the other side, right? I think I can open it, but you need to help me get over it," Sin offered. "Maybe you could lift me up?"

Considering how this was meant to be one of the most expensive buildings in the country, the castle sure had some shitty defences. Sure, the back gate was pretty tall, the bars thin enough to deter any would-be assassins from scaling over, and it wasn't like anyone was actually going to make the climb over, but...

“Wouldn't work,” Sol said, kneeling down and signalling for Sin to come to him. “Gonna have to chuck you over kid.”

“Oh, sure-! Hey wait a minute, isn't there some other way around this?” Sin asked, but allowed himself to be picked up by Sol anyway.

"What, you think you're strong enough to throw me over?"

The kid glanced towards the gate, and then back at Sol with a puzzled expression on his face. "No but.."

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Sol said, and proceeded to immediately hurl Sin flying over the gate. The kid gave out a yelp as he hit the ground on the other side with a thud, whining to himself as he started to get on his feet again.

“Ugh… That’s harsh old man, I never agreed to that! You could have at least warned me first.”

“I did. Now open the gate.” Sol ordered, knowing fully well that yeah, he didn’t really warn the kid properly, but it wasn’t as if he was going to admit that.

“I wasn't prepared!"

“Doesn't matter, you weren't going to get hurt badly. Open it.”

“‘Badly’…” Sin mumbled, but took a couple of steps up towards the gate anyway, before he unexpectedly paused to peer back at Sol through the bars.

"Well?" Sol said expectantly.

"You have to say sorry first."

What did he just say? The kid had to be joking, he surely wasn’t going to waste time acting childish like this.

“Dad-” One word in and already Sol knew the conversation was turning into one of those dreaded Ky lectures despite the boy not even being there, “-said that manners are important when talking to people. Even when you talk to your family, you have to be polite," Sin recited dutifully. "It shows you have eti... eticat.."

"Etiquette,” Sol finished for him, and thought there was some irony in the fact that the kid was trying to teach him something that he didn't even know how to pronounce himself.

"Right,” Sin nodded in affirmation. “Otherwise people won't be nice to you. So, you're not coming in until you say sorry."

Then the kid crossed his arms together as if for dramatic effect, and Sol could only groan in frustration. Being ordered what to do by a kid was annoying, and he was getting some serious déjà vu from when he had been dealing with orders from another equally irritating kid during the Crusades, which hadn’t been any more appealing.

He really did take after his father in many, many infuriating ways.

"...Sorry." Sol muttered under his breath.

"Sorry for...?"

Sol scowled. "Sorry for throwing you."

"Without warning."

"Without warning," Sol repeated with a growl, and the kid no longer seemed sulky but was now happily giggling at him as he unlocked the latch.

"So you can be nice!” Sin stated in amazement like it was some ground-breaking new discovery that had never been demonstrated before, and Sol rolled his eyes. 

“Yeah yeah, keep moving kid.”

“I’m telling dad!” Sin grinned, and then sprinted on ahead.

Kids these days. Were they all like this, or did Sol just happen to meet the two most pestering ones in the universe during his lifetime?

Well whatever. It was his fault for getting into this situation with them anyway, letting Ky chase after him and what not. Sol simply shook his head and followed the brat through the open gate.

--

Illyria Castle was rather large and would have been complex to navigate if not for the fact that Ky had given Sol meticulous instructions on where the secret passages were, where the guards were at all times, and how long they would be stationed in each area for.

“Please try to be as damage-controlling as possible. The more guards that catch wind of this situation, the harder it may be for us to meet.” Ky had said with a very resigned look on his face, to which Sol had agreed to at the time.

There was a cry as a guard came tumbling forward, falling onto the ground from a whack against the head. Ky must have been naïve if he thought Sol was actually going to follow those rules. It was just easier and less time-consuming to do things his own way.

"Hey, didn't we go through this hall before? I think I remember those two," Sin asked, pointing to the two other barely conscious guards in the corner.

Shit, the kid was actually right. “Look,” Sol began to explain, “you think I can remember the entire map of this place? Hell no. We're just walking around until we reach somewhere familiar."

"Oh." Sin shuffled his shoes against the carpet awkwardly. "Where are we trying to go?"

Usually this wasn't a problem given that Ky would have greeted them at the door and inconspicuously invited them in to talk about some pressing matter, but considering how it was very early outside, the boy was probably still doing some late night scribbling at his desk instead of actually living like a normal human being.

"His study. Y'know, where he practically lives these days."

"Oh, we passed that four times!" Sin beamed innocently, and before Sol could ask how the hell Sin knew that and why he couldn't be bothered to tell him that sooner, Sin reached up to take Sol's hand and guided him towards another door.

"He's in here," Sin stated proudly, and at that point Sol had already been through enough that day to even feel motivated enough to ask, only giving a half-assed grunt in response.

Sure enough when they peered through, a lone figure was in there, a recognisable mess of blonde hair slumped against the desk. There was something tranquil about the way he looked under the dim lamplight, his eyelashes shut closed in peace with his fingers still barely grasping onto the pen he was writing with. As customary, his papers were scattered everywhere in heaps with several half-open books piled up upon one side. How the boy could concentrate in these conditions without getting bored or distracted, he’d never understand.

"Do we wake him up?" Sin asked in a half-whisper.

Sol didn't want to be that asshole and wake up Ky considering the boy’s rests were already few and in-between, and so he just shrugged. Sin seemed to take this as a yes and decided to give Ky an experimental prod.

"Dad... wake up..." he shook him gently. No response, the boy was still wandering off in dreamland. "Dad," Sin said, a little more forcefully this time. "Dad! Daaaaaad."

When the boy didn't even stir once, Sin let go of him abruptly, and cleared his throat.

"People are being attacked!"

"Where?!" Ky shot up a little too forcefully, causing him to fly back and momentarily lose his balance as he and the desk chair came crashing to the floor. Sin ran to his side at once.

“Careful!” Sin said as Ky winced in pain, trying to shake off his dizzying state only for him to suddenly still when his eyes managed to focus on the boy in front of him.

“Sin..? What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be with-!”

Ky managed to drag his eyes slowly across to the other end of the room, where Sol simply grinned back at him.

“You.”

“Good to see you again boy,” Sol said with a hint of amusement.

“I… Why are you here? I didn’t call you over, unless I somehow called you in my sleep-deteriorated state and managed to forget.”

Sol only gestured towards Sin, who looked as if he was going to burst from immense happiness. “The old man and I came to celebrate Christmas with you!”

“With me?” Ky repeated, still trying to rapidly piece together everything that was going on.

“Mhm!” Sin enthusiastically nodded, probably with a little too much excitement. “Christmas is about taking a break to spend time with family and have lots of fun and give gifts! So we’re going to spend time altogether as a family.”

Ky's face appeared to shift through many emotions. After getting over his initial wide-eyed state of shock, he furrowed his brows at them in confusion, before he turned his head away, his eyes appearing to turn soft and distant.

“I see,” Ky murmured as he got up from his spot on the floor and brushed himself down. “As much as I would like that idea, I still have a lot of work to get through.” He motioned a hand towards the stacks of paper on the desk as he gave Sin a small sympathetic smile. “Besides, I’m sure I’d be quite boring. I’m not exactly an expert in this... 'field.'"

Sin simply shook his head in defiance. "You're the King, you should be able to have a holiday too. You can get someone else to do it for you if it's that urgent."

"It wouldn't be fair on them," Ky explained. "The majority of people won't be working today anyway-"

"So why do you have to?"

Ky sighed as he ran his fingers through his hair. "It is imperative I use my time effectively for the benefit of the kingdom. Illyria is still relatively new, and once everything is in place, in the long run peoples' lives will have improved to the point where the damage of the war can be long forgotten. As well as that, if word gets around that I'm parading around freely outside the castle walls, it might cause a scene of panic.”

Sin simply fell silent and frowned. “...Are you sure you can’t spend time with us?” he asked, and Ky solemnly shook his head.

“I'm afraid there's no easy way around this. I apologise. If you feel like leaving now, you may do so."

"Okay..." Sin drifted off, making his way back over to Sol. "I guess me and the old man will just do something else this Christmas... right?” Sin looked up at Sol expectantly with a hesitant smile. Sol just nodded.

"Can we roam around the Illyrian main streets this Christmas?”

“Sure, as long as you don’t make a scene,” he responded.

“Why not?” Sin asked, not realising that was probably one of the most dumbest questions he had asked in a while. It was currently a close runner-up to the time when he had asked ‘isn’t Sol also a girl’s name?’, to which Sol had responded by swiftly giving him a knuckle to the head.

“You know why not-”

“Yeah but,” Sin interjected, “dad won’t be with us, so he can’t tell us what to do.” Sin gave a pointed look towards Ky, who was trying very hard to not look like he was listening too closely to the conversation.

Sol didn’t really see where the kid was going with this, but went along with it anyway.

“Yeah, so?”

“So, if word gets around that there are two Gears roaming around the streets, and it turns out they’re somehow related to the King..”

Ah, the kid was going with the classic blackmail route. Truly, Sol had raised him well.

“We won’t be able to,” Sol said seriously before giving a smirk, “not if there was already a riot when an unknown source has already leaked information that their precious little King wasn’t taking any time off today.”

Ky must have realised what exactly was at stake, as he suddenly cleared his throat to bring their attention to him. “Wait a moment,” Ky called out, “are you planning on forcing me to take time off?”

“It’s not forcing you if we aren’t the ones leaking the information,” Sol corrected as Sin gave out a “yeah!” in agreement.

“This is just unreasonable. If I could take today off without anyone else being burdened by my work, I would,” Ky disputed, and Sol had never heard such bullshit.

“You wouldn’t, you would just move onto another problem that needed solving.” Sol said, and at this point it was a wonder that Sol actually knew Ky better than Ky knew himself. “Alright Kiske, tell me, when was the last time you took a break?”

The knowing glint in Ky’s eye meant he was well prepared for such a question, and he gave Sol a tight lipped smile. “For your information, I took a break two days ago, which was very refreshing. You’ll be happy to know that I do take breaks occasionally. I’m not some sort of machine only destined to work constantly.”

Somehow, the answer seemed way too unrealistic for someone like the boy, so Sol tried again. “Huh. Alright, lemme reword that. When did you last take a break that lasted more than five minutes?”

“Um.. well..” Ky hesitated, trying to rack his brains for any non-existent pieces of evidence which could prove Sol otherwise. After a few minutes with no sort of rebuttal, it was clear he had him beat.

“I appreciate the effort, but the answer is still no,” he quickly added, and Sin at once took the opportunity to reach out and clutch onto the fabric of Ky’s clothes, eagerly looking up at him with round, hopeful eyes.

“C’mon dad… please..?” Sin insistently begged. “We travelled all this way just to see you, I had to get thrown over the castle gate for this-”

“..Sol threw you over?-”

“-What if this is the only time we’ll ever get to hang out, what if things get worse and we never get to celebrate anything together? Won’t you regret not spending time with us?”

It was hard to say what exactly made Ky rethink his decision, whether it was the content of the words that Sin chose to purposefully tug at Ky’s sympathetic heart, or the sweet sorrowful look that he was giving Ky as he gazed up at him, but whatever it was it certainly worked out.

“You’re both unbelievable,” Ky said in a somewhat resigned tone, but made no further effort in trying to dissuade them from their idea. “I guess it’s settled then, this will be the first Christmas where we celebrate it together.”

“Hurray!” Sin cheered out of sheer happiness, and nuzzled closer to Ky. “So, what do we plan on doing?”

“I’m glad you’re satisfied, I-... wait a minute, you two haven’t planned out anything?” Ky asked incredulously.

Sin shrugged. “I don’t know how Christmas works. I only knew that we’re supposed to spend time together. Hey old man, what else do people do today?”

“No clue,” Sol responded, as he had never really put much thought into it anyway. All he sort of knew was that there was food, big over-the-top decorations and religious stuff. “Most people just have a fancy-ass family dinner and talk all day to one another in knitted jumpers. People aren’t really active, unless we’re counting the idiots who think it’s a good idea to knock from door to door and sing Christmas carols right in your face until you slam the door on ‘em.”

“Carols?” Sin repeated.

“Yeah, like songs. But religious. The type your father likes.”

“They’re not all religious,” Ky clarified. “But the majority are, so they tend to be linked to religious holidays, such as Christmas.”

“Ooh I see! We should sing some then!”

There was a muffled snort of amusement from across the room, and Sol gave a glare towards Ky.

“I doubt there would be anything in the world that could make your father sing. I can’t even fathom the idea-”

“Actually,” Sin started with a look of pride, “you’d be surprised how easy it is to force the old man to do stuff. Earlier today I made him apologise to me.”

“Really?!”

“It’s not that big of a deal,” Sol huffed, but Ky just stared at him in wonder. 

“The next thing you’ll be telling me is that you’ve influenced him to become kinder and that he’s willingly handing out Christmas gifts-”

“Christmas gifts!” Sin suddenly yelled, pulling on Ky’s clothes again in urgency. “We should give gifts to each other! And we need a big, big tree to have them all under!”

Gift giving was absolutely essential in terms of Christmas celebrating, and for some reason everyone in the world seemed to thrive upon it. The issue Sol had with it was that you’d often have to spend hundreds of dollars spoiling someone with crap they won’t even use, so the whole thing was pointless in theory. The only way you could avoid spending lots of money at Christmas was by making handmade gifts, but those gifts tended to be trash in quality and then would end up in the actual trash.

Sol was terrible in the art of gift-giving, and was grateful that for the past one hundred years or so, he wasn’t close enough to anyone for them to warrant receiving a gift.

Well, other than Ky, but the Crusades weren’t exactly the best time when all supplies were so low. Besides, they had a more pressing issue on their hands at the time dealing with a threat that could have potentially caused worldwide human genocide rather than to worry over whether a pair of slightly off-colour socks would count as an acceptable gift.

So when the realisation came to Sol that for the first time in a while, he’d actually have to put effort into something by thinking of a gift, going out of his way to buy the damn thing and then wrapping it before finally handing it over to the person, he came to a suitable conclusion.

“We’re not doing that.”

Sin spontaneously exploded into a series of outraged protests. “Why not? I thought that was one of the most important things about Christmas. I really want to exchange gifts-”

"You can get whatever you want later."

“But I want it to be a surprise,” Sin insisted, “and giving gifts is a very Christmas-y tradition, so we need to do it!”

They both at once glanced over to Ky, who always seemed to be the tiebreaker in matters like these. The boy was currently quite perplexed, thoughtfully trying to weigh out the pros and cons.

“I think if we’re trying to stick to the usual traditions as much as possible,” he said after a couple of minutes of staying quiet, “perhaps we should at least consider making our own gifts for one another.”

“Right!” Sin pointed a finger at Sol. “I’m expecting a gift then!”

Considering how it was already Christmas Day, Sol doubted they would even have enough time to buy the materials and make whatever they wanted to make, and even then it would be done in such a rush that the end product would have most likely turned out not that great.

“Making gifts is pointless if they’re not good quality, and all the good quality stuff comes with money.”

“We could always go shopping outside,” Sin mentioned. “Last year, I remember there were lots of stalls around this time.”

Going around to all of the stalls was not a bad idea in itself; it would allow the kid to go starry-eyed over everything and would give Ky the chance to interact normally with people and see what life was like outside of the castle. The complications with it arose from the fact that they weren’t exactly all supposed to be seen together, and trying to hide from prying eyes amongst the busy streets wasn’t possible.

Ky seemed to be thinking along the same lines. “It wouldn’t be as simple as that,” he said. “If I’m seen outside without any guards, wandering around the market with a wanted criminal and his associate, I don’t believe it would end very well.”

Sin however was not taking no for an answer. “Who says you have to look like yourself? It can be like the beginning of those fairy tales, where there’s a princess who’s locked inside the castle and not allowed to go out, but then she wears a hooded cloak to cover herself and meets her Prince Charming outside the castle walls.” Sin explained, looking pleased with his surprisingly fitting comparison.

“Yeah Ky, time to enjoy your freedom as a princess,” Sol remarked, whilst Ky was visibly doing his best to ignore him as much as he could.

“It would still be a bit suspicious if I was seen missing, but I suppose I could make up an excuse by locking my bedroom and telling anyone who would ask the next day that I was gravely ill…” Ky mused, and Sin at once perked up.

“Perfect! You can go get into disguise then, the old man will help you. I’ll be somewhere else!” Sin announced, before making his way out the door.

“Me helping him? You’re kidding-” Sol began to argue when Ky abruptly cut him off.

“Wait a minute Sin, where are you going?”

Sin hesitated briefly, but quickly managed to cover it up with a reassuring smile. “I have to do something important! It’ll be a couple of hours before we go out anyway, right? Call me when you’re done!” he said, and immediately ran out of the room before the two could even say anything.

After a few brief pauses, Ky was the first to break the silence.

“Do you think we should follow him?” he wondered aloud, those paternal instincts of his finally kicking in after being dormant for so long.

“Nah, he’s only wandering around the castle.”

The response didn’t appear to soothe Ky’s worries at all. “He’s only two-”

“Yeah, and he’s a Gear,” Sol stated. “The worst thing that could happen would be that something priceless gets knocked over.”

“Thank you for kindly reassuring me Sol, I feel so much better knowing that my son’s wellbeing isn’t in any danger but the castle’s safety is.” Ky remarked. “Speaking on a serious note though, we should probably go after him,” he said, reaching out for the doorknob.

“So you’re worried about him now but not when he’s out and about with me?”

Seeing Ky suddenly being so concerned over Sin was odd to say the least. The former hadn’t been that involved for a good chunk of Sin’s life anyway and would have rather cared for the kingdom, so the sudden change was a little questionable.

“Well when he’s under my care, it’s my direct responsibility to care for him,” Ky explained.

“And when he’s suddenly with me, you have nothing to do with him and everything is down to me.”

Ky froze in his spot, his eyes immovably fixed to Sol’s. He seemed uncertain for a moment, that calm and collected aura of his disappearing instantly as he lowered his gaze, and instead there seemed to be a look of only shame and remorse.

“Not at all,” Ky said after a while. “You’ve been doing such a good job of taking care of him. Thank you, sincerely, from the bottom of my heart. The issue behind the matter is less to do with you, and more about me. My fear lies in the fact that if on the off-chance something goes wrong when he’s with me, it’ll all be my fault. Maybe I wouldn’t have been strong enough to protect him, or maybe I just wasn’t attentive enough. And so I want to do everything in my power to prevent such a thing. Therefore…” Ky trailed off, attempting to continue tracking down Sin when Sol caught him by the sleeve.

“Listen boy. Trust me, he’s fine. And yeah, let’s say that shit does hit the fan, it’s not like I’m gonna leave you to clear up the mess yourself.”

When it really came down to it, no matter what Ky did, he always seemed to have the strong belief that he had to handle everything by himself, when Sol was certain there was a sea of hundreds of thousands of people who would eagerly leap at the opportunity to help out with his tasks if they were given half the chance to.

That wasn’t to say that Sin could also be watched over by other people. The eyepatch he constantly wore was enough to put some people off, and coupled with the fact he possessed abnormal strength would only leave a handful of people still willing to take him on, so that was out of the question. But it wasn’t as if as soon as they hit castle grounds, Ky had to take all the responsibility of looking after Sin and Sol immediately didn’t have to care about the kid anymore. Sin was still his son, their son, and the fact that shared parenting wasn’t even considered an option in their family really put into perspective how distant everyone was to each other.

“But you’ve done so much for him already,” Ky restated. “It’s unfair-”

“Shared parental responsibility,” Sol countered. “Look it up. Read a couple of parenting books. Get one of those as a Christmas gift for yourself.”

At that last comment, Ky gave a small playful smile, the stresses of his worries now fading away. “I suppose you’re right. Very well, I’ll leave him be for now,” he announced, and turned in the opposite direction to open a door to one of the few rooms Sol actually knew the direction to in this damn maze of hallways.

“Well? Aren’t you coming along to help me find something to wear over my head?”

It was amazing how quickly the atmosphere had changed, but Sol wasn’t complaining. “Not the first time you’ve asked me for help with your clothes,” Sol replied, and Ky must have been in a really good mood seeing as his first response was not to immediately throw a lightning spark in his face but to instead laugh and shake his head.

“You’re so insufferable, it’s actually kind of endearing,” Ky confessed, and pulled Sol in through the door before he could say any more.

--

“Woah! It’s only morning and already there’s so many people here! How are we even going to get through?”

“Simple. We shove them all out of the way.”

“Sol, no-”

The kid really had no concept of just how popular Christmas was. At every single turning, the streets were packed tightly with hordes of people, the sellers all hollering over one another in a competition to see who could yell the loudest for attention. There was so much to focus on, all the flickering fairy lights and brightly-coloured Christmas tree decorations hanging in every corner seemed to be designed with the intention of pulling in the observer’s gaze and never letting go. As well as that, it was incredibly hard to concentrate with Christmas music blaring loudly in the background, coupled with the occasional choir singing and the continuous, incessant chatter of passersby.

As someone who had been fortunately blessed with living life as a Gear, all the different sights and sounds overloading his senses was only giving Sol a pounding headache rather than any other feelings of enjoyment.

“We’re trying to be discreet,” Ky said pointedly, bringing Sol’s attention back to their current conversation. “What on Earth was the point of sneaking me out if when the police apprehend us for causing a scene, they find out I’m the King?”

“Alright, we’ll discreetly shove them out of the way then.”

“That’s not a thing and no, we’re not testing out the possibility of it being a thing. Besides, I’m less worried about that and more concerned about Sin,” Ky noted, looking over to the kid with his brows furrowed. Whilst Sin certainly had strength beyond what was normally capable for small boy, Sol could tell that Ky didn’t exactly have an easier time digesting the thought that his precious little son could get through the crowds relatively unscathed.

“You should carry him then,” Sol suggested, to which Sin nodded and made a noise of affirmation.

Ky paused, seemingly incredibly nervous about the thought. The last time Ky carried Sin, he was only just a small baby, too young to do anything else but curl up further in Ky’s arms. “I’m not sure if I could do so properly-”

“Considering how you’ve been carrying everyone else’s lazy asses all your life, you’ll be able to handle a kid.”

Ky looked as if he was about to come up with a retort to this but he held his tongue at the last minute and instead took a deep breath. He knelt down apprehensively, only for Sin to run and plaster himself onto Ky, his arms wrapping firmly around his neck, which proved to be a little difficult considering the hood covering Ky’s head.

“Is… is everything alright?” Ky asked, making sure Sin was securely in place.

“Mhm!” Sin happily smiled back. “Although..”

The calm atmosphere immediately disappeared from Ky as he stared at Sin in anticipation. “Although…?”

“Well, I think I prefer it when the old man carries me. He’s warmer,” Sin concluded, and Ky let out an audible sigh of relief.

“Benefits of being a fire-user,” Sol smirked, pushing on ahead through the crowd in a deliberately careful manner as not to irritate Ky. “Never have to worry about the temperature.”

Sin seemed to ponder on this for a moment, before turning his head to Ky. “Hey dad, what are the benefits of having lightning?”

“W-well,” Ky started, still not completely to grips with the fact that he was holding Sin again after practically over a year of not doing so. “It has a lot more use in battle compared to practical usages, but one of the things we could do was create a source of light when it was too dark to see anything. And in the absence of a fire-user, in the Crusades we could set off a spark to create a fire.”

“Keywords here are 'in the absence of a fire-user,’” Sol pointed out. “But given how common we are, that just makes lightning-users redundant."

“Hmm… using fire is a lot cooler then,” Sin said thoughtfully. “I wish I could use it; imagine all the food I could cook on the go. I could just gunflame it and bam! I’d get a full course meal straight away.”

“That’s not what gunflame does, kid,” Sol growled, partly because it was laughable to even consider using a move strictly meant for kicking ass as some sort of method of cooking, and partly because he was still bitter from when he had actually tried this in the past, which had led to a lot of ash and nothing worth of sustenance.

“I’d still argue that lightning is better, simply because your attacks are more precise and it leads to less widespread damage in the area that you’re aiming in, as well as it being more visually pleasing. Besides you still wouldn’t be able to cook all different kinds of food. For instance, you wouldn’t be able to make that,” Ky said, and pointed over to one of the stalls that happened to have a large array of baked goods on sale. From the looks of it, there was a miniature gingerbread village on display, fully iced together with lots of snow and equally frosty trees surrounding it. Sin gasped in response.

“Cookies!” Sin shouted, making grabbing motions with one of his outstretched hands to the stall.

“Oi, you intentionally distracted him from the topic,” Sol said in annoyance.

“That’s because he’s now decided lightning is better,” Ky shot back, and all of a sudden it was like they were in the Crusades again with Ky being his pesky teenage self. “Isn’t that right Sin?”

“Yeah!” Sin said distractedly, trying to inch himself further away from Ky in order to reach out as far as he could, as if that would bring him closer to the treats.

“Case in point,” Ky said in finality, and began to move closer to the stall so Sin wouldn’t end up wriggling out of his arms in impatience.

“You’re a dirty cheat. You know he still prefers fire.”

“That’s not what he said just now,” Ky responded.

“Doesn’t count. He never said ‘lightning is better’, he just said ‘yeah’, and that wasn’t even in response to what you said.”

“And how do you know that? Are you telling me you somehow know what he’s thinking at all times?”

Sol scowled. “Y’know, for someone who’s such a smartass, you-”

“-Excuse me mister,” Sin spoke up to the man behind the till, “can we have the three giant cookie houses, and also the fifty small cookie people with it? Ooh, can we get the candy trees too?” Sin asked as he pointed at each displayed treat, and it was only then that Sol realised the kid was ordering practically half their entire stock.

“Hey brat, what do you think you’re doing?”

“Getting food,” Sin nonchalantly replied, as if it managed to explain why he was ordering so much. It didn’t.

“And you think you’re going to be able to eat all of this?”

“I thought we could share it!”

“Whilst I do see where you’re coming from,” Ky interjected, “we wouldn’t be able to eat it all, even if it was between the three of us. Besides, don’t you think it would be difficult to carry it around all day?”

Sin gave a look of disagreement. “But the old man is super strong, he could carry it-”

“Like hell I am. Carry your own damn stuff.”

“But I can’t hold it all!”

“Then only get some for yourself,” Sol said firmly. “Why bother with getting some for us? It’ll be cheaper anyway.”

“Because it’s our first Christmas together, if I’m having something then we’re all having something,” Sin frowned.

“Um, sorry for interrupting, but..”

The man behind the counter spoke up, who had apparently still been there the entire time and had been too polite to interrupt the whole charade. He was paused midway through wrapping another gingerbread man into a bag for them, and looked unsure if he should actually carry on.

“I couldn’t help but listen in to your conversation. Seeing as I already have some gingerbread wrapped up for you, how about I just give you the fifty individual gingerbread men for half the price? Especially since it’s your first Christmas altogether.”

Sol was tempted to tell the man that he really ought to be careful of what exactly he walks into or else he could potentially get punched in the face by a 6’0 fire-wielding guy who cared a whole deal about the concept of minding your own fucking business, but hey, a good deal’s a good deal.

“That’s awfully nice of you, thank you. We’ll take it.” Ky smiled, and shot a look over to Sol which clearly meant ‘pay up’.

“Hold on, why am I the one paying?” Sol argued.

“Well, it’s not like I walk around with cash on a daily basis given where I usually reside. Besides, you need to use that bounty money of yours or else it’ll keep piling up.”

“Doesn’t pay enough,” Sol grumbled, and felt around for his wallet whilst Sin eagerly watched as the shopkeeper popped the last of the gingerbread into the paper bag and handed it over to him.

“Thank you for purchasing, I hope you enjoy your Christmas!”

“We will, thank you once again,” Ky said warmly, when Sin began to tug at his clothes again.

“Wait! I want to give something to the man,” Sin said, and peered into the paper bag he’d just received. His hand reached into it, and after fishing around in there for a few seconds, he pulled out a single gingerbread man from the pile.

“Here you go,” Sin beamed, holding it out to the shopkeeper to take. “Merry Christmas!”

The shopkeeper stared at the piece for a while in disbelief, and gingerly held out his hand as Sin placed it there.

“W-why, thank you,” he stammered before giving a small chuckle. “How unexpected! Your son is very sweet. You two have sure raised him well.”

Sol and Ky exchanged knowing looks that their parenting style was probably one of the most unorthodox out there. In fact, it was probably hard to even call it a parenting style at all considering they were barely managing. The only reason Sin turned out the way he did was largely due to a whole lot of luck that he somehow didn’t manage to inherit the negative traits of both parents, only selectively gaining the positive ones.

Neither of them felt very inclined to tell the shopkeeper ‘well thankfully, his personality wasn’t due to our incompetent parenting skills’ and so they just took the compliment.

After paying and waving goodbye to the shopkeeper, Sin seemed to be enthralled with their new purchase, and after examining the gingerbread once more appeared to have a new goal in mind.

“That man was very nice to us, wasn’t he Sin?” Ky was saying, but Sin was more preoccupied rustling around with the paper bag. Eventually the noise stopped, and Sin pressed a gingerbread piece to Ky’s lips.

“Eat some!” Sin insisted, and after debating it for a few seconds Ky obediently opened his mouth to take the piece. Again, some more rustling, and another gingerbread man was held in front of Ky, which he bit into again.

After the fourth one, Sol was beginning to wonder if the kid’s plan was just to feed Ky the entire pack.

“Alright, that’s enough.”

“Don’t look so grumpy old man!” Sin exclaimed, and then pulled out another gingerbread man from the bag. “I was going to feed you too, but it’s harder since you’re further away. But here, you can have one now!” Sin offered.

Well, he might as well take some, he paid for it after all. Sol reached out for it, only for Sin to quickly pull his hand back.

“No! I want to feed it to you. Say ‘aah!’”

After a century and a half, Sol had managed to put up with being unwillingly turned into a Gear, put up with the entire Holy Order, put up with the irritating Commander of said Holy Order, and put up with the PWAB’s reoccurring bullshit, all without losing his goddamn mind.

There was no way he was going to give in to being fed a gingerbread man by some two year-old kid.

Sensing his reluctance, Sin spoke up. “I promise I’ll do whatever you say for a week.”

Yeah right, as if Sol was that easy to persuade. The kid was really underestimating his capabilities-

“Two weeks,” Sin added when Sol didn’t say anything, and Sol immediately made a lunge for the gingerbread man.

“Give me the damn thing,” Sol growled, and swiftly bit into the treat much to Sin’s enjoyment.

The rest of the walk was oddly pleasurable. It was a pest to keep bumping into people, but the atmosphere alone made the trip worth it. Illyria wasn’t exactly the wealthiest country, the state of everyday life was proof enough, but on Christmas it was almost like it had transformed into some sort of utopia. The smiles on people’s faces were contagious, and everywhere you looked you wouldn’t be able to see a single person not enjoying themselves.

Sin took great delight in pointing out every single new thing and asking about it, and Ky took even greater delight in teaching Sin about everything. By the time they had gone in a loop around the market, Sin had practically learnt a dictionary’s worth of new words and was thoroughly exhausted.

The only thing that managed to perk him up was when they had reached a large stand which didn’t appear to be a pop-up shop but instead an arts and crafts area of some sorts. The woman who was presumably running it managed to spot them curiously looking over, and at once cheerfully strode over to them.

“Why, hello there! Would you like to make some Christmas decorations with us?” the woman greeted to Sin, giving him a reassuring smile as he nodded in excitement before she turned to Ky and Sol.

“This is just a temporary stall so that the town children can make some arts and crafts with their parents,” she explained, gesturing to all the other parents and kids already seated at the table, totally engrossed in whatever practical activity they were doing. “We have several activities on offer, such as making snowflake ornaments, button wreaths, Christmas slime, pinecone trees… really the list is endless!”

Sol knew at that moment that really, he should have pulled them away if they didn’t plan on getting on messy, because holy shit there seemed to be glitter and glue and random oddly cut pieces of paper everywhere. It wasn’t as if Sol was a neat freak, but getting those stains out of his clothes and hair was going to require a lot of effort, and as someone who couldn’t even be bothered to fight with the sharp side of his sword, the entire premise seemed like a nightmare.

This did not seem to register in Sin’s mind. “Hey dad, old man, can we stop here for a bit?” Sin asked, glancing over to the materials on the table.

Sol looked over to Ky to see if his face betrayed any hint of objection, but the boy seemed more pleased than anything. “Of course. As long as your father doesn’t mind too..?”

“I’ll pass,” Sol said, which was putting it incredibly lightly. “Don’t feel like getting glitter all over myself.”

“Huh? But you can make something cool with us!” Sin protested.

“Like I said, looking like a human glitterball wasn’t part of my plan today.” Besides, those tiny chairs didn’t look comfortable at all for someone of his stature, so spending a couple of hours here uncomfortably cooped up with a load of kids with glitter and glue everywhere sounded like hell on Earth.

“You don’t have to touch anything you don’t want to! Me and dad will deal with the sticky stuff, so stay with us!”

Sol gave Sin a grin. “Ah you’re in the hands of an expert then, Ky has had plenty of experience with sticky stuff, trust me-”

Ky elbowed Sol roughly in the stomach, which wasn’t going to cripple him by any means but still fucking hurt.

“Ahem, my apologies,” Ky said to the woman, suddenly back into his ever-polite public mode. “Would you excuse us for a minute?”

Then he placed Sin down onto the ground and motioned for Sol to follow him, and- ah shit, he was in trouble wasn’t he.

“That was uncalled for,” Sol started when they were a safe distance away. “The majority of the people there were kids, the joke would have flown over their heads.”

Ky thought about this for a couple of moments but didn’t seem to buy into this, and gave Sol a warning zap.

“Firstly, there were still other parents in the vicinity who may have not appreciated your crude joke around their children, so no, your excuse is not valid.”

“..Didn’t hear anyone complaining-”

“And secondly,” Ky carried on, “referring to our conversation with Sin earlier, I believe you have yet to get him a Christmas gift. Seeing as you aren’t too keen on staying here, you might as well be doing something productive.”

So apparently they were stuck on that idea, which now that he was thinking about it, probably wasn’t such a bad thing. It was still going to require some time and effort for sure, but nobody said his present had to be any good. As long as he got something then the kid would probably be over the moon.

“Yeah fine, I’ll get something,” Sol said. “Is the gift going to be from the both of us, or just me?”

“Oh, I already have something planned for him,” Ky explained, causing Sol to try and work out when the hell Kiske managed to sneak out some time during their walk to buy a present.

“I didn’t see you get anything.”

“That’s because I didn’t buy anything new. I’m giving him something rather personal to me, that’s all.”

Ky wasn’t the type of person to have many precious things in his life, which narrowed the gift options down to a few non-sensical choices. It was possible that he was giving Sin the Fuuraiken, which would be hilarious considering the kid was only two and would probably end up hurting himself with it. It was also possible that he was giving Sin his actual crown, or maybe the entire Kingdom while he was at it, but that seemed too far a stretch.

The only reasonable thing Sol could come up with was that Ky must be giving Sin his tea set, at which point Sol realised that he would have to be the cool parent and come up with a decent present for Sin or else he’d have to deal with the guilt of disappointing Sin’s first Christmas.

If he was going to have to find a good gift then he might as well get a head start then.

“Alright, I’m off to hunt down something then. I’ll meet you back here.”

“Good luck,” Ky smiled, which was actually quite considerate of him to say, and then he turned to walk back in the direction of the stall.

Sol only made it a few steps away before a nagging thought crossed his mind, and he paused.

“Oi, Ky.”

“Hmm?”

“Whatever you do, don’t let him make slime,” he added.

Slime was objectively the worst thing they could make, and the whole concept still managed to irritate him to the core. These days, the hype for it was not as strong as it was in the 21st century, but nevertheless it was still a thing for some unknown reason despite the fact it would stick to and ruin everything it touched, leaving behind disgusting sticky residue. If Sin ended up bringing away a jar of slime from the arts and crafts session, then Sol was planning on ditching him at Illyria Castle for Ky to deal with.

Ky merely raised an eyebrow at him questioningly in response but then obediently nodded, and they went their separate ways.

--

Sol didn’t spend much time around kids in the past and frankly had previously thought all children were literal demons, so when it came to knowing what kids would like for Christmas, for once in his life he actually had to think hard about the matter.

The kid liked food that’s for sure, but if Sol bought him food the kid would probably devour it within seconds, so that was off-limits. New clothes were handy, but Gear-children grew at such a rapid rate that they would be too small within a couple of months. Which only led him to the most obvious option, toys. Even then though, he couldn’t just get Sin any sort of toy. Giving Sin something like a toy gun would be terrifying.

Really, what he needed was something that wasn’t plain enough to bore the kid to death, but wasn’t prone to giving him and Ky early on-set heart attacks.

By the time it had already gotten quite dark, Sol had gone around the market around ten times and still had no idea what would be appropriate for Sin.

Damn it, this sucked. It wasn’t like he could just go back empty-handed too. Ky would interpret it as Sol being lazy and either would attempt to electrocute him or make him spend the night on the couch, neither of which Sol was looking forward to very much.

Change of plan, he should just go get something random; anything vaguely resembling a toy would do. Even if it was dangerous, future him could deal with that problem. It was better than leaving Sin and Ky waiting around all night for him to trudge back.

However that still didn’t make Sol’s task easier. Most families had already gone home to celebrate Christmas dinner together, and as a result, a lot of the kid-friendly stalls had packed up and left. There wasn’t any reason to be around anymore if there weren’t any potential buyers.

After around ten minutes on his last walk around without any sight of a toy stall, Sol was just about to go ‘fuck it’and give up when just at the end of the pathway, there was one, small and shabby make-shift stall left. By the looks of the decorative cartoon pictures surrounding it, it looked like he had found what he was looking for.

Sol immediately made a beeline for it.

Up closer, Sol realised that there wasn’t actually much left on display except for a few, scarce plush animals. Actually, they weren’t even animals. They seemed to range from an assortment of things, from food to malformed stars. Or to sum it up, all the good stuff had been bought and he was left with the garbage.

There was one though that stood out to him. The way it loomed down at him from the top shelf was off-putting to say the least, but then Sol realised its entire design was off-putting to the point where it was actually sort of cute in a dopey way.

It looked too stupid not to get.

“You,” Sol said abruptly, glancing over to the girl timidly attempting to hide herself behind the stand. “You wrap ‘em?”

She looked like a deer in the headlights, her entire frail body shaking as she managed to give a meek nod. The fact it was absolutely freezing outside probably wasn’t helping her keep her composure.

“Good,” Sol concluded.  “’Cause I’m not doing that shit. That one at the top, I’ll take it.”

--

By the time Sol got back to the arts and crafts area, the entire stall had completely disappeared. Ky and Sin were instead standing near one of the surrounding Christmas trees, and getting out of there when he did was definitely the right decision because their clothes were completely splattered with mismatched splodges of paint and were more sparkly than usual.

As soon as Ky locked eyes with Sol, he could tell that the boy was pissed, but when Ky saw the neatly wrapped present within Sol’s hands he seemed to have changed his stance on the situation and instead appeared incredibly relieved.

“Finally old man, we’ve been waiting for ages!” Sin exclaimed upon seeing him, when he also noticed the present and immediately looked as if someone had told him he’d won an unlimited lifetime ticket to a five-star all-you-can-eat buffet.

“Can I open it now?” he asked at once, miserably failing to contain his excitement.

“Wait ‘till you get home,” Sol replied, and Sin began to insist they should go home right that instant.

When they had finally arrived back at the castle and pushed through the door into the drawing room, both parents felt absolutely shattered. Sin did not appear to share the same sentiment, and was about to ask Sol for the fifth time if he could open it now considering that they were in the warm and dry when he suddenly saw the giant, bare Christmas tree standing near the centre of the room.

“We have a Christmas tree?!” Sin yelled out, not seeming to mind the lack of decorations at all, and hurriedly circled around the tree in amazement.

Bringing the fir tree out of the cellar was Ky’s idea; Sol had forgotten the thing even existed within the castle until Ky had reminded him of it. He had first seen it two or three years ago when a Christmas dance was being held within the castle as a little party for the nobles, before it was shoved away and never to be seen again. Since Ky didn’t really do the whole Christmas celebration thing until today, it had remained there collecting dust until now.

“Can’t really call it a Christmas tree when it’s plain,” Sol remarked, and Ky nodded in agreement.

“That’s true. However with the ornaments me and Sin made today, perhaps we could decorate it now. Seeing as you didn’t assist us in making them, you can help us out now.”

Decorating the Christmas tree seemed like kind of a childish thing to do when you’re a grown adult, and the task seemed even more unappealing when Sol realised the glue on the ornaments had still not set in yet and so he was prone to getting his fingers mucky. He was about to reject Ky’s offer when he spotted Sin staring up at him with a pleading look on his face, his little hands wringing together and- ah what the hell it was only his hands that would suffer the worst of the stuff.

It was probably for the best that he did help out. Sin ended up being only tall enough to decorate the bottom of the tree, which led to a system where Sin would run and go get some ornaments, and then pass them to Sol and Ky to hang up on the higher parts of the tree.

Every time Sol got given an ornament, he took the chance to inspect each one. In most cases, it was pretty obvious what they were trying to replicate. For instance, the snowflake decorations and the reindeer baubles were pretty self-explanatory. And then there were some where he honestly had no clue what the fuck he was looking at, a mishmash of red, gold and green colours clashing together.

As they got to the very top part of the tree, Ky could no longer reach up to that height, and so a new plan was formed where Sol hoisted Sin on top of his shoulders to hang the rest of the decorations on that level.

With the last ornament was hung, the Christmas tree certainly looked a lot more livelier than before. Each branch shone with some type of decoration, and gave it a more homely feel. It would have been done, but there was still something extremely off about it though.

“Something feels missing,” Sin mentioned as Sol let him down onto the ground again, and it was only then that Sol realised.

“Did you two not make any tree toppers?”

“Oh!” Ky said in realisation. “No, I don’t believe we did.”

Well, the Christmas tree was going to look slightly off for the rest of the night then, nothing they could do about it. Even though Sol knew he shouldn’t really care about how the tree looked, it still was a bit annoying they didn’t have anything to fit at the top. Maybe he should have gotten Sin that angel tree topper when the kid had asked back a couple months ago.

“Oh well, maybe if we celebrate another Christmas together in the future, we can have a tree topper then,” Sin said cheerily, though from the tone of his voice it was obvious that he was still a little bit disappointed. “Is it time for presents now?” he asked instead.

There really wasn’t anything else to do, so Sol supposed it was. “Yeah, sure,” he said, and then looked to Ky as if to silently ask which of the two of them should go first. Ky didn’t seem to particularly mind, and so Sol went over to grab the gift and gave it to the kid, who was sitting on the floor by the Christmas tree patiently. It was better to get it over and done with anyway.

“Here. Merry Christmas kid.”

Sin grabbed the outstretched parcel instantly, tearing the layers off as quickly as he could. When he finally reached the centre, he picked up the toy with both hands and stared blankly at it.

The odd plushie stared back at him, or at least would be staring back at him if not for the fact its eyes were spread wide apart as if to be comically cute. Everything else about it however screamed the opposite. The short moustache above its wide mouth coupled with the leaf around it’s supposed crotch area seemed to imply that this plush was not meant to be for children, yet it was strangely marketed towards them.

Really, the thing was unappealing down to the core, but it was a pretty hilarious gift. Judging from the look on Ky’s face, he didn’t seem to agree this in the slightest.

“When I said to give Sin a gift,” Ky said after a brief pause, “I didn’t think you would get something like that.”

“What did you expect me to get? There was hardly anything left. At least it’s interesting.”

Ky bit his lip, looking torn on how to feel about it. “It is your gift after all but.. don’t you think it’s perhaps a little.. eccentric?”

He then knelt down near Sin, giving the plush an intense, thorough inspection. Sin in the meanwhile took his time squishing the plush and turning it over, trying to work out what exactly it was and what it could do.

“What is it meant to be?” he asked Sol, which was a very good question.

“No fucking clue.”

Sin looked back at the plush again, and thought about it for a bit. Then, he suddenly spoke up, his eyes sparkling with newfound admiration for the toy.

“Oh! It looks like that triangle dumpling, chimaki!”

Considering how the plush had human features, Sol had no idea how the heck Sin managed to make the leap in logic between that and perfectly good food, but seeing how much happier this realisation made the kid with his gift, there was no way he was shutting the idea down.

After a few more minutes of playing around with it, Sin gave it a big cuddle, and then leapt up from his spot to hug Sol’s legs with a wide grin on his face.

“I love him. I’m going to take him with me everywhere.”

In truth, Sol hadn’t really expected Sin to be thrilled over it; he just kind of thought the kid would accept it as a mediocre gift, and move on. Seeing Sin’s overwhelmingly pleased reaction was a welcome surprise to say the least.

“Heh," Sol smirked, showing a celebratory grin towards Ky, who appeared shocked out of his wits. "As long as you don’t lose it.”

“I won’t,” Sin answered back, and Sol couldn’t fight against the urge to ruffle his hair.

“.. I suppose it’s my turn to give my gift now, isn’t it?” Ky said as Sin turned to give him an eager face of anxious excitement. “I can’t promise my gift will be as riveting as Sol’s, but I hope you do like it. Excuse me while I go get it,” he announced, and made his way out of the room.

“Bet you he’s got you a tea cup,” Sol said as soon as Ky disappeared from view, and Sin’s nose wrinkled up in distaste.

“I hope he doesn’t. I don’t even drink tea.” Sin sighed, and distracted himself by playing with the plushie again.

“He’s a lot dumber than most people think. I mean, what kind of person forgets you need a tree topper on a Christmas tree?”

Sin thoughtfully stared at the tree before his gaze dropped to his plushie again. He then suddenly shot up, and reached his arms out to Sol.

“Lift me.”

“What?”

“We can put Chimaki on top of the tree!” he exclaimed as Sol was trying to work out where that idea came from and more importantly, why.

“Kid, we’re not that desperate for a tree topper-”

“No, but Chimaki belongs on the tree!” Sin cried out. “A star has five points, and Chimaki has five points too,” he explained, pointing at each of Chimaki’s limbs. “Therefore, he can be our Christmas star.”

The kid seemed really keen on advocating for the world’s most ugliest Christmas star and honestly, if this Christmas was going to be a mess with Ky giving Sin a goddamn tea set, then they might as well go all out and put whatever the hell Chimaki was on top of the tree.

When Ky walked back into the room a few minutes later and registered the newfound addition to the tree, he paused.

“I’m not even going to ask.”

“Then don’t,” Sol said as Sin joyfully giggled, as Ky shook his head in resignation and knelt down in front of Sin.

“Unfortunately I didn’t get the opportunity to wrap my gift, but I hope this will do.”

He then pulled out a familiar gold necklace and began to fasten it around Sin’s neck, the kid watching him in awe.

“When I was younger, I was given this cross by one of the nuns who used to take care of us at the Church I grew up in. It was meant to be a reminder that the Lord is always with us even in hard times, and that we have someone to rely on,” Ky stated, tracing the outline of the cross with his thumb. “It helped me remember that I was never alone, even when it felt like the whole world was against me.”

“But why are you giving this to me?” Sin asked innocently, which did make sense considering Sin wasn't very religious at all. “Isn’t it important to you?”

“It is,” Ky agreed. “I’m giving this to you not for religious reasons, but because I hope it serves as a reminder that you too are never alone in any of this. It’s human nature to want to stick to our deep beliefs no matter what evidence may contradict it, I’ve faced such a problematic habit in my life too…” Ky admitted, looking away for a brief moment.

“The truth is, mankind will not so easily be swayed by the proof that Gears aren’t all evil. They’ll be hostile for as long as that mindset sticks with them. But no matter what people do or say, it will never be your fault for being who you are. Your entire life is not dependent on what you were born as. Due to my position, I can’t easily reassure you of things like this constantly, so I hope that by giving you this necklace, it will be able to remind you of my words.”

Ky let go of the necklace, letting it flop back onto Sin’s chest. “I know it’s not exactly as fun as Sol’s gift, but…”

Sin shook his head. “Just because it’s not as fun doesn’t mean it’s not as important. I like your gift as much as I like the old man’s gift. Thank you, dad.” Sin smiled, and reached out to give Ky a hug.

Ky pulled Sin closer to him, and in a rare moment of pure happiness he let himself smile genuinely. “Merry Christmas, Sin.”

It sure was awkward standing around in the few minutes the two of them were hugging whilst Sol had nothing else to do, so after a few moments of them not letting go, Sol let out a cough to signal that sappy father-son time was over.

“Alright, my turn my turn!” Sin yelled, suddenly back to his old self again, and before they could ask exactly what Sin meant by that, the kid was already dashing off out of the room. It only took a few seconds for him to come instantly running in again with a proud grin on his face, his hands indiscreetly behind his back.

“I have something for you two,” he announced, and Ky took the opportunity to give Sol one of those looks that read ‘please don’t tell me you let him bring in something dangerous from outside, or God help us all.’ Sol was fully prepared to let Ky know that he was around Sin for the majority of the day so he should have been watching what the kid was picking up and take some responsibility for goddamn once, when all of a sudden their attention was brought to what Sin was showing them.

In his hands was a sketch, and that was all Sol could manage to gather from the picture as a whole. The first thing that stood out to him was that there were trees and a sky, which were probably the most accurate things on the paper. On the left-hand side there seemed to be something primarily scribbed with blue that vaguely resembled a building, so that must have been the castle. And then there was… splotches of red, and maybe the yellow thing was a banana?

There were also the three things at the bottom of the page which Sol really didn’t want to acknowledge due to how atrocious it looked. They appeared to be people, but it was hard to actually call them people when they looked more like spherical blobs with human features on them, and even then the human features only consisted of eyes, mouths, hair, and stubs for arms and legs.

If they were actually people, then the one in the middle with long blonde hair would have to be Ky, the weird creature on the right would be Sin and the thing on the other side would have to be… him?

Sol didn’t know whether to laugh or scowl at the ridiculousness of it all.

“Earlier,” Sin started to explain, “we were discussing how Christmas is about giving gifts to people you love to show how much you care about them. So I wanted to draw things I love! See, we’re all in front of the castle holding hands, and there’s food and hearts around us and– dad are you crying?!”

“Just a little,” Ky smiled, doing a horrible job of hiding his tears with his hands. It was astounding to see, given that Ky never really was the sort of person to cry out of sheer happiness, only in guilt after the end of every long dreary battle during the war. Maybe he was crying out of terror after the picture, seemed a lot more plausible anyway.

“Is it that bad?!” Sin exclaimed, looking very horrified. “I can change it-!”

Ky only laughed and shook his head. “No no, it’s.. wonderful. I’m very touched by it. Look at how accurate it is, you’ve got our clothes and colours perfect,” Ky said, which was practically the biggest overstatement of the century. Yeah, it was accurate to an extent, but the last time Sol went out he sure as hell didn't see floating food about the place. 

“Thanks dad!” Sin beamed sweetly, and Sol took the opportunity to point out what had been bothering him.

“So, what’s with the floating food?”

“Oh, well I really like food, so I knew I had to include it,” Sin replied. “I drew lots of different types!” he pointed to some blobs of colour on the page, which looked absolutely nothing like food. “There’s hamburgers and pork ribs and chocolate cake and fillet minion-”

They both burst out laughing at that one as Sin stared at them blankly in confusion.

“Huh? Did I say something wrong…”

“Filet mignon,” Ky pronounced with the most French-ist accent Sol had ever heard him speak in, “has French origins, so you don’t actually pronounce the ‘t’ in ‘filet’ while the ‘e’ is stressed. As well as that, the ‘gnon’ part of ‘mignon’ has more of a ‘nyon’ sound rather than a ‘nyen’ sound. Does that make sense?”

“Um.. no, not really. This is too much for my brain to deal with on Christmas Day, I can’t handle a French lesson,” Sin sighed, whilst Sol gave him a reassuring pat on the back.

“Now you know what sort of hell I went through with all his pointless lectures for more than a decade.”

Ky looked at him disapprovingly. “That is an overstatement, and you know it Sol. My so-called 'lectures' were very informative-”

"-Never listened to any of them."

"Well if you did listen to them, maybe you'd find them helpful and they wouldn't be so useless, would they?"

“Stop!” Sin suddenly yelled out loud, and turned to him and Ky as if to scold them. “No fighting. Christmas is a day about showing your love and appreciation to your family. So do that.”

Sol thought that his back-and-forths with Ky could hardly be considered as fighting; if they were really fighting then they’d better do the word justice by actually physically going at it with their swords. “Kid, we show our love through fighting-”

“Well I have a better way of showing love,” Sin announced, setting the drawing down to his side. "It's called a group hug."

Ugh, how cheesy. Granted, Christmas was a pretty cheesy holiday in itself, but that didn't mean they had to act that way. Ky seemed to relish in the opportunity and scooped Sin up at once, no longer tentative about doing so, and they both expectantly looked over to Sol.

He'd already pulled the 'nah, I'm fine with not participating' card too many times already and knew he couldn't get away with it again, and so when Ky dragged him in to join, he just wordlessly allowed it to happen.

"Hmm..? You didn't seem to resist at all. Do you secretly like this kind of thing?" Ky asked, less out of genuine curiosity and more so that he could tease Sol.

Hugging was a weird thing. It's true that at some point in his life he had been largely indifferent to it, but after a long time of being so touch-starved, it was odd to get back into actually doing the action.

Right now though, it was warm and comfy being in such a position, that in all honesty Sol didn't really want to argue against it.

Maybe Christmas and all that came with it wasn't so bad after all. Sure the gift-giving situation was still shitty, and the weather for it was still shitty, and all the damn promotion, god that was the worst. But being with your family and doing stuff with them.. well..

"Shut up," was all that Sol said in retaliation, and pulled them closer into his embrace.