Work Text:
It was the 23rd of December.
Kris, Noelle, Berdly, and Susie had a Christmas party in the Dark World. The castle was decorated with Christmas decorations. Noelle had worked with Ralsei to make temporary snow. Kris helped with the baking of Christmas treats because of his experience with using an oven. Susie helped moved the Christmas decors around and Berdly helped with managing some helpers.
Some of the other darkeners also decorated their buildings as well. Top Chef’s building has the outside painted to make the roof look like a Santa hat. Swatch’s café now looked like it had a cup of hot cocoa with marshmallows instead of the regular cup of coffee above the building. The Party Dojo played Christmas themed music, and even old Seam had put up a fake Christmas tree in front of his shop.
Tasque Manager checked her watch.
It was almost time for the party
She had rushed into the kitchen to alert Top Chef, Swatch, and the others to hurry. She helped manage both Tasques and tasks, and in the name of her Queen she will do her job no matt.
The Darkeners had tried to recreate what Christmas would be like based on what the Cyber World inhabitants learned from web searches, but could not embrace the concept of Christmas. Susie did not celebrate it with family often due to how tense their Christmases are, and nobody invited Berdly to any Christmas party because of his attitude.
“Noelle and I had celebrated tons of Christmases together.” Kris pointed out to everyone.
“Yeah! Even though Kris has not celebrated Christmas with me last year, we still had a lot of fun stuff that happened during our time together!” Noelle beamed, not being able to contain her excitement at telling stories of their childhood.
Nobody commented on her choice of words.
And so Noelle went into story telling mode. She went in details on how during Christmas most animosity shared between the two families are forgetting at the party, how it was the time for giving, and how their families shared laughter and memories together. Kris sometimes cut in between stories to tell funny moments between Kris and Noelle during Christmas, as it was tradition to attempt to prank Noelle during Christmas. Noelle blushes when Kris mentions the carpet incident, almost choking Kris as he mentioned it.
“Hey! The hot chocolate drinks have arrived!” Susie calls out from her seat.
As soon as she pointed it out, a bunch of Swatchlings had entered the room and handed everyone their drinks. The cups resembled standard cups of the café, but it was filled with chocolate liquid and marshmallows.
The guests had taken a sip of the drink.
They seemed to like the drink.
Susie had commented on how the drink tasted like Christmas. Berdly grudgingly agreed it was the best drink he’d ever tasted in a while. Tasque Manager was wagging her tail as she drank her drink. Virvokun swore that the taste was familiar to her.
Queen was chuckling to herself as if she knew something. Nobody knows why she was acting like that, but nobody paid attention to her as they were enjoying their drinks.
Kris and Noelle, however, had differing reactions to the drink.
For Noelle, it tasted like thrill combined with a touch of warmth and reassurance. As she tasted the drink, memories of her and Kris playing around in the snow. A bright sunny winter sky painted itself within Noelle’s mind, with Kris covered in snow and chasing after her. She remembered the time when Kris tried to scare her with the snowman prank but ended up falling onto her and giving each other an intimate moment.
For Kris, it tasted like a warm Christmas eve with someone snuggling beside him. Drinking the cup made him feel as if the darkness within his heart lightened up. It reminded him of the still moments when Kris and Noelle were alone, staring at the winter night sky as they waited for Christmas Eve. It was just the two of them enjoying a cup of hot chocolate together as they snuggled inside a warm blanket and waiting for the clock to hit 12.
Both took a peek at each other to gauge the other’s reaction to the drink, unaware the other had done the same.
They had made eye contact.
Their souls are trying to call out to each other. Their eyes widened; not in surprise, but to give the other a better view. Kris brushed his hair to the side as Noelle leaned in closer to gaze at the ruby orbs staring back.
They exchanged no words between them.
But deep down, they both knew they wanted each other.
Luckily for them, the others are still mesmerized by the drink. The previous taste of Christmas had gotten even better. Now it tasted like two long lost lovers’ reconnection. Nobody noticed the two childhood friends now wanting each other; except Queen, who had known about their feelings for quite some time.
As the two lovebirds stare at each other in awe and love, Lancer had approached Swatch standing by the entrance.
“This is an amazing cup of chocolate!” Lancer took another swig of the drink. “What’s the secret recipe for it?” Lancer asked curiously.
Swatch looked at the scene blankly.
“That is not hot chocolate. It is simply a substitute for the drink.”
“Why is it not hot chocolate, then? Isn’t Christmas supposed to have hot chocolate?”
“Kris bought them all at one point.” Swatch said in a polite voice. “That boy may have had done some incredible feats, but I am more amazed by his ability to eat as much chocolate as he can.”
Lancer looked satisfied for a moment before his curiosity flared up again.
“Wait, what are we drinking then if there’s no hot chocolate?”
“Well, we had to improvise. We had to mix some other drinks to replicate the taste of chocolate.” Swatch place his hands on his chin as if trying to recollect a memory. “If I remember correctly, there was only one combination of drinks that could consistently replicate the taste of it.”
“What is it then?” Lancer asked with full-blown puppy eyes.
“First, nice try. Queen had trained me to resist any form of briberies.” Lancer pouted at the statement. “Second, they were two drinks that were sold by an Addison in bulk. It was a custom made drink, but the Addison had mass produced such an amount in a short time.”
Swatch pulled out a receipt from within his pocket.
“I believe they were ‘Kris Tea’ and ‘Noelle Tea.’ Despite the countless of drink combinations that are within the town, they are the only ones that fit the bill.”
Lancer processed the information that was given to him.
“Wait, are we drinking parts of blueberry boy and the reindeer?” Lancer asked with disgust.
“Well, no.” Swatch corrected him. “The tea themselves are supposed to mimic the flavour that reflects what the consumer thinks about the person the tea is based on. Combining the two of them together could mean that it reflects what we think of them as a couple.”