Work Text:
December 24th. Christmas Eve. Oh, how he hated this holiday. All those noisy people, running around with their jingling bells and annoying songs, decorating their houses and lawns with those gaudy lights and decorations. Well, not this year. He adjusted his red-and-white suit. This year, Christmas wasn’t coming to Boston (or, at least, to this particular neighborhood).
Lucy and Gabriela gazed out of their window in joy. It was Christmas Eve, the second-jolliest day of the year! (The first-jolliest being Christmas Day, of course.) The two young girls were simply too excited to sleep. So, they figured, why should they? Maybe they could meet up with Santa again this year!
Then, they saw him! There, across the street, his sack slung over his shoulder! Ecstatic, Lucy and Gabriela dashed downstairs and out of the house before running across the street (after looking both ways of course) to meet up with him.
“SANTA!!!” Tim startled and turned around, seeing two little girls in Christmas outfits. Ugh, perfect. Just what he needed. He opened his mouth, about to tell them off, when he paused. If he tried to tell these kids that he wasn’t Santa, they might question just what it was he was doing. He did not plan on going to jail tonight. At least, not until his plans were complete.
“Uh, yes,” he fibbed. “It is me. Santa Claus.”
“Why are you so skinny, Santa?” Lucy asked.
“And where’s your beard?” Gabriela added.
“Uh, I’ve been working out. And I shaved,” Tim responded. The girls scrutinized him for a bit. Tim started to sweat. Would they buy it? Was he busted?
“Okay!” the girls beamed. Tim let out a silent sigh of relief.
“Do you want us to help deliver presents, Santa?” Lucy asked, pointing to the sack Tim was carrying.
“Uh, no, no!” Tim said hurriedly. “I’ve got it. You two just go home and go back to bed like good little girls.” Lucy and Gabriela looked at each other and shrugged. The word of Santa Claus was the law of Jolly Month, after all.
“Happy Jolly Month, Santa!” the two girls called as they skipped away. Tim sighed in relief. That was close. Now, back to ruining Christmas.
As Lucy and Gabriela were skipping away, they noticed a light in the distance. Curious, they decided to investigate and came upon the local church, which was holding its annual nativity play. Lucy and Gabriela grinned in excitement.
“Let’s watch the play!” Gabriela suggested excitedly. Cheering, the two sisters ran into the church. Only a moment later, Tim arrived as well, intent on sabotaging the play. Was it sacreligious? Maybe. But everything Christmas had to go. No exceptions. So he snuck around the building and entered the back door.
Lucy and Gabriela took their seats, excitedly waiting for the play to begin. Moments later, the curtains opened. But everything was going wrong. Whether it was a setpiece breaking or a wildly incorrect prop being delivered, the play wasn’t going anything like the way it was supposed to. Lucy and Gabriela glanced at each other.
“This new play is so cool!” Gabriela exclaimed.
“It’s real funny,” Lucy agreed. Eventually the actors and stagehands got tired of trying to salvage this trainwreck of a play and ended it early. Lucy and Gabriela applauded.
“What should we do now?” Lucy asked.
“Let’s go see Robyn!” Gabriela suggested. And so, the two girls ran out of the church and to the direction of the chocolate shop.
Robyn sighed as she leaned on the counter. Figures she’d have to work on Christmas Eve of all days. Oh well. Just one more hour until her shift ended and the shop would be closed tomorrow for Christmas Day.
She turned her attention towards the door when she heard the jingle of the bell and saw the two little Christmas-obsessed girls strolling in. Robyn couldn’t help but smile a bit. Sure, they were a little weird, but they were never troublesome. She had even almost begun to see them as like little sisters.
“Hey girls,” she greeted. “Happy Jolly Month.”
“Happy Jolly Month, Robyn!” Lucy and Gabriela chorused back enthusiastically.
“So, what’ll it be?” the pink-haired girl asked. The jolly twins looked around the store for something they wanted before deciding to get a box of hot cocoa-flavored candies each. “Alright, and will this be all?” Robyn asked as she rang them up.
“Well, there’s also this,” Lucy said as she handed Robyn a colorfully wrapped box. Robyn blinked.
“Is that…for me?” she asked. Lucy and Gabriela nodded. Robyn gently took it from the older (by a few minutes) girl’s hands. “Wow, I–- Thank you!”
“You’re welcome, Robyn!” Lucy and Gabriela responded as they took their candies. “Happy Jolly Month!” And with that, the two girls skipped out of the store. Robyn smiled as she looked at the gift in her hands. Those girls… She could hardly wait for the end of her shift when she could open it. She was once again distracted by the sound of the bell over the door and looked up to see a skinny man in a Santa suit walking in and looking around.
“Hi, how can I help you?” she greeted. The man looked up sharply and was silent for a moment before speaking.
“Oh, uh, I’m looking for something that, uh, doesn’t seem to be here. Could you check in the back?”
“Er, alright, sir,” Robyn answered. “But you’re going to have to tell me what exactly it is you’re looking for.”
“Oh, it’s, uh…” the man paused. He seemed nervous. “It’s…Madagascar chocolate with, uh…Spanish peanuts and, er…n-nougat.”
“Okay…” Robyn drawled. “I’ll see if we have any.” Robyn sincerely doubted the store had any of whatever candy the man was describing, but decided to check the back anyway on the off chance that they did. After a few minutes of looking, she didn’t find anything, just as she suspected.
“I’m sorry, sir, but we–-” Robyn stepped out of the back room and trailed off when she saw that the store had been picked clean of all its Christmas decorations, and the man, now sporting a burlap sack, was attempting to sneak out the front door. “Hey!” She ran around the counter to confront the man. “Where do you think you’re going?” The man stared at her, startled, before his gaze flicked down to the present she still had in her hand. He looked back up at her, then back down at the present, before he suddenly snatched it out of her hand and sprinted out the door, leaving Robyn blinking in shock.
“What the hell?!”
The Gemstones were walking through the neighborhood, taking selfies in front of various decorated houses to post on social media.
“Girl, you look so hot in this one!” Sapphire commented on a picture of Ruby.
“Tell me something I don’t know,” Ruby smirked.
“Oooh, check out this one!” Emerald said, showing her friends her most recent photo.
“Not bad, not bad,” Ruby nodded approvingly.
“Ooh, let’s all take one together!” Sapphire suggested. Ruby and Emerald agreed wholeheartedly, and the trio gathered in front of a festively decorated house and took a group photo. At that moment, Lucy and Gabriela strolled past, snacking on the chocolates they had just purchased.
“Hey girls,” Ruby called with a predatory smirk. “What have you got there?”
“N-Nothing…” Lucy fibbed as she and Gabriela tried unsuccessfully to hide their candies from the older girls.
“Oh really?” Ruby snarked as she snatched the box from the younger girls’ hands. “Then what do you call this?”
“Looks like candy to me,” Emerald smirked.
“Hey, that’s ours!” Gabriela shouted.
“Well, it’s ours now,” Sapphire stated.
“Unless you think you can take it back from us,” Ruby challenged. Lucy and Gabriela slunk off in defeat. At least they had their second box of candies they had stashed in one of Lucy’s pockets for later.
“Oh my gosh, girls, I just had a great idea!” Emerald gasped. “Let’s take a candy selfie!”
“OMG, that’s an awesome idea!” Sapphire agreed. So, the girls each took a piece of candy and positioned them in front of their mouths as if they were about to eat them before taking yet another photo. They popped the candies in their mouths as they admired their latest selfie before they noticed something–-or, rather, someone--in the background.
“Ew, who is that guy?” Ruby asked, pointing to the skinny, Santa-suited guy in the background.
“I don’t know, but he looks like a creep,” Emerald stated in disgust.
“Not to mention he totally ruined our selfie,” Sapphire added.
“Delete,” the Gemstones ruled, deleting the unintentionally photobombed picture.
Tim grinned to himself. He had somehow managed to pull this off! There was only one house left to go. The most infuriating house in the neighborhood that kept all their gaudy Christmas decorations up year round. Not this year. Tim would make sure of it.
Like with all the other houses, start from the outside and work his way in. Tim managed to remove the yard decorations fairly easily. The lights were a bit trickier, but he managed. Now for the really tricky part: removing the decorations from inside the house. He managed to sneak into the chimney and shimmy his way down (though not before getting momentarily stuck). He took down the stockings and garlands without issue, and was making his move towards the tree and the presents underneath when he heard a voice behind him.
“And just who might you be?” Tim hesitantly turned around to see a rather intimidating couple glaring at him from the doorway.
“Uh… Santa Claus?” he tried weakly.
“Yeah, nice try, buddy,” the woman snorted as she and the man whom Tim could only assume was her husband started to advance on him. Tim started to sweat. He looked around for an escape route, but found that he was cornered…and that this couple meant business. Oh, he was so going to die tonight. Or at least spend the holiday season in the hospital. Just then, all three adults were distracted by the sound of a door opening. The two little girls that Tim had encountered earlier in the night entered the house.
“Mom, Dad, what’s going on?” Lucy asked her parents.
“Is that Santa?” Gabriela asked, pointing at Tim.
“No, honey, that’s not Santa,” Luzcretia sighed. Lucy and Gabriela inspected Tim more closely–-and realized their mother was right.
“You’re not Santa?!” Lucy gasped.
“You lied to us!” Gabriela pouted, sounding hurt.
“Yes, okay?!” Tim snapped. “I lied! I’m not Santa Claus! I’m just a guy who’s had it up to here with Christmas!” Lucy and Gabriela gasped. Someone who didn’t love Jolly Month? Inconceivable!
“But why?” the girls chorused.
“I can’t stand all the noisy people with their annoying songs and tacky decorations and only caring about what ‘Santa’ got them!” Tim cried. “And I’ve finally gotten fed up enough to put a stop to it!”
“But mister, that’s not what Jolly Month is about,” Gabriela said.
“It’s about spending time with family and spreading goodwill,” Lucy added as she and Gabriela moved to stand beside their parents. Tim stared at the happy family for a moment.
“Yeah, no,” he said dismissively. Silas scowled and clocked the guy, knocking him out.
As Tim was loaded into the back of a police car, the Jolly family were helping to return the gifts and decorations to the people they were stolen from. As they did this, the females of the family sang a Christmas-y song.
“It’s Jolly, it’s Jolly Month
Let’s go out and spread the love
As the stars shine up above
On Jolly, on Jolly Month”
As Tim listened to their carol, he felt the ice around his heart melt. He didn’t know why, but something about the song made him think that maybe, just maybe…Christmastime wasn’t so bad after all.
After all the presents had been returned and the decorations restored, the family was exhausted. Once they got back home, they immediately went to bed and slept soundly through the night. The next morning, they happily celebrated the jolliest day of the year, opening presents, eating hot cocoa-flavored candies, and spending the day together as a family-–with none of them noticing the eerie wind that was blowing outside.