Work Text:
Tangle was decked out in her holiday apparel, complete with golden tinsel wrapped around her tail with added red and purple ornaments hanging off of it. Stepping out of her house into the snowy ground of Spiral Hill, she spotted her target: her partner Whisper, wearing her own festive outfit of a green unitard and cloak watching her wisps playing in the snow nearby. The energetic lemur ran up to her lupine companion, “Merry Christmas, Whisper!”
Usually, the wolf would jump at such a sudden introduction, but the time she had spent with Tangle had allowed her to loosen up much more to the lemur’s sudden greetings. “Oh, merry Chirmas, Tangle,” she replied in a much softer voice.
“I’m so excited! This is our first Christmas! I can’t wait to go caroling, drink eggnog, make cookies…”
The lemur prattled on various yuletide activities while Whisper lightly blushed at the thought of spending the holiday season with her close friend. She had hoped they could have been closer than friends by now, but she hadn’t managed to muster up the courage and Tangle seemed oblivious to her various hints. Whisper tuned back into Tangle’s ramblings just in time for her to pull something out of her back pocket with her tail.
Tangle presented a small sprig with white berries, holding it slightly above the two of them. “And check it out, mistletoe! You know what that means, right!”
Whisper’s blush went from a faint pink to a full Santa Claus red as her mind processed what her friend(?) had just hung above them. Her mind ran a mile a minute thinking of the implications, ‘OMG, are we kissing? I’ve been waiting for her to make the first move, but I never thought she’d be so forward. Is this going too fast? I’ve certainly wanted to kiss her so I don’t mind taking this step so soon. It’s just like her to finally take this step on our first Christmas together. How romantic of her, sharing our first kiss on such a beautiful scenic day, under mistletoe no less. I almost can’t believe that this is finally happen-’
*CHOMP*
Whisper’s eyes shot open as the sound of Tangle eating something. She looked at the lemur’s extended tail to find that the sprig of mistletoe was no longer there. Once she heard Tangle swallow the plant, all of the color drained from her face. “T-Tangle…” was all Whisper could say before Tangle immediately began to vomit.
Lanolin sat in the empty Diamond Cutter meeting room. While she was technically on vacation for the holidays, she had a few last minute things to wrap off before she left for her hometown. One of those was a video call from her teammates currently in Spiral Hill. It was mostly just to wish each other happy holidays, but in Lanolin’s eyes a meeting is still a meeting.
As she finished filling out her last report, her phone began to ring. “Perfect timing,” she said as she answered the call. To the sheep’s surprise, she was greeted not by Tangle or Whisper, but by the Director of the restoration, Jewel the Beetle. “Direc- *ahem* Jewel, I wasn’t expecting you. Merry Christmas,” Lanolin kept a firm, professional tone in front of her boss.
“And to you as well.” Jewel put on a clearly false smile. Lanolin immediately knew something had gone wrong. In fact, Lanolin had only seen that particular expression when…
“What did Tangle do this time?” Lanolin asked flatly. Jewel was known for letting her nerves show in front of others, but having grown up with Tangle meant that she reacts to the lemur’s shenanigans much more calmly than most.
Jewel dropped her facade as she explained the situation, “She ate mistletoe again.”
“Isn’t mistletoe poisonous? Wait, again!?” Lanolin cut off her own question with another.
“Yeah I’m in the emergency while Tangle gets her stomach pumped and Whisper tries to calm herself down. Tangle does this every year. She swears that she’s building a resistance, but she hasn’t really made much progress”
“Wh-what?”
“Oh yeah, I’m calling because Tangle and Whisper are a little busy to wish you happy holidays, so I’m passing on the message,” Jewel now had a more sincere smile on, despite the apparent state of her childhood friend.
“Oh, okay… Tell them I wish them the same. I’ll see you after the holidays Jewel.”
“See you then!” Jewel ended the call and turned to the blonde wolf sitting next to her.
Whisper had just managed to stop hyperventilating into the paper bag a nurse had given her while her wisps tried to comfort her. “Thank you Jewel, I’m not sure I would’ve been able to hold myself together if she called.”
“It’s no problem. I really should’ve warned you about that. I doubt you could’ve stopped her, but at least you would’ve known what to expect.”
A doctor came into the waiting room and addressed them, “Hello Jewel and… Whisper, correct?”
Whisper nodded.
The doctor continued, “Well, Tangle’s going to be fine, just like last year. If you’ll both come with me we can get her discharged.” He gestured towards the hallway into the other rooms..
Jewel raised her hand as she stood up, “I can go ahead and handle the forms. Whisper, why don’t you go talk with tangle?”
Whisper rushed with the doctor to find the previously poisoned lemur.
“Tangle!” Whisper dashed to the side of the lemur’s hospital bed once the doctor had shown her the way, “Are you okay!?”
“Heeeey Whispy. Sorry you had to see that. I was so sure this would be the year,” Tangle wasn’t on any pain killers, but she still seemed a little out of it after having the contents of her stomach pumped out of her.
“Please don’t poison yourself again,” the wolf begged, “I’m not sure my heart can take it. I can’t stand seeing you so hurt, especially when it’s completely self-inflicted.” Whisper was talking much more than usual, teetering on the edge of confessing her feelings right then and there.
“I just wanted to impress you,” Tangle slumped in the bed, “Guess that backfired big time. I really messed up Christmas, huh.”
“No, you didn’t. I was a mercenary, Tangle. I’m used to spending holidays in hospital beds. At least you’re getting dismissed the same day. Just, maybe yearly poisoning isn’t that great of a holiday tradition.”
Tangle chuckled slightly, “Ha, maybe.” She sat in silence for a moment. “Hey Whisper, I just realized something.”
“Hm.”
“When I brought out that mistletoe, did you think I was going to kiss you?”
Whisper’s face turned beet red at the question.
“It’s just, I didn’t want to send the wrong message. NOT THAT I WOULDN’T WANT TO KISS YOU!” Tangle frantically amended her statement, “I don’t want to push you to do something if you’re not ready. I was sorta hoping you would take the lead for romantic stuff so that I wouldn’t scare you by being too… much.” Upon realizing what she just said, the lemur’s own face turned a similar shade to her wolf companion.
Whisper had been waiting for this moment, now it was her turn talk, “I-”
“WAIT!” Tangle interrupted, “Let me just say that it’s fine if you don’t want to, or it if you don’t even feel the same way. I’m totally cool with just staying friends.” Tangle’s heart was beating out of her chest, as was Whisper’s.
“I do, Tangle. I’ve wanted to ask you out for a long time, but I was always too nervous to ask. Actually, I’ve been waiting for you to make the first move. I got so excited when I saw the mistletoe,” Whisper sighed, “Then… you ate it…”
The lemur scratched the back of her head, “I guess I did bungle something, huh.”
Whisper let out a light chuckle, “S’pose you did.”
Tangle began to lift herself off of the bed as she gave Whisper a cocky smirk, ‘Well, maybe I can make up for past mistakes.” She began to lean towards Whisper.
The blonde wolf responded by putting a finger up to Tangle’s puckered lips, “Not until you get some mouthwash. I watched you lose your lunch less than an hour ago.”
“Fair enough.”
Whisper let out a full laugh this time, “Merry Christmas, Tangle.”
“Merry Christmas, Whisper.”