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Somehow, whether it be through TV or other kids in his kindergarten class, Akutagawa got the idea that Santa wasn’t real.
And as the responsible older neighbor (though not by that much) he had to tell his friend, Atsushi, his recently learned knowledge.
He creaked his front door open. He noticed Atsushi attempting to create a snowman and came rushing over, yelling out “ATSUSHIII!!!” as loud as he could, as if he wasn’t a few feet away.
Atsushi paused, his rounded face looking over to find Akutagawa. His eyebrows were raised and his little hands pulled on his hat nervously, wondering if something was wrong.
Akutagawa skipped over, rubbing his reddened nose with mitten covered hands. He plopped down on the snow next to the other boy.
Atsushi turned away from the snowman (though it was more like a snow-blob at this point) and looked at Akutagawa with a frustrated look.
“Why are you yelling?” asked Atsushi.
“I was just getting your attention,” muttered the other little boy, absentmindedly picking up a pile of snow from the ground.
“Well what do you want? My mom said I have to go in soon and I wanna finish my snowman…” rambled Atsushi with a sigh, clearly done with his friend’s shenanigans.
Akutagawa smiled mischievously and stood up suddenly, kicking at the snow with a knowing grin.
“I found out something and you’re never gonna believe it,” he exclaimed proudly.
“What is it now…?”
Akutagawa responded,“I found out that Santa is not real!” a smug grin growing on his face.
At this proclamation, Atsushi’s face squirmed into a disgruntled expression, both angry and seconds away from crying.
“No!” shouted Atsushi back, angered by his claim, “No you didn’t! Santa is real!!”
“Oh yeah? You don’t have any proof!”
“Well- but- but- but I just know he is!”
“You can’t prove it!!!” insisted Akutagawa, furious that he was being fought so hard on this.
“You know what? I’m gonna prove it! I’m gonna catch Santa and tell you all about it!”
Akutagawa stumbled back and pouted, not satisfied and still sure that he knew the truth. He thought of an idea and regained his smirk.
“Well you could just be lying if you just tell me about it. I’m gonna catch him with you, then we’ll know who’s really right.”
“Fine then! You’re gonna see!”
Akutagawa huffed and ran back to his house, determined to prove himself right and superior to his neighbor.
————
The next day, two days before Christmas, Atsushi came over to Akutagawa’s home, obviously still determined to continue with the plan they made yesterday.
Since they lived just next to each other, Atsushi didn’t feel the need to bundle up. So, he had on his pajamas, a fuzzy onesie with tigers spread all over.
But his jammies weren’t quite warm enough, his teeth chattered and cheeks glowed red. Obviously, even though it was a short distance over, it was extremely cold that day.
Akutagawa’s mom made them some hot chocolate to warm them up. The two boys sat on a couch with hot mugs in their laps, carefully blowing on them and balancing them.
“So, how are we gonna catch him?” asked Akutagawa, “Do you have a plan?”
“We’re gonna stay up all night, in front of the fireplace. And when we see him, which we will, you’ll see how wrong you are!”
“Well yeah, but how will we stay up all night? What if we fall asleep? Then you’re just gonna say he came while we slept!”
Atsushi had obviously not thought that deep into it and sighed, eyebrows furrowing in thought. He spiked up and spoke, “I know! We’ll play games and watch movies all night! We’ll stay up if we’re busy.”
Akutagawa licked the cocoa off his lips and agreed to his plan. He leaned back on the couch, “Hm, okay. That sounds good. See you then.”
“See you then! I’ll tell you when to come over with my walkie talkie!” Atsushi guzzled down the last of his hot chocolate and leaped up, dashing back home.
————
On Christmas Eve, after Atsushi’s parents tucked him into bed, he snuck out of the covers and alerted Akutagawa to come over.
He made sure to whisper so his parents wouldn’t hear and try to stop their plan. He just needed to show Akutagawa he was wrong! Santa was real!
Akutagawa crept over, cutting across his lawn and carefully pulling the door open. Atsushi was waiting at the door and let him in.
They waited for a long while for the jingle of sleigh bells from the roof. At the first hint of a yawn from Akutagawa, Atsushi knew they had to do something to keep them both up.
They didn’t want to be too loud with their attempts to stay awake, since his parents had gone to bed just recently, so Atsushi scrambled to get pieces of paper and crayons from the cabinet in the corner of the room so they could draw instead of playing some loud game or watching a movie on the big screen TV.
He passed a paper to the boy next to him, “Here, draw!” Akutagawa picked up a crayon in his tiny fist and began scribbling on the paper, desperate to stay awake to prove Atsushi wrong.
Atsushi let out a small yawn, then his eyes widened in fear of falling asleep, and he slapped the paper down on the table to start drawing. It had barely even been 40 minutes since his parents had originally tucked him into bed and he was already struggling, this could be a long wait before he finally got the satisfaction of knowing Santa was truly real.
After a while of mindless scribbling that did barely anything to stimulate their minds, they gave up. Atsushi decided his parents were most likely asleep and turned on his Nintendo Switch, putting in the cartridge for Mario Kart and sliding off the joycons, one for him, one for Akutagawa.
They started up the game, Akutagawa picking the coolest red cart he could find along with Shy Guy, who he decided was the coolest looking (even compared to the big ones like Bowser or Donkey Kong for some reason)
Atsushi on the other hand chose a sleek blue cart and Tanooki Mario, remarking about how cute the ears and tail were.
As always when they played Mario Kart, they got very into it and it definitely hyped them up enough to keep them from closing their eyes for a while longer. Atsushi won the first round, but according to Akutagawa it wasn’t fair because he kept “trying to distract” the other player with his comments about what place he was in.
Their brows furrowed as they focused on sliding past each other and obtaining every power up they could. They even turned in real life to match their vehicle in the game, completely absentmindedly, just as a side feature of how concentrated they were on the screen.
But eventually, eyes aching from the blue light pouring into them, they decided to shut it off to move onto something different, though that activity did last for a while and did bring some much-needed energy.
Akutagawa grabbed the remote and looked through different options of movies they could watch. After brief and petty arguments about what to put on, they finally settled on The Polar Express.
They switched it on with clumsy hands, figuring out what buttons to press without the help of their parents for once. They made it to the movie and despite wanting to cuddle up with a blanket, they decided not to for the sake of staying up.
They enjoyed the movie, paying attention to each action as if they had never seen it (they most definitely had.) Once it got to the section with Santa in it, Akutagawa glanced at Atsushi, rolling his eyes at the boy’s childish delight when he saw the man.
“He’s still not real… you’re gonna see…”
At this point, Atsushi was getting a little worried. After all, it had been a while now, and there was still no sign of Santa. But he kept his hopes high and dismissed Akutagawa with a similar eye roll to the one he received.
The movie eventually finished, the music from the credits ringing out as they stared out the window, waiting for some sign of a sleigh.
Akutagawa was even glancing around and listening for footsteps on the rooftop, even though he wanted to be right, he did kind of want Santa to be real too…
They both pulled up a Santa tracker on Atsushi’s mom’s computer, and when it said that Santa was supposed to be in their country, no, in their town, hope faded from both of their faces. Santa wasn’t there. And if he wasn’t there, that meant he wasn’t real…
But then, when they had given up almost all hope, they heard a slight footstep, followed by a jingle. They knew what it was.
Ecstatic grins and eyes like saucers met each other. They raced to the chimney and sat there, glancing up for the chance to see him before the other could. Akutagawa wasn’t even disappointed that he had been wrong the whole time, he was so blinded with happiness at the possibility that he could meet Santa that he didn’t even think about anything else.
They bounced up and down and rocked back and forth, eyes squinted with so much happiness that they could barely see.
Finally, they heard a grunt and saw Santa come falling down the chimney. They stood up almost in sync and gleamed at the man in front of them.
“SANTA!!!!” they shouted in unison.
The aforementioned man was a bit shocked by the surprise he saw, the two little boys barreling into him. He stumbled back and then let out a big laugh, getting down onto their level and speaking to them.
“Ho ho ho! You caught me! How about I leave you some presents and then take you up to meet my reindeer? Would you two like that? But we have to be quick…I don’t have too much time to get to every house.”
They both nodded fervently, almost breaking their necks with how quick they shook them. After Santa dropped some presents from his bag beside the tree, he took them to his reindeer up on the rooftop.
Santa pointed at each reindeer and added their name, “Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen.” Akutagawa and Atsushi followed along with their eyes to each reindeer and went up to them, petting their coats and looking absolutely awestruck at the whole scene before them.
They did promise to be quick, so as soon as they met the reindeer, they waved goodbye to Santa and gave him a short hug and promise to stay on the nice list, and let him be on his way.
The boys went back inside. Akutagawa was too exhausted to head back home and Atsushi felt the same about going back upstairs. Their long night had made them both very very sleepy.
They collapsed on the soft couch in Atsushi’s living room, leaning against each other with a smile and happy mind, knowing that Santa really was real.