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In the North Pole, a little bit of a ways away from the bustling shopping center it was known for, there was a large winter cabin more akin to a wooden mansion. It was surrounded on all sides by pine trees and could be easily missed by somebody who wasn’t looking for it. This was the place where Aru, AKA Santa, lived.
Nico walked around the back of said mansion to a set of beautifully carved doors, depicting wonderful scenes of children happily receiving presents. She had once been told by Aru that Rein had built this whole mansion for Aru himself using magic. Did that include the carving? Nico couldn’t help but giggle at the idea of the tiny reindeer using his hooves to hold the tools it would take to get the fine details, even though he probably just poofed them into existence.
But instead of admiring the pictures any longer, Nico gently pushed on one of the doors. Sure enough, it was unlocked. Leave it to Aru to be so careless.
Nico stepped into a large, wonderfully decorated but currently very empty room. Typically this room was full of many colorful boxes of all shapes in sizes wrapped in fun paper with bows, but right now it was empty - and this time it wasn’t Nico’s fault! Actually, it would be much more alarming if this room WASN’T empty, considering it was Christmas day and most people have probably opened their presents by now.
Nico walked through the workshop and into the main room of the house. This place really loved its wood, so the floor was wooden, the walls were wooden, the support beams were wooden, even the stairs were wooden! The only non-wooden structure was the fireplace, which was made of classic red bricks. The fireplace magically summoned a fire when Nico got near it, and Nico SO wanted to go sit on the couch in front of it after the long journey here, but she had work to do so she pressed on up the stairs. Until she got tired of climbing those and just flew up them instead.
From visits before Nico already knew which room was Aru’s, and made her way in there quickly. She opened the door as silently as she could and sure enough, there was Aru sleeping on her super fancy canopy-style bed under a ton of Christmas blankets and snuggled up to Rein (who was also on the bed) as a fire crackled away in a nearby fireplace. This whole place was so old fashioned in design!
Nico had known she could come here without being noticed because she knew there was no way Aru WOULDN’T be asleep after her long night of delivering presents. Nico remembered how tired she was last year when she got home from helping. Still, there was a part of Nico that was disappointed Aru didn’t ask her to help again this year…
Well, Nico may not be Santa, but there was one gift she wanted to deliver. She placed it by Aru’s bedside table before leaving quickly so she could go home to celebrate Christmas (which she and her family had come back around on after how well they did this year), as well as her birthday!
~~~
It was starting to get dark out when Aru finally awoke, feeling overjoyed. Last night went so well! She bet the kids all over the world were so happy with their gifts, and just the idea of that made her feel so warm and tingly inside!
Aru carefully nudged Rein aside so she could sit up, and when she did, she spotted something by her bedside table. Though it was messily wrapped, it was clearly done so with love, and the tag on it said To: Santa .
Concern about the fact that somebody knew who she was and broke into her house aside, Aru felt a new sort of excitement she hadn’t experienced before. Despite being Santa, or rather, BECAUSE she was Santa, nobody had ever delivered HER a Christmas gift. Not to her house like this, anyway.
Aru opened the present carefully, not wanting to tear the wrapping. Sure, it was sentimental of her, but she was keeping this wrapping paper in remembrance of this moment.
When she finally got it open, there were two things inside. And the first one told Aru EXACTLY who left this for her.
It was a crayon drawing of Aru, Rein, and Nico all together, flying through the night sky. Aru smiled, knowing she was certainly going to frame that and hang it in her workshop where she could see it constantly. The other item was a cute plush rabbit in a Santa hat. As Aru was hugging it, she heard the sound of jingle bells letting her know Rein was awake.
“What do you have there, Aru?” Rein asked.
Aru smiled widely, showing him. “I got a Christmas present!!!” she declared happily. “From Nico!!”
Rein smiled back, happy to know that last year really had a lasting effect on the once-brattish girl. “After breakfast we should visit her,” Rein suggested. “To wish her a happy birthday and a merry Christmas.”
“That’s a great idea!!!” Aru agreed, still over-the-moon about this experience.