Kisha woke up refreshed, rolling out of the bed with ease and handling the usual necessities in record time. She hummed happily as she slipped on a sweater and jeans, following up by taming that horrible case of bed hair. Before she left the room, though, she bent over to a small shrine on her nightstand. It wasn't much, just a few candles and a small golden picture frame, with a picture of her with a tall, lanky man, grinning in spite of his raggedy appearance.
She took out a plush Mothra and set it in the shrine like an offering as she smiled gently and said, "Hey, Juan. Here's hoping you're doing okay. It's been a busy Christmas, hasn't it?" A sad chuckle escaped her lips as she leaned on the desk and slouched. "Kinda been a shitty December here. No jobs, no money. No money, no gifts. Friends kinda deserve some, and I can't really... you know."
Her mind drifted, recalling snowy Christmases where he stood beside her, conjuring hot chocolate and sweaters when her pantry was nearly empty and her wardrobe needed an upgrade. All those times where he dragged her out to watch a parade, her eyes gleaming with delight at all the crowds and colorful parade carts driving down the street. All those times where, when he dressed up as Santa and cheered up random kids with new cuddly dolls and cars and coloring books galore.
Quietly, Kisha straightned up and added with a frown, "Hoping you can work out a miracle and... well, if nothing else, maybe pay a visit in that Santa outfit again."
The sound of dishes clanging grabbed Kisha's attention, the girl hastily clasping her hands and closing her eyes in prayer for a split second before heading out of her room. "Hey, is everything okay in there?" she asked, raising an eyebrow when she noticed rabbit girl was NOT on the couch.
Course she wasn't on the couch. She was in the little kitchen, having just grabbed a plate to eat a big slice of cheesecake. Her ears twisted with glee as she cut into a slice and ate it, squirming with glee in her seat. "Mmm, so good!" she said, going in for a second bite. "I missed eating these..."
Kisha stared blankly at the rabbit girl and coughed before she grumbled, "Aren't you going to ask before you just eat my cheesecake?"
The rabbit girl turned towards her, confused for a grand total of one second before she dropped the fork, color draining from her face. "O-oh, oh NO!" She stood up and bowed several times before Kisha, tears streaming down her face as she stammered, "I-I'm so sorry! I'm so so so SO sorry! I-I was just so hungry, I couldn't think straight!"
Well, getting roughed up by... whatever the hell certainly works up an appetite. "Eh, no big deal, just ask first. Feel free to have some." As the bun straightened up and rushed back to her seat, holding up a fork like she was going to murder it, Kisha glared at her and said, "SOME. Not ALL. I worked hard for that cheesecake, damn it!" The bun did oblige, taking a modest amount of cake and enjoying it as Kisha took a seat at the table with her. "Anyway, feeling any better?"
"Mhm, a lot better!" The rabbit girl smiled at Kisha and set her empty plate aside. "You used white magic, didn't you? You were like an angel, sent to save me from despair!"
"Nah, I'm just a priestess of sorts, but nice of ya to say that," Kisha said with a small snort, grabbing a slice of cheesecake for herself. "That, and you did kinda crash through my window. Anyway, I got a boatload of questions, especially after you woke up and shouted something about Christmas."
The santa cosplayer's ears straightned up as she stared in shock, then drooped like a full sack of potatoes. "O-oh, that. Y-yeah, that's..." The girl timidly pressed her fingers together, looking away from Kisha as she said, "W-well, Christmas is in trouble, and I, um, need help trying to save it! A-and since you're a priestess, maybe you could help?"
A skeptical look creeped onto Kisha's face, the priestess raising an eyebrow as she replied, "It'd help to know what I'm up against. Or how the hell this is happening. And most importantly, who the hell you are."
“Huh? That’s easy!” The girl stood up and put her hands on her hips, standing tall as she announced, “I’m Santa!”
Kisha stared at her like she just said she was the president. “Uh huh, sure. Really, though, who are you?”
“Santa”’s ears drooped as she repeated weakly, “B-but I AM Santa! Look, I have the outfit and everything! I deliver presents to all the good boys and girls! I go down chimneys! I even have a reindeer!”
“Okay, fair, but I don’t remember Santa having bunny ears. Or red eyes.”
“I-I’m a bunny Santa!” Santa shot back, flailing about in a panic. “But that’s not important! All that matters is that Christmas is in trouble!” She sat back down and set her head on the table as she continued, “I-I was chased down by some men in black, and they wanted me to come along! I tried to escape on my sleigh, but they shot it down… and now all my presents, my sleigh, my reindeer… they’re all lost! And without any of them, I can’t deliver anything!” Tears welled up in her eyes again, sitting up as she looked Kisha in the eyes. “Please, you have to help me! I have to get those presents back and deliver them, safe and sound!”
To any other person, this would be too weird, too strange to really do anything about. A bunny girl claiming she’s Santa, pleading for help after an attack on her, scattering presents about? That simply couldn’t be real!
Kisha was not most people. And even if she was, nobody could employ fake tears about Christmas getting ruined. “Fine, fine,” she said, finishing up her slice of cake and standing up from her seat. “I’ll help. I don’t know how I could help, but I’ll find a way. Just under one condition, though.”
Santa’s eyes burned with determination as she stood up, too, slamming her hands onto the table. “Anything you want, its yours!”
A million dollars and a happy life was Kisha’s first thought, but instead, she looked away, rubbing the back of her neck as she said, “It’s not much. Just want you to get some gifts for my friends and say it was from me or something. Something they really want. I’d get it myself, but…” She looked down at her feet, shame overcoming her as she admited, “Don’t really have the money to do so.”
The guilty thoughts plagued her yet again like Christmas Ghosts haunting her thoughts. Such a stupid request. It didn’t mean anything if somebody else did all the work. Get a job, already!
All of it, chased away for the time being as she heard Santa say, “Of course I’ll help! You’ll just have to point me in the right direction, alright?” Kisha looked up and saw that gentle smile, a smile that was so contagious, she couldn’t help but smile back. “For now, though…” Santa put her hands together, closing her eyes as she focused on… something? Kisha wasn’t exactly sure, but when she opened her eyes again, Santa looked determined. “First, we have to find my reindeer! I tried to sense him out, and he’s around this place somewhere! Not too close, but not too far, either! Once we get him back, we can use him and have him detect where the presents are!”
Oh, joy. Kisha could imagine it now: lost reindeer, wandering these Manhattan streets, pissing off New Yorkers who are just WALKIN ‘ERE and ending up at a Starbucks, taking up precious space as it chews on a random newspaper.
“I’d say it’d be easy,” Kisha says as she grabs her phone and puts on her shoes, “but the city’s a big place. And… how many guys were chasing you, again?”
“U-Uhm…” Santa raised up a hand and counted on her fingers for a bit. “I remember about…8, 10 guys? Th-there might have been more.”
As much as she enjoyed the thought of throttling an army of men by herself, Kisha looked at her phone and asked, “Well, sounds like more trouble than I can handle on my own. Mind if I call in some backup?” When Santa nodded, Kisha broke into a stupid grin, pulling up Discord on her phone and sending a single message to her server.
“WHO WANTS TO COME AND HELP ME SAVE CHRISTMAS?!?”
-----------------------------
Kisha’s excuse to make a local coffee shop a meetup spot? Being too damn lazy to make her own coffee. She spotted Santa in a seat nearby as she ordered an XL mocha and two breakfast sandwiches. Santa took her hat off and set it aside, watching people and cars go by in a blur. She sniffed as Kisha sat down with their order, cautiously grabbing a burrito and unwrapping it before nibbling on it.
“They should be here any minute,” Kisha said, taking a sip of coffee and setting it aside. “Gotta sit tight ‘til then.”
Santa’s ear twitched a little as she nodded. “I-I see.” She looked out the window again before she looked back at Kisha, a smidgen of concern on her face. “Um, wh-what kind of people are they? Are they fellow priestesses or…”
Kisha shook her head and smiled as she took another sip of coffee. “They’re the kind of people who love a thrill. Not priestesses, though I’m sure someone could hook me up. I’ve known ‘em for a good while now, and trust me, they’re reliable.”
“Um, s-sure, but…” Santa’s ears drooped, fiddling with her fingers again as she said, “Y-you sure they can handle this? I don’t know how many people are after me, and it’s a dangerous job. You can’t really just ask anyone to help.”
Kisha set her cup aside, still smiling as she basked in the shop’s warmth. “Ever heard of the Kobbers?”
Santa blinked and tilted her head to the side, crossing her arms as she replied, “I know Diadem’s one of them, since I see her a lot where I’m from. They’re kind of like a gaggle of superheroes, right? I don’t see how that’s relevant, though…”
A smile turned into a grin as Kisha sat up and continued, “Well, let’s just say that I invited a few guys who wish they could be Kobbers.”
Before Santa could ask what she meant, the shop’s doors swung open, a voice booming out, “Goooood mooorning~”
Kisha immediately swiveled around, spotting a tall guy standing in the doorway cheeky grin, glasses shining in the light, his long, wavy brown hair swaying in the breeze. He looked around and locked eyes with her, grin threatening to split his face as he rushed over and scooped her off her seat into a big hug.
“Kisha, honey buns! I missed you!” he said, ruffling her hair and squeezing the living daylights out of her, much to Santa’s horror. “It’s been too lo-”
“I just- *HURK* s-saw you last week, Ed,” Kisha said with a grunt, face turning blue. “L-Let go, I can’t breaaathe…”
He let her plop back into her seat, the priestess taking deep breaths as he chuckled. “One week feels like a month, like one month felt like a year to you,” he admitted, taking a seat at the table beside the gals and heaving a dramatic sigh. “Day after day after day, endless practice with hardly any chance to speak with you. It was just so agonizing, almost exhausting to go on, and yet here you are, kindling a fire in my hear-”
Kisha and Santa exchange glances before Kisha coughed and said, “Woah, slow down, loverboy. I missed you, too, but this is just silly.”
“Aw, I thought you’d appreciate a little soap opera action!”
“Soaps would be more like you crying and begging me to come back while I flip you off and ride off on a white horse to my girlfriend’s house. Complete with an orchastrated sad song to play you off.”
“You mean like the one that plays at the end of Return of Godzilla-”
“E-excuse me,” Santa interrupted, two dorks turning towards her in confusion. “Uhm, shouldn’t we, uh… introduce ourselves? Then maybe get to, um, saving Christmas?”
Ed blinked, glancing back at Kisha before he looked at Santa and said, “Oh, so THIS is what this about! Sorry, just haven’t seen her in a bit! Name’s Edward, actor extraordinaire! A knight among knights! A-”
“Huge dork,” Kisha adds with a smirk as she takes a big bite of her burrito. “And I’m Kisha Lorelei, an average priestess.”
“And I’m Santa,” said Santa, bowing graciously to her heroes. “Nice to meet you both!”
Santa quickly gave the rundown to Edward, the man nodding his head and leaning in close, hanging on every word. Kisha bought some coffee for her friend and followed along, though she was temporarily distracted by a gaggle of puppies walking alongside their owner on the sidewalk.
After Santa finished, Edward closed his eyes and sipped his coffee, lost in thought. “So this reindeer’s the key to finding the presents you lost. And you say he’s not close, but he’s not too far away, either.” His brows furrowed, opening his eyes as he asked, “Is there anything he likes in particular? Anything that could possibly lure him or narrow down where he might be?”
“Hmmmm…” Santa raised an eyebrow, tapping her chin as she said, “Well, he really likes apples… And kids! He likes hanging around places with lots of holiday cheer in particular. And presents! He’s always attracted to presents, even if they’re not the ones we’re supposed to deliver!”
Edward pulled out his phone and took notes, eyes glimmering with excitement. “Well, there’s plenty of places like that, but it’ll be easier to narrow it down to places with big concentrations of ‘em! The malls, Central Park, Times Square-”
“You’d think they’d report on a reindeer in any of those places,” Kisha pointed out, scrolling through news outlets for any sign of reindeer-induced incidents. Unfortunately, there was none to be found, aside from the occasional mention of Rudolph.
“A reindeer’s pretty normal, compared to a nine-foot mantis and some Space Marines,” Edward countered, Kisha glaring at him and slumping into her seat in defeat. “If all else fails, we could go buy a ton of Christmas decorations and pimp up Jazmine’s house! Make it so full of holiday cheer, that reindeer’s bound to come on over!”
Kisha shuddered at the thought of actually investing in props just to lure a reindeer. That actually costs MONEY. “Dunno about that, but sure, okay? Speaking of Jaz, though, wasn’t she supposed to be here, too?”
Edward looked down at his phone, taking a quick glance at Discord. “Last I heard, she was wrapping up an errand. Maybe she got caught up in something?”
“Or something got caught up in her.”
Ed cringed. “Ooooh, boy. Here’s hoping nobody had the nerve to bug her.” He straightened up, all smiles again as he said, “Well, we’ll let her know whats up! Maybe she’ll find this reindeer before we do! For now, let’s get to reindeer hunting, shall we?”
With all the excitement they could muster, the trio pumped their fists in the air with a mighty, “YEAH!” before they set off. Kisha smiled softly for a moment, but as she left, she saw something dark from the corner of her eye before it slipped away. She narrowed her eyes, wondering what it could have been…
…It was something, alright, but she had no time to worry about it. Not when Ed and Santa were marching ahead and already singing Christmas songs together. She rushed to catch up, turning back just for a moment before charging ahead.
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