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“Here, just- hold it up a liiiiiiiiiiiiitle higher... Almost-almost…”
“I can’t go any higher, Aether!”
“Got it!” The large quintessence ghoul beamed, proud of himself for tacking up the final bit of mistletoe. “Thank you, Rain.” He bent slightly at the waist to gently peck the water ghoul on the head. “I appreciate your help.”
“They should have gotten Mountain to do this one.” Rain said flatly, rubbing at his shoulder. “I still don’t get it. I don’t see the point of waiting to get under a dead bit of tree to give someone a kiss.”
“Ah, well, I-er…” Aether paused for a moment, wracking his brain for some plausible reason. Scratching his head, he shrugged as he came up short. “I dunno.” “Just something we’ve always done”
“Oh! I can help with that!” A cheery melodic voice sounded from the other side of the room. Cumulus stopped hanging a bright gold garland for a moment to turn in their direction. “I was curious after talking with a handful of siblings, and I went to the library to research. According to the myth, mistletoe was used to bring back somebody’s son from death and then the mother vowed to kiss whomever passed by it as a sign of love. Although some believe it restores fertility.” She glanced adoringly across at Cirrus, waggling her eyebrows suggestively. She snickered when the taller ghoulette grew flustered.
“I guess that makes sense.” Rain shrugged, not easily swayed with the answer Cumulus gave. Humans were strange with their ways. If you tried to kiss someone under a regular door, that would be seen as bad. However, if you hung a bit of greenery up, suddenly it was ok? He shook his head.
“Glad it makes sense to you, because I’m still a bit lost on it.” Aether admitted with a shrug.
With the mistletoe checked off their decorating to-do list that Cumulus and Cirrus came up with, the pair glanced over the remaining bit.
“Hey, has anyone seen Dewdrop?”
Heads turned to see Swiss coming inside with a big cardboard box with two smaller ones stacked on top. “He was supposed to help me with these decorations so lovingly donated to us by some Sisters, but I never did see him.” He set the boxes down onto the couch. “I also might have dropped the top one a few times so hopefully there’s nothing broken in there.”
“I’m sure he’ll turn up eventually,” Cirrus said, tacking up the last bit of garland for the moment. “He always does.”
“It isn’t like him to just not show up things though. Especially when the Sisters are involved. He usually drools from all the attention.” Swiss pointed out. He went to the fridge to get a cold bottle of water when something caught his attention. There was something scribbled on a scrap of paper that hadn’t been there earlier. Taking a closer look, he deemed it to be Dewdrop’s chicken scratch handwriting. Swiss took the note from the little outdated magnet that held it in place and walked back to the group of scattered ghouls.
“Hey, get a load of this! Dew left a note for us; says he had some unexpected errand to run and he would be back when he gets back.” The multi-ghoul made an irritated tsk sound clicking his tongue against his teeth as he rolled his eyes. Cumulus had hopped of her small perch of a step stool to come look at the note for herself. Even Mountain had paused preparing the tree to come look at it. They murmured softly as they both re-read the note out loud before glancing to each other, and then back to Swiss.
“I wonder what he had to do that was so important he couldn’t even give us proper notice himself,” Cumulus said. Mountain shrugged mostly to himself before turning his attention back to the glorious evergreen currently taking up far too much space in their common room.
“Who knows? Half the time I wonder if he even has a brain rattling around up there at all or if it’s just two little bogwarts fighting over the last scrap of a thought.” Rain snickered as he approached the multi-ghoul. This earned him sideways glances and a scowl from the ghoulettes and Aether.
“That’s not very nice-“ Cumulus began.
“Dew isn’t very nice sometimes himself.” He shot back without a second thought. He stepped aside Swiss to rummage around in the boxes of decorations. There were ornaments of all shapes and colours, some old and some newer. He chose several of what he felt were the better of the bunch. No doubt there would be too little for the large fir tree, but it was a start.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
On the other side of town, a disguised and chilly Dewdrop meandered his way from place to place looking through all the storefront displays. When the ghoulettes and Aether mentioned to the group that they wanted to ‘get in the spirit’ and decorate the ghoul’s quarters, he had marched straight to Copia’s office to argue against the whole idea. He felt that there was no place for Christmas within their living space, and he wasn’t going to share or even take part in anything having to do with something so frivolous at a time like this.
“Dewdrop, while I… can clearly see your concern, I have to ask, why? It isn’t as if this is your first winter holiday season with us here in the ministry. You’ve never been averse to the idea of it before, so why now? What’s really going on?” The Cardinal came from around his desk only to prop himself against the corner of it before the sitting, seething little ghoul.
“I just feel like it’s a total waste of time, when we have to all get ready for the next leg of the tour. We don’t have time to deal with this sparkly frilly winter bullshit, when we need this time to hunker down and practice! Have you seen how lazy and sloppy Swiss has gotten the last few sessions? He’s practically dragging his ass all over those cords!” Dew gestured wildly as he explained. “He’s going to fall asleep on us at this rate.”
Cardinal Copia listened, nodding along as he watched the spitfire ghoul air all his grievances. Finally when Dew paused for a breath, Copia interjected.
“I believe I see now why you are upset.”
“Upset! Yes, yes, you get it! This Yule shit is stupid and we have more important things we need to be focusing on! I knew you would understand, you fucking workaholic bastard!” Dewdrop’s ears perked up as his tail waggled at the tip excitedly.
Copia only chuckled as he motioned for the ghoul to calm down. “Well, yes I do suppose I work too much,” he glanced to the paperwork that littered his desk then back to Dew. “However, I must disagree with you on Yule being stupid.” He snickered at Dewdrop bristling and hissing at him. Copia leaned forward off his desk and strode to the built in bookcase along the far wall. He continued talking to Dewdrop over his shoulder.
“When I was a young lad and I wanted very much the same things as you do now, to work and work and work, and perfect all those small minute little details that I felt others were slacking on, I, too, did not want to take a break for something as Yule or Christmas. Especially when Christmas is seen as a mostly Christian holiday and well, we are certainly anything but.” He shuffled through book spines as he spoke, looking for one in particular. He selected a small green and silver tome, pulling it from the shelf. “I was given something by someone as I toiled away in the reliquary, archiving and just generally doing things that had already been done and catalogued time and time again before me, just to a newer system.”
Copia’s back was turned to the ghoul, but there was no mistaking the sound of glass tinkling against glass and a stopper being pulled from a bottle. He wriggled around, sitting up on his knees to try and see over the back of the armchair he was in.
“I won’t tell you who exactly gave me this, but I will tell you what he told me that day,” Copia turned around swiftly, the skirt of his cassock flaring out, swishing against his ankles. He held two shot glasses full to near the brim of a dark brown amber liquid. “‘Have a fucking drink, and take a fucking break’.”
Dewdrops tail tittered then fell. This was not at all what he wanted to hear. He felt the surge of fiery white hot anger rising in his gut. He thought that Copia would side with him. He never imagined he would be given the same advice from the Cardinal as he was given from Swiss. He followed the man with narrowing eyes; his claws tempting to pierce the fabric of the chair as he tightened his grip. Dew clenched his jaw, swallowed, then spun to sit flat in the armchair as Copia came back around the front of his desk.
“Here, have a drink with me.” Copia extended one of the small glasses to Dew who looked as if he would rather spit literal fire than take the glass. Though, they both knew who would be cleaning that mess up if he chose to do that. Snarling, Dewdrop accepted, nearly yanking and spilling the contents. He took the shot, tilting his head back with practiced elegance and slammed the empty glass upside down onto the dark mahogany desk, glaring at Copia.
Copia quirked up an eyebrow, toasted the ghoul, and then threw back his own drink before mirroring his lead guitarist, albeit with much more gentle setting down of the shot glass. He sucked in a breath between his teeth, then hissed it back out with a little cough. Copia balled his fist, hitting himself lightly in the chest. “Whew, forgot how strong that was, I think.” He laughed.
Dew did not return the laugh. He felt nigh insulted at this display of shirking of duties coming from the interim leader of the church. He glowered at Copia, hoping he could feel the disapproval emitting from his body.
“Now, now, Dewdrop. I know what you must be thinking: “Why take a break when we have so much to do?” Well, I’ll tell you why. It is precisely because we have so much to do, that we must take a break in order to not overextend and overexert ourselves. We must take breaks to prevent, well, for the lack of better word, burnout.”
At this, Dew finally made a noise; he scoffed. “Burnout, huh? What’s the matter? You losing steam already? Can’t keep up with the pace of fronting the band? Leading the church?” He crossed his hands over his chest defiantly.
“No, not at all. In fact,” Copia mirrored Dew in crossing his arms, “I’m very much ready and prepared…” Copia smirked, “ to take a break.” He knew now that this would be the only way to get Dewdrop on the same page. “Clearly it is something you struggle with,” he shrugged nonchalantly, “so it’s only natural that you have problems with it.”
“I don’t have a problem! I can take a break! I can take a break anytime I want!”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah!” Dewdrop stood suddenly getting in Copia’s face.
“Prove it then.” He gestured with his hand for the ghoul to show him a demonstration. Dewdrop scowled, uncrossed his arms and balling his fists at his side tightly.
“Maybe I will!” He spun on heel and stormed across the office, nearly taking out the coat rack as he wrenched open the door. He didn’t even bother shutting it behind himself as he went on a full march to the nearest exit.
He had not had the outcome he had hoped for; far from it, in fact. Dewdrop continued glowering, walking aimlessly in his fog of irritability. Surely Copia knew how much was at stake? Dewdrop knew they were so close to damn near world domination that it was slowly coming into reach and he could smell it, feel it in his bones. There was no way he would let this opportunity slip from his grasp because his band mates were unwilling to continue to push through and dig in their heels and take it. He growled, turning up his collar against the brisk winds that swept around him.
Dewdrop had failed to notice his feet had taken him all the way to the small town neighboring the church grounds until something bumped into him. His eyes snapped to whatever the disruption was, ready to lash out and tear it apart. His steel blue grey eyes met a pair of wide deep brown ones.
“Sorry about that!” A light and airy voice offered sheepishly with an upturned grin. “I didn’t mean to run into you, I just sort of zoned out. From the looks of it, I wasn’t the only one.” The sandy blond man laughed as he adjusted his shopping bags. “God jul!” He nodded with a smile and was off again on his merry way.
Dewdrop hadn’t even spoken a word to the man, just stared confusedly at where he had stood. The guy had had deep bags under his eyes and looked quite honestly like he hadn’t slept in maybe three days. He wondered just how the guy was even standing up straight, much less up and about shopping gleefully. Dude needed to take a break, for sure.
All at once it struck him like a bolt of lightning. He turned to the first window he saw and ran up to it, freaking out a few shoppers. He tilted his face this way and that as he checked his reflection.
“Unholy shit,” he muttered under his breath. It lightly fogged the glass of the window front. He saw the same featured of the very-tired looking guy he just ran into, in himself. Heavy, deep bags bruised underneath his eyes. Tufts of hair stuck out at odd angles, whether it was due to the wind or general dishevelment, he couldn’t be quite sure, but it did not add to the image he saw. “Fucking Copia was right…”
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Aether and Swiss had managed to strike up a roaring fire in the hearth by the time Dewdrop finally made his way back home to the common room. There was heavy commotion about whether or not ‘Die Hard’ was considered a Christmas movie when the door clicked open quietly.
“Look, all I’m saying is that if a movie takes place on or close to Christmas, it’s automatically a Christmas Movie!” Swiss argued.
“I’m rather partial to ‘Love Actually’…” Aether pondered as he stoked the fire. It was met with a collective groan and a boo from Cirrus.
“Come on, we all know that movie is trash!” she exclaimed. “Might as well say you wish Hugh Grant would come up and bumble his way through sucking your dick or something.”
“Now that’s something I would expect to hear coming from Cumulous.”
The ghouls collectively quieted down and turned in Dewdrop’s direction. It apparently had begun to snow since he was gone, as noted by the bit of it that clung to its frozen form on his shoulders, stubbornly resisting the natural compulsion to melt.
“I brought some glogg,” he said, holding the wrapped bottle up for the others. “Did you finish decorating everything yet?” Dewdrop was unnaturally soft-spoken that it raised a few alarm bells to the others. It was as if he were afraid that raising his voice would somehow break the delicate atmosphere.
Aether got up from his squatting position near the fireplace, the first to move. “Dew, you’ve been gone a long while. We got almost everything done already, yeah.” He took a few steps cautious steps forward, then a few more. When Dewdrop was like this, they knew he was in a very unstable volatile position and the wrong move or word would be the difference between diffusing or igniting the live wire.
“Oh.” His shoulders slumped. Of course they went on without him. He lowered the bottle back to his side.
“But that doesn’t mean we aren’t glad you finally decided to join us. Come on, honey, let’s get that bottle popping and warmed up on the stove here.” Cumulous hopped up and flitted over to the kitchenette, immediately hunting for the right pot and corkscrew.
The tension deflated with the growing warmth that seeped into Dewdrop’s jacket. He found himself smiling when Aether came up and offered to take it for him. Cumulous took the wrapped bottle and moved to uncork it. Conversation continued again around them.
“My favourite Christmas movie is the one with the little animated people made of clay. You know the stop motion ones!” Rain piped up. “I like the songs and stuff and their little dance numbers.”
“Those are the things of nightmares,” Mountain added. “They’re absolutely terrifying with their dead little eyes.” He visibly shuddered.
Aether gently touched Dew’s shoulder, drawing his attention.
“You ok, mate? You left us high and dry for a while today. Swiss said you dipped out on him.” He looked concernedly down at Dewdrop.
The fire ghoul, on the other hand, looked rather relieved for the first time in a while. He sheepishly grinned in turn up at the quintessence ghoul. “Yeah... Sorry about that.” He scrubbed at the back of his neck, pulling his long hair forward over his shoulder. “I guess I just couldn’t get my brain turned off and was kinda mad about having to do all this stuff when we should be getting out shit in gear for the tour, you know?” He hoped Aether would understand. The tall and broad ghoul nodded slowly, closing his eyes and humming.
“Yeah. I feel you. We were really starting to go to pot towards the end of that last practice huh?” He chortled, clapping Dew on the back. “We all deserve to take a breather, that’s for sure.” Aether combed through Dewdrop’s hair with his fingers. “Though, you might want to take a couple extra ones, mate. You can’t go balls to the wall all the time. Even a fire as bright as you will burn out over time.” He placed a small warm kiss against Dewdrops lips. Dewdrop returned it in kind, a gentle contentedness settled in his overly tense muscles. He allowed himself the respite and to fall into Aether’s warm embrace.
“Guys, guys! I found it!” Swiss suddenly exclaimed, breaking the moment for Aeth and Dew. “I googled it. Says the worst Christmas movie is something called the ‘Star Wars Holiday Special’! Yall wanna watch it?”
There was another round of groaning with a few interspersed giggles. Aether had pulled away from the wandering limbs that were Dewdrops.
“God Jul you little gremlin,” Aether murmured against Dewdrop’s lips before pecking him one last time. “We’ve earned this.”