"No, the tree's gotta be over there! Don't you know anything about decorating? Baka!" Reid smacked Parker over the head, crossing his arms in frustration. Parker rubbed the back of his head with one hand, steadying the fir tree with the other. Shachi kept pulling at it anyway, making it lean back and forth.
"What was that for?" He asked heatedly, but Reid only shook his head.
"We have to get everything perfect for Summer-chan!" He ran over to where Penguin was hanging up silver thistle along the walls. "No, pull that end more to the left, see? You don't want the two ends to overlap." The engineer glared at Reid before doing as he said. When it came to decorating, Reid was certainly a diva, and the crew wasn't exactly happy about it.
"Are you sure we have to have a partridge in it? That seems a little extreme…" His comment was quickly followed by an exasperated 'Baka!' from Reid, along with another smack to the head.
They were excited to celebrate their first Christmas with Summer onboard the sub. The whole crew was anticipating the holiday. Since they often were sailing the seas, they didn't get to have celebrations often, excluding drinking parties where everyone got drunk. Those were a given.
This year, the island they'd landed on coincided perfectly with the holiday, as the log pose wouldn't set for a good week or two, and the pirates were eager to use the time being stuck at the island to celebrate with full vigor.
Law agreed to give everyone an allowance to spend on gifts for each other. It was a tradition: Law would divide a fraction of the treasure in the vault amongst the crew for gifts.
Spirits were high, and plans were made. The only one without any clue as to what to do was Summer herself.
'I wonder how into Christmas the crew gets…' She thought, worried that whatever she decided to do, it would either be too ridiculous or not fun enough for the pirates. She stared up at her ceiling from her bed, arms and legs spread out on the comforter. She had several ideas. Most of them involved buying sake for the men, but she expected that to be the most common thing amongst them…As it was the first year celebrating together with them, she wanted it to be something special.
She'd seen them decorating the halls and mess deck, and even their individual doors with holiday decorations, but decorating and celebrating were two different things…right? Who knew if they even wanted a party?
There was a small knock on her door, and she got up to answer. Opening the door, she saw Blake standing there with a box in his hands.
"Hey, Summer-chan! Sorry if I woke you up." She waved it off.
"I wasn't sleeping. What's that?" She indicated the box, and he shook it a little, holding it out to her.
"It's full of slips of paper with everyone's names on them. You randomly pick three and those are the people you buy gifts for you, just so everybody gets a present. There's three of each name, so if you get a duplicate just put it back and grab another." Nodding, Summer stuck her hand into the box, wading through the various papers until she found one. Grabbing it, she took it out and looked at the name.
Reid.
She glanced at Blake. "Am I supposed to tell you who it is?" He chuckled, shaking his head.
"No, you don't tell anyone who you got. That way it's all a big surprise. Oh, and you're not allowed to tell anyone what present you got somebody else. That's the rules. If you break 'em, Santa will bring you coal!" Smirking, she grabbed two more papers from the box, reading the respective names.
Penguin. She grinned. Of course she would pick the perverted engineer. She would have a lot of fun with that…
Law.
Her eyebrow twitched, and she stood there staring at the paper, as if her willpower alone could change the name that was written. What the hell was she supposed to get that bastard? He probably just stole whatever it was he ever wanted, so what could she possibly get him?
"Make sure you get a present for each of them. Nobody likes being left out!" Blake said cheerfully, heading back down the hall to another room. Closing her door gently, she looked at all the papers in her hand.
Penguin would be an easy one. She could probably just get him some women's clothing magazine and call it good. She chuckled to herself. No, that wouldn't mean so much to him. It had to be something personal and meaningful.
Reid was next, and his was a little trickier. She knew he liked fixing things, and hot chocolate. It was his favorite drink. With a shrug, she put it away. She would decide what to get him later.
Finally, and begrudgingly, she looked to Law's paper. Just looking at the name had her stumped. She tallied up everything she knew about the Supernova.
He was a doctor. Medical books would be one option, if he didn't already have thousands stuffed away in those bookshelves of his. He liked coffee, the man was basically addicted to the stuff. Often times Casper would have her send him his morning cup when he was busy with breakfast. Summer noticed that most days the coffee machine would go through two or three pots, all before one or two pm.
Nothing else came to mind, and with a deep sigh, she opened her nightstand drawer and stuffed the papers inside. Tomorrow she would go into town and look around for gifts. In the meantime, Casper was probably wondering where she was. It was almost time for the lunch rush.
Law opened his door, answering the knock, and came face to face with Blake.
"You're one of the last ones, Captain." The man said, and Law nodded. Pulling out the first three papers he touched, he retracted his hand and Blake walked off. Closing the door behind him, he then glanced at the names for the first time.
Casper.
Bepo.
Summer.
Hmm. Casper would be relatively simple, as he'd been pining for several items of kitchen equipment for quite some time. Bepo wanted to meet a female bear, but that wasn't really something he could give him. Perhaps he'd like a bunch of those exotic fish he'd never tried before down the dock?
Summer…well, that was an easy one. He approached his nightstand, pulling open the bottom drawer and taking out what was inside. Idly, he inspected his old hat for damage, but it seemed to be in good condition. It felt strange not having it on his own head, but he'd long gotten used to his new hat by that time.
Law wasn't a very sentimental person, but just one look at the hat gave him visions from the past. He distinctly remembered how Lami would always steal it from his head, and run around until he caught her, they're parents laughing the whole time.
In his times of fear as a child, he remembered hiding behind the trim, so he didn't see some of the horrific things that still haunted his mind. The sounds were still there, and they were what added to the insomnia.
And…when Corazon had locked him in that box, he'd held onto it for dear life as the gunshots rang and Doflamingo laughed, and the tears came down…
Shaking his head, he set the hat back down, tired of remembering such things. He'd had enough for one day. Placing it back in the drawer, he closed it. He would find things for wrapping it later.
Another knock came on his door and, with one eyebrow raised, he went to open it. Opening it, he stepped aside to let Bepo inside. The bear held three strips of paper, meaning Blake had given him a visit.
"Who did you get, Captain?" Much as Blake always emphasized the rules of never telling anyone else who you got, Bepo and Law liked to break that rule, without fail, year after year. The two just couldn't keep something a secret from each other. Many of the crew knew this, but they kept it from Blake to avoid the horror-fest that could ensue afterwards.
"Casper-ya, Shachi-ya, and Summer-ya." He intentionally didn't tell Bepo that he got his first mate, because as much as they couldn't keep a secret from each other, he wasn't going to tell the bear what he was going to get him. The bear seemed happy by that.
"I was hoping you would get Summer." He said, and Law raised an eyebrow.
"And why is that?"
"I have an idea for Summer's gift." The bear said, smiling like he had a secret.
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