Santa's little helper (Part 1)
“You want me to wear that- thing?” Roxas blanched at the sight of thin green glimmering tights.
“It’s part of your costume. You are required to wear your costume just like everyone else,” said Tifa, the mall manager. She dangled the stockings with one hand and looked at the clipboard held by the other. “It won’t be so bad when everyone else around you is wearing them.”
“This was not part of the job description.” Refusing to look at the offensive garment, he crossed his arms over his chest with the rest of his costume still in his hands.
“You’re kidding, right? Your job description? You’re an elf. You wear tights.” She raised an eyebrow as she took her attention away from the clipboard. Leaning against her desk, she cocked her head at him.
“I’m not wearing those.” Roxas gritted his teeth and brought out his balled fists trying to persuade the woman by the threat of bodily harm. His fingers squeezed the stuffing in the floppy green uniform, making it hard to look intimidating.
“You don’t have much of a choice if you want to work here. It’ll be such a shame, too. You would make such a nice elf.” Tired of holding the tights out to him, she placed them delicately on his right shoulder. “What’s it gonna be?”
“I-I… Isn’t there anything else I can wear instead?” Roxas couldn’t bring his hand to touch the fabric now hanging off his shoulder.
“Sorry. I don’t make the rules.”
“Fine,” Roxas said. Defeated, he yanked the tights off of him with one of his free fingers, hoping that the force would cause a gaping hole, rendering the hose useless.
“Good, welcome to our crew. You’ll need to report here tomorrow at 9:00 for training, then the real work starts on Friday. Remember to bring your social security card, and we’ll fill out your paper work then.”
“Great,” Roxas replied, trying to hold the sarcasm back. As he gathered the uniform into one big ball, the various bells in the red and green mass jingled, making him cringe. “Uh, thanks. Bye.”
“Thank you, Roxas. You’re perfect for the job as long as we see that smile of yours. Bye now. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Leaving the windowless office, he wondered if it really was worth it to spend his winter break working in green tights. All of the other seasonal jobs that he had interviewed for required suitable work clothes, and he didn’t want to have a wardrobe filled with expensive clothes that he would never wear again. The choices were to either spend half of what he would make on clothes or wear something that not even Elton John would use as a Halloween costume. He tucked the uniform under his coat before leaving the back of the store.
The Christmas section of the mall was decorated in mostly reds, greens, silver, and gold. Hints of the other colors were scattered throughout the area on the plastic ice-skating penguins, the plastic gingerbread house, and the five plastic reindeer surrounding jolly old Saint Nick’s throne. The plastic coniferous tree that stretched to the ceiling was decked out in bulbs nearly every color in the visible spectrum and sat behind the children’s most popular Christmas icon. White cotton covered the floor and every corner not adorned with a gaudy knickknack.
Currently, Roxas was standing behind an enclosed booth surrounded by oversized wooden candy canes several meters away from what was dubbed the ‘North Pole.’ For the fourth time this morning, he was being forced to listen to ‘Felis Navidad,’ and had developed a new hatred for all things Spanish. Behind the counter, he was able to keep his pointy green shoes with red garland glued to the rim as well as his glittery thighs hidden from the public. Like many other parts of his costume, there were bells hanging off the points of his shoes.
“These pictures turned out awful,” a redheaded woman in her late thirties complained as she glanced at the pictures of her chubby daughter. “She’s blinking all of them.”
“Ma’am, another child is already sitting on Santa’s lap. You will have to choose from what is in front of you,” Roxas said as he swept away the bell hanging in his face only to have it fall back into place. He adjusted the ridiculous red and green hat on his head sideways so that the two bells hanging off of the ends rang in his ears, instead of one in his face. It was Friday, Roxas’ real first day, and he was ready to throw the hat in a blender just to watch the bells get mercilessly beaten into tiny metal silent pulps.
“I want to talk to your manager.” The woman looked him over, allowing her eyes to freely follow the lines of Roxas’s body only to look at him with distrust.
“She is going to say the same thing.” Roxas knew that Tifa was busy trying to get maintenance to get the penguins moving again. He was pretty sure that the sparks were a sign that something had gone terribly wrong with the motion-activated skating birds.
“I suggest that you go get her.” The woman turned her nose up and rolled her eyes. Roxas had the sudden urge to beat the woman with one of the wooden candy canes. Her daughter was gazing at him with starry eyes, so he drew a deep breath in instead.
“Ma’am. She’s busy. If you want to wait-”
“I want to see her now. I don’t know why they would put such an irresponsible kid like you in charge over here,” she hissed. Roxas wanted to shout so that every housewife in line could hear that he was not a kid, but that he was twenty years old, almost old enough to order a Sex on the Beach at a bar.
“What seems to be the problem here?” Tifa asked after staggering to the two of them. Her straight jet-back hair was pulled back haphazardly and her fingers were greasy.
“I need to speak to the manager,” the woman demanded, eyeing Tifa suspiciously.
“That’ll be me,” Tifa said.
“Oh,” the woman said looking between the two mall employees. “This kid won’t let my baby get her picture taken again. She was blinking in every single one of them, and we really need a good picture of her to send to her grandmother.”
“I like your bells,” the girl said to Roxas.
“Mary, stop talking to that boy,” the mother said without turning her head towards her daughter.
“She’s not blinking in this one.” Tifa said carefully, leaning in to examine the screen filled with digital photos without touching it. The line had grown behind the three females, causing uproar in the crowd.
“It just doesn’t look right,” the woman said wrinkling her nose.
“Yeah, I’m going to have to go along with Santa’s special helper and say that we can’t redo your picture unless you want to get back in line. It’s against policy. I’m sorry,” Tifa said firmly.
“Fine, I’m going to go to Easton Mall and get my pictures there. Come on, Mary,” the woman huffed, clutching the disappointed girl’s wrist and pulling her away. Mary snuck in a wave at Roxas while her mother stomped away.
“Smile,” Tifa told Roxas while looking for a napkin on top of the counter.
“Santa’s special helper?” Roxas said with a frown.
“Have fun with crowd control. The stupid penguins are so much trouble,” she said as she rushed to the deep cry coming from ground zero of the North Pole.
Roxas groaned as more than a dozen mothers glared at him, waiting impatiently for him to call out to the next person in line.
“Lunchtime, Roxas,” Tifa called out to him around one o’clock. The line had just gotten under control from the previous accident involving a kid wetting his pants while on Santa’s lap, and the penguins had been declared unfixable. All of the other elves, who were female, were manning their stations. Roxas snuck to the back corner of the booth to pull his jeans over his tights. “What are you doing?”
“I’m going to lunch,” Roxas replied as he tugged the pants over his legs, basking in the coverage.
“You can’t be seen in those. Take them off right now!” Tifa turned to face him and stood between the line and Roxas.
“Why? I’m not on the clock during lunch, right?” Roxas quickly peeled off the jeans and felt the dread of a familiar draft draining the life out of his legs.
“The kids cannot see you as a person. You are Santa’s helper. As long as you are in the mall, you have to stay in costume.”
“Are you serious?” Roxas had been able to stay out of the public’s eye by hiding in the booth, but going to lunch in his costume would expose him to the elements, which included high school mallrats who thought they were cool or, worse, someone he knew.
“Yes, I am.”
“So if I want to get food at the food court…”
“You have to eat in your costume.”
“No…” he gasped.
“Yes,” Tifa said opening the door to the booth ushering him out. “All of the other elves have been out and about so you shouldn’t feel so bad.”
He wanted to cry out that he wasn’t like all of the other elves, but feeling naked, he also wanted to reduce any amount of time outside of his wooden candy cane sanctuary. He resorted to walking briskly towards the food court, jingling all the way. The red shorts barely covered his behind, and ten bells dangled off of the zigzagging pattern of the bottom hem. His green T-shirt matched the shorts with its number of bells and the zigzags along the red collar, which surrounded his neck like a bib. The worst part of Roxas’s outfit was the jester-like hat, his shoes, the tights and the red candy cane-striped suspenders that held his shorts in place.
As he debated whether or not to get a double cheeseburger at McDonalds or just a protein smoothie at Smoothie King, his attention turned to a lanky, redheaded man who was sitting next to several shopping bags. They locked eyes for a brief moment before the other man burst into uncontrollable laughter. From across the room, Roxas could see the tears rolling down this guy’s face as he pounded the table in front of him with the palm of his hand. Roxas convinced himself that in any other circumstance, he would have taken a blunt object and beaten the man until he bled profusely. However, since his plush shoe was the only thing that Roxas could think of to use as a weapon, he turned his head and mustered what little dignity that he had to walk up and order the double cheeseburger.
“One double cheeseburger, please,” he grumbled to the young teen working at the register. The savory smell of the sizzling beef patties made him realize how hungry he was. “And a bottle of water.”
“Dude, it sucks to be you,” the boy said, his voice laced with sympathy.
“Just give me the stupid burger.” Roxas realized that it was probably the lowest point in his life when a teenager who worked at McDonalds pitied him. The bells continued to jingle as he walked from the counter to take a seat. He wolfed the burger down and drowned it with the water. The Chipmunks’ rendition of ‘Jingle Bells’ was merrily playing through the mall speakers.
Trying to look inconspicuous, he swung his water upside down on his chapped lips and peered around the bottle towards the laughing redhead. A smirk was plastered over the man’s face as he stared in Roxas’ direction. After the last gulp, he tilted his head forward and continued to watch the man. The spikes that this guy had for hair and the black tattoos under his eyes were far from normal, but Roxas couldn’t help but think that the man was attractive behind the wannabe clown façade. The other man broke his gaze and fiddled through his pockets before pulling out a cell phone.
Roxas didn’t have to look up at the clock to be persuaded to leave the food court and head back to the booth, his safe haven. Trying not to make more noise than a choir of cat toys on crystal meth, he tiptoed away with his fingers tucked into his tiny red pockets. As he got nearer to the North Pole, he heard a child screeching loud enough for him to instinctively place his hands over his ears. The first day of work and he already had a headache coming on. Running towards the booth, he didn’t care what other people thought as they watched a gloomy elf scamper by with his hands up to his head.
“You don’t say? Mom really wants a sweater for Pookie? Wouldn’t that be more of a Pookie present and less of a present for Mom?” the redheaded man at the food court asked into his i-phone. He picked at the Philly cheese steak sandwich sitting in front of him. The heavy stench of fried beef smothered in thick processed American cheese made him nauseous.
“I don’t think that a pink designer sweater for her Pug counts as a present for the dog, Axel. If anything, it’s more of a torture device for it,” his older brother, Reno, said to him through the phone. “That’s what she told me she wanted two months ago. Just get the stupid thing and put both our names on the tag.”
“Fine, fine. Don’t tell me I didn’t do anything for you.”
“I hate Christmas.”
“Bah humbug to you, too, Scrooge.” Axel rolled his eyes before he looked back up to watch the blond elf he had just been checking out. The last time that he had laughed so hard was when his niece had found out that his feet were ticklish and had tied his hands to the bedposts while he slept. He scanned the area where he had just been enjoying a staring contest with the little pseudo-toymaker, but the elf was no longer seated in front of the McDonalds. “Hey Reno, I’ll talk to you later. I need to get this shopping done.”
“Yeah, sure. Bye.” After the click, Axel hustled to put the phone into his back pocket and gathered his assorted bags. He had been enjoying the way that the elf was looking at him and felt cheated that they didn’t get a chance to chat. The kid was probably too young for him anyway.
As he walked away from the food court and towards the pet store, Axel slowed as he approached the Christmas display that the mall had lavishly decorated. He perked at the sight of a small blonde elf standing in front of the long line to see Santa Clause. When he realized that it was not his elf, but an imposter female elf, his eyes narrowed. Determined, he searched through the penguins and the gingerbread house until he heard a high-pitched screech accompanied by a frenzy of bells. Shaking his head, he watched another female elf help Saint Nick with a screaming brat. Axel smirked at the crying boy as he refused to sit on the red lap and clutched to his mother’s leg.
As he neared the edge of the faux winter wonderland, he hunted every corner for the blond elf that he had seen earlier, but with no avail. Defeated, Axel picked up his pace and carried his bags into the pet store.
It had been two weeks since Axel had seen the short blond elf, and every day, he would make an excuse to go to the mall during lunchtime just to see if he was working. Two weeks of wandering around the commercialized mecca and passing Santa’s fortress only once or twice each visit so as to not feel like he’s stalking the kid. After picking up a bright pink Dora the explorer scooter at the toy store for his niece, Lilith, and a red silk tie at a department store for his father, he began to make his usual round and walked towards the holiday décor. The scent of raspberry delight body lotion hung in the air causing him to cough as he walked passed one of those awful fruity bath stores. Axel suspected that the elf couldn’t handle the humiliation of dressing up as an imaginary creature and had quit.
As he walked to the left of the display to instead of the right for a quick peek into the Apple store, he glanced at a shed-like building which was standing off to the side, away from fat man’s chair. The gaudy wooden candy canes lining the booth stood out like sour notes against the olive green exterior paint of the shelter. Unlike the last two weeks, he could clearly see a cut out window in the front wall of the booth usually concealed by a crowd of people. His frowning blond elf stood behind the counter looking at a woman with three grumpy children. Axel smirked as he pondered on how best to approach the boy.
A brunette wearing an oversized orange sweater elbowed Axel as she came from the other direction chatting cheerfully with her two male friends. She turned to him apologetically only to stare in the direction of the booth. Looking as if she had just spotted real ice skating penguins being juggled by the reindeer on top of the gingerbread house, her mouth fell opened and her green eyes widened in shock.
“R-Roxas?” A voice startled Roxas from behind the blonde mother who was choosing which picture she wanted. He dropped to the ground trying to stay out of sight. Because of his clever idea of bringing packed lunches and hiding in the corner to eat, two weeks had gone by without seeing anyone he knew, and he wasn’t going to start today.
“Young man? What are you doing?” The woman looked peeved enough already having to put up with three toddlers at the mall who were currently arguing about Jimmy copying Joe for the presents they asked from Santa.
“Sorry,” Roxas said but didn’t get up.
“Roxas?” The voice was louder now, and he heard soft footsteps tapping against the plastic covering on the floor. A familiar brunette’s face appeared over the counter. “Roxas? You’re … You’re an …” She looked down at him and bit her lip.
“Elf?” He said miserably as he stood up. Pretending to be preoccupied by his hands, he refused to look at his friend, Olette.
“This is what you’ve been doing? For work?” She giggled nervously, but couldn’t stop when Roxas looked at her and glared.
“I want package C.” The woman butted in as her older toddler, Suzie, bit Jimmy for copying Joe. All three of them started crying at once.
“That’ll be 31.59, Ma’am,” Roxas grumbled and printed out the desired pictures. She thrust the exact change into his hands before snatching the envelope and hauling her group away. No one else was in line in front of the booth so there was no buffer between him and the rest of the mall, making the probability of someone spotting him higher. He cursed the greedy kid who was probably asking for a hundred things from Santa.
“So…” Olette started, still trying to control her snickering.
“Roxas?!” said another familiar voice. Roxas clenched his teeth and closed his eyes wishing that he had mutant invisibility powers which would include an ability to make his elf costume invisible, even if it defied all laws of common sense. “Holy sh-”
“Hayner!” Olette interrupted. “There are kids around.”
All that Roxas heard was roaring laughter as his best friend in the whole flippin’ world clutched his stomach. Another friend, Pence, was right behind him and laughing his jolly head off as well. Roxas made a mental note that he shouldn’t feel guilty about repeating fat jokes anymore.
“What’s going on over here?” Tifa had strolled in on Roxas’s happy reunion with his friends. Except for Olette’s occasional snort, all of the laughing stopped. Hayner smoothed out his blond hair and puffed his chest out while flexing his triceps. Pence straighten out his sweatband and sucked in his gut. “Are these your friends, Roxas?”
“Yeah. I guess.” Roxas glared at the trio.
“You guess? Is that how you treat your best friends? Roxas, aren’t you going to introduce us? Hi, I’m Hayner.” His voice was suspiciously half an octave lower as he held his hand out to shake Tifa’s. She accepted it only to receive a pained looked as she squeezed his hand.
“I’m Pence.” Roxas’s other friend waved as his eyes flickered from the woman’s breasts back up to her face.
“I’m Tifa, Roxas’s boss.” Smiling mischievously, she winked at Roxas causing Hayner to inhale saliva and have a coughing fit. Pence’s eyes widened, gawking at Roxas like he was a celestial being. Olette was looking between Roxas and Tifa dubiously.
“I’m Olette. It’s nice to meet you, Tifa.”
“Likewise. Look, Roxas. The kid looks like he’s almost done wishing for world peace and every toy from KB Toys. I better try to break things up. It was nice to meet you all.” She waved and wandered back to Santa.
“Why didn’t you tell us about her?” Hayner said after hitting his chest with his fist to control his hacking. “She’s hot.”
“Hayner!” Olette yelled, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Well, she is,” Pence said, shrugging.
“Well, I don’t need to hear about it,” she snapped. “Besides, isn’t she a little too old for you, Roxas?” All eyes turned to him, and an awkward silence followed. Roxas couldn’t gather enough courage to let his old friends know that Tifa’s breasts, although quite different, got the same reaction out of him as Tifa’s elbow. Going to college had created opportunities to be open about his sexual orientation, but coming from a conservative small town had made it difficult to allow the people closest to him in. “Are you sleeping with your boss?!”
“What?” Roxas asked, bewildered. Apparently, the silence had been taken the wrong way. Hayner put his hand up for a high five.
“Details, man. I need details,” Hayner said as Olette glared at the two of them. “Later. Um- I’ll call you later.”
“Wait, I-uh-,” Roxas called out but couldn’t say anything about the topic because of the customers who were heading towards the booth. He sighed. “I need to get back to work.”
“Right, we’ll see you later, Roxas.” Hayner said as he waved, strutting away proudly with Pence and Olette in tow. The girl looked back one last time at Roxas, shaking her head in disappointment.
“So… which picture do you want?” Roxas asked not paying much attention to the family of three in front of him.
“Uncle Axel, I wanna see Santa now,” a squeaky voice whined. Axel was not a religious man. However, the one thing that gave believers an ounce of glimmering hope for his salvation was his unwavering belief that his niece was the spawn of Satan. And well, people could argue that you can’t have one without the other. “I’m last in line.”
“Pipe down, squirt. Do you want to see him or don’t you?” Axel had avoided the mall for several days after he had overheard the most of the conversation that ‘Roxas’ had with his friends. Stunned by the revelation that the kid was with a much older woman who by society’s standards was unbelievably attractive, Axel certainly did not want to waste his time at the stupid mall. But Reno had cunningly stuck Lilith on him, and what Lilith wanted, Lilith got.
“I wanna see him now!” Her fiery red hair resembled his brother’s, causing Axel to hypothesize that Lucifer must have possessed Reno’s body while Lilith was conceived. Balling up her tiny fists, she squeezed her grey eyes shut and gurgled out a high squeal.
“Here, have some candy.” Axel pulled out one of many jolly ranchers from his pocket and thrust it into her hand. Ripping off the wrapper carelessly, she popped it into her mouth and frowned. Blocking the entrances of three stores, the line to see Santa snaked beyond the roped off maze and followed the wall.
“Uncle Axel, I want that,” she said as she pointed to a bucket of tangled cubic zirconium jewelry sitting just outside of the store they were standing in front of. Her eyes widened as two teenaged girls pulled the bundle out of the bucket and sifted through the mess, causing the light to hit the sparkling gems at different angles.
“I’m sorry, kiddo. Santa’s going to bring you presents tonight, so you’re just going to have to hold off until tomorrow morning.” Axel gritted his teeth as the line moved up an inch.
“I want it.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Like I said, Santa Claus is going to come down the chimney tonight and leave a ton of presents under the Christmas tree for you, so you don’t need that.”
“You make no sense, got it memorized?”
“Lilith, you can’t go around repeating what other people say like that.” Axel smiled as he rolled his eyes at the girl.
“Why?”
“Because you’re saying it wrong. You don’t go around saying ‘got it memorized’ unless you really want them to memorize it.”
“Uncle Axel?”
“Huh?”
“What’s memorized?”
“You know how you know your alphabet?”
“Yeah…”
“Well, you know how you can write down A’s and B’s and every other letter without having to peek and you don’t forget them no matter what?”
“Yeah…”
“You have those letters memorized.”
“Why don’t you just say ‘remember it’?”
“That doesn’t sound as cool.” Axel frowned.
“‘Got it memorized’ is stupid.”
“You better be good, or I’m going to tell Santa that you’ve been bad. Santa’s going to turn all of your presents into coal if you’re bad,” Axel grumbled. The demeanor of the girl flipped as she stood straight up and sucked all of the air into her lungs to puff her chest out. Silently, she walked next to Axel but not without eyeing the two teenagers enviously as they grabbed their finds and went into the store to pay for the costume jewelry. Axel chuckled as he watched her transformation and closed the gap between him and the person in front of him.
About twenty jolly ranchers later, Lilith was the next one in line to see Santa Claus and she wouldn’t stop fidgeting. Axel pulled out one of the hard candies and peeled the wrapper off allowing the clear plastic to drift away. The grape flavor filled his mouth as he twirled the rectangular solid with his tongue. Humming along to ‘Felis Navidad’ which was playing throughout the mall, his mood lifted at the clear view of the man in a red suit. He would be home soon.
He swung his heavy leather coat from one tired arm to the other as he watched Lilith jump up and down in anticipation. No one had entered the line behind them, so they were the last ones to see Santa Claus. A female elf beamed at the two as she ushered them into the main area. Smooth red carpeting lined the circle surrounding the golden throne. A jolly man in a fat suit who lacked wrinkles and had an obvious fake beard slapped his knee as a graying photographer with a trimmed goatee fiddled with the camera directly in front of him.
“So, have you been a good girl this year?” the elf asked.
“Yup.”
“Well, then come on down, pretty girl. Come tell me what you want for Christmas. Ho ho ho,” Santa called out. Lilith didn’t wait for the elf to guide her; she ran over to Saint Nick on her own. Axel strolled closer to the throne and waited. Peripherally, he could see the blond elf behind the register talking to his boss who was picking up around the structure. Axel rolled his eyes and turned his attention to his niece.
“Tell Santa what you want,” Axel said. The girl climbed into the man’s lap and stared at his face. The photographer snapped a photo as she narrowed her eyes. “What’s wrong? Just tell him what you want.”
“Hun, just look up at me, okay? I want to get a good picture.” The photographer took another picture as she turned her pouting face away from Santa.
“Lilith, tell Santa what you want,” Axel said.
“She’s shy isn’t she? Maybe she wants a doll? Do you want a doll? What kind do you want?” Santa asked.
“You’re not him,” she whispered. Only Santa’s eyeballs moved as the mall employees remained perfectly still. “You’re not him,” she screamed as she yanked the beard off the man’s face. Axel ran in as she rolled off of the man’s knee and swung her leg back for a swift kick in the shins. Fortunately, he grabbed her and wrestled to keep her away long enough for any mall personnel to get a safe distance away.
“I can’t believe that all of these people waited until Christmas Eve to get their kid’s picture taken with Santa.” Roxas recalled this morning’s the long line.
“Those procrastinators are the reason why we have to work today,” Tifa grumbled from the other side of the booth. She messed with one of the wooden candy canes that had splinted in half. “It’s like this every year.”
“Really? You’d think they would rather be spending time at home instead of at the mall.”
“You would think, wouldn’t you? It’s your last day. Are you planning on coming back next year? We could use more college kids like you around here during the holidays.”
“I-uh-” Roxas looked away from Tifa wondering how to put it delicately that this job was on the same caliber as being a janitor in a porn theater: disturbingly sick.
“You don’t have to decide now.”
“Yeah…”
“So, are you going to spend Christmas with family?”
“Yeah.”
“At your Uncle Cloud’s?”
“You know Cloud?”
“He’s a close friend. I’m actually planning on stopping by there tomorrow. How else do you think you got the job? You really tanked at your interview. Not that you really needed to do that well, but complaining about your uniform didn’t really help you out. You really should smile more too, you know?”
“Cloud never told me about you.” Roxas frowned at the thought of his uncle meddling without his knowledge.
“Cloud doesn’t talk about anyone, but he did call me up and told me to look out for you. It looks like we’ll be spending Christmas together.”
“Ahem,” a male voice interrupted, causing Roxas to look away from Tifa. To his surprise, he found himself facing the attractive redhead with vivid green eyes who he had seen weeks earlier. A small girl tugged at the man’s leg as she smeared the tears running down her blotchy face. “I need to buy some pictures.”
“Sure,” Roxas answered. The blond elf's clear blue eyes made Axel ache with desire. “Just-uh- pick from the screen which one you want.”
“Fine,” Axel said as he pulled his jacket closer to him. The busty woman smirked as she walked away from the two of them. Without looking at the pictures, he pointed. “This one.”
“You need to pick a package.”
“What?”
“Here’s our options.” Roxas pointed to a red laminated paper filled with the various costs and the number and sizes of pictures for each price. “You have to choose how many pictures you want.”
“The smallest one.”
“Ok…that’ll be 15.34.” The blond pressed a few buttons and waited for the pictures to be printed off. “Cute kid. Um-she looks just like you.”
Axel didn’t know if it was the fact that Roxas thought that this offspring of the devil was somehow his or that the blond thought that she resembled him, but it had caused him to gasp and suck in a grape jolly rancher that he was not ready for. Trying to get the lodged candy out of his throat, he futilely thrust his fist into his stomach. His coat slid onto the floor.
“Are you ok?” Roxas asked. Axel shook his head and continued to gag without making much noise. The blond elf jingled out of the booth to help and slapped him hard on the back a few times. Lilith started wailing again. When nothing happened, he wrapped his arms around Axel’s waist and heaved. The slimy purple culprit popped out and landed on the counter top as the redhead hacked in relief. “Are you ok?”
“Yeah, now I am,” Axel said hoarsely as he used the counter to support his weight, hunching forward on his hands. He reveled in the memory of the blond’s body against his, but rubbed his stomach as a dull soreness set in. “That’s gonna leave a mark.”
“Sorry,” Roxas grumbled. Axel turned and held a gaze with the flustered elf who had lost a couple bells in the struggle.
“No, I didn’t mean that. I mean… I guess I owe you one, huh?” Axel straightened out to rub the back of his head and looked at the ground. “She’s not my kid, by the way.”
“Really?” Roxas asked as a smile began to form.
“Silly elf! You thought Uncle Axel was my daddy?” Lilith piped up as she pushed Axel out of the way to stand between the two men. “Uncle Axel can’t have babies.”
“Why’s that?” Roxas asked, raising an eyebrow. Axel was wondering the same thing.
“Because Uncle Axel only likes boys, and boys can’t have babies, got it memorized?” Lilith said proudly. If Axel had attempted to suck on another jolly rancher, he would have been choking again. “Did I do it right this time, Uncle Axel?”
“No. You didn’t,” Axel answered wryly.
“Santa’s helper?” His boss called out, causing Axel to turn his head away from the elf. Tifa was picking at a wad of cotton.
“Yeah?” Roxas answered, rolling his eyes.
“I think we’re done, so if you want to get going, that’s fine by me. It was nice to have you on our crew. Maybe you’ll be here again next year? I’ll mail out your last check to the address that you gave me, alright?”
“Yeah…”
“What am I saying? I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“See ya, Tifa. Hey, um- Axel?” The blue eyes turned back to him. “You left your coat on the floor.”
“Thanks. I mean for saving me and everything.” Axel leaned over to pick up his coat.
“Hey-um- you want to-um- go for coffee or something?”
“What?” Not completely sure of what he had heard Axel smirked as he shook his coat out.
“Do you-” A loud scuffling clank stopped Roxas from finishing his sentence. On the floor was not only a huge chunk of the balled up fake jewelry, but a couple more expensive shiny things mingled in as well. Axel knew this because the price tags were still on all of the jewelry, and he recognized them from the overpriced department store that he had passed when he had first gotten to the mall.
“What is going on here?” Tifa asked as she eyed the jewelry. Her eyes narrowed as she squeezed Axel’s arm and flung him against the booth. “So…care to explain this?”
“Lilith!” Axel shouted as he winced at the pressure. “She did it, not me.”
“You’re going to blame this on a little girl? How sick!”
“Ask her. I didn’t steal a bunch of useless jewelry. What would I need it for?”
“Lilith, honey?” Tifa asked through gritted teeth. “Did you have anything to do with this?”
“Uh-uh.” Lilith replied sweetly as she took a step away from Tifa.
“You are in a lot of trouble,” the woman said.
“Uh- Tifa?” Roxas looked between the two awkwardly.
“Not now. I am calling the police. Go home; I’ll take care of this scumbag.”
“Come on, it’s Christmas Eve. Have a heart, lady.”
“Don’t you dare call me lady again.” She seethed as she pulled out her cell phone. Even if Axel tried to run for it, which was impossible due to Tifa’s iron grip, he figured that he wouldn’t be able to sprint fast enough to get away from the woman. For all the screw ups that he never got caught for, Karma was kicking his ass. The blue eyed blond elf tucked his hands in his pockets and strolled away from Santa’s winter wonderland one last time.
“So, she tried to steal jewelry again, did she?” Reno asked with a laugh. Cradling the sleeping child, he carefully strapped her into the back seat of the car. The black sedan was the only vehicle in the parking lot that was visible to the group. A soft glow from the street light above them illumined the surrounding area and reflected disfigured lines against slick salted blacktop.
“I don’t see why you think this is so funny. They had me in a tiny white room for hours trying to get me to confess,” Axel huffed. The snow flakes melted as soon as they hit his marked cheeks.
“Poor Axel.”
“Shut up. Next time you want me to take her anywhere, you can just forget about it.”
“She’s not that bad.” Reno pushed the door shut trying to minimize the amount of sound his sleeping daughter would be exposed to.
“Yeah…right.” Axel walked to the passenger side door as his brother reached the driver’s side.
“Didn’t you drive here?”
“Shoot. Yeah, I did. I’ll just get it later. I don’t feel like hiking back to it.”
“That doesn’t make much sense. Just get it now.”
“Drive me there?”
“No, quit being so lazy.” Reno pulled the car door open and hopped in. Axel watched as his brother pulled out of the lot and drove away into the dark. He shivered and tucked his chin in as the wind tugged at the warmth in his coat. About an inch of snow accumulated on the sidewalk that Axel had walked back to as he started his journey around the mall. His black boots created the only footprints in the snow, and he could hear the large snowflakes gently hitting the pavement between his hollow steps. As he passed the large abandoned lot, an unusual loneliness settled into his body.
After 15 minutes of following the sidewalk, the snow gathered in his hair and on his shoulders, probably damaging his coat. Shaking it away, he sighed at the sight of his shiny silver Audi covered in an inch of snow. In the spot adjacent to his car was a running station wagon that looked like it was manufactured in the 80’s. Jogging up to the running car, he could make out a blond curled up in the driver’s seat wearing jeans and a maroon T-shirt. Axel barely recognized the sleeping man without his elf costume on.
Smirking, he tapped on the window to wake Roxas up. When he didn’t stir, Axel panicked wondering how long the car had been running and how long the blond had been asleep. He pounded on the windshield with the palm of his hand causing a loud thud. Roxas was startled awake and looked up at him with his deep blue hazy eyes. The car door squealed opened, and Axel shook his head.
“What are you doing here?” the redhead asked, grinning. Roxas climbed out of the wagon and heaved the squeaking door shut behind him. As the blond shoved his hands in his pockets and looked at the ground, Axel noted that the kid was at least a head shorter than he was.
“I don’t know,” Roxas said as he shrugged.
“It’s Christmas Eve. Shouldn’t you be home spending time with your family?”
“I will tomorrow.”
“You’re waiting for me?”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?” Axel snorted.
“I just - you never answered my question.”
“What question?”
“You want to get some coffee or something?”
“You mean to tell me that you stayed here for hours in the cold on Christmas Eve, running your car, and risking yourself to carbon monoxide poisoning, just to ask me if I wanted to get coffee?”
“I don’t think you can get carbon monoxide poisoning unless you’re running it in a garage.”
“Yes, Roxas. I would like to get some coffee with you.”
“Cool.” A small smile formed on Roxas’s shivering lips.
“You give me your number; and I’ll give you mine. I have a feeling that fate’s out to get us.”
“Huh?”
“Never mind, let me grab a scrap of paper out my car.” Axel unlocked his car with a touch of a button and pulled the door opened. After turning the car on to warm it up, he stretched into the passenger seat and rummaged through the glove compartment, grabbing a random booklet and a pen. He emerged ready to scribble his digits onto a page of his car’s manual.
“Um-Axel?” Roxas asked, furrowing his brows thoughtfully.
“Huh?”
“How do you know my name?” His eyes narrowed.
“It’s kinda a long story.”
“I’m listening.” Roxas crossed his arms over his chest.
“How about we talk about it over some coffee?” Before the blond could answer back, Axel ripped the section of the page that held his number and leaned down to plant a firm kiss. As their lips met, Axel slipped the small piece of paper into the blond’s back pocket, squeezed a little, and smirked. Once parted, he turned and climbed into the Audi leaving a stunning former elf leaning against his own vehicle. After pulling the door shut, he flipped on the windshield wipers and put the car in drive, tossing the manual into the other seat. With one last look at Roxas, Axel wiggled his fingers and stepped on the gas pedal. Touching his lips with the tip of his thin fingers, he chuckled, proud of the smooth move that he had been able to maneuver.
Ten minutes later while passing an empty field on the highway, he glanced over at the opened manual. Even through the dark, he could make out his last two digits scribbled on the torn page.