Their First Christmas
Title: Their First Christmas, or, Santa Claus
Summary: In which Rapunzel's belief in Santa won't be shaken - And for good reason.
Rating: I'm actually pretty sure I can just slap a 'G' on this one.
Warning: IT'S SO FLUFFY I'M GONNA DIE.
Fandom: Megamind/Tangled Crossover
Pairing: Six/Rapunzel
Disclaimer: I don't own anything - the Megamind parts are Dreamworks', the Tangled parts, Disney's. This is just for fun, and I'm making no money off of it at all.
Author's Note: A Christmas gift for dear Briny. I am a sucker for stuff where there is a Santa, so...There you go.
Rapunzel jolted awake at about five-thirty on Christmas morning, waking up Six as she did so. "...It's Christmas."
Six groaned and rolled on to his side. "Yes it is. Absolutely no reason to be up so early - In fact, all the more reason to sleep in-" But then he could hear Rapunzel getting out of her bed, and he rolled over again to face the young woman dressed in the blue nightgown. "Rapunzel, really, why are you so-"
"Santa Claus! I know he comes for kids, mostly, but I was a kid just last year, and I've never had a Christmas, so I think he might count me in..."
And Six's heart sank. He'd tried to explain this to her earlier, but they'd gotten back so close to Christmas, and he'd kept putting it off because really, really... She'd been so excited to learn about Santa Claus. With a weary sigh, he sat up. "Rapunzel..." And he gestured around the lab. There were no gifts in sight. Surely that would make her realize...
"What?"
...Or not.
"There are no gifts in here. Rapunzel, Santa-"
"Well, that's because Minion and I sort of hid the tree from you," she said sheepishly.
"Wait, what?"
"I'm really sorry, Six, it's just... Well, I really wanted one, so Minion said we should have one - just for this one Christmas - and I know how hard the holiday is for you; I didn't want to-"
"It's fine," he sighed, looking down. It wasn't entirely fine, but... He really didn't want to get into the pain Christmas brought up. Besides, he... He hated it a little less, watching her get so excited over it.
But this was ridiculous.
"Rapunzel..." But as he looked up to adress the young woman, she was already running out of the lab. "Rapunzel, there's something I have to tell you!" he called after her, but she all to quickly vanished down into the basement.
The basement. They had a Christmas tree in their basement. Oh, Minion, he was going to...
And then he noticed the silence. The door to the basement was still open, it was quiet this early, noise should have traveled... But there was no sound of disappointment. Nothing audible at least. Perhaps she was still in denial over this whole thing. He got up himself, tapping Minion's glass as he walked by the fish's suit. "Wake up, Minion, I'd like to have a word with you..." he grumbled as he walked on by. There were other things to deal with, first - Namely, explaining things to Rapunzel - but he definitely heard Minion rising up from the depths of his suit.
When he entered the basement, though, he found there was little to explain... To her, at least. Quite the number of gifts were under the tree - Which was mostly bare... It made sense, how much could they have spent on decorations without him reailzing something was amiss. Strings of white lights and a dozen shining spheres...
All blue. A nice touch.
But on to more pressing matters... Like the insanity that was before his eyes. Where on Earth had all this come from?
Rapunzel turned at that moment to see him, and laughed sheepishly. "I'm acting like a little kid... Sorry. I just..."
"First Christmas," Six said, distracted. "Understandably. I just don't..."
"Are those presents?" came a voice from the stairs. Six looked over his shoulder to see Minion approaching him, and nodded. "Wow..."
Six lowered his voice to a whisper. "Minion, did you...?"
"No, Sir, I assumed you did..."
"No..."
Minion smiled, glancing upwards. "Well, whaddaya know... "
Six just turned back to the tree and stared. This made no sense. None. There was no such thing as Santa Claus...
Although, it must be said, Rapunzel had introduced him to a number of things that... Simply shouldn't have existed. Glowing, healing hair. A very sentient Earth lizard. A villain finding the love of a beautiful, kind-hearted princess...
Said princess turned to look at the duo, a delighted smile on her face. "You guys, there are things here for you, too!"
"...There are?"
No. Six was sure this wasn't possible. He had to be on the naughty list...
Didn't he?
And yet, there it was, indeed, a pile of wonderful science equipment and all sorts of music and a new pair of gloves... And nearby, Minion was diving into his own pile of music and movies and fish food and...
He looked from his dear friend to Rapunzel, who was holding up a box of frozen crickets - Who could that possibly be for?, he thought sarcastically - and saw how happy they were... Maybe this holiday wasn't so bad, after all. In certain ways.
"What did you get?" he asked, walking up behind Rapunzel. She smiled and laughed a light, disbelieving laugh.
"What didn't I get? This... This is amazing."
"You deserve it," he said warmly. "I don't think there's a better person than you."
"Six... After all you did... You deserve it more than anyone."
"Well... Thank you, Rapunzel."
There was a very lovely little moment of silence, of everyone being happy and the day being magical, and then Six remembered something.
"Oh! Rapunzel, I have a gift for you, actually... Yes..."
"I have something for you, too! Sort of. It was a little tricky... Here, let me go..."
And as she trailed off, she headed into a corner of the basement - He would have to start coming down there more regularly, it shouldn't be that easy for them to hide things on him. It seemed as good a time as any to head upstairs and get her gift, and so he headed up the stairs, sneaking one last look at his heart-warmingly happy...
Family.
When he returned to their cots, he noticed Pascal still asleep on Rapunzel's... With a certain level of fondness, he poked the creature awake - as he had seen Rapunzel do countless times - and scooped him up, onto his shoulder. Then he took out the rather large wrapped box he'd hidden in a closet, and started towards the basement...
Only to find himself nearly walking into Rapunzel, whose arms were filled with rather large cans of paint. Six raised a brow.
"...Rapunzel?"
"I'm going to paint the walls - if you want. I figured... We could use a little color in here. Well, some color," she laughed, and he noticed then that the paint cans seemed to be mostly shades of blue. "If you don't want that, I'll get-"
He silenced her with a kiss. "I think it's a wonderful idea. Now, um, this is for you..." He handed her her gift, and she sat right down on the cold floor of the lair to open it... When she finally got to the gift, she gasped, and held up a beautiful mandolin.
"You mentioned that you play... And I know you left yours back in your world. I... Realize you'll be going back eventually, of course-" Darned princess duties. "But in the meantime... I thought you might like to have one here."
Rapunzel carefully set the instrument back in its box, then sprung to her feet and threw her arms around Six. "Thank you. It's... Absolutely perfect."
He returned the hug. Wonderful, she liked it. And at that moment, while he knew Christmas would never be his favorite day of the year, the wounds it opened stung a bit less.
"Merry Christmas, Rapunzel."