Christmas in October

Hope wakes up feeling someone's lips brushing over her skin.

"Mhm. What time is it Sosuke?" She asks, eyes still closed while caressing her boyfriend's face as he's kissing over her body.

"Christmas time." He tells her, making her eyes open wide.

"What are you talking about?" She asks confused and looks at him finally, seeing him in a Christmas themed shirt, jogging pants and a red pointed hat.

"And what is that about?" She asks, smiling amused.

"It's Christmas. What else?" He replies before continuing to kiss up her arm, while Hope is half-covered under a blanket.

"It's October." Hope replies with a raised eyebrow.

"That doesn't matter. Christmas time is a state of mind." Sosuke tells her, lifting her up along with the blanket in a bridal carry.

"And look, it's even snowing outside." He tells Hope, moving to a window in his room where the falling snow can be seen from.

"Malivore monster." Hope says in realization and caresses Sosuke's face with him letting her down gently.

Hope, once her feet touch solid ground, she hits Sosuke over his head with a war hammer he has standing in the corner of his room.

"Sorry babe." She apologizes, giving his cheek a kiss before electrical tendrils connect from an outlet to his wound and it starts healing.

Hope quickly puts on her clothes from the day before and gets out of Sosuke's room.

"What is going on here?" She asks shocked, seeing Christmas decorations all around.

"Dr. Saltzman. He must be normal." Hope tells herself and goes looking for her father figure.

After searching half the school she finds Alaric together with Dorian and their headmaster halfway drunk holding glasses of eggnog.

"Dr. Saltzman. What is going on here? Everyone is so jolly and weird. Saying it's Christmas." Hope asks.

"Because it is Hope. Can't you feel it?" Alaric answers.

"Yes child. It's so festive you have to agree this is truly perfect." Rupert Vardemus tells Hope.

"I can't believe this. Am I still asleep or why is everyone being crazy?" Hope says shocked that even the adults are acting crazy.

"What the hell Hope? All I do is love you and you kill me for 10 minutes?" Sosuke asks Hope angrily, busting into the room.

"Oh thank god." Hope says, throwing herself at Sosuke and hugging him relieved.

"What? No explanation as to why you bashed my head in?" Sosuke asks annoyed.

"I knew you would heal and you were clearly affected by something. Like everyone else still is." Hope says, nodding to the half drunk adults toasting to the couple.

"OK, maybe killing me was a good idea." Sosuke agrees, grabbing her hand and pulling her with him to his room after seeing a jolly Alaric being friendly to Rupert Vardemus.

"So... what do we do? We can't exactly kill them all... Well maybe the vamps." Sosuke says.

"No. It'd take too long and they could be vulnerable whenever what is causing this strikes." Hope tells him, walking back and forth in his room while he looks into his weapons closet.

"Why weren't you affected and I was anyway?" Sosuke asks.

"I hate the holidays. Ever since my parents and everyone I cared about died." Hope guesses, shrugging.

"Yeah, but I'm not exactly the jolly and merry type either. Remember? Raised and taught to be a killer, having no family or emotions until some months ago?" Sosuke replies.

"Well, maybe because of last night you were susceptible?" She asks, failing to hide a slight smile and blush.

"Sure, but wouldn't you... Oh no, don't tell me I was that bad?" Sosuke asks shocked and turns to her with shock written on his face.

"Oh don't you worry honey. Last night was far from bad. Rather the word perfect comes to mind." Hope tells him, taking one of his hands and intertwining it with hers.

"Wait no! No more talk about us and especially last night." Hope tells him, violently twisting his arm and makes him scream in pain, his arm dislocated at the elbow.

"What the fucking hell?" Sosuke yells angrily.

"I'm really sorry sweetheart. But I can't risk letting you get all merry and happy right now. I need someone else to be clear minded." Hope tells him, twisting his arm back in place, Sosuke screaming in pain again while she hugs him to her chest feeling sorry.

Sosuke's arm gets healed by a stream of electricity again and he steps away from Hope once it is.

"Mission accomplished." Sosuke groans, rubbing his newly set elbow.

"So, again. What do we do?" He asks, taking a short dagger and hooks its sheath to the back of his belt as well as hanging the spine whip into a holster and putting it on his left hip.

"Isn't that a bit over the top?" Hope asks, nodding at the whip.

"We're inside the school. I don't want to hear Alaric or the new headmaster whining because I blew up the place by using my lightning too freely." Sosuke tells her.

"Yeah, probably a good idea." She agrees, recalling how during a spar the other day Sosuke blew a hole through a large tree with a lightning blast.

"As I was asking. Do we have a plan?" Sosuke asks.

"We hit the books and try to figure out what we're dealing with." Hope answers, raking one hand through her hair thoughtfully.

"Alright, let's go." Sosuke says, nodding and heads to the library with her where for the next three hours they browse through the books.

"What did you come up with?" Sosuke asks Hope, sitting down beside her after previously keeping his distance.

"Well unless Frosty or Elsa are real... I got zilch." Hope answers, showing her list with all but these two characters crossed out.

"I got Krampus or Santa or maybe a yeti?" Sosuke suggests.

"You can cross out the Yeti. I checked it out already." Hope tells him, disappointed their search didn't bear the fruits she hoped for.

"So realistically we're down to a snowman , Santa or the anti-Santa." Sosuke sighs.

"Did it say anything on how to kill them?" Hope asks.

"Not really I'd imagine the standard of destroying the heart is a good approach though." Sosuke tells her.

"Do you think we can do this alone or do we need to snap the others out of it?" Hope asks him, playing with his hand.

"I just don't see us getting through to them, so we'll have to do this ourselves." Sosuke replies, giving her a kiss on her cheek.

"Better not get too comfortable or we get whammied too." Sosuke says and gets up.

"Sosuke. About last night..." Hope starts to say.

"You were right Hope. We can't talk about it and risk me going full Santa mode as well." Sosuke interrupts her.

"Fine." She grumbles with a small frown and follows him to where most of the students have gathered.

"It's almost evening. Let's hope this thing shows up soon. I don't want to be stuck in the merry winterland for longer than we have to." Sosuke remarks.

"Yeah I'd also rather be doing something else right now." She agrees, looking over his body as he's leaning against a wall, fiddling with the handle of his spine whip.

"So... Where do you think it'll show up?" She asks, coming over and leaning against the wall besides him.

"If the stories are true... The fireplace." Sosuke tells her.

"Maybe I should dim it down then." Hope says and uses a spell to turn the bright flames previously dancing on the wood in the fireplace into small kindling instead.

Shortly after this an smoky figure starts to appear out of the fireplace and solidifies over a few seconds into a green horned beast with small pointy teeth, clutching a small sickle in one of its hands while the other is firmly wrapped around a large brown sack easily the size of the creature itself.

"Oh hey, we have a visitor." Kaleb says, greeting the grinch-like monster.

"Everyone get back!" Hope shouts and moves towards the monster with Sosuke, who takes his whip out of his holster, the bony weapon's tip clattering against the floor.

The monster licks over the sickle with its long, pronged tongue.

"I guess this has to be Krampus." Hope says, the jolly crowd backing away from the monster gradually.

"Let's see if I can catch it." Sosuke says and swings his whip forwards, the weapon wrapping around the creature around its upper arms with the bones of it digging into its flesh, a bit of green blood seeping over the weapon.

The Krampus screeches loudly and shoots its tongue at Sosuke, wrapping it around his neck, choking him.

Sosuke groans before electricity shoots off his body and half burns the tongue which the monster retracts in pain.

It then hooks its sickle up and pulls it down on its own skin while ripping itself free of the whip.

Hope uses a spell to send the monster flying against the fireplace. The Krampus recovers and snarls at them angrily before jumping at the couple standing across the room from him with the other students watching from the side, snapping out of the Christmas cheer one by one.

"Shit." Sosuke grunts, blocking the monster's sickle by pulling on the middle of the whip and stretching it in front of the strike, still getting knocked over by the Krampus force however and crashes into a table with cookies, making the onlookers complain disappointed.

Hope tries to light the Kampus on fire but the spell simply sets its red coat aflame and it rips it off its body.

Krampus swipes with his sickle at Hope who leans back and the sickle passes just over her chest which sticks out in the position.

"Too Close." She curses.

"I go low you go High." Sosuke tells her and dashes at the monster, tackling its legs out from under it and when Hope tries to get control of its upper body however she simply lands on top of Sosuke, both groaning at the impact while a trail of smoke is heading towards the fireplace again until the path is blocked by Alaric who's holding his trusty crossbow at his side and pours a pitcher of eggnog onto the smoke, the Krampus reforming angrily and is about to swipe at Alaric only to get shot in the head by him, the bolt staying lodged inside the monster's head as it falls to the floor.

"Christmas is saved! Dr. S. did it." MG shouts excitedly.

"Christmas?" Hope and Sosuke ask in unison and rush towards the monster, which starts to get up slowly while Alaric is taking in his former students' praise, totally unaware of the creature rising behind him.

Realizing almost immediately that they won't make it in time, Sosuke grabs Hope's hands and swings her towards the teacher, sending her flying at Alaric. Hope crashes into the man and knocks him down just in time for the monster's sickle to pass over their heads as it tries to behead Alaric.

"Ventus!" Hope yells and raises her hand at the creature, sending it flying against the wall next to the fireplace.

Sosuke tosses his dagger at the monster and impales it on the wall.

"So I guess an arrow to the head won't kill it." Hope says, getting up and helping Alaric.

"Thanks kids." Alaric thanks them, snapping out of the Christmas spirit again while Sosuke arrives next to him and Hope.

"Something's happening." Kaleb warns them, pointing at the large bag which moves around

in front of the fireplace.

Sosuke immediately grabs his whip again and gets ready to attack while Alaric loads another bolt into his crossbow.

"Ho-ho-ho. I'm finally free." Santa Klaus says joyfully, freeing himself from the bag and looks around the room.

"Santa?" Hope asks in disbelief while Sosuke swings his whip to trap him, but Santa grabs onto the whips end instead and janks Sosuke towards him, slamming him to the ground by smacking his outstretched arm in the lightning user's face.

"Don't be a naughty boy. I'm finally free and won't be contained that easily again." Santa tells Sosuke before a snarling get the overweighted man's attention and he sees Krampus pulling itself free from the wall, holding Sosuke's dagger and its sickle in one hand each.

"Krampus. You monster are the reason I was trapped in the darkness for so long!" Santa yells angrily at the creature, facing it.

"Santa!" One of the younger students yells and throws the man a wooden candy cane decoration.

With a battle cry Santa and Krampus run at each other, starting to trade blows.

Hope goes over to Sosuke and helps him up in the meantime.

"The fuck is happening here?" Sosuke groans once he's standing beside Hope.

"I think Santa is getting his ass kicked." Hope says, watching the red dressed man be on the defensive against his foe.

"Is that a good or bad thing?" Sosuke asks.

"Not sure although my gut tells me it's bad." Alaric answers.

"Let's see if we can help him out then." Hope says and uses her magic to take control of the Christmas light wrapped around the tree and wraps it around one of Krampus's hands instead and gives Sosuke enough time to pry his dagger out of the hand before the green skinned monster breaks through the thin wire's hold.

"Santa get down!" Alaric shouts and fires another bolt at the creature, hitting its other arm and makes it drop the sickle.

Santa takes up the weapon and slashes violently across his enemies chest before punching into the chest cavity and rips out a small, rotten heart and drops it to the floor dramatically.

"He does have a tiny heart." Santa says and the students cheer happily.

"Thank you for your help Alaric, Hope, Sosuke." Santa thanks them.

"How do you know our names?" Alaric asks.

"I'm Santa. I know every child's name and everyone once was a child." The man explains.

"Do you by any chance have any desire to abduct a certain phoenix boy of ours?" Hope asks.

"No. I only wish to spread Christmas cheer to everyone." He says and laughs loudly.

"Do we trust him or not?" Sosuke asks, still being cautious.

"I say we trust him. He killed Krampus afterall." Alaric suggests.

"Fine." Sosuke accepts and puts his weapons in their holster and sheath.

The next few hours the students hang out with Santa before he leaves after giving some of the students presents, the biggest one being a red sports car for Kaleb.

"Hey." Hope greets Sosuke that night when she steps into his room nervously.

"Hi." The boy replies, standing in front of his weapons closet and does an inventory apparently.

"So, did Santa give you any presents besides a black eye?" Hope asks teasingly.

"Nope. You?" He replies.

"With how much I dread the holidays I think you know the answer to that." Hope replies, shaking her head.

"Yeah... Well I did suspect that to be the case, so here." Sosuke tells her, closing the closet and grabs a small hand sized package from the top of the furniture, holding it out towards her.

"Don't worry I don't think it's really Christmas. No need to kill me again, I just want to show you that I will try to make sure you will enjoy the holidays someday." Sosuke tells her.

"Thanks." She says, brushing her hair behind her ear and accepts the present.

"Sorry I didn't have any wrapping paper. Christmas came a little bit surprising this time." He tells her chuckling softly while they sit down on his bed.

Hope smiles and opens the package, taking out a clear crystal of sorts and looks at Sousuke quizzically.

"What is it?" She asks.

"It's an enchanted prism. Apparently you can use it to visualize someone based on your subconscious and talk to them." Sosuke explains.

"And why would I need that? Are you worried I might still like Landon?" She asks, a little worried he's trying to tell her something is wrong with her.

"No. God no. It's just after what you said this morning, why you aren't or can't be completely happy... I want you to be happy, even if the next time Santa comes around we'd both be Christmas loving idiots." Sosuke tells her, rubbing over her hands lovingly.

"So I want you to use this and talk to your family whenever you want to. It will only be a version of them based on your perception and memories of them but I hope that it'll help you find peace someday." Sosuke tells her.

"Thank you." Hope says, sounding totally blindsided and stares at the clear crystal.

"Merry early christmas." Sosuke whispers and gives her a kiss on her cheek before giving her time to herself and heads out to the pier.

"I like your boyfriend. He looks out for you." Hope hears her father say soon after while the crystal glows white and she sees her father sitting beside her, making her cry and hug the crystal to her chest tightly.

"Hi." Lizzie greets Sosuke, sitting down beside him at the pier.

"What brings you here?" He asks genuinely surprised.

"You think you're the only one coming here to think?" She replies nonchalantly.

"I'm mad at MG and Sebastian." She admits seconds later.

"Not surprising given they played you." Sosuke replies, offering her a stone before skipping one over the lake himself.

"Yeah. They are jerks." Lizzie complains and tosses the stone into the water angrily, splashing them a bit.

"I don't think MG meant to hurt you though." Sosuke tells her.

"He still hurt me. Regardless of his intentions. I already feel unstable and don't need a Weasley vampire playing into my mental issues." Lizzie tells him with a frown.

"Fair enough. Hey by the way do you know anything about this merge thingy?" Sosuke asks and Lizzie shakes her head.

"Why?" She asks.

"Your sister and I made a deal. I'd help her figure out what the merge is and she'll try to help me figure out what exactly my ancestors were." Sosuke informs the blonde.

"I see." Lizzie mumbles.

"Why are you out here anyways? Don't you have a room and even another home." Lizzie asks him.

"I thought Hope could use her privacy." Sosuke answers.

"Really? You two spend a suspicious amount of time behind locked doors and the next day you give her privacy? Did the sex not pan out like you two wanted to?" Lizzie asks him mischievously.

"Seriously? I thought you and Hope were starting to get along now?" He asks surprised at the dig at his girlfriend.

"We are, that's why I'm trying to look out for her and make sure you're not gonna hump and dump her like a certain wolf did to me." Lizzie tells him.

"Well don't worry about that. And I think she enjoyed our time as well. I just gave her the crystal I got from you." Sosuke explains.

"Why would she need the crystal?" Lizzie asks confused.

"Doesn't matter. I'm just giving her some room to use it in peace." He answers.

"Did it help you back then?" Lizzie asks.

"A bit. Yes and thank you." He answers with a small smile, Lizzie having given him the crystal when he regained his memories and was doubting everything about himself.

"About time you thanked me." Lizzie laughs before they hear steps behind them.

"I think that's your cue to leave." Lizzie tells Sosuke, both looking back and seeing Hope walking towards them, her eyes having a red hue around them from her crying.

"I think you're right. Take care and be careful with Sebastian. I get a bad vibe from him." Sosuke tells Lizzie while getting up.

He then meets Hope halfway and she wordlessly hugs him tightly while he strokes over her back.

"Let's get you to bed." He says and the two go back to his room, lying down in the bed without another word being said between them, Hope's shaky grip on his clothes being enough for him to figure that she used the crystal and is emotionally drained.