Archive of Our Own ^beta

Once upon a time there lived a young orphan boy named Naoe Riki.

Riki was like most other boys his age – he went to school, he liked to read novels, he daydreamed, he occasionally got crushes. Most of the time he was good – he did not lie, die not steal, and did not break his promises. Sometimes, he was not so good. But overall, he strove to be a kind and helpful person, and in many small ways, he brought good to this world.

However, Naoe Riki was different from the other boys around him in one very big way: there was nobody in all the world around him who loved him.

When he was merely a child, Riki's parents had passed away in a terrible car accident that spared only Riki. After this, he was adopted by two terrible step-parents who treated him as a burden, keeping him locked up in the attic where he could be easily ignored. He lived a lonely childhood, unable to form any friends, and escaped instead into other worlds through reading. Time passed, and Riki's isolation did not disappear.

Finally, he became the Riki of the present, a boy with no friends or loved ones. He was not miserable as he had been as a child – he had learned how to be on his own, and his books brought him great enjoyment. But every year, always at the same time, Riki's defences weakened and he felt true loneliness. That time of the year was Christmas.

And so it was that three days before Christmas, Riki found himself trudging home through the dull, snow-lined streets at the end of the school term. Normally, Riki would already have lost himself in the worlds of his books and be looking forward to the weekend of reading ahead of him, but on this day he was sombre.

He turned a corner. Before him sat a park, decked out in Christmas lights and decorations, a beautiful twinkling tree in the centre. Against his better instincts, Riki found himself stopping to stare at it.

Around the tree, many people were congregating. On one side a group of young children were playing a make-believe game, laughing and shouting; on the other, a couple held hands, one pointing up at the tree in excitement.

Riki's breath came out in a shudder.

He was starting to turn back home when something caught his eye. From behind another tree, a white cat suddenly appeared, looking up at him with curious eyes.

Riki smiled. “It's you again!”

Cautiously, Riki approached the cat, but as always it was strangely docile for a stray and let him get close, even ducking his head into Riki's hand when he reached out to pat him.

The loneliness Riki had felt a moment ago had disappeared as quickly as it had started. He smiled at the cat, scratching behind its ear.

“You always seem to know just when to turn up, huh, kitty?”

The cat meowed and Riki chuckled.

“That's right! You're pretty smart, aren't you?”

But soon he sighed and stood up properly again.

“Sorry, kitty, but I have to go back home now.”

Reluctantly, he turned away and began to head back home. He took five steps before be became aware of the presence behind him.

The cat was following him.

As Riki stared, the cat flicked its ears and sat down.

Riki frowned. The cat didn't have a collar, so he had been assuming it had no owner. He had been worried about it at first, but it was an adult and seemed to be well-fed, so he had figured it must be one of those cats who had no problem sneaking into gardens to be fed by kindly home owners. But the weather had been growing steadily colder lately, and Riki had to admit that he was worried that the snow would get the better of it.

Riki frowned further. He was pretty sure his step-parents wouldn't be too pleased if he brought a cat back home. But... well, they never bothered him in the attic, did they? As long as the cat stayed with him, they probably wouldn't care at all – might not even notice.

It was probably a bad idea. It wasn't impossible that there was still some poor kid out there looking for it.

But then the cat looked up at him, yellow eyes wide. Maybe Riki was imagining it, but he looked almost... hopeful.

“...fine. Just until the weather improves,” Riki said finally. As though he understood, the cat perked up and stood up again, waiting for Riki to keep walking.

Strange, Riki thought, but continued walking nevertheless.

Soon enough, Riki was walking through the empty house up to his room; his step-parents likely wouldn't be home until the evening. As soon as he opened the door to the attic, the cat rushed through and leaped onto his bed, curling up in the blankets. Riki moved towards it and stroked its back.

“You were cold, huh...”

Normally, Riki would only allow himself to pet the cat for a short time, as he would only ever meet it while on the way to somewhere else. But here, in his room, Riki realised that he didn't want to stop. The cat seemed to enjoy his touch, and its coat was warm and soft.

It was nice, he realised, to share this with another being, even if only an animal.

Hours passed. His step-parents returned, talking loudly; that was right – they were having a Christmas party with some other people from work tonight. Riki listened to the muffled laughing and carols from his room, hand now resting almost protectively over the cat's sleeping form.

On instinct, he walked to the window at the end of his room. The glass was lightly frosted over, little flakes already starting to fall from the clouds above with more snow forecast to come. Across the street, the house opposite was lined with lights, American-style, and he could see a Christmas tree in one of the windows.

What was it like, he wondered, to share Christmas with other people? Family? Friends? A lover? Riki had never had any of those.

The rest of the year, he didn't mind. There were many other things he could do to pass the time, and he had no problem with doing things on his own.

But every year, around this time, people would gather together to celebrate. To spread joy to one another, to combine their happiness into something greater.

He stared out the window. A slow song was swirling around him, curling up like smoke from the lower floors.

I want to know it, he thought. I want to know what that kind of Christmas is like. I want to share it with someone.

But he could only stand there for so long. And soon Riki returned to his bed, gently waking up the cat so he could take its place and lie beneath the blankets.

Once he was asleep, the cat's eyes sparkled.

Yes, the cat thought. Definitely him.

*

The first thing that came to Riki's notice was the fact that it was very, very cold.

He wrapped his arms around himself, shivering violently. Where on earth was he? When he opened his eyes, all he could see was grey, up or down.

Was this a dream? But then the cold snapped at his fingers and he swore mentally. If this is a dream, it's a very fucking vivid one.

And then, a voice.

“Merry Christmas, Naoe Riki!”

For some reason, Riki's breath caught. Hesitantly, he turned around.

In front of him was, unmistakeably, Santa Claus.

He stared, gobsmacked. “S-Santa?”

Santa beamed, head tossed back in delight. “That's right! But oh ho, you look awfully cold there – I think we'd better get you a coat!”

Am I dreaming? He wondered again, even as all of his senses shouted quite insistently at him that this was very much real. And then – am I at the North Pole?!

From behind Santa, a small head popped out. It belonged to a young girl about his age, with a long brown ponytail. She glared at him, and stepped forwards warily, a thick red winter coat in hand.

“Ahh, thank you,” Riki said awkwardly, taking it and pulling it over his shoulders. When he shoved his hands into the pockets, he discovered a pair of gloves and a hat, and he quickly pulled those on as well.

The girl had already returned to Santa's side, holding close to him.

“So, young Naoe Riki – I suppose you're pretty confused right about now!” Santa said, then held out his arms. “Tell me – do you know where we are?”

Wait.

Something was... off.

“Er... the North Pole?” he asked, slowly.

“Wonderful!” Santa laughed again, hands held over his small belly. Wait. What?

“Are you Santa?” Riki asked, in a rush.

“Why, yes I am!” Santa said, smiling kindly.

“Er...”

Riki paused. Was he being rude? He felt like he was possibly being rude. But Santa was still smiling encouragingly and this whole thing felt too surreal to be possible in the first place so he hesitatantly continued.

“...you don't really look how I expected,” he said politely. “Is that-” He cut himself off, but when Santa tipped his head, he continued. “Er... is that a fake beard?”

“Good eyes!” Santa – or whoever he was – pulled forward at his beard, revealing a clearly clean-shaven chin. And come to think of it, was that red hair underneath that hat of his? All of which would go a long way to explaining why Santa happened to be far skinnier than Riki had always pictured.

“I'm not the first Santa, you see. The first one had a pretty distinct image working for him. But if I'm going to take over the role, I like to keep the old traditions going, if only for the newcomers!”

“...role?”

“It's more of a title, really, than anything else.” Santa stepped in closer. Now that Riki could see his face properly, he didn't look much older than Riki, either. “My proper name, I supposed you could say, is Kyousuke.”

“...Kyousuke.” Riki stared at him.

“Yes!”

“...are you serious?”

Santa – Kyousuke? - tilted his head, confused. “Is there something strange about that?”

“Well, it's...” Riki struggled to find the words. “...really obviously Japanese?”

“Really? Huh. I thought it was Finnish.” Kyousuke scratched at his chin under the fake beard, contemplatively.

“Yeah, that's another thing.” Riki furrowed his brow. “Now that I think about it, we're speaking Japanese right now, too. Instead of, er. Something appropriate?”

“Oh? I thought we were speaking English.”

“I-” Riki stopped. He thought for a moment, completely puzzled. “...maybe there's some kind of universal translator thing going on,” he mumbled.

Santa laughed. “You really are an interesting boy!” He slapped a hand on Riki's shoulder. “But we've got something far more important for you to be thinking about! Come, Rin!” he added, and the girl nodded and followed, ponytail trailing behind her.

Another Japanese name... Riki thought with a puzzled frown, but obediently followed.

They were presently walking over an ice field. Behind Riki stretched what could easily be thousands of kilometres of flat ice, but ahead stood a small hill of snow, obstructing his view. But now that he looked, he could see a faint yellow light from over the top, and if he listened, was that – music?

“You have been chosen specially, Riki.”

“Why me?” Riki asked, still trying to see what he could over the hills they were approaching.

“Because you are pure of heart.”

“I... really?”

Santa nodded. His smile now seemed strangely personal, which felt almost shocking compared to his earlier general geniality. “You are. And yet you were prepared to spend Christmas on your own. I, of course, could not let that happen.”

Riki thought about this. “...but surely, there've got to be many people out there who are good but will be sad over Christmas, right? And kids, too – I might not be an adult yet, but, uh, I'd think a six-year-old could do with company more than a sixteen-year-old.”

Santa's eyes twinkled mysteriously. “All in good time.”

Before Riki could try to figure that out, they had reached the base of the hill. The slope was smoother here, and the top not so high – nothing more than a tough few minutes. Kyousuke smiled at him, eagerly, as though he couldn't imagine a prospect more exciting than what they'd soon be doing, and urged Riki upwards.

“We're almost here!” he promised.

He could hear the music better, now. It was Jingle Bells, of course, as though played by an orchestra and sung by a choir. There was so much sound of activity – people speaking, moving things, chopping and crinkling and crunching over snow, giggling and laughing in delight even as they worked in a frenzy of activity.

There was a part of Riki, not so deep down, that had always loved Christmas. Every year, when the decorations went up in the streets he would be filled with anticipation for the weeks to come, and whenever he would catch strains of a carol he recognised, he could not stop himself from smiling. It was joy and giving and excitement infused like a pulsing energy in every wreath on every door, every delighted conversation about presents and Christmas dinner. It was an excuse to be happy, a reason to be happy, and no matter how lonely Riki had always felt, there was a part of him that wouldn't miss it for the world.

Just before he reached the crest of the hill, Kyousuke put a hand on his shoulder.

“Riki...” he said, smiling wide, “welcome to the North Pole.”

He stepped up to the top.

A whole village was spread out before him, bathed in shimmering white. There were countless small, quaint-looking wooden houses completely decked out in lights across the roofs and around the doors, windows glowing gold and offering glimpses at trees or fireplaces or hard-working people fixing up this or that. Threaded through all of this was a train line, and as Riki watched a small, brightly-coloured steam train tooted through the outer reaches of the village. All of the houses were clustered around a giant square in the middle, surrounded by a line of larger buildings in strange colours and shapes. The square proper was a hive of activity, with people everywhere hurrying to and fro, tables set up bearing wrapped presents or treats. And right in the middle stood the hugest tree Riki had ever seen, covered in red and green and gold and white and every other colour, tinsel and baubles and stars and ornaments, topped with a giant, glowing star.

Riki breathed in and he could smell snow and pine and cinnamon.

“How is it?” Kyousuke asked, as expectant as a puppy.

Riki shook his head. This whole situation was weirder than he could comprehend and he barely knew this strange man in front of him claiming to be Santa, but nothing could stop the tide rising up in his chest and choking his throat. “It's amazing,” he finally said, in total honesty.

Kyousuke's eyes lit up so instantaneously it was almost shocking. He smiled again, wider but smaller somehow. “Great!” he said, and patted Riki's shoulder again. “So here we go – it's time to show you around!”

They wandered down the shallow slope, and as they got closer Riki noticed that the people hurrying by in large cloaks had strangely-shaped, pointed ears.

Ah, of course. He turned to Santa. “Er, these workers – are they... elves?”

“Yes!” Santa beamed. “They do most of the work for me, I'll admit! Especially today, with things so close to Christmas!”

“Yeah, I was wondering. Do you really have time to be showing me around like this?”

“When else would I take someone up here?” Kyousuke shrugged. “I'm not boasting when I say that this place looks wonderful year-round, but really - it's the North Pole. There's no other time to see it but at Christmas.” Kyousuke chuckled. “And I daresay you'd have been a little less interested if I'd taken you here in June.”

“It'd be nice and cool at least,” Riki said dryly. He turned to look at Rin, who was still hedging close to Kyousuke. “So, are you an elf too?” he asked politely.

“What?!” Rin glared at him. “No, of course not! I'm a human, obviously!”

“...er. Oh, okay. Sorry?”

Kyousuke placed a hand on her head; Rin squirmed uncomfortably. “She's my younger sister, actually!”

“So you're a human, too...”

“Yep! It's kind of confusing. Don't know how it works.”

If even Santa doesn't know, who does? Riki wondered, but let himself be lead obediently anyway.

After walking through the village for some time, they reached the square, music and energy pulsing all around them. Santa spun around to Riki and clapped his hands.

“All right! I'm sure that no matter how exciting this all is, there's only one place you want to be seeing right now, right?”

Santa smiled expectantly again, but Riki wasn't sure.

“Er... which one?”

Santa looked disappointed. “The workshop, of course! Where all the toys are! That's the best part!”

“Oh, well,” Riki tried. “I haven't really played with toys since I was a kid, so-”

“It's not only kids' toys,” Santa said, looking downright offended by now. “It's curiosities, entertainment pieces, tools – anything that brings joy to the hearts of those who could receive it!”

“Oh, that sounds really great then,” Riki said, and tried to make it clear he really was being honest when Kyousuke shot him another doubtful glance.

“All right. You'll definitely understand when you see it, anyway.”

The first building they faced was the biggest, a giant factory three stories tall. But unlike any other factory Riki had ever seen, this one was coloured bright red, and strings of golden lights danced around the roof and chimney. The windows were large and multicoloured, and the whole thing thrummed with the most frenetic energy Riki had seen yet.

Santa opened the wide double doors. It revealed a wide room filled with large piles of presents wrapped and not wrapped, elves standing at tables overloaded with countless interesting toys, conveyor belts taking presents from room to room and elves running back and forth bearing long lists.

Before Riki could get his bearings, a voice surprised him.

“Yahoo! What's Mr Saint Nick doin' down here now then?” came a loud voice, and before Riki suddenly appeared a girl with blindingly bright hair and clothing.

“Oooooh!” she exclaimed when she noticed Riki. “This is him, isn't it? Nice to meet you! Oh man, you're gonna have so much fun up here, it'll be ridiculous!”

“Uh, nice to meet you?”

“This is Haruka,” Kyousuke explained. “She's the head of our wooden toys division.”

Another Japanese name...?

“That's right!” She said, but then abruptly shrugged. “Well, yeah, you're probably thinking that we don't get much work now, huh? And that's kinda true. But there's still a lot of wooden toys out there nowadays, especially for little kids! And I've been branching off into electronics as well – now THAT'S a power market if I've ever seen one!”

“So you really do make all the toys yourselves?” Riki asked, struggling to understand it all.

“That's right!” Haruka puffed out her chest. “Nothing but the best hand-made! You just can't get it right if you don't do it yourself, ya know? And there's just an extra little bit of love in the process, don't you think? With every toy we make, we really do hope that the person who gets it ends up loving it with all their soul!”

That sounded like a bit of an overreaction just to a little toy horse or puzzle, but something about Haruka's posture told him that she really did mean every word she was saying.

“Then, thanks! I'm sure there are heaps of kids out there who really enjoy what you do.”

Haruka clapped her hands together on her chest. “Heh, wow, thanks! That really means a lot to me!”

And then she perked up. “Hey! I should totally come with you guys – I wanna meet the new guy as well!”

“Too noisy,” Rin abruptly said; truth be told, she looked overwhelmed enough just standing in this busy room.

“Ehhhh? Can't be any noisier than everything already is!” Haruka said, bounding over to take Rin's hands.

“Now that I remember it, how are the quotas going in your division?” Santa asked.

Haruka froze. “Erk... well, I mean, we're building these toys with love, so, uh... we need to be kinda slow! Right? Can't rush it!”

“What happens if you don't meet them?” Riki asked. “It's not like a kid could just not get their presents, right?”

Haruka stared at him in desperation and then groaned loudly. “All right, all right! I'll get back to work...”

But for an instant, she smiled again, back to her original self. “It was good to meet you though, new guy!”

Before Riki could say anything else, she had already rushed back, and was yelling orders at some other elf who nodded hastily back.

“She was...interesting.”

“She's pretty weird,” Rin said, with a nod. “But not all bad.”

“Something tells me that's a high compliment,” Riki murmured, and Santa laughed.

“Come – we still have plenty more areas to look at!”

They wandered quickly across the room, before passing through a wide arc into another room, filled this time with as many different kinds of musical instruments as Riki could imagine. Santa hummed thoughtfully in this room, scanning the room as though he were looking for someone, but apparently he didn't find them because they soon moved on to another room. They travelled into another room filled with electronics, wide tv screens displaying all manner of games, and then another with all kinds of figurines and dolls, before they passed into another filled with balls in which the floor itself was covered in all different kinds of sport court lines. Finally here they encountered another person.

“Ohh, Kyousuke! Hey, Kengo – Kyousuke's here!”

A very tall, broad boy waved in their direction, already walking forwards, and a moment later an even taller boy followed him.

“Hey! What brings you over here?”

“I was just showing Riki around,” Santa said, with a gesture.

“Ohh, that's right! Nice to meet you, Riki! I'm Masato!”

“Kengo,” added the other boy, smiling warmly. “I'm head of the sports toys.”

“And I'm the games!” Masato said. “Which is way more important, obviously.”

“More important? Right, because there are so many kids today playing board games...”

“It's more than just board games!” He sputtered. “And anyway, people totally do still play them! When they actually want a real challenge, instead of some boring team thing...”

“Right, yeah, the co-ordination and management it takes to get a team to work together is totally easy. As opposed to just hurling dice down and moving a game piece.”

“All right, that's it!” Suddenly, Masato was pushing up his sleeves and baring his fists at Kengo. “You wanna settle this?!”

“Boys, boys,” Kyousuke said coolly. “Is this really the time to be competing?”

The guys both froze, then sagged, mollified. “Guess not...”

Their heads down, Riki suddenly noticed something.

“Oh, you guys... you don't have pointed ears,” Riki said slowly, feeling uncertain when everyone turned to look at him.

“That's right,” Kengo said. “We're humans, too. In fact, probably everyone you meet today will be a human.”

“Really?” Well, that'd help to explain why they still keep having Japanese names, I guess... “How did you end up here?”

“We don't really know!” Masato said cheerfully. “All I know is that when I first appeared here, we all just had this sense that we'd been friends for a really long time, y'know? But beyond that it's all really fuzzy – I'm pretty sure something bad happened at the end and then we turned up here, but we can't know for sure! Kinda weird since we've only been living here a few years, heh.”

It was a pretty strange explanation, but Kyousuke and Rin merely nodded.

“But then, if you were all humans originally, how come Kyousuke got to be Santa, while you all have to work for him?”

Masato chuckled. “You obviously haven't spent much time with Kyousuke yet, have you?”

Riki looked at Kengo for help, but he only shook his head and smiled the same familiar way.

“Well, I think it's time we move on,” Kyousuke said, and with a wave Kengo and Masato headed off as well.

“It was good to see you, Riki!” Kengo said at the end, with a strangely knowing look.

They continued on to the next room – this one brimming with giant stacks of books - but they had only just passed through the door when a loud voice stopped them.

“Santa!”

It was another girl who might've been his age, but her short height and voluminous bright purple hair made it hard to judge. She completely ignored Riki to gaze at Kyousuke.

“Yes, Sasami?”

“Er... it's just...” All of a sudden the girl's indignance vanished and she blushed. “I-I wanted to talk about something with Kengo – the softballs we've been producing aren't coming out the right size, and...”

“I think he went in that direction,” Rin said, pointing.

Sasami went even redder and suddenly stabbed a finger in the girl's direction. “You again! You're just trying to rub it in my face, aren't you? That you know where he is all the time!”

“I don't know where he is all the time.”

“Don't patronise me! And oh ho, trying to get the new guy to fall in love with you too, are you? Well, stop it! Just because you're so good looking doesn't mean everybody ever is going to fall for you!”

While Riki watched in abject confusion, Rin stood forward, getting into a fighting pose. “You wanna fight, then?”

“Yes!” Sasami cried, raising her hand. “Girls-”

“Wait wait wait wait wait!” Riki cut in, waving his hands. “W-why are you fighting? Didn't you have something to discuss?”

Sasami glanced at him and jumped. Had she forgotten he was even there?

“Oh... well. Sorry about that.” She coughed, then straightened her green uniform. “It's just that she and I are rivals, and we can't help coming to blows whenever we see each other.”

“...then, uh. Maybe you could – try to help it?”

Sasami gave him a weird look. “I just said that we can't help it! We're rivals.”

“So we're not fighting today,” Rin said, dropping her stance. To Riki's bewilderment, she actually sounded disappointed.

Abruptly, Kyousuke chuckled. “We probably shouldn't scare off Riki this early on,” he said.

And you aren't bothered by the fact that they were about to fight...?

“Yes. Sorry.” Sasami frowned, looking embarrassed again. “Well! Goodbye, then.” And with that, she flounced off.

“She's a good friend of Rin's,” Kyousuke explained as they began moving towards the next room again.

“Huh? No, we're rivals,” Rin said, eyebrow raised.

“Either way, it was good to see her again.”

Rin shrugged, but she didn't seem displeased.

They travelled through a few other rooms after this, but Riki was so overwhelmed he couldn't pay as close attention to them anymore. Everything was so bright and colourful and full of noise and energy it tired him just walking through it. Eventually Kyousuke seemed to catch on to his waning interest and they left the toy hall.

“So what did you think?” he asked, proudly.

“It was really cool,” Riki said. “I had no idea there were so many different presents people could get.” To be fair, he thought with a little sigh, he'd never really had anyone to give presents to or get presents from, so maybe he was just odd that way.

“Right?!” Kyousuke puffed out his chest. “Christmas presents are extremely important! They're the physical representations of love and joy! Of course, there are many other ways people can enjoy being together, but presents are something solid and material – something you can hold and touch, something you can keep and take care of as a precious gift, something you can look over many years from now and immediately be transported back to the time it was received. There are many other ways to be happy, but presents are created specifically to induce happiness, wanted simply because of the pure desire to be happy! They're one of the most important things in the world!”

Wow, Riki thought. “That...makes a lot of sense.”

Kyousuke beamed. “Of course!”

Riki wondered. Had he ever had a gift he had valued so highly?

“But we have a lot to see today, so we should be moving on! Let's see, next is...”

He looked at the next building and then frowned.

“...hm. Perhaps you wouldn't be interested in seeing this one...”

“Huh?” Riki looked up at it. It was much smaller than the others around and had no decorations at all. “Why? To be honest, I'm kind of interested in how this whole place works at this point. But if you think so...”

“No, no.” Kyousuke frowned, but nodded his head. “That's a good thing. I'll show you, then.”

Good thing? Riki wondered, but then they were walking through the door.

This building was much sparser than the last. Apart from a measly line of lights above one of the windows, Riki wouldn't even have any idea it was Christmas. It looked, instead, just like an ordinary office, albeit one filled with giant stacks of paper.

A couple of the elves looked up, but immediately went back to work, quietly. However, one girl working on a computer at the back looked up and came over.

“Welcome to the North Pole,” she said to Riki curtly and nodded only momentarily at Rin before she turned her focus on Santa. “Preparations are moving smoothly. There has been only a limited number of last-minute list fixes this year. However, there are couple of children whose situations are a little...complicated at the moment.”

Santa nodded. “It's that Eduard again, isn't it?”

The girl grimaced, running a hand through her long purple hair. “I can't quite figure him out. I thought when he offered to help his mother out with the Christmas Eve preparations, he had learned his lesson and was trying to make amends, but ever since then he's been slacking off and doing barely any work at all.”

Santa stared into the distance, thoughtfully. And then: “80%.”

The girl frowned deeply. “With all due respect, sir – after everything he's done wrong this year, I can't believe he should deserve more than 65%.”

“He has indeed done much wrong. However, I'm not so sure that just because he is resting that means his amend attempt was illegitimate. He might not be following through as well as you'd like, but he still sucked up his pride and made an attempt to do good. That should be rewarded.”

The girl did not appear convinced. But reluctantly nodded. “If you say so, sir.”

“Sorry for that,” Kyousuke said, looking at Riki again. “This is Kanata, our List Head.”

“Pleased to meet you,” she said formally, but unexpectedly she smiled a little on seeing him. “How have you been enjoying your stay?”

“It's just incredible,” Riki said, but then couldn't help glancing about the room. “Er... by list, do you mean the list?”

“He's making a list, checking it twice?” Santa sung; the other elves hummed along, but Kanata did not. “That's right!”

Riki's eyebrows rose. “So you really give coal to bad kids?”

Santa laughed. “No, not quite. Personally, I don't believe that that kind of punishment is very effective.” Kanata frowned a little; it seemed she disagreed. “But I do believe that some reward is warranted by good behaviour. So we've reached a compromise: if a kid behaves generally good through the year, and shows a desire to do well, then we will give them a certain high level of presents – that is 100%. However, for times when they mess up and don't do quite so well, we take some of that away. If a child reaches below 75%, I personally write them a note encouraging them to do better next year. 50% is the absolute minimum, however.”

“That's so structured,” he said.

“Speaking of which, have you written the notes already for this year?”

Kyousuke sighed. “Yes. Or, erm, most of them. I only have a few more.”

Kanata's eyes narrowed. She actually looked pretty terrifying this way. “Santa...”

“I know, I know. Once I've finished showing Riki around.” He turned away from Kanata entirely and began to lead Riki out the door. “So, Riki! You're probably feeling pretty hungry right about now, huh?”

“Er, I-”

“I'll be waiting,” Kanata said ominously from behind them. Riki could have sworn that Kyousuke gulped at that.

They returned once again to the cold square. But the next building, which resembled a large cafe, looked extremely inviting – the lights around the outside were elaborate even for the North Pole, and when Riki sniffed, he realised that the delicious cinnamon scent was in fact emanating from these windows.

Rin perked up when she realised where they were going, and darted ahead, only just waiting for Kyousuke at the door.

Inside it was even better than Riki expected – wonderfully warm and covered in little gold and silver decorations, countless elves sitting at the numerous little prettily-decorated tables eating and talking happily.

“Rin-chan!!”

They walked up to the counter, and Riki felt his mouth salivate – within the display case and on the counter were dozens of different kinds of Christmas sweets. There were Christmas puddings, cookies in every shape, mince pies, cakes, yule logs, cinnamon buns, nougat, and so many other different kinds of breads and treats he couldn't even recognise. The scent of sugar and spices made him instantly ravenous.

By the time he looked up again Rin had run around the counter and was being fussed over by the person who had called earlier, a plump young girl with giant stars in her blonde hair and a giant frilled red and gold apron.

“How are things, Komari?”

“Great!” she chirped, around Rin's back as she hugged her; Rin squirmed a little bit didn't try to get away. “Everyone's been eating so much food, it's been wonderful!” She turned to Riki with a wider smile than he'd even seen Kyousuke wear so far. “And this must be Riki! Welcome to the North Pole~!” She held out a hand, but then giggled when she realised that it was covered in flour.

“So you make all the food, then?”

Komari nodded brightly. “Yeah! Well, the desserts, anyway! Usually we have other people making savoury things as well, but at this time of the year, all anybody seems to want to eat is sweets, so we concentrate almost everything in our little cafe!”

Something in Riki made him wonder whether eating nothing but sweets for days in a row was really such a great idea, but with such a wide selection in front of him he couldn't manage to care.

“Would you like something to eat?” Komari asked, then gasped. “That's right – you're taking him for the tour, huh? It must be super cold out there! Here -” She rushed back through a door into, presumably, the kitchens where she stayed for some time. Just when Riki was starting to wonder whether she was making something fresh, she returned, laden with three separate plates and mugs.

“Whoa there!” Kyousuke said, quickly taking one of each; Rin did so as well. Komari sighed in relief.

“Thanks for that!! Uwaa, I dropped two entire cakes yesterday because I slipped on some fallen milk... It was so sad~!

She presented the dishes to Riki. On one sat a delicious-looking orange-brown pudding covered in caramel, and in the mug was a thick, warm hot chocolate complete with marshmallow and a stick of cinnamon.

“This looks great!” he said, and Komari beamed.

“Go on~!

He, Rin, and Kyousuke sat down together at a nearby table to dig in. Komari followed, nibbling at a sugar cookie instead.

“This is really good!” Rin said after a bite.

“Thanks! It's a new recipe – gingerbread pudding with salted toffee sauce!”

Riki nodded enthusiastically. It really was amazing – warm and filling, with a wonderful blend of sweet and spice and salt. The hot chocolate was just as good, thick and dark and spicy.

“That,” Kyousuke said firmly as he dropped his spoon, “was amazing. Great job – that's definitely a recipe to keep around!”

“Yay!” Komari clapped her hands together. “That makes me so happy to hear!” She clenched her fists and leaned towards Riki, eyes sparkling passionately. “Everyone here works so hard, I really want to be able to do everything I can to make sure they can keep up their energy and do their best for all the children of the world!”

“Mm, I know what you mean. It's pretty inspiring, actually, to see how much everyone is putting in to all this!”

“Of course – it's Christmas!” she said, as though that explained everything. When he thought about it, Riki thought it sort of did.

“You should come with us, Komari-chan,” Rin said, now scooched close to Komari and tugging at the bright sweater under her apron.

Komari knocked their heads together. “Sorry, Rin-chan – I gotta stay here to oversee everything! But you can totally come back here and help me once you're done?”

Rin glanced back at Riki as though wondering whether she had to stick with him at all. But then, reluctantly she nodded.

Kyousuke stood up, brushing off his suit. Riki quickly drank the rest of his hot chocolate and stood slowly; he was feeling quite warm and full at the moment.

“Thanks very much for the wonderful dessert,” he said to Komari, who waved in response.

“Hope I get to see you again!” she shouted after Riki as they left.

Next up was another smaller building, but the large envelope-shaped sign on the front made it very clear what purpose it served.

“Here, of course, is the post office! Naturally, this is probably the second most important place at the entire North Pole – the place where children's pure-hearted letters to Santa Claus are answered!”

Riki peeked into the window. As usual, there were many elves scurrying about, this time sorting piles of letters. “But you don't just have the elves answer them, right?”

“Of course not! No, I do answer them all myself. However, there's a huge number, as you can imagine, so I can't do it without help.”

They entered the building and Riki braced for a loud human to come running up to announce themselves, but they didn't appear.

“Hmm... she's probably in the back, as usual,” Santa murmured to himself, and Rin nodded.

They picked their way through the post office, looking into the offices, until they finally encountered the girl they were apparently looking for in the delivery room. Rin immediately rushed towards the working heater and sat in front of it, eyes closed in pleasure.

The girl in question looked up at them dolefully, huddled in the giant blanket wrapped around her.

“Hello,” she said dully. But then she locked eyes with Riki and her eyes instantly brightened, almost unnervingly yellow. “...this is the boy, then.”

“Yep!” Kyousuke said, seemingly oblivious to her previous grouchy attitude. “Naoe Riki.”

The girl stared at him. “Mio,” she said after a moment, with the hint of a smile.

“Er, nice to meet you.” The girl looked at him and then Kyousuke.

“Yes...” she murmured, for some reason.

“So, uh... I guess you're the post office head?”

“No,” she said bluntly. “I don't really care about that at all, to be perfectly honest.”

“...oh.”

“She's the head of our greeting cards department!”

“Huh. So you make Christmas cards, then?”

Mio nodded. “It's not very difficult. But I'm not very good, either, so I suppose it evens out.”

“Huh?” Riki looked around. There was a table nearby that she must have been working at earlier, because on it lay many pages bearing plans and designs, or little scribbled phrases. And on one side lay some cards, perhaps previous designs or inspiration, each displaying a typical winter village scene. “These look pretty good to me.”

“No. There's something missing.” She looked down at the designs intently, expression indeterminate. “They're supposed to make you want to run away – to reach this magical place where everything is beautiful and warm. But they just look kind of sad.”

Riki cocked his head to one side. He couldn't immediately see anything wrong with them – they looked like any other Christmas village he had ever seen. But the more he looked the more he started to think something was bothering him, too.

“Maybe... colour?”

Mio breathed in. She seemed to be lost in thought, even as she heard Riki's statement.

“It's just... I know it's winter so there has to be snow, but it doesn't even look white – more grey. And, I mean, there are a lot of Christmas colours out there-”

“Maybe.” Mio stared down at the card for several seconds longer before finally looking up at Riki again. “...I will consider that.”

“Oh! Glad I could help, then.”

And then again, that strange smile that Riki felt was out of place on her even though he'd only known her for two minutes. But though it was odd, it did look very pretty.

“Yes... I hope I'll be able to see you again,” she said mysteriously.

“That turned out quite well, then!” Santa said brightly. “Rin – we need to keep moving!”

Rin groaned loudly but reluctantly prised herself away from the heater. Mio watched her sympathetically.

“Remember which place we're going next?”

Rin perked up at little, immediately, and sped up.

Riki waved goodbye to Mio, who kind of vaguely shifted her hand where it was locked to her side by the blanket.

“Where are we going?” he asked when they reached the outside again, but to his surprise, it was Rin who responded.

“The stables.”

Riki raised an eyebrow, surprised. When he looked, she shrunk again, shuffling close to Kyousuke. But she glared at him almost defiantly, which – might have been an improvement?

“That's right! In fact, that's Rin's job!”

“Huh, yeah, I can kind of see that,” he said with a (hopefully) comforting smile. If it worked, Rin gave no sign.

The stables were pretty much as he expected – a large barn with a couple dozen stalls containing just as many occasionally-snorting reindeer. It was simply furnished, with a wooden table and bench the only indications that humans were ever here for any extended degree of time, but long strands of wreath lined the walls and stalls and there were many little springs of holly hung up out of the reach of the reindeer.

Rin sprang forward again, going immediately to a particular reindeer partway down and entering the stall to pat it. “Good job, girl. How've you been doing?”

“What's her name?” Riki asked.

“'Shakespeare'.”

Riki stared.

“...really? Not, what were they... Donner? Dancer? Or was it Dasher? Da...pper?” He frowned.

“That was the old naming style,” Santa explained, going up to pat another reindeer. The name plate said 'Obama'. Riki's brain was hurting a lot. “But I'm not very good at coming up with those kinds of names, so this is the new tradition!”

“Random surnames of famous people?”

“Precisely!”

“Why?” Rin asked, apparently emboldened by the presence of her favourite reindeer. “What would you call them?”

“Well, uh... maybe just, like, normal names? Um... so Kimi, maybe – no, no Japanese names. There's enough of those already...”

“That sounds boring,” Rin said. Judging by the frown he was wearing, Kyousuke agreed.

“...well, fine. Got me there, I guess.”

Rin rolled her eyes and went back to patting Shakespeare.

“Do you really like reindeer then?” Riki asked.

“Cats are cuter,” she said without a hint of sympathy for the poor maligned reindeer she was stroking (though, to be fair, Shakespeare herself didn't seem much to care either). “But reindeer are cooler. So they're pretty good, too.”

“Uh huh. Do you take care of all of them? Isn't it a lot of work?”

“Not really.” Rin shrugged. “I take care of the cats, too. You always have cats in stables. It takes a lot of time, but it's fine.”

For the first time that day, Rin's mouth quirked up, and as she murmured something comforting to the reindeer, Riki realised that she was smiling.

Riki hummed, and strolled towards another reindeer; this one was 'Jordan', which was at least somewhat reasonable. Jordan looked down at him with wide, wary eyes, but when he held out his hand, Jordan sniffed it briefly, and then dropped its guard. The fur was thick and woolly under his hand and he snorted in pleasant surprise.

“Are they all ready for the big night? There's a lot of pressure on them.”

“Oh, they like going out for long runs,” Rin said. “They do tend to get kind of tense beforehand, though. They're herd animals and kind of stupid, so they can all get worked up easily. That's why we have to keep them in here, away from the noise of outside until the last minute.”

Riki nodded. He was starting to understand why Rin was the way she was – if she cooped herself up in here, without being able to bring in too many people or the music that was perpetually playing outside, she'd have to be pretty introverted and sensitive to loud noises.

“Still – going around the entire world. Sounds pretty tough.”

But the reply came from behind him. “It's not as tough as you think, actually!”

Riki turned, and to his total shock, the short girl currently entering the stables hand long, white-blonde hair and an obviously Caucasian complexion.

“Good evening and welcome to the North Pole!” she said cheerfully. “I'm Kudryavka, in charge of the sleigh.”

“Riki!” he introduced himself. “So – you're not Japanese! Why on earth is everyone else here like that, then, anyway? I've been so confused!”

Kudryavka frowned. “Erm... actually, my grandmother was Japanese, and I was raised by her and my grandmother! Before I came to the North Pole, I was living in Japan, too! So I don't really...”

Riki sighed, leaning against the stall door. “N-nah... it's fine... Sorry, I shouldn't have...”

“Eheh, no, no, it's fine!” Kud waved her hands hastily. “But yes, like I said – the trip isn't as long as you might be thinking! We only go to places that recognise Father Christmas, after all. So in the end it's only a fraction of the world!”

“A fraction of the world is still a lot...”

“But if you work it out, you can use efficiency simulators to create the smallest possible route!” Kud took a little tablet out of the pocket of her long white cloak and began punching at the buttons. “Of course, this little thing couldn't do it – it's actually a really big issue in computing right now that AIs are woefully bad at disregarding obviously inefficient routes, leading to extremely long processing times. But Kurugaya and I have been working on it, and when we add in our personal guesses, we've managed to come up with a pretty good solution!” She held up the tablet, displaying a world map covered with an extremely complicated system of lines.

“That...sounds very impressive!” Riki said honestly. “Er... you're in charge of the sleigh?”

“Yep!” She powered the tablet down and shoved it back into her pocket. “It's the most important job of all, after all! And yet weirdly enough, did you know that 'til I came on nobody had ever really tried to figure out how it works?”

“Oh, uh. It's not – magic?”

“Of course it is!” Kud said immediately. “Or, rather, it definitely betrays all kinds of known laws of physics, making it a kind of weird little pocket where it shouldn't seem to work at all, which is really what magic is. But it breaks those laws consistently, and if I keep at it, I should be able to figure out how it works, even if I don't know exactly what it's doing. That's for future generations of Santa's workers, hopefully!”

“She's done some really great work in the short time she's been here,” Santa said. “Last year she managed to increase our efficiency by – what was it?”

“4%!” Kud said, puffing her chest out proudly. “And that was really only what I managed to do in the last couple of months, once I'd gotten the basics out of the way and figured out what I was doing! This year, I'm hoping I could raise it all the way to 10%, or maybe even higher!”

“And she's come up with a whole bunch of new additions to the sleigh, as well, such as a communications system.”

“Well, really. Certainly this whole system has been working for over a hundred years, but there's only so long you can blindly rely on magic without trying to improve on it! I mean, just sending Santa out there with all the presents in the world and hoping he'll know the right way to go? That might've worked back when he only had a few thousand kids to visit, but it's become downright prehistoric nowadays!”

“Speaking of which, we're just about to visit the communication tower – it's the last stop on our journey.”

“Oh, right! Yes, I just came here from there – I wanted to talk with Rin about how we're going to be harnessing the sleigh this year!”

“...the way we've always done it?” Rin attempted, put on the spot.

“Let's leave Rin here for now, shall we?” Kyousuke asked, and Riki nodded.

It was as dark as ever outside. That's right, Riki remembered – this north up, a day lasted for a whole six months. Maybe it was because he was starting to become a little tired, but the frenzied movement all around him now felt less invigorating and more strangely soothing, a reminder that everything was taken care of and all he had to do was wait.

The final building was another small one, especially in comparison to the large barn. Indeed, it instead resembled a small radio tower.

“So this is the new guy, then?”

Riki blinked, and then suddenly there was a woman standing in front of him, as though she had dissolved into the winter wind and then stepped back out of it to the real world. She smirked, her long black hair tangling mysteriously in the night.

“Kurugaya! I'd wondered whether you'd be helping out the workers in the music section.”

Kurugaya shrugged. “Those cute little guys are doing pretty well for themselves right now. No, I wanted to look over the computers, make sure everything's working properly.” She refocused on Riki. “You, on the other hand, are a cute little guy who is new to me.”

“...Riki,” he said.

“Pleasure to meet you. Shall we head inside?” she asked, with a raise of her eyebrow as though she were suggesting something far more exciting than was actually going on.

When Riki hesitated she rolled her eyes. “It's fine. I'm not after you, as nice as that'd be.”

Riki wasn't sure that would be an entirely bad thing if true, but he felt a little relieved regardless. “All right.”

The inside looked pretty much as Riki expected – several large computer consoles dominated the space, with four monitors and two large sonar panels. There was also a large screen on the wall displaying the current temperature, and to the left was a small booth as though in a radio studio.

“This is where we communicate with the sleigh while it's out.” Kurugaya trailed a hand over one of the consoles almost protectively. “It's the newest building up here – we only finished it a few months ago, so this'll be our test run.”

“What will you communicate?”

“Mostly route updates, if we catch an incoming blizzard or something of that sort. We'll also try to keep in touch continuously, just to make sure nothing's gone wrong. And if something does go wrong, such as with the sleigh or if a reindeer is injured, we'll be able to communicate a fix.”

“It's pretty amazing you've all been going so long without something like this.”

“Has Kud already ranted about it to you?” Kurugaya's eyes twinkled.

“She may have said a few things,” Kyousuke said with a smile.

“There is another function too, of course.” Kurugaya raised her eyebrows almost mischievously and beckoned Riki into the soundproof booth.

Riki hadn't seen it earlier as it'd been hidden by consoles, but there was a keyboard in the room as well. Kurugaya sat herself in the stool in front of it and reached for the nearby small computer console.

A few button presses, and then Riki abruptly heard the music outside cease.

“Hello again, North Pole denizens,” Kurugaya said smoothly. “It's another beautiful night, and only 25 hours left until Christmas.” She watched Riki carefully. “And I have right in front of me this year's lucky visitor – Mr. Naoe Riki.”

Riki tensed immediately, nervous. He looked out the window; Kyousuke was grinning broadly and gave him a thumbs up. Riki frowned but reluctantly gave a “Hi,” into the other microphone.

“So how's the North Pole been for you so far, Riki?”

“It's been... really amazing,” he said honestly. “Everyone I've met so far has been really kind to me, and has seemed really interesting. And it's been such a cool experience to see how this whole place runs. I gotta admit, I never would have expected that this place might actually be real!” He chuckled, and Kurugaya followed suit.

“Is that so? And what do you think about our fair Father Christmas?”

Riki glanced out at Kyousuke again. He looked even more surprised than Riki felt, and narrowed his eyes a little at Kurugaya.

What do I think...? he wondered. He certainly wasn't what Riki had expected in many ways – he was way too young, and he was kind of childish, and he didn't know everything, and he seemed to have a lot less common sense than Riki would have pictured. But he was very kind, and he had treated everyone with friendship and respect, and... well, hanging around with him over the last hour or two had been pretty fun. He remembered the speech Kyousuke had made about Christmas presents. Yes, that was it – he loved Christmas, really and truly. He loved making people happy.

“...he's a bit strange, and not really what I imagined,” Riki said, “but I think he makes a very good Father Christmas, and I think this year's Christmas is going to turn out really well.”

Kurugaya smiled knowingly. Riki gulped, suddenly feeling strangely embarrassed, and stopped himself from looking out the window at Kyousuke again.

“...is that so? Then that's good news,” she said. “He was chosen well, folks.”

“Yeah, uh about that – I'm still not really sure why I'm here at all?”

“Oh, I daresay you'll find out very soon.” She closed her eyes for a moment. “And that's all for now, everyone. Tomorrow's Christmas Eve, so don't forget to miss our special broadcast starting from nine pm.” She punched a few other buttons, apparently starting up a new Christmas song, and then clapped her hands.

“Well, then! That's every part of the village you've been to, isn't it?”

Riki bit his lip. He was sure that Kurugaya had been dropping major hints to him earlier, but for the life of him he couldn't decipher her teasing. Instead he nodded slowly, standing up from his seat.

Outside, Santa's smile looked so casual it actually worried Riki even more than if he'd been scowling. But then he coughed a little and nodded, and Riki realised that he was nervous.

“So! That's every place, then.”

“Seems so.”

“And you enjoyed this whole trip.”

Riki nodded. “I guess so.”

“Well then! Let's head outside, then, shall we? We haven't gotten a good look at the tree yet, after all!”

Riki pulled his coat around him tighter. When he had first arrived it had been cloudy, but at some point in the meantime it had cleared up, and so when Riki stood outside it was to see a wide, pristine sky stretching out before him, dotted with stars like grains of sand, so the sky so pure that he could see the blue clouds of the Milky Way curving overhead

Then Kyousuke came in front of him and smiled and took his hand to urge him onwards, and Riki couldn't look away.

“So here we are,” Kyousuke said breathlessly as they stood in front of the tree. Lights glimmered and flashed in every colour, light glinting off ornaments and stars and red and silver tinsel. Here the smell of pine was almost overpowering and Riki breathed in deeply, the cold flowing through his lungs.

“Beautiful, isn't it?”

“...it's gorgeous.” Riki snorted. “Everything here is. Just... look.” He turned around. The pretty little wooden houses, lit up with lights and piled high with snow and ice like on a greeting card. The blanket of white covering the ground, and the little crystals and icicles and frost dusting peoples' clothing and clinging to the spines of the tree. The North Pole sky, breathless in its enormity. For all that it was deep into a months long winter, Riki was surrounded by so much light.

“...it is.” Kyousuke didn't stop looking at him. After a moment, he took a deep breath. “Riki, I have an offer for you.”

Riki's lips parted. He licked them, nervously. “What is it?”

Kyousuke gestured around him, some kind of bell on his hat tinkling. “How would you like to... live here? Permanently?”

Even though he had had a feeling this would be the suggestion, Riki still found his breath catch. Live here? At the North Pole?

“...I don't know,” Riki murmured. “I... I've lived all my life at home, and I have things I was doing...”

“You could take anything you had back home up here!”

“That helps...but...”

“And we have an internet connection.”

Riki snorted. “That...helps a lot, actually.”

But Riki still hesitated and Kyousuke's face fell. “Sorry. You already had a life back there, didn't you? It's understandable you wouldn't want to give that up.”

Riki pursed his lips. “...I did,” he admitted.

All around him, elves were still scurrying back and forth, laden with giant piles of presents or bearing important messages; one or two were even talking into mobile phones. When Riki focused, he realised he could see many of the people he had met today – over there Haruka was chatting gleefully with Kurugaya, while in another area Kud and Masato were exclaiming loudly about something. He caught sight of Komari patting Rin's head, and when she noticed him looking, she smiled encouragingly and waved. Rin then noticed his presence and jumped, looking back and forth between the two of them. Had she stayed with her brother and Riki all night because of this?

Riki waved back. “...but I could have one here, too. And, you know...” He looked back at Kyousuke. “...I think it would be an even nicer life.”

Slowly, Kyousuke's eyes swelled up with warmth. “It would!” he cried. “I know it's all cold and dark, but it'll get better, I swear – and it's not like we can really do all that much during the first few months anyway, we can start working on the toys but all the wishlists will get shuffled around so nothing'll be definite, so we usually take a couple of months off to go south, and even if it's still cold I promise this place looks really gorgeous during the summer, or you could always stay on holidays during then as well if you wanted and-”

“It's fine, it's fine!” Riki placated with a chuckle. “I already like the idea.”

But Kyousuke's energy didn't leave him and with one last, significant grin, he reached into his pocket and took something out with a flourish.

“Then, Mr. Naoe Riki...” He opened the little box he was holding. “Will you marry me?”

“...what?!”

It was disappointing, really. Becuase Riki had just realised that this entire thing was a dream. It had been going so well, so far. Impossible, but internally consistent – downright believable, even. And now it'd gone and fucked up at the last minute by having someone do something that made no sense whatsoever.

Kyousuke's face fell. “You don't want to?”

Riki continued to stare. “Wha, I... what? Marry you? No no no no no-” he waved his hands hastily. “No, that's – that's way too quick. I have no idea where this is coming from. And I'm only sixteen!”

Kyousuke still frowned. “Oh. Is that so?”

“Yes,” Riki said with a sigh. “Weren't you – human? Aren't you still human? I don't know of a culture nowadays where people get married that quickly. Certainly not Japan.”

“Yeah, but I don't remember much. But this isn't the way you guys do it? Huh.” He had stood up again. Was he trying to regain his dignity?

“Not at all.” Riki snorted. Okay, maybe this wasn't a dream. Maybe this guy was just even weirder than he thought.

“But... if your only problem is that it's too quick, then...?”

Riki blushed. “Er... yeah.” Kyousuke's eyes looked so red, so hopeful. “Just...a bit slower. Maybe.”

Once again it returned: that 1,000 watt grin. “Great! Slowly, then! We will hang out and I will slowly make you see why marrying me would be a good idea. Wonderful! We have all the time in the world ahead of us once this Christmas is over, after all!”

“That...sounds good,” Riki said shyly.

Kyousuke nodded. “I'm so glad I decided to bring you here!”

Riki stopped. No way. “Wait... that wasn't because of...”

“Because I wanted to marry you? Yes!” Kyousuke said without hesitation. “It's just, well, I've been working at this job for a couple of years now? And it's a lot of work with just me! So I thought, it would be really amazing if I could find someone to help out a bit, you know? And keep me company. And so, obviously, I have to keep track of what people are doing around the world, you know? So I just... adjusted the parameters a bit.”

“...you stalked me.”

“No! Only looked at you. A little. In public! And I appeared as a cat, sometimes. You seemed lonely.”

Riki's eye twitched. “Yeah, you definitely need to learn about how normal human beings actually behave.”

“Shit. Did I make a mistake again?”

The guy looked so genuinely crestfallen that Riki couldn't help but sigh.

“Well...I guess it wasn't so bad. But really. Kids don't really think about it, and it's kind of different when you have to actually talk to Santa Claus himself, so...”

“No more watching people.”

“Yes.”

“Great! Thank you. That was very helpful.” He looked down, oddly shy. “Then... maybe you could tell me more? About Japan? And the rest of the world?”

“You certainly need it,” Riki said, crossing his arms. “So... yes, I guess. I will.”

“Great!”

“But, uh. You said I'd be helping you out? What did you mean by that?”

“Helping to keep everything running! Keep track of everything that's going on, tell me if anything important happens, help to manage everything – this year will just be training so you know how everything works, but next year I think you'll help a great deal! Everything's changing so much, recently – new technologies, changes to the old regime – that it'll be a huge help to have someone who can aid me in organising everything!”

Riki hesitated. “I don't really have any experience...”

“It'll be fine!” Kyousuke put a hand on his shoulder. “I believe in you!”

Again, Riki found himself blushing.

It really was surreal. What on earth did he think he was doing, agreeing to uproot his entire life and move to the North Pole just two days before Christmas? What did he think he was doing, agreeing to date Santa Claus himself?

“Oh no,” Riki said, realisation hitting him like an arrow. “I'm – I'm going to be Mrs. Claus, aren't I?”

“Mr. Claus, technically. But if you'd like, then yes!”

Riki sighed again. This was probably the stupidest thing he'd ever done.

But he had to admit, he thought as he heard the cheers and claps coming from around him, he surely wouldn't be lonely at Christmas ever again.