SLENDY CLAUS

SUMMARY: Sky had learned early that the holidays were a little different with the Slender man. Her mother had always said, it wasn't Christmas with the family unless you were miserable. Well, Sky was quite enjoying herself, but she had a feeling Slendy wasn't going to be able to take much more of his brothers...

TIMELINE: Post Slender Child

GENRE: Family/ Humor

NOTES: Eh, I know it's not Christmas. Who cares! Please enjoy a little bit of holiday fluff ^^
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"And I want a princess Barbie doll, and a kitten, and some pretty dress up clothes..."

I stood over to the side of the packed mall set up, leaning against a cotton "snow" covered fence rail that had been set up right in the center of the place. The fence itself surrounded a bright, colorful rendering of a child's fantasy of the North Pole, where a long line of children stood anxiously with their parents, awaiting the chance to tell Santa everything they wanted for Christmas. Currently, my five year old daughter was on Santa's lap, eagerly asking for everything short of the moon and stars.

"And I want a big fluffy unicorn, and an American Girl doll, and a some Legos..."

As Robin's list went on, I heard an unexpected chuckle beside me. "Our little one would ask for the world if she thought she could get it, wouldn't she?"

I turned to look at the very tale man who had appeared leaning on the fence next to me, his face hidden beneath the cowl of his hoodie - or his lack of face rather. "You'd give her the world if you could, wouldn't you?" I smiled.

He shook his head in amusement. "The world isn't a particularly nice place. I think I'd try to give her something better than that."

I had to laugh at that. "So what are you doing here anyway? If I'm remembering correctly, you fought Splendy tooth and nail to get out of coming Christmas shopping with us."

Slendy made an act of shuddering and looked around hastily. "Where are those two anyway? Nowhere nearby I hope," he mumbled quietly.

Playfully, I shoved him. "Oh come one, it's the holidays, you can get along with your brothers for a little while can't you?"

"Where are they, Sky?"

I rolled my eyes. "They're still shopping. I told them I was taking Robin to see Santa so they could pick out what they wanted to get her."

"You know if we leave now, we wont have to deal with them for at least a couple hours. By the time they realize you're not in the mall anymore we could have already gotten home and put Robin down for a nap," he said mischievously, putting an arm around my waist and pulling me against his side. "We could get a little... alone time perhaps," he whispered, nuzzling my hair.

"Slendy!" I giggled, blushing cardinal red and half heartedly pushing away from him. "We're in public!"

"They can look if they want to," he said, amused.

"There are children here!"

"I'm not doing anything wrong."

"Slendy!"

He laughed and let go of my waist, only to grab my hand instead. "Fine, if you insist."

Robin came skipping towards us at that moment, having apparently finished talking the poor bearded man's ear off. "Daddy!" she squeaked, her high pixie voice sounding through the noisy mall. "When did you get here?"

The Operator scooped his daughter up in his other arm and grinned at her. "I just got here little one. Did you have fun talking to Santa?"

"Yes! I told him everything I wanted. He said if I'm very good, he'd see what he could do, so I'm going to be extra good till Christmas!" she exclaimed excitedly.

Slendy chuckled. "I'll believe that when I see it," he teased, and Robin just laughed.
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Christmas morning I was awoken much, much earlier than I would have liked. "Mommy! Daddy! Santa came! Santa came! Come look!" I opened my eyes to see a bubbly little face just inches from mine. "Come on Mommy! Get up!"

After much sighing and grumbling, we managed to drag ourselves out of bed and down the hall to where our daughter was literally bouncing up and down beside the Christmas tree. Trendy and Splendy were already there, Trendy with coffee in hand and Splendy siting cross-legged on the floor by Robin. I choked back laughter when I saw what the Splendor man was wearing - his normal polka-dot suit had been replaced with one spotted with miniature reindeer instead.

The present opening was a blur of an excited child and I watched over the rim of my coffee cup the raven haired girl eagerly rip open her packages. Within an hour she had shut out the rest of the world and was totally absorbed in all her new toys. By the time breakfast was over a little while later, my baby had finally crashed in the middle of a pile of wrapping paper and was snoring softly. Her surprisingly long hair was a long tangled mess around her and the new dress Trendy had given her was getting bunched under her head as she used it as a pillow. Thank God her uncle hadn't noticed that yet.

Speaking of which, I heard the Trender man's voice start to rise in pitch and I looked over towards both the eldest and youngest brother who looked like they were leaning towards another fight. 'Great, here we go again...'

"Slender, I don't know why you wont just give up that ugly old suit and actually start embracing life outside the twentieth century."

"Trender, how in the world do you equate my suit to the dress code of the nineteen hundreds?"

"Honestly little brother. You look like you came strait out of a 1920's funeral."

"This is a modern suit!"

"If you say so, Mr. Gatsby."

"Please, he's a fictional literary character. In any case, he was described as a gentleman in the novel."

Trendy raised a brow incredulously. "I think I'd say that gentleman was a bit of a stretch for you, you poor fashion-senseless bastard."

Slendy raised a brow in return. "Bastard? That's a nice term considering we have the same parents!"

"Why can't you just thank me for the gift and wear it like a decent person? Would that really be so hard?" Trendy exclaimed exasperated and threw his hands up in the air.

"We've had this same clothes battle literally every time we gotten together! Have you not gotten the picture yet? Stop buying me clothing! I wont wear them!" Slendy was on the verge of yelling.

"Just try it!"

"No!"

"Put it on!"

"Trender, I'm warning you..." his voice got dangerously calm.

"Oh! And what are you going to do, huh?" Trendy sneered.

"Hey, hey!" I interrupted quickly when I saw the murderous stance the Operator began to settle into. "It's Christmas, please let's not get in a fight that manages to knock over the tree and break my furniture."

Trendy stood up straight. "Fine, you deal with this idiot." The Tall One growled threateningly in response to the insult and he completely ignored him. "I'm going out for a while."

"Oooh! Trendy can I come too?" Splendy asked.

His older brother actually smirked a little bit. "If I remember correctly you're not very good at holding your liquor," he said dryly.

Splendy looked confused. "Who said anything about drinking?"

The Trender man snorted. "What did you think I was going out to do exactly?"

"Well," Splendy started, sounding like a little boy, "I don't know, I just wanted to come."

Trendy sighed. "Fine, come on brother. Maybe you've gotten better at drinking in the last century."

As they walked out the door, I heard Splendy say again, "I still don't see how alcohol came up." And then they were gone.

I turned to look over at my love and saw he was no longer beside me. "Slendy?"

"Over here my little one," his voice came from the hallway.

I raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing?"

He smiled and inwardly I rolled my eyes. Mercurial as ever, his mood had considerably lightened already since his brother's departure. To this day I still had no idea how he changed moods so fast. "Come here," he said softly.

I caught on to his tone and instantly knew he was up to something. With a return smile, I sauntered over to him, purposefully trying to add a little sway to my hips and probably failing miserably. "Yes?" I inquired equally as soft.

He lowered his face until he was on the same level as me. By now I should have been used to the effect that always had on me, but even after the ten years since it had first happened, I still felt myself freeze in place as his warm breath blew in my face and the scent of peppermint filled my brain. Heat filled my body and I was acutely aware of some very sensitive places. "Sky, we're standing under the mistletoe," he breathed.

'Oh yeah,' a numb voice at the back of my head mumbled, barely being able to recall in this moment that I had hung some mistletoe there yesterday. "Well what're you going to do about it?" I managed breathlessly.

His chuckle was like a low, husky growl in his chest. "Oh, I don't know," he teased. "Does this work?" His hands wrapped around my waist and pressed me to him as his mouth claimed mine. I threw my arms around his neck in return and leaned into him. "Sky," he murmured against my lips.

"Yes?" I gasped between kisses.

"You know what I want for Christmas?"

"Hmm?" I purred.

"You."