DISCLAIMER: Gundam Wing is owned by Bandai I think.  Or Sotsu or something like that.  Or it could be Sunrise.  Or Toei.  Or some other company in Japan that’s making millions out of merchandise.  I’m not making money out of merchandise, unless someone wants to buy my GW box set? ^_~ It’s practically brand new!

J.A. : stop trying to sell my birthday gift!

J.B. : I bought it! I can do what ever I want with it!

J.A. : Not when you’ve already given it to someone!

J.B. : You don’t count as someone!

*J.A. whacks J.B. out cold with a Pringles container*

J.A. : BUHAHAHAHAHA!!!

J.B. : *_*

No Red Letters!

A GW Christmas Tale…

Chapter 5: Christmas is about giving…NOT! It’s about PRESENTS!!!

By: J.B. Santiago

“Hello Mr. Joseph.  The security people told us to see you about our missing friends.” Sally warmly shook the hand of the store manager.

Mr. Joseph looked like he needed a good holiday.  “Yes, yes.  About your friends.” He began gravely enough for Catherine to exclaim, ‘Are they ok?!’

“Yes, they’re fine, except they’re in the timeout area because they started to fight on level three.  Thankfully no one was hurt but I will have to stress that they shop else where next time they’re in Cinq.”  With that, J.C. Joseph led two rather embarrassed friends to the timeout area to pick up their ‘brawling’ companions.

“Midii!”

“Hilde!”

“Catherine!”

“Sally!”

Hilde looked surprised at seeing Catherine and the fact that Midii had said her name…what a minute! This is Midii’s friend?  That meant her boyfriend was…

“Trowa!”

Midii looked surprised at Hilde, how’d she know who Trowa was? Or Catherine?…Unless…She was one of Trowa’s friends!  Horrified at the horrible impression she must have made on Hilde (the one thing she DIDN’T want to do) she turned to apologise to Hilde but stopped short when she saw the wide grin on the German woman’s face.

“What a small world!  So you’re the elusive girlfriend of Trowa’s, Duo told me about!”  She laughed as Sally and Catherine caught on and smiled broadly with her.  “I think you’re perfect for Trowa.” 

Midii laughed as well, Hilde was going to be a great friend and ally.  She didn’t feel so daunted at meeting any more of Trowa’s friends.  If they were all like Hilde, she had nothing to worry about.

The two of them explained what had happened on Level Three to Sally and Catherine, having a good laugh about it now and blaming the craziness of the silly season.  Catherine called her brother and informed him to meet them at the entrance, Midii would just borrow a gown from Relena (since Hilde would do the same).  The red, off the shoulder gown forgotten.

***************************

Trowa looked at the rows of rings on display at Bell’s Jewels.  This had been the seventh jewellery store they had entered.  Bethany was a wealth of information and a small part of Trowa’s mind thought she would make an excellent jewel thief.  He was looking for something that Midii would adore.  Something classy, not too over the top – elegant.  He wasn’t buying an engagement ring, no, not yet.  This was going to be a promise ring. 

“That one.” 

Bethany and Duo peered at what Trowa was pointing at. 

“Hey not bad, Tro-man.  Get that!” Duo not really knowing anything about jewellery nodded eagerly, they had passed a candy store and he really wanted to go back and buy the hot fudge rocky roads.

Bethany nodded slowly, “Actually Duo’s right! But it needs something mo – oh! Get it engraved!” She nodded vigorously to Trowa.  “Write something that says ‘you’re serious’ but not being pushy.”

Trowa stared back at the ring.  An engraving on it would be a nice touch.  But what would he say?  A moment of inspiration came over him and he scribbled something on a piece of paper.  He handed it to the saleslady, indicating the ring he wanted engraved.  The saleslady was about to tell him price details when his cell phone rang, excusing him self, he answered.

Duo looked inquiringly at his friend’s face.  Wonder who was on the phone?  He absentmindedly checked his cell, in case Hilde had called him and he hadn’t noticed.

“Duo.  That was Catherine.  She said to meet at the entrance.  She said Hilde and Sally were with her as well.”

“Really?  Oh good! We can finally leave this place!  Hurry and get your gift wrapped.  We might still have time to get my hot fudge rocky road.”

Trowa agreed about leaving this place and he asked the saleslady for the price.

“Sir that will come to - ” The price cut off as Bethany accidentally knocked a sunglasses stand down (amazingly, nothing broken).  “Oops.”

“Anyway, sir, the engraving will take about forty minutes.  There are many other gifts that need to be engraved as well.”

Trowa frowned.  He needed to leave now and he knew the gift would be a whole lot better if it was engraved.

“I can stay and pick up the gift.” Bethany offered, managing to disentangle herself from any other mishap.

Trowa was about to say ‘no’ when Duo loudly said yes, nodding his head.  “Good idea Bethany! You’ll be attending the ball as well, right?  Tro-man you can get the gift off Bethany then.  That way your girlfriend won’t suspect a thing! Women love surprises.” Duo said all-knowingly.

Time was running out, so Trowa reluctantly agreed and was about to give Bethany the money to pay for the ring and engraving but she shook her head.  “I’ll pay for it now, and you can give me the money at the ball.”  She gave them a huge grin and a wave as they went off to the entrance.

“See, Trowa.  She’s a nice girl.  Nothing to worry about.” He chuckled, “I guess not the whole family is nuts.”

Bethany looked at the paper Trowa had scribbled the inscription on.  “Oh, sorry - ” She squinted at the saleslady’s nametag, “ – Belle.  Can you add Lady Une onto this.” She scribbled under the note.  Trowa would be grateful that she fixed his inscription.  She had walked into the candy store and was about to buy red liquorice twists when two burly security guards stood beside her. 

“Ma’am.  You’ll have to come with us, please.”

Bethany’s eyes turned into saucers.  “I haven’t done anything!  I’ve never stolen anything in my life!! Well-except-when-I-was-THREE-and-I-took-a-lollie-from-a-candy-store-I-didn’t-know-I-couldn’t-do-that!  Please-don’t-arrest-me!” She bawled the last sentence, shoppers clearing away from her.

“Uh, ma’am.  The manager just want’s to speak to you.” One of the guards shifted uncomfortably.  This girl shouldn’t be given sugar, he thought.

“Oh! Ok, sure!”

Famous last words…

            ****************************

Quatre shivered.  Dorothy and Wufei in one small storeroom with him in the middle was hazardous to his health.  At least they weren’t speaking to each other, thought Quatre as he glanced at his watch for what seemed like the thousandth time that day.  When were they going to let them out?  He still hadn’t gotten any of the other gifts he needed to buy! And the one gift he HAD gotten had been stolen!  Next Christmas he was going to hole himself up in one of his desert mansions and not come out until January.

Wufei grumbled something incoherent.

A ‘huh?’ had escaped Quatre’s mouth before he could stop it.

“My badge! If I had that I’d be able to get out of this hellhole.” Wufei glared at Dorothy who gripped onto a plastic candy cane decoration like she was about to swing it at Wufei’s head.  She probably was except Quatre exclaimed, “Your badge?! I have it!”

Wufei temporarily forgot he was angry, as Quatre fumbled around his pockets and fished out Wufei’s foot trodden wallet.  “You must have dropped it when we got pushed out of the elevator.”

Wufei looked like he would have kissed Quatre but he hammered his fist against the door until a security guard opened it and he shoved his badge into the guard’s face.

“See?!  I’m a PREVENTER.  SEE?!”

The guard looked sceptical but he took it the badge and verified it with his superiors.  A few impatient minutes later, he came back.

“You’re free to go, Preventer Chang.  Sorry about the mistake.” The guard looked sheepish.  Wufei smirked in triumph, though the proud stance looked funny with the Christmas figurine in his hand still uttering, ‘Don’t be a humbug.’

“I’m lodging a formal complaint, don’t you worry.  Now release Mr Winner as well.  I can vouch for his story.” Wufei did his best Heero glare and the guard gave in.

“Ok, you’re free to go too, I guess.”

Quatre cleared his throat.  “Uh, Wufei how about - ”

Dorothy’s stranglehold on the plastic candy cane finally cracked it.  Wufei just smirked at her.  He was just going to leave her here?  The little SOB!  “I’d rather be by myself than be with you two anyway,” she stared expectantly at Quatre to argue otherwise but Wufei said a little too cheerfully, “Ok! Bye now,” and dragged Quatre out of the storeroom and slammed the door in Dorothy’s astonished face.

“Wufei! We can’t just leave her there!”

He snorted, “Yes we can.”

“Actually sir, we’ve captured the person responsible.  Miss Catalonia will be released soon enough.” Said the guard.

“There you go.  Now let’s get out of here.”

Quatre didn’t look too convinced. “Well…I guess another few minutes won’t hurt.” He winced as he suddenly felt a pain near his stab wound.

“Don’t be a humbug.”

“Can’t you turn that off?”

            ****************************

If Bethany had noticed the closing elevator next to her she would’ve seen the cute blond guy in the reindeer sweater standing next to a grumpy Asian man but she didn’t.

“Right this way ma’am.” The security guard showed her the manager’s door. 

J.C. Joseph was expecting a manipulative, hardened thief not the childish, girl scout look standing before him.  Appearances were deceiving.

“You must be Bethany Montague.  A Miss Catalonia said that you bought the singing reindeer. Correct?”

Bethany nodded eagerly. “So where is Dorothy?”

Mr Joseph shook his head.  “I ask the questions.  How did you get the singing reindeer?”

Bethany looked surprised.  That wasn’t the question she was expecting.  She decided to tell him everything since Mr Joseph looked like he had a kind face.  Taking a deep breath, she said, “Well, you-see-sir, I-just-flew-in-from-Hawaii – where I live – to-celebrate-Christmas-and-New-Year’s-at-my-cousin, Dorothy’s,-cos-we haven’t-celebrated-it-together-since-I-was-seven-and-she-was-nine.-Anyway,-this-morning-she-found-out-that-the-present-she-was-giving-to-her-friend, Relena,-had-in fact-just-gotten-the-same-gift-from-this-Duke!-So-naturally-she-had-to-get-a-new-gift.- And-since-this-is-the-only-department-store-open-on-Christmas-Eve-in-Cinq-we went-here-to-find-a-new,-better-gift. And-she-was-looking-at-these-singing-reindeer-which-OBVIOUSLY-meant-she-wanted-me-to-get-them-for-her-and-DID,-then-I-accidently-bumped-into-this-hot-looking-blond-guy-and-we-accidently-swapped-packages-and-he-got-Dorothy’s-gift-so-we-went-to-look-for-him-but-couldn’t-find-him-then-I-went-to-the-food-court-and-met-some-of-Dorothy’s-friends-and-I-helped-them-pick-out-some-gifts-then-this-security-guy-comes-and-tells-me-I-needed-to-go level 8 but I really need to find Dorothy’s friends since I’m holding their gifts.”  Bethany smiled cheerfully, exhaling loudly.

Mr Joseph just stared at her.  She hadn’t breathed in once, since she had started speaking.  “Uh…I see.  So when you bought those singing reindeer, did you or did you not hit another woman to get them?”

Bethany raised her hand to her mouth, looking properly horrified. “Hit someone?! I’ve never!  I don’t recall at all hitting another woman; there’s so many people, I might have jostled into someone by accident but I’ve never hit anyone before.  Promise!” She upped the smile a notch and placed her right hand over her heart.

Mr Joseph couldn’t tell if she was lying or not.  She seemed so innocent in the Girl Scout pose.  It was Christmas after all… “If you’d like to come this way Bethany, your cousin and that hot – I mean…that blond young man is in one of the timeout areas.”  Leading the way down the corridor, to a door that looked a little worse for wear.

“YOU BAST - ” Dorothy stopped short when she realised it wasn’t Quatre or Wufei but her God forsaken cousin smiling brightly at her.

“There you are Dorothy! I met some of your friends! Really nice people, you should have introduced me to them sooner.  We went - ”

Dorothy lamped her hand over Bethany’s mouth.  Mr Joseph signalled that they were free to go but emphasised never to shop at Cinq’s biggest department store.

“Where is that little blond traitor.” Dorothy mumbled under her breath as she and Bethany weaved in and out of shopping traffic heading towards the entrance.  Dorothy decided to hell with getting a new gift for Relena.  She would just give her the gift she had originally gotten, not caring that Relena had already received the same gift.  Bethany stopped over to the jewellery store to pick up Trowa’s gift, Dorothy not paying attention since her thoughts centred around ‘slaying a Dragon’ and giving someone fresh stab wounds.

And then there were two less blonde’s at Cinq’s biggest department store.

            *******************************

“What do you mean, you sold IT?!”

Quatre tapped the side of his left ear, positive he wouldn’t be able to hear anything through it again.  The salesperson at the Bike shop looked shell shocked as Wufei continued to yell at him.

“Where’s that oily faced idiot!  I told him that scooter was NOT to be sold!”

The salesperson wisely didn’t say anything.  Quatre tried to be the peacemaker.  “Wufei - ” He stopped when Wufei whirled around to face him, a very scary panicked look on his face.

“Heero is going to kill me.”

Quatre silently agreed.  What was Wufei thinking, taking Heero’s gift to Relena?  But he didn’t say that as a strange light crossed Wufei’s eyes.

“What a minute…”  Wufei began to pace, stopping so suddenly that Quatre thought he was about to throw something that he ducked instinctively.  Only Wufei started to laugh.

“They don’t know I took it!” It was a rather ‘BUHAHAHA’ laugh and Wufei came off really strange especially with that damn figurine still going ‘Don’t be a humbug’.  “They don’t KNOW!” He started to pace again.  “It could’ve been stolen from Peacecraft Mansion!  Yes! I’ll tell them that! A lapse in security…” He continued to mumble to himself before fixing a glare onto Quatre.

“You won’t say anything, right Quatre.”

It was more of a statement and Quatre just nodded in agreement.  In the back of his mind, Quatre decided to offer one of his other desert mansions to Wufei for next Christmas.  This holiday season was obviously too stressful for the man.

“We should probably leave now, Wufei.” Said Quatre gently.  “You’re supposed to be at the Mansion by now and I need to get ready for the ball.  I’ll give you a lift there.”

Wufei nodded absentmindedly not really listening as he mentally went over what to say to Heero.  The salesperson let out the breath he was holding as the two men left the store.  ‘Geez, crazy shoppers.’ He thought as he went to the back to find some polish, not seeing the pink vespa scooter with the initials R.D. tucked away in the corner of the repairs area.

            ********************************

Person who said yea! I finished another chappie! Now if JtML would be like this too…:

This one was shorter, since I realised that I forgot that they all had to be out of the department store! Heh…One more chappie to go! I swear! …Well I’m pretty sure ^_~ Next chapter will have SAP! So watch out for it! And since it is most definitely the last chapter it will be long and winding. Hopefully.  I really should stop saying these things! Ta!  Oh! R&R and C&C and everything else you can do!