It was the night before Christmas in a shrine in Japan;
All were asleep, kitsune, snake, god, spirits and human;
The peaceful environment made such a beautiful scene;
The place like a fairytale, or one you would see in a dream;
All inhabitants were soundly asleep;
Unaware of the person who on the rooftop did creep;
Then the kitsune awoke at the sound of loud clatter;
His ears pointing forward; what was the matter?
Away was the vision of the lovely girl in his head;
He woke up alone in his single sized bed;
Annoyed by the loss of the dream of fair maid;
He woke up most irritatedâŠ
He encountered the shinshi who stood in the hall;
In excitement Mizuku shouted: âItâs Santa yâall!â
The kitsune was already annoyed as it is;
The last thing he needed was the other familiar disturbing his slumbering bliss;
âOf course itâs not Santa, you idiot snakeâ
âYouâre a complete moron and you should have drowned in that lakeâ
The god awoke at the scuff on the roof above his head;
In an instant, he had jumped out of bed;
Only to notice the quarrel in the hall;
Snake and fox were in the middle of a brawl;
With a loud voice he shouted âStop it, this is enough!â
And just in time, for things were about to get rough;
âWhatâs going on?â a female voice spoke, disturbed in her sleep;
It was Nanami who stood emerged from her bedroom in a pajama with sheep;
âIt is Santa with presents for allâ, Mizuki told her with a smile on his face;
âIsnât it amazing that he even visits this place?â
âDonât listen to this serpent, for heâs a liarâ
âI donât know whoâs on that roof, but I will set his ass on fireâ
The kitsune said as he opened his hand;
And with a smirk on his face he added:
âI will give our visitor a nice fox fire brandâ
âNow wait a minute,â the god spoke, âwe donât know whoâs there,â
âPerhaps someone with good intentions who youâre about to scareâ
âRelax, Tomoe, donât be so rashâ
But it was already too late, for the kitsune was gone in a flash;
On the rooftop Tomoe encountered a man;
Someone rather familiar, for it was Kurama from the tengu clan;
âWhat the hell are you doing in the middle of the night?â
âYouâre giving everyone here quite the frightâ
Kurama spoke and said: âI know you all to be a shabby lotâ
âAnd right after my concert I came up with an ingenious plotâ
âTo bring you all gifts for Christmas Eveâ
Well,â Tomoe said, âwith you sneaking up on us, we thought you were a thiefâ
The tengu apologized for such an early rise;
and clarified that it was all meant to be a surprise;
âI wanted to slide the presents down the chimney with some graceâ
âBut I guess I made a mistake, because it seems there is no fire placeâ
âAre you drunk?â Tomoe asked, âYou reek of wineâ
âOf course thereâs no chimney, this place is a shrineâ
The tengu explained: âthatâs not the matterâ
âI got startled by something and dropped this and the bottle did shatterâ
On the roof top were broken pieces of glass;
The expensive liquid had indeed not survived the crash;
The kitsune sighed, since there was nothing amiss;
Just an idiot tengu with a soft spot for Christmas;
âYou better come inside, for everyone is in waitâ
âAnd if you want to do something like this again, donât do so this lateâ
Everyone was relieved to see a friendly face and no enemy;
And with their presents in hand they sat around the Christmas tree;
Mizuki pointed out to Tomoe that he had been right;
For it had been a secret Santa who had come to visit them in the middle of the night;
But the kitsune was not amused by the comment being said;
And as he stared at the snake he secretly wished Mizuki was dead;
They sat down for hours, talked and laughed and had fun;
Not even noticing the rising of the sun;
Then suddenly the god took a stand and looked upon the crowd;
âMerry Christmas everyone!â he then said aloud.
An âoldyâ from a KH Winter Prompt last year [x] inspired by the famous Christmas poem by Clement Clark Moore.Â
Also on AO3 [x]
