"Well, isn't your brother dead?"

"No, he's not, he's just an idiot."

"What?" Mai blinked stupidly. "But the way everyone's been talking about him...?"

"Over-dramatic imbeciles." Noll sighed. "Gene was in accident. Hence my stand-in."

"What kind of accident?"

"Ask him yourself."

Noll led Mai upstairs and knocked on a door. A cheery 'come in' greeted them. They entered to find a smiling version of Noll propped up in bed.

"How did it go, Noll? Ooh, who's this? New girlfriend? Blimey I let you out of my sight for one night and—"

"This is Mai, she wants to know about your accident."

Gene had the decency to look ashamed of himself.

"Right, so I was feeding the reindeer, as you do. And you know how Rudolf can get a bit bolshy when he doesn't get his fair share. Well, you don't Mai, but Noll will understand! Well he knocked into me and I fell backwards into the feedbucket and it all went downhill from there. I was covered in reindeer treats and my legs were in agony and these daft reindeer were licking me instead of getting help."

"I found him like that an hour later," Noll muttered.

Mai giggled at the story.

"Well I am glad you are not dead."

"What?"

"Everyone has been speaking about you as if you kicked the bucket," Noll said, smirking.

"Where did Noll find you anyway?" Gene asked Mai.

"Streets of Tokyo," Noll answered.

"I was asking Mai." Gene stuck his tongue out at Noll, who looked away. "So shut up or I'll start singing."

"Singing?"

"Oh yes, I have said all along that Noll should be Santa! Because of the Christmas Carols!" Much to Noll's horror, Gene began singing, "Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel, born is the king of Israel!"

Mai burst out laughing.

"Because Noel sounds like Noll, right?" Gene said, obviously pleased with himself.

"I think the pain meds have gone to his head."

Mai could see that Noll was not really annoyed.

"So tell me about yourself Mai."

"What about Mai-self?"

"Everything."

"Um, not much to tell really."

"What's your surname?"

"Taniyama?"

Gene frowned and looked to Noll, who nodded.

"She's on our list…" Gene mused. He reached over to his bedside table and picked up a piece of parchment. He passed it to Mai, who took it and read it.

"Why is my name on here?"

"This is our Miracle List. It's a list of people who deserve a Christmas Miracle ," Gene told her. "However, most of what these people want are things that we cannot give."

"Like what?" Mai asked.

"Love from someone in particular, for example," Noll supplied.

"Others want things that are even more difficult," Gene said. "Like bringing back the dead."

"Oh."

Mai's cheerful disposition faltered.

"You wished for your family to come back to you," Gene went on.

"But I didn't write a letter!" Mai protested.

"No, but it is a secret that Santa always knows. Letters keep the people beneath Santa happy, so we have some kind of proof that we are asking them to make the right things," Gene said. "But in reality, Santa knows."

"But how?"

"Call it an intuition."

Mai frowned, she felt slightly violated by this knowledge.

"But you can't bring my Mum back… Or my Dad."

"No, we can't." Gene sat up a little straighter in his bed. "I struggled over the wording of your wish for a while, but I wonder... If we can't bring your family back to you, would a new family, here, be okay?"

"I-I don't understand."

Mai stepped back.

"What is there not to understand?" Noll asked, but Gene held up a hand to silence him.

"No one here at the North Pole has their real family," Gene said. "We have made one large family, if you like. We have groups within that, of course. But we all look out for each other. We want you to be part of that."

"Or, I can take you back to the streets of Tokyo," Noll said. "Or if you prefer, I can take you to a shelter."

Mai paused, for a fraction of a second, to think over what that would mean. Did she want to return to the place she had grown up in? Or stay here with people that wanted her?

"I want to stay."

"Then welcome, Mai, to the North Pole, your new home."

X~X~X

When Mai woke the next morning, she felt a cool breeze on her face. The floor beneath her felt hard. Where had she fallen asleep? In a park somewhere, right?

But when she opened her eyes, she could not see anything reminiscent of a park. No swings, no slides, no roundabouts, no sandpits...

She could see a bed with a sleeping form in it. She glanced around and spotted someone else on the floor, asleep.

Mai was curled up on a window seat. Someone had covered her with a large red jacket - Santa's jacket!

"Where am I?"

"Shh, go back to sleep."

Mai sat up. The cool breeze came from the bedroom door, that was open. The events of the previous night came flooding back to her.

"Why am I here?"

"You fell asleep while we were talking," the lump on the bed said. "Noll shoved you there and covered you up. But let him sleep a bit longer."

"Why is he on the floor?"

"Because he couldn't fit on my bed."

Mai smiled and glanced down at Noll. From her position, she could ascertain a pair of pointed ears. His dark hair failing to obscure their shape. They hadn't been like that last night, had they?

Huh, so did that mean Gene—

She turned to him, finding his ears perfectly normal like hers. But how did that make any sense?

She sighed, perhaps she would never truly know why or how the North Pole altered ear shape. She just hoped it was not painful.

Returning to the subject of her waking thoughts, she asked, "It was all real?"

"Of course it's all real."

"Will you two idiots shut up," Noll spat from the floor.

"Merry Christmas to you too Noll."

"I am not being merry until I have had at least two cups of tea."

"I'll go make some," Mai offered, beaming.

She jumped over Noll and out of the room, returning a few minutes later with four cups of tea. One for her, one for Gene and two for Noll.

Noll took the tea and drank it greedily.

"Mai, I am withdrawing your option to try out positions on site," Noll muttered.

"What, why?"

"You are going to be my personal assistant," he said. "To make me tea."

Gene laughed at Mai huffing.

"Come on, get me into a wheelchair. We have presents to open!"

"But, I don't have anything to give anyone? Except the rest of my chocolate!"

"I am totally up for chocolate for breakfast," Gene said.

"Your teeth will rot," Noll said, scowling. Mai offered them both the remaining pieces of her chocolate bar. Gene took a piece, but Noll refrained. "You finish it."

Mai pouted up at him until he rolled his eyes and broke the remaining bit in half for them to share.

"Thank you."

The trio departed from Santa's house together to find the rest of their family, to celebrate Christmas together.

A very Merry Christmas Miracle indeed.

Check out this story on youtube, it's called Christmas Miracles by the GhostHuntHQ!

A super, wonderful, thank you to Samantha-Girlscout who helped edit this project and left so much wonderful feedback! She's great! You should totally read her works as well as follow her on tumblr. ;)

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you enjoyed this story! It was lots of fun to make!

Thanks for reading and please review~