Title: Christmas Spirit

Summary: Kish doesn't understand this Christmas thing. Merry Christmas, KO!

Dedication:

Present #1 for Kitty Kat K.O. "Anything Christmas-y with Kish would be epic!"

Merry Christmas, KO!

Hope it's going amazingly for you so far. :)

I'm sorry this couldn't be up sooner! It SHOULD have been up early Christmas morning, but my Internet's being ridiculous and hasn't been working all day. And night.

There's a bit of KxI at the end, because I refused to leave poor Kish all unhappy. But this Christmas fic is in six parts, and it's actually complete after the fifth!

And... Guess what? You asked for three Christmas presents in the Free Imagination Santa Exchange courtesy of Chi. Well, technically two but... I've decided to do three. Although the third present won't be coming until after Christmas... Your second wish has been split into two parts for me, so consider that a Happy New Year gift! :)

Hope today's been incredible!

Merry Christmas!

XOXO,

Bunny

Christmas Spirit

In which Kish decides to discover the true meaning of Christmas...

I. What's a Christmas Tree?

Kish was on a mission as he crept through Tokyo: to find out what the heck Christmas was supposed to be. And instinct told him that first on his list was to find a Christmas tree.

That part of the plan was easy enough for the green-haired boy. He had managed to find a field of already decorated Christmas trees. Perfect. He chose the tallest one in the entire field. No use in not going all out for the occasion, he thought to himself.

Now how in the world was he supposed to get one down?

Kish looked up at the tree. Kish looked down below the tree. He looked from the sides, and even inside the branches off the tree. Finally, Kish decided to perch himself on the top of the tree and teleport himself out of there with it.

Climbing up the tree as stealthily as possible, he inched his way up, clinging to branches and the trunk. He ignored the tree as it shook, threatening to fall over. All was well!

Until he grabbed at a piece of tinsel in order to reach the top. "Uh-oh." The tree began to wobble. Ornaments started to fall off. Kish scrambled to get to the top of the Christmas tree. At last, he reached it. The tree stopped wobbling.

"Haha! Victory! I did it!" he called out, throwing his head back and raising his arms out in the air. Suddenly, there was a creaking noise. Kish paused, frozen; he clutched onto the tree for dear life. "Uh-oh." And then with a groan, the tree began to wobble. "Oh no. No, no, no!" Kish howled, circling his arms in an attempt to keep his balance. It only made the situation worse.

The pine tree fell to the ground with a bang.

"Mrph," said Kish, bleakly raising a hand out from underneath the tall Christmas tree. "A little help here?"

II. Who's Santa Claus?

"Blrff," Kish mumbled, spitting a piece of pine tree out of his mouth. "Okay, that's all right that I couldn't get a tree. No problem."

Second on his list was to find Santa Claus. That was also easy to do, seeing as the man was calling out: "Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!"

"Hey, Present Man!" Kish called out with a grin. Santa looked at him.

"Hi there, my boy! What can I do for you on Christmas Eve? Would you like to give something to the poor?"

Kish paused. "Actually, I was hoping that you could lend me your suit."

The man laughed. "I'm sorry, but this is my suit!"

Kish sighed. "I was afraid you'd say that..."

Seconds later, he was the one with the suit. It didn't quite fit him, but it was a start. Whistling, he had dragged the old Santa to a bench where he would be nice at rest. The poor man had fainted when Kish had shown him his ears, quite like an elf's.

Kish adjusted his red hat over his head, and tucked the beard up inside. "Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!" he called out, trying it on for size.

And that was when a gaggle of kids came his way. "Santa! Santa!" They cried out, climbing all over Kish.

"Y'ouch!" the green-haired alien hollered. But all was going all right until one of the kids tugged at his beard, pulling it right off. There was silence.

"Hey! You're not Santa Claus!" one of the kids cried, throwing a snowball at him. The rest of the kids quickly followed suit, and Kish experienced his first snowball fight.

"No, no, no, ho ho- OUCH, YOU LITTLE BRAT!"

III. What is a present?

Kish shook his head like a dog, trying to rid himself of all the snow on him. Finally, he managed to get away from the group of little kids by teleporting away. They were probably still looking around, all confused, for him. Kish smirked. He dumped the ruined Santa clothes behind the dumpster, and was set to walking around dejectedly around Tokyo for the rest of the day.

Until he saw another Santa Claus. At first Kish cringed, but then he grinned upon seeing what was inside the store behind him...

Toys.

If only there was a way to get them. But wait! An idea struck him: he could just teleport quickly inside, grab a toy or two, and be done.

And then, from outside the store, he saw the perfect toy.

Kish actually had no idea what the toy was. But on the box, it said: "Mystery Box. The perfect Christmas present!"

So, without thinking twice about it, Kish teleported inside and back out again. He established his camp out base in an evergreen in the park, this time double checking to make sure it wouldn't fall down while he was on it. He didn't want to repeat the incident from earlier that day again.

Kish propped his head up on his knee. He shook the box once. Then twice, holding it close to his head. What the heck what in there?

He'd just have to open the box to find out. So he did... only to find another box. Huh?

Kish shook it again, and then tried to open the metal red and green creation. Nope. It wouldn't budge.

And that was when he saw a lever. Reaching a long finger out, Kish cranked it. And it made a sound! He paused for a second or two, and then cranked it again. He heard music notes!

Kish smiled happily. The music began to play, faster and faster and faster as he cranked the lever. He leaned his head down close to the top of the box... The final notes were playing...

And he was promptly whacked in the head by some doll on a spring, throwing his head back. If one whack wasn't enough, as the toy ricocheted around, it continued to thwack him.

"I'm Jack-in-a-Box!" the toy said in a high, laughing voice. "Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!"

Scowling, Kish yanked its head off.

IV. What's mistletoe?

The green-haired alien was a little bit more than shocked when a black cat began following him around the city. "Shoo!" he said to it first, but it ignored him. "Oh well," he sighed.

And then he saw a couple underneath some strange plant. They were kissing under... mistletoe, if he remembered right.

Automatically, Kish lit up like a Christmas tree. Kissing! He could do that! When the couple was gone, he launched himself over to grab the mistletoe and scurry off...

Now, if only he could find Koneko-chan. Where was she when he needed her?

And then brilliance struck him. Wait. There was this cat following him around. And Ichigo sometimes transformed into a cat, as he well knew. He was beginning to connect the dots...

Why would some cat follow him around unless it was Koneko-chan, needing to be kissed so she could return to normal! Of course, the cat could have been following him from food but that was impossible!

"Koneko-chan!" Kish cried, picking the cat up. It began to hiss at him, batting at the air. Kish tsk-ed. "Aw, come on, that's no way to greet me! I'm gonna kiss you with this mistletoe so you'll be human again!"

As Kish puckered his lips and drew his face closer, the animal scratched his cheek. "Y'ouch! Stop it, Koneko-chan, I'm gonna save you!" And pinning down the struggling cat, he tried to gave it a kiss. The cat was yowling and meowing and squirming around like there was no tomorrow. Kish's lips touched its and...

The cat bit him. "Ow!" With its tail between its legs, the little animal ran off. Angrily, Kish blinked and called after it:

"Hey! You're not my Koneko-chan!"

V. What is snow?

At this point, Kish was starting to hate this Christmas thing. So far he'd been toppled by a Christmas tree; attacked by millions of children; molested by a jack-in-the-box; and bit by a cat who was certainly not Koneko-chan but, seeing how feisty she was, could have been her cousin.

What was the point of Christmas if he only got hurt?

Oh. And now all this stupid, cold wet stuff was falling on his head. Wasn't it called snow? Wait wait wait, snow is supposed to be a part of Christmas! This is good!

Hesitantly, afraid to get pummeled once again, Kish stuck his tongue out in the air to taste a few flakes. Humph. They weren't nearly as pretty as what humans made them out to be... but they did taste pretty good!

Running around like a maniac, Kish raced all over to taste more snow. And then he saw a sign pole, a perfect pole just covered in snowflakes. Unhesitant this time, Kish licked it...

… And his tongue wouldn't budge. Eh? Kish reached his hands out to place them on the pole, trying to yank himself away. Yank. "Nnnn..." Yank, was stuck.

… Drat.

Kish was there for a few hopeless minutes or two, stuck on this dumb pole and groaning about his bad luck, when things started looking up.

Somehow, at last, the fates were on his side. Because miraculously Ichigo was walking down the other side of the sidewalk with a fantastic amount of presents in her arms. One teetered, threatening to fall off, and she slowed down her pace.

"Koneko-chan! Koneko-chan!" Kish tried to call, but it seemed like she couldn't hear him.

Hmmm... He'd seen kids before have snowball fights. While he was Santa, he'd been pelted by the things from the kids. Stretching his hand down to the ground, Kish formed the shape in his hand. It was crude but that would grab her attention.

And when it hit Ichigo in the side of the head, causing her to drop all the presents to the ground, it sure did. She looked around, fire in her eyes.

"Kish?" she shrieked, turning red.

Oblivious to her anger, Kish waved a hand in the air animatedly. He grinned, but ended up biting his tongue in the process; it was still stuck on the pole. "Koneko-chan!" he said, tongue still stuck on the pole. He was furiously yanking himself away from the pole trying to run to her. "Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas, Koneko-chan!"

His answer back was a snowball in the head.

So much for Christmas Spirit.

VI. What is Christmas Spirit?

Six hours. That was how long had been out there in the cold. Six hours. It was night now, and Kish had decided that there was no such thing as Christmas Spirit.

He couldn't feel his feet. His hair was frozen. His tongue was getting frost bite.

And that was when Ichigo showed up.

"Koneko-chan! Can you at least help me?" Or that was what he meant to say. It came out more like: "Aheeo-ah! Aoohaeaemeh?"

She screeched. And then she calmed down. "Kish? What are you still doing out here?"

He shrugged. "Help me?"

That she at least understood, but she was livid. She began to throw more snowballs at him in her long speech. "No! You smack me in the back of the head with a snowball"- "Ow!"- "while I'm just minding my own business!"- "Y'ouch!"- "Ahhhh, I can't find my Christmas presents anywhere- "Owie!"- "and they're ruined because you made me drop them in the snow and wuah! And... Hey, aren't you cold?"

Kish blinked, snow falling into his eyes, and then nodded his head ferociously.

"You're barely wearing anything. And... How'd you get stuck to a pole anyway?"

Kish tried to pantomime what had happened to him.

"I have no idea what you're saying." Ichigo paused for a few seconds. "Well, I guess I should help you." And she walked away.

"Noooo!" Kish shouted behind her, seeing she was leaving. But she came back a few minutes later.

"This might hurt," she warned him. Kish just looked at her, eyes glazed. She gave him a smile, and began pouring water down the poll.

"OWWWWWWWWWWWW." When the water reached Kish's tongue, it made a sizzling sound. "Ow ow ow!" Kish whined. "My tongue! My tongue! ... Hey, I can feel my tongue!"

"You have an icicle hanging from your hair," Ichigo giggled. "But how'd you get stuck to the pole anyway?"

Kish nodded his head as he spoke, "I was trying to find the meaning of Christmas Spirit!"

"On a pole?" Ichigo said flatly.

"But snow tastes good, Koneko-chan!" Kish whined, but then shivered.

Ichigo let out another giggle. She stopped upon seeing him cold though. Her face showed sympathy. "Listen, I... Here, take my scarf. You're cold, and that's not good."

He grinned, but bit his tongue in the process. "D'owww. Thank you."

"Well," Ichigo said, standing there awkwardly, "I should be going..."

He grabbed her hand. "Wait!" He paused. "What's Christmas Spirit, Koneko-chan?"

The corners of her lips began to wiggle. And then Ichigo let out a loud laugh. "Kish, you mean you've been going around all day trying to find out what Christmas Spirit is? And you still don't know what it is?" Kish kicked some snow, and held out his hands. She pressed the red scarf into them. "I almost forgot to give you this. Whoops. But Christmas Spirit is..." She sighed. "It's not about mistletoe or toys or anything like that. It's about doing something special for someone else."

Kish was quiet. But then his eyes lit up. "Hey Koneko-chan?" he asked slyly.

She raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, Kish?"

"I have a Christmas gift for you, too!"

Ichigo's face grew enthusiastic. "Oh really?"

"Mmhm." Kish nodded his head. "Now, close your eyes."

Ichigo closed them.

"It's the gift of Christmas Spirit!" he caroled, clapping his hands. Ichigo opened an eye, confused. And without hesitation, Kish kissed her fully on the lips.

And at the moment, despite the falling snow, despite Kish's frost-bitten tongue, and despite the fact that Ichigo would later have to re-purchase all of her ruined Christmas presents, Christmas Spirit was very much alive in the air. And Kish decided that although he had been toppled by a Christmas tree; attacked by millions of children; molested by a jack-in-the-box; bit by a cat who was certainly not Koneko-chan; and couldn't quite feel all of his frostbitten tongue, he liked Christmas Spirit very much.