A/N: Okay, this is my 2011 Christmas Advent Special, for the TCR section. As it suggests, there are a few things:

There will be a chapter a day uploaded (unless stuff turns up, but I will be keeping to this schedule as closely as possible). There are 25 chapters in total.

This is set after the film.

Each chapter is set on their respective day; each chapter should last only a day in the story timeline. So today is set the first of December.

The chapters are shorter than usual; but since the chapters are being posted daily, that shouldn't be too much of a problem.

And enjoy!

ooOoo

So here it is Merry Xmas

Everybody's having fun

Look to the future now

It's only just begun.

x

Thursday 1st December 2011: It's Only Just Begun

In the Bureau, Christmas had come.

With reinforcements, Baron had noted when a particular brunette had turned up at the archway clutching a box of Christmas decorations and merrily humming carols. It was evening and dusk had fallen, but Haru had still turned up. She had unpacked the box and shown the Cat Bureau the decorations she had smuggled out from her home.

Which was why they were now in the midst of decorating the Refuge; a CD player Haru had brought along spewing out jingling Christmas carols. Muta was in the process of attacking the inside of the Bureau with Baron's own stash of decorations (Baron wasn't sure about the wisdom of allowing the fat cat near his hoard) while Toto watched (probably making scathing comments if the commotion from inside was any indication).

Baron, however, was overlooking the application of tinsel to the Bureau's exterior. Seated on Haru's shoulder, he couldn't help thinking he had got the best job.

"Perhaps we should put the red tinsel on instead… it would work well with the green. What do you think, Baron?"

He blinked and tuned in to what the brunette was saying. "Whatever you think is best."

Haru snorted and held the gold strand up, comparing it to the ruby-red version. "I was hoping for something a bit more conclusive than that, Baron. Help me out here; which one looks better?"

He finally focused on the two strands of tinsel being held up for his benefit. "Go for the red."

"That's what I was thinking." Happy with the agreement, Haru leant forward to hook the tinsel over the top of the Bureau and let it spiral down on either side of the miniature house. Tucking it deftlyat the rim so the crimson material didn't fall over the windows or door, she stepped back to momentarily admire her handiwork before returning back to the box. She carefully set down the figurine before she started rifling through the decorations.

She picked out a faded Christmas star and set it at the top before setting herself to the task of dragging out the Christmas lights.

"Drat, why are the lights always tangled?" Haru exclaimed. "It's not like I take them out during the rest of the year and throw them about. Once a year. Once a year; that's the all they get used…" She continued to grumble good-naturedly, only pausing to listen to a crash from inside the Bureau. She glanced to Baron.

"You don't suppose they've broken anything, do you?"

Baron waited a moment, hearing a few more insults thrown about in the small abode before a smile curved round his lips. "It doesn't sound like it." He watched the brunette stretch the Christmas lights across the cobbled pavement of the Refuge in an attempt to make the task of untangling a little easier and his smile widened just a little more. Then a thought struck him.

"Haru, are you going away this Christmas?"

Haru looked up, mildly surprised by the question. "Away? Away where?"

"To see family."

She laughed a slightly throaty laugh at his reply. It wasn't quite the response the cat figurine had been expecting. "It's just me and my mother nowadays. My father left when I was born and his family never approved of Mum so we don't see them. When my grandparents died when I was young it just left the two of us."

"I'm… I'm sorry."

Haru dropped her head back down to carry on straightening the Christmas lights. "Don't be. If my father couldn't be bothered to stick around then he has no right to turn up for Christmas. And I can't remember my grandparents very well so it's always been this way. Can you miss something you never had?"

"But still…"

Haru knelt down on the pavement and looked over at Baron. "It's fine, Baron. You don't need to worry." A weak smile flittered across her features; a smile that was quickly replaced by forced joviality as she abruptly rose to her feet. "Well, I think that's the lights sorted out. Now just comes the task of applying them."

The conversation of Haru's family had been politely marked out-of-bounds, so Baron didn't attempt to pick up the topic again. He stayed where Haru had set him down as the girl in question nimbly intertwined the wiry frame of the Christmas lights along the ruby-red tinsel.

"So you said you were originally… um, created in Germany, right?" Haru suddenly spoke up again. Even with White Christmas filling the background silence, it seemed she felt the awkward pause of conversation too. She didn't give Baron much time to answer; proceeding on with, "So you've spent a few Christmases there, right?"

"Yes."

Momentarily pausing in her tirade on the Bureau, Haru sat back on her haunches to look over at the cat figurine. "What's Christmas like there?"

Baron took a moment to think through the question before answering. "It's a little bit different, I suppose. On the fifth, children leave their shoe or boot outside in the evening, and if they've been good the spirit of St Nicholas places treats in them."

"And if they've been naughty?"

"They get twigs."

There was another crash from inside the Bureau, quickly followed by another outburst of insults. Despite everything, Haru laughed, the Christmas spirit finally catching up with her. "Well, I know two individuals who are going to be getting twigs in their shoes."

Baron chuckled alongside the brunette. "Indeed. We also have the advent wreath in Germany, and the Christmas tree of course – it originated in Germany. But children are not allowed to help in decorating the tree because of superstition."

"That's so unfair."

The Cat Creation smiled at Haru's response. "Perhaps it seems that way, but from what I saw of it, it was half the fun to be surprised by the tree. It's decorated on Christmas evening instead of so much earlier like it is done elsewhere."

"So I suppose the Bureau won't be getting a tree until then?"

"Indeed not."

Selecting out another set of lights and tinsel, Haru moved on to adorn Toto's column, humming a little to the carols. The Christmas spirit had indeed infected her mood and she had picked herself up from the low she'd experienced earlier. Now finishing her task she stepped back, the plug in one hand, and examined her work. Then she spontaneously started laughing.

"Boy, I can be so dumb at times!"

Seeing Baron's bewildered look, Haru held up the plug for emphasis, still giggling.

"You don't have electricity, do you?"

He caught her mistake and chuckled lightly. "I'm afraid not."

The brunette sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Do you think I should take the lights down, or would they be fine there until January? It probably would be better to take them down; they look a little depressing just sitting there unlit…"

"I don't think you need to worry about that."

Haru looked down to the figurine, her gaze questioning as she watched Baron approach the nearest lights falling past the side of the Bureau.

"Do you remember the first time you arrived here?"

"Of course. But…" Haru's eyes widened and now she remembered. "Oh."

He sent a smile her way and took the wiry strand in one gloved hand. A heartbeat passed and suddenly light was spiralling up and spilling into the Christmas lights, overflowing in a spectral of colours. The spark jumped across to the lights braided round Toto's column and flew down it; the separate colours leaping over one another in a race to the cobbled ground. Eventually the light simmered down to a soothing glimmer, warming the Refuge in its glow.

"That's so cool," Haru breathed.

"Thank you." He had tried to sound composed, but still a slightly satisfied note crept into the words. He looked to his side and spotted one of the lights hadn't lit up. Frowning he leant over to it and tapped the bulb. Reluctantly a soft blue glow appeared. "There's always one," he commented.

Haru was grinning. "Of course." She looked up at their joint efforts and concluded the effect to be perfect. She told Baron this and earned another smile from the Creation.

"Of course," he echoed. "Because we did it together."

Haru just blushed and returned her gaze to the Bureau.