DISCLAIMER: I don't own Mai HiME.

A/N: Everyone is getting into the Christmas mood right around now, so I thought I'd try my hand at a weird AU Christmas. Natsuki's an elf? Yep, weird. ^^

Wiping her brow, Natsuki slid out from underneath the vehicle, being extra careful not to bump herself on the razor sharp blades that ran lengthways along the bottom of the machine.

She'd lost too many chunks of hair from accidentally coming into contact with the runners as she'd slid back and forth underneath while performing maintenance on the engine and had only recently given into her co-worker's demands of tying long hair back whilst working.

The only reason she hadn't done so earlier wasn't because she was intent on taunting the Work Safety Practices Policy of her employment, but rather because having her hair tied exposed her ears.

Sighing ruefully, she set down her wrench and sat up, running her fingers over the slightly pointed tips of her ears with one hand while she wiped off excess grease onto her green worker's uniform with the other.

She scowled as she heard a scoff coming from the desk on the other side of the garage.

"Stop moping, idiot. If I hadn't made you wear your hair back then I would been the one having my ass chewed out by those stuffy bastards up in Management, you know."

Natsuki shot a glare at her supervisor who was leaning back in her desk chair, legs propped up on the table and short green skirt riding just high enough to reveal a tease of red lace on the girl's thigh.

"Shut it Nao. You have short hair that covers yours anyway, so you don't even understand the damn problem!"

Nao smirked and set her black heel-covered feet onto the cement ground, twisting to instead lean her elbow against the table as she gestured out the large window.

"Hey, don't mind me. You need to hurry up and get over your stupid insecurities and get the sleigh finetuned before the old geezer leaves in a few nights. If you haven't noticed, it IS the day before Christmas
eve."

Natsuki turned her head and gulped when she set eyes on the giant electronic billboard placed outside the enormous factory.

Even through the somewhat-blizzard they were having at the moment, it's huge red digital numbers continued to tick away forming a 12 foot tall electronic countdown until 'Launchtime' on Christmas eve.

"Heh, it's your first year being allowed to work on the actual sleigh rather than some crappy toy mass-producing machine and you're gonna screw it up!"

The impish rather than elfish grin remained on Nao's face even after she was forced to duck slightly in order to avoid the small oil can that Natsuki ditched at her, which hit the brick wall behind the desk and
clattered to the floor, sitting in an ever-growing pool of it's own contents that gushed out of the now split side.

"...You're cleaning that up in your lunch break."

"Shut up, Nao."

When lunch break came, Natsuki begrudgingly spent the first five minutes hastily wiping up the spilt oil.

Damn Nao never hesitates to abuse her authority over me! How did someone like her get an inspector's position anyway?!

With her remaining 50 minutes, she firstly untied her hair from it's crudely-assembled bun and allowed it to once again freely cascade down her back, her bangs falling into place to cover her ears once more.
After that, she left her workstation and trudged off in search of the cafeteria.

The Factory, as it was called, was actually an enormous building consisting of numerous floors and divisions which were sprawled out on a massive snowy campus. Being a factory engineer, Natsuki stayed in the Worker's quarters along with the other labourers such as the Assemblers or the Janitors, while elves on Nao's level and upwards were permitted to stay in an assigned apartment block just off campus.

To clarify, the elves who worked for The Factory weren't as miniature as the stories and rumours suggest. They were equal in height to maybe a short human, and besides the pointed ears that Natsuki despised so much, possessed an anatomy that was equally similar to humans.

Stopping short in front of a vending machine situated in one of the clean white hallways, Natsuki fumbled around in her pocket as she eyed the bottle of cola that she planned to take with her to the food court. The cafeteria charged way too much for their drinks anyway, in Natsuki's opinion.

Retrieving a gold coin, Natsuki briefly glanced down at the chubby, cheerful face grinning out at her from the coin's surface before pushing it into the money slot. As an industry standard, the workers were entitled to a set amount of these coins per week based on their job, coins which were used to operate just about everything in the entire North Pole from the vending machines to the shampoo dispensers in the rooms, and even to the after-hours bars that operated nightly.

The Boss himself was often a target of criticism for many of her co-workers due his policy of paying everyone on a "pyramid scheme" - Basically, the way it worked in the Factory was that you worked in a basic job that fits your area of expertise and work your way up each year by honing your skills and excelling in your area. Natsuki herself was part of the engineer division, one who goes around and repairs busted machinery and broken appliances.

This year was the first year that she had been entrusted with the job of fixing up the sleigh, finetuning it's engines and making sure the entire system was functioning correctly after a year of sitting in the garage. Most annoyingly was the snowy climate outside - sometimes it reached purely unbearable temperatures in the cold cement garage, and as any self-respecting engineer would know; Cold weather = bad engines.

Although she was glad for her significant pay rise this year, she was never one to join her fellow workers who complained endlessly about their low pay or organised strikes. Most of these people were angry about the lack of holidays they received per year and the pay being too low to support a normal after-hours social life.

Being the loner she was, holidays and drinking binges never really appealed to Natsuki and therefore what she was paid was always enough to fund her living habits. In fact, the young woman practically buried herself in her work and only rarely ever accepted an invitation from Nao or Mai to go out and have a drink with them occasionally.

Reaching down for her drink, Natsuki nearly fell over in shock as she heard a door a few metres down the hall slam open.

"This is ridiculous! We've had an entire year of good health and now suddenly this oaf tells me one of them is sick?!"

The little bell adorned to the manager's uniform tinkled merrily as it's infuriated owner stomped down the hallway in Natsuki's direction. A timid girl stepped out of the conference room behind the irate blonde, gently closing the door and scuttling to catch up to her superior.

"Haruka-chan, I believe the veterinarian knows what he is talking about... but you heard him, Rudolph should be fit and recovered by Launchtime..."

"Don't we have a backup reindeer or something anyway?! It's the digital age; we have things like portable floodlights now! Why the hell do we still need that stupid reindeer anyway?!"

"He's more of a figurehead I suppose, Haruka-chan..."

Natsuki tried to make herself unnoticeable as she stepped to the side, clutching her bottle of cola, not particularly eager to be shoved out of the way by the obviously violent blonde official or likewise become the poor target of her fury.

She was unlucky though.

"YOU!" the manager barked, stopping as she was passing Natsuki and thrusting a finger in her face.

"Who the hell are you, where are you from and what's your number?"

"Kuga Natsuki, Engineering, I386"

"Engineering, huh? Well get back to your own department and stop littering in the hallways!"

Natsuki was feeling angry and indignant at this accusation, but before she could open her mouth the yell "I haven't dropped any rubbish!" the blonde was corrected by her meek assistant.

"I think you mean "loitering," Haruka-chan."

Haruka shot a semi-glare at her partner Yukino before turning back to Natsuki.

"That's not important! What I was trying to say was "Get Out Of My Hallway!"

And with that, the disgruntled manager stormed off, her black shiny boots tapping along the floor as she disappeared around the corner with her mousey companion following.

Natsuki let out the breath she'd been holding. While it took every ounce of willpower not to start screaming back at that woman, let alone lash out and sock her one in the jaw, Natsuki had to remember that the woman in question was Suzushiro Haruka. She was in charge of the head division of the factory, and basically had to oversee all operations on site.

As Natsuki could plainly see, it must be a highly stressful job. Natsuki pitied Suzushiro's assistant.

Eventually making her way to the cafeteria with 30 minutes left of her break, Natsuki took one look at the huge queue and smirked secretly. Sometimes, it was good to have friends.

Stealthily walking around the line, Natsuki made sure no-one was looking as she reached behind her back and quietly opened the wireframe kitchen door before slipping in completely.

Inside was chaos. The kitchen staff didn't wear the usual all-green uniform like the other workers, but instead were clothed in regular white chef's garb.

It was standard for all other divisions to wear green, although each uniform varied between the divisions in order to suit the job they were performing and also as a quick method of distinguishing between workers when they weren't wearing their badges, in which case one would have to quote their job and number, like Natsuki had done for Suzushiro.

For example janitors, stablehands and the engineers wore long-sleeved shirts and pants to avoid messy things such as oil spillage in Natsuki's case.

Assemblers and other unspecialised workers wore the typical short-sleeved buttoned shirts with the matching shorts, along with those ridiculous pointed caps that Natsuki was glad to be spared.

Supervisors and managers wore the white collared shirts with the green tunics over the top and each had a set of small bells sewn to the shoulders. The female higher-ups were allowed to wear skirts, heels, and makeup. Nao was one who took full advantage of this allowance.

The workers before Natsuki at the moment were spared the bright Christmas colours as they fluttered about back and forth in their white aprons, removing trays from ovens and boiling soups and what-not.

Standing on her tip-toes, Natsuki was unnoticed by any of the busy staff as she scanned the crowd. Her eyes brightened as she caught sight of a tuft of orange hair poking out from under a hairnet as the owner stood over a stove stirring a pot of simmering broth.

Making her way over to the girl, while cooks and kitchen hands darted past and around her like busy highway traffic, Natsuki smirked cheekily and leaned towards the taller girl's ear, who was completely oblivious to Natsuki's presence.

"Hello Mai."

A pair of startled violet eyes met hers as the girl dropped her ladle into the pot and spun around to face a now-chuckling Natsuki.

"God damnit Natsuki! Don't do stuff like that when I'm standing over a hot stove! That's how accidents happen!"

Natsuki rolled her eyes good-naturedly.

"Yes, Mother."

Ignoring the bluenette's sarcasm, Mai sighed and turned back to her pot, trying to pick up her fallen ladle without burning her fingertips.

"I suspect you're here because you want me to feed you, right?"

At Natsuki's noise of affirmation, Mai quickly gave a short glance to her boss who luckily was busy on the other side of the room carving some kind of meat. Ducking to the cupboard below the stove, she retrieved a white china bowl and spooned some of the soup into it before handing it to a starving Natsuki.

"There's some bread already set up outside on one of the serving tables, now hurry up and get out of here before Sakomizu-sama catches you in here and I get in trouble!"

After taking a quick sip of the steaming soup - Chicken noodle, yum~! - Natsuki cast her sight over to the refrigerator which stood directly next to the bench that Mai's boss was working at. Mai frowned when she followed Natsuki's gaze.

"Oh hell no! There's no way I am gonna risk getting busted just because you want to run over there and steal a bottle of mayonnaise! Get out of my kitchen, now!"

And without any further argument, a disgruntled Natsuki was shoved towards the exit and out of the kitchen altogether.

Natsuki was running five minutes late once she finally returned from her lunch break, which Nao was quick to point out.

"Oh shut up. Says the girl who randomly ditches her post to go off and flirt with the stablehands."

Nao huffed and folded her arms.

"So? Have you seen some of them boys? All muscled from the physical labour and lifting bales of hay and stuff... And even most of the girls down there are just downright hot..." She paused, smirking at Natsuki's disinterested expression.

"Ah, but of course you're unaffected by anything regarding hormones aren't you, little miss No-Sex-Drive?"

This particular subject, just like the topic of her ears, was touchy for Natsuki.

"Oi!"

"Now now, don't start getting angry at me, virgin girl..."

"I-I just haven't met the right person yet!"

Nao drummed her long fingernails against the tabletop, amused.

"Yeah, that's because in the entire six years you've been out of qualifying school, you've only met three people! And that would be Mai, Mikoto and myself!"

Choosing to ignore her taunting supervisor, Natsuki lay down again on the wheel board, slide herself back under the massive steel vehicle and continued her work.

A few hours had passed and Nao was bored; opting to ignore her paperwork and instead draw little scribbles featuring herself as spiderman and webbing up bad guys when a sudden shout from Natsuki scared the crap out of her and made her jump in her seat.

Screwing up the paper and removing her reading glasses, Nao rolled backwards in her chair and peered around the desk to Natsuki's prone form whose legs were visible poking out from beneath the sleigh.

"Oi, what's up mutt? Don't tell me you cut yourself on the blades again? Idiot."

Natsuki rolled back out and grinned up at her somewhat friend.

"No, I just finished something awesome."

Nao raised one thin red eyebrow as she tossed Natsuki a curious glance.

Getting up, Natsuki wiped her hands on her pant legs and walked around the sleigh to the front controllers, reaching in and running her fingers over a tiny black gearstick poking out of the main console.

Nao snorted.

"Oh yes, awesome. You found the controls. You want a medal, Natsuki?"

Shooting a glare at her unimpressed supervisor, Natsuki walked to the back of the sleigh and pointed out two huge new exhaust tubes protruding from beneath the engine.

"See these? I installed them. To put it bluntly for a technological moron like you Nao, you can think of them as turbo boosters."

Nao leaned back in her chair and stretched.

"You're the moron, Kuga you grease monkey. The old geezer already has the ability to bend time in order to make a round-globe trip in a few hours, he doesn't even need boosters."

Although Nao said this whilst stifling a yawn, in order to further portray her boredom, Natsuki answered her with another mysterious smirk that put her on edge.

"Yeah, but haven't you been watching T.V lately? All the rise in pollution and stuff is making it near-impossible for him to circumnavigate at his usual flight distance, and having to travel even lower leaves him at
risk of being seen, right?"

Nao just groaned and rubbed her face tiredly.

"Sorry, I have better things to spend my allowance on then that ridiculous television, unlike some people with no life."

Natsuki huffed, and Nao continued.

"Anyway, like I said, the man can bend time. No mortal eye is ever going to be able to see him flying around, even if he was only travelling a few feet above the ground! And besides, who on earth would be awake and walking the streets on Christmas eve?"

Natsuki leaned against the sleigh.

"You're right, no mortal eye can see him. His ability protects him from being seen by humans that may happen to out and about at night. However,"

She drew Nao's attention here.

"Surveillance cameras, Traffic cameras, plane-tracing cameras? Nao, this is the digital age! All this technology is a threat to our secrecy! Not even time bending can escape the view of a camera... notice how in
recent years there's been more reports of UFO's? It won't be long before someone pieces it together or at least gets a clear enough shot to see that it's a giant sleigh being pulled by flying reindeer, especially since he's being forced to fly lower and lower each year 'cause of the smog blanket!"

Nao was silent for a few moments before voicing out a question.

"... So, these turbos of yours can move fast enough to avoid that?"

"That's exactly right. And The Boss's time-bending will allow him to still maintain control over the sleigh."

"What about the reindeer?"

"Pfft, won't even need them! Not once I install the floodlights, anyway" Natsuki smiled, secretly thanking Suzushiro for the suggestion.

After a few moments, Nao began to laugh. Then she laughed some more. At first Natsuki thought she was being mocked, by was surprised when Nao jumped out of her chair and slung her arm around her shoulders.

"Kuga! You've done it! This invention will send us straight to the top!" She looked... genuinely excited? It was rare for Natsuki to see such a joyful expression on Nao's face.

"I knew you had brains in there somewhere, mutt! You've made us famous!"

Natsuki eyed her supervisor warily, a hint of teasing in her green eyes.

"What do you mean by "Us?" You never helped me once! At all!"

"I'm your supervisor! I worked diligently to support you in your work!"

"Hehe, Riiiight. Whatever."

Natsuki couldn't help but let out a small smile as she watched Nao dance back over to her desk, the red-haired girl snatching and ripping up her paperwork throwing it around like confetti.

"You know what this means, Kuga?!"

"Fame?"

"YES! And no more paperwork! No more meetings! We'll be rich! Hahahahaha!"

While her superior was busy celebrating, Natsuki walked back around to the front of the vehicle and jumped over the side, settling into the driver's seat. It was huge, and roomy. The back of the sled was left completely empty, where the presents were gonna sit. Instead of the reins that would normally be attached to the reindeer's harnesses, Natsuki looked at the two pulleys she had installed beneath the dashboard.

Simple, really. Pull right to go right, left for left. Looking at the panel of different switches and buttons before her, Natsuki mapped out mentally what each one did.

Let's see... there's the button that plays the "sleigh bells" mp3 soundbite through the loudspeakers... Here's his bluetooth adapter which connects to his wireless headset and projects his "Ho! Ho!" through the speakers too.... there's the blinker lights, the radio... this is where I'll probably install the headlight switch...

Lastly, her gaze fell to the tiny, unimportant-looking toggle switch that she had been admiring earlier.

The ignition.

Natsuki had designed it to have 3 different settings. Sitting in the fully upwards position, as it was now, was stationary mode. Flicking it down one level would start the engines as per normal, allowing for hover mode which usually would aid the reindeer in the initial blast off.

Pushing that switch to face directly downwards, however, would kick in Natsuki's twin pride and joys.

Feeling a sudden daring overcome her, Natsuki called out to her supervisor.

"Hey Nao, hit the roller switch would you?"

Nao, completely engrossed in her own plans of wealth, absent-mindedly reached out to the panel on the wall near her desk and hit one of the buttons. The large door to the garage began to open.

Flicking the switch midway, Natsuki felt the engines beneath her begin to hum as the vehicle began to hover, titlting unsteadily with Natsuki's weight as she eagerly shifted from side to side. Feeling her
adrenaline-junkie side kicking in, Natsuki's love for the thrill of speed blinded her judgement. Nao was quick to come to her senses though, and she gaped at Natsuki in disbelief.

"Wha... What the hell Kuga?! What are you doing?!"

"I'm just taking it for a test drive."

"But, do you even know how to drive that thing-!?"

It was too late, anyway. Natsuki had already reached out and pushed the stick down. With a few seconds of no movement accompanied by a deafening roar as the engines started up, there was a blinding flash of light before Natsuki, along with the sleigh, disappeared completely from Nao's view.

Okay, now Natsuki's Adrenaline-Junkie Mode had cowered and fled, leaving her in Hysterically Terrified Mode as she was flattened against her seat, the wind and snow pushing against her so forcefully that she had trouble even reaching her hand to try and get to the controls.

CRAP! I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die up here! I'M SO STUPID! I can't control this thing because I can't time-bend! Damnit!

Turning her head against the onslaught of wind of snowflakes, the engineer elf felt a stab of pity for Dr. Frankenstein, the man whose beloved creation had also turned out to be a murdering monster, as she
futilely clawed at the dashboard.

Feeling her hand grip onto one of the pulleys, Natsuki tightened her fist around the plastic and yanked with all her might.

Bad idea. She nearly slid right out of the side of the vehicle as it jerked to the right and continued hurtling through the sky. Now pressed up directly against the edge of the sleigh, Natsuki took a deep breath and forced herself to peer down over the side to at least try and get an rough idea of where she was.

All she saw was inky blackness flying below her, it was nearly impossible to even make out any kind of streetlights due to both the fact that she was moving so fast, and at the height she was travelling.

In an effort to get lower, Natsuki reached out with her foot since her hands were pinned to her sides by the wind and used her heel to kick one of the pulleys downwards, feeling a sudden shift in her direction as the sleigh began to descend at a gradual pace.

Despite the biting cold, Natsuki felt herself sweating and she realised what was going to happen to her unless she acted quickly. If I keep moving in this direction I'm going to eventually crash to the ground!

Taking one more look over the side, Natsuki was overwhelmed to see what appeared to be thousands of tiny white dots rushing up at her, getting bigger and bigger with each passing second.

It must be... a city! Civilisation! At least I'm not going to crash into the ocean!

Fearing her imminent demise if she continued at this speed, Natsuki put all of her strength into reaching out for the dashboard, and and felt a rush of joy when she felt the familiar protrusion of the little black switch.

Hooking her thumb underneath it, Natsuki flicked the dangerous little gear to it's upmost postion, nearly crying in happiness as she heard the engines begin to die down. Now that the wind wasn't so vicious, Natsuki was able to turn her head back to face the front and she saw that she was flying downwards, at a level so low that she could even make out the different models of the cars she saw parked in people's garages.

Sliding forward and grasping the pulleys, she gently raised them up and levelled out the sleigh, so that it was now cruising along the sky at a comfortable speed, sighing in relief as she glanced below to see that she was travelling just above roof level.

Although aware of the danger of being spotted, even though it was painfully early in the morning and not many would be awake, Natsuki didn't quite have the courage just yet to raise the sleigh any higher.

After her near death experience, she merely wanted to sink back into the leather cushioned seat, calm her racing down a bit as the sleigh gradually got slower and slower.

... Wait, slower? Oh right, no engines. Crap.

Natsuki had barely time to think clearly before the vehicle came to a stop altogether and plummeted downwards.

There was a loud crash, lots of debris and clouds of wall plaster as the sleigh partially demolished a house with it's fall.

One room of the house was entirely caved in from the impact - The kitchen, Natsuki guessed as she coughed and managed to make out a stove that was now covered in chunks of plaster and twisted metal beams.

Jumping out of the sleigh, Natsuki hurriedly walked out of the kitchen and went to go and check the other rooms in the house.

Oh god, Oh god, I hope it was only the kitchen I damaged... Argh! What if I've killed someone?! What if there are small children living here?! What if someone sees me?!

With one arm over her face to block out the rising dust from the ruined kitchen, Natsuki quickly checked the living room and bathroom of the small house.

So far so good... looks like the rest of the house is ok. Maybe these people are on vacation or something?

Glancing into the final room, Natsuki surveyed the bedroom. It was empty. She strode in, grabbing the covers and pulling them back to make sure that there was no-one underneath.

Empty.

Theoretically, Natsuki knew that no-one would be able to sleep through a crash like that and therefore was just making absolute sure that the house empty. Except, she realised with a start as she let go of the blankets, that they were warm.

Someone had been lying here just a few minutes ago...

Suddenly, a soft and warm body pressed up against her back, Natsuki letting out a startled yelp as she was pushed face-first onto the bed. Lying in the tangle of covers, Natsuki's subconscious couldn't help but starkly feel the presence of two soft breasts flattened against her back, her hands pinned between both of their bodies.

Turning her head sideways to breathe, Natsuki struggled and tried to look over her shoulder and face her attacker.

"Oi! Let me go! What're you doing?!"

Natsuki froze as she felt a blade being pressed to her throat, eyes becoming wide as she breathed shallowly. Her attacker breathed like this also, warm puffs of air brushing Natsuki's cheek because of their close proximity.

Natsuki felt a lock of the other girl's silky hair slide across her neck as she shifted above Natsuki and moved to whisper directly into her pointed ear with a soft, lilting accent.

"Tell me, Alien, where are you from and what are you doing in my house?"

Preview for next time:

"I'm not a bloody alien! I'm not!"

"Well, Stranger-san, then what's with the pointed ears and the spacecraft, hmm?"

"I... Shut up! They're not that pointed, damnit! And it's not a spacecraft, it's a sleigh!"

".... A-ara, is that right..."

Next chapter, Natsuki is forced to escape as neighbours and safety services surround Shizuru's house, leaving the elf no choice but to drag the girl back to the North Pole with her to keep their secret existence safe. Back at the factory, Natsuki convinces Nao not to tell anyone about the test drive fiasco while at the same time trying to keep the human girl hidden from her friends and co-workers.

A/N: A.k.a hardship on Natsuki's part. Hahaha. I'm hoping to finish this fic by christmas if you guys think it's a good enough idea.

Tell me what you reckon. :D

Leave any questions, reviews or comments!