Summary: The sides do a Secret Santa... fluff and mild chaos ensue
Pairings: Platonic DRLAMP, Dukeceit/Demus, Logicality, Prinxiety
Warnings: A little bit of self-deprecating thoughts at the beginning, and some Remus being Remus
Genre: Fluff fluff fluff!
@multi-fandoms-posts - Thanks for the suggestion! I took some creative liberties but this is based on a suggestion they gave me.
@voltsm - Thanks for the encouragement! This person is an INCREDIBLE artist, I highly recommend looking at their amazing amazing blog!
A/N: This is the first Sanders Sides one shot I've written in a while, but I think it turned out well! Please don't repost on different websites, but reblogs are greatly appreciated!
Remus paced his room, growling in frustration. His mind wandered back to the conversation all the sides had earlier.
"Let's do a Secret Santa!" Patton had said, looking like he was going to burst from excitement.
Roman nodded enthusiastically. "That's a great idea, padre!"
"I'm up for it if you guys are," Virgil replied with a shrug.
"I do believe that doing a Secret Santa could be beneficial to our mental and emotional health," said Logan, pushing up his glasses.
All of them looked at Janus and Remus, catching both of them off guard.
"You'd really be okay with us joining?" Remus asked.
"Of course! We are famILY, after all!" Patton responded happily. Remus looked at Janus, who simply shrugged.
"I think the Secret Santa is an awful idea and wouldn't like to participate," Janus said with a small smirk.
"Why not!" Remus happily agreed.
Yet here he was now, flopping on his bed, and ironically out of ideas. He summoned something to eat, and wasn't sure if it was deodorant, a sandwich, or some ungodly abomination of both. At this point he didn't care.
He stared at the faint strip of paper labeled "Janus." Each of them had grabbed a paper from Janus's hat, and Remus had been pretty excited when he got the name of his best friend. Until he couldn't figure out what to get him.
"I'm CREATIVITY, and I've been his friend the longest! I should know what to get him!" he angrily muttered to himself. "Who am I kidding... I'm just intrusive thoughts."
"Hey Rem-" Roman said, rising up in his brother's room. He instantly stopped when he saw the poorly disguised bags under Remus's eyes. "...you okay?"
"Not really," Remus mumbled into his blankets, "why'd you come?"
Roman paused for a second. "Wellll I was having some trouble coming up with a gift for the person I got, so I was wondering if you could help. However, it looks like your having some trouble too."
Remus looked up at Roman, noticing the bags he had under his eyes as well.
"Creative block," they both muttered at the same time.
Remus laughed for the first time in days. "Wow, even the creativity gets it," he said with a teasing smirk.
"I think you mean creativities. We are both creativity, after all!" Roman happily replied. He began ranting about something he was trying to make, but Remus didn't hear a word.
Both creativity, he thought as he began to smile again, he thinks we're both creativity?
"Rem? Remus?" Roman asked.
"Oh, sorry! What'd you say? Remus asked, snapping out of his thoughts.
"What should I get Virgil?" Roman asked again.
"Yeah, Gerard Gay isn't the best at dropping hints at what he wants."
"Hm... what do you know he likes? Put yourself in his shoes. Or his-"
"MUSIC HE LIKES MUSIC!" Roman quickly interrupted. "He likes listening to music!"
Remus laughed a loud, full, laugh, making Roman smile and laugh a little as well. "If you were Virgil, what would you want?"
Roman pondered the question for a couple minutes, then suddenly shot up with an idea. "OH! I KNOW WHAT TO GET HIM! Thanks Remus!"
"No problem Roman, just remember to-" Remus began, then looked at Roman who narrowed his eyes in suspicion, "toooooo... wish him a Merry Christmas!"
"Nice save," Roman chuckled, making Remus beam. "Do you want some help figuring out what to give who you have?"
Remus sighed, mumbling a tired "I don't know," into his pillows.
"Hm... well just remember what you told me," Roman said, "what would you want if you were them?" Remus opened his mouth with a mischevious smirk, to which Roman added, "rule of thumb, if you wouldn't want Patton to get mad or pass out, don't give it as a gift." Remus immediately shut his mouth.
Remus sighed and groaned into his pillow, exhausted from having no ideas.
"Let's see... you can make things, summon things-" Roman started.
"Wait, summon things, like animals?" Remus asked.
"Of course! If you wanted to, that is. Although I'd suggest not making it lethal," Roman replied with a smile.
Remus grinned. "Thanks Ro, I think I have an idea!"
"That's great! Let me know if you'd like any help!"
Remus smiled to himself as Roman left, carefully working on his idea for Janus. He was certain it would be amazing.
"CHRISTMAS, CHRISTMAS, CHRISTMAS!" Patton excitedly shouted, waking everyone up in the process.
Patton had insisted on a sleepover on Christmas Eve, and none of them had the heart to deny the request.
Virgil yawned, failing to hide the small smile on his face as he noticed Roman stretch, hair messily falling down on his face.
"Nice bedhead Princey," Virgil teased.
Roman playfully glared, clutching his heart as if in agony.
"Why, Emo Nightmare, must you wound me like this? How could you DARE insist that, I, PRINCE Roman, have a-" he tilted his head back dramatically, causing him to see his reflection in a mirror and let out a very un-prince like squawk.
"I'll make the hot cocoa and then we can do the Secret Santa!" Patton exclaimed, rushing to the kitchen.
"I can assist you Patton," Logan offered, putting on his glasses.
"Thanks Logie!" Patton replied, making Logan blush at the nickname.
Remus and Janus slowly woke up as well, both a little excited although hesitant admit it.
"Well, this is not how I wanted to be woken up," Janus mumbled to himself with a soft smile on his face, oblivious to a blushing Remus looking at him. When he looked back and saw Remus staring at him, a faint blush spread behind his scales.
"Hey Janus, there's chaos and I didn't cause it!" Remus said, turning away to hide his blush.
"I'm not surprised, and I don't think you'll add to the chaos as soon as you can-" Janus began, only to see Remus already gone and probably eating something inedible.
After the chaos had died down (Roman brushed his hair and they dragged back Remus from eating Christmas lights), it was finally time for the Secret Santa to begin.
"Me first!" Patton said, rushing to grab the gift he had gotten. As soon as he found it he ran back to put it in Logan's lap. "This is my Secret Santa gift to you!"
"Do... do they know what a SECRET Santa is supposed to be?" Janus whispered to Remus who was sitting next to him, raising an eyebrow.
After taking a moment to collect himself, Logan carefully unwrapped the gift. Inside were multiple sci-fi series that he had been looking for.
"I knew you had been looking for those books, so I got them for you!" Patton exclaimed, voice nearly shaking from excitement.
For a moment, Logan was stunned into silence. However, he quickly recovered and replied with "t-thank you Patton, I deeply appreciate the thought put into this. I look forward to reading them."
Patton quietly peeped a quick "you're welcome," butterflies in his chest from the touched look on Logan's face. Logan suddenly turned back around, handing a small wrapped gift to Patton. "It's not the best, but I hope it's satisfactory."
Patton quickly looked up, momentarily caught up in the euphoria of gifts. He tore into the present to find a small, blue, crotche cat with a tiny heart on it's ear.
"Aww, Logan!!! This is purrrr-fect!"
Logan tried to roll his eyes at the pun, but couldn't keep a small laugh from escaping.
"Me next!" Roman sang dramatically, heading over to Virgil with a carefully wrapped gift and taking a seat next to him.
Virgil carefully opened his gift, slowly taking off the tape and removing the wrapping paper. Roman bounced up and down next to him, both in nervousness and excitement.
After what felt like forever to Roman, Virgil pulled out a dark purple set of headphones, with a black thorn pattern carved into them.
"Woah Princey... did you MAKE these?" Virgil asked, completely in shock at the care put into the headphones he held.
"Yep!" Roman responded giddily. "It took a lot of time, but I figured it out! The thorns were a last minute touch though. Oh! And they also block out other sounds, you had mentioned that your current headphones didn't do that a while ago."
Virgil, one of the most reserved sides, looked like he was on the verge of tears. "Thanks... I didn't realize you cared that much Roman," he said quietly, hiding his blushing face in his sleeves and gently leaning against him.
Roman gave him a soft, genuine smile as Virgil leaned against his arm. "Of course Stormcloud!"
"This is your present... it's awful compared to the headphones though..." Virgil mumbled, shyly taking his head out of his hands and giving Roman a shiny red bag with lots of tissue paper.
Roman being Roman, he quickly (and messily) opened up the gift, squealing when he pulled out a thin but elegant red crown. "It's a CROWN, put it on me, put it on me, put it on me!"
Virgil hesitantly put it Roman, who squealed impossibly louder after turning around and seeing his reflection in the mirror. "I love it!!!"
Roman hugged Virgil tightly, and after the initial shock, Virgil relaxed into the hug. To Roman's surprise, he stayed leaning against him even when the hug had ended. He didn't mind.
"Since it isn't obvious who your gift is from now, here's yours Remus," Janus said, handing a rather large bag to Remus.
Remus immediately tore into the bag, clawing his way in through the side instead of taking out the tissue paper. He gasped in astonishment when he pulled out a long, intricate sword, identical to the one of his logo.
"Woahhhh..." he whispered under his breath, admiring the sword. He looked up at Janus, a huge grin on his face. "Thanks!!"
Janus smiled, secretly relieved that Remus did enjoy his gift.
"I have your gift... I just didn't really have a way to wrap it," Remus said, a hint of nervousness in his voice. "So, uh, hold out your hands and close your eyes."
"Remus, is this something appropriate?"
Janus raised an eyebrow but did as Remus had asked. A second later, he heard a collective gasp from around the room, followed by something placed in his hand.
"You can open your eyes now."
Janus slowly opened his eyes, shocked to find a small, yellow snake that fit in the palm of his hand. His eyes widened, and for a brief second his face shone like the universe had been placed in his eyes.
"You like it?" Remus asked.
Janus nodded vigorously, at a loss for words but as absolutely adoring the snake that slithered in his hand.
After opening the rest of the gifts, all the sides stayed together for a Christmas movie night. Patton was asleep on a dreaming Logan, and Virgil was asleep against a sleepy Roman who wrapped his arms around him.
"Hey, Janus?" Remus asked, yawning.
"Did... did you really like my gift?"
Janus smiled a true, genuine smile, reserved oy for Remus, and kissed Remus's forehead softly, making them both blush. "I loved it."
As Remus soon fell asleep against Janus, the slimey snake boi only had one thought.
Rigging the Secret Santa was definitely worth it.