Christmas Wishes
Toby perched himself on the footboard of the bed like a gargoyle, balanced on the balls of his feet and arms folded over his knees. It had taken him a while to hunt down his target; who on earth took a nap in the middle of the night? Crazy people, that’s who!
“Pssst, Masky!”
He was for the most part ignored. Masky sound asleep and sprawled out over the bed like a starfish. A big starfish. The biggest starfish in the world. How big did starfish get?
“Hey Masky. Mask. Maskers. Masketti. Maskovitch. Ma-”
“What Toby?”
“I got a question. About the baby.”
“And?”
“If we’re keeping him, and he’s ours forever, no take backs, what're we doing about Christmas?”
Masky lifted his head to squint up at him. Actual mask removed and hooked over the headboard, Toby could see the frown rather than infer it from his tone.
“Same thing we always do Pinky. Bitch about the cold weather and kill people.”
“Yes! But no. I mean, what're we doing about Santa Claus and reindeer and presents. We’re doing presents right? Nothing better than a pile of presents on Christmas morning! But who’s bringing the presents? Elf on the shelf is creepy as fuck, let’s skip that.”
“Toby.”
“If he believes in Santa, will the fat man actually visit? Is there a Santa Claus?”
“Toby.”
“Krampus is way cooler but he’s more of a scare tactic than a gift giver.”
Masky lifted a foot and kicked Toby in the kneecap. Not very hard but enough to knock him off balance and send him flailing to the floor.
Toby made a very bad Gargoyle.
Goggles gone crooked across his face, Toby sat up and peered over the foot of the bed at the eldest Proxy. “So…. Santa?”
“What did Eyeless say? Or Jeff? They’re in charge of the rugrat.”
“Haven't asked yet cause I might need backup if they say no! How do you say no to Santa? Everyone loves Santa! Those Santa-hating bastards.. We should stake them.”
Masky rubbed a hand over his face. “For fuck’s sake Toby…”
Toby clambered up onto the bed and crawled up the mattress to flop down beside Maskless Masky. “I’m just saying, Santa is important to little kids. Don’t you remember Santa?”
“What do I have to agree to to make you go away?”
Toby hmmmed thoughtfully.