The Santa Clause Fanfic

Preparing for Christmas

Returning to the North Pole felt like coming home after a long overdue vacation. Merry's smile grew the moment she and the others arrived at the place she could finally call "home." Charlie and Merry glanced at one another with smiles on their faces. "Race you to the workshop?" asked Merry
"You're on!" said Charlie, getting a head start while his sister chases after him. They both laughed with glee as Bernard and Santa watched with smiles on their faces. "Well they seem to settle in pretty quick" said Santa, "So, what do I have to do?"
"First of all, we need to make sure you checked the list twice" said Bernard, "Then we need to make a few updates on your suit, along with your sleigh, make sure Merry has her magic down in time for Christmas, and Charlie might as well help along while he's here"

When Merry and Charlie arrive at the workshop, both of them collapse on top of a pile of stuffed animals, catching their breaths from all the running that's happened. "Did I win?" asked Charlie
"I don't know," said Merry, "But who cares? We're back in the North Pole, that's all that matters"
"Yeah"
"Welcome back, Charlie, Merry" said a female voice, it was Judy the elf attendant.
"Judy!" said Charlie, "Boy, am I glad to see you"
"It's great to see you again, Judy" said Merry
"Likewise" said Judy, "We have everything ready for you, Merry"
"Ready? For me?"
"Of course, Bernard made sure of it"
Judy winks at the teen before helping Charlie off the stuffed animals and guides him to the reindeer to visit Comet.

Merry was confused until another elf came forward and guided her to her room. Upon arrival, clothes were assorted with many colors and styles for the teen to choose from, books of spells and incantations, even a few welcome presents from the other elves. Once the elf left. Merry went straight to clothes, figuring out which one would best suit her as an elf. Most of the outfits didn't really suit her, but then she came up with an idea. She took some of the curtains and blankets to make her own dress in shades of blue and white, even adding a few jewels for some flare. Once Merry finished making her outfit, she tried it on and faced the large crystal mirror. It was a velvet blue dress with snowflake and sparkled sequences to show a winter feel, complete with a cute matching hood with white fur lining, even along the edge of the skirt. She then glanced at the tinsel on the side of the dresser, an idea popped into her head.

Merry sits down and starts adding the tinsel to her hair, having a bit of trouble since it was rather tricky to tie tinsel into long dark hair. It wasn't until she felt a pair of hands gently touch her own, Bernard steps in to help Merry with her hair. "So this is what you've been doing, Sugarplum?" he asked, braiding the tinsel in her hair.
Merry blushed, "Not just that"
"I can see that" Bernard glanced at the many pieces of cloth scattered around the table by the sewing tools. The head elf removed his hands once he was done prepping the teen's hair, showing beautifully braided pieces of hair and half her hair up to show off her long elf ears. Merry smiled and glanced at Bernard, "It's beautiful, Bernard" she said, "Thank you"
"No problem, Sugarplum" he said, offering his hand to her, "Shall we begin today's lesson?"
Merry smiled and kindly took the head elf's hand, following him to start their magic lessons.

As Christmas is drawing near, Merry is just about done with magic lessons and often helps Charlie, along with the elves, preparing for their father to make his big debut as the new Santa Claus. Charlie was helping with the sleigh while Merry was working on the suit with Judy. Every once in a while, the teen would occasionally steal a glance at a certain elf walking by Santa and smile softly to herself before going back to work. Judy notices this and leans in towards Merry, "You really like Bernard, don't you?" she asked
Merry nearly pricks her finger with the needle in her hand and glances at Judy in shock, "What? No" she lied, "Wha-what makes you say that? Bernard's just helping me with my magic and stuff"
"Mhm~ I can see that"
Merry blushed and went back to working on Santa's boots, trying her best to hide it with her long dark and tinsel hair.

Right on cue, Bernard and Santa arrive to see the upgrades on his suit when Christmas Eve rolls around. The elves came up with a red heat-resistant and fireproof jumpsuit so when people leave their fireplace on at night, the jolly old man wouldn't be harmed. Judy even says that he could wear it underneath the suit. But Santa's biggest concern was falling off a roof on Christmas like the last Santa. "Don't worry, Dad" said Merry, "I got you covered"
The teen presents a set of black boots to her father, "These have excellent gripping technology that allows you to walk on anything from snow, ice, and rain. It also happens to be soundproof, so a creature won't be stirring, not even a mouse"
She kindly placed the boots down for Santa to try on, which fit perfectly and even stomped on the floor a few times to make sure it was soundproof. Santa smiled and hugged his daughter, "Thanks, sweetheart" he said
"No problem, big guy"

Bernard walks towards Merry once Santa takes his leave to check up on Charlie, a proud smile on his face, "You finally did it" he said
"Did what?" asked Merry
"You're an official elf now, which means you and I are gonna be pretty busy"
"Luckily, I have a great teacher to help me out~"
Merry gives Bernard a flirtatious wink before heading towards the stables, leaving Bernard blushing like a bright red Christmas light. He turns toward the giggling elves who witnessed the scene, only to immediately go back to work once they made eye contact with the head elf. Bernard sighed and marched out of the workshop toward the staples. Upon arriving, he sees Merry and Charlie talking and feeding the reindeer, making sure they had plenty of food before the journey. The smile on Merry's face filled Bernard's heart with joy, even when she was playfully ruffling her brother's head after feeding Comet a carrot.

"I saw that" said Quintin, head elf of research and development, smirking at Bernard
"Excuse me?" asked Bernard
"Oh come on, Bernard, you obviously like Merry. Can't say I blame you, she's very pretty for an elf, even when she was human. If I had the chance, I would"
Bernard glares at Quintin, "This is no time for flirting"
"Only joking, don't be jealous"
Quintin leaves the stables while Bernard huffs and glances back at Merry, seeing her leave with Charlie to the other side of the stables. He wondered why he was acting this way towards Quintin, was this what humans called 'jealousy' or something else? Whatever it was, no time to focus on that, Christmas was coming, and it had to be perfect.