𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗥𝗙𝗔𝗟𝗟

secret santa

"ANOTHER year, another Secret Santa draw," Rapunzel said, as she prepared the H.A.T.

      This year was going to be different, she didn't want to say that she rigged Secret Santa, but she kind of adjusted the H.A.T. machine to pair blue and yellow capsules, and yours and Varian were the only ones of the colour in the machine.

       "Are you sure that this is a good idea?" Eugene asked Rapunzel because she didn't always have the best ideas of getting people together as much as she loved it.

       "Eugene, it will be great. The holidays are all about kindness and compassion towards others and if those two use those virtues for gifts for one another, they might just..."

        "Sunshine, as much as I love your enthusiasm, not everyone in Corona needs someone special by their side. I mean look at Old Lady Crowley and Monty, they're um, they're perfectly fine without anyone." Eugene tried to contradict.

        "It's already done, all we need if everyone to come here for the Secret Santa draw," Rapunzel said, then she got out of her room and had Stan and Pete bring the H.A.T. down to Corona's square. "Corona, I know that times have seemed to be a little difficult and we're all attempting to find a way back on our feet, so I've decided to host a community-wide, Secret Santa!"

         No one cheered although the princess was extremely cheerful for the gift exchange. "Come on guys! This is going to be really exciting! Whoever's name you get, you have to give them a gift, and you can't tell anyone who you are going to give a gift to because it's a secret."

         The H.A.T. made noises as it sorted and picked names. You looked as the line got shorter and shorter as the people went into a grouping and then left as their name was chosen. Rapunzel and Eugene were giving out the capsules separately just to make sure things went by easier and when you went up there you realized that it wasn't much of a Secret Santa it was more of a not-so-secret-gift-exchange because the H.A.T. was used to make partners, not give out capsules.

         You looked at the name in your capsule, knowing that the person who owned the name would be looking for a gift for you. Varian. Even though you were really good friends, you had never really given each other a gift before. As Rapunzel handed out the Secret Santa pairs you asked her, "How long does everyone get to give a gift."

         Rapunzel took breaks as she handed out capsules in her speech, "Everyone. Thank you for participating. Gets. Thank you. A. Happy Holidays. Week. Thanks." You sighed, a whole week wouldn't be bad, right?

         SIX DAYS LATER

         It had been six days and your brain had thought of a single good idea.

         How hard could it have been from thinking about a gift to give someone you like? Then you rushed out and found a bunch of things to help you make a gift for Varian. You created a bag that would make it easier for him to put all of his different alchemical solutions in, you knew that he always got them all mixed up inside of the satchel he had now.

          It took you the whole day and you were so tired after all of the hard work you had put in, but it was worth it, you felt like you had done a good job.

          THE DAY OF THE EXCHANGE

          You waited anxiously for Rapunzel to ring the Secret Santa bell so you could begin exchanging gifts. Once the bell was rung and Rapunzel talked all about how excited she was that the whole kingdom was coming together you ran to find where Varian had gone so you could hand him his gift.

          "This was a very strange thing to do, I mean it was kind of just a gift exchange between two people, not the entire kingdom, and um...did you get the sense that Rapunzel rigged the H.A.T.?" Varian asked you when you found him.

          "Uh, yeah I kind of got that sense too." You somehow couldn't stop blushing even though you were just talking, maybe it was just because you bet Rapunzel was somewhere watching the scene play in front of her eyes.

          "So here's your gift," Varian said handing you something wrapped in brown paper.

          "Here's yours, it's not wrapped because I may or may not have just finished it last night." You said, giving Varian the bag that you had made him.

          "What is this?" you said holding a quill with some ink in a jar.

          "It's a sodium bicarbonate ink, it writes invisible, but when you add a special light to it, the compound in a small cylinder, the message will appear," Varian explained. Varian opened the bag to look at it more, there were tons of different pockets and places that could hold different types of cylinders, beakers, and papers.

          "That's so cool!" you said giving him a hug. "Mine's not as cool, unfortunately. It's a bag, that you can use to hold whatever you want. I made it because I know that you get all of your things disorganized."

          "I wouldn't say that I...okay, maybe I do. Thanks for the gift."

          "Thanks for the pen, it will keep all of my secrets safe. Not that I would need to keep secrets from you," you said.

          "Um, thanks for the bag," Varian said, and you both were about to say goodbye, but it seemed like you were both waiting for someone to instead not walk away, but get closer. You ran up to him and kissed him on the cheek before you said goodbye.

          "Bye," Varian responded back and then you realized that you weren't the only person blushing.

          "See it worked!" Rapunzel said to Eugene.

          "Okay, okay, I believe you now."

          "Aren't the two of them just the cutest?" Rapunzel said.

          "Come on Sunshine, let's go home," Eugene said.

authors note

Yeah, so maybe I did like that prompt. Tbh I had my doubts.

1016 words, November 24th

1022 words, edited May 1st