A Halo Christmas [Halo Universe]

5

On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me five golden rings.

Jun drowsily opened his door, still rubbing at his eyes as he did so and yawned. He was surprised to see Retania's child standing there before his doorway, holding up a small light green box with a bright green ribbon wrapped around it. Half of his mind barked out a warning; he was standing there in underwear that was decorated with brightly colored Christmas lights. The child gawked at him in absolute horror.

"What's this?" Jun asked as he stretched.

"Why is there hair on your body?"

"Okay," Jun snapped, ripping away the box that was in the little Sangheili's hands with a sigh. "I'm going to assume that this is for me because you're at my door and that it's mine. Kid, ask your momma those questions."

He shut the door and placed the box on his orange covers, head tilting to the side as he tried to figure out what exactly was there before him. His fingers played with the tag with his name written on it that was hanging from the ribbon. "You have hair on you're body. Good gosh kid, are you blind or too innocent?" His rambling turned to the present. "If you're from Mike, I'm gonna burst a vein." How many times had Mike played a joke on him this week alone? At least seven times it felt like. The last one had been the worst; Mike had baked cookies and had put laxatives in it. That had not been a good night.

After staring at the box for a few minutes, chewing at the inside of his mouth, he sighed and shrugged. "I doubt there's anything worse that he could possibly do," he mumbled to himself as he unwrapped the present.

Jun was surprised to say the least when nothing exploded from it. He cautiously peered over the box with pursed lips, wondering slightly if there might have be something else buried inside. All he saw was golden paper. Still mumbling to himself, he slowly -just to make sure- pulled away the golden paper and ducked quickly, making sure that there was nothing there. When there was only a silence that greeted him and he looked up another inch, still unsure of what might happen still. He was stunned to see five pieces of chocolate situated in the box.

Definitely not a joke from Mike.

However, just to make sure, he picked up a piece of chocolate and examined it carefully. It was circular shape and looked just like a golden ring. A smile burst across his face when he saw the note, after tossing one of the chocolate pieces into his mouth, and immediately recognized Annabelle's artistic ability. No matter how hard Mike could try, he would never be able to copy her writing or drawing. He opened the letter, crunching thoughtfully on the chocolate, and began reading.

And smiled.

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