BOOM! Special oneshot with the padoru girl. Had to draw her myself because I couldn't find an HD pic of Nero on her own wearing a christmas outfit. Hope it's good enough 🗿

P.S.: I literally don't know anything about Fate, I just be using her because of the meme.

P.S.S.: Follow me on my insta art account where I barely post anything @dante_the_lapiz

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"Yes. Yes, I will. Thank you. Merry Christmas to you too."

The phone is hung up, and so you return to what you were originally doing before getting the phone call.

Nothing.

The person who was just on a call with one of their coworkers, that's you.
Who are you, exactly?
Well you, the reader, (you're probably sitting on the couch, or maybe you're sitting on the toilet, or perhaps you might be in a car as a passenger heading somewhere, or you could be lying on your bed in your personal 'sleeping chamber'), are doing absolutely nothing but reading this story on your phone, because I honestly don't know of anybody who reads these on their computer. Take no offense if you do, it's just a very unusual occurrence.

By now, you must be wondering: Where's the wholesomeness? That pleasant feeling of warmth and joy received after reading these sorts of brief, cute, stories that you, the reader, desperately yearn. If you didn't desire such a feeling, then you wouldn't be here.

If you weren't reading this, you would probably be off doing better things—something that can produce that exact same feeling of happiness instead of relying on others, like the kind but very much small brained author of this book, to do it for you.
Or you would be doing absolutely nothing, like this other version of you, who after getting a very short call from a coworker who also had nothing to do but to wish their peer a 'Merry Christmas', felt alone with their thoughts and no one to celebrate this day with. Not like this you celebrated it anyway, at least not since you decided to live alone in a normal apartment in a normal city.

Your life was... mundane. Your phone's alarm would wake you up. That standard chime that you've not changed since you purchased the phone would force you to leave the comfort of your bed, and then you'd go to the bathroom and get yourself all cleaned, then get dressed, then walk to work.
You do the work, and after several of hours of just work, you would walk the same path you took to go to work, but the other way, in order to go home. You change to your pajamas, grab some snacks from your kitchen and sit down to watch some anime or some youtube videos from your favorite content creators. After that? Sleep.
Then, your phone's alarm would wake you up... I'm sure you get the memo, so let's skip to today.

*Christmas Eve*

After receiving that phone call from your coworker, you simply turned on the TV and watched whatever was on there. Of course, there was usually nothing interesting on there, so you grabbed your laptop and connected it to your TV in order to watch one of those 'okay' seasonal anime so you would not feel bored. You checked your phone, but no messages, only the social media notifications from the people you follow and the time displayed, bigger than the rest of the things on the device's screen.
It was like a grim reminder that you only had so much time before you went back to work next week.

But even with that reminder, you didn't do anything. Nothing exciting, nothing risky, nothing different.

You, the reader, and that person sitting on their bed mindlessly staring at the time on their phone while the anime about the cute girls doing cute things played in the background, are one in the same.

There are a couple of obvious differences, but despite that, you are them, and they are you.

Of course, you must be wondering: 'Why the long introduction? No one cares about me, show the cute girl!' Or something along those lines. Today seems to be your lucky day my friend, because that is what is about to happen right... now.

"Pado—ouch!"

A rough and abrupt noise scared you and almost made you drop your phone. It actually did, but it fell on the carpet so you weren't worried. Quickly pausing the show, you tried to listen attentively in case of other weird sounds. There seemed to be some sort of moaning and groaning, like someone was in pain.
You hastily went to grab a knife from your kitchen and entered the living room, where you found your window open and someone rolling around on the floor. You flipped the light switch and, lo and behold, a girl wearing a bright red outfit has unsuccessfully infiltrated your house.

"That hurts... a lot...!"

Y/N: "I—I don't know who you are, b-but I have a knife!"

"Umu!"

The girl, as if the pain that had come from her stubbing her little pinky toe against the table in the middle of the living room has gone, stands up and smiles one of the nicest smiles you've seen. Of course, you were still alert and were most definitely not trusting anybody who entered your apartment the way she did, but you couldn't deny that she was kind of cute.

"I'm Santa Claus! Don't actually stab me, I'm not here to hurt anyone."

Y/N: "Y-You don't look fat. Or old... Or even have a white beard—who are you?"

"Okay! I'm not exactly Santa Claus, but I'm trying my best alright? This whole giving away presents is killing my back!"

You stopped believing in Santa Claus many years ago, when the rude kids at your school reminded everyone that he wasn't real. It didn't really change you much, but it was still an enormous let down to find out that the jolly fat man, or at least the one everyone's familiar with, never existed.

Y/N: "Okay... wait, how do I know you're not lying?"

"Because I am not! Do you happen to have cookies by any chance? I'm kinda hungry."

After getting some time to take it in, you invited the girl over to the kitchen, where you handed her the only cookies you've had, golden oreos. She seemed to like them, so that would make her the only other person that you knew aside from yourself that enjoyed them.

Y/N: "So, you're supposed to give presents to, like, nice children, right?"

"I guess you can say that."

Y/N: "B-But I'm not a child."

"Well, of course you're not, you're Y/N! And I'm not here to exactly give you a present. It's more of a... concept."

Y/N: "A concept?"

Confused by the idea of being given a 'concept' during this night was definitely an interesting thought, and albeit you would have preferred something like an actual object, you weren't going to just neglect this girl's gift so you listened to what she had to say.

"Yep! First, what's your favorite genre of music? Any favorite bands?"

Y/N: "No, not really. I kinda just listen to anything that's around and... accept it, I guess."

After finishing the cookies, the girl asked another question.

"Seriously? Alright, how about favorite food?"

Y/N: "I eat nearly everything."

The girl asked one more question, realizing that you were a lost case that was in need of some serious change, and fast.

"Umm, how about a favorite color? Any color would be fine!"

Y/N: "I don't really have one—"

The girl leaned forward, staring at you with an expression of surprise and a bit of anger as well. She couldn't believe that you were even real, but then again, she sort of knew what she would be dealing with before coming here but was not fully aware that it would be this bad.

"Oh come on! Everyone has a favorite color... that just proves that you're going to need this gift a lot more than you think. Get ready, cuz you'll get hit with it soon, but first!"

She stands up, patting her legs and then looking at you with a smile full of confidence on her face.

"Sleep. We need some sleep."

Y/N: Oh yeah, before that, do you have an actual name? I'm not comfortable with calling you Santa."

"I guess you need that much. My name's Nero, and I'll help you first thing tomorrow morning."

Y/N: "W-Where are you gonna sleep?"

Nero: "On your bed of course! Is there a problem?"

Now with the girl known as Nero, who decided to suddenly barge into your bedroom to try your bed out before you two hit the hay, you sensed that there might have been some intent behind her kindness, maybe to try and sell you a Christmas product of some sort, but at this point it didn't really matter as you've recognized by now that having someone with you made you happy, even if the person you were with was a crazy girl who entered your home without your permission.

And it also made you quite happy sleeping with someone, which is what you two started doing. Sort of. The girl is clinging onto you while you tried to push her away, but the strength of a magical Christmas girl seemed to be greater than yours, so you let it slide and fell asleep with her by your side.

The next day, Christmas day, was filled with what you could've called 'the unexpected'. You and Nero first took a little trip around the city, with the curious eyes of people looking at her since she was wearing a Santa outfit and even some of them approached and started taking pictures with her. The beginning of the day was spent walking around with her, there is really nothing too special besides having someone to hang out with.

Which in turn, was something special, but you didn't notice it at first.

Nero: "How are you doing so far?"

Y/N: "Well, we're doing good, right?"

Nero: "Hmmm, maybe we could... Got it! Come on, come on!"

Nero held your hand and led you to a place that you've never gone to before. It looked like a restaurant, but once inside, the atmosphere of the place seemed too surreal to be true. It was magical, and almost as if you had entered a completely different dimension.

Nero: "Let's eat!"

Y/N: "I've never seen this place before."

Nero: "Well, that's cause this place opened a couple of months ago. I heard the people are extremely nice, so we'll be fine."

After picking a table to sit at, you were quickly attended to by one of the people working at this place. Nero, since she was the one that led you to this place, picked her food and your own to change things up a bit. The food that was brought to you was completely unfamiliar to you, but you ended up enjoying it a lot just as much as Nero enjoyed hers. She also paid for the whole thing afterwards, since it felt like it was up to her to satisfy you to the best of her ability.

You two headed to your next destination, a building that had one of its walls covered some peculiar art of a certain holiday character in a chibi style.

Y/N: "That's you, isn't it?"

Nero: "Yep!"

Y/N: "You look... small."

Nero: "Every artist has their own interpretation. I think I look cute."

Y/N: "That is definitely peculiar."

After boasting her little piece of art, Nero took you back home, or rather, to the top of the tall building next to it to admire the view of the city. And since she was curious, Nero asked what you thought of her, which you replied to with a:

Y/N: "You're pretty cool."

Nero: "That's it? No other thoughts?"

Y/N: "I—I don't really know what to say. What I can say is, thanks for showing me around the city. I lived here for some time now, but I'm seeing things that weren't usually there before."

Nero: "That's because you never look around. You just wander like a ghost. You should live a little!"

Y/N: "I guess you're kinda right."

Nero: "Not kinda, I'm 100% right."

Y/N: "Yeah, sure."

Nero: "Thank you. Now hug me."

Y/N: "Why?"

Nero: "Because I want a hug."

You complied without asking twice, and sure enough the hug actually felt great. And with Nero really holding onto you, a smile crept on your face and a flush of embarrassment made its way onto your now reddish face.

Nero: "You wanna go back now? There might be a present waiting for you at home."

Y/N: "Lead the way."

Upon returning to your apartment, there actually was a present like Nero said, neatly wrapped and patiently sitting on your living room couch, awaiting for someone to open it. You sat down with her and checked to see what was inside. The box contained nothing but a reindeer plushy that you grabbed funny at first before Nero took it from you and placed it right in between the two of you.

Nero: "How are you feeling?"

Y/N: "Strangely happy. I don't know if that's okay to say but... I guess... Thank you for being kind to me during this day."

Nero: "That's what I'm here for! And now, for today's last surprise..."

She pointed at the window, and as if it was straight out of those cheesy Christmas movies, it started snowing outside. You couldn't believe what you were seeing, not even Nero knew what she was doing since this was the first time she used her magical holiday powers to drastically change the weather.

Y/N: "It usually doesn't snow like this. Or at all."

Nero: "Christmas miracles are crazy, right!?"

With the pure white snowflakes falling gracefully from the sky, you really settled down on that couch, and Nero quickly followed as she went ahead and lied down beside you, clinging onto you the same way she did last night but this time you embraced her, and did not let go.

*The Day After Christmas*

You wake up, surprised since you fell asleep on the couch yet woke up on your bed. You turned to see if Nero was around but she wasn't, only a note on your nightstand remained with five simple words written on there: See you at the park.
Realizing that it was 11:00am, you hurried in trying to find some appropriate clothes since there was still snow everywhere due to yesterday's event, and made your way to the closest park. Of course, once you got there, you looked around the winter wonderland that was the local park but there seemed to be no sight of the blonde haired girl. You thought that maybe you arrived too early even though there was no time specified on the note that she had left. Quickly proven wrong, you felt someone tap your left shoulder and you turned to your left, only for Nero to appear on your right side and giggle at you.

Nero: "You're here!"

Your eyes couldn't help but stare at what she was wearing, which were normal winter clothes and not her holiday outfit that she had on for nearly two days now.

Nero: "How do I look? I just got these and I want a good opinion!"

Y/N: "You look... cute. Why did you umm, get rid of the Christmas clothes."

Nero: "Well, since I lost my holiday powers, I also lost the clothes!"

Y/N: "You had powers? Wait, you can lose those powers?"

Nero: "It only comes around every Christmas, so it's a miracle I even get them. Now, I'm just a normal person. Not entirely normal, but I'll tell you my story some other day."

Y/N: "What did you want to do now that we're here?"

Nero: "Well..."

Nero turned around and kneeled down, and just as you were going to check what she was doing...

Nero: "This!"

She quickly turned around and threw a snowball right at your face.

Y/N: "Oh that was... cold. And unexpected."

Nero: "Are you just gonna stand there?"

And so, a legendary snowball fight began. The few people that were around looked at the two of you playing around and smiled. Even after Christmas had ended, that pleasant feeling of joy still lingered, and you couldn't be any more happier.

***

Now, are you satisfied? I'm sure you must be, because if not, then the author must have done a terrible job. Since we've ended our story, I should mention that I have lied earlier by stating that this person—whose life was now a lot better than before thanks to Nero—was you, but now I want to tell you that this person in the story isn't you. Not a single one of these people throughout these many different stories that the author has written are you.

The only person that is you, and only you, is you.

Don't let that discourage you, because these characters are another version of you who had a special person impact their life in a meaningful way. But now, you must do that on your own. Change things up, do that thing you've been wanting to do for so long, or try something you've been afraid to before. If you think you can't do it, then don't think about it, and just do it. Tell your story, or make your own fantastic, fictional pieces of romance or any other genre if that's what you've been wanting to do, whether it's through writing, drawing, or making music.

Change doesn't come in cute girls, or romantic relationships with fictional characters, it comes from within you.

Take this chance now because I promise you, that it will be worth it. Stop just existing and letting things happen, and start living in order to experience life in a way you wouldn't have dared to before.

Chase your dreams and:

Start living. It'll be good for you.

Oh, and happy holidays to everyone. I hope you've gotten a good present, or if none at all, then I send you a big virtual hug from the comfort of my home. Thanks for reading, and I hope we meet again.

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