Reindeer House pt.4

“Please, Mrs. Claus!! Just one more gingerbread man? I promise I’ll brush my teefies really well, an’ I won’t get any cavities or anything!!” Kyuupiddo’s eyes were impossibly round, glossy with angelic hope. His tiny hands hovered near his face like trembling paws, the picture of pure, needy sweetness.

“Oh… okay!! But you promise not to tell, right, Kyuu-chan?”

“Promise!! Thank you, Mrs. C!!” He rose onto tiptoes, placed a sugary kiss on her cheek, and skipped away with his enormous biscuit clutched like treasure.

No one really knew how this tiny deer had ever passed the tests to join Santa’s elite sleigh team. Petite, cherubic, gentle… the words “cute but weak” came to mind. His fashion didn’t help — oversized button-up shirt, giant red bow, tiny black shorts. His antlers were mere nubs. Everything about him screamed awww.

And yet…

Sometimes the others were vaguely, quietly unsettled.

Not because he was small.

Not because he was sweet.

Not even because of the bow.

But rather because dangerous objects had a habit of… materialising in his hands. All the time. Everywhere.

Not that he ever used them — he usually handed them off to Rudorufu or Donaa like lost-and-found items — but still. Matches. Knives. Graters. Scissors. Lighters. Various power tools. A chainsaw that one time. Where was he even getting them?

“Kyuu-chan?”

“Yes, Bikku-senpai?” Kyuupiddo looked up from his gingerbread and the Christmas sweets magazine he was studying like a treasure map. Bikkusen was casually buffing his silver, snow-resistant, windproof, glamour-polished nails, but his attention slid toward the tiny deer. “Darling, where do you keep finding all those… dangerous things?”

“...Umm, I dunno!! Around, I guess!!”

“Yes yes, but specifically where?”

Kyuupiddo’s watery eyes widened even more. Distracting. Beguiling. Alarming. “Where? I mean… wh-where is anything, really?”

Bikkusen paused and processed that absurd answer. Glitter caught the light in a dramatic flare. “…Sweetheart, that sounds to me like you’re prevaricatiiing~!!”

“—!! A-anyway!! I need another biscuit!!” And before Bikkusen could blink, Kyuupiddo had hopped up and scampered out of the room in a flurry of sugar crumbs.

A blatant dodge of an extremely simple question.

Slightly worrying.

…Very worrying.

To be continued...