~ 12 Days to Christmas ~

Heechul tossed the outfit aside. “I’m not wearing that.”

“You love cosplay,” Leeteuk argued, already tugging the bright green leggings on.

“I love cute and funny cosplay. Whatever this is doesn’t count as either of those options,” he crossed arms, giving the outfit a scornful glare. It laid in a crumpled mess on the table.

“Aw, c’mon, don’t be like that,” Siwon clicked his tongue, fitting the pointy hat atop his head. “This is fun! These clothes are also pretty comfortable.” He tugged lightly at the red and white striped vest stretching a little too well over his muscular torso.

Heechul stared.

“I agree! It’s kinda fun.” Henry chimed in, shuffling about the room and looking particularly pleased as the little brass bells on his boots tinkled.

“Okay, but he makes a good point. Why are we wearing these?” Kyuhyun frowned, looking over at Leeteuk whilst Ryeowook helped button the younger man’s vest.

“When you’re guests in another person’s home, you do as they ask. When you’re working at someone else’s company, you wear the company uniform. Isn’t that correct?” Leeteuk grimaced. “We are Santa’s elves now, so we ought to dress like them.”

Kibum tugged on the pointed green hat with a bit more energy than was probably necessary and turned to Heechul. “The longer we argue about this, the less time we’ll have to work on the toys,” he sighed. “We have to make 30 today, don’t we?”

“That’s right,” Leeteuk hummed with approval.

“We were traveling all night and now we’re working all day?” Heechul cocked a brow, grudgingly pulling the uniform on.

The door to the room was pushed open. Kangin peeked inside, already in uniform. “What are you all doing? They’re explaining how to build toys. Hurry up.”

Heechul would remember this as the worst December of his life.

***

Kyuhyun flopped down on the plush bed rolls with a satisfied sigh. There were 14 identical bed rolls lined up side by side on the floor of the storage room. Ryeowook looked at the other man curiously. “Really? You’re okay with this? It’s like one massive, unnecessary sleepover.”

“We’re saving Christmas. It’s a totally necessary mission,” Donghae butted in, lying his head down on Ryeowook’s lap.

“There are enough showers for all of us here,” Kyuhyun shrugged, “and the bedding isn’t terrible. I’ve had worse in the dormitory and I lived there with all of you for ten years.”

Eunhyuk strolled in then, a towel slung over his shoulders. “That’s a really fair point. At least we don’t have to play the speed shower game anymore. That was never fun.”

“A lot of the games we play aren’t fun,” Kyuhyun frowned. “Like playing games to see who has to pay the bill? Do you know how many times my bank account has plummeted because I have to pay for 14 other men who are all older than me and eat more than me?”

“With that many members, how else are we supposed to fairly make decisions?” Leeteuk prompted, coming up behind Kyuhyun and wrapping his arms around the youngest one’s shoulders. “I think games have worked for us for a long time.”

“It’s because you’re really good at games,” Kyuhyun complained, half-heartedly trying to shrug out of Leeteuk’s hug.

Ryeowook grinned. “Coming from the man who’s nicknamed GameKyu.”

He rolled his eyes. “Whatever. You know what I mean.”

The rest of the members slowly trickled in, setting aside the toiletry bags and hanging their towels to dry. Beds were claimed with fighting and not. The biggest issue stemmed from who had to sleep next to the members who liked to snooze and even that wasn’t too much of a problem. It was quickly agreed upon that Kyuhyun would gladly sleep next to a Ryeowook. And Leeteuk bit the bullet and slept next to Heechul who had torn off his pants proudly before the lights even went out.

~ 11 Days to Christmas ~

“Okay, today is a new day,” Santa’s Head Elf sighed, looking more exhausted than anyone they had ever seen. Despite his youthful face and tiny stature, he was graver than a war veteran. A clipboard rested in his hands and he read from it with a strained but controlled voice. “We’re going to review a few individual problems I noticed and then we’ll divide the work. Hopefully, today will go better than yesterday.” He shot the fourteen grown men in front of him a long-suffering look.

“First,” the Head Elf began, “Henry, you are not allowed to snack on the leftover melted chocolate while making the chocolate figurines.”

The members shot him a glare. He bit his lip. “I was hungry! I only did it a couple times!”

“Second,” he continued, ignoring the protests, “Zhoumi will be working in a separate room. You have the quickest working speed, but you ended up finishing only 15 toys yesterday because you were fixing the mistakes of the others. You can help them only after you’ve finished your share.”

“Yes, sir,” he muttered, ears turning red.

“And third, Donghae you need to stop looking for Santa. He’s very busy and you also have a lot of work to do. If you leave your station anytime today without permission, you’ll be put on quality control duty and that means all of your fellow elves will have to take on your workload to make up for the lost productivity.”

Eunhyuk smacked Donghae’s arm. “Is that why you kept taking bathroom breaks?” he hissed.

The rubbed his arm, pouting softly. “It’s my childhood dream! I wanna meet Santa!” he grumbled. “Whatever, fine. I’ll stop.”

The Head Elf nodded. “Alright. We’re dividing up duties then. Toy Room A will have Ryeowook, Leeteuk, Kangin, Sungmin, Donghae, and Kibum. Toy Room B will have Kyuhyun, Eunhyuk, Heechul, Shindong, Henry, Yesung. And as mentioned earlier, Zhoumi will be working in Toy Room C with some other full-time elves. He’ll be allowed into Room A or B only after he’s finished his quota. Any questions?”

“Why is Ryeowook in a different room?” Kyuhyun demanded.

“Why is Kibum in a different room?” Heechul added.

“Because,” the Head Elf grimaced, “When Kyuhyun is with Ryeowook, he picks up his slack. When Heechul’s with Kibum, you two mess around too much.”

Kyuhyun muttered lowly but didn’t argue. Heechul seemed ready to complain more, but then Kibum’s hand over his mouth stopped him.

“Any other questions?”

Everyone shook their heads.

“Alright get to work then.”

As night fell and everyone curled up in their beds, Henry laid awake, staring at the ceiling. Granted, it was a pretty interesting ceiling given the way little stars seemed to blink down at them. He had no idea what sort of magic existed in Santa’s workshop, but whatever it was, was incredible. The longer he stargazed, the more stars appeared. Was he really indoors?

“Can’t sleep?”

Henry jumped a bit, turning his head to see Kibum looking at him. With a sheepish nod, he whispered back, “I guess I’m too excited. We haven’t gotten to see anything else in this place except for the factory floor. I’m just…curious.”

“Me too,” Kibum admitted, eyes darting to the door. “Do you…wanna go check it out?”

“What?” he said a little too loudly. Clamping his mouth shut, he slowly nodded. “Okay.” Getting out of bed as silently as he could, he followed Kibum out of the room and into the semi-lit hallway. Nightlights lined the right-side wall and the left side was a railing that allowed a view down into the main workshop.

Before they could get very far though, another voice spoke up. “Where are you two going?”

Whipping around, Henry saw Donghae closing the door quietly behind him. Sighing, he glanced at Kibum and they shared a grin. “We’re exploring.”

“Count me in!” Donghae whisper-yelled. At some point in the past two days, he had nabbed a Santa hat and was proudly wearing it everywhere. He took a step and then stopped. Glancing down, he quickly stepped out of his uniform shoes that jingled with every footfall. “…Okay, now I’m ready.”

Kibum chuckled. “Right. Let’s go.”

“So where are we going?” Donghae whispered, shuffling after the other two. The trio strolled down the spiraling hallway, peeking around corners and treading carefully.

The other two shrugged in response to Donghae’s question.

“There are no guards,” Kibum murmured as they approached a wide corridor adjacent to Toy Room A, “but it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

“How do you know there are no guards?” Henry asked, putting an arm up as Donghae tried to walk ahead of them. His head was lifted up, mouth hanging slightly open as he surveyed all the interior décor. There were big and little bobbles dangling from the ceiling in all different shapes. Some were snowflakes, whilst others were in the shape of trees and angels.

Kibum just smiled at Henry’s question.

“You did this last night?” Donghae guessed absently, still astounded by everything around them.

Henry grumbled under his breath about who should and shouldn’t have been reprimanded that morning, but no one was listening anyway. Pushing onward, they passed a few more locked doors before stumbling to a stop in front of a slightly ajar door.

Donghae pushed on it hesitantly, eyes widening as more warm light filtered out into the hallway from the room. Looking back at his companions, they all exchanged nods before slowly pushing the door fully open and slipping inside.

The walls were all curved and striped with gold and white paint. Taking up almost the entire floor was a brass rimmed vat set into the ground. Inside were… “Marshmallows?” Henry blurted, rushing forward and reaching out to touch the fluffy white mounds. “Oh, my Santa.”

Donghae took it a step further, diving headfirst into the piles and piles of marshmallow. He howled out loud as Kibum quickly shut the door to the room. Laughing quietly, he watched Donghae roll around and disappear in the folds of white. A confused body part would come shooting out of the pit every now and then, as would a little hoot or cheer.

“Is it edible?” Kibum asked, coming closer to Henry who was simply poking and prodding at the contents.

“Uh, not sure?” the youngest responded slowly. “Are we allowed to taste test?” He tugged at a small corner of one mound, managing to peel off a small portion. his lips, he carefully bit a corner of the marshmallow. Henry’s eyes shot wide open.

Kibum’s eyebrows raised. “Is that a yes?”

“This is heavenly,” Henry moaned, finishing off the morsel and jumping into the pit to find Donghae. “Both of you have to eat some!”

Pausing for only a second, Kibum shrugged and then jumped in after them.

~ 10 Days to Christmas ~

It was silent as the Head Elf trudged to the front of the room. He looked around warily. “Before we get to individual...advice,” he seemed to choke slightly on the word, “let’s address that no one is allowed to roam the workshop after hours. After hours means past midnight.” His eyes narrowed. “Because we believe in the goodness of humanity, we don’t post security cameras around here. We trust one another and believe in honesty and morality.”

Leeteuk frowned, glancing around at the members. What happened?

Clearing his throat, the Head Elf continued, “Since there’s no evidence of the culprits, I just want to let you all know that it is not appropriate to go into our marshmallow production room and eat from the experimental vat.”

“Experimental?” Henry repeated, looking both tired and hyped up.

“Yes, experimental,” the Head Elf responded, cocking a brow. “It’s a new recipe that hopefully reduces the sugar by 50% but increases flavor by 80%. The texture has also been smoothed out for better digestion. But that’s beside the point,” he frowned, “whichever one of you went in there last night and ate 30% of the new marshmallow flavor should know if you’re caught doing anything else inappropriate, you and your family will be permanently put on the Naughty List.”

The members immediately shot each other looks, but no one gave anything away.

“The Naughty List?” Heechul snorted. “I haven’t gotten a present from Santa in decades.”

The Head Elf made a face. “Maybe that’s because you’ve been on the Naughty List for that long,” he muttered.

“What?”

“Nothing.” The elf looked down at his clipboard. “Now that we’ve settled that, toy production was much better yesterday. I only have a few notes. Yesung, please stop making new variations on the toys.”

“What did you do?” Kyuhyun nudged the older man.

Yesung shrugged. “It was a robot. I thought it would be cooler with four arms and a rocket launcher.”

The Head Elf looked at Kangin. “We’ve received some complaints from other elves that you’ve been playing too many pranks.”

“Other elves?” Kangin repeated, looking around at the members, “Did one of you seriously tell on me for bullying?”

“Bullying is a serious problem,” Eunhyuk remarked, nodding his head sagely.

“Agreed,” Siwon crossed his arms.

“Was it you two?” he snapped.

“We have a confidentiality policy. No one who reported their feelings will be named,” the elf responded, already turning back to his papers.

“Are you kidding me? Teukie-hyung!” Kangin whined.

The leader shook his head and clicked his tongue. “You shouldn’t have bullied another elf.”

Sighing, the Head Elf went on, “Alright. Lastly, Siwon, you cannot run Bible reading circles during working hours.”

“What? But it’s Christmas!” he huffed.

“It’s disturbing the other elves who just want to focus on their work,” he tutted. “You can host Bible reading circles after hours. End of discussion. Here are the assignments for today.” The Head Elf listed off the room placements and then sent them off.

~ 9 Days to Christmas ~

When all the members assembled the next morning in the main workshop’s ground floor, the Head Elf really considered quitting his job.

Heaving a shuddering sigh, he rubbed his head. “Okay, what happened?”

Across the small distance, he surveyed the grown men in various states of distress. Kyuhyun’s left cheek was swollen and bruised. Leeteuk had a black eye. Heechul’s knuckles were bandaged. Siwon had a cut lip. And Kangin was sipping a steamy cup of tea while flinching with each drink.

No one spoke immediately.

And then, Shindong slowly raised his hand. “Uh, this is pretty normal when we get into a fight. But if you really want the details, I can explain.” He glanced over at the injured members who refused to look at him. “Leeteuk-hyung scolded Heechul-hyung for his bad attitude during this trip. They got mad at each other. Kyuhyun likes to step into the middle of their fights and got punched by Heechul-hyung...not for the first time in his life,” he muttered the last part. Looking back up at the Head Elf, he continued, “Uh, so after Heechul-hyung got Kyu out of the way, he went for Leeteuk again and got him in the eye.”

“I tried to step in then, but Teuk-hyung was going to swing and he elbowed me in the mouth,” Siwon added, pointing meekly at his lip. “I heard them shouting in the hallway while I was leading Bible reading in the elves’ dormitory and tried to intervene.”

The Head Elf raised a brow at Kangin. “And you? What happened?”

In a hoarse little whisper, he croaked out, “Heechul-hyung tackled Teuk-hyung. Tried to push him off. Got kneed in the throat.”

The elf winced. “I wish I could say all of you could take some time to cool off, but we’re still on a tight schedule and we’ll need everyone’s hands on deck. Heechul can work with Zhoumi today since your hand is...hurt. Leeteuk and Kangin will work in Toy Room A. Kyuhyun and Siwon will work in Toy Room B.” He slowly flipped the page on his clipboard, about to start reading off the rest of the assignments.

Kyuhyun raised his hand, speaking up before even being acknowledged. “I wanna work in the same room as Ryeowook today.”

“Why?”

“I’m injured and I didn’t even do anything,” he complained, pouting, “why can’t I at least be with my boyfriend when I’m feeling bad?”

The Head Elf paused. And then slowly--reluctantly--nodded his head. “Fine. Just for today.”

Kyuhyun smirked.

***

Evening fell and the tension in their makeshift dorm was palpable. No one wanted to acknowledge it though. Leeteuk had come back first, making very light chit-chat with the others as they all got ready for bed. It was only when Heechul came back in after his shower that things got so chilly no one could ignore it anymore.

“Okay, we’ve gotta solve this,” Eunhyuk sighed, patting the bedding. “Come sit down together.”

Leeteuk and Heechul glared at one another and then at Eunhyuk. Neither moved.

“There are eight days until Christmas as of midnight, and that means eight more days of working together and living together in closer quarters than our old dormitory.” Eunhyuk shot them both an annoyed look. “Now sit down. We’re having an intervention.”

Kangin came up behind Leeteuk, pushing him toward the bed. “C’mon, hyung.”

Siwon kneed Heechul behind the legs, making him stumble toward the bed. “You, too, hyung. We’re not having months of you two fighting again. Didn’t you decide to listen to Teukie-hyung from now on?”

“He’s the one who picked the fight,” Heechul defended. “Don’t make me out to be the only villain.”

Leeteuk sat down, sighing. “I just wanted you to take this more seriously.”

“It was your mistake! Why did I get dragged into this?” Heechul snapped, sitting down across from him.

Eunhyuk looked back and forth between them before handing each man a fluffed pillow. “Alright, we’re going to do some therapy. You’re going to say everything bothering you and every time you say something, you get to hit the other person with the pillow. No fists.” He gave them both a harsh glare.

“Fine, fine,” Heechul rolled his eyes, clutching the pillow in his lap. “Can I start?”

Leeteuk nodded silently.

“I think you take advantage of the members who don’t want to say no to your requests.” He swung the pillow, smacking Leeteuk on the shoulder.

“My turn?” he snapped, gripping the pillow roughly. Eunhyuk nodded, very hesitant. He was starting to think maybe he shouldn’t have been in charge of the intervention. “Alright. Well, I never ask for anything and when I do, it’s always urgent. So I don’t think I’m taking advantage of anyone.” Poof!

Heechul grunted. “You dragged us all to the North Pole without warning!” Smack!

“Christmas would have been a disaster without us here!” Hit!

“Then you and your camera crew should’ve fixed things. Not us!” He swung twice, landing a hit on Leeteuk’s shoulder and neck.

The leader glowered. “I only trust you guys to help me in a pinch. Why would I turn to anybody else for help?” He whipped the pillow hard, watching with satisfaction as it smacked Heechul in the face.

The fluffy white cushion slid down.

Heechul lunged.

~ 8 Days to Christmas ~

The Head Elf didn’t even want to look at them. Taking a big gulp of hot chocolate, he steadied himself before walking into the main workshop to see the 14 men waiting for him. “Good morning,” he grunted, stepping onto the small podium used for announcements. “...Do I have to tell you what was wrong with last night’s incident?”

“I think we’re okay,” Eunhyuk piped up meekly.

“Let’s just do it anyway,” the Head Elf grimaced. He glanced at the numbers and words on the paper pinned to his clipboard. “There are about a dozen torn pillows in your dorm and mountains of feathers everywhere. Why?”

“Pillow fight?” Leeteuk offered.

The elf was not amused.

“If you’re still fighting, you need to resolve it immediately. The amount of property damage caused by your stay here is unheard of.”

“What other damages are we responsible for?” Leeteuk frowned.

“The marshmallow vat,” the Head Elf began without missing a beat, “the numerous toys that keep breaking on the assembly line from clumsy handling, the broken bed frames in the official elves’ dorm—”

“—what? When?” Leeteuk interrupted

The Head Elf shot Siwon a look.

Leeteuk reached around Kangin to smack Siwon’s arm. “Why are you sitting on their beds?” he cried. “You’re huge!”

“That was uncalled for,” he retorted, rubbing his arm. “They wanted to be close together when we read! I sat down. But then I heard the commotion of your fight and got up too fast and the bed...broke.”

The Head Elf frowned. “Anyway, there are many damages. Don’t forget that. We just want to finish making these toys and move forward with Christmas. Everyone, please be more gentle with the materials here. Now,” he sighed, “let’s review.”

Resounding groans.

“Trust me, I don’t like this either,” he snapped. “Let’s get this over with. Sungmin, stop swinging the super-sized candy canes around. There were over fifteen broken ones yesterday.”

“Why were you swinging them?” Ryeowook cocked his head.

Straight-faced, eyes forward, Sungmin replied, “Eunhyuk challenged me to see how many times I could twirl a candy cane before it snapped.”

“Tattle-tale!” Eunhyuk spat.

The Head Elf made a note to consider new career options.

~ 7 Days to Christmas ~

“Another one?” Zhoumi sighed, looking down at a crestfallen Henry. The younger man was staring at a cracked ceramic mug. “You know...these aren’t even handmade. You only have to put them into the kiln. They’re already molded beforehand by the machine.”

Henry growled, tossing the cracked cup into a nearby trash bin. There were about seven more cups already in the garbage. “Not all of us can be good with our hands,” he grumbled.

“You play like a hundred instruments,” Kyuhyun called from the painting station. He held a glossy red mug in one hand and painted little-stenciled snowflakes around the rim. “If anyone is good with their hands, we know who.”

He rolled his eyes. “That’s different! Just because I can play instruments doesn’t mean I can be a potter.”

“Your task is barely the task of an assistant to a potter,” Shindong snorted, screwing a robot figurine’s arm into place. “I bet they’d get more done by building a machine to do it than to have you.”

“He’s got a point,” Kyuhyun chimed in. “They’d probably save a lot more mugs.”

Henry lowered his head to the tabletop. It was going to be a long week.

A hand came down roughly on Donghae’s shoulder. He jolted out of his thoughts, looking up to see Leeteuk holding a mug of hot chocolate out to him. Smiling gratefully, the younger man tugged off his thick gloves and took the drink. Across the room, he watched forlornly as Zhoumi, Henry, Kyuhyun, and Shindong bantered.

“You know you can play with them after your shift,” Leeteuk remarked, sitting down in the empty stool beside the other man.

“I know…,” he muttered, “but they get to joke around right now. Later they’ll be tired and stuff.”

Leeteuk cracked a smile. “Do you know how much energy everyone has? If you recommend a game tonight, I’m sure most of us will want to play.”

Donghae gave his leader a long look. “So...you’ll play nice with Heechul-hyung?”

The smile fell. “I’ll play nice when that takes his work seriously.”

“Aren’t you taking a break right now without permission?”

Leeteuk scoffed but didn’t deny it.

Siwon peeked around the conveyor belt, a finished box of toys in his arms. “I’ll play a game with you later! Bible study ends around 8 p.m. and then I’m free to do whatever.”

“Any game I choose right?” Donghae perked up.

With a dismissive nod, Siwon hurried past with the box. “Of course!”

As night fell and everyone gathered in their storage-room-turned-dorm, Donghae grinned widely. Immediately, Kyuhyun tensed up beside Ryeowook. It was never a good thing if Donghae was thinking up something devious.

“What’s wrong?” Ryeowook whispered, curiously.

Kyuhyun just shook his head. “Just...worried,” he muttered under his breath.

And then Donghae whipped out two decks of cards. “Since there are so many of us, I figured we would need to decks to make sure everyone got enough cards.” He started shuffling the oversized, combined deck.

Heechul rolled onto his stomach, hugging a pillow. “So? What game are we playing? Nothing complicated. I don’t have the energy to think.”

“No energy? You were on the assembly line all day. You put heads on nutcracker figurines,” Eunhyuk frowned.

“Doing a mindless task can still be exhausting,” he defended, frowning. “So, what’s the game?”

Donghae starting to pass out cards, grinning. “Strip poker. With punishments.”

~ 6 Days to Christmas ~

“Are you kidding me?”

The members were silent.

Slamming his clipboard down, the Head Elf glared at the men. “I didn’t think I would have to tell anyone this ever. But apparently, I do!” he shouted. “You are not allowed to run through the workshop.”

A beat.

“Okay, now we know,” Leeteuk agreed quietly, having the decency to at least look ashamed. The others didn’t meet anyone’s eyes, but it was obvious not one of them felt guilty.

“Do I even want to know why?” the Head Elf sighed, crossing his arms.

“Well, we didn’t do it willingly,” Siwon offered.

Eunhyuk jabbed him in the side. “That makes it sound worse!” he snapped. “We were playing a card game. It was a punishment.”

“What was the game?” the elf prompted, unimpressed.

Silence.

The members exchanged long looks, seemingly communicating without words. There was some sort of intensive debate going on, but the Head Elf was growing more impatient by the second. Everything he had asked thus far was mostly rhetorical. Did any of them actually think there was a plausible answer or explanation that would make running around in their birthday suits appropriate?

“Well?” the Head Elf groundout.

Donghae fidgeted in his spot, shrugging off the sharp glares being sent his way. “We were playing strip poker. But in our defense, we didn’t do anything after hours!”

“That’s not even sort of the problem this time!” the elf cried. He rubbed his throbbing head, wondering for the umpteenth time if he ought to throw in the towel and pass off his job to a younger elf. “You were seen streaking through the hallways by nearly all of the elves. What if Mrs. Claus had been awake?”

“Wait.” Donghae’s eyes widened and he took a step forward. “Mrs. Claus lives here? Does that mean her husband does too? What floor is Santa living on?”

Leeteuk yanked Donghae back by the collar of his uniform. “What is with your obsession with Santa?” he whispered sharply. “You’re scaring people.”

The younger man tried to wriggle away from the leader. “I’m not obsessed! You’re the only one who’s actually gotten to meet him. You wouldn’t understand. You even got to guide his sleigh.” Donghae pouted, finally freeing himself from Leeteuk and proceeding to straighten out his rumpled clothing.

“Hey, wait, where are you going?” Henry called, dragging everyone’s attention back.

The Head Elf had picked up his little clipboard and tugged off his pointy green hat. With even strides, he made his way out of the main workshop. “I’m quitting. You’ll get a new manager tomorrow. Goodbye.” And then he slammed the door shut behind him.

Kyuhyun glanced at the dumbstruck members. “You’re surprised? You’re really surprised that we managed to make Santa’s Head Elf quit his job?”

“I didn’t think we were that bad,” Kangin muttered.

Kyuhyun shut his eyes. Five more ing days and I’m free.

~ 5 Days to Christmas ~

Shindong was the first one to enter the workshop the next morning. A large mug of hot chocolate rested in his right hand, the steam and scent of marshmallows wafting up around him. The previous day had been less than stellar and their temporary manager had been shaking like a leaf. None of the members had it in them to tease the little elf. And so, they had actually behaved for once and gone to their assigned workstations.

In fact, yesterday had probably been the calmest work day since they had arrived.

“Psst!”

Shindong jumped. Whirling around in a circle, he scanned the room. Frowning, he scratched his chin, thinking that maybe he had been hearing things.

“Hyung!”

“...Henry?” Shindong asked slowly, giving the room a once over again. Still nothing. “Where are you?” He set his drink down, shuffling around the workshop. The little bells on the backs of his shoes jingled with each step.

A loud banging came from one of the ceramic vats. They were usually covered since they held things like cotton stuffing for plushies. That could be a disaster if the lid was removed. However, the vats were mostly emptied at the end of their shift yesterday since the plushie quota had been filled… “Are you inside the stuffing vat?” Shindong gasped, running toward it.

“Uh…,” Henry paused for a long moment and then said, “yes.”

“How?!” Shindong cried, circling the vat to see how he had even climbed inside. There was no ladder nearby. It had been dismantled yesterday because, as already mentioned, no more plushies were being stuffed.

“Okay, it’s a long story,” the youngest sighed. “Can you just help me out before everyone else gets here?”

“Too late.”

Shindong slowly turned around, seeing Leeteuk and the rest of Super Junior trickling in. Their leader was eyeing the vat with a mixture of reluctant awe and scorn. “I found him like this,” Shindong blurted immediately. “I didn’t put him in there.”

“I figured,” Leeteuk raised a brow. Cupping his hands around his mouth, he called out, “Henry-ah? Are you okay? Hurt anywhere?”

“I bruised my knees when I fell in, but other than that, I’m just hungry and a little cold,” he responded meekly.

“We’ll get a ladder and get you out.”

Zhoumi waved his hand, already turning and heading out to the storage closet. “I’ll find one. Hold on, Henry!”

Leeteuk turned around to face the members, looking not even sort of pleased. They stood at attention, shoulders stiff and pulled back. “Alright, Henry isn’t innocent, but someone had to have been here because where did the ladder go? He couldn’t have gotten up there without one, to begin with.” He crossed his arms. “We do not abandon our brothers in cotton stuffing vats.”

“I agree!” Henry shouted from beyond the ceramic walls.

“You gotta admit that it’s a little funny,” Kangin muttered. Siwon pinched him.

“But why were Henry and his accomplice-turned-traitor even here? It had to be after hours,” Eunhyuk remarked.

“It wasn’t!” Henry retorted. “It was 11:30 p.m. and after hours is midnight. We weren’t doing anything wrong.”

Ryeowook frowned. “Why were you trying to get into the vat, though?”

“Why don’t you tell him?” Henry snapped. “Do I have to call you out for you to admit what you did?”

The members looked around at one another, no one willing to fess up immediately. Kyuhyun sighed. “Not pointing fingers,” he began, eyeing the others warily, “but if I had to bet, it would be Donghae. He and Henry have been using their spare time to hunt for Santa. I bet it’s related.”

“Is this true?” Leeteuk demanded, shooting Donghae a look.

The man pouted, guiltily. “I was gonna come back for you!” he suddenly admitted. “They have elves patrolling nowadays and I saw them coming, so I took the ladder and hid it. By the time they left the room, it was already after hours and I panicked.”

Henry didn’t respond.

Leeteuk hissed out a breath. “Okay, but that still leaves the question of why you both were fooling around with the cotton stuffing.”

Donghae his lips, eyes downcast. “We were gonna disguise ourselves as Santa to try and trick the elves into leading us to the real Santa...”

Leeteuk met Kyuhyun’s eyes. The maknae’s expression remained unchanged as he raised four fingers and mouthed the word: Soon.

~ 4 Days to Christmas ~

The members awoke to a knock on the storage-room-turned-dorm. Siwon answered, but no one was there. The only thing waiting for them was a cream-colored sheet of paper pinned to the wooden door. Curiously, he tugged it off before sticking the thumbtack back into the wood.

“Uh...I think we got a notice?” Siwon stated, looking confused as he read it.

“Like an eviction notice?” Heechul perked up. “We can go home?”

He shook his head. “No, an administrative notice.” Siwon cleared his throat, reciting:

Dear Temporary Elf Team,

After a long discussion, the Elf Management Team has decided to monitor your work and deliver assignments remotely. There will no longer be any full-time elves supervising your workshops, however, cameras have been posted around the workshops. Please be aware of them.

In place of an official Head Elf supervisor, we have assigned Leeteuk to lead the daily schedule for your team. Please turn to him if you have questions or concerns and he will relay them to us, as necessary.

Sincerely,

Elf Management Team

“I think this is a new low for us,” Kyuhyun stated.

“I think you’re overreacting,” Leeteuk tutted, taking the paper from Siwon. A little smile played on his lips. “Okay, chop, chop, elves! We’ve got work to do!”

Yesung leaned over the bedspreads, nudging Kibum discreetly. The latter glanced at him, brows furrowing in question. “Do you think he planned this?” Yesung whispered.

“...would you be surprised?”

~ 3 Days to Christmas ~

Night fell on the third night before Christmas. The workshop wasn’t running any smoother than before. The only difference was that Leeteuk had a higher threshold of patience for his fellow members. It was probably unreasonable to expect untrained elves to handle them.

Eunhyuk looked around the room, noticing that Sungmin was missing. There was still plenty of time until curfew, but it was a little out of character for him to wander off on his own. At least, while they had been in the North Pole, Eunhyuk hadn’t seen him go anywhere or cause much trouble beyond a few things here and there. The ones most likely to cause a ruckus after hours were being heavily monitored these days.

He eyes drifted to where Donghae and Henry were sitting on either side of Leeteuk, listening to him read ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas for probably the twentieth time in the past few days. At least it distracted them. He didn’t know if it was helping to keep them locked down once everyone fell asleep though. Eunhyuk also had an inkling that there was another person involved in their nighttime escapades...he just couldn’t pin down who.

“Where are you going?” Kyuhyun called, watching Eunhyuk head to the door. He and Ryeowook were playing some sort of board game. It looked interesting, but also a little complicated. Little gingerbread figurines were the playing pieces and they seemed to be moving through a rainbow-colored spaces.

“Looking for Sungmin,” Eunhyuk responded, waving as he slipped out.

It didn’t take long to find his friend. The other man was leaning over the railing, seemingly studying the quiet, dark workshop far below. As Eunhyuk approached, Sungmin’s head lifted up. He smiled a little, nodding a greeting. “What’s up?”

“Nothing much. You’re just hanging out?” Eunhyuk sidled up next to him, leaning over the railing as well. Instead of looking down though, he peered up, grinning at the seemingly endless number of floors above them. He could’ve sworn the ceiling was nonexistent because all he could see were twinkling lights and pink clouds. On other days, it would be the night sky. Or it would be snowing.

Magic was always in the air.

“Yeah,” Sungmin murmured, rolling his neck. “I just miss home. I haven’t been able to call her since the reception is pretty...much not a thing here.”

Eunhyuk winced. “I forgot. God, are you okay? It’s been a really long week. We’ll be done soon.”

He shook his head. “It’s okay. I know that. I wanted to help you guys and Teukie-hyung too.” He shrugged. “I just have two homes nowadays,” Sungmin grinned, “You know, I got you guys, and then I have my wife. I’ve gotta split my time properly.”

His friend laughed. “You’re just so desirable, huh?”

Sungmin’s grin turned cheeky. “Obviously.”

Eunhyuk slung an arm around him, knocking their heads together very lightly. “You’re my favorite, Min.”

“Don’t let Donghae hear you say that.”

He smacked him.

~ 2 Days to Christmas ~

Heechul grunted, pushing the cart with all his might.

“You need help?” Kibum spoke up, trailing a few steps behind the other man.

The hallway was brightly lit still and elves hurried about, their jingling shoes making a chaotic chorus as they shot off in different directions in the corridor. Tomorrow was Christmas Eve and now that toy production was basically coming to an end, they had to prepare all of the other necessities. For example, making sure the magical sleigh was equipped for a trip around the world.

Heechul had been unluckily roped into working overtime. “Please help me,” he groaned, slumping against the heavy cart. The wheels were rickety and rusted, making it a challenge to push in the first place. Add in that it was gigantic and filled with tons of toys (literally), and you would understand why Heechul was poorly equipped to do this job alone.

“Where are these going?” Kibum asked, positioning himself in front of the cart, so he could pull it forward.

“Out to the loading dock. They want to get the heaviest presents in the sleigh before they stack on the lighter ones.” Heechul silently cursed everyone who had ever loved or supported Christma. It was a ridiculous holiday that caused nothing but stress and sore muscles. He had purposefully lived a life free of exercise and now he found himself not only doing the heavy lifting but working his hands to the bone each day on little trinkets. Heechul didn’t even want to look at the condition of his fingers. They were probably blistered and chapped.

“All of these are going to fit in that sleigh?” Kibum blinked, surprised.

They began rolling the cart forward with much more ease this time. Heechul grunted thanks before adding, “Something about a magical present pouch. I don’t know. But it’s supposed to fit. It’s not my problem if it doesn’t, though.”

Kibum chuckled silently. They made their way to the loading dock without further conversation and after passing it off to the full-time elves, they shuffled off to the storage-room-turned-dorm. As they walked side by side, Kibum peered over at his longtime friend. “Is there something bothering you? Normally you’re excited to join in on their hijinks.”

“You mean the other members?” Heechul prompted.

“Right. If anyone was going to make the chaos more chaotic, I thought it would’ve been you,” he mused.

Heechul barked a laugh. “Normally yeah, but when all of us are gathered, it’s crazy enough. And besides, I still think Leeteuk should’ve handled this without getting everyone involved.” He grimaced. “It was such a waste of my time. I had so many plans with people.”

“But you realize that because of your help, we saved Christmas,” Kibum pointed out.

The older man rolled his eyes. “There was no reason for Christmas to be in danger, to begin with. If Leeteuk hadn’t been chasing the occult, then we wouldn’t have been in this situation. I think all of that vampire and werewolf stuff got to him.”

“The what?”

Heechul paused. “Right. You don’t know.” He waved his hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about it. It’s nothing. Point being, I’m just glad everything is almost over.”

They came up to the dorm, Heechul’s hand already on the handle and turning it. Kibum was stuck though. “Wait, wait, you can’t just say something like vampires and werewolves without explaining. What happened--”

Immediately, loud voices overwhelmed them. Inside the room, the beds had all been scooted aside to make room for a large karaoke machine. Ryeowook and Kangin were singing at the top of their lungs into microphones that blared throughout the small room. They were clinging to one another, still harmonizing flawlessly in their duet.

“Where did you get booze?” Heechul shouted over the singing. He approached Kyuhyun who was waving around a large mug of what looked like eggnog.

“Eunhyuk and Henry found the stash of alcoholic eggnog!” Kyuhyun shouted back, laughing and taking another swig. “We got more barrels of it over there!” He pointed at the other end of the room where Henry was helping to fill glasses.

“And the karaoke machine?” Kibum yelled.

Kyuhyun stared at the machine for a beat too long. Then he grinned. “Good question!”

~ Christmas Eve ~

The Head Elf took a long, deep breath as he stood outside of the main workshop. He wanted to make amends as best he could. After all, they had worked diligently--albeit dumbly, sometimes. They had worse attention spans than small children and they spent more time trolling one another than was probably healthy. They were also impossibly unpredictable and obnoxious. All of this combined was the problem. Each thing in small doses was manageable.

Anyway, the Head Elf felt like it was both against the spirit of Christmas and his own moral code to leave things as they were. He needed to apologize and make things right before the members of Super Junior left (hopefully) for good.

Taking one more deep breath, he opened the workshop door.

On the floor immediately in front of him, Kyuhyun and Ryeowook were sprawled out on a tangled bedroll. Neither was dressed. Both were sleeping soundly, despite shivering a bit from the chill.

A loud yawn surprised the Head Elf who whipped around to see Siwon and Heechul shuffling past him. Heechul noticed him first and blinked in surprise. “Oh! Long time no see. I thought we scared you away from the North Pole.”

“Welcome back!” Siwon clapped the Head Elf on the shoulder. “We missed you. Merry Christmas Eve!”

“Why are there two of you on the workshop floor?” he blurted in a fury.

Heechul’s eyes fell on the maknaes and then he was howling. The noise shook the sleeping pair awake. “Is that where you two ran off too? Kyuhyun was rambling about how you two wanted privacy and then you both just bumbled off without anyone knowing!” He kept cackling.

“Well we can’t do anything in a room with all of you,” Kyuhyun growled, rubbing his throbbing head. “Ugh, I think I drank too much eggnog.”

“Gimme the blanket back,” Ryeowook complained, eyes only half open as he fumbled for something to cover himself. “It’s freezing.”

“Where are our clothes?” Kyuhyun grunted, squinting at the surrounding area.

“Did we wear clothes out of the room?” Ryeowook tilted his head, looking like it was painful to think.

Siwon watched the Head Elf walk back toward the door. “What’s wrong?”

The elf didn’t dignify that question with a response. Instead, he merely said, “Merry Christmas.” And never come back.

~ Christmas Day ~

The clock struck midnight on Christmas.

Santa Claus glanced back at his fourteen guest riders and smiled. “Hold on tight! We’re going warp speed.”

Resounding cheers followed and then they were off. As they rode through the freezing winter night, they quietly reflected on the past twelve days of their lives.

Henry learned how to make toys.

Zhoumi rediscovered his knack for taking care of people.

Sungmin got to spend time with his brothers.

Siwon learned that he shouldn’t sit on elf-sized beds.

Shindong remembered how tiring and fun everyone could be.

Kangin still loved pulling pranks, no matter how many years passed.

Yesung learned that elves get mad if you modified their toy designs.

Eunhyuk finally recalled that behind Kibum’s angelic smile was a mischievous brat.

Kibum reminded everyone that the maknaes of Super Junior were always on top.

Kyuhyun knew the trip would be a disaster and was right.

Ryeowook swore off alcoholic eggnog.

Heechul secretly loved the trip.

Donghae finally met Santa.

And Leeteuk managed to save Christmas. Sort of.

The End.