The Spirit Of Christmas [Event/Percy/Leon]

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He really is something else...

That's all Leon could think as he approached this large, contemporary home at the edge of Rose Garden. By his standards, the place was enormous and something he could only dream to afford. Leon only had his studio apartment he could only barely afford even after working several part-time jobs, furnished with a twin-sized bed, two-chair dining table, and a wardrobe. He had to learn to be frugal with the money he had, and the times he was able to order takeout were luxuries. But Percy was a Dagger—probably filthy rich, and his home went to show it. Apparently, his lab was nestled right behind the building Leon was gawking at from afar, and that's where he was supposed to be.

His relationship with Percy had drastically changed since the first time he had met him in Neutral Grounds, starting from opponents, to enemies, to drinking partners, and one way or another, Leon had earned a job as his assistant for his work seeing as the jobs he had already were simply not going to cut it. Leon didn't know the first thing about the sort of work Percy did, so he didn't really know what to expect when he came here today, but that wasn't why he had come to begin with. During the recent Singles event, Percy had gotten so wasted that he ended up forgetting to take many of his belongings: his shirts, socks, shoes, eyedrops, wallet, and a few other things that clearly belonged to him. As far as he was concerned, the guy practically left the venue half-naked and wasted, so when Leon stumbled back into the place to retrieve some of the things he had nearly forgotten himself, he was left with Percy's stuff. So, he was here to return it.

Leon parked his black cruiser somewhere in front of Percy's home, lifting his black helmet up from his head to reveal that wolfish face of his after a long trip. Slung across his shoulder and hanging along his hips was a beige duffel bag full of all of Percy's stuff. His motorcycle was probably the expensive thing he owned, aside from his iLac, and he treasured it above all of his other possessions. More than anything, he was a tinkerer and had the skillset of a talented mechanic, so having a motorbike to work on and tweak for his needs was one of the only outlets he had for his stress, and frankly, his only way of getting around without public transportation.

Holding the bag close to his waist, Leon hopped off his bike and slowly began to meander around the sides of the building, looking for what should look like a lab of some kind, and lo and behold, after a few seconds of walking, an equally sleek but distinct building appeared from the rear of the house. He could faintly hear noise coming from inside. Eventually, Leon had found what looked like a front door, heavy-looking and unscratched. He should... probably knock, right?

Tap, tap. Knuckles made rough and audible taps against the door, but after a few moments of waiting, there was no answer. So, he knocked again, louder this time, but still, there was no response. Leon began to wonder if he should call him instead to let him know that he was outside, and he was sure that this was the right address, but he decided to give it one last knock for good measure. However, before his fist could thud against the door, something erupted from within the building. Some sort of explosive force blew from within, making the ground beneath his feet rumble for only a second.

"The hell?! Hey, Percy! Percy! Shit!" Leon whipped his head left and right to see if there was a window he could peek in from, but without spotting one close enough for his liking, he decided to just break in himself. He immediately dropped his duffel bag and tossed it aside, grabbing the doorknob and twisting it open, revealing the uncertain danger ahead of him as panic overtook him. "Percy, hey! Is everything alright—"

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Leon swung the door open with a look of panic in his widened eyes. He didn't know what to expect when he opened the door, but scene before him was not what he was prepared to face. There was a scorched and smoking boot standing on the table, and judging by the way it looked (and smoked), it was probably the source of the explosion just moments before.

Standing against a wall just next to it was none other than Percy, his front half completely caked in soot, his lab coat looking closer to black than the white it was supposed to be. He took everything off after that, revealing an attire that was presentable except for the state of his face, which, after he removed his goggles, kept a reverse-raccoon look. He looked cartoonishly silly and so calm that Leon could only assume that he was used to these types of incidents. However, what was more surprising than anything else was Percy's body itself. It was the first time Leon had been with Percy in person since the Singles Event a few nights ago, and every exchange they had after that was in the form of text messages or brief phone calls. The only image he had of Percy was an injured one, and it seemed especially memorable considering his form as he dashed out of the venue in silence after giving him his contact information. But now, his leg wasn't trapped in a brace, and his every movement no longer seemed strained or tender. It seemed like, from the naked eye, Percy had made a full recovery.

"Yeah, no kidding..." Leon squinted at the boot with a tinge of irritation similar to Percy's, although he was more thrown off by how he was just sent into an unnecessary panic. But eventually, the moment had passed and all that was left was a relief that Percy wasn't hurt. Leon sighed, the irritation on his face fading away as he closed the door behind him and stepped inside. Now that he was inside, he noticed how messy everything was as well. Items were scattered in places they probably didn't belong, the place seemed impossible to navigate if you hadn't already known where everything was, and Percy seemed perfectly content within his organized chaos. As his eyes wandered, Leon tried to hide his mild shock from him, but he just ended up frowning instead.

Quick to dismiss the actual explosion from just moments before, or how his face was still caked in soot, Percy apologized for the trouble of bringing his stuff back to him from the other night. Leon sighed through his nose again, rubbing the nape of his neck guiltily.  

"Ah—no. Don't worry about it. It was my fault that you ended up like that anyway, so..." Leon insisted, looking at Percy apologetically. It was his fault, after all. As far as Leon was concerned, he had a good time during that event the other night and found a new job and friend because of it. He didn't think much of the activities they were forced to do by the organizers, but he had trouble ignoring the last one with the handcuffs. Even with Percy's explicit consent, Leon was a fool for crossing that boundary when both of them had been drinking. He did what he had to do that night, and enjoyed most of it too, but something happened at the end which left Leon feeling confused and guilty. Percy had quite literally bolted out of the venue once he was released from his handcuff, leaving without a word of farewell or explanation, and that was that. Leon didn't know where it had gone wrong—especially when Percy seemed into it too—but he knew that it was his fault and the result of his terrible decisions. He didn't know whether to apologize or ignore it, but Percy didn't seem at all perturbed by what had happened. Maybe Leon was just overthinking it, and soon, his attention returned to the item that was still smoking on the table. Even Leon couldn't hide his curiosity. "What were you working on?"

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Leon was just trying to be nice, as he was genuinely quite interested in what Percy was working on. He enjoyed the little tangents the semi-redhead went on when the line between thought and speech blurred and suddenly his brain spilled out onto his tongue. It felt like he was getting to see snippets of the mind of a genius, something Leon enjoyed. Fortunately, during his tangent, Percy finally realized the state of his face and bashfully began to wipe it away with a rag. After that, he finished off his attire with a thick coat and stepped toward the door.

"Ehm... yeah, I guess you could say that," Leon agreed hesitantly, placing his bag down somewhere that wasn't already cluttered with stuff and followed Percy out the door. It wasn't that Leon disliked Christmas, but he didn't have particularly fond memories of it either. He had invited Percy out in order to return some semblance of normalcy back to their relationship after the Singles Event because even Leon could feel the awkwardness through his iLac. So, when he heard about the nationwide festivals being held, it felt like a decent enough icebreaker, and after seeing the disaster that was his lab, Leon felt obligated to take this guy out to get some sunlight and fresh air no matter where they went. "What? Are you not a big Christmas guy?"


The walk into town was brief, and the two made idle chitchat along the way, but none of it was particularly memorable. Leon had never been to Rose Garden before, so he wasn't sure what to expect other than an abundant amount of roses. What he got instead was much more than he had braced himself for. If Neutral Grounds was the epitome of a life without magic, then Rose Garden was the polar opposite. Everything looked, felt, and seemed magical about the town. Even the street lamps looked different.

Leon was awe-stricken for a moment before a familiar wave of bitterness came over him again. It wasn't anything that tarnished his mood, but mild enough for him to not feel nearly as captivated with the sight of all this magic as he should've been. Seeing sorcerers toss around their bundles of light and ice only ever made him feel bad and nothing else. While looking around, it was then that Leon caught glimpse of the vendors giving away various different Christmas treats and drinks at a plastic banquet table with holiday fabric spread over it. He smelled a hint of peppermint.

"Hey," Leon gently tugged on the back of Percy's fur-lined hood, "still want tea?"

"Hey there, you two! If you aren't busy, why don't you come guess some of Santa's gifts over by our booth?" Suddenly, a chipper feminine voice intruded on the two, stealing Leon's attention with a friendly tap on his shoulder. She was wearing a Santa Skirt and reindeer antlers, overall a cute appearance for a woman who looked just a little older than them. "You might get a sur—" Unfortunately, not everyone shared the same friendly, good looks. When Leon turned around, he met her with one of his usual stares—and his usual stare happened to look like the most murderous, wolfish thing a human face could manifest.

"Sorry. What was that last part?" Leon, who genuinely had missed the part she had cut short, asked as politely as he could in that gruff voice of his and nasty glare. Instantly, the color drained from her face.

"N-No-N-No-No... my apologies!" the woman avoided looking at him in the eyes, turning her attention to Percy.

"That's... you don't have to—"

"What about you, sir? Would you like to guess what's in the gifts?" she looked at Percy, eyes still anxious but once again gleaming with that holiday cheer. Leon knew that he didn't have a particularly friendly face, but he also didn't have the greatest temper either. It was hard to dismiss rude behavior when he saw it, but instead of confronting her about it, he just loomed next to Percy, staring at her with now genuine irritation, his hand still latched onto the semi-redhead's hood.

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As irritated as he was, encounters like these were far too common for Leon to let them hold too much power over his emotions. He allowed himself to be silently annoyed, and then moved on. It felt especially short-lived once Percy gave him that apologetic smile, and suddenly Leon no longer wanted to let his irritation swallow him up—that's not why they came here.

As expected, there was a large pine tree adorned with beautiful Christmas ornaments and bright red ribbon, with a star to top it off. Underneath it was a plethora of gifts of all shapes and sizes, and without much deliberation, the young woman handed Leon a gift so small that it could fit in his palm. It was a cute, minimalist gift with glossy red wrapping paper and a glittery green ribbon that tied it all together. It was light and felt like hard cardboard against his hand. Leon could give a pretty good guess at what this gift probably was, but before he could make the final test, something intrusive and odorous filled his nose, and it came from the present Percy was inspecting next to him.

If it smelled like shit, looked like shit, then it was probably shit, and the young woman confirmed it to be just that right after Percy had guessed it correctly. He couldn't tell if Percy just had really terrible luck or if all of the gifts were just a bust and the entire booth was one big waste of time. It was awful, but Leon felt the most suppressed grin begin to waver his lips. The tragedy that was this gift-guessing activity and the disgust that followed was hard to not laugh at.

"Oh, man... that's... pfft...!" Leon couldn't hide his smile anymore, turning his head away so that his friend didn't have to see him snickering at his awful reward, "That really sucks, Percy. I... pfftha!"

Maybe it was Percy's reaction to it or the event itself that seemed to tickle Leon's innocent humor, but either way, he had a hard time stopping himself from rubbing it in. Meanwhile, Leon's present didn't smell like poo at all, so he was confident that it had to be better than Percy's gift. He managed to stifle his snickering enough to return his attention back to his present with a straight-ish face, the young woman looking at him eagerly. It was probably a gift card, but there was one final test he had to do to make certain of it.

"This is—uh—probably a gift..." Leon gave his little present a shake, and lo and behold, there was just enough space inside the box to hear something plastic and light bump against the shell. It sounded flat and stuck inside a space with four corners. Without a doubt, it was a gift card. However, what came next was far from what Leon was expecting. Without warning, a playful cloud of magical, pink mist surrounded Leon, instantaneously swallowing his entire body in its fog so that not a single part of his body was visible for the two seconds it happened. It came, it went, and at first, nothing seemed to have happened. "...card? What... the hell..."

"Ding, ding! You win! It's a 15,000 jewel Amazone gift card! Do you want the gift or a peppermint?" the young woman celebrated, clasping her hands together as if she had witnessed Christmas magic itself. Leon was staring at her suspiciously and confused.

"The... gift card? But what was all of that pink-stuff about?"

"Oh, just a little bit of magic! It's harmless, and will wear off before you know it! You look great!"

Without Leon's awareness, something truly tragic had happened. Perhaps even more tragic than winning actual shit for a gift. In just a couple of seconds, a burst of playful magic had transformed Leon from a large, butch man to an equally-butch and large... woman. Long, black hair and could flow in the wintry winds, and a leaner body that curved more than his smile when laughing at Percy. His hips had more emphasis, but his body was still as muscular as before. He kept his height and his scars, but he had some additional... assets to show off. Two breasts of average size were now squarely planted on his chest, and he didn't even notice his still-deep voice being raised a few octaves. He looked like the epitome of an Amazonian woman-gone-thug.

All of the Guess-the-Gift organizers looked at him with smiles, some devious and some awe-stricken by Leon's new appearance, and everyone seemed aware but Leon himself. As a result, he was obviously very confused by their staring and what they could've possibly meant by "wear off". Dumbstruck, he looked over to Percy with a questioning stare.

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"Woman? What're you... wait..." Leon looked for a second, unsure of what everyone was smiling about until he abruptly placed his hands on his chest, and felt something busty protrude out from underneath his thick, black motorcycle jacket. He squeezed them through the leather, unzipped just to make certain of it, and surely enough, braless in all of their glory did they sit there against his chest. Instantly, his face began to flush pink as he quickly became aware of what had happened. He frisked himself, noticing the much longer black hair hanging down his back and across his shoulders, the curves of his physique, the larger assets, and after a single squeeze of the unmentionables, he could no longer recognize himself. Leon was in fact a woman... for now.

"The hell'd you do to me?! How long is this supposed to last, anyway?!" Leon marched over to the young woman and loomed over her with his feminine figure, his face pink and screwed between anger and embarrassment. He didn't like sorcerers to begin with, and turning him into a woman without his say didn't improve his image of them one bit. He towered over the young woman, who, although terrified by the former-man who looked like he was going to eat her alive, still wore her mildly amused smile.

"Only ab-about an hour, s-sir! It's harmless, r-really!" the young woman smiled innocently, though there was a twinkle of anxiety at the now-woman's behavior. Leon, on the other hand, stood there glaring for a moment before he did anything else. His face was twitching and his fists were clenched, but after a moment of processing it all, he turned around and began storming off with his hands pocketed and lips frowning.

"Tch. Whatever. Let's go, Percy." Leon huffed and puffed as he flounced away from the gift guessing booth, walking past Percy with the expectation that he'd follow. However, before had completely passed him, he pushed the small gift he had won into Percy's chest. "Here."

After that, Leon had led them over to the table where they were serving peppermint teas, his arms crossed as he continued to brood about his new and strange circumstances. It would last an hour, and you could bet that Leon counting every minute with that annoyed look on his face. Once they got their servings, he had again led them to the next booth down what seemed an avenue of different activities. There ugly sweater crafting station down the way, and the boom of a karaoke machine blasting in the distance. But the one they were faced with just after leaving the tea-table was a Christmas Tree decorating contest, where rows of naked pine stood waiting for some tasteful people to adorn them. He stood there, looking up at one naked tree with mild interest, wanting to give it a go. Leon had never decorated a Christmas Tree from scratch before since it wasn't something that was celebrated in his home, but better late than never, right?

At this point, Leon hadn't bothered asking if Percy were interested in doing any of this stuff to begin with and just walked over and accepted the box of decorations he was given without a word. Compared to some of the other boxes lying around, their seemed particularly loaded, and he could tell without even opening it up all the way. There was beautiful ribbon poking out from inside, and he could hear the jingle of fragile ornaments bump against one another with every step. It seemed pretty promising, considering that Leon didn't have very much experience with decorating trees.

"Hey," Leon walked back over to Percy and the naked pine tree they were at before, "I saw your face earlier. You aren't coming down with something, are you?"

Leon set down the box and opened it, revealing the plethora of decorations within as he pushed away his long, black hair. As expected, they were given the best of the best. The ribbon could wrap around the whole tree and light up an entire room, the tinsel was gorgeous by anyone's standards, bright and vibrant lights, a topper that could put any other topper to shame, and much more. His eyes widened fractionally when he saw it, surprised and a little impressed. He had a face that was hard to read if you didn't know him well, and everything he felt seemed to be a mystery unless it was anger or passion. Percy, on the other hand, didn't seem so difficult to read one bit. Amidst his flustered outburst, Leon had noticed the redness that flushed over Percy's face before he covered it. Maybe he was cold?

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Even though their friendship was still in its infancy, the more time Leon had spent with Percy, the more he realized how awkward the guy was. His lab was a mess that only he seemed to be able to navigate, and he had trouble completing his thoughts. He stuttered a lot, too. He seemed so content with soot covering his face that he probably wouldn't have wiped it off if Leon wasn't staring at him, and he could lead a conversation about his invention but couldn't seem to hold one about anything else very well. Well, maybe Leon wasn't one to talk, considering he wasn't much of a talker either, and he definitely had his fair share of problems with socializing with other people.

"How? Well, I'unno, man..." Leon replied casually, rustling through the box before pulling out a deceptively long ribbon that kept coming and coming no matter how much he had pulled from the box, "I know that this is a contest and all, but do I look like the kind of guy who knows his way around a Christmas tree? If you don't wanna do it, that's fine too... but if you're worried about doing it right, it shouldn't matter as long you're cool with how it ends up, right? Or something like that... I don't know. Help me with the ribbon—or whatever this is."

In his own way, Leon was a little awkward. He had a hard time telling people how he felt and what was on his mind, or maybe he didn't struggle with it at all and it was just he delivery that he fell flat on. Either way, he sometimes struggled with connecting with people on that front, but his actions spoke for themself most of the time. Leon was a physical man whose native language was body language, and there was nothing truer about him. The day didn't kick off the way he envisioned it—being transformed into a woman and having to deal with one organizer's explicit impoliteness—but it took more than that to keep his mood in the gutter. He didn't have a normal childhood, let alone a normal Christmas experience. Although he was sure that he wouldn't be in Fiore for long, it didn't hurt to give this whole... 'season of giving' thing a shot, right?

For the next fifteen minutes, the two had worked tirelessly on their tree with decorations so perfect and plentiful that it felt like a gift from Santa Claus himself. Except... even with such a thick and healthy pine tree, and even with decorations better than anyone else's, the final product managed to look just as mediocre as the others who had a worse selection. The ribbon didn't wrap around the entire tree and seemed to just coil around one branch, the ornaments were spread out high and low, but only covered on side of the tree, and the tinsel... well, honestly, Leon didn't know what the hell he was supposed to do with the tinsel, so he ended up literally tossing it onto the tree for a little Hoffman-Pizzaz. By some grace of God, the tree didn't look hideous, but it felt like a metaphor for Percy's lab—chaotic, confused, and yet... content.

"You know, Percy," Leon dust off his hands of the glitter that was part of some of the ornaments he handled, stepping back to get a full view of their glittery disappointment, "I can't shake the feeling that we made an angel cry by doing what we did. Hell, maybe they killed themself after seeing what we did to this tree..." Leon crossed his arms over his chest and nudged Percy's shoulder, looking down at him with a small smile, snickering almost, "...but it's still pretty cool, yeah? I think so."

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"Yeah, it is. You know, I'unno why you don't decorate your own trees since you're so talented—" Leon continued stand there, admiring their disappointment with an amused smirk, but when he realized that Percy was no longer at his side, he turned around. Percy was taking a wider photo of Leon in all of his effeminate glory alongside their hideous pine-child with a no-good expression on his face. Once he realized what was happening, Leon raised his hand to shield his face from the camera and made his way toward Percy, huffing and puffing again. "Okay, I think we're done here."

So they left their questionably decorated tree alone for the judges to asses while the pair continued walking down the snowy road lined with other activities and plastic banquet tables covered in different Christmas treats. There were sugar cookies in the shape of reindeer, bells, stars, and Santa himself, hot cocoa, and eggnog with and without alcohol. Leon wasn't such a big fan of sweets, so he avoided the cookies and went for the spiked eggnog instead—although eggnog was arguably just as sweet sometimes—sipping it as they meandered down the way. At this point, they were snowballing through the different activities and nothing seemed off-limits. Not even the booth specifically dedicated to crafting the ugliest, most hideous, and atrocious Christmas sweaters that the human hand could craft. No, not even that was off-limits, and Leon was leading them both right into its merry clutches without warning.

Now, Leon was new to all of this. Decorating Christmas trees, crafting the most horrendous sweaters, guessing gifts and whatnot were all probably staples of the holiday season. But, to Leon, all of it felt so foreign and new to him. As the recent past has proven, he was terrible at decorating a tree, but maybe his skills (or lack thereof) could actually be put to use with the Ugly Christmas Sweater crafting. The whole point was for it to be ugly, after all. It was hard to get that wrong. So, he grabbed a sweater that already had some aesthetically displeasing presets—like how the primary was a bright red but its collar and sleeves were a pine green and white stripes rolled across the torso—some cotton cutouts of different holiday symbols, glitter, letters he could glue on, and there was even some paint designed for fabrics. With his arms full of stuff, he hauled it over to the nearest open table for him and Percy to use, dumping it all over his side of the table that he claimed. He organized all of the things he took into neat piles and stood over them with a pondering stare.

"Hey," Leon looked over at Percy, subconsciously twisting his finger in his new, long locks. An idea suddenly came to mind as he hadn't completely gotten over the photo taken of him earlier, but when he saw the glitter shimmer in his hair and on his face, he was even more determined to prompt the question. He didn't smirk or smile, he just looked at Percy with his normally intense and wolfish stare, although he was plotting something else. "If mine's uglier than yours, you gotta wear for the rest of the day and let me take a pic. Sound good?"

Leon took a small swig of his eggnog and placed it down on the table as he waited for Percy's response. Of course, it went without saying that the same conditions applied to Leon as well for the challenge he proposed, and there was nothing wrong with a friendly, terribly ugly competition.

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No one else at this booth seemed to take ugly-sweater crafting as seriously as these two men. Most of the participants were young families, schoolgirls, or couples, and all of them casually crafted their sweaters. But it seemed like Percy and Leon's table was swamped in air of competition—hell, Percy had adjusted his hair specifically for the occasion, and Leon worked as seriously as he did when working on his motorbike. Their dignity was on the line and neither of them seemed like they were willing to give that up.

The seams of the sweater were lined with gold, plastic bowties, dotted with glue, and then sprinkled with green glitter. The underarms with covered in cotton balls, almost looking like fluffy, soft underarm hair, and then caked in red and green glitter as well. He asymmetrically glued the cotton-cutouts in the oddest of places, like the top of the shoulder or on the side, and then glued "Ho" onto them. But that wasn't the end of the atrocious letter cutouts. In the center of the sweater, Leon began to paste "Merry Christmas!" across the fabric, but it wasn't even completely aligned, or even spelled correctly. Some of the letters were capitalized while others were lower-cased, and the spacing in between each one was so large that the entire phrase began to stretch off of the chest of the sweater and onto the back—and again, dusted with glitter. He pinned cheap, little bells onto the collar of the shirt and a plastic mistletoe pin at the hem. The cuffs were wrapped in plastic lights and cotton balls were glued in seemingly random places. With the sweater full of atrociously placed items, Leon had done it. He had crafted what he believed to be the most horrendous thing in this immediate area. They both seemed to have finished at the same, because once Percy announced that he was done, so was Leon.

"Yeah, okay—I'm not wearing that," Leon crossed his arms and looked at Percy's creation with a judgemental stare. It was certainly ugly. In fact, it was so terrible that Leon was beginning to think that Percy just had a knack for creating ugly things. Between wearing that thing and being transformed into a woman against his will, Leon struggled to decide which was worse. However, having both of those things surely took the torture-cake. After his explicit disapproval, Leon cracked a small smirk and raised his still-drying sweater up for Percy to behold in all of its painful glory and leaned forward with patches of glue and glitter still on his fingers. "But I think you'll really bring out the colors in this one..."

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Out of all of the reactions Leon had expected from Percy, this sort of amusement was not one of them. Now that he thought about it, he had never seen or heard him laugh like that—the kind of laughter that made your sides hurt and choked away any other words. People laughed all the time, so why did this feel so refreshing? Leon looked at him with wider eyes, surprised by his merriment before he couldn't help but crack an entertained smile as well.

An old man with a beard as white as snow and a balding head came over to them after that, telling them that after overhearing their bet, he would act as the judge. Well, and he did just that, but apparently both of their sweaters were so horrendous that he simply could not pick one over the other, forcing both of them to wear each other's hideous sweaters. Although both Leon and Percy seemed very into this competition between them, neither of them fussed about the tie and were quick to don the other's sweater—the cotton armpit hair of Leon's and the cheap plastic lights of Percy's in all of their horrendous glory.

"You know I'm taking this off the second we get back to your lab, right?" Leon turned around so that he was facing Percy, arms crossed over his sweatered-chest as he stared down at him. He had taken his black jacket off to slip the sweater on, and it was then that he realized the purpose of bras. Surely the spell wouldn't last much longer. Similar to the semi-redhead's amusement, Leon was also incredibly satisfied with seeing him like this, airily chuckling as he smirked down at him. "Oh yeah, I was right. You really do bring out the colors, dude."

The picture was taken and the old man left to assist the other groups once he had returned the phone, leaving the two to their own devices once again. Leon cleaned up their station to the best of his ability until one of the other organizers noticed and gave him a casual "Don't worry about it!" hand wave, so he took his eggnog and left the booth for the next one under the expectation that the giggling-Percy was close behind. It was a good thing that they were both in good spirits because the nearby booming of voices from earlier suddenly became much louder as they ambled down the snow-covered streets. Just down the way was a relatively large crowd of people surrounding a small stage with a lacrimavision looming over them and sound equipment littering down below. It was your typical karaoke, except that both Leon and Percy were heading straight for it. Just before they snaked their way into the crowd, Leon turned back to him with another swig of his eggnog, his smile contorting into a rough smirk.

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"Tequila?" Leon stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked at him. So much for the holiday spirit, right? But Leon couldn't tease him about it. After all, he had never karaoked before and now that he thought about it, Tequila! would probably be his go-to song as well. It was ridiculously easy and even if you messed up the timing of the one or two lyrics that made up that song, it wasn't a big deal. Anyway, as far as Leon was concerned, Percy could be standing there in silence and it'd still be entertaining—he just had to make sure not to laugh during their performance.  "Sure, man. Whatever you like. C'mon."

The last couple walked down the stage, grinning from ear to ear, their cheeks flushed with pink and their eyes twinkling with affection. They held their hands gingerly in one another's, their necks comfortably nuzzled into their fur-lined winter jackets as they went down the steps. But just as they passed by Leon and Percy, the man's shoulder had bumped into Leon's on the way down. Suddenly thrust out of his Christmas magic, he side-eyed Leon with this obvious look of irritation, but that face retracted into a pale terror once he got a good look at the man who he had bumped into. Leon already had an unfriendly face, let alone an unapproachable air with that body of his, but the face he was making right then... really took the cake. He made it a point not to laugh at Percy during their upcoming performance, so to make sure of that, he wore the most serious face his flesh could squeeze; a dark and beastly glare, a frown like he had just eaten a raw lemon, and he refused to speak out of fear of breaking his unmoving form. It felt even more intimidating considering the sweater he was wearing...

"O-Oh..." said the pretty-faced girl, her face also contorted into shock and apprehension.

"That guy... must really be into karaoke." the man nervously mumbled, slowly hooking his arm with his holiday sweetheart and shuffling down the steps.

Leon was the one who took initiative in setting everything up. There was a large, iLac tablet hooked up to a larger lacrimavision mounted over the stage with a list of songs covering the screens. A lot of them were Christmas-related songs, like "Carol of The Bells" and "Jingle Bell Rock", but the longer he scrolled, the more typical, popular karaoke songs began to show up. Eventually, he flicked long enough to find Tequila! in between two other songs he had never heard about and turned around to look at Percy, handing him a microphone.

"Alright, you ready?" Leon asked him, still wearing that needlessly serious and relatively vicious look on his face.

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"This is my lighten-up face. And besides, I always look like I'm about to kill someone, right?" Leon brushed off Percy's suggestion, blissfully unaware of how intense and vicious he actually looked. Talking to Percy made him want to break into a premature smile about what was about to happen, so he was quick to dismiss him. The song was selected and their performance was about to begin, until something strange happened.

The song was beginning with that familiar intro everyone knew so well, but it was cut off before it really found its rhythm. Oh, so they were changing the song. Leon couldn't really blame them. They were practically begging to be thrown into a Christmas shuffle with the sweaters they were wearing, and although Leon was self-conscious about a lot of things, karaoke wasn't really one of them. It wasn't something he'd invite someone out to do, but when it really came down to it, he wasn't awful to listen to. But that's just how Leon felt about it, and that didn't really matter. The deal was that Percy was going to sing Tequila! with him, but they ended up with this Christmas classic instead. It wasn't anything to get nervous about, but...

The song started off with Percy's awkward and off-key vocals, his cheeks lighting up in the bashful blush as his words remained on-beat but his head seemed like it was going to melt. You could feel the despair radiate off of him. He wasn't going to cry, was he? It didn't seem too farfetched considering how he had found himself completely out of his comfort zone, and there wasn't a sliver of confidence in that man's voice to keep him grounded. Leon stared at him, a little surprised by his face, but then he smiled. He could tell that Percy was struggling even though he stood next to him, and the weight of the stage seemed to burden him all too much right now. All eyes were on him, but they couldn't bail now. There wasn't anything to do except keep singing. All that Percy needed something else to focus on.

Leon quietly inhaled, relaxing his face into a softer, gentler expression compared to the fierce eyes he had before. He couldn't stop his grinning now that it had started, still entertained by Percy's awkward start—it's what he wanted to see, after all. But his desire to comfort the semi-redhead drove him to do what he thought he had to right now, more than anything else. He tilted Percy's chin up with his rough fingers, gingerly cupping his hand over their cheek as he sang into his microphone.


The quick progression of piano notes broke out, and the crowd began to get excited with the intro's classic conclusion. Leon's voice was... very nice. Nicer than most people were probably expecting from this burly woman with a nasty look on her face. It was as deep and husky as his normal speech, but crisp and clean as he carried the notes. He was never taught to sing, but he could definitely carry the tune. Honestly, he was putting way more effort into it than he was initially planning to. But after hearing Percy's nerve-wracking performance, he felt obligated to compensate and share his confidence with him, and sometimes physical contact was the best way to do that in vulnerable situations like these.

The crowd was beginning to clap, and judging by the way they were all eagerly waiting for the first verse, they had every intention of joining in. In the few seconds they had between the intro and the meat of the song, Leon leaned down towards Percy's ear, away from the mic as he held his cheek in his hand. There's only one thing he wanted to whisper before the rest of their words were whisked away into the song.

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