Little brothers are good for two things: inflicting pain and emptying your wallet.

Kaizo supposes he isn't giving the tiny menace full credit - he can be an excellent source of unpaid labor - but that's about the extent of their usefulness.

Once again, Kaizo finds himself burdened with babysitting duty. Sure he has assignments and exams to study for, all cramming in together now that the semester is drawing to a close, but who needs a quiet workspace when there's snow outside and shops boasting sales. The mall is seasonal markdowns galore and Pang drags Kaizo through winding mazes of storefronts, announcing his growing wishlist of Christmas presents. At this rate he'll be giving the entire complex good business.

"I want a remote control car," the five-year-old decides. His eyes are bright with awe as the kiosk manager handles the remote, making the little car zoom back and forth, then flip over and run circles.

"Right, so we're crossing off the Lego set and the giant chocolates basket, then?" Kaizo nudges him away from the display.

Fang pouts. "I want chocolates."

"You'll get cavities," Kaizo explains. "And that basket is way too big for you. You have to start taking things off your list, cause I can't get all of them for you."

"What about the interence money?" Fang presses.

Kaizo stops, narrowing his eyes. "What?"

"I heard Lahap talking about how there was like a jillion dollars in the bank interence money," Fang drawls. "That's enough for everything on my list and lots more."

Kaizo shakes his head incredulously. "Okay, first of all, I'm not even allowed to touch that money till I'm eighteen-"

"But they gave you a card, I saw!" Fang insists, clearly under the impression that card = unlimited sum of disposable money.

Kaizo sighs. "Listen, you'll understand when you're older. For now, you're going to have to be a good boy and ask Santa for one thing, okay? Just one."

"But Santa can give me lots of things, can't he?" Fang pleads. "If you give me some things and Santa gives me the rest then I can still ask for everything I want!"

In an ideal world, Kaizo and Santa Claus would be two separate benevolent entities both manifesting Pang's material happiness. In reality, Kaizo has a budget of less than two hundred dollars, and that's for both of them, plus his classroom Secret Santa.

He winces and tries again.

"Santa doesn't have that much for one kid," he says gently. "So aim a little lower?"

"I want a penguin," Fang decides. "You can get ten normal sized chocolate bars and I want a penguin from Santa Claus."

Kaizo freezes. "You can't get a penguin..."

Pang appears on the verge of a tantrum. "Whyyy nottt?"

"Santa Claus lives in the North Pole, penguins are in the South Pole," Kaizo explains logically. "So Santa can't bring you a penguin." He prays that Pang doesn't ask for a polar bear next.

Fang's head lowers in disappointment, and he narrows his eyes. He shuffles his feet and discreetly attempts to kick Kaizo, but Kaizo dodges in time, and shifts further away.

"I want a new iPad," he declares in front of the next store.

Kaizo groans and drags him away.

-

The center of the mall is an indoor ice rink, and Pang stops in front of the glass barrier to watch the people inside glide across the frozen floor. Kaizo stands beside him, staring up at the ceiling and taking in the paper snowflakes hanging from the roof. Some are framed with tinsel, others expanded with glittery plastic and containing flickering lights that illuminate in different colors. The fluorescent mall lights are turned down and the tiny LEDs glitter, casting a different sort of glow over the skaters below.

"M..ee..t...S..a..n..ta..." Fang reads aloud, breaking Kaizo out of his trance. "Meet Santa."

Kaizo turns to see his brother reading off of a giant poster, a flashy vector illustration of Santa Claus surrounded by his elves, all grinning widely.

"Can we go meet Santa?" Fang asks, eyes wide with the childish innocence Kaizo does not know him to possess.

"Why do you want to meet Santa?" Kaizo frowns, checking the time. It's not too late, but...

"I'm going to ask him if he can get me a penguin for Christmas," Fang says.

Kaizo hesitates and Pang's eyes flash.

"Or are you scared he's going to prove you wrong?"

Kaizo swallows and sighs. "Okay, fine, I'll take you, but then you have to promise you'll pick one thing for your Christmas wishlist, okay? Just one."

Pang turns and beams, and for a brief moment, Kaizo sees the angelic youth that most people probably do when they bend down to pat his head or pinch his cheek fondly. Then he remembers the bite mark still visible on his wrist from this morning after he snatched the cookie from his hand because "you can't have cookies for breakfast" and the illusion disappears.

-

Ramen needs volunteer hours.

His schedule is mostly packed with sports practice and homework, and, let's face it, he kind of needs those tutor sessions, but he also needs to add up volunteer shifts by graduation and he'll take what he can get.

He wonders if these outfits are even washed from year-to-year. He should probably run it with the laundry at some point this week...

But the uniform is bearable for ten hours a weekend. Six on Saturday, four on Sunday. The real test of patience is the kids.

Ramen never liked children. After the age of ten they became somewhat relatable and burdened with social codes of conduct. Before then, they were ill-mannered demonspawn from hell who could do whatever they damn pleased, cussing him in high-pitched voices, and get away with it too.

But volunteer hours...

So far he's more or less figured out the distinction between appropriate and condescending. As appealing as it sounds to grin freakishly widely at an eight-year-old and whistle in his highest falsetto "what would you like from Santa, little one?", he can only really get an enthusiastic response to that from a four-year-old. The pre-schooler beamed at him and proceeded to give him a headache, tittering on about how excited she was and how she wrote up her own list and how she couldn't wait to meet Santa Claus until he was forced to reveal that Santa himself was unavailable at the moment (very preoccupied answering letters in the North Pole). Then she spit on his sleeve and called him a not-very-nice word that made her mother gasp and cover her tiny mouth.

Ramen called her an equally not-very-nice word in his head.

At this time, he's growing hopeful that the visitors are thinning out. His shift is almost over, and it seems late enough that parents won't bother bringing their kids to the shopping mall, so he decides to relax a bit and head to the makeshift breakroom.

A shape passes by the window and Ramen does a double take, craning his neck to see a teenager holding a child's hand at the end of the short queue to visit with Santa's Helpers. They stand out particularly because the teenager is probably an older sibling rather than a parent, and Ramen hasn't seen any visitors between the ages of 10 and 20 all day.

Ramen ditches the breakroom and skips to the back of the line to greet them, taking note of their similar features and drawing the conclusion that they are, in fact, brothers. The older one, he acknowledges as an afterthought, is also rather attractive.

And presently regarding him with eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Excuse me," and Ramen has to look down to see the younger piping up politely, "where's Santa?"

Ramen sighs and explains for what must be the nth time today that, "sorry, kid, Santa's busy in the North Pole- but we're Santa's Helpers-" gesturing to his similarly uniformed coworkers on the other end of the line.

The queue shrinks but the three of them remain in place.

The older brother's eyebrows jump. "The sign said 'Meet Santa'..."

Ramen facepalms and unrolls a pamphlet from his pocket, pointing to the typography. In miniscule font, beneath "Santa" is the word "Helpers". He passes it to the other, who reads it skeptically, then raises his eyes back to the blond who can only shrug apologetically.

"See, Pang, Santa's busy," he explains to the younger, who looks considerably put-out. He casts Ramen an apologetic smile, and Ramen swallows.

He's really hot, actually...

"I mean, I'm one of his Helper's," Ramen offers. "We're taking all the letters for Santa and delivering them to him. Just tell me whatever you want to say to him."

"Can Santa bring me a penguin?" Pang asks, unamused.

Ramen glances up briefly to see the older brother mouthing No. He flicks back down to Pang's gaze and sighs.

"Sorry, kid, Santa can't make it to Antarctica this year," he shakes his head.

Pang frowns. "But doesn't he go all over the world anyway?"

"He just said," the older brother reminds firmly. "Santa can't bring you a penguin. Now let's stick to something realistic."

"I want one thousand donuts," Pang decides. "If I can't have a penguin."

The other makes a hollow sound of incredulity and Ramen jumps in.

"One thousand donuts?" he feigns shock, squatting down to Pang's level, and looking pointedly at his stomach. "You really think a tiny midg- I mean - little boy like you could eat that much? Even I couldn't eat a thousand donuts, and I once finished 100 bowls of noodles," he gestures to himself.

"Woah, really?" Pang exclaims in wonder as his brother raises an eyebrow and squints.

Ramen warily follows his gaze to his nametag and swallows.

"Ramen..." the other reads slowly, and it catches him off-guard to hear an attractive stranger saying his name. "Really?"

He looks unamused and Ramen forces a smile, shrugging.

"I've carved out my legacy," he jokes, though the other barely smiles. His lips quirk up at the corners, which Ramen supposes is a bit of a win.

"Your name is Ramen?" Pang questions.

Ramen nods. "Better believe it."

The younger gives him a toothy grin. "That's cool! Everyone at school says I'm a vampire cause my name is Fang, but Kaizo says it's cause I bit him and he calls me Pang."

"Kaizo," Ramen murmurs quietly, looking at the older, who is glaring down at his brother in annoyance.

"You don't have to tell him that," he says sharply.

"Are you Kaizo, then?" Ramen asks hesitantly, and the other nods distractedly.

"C'mon, Pang, let's go-"

Ramen tries not to look too disappointed as Kaizo takes ahold of Pang - Fang's hand and pulls him away.

"Wait," he calls out, and they stop.

Kaizo raises an eyebrow.

Ramen falters. "Uh, is there anything you wanted to ask from Santa?"

He glances meaningfully at Kaizo, who looks confused and mildly offended at the question.

"Me?"

Ramen nods nervously, and Kaizo pauses to think for a moment.

"I guess a thousand donuts do sound pretty nice..." he says slowly.

"You like donuts?" Ramen asks in surprise. "Uh, what's your favorite?"

Kaizo grins for the first time. "Carrot," as if it's an accomplishment, and Ramen gapes.

"I-I'll let him know," the blond nods, and Kaizo rolls his eyes and turns around.

Ramen fails to come up with another excuse, so he watches them go, and then realizes the remaining visitors in line are still waiting and appropriately expectant for service. He rushes through the end of shift, then grabs his jacket and chases the first bus leaving the complex, missing it by thirty seconds of black ice.

Staggering back inside, wincing at his sore backside and knees, he goes inside the cafe, and orders a coffee with one carrot donut. It's...probably an acquired taste, but he remembers Kaizo and his sneaky grin, and wonders if the other was just teasing him.

He takes another bite and decides it's the best thing he's ever tasted.