A/n: Chest infection is knocking me much flatter than I would like at the moment. Still feel like i got hit by a truck, though I seem to be over the worst of it hence this update to kill some boredom. Will catch up with reviews/reviewing etc soon (when i can manage more than 2 sentences without coughing). Have some Gin/Kira in the meantime while my lungs learn how to function again without hurting.

This was a request from HitsugayaKuchiki-HK. Prompt was taken from otp prompts on tumblr. Wordcount is 1.5k as requested. Not sure how much sense this makes but just run with it.

Enjoy.

Little Santa

Kira trudged into the office on December 1st holding his mug of coffee, wondering what fresh hell he was going to be walking into today. His captain always got so excited over this festival called 'Yule' in the human world, and always, always, always on the first of December, he'd pull some kind of stunt. Go all out on decorating, making gingerbread – one time he made a very elaborate gingerbread castle with icing and everything, even two little gingerbread foxes to represent Cherry and Tsuku – and in general just being really in his face and annoying. Kira didn't say anything though. Gin did look kind of cute when he was all excited. Wabisuke sighed, not understanding how Kira could like someone so annoying, but Kira didn't even know himself. He just guessed brains were a bit weird like that.

Nonetheless, this morning the place seemed very quiet this morning. And he did wonder what Captain Ichimaru had planned this time. He approached the desk quietly. His captain didn't usually roll in til around eleven – three hours after the official start time – so at least he'd have a bit of peace and quiet for a while. There was nothing out of the ordinary about the desk or the office, so he sat down, sighed in relief, and started working on the massive 'in' pile.

It didn't take long before he had a visitor, though. Gin's little fox Cherry came prancing in, cute as a button dressed up in a little red Santa outfit, complete with hat, and little bells attached to her collar. Kira watched her trot all the way up to the desk and yip excitedly at him, knowing he was always good for a fuss, and she almost always got one.

"Well, don't you look cute today?" Kira smiled and Cherry jumped onto the desk and sat looking at him. Quite pleased with her cute little Santa outfit.

"Are you little Miss Santa Paws today, hm?"

The little snow white fox yipped again and wagged her tail and Kira slowly took his phone out of his pocket and took a picture of her. Because really, who wouldn't want a picture of that?

He smiled at her and then, satisfied with his photo, set the device down to start work. Cherry made herself comfortable on his lap while he worked and waited for his captain to appear.

. . .

Ichimaru Gin stomped in, clearly in a grumpy mood, at his usual time. Late. By this time, Cherry had retreated to her bed in the corner to doze, and Gin came in, glanced at her, and then looked at Kira busily working.

"Good morning, Captain," Kira greeted him. But Gin wasn't having any of it. He walked over to the desk, frowned, and crossed his arms.

"Okay, first of all you ignored Cherry dressed up as Santa. Secondly-"

"Eh?!" Kira exclaimed, "I did not!"

"I been waiting for a text message all day!"

Kira sighed. "Captain, you were asleep, how could you possibly have been waiting all morning?"

Gin pouted. "I been awake waitin'. I wan'ed ta see yer reaction."

"Wait," Kira said, "You what?"

"I waited all morning!" Gin said, his voice half a despairing wail. "But nothin'! Not even a lil 'ha thats cute taichou,' message. Nothing. How could you, 'zuru? How could ya ignore such a cute lil button like Che-Che?"

Kira blinked. Surprised and more than a little confused. Was this all just an act or was Gin really upset he'd ignored Cherry and his efforts? One could never tell with Gin. Especially since he was one of the most adept, if not the best, prankster in all of Seireitei. Kira just called him a troll, which was the word the human Ichigo Kurosaki said humans used. Also it seemed more accurate.

"Gin, I didn't ignore Cherry. I just figured since you'd be asleep and were coming in here anyway, so I'd just wait til you got here to tell you about it."

"Ha, ya say that but how do I know tha's what ya were gonna do?" Gin asked, crossing his arms and pouting.

Kira sighed. "Look, I can prove that."

"How?"

Kira sighed again – he seemed to be doing that a lot lately – and took out his mobile phone. He clicked through the stored photographs on the device and found the photo he'd taken of Cherry looking really cute in her little santa outfit. He showed it to his captain, who took the device off him for a better look.

"See?" Kira said.

Gin just blinked. "Oh."

"Yes," Kira said slowly. "'Oh.' You see, I do pay attention to these things. I thought she looked cute so I took a picture."

Gin studied the photograph for a moment. She really did look cute, especially when she sat posing for the camera like that. "You still coulda sent it t'me..." he said quietly.

"But you were going to come in here today, anyway." Kira explained. "It was just easier to wait until you were here to show you. That way I could have seen your reaction to your hard work making her cute little outfit in person. Which, in my view, is always a lot better than just reading text on a tiny screen."

Gin digested this for a moment. Processing it quietly. Kira did have a valid point. And okay, he did suppose he'd overreacted a teeeeeny little bit over it. Not his finest hour, if he said so himself. "I..." Gin cleared his throat, "I see yer point." he admitted. "I guess I kinda... overreacted."

Ya think? Kira wanted to say. But he thought better of it. He'd actually gotten his captain to see reason, and he wasn't about to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory here. "Maybe just a little," he said kindly. "But I guess everybody does sometimes. I mean we're only humans, right?"

Gin nodded. "Right."

Kira smiled at him and nodded. At which point Cherry stirred from her bed, yawning and stretching as she woke up from her power nap. When she scanned the room and saw her master she instantly bounded across to him, yipping and wagging her tail. Jumping up around Gin's legs until he picked her up, cuddled her, and set her down onto Kira's desk. Where she sat wagging her tail proudly. Kira scratched her ears and she flattened them happily, enjoying the attention she was getting. Gin smiled warmly at his beloved pet, quietly glad he'd cut her some ear holes in the little santa hat so she could still enjoy Kira's ear scratches. She really did like those.

"So, how long did it take you to make her little santa claus outfit, then?" Kira ventured. "I didn't know you could sew."

Gin's smile brightened considerably. "Oh, I'm so glad ya asked!" he grinned. "Well, ya see, I didn' make it meself. I tried, but, it just wasn't my forte, ya see?"

Kira nodded, imagining Gin trying to stitch the fabric together, but just repeatedly sticking himself with the needle and cursing. Repeatedly.

"You kept sticking yourself with the needle, didn't you?"

"How'd ya guess?"

Kira shrugged. "Just a hunch." he said. Besides, you don't really have the patience for such things. "So who did make it?"

"Oh, I managed ta find a great freelancer." Gin explained. "Some high school nerd with glasses. Uryuu something-or-other. Didn' bother finding out 'is name."

Why am I not surprised about that, either? Kira wondered. "So this guy made it for you?"

"Yeah. I took Cherry-chan to the human world to some high school where he did his work. He measured her up and made her a lil costume, and as a bonus, Cherry-chan got a lotta attention from a buncha people. I tell ya, high school girls do love cute lil foxes..."

Kira laughed, trying to imagine the scene. He wasn't surprised there, either. "Well, obviously," he said, smiling. "Everybody loves Cherry. You of all people should know that by now."

Gin laughed. "That's definitely true. I should know better by now."

"You really should." Kira smiled. Cherry pushed his hand up with her nose and then placed her front paw on his arm, because while they were talking he'd stopped scratching her ears, and she wasn't at all shy about letting him know she wanted more attention. Kira looked down at her and laughed.

"Oh, sorry, did I stop?"

Cherry barked in agreement and rolled onto her back, asking for a belly rub next, wagging her tail. Both Kira and Gin laughed at her. She did have funny ways to get attention. But then again, Gin did too.

"Ya know, I'll have to take you to the human world sometime," Gin said after a moment. "Show ya some of the cool places we found there. Did ya know there's a restaurant there that only sells desserts?"

Kira smiled. "That'd be really nice." he said. "Let me guess, the staff there all loved Cherry-chan too?"

"Ah," Gin grinned, "How'd ya guess?"

"I told you," Kira smiled, "Everybody loves Cherry."