Red light blasted her immediately when she opened her eyes, and she groaned, pulling herself out of bed. She slipped on some new clothes, styled her hair like normal, and walked out the door. Lucifer was flitting around downstairs, decorating the Hotel and a tree in the middle of a room, wearing no hat and leaving his horns and ears on full display. His hat had slips of paper in his hat, with barely visible writing, even for her sharp bird-like eyes.
She walked down the stairs, rubbing her un-covered eye and watching her father. Lucifer turned a shining smile to her.
"Charlie! You're here!" Lucifer smiled. "Is anyone else awake?"
Charlie shrugged. "I know that Vasi's awake; she never does leave me anyway," She looked at him, all supposedly-happy smiles. "Dad…are you okay?"
Lucifer looked at her in surprise, expression flashing for a moment before returning to his before-one. "I'm fine, Char-Char; you don't need to fret. That's my job for you." He chuckled, ushering her over to the hat and in front of the tree. Her father left her for a little bit, and then came down with most of the cast. Vasi immediately ran to her side, determined expression plastered on her face.
"Oooh, PRESENTS!" Chizuki squealed, running towards the tree. Alastor bent down and grabbed him, holding him away from them with a loud whine from the guy.
"So, this is our next redemption activity!" Lucifer exclaimed. "It's Sinsmas today, which is a version of a holiday that Sinners celebrate when they were alive. The goal is to be a… Secret Santa of sorts. Basically, you pull a name from my hat——" He held it out, shuffling the papers a little bit. "——and then get a present for the person! Later in the day, you get your present, exchange the one you're giving, and open your present from 'Santa'. Does that make sense?"
Tatsu held up his hand, waving it excitedly. "What do you label the present you're giving?"
"Oh right! I forgot! To answer your question, Tatsu, you just label it 'Secret Santa'. Here's what I forgot about my explanation! Part of the activity is to guess who gave you the gift! When you've wrapped the present and you're done with it and stuff, you put it under the tree! Now, any more questions?"
Everyone shook their heads, and they all clambered for the hat. Charlie fought past everyone to reach it first, and she grabbed her paper. She rushed off to her room to read it, aware of Vasi's following her.
She sat down on her bed, making it so Vasi could see. Charlie looked over at her bodyguard in surprise, displaying the paper. Her bodyguard looked it over, including turning it over, but she seemed satisfied that it wasn't going to explode.
~~~~~~~~~~
Charlie snuck her present underneath the tree. It was a small present, especially compared to the bigger ones near her. She quickly moved over with a burst of fire next to Vasi, tapping her bird foot against the side of the couch.
Lucifer's grin widened as he stood in front of the tree. "I'm so glad that you guys did this! I really hope that you all like your presents!" He squealed. "Now you can open them!"
The "kids", her brother and Niffty, raced forwards and started looking through the presents for their names. Niffty shouted in glee as she held up a long box. She tore into the blood-pattered box, revealing a box, which contained a sewing needle. She skittles over to Alastor, hugging his leg and nuzzling into it.
"Thanks big bad boy red!" She exclaimed. Alastor reached down and patted her carefully on the head.
Charlie watched her brother as Chizuki brought out a large black box, positioning it next to Tatsu and opening it carefully. He held up a shiny decorated dagger, and beamed at Tatsu before putting it back.
Lady Bomb looked underneath the tree and grabbed her present, opening it right then and there. "Wow, cool!" She held up the box of matches that Charlie had carefully wrapped. "I've been running out of these!" She sent a thumbs up at Charlie, seemingly detecting Charlie's anticipation.
Charlie looked underneath the tree for a neatly wrapped present with galaxy decorating, and her name written neatly on one side. She got up over to the couch. Vasi's attention zeroed in on it, and she quickly checked it over before handing it back to her in a huff. Charlie sent a smile in her direction before opening it.
It revealed a spray-paint kit with paint-brushes and easels. Charlie looked over at Kevin, who was well known for liking space-themed stuff, and she thanked him before setting it down.
"So I hope everybody enjoys it!" Lucifer exclaimed. He was holding a big snake stuffie in his hand, which was given to him by Luna; in turn she had gotten a sculpture of an apple.
"Well, happy Sinsmas everybody!"