All I Want for Christmas

He continues down the road as he huffs, dragging something behind himself. As he passes a tree line, Luna and Cole’s house sits into view as he grumbles, “Fucking finally…”

He continues down their sidewalk and gets up on the porch. He pauses as he hears chatter from inside. Everyone seems too preoccupied with a gift exchange to hear him approaching, “Perfect.” He takes the opportunity.

Suddenly the door is busted open as it flings into the wall. It was kicked open by a large man in a red and white suit. A shiny white beard and mustache lays over their face as their oversized hat shifts over their eyes. They huff while pulling a nearly empty velvet red fabric sack behind them with a few silver bells attached.

Luna looks over from the sofa and looks confused, "Oloric Frostbeard!?"

Cole slowly looks over at the large man, "Is that Saint Nick or a homeless man"

Spider’s ears perk up in alarm as the door is busted open, she gets to her feet a light growl coming from her.

Hinata is beside Luna and tilts her head, "Considering we're not in Capital City, I doubt it Lu. So... who the heck is this?"

The man in the suit stands up right and puts their hands on their back to stretch. A large pop is heard as they groan, "FUCKING hell. I need to get a car or something at this rate..." they glance at the room as if looking for something. They clear their throat and speak in a forced accent, "Oh uh... is Lochlan not here?"

Luna stares at them, "Lochlan is currently missing. So uh can we help ya erm... Santa???"

The man in the suit pulls off their beard revealing Rowan behind the costume. He looks exhausted as he gets some fresh air, "What do you mean she's not here???"

Cole stares at Rowan, "....Did you fucking walk here?"

Rowan grumbles as he drops the hat and beard on the ground, "It's still Christmas day right?"

Cole glances at the bottom left of his eye as he shakes his head, "It's the 27th."

Rowan grumbles to himself while taking his gloves off, "God damn it. Knew I shouldn't have taken that turn."

Luna adds, "But as. A consolation. We have. A gift for you. Rowan." She kneels down under the tree and pulls out another shoebox, this one wrapped in Purple and Green with a dark blue bow.

His ears perk up some as his smile returns. He sets the gloves aside on the table, "Well that's very thoughtful of you."

On opening the gift, Rowan finds an amethyst bladed pocket knife with a black handle.

Rowan's eyes widened slightly, "Oh wow. This is very beautiful thank you."

Luna smiles, "You are. Welcome."

Rowan nods, "Of course. Now I did have a few gifts for you all. Though I only dressed up because I couldn't remember if anyone's told Lochlan about the ol saint nick yet." He sets the gift he got down by the gloves as he opens the cloth sack. He reaches his arm all the way in to grab something.

Spider tilts her head looking up from a gift she had gotten, "Really?"

Luna responds, "We unfortunately. Forgot. To tell her. About Olor-- erm. Santa."

Rowan responds, "I'm talking about before she met you all." He pulls out a handful of oversized candy canes wrapped in clear plastic. Each has a simple bow on the top as he goes to pass one out to each person in the room. "I didn't know much about everyone so I hope this good enough."

Spider takes one, "...Ta."

Luna responds as her and Hinata grab one, "Thank you."

Cole grins as he gets his candy cane, "Thanks." Cole rips the plastic off and starts making his candy cane into a shank.

Luna comments, "So yeah, we have no idea where Lochlan is."

Spider unwraps her candy cane and sniffs it cautiously.

Rowan freezes in place as he tilts his head, "Wait. She's missing?"

Luna replies, "Yeah, we mentioned that before. There was a scuffle a few nights ago, Lochlan attacking Cole. And when we went to look for her for first aid, she was gone. All that was left was the arm." She points to the arm on the coffee table.

Spider takes a bite out of the candy cane as she adds a comment, “The scent wasn’t right either.”

Rowan’s face is becoming more and more concerned.

Spider explains, "The only place I could find the scent was on her blood, there should have been a trail if she's legged it."

Rowan begins hastefully taking the costume off and shoving it all inside the fabric sack. Underneath he wears his usual clothing.

Cole glances up from his candy cane to stare at Rowan then plucks the candy cane out of his mouth, "Did you walk all the way here wearing all of that?!"

Rowan nods and continues getting everything put away.

Luna glances up, "I have no idea where she could've gone. I worry we might have scared her off." Hinata puts a hand on Luna's shoulder.

Cole shrugs and resumes making his candy cane into a shank.

Spider adds, "I doubt we have but it's still concerning"

Rowan closes the sack and brings out a phone from his pocket as he starts to type.

Luna looks down at her phone as she sees something extremely concerning, "Hey Cole. You should uh check Datrs real quick. It's important."

Cole raises an eyebrow as he closes his right eye. Spider glances down at their phone curiously "..great"

Luna mentions, "Yeah... what the fuck is going on anymore. First Cole and Lochlan stumble across fuckin hadal freaks and now Icarus is kidnapped.”

Spider continues, "Question is what are we gonna do? Cause both Lochlan and Issa- Icarus are missing, they could be together for all we know."

Rowan is wrapped up with what he's typing on his phone.

Cole stops forming his candy cane into a shank as he sighs, "What evidence do we have that Lochlan and Icarus are together? I highly doubt they are both kidnapped, Lochlan has to still be here on this Earth somewhere."

Luna replies, "So far, we have no evidence at all."

Spider comments, "We don't but it's strange isn't it? Lochlan seemed ok so I can't think why she'd behave like that or run off."

Luna adds, "Lochlan seemed okay? The two of them came home from something after being attacked. We tried to figure out what she knew about the symbol they saw. Cole ended up tazing her and then the next night, Lochlan attempted to kill Cole and Cole defended himself." Luna shakes her head.

Spider growls "Well clearly I don't have all the details then."

Luna apologizes, “Sorry.”

Rowan glances up from his phone, "Has she tried to run away anytime recently?"

Spider looks over at Rowan, "Not to my knowledge."

Luna looks nervous, "Not that I can immediately think of? Cole?" She turns her attention to Cole.

Cole shakes his head, "Not that I know of."

Rowan sighs but throws up a smile again, "I don't have any information to help with that at the moment so need to worry about it right now. He sits down on the sofa, "Might as well sit for a minute before my feet fall off... so much for lucky."

Luna asks, "Lucky? Oh you mean your feet?"

Hinata sighs, "Never understood how luck actually works."

Rowan swats at the air, "Just superstitions, don't worry about it."

Spider grumbles, "That fucking phrase again.”

Hinata sighs, "Not worried about it honestly. I'm nowhere superstitious enough to believe in luck, though RNG is an asshole sometimes."

Rowan looks over at Cole and stares him down

Cole pulls the candy cane out of his mouth as he notices Rowan staring him down, "Can I help you?"

Rowan still stares, "You laughed, was there something funny?"

Cole thinks about it for a second, "I mean to me there was something funny."

Rowan nods, "Go on."

Cole sighs, "You said something that some old friends used to say all the time, and I just thought it was mildly funny."

Luna comments, "Oh you mean the 'don't worry about it' thing? That's... yeah."

Spider grumbles again and stands up. She starts to head towards the hallway, "Yeah, I'll see you lot tomorrow."

Hinata waves, "Good night Spider, sleep well."

Luna adds, "Right, tonight's the full cold moon."

Cole looks over at Rowan, "Before you go leave I'd like to have a small word with you, privately"

Rowan gets up and stretches, "Yeah I should be going anyways."

Luna smiles, "Have a safe trip back Rowan."

Cole motions to follow him as he opens the front door and holds it open for Rowan.

Rowan waves as he steps outside, "Sleep well."

Luna waves, "Thanks Rowan, byeeee!"

Cole steps outside with Rowan and shuts the door.

Rowan leans on the railing with a relaxed smile. He puts his hands on his hips, "So what's up?"

Before he has time to react, Cole quickly steps forward as he jabs his fingers into Rowan's side, blue electric arcs begin to dance across Cole's body as Rowan feels a 35v shock go through him as Cole attempts to sweep his feet out from under him.

Rowan is taken completely off guard as he falls forward. He puts his hands to his side and is still stunned.

Cole takes his fingers out from Rowan's side as he catches him and whispers, "I am the wind that blows through your hair." before punching Rowan in the temple.

Rowan is knocked out as he goes limp. His phone falls from one of his hands and he's considerably heavy.

Cole gently lowers Rowan to the ground as he grabs his phone and stuffs it in his own pocket as he snaps his fingers. A rope appears into his hands and he ties Rowan's arms and legs together.

As he's doing so he notices an earbud in one of Rowan's ears. It has a similar wire running down to a pocket to the one Mailman had.

Cole raises an eyebrow, plucks the earbud out, puts it near his ear, and tries to hear what's being said. But he hears nothing. Cole takes the earbud away from his ear as he traces the wire to find a simple device again. Cole takes the device and puts it in his pocket as he snaps his fingers. Rowan disappears and Cole walks back inside.