Nicky's Naughty List
"Nicky's Naughty List"
by K.M. Hirosaki ([email protected])
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This story and all characters are copyright © 2007 K.M. Hirosaki
With Christmas only two weeks away, Nicky had reason to be nervous. If he couldn't change the facts, the best he could do was to apply himself towards the 'nice' end of the spectrum to see if he couldn't tip the balance back in his favor by Christmas Eve. The problem was that finals took up all of the following week at the Canid College, and working hard to do well on his exams and keep his scholarship didn't really count as 'nice' as much as it was just something he was expected to do anyway.
The summer had been a little bit more naughty, Nicky had to concede. He hadn't originally attributed too high a naughtiness factor to his two summer flings, until he considered that they'd both been going on at the same time, and that probably made them worth more. He'd at least had the decency not to keep anything going once fall semester of sophomore year began, but now that he was back to living in the dorms, well... college was one of those places where people were adventurous and free-thinking and open and liberal and sometimes very liberal when it came to their life philosophies, and what sort of fox was Nicky to try to deny someone an integrate part of the collegiate experience?
After that, he'd gone to help out with the GLBT Student Alliance, too. Of course, their office was tucked away in a back corner of the basement floor of the Student Union, and the only folks who ever wandered that way were students of a like persuasion and, well, the whole point of the Alliance was so that young people could meet folks that they could be comfortable with, and Nicky was just very, very comfortable. Wasn't that nice?
Giving his list another look-over, Nicky buried his face into his paws. He'd been far, far too naughty a fox to possibly swing things back into his favor with only two weeks to go. Even if he could think of something so overwhelmingly nice to do, the time commitments necessary would probably cause him to fail all of his finals, and that would just compound the whole naughtiness problem all over again. His frustration finally built up to the point where he let out a shameful whine and let his head fall and thump against the desk.
Nicky's roommate, a gray fox named Corbin, poked his head around the corner.
"I'm pretty much a lock on for the naughty list this year, it looks. So unless you want to help me cure cancer sometime by next weekend, I guess Santa's going to skip over me."
that bad off," the gray fox said, patting the red fox on the shoulder. "I mean, it's like... wait, hold on, what did you say?"
What's that got to do with anything?"
He folded his ears back to hide the deep blush that was now rushing into them. "No, I just mean, y'know... metaphorically, and all. Like, karma. I just feel like I haven't been, er, nice enough?"
He leaned over to sneak a look at it. Nicky tried to cover it up with his arms, but Corbin's eyes had already widened. "Whoa, hey, I didn't know you were into that sort of thing."
His deep blush remained, but he didn't try to shy away, this time. "Well, erm, I mean..."
"If you're not going to spend the time studying, you may as well do something fun." He slipped back around the corner, then, and said nothing further.
Tad had always dreamed of being one of the coyote-elves picked to work in Santa's workshop. What he didn't know, back then, was that the majority of the coyote-elves (and certainly the first-timers) ended up in clerical positions. After all, with all the millions upon millions of letters sent up north, it wasn't possible for Santa to read them all personality, and so there was a vest network in place with the sole purpose of handling the logistics of bulk mail.
With such monotony, even something slightly different stood out, and when Tad opened up his next letter, he was a bit dumbfounded by what he saw. "Um, so like," he called out to his fellow coyote-elves, "what do we do when we get a letter from someone who admits that they're naughty?"
What's it say?"
"It says, 'Dear Santa, I'm sure you probably know this already, but I've been a very naughty fox this year. Back in May, I--'" The coyote-elf's voice trailed off as his eyes wandered ahead down the page. "Oh, my. He has been a naughty fox, it looks."
"Tad here's gotten another 'naughty fox' letter!" This was met by some rather enthusiastic whistling and the clapping of paws.
His finger indicated the drop slot below 'Naughty,' marked, 'N.F.' Tad had always thought the letters stood for 'Not Found,' like if the name on someone's letter didn't match any on record.
And then what?" Tad asked.
We've got mail to clear through, here."
That's mighty nice of him, wouldn't you say?"
"Come December Twenty-Sixth, once it's time to kick off your shoes and relax, there's not gonna be anything to help you unwind better than some peace and quiet and a couple of those naughty fox letters."
He tugged it out of Tad's grip and set it back down on the bench. "File it away and move onto the rest of your pile. Chop-chop, folks!" He clapped his paws sharply and trotted back to his desk.
And so, Christmas came and went, and Nicky found that, despite his having been a very naughty little fox indeed, Santa didn't pass up his house after all. He got all the things he wanted, he got good grades on all of his final exams, and he even managed to sneak in a little end-of-the-year naughtiness while he was at it.