Page 5 of Santa & His Elf

“Didn’t your father explain how this works to you?”

Most definitely not!I scream inside my brain.

“No. Explain what? How what works? The workshop? How I deliver presents?” I reply out loud.

Doc chuckles at my naivete or my convincing version of it. “No. No, dear boy.” Kind eyes rimmed in wrinkles seek mine. “When the Christmas Giving Tree picks your second, and you both eat the golden sugar plum, your souls bond permanently as the magic of this world intended.”

That much I already knew. On the day the fruit ripens and glows, a new Santa is chosen, and with it, his second. A leaf with a name falls from the ancient tree. Pepper Minstix fell that day. Thus, this set off the chain of events that led us here. Before then, I’d never met Pepper. Nor did I know he was the greatest painter in the village until Father told me of his artwork covering most of the workshop walls and many buildings throughout the Pole. Even my favorite mural of dancing candy canes is Pepper’s.

“Okayyyy… And that means?” I ask.

“You’re united.”

“We’re what?” I croak as a frog lodges itself in my throat. When I try to swallow it down, it grows three sizes.

“Married. Mates,” Doc clarifies. “We’ve never had Santa mate a male elf, but that is who the Christmas Giving Tree chose for you.”

“He’s my… I’m his…” The words squeak out.

“In layman’s terms, husbands. Yes,” Doc supplies, far too calmly for my frazzled nerves.

“But I’ve never been with a guy before,” I blurt.

“Yes, and Pepper has never had sex with anyone.”

What?

“He hasn’t…” I glance over at my head elf, eyes wide. “You haven’t?”

Pepper wrings his fingers together. “No. I… Doc’s been seeing me for my suppressed libido since I hit maturity. We couldn’t figure out why I’ve never been able to get an erection.”

“You’re getting them now, aren’t you?” Doc asks with a knowing smile.

My head elf nods. “Yes. All the time.”

“See, Pepper, destiny had other plans for you.”

“I’m… This is…” He’s getting erections now? He couldn’t get them before? Destiny? Fiddlesticks, fiddlesticks, fiddlesticks.

I close my eyes and count to ten. It does little to erase the ticker tape scrolling behind my eyelids of Pepper. Of his…

“There’s not much to it, Nicholas. I’m still surprised your father didn’t explain it. You and Pepper will soon learn the longer you’re apart from the other, the more agitated you’ll become. The sleeping and the sex I’ve already explained. And you already know about the one-sided emotional connection, so he can always feel and sense you. It’s Pepper’s job to help ease the burden of all you must do to fulfill your place here,” Doc explains.

“I’m still stuck on the part where he’s mine.” I point to my head elf.

No, I’m stuck on the part where he is getting turned on now and wasn’t before. Why can’t I stop thinking about his penis?

Doc removes his glasses and cleans them on his coat. “Didn’t he already feel like that, even before you knew this?”

“Yes, in some ways,” I lie. He’s the real reason I can’t sleep. Nobody else knows that but you.

“You dream of him,” Doc states, wearing the biggest smile I’ve ever seen as he slides his wire-rimmed spectacles back into place.

I gasp. “How did you know that?”

“Isn’t that why you work harder not to sleep?” Doc guesses, hitting the nail on the head.

“I can’t help the thoughts,” I admit aloud for the first time. A shiver of guilt crawls across my skin as I turn to my head elf. “I’m sorry, Pepper. I don’t mean to think that way. I fight them off.”

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