Son of Santa

By Kate Sands

Noel Nicholas is on a sabbatical from the North Pole realm. Back home he’s known as the Son of Santa, but in the human world, he’s a university student and he likes living in anonymity. Only Ruby, his cupid friend from the Eros realm, knows his true identity. That is, until Fannar, the gorgeous ice-sprite from the Pole, shows up unexpectedly. This causes Noel’s suppressed and unrequited crush on Fannar to return full force. However, there are more pressing matters at hand—Noel’s father has taken an extended vacation but cannot be found, and there’s only a month until Christmas.

As Noel is finishing his semester at school and he hasn’t seen his father in months, Mrs. Claus has tasked Fannar with finding Santa. Fannar keeps in touch with Noel but comes around far more often than necessary. It’s not helping Noel’s ability to hide his feelings… but as it turns out, they may not be as one-sided as Noel originally believed.

T
HE
CITY
of Winnipeg, sometimes referred to as Winterpeg by locals and visitors alike, was extremely cold during the winter months.

Noel Nicholas, sometimes referred to as Son of Santa by North Pole locals and realm folk alike, loved Winterpeg during these winter months.

On occasion, it could be colder than it was at the North Pole. Those were the times Noel didn’t like it as much and longed for home. But it didn’t happen often. Noel liked being away from the North Pole—away from the restricted snow-globe life of never-ending Christmas cheer and nosey elves and all sorts of realm folk passing through from one realm to the next.

Seriously. Even in July, eggnog and shortbread were in demand.

Noel hadn’t been home to the North Pole realm in four winter seasons, four human years, which was barely the equivalent of a single snowflake in a two-day Manitoba blizzard in realm time. Aging flowed differently there, and though he’d lived hundreds of seasons in the realm, he was the equivalent of a twenty-year-old human.

And as a young adult, he needed to leave the North Pole and experience life. He had the perfect excuse—
reason
—to convince his parents to let him. He’d be better equipped to perform his job as a Distributor if he understood the human world better.

Live and learn.

Basically—get out of the frozen north.

But finding his place amongst a frozen city? There was nothing wrong with some comforts of home.

N
OEL
LEFT
the university, taking the path from the main doors leading to Portage Avenue. Now late afternoon, the thin layer of morning frost that covered the sidewalk had dissipated in the sun, but it would only be a matter of days before the whole city was blanketed in snow. It had already arrived once the week before but had melted away. Soon it would be here to stay, and Noel couldn’t wait. He loved the snow.

A crowd of university students stood at the bus stop, waiting for the public transport to whisk them away from downtown, the heart of the city. Noel opted to walk. His rented apartment was several blocks to the west and by foot would take at least twenty-five minutes to get to. The bus would be much faster, get him inside sooner, but this was his favorite weather for taking a brisk walk.

He didn’t pay much mind to anyone else as he walked along the wide sidewalk, passing by bridal shops and sushi restaurants. He whistled a quiet nonholiday tune, looking at the gray clouds hanging low in the sky. Winnipeg wasn’t a particularly tall city, the buildings getting shorter and shorter the farther from downtown he got—only two or three stories high. Their brick-front facades with neon signage advertising sales made the scenery as he went along. The crowds thinned out until there weren’t many others he shared the sidewalk with.

As he walked along, the air around him dropped drastically in temperature, and goose bumps rippled over his skin despite the heavy hoodie he wore.

He looked up in time to meet a pair of icy blue eyes he immediately recognized.

“Hello, dear Noel. It’s been a while, eh?”

Oh. No.

It’d been four winter seasons since Noel had heard the voice, but the cool tenor of it was familiar, a constant presence in Noel’s life since he was a child.

It was Fannar, the ice sprite.

Fannar’s eyes reminded Noel of home. And reminded Noel he didn’t want to be there. This unexpected, though clearly arranged, meeting probably meant exactly that. Fannar was here to get Noel home.

Whoever had decided to make this happen, use Fannar as a call home… well, that person—
Dad
—could forget it.

Fannar leaned against the red brick of a shabby building, a Tim Hortons coffee cup in hand. He looked effortlessly cool, which wasn’t even a pun Noel had tried to come up with. Fannar was six feet tall, with hair so blond it was almost white, and had the chiseled jaw of a Greek god. Noel had actually met a Greek god once. And a Roman one. And a Hindu one. They’d all been aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Fannar, while not a god, was no different. Noel didn’t know how often Fannar wandered into the human realm, but he seemed prepared for it, wearing fashionable jeans and boots and a leather jacket. He looked like a model who’d walked right out of a photo shoot on a fashion blog.

Noel felt a heat in his stomach, crackling like a dying ember in a hearth on a cold winter’s night, waiting to be rekindled and refueled.

Nothing had happened between them that needed such rekindling, just wishful thinking, so Noel chose to ignore it.

“What are you doing here?” Noel hissed. He brushed past Fannar and kept walking, not bothering to stop and chat. He figured if Fannar had crossed over into the human realm to speak to him, he could catch up.

Noel was right. Fannar used his long stride to do so, effortlessly and gracefully, as if he’d used the wind to push him along. It was annoying.

“I’m here to see you, of course. It’s been way too long, hasn’t it?”

“Not long enough,” Noel muttered under his breath.

“Come now, where is that Kringle cheer?”

Ever since the evolution of Santa in modern commercialism, elves and sprites and fairies
loved
pulling out every Santa Claus cliché they could possibly use, to see Noel’s eyes go stormy and mouth pull into a frown. He didn’t have to deal with it anymore. He was limited to exactly one realm folk friend in the human world, and she would never tease him.

The needling still worked, apparently.

Noel paused on the spot, his jaw clenched tight as he glared at Fannar.

“Whoa,” Fannar said, holding up his hands defensively. “Right. I forgot what a killjoy you are. No Kringle jokes. Got it.”

“Are you going to explain why you’re really here?” Noel paused to adjust the strap of the bag slung over his shoulder.

Fannar looked Noel over. “Your human aesthetic is… unusual.”

Noel gave him a blank look. “You came all this way to tell me I look funny. Great. You’ve done it. Thank you very much. Go home, Fannar.” Noel started walking away again.

“I didn’t say funny! I’m sorry,” Fannar said, easily falling in stride next to Noel. “I mean. I didn’t expect….” He glanced at Noel again, eying his dove-gray sweatpants and bright lime-green sneakers. He wore a black and orange hoodie, which wouldn’t be warm enough for a normal human against the cold, but the cold affected Noel differently, so he could stand it. He had a brown messenger bag with the books and laptop he needed for the school day slung over his shoulder.

By human standards, and realm standards even, he looked a mess. But he didn’t care. Noel loved the comfort, and there were few expectations of him here.

Fannar finished, “It’s sporty.”

“I’m sporty.” To prove it, he walked faster.

“You’re the Son of Santa!”

“Would you shut up?”

“And you’re missing your chubs. You need to work on your bowl-full-of-jelly belly.”

Noel huffed. “You really had to go there?”

“Sorry, sorry, I’ll stop the jokes. But I’m honestly confused. You’ve… changed.”

For the first time in their meeting, Fannar sounded uncertain. It was unlike him. Or at least unlike what Noel remembered. Fannar was a confident, sometimes cocky ice sprite. Born in the same realm era as Noel, they’d known each other all their lives. Noel wouldn’t exactly call them friends—mostly because once he’d got older, Noel realized he’d developed an unrequited crush on Fannar. It had turned him socially awkward. As a defense mechanism, Noel turned prickly in Fannar’s presence, which Fannar took as a reason to tease him and try to annoy him on purpose.

However, few understood what it was like being from the North Pole realm. Fannar and Noel… they had that connection at least, and it wouldn’t change, no matter how long Noel had been gone.

“I’ve not changed
that
much,” Noel grumbled, but shot Fannar a half smile. “I’m still me.”

“You’re different.” Fannar sounded much more confident. “The human realm. It’s changed you.”

“Right,” Noel said. “I’ve grown an appreciation for Crossfit and whey protein. That’s it, I swear.”

“Hmm.” Fannar’s hum didn’t sound entirely convinced, but at least he didn’t look sad anymore.

Noel had no idea what else to say to Fannar. Fannar didn’t appear to be ready to divulge why he was here in Winnipeg, tracking Noel down for a conversation. It was ridiculous. He was here to talk, but he wasn’t talking. Noel kept walking toward home, and Fannar fell into step beside him. The sidewalks were wide, but when they passed a crowded bus stop, Fannar moved aside, nearly pushed against Noel’s side.

Noel took a deep breath, kept facing forward, and didn’t speak when Fannar didn’t step away from him again.

The air around them carried a chill to it, ever present with an ice sprite, but it wasn’t as cool as it could be. Maybe Fannar purposely kept it light to keep Noel comfortable. Noel wouldn’t have minded either way.

After walking along in silence, Noel decided to break the ice, so to speak.

“I’m surprised to see you.”

“I’m sure you are.” Fannar’s tone was light and airy, and he looked around the city as they walked through it. He didn’t offer anything else.

“Don’t you have a polar vortex to play with?”

A grin spread across Fannar’s handsome face, and he finally turned and looked at Noel. He winked. “That was so last year.”

Noel rolled his eyes to cover the chuckle threatening to rise.

He turned off Portage to go down a side street, entering the Wolseley area. The houses were older, but many were well maintained. The sidewalks were much narrower, and Fannar was especially close. He had to fall in step behind Noel when a neighbor went by, walking her dog. She smiled in recognition of Noel, though they’d never spoken much more than a handful of words before. Once she passed, Noel walked another dozen feet and came to an abrupt stop. Directly behind him, the ever-graceful Fannar nearly ran into him.

“As fabulous as this has been,” Noel said, voice dripping with sarcasm, “I’m home, and I’m not inviting you in.”

He’d thought about it briefly, but he wasn’t sure he was ready to invite a realm folk into his place. Okay, sure, his friend Ruby was from the Eros realm, and she came over once in a while, and he had human friends of course, but no one else. Someone from back home, in the space Noel made for himself in the human world—it was more than he was ready for.

Thankfully, Fannar didn’t look put out by it. He nodded along agreeably, though he eyed the brick building with its slanted front steps. It was nicer inside than it looked on the outside, except for Noel’s apartment at the moment. It was a mess that hadn’t recovered from when Noel studied for midterms.

“Okay,” Noel said. “I’m going inside. Are you sure you didn’t stop by to ask me a question? Pass on a message?”

Fannar’s question came casually, but was a punch to Noel’s gut.

“Have you spoken to your father recently?”

Noel gaped at Fannar. “Have I… no, no I haven’t. Not since September. I know he’s busy this time of year. I try not to bother him. Why?” Noel swallowed against the nervous lump starting to form in his throat. “Is everything all right?”

“I’m sure it’s fine.” Fannar waved his hand dismissively. “You know how he takes off on his little minivacations. I don’t blame him, given what his job is. He’s probably taking an extended one and forgot to tell his missus. You know what he’s like.”

“It’s November,” Noel said. “And he’d never not let my mother know where he is. Oh my gods, is my mother okay?”

“Yes, yes, Mrs. Claus is fine.” Fannar sounded reassuring, but Noel’s stomach fluttered uncomfortably with nerves. “She sends along her love, of course. Her hands are quite full right now, with your father’s extended absence. That’s why she didn’t come down herself. She asked me to.”

Noel wasn’t surprised to hear that. Out of all the young elves and ice sprites of a similar age to Noel, Fannar was a particular favorite of both his mother and father. Somehow Fannar had charmed them over. It had annoyed the hell out of Noel. It still did. He had no doubt it was why his mother trusted Fannar with this task.