Of course Santa isn't real! (One Shot)

The orphanage was rather ill funded, with heat for the furnace barely adequate and each piece of clothing being worn by half a dozen people before you got, mended each time. But every year, a particularly generous soul pretended to be Santa Claus and gifted the orphanage with toys for all of the good children, and a supply of coal to help keep them warm.

Personally, Tanya thought it was rather clever of the nuns to use the gift of coal to scold the naughtiest of children, using their 'gift from Santa' to help warm everyone as a lesson in community contributions. Those toys eventually became communal property anyway, so it was a temporary punishment.

On her first Christmas in this life, Tanya got warm knitted pajamas, the best possible gift. She also got a warm hat, and some powdered chocolate that the nuns mixed in with warm milk in her bottle, and it was all for her.

On her second Christmas, she got much the same: warm pajamas, a warm blanket, and some more chocolate for her bottle.

On her third Christmas, she got more winter wear, including some nice woolen socks. The chocolate was in candy bar form this time, and it was as sweet as the first.

On her fourth Christmas, a different philanthropist than the usual one bought every child some good warm clothes, so the one who refused to be seen or identified as anyone but 'Santa' gave her something new: a stuffed cat, with two tails. She named it Nekomata, of course. It was a good prop to have, as she had overheard Sister Edda comment about how Tanya was odd for not showing much interest in toys. The fact that it was surprisingly high quality really helped, of course. It was basically an extra pillow at night, and given how some of the other children would steal hers at times, this was quite the useful gift. As a bonus, it was distinctive enough that everyone knew that it was 'Tanya's doll' and after the first few incidents, Nekomata was left alone. Oh, and she got some more chocolate that she didn't have to share, which was always nice.

Tanya had, when bored in December, wondered how the transaction with 'Santa' worked. Did the man just pay for a shopping trip run by the nuns to customize the gifts? Did they give him an actual list? The nuns encouraged the children who could read and write to write down a letter to Santa, which presumably helped, but she never asked anyone for more warm clothes, but got them anyway.

As an experiment, when Tanya wrote to Santa, she was very specific as to her request, something that would be difficult to get in this part of the world: she asked for a Go set. She hedged her request by thanking 'Santa' profusely for the warm clothing she had received previously, and that one could never have too many warm socks. She had even pointed out how she had "been a good girl and sang in choir, as instructed... even though she doesn't like hymns".

She actually got the Go board and a nice set of smooth, polished stones to go with it. It even had a scroll in the base outlining the rules for play and scoring... in both Imperial and Akitsushiman, this world's name for Japanese. She also got not one, but two pairs of warm woolen socks. Exquisite.

Whoever this generous soul was, he was really committed to the 'Santa' bit. The nuns didn't let up one bit about choir, though, completely ignoring her polite, indirect request to stop.

Still, it was a nice thing that helped break up the low-key misery that was everyday life growing up poor in 1920s Imperial Germany. Damn Being X.

Her first Christmas Eve as a soldier was a little melancholy, as a result. She was still in training, of course. She had written a letter the week before to Santa, because the other soldiers were writing letters to people and she felt awkward not writing something to someone. She had thanked him for his generosity over the years, and made no requests, citing the fact that her income as a soldier meant that she could purchase warm clothes and candy for herself. It's not like she'd get them, after all. Frankly, a break from the punishing physical training and the richer meal was gift enough, as far as she was concerned.

It was thus a shock when, Christmas morning, all of the other trainees were passing out gifts in the dining hall, the Christmas tree loaded with presents, all labeled as from 'Santa'. It was very weird to see so many military men take a holiday so... seriously? No, that's not quite the word, calling the childish glee that each of the older teenagers had 'serious' in any context just felt wrong.

It was when she opened the gifts, every single one of the other trainees watching her unwrap them neatly as if she was there only for their own amusement, that she realized what had happened: a sympathetic officer must have gotten their hands on the letter she wrote. Warm underclothes and candy, chocolate most of all, awaited within the festive wrapping paper. She had to keep in mind that to at least some of them, she was still a little girl. Of course some middle-aged man who probably couldn't be there for their actual children would try and use her as a proxy.

...of course, seeing Nekomata peer back out at her, freshly mended, stuffed, and cleaned, out of the last box put something of a damper on that theory, but tracking down her old orphanage and asking about the toy that she had thanked 'Santa' for providing in the letter wasn't impossible. A lot further than she thought reasonable, but it wasn't impossible. It was the same doll, too. Every secondary stitch from mending damage over the years was still there.

It was nice, seeing someone go through so much effort in an attempt to make her happy. Call it Christmas spirit if you must, but she just wished she had thought to contribute to the gift exchange. But she suspected they left her out on purpose, possibly in an attempt to fool her into thinking Santa was real.

Her ninth Christmas in this world was spent in the thick of the Rhine front. She had heard of the 'Christmas Truce' during World War I, but it was clearly not universal. The only gift she got that year was the realization that the Type 95 was damaging her memory, as she had absolutely zero memory of what had occurred in that entire week, and only noticed when Visha mentioned how Tanya had shared the chocolate she had recieved 'from Santa' with everyone.

It was a better gift than most, as the realization allowed her the desperate resolve to beg for a 'standard' orb. The acceptance of that request was a true Christmas miracle.

Her tenth Christmas was a bad joke. Someone snuck coal into the stocking that the men insisted be put up for her. She threw it in the furnace of the building the 203rd were occupying, resting after the action-packed Legadonian invasion. It was then that she learned that all of the 203rd's leadership still believed in Santa Claus. How was she the only one who knew the truth? Still, she tolerated their ribbing and didn't tease them for their childish belief. She did literally torture them for a bit as part of their training in an attempt to get them to wash out, so she'll allow their minor mutiny. Just for the one day.

Her eleventh Christmas was when she learned better.

"...What." Tanya said, looking at her men, joyously exchanging gifts.

"Of course Santa is real." Visha said, eating another pastry from the box of them that had appeared overnight. "Who told you he wasn't?"

"...But it's ridiculous." Tanya said, feeling faint. Tanya had, once again, written a letter to Santa, because she had done so every year except for two years ago, and it bothered her that she hadn't done it yet for two weeks before she caved and wrote it anyway. She burned it afterwards, though. It wouldn't do for the men to see her doing something so childish. "Absurdity compounded by absurdity... it's just a fantasy told to children to keep away the cruel nature of the world..."

She had made the most absurd requests yet, this time. She had asked for pocky, she had asked for mochi, she had asked for some natto. She got them all. But the one thing that could not have any other explanation but Being X fucking with her for giggles... she had asked for a Gameboy. With Tetris. And batteries she could charge with the electrical formula loaded on the type 97.

'doo dodo doo dododo dododoo'

"I've never seen a toy like that." Visha said, curious. "Is it fun?"

Tanya smiled, unable to stop the flow of tears. She had missed video games... so much. "Immensely."