The Naughty List - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The fat snowflakes drifting down through the crisp air didn't seem to be even noticed by anyone, making no impact whatsoever on the bustling activity that filled the courtyard. The dusting of white that lay on the ground had been trampled underfoot long ago apart from a few places tucked away in corners and against walls, but the roofs of the sturdy wooden buildings around the yard were heavy with a pristine blanket of snow.

The shattering explosion from over the hill definitely did get people's attention, though. The sooty cloud boiling upward from the blast's source drawing almost every eye. Almost.

With a sigh, the one person who'd not immediately jerked toward the noise lowered the German language issue of Cosmopolitan she'd been flicking through and turned eyes the same icy blue shade of the sky toward the large, shaggy-haired hound laid on the planks beside her.

"Well, he seems to have managed that much, at least."

A huff of canine agreement was all the immediate response, but a few moments later the dog turned its head from the thinning smoke and looked up at the young-looking woman lounging in her comfortable chair. About the only concession she seemed to have made to the chill was her tight red sweater - the cut-off shorts certainly weren't - and the hound ran it's gaze along her long, shapely legs to the scruffy boots propped up on the veranda's railing. The look was quite a pointed one, and she let out a soft sigh before dropping her feet back to the decking with a thump.

"Fine," she said with a smile. "No need to nag, Vigi."

Rising to her feet, she dropped her magazine onto the low table beside her chair, raising her arms over her head in a sinuous stretching movement. A few seconds later, she relaxed, then scooped her long mane of silvery-white hair back from her shoulders. Ornate silver studs glinted in her delicately pointed ears, but only until she let her hair fall again to cover them.

"I still don't think this was a smart idea, you know. Okay, so Jack iced over Dad's favourite fishing pool, but I can't help thinking that this whole notion is perhaps a little... over the top?"

Another huff of agreement sounded from Vigi, and the dog lifted itself to its feet and gave a quick shake. A hand dropped to the top of his head, and he tilted it to give proper access for the scratch being offered. It wasn't much of a stretch on her part, since he came up to pretty much her waist, but he was careful not to put too much of his weight onto her legs when he leaned against them.

"Yeah, yeah... And none of that is anything Mom or I haven't said to him already."

A movement from behind them had the pair glancing that way, and both of them watched as an older woman, almost queenly in a flowing dress of deep green, steered her heavily pregnant belly out of the house and into the fresh air.

"Was that another problem in the warehouse, or has your father been playing again?"

"What do you think?"

"Now, now, Nikki. No need to suggest that your father has a habit of acting like an overgrown teenager."

Nikki arched an eyebrow at her mother, glancing down at the swollen belly. "You don't seem to complain about some of his more youthful behaviour."

"What we get up to, or not, in the privacy of our own bedroom is none of your concern, young lady."

The prim, almost scolding tone bounced off Nikki's cheeky grin with no visible effect whatsoever.

"It is when a certain someone is... vocal enough, shall we say, to keep me awake."

A faint flush coloured her mother's cheeks, but the woman refused to look away... at least until the pair of them shared a grin and started laughing. That only lasted a few moments, however, until the elder woman frowned, looking past her. Niki turned to see what had caught her eye, and her own brow furrowed as well when she saw the quartet of short figures staggering into the yard, each one carrying a corner of a makeshift stretcher that quite obviously once had been a door - recently enough, in fact, that the battered remains of the frame still bounced along underneath it from one twisted hinge.

Of far more importance to her, though, was the sight of the portly, white-bearded man laid on the door itself, holding one leg in clear discomfort and quite audibly cursing with great eloquence.

"Well," Nikki said softly, sighing as she took in the scorched and singed appearance of her father. "That looks uncomfortable."

"But not, I'm afraid, totally unexpected."

Her mother's dry observation was met with a definite sigh from Vigi, the hound showing quite plainly just how little he was shocked at the sight the three of them were taking in.

"So... did it all go according to plan, dear?"

Niki felt quite proud of the fact that she managed to keep a smirk off of her face as she watched her father scowl up at his wife from the armchair she'd had him dumped in. One leg stuck out, resting on a footstool and wrapped tightly to hold the splint in place, and it was pretty much obvious that he was a great deal less amused by the whole situation than the rest of his family was.

"No, it didn't. As you can quite plainly see."

"Oh, I just wanted to make sure that I hadn't missed some nuance of your cunning plan."

Sour muttering was the only answer she got, but that seemed to be more or less exactly what she'd expected. Nikki watched as her expression softened, a glass of brandy being held out to her father - who broke of his grumpy sulk to take and offer his wife a look of thanks. Light from the fireplace shimmered in the amber liquid as he held the glass in his hand, before finally letting out a long, low sigh.

"You were right, both of you. Which shouldn't surprise me in the slightest, should it?"

"Not really, no," Nikki answered, even though it hadn't really been a question. Her father looked over at her with a smile, and she returned it as she idly scratched between Vigi's ears.

"Should have known messing with that ramshackle still of Jack's wouldn't go smoothly."

"At least you're not a mortal," her mother observed. "Which, now I think about it, is probably the main reason you and Jack have managed to keep sniping at each other so long."

"Probably."

That agreement sounded cheerful enough, and given the history of pranks and counter-pranks the two of them had engaged in over the centuries, it was totally genuine too. There was no way the whole thing had carried on that long if the main perpetrators hadn't enjoyed every bit of it.

Not that things had gone to plan any more than one time in three, on either side... But that seemed to Nikki to have been part of the fun.

Unfortunately, there was just the tiniest problem with how it had gone wrong this time. The broken leg would heal quickly enough, probably within the week, but the timing... Oh, yes, the timing. Of all the days to have blown his fool ass up, this was probably the single worst one of the year to do it.

Something that seemed to have occurred to her parents, as well, if the way their expressions turned pensive was any guide.

"Is there anything you can do, Maria?" her father asked softly, but her mother just sighed and shook her head, one hand resting on her round belly.

"Not with junior still in residence, Nicholas. I'm sorry."

"Damn..." Nicholas muttered. "I'll have to make do then."

"Do you have to?" his wife asked. "It's not like the modern world will miss you just this once."

That was true enough. Belief in the sort of thing they were talking about was more or less only the province of kids nowadays, and that wasn't including the sheer impossibility - even with the magic her father could call upon - of visiting every single hearth and home across the world in a single night. Nikki had never really thought it had ever actually worked that way, but it certainly hadn't during her lifetime...

"It's the principle of the thing, dear, and you know it. The fact that it happens, and the lives it touches, are the whole reason it's done."

"And doing it this year will likely leave you crippled for months."

There was more than a hint of concern driving Maria's tart reply, and the grimace that it got her was one of a man who knew she was right... and was determined that he had to do the job anyway. A thought tickled at the back of Nikki's mind, and she frowned as she dug it out and considered it.

Would that work? And even if it would, what are the chances they'll let me do it?

She honestly had no idea on either count, but still...

Her parents were busy discussing the problem, if that was what two stubborn attitudes butting heads could be called, whilst Nikki though. After a while, decided that there was little to be lost from trying... and a glance down at Vigi showed the hound looking up at her with a definite grin on his muzzle.

"-telling you, it's what I have to do. There's just no escaping that fact."

"Who's asking you to? Just give it a rest this year."

"Uhh..." Nikki interjected, one hand raising in a rather feeble attempt to get her parents' attention.

"It has to happen every year," her father carried on, not seeming to have noticed.

"Excuse me?" Nikki tried again.

"Nicholas," her mother sighed. "There is no way you're going out there tonight."

"And if not me, then who?"

"Me?"

Nikki, tired of waiting, simply butted in with what she saw as a perfectly sensible suggestion. When both sets of parental eyes turned her way, however, she started seriously reconsidering just how smart an idea it had really been. Trying not to show how nervous that regard was making her feel, she made herself sit straight and appear as trustworthy and competent as she could.

"You?" her father asked, and she managed what she thought was an at least mostly calm nod.

He looked over at his wife, who had pursed her lips in thought. The two of them shared a long, silent look, seemingly communicating without a single word being spoken. The look went on for so long, in fact, that Nikki began to seriously suspect that they'd moved on to deciding just how much she was going to regret having made such a stupid suggestion in the first place.

With a suddenness that took her by surprise, her father shrugged. "That would work."

Nikki blinked, not sure what she'd just heard, then did it again when her mother nodded in apparent agreement.

"She'll need to actually pay attention to the job, and not let herself get distracted like the last time she went out into the world."

With a blush, Nikki tried to ignore the rather pointed look she was getting from the older woman. When that failed, she tried for something more defiant instead. It wasn't like she'd been forbidden to spend time mingling with the mortals - and there was no denying just how much pure fun it had turned out to be. Especially the part where she'd gotten herself into a student party that had gotten rather... playful, to say the least.

Actually, if she was honest, it had turned into little short of a full-blown orgy by the end, and she'd quite eagerly gone from inexperienced virgin to veteran of cock, cum, and cunt-juice over the course of that night. She'd been hard-pressed to even guess how many orgasms she'd had by the next morning, but she'd not regretted the experience in the slightest.

Which she was certain her mother, at least, knew full well.

"I'm fairly sure I can manage to keep my mind on the task at hand, Mother," she said with a serenity she didn't quite feel. "I'll be kind of busy, after all."

"True enough," the other woman allowed.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" her father asked soberly, and, somewhat to her surprise, Nikki nodded back just as seriously.

"I do. And I can do it." She offered him a quick grin. "You managed it for this long, after all."

The snort of laughter he let out was rather at odds with the stern look he gave her, but then he shook his head with a wry chuckle and turned to his wife. "We'd best get everyone moving, finish up loading. And we should probably find something a little more... appropriate for her to wear."

"I am not wearing Mother's version of your business outfit, Dad."

"Oh?" her mother asked with a raised eyebrow. "And what, precisely, is wrong with it?"

"Nothing," Nikki shrugged. "I happen to know full well that you like it almost as much as Dad does. I'm just not sure if it's a good idea for me to do my part for the season dressed like I'm on stage at a festive strip club."

"Hmm, you may have a point."

Rising to her feet, Nikki gave Vigi a last pat on the head, then shot her father a grin that couldn't have been cheekier if she'd tried. "And as an added bonus, you'll save Mother from wearing out yet another set of batteries for what she uses to keep herself amused whilst you're at work."

Continued in Chapter 2

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