A late (late-late-late) Christmas gift for my bestest brother,  nocturne! He gets an enchanting visit from Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. I'm sure it's a heart-warming family favorite.

Nocturne © himself
Story © c'est moi

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Nocturne sighed, rolling his eyes. He wasn’t thrilled about working through Christmas Eve, and he wasn’t thrilled about working New Year’s Eve, but as the adage goes, beggars couldn’t be choosers when it came to getting a last minute job in winter to pay off Christmas gifts. And, to be fair, there were worse jobs than working a reception desk at a gym, especially when certain powerlifter types came in.

It was almost midnight, and Nocturne had been stuck at the desk all day. The ramsky watched as the last gym rats left with some degree of relief, and then looked out the door, his reflected canine muzzle twisted with apprehension. A foot of snow had fallen, and it was still coming down. It was going to be a long drive home. There were just five minutes left until closing…

The hybrid’s brow arched when he heard the door open, followed by his jaw slightly dropping when he saw who was coming in. Shaking off the cold and the snow was one of the largest people Nocturne had ever seen, and that was saying something. It was a caribou, with shoulders nearly double the size of his antlers. He barely squeezed through the door, either because of his antlers catching on the door frame, or his wide frame pressing against either side of it. He was considerably bundled up, so it was hard to tell just how large he was, but Nocturne could tell it was on a scale that began on “big” and ended on “monumental.”

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” the caribou grumbled. “Cold enough for you, kid?” He asked Nocturne with a rueful grin.

“Uh…” Nocturne had to take a moment to recover himself, rubbing his curved horns. “Sir, uhm… we close in five minutes…”

“Wait, what?” the Caribou checked his phone, and then smacked his head. “Ah, cripes. Look, uh… I’m terrible with time at winter. Where I come from, winter means not seeing the sun for about six months. I thought it was morning. This is the only decent gym in like, fifty miles. Is there any way I can convince you to let me just get a quick pump in?”

Nocturne’s eyes were wandering across the caribou’s wide expanse, increasingly curious to see just how big a chest this guy had to make his coat stick so far out past his muzzle… “Hm? Oh.” He shook his head. “Sir, I’m really sorry, but I’m the only one left, and I gotta get home…”

The caribou sighed, and rested his arms on the desk. Nocturne could hear it creak under the pressure. “Look, buddy, I know, I get it, I work nights too. But listen, I can make it worth your while. I don’t play this card often, but….” he tapped his fingers on the desk, hesitating. “...I’m Rudolph.”

Nocturne’s brow arched again. “...Rudolph,” he echoed, decidedly unconvinced.

“Yeah. You know?” He cleared his throat. “Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer had a very shiny nose, and when you ever saw it…” he rubbed at his snout, and the ramsky watched as black shoe polish was rubbed all over the huge caribou’s sleeve. When he looked back up, his nose was shining bright red. “...You could even say it, uh, glows.”

Nocturne felt like if his eyes bugged out any further, they would pop right out of their sockets. “You… you’re Rudolph. As in… reindeer Rudolph. As in… Santa Rudolph?”

“Yeah. Good news, your parents didn’t lie to you about Santa after all. Yay!” Rudolph threw up his arms in a mocking gesture. “Look, uh…” he narrowed his eyes, looking at the ramsk’s nametag. “Noc- Nocturne? What kind of name is Nocturne?”

The hybrid scoffed. “What kind of name is Rudolph?”

“It’s Germanic for ‘noble wolf’!” The reindeer shot back defensively. He sighed, tapping his knuckles on the desk. “Look, Nocturne, December twenty sixth immediately began my off season, and I need to keep in shape. If I let one workout slip, my whole week’s fucked.”

“Santa’s reindeer says ‘fuck’?” Nocturne crossed his arms.

“He also says Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas because my mom’s Jewish, what of it?” Rudolph snapped. “Buddy, just let me work out. I won’t be long, and, again, I can make it worth your while.”

The ramsky narrowed his eyes. “How?”

“I can get you on the ‘nice’ list. I’m serious!” Rudolph snapped at Nocturne’s predictable reaction. “Think about it. You get a nice, expensive gift for Christmas next year if you do me this favor. We don’t normally give gifts away to adults. You can literally ask Santa for anything.”

Nocturne tapped his fingers on the desk, thinking. “...Okay. Just… half an hour.”

“I’ll be forty five minutes, tops.” Rudolph grinned, and then knocked on the desk. “Thanks, Noc.”

“I-” Nocturne tried to protest, but Rudolph strode past him to the lockers, leaving the ramsky sighing in frustration.

In the next few minutes, the hybrid locked the doors. “In case the Easter Bunny drops in for some cardio,” he grumbled to himself. He began to tidy up the gym, trying to guess which equipment Rudolph wouldn’t have interest in, but as he finished wiping down the biking machines, he spotted his late arrival. His winter clothing hadn’t been adding much.

The red-nosed reindeer raised his arms over his head to stretch, thick, cannonball biceps pressing up against his cheeks while his back exploded, sheer flanks like Christmas hams bulging out big as a horse-drawn sleigh. He gave a relieved groan, rolling mountainous shoulders that swallowed up a neck so thick, and yet, so swallowed up by his massive body, that it was wider than it was long. Shaking his arms to loosen them up, he bounced his pecs, two massive mounds as hard as fruitcake and thick as figgy pudding, those biceps rubbing against his chest. His last stretch was for his legs, flexing thighs that looked bigger than any Christmas tree trunk, rippling with hard-cut muscle, and shaking spherical calves that could fill more than a stocking or two. His only clothing was a pair of green shorts that looked like they had gift-wrapped his thighs, and a red muscle shirt that looked shrinkwrapped over his six, chimney-brick abs, and candy cane-thin straps strung taut over his swollen torso.

Rudolph’s eyes, which Nocturne only now realized were colored white and red like a candy cane, slipped over to the ramsky and his stunned look, and the reindeer slowly grinned. “Enjoying the view?”

“Just… just remember we’re on a time crunch.” Nocturne cleared his throat, trying to look away.

“You got it, chief.” And then Rudolph got to work. The reindeer, if he had a time limit, wasn’t going to waste a moment. Nocturne eyes couldn’t be torn away as the reindeer grabbed the biggest free weights the gym had to offer, and worked himself into a pumped up frenzy. He growled with every rep as he moved to the bench press, loading up the bar with as many weights as he could pile on. His chest heaved, tensing up and testing the limits of his shirt even further.

The ramsky had been hovering around the area, pretending to clean, but he slowly gave up the pretense, pausing to watch the red-nosed beast.

“You gonna take a picture, or can you spot me?” Rudolph snarled through gritted teeth. He had found just enough room on the bar for two more weight plates, and he was starting to find his limit.

“I- uh-” Nocturne cleared his throat and moved over, looking over the bar apprehensively. “I don’t know how I can help…”

“Just pull up! I’ll do the rest.”

Nocturne gripped the bar, hovering over the massive deer. Rudolph’s antlers were brushing up against his legs, and the ramsky had ample opportunity to ogle the reindeer’s bulging torso, muscle rippling and Rudolph snorting as he exerted all his strength to push forward. The bar lifted, and finally, Rudolph finished his set.

“Good job,” the reindeer grunted, sitting up and rolling his shoulders.

“So… uh. How did one of Santa’s reindeer get so… you?”

Rudolph smirked. “You mean like this?” He flexed his arm, his bicep peaking to a point where his clenched fist could press into the mound of muscle. “So, you know the song. I got picked on as a kid because of this.” He tapped his red nose. “I had a lot of pent-up energy, so… I worked out.”

“The North Pole has a gym?” Nocturne asked incredulously.

“You just found out flying reindeer, Santa Claus, and his magic workshop are a thing, and you’re surprised by a gym?” Rudolph chuckled. “You have any idea how physically demanding this job is, even with magic? Thing is, uh… with months and months of no sun and essentially three hundred and sixty three days for a year, you either end up looking like me, or, well… like the big man. You know.” He puffed up his cheeks and held his arms out over an imaginary belly. “Mrs. Claus, she’s sweet, but she’s one of those Paula Dean cooks. Everything’s swimming in butter.”

Nocturne tried beating down mental images of a group of huge reindeer, getting bigger with each passing year. “You don’t say.”

Rudolph smirked again. “I, uh. I’ll be winding down. So if you want to tidy up, I’m done with most of the equipment. And, y’know. Might need your help in the locker room.”

“...What?”

Rudolph stood to his full height, looming over Nocturne. He placed one hand on the ramsky’s shoulder, pulling him closer to that meaty chest and brick-sized abs. “You’re a smart guy, buddy. I think you can fill in the blanks. I want to make it up to you for making you work late. Consider it a…” he tensed his arm, his bicep swelling mere inches away from Nocturne. “...late Christmas gift.”