The Workshop: A "The Santa Clause" Fanfiction. (Bernard x Female OC)

Magic Doesn't Lie

I sat there listening to him. I couldn't imagine being swept up here unexpectedly, especially as young as he was. At least I got my dad here too, where Bernard was all alone in a new place.

"What was your next question? My family?" He glanced at me, "My father looked a lot like me, he had dark hair and eyes, but he was rather short and stocky. My mother had curly blonde hair and hazel eyes... I got her nose." Bernard smiled softly, "I had nine siblings, there was five boys, including me, and five girls, and we all looked pretty much the same, at least the hair," He picked up one curl and pulled on it so that it bounced back into place. "My name was actually "Bernardo", not "Bernard", but I changed it sometime  after a moving here. It was my father's name and my grandfathers, and his father and so on. They always talked about how I needed to name my first son Bernardo too, but we can see how well that turned out," He chuckled. There was a hint of solemness to his voice, even though he was smiling. It was apparent that talking about them was a little emotional.

"Do you think you will?" I asked, "If you do have a son one day?"

Bernard shrugged, "Maybe, but I doubt that will happen. The me having kids part," He laughed, "And if I do have a son, another Bernard is the last thing the North Pole needs... maybe as a middle name?"

"You don't think you'll want kids?" I raised an eyebrow. Not that it was any business of mine to know, perhaps I was just as nosey as my brother, but if he answered these types of questions for Charlie, my curiosity told me he might answer them for me.

"It's not that I don't want them, I just- I'd need to find a partner... I'd want a wife- and I don't know." He cleared his throat, and I started feeling a little bad about digging so much. "I don't think there's anyone that would even think of me that way, and I'm too much of a loner that I don't think that I'll find someone on my own." He glanced away, his cheeks turning a little bit red. He almost seemed a little surprised in himself that he was telling me all of this.

"You might be surprised, you do have a lot of people rooting for you," I nudged his arm, referencing the hoards of middle-aged lady elves who have been trying to set him up for ages.

"Oh I know, that's part of the problem!" Bernard remarked with a hint of annoyance, not at me, but at the gossipers. I understood him completely though, relationship rumors tended to not make me want to pursue a relationship. It made things more exhausting to navigate through.

"You mentioned that your family was Italian, right?" I changed the subject, not wanting to continue to pressure him on his personal life, pouring myself another glass as I talked. "Where in Italy?"

"Sanmarinese technically," He responded, "But it's easier to say Italian most of the time." He shrugged.

"Why don't you have an Italian... or Sanmarinese accent then?" I was actually very curious about this.

Bernard shrugged, "You know, Elves pick up on languages really quickly, we need to in order to understand any child in the world. Our last head elf I worked vacationed in New York, so I guess I picked it up from him... I never really thought about it that hard."

"Interesting..." I said thoughtfully. It made sense. "I'll get to learn any language?"

"Yeah, our brains are wired differently than humans. Words seem to stick more. Especially if you are going around the world every Christmas and talking to people, you'll pick up on things almost immediately."

"Will I learn to talk to animals?" Nina had popped up on the couch again making some cute chattery noises, so I looked at him with a hopeful grin.

"No. Not unless we start Christmas for animals." Bernard laughed.