Ah, five reviews is good enough.... I guess... So here's the first part of the Christmas Special! Wow, did anyone else hear that booming announcer? <_< >_> <_<
[Nono’s POV]
“Ah! It’s snowing!” I watched Aibon run to the balcony in nothing but shorts and a tank top and slide open the door, seeming surprised when cold air flowed in. I couldn’t help but laugh.
Before I could say anything vaguely witty, though, the phone rang. Being closest, I answered it, “Moshi moshi! You’ve reached the residence of Nono the lovely and Aibon the popsicle.” I heard her shout from somewhere in the coat closet and laughed again.
“Ah, Nono. It’s Yurina.”
That’s Aibon’s mom. She’s way cool.“Oh, hey Kago-san. Looking for your kid?” I started walking towards the closet, thankful for cordless phones.
“Of course honey, could you put her on?” I handed the phone to Aibon.
“Hi mom!” she tumbled out onto the floor, a few big coats breaking her fall. She didn’t get up, just continued her conversation. “Three days ‘til Christmas! What’re you going to get Dai?”
Daisuke. He’s her little brother. I’ve seen pictures, he’s really cute.“Oh really?” she said after a pause, “I think he’d enjoy that.” Another pause and her smile fades quickly. “I wish I could come home, but they’ve got us booked right up to Christmas Eve. And the day after.” I know she really wanted to be with her family, that’s all she’d talked about until we found out we were working.
The conversation moved onto more pleasant things, but her smile never quite returned. I sighed quietly. I hated seeing her sad.
Soon she said goodbye and hung up, tossing the phone across the room and onto the couch, “Well, let’s go watch the snow fall! It’s so romantic.” I had to agree with her there, but her cheer seemed a little forced.
We bundled up and sat together on a big lawn chair, watching the snow fall lazily on the city. Occasionally one of use would point something out, like a bird or a dog on the street below, but we were quiet for the most part. I kept thinking about what I could get Aibon as a present.
Yes I do leave my shopping to the last minute. Shut up, lots of people do!My mind wandered back to her family. I decided that a phone call would have to be made, as soon as Aibon was asleep.
[Hitomi’s POV]
I looked into the shop windows, trying desperately to find that perfect gift for Rika. I wanted something meaningful, not just a trinket. Something like that wouldn’t do for our first Christmas together.
‘C’mon, get it together. Only two more days ‘til Santa rides.’ I’d just about given up on this mall, when suddenly, something shiny caught my eye. I pressed closer to the window and gazed into every girl’s wonderland.
A small shove from behind sent my head into the sturdy glass, “Hey! What gives!” the giggles gave her away, “Aibon!”
“Merry Christmas, Yocchan!” she pulled my face off the display, finally noticing what I was looking at, “Ooo. Gonna get something for Rika-chan in there? Seems expensive.”
“Cost isn’t what’s important. Although a good deal is helpful. What’re you doing here?”
“Last minute shopping.”
‘Of course.’ “Hey, think I could steal your idea?”
“You don’t even know my idea…”
“Well, I’ll buy Nono a necklace instead.”
“…”
“…”
“You did know my idea.”
“…You’re too obvious…”
After another second of trying to read each other’s minds, we decided to actually enter the store.
[Aibon’s POV]
I sighed, carefully placing another shiny decoration on our pitiful little tree. Aluminum. What kind of tree was that? It was also a little bare underneath it, just my gift to Nono and a couple presents to give to my family whenever I got a break. Then there were only her gifts to her parents and sister. Nothing for me.
I’m not needy!The decoration fell off the tree, landing on the carpet and thankfully not breaking. I felt tears well up in my eyes.
I’m not needy, dangit!Warm arms wrapped around me from behind and lips nuzzled the back of my neck. Even in my current state, a thrill ran down my spine. How is it that this girl can make me feel this way even when I want to be mad at her?
“Drop something?” I see the little festive ball appear from my right and my hand instinctively grasped it. Together, we hung the decoration on the tree. “I love you Aibon. So much.” Her lips are on my neck again and I know she’s doing this on purpose.
I grin, coming up with the perfect way to break the mood, “Oh, Maki.” The lips immediately leave and a hand swats my butt.
“You’re awful! Here I am, trying to be romantic, and you have to be fantasizing about the girl of my dreams!” About this time, we’re both holding back laughter.
“I thought you were having that affair with Kaorin?” If I turn around, I know I’m going to burst out laughing.
“Well I thought you were in love with Yossui?”
“I was!”
“Well what about me?” something in her tone tells me we’re not playing anymore.
I reach behind me and wrap her arms around me again, “You always come first. It’s you I come home to, not Yossui or Maki.”
She’s quiet for a long time and I know she wants to say something about the tree. Or maybe something about my missing present. She knows I know. “Be patient, love.”
I nod, of course I’ll wait. I’ll wait forever.
[Rika’s POV]
I clutched the bag in my lap self consciously. I hope that Hitomi would like hat I got her. We’d decided to exchange our gifts tonight, Christmas Eve, since we were going to spend tomorrow with our families, then have a yonki party later that night. Trying to calm my nerves, I listen to her putter around in her kitchen, her mom is out for the night; Yossui’s present to her was a trip to a spa. One day and one night.
I’m glad that we won’t be interrupted; I’m hoping to give her more than what’s in this bag tonight. The thought makes me blush.
Yossui setting the tea tray down on the table startled me out of naughty thoughts and I know she’s laughing at me. I don’t care.
“What’re you so red for?” she sits beside me and leans in close, eyeing me seductively. I’m not going to let her win.
“I was just thinking about what we could do tonight.” It’s her turn to blush. I grinned.
The atmosphere is relaxed and yet full of tension, we’re both enjoying it too much to break it. We sipped our tea and conversed about whatever came to mind, our plans for New Year’s and the Musume Christmas Party the day after. We discussed what we had gotten the others girls and how hard it was to shop for certain people.
I laughed when she told me the gag gift she got for Yaguchi and she shook her head when I told her that I was going to give Nakazawa an autographed picture of myself. I though it was funny.
After a while, we migrated up to her room and lounged on her bed side by side. It was silent for a long time.
“I love you.” she said, placing a small box on my belly.
Smiling at her, I opened the present slowly, savoring the suspense. It looked like a jewelry box, but nothing struck me as out of the ordinary until I flipped open the lid to see a beautiful matching ring set. Each had the same design, a long, warped pink stone entwined with a long, warped blue stone, set into a thin gold band.
Totally enraptured by the simple beauty, I barely noticed when Hitomi reached out and took one of the rings from the box, “The pink is you and the blue is me.” she gently slid the ring onto the middle finger of my left hand, after a moment of thought, I understood why and returned the favor, gripping her hand tightly.
“Hitomi. Does this mean what I think it means?” at her nod I lunged towards her and kissed her again and again on the cheeks, the lips, and her forehead. I couldn’t believe she was serious. No, I could believe it. “I’ll be yours for as long as you want me.”
We laid in silence for a moment again before it occurred to me to give her a present, too. I sat up and plopped a gift bag into her lap, “It’s not as beautiful as yours, but well.” Now I felt embarrassed. My gift was nothing special.
She tossed aside the tissue paper and pulled out a worn stuffed bunny. The pink had faded to white in some spots, his left arm had been sown back together more than once and his eye had gone missing when I was four. I probably ate it…
“His name is Mr. Hoppums.” I offered weakly, afraid of what she might say.
“Um, he’s cute?” She seemed a little lost.
I decided that maybe a little background was in order, “Okay, so I went to every mall in Tokyo and I found lots of things to buy, but I realized that none of them had any meaning. So I went home and I sat on my bed and I asked Mr. Hoppums, ‘What should I get Hitomi.’ He didn’t answer of course, but just talking to him made things a little better. Then it hit me!
I stood and started to pace around the small room, “Mr. Hoppums has been mine since before I was born and he’s always been there for me, through thick and thin. He never asks anything from me, never judges anything I say and always listens, no matter how trivial the problem is. And I thought that I want you to have him.”
I stopped and looked shyly at Hitomi, “He’s my heart.” I was hoping that maybe that would make more sense.
“And,” Hitomi started slowly, “You’re giving him to me?”
“Uh-huh. Please treat him well.”
She was quiet for a minute and I started to get nervous. I was just about to make a hasty escape when she smiled up at me widely, “Thank you. I love him.” I got the other meaning of her words.
And then my other expectations for tonight entered my head again. I reached out and took her hands, placing Mr. Hoppums to one side, bringing them up to my face and kissing her knuckles lightly. She pulled me down sharply into her lap, making me giggle.
Our lips met in a short kiss and I felt myself heat up considerably. We moved backwards on the bed so that Hitomi rested back against the pillow and I was sitting up on her hips, looking down into her eyes, “I love you.” I whispered.
“I want you.” she replied.
“Then have me.” I slowly stripped my shirt off and tossed it off the bed.
~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`
Perv is here. Read at your own risk.~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~
For a long time she just held me close and I rested curled up in her arms. She whispered her love in my ear and I kissed her, too tired to reply verbally. When I finally felt my strength return, I started laughing.
“What’s so funny?” Hitomi was understandably confused. Instead of answering, I just flipped us over so that I was on top.
“So, you up for another go?” I grinned at her wide-eyed look and wondered again what she tasted like.
[Nono’s POV]
I checked the clock again. 8:30 AM. Man, my mom was gonna kill me if I didn’t get over to her house soon, but I wasn’t gonna leave Aibon until her present arrived.
“You have somewhere better to be?” Aibon leaned back against me, sloshing water over the side of the tub. I wrapped my arms comfortably around her middle.
“My mom’s gonna be mad at me, I should have left a half hour ago.” I didn’t want to get up anyway, especially when she turned and snuggled into my shoulder.
“Let’s go watch cartoons.” she finally suggested, the water cold around us. We got out and pulled on big fluffy robes and went to go catch the last ten minutes of The Grinch. Ah, what a classic.
I heard her go rummage around in the kitchen, but didn’t look up from the Grinch’s awakening. This was the best part after all. A few minutes later, Aibon joined me, holding a box of cereal. She offered me some.
“So what’s happening?” she asked, probably sarcastically, after I’d taken a handful.
“Well, they were saying that his heart burst through his chest and ate the town.” Deadly serious, I popped a few sugary shapes into my mouth. Aibon shoved me.
“That’s not what you’re supposed to say!”
“What, you want the truth? We’ve both seen this every Christmas we can remember, you know the story like I do.”
“So?”
“So!?”
The doorbell interrupted our playful fight. I grinned, “You’re gonna want to get that.”
“Why me? You’ve got legs.”
“Trust me.” I figured if that rarely used phrase didn’t get her moving, nothing would, “It’s for you anyway.”
“How do you know?”
“Just answer the door.” The doorbell rang again and she finally got up off the couch. I turned to watch her eagerly.
When she opened the door, the look of surprise on her face was priceless; I wished I’d thought to have a camera handy. After the shock wore off though, she squealed and launched herself into her mother’s arms, sending the woman stumbling.
“Ohmigod! What are you guys doing here!” she ushered her mother and grandmother (holding Dai) inside, jumping around ecstatically. I was apparently forgotten.
“Well, Tsuji-chan called us and set up everything, got us plane tickets and a taxi for when we got here. It was pretty fancy, too. First class, all the way.” Aibon suddenly seemed to realize my plan, because she bounded towards me and jumped over the back of the couch, knocking us both off with a flying tackle.
“Thankyouthankyouthankyou! I love you, I’ll never doubt you again!” she was up off the ground before I could catch my breath.
“Um, no problem.” Actually it was a problem, but I didn’t want to tell her that I was almost broke now. She’d feel bad.
I decided to go get dressed and head off to see my own family. I slipped out of the room unnoticed and came back in, ready to go; I’d almost made it to the door before I was tackled again.
“Here!” A small box was shoved into my hands, “I was gonna wait and give this to you when we got together with the others tonight, but since I got my present, you should get your’s.” Before I could reply, she had kissed me and shoved me out the door. I laughed to myself.
The wrapping was gone in an instant and I stared at the long, blue velvet box in my hands. Jewelry, it had to be. I gently pried the box open and revealed a simple gold necklace with an intertwined A and N charm. I felt tears well up in my eyes, it was perfect.
Slipping the necklace on, I walked downstairs to hail a taxi.
[Hitomi’s POV]
I threw myself into the shady booth, sliding halfway around to give Rika enough room to get in comfortably. She quickly sidled up next to me and I watched the two trouble makers slip in on the other side. They’d done nothing but make noise the whole car ride over.
“Will you two shut up once you get some food in your mouths?” They nodded happily with simultaneous ‘hai!’s. “Alright, I’ll buy then. Merry Christmas.” I felt Rika giggle against me at their ecstatic smiles.
“Thank you!” Aibon said for them both, seeing as Nono was already lost in her menu.
Our conversation was mostly about food until the waiter arrived to take our order, then it moved onto what we’d done with our families.
“We just hung around the house, exchanged gifts and watched old cartoons. I was almost sad to leave but I wanted to see you guys.” Aibon looked extremely pleased with her day, even though she’d just lazed around.
“My whole family was there, my cousins from Hokkaido came down with a new baby and I played with him all day. I saw all the people I had forgotten I was related to, even Aunt Megumi, who my mom can’t stand. She’s super cool though, always gives me the best presents. This year, she got me a bunny! Said she saw how much I liked the one on the show and knew she had to get it for me. Then…” I tuned Nono’s excited chatter out and turned to Rika, curled silently in the crook of my arm.
“What about you? How was your Christmas?” I almost jumped when her hand slid up my thigh.
“It was everything I dreamed of. I couldn’t stop thinking about you or your presents to me all day.” She lifted her ring so that it caught the light, while gently running her nails along the seam in my jeans. I blushed.
“Want to relive it later?” I leaned down and breathed lightly into the shell of her ear.
Her hand reaching up to unbutton my pants was answer enough and I pulled her off to the restroom with me. Merry Christmas, indeed.
---For those of you who keep me afloat in my sea of dread.
Topic: Innocence (Fourth Gen Love) (Read 48643 times)