"Coming." Raku answered as he got up to answer the door. Once Raku reached his sliding door and opened it, what he found on the other side was shocking to say the least.

"Hey, darling." Chitoge murmured with a slight blush on her face. Raku was too startled to say anything in response which made Chitoge even more uncomfortable until she went on "I'm sorry for visiting so-"

Shut

Acting off instinct, Raku closed his door and backed up a few steps and thought desperately "What?! What?! WHAAAAAAT?! W-Why?! Why is my girlfriend here?! Doesn't she know what time it is?!" Raku was expecting Chitoge to break down the door but she never did.

Regaining some of his composure, Raku opened the door enough to peak through and saw Chitoge blushing even harder as she patiently waited. Ending the silence, Raku asked "Why are you here so late?"

"Please let me in." Chitoge pleaded quietly, looking straight towards the floor.

Her gentleness caught Raku off guard as he thought "G-Geez, I've never seen that look before. Plus, she's being so gentle right now. Something must be wrong."

"Come on in." Raku whispered as he slid his door open for her.

Accepting his invitation, Chitoge entered his room, closing the door behind her and putting down her bags in a corner of the room. Raku stared awkwardly at her until her decided to speak up "So, why are you here?"

"Didn't you want me to come over for Christmas?" Chitoge accused, still staring at the floor.

Raku looked over at his alarm clock and the displayed time was "12:03".

"Normally, I would've thought that this is one of your elaborate plans to spend more time with me, but… I can tell that somethings wrong." Raku admitted, scratching the back of his head anxiously.

When Raku saw Chitoge's expression get even more painful, Raku went on "I'd also say 'you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to', but you didn't come all this way to stay silent about it, right? Whenever you're ready, I'm all ears."

Their relationship was definitely based on their enduring bond and their openness with each other. Sometimes, Chitoge cursed their closeness because they never held back with each other, especially about the things that shouldn't be said. That leads to the duo fighting on a regular basis. But it was times like these where Chitoge treasured their bond, because she knew Raku wasn't using sweetened words just to make her feel better. To her, Raku might as well have said "talk to me and we'll work this out together."

Taking the first small step, Chitoge moved her gaze from the floor and finally took a look at her boyfriend. A flood of emotions went coursed through Chitoge's heart. She wouldn't have thought just looking at a person can be so emotional, but considering she almost lost the person she loves, the onslaught of emotions starts to make more sense.

"I love you, Raku. I love you without all of my heart." Chitoge spoke gently, trying to express her feelings as best she could.

Chitoge's confession came out of left field. Sure, Chitoge has said that to him before, and he never doubted her. But this time, her words felt weighted as if they were laws that governed the universe.

"I love you too, Chitoge." Raku answered back and started to scratch the back of his head again. There was absolutely no doubt in his mind that he was deeply in love with her, but was embarrassed that the passion of his words couldn't match Chitoge's.

Whenever Raku got nervous, he almost always scratched the back of his head, just like he's doing now. Making Raku worried added to Chitoge's guilt, but for some reason she couldn't help but giggle. Was it because his loss of composure was funny to her or was it because she was relieved that Raku still acted in Raku-like ways?

"H-Hey, what's so funny?!" Raku asked with a touch of irritation to his voice.

Putting a hand over her mouth and hunching over, Chitoge tried containing herself as her giggling became uncontrollable. Without warning, her eyes started getting wet and they also got warmer. Thinking her eyes were irritated, Chitoge started brushing them with her hand but that couldn't stop tears from racing down her face. Finally feeling the great pain in her heart, Chitoge's giggling quickly turned into sobbing as she covered her eyes in shame as tears rained endless down her face.

Without a word, Raku walked over to Chitoge and wrapped his arms around her as he gently started running his hands through her hair. Chitoge clutched Raku tightly with no intention of ever letting go as she cried on Raku's shoulder. Never before in his life has Raku seen Chitoge, no, anyone cry as hard and as long as Chitoge was doing at this very moment.

After what seemed like forever, Chitoge released her hold on Raku and started wiping away the trails on tears on her face. "I'm sorry. I just got really emotional." Chitoge sniffled an apology.

"Don't worry about it." Raku answered back, releasing his girlfriend who was starting to calm down.

After getting the tears out of the way, Chitoge had hesitant thoughts "Should I really tell him? He might get really upset. Maybe I should pretend like nothing was ever wrong… No, I have to tell him. I already cried in front of him, I almost broke up with him, and I caused so much trouble for our friends."

"Do you love Kosaki?" Chitoge popped the question, locking her eyes with Raku.

"No." Raku answered back truthfully and tried piecing the puzzle together in his head "I wonder if this has anything to do with Kosaki confessing to me earlier."

"Were you in love with her before?" Chitoge went through with her interrogation. Marika and Kosaki already gave her answers, but only Raku's answer could give Chitoge peace of mind.

This question made Raku lose some of his composure and eventually answered "Yes."

The last question that's still bottled up in Chitoge's mind was considerably hard to vocalize. Gritting her teeth, Chitoge finally asked "What if… What if our fake relationship never happened and you two started dating. Do you… Do you think you would be happier with her?"

For Raku, the first question had a simple answer, the second question was also simple but hard to confess, but with the third he didn't even know how to answer. For this question, he had to close his eyes to think for a little bit.

After giving it some thought, Raku answered back "That's a tough question to answer. Kosaki is a really sweet and charming girl, one that I sought after for so long. If we dated, there's no doubt in my mind that she would be a great girlfriend."

The weight of Raku's words felt like an anchor on Chitoge's chest who could do nothing but look away speechlessly.

"But I don't think I would be happier with her. I'm already the happiest I could ever be when I'm with you."

Suddenly, the heavy weight in her chest was gone and she looked over at Raku who wore a soft blush and gentle smile.

"You're the one I want to be with, Chitoge. I don't want to live in another time or place that doesn't have you in it. I love you more than anybody else."

Chitoge thought that she got all of the tears out earlier. She was wrong. Once she started crying again, Chitoge released everything "I-I thought you still loved her. I thought I ruined your happiness by moving here and becoming your fake girlfriend. I almost broke up with you tonight! I thought I was doing the right thing, but Marika and Kosaki stopped me. I've caused everyone so much trouble and I almost lost you… I'm the worst. You've been the most caring, sweetest, and perfect boyfriend and I'm just…"

Flick

A small pain in her head stopped Chitoge from going on and she realized that Raku just flicked her in the forehead.

"H-Huh?" Chitoge muttered as tears continued racing down her face.

As Raku started wiping away her tears with his hands, he lectured "You were about to say more stupid things and your forehead looked so flickable. You are far from the worst, you hear? Now, I would've been fine if you would've said that you were the stupidest, because at least you would be telling the truth. I… I'm not mad at you, but next time can you talk it out with me rather than making rash decisions?"

Chitoge couldn't believe her ears. She spilled the beans, dropped the bomb, she said she almost ended their relationship and she came out with a small flick to the head and a small lecture?

Still having things to say, Raku went on "Although, to say I'm not hurt… would be a lie. The thought that our relationship could've ended tonight, gives my heart the worst kind of shudders." Raku's face had a tinge of pain on it and he couldn't bear to look at Chitoge. "You're the one person I won't be able to stand losing, so please… don't leave me." Raku softly pleaded.

With her heart unprepared for Raku's plead, she wrapped her arms tightly around him and cried "I won't ever think of leaving you again. I'll talk out my problems with you before acting. I won't do anything as brainless as I almost did yesterday. You don't have to worry about a thing!"

The two stayed like that for a long time. When Raku was curious about the time, he checked his alarm clock which read "1:20 AM". Deciding that they can't hold each other forever, Raku patted Chitoge's back to signal the end of the hug, but this only made Chitoge hold him tighter. As a result, their embrace last a few more minutes but Chitoge eventually released Raku but still stayed close to him.

"Does this… Does this mean we've made up… again?" Chitoge asked, feeling a lot more stable than earlier.

"Don't we have to fight in order to make up? The way I see it, we don't need to make up. We're fine as we are." Raku answered back honestly.

"Look at us. Just three days ago we made up after constantly fighting and today we went through so much drama. It's so exhausting… even though a lot of it is my fault." Chitoge complained, feeling slightly drained emotionally.

Thinking back to the cause of their fighting earlier this week, Raku exclaimed "Oh yeah! I have something to give you, Chitoge."

Already knowing where Raku was going with this, Chitoge said with uncertainty "Shouldn't we wait until morning to celebrate? I mean, after all that's happened-"

"No way. What's the point in waiting? Besides, this is the best way to move on from all that drama." Raku answered back as he rummaged through his drawers.

"But still, shouldn't we wait until we're feeling better to-"

"Merry Christmas, Chitoge." Raku beamed with a smile as he placed two presents in front of his girlfriend.

Both Raku's persistence and his smile defeated Chitoge who couldn't help but return the smile as she complained "Geez. You know, it used to be my way or the highway, but ever since we started dating, you found out that you can get me to agree to anything if you're determined enough… and have a cute smile."

Before even touching her presents, Chitoge got up to get something from the bags she placed down earlier. Placing two gifts in front of Raku, Chitoge beamed back "Merry Christmas, Raku. I hope you like them!"

"Copycat." Raku accused Chitoge which earned a giggle from his girlfriend. "Well, ladies first." Raku urged his girlfriend to open her gifts.

"O-Okay." Chitoge answered nervously. Sure, she was super excited to open the gifts her boyfriend got for her, but his choice of presents have been… untasteful in the past which makes Chitoge a little hesitant.

After opening one of the presents, it was revealed to be a photo album half filled with a bunch of pictures of the couple since they started high school together

"I know we don't have many photos of us together as kids, and that's why I wanted to start filling out one with you now about our high school years." Raku reasoned as he blushed a little bit from the anticipation of Chitoge's response.

As she browsed through the photos, some of which she forgot were taken, Chitoge answered "Idiot. There's not going to be enough empty slots with all of the pictures I plan on adding to this… Thank you Raku, I love it."

Chitoge was obviously absorbed in the photo album already which was good enough for Raku who lectured "Just don't put every photo you take of us into it and there will be enough room."

Once Chitoge looked through all of the photos, she wanted to look through them again. Just looking at all of the happy moments they spent together gave her heart warm nostalgia, but she closed the album to give her attention to her other present which she proceeded to open.

"It's so… beautiful." Chitoge uttered almost breathlessly.

"Want my help putting it on?" Raku offered, blushing from her comment.

After Raku helped put the accessory on, Chitoge quickly got up to look at her reflection. The silver necklace suited her well and she adored the crescent moon shape. Combined with her ribbon, which was also a gift from Raku, Chitoge couldn't help but honestly feel beautiful.

Turning around to face her boyfriend, Chitoge spoke honestly "Thank you so much, Raku. This is honestly the greatest gift I've ever gotten. If I could still cry, I would be weeping with joy I'm so happy. You've given me the best Christmas I've ever had and… what..?" In the middle of her speech, tears started falling down her face again. "Haha, see? There I go again." Chitoge laughed and cried as she drew closer to Raku and once again enveloped him in a hug.

Wrapping his arms around his girlfriend, Raku smiled "How many times can you cry two hours into a day..? I'm glad you like it, Chitoge." This earned Raku a mixture of giggling and sniffling from his overjoyed girlfriend.

The embraced didn't last too long as Chitoge wiped away her tears and said enthusiastically "Okay, now it's time for you to open your presents, darling!"

Just seeing Chitoge going back to her cheerful self meant a lot to Raku, but the gift exchange wasn't over yet so he sat down in front of his presents and asked "Now, before I open these, is there anything in these that I should be worried about? Like fatal chemical substances or-"

"Just open them." Chitoge nudged her boyfriend impatiently.

Even though Chitoge didn't have any habit of buying him weird things, Raku still felt incredibly nervous to open his gifts because had a strong feeling that she put a lot of thought and effort into them.

Once he made up his mind to open one up, he grabbed one and was about to start taking the wrappings off before he was stopped by Chitoge "No! Open the other one first!"

"W-What? There's an order to this?!" Raku asked and Chitoge nodded her head with a serious face.

"I sometimes forget the extent of your pickiness." Raku complained as he went to open the other one as ordered and what he unraveled initially made him shudder. It was a picture frame with a photo of that eventful day at the amusement park when the two were riding a roller coaster together. In the picture, they were going down the first hill but Raku's face was filled with horror from Chitoge's prank.

"G-Geez. What am I supposed to say? 'Thanks for reminding me of the day I almost had a heart attack on a roller coaster'? That was the scariest experience I've ever lived through." Raku complained, feeling a little dizzy just thinking about it.

"It's only because you're such a scardy cat and you're easy to fool. Your reaction was priceless!" Chitoge laughed.

Looking at the photo again, Raku saw Chitoge's radiant yet mischievous smile as they went down the first hill. Was it because she was successful in her cruel prank? Probably, but all that matters is that she was happy and that made Raku feel warm inside despite the chills. That date was probably the best date they've ever gone on. Even after becoming a genuine couple, their real dates haven't trumped that last fake date where their feelings were blossoming so intensely.

As he remember that day, Raku couldn't help but smile as he honestly said "Thanks, Chitoge. It was a cruel prank but it was also the perfect date. I'll treasure this picture, despite all the nightmares it's bound to give me."

"You're welcome. I knew you'd love it!" Chitoge beamed back.

"Well, time to open the other-"

"Wait a second!" Chitoge interrupted as she grabbed his hand.

"W-What is it?" Raku questioned, looking into Chitoge's fiercely blushing face.

"Just don't… set your expectations too high." Chitoge answered timidly and let go of Raku's hand.

Taking this as his cue to open it, Raku started unwrapping the gift and was puzzled by what was in the wrapping.

"A… scarf?" Raku took out a plain red scarf. It didn't feel like store quality, in fact he could've bought a better quality one at the store. And more than anything else, it smelled strongly like Chitoge.

"Did… Did you make this?" Raku asked, still looking at the scarf.

"Y-Yeah." Chitoge answered back, afraid that it wasn't a satisfying gift.

Suddenly, the way he viewed the scarf changed. It felt slightly heavier and its imperfections became its charming points, it was made by his girlfriend after all. There was a bubbly feeling in his heart just from holding it. With her family's wealth, Chitoge couldn't bought Raku just about anything, even something as ridiculous as a luxurious car even though he has no desire for one. But for Chitoge to put so much time and effort into something she made herself was the best gift of all. Raku was truly old fashioned. A big smile blossomed on his face as he wrapped it around his neck.

"How do I look?" Raku asked his girlfriend as he started posing in front of her.

"Um, you look nice." Chitoge answered timidly, still unsure of how Raku feelings about the gift.

Filled with gratitude, Raku thanked Chitoge "Thank you for the gift, honey. I really do love it. To be honest, if you asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I probably wouldn't have said scarf, and yet somehow I can't think of a better present than this knowing that you made it. I'll treasure this."

"Y-You really like it?" Chitoge asked, starting to feel relieved.

"I really do! How could I not after all the trouble you went through to make this for me?!" Raku beamed back with passion.

A warm tenderness was in Chitoge's heart from Raku's words. Raku's reaction to the scarf was like a child's reaction to getting toys, which Chitoge thought was incredibly cute.

"You better like it! I spent hours on that stupid thing!" Chitoge recalled all the countless attempts to make Raku the perfect scarf and ended up settling on the best one she made. Seeing Raku wearing it made it all worth it though.

"Once I took a look at the scarf, it practically screamed 'Chitoge'. You have quite a way of making things, don't you?" Raku teased back.

"H-Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" Chitoge demanded with a pout.

Walking over to her, Raku wrapped his arms around her and whispered "It means I love the things you make for me."

"Well, I only make the most amazing things, so it's only natural for you to love them." Chitoge blushed as she returned the hug.

"Like that salty chocolate?" Raku teased.

"Shut up."

Both Raku and Chitoge were satisfied with Christmas already. It had a rough start to say the least, but they got through it together, just like they always did and left off on a high note. They both got the perfect gifts and that was it for presents, or so it seemed.

Still embracing Raku, Chitoge proposed in a whisper "Hey, Raku? I think there's still one more gift. Not a gift from me to you, or from you to me, but from us to our relationship. Um, that may not have made sense." Chitoge became apparently nervous as she went on "I think we should… open the locket now."

This gave Raku's heart a jolt. Of course, he wondered why Chitoge had such a change in heart, after all, it was her decision not to open the locket.

"Okay." Raku simply agreed as he ended the embrace and took a look at Chitoge's face. "She's serious about this." Raku observed her passionate yet timid face.

The two retrieved their respective items with Raku holding the locket and Chitoge holding her key.

"You… you ready?" Raku asked his girlfriend, his heart pounding.

"Yes." Chitoge answered, shaking a bit from the pressure.

It played out like it did the last time they tried this. It seemed like the key was crawling towards the locket with the pace Chitoge went. After fitting the key into the locket, Chitoge slowly turned the key until…

Clank

"It opened." Raku and Chitoge said, almost speechlessly in unison. The contents were a letter and a peculiar Christmas ornament. Their gaze was fixated on the note which the both went on to read aloud together.

"Dear future Raku and promise girl, when we're writing this, it's Christmas and we're all about to part ways. It'll be a long time until we see each other again, so we made a promise to play again someday." - Yui

"The girls get fake keys and Rakkun gets a locket and the right key. We all really like Rakkun, so this is like a battle to see who Rakkun gives his key to. Of course, I'm going to win." - Mari

"We haven't told Raku everything because it would be embarrassing to confess our feelings right now. So when we give him the locket, we'll tell him that'll it'll reunite Raku with a promised girl." - Kosaki

"We also put a mistletoe in the locket, because our parents think we're not old enough right now to kiss him, but you're probably old enough and we all know you HAVE to kiss if you're under a mistletoe, even though it probably won't be Christmas when you're reading this." - Chitoge

"We hope you're happy, Raku, four different girls have been in love with you since the beginning! Written by: Chitoge, Kosaki, Marika, Yui."

Both Raku and Chitoge didn't take their gaze off the paper.

"So… this was like a competition between you girls?" Raku broke the silence.

"D-Don't ask me! I don't remember anything about that!" Chitoge blurted with a deep blush on her face, reading the lines she wrote and looking at the ornament.

One of the biggest mysteries in Raku's life has been solved just like that. It was a competition that he was left in the dark about and even the girls forgotten about it. It was sweet, sure, but it was a tad underwhelming for his expectations, or so he thought. He was so absorbed by the letter that he completely forgot about the mistletoe which gave his heart a jolt when it finally crossed his mind.

Forcing his inner gentleman like ways, Raku blushed as he scolded "G-Geez, Chitoge. You were pretty bold as a kid. Stuffing a mistletoe into the locket and saying we have to kiss. We shouldn't have our first kiss just because-"

Taking one good look at Chitoge's face was enough to shut Raku up. Sure, she looked really timid and hesitant with her scarlet blush, but that didn't stop the look she gave Raku. It was a look of longing and seriousness that Raku couldn't call ignorance on, they had been together for far too long for Raku to still be unsure of when Chitoge was dead serious or not.

Through her crimson blush, Chitoge forced her question "If you won't kiss me because of the mistletoe, then will you kiss me because I love you?"

Hearing that made Raku's heart skip a beat. Secretly, he has wanted to kiss Chitoge for a long time, but was afraid of rushing things, but the situation has changed. After getting an invitation from her, there was no way he could say no to her, after all, this is what he wanted too.

As the two drew closer, their hearts started beating faster. The couple's hands found their way towards each other and locked instinctively. As the distance almost diminished between the two, they closed their eyes and then…

They finally experienced it, absolute bliss. Suddenly, gravity seemed to disappear as their kiss continued. On TV, kissing looks special but the couple didn't imagine it had such a strong and passionate feeling behind it. And just like that, it was over. Their best memory yet was compacted into a span of a short few seconds. Opening their eyes to look at the other, it felt like they've fallen in love all over again and the other person looked incredibly… irresistible.

"One more." Chitoge whispered, closing her eyes.

Without a word, Raku closed his eyes and went for that blissful sensation yet again and every time they parted, Chitoge insisted "One more". It started with small kisses but it escalated with lust as their desires got the better of them. Raku got more forceful and Chitoge welcomed it. After the climax of their passion, it ended up with Raku on the floor with Chitoge on top of him as their lips separated… and their tongues.

After their long make out session, Chitoge rested on Raku's chest and panted "This is what happens… After holding back for so long."

"I'm sorry… I was a little… Forceful." Raku panted his apology.

"Believe me… If you didn't take us that far… I would've. Do you know how long I've been waiting for this?! Besides, I'm the one who pinned you to the floor!" Chitoge shot back, taking her head off his chest. Placing her hand on his cheek, Chitoge rested her head on Raku's as she complained "The thought of kissing you went through my head every day. I know I'm really pushy, but that's the one thing I didn't want to rush, so I held back."

"Well, you're not the only one. It's tough having such a beautiful girlfriend that I'm love with madly, you know?" Raku shot back honestly.

"Idiot beansprout."

"Dumb gorilla."

The two had a chuckle and stayed like that for a while until they became exhausted after everything that happened.

"I think it's time we go to bed." Raku yawned as he started getting up to get Chitoge some bed sheets.

Thinking of a small scheme in her head, Chitoge blushed as she insisted "W-Wait, Raku. If somebody sees you out getting bedsheets at this hour, they might get suspicious!"

"Who would be up at this hour? You know, besides us?" Raku asked curiously.

"You know… people who are trying to catch Santa in the act." Chitoge mumbled her response.

"You can't be serious. This house is filled with yakuza members, plus I'm the youngest person that lives here." Raku retorted, trying to think of Chitoge's motives. Finally putting two and two together, Raku blushed and answered "No, no, no, no. You can't be serious."

His response got a giggle out of Chitoge as she looked longingly at Raku with puppy dog eyes.

"There's no way! That's taking it waaaaaay too far. We can't just-"

"Raku." Chitoge started with an adorable smile and continued to ask her question "Will you share your bed with me tonight?"

The two ended up laying in the same bed with their backs to each other.

"I know you can be pushy and bold, but damn." Raku complained with a fierce blush.

"Hey, it's not like we're doing anything indecent, or is that what you thought I was asking?" Chitoge teased back.

"Shut up." Raku blurted at the tease which caused Chitoge to giggle.

Shifting her position to face Raku, Chitoge tugged on the back of Raku's shirt and whispered "Hey, hey, Raku. Turn around real quick."

Obeying her orders, Raku turned to face Chitoge and asked "What is it?"

With a bright smile, Chitoge whispered "I love you, Raku. Merry Christmas."

No matter how much she says it, it still makes Raku's heart skip a beat.

"I love you too, Chitoge. Merry Christmas." Raku smiled back.

"Hehe." Chitoge giggled from the tingly feeling in her heart. One more question popping into her mind, Chitoge asked "Raku, I promise this will be the last time I talk for the rest of the night, but I need to know. Why did you fall in love with me?"

If he wasn't already asked that twice already in the past two days, Raku's would've been taken off guard.

"Well, that's because-"

Author's notes: IT'S FINALLY DONE! After starting this about a year and a half ago, it feels so good to finally wrap things up. I'm happy with how things turned out in this one. I was extremely salty a few days ago. Not because of battery or my laptop dying, but my word document closed out of the blue (I think I somehow hit the shortcut keys for closing the document). So, yeah, a lot of progress was lost so it took longer than expected to get this out to you guys. Thank you for waiting!

The locket felt incredibly underwhelming though, but one of my inspirations was the oneshot of Nisekoi and the promise in this Fanfic felt like a nice blend between the oneshot and the current story of Nisekoi and in my honest opinion, I feel like the promise should be more of a competition between the girls rather than the promise girl being decided when they were kids. Oh well, I've probably disappointed people with my locket explanation and I'm sorry for that. I'm one of the few that bring up the locket and the promise up so it's probably underwhelming compare to the expectations. Whoops~

In other news, we smashers get Bayonetta and Corrin Wednesday, WOO! It's sad to see the game coming to a close, but there are rumors that Smash is going to be a Nintendo NX launch title, so there's that.

Regarding my next story. I WANT (emphasis on want) it to be Valentines themed with RakuXMarika (sorry, Chitoge, but I spend almost a year and a half straight writing about you). I had strong ideas going through my head that I really want to write down in a Fanfic, but I don't know when I'm going to get to that with my job and college.

Thank you all for your support and I will see you... in the next Fanfic... BYE BYEEEEE!