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December 25 … Christmas Day

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"Usaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagi-baka!"

Oooh, that brat. Can't it let me sleep in? I mean today is Christmas.

"Christmas! It's Christmas!" I shrieked and jumped up. Luna launched herself about six feet in the air and landed in attack mode. I picked her up and kissed her on the forehead. "Morning, sleepyhead."

"What? Where?"

I laughed at her and pulled her present from my closet.

"Merry Christmas, Luna!" I said and put her new cat bed out for her to use.

"Thank you, Usagi," she called after me as I dashed from my room.

I ran downstairs and saw my whole family was already awake. Dad on the couch, Mom was next to him gripping his arm, Mamo-chan across from them and looked scared for his life, Shingo was snooping under the tree...

"Mamo-chan!"

"EH! Mamo-chan!" Uh oh. I could see in my father's eyes that he was strategizing the many ways to dispose of my boyfriend.

"Morning, Usagi," Mamo-chan said with a somewhat distressed smile.

"About time you got up!" my brother called from beneath the tree.

"Shingo!" my mom called. "Good morning, dear."

"Morning Mom and Dad."

Mom smiled at me, Dad was in tears. I think she was actually holding him there with her fingernails in his arm. She stood up and he followed suit.

"Merry Christmas, dear," Mom said embracing me in a one armed hug (mind you, Dad was still attached). She leaned down and whispered in my ear so Dad couldn't hear her, "He's a very nice young man. We'll give you a few minutes alone."

Whew.

"Thanks," I whispered back. She smiled and proceeded into the kitchen. Dad struggled behind crying something about loosing his little girl. If only he knew his little girl had a night job fighting evil, he'd never let me out of the house. Now, where was I? Oh yes…

"Mamo-chan!" I launched myself into his arms.

"When did you get here?"

"Not too long ago. I called to see if you were awake and your mom said I could just come on over." He kept throwing cautious glances at the kitchen.

"Usagi! Quit playing kissy-face with your boyfriend so we can open presents!" Never get in the way of my brother and colorfully wrapped packages.

"WHAAAAAAAAAT!" erupted from the kitchen followed by a painful scream. Hm… this wasn't going well. Mamo-chan looked like the dogs of hell were at his heals, my brother looked like he was going to break down if he didn't open a gift, and I couldn't even imagine the scene taking place in the kitchen.

"Uh… I'll be right back." Mamo-chan didn't answer… he just nodded in terror. When I walked in the kitchen, Mom again greeted me with a smile. Dad, I noticed, was at the sink washing something from his shirt and muttering to himself.

"Are you ready to open presents, Usagi?" How is she so calm?

"Presents, right. Is Dad okay?"

"Oh, he's fine. I accidentally spilled some coffee on him." Ouch. Something tells me that wasn't an accident.

"Mom, would it be okay if you, Dad, and Shingo opened some presents without me?"

"I suppose so… why?"

"Because Mamoru doesn't have anything under the tree and I don't want him to feel left out." I knew I had something for him upstairs so that wasn't my main concern. I just didn't want to hurt him by having him watch my family exchange gifts.

"That's not a problem, Usagi."

"Great! We'll be upstairs!" I ran out before Dad could try to stop me. Mamo-chan jumped when I came out. I grabbed his hand and pulled him upstairs.

As we neared my room, I prayed that Luna wouldn't say anything. She does have a habit of doing that around him. Luckily, she had fallen asleep in her new bed. And she says that I can sleep through anything.

"I see she liked your present," Mamoru said pointing to Luna.

"Yeah, she thanked me…" I mentally smacked myself.

"Oh she did." I was getting an inquisitive stare. This should be good.

"Uh, yeah. You know she purred. Cats…" I laughed. Please buy it, please buy it.

"That was sweet, Luna," he said patting he head. He actually bought that?

"OH!" I found his gift and handed it to him. "Here you go, Mamo-chan!"

I sat next to him and watched nervously as he opened his present. I think just the fact that I gave him something was about to bring him to tears.

He proudly pulled the sweater from the box and smiled.

"Thank you, Usako. I love it!" he said holding it up to himself. Wow! The sweater does match his eyes!

"I'm glad. I was hoping to get you something else, but…"

He smiled at me as though that was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard.

"No, Usako. Hearing you say that you fell in love with me is all I could ever want for Christmas."

That was definitely worth a kiss.

"Usagi!" We heard a pounding on the door. "Are you okay in there?" Darn it.

"Yes, Dad," I sighed.

"Okay, just checking." We waited until his footsteps disappeared down the hall before speaking.

"Sorry." My family is insane.

"It's okay, Usako. Your turn," he said as he pulled something from his coat pocket. He handed me a wrapped box.

I opened it and was shocked by what I found inside.

A crystal rose was lying within.

"Mamoru," I gasped. "It's beautiful."

"Now you have a dozen roses."

Rose number twelve. I was dumbfounded to say the least.

"Did you..."

"Give you the others," he finished for me. "Yes. All twelve of them."

"But what about..."

"I am Tuxedo Kamen."

"Oh, Mamo-chan, really! How perfect!" I had to let the whole world know. Why not start with… "Hey, Luna!"

"What, Usagi... I mean... uh... Meow!"

"It's okay," I said smiling. "Mamoru is Tuxedo Kamen."

"Hey, Luna," he said to my dumbfounded cat. "I'm glad to know you can actually talk and I'm not delusional!"

We all had a good laugh over that one. My Christmas was wonderful because of Mamo-chan. I hope I made his as special as he made mine.

Oh, so it turns out Motoki WAS in on the rose left at the arcade. But I totally got revenge on him when Mamo-chan and I showed up at the arcade before our first official date. His face was priceless! He never thought the 'Twelve Roses Plan' would work. Little does he know, my Mamo-chan is Tuxedo Kamen and roses just happen to be my favorite flower.

And speaking of Tuxedo Kamen, Mamo-chan later told me the real significance behind the yellow rose he left. His hope was that I would come to the park so he could talk to me. That part worked and the meaning behind yellow roses he told me is true, but remember how I noticed the red ends when I got home? It turns out that yellow roses with red tips indicate friendship falling in love. I'm going to have to brush up on my meaning behind flowers knowledge.

As for my twelve roses of Christmas, they have stayed in perfect condition on my dresser since the day I found every one of them.

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The End

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Yay! Thank you again for all of your reviews. I know it was silly to release (or re-release as was the case) a Christmas story now, but I wanted to get back into the writing scene. Maybe I'll do a sequel sometime. Who knows? But my next story I am very excited about. I started it a couple of years ago, and was never motivated to finish it up until now. I'm planning to call it 'The Story We Never Knew' and it will span the present and future of the Sailor Moon legend. Please keep an eye out for it.