Name : Since the beginnings of time

Author : Rain

Disclaimer : Takei-sama.

Note : This is my secondly finished gift of Christmas. I began by the hard one - Rea's - now I did the midly easy one - Lu-chan's - and now I have to do Daniel's. How I'm going to suffer now. Gotta find a good idea.

Persos : MarcoXMeene

The twenty-fourth of december, nothing seems out of the ordinary in the building of the X-Laws. Though, there was a fighting session and for once Marco was taking part of it - Meene had convinced him to try, which was strange enough to make the others think miracles do happen.

Punch. Punch. Punch. Though he was fighting Meene, the sole woman - except Jeanne - of the group, he didn't seem to be winning. He was always better at firing than at fighting in close-combat.

Punch.

Too bad he was not willing to wear lenses. He was going to have to replace his glasses. Again.

"Why am I here again?"

Marco was muttering against his glass, wondering if he had made the right choice by allowing his fellow members to rejoice in this bar. Jeanne was not there, of course - but all the others, from Christopher to Meene, were in the room; and the reason of Marco's distress was that John and Pof had already begun a drinking contest.

"Don't worry, Leader. They've promised me to stay mostly sober.
- You can drop the titles for tonight if you want, Meene. And define 'mostly', please."

This began their new not-so-formal relationship. Christmas was a time of miracles after all.

He was driving her back from the bar after John finally got thrown out. A light chit-chat could be heard in the car, mostly to make sure he didn't fall asleep.

"Seriously we need to tell John the walls aren't coming for him.
- Sure."

He sounded a bit skeptical.

"Come on Marco you can't deny it was amusing.
- That it was. And here I thought I'd be able to prevent such issues.
- You were delusional, Fearless Leader."

A long pause.

"Midnight," he muttered as he threw a glance to his watch. "Merry Christmas, Meene."

She did not answer and he looked at her from the mirror of the car.

She was asleep.

He smiled.

The morning after, the first thing he heard was a slight pounding on his door. Blinking slowly, he stood, dressed hastily and opened said door:

"Yes?"

It was Meene. She had that kind smile of hers on, and without a word she grabbed his arm and led him in the corridors. No one seemed to be awake yet and their steps echoed in the empty halls before they finally reached a room.

Marco's eyes widened as he saw the decorated tree and the colorful boxes. Meene didn't even let him say anything before giving him a silvery bundle.

"Merry Christmas, Marco."

Behind them, Jeanne smiled tenderly.

Glasses.

He should have bet on it. After the pair he'd broken the day before, he had been down to his last spar pair and of course, 'Santa Claus' knew that.

Marco wondered how the petite girl that was Jeanne had managed to organize such a thing. He had checked himself: there was a gift for each and every X-Law, and the whole room was decorated for the festivities. Not really knowing why he turned to the woman on his side, who quickly noticed. And the unthinkable happened...

Meene winked.

In the end Marco stopped wondering if the two girls outsmarted him. They certainly did.

Rain: I don't like it. It's SO not good.

Marco: Why do you always make fun of me?

Rain: Because you're fun to tease. Anyway now I have to take care of Daniel's gift. Gotta find an idea of HJ...