A/N: Hehe, merry Christmas, happy belated Hanukah, whatever you guys do XD This is an extra chapter purely for the Christmas holiday that has no connection to the actual plot (if there is any) of this fanfiction. So~! Have fun reading :D Thought it'd be good to do this for you guys as a thanks for the awesome support X3 Thanks bros, brodettas, etc~ This was a rushed chapter so I apologize for any mistakes ;-; Ahaha, who needs sleep when you can update a fanfiction :'D *conks over and dies* SSOOOO, DECIDED TO SPAZ OUT ON ME AND NOT LET ME UPLOAD THIS IN TIME. GEE THANKS :I aw i love you :'3 anyways~! enjoy a belated christmas present you guys and gals :D

Mio's POV

So, Christmas time finally rolled around, and Ritsu was out again. She had been disappearing lately for some reason. Mugi had invited us to go with her to a villa and have a Christmas party, but Ritsu declined it. Why? Don't ask me, I can't seem to get a grasp on her either. If Ritsu didn't accept it, I can't outright let her be alone during Christmas. But noo, she doesn't seem to have that courtesy for her best friend.

I angerly cut down another line of vegetables on the cutting board. She might not be here, but I'll still have dinner ready.

Our old plans from years past used to be us hanging out with the other band members but suddenly she said she had plans.

The slain vegetables, meat, and other ingredients went into the pan as I stirred them around, getting a nice hamburger steak ready. Now don't get me wrong, I wasn't upset by the fact she wasn't here. Okay, that was a lie. I was extremely upset about that. But no, the main reason was because my boyfriend dumped me along with Ritsu disappearing after class and not reappearing until around nine or ten at night.

Okay, maybe the real reason was the latter.

The Christmas tree taunted me with its twinkling lights and smiling star... Ritsu and I had put it together when she had free time a few days ago. It was one of the few memories we had together from the past few days. Now here it is, Christmas eve, and she is gone doing who knows what. For all I know, she could be hanging out with a new girlfriend in a karaoke bar.

My spatula slipped from my hand suddenly, causing me to flail in an attempt to catch it.

Now that I think about it, she was pretty distracted by a cashier when we went shopping for Christmas presents a few days ago... She also started making herself scarce around then as well... Realization stuck me like an arrow shooting me through the heart. "Holy shi-, she's dating that girl. That explains why..." All of a sudden, cooking the Christmas meal didn't seem too fitting anymore.

I finished cooking it reluctantly and then sat down with a thump on the ground and stared at the tv. My eyes wandered over to the clock as the seconds ticked by. The monotonous tick, tock, tick, tock of the clock lulled me into relaxation until sleep overtook me.

Sleep was nice after trying to stay up for Ritsu whilst using the excuse of writing. She usually came home with me typing away at me laptop, a cup of hot chocolate and music as my only company. Even now, there was a cup of hot chocolate next to me on the table where my head rested.

A soft click from the door that signaled Ritsu's return passed unnoticed by my sleeping ears. The silent footsteps that we had mastered from being on the second floor in the apartment complex assisted in Ritsu's exploration from the cooked food to my slumbering self. She then poked me in the side, making me shoot up and yelp.

My sleepy eyes that were suddenly jerked awake were looking around frantically, searching for the cause of the poke. They landed on the perpetrator who was giggling, holding back laughter at my response. She had a hat covering her head, and her bangs were free underneath. Bright golden eyes were shimmering with mirth as she grinned at me.

"Morning, sunshine. You're lookin' as alive as ever." She plopped herself down next to me. She smelled like a shop does after just having a renovation. The scent of plaster, paint, and glue wasn't anything out of the ordinary, but the smell of cement, perfume, and... something unfamiliar were totally out of the ordinary.

I pouted, "Since when did you call me sunshine? Welcome home by the way."

She grinned at me, "Thanks. And just now." Her eyes drifted around and a small growl came from her stomach. She gave a sheepish laugh, "So, what's for dinner?"

"Hamburger steak, some side dishes, and of course, rice." She chuckled at me reference to our song.

Ritsu head-butted me playfully in an attempt to get me up.

I laughed and then stood up, stretching. "Shall I get the food ready as you set up the table then?"

She nodded happily and jumped up. The way she was acting reminded me of when we were back in high school. Hyper, cheerful, and always excited. Now don't get me wrong, the college Ritsu was nice as well. She was still cheerful and happy, but she also calmed down when needed and was mature.

As she went off to get dishes and clean off the cluttered table, I walked over to the stove. My eyes were thus assaulted with the horrible final product from my tedious effort. The once juicy hamburger steak was crumbled into chunks and was cooled in its own juices; the vegetables and side dishes that I meticulously prepared and cooked were dried from having been cooked too long. The rice was too wet to be eaten and to top it all off, we had run out of ingredients to make anything from this massive fail at cooking.

I looked over at Ritsu who was humming happily and preparing the table. Well, shit. Ritsu bounded over and then froze, seeing the fruits of my labor. "Well... We could always eat out for Christmas." She chuckled slightly and then shrugged, giving me a helpless smile.

"Ahh," I groaned, "I just fell asleep for a few minutes!" My eyes caught the time and then bulged. Three hours had passed from when I fell asleep and it was now 7 o'clock.

I poked at the food and then sighed, showing my resignation, "Alright. That can be in order. Man, I wanted to make us a Christmas dinner, too..." A small pout accompanied my disgruntlement.

She chuckled and grabbed her hoodie. "Where should we go? Anywhere works, I have some extra money from my parents to spend for Christmas."

"I don't really care, where do you want to eat?" I gave up and grabbed my jacket as well. It had soft, white fur in the inside, a faux lamb pelt on the outside, and insanely warm. Ritsu had bought for me when she saw it and claimed it suited me.

She just shrugged. "There's a new restaurant open if you want to check it out." A mischievous glint in her eyes but I chose to ignore it.

"Sounds good~" I slipped on some fluffy boots as she put on her combat boots. Honestly, it was like Ritsu tried hard to be the least girly girl yet not push it to the extent of a tomboy. We slipped on scarves and headed out, locking the door behind us as usual.

The walk to the mall where the restaurant opened was filled with silence. The only sound was the crunch of snow under our shoes and the occasional conversation about random things. We took up trying to figure out what people were saying when we couldn't hear them.

One of the conversation went along the lines of,

"Have you heard what happened between Katsuo-san and Shimeji-san?" That was Ritsu's starting like.

"Nope, what happened? Didn't they have the same dress on at the dance?" That was mine.

"Oh dear, did they really? And the same dog!"

"What? So which is the copy cat?!"

"I'm not sure. My guess is Shimeji-san is the source!"

"Wait, what?"

That's where the conversation ended because the two old lady's were staring at us as we giggled to ourselves at the drama we just made. We rushed past, heads bowed.

Another event that happened was Ritsu randomly slipped her cold hands onto my cheeks, surprising me and causing me to lose my footing on the iced over sidewalk.

With a small yelp and a flail to grab her as a support, I ended up grabbing her scarf and dragging her down with me. I landed on my rump and she landed next to me, yelling in surprise as well. We looked at each other and started laughing.

She stood up carefully and then held out a hand to help me up. I took it gratefully and stood up cautiously. The rest of the walk was random mishaps that we did to each other.

After finally falling another couple hundred times, we finally reached the mall. We headed in and settled down in a seat at the new restaurant. It was an Italian one with an open fireplace near the back. A dim glow from candles lit the way on tables and waiters and waitresses in suits and dresses were walking around serving the customers. I suddenly felt underdressed.

Ritsu had taken off her headband somewhere along the way because it kept falling off every time we fell, and her bangs were now free. Her hoodie was underneath a sweater pulled over it. She smiled at the waitress who greeted us and we were shown to a seat close to the fireplace.

Maybe it was the lighting, but the waitress seemed to glare at me with a malicious intent of jealousy...

We were handed the menus and the waitress left to go get our drinks. Because of the posh feeling of the restaurant, I felt the need to order some wine. Ritsu did the same and we were delivered a bottle of red wine.

As we drank our respective glasses, we discussed what we wanted in hushed tones. I was starting to grow fond of the idea of eating some lasagna. Ritsu was curious about Gnudi. It was apparently something she had learned about in her culinary class because of how weird it was. Eventually we decided on our respective dishes and ordered. Thus began the long wait as they prepared our food.

It was nice being in a fancy restaurant with Ritsu. It didn't strike me uncomfortable at all. In fact it felt relaxing. We talked about assorted things, but when I tried to ask her about where she was the past few days, she changed the topic back to me. It was extremely, extremely frustrating.

Ritsu's POV

Okay, now before you think I was doing anything weird when I wasn't at the apartment, I wasn't. I couldn't really say what I was doing to Mio's face purely because that would ruin the surprise. When we went shopping and exploring the mall several days ago, she had pointed out a pair of rings. They had our birthstones on them and were identical. The jewels were in an arrangement of my birthstone peridot, her garnet, and then another peridot. The band was 14k white gold, and my god was it expensive. Both of them added together was 102,351 yen and then there was a 25% discount that I managed to flirt out of the pretty cashier. The total I had to pay was 76763.25 yen without tax.

It took several part time jobs, begging my parents for several months in advance of an allowance, and scrapping together more money from Christmas to finally scavenge enough money to buy the rings. I made sure they were the right size ahead of time, had the store inscribe our names on the inside of the band, and wrap them in a box.

So before you go bitching about me leaving Mio alone after her boyfriend dumped her, I was working my ass off to get her that Christmas present.

As we sat at the table of a fancy Italian restaurant, I seriously wondered if I could pay for us. My wallet currently held about 5300 yen in it. Probably enough, but it was unlikely I would be able to buy anything after it if we wanted to explore around the mall or city.

Our food came after a couple thousand light years because, you know, restaurants take ages cooking food.

We started eating slowly, skeptical about the integrity of Japanese Italian food, but quickly sped up. It was delicious and well worth the wait. The flavor spread across your tongue and subtly overloaded your taste buds with delicious taste.

Between bites, we toasted a few times to messing up dinner and drank happily. By the end, we were contently eating cheesecake and talking about whatever came to our mind. The restaurant even let us take the bottle of wine home to finish, free of charge. Sadly, the total cost of the meal was around the 9000 yen mark. Mio managed to account for what my wallet couldn't and we headed out of the store, wine bottle held by me in a paper bag.

We started down the mall, walking to help digest the food we just ate. We explored the new mall and made random comments about things. I had to be careful to steer our path away from the jewelry store out of fear that they had yet to put a new pair of rings out for display. My hand rested on the box with the rings in my pocket. I was planning on putting the box under the tree in the apartment, but that plan was quickly thwarted by the fact Mio's sleeping expression was too tempting to resist teasing. And so, it now rests in the pocket of my pull-over hoodie, awaiting to be unwrapped.

"So, should we head back now? It's pretty late." Mio was starting to yawn as she noticed the crowd of people thinning down.

I nodded, "Sure. It's like, what, 9:30?" She checked her wristwatch and then nodded in assurance. "We should probably head back then~"

As we turned to go out the exit, I noticed a few sleezy looking guys eyeing Mio up. I scowled and slipped my hand around her waist, pulling her closer. She frowned at me and was about to protest when I interrupted. I said with a grin on my face but in a low voice, "There's some sketchy looking guys eyeing you up. I'd rather not get in a fight on Christmas eve." She looked over at the guys, smiled slightly at them, and then proceeded to give me a light kiss on the cheek.

I felt a blush start to spread its away around my face. My growth spurt finally allowed me to be about the same height as her, maybe a bit taller because of my combat boots. She smiled at me happily and my heart did a little acrobatic routine. Even if we were just faking it to ward off any wandering eyes, it still made me overfilled with joy.

We walked out like that and then headed out towards our apartment. We were on winter break for three weeks. It seemed like a long time, but both of us knew that was a lie. The three weeks were filled with projects we had to do after midterms.

I had to draw about 10 sketches of winter-y stuff (no joke, that's how my art teacher described it) and paint another two landscape projects. Mio probably had to write three or so short stories and another five free choice things.

It was like both of us thought of the mountain of work we had waiting for us after break because we both sighed at the same time. Looking at each other with surprised expressions, we started laughing. "So what were you sighing at?" I probed her before she could ask me.

She shrugged, "Just the projects and Christmas couples wandering past us." She said that statement as nonchalantly as if she was saying she was going out to buy groceries, but her eyes were tinged with sadness.

"Aw, come on! We can enjoy Christmas just as well as those lovebirds can!" I pointed up at the Christmas lights surrounding us. "I bet they can't sing about silly things."

She pouted at me, "Silly things? My songs aren't silly!" She punched my arm playfully.

I giggled, "They are pretty silly~ But they sound really nice so I guess that makes up for it." We laughed and continued down. As we turned the corner and started down the final road to our apartment, the present felt heavier.

"So," I groped around for the right segue into giving her the present, "about why I was gone..."

She looked at me with her dark eyes. They probed my eyes for answers. "Yeah, about that." Her voice shocked me how cold and hard it was.

I shuffled a bit as we walked. My arm was still around her waist and my shuffling caused her to slow down. "Erm..." I slipped my hand into my pocket and pulled out the present. It was wrapped in a light blue wrapping paper that had sparkling snowflakes decorating it. The ribbon around it was red with silver borders. I held it out to her with a sheepish grin. "I had to take up a couple part time jobs for it, but here. Merry Christmas, Mio."

Her eyes widened, "No way, Ritsu, did you really...?"

"Yep! It looked fitting for a Christmas present." I grinned at her and she took it gingerly.

While unwrapping it, she pulled out the navy blue box it was in. She opened it slowly and gasped, "Oh my god, Ritsu." The rings glittered in the light of the stars and streetlights. My smile grew at her expression.

"I saw you lookin' at them and-" She threw her arms around my neck and gave me a massive hug. "Heheh... Looks like you like 'em." I blushed and scratched my cheek nervously.

"Like them? I love them." She gave me another kiss on the cheek and then pulled back. I couldn't help but feel all of that hard work be rewarded in her kiss.

"Want me to put one on for you?" I offered my hand so she could give me the box. Instead, she took one of the rings out and slid it onto my middle finger. "Mio?"

She smiled, "These are technically engagement rings, but it works on the middle finger as well." She handed me the box and I slid one onto her middle finger as well.

We stood there in the cold for a few minutes, looking at each other's hands. I finally cleared my throat and held out my hand, "Shall we go back home?"

"Yeah." She slipped her hand into mine and we walked back home in happy silence.

I guess some Christmases do end well.

A/N: MERRY CHRISTMAS YOU WONDERFUL PEOPLE :D