((Merry Christmas peoples, here's your present.))

This Christmas

The snow crunched beneath her black boots as she made her way through the park and past the lamps covered in snow, tinsel and mistletoe. Red and green lights flashed around the whole city along with all the silver bells and Christmas trees; she buried her face in her red scarf the wind chilling her face. The celebration of Christmas wasn't usually the norm in Japan, since it is the American Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, however western societies have had a great influence over time. It's supposed to be a joyous time of year for everyone, but the burden of the Shinozaki family curse still loomed over her, which always dampened any happy mood.

Though she was dressed in thermal tights under red leggings and a long, insulated black dress coat, she still felt freezing. Probably due to the mass amounts of the spirits of her previous relatives lingering around her, depending on her to bring this haunting reality to a resolution. She never wanted to burden any of her friends about the situation, so she had put on a happy façade about the whole thing, but the situation was wearing thin on her. She stuffed her dark gloved hands in the pocket of her coat as she peeked behind herself, hearing footsteps in the snow following her. She trembled a bit, not from the cold but mostly due to fear.

She began picking up the pace of her steps and the same happened behind her. She felt even more panicked, it didn't sound like one person but two. Who were they and why are they chasing after her? Did they know something about her? About the curse? She didn't have time to think about that, she just felt like she had to speed up, but not draw attention to herself. With that she broke into a slight jog and again, the same happened behind her. It felt like the two people at her heels were galloping at the same pace as her and seemed to be drawing nearer.

She couldn't handle the stress anymore, she whimpered softly in fear of her life as she made her way into a full on sprint. She felt her heart racing as her breathing quickened, someone was after her and they weren't going to let her get away. 'Is this it?' She thought. "Am I going to die? These people are out for blood. My blood!'

"Whoa!" Her thoughts halted as a force brought her to an abrupt halt, knocking it, or rather him over, and making her tumble over on top of him. She bolted upright immediately.

"I'm so sorry; I didn't mean to hurt you." She apologized bowing profusely, powdered snow that the fall kicked up sprinkling off her coat. She was about to bolt off in the other direction before a familiar voice stopped her in her tracks and she laid eyes on a familiar face, 'Wonderful, a friend that can help me out.' She thought to herself.

"You know Shinozaki, a simple 'Hi, how's it going?' would have been much better than this." He rubbed his head, clad in a pair of blue jeans, a black winter coat, an orange scarf and a Santa hat he quickly brushed the snow off of himself and stood up, offering his hand out to her to help her up.

"I'm sorry Kishinuma-Kun, I didn't see you there. I was focused on other things." She accepted the offer and with his help, rose to her feet. She looked around, wondering where her pursuers had gone off to.

"I'll say. You were really hauling it. Honestly, he doesn't look that scary, looks like he just wants to play."

"Huh?" She gave him a puzzled look, which made him point directly behind her. She spun around and winced, embarrassed at the sight of her 'deadly pursuer'. A tan Akita, panting and looking at her with soft bronze eyes and waging its tail, the happy dog barked a couple times and leaned down playfully. "Oh…" A pink tint flashed across her face as she tried to hide it beneath her scarf.

"Unless you're just looking all around for Satoshi, cause if that's the case, he's not with me."

She turned with a pout on her face. "That's not what I was focused on. I was going to say it's good to see you." She turned back around, folding her arms.

"Hey, I didn't mean to be offensive or anything! You just usually ask if he's with me, that's all!" She knew she should treat him a lot better after their experiences together and after all he's done for her. But she couldn't help but have some emotional outbursts whenever she thought he was acting like a jerk.

"That's not always what I ask." She spun around with a huff.

"Is that so?" He asked her with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah." She paused, searching for the words to say to him to stop this ridiculous back and forth duel suddenly going on between them. "Maybe I'm happy to see just you."

His expression softened and his cheeks turned a light shade of pink. "Oh, really?"

"Sure. I felt I was in danger and you came here at just the perfect time. Albeit, ungracefully but still, like a clumsy knight in shining armor." She smiled making his face turn a shade of red now and laughed a bit nervously.

"Heh heh, but you ran into me. So, does that make the dog the dragon or something?" She sighed and rested her hands on her hips.

"Don't push it Kishinuma-Kun, you're in a good position right now." He could have made a dirty joke about that but he let it slide and only smiled and laughed a bit more. The Akita behind them pranced around, barely containing its excitement and barked loudly making Ayumi jump and practically leap into his arms. "Eep!"

"Someone's a bit jumpy. You alright?"

"Sh-shut up. I'm fine."

"Roxy!" They heard a shout in the distance as a man stepped out from the brush and the happy dog run up to him excitedly barking loudly. "There you are!" He sighed in relief as he turned to the two. "Sorry about that, she just kinda escaped me and my wife." Yoshiki brushed it aside as the dog owner's wife appeared from the brush too.

"Guess it's actually a 'she'." Yoshiki chuckled to himself.

"I hope she didn't interrupt anything." The man paused and pointed upward while his wife giggled. "Oh… Maybe I am."

Puzzled, Yoshiki looked up at what he was pointing at and turned deep red and wide eyed. Ayumi gave him an odd glance at his behavior and looked up to what the commotion was about and froze in embarrassment. They were standing underneath a lamp post that had a large bushel of mistletoe dangling from it. She leapt from his arms, her face bright red.

"You pervert, you had this completely planned out didn't you?"

"What?!" He was equally flushed red. "I had no idea that was hanging right there and you ran into me!" Other people began shuffling into the area of the park where all the commotion was coming from and soon the two were surrounded by onlookers. The dog barked loudly again, making her jump back into his arms with a yelp. His breath hitched as she did so, as some of the audience fawned at what appeared to them to be adorable behavior. ((… Moe… Tsundere… And such.))

"What do we do?" She whispered.

"I… I guess we have to kiss…" He muttered back. "You're uh… You okay with that?"

"I… N-no." She pouted. "B-but, will they let us leave? A lot of people are watching. That's really nerve-racking to kiss in front of so many people."

He turned an even brighter shade of red; she didn't mention anything about being embarrassed about kissing him. He felt a bit relieved about that but, that still didn't lessen the tension due to the current situation.

"Have you ever kissed anyone?" She whispered.

"Me? Uh... Um. No. To be honest." He muttered below his breath.

"Well, I guess that makes me feel a bit better. I'm not the only one." She looked down at the front of his jacket as if she wanted to bury her face and hide from everyone looking on at them. "I guess it has to happen sometime. Let's just get to it."

"I-What?" His eyes went wide at her response to the situation.

"What else can we do?" She paused and pulled him a bit closer, making his whole body tense. "So, you ready."

He gave a single nod, trying to hold back his increasing excitement as best as he can. "Yeah." Was all he managed to get out.

"Okay, I guess we just go for it." She stood up on her toes and leaned forward. He couldn't help but smile as he reached out and tucked a strand of her blue hair behind her ear and cupped her cheek. This was something he could only dream of, now it's actually happening. He leaned in closer and closed his eyes as he felt his lips caress hers. His free hand immediately snaked around and rested on her lower back, pulling her into a deeper kiss. She could feel her face become increasingly warmer as her cheeks turned a deeper shade of red. He told her that this was his first kiss, so she figured that he's just a natural. She felt his tongue brush against her own and did her best to return the favor. She had a feeling she was doing a good job when he pulled her even deeper into the kiss and closer into the embrace. Snowflakes began to sprinkle down from the sky as the two were illuminated by the bright lamp post they were standing under. There was a couple of 'aww's' from the crowd and the sound of some people here or there applauding and soon they parted ways for air.

"Wow, that…. Um…. Was amazing." Yoshiki blushed and rubbed the back of his head. She bit her thumb nervously and blushed as well.

"Erm…. Thanks…. Y-you too." The crowed began to dissipate as the two stood there with red faces. At one point their eyes met and Ayumi smiled at him, he returned her smile and took the Santa hat off his head and placed it on hers, it nearly covered her eyes and she peeked out from under it ((…. MOE….)). "Hey." She giggled. "I don't know where this has been."

He chuckled, "I got it from a Christmas festival and I'm going to another one right now. I can always get more, and that looks cute on you."

"Hmph." She frowned with a small pout from underneath the Christmas hat. She paused, thinking to herself as he began walking away, the snow crunching underneath his shoes. "Wait, are you going alone?"

"Well, I guess. Unless I meet somebody we know there."

"But you shouldn't go alone." She blushed thinking to herself that maybe it would be nice to take a break from this family curse of hers; she could really use forgetting about it for one night. "Maybe I could come with you. I mean, that is if it's okay with you."

He smiled back at her with a chuckle. "I'd like that."

This Christmas, she will be happy.

End