A/N: The first section is from their first meeting in middle school (with Ike as a freshman and Karen as a 7th grader). The following sections after that are winter break the same year, just after winter break, right before winter break the next year (Ike as a 7th grader and Karen as an 8th grader), and shortly after winter break their second year. Sorry if it doesn't make too much sense? Enjoy, I suppose.
"Hey, spare me a moment?" Her voice was soft, but clear in the empty classroom.
Ike looked up from his laptop screen, giving the twin-tailed brunette his attention. "Karen, right?"
She smiled, stepping out of the doorway to sit in the seat next to him. "Ike, yeah?"
The dark green flip phone lit up, vibrating once to indicate a text message. She glanced at the number before flipping it open to read the message. Two words on the screen lit up, followed by a few unreadable symbols. She smiled to herself, numbly typing out a response as she looked for a second jacket. Her house always got abnormally cold in the winter. One jacket and two blankets (all she could scrounge up when she got home) was barely helping her retain any body heat. After a futile glance over her small room, she finished typing out her reply and slammed her phone shut. Retracting her arm into her blanket bundle did nothing to help keep the cold away. She slumped back on her bed, thudding her head against the wall. "Kenny! Come here with all the blankets you own."
There was a thud on the wall as a response. "Take anything more from me and I'm going to die," came the muffled voice from the other side of the wall.
"Then come here too and we can huddle together."
There was a couple more thuds and then quick footsteps brought her brother into the room. A bit of shuffling and shifting around and the two of them were sitting side by side against the wall wrapped in a pile of five ratty blankets. At least their breaths weren't coming out in foggy wisps anymore. Another reply buzzed from her phone under her. She carefully brought out her phone, not letting any of the frigid air enter her almost warm bundle of blankets.
Kenny read her texts over her shoulder. "Happy Hanukkah? Why is it a question?"
She speedily sent a three word reply and left it at that. "Because I know he doesn't celebrate Christmas."
"And he just said 'yea' in response to that question. You two sure do talk a lot." Kenny shivered, shifting just a bit closer.
"He's probably busy with family, this is fine." She leaned closer to her brother, shivering a little herself.
"Make him take you on a date after break." He smiled when Karen let out a small giggle.
"Maybe, think he'll do it?" She pulled her legs closer to gather more warmth.
"Dump his sorry ass if he doesn't. What man leaves his girlfriend alone to freeze to death on Christmas." Kenny tsked. "Nevermind the fact that he doesn't celebrate."
"To be fair, he doesn't know I'm freezing to death right now."
"Hey hey, you're not supposed to defend him."
"Hmm." She leaned her head on his shoulder. "The cold's making me sleepy."
Kenny glanced at her from the corner of his eye. "You changed the subject." There was a contemplative hum from her as she closed her eyes. Kenny leaned his head on top of hers. "But that's fine, just go to sleep then."
"Ready to go?" Ike asked her when she left the classroom.
"Oh, yea. What a surprise you came to pick me up today."
"The teacher let us out early." He led them one of the emptier stairways in the school.
"Wow, that rarely ever happens. Lucky you." She followed after him, pulling a cap out of her backpack to put on.
He followed suit and put on sunglasses. "It doesn't really make a difference."
"It does to me." She smiled happily as they opened the side exit and walked out of school. Early release always felt wonderful, especially unscheduled ones. "So where're we going?"
'Having an allowance would sure make things easier.' Karen thought to herself as she stirred the hot coffee in front of her. She had been in the coffee shop at least half an hour before finally ordering something. Tweek's nervous glances eventually made her self conscious enough to buy something. Potentially getting asked to leave might have also played a part in her caved purchase. She flipped open her phone to check the time. Ten more minutes and school would let out, then another five should be enough time for Ike to meet her. The blond barista came by, and she forced a smile, making eye contact.
"H-Hi.. You d-don't drink your c-coffee black, d-do you?" Tweek stuttered out, averting his eyes.
"Huh?" She noticed the creamer and sugar he held out to her and visibly relaxed. "Oh, thanks." She took the offering and nodded as he went back to the counter. No wonder the stuff tasted disgusting, she vaguely wondered who in the world could stomach such bitter sludge. Adding the sweeteners was a definite improvement to the drink, but it was still pretty horrible. 'Maybe it's an acquired taste,' she thought as she just enjoyed the warmth of the drink and shop. Anything was better than braving the weather outside. The jingling of the door's bell caught her off guard, and she instinctively looked at her phone for the time. School let out a minute ago.
"Hello." Ike sat in the seat across from her.
"Lemme guess, class let out early?" She smirked from behind her paper cup.
"Yep. Have you been waiting long?" He accepted the offer when she handed over her drink.
"Not really, I got here pretty recently myself." A lie, but when you compare it to a whole day of school, it wasn't really. She laughed when he scrunched up his face from the taste.
He slid the awful drink back to her. "So why did you want to meet here? And how long have you been a coffee addict?" He watched her dig through her bag.
"That cup is my first and last one, unless it gets significantly more delicious with age." She handed him a parcel-sized stack of newspapers. He raised an eyebrow and she started to get self conscious again. "I-I didn't have any wrapping paper."
"Oh." He said as he looked at the 'Happy Birthday Ike!' scrawled in sharpie across the side. He unraveled the newspapers slowly, curious to see what was inside. "...there's so much newspaper," he said as he peeled through the fifth layer.
"I didn't want the sharpie to bleed through it." She smiled nervously as he finally found the gift amidst all the crinkled paper.
He pulled it out and turned it over in his hands a couple times. "...you got me a tie?"
"Do you like it..?" She reached over to smooth out one of the wrinkles. "Or is the color too tacky?" There was a brief pause before she continued. "Or, was the whole thing just a bad idea, would you have preferred something else, I'm really bad at picking gifts-"
Ike held back a chuckle. "No, no. I like it, this is fine. Thanks. I just- I was caught off guard. I dunno what I was expecting, but it wasn't anything this fancy." He held the tie in front of his shirt, the dark green contrasting favorably with his light blue. "Not bad on me, right?"
Karen giggled along with him. "That's great. It.. It looks good. I'm glad you like it." She took a sip of her almost lukewarm coffee. The taste was actually starting to grow on her. "The truth is, I really didn't know what to get you and the lady at the store suggested it because 'damn, who doesn't love a man in a suit.'" She curled up, hiding behind her cup in embarrassment. "And before I knew it, I was already panicking about my lack of wrapping paper."
He got up and took the seat next to hers. "That's sweet of you." He leaned in to give her a thank you kiss, and she met him halfway, brushing her tongue against his lips as she pulled away. He made a face at her. "That coffee on the other hand, is an entirely different story."
She laughed in response and stuck her tongue out. "You're welcome. Now tell me about your day, before we start break and I can't see you anymore." She elbowed him before he could protest that he wasn't the one against meeting up over break. "Shush and start the story."
They ended up spending another couple hours in the shop chatting away. Tweek ended up convincing Ike to buy another cup while they were there.
"So how do you feel about jewelry?" Ike asked as he picked her up from class again. Karen was starting to suspect that his class got out early whenever something good or fun was about to happen.
"I'm not too fond of it, why-" She caught the small box he tossed her way, eyes widening at the small box. "Omg you didn't, I'll love it regardless." She smiled fondly at the newspaper wrapping. 'Merry (belated) Christmas' was scrawled on the front. She began unwrapping it. "Did you ask the lady at the store too?"
"Not really, but she tried to throw in her two cents anyway." He shrugged. "She suggested a lot of the flashier pieces because 'shit, who doesn't want a reminder his woman is his.' What a weird woman." He smirked as she opened the box and stood shell-shocked for a few seconds. "Did I pick right?"
She burst out laughing. "I-I can't believe out of all the things- How did that store clerk react?" Stifling her laughter was hard when Ike looked that smug about his choice.
"Well, considering I decided to humor her and we spent a good twenty minutes looking around... she was pretty livid. She practically kicked me out after that, hence the newspaper wrapping." He made a hand motion at the torn paper. "She practically pushed me out before I could buy any decent wrapping paper."
Karen lightly punched him in the arm. "Newspaper is a high quality wrapping material excuse you. Also, I love them, thanks." She pulled reclosed the box of light blue hair ties. "I'll start wearing them tomorrow." She shook her head. "You think that lady's gonna give us the stink eye every time we pass by her shop now?"
Ike shrugged noncommittally, and Karen just rolled her eyes. She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before heading off to class. "See you later?"
"See ya!" She called over her shoulder happily as she waved with the box in her hand.
Not much has changed since they first started going out, but it's been a lot more fun lately, and Karen has been so happy since she started spending more time with Ike.
A/N: Wow, I get later and later with these every year haha;;;; I wasn't actually in much of a christmas-y mood this year when writing this so apologies if it came out weird and things make a lot more sense in my head before I type them out. I had a whole longer ending planned for this, but it didn't seem fitting so if there's a lot of jumps or plothole/questions, then that's the reason. Also, the ending seems rushed/haphazard because it's not really complete, but I don't feel the need to continue. I'll update this if I feel like it in the next few days, or maybe I'll just come back with an even less Christmas-y story next year haha;;
Welp, thanks for getting through to the end? Is this ship even still alive, I wonder.