Disclaimer- Ishinomori's, not mine
Notes- Christmas fic! Written for my one hundred Cyborg 009 fics challenge. Joe X Francoise, hinted at Jet X Albert. I hope everyone had a happy December 25. smile
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"It's too bad the others can't help us decorate," Joe said as he threw extra tinsel on the tree. "It just doesn't feel right without all of us here."
"Chang needed help getting ready for the Christmas rush." Francoise examined a delicate bauble for cracks.
"But Jet and Albert should have stayed at least--"
"I'm sure Jet and Albert are having just as much fun with their last-minute shopping as we are decorating," she interrupted with a smile. She neglected to tell him that they'd have fun because they would finally have some time alone since the holidays started-- which, thanks to her enhanced vision, she knew they had eagerly seized on the second they were in the car. It'd be a Christmas miracle if they managed to get any shopping done.
"Maybe you're right." Joe's face lit up as he began hanging ornaments. "As long as we're together on the twenty-fifth, that's all that matters, right?"
"... Yeah. Sure." Francoise smiled back and hoped it seemed sincere. She was enjoying this Christmas, really. It was certainly an improvement over the last one she spent with Joe, that was sure. But... as she unpacked Professor's Kozumi's very beautiful, very expensive ornaments, she found her mind wondering back to the half-dead pines she and Jean-Paul would adorn with their small collection of broken, faded decorations, topping it all off with a star that had only two points left. To anyone else, it would have been almost comical in its shabbiness, but they wouldn't have had it any other way. Each trinket had its own memories attached to it. She could still remember buying the star with her mother...
"Francoise? You want to put the star up?"
Her smile was real this time. "Of course I do!" She was a little surprised, though. Considering the lovely ornaments the kindly old Professor owned, she would have expected an equally lovely angel.
Joe placed a small, slightly crooked star in her hands.
"...Joe?"
He grinned, flustered. "Well, I remember you and Jet comparing how your Christmases went before... well, before, and I asked the Professor, and it turned out that he still had this saved from his college days." His grin faded as his eyes met hers, afraid that he might have intruded on some private pain. "Is that okay?
"How can it not be okay?" She leaned over, her lips brushing against his. "I just got the best Christmas present I could hope ever for."