Like always, my Secret Santas have been so rushed. But here's a Pierre x Lumina fic for chocokira07! (I reached 3,000 words, thank Goodness.) I had much fun writing this. Forgive me for all the silly mistakes that I made here. And... Maligayang Pasko! (: Merry Christmas to everyone who reads this. Reviews make me very happy :3

Lumina didn't really have a "type", she thought.

Not a stupid player like Rock or a passive person like Griffin. Not a person like Marlin, who cared more about his hair than his girl sometimes, or a hippie like Gustafa. Maybe she didn't have enough boys in Forget-Me-Not Valley to observe, so she couldn't exactly pinpoint what she wanted.

She decided then that she wanted a man. Pure and simple. She just wanted a man to love her.

Little did she know that a "man" consisted of many more attributes. But she couldn't really be picky at the moment. She was getting quite desperate.

She was reintroduced to Pierre by Kai, when Kai was in the Valley for the summer, as usual. Kai had been more of a best friend and brother to her rather than an eligible bachelor. Besides, she knew that he had more than one girlfriend in the places that he stayed in, and she hardly liked to think that he had someone in the Valley. However, since she didn't exactly have a "girl best friend" in the Valley, he had been the one she had cried to about her boy problems (or rather, the lack thereof) as well as the one she told the minimal gossip that floated occasionally around the Valley to. So she was quite suspicious when he immediately called her down to the Beach on the hottest day in Summer to reintroduce her to Pierre.

Her parents traveled a lot, that fact wasn't different in the present day. However, when she was younger, her diplomat parents dragged her around the world, which included the Island that Pierre lived on. They had a typical childhood together, but it ended quickly as she needed to leave once again after a few months with her parents.

His baby face didn't change over the years, and his blonde hair seemed to get curlier rather than straighter. His smile made him look all the more young.

"Lumina, this is Pierre… He's staying over the Summer to be my assistant and to find new grasses and mushrooms here that aren't prominent back on the Island," Now this would be a harmless statement, but then Kai smirked devilishly and added, "So you'll be seeing him quite often."

Pierre all but rolled his eyes. Pushing his hat farther up his head (Lumina had a passing thought, Why do all these cooks wear excessive amounts of purple...?), he said, beckoning her to come inside Kai's Summer Shack, "Come on Lumina, I'll make you some Relaxtea."

She looked at him in surprise. "First of all, today is anticipated to be the hottest day of Summer… And secondly, how do you know that I love Relaxtea?"

"A true Gourmet is able to read people and what they love to eat and drink!" he explained matter-of-factly with a finger in the air. "And I know that you love Relaxtea too much to refuse it, even on the hottest day of Summer," he said with a wink.

Her heart jumped. Almost in a trance, she followed Pierre into Kai's Shack. Kai all but stood outside and smirked.

Little did Lumina recognize that someone who could read her, a girl who kept to herself and whose closest friends couldn't even understand sometimes, was a man. But she didn't know him too well to see it.

In a few weeks, just as Kai had suspected, Pierre and Lumina had become the close friends. They were eating sea-salt ice cream that Pierre had created himself, and sitting on the couch of her mansion watching "Dear John." When Pierre had told her that he had never watched one Nicholas Sparks movie, she sat him down and popped in the movie. Currently they were at the scene where the two main characters were exchanging letters.

Lumina was shoveling the ice cream into her mouth. She wailed, "Why can't I have a love story like them?"

Pierre looked at her in concern. "Careful, suga'," Pierre had taken up calling people by foods, "to connect" with his Gourmet side, "you'll get sick. I know from experience." He shuddered.

"Shush. Let me wallow in my sorrows in silence."

After a few moments, Pierre piped up, "I don't understand why they can't just make a regular love story. A girl falls in love with the guy, and vice versa. No other bullshit."

"That makes for a horrible movie. Movie directors need an interesting plotline to make money," she deadpanned.

"I mean… It just sets up teenagers to think that they can have this wonderful and intricate love story, when in fact people just fall in love with one another, and that's that. It sets them up to look for love, when in fact love is supposed to come to you." He shrugged, and muttered, "But how should I know? I've never been in love."

"Well, look at Pierre the cynic," Lumina nudged him playfully, and they sat in a comfortable silence for the rest of the movie. When it ended, they still sat in silence as the credits rolled, but Lumina tentatively asked, "Pierre, you'll leave by the end of Summer, correct?"

He laughed, a pretty jingle that only Pierre could pull off, "Yes… Why, you're going to miss me, honey?"

"Obviously! I haven't had this much fun in ages… I only have fun in the Summer, when Kai is here. The rest of the seasons I spend playing the piano each day."

"Don't worry, I'm not a Summer freak like Kai is. I'll definitely come here to visit ever-so-often." And he smiled, making her heart jump in the weird way it did since she met him again on the Beach. "And during the times when I can't come here… Well we can exchange letters or something! Would that be enough for you?"

"I would be delighted, Pierre."

"You can even write 'Dear John' to be more romantic, if you wish." He said playfully.

"Oh shut up." And she proceeded to stuff pocky into his mouth.

Little did Lumina realize that someone who had so little personal experience about love but could say something so wise was a man. But she was focused on the movie.

Lumina didn't know how difficult cooking was until Pierre introduced it to her. One lazy Fall afternoon, Lumina was tapping a few keys on her piano as Pierre sat beside her, just listening.

"Hey, Pierre," she nudged him, since he was falling asleep, "teach me how to cook something." Lumina had indefinitely depended on her chef and maids to her beck and call that she didn't even realize that she didn't know how to cook or even clean her clothes.

"Alright, we'll start with something easy."

.

…

.

"Pierre, I can't do this! It's too hard. I hate cooking." Lumina sat on the chair adjacent to the kitchen table and crossed her arms like a child.

He only but smiled and encouraged, "You just have to try, pumpkin; it's seriously not that hard. I'll help you." They were making honey-covered apples, a multitude of them to give out to her neighbors.

"I'm never going to be a good wife. I can't cook."

He rolled his eyes and scolded, "I don't understand why you always have to live up to the stereotypes. A wife doesn't always need to cook; she can depend on her husband sometimes."

"Maybe I should just marry you; you'd always cook yummy foods for me." He raised an eyebrow, and she colored in embarrassment. "I mean, uh… You'd be a good husband because you can cook."

Pierre just smiled and continued to cover the apples with honey. To dissolve the awkwardness in the kitchen, she fingered the camera she kept deep in her pocket. She and Pierre had never taken a picture together, and she wanted a picture to keep when he was home. However, he never liked taking pictures because of his child-like appearance, and pictures apparently made him "look like a prepubescent youngster." She held the camera in her hands.

And she blurted, "I'll be your honey, and you'll be the apple. We stick together like this." So she latched herself at his side and quickly snapped a picture. After, she looked at her history and laughed.

Recovering, Pierre exclaimed, "Lumina! Why did you do that? You already know that I hate pictures. Do I look like a child? I bet I do."

Giggling, Lumina said, "We look cute. You're looking at me in surprise and I'm smiling so cheesily that my eyes are practically sparkling…and we look so stupid with honey on our faces." Seriously, she added as an afterthought, "Inclement weather will discontinue your frequent visits here, so I wanted to take a picture with you. Just so that I won't forget you." She batted her eyes for a cute effect.

He flipped his hair with one hand. "As if you can forget this face. And okay, but that's the first and last picture I'm taking with you!"

Little did Lumina see that someone who would endure something that he hated was a man. But she was blinded by the flash.

An early snowstorm while Pierre was visiting in the Winter took him to the Bar instead of straight to Lumina's mansion. The snow outside was so bad that he couldn't walk barely a mile to her house. Impatiently, he looked out the Bar's window and could not curse Winter more.

Griffin told him, with some pity, "Sorry bud. Looks like you're staying a night or two." Turning to the rest of the tipsy people in the Bar, he called, "Hear that, guys? Mayor called. He said that everyone's required to stay in for at least tonight." Groans were produced in response to this news.

Kassey and Patrick, who were drunker than the rest of the villagers in the Bar, were gossiping loudly. Kassy said, slightly keeling over his stool at the Bar counter, and oblivious to Pierre's brooding presence, "Hey, Pat, when do you think that purple freak will come again? We should just tell Mayor to give him moving papers since he's here so often."

Patrick guffawed, and in reply, he muttered, "I hope he got here okay, without his mommy." And they laughed obnoxiously, almost falling off their stools. Pierre rolled his eyes; he could ignore the jabs about his appearance but they mentioned a certain brown-haired girl that made his ears perk.

"I wonder how that girl is doing…the prude and arrogant one who hangs out with the purple freak all the time."

"Well she certainly isn't a prude anymore, if you know what I mean!" This time they did fall off their stools, but not in laughter. Pierre tackled them from their seats and they landed on the ground.

Pierre grabbed both of their throats and threatened menacingly, "Don't ever let me hear either one of you implicate something about Lumina like that again. She certainly isn't arrogant, just because she likes to keep to herself. And seeing that there's only douches like the both of you here, I understand why she doesn't like any of the boys in the Valley." Pierre stood, and they cowered in silence. "I don't only know how to use knives for cutting foods, you know."

With one last haughty glare, Pierre stepped out of the Bar, away from the mesmerized villagers, and into the snowstorm. Fuck if he was going to sleep there with those two boneheads.

Little did Lumina perceive that someone who wouldn't stick up for himself, but for his girl, was a man. But she wasn't there to see the whole situation play out.

Lumina had invited Pierre for the Starry Night Festival, but it was completely platonic, or so she said. Pierre had agreed immediately, as he didn't have a significant other back on the Island either. They both had dinner with Romana, and Pierre had invited the chefs and maids to the dinner table to eat with them to make the table look fuller, but he secretly felt bad for the chefs as he was a prospective Gourmet himself.

After Romana had retired to her bedroom and wished them goodnight with a wink to Lumina, Pierre had suggested that they dance to pass the night.

"Dance? I don't even know what's in these days," Lumina had protested. But he had just took her hands and pulled her into his arms, slow dancing.

"Slow dance is always in," he explained, smirking. And so her heart did that weird jumping thing again. She laid her head on his shoulder, taking in his lovely scent. One would think Pierre would constantly smell like food, but he smelled like… man. As soon as she thought this, he said, "Lumina, I have to confess… These past seasons with you has been the time of my life."

"Thanks, Pierre, it's been my honor," Lumina said as he spun her around, and he caught her in his arms.

Swaying, he murmured, "Not only that… I like you a lot, Lumina. Will you do me the honor to be my honey and I'll be your apple, but sorta permanently?" Leave it to Pierre to ask her out with a food analogy.

Lumina thought of all the times that they spent together, and she still couldn't find the times he acted, in her opinion, "like a man." Quietly, she said, "I can't Pierre. I just don't like you like that."

Stunned, he nodded, picked up his coat, and walked out the door without a word. Only a man could walk out that calmly after a rejection without argument. But she realized that only after the door clicked shut.

The next few weeks were hell for Lumina. She didn't realize how much she depended on Pierre after he left. The clichéd saying, "You never know what you have until it's gone," slapped Lumina across the face multiple times. She missed his jokes, his food, his being there for her, just his whole entire being. When Lumina saw that she was only looking at his face and not his personality for the criteria of the "man" that she wanted, she had cried buckets.

Spring had come. Lumina had waited anxiously for his face to pop up behind her fountain in her yard, like old times, but he still did not come. Only a poorly-written letter of, 'Dear Lumina, I hope you have a great birthday later this Spring. Send my regards to Romana as well. – Pierre.' came at the end of one day. The sad thing was that he was her best friend who she had cried to, and she had no one except…

Kai! She had immediately called him and though it was four in the morning wherever he was, he stayed up to talk to her. She gave him the gist of what happened between her and Pierre.

"What can I do, Kai?" She bit her lip in nervousness.

Scratching his head, he said, "Lumina, I can't really tell you what to do with your love life. I can only offer you advice. It's up to you whether or not you should take it." He knew that Pierre was as torn as she was, but could not mention that fact. Instead, he counseled, "Looks like he isn't going to come up to you. Lumina, I think you'll need to give up some of your pride to get him to forgive you. Because honestly, it was kind of your fault in the first place. You can't expect him to come up to you and forgive you without you saying 'I'm sorry' to him. He's coming in a few weeks for the Cooking Contest in the Valley as one of the judges. Like I said, it's up to you to do what you want with that information." And so he hung up.

The rest of Spring was spent in nervousness. She had planned out what she was going to do, including a speech, but that did not seem that genuine, so she scrapped it. The day that the Cooking Contest came, she gave up her pride and trudged down to the Beach, with a dish in hand. The Beach smelled of wonderful aromas, and her grumbling stomach did little to alleviate her nervousness.

"Let's get into order!" The Mayor called, and all the participants stood in line, Lumina at the end. She looked over the masses of people for Pierre, but still could not find him. As one of the judges came to eat her food, she pulled it toward her.

"Uh… Where's Pierre?" She asked timidly.

The Gourmet looked hungrily at her food and impatiently responded, "He didn't come. Lovesick, apparently." Her surprise made her stick her dish in front of her and before he could eat a spoonful, someone said,

"I'm here. Just late." Her eyes glazed in happiness, and her heart started beating like crazy at one glance at him. He looked different, with his tired eyes and blank stare and without his smile. Upon seeing Lumina, he cocked his head sideways in disbelief. "Lumina?"

With no words, she pushed the dish toward him and he took a spoonful. When he said nothing, she rambled, "When we first met, you said that a Gourmet must be able to read a person easily to find out what their favorite foods are… Well, although I'm not a Gourmet or anything close to it, a person in love should be able to read their significant other and know what that person loves to eat. So I made Finest Curry. By myself, by the way, I didn't get the help of the chefs." Uncertainly, she looked at the sand. "At least, I hope that's your favorite food. I'll be the rice to your curry, babycakes, if you can forgive me and my immense stupidity, possibly?"

Hoots and hollers were shouted as well as a "Forgive her, stupid!" from the crowd.

She continued, undeterred by his silence, "I was so stupid in thinking that the 'man' I wanted has facial hair, but no personality. Forgive me, I was being quite stupid."

Licking his lips, he said, "Honey, you make me strive to be better and to become the man that I am. Of course I forgive you." Finishing the plate of food, he added as an afterthought, "But remind me to never let you into the kitchen again."

Only a man could eat and finish a plate of slightly-burned, tasteless curry that his loved one made. But Lumina saw it this time.