Manga based story!

Context: this would be the first Christmas Maron and Chiaki spent together. As this point they knew about each other alter egos but they were enemies.

I apologise in advance for spelling/grammar mistakes, English is not my native language. This is also my first written fan fiction.

All story is in Maron's POV

On Christmas Eve I was, as usual, lying on my sofa watching some stupid TV show when suddenly, the doorbell rang. It was Chiaki.

"Step aside, Maron!"

He pushed the door open and came in carrying a really big box in his arms. It was like a refrigerator box.

"Hey, hey. What do you think you're doing?"

Without saying a single word, he began unboxing and building what it seemed to be a huge Christmas tree. First, he set the base, then the middle part and, finally, the top. I couldn't help asking about his behavior without showing any sympathy for him despite the day it was.

"What exactly makes you think that I celebrate Christmas?"

He sat on the floor and was apparently having fun looking at the decorations inside the box. Without looking at me, he said:

"Everybody celebrates Christmas."

I wasn't exactly sure if the boy in front of me was the happiest on earth or just the stupidest one.

"Chiaki, Christmas is something you usually celebrate with your family. I don't have a family. Guess what: I don't celebrate Christmas."

He just continued taking some decorations full of glitter in his hands. He stood up to hang some of them on the tree.

"So what? I don't have a family either."

I couldn't believe his words. I stood up next to him.

"No. You DO have a family. But you just don't have enough guts to go with them."

I didn't realize what I had said until it was too late to retract myself. But well, it was nothing but the truth, and he knew it. He didn't look at me.

"And you? You have family too. You like playing the victim part just because they abandoned you many years ago, but you DO have family. You think we're very different from each other, but you know what? We're not."

He finally looked at me in the eyes. He lowered a bit so he was my height, and said in a teasing whisper, half smiling:

"You and I are one and the same. Stop lying to yourself."

He picked up some heavily tangled Christmas lights and he sat on the floor to try fixing the mess they were. I sat in front of him, looking inside of the decorations box. There were all kinds of them: metallic and glittery balls, ribbons and a golden star. He was still deeply concentrated in his job as silence became the main character on the scene. Chiaki looked seemed really enthusiastic about Christmas, so I let him be. I picked two red balls from the box. They were shiny and had glittery snowflakes painted on them. Chiaki didn't seem to notice anything I was doing at all.

Silently crawling I went behind him and hung one of the balls to his right ear, as it were an earring.

"Wh…..what are you doing?" He had his hands occupied with all the cables, so he couldn't take the decoration off.

I hung the other ball in his left ear while I whispered in a snarky tone:

"Shhhht…just pretend I'm not here."

I could see that his expression had changed from concentrated to curious because of my weird behavior. He was trying not to laugh. I turned off the living room lights and turned on the Christmas ones, which were still wrapped around his arms and hands. It was such a hilarious vision I had to take a photo of it, trying not to laugh as best as I could.

"And then you go saying you can't stand me…" He said, not holding laughter anymore.

"And I don't! But it's you who ventured into the lion's den on the first place…"

He bursted out laughing.

"Oh! You're the lion?"

He threw one of the cables around my head, surrounding me in a shiny multicolor net that shone in the darkness of my living room. I couldn't see anything but his face and the disturbing bijouterie I improvised on him.

"Chiaki…why are you here?"

He mischiefly stared at me.

"Well, it's obvious, isn't it? To celebrate Christmas Eve with you!"

He might notice that I didn't believe his excuse as he changed the strategy.

"Oh, come on! I know we're enemies and all that but… It's Christmas!"

"…and?"

"And…well…I was at my apartment, and there were only horrible comedy shows on TV… and Acces is working… and as I don't want to go to my dad's…"

At this point he had lowered his head and he was staring at the floor. He had lost all his usual arrogance. To me, he seemed the most transparent person on earth at that moment. I laughed, took off the Christmas lights from me and gave them to him. I stood up again and turned on the living room lights.

"Come on; let's hang these on the tree."

We finished hanging all of the decorations with some laughs every now and then.

"Okay, what's left?" He said, glancing up at the top of the tree.

I looked inside the decorations box and took the golden star.

"So how do you plan to put it up there, genius?"

He looked at me, then at the tree, and then at me again, as if an idea was about to occur to him.

Then, he kneeled in front of me, hugged my thighs and lifted me up.

"What the hell are you doing, you idiot?!"

He pretended to make me fall down, and I held myself on his shoulder with all my strength with my left hand.

"Stop it, Chiaki! This is not funny!"

"Oh believe me, it is! Who would've thought you'd hold on me in a mortal danger situation." He laughed.

"In a mortal danger situation I would even hold on a demon."

"Really?" Suddenly, his tone was more serious. "Would you ever put your life in the hands on a demon?"

I stretched out my right arm to put the star on the top of the Christmas tree.

"No, never. See? When it comes to this, being human gives you extra points. I would put my life in your hands, but never in a demon's."

Chiaki went voiceless. I managed to hang the star. It wasn't easy, as the tree was around 8 feet high. Unconsciously, concentration made me lose attention on the conversation.

"It's done!"

"And would you ever fall for me?"

The golden star began to twist.

"Oh, no. This will never work."

I tried my best to put it back on the first position, but I couldn't manage to.

"I see…" He whispered, remarkably disappointed.

"Don't worry, I think I can fix it with some cord so it doesn't twist like this." I glanced down on him, and as I saw his facial expression I realized that I hadn't been paying attention to his words for the last few minutes. "Oh, I'm sorry. What were you saying?"

He realized too that I hadn't been listening to him. He lowered me to the floor again and walked a few feet away from me, to the dining table. Still with a sad look on his face and some kind of resignation tone on his voice, he came back to me with a present in his hands. He handed it to me.

"Merry Christmas, Maron."

He left my apartment.