Hello, everyone! It's me again with another story. Hope you're all enjoying the holidays. This story is an 'Everybody loves FemC' fanfic, added with extra cheezy just for you. Though, just for the guys she can have in the lovers' route—Shinji, Aki, Ken and Ryoji. (I'm still not sure if Theo counts, can someone tell me? ;~;) It consists four short stories—one for each pairing; set in Christmas. This will be AU-ish, considering that Shinji and Ryoji aren't supposed to be in this timeline. The stories aren't connected with each other in any way—it's because I had trouble with writing a whole story where everybody loves the FemC, without making her seem like a... player. I've also decided to take out the stuff about Nyx and death in the short stories, because I didn't want to make them gloomy. I tried not to let my ShinjixFemC bias get through, so I hope you enjoy them all.

I've already finished all four, but I've decided to upload them seperately from each other. So, anyway... this is going to be the first short story—I'll post the second one in a couple of days or so.

Disclaimer: Persona 3 and it's characters (c) Atlus.

Short Story #1: Subtlety (KenxFemC)

The entire dorm was wrapped in a dimly lit green light, suggesting that it was already the Dark Hour. It was approximately two days away from Christmas, so Kaori made her decision as the leader not to go to Tartarus tonight. This was so that everyone can have a break and enjoy the festivities the following day (Christmas Eve), herself included. Though, having a few hours of sleep may not be the best way to enjoy tomorrow—but she was already aware of that from the very beginning, considering what she had planned.

After double-checking that everyone else was either asleep, or outside of the dorm and training at the bottom floors of Tartarus by himself; Kaori and Junpei had commenced with their operation of sneaking down the stairs and guessing what presents they got. Though, sneakily reaching their destination had proved to be difficult, especially since her company was Junpei Iori, the so-called master of subtlety; who had nearly tripped over with excitement on his way down the stairs; not to mention that he had nearly knocked down vases and other priceless Kirijo antiques along the way.

Kaori pressed an ear into the carefully-wrapped package, then shook it as if hoping that she could get a clue as to what was inside. It had sounded much too rattly to be a sweater—to which she grinned pleasantly, she had always thought that a sweater was too traditional. She then smoothed her fingers over every corner, every texture... A hand bag... maybe? Considering the pink wrapping paper, she was more than convinced that the sender of the present was Yukari.

"Kaori-tan, check the time." came the loud voice of her partner in crime, who was busying himself with his share of presents.

"Sssshhhh! Junpei, be quiet..." Kaori brought a finger to his lips, and whispered lowly. "Yukari told me that Mitsuru-senpai is a light sleeper, she'll execute us for sure if she hears you..."

"Geez. Relax, Kaori-tan. She's all the way on the third floor."

"Ex-cuuuse me for not wanting to get caught! You shouldn't underestimate her, she has the hearing of a bat." Kaori said placidly. "And in case you've forgotten, it's the Dark Hour. Clocks don't work at this time, silly."

"Alright, alright, Sooo-rry!" Junpei raised a hand defensively, as if he was being nagged by his mother. "I'll try tone it down. Besides, I wouldn't want to have to experience that again." Junpei mentally shivered.

"Well, I think you all deserved it considering what you three were doing at the time, being a bunch of perverts." Kaori added quietly, giving him a look.

"How many times do we have to keep telling you? It was an accident!" Junpei shouted defensively.

"Junpei! I told you, be quiet!" Kaori covered his mouth in alarm, and scanned the room to make sure that no one had heard his outburst.

"Maan, this is so lame. Why don't we just open them now, Kaori-tan?" Junpei whined, after Kaori had released her hand from his lips.

"I already told you—we'd have to wrap the presents back in the exact, same way. That'll just be a waste of our time, and someone is bound to catch us that way."

Junpei rolled his eyes at Kaori's careful slash paranoid (he made sure not to think that out loud) nature. "We'll just run and hide if someone sees us, and if anyone asks, we'll say we had nothing to do with it."

Either Junpei was just really, really stupid, or he didn't give everyone else enough credit; assuming that they wouldn't put two and two together after noticing that Junpei and Kaori's presents were the only ones that would be opened.

"That's a stupid idea." Kaori stated flatly.

"Ouch, you sure know how to kick a guy where it hurts." Junpei sounded a little hurt, but was still grinning nonetheless.

"Well, it is as stupid idea."

"Come on, Kaori-tan. Let's just open them now! They're our presents. Mitsuru-senpai isn't going to care if we don't touch her presents." Junpei countered.

"You know we can't! For one, if someone sees us—"

Kaori was unable to finish her sentence as she had heard the light sound of footsteps from behind her.

"...Kaori-san? Junpei-san?" came the groggy voice of a young child.

It was a cue for an awkward silence. Kaori then swiftly tossed aside the present in her hand (hoping that Ken didn't notice) and smiled nervously at the brunette little boy. After recovering from his initial shock, Junpei did the same.

"What are you two doing down here..." Ken yawned, and sleepily rubbed his eyes. "...at this hour?"

Junpei opened his mouth and began to talk. "We were just—" Kaori placed a hand over his mouth and glared at him lightly—a hundred per cent sure that it was going to be just as stupid as his excellent running and hiding idea.

"We couldn't really sleep because we were too excited for Christmas. So, we..." Kaori paused for a moment, hesitated—which was quickly replaced with an angelic smile as she spotted the television nearby. "...stayed down here and watched a movie. It finished just about the same time as you came down, Ken-kun."

"Was it any good? What movie was it?" Kaori's red eyes slightly widened with alarm, partly because she hadn't expected Ken to take an interest; and partly because she noted that the slight hint of tiredness in his voice was slowly dispersing.

"Um... well, you see... I didn't really catch the title..." Kaori answered lamely, as she fiddled with her fingers.

"Oh, okay." Ken yawned once more, then took a seat at the sofa in front of them after pouring himself a glass of milk. "So... what was it about?"

"It was about this green dude, and he hated Christmas, so he stole—" Junpei didn't finish what he was about to say, as Kaori glared at him once again.

"Well, Junpei talked through most of the film, so... I didn't really get a good understanding of it." Junpei shrugged and cast a look at Kaori, akin to that of 'Why do you always have to use me as an excuse?' "But I did see the ending, they all lived happily ever and had a very merry Christmas..." Kaori added with a nervous laugh, after she mentally berated herself for sounding like such a bad narrator—not to mention, a bad liar.

"Sounds interesting," said Ken with a small, sleepy grin; at the same time, sounding very unconvinced with Kaori's explanation. "Maybe I should watch this movie, sometime."

Besides the sound of shoes tapping, silence had filled the room once more. "Maybe we should go to sleep soon." Kaori eyed Junpei, giving him the same look that a footballer made when he was about to pass the ball to his team mate. "We have to get up really early tommorow. Don't we, Junpei?"

"Ha... ha... right, you know how bad I am at being a morning person... don't you, kiddo?" Junpei grinned inconspicuously.

They both rushed past the sleepy boy, and anxiously made their way towards the stairs. They had walked at a slow pace, in order to make sure that it wasn't obvious that they had been hiding something.

"Kaori-san?"

Kaori felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, as if Ken's voice had pierced right through her. Why hadn't Ken called Junpei's name out...? He was there, too!

"Would you mind staying down here with me for a little bit?"

"Uhm... I... Well..." was Kaori's intelligent reply. Kaori took a quick glance in front of her, hoping that Junpei would help her out—only to realise that her so-called companion had already dashed ahead, faster than the speed of light.

Urgh, that traitor! Kaori narrowed her eyes at the Junpei-shaped cloud in front of her, and bit the insides of her cheeks.

"Please, Kaori-san? I'm sorry for imposing, but I don't really want to be left all alone down here," said Ken, his lower lip beginning to wobble.

"Well, I don't see why not!" Kaori smiled, as nonchalantly as she possibly could.

"Thank you." Ken smiled brightly—Kaori admitted that it was a cute, innocent smile; not like the usual smile he had on when he was trying to mimick Akihiko or Junpei.

"Sooo... Kaori-san..." Ken said with a questioning tone, trying to fill the silence that came soon after. "What did you ask Santa for this year?"

"Uh, well..." Kaori hesitated, afraid that Ken had really seen everything; but then, she smiled to herself at her sudden realisation, finding it cute that he still believed in Santa's existence. "I'd like to tell you, really... but Santa made me promise not to say, otherwise it won't come true."

"Well, you have a point." Ken laughed.

Kaori laughed along with him, feeling her nerves subside slightly.

"I'm really sorry if you felt forced to be here." Ken said guiltily. "This'll only be until I get sleepy again. I hope you don't mind."

"N-No, not at all!" Kaori exclaimed. "I'm happy to be here. I-It's just..."

"You're wondering why I didn't ask Junpei-san?" Ken asked while taking a sip of his milk.

Kaori nodded with surprise. Though, she was partially relieved that she didn't have to ask the question herself, and then give Ken the wrong impression.

Ken brought a hand over his lips, as if he was contemplating, then he said, "Because I only wanted to stay with you."

"I... I see..." Kaori said shakily, an unexplainable feeling as her heart began to pound heavily. Was it anxiety? Nervousness, maybe?

"Oh, and by the way, Kaori-san—" Ken smiled impishly. "It's bad to lie to other people, especially about opening your presents before Christmas."

In response, Kaori blushed lightly with embarrassment—due to the fact that she was supposed to be the grown-up, she wasn't supposed to be on the receiving end of a lecture! But also, there was something else... something else that she didn't quite understand and couldn't find an explanation for—why she had felt so... happy.

- Did you like/dislike this and why:

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