It's Too Frosty Tonight to be Alone, Milady

-:oneshot:-

Sonoko sat in her lushly decorated room, a bright evergreen in the corner winking with its glittering ornaments. Her entire room was aglow with bright Christmas lights and vivid decorations that caught and spun light, and the girl herself was sprawled on her soft-as-a-dream bed. Clad in soft, candy-cane patterned pajamas, she was hugging a reindeer plushie and rolled onto her side so that she faced the frosted glass windows that led onto her marble balcony. Snow fell softly outside, pearl-ivory from the stygian dark sky. The moon was full in the sky, glowing coolly and barely visible from under the thick snow.

"Mou, Makoto," she muttered to no one in particular, "what kind of guy leaves his girlfriend alone on Christmas Eve?" She pouted, tucking a stray strand of caramel hair behind an ear. Sighing, she rolled onto her back, staring at the softly lit ceiling.

"Uh, I'm sorry Sonoko, you've caught me at a really bad time." Makoto sounded distracted, as if he were busy doing something that required his full concentration.

"Wait, but Makoto—" Sonoko protested.

Faint cries could be heard from Makoto's side, and then he hurriedly said, "I really have to go—gomen'nasai, Sonoko—"

"Makot—"

The line went dead. In a rage, the rich girl threw her phone across the room, noting with satisfaction the clatter and crashing sound it made as it forcefully made impact. She crossed her arms indignantly, wondering what could be so important that her boyfriend would hang up on her, of all things! Makoto was generally a painfully courteous person, so it was quite strange for him to not even say goodbye.

"Hunh!" Sonoko snapped to herself, standing up in a cross fury. "I'll show him who has no time for the other person! I can have a great Christmas Eve without being with him—!" Never mind that she had dressed up just for Makoto, in red because it was his favorite color on her. Never mind that she felt stung that he had matters more important than her, never mind that she had cheerfully boasted about her rare day out with her boyfriend, and never mind that she had been looking forward to the day for weeks, maybe even months. The last time she'd seen him was a month or two ago at a KID heist they'd gone to. And now he was calling her to tell her he couldn't make it.

"I'll just have plenty of fun without him," she snorted petulantly, storming out of her room.

But it hadn't been as easy as she thought it would, she reflected ruefully, rolling back towards the window again. Watching the falling snowflakes, she sighed.

Ran had been completely busy. The entire morning and early afternoon she'd been hard at work reconciling her parents and bustling between them, exchanging gifts and notes and trying to placate the two. Her tireless efforts must have been to some avail, because an hour or two after lunch Ran had texted a picture of herself making a peace sign and grinning. In the background, her okaa-san and otou-san were seated at a table, poring over menus and looking grudgingly happy.

'Success!' the message had read, and Ran's glowing giddiness was evident. She could imagine Ran's voice slyly reading the rest of the text: 'And guess what? They're sharing a room together tonight…!'

Sonoko had thought that once that matter was settled, maybe she and Ran could go last minute shopping and fume childishly over their ditching boyfriends, but they had only been out for two hours when Ran received a surprise text. From Shinichi.

Ran came out of the dressing room, flushed. Sonoko frowned at her lack of attire, noticing the pretty violet dress Ran was supposed to be trying on draped carefully on the seat inside the dressing room.

"Ran, why aren't you—" Sonoko's suspicious sentence was cut off by a flurried reply from Ran.

"Sonoko, I have to go!"

"W-what? Why?" Sonoko looked incredulously at her childhood friend. "Did something happen?"

"S-Shinichi—he texted me—" Ran held out her phone in an olive branch gesture, noticing the look on her friend's face.

'Oi, Ran!' Sonoko could almost imagine the cocky detective idiot's voice calling through the words. 'I took a day off from the case just for you, because I figured you'd be sitting all alone at home with your drunk otou-san or something (and I say that fondly, so don't kill me!).' Sonoko glared at the phone, silently cursing the male tantei. Ran had been having a great time with Sonoko, and Kogoro was all snuggled with Eri for the night. Who was to say that Ran couldn't have a good time without him…?!

'Er, anyways… I was wondering, would you want to come to dinner with me? I'll pay, of course.' Sonoko could tell the detective's awkward side that Ran found so cute was beginning to peek through the message. 'I'll be at your apartment at 7, uh, I hope I'll see you then?'

Sonoko sighed internally. She knew that despite all the fun she and Ran had been having, her dark-haired friend would be aching for Shinichi's attention, and here he was.

She handed the phone back to Ran. "Looks like that idiot isn't such a jerk after all," she relented, half-thoughtfully and half-jokingly.

"But Sonoko, I don't want to leave you alone—" Ran looked concernedly at her lighter-haired friend.

Sonoko laughed, loudly and incredulously. "Me? Alone? Ran, I've got a thousand of other stuff to do—presents to buy, clothes to find—you know me! Now go and try that dress on, because I have a flawless fashion sense and I think you'll knock Shinichi's socks off in that stunning purple number!" Insistently, the short-haired girl pushed Ran towards the dressing room, closing the door on her protests.

When Ran came out a couple minutes later, smiling shyly, Sonoko had to admit that she was happy for her karate-champion friend. She had that angelic, happy glow that radiated off her whenever she got to meet Shinichi, and like Sonoko had predicted, she looked beautiful.

Sonoko whistled appreciatively. "That's what I like to see," she declared. "You're going to give Shinichi a nosebleed looking like that!"

"Sonoko!" Ran cried, embarrassed. Her friend only shot her a cheeky grin. Ran grudgingly admitted that she rather liked the slightly shimmering lavender dress. It wasn't the most modest dress and had a cut a little more revealing than she'd like, but she felt pretty. It was long enough so that she wasn't self conscious and fluttered like shy butterflies against her bare legs, and it hugged her figure comfortably. The color was nice too—a deep amethyst-wine, not too dark and not too bright in color. Red was more of Sonoko's thing; Ran preferred softer colors.

"Shinichi'll love it," Sonoko said decisively, and that was that. After Ran changed back, she dragged the long-haired brunette to the checkout line. As they were waiting, Sonoko caught sight of a pair of modest mulberry pearls. Sending a cursory glance over the earrings and comparing it to the dress, Sonoko picked them up.

"Sonoko, I don't have that much money—" Ran's warning was cut off.

"Don't be stupid, Ran, I'm paying!" At Ran's protests, she explained, "It's my early Christmas present to you. Hey, there are benefits of having a rich friend." She winked and refused to listen to any of Ran's further complaints, easily paying for both the dress and earrings when their turn came.

"I feel so bad leaving you alone—"

"Don't be so silly, Ran. I bet you have this gift already planned out for him, and you need to go home and shower and get ready and prepare the gift—kami, you have barely two hours left! Go go go!" Winking at her friend, she playfully pushed the girl back down towards her home, waving cheerfully as Ran finally smiled and flagged a taxi.

Sonoko slumped as soon as Ran was out of sight. "Well, now what do I do?" she asked herself, rather sadly. Shaking herself, she snapped, "Don't be so pitiful, Sonoko! There's shopping to do, clothes to buy, money to spend!"

Determinedly, she marched back into the store, ready to empty its racks of anything and everything. Too bad she wouldn't be able to show any pretty clothing off to her boyfriend.

Sonoko smiled sadly, hugging her plushie tighter. Shopping simply wasn't as fun when she was alone. She didn't have anyone to laugh with her, to try on silly clothes and to compliment or receive compliments from. It was rather lonely, Sonoko had realized, when one was shopping without a friend. And she hadn't really a close friend besides Ran.

Silently, she cursed Makoto and his flighty, ambiguous replies. She loved him for being mysterious and unattainable to other girls, but he wasn't supposed to be unattainable to her…!

"What a pathetic Christmas Eve," she murmured to herself, closing her eyes to prevent the tears from spilling down her cheeks. "What a stupid holiday."

There was a gentle knock, and Sonoko's eyes flew open. Rubbing her eyes, she sat up. Had she fallen asleep? She glanced at her clock, finding that it had been an hour since she last remembered being awake.

The faint knock came again. Slipping off her bed, nail-polished feet sinking into the soft carpet, she padded over to the frosted window, where another soft but insistent knock came from. She came to a stop before the cold glass pane, eyes narrowing suspiciously as the sleep wisped from her drowsy mind. Who would be knocking on her window at half an hour before Christmas? No one with good intentions, surely.

She peered through the frosty glass, trying to make out anything from the thickly falling snow and velvety dark night. There was the full moon, and then a silhouette—

A startlingly familiar silhouette, with a tall top hat and a flowing cape, balanced with an easy grace on the tip of her balcony. A white bird with glossy black eyes cocked its head at her, and pecked insistently on the window again.

Sonoko opened the window slowly, as if in a dream. At the same time that she felt the biting cold air and the rush of snowflakes towards the warmth of her room, the figure leapt gracefully down in front of her. He knelt, gloved palm facing up and inviting Sonoko relent her hand. At her compliance, he lightly kissed the back of her hand.

"May I enter, milady?" His voice was deep and warm, familiar.

Slowly, wonderingly, her mouth formed the words. "Kai…tou…KID."

He gently released her hand and stood. "At your service."

Sonoko moved back, allowing the snowy figure to step in. He did so, closing the windows behind him with a crisp movement, gloved fingers swift.

The Suzuki girl, for some reason, wasn't acting as she usually would when KID was around. Perhaps because she thought it was a dream, or because her mind couldn't quite comprehend that the phantom thief was in her bedroom. On Christmas Eve.

The thief brushed snow powder off his shoulders, and then turned towards the young heiress. "Lady Suzuki, may I ask why you're alone on this beautiful evening? And why you seem so sad?" There was a familiar, warm lilt in his voice.

Without warning, warm tears rushed towards Sonoko's eyes again. Furiously blinking them away, she murmured, "It's a rather sad Christmas Eve to spend alone, don't you think?"

"Suzuki-dono—" the thief paused, "perhaps I should say Sonoko-chan—"

Something in his voice sparked a familiar feeling deep inside of the short-haired girl. In a moment, her hands were on the thief's shoulders, and she looked up into his fair-skinned face, covered by nothing but a monocle and shadowed by the brim of his hat. His eyes were a dark, river blue. A familiar blue.

"Sonoko—?" The thief cut himself off with a short yelp as said girl removed his monocle.

"Makoto," she breathed softly, then wrapping her arms around the taller male in a fierce hug. "Makoto."

"Sonoko—" His arms wrapped around the smaller girl, embracing her. "How did you know?"

"Your eyes are blue," she said softly. "And the way you spoke, and the way you were…" She shook her head, as if unsure of her answer. "It was most definitely you. Why did you do it? Why did you dress up as KID?"

Makoto let out a small, slightly bitter laugh, rubbing smears of concealing makeup off and revealing his darker tanned skin. "It's that obvious that I'm not really KID, isn't it?"

"Don't be silly!" Sonoko cried angrily, balling her hands into fists. "You and KID are completely different people! So why did you dress up as him? And then you left me alone the entire day—" she cut herself off abruptly, turning away to hide the tears that threatened to spill again.

"Sonoko—" Makoto's voice was soft and pleading. "The last time I saw you, you were completely enamored with 'KID-sama,' as you kept shouting. I just thought that—" his voice turned awkward, and suddenly Sonoko understood what Ran meant by being 'almost cute in his stumbling words'— "I thought that if KID was the same person as me, maybe you'd pay me a little more attention—" his words tumbled faster and faster— "and you seem to have so much adoration for him and I barely see you at all and—" Makoto stopped himself short.

"And…?"

"And…" Makoto's voice was almost inaudible. "And I was kind of… jealous. I thought if I dressed up as him… maybe you'd… give me the kind of attention you gave him that night." Makoto's voice had become next to nothing.

Sonoko turned around, stepping closer to her boyfriend. In a voice as soft as Makoto's she whispered, "Makoto is Makoto. KID is KID. I would rather have had you for the entire day than KID for one night, Makoto. Maybe I adore KID-sama, but it's admiration and—" Sonoko paused. "And it's not the same for you. Perhaps I like KID-sama, but you're the one—you're the one that I… love."

"Sonoko…"

"Is that why you were gone for the entire day? Because you were dressing up as KID?" There was no sting or accusation in Sonoko's question, nothing but quiet curiosity.

"Y-yeah. The time that you called me, I was practicing my jumps in costume and the police caught sight of me. I was, uh, kind of running away from them. They thought I was the real thief."

"Silly Makoto." Sonoko buried her face in her boyfriend's chest, hugging him tight. "Don't do something like that again. I missed you."

"I did too, Sonoko," he murmured into her caramel hair. "I did too."

Somewhere downstairs, in the dining hall, the grandfather clock chimed twelve. Its deep call reverberated through the house, and Sonoko saw Makoto's face leaning towards her, and she closed her eyes. She could taste his lips on her as the last chord struck its melody through her large home, and she felt him murmur, "Merry Christmas."

When he finally broke the kiss, Sonoko's first thought was: 'That was really corny.' And then immediately afterwards: 'That was beyond perfect.'

"Merry Christmas, Makoto," she replied softly, smiling. The feeling of brilliant euphoria faded somewhat, and she asked, "How long can you stay?"

Makoto smiled widely at her. "Until the day after New Years."

Sonoko's eyes lit up. "That long?"

"Yup."

The snow outside began to lighten somewhat. Instead of fat flakes, the snow seemed lacier and dancing, lightly soaring through the night air. The dark black sky seemed softer, somewhat. Slowly, her evergreen's light clicked through its automatic timer, shutting off. Silently, her lamps and other lights did the same, until the only light left came from the battery-powered Christmas lights strung above her bed. They glowed dimly but warmly, so that all the two could see was the other's silhouette.

"Sonoko?" His voice was soft.

"Hn?"

"I love you too."