I hated Christmas.
It never had any meaning to it.
I suppose it reminded me that I was on my own. Krad had been long gone, sealed. Dark had managed to survive and get his own body. He now lived with the Niwas.
I had no one that cared about me.
None of my emotions ever showed. I had an ice barrier around my heart, stopping anything from getting through.
My 'father' only adopted me because I was from the Hikari clan. He was long gone.
Christmas…It was meant to be a happy time…
The rest of my class, including the teacher, had gone mad with the topic.
It was the last day of school. Daisuke was just as happy as the rest of them but there was something different about him. I glanced at him but returned to my novel.
"Hiwatari-kun?"
I looked up.
"Um…I was thinking…I know that you don't have many people around you and…um…I was wondering…" He stopped suddenly, and looked down.
"You were wondering…?" I asked.
"I was wondering if youwantedtostaywithmyfamilyforChristmas?" he said, all in one go.
"Are you sure?" I said, sceptical. "Do your parents agree?"
I knew what his mother was like. Slightly mad. I mean, what kind of person sets traps in their hallway for her son to dodge every time he got home. I also knew she hated me. It was because of Krad. She thought he would kill Daisuke or Dark.
"Actually…it was my mother's idea…" He was scratching the back of his head nervously, a faint blush across his cheeks.
"Alright."
"What?" He looked surprised at my response. I nodded.
"Everybody, take your seats!" The teacher shouted above the noise of the standard classroom.
"See you at lunch," Daisuke said, before he moved off to sit down.
-Lunch time—the school roof-
As I sat down, Daisuke appeared in the doorway to the stairs. He slid down next to me, leaning on the wall.
"Why did you ask me to stay with you for Christmas?" I asked. "Your mum thinks I'll kill you…"
"Well…she said that she thought it was safe now that Krad's been sealed," he said.
We made all the arrangements during lunch and I was to come over on the 23rd and stay until New Year.
-3 days later-
I was packed, ready to go. I had a small back with clothes etc. in it and my laptop in a case hanging of my shoulder.
Now, here I stood on the doorstep of the Niwa family's house. I looked at the house. I thought it was a bungalow with an attic. I rang the bell. A second later I heard a shout and Daisuke opened the door.
"Hi Hiwatari-kun. Come in" he said, slightly out of breath.
"Hey Niwa-kun," I said as I took of my shoes in the hall and placed them neatly next to each other.
"You can put your bags in my room, follow me."
I picked up my bag and followed him up past the living room and the kitchen and up the stairs. He entered the room at the top of the stairs. I followed him in and looked around. It was a decent sized room with a bunk against one wall. I looked over to where Daisuke was standing and saw a makeshift bed. He said it was where I sleeping.
I dumped my bags and flopped on to the bed.
"Hiwatari-"
I cut him off. "Satoshi." I said.
"What?"
"Call me Satoshi."
"Okay Satoshi-kun. I guess you can call me Daisuke. Anyway, dinner's nearly ready. We had better get downstairs."
I got up and followed him out of the room. We entered the living room and went through another door that I hadn't noticed. We sat at the table, where Dark, Daichii and Kosuke were already seated.
"Hello, Hiwatari-kun," said Kosuke. Daichii nodded at me in acknowledgement and Dark simply glared at me. I stared back at him, then greeted Kosuke and Daichii.
"Hi everyone!" Towa shouted as she entered the room. "Oh, hi Hikari-sama," she said looking at me.
"Towa-chan," I acknowledged.
"Why the –sama?" asked Dark.
"His family created me…remember…" Towa stated. "Anyway, Emiko-chan sent me to say that dinner is ready and she said she needed someone else to help her bring it in."
Daisuke immediately stopped talking to his father.
"I'll help. Come on Satoshi-kun."
I got up and we went into the kitchen. There were various bowls/plates full of food. Emiko turned around and gave me a pile of plates. Then she realised that she had given them to me.
"Oh. I'm sorry, Hiwatari-kun. It's rude to make the guests carry the plates. Go back to the table and send Dark."
I shrugged.
"Okay, Niwa-san."
"Don't call me that, it makes me feel old. Call me Emiko."
"Yes Emiko-san."
I went back through the doorway to the table.
"Dark, Emiko-san says you have to go and help out," I said as I slid into the seat I was in earlier, two up from Kosuke.
He just ignored me and went on gazing into space, obviously thinking of the latest girl to through herself at him. Either that or the next way to tease Daisuke.
"Dark, go help Emiko out," said Daichii, knowing full well that Dark wasn't going to listen to a word I said. Dark sighed and got up. He moved towards the doorway. "And don't ignore your guests. Hiwatari-kun is going to be spending Christmas with us. Learn to be civil towards him."
"Yeah, yeah,"
"Dark! I mean that"
"Okay. I heard you. I'll try but I can't promise anything." He glared at me.
"Dark! Come and get the food!" shouted Emiko from the kitchen, as Daisuke came past, carrying the plates.
"I'm coming!" he shouted back, still glaring at me.
-Later--Daisuke's room-
I flopped on my bed, and then pulled the bag with my laptop towards me. I unzipped it and set it up, plugging the wire into the plug a little further along the wall. I made sure the wire was out of the way so Daisuke wouldn't trip over it.
I found the document I was using and started to type.
Daisuke had just come up the stairs and noticed the tapping sound of the keys. He came over and –guess what- he tripped over the wire.
He landed face down with a thud on my bed.
He looked up, rubbing his nose.
"Sorry, Satoshi-kun," he said, blushing like mad.
"Don't worry about it."
He went over to his desk on the other side of the room and picked up a sketchpad and a pencil. He sat on the desk chair and started to draw.
I finished what I was doing and looked at the clock. 9:30pm. I went over to Daisuke. He didn't seem to notice me, until I was looking over his shoulder.
"That's good," I said, looking at the pad. He looked up, startled and tried to cover the pad.
"You don't have to be embarrassed," I said.
The drawing was a picture of me, typing on my laptop, like I had been doing a couple of minutes ago.
He closed the pad and placed it, and the pencil, on the desk.
"We should be going to sleep." With that, he went to his dresser, pulled out a pair of pyjamas and went into the bathroom to change.
I went to my bag, pulled out my own white pyjamas and changed. I was just finished and on my bed by the time Daisuke was done.
"Night, Satoshi-kun," Daisuke said as he climbed the ladder and landed heavily on his bed.
"Night Daisuke-kun," I said by way of a reply.