Robin's First Valentine's Day

By: Mycha

Summary: A glimpse into Robin's first Valentine's Day in Japan from her POV.

The young girl sighed wistfully as she walked to work. All about her, couples could be seen holding hands briefly, or giving quick kisses on the cheek, to loved ones as they gave them little trinkets or chocolate. It was Valentines day. The day for lovers. A day that she dearly wished she had someone special to share it with. Lightly, she shook her blond pigtails, silently chiding herself for the thought. She had friends to share the day with. That should be more than enough.

'But it's not the same,' she sadly thought.

She had bought chocolates for everyone at work - her only friends in this foreign land she now called home. The girls had gotten into a discussion of cultural differences between how Valentine's day is celebrated. When Robin asked about Japan, Doujima had flippantly replied 'girls give chocolates, guys give nothing.' It had sounded curious to her until Karasuma saw the confused look on the girl's face.

'Sometimes men give something, but usually they reciprocate on White Day which is March 14th, ' she added.

'Oh. Why is that?' Robin had asked at the time, feeling rather stupid.

'So that they have time to find something appropriate to give you,' came another flippant remark from the flighty girl. Karasuma had merely rolled her eyes.

'At your age, friends give chocolates to each other, not just to their loved ones. We just do it a little differently - boys get all the attention in February, and girls get it in March,' had been the older woman's more serious response.

Robin had wanted to celebrate the holiday for years. Love, romance, friendship - these were all things that she had known about but had never really experienced in the convent. Since she had been in Japan, she had begun to feel these emotions to some extent, but it didn't stop her desire for more. No, that wasn't really it, she mused. She was a romantic at heart, that she knew. Since she had been in Japan, even the small things like a 'hello' hug was denied her. Only lovers seemed to hug in this country and even that was rare to see. And a 'hello' kiss on the cheek? That was just a memory. Occasionally Yurika would breach those traditional boundaries and grab her arm or give her a consoling, sideways hug, but that didn't stop her yearning.

Sometimes it actually made her feel a pang of jealousy to see couples out and about together. She was in love, that she knew, but to someone whom she knew would never love her back. He couldn't even console her - wouldn't even try, really - when they had a particularly painful or emotional hunt. Robin understood. That's just how Amon was. He lived his life almost completely detached from emotions and humans. The young witch smiled her small, soft smile at the thought of her dark partner. Something about the thought of him always made her heart skip a beat. His actual presence made her feel warm and safe. She knew it had to be love, if for no reason other than she couldn't think of anything else that would make her feel more... again she shook her head in thought. She would just have to stick with 'more', she didn't have the words to explain it.

Earlier that week she had chosen the chocolates that she was going to give her co-workers. The chocolate store had been a bit confusing at first. There were three different sections of chocolate - giri-choko, honmei-choko, and tomo-choko. One of the older women in the store kindly explained that the tomo-choko was the kind to give to friends, the honmei-choko for lovers, and the giri-choko for everyone else that she felt she should give chocolate too. She had found it amusing as she couldn't see the difference, but had purchased some tomo-choko and some honmei-choko anyway. Originally she had thought to give Amon the honmei-choko, but had decided against it at the last minute. If there really was a difference, it would likely annoy him, if not down-right anger him. In the end she gave everyone a piece of the prettier confection along with the other chocolates and forced herself to give everyone basically the exact same thing. Amon still probably wouldn't like it, but at least this way he couldn't grumble about it too much.

"Hey-o, Robin!" Michael called as she lithely stepped out of the elevator.

"Good morning. Happy Valentine's Day." She smiled as she held out a small box to the young IT guru, causing him to blink in surprise.

"What? Thanks, but why..." he stammered, not sure what to think.

"It's just my way of saying thank you to everyone. Valentine's Day just seemed to be an appropriate time to give my friends something." The young witch smiled demurely as she placed a little package at everyone's desk.

As her co-workers came in, she quietly noted that everyone was surprised and seemed to enjoy the gift. Even Master had seemed amused by her gift when she stopped by Harry's at lunch to give it to him. Though it wasn't anything big, or very much chocolate really, the surprise seemed to brighten most of her friends' day. Well, everyone's but Amon's really.

She was unable to see the look on his face when he came in and saw the neatly wrapped package. She did, however note that he simply moved it out of his way and then ignored the fact that it was there. She felt a small twinge of sadness that it had no affect on him at all, but then again, she had to remind herself, it was Amon. She knew that she shouldn't be surprised that he didn't acknowledge it, and after thinking about it a few moments, decided that she should be happy that he didn't throw it away.

Walking home that evening, she found herself smiling up at the sky. Though it was cold out, the sun was a happy, welcome presence in the sky. She was glad to know that she had brought some happiness into the worlds of most of her friends. Some days, she thought, that was her reason for living - to help make others happy. While she wished she could extend that happiness to Amon, she was satisfied with the fact that she had tried. Amon was Amon. He wouldn't have liked her doing anymore than she had done. She would just have to hope that maybe, maybe under his facade of cold indifference, it made him feel a little happier than he had been before. 'Yes, ' she thought to herself. 'He didn't mention it, but he didn't throw it away, either. That must be a good thing.'

By the time she arrived at her empty apartment, she was humming happily to herself. Her mood was too good for even the note from Touko saying that she had gone to dinner with Amon to bother her. She had brought a bit of sunlight to all of her friends, and for today, her first Valentine's Day, that was more than enough for her.

A/N: Want to see Amon's response to this? Go read Valentine's Day Part 2. :)