It was December 24—Christmas Eve. The day before Christmas. Ryoma hated Christmas Day. It was just as bad as Valentine's Day in his book. All his crazy, annoying fangirls would run up to him and give him gifts. And these gifts weren't even wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper! They were always wrapped in wrapping paper covered in hearts, or put into girly, frilly, lacy bags with pink tissue paper. The gifts he received were also of no importance or use to him. Every year he could expect the same thing: chocolate hearts, flowers—usually red roses, and perfume-sprayed love letters. No wonder why Christmas was up on his "Most Despised Holidays" list along with Valentine's Day; heck, it felt like Valentine's Day!
But pay close attention, Ryoma only disliked Christmas Day, not Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve, December 24, was also his birthday. His birthday was the only holiday he could celebrate that his fangirls didn't know about. Since school always gave a week long break for the Holidays, nobody was ever in school to hear when Ryoma's birthday was. It was like a holiday all to himself.
Well…almost all to himself. His parents always threw a Christmas party on Christmas Eve at their house. They invited all their family friends, and all but one of these family friends were somehow associated with Nanjiroh's previous tennis life. The one person who was not: Ryuuzaki Sakuno.
Actually, Ryoma and Sakuno have gotten to know each other pretty well by now and were good friends. Some of their peers would even say that they should really be dating, but Ryoma was still waiting for the opportune moment.
Ryoma was now sixteen as of today, but even after being close friends with Sakuno after four years, Sakuno didn't even know when his birthday was.
*Ding Dong*
The doorbell rang, shaking Ryoma out of his thoughts. He got up lazily from the couch to answer the door.
"Ah, Merry Christmas, Ryoma," said Coach Ryuuzaki, walking in. Coach Ryuuzaki was invited every year to the Christmas party since she was also, once upon a time, his father's tennis coach.
After Coach Ryuuzaki walked in, Sakuno shyly walked up to door, blushing prettily. "M-Merry Christmas, R-Ryoma-kun," she quietly stuttered, handing him a perfectly wrapped Christmas present.
"Ryuuzaki," he nodded and greeted, taking the present.
"Oh, the Ryuuzaki's are here! Welcome, come on in," Rinko, Ryoma's mother, warmly greeted them. "Ryoma, would you be so kind as to take their coats and hang them up in the closet please?"
"Hai," Ryoma answered.
Coach Ryuuzaki took off her jacket and made her way into the kitchen with Rinko to help with the dinner. Ryoma waited for Sakuno to take off her coat so he could hang them up. First, she took her hat off, and out came her flowing, gorgeous auburn hair. Kami-sama, Ryoma thought, Sakuno looks so beautiful with her hair down. But it wasn't until Sakuno took off her coat did Ryoma really lose his breath. She was wearing a slimming red spaghetti-strap dress. While it clung to her body nicely, the bottom of the dress was looser so that it twirled around when she turned. The V-neck also showed off more of her curves, but it was still modest enough. Ryoma stared at her like a cave man, seriously forgetting to breathe.
"A-Ano, Ryoma-kun?" Sakuno asked, a little uncomfortable with him staring at her.
Ryoma shook his head, clearing his thoughts…and trying to clear that blush away that was creeping onto his face. "Ano, I can take your jacket for you," he said, trying to recover. "Um, y-you look good, Ryuuzaki."
Sakuno blushed and shyly looked down at her feet. "Thank you, R-Ryoma-kun."
They made their way over to the couch, facing the Christmas tree. For five minutes, they sat in awkward silence, not knowing what to say.
"Y-You can open your present now," Sakuno suggested.
"Oh, hai," Ryoma said, looking down at the present in his hands. He slowly untied the ribbon and tore off the wrapping paper, and inside he found a navy blue athletic sweatshirt.
"I-I thought you might have n-needed something warm for w-when you p-play tennis in the winter," Sakuno explained.
"Hn, thank you," Ryoma said, giving her a small smile.
"Sakuno, Ryoma," Rinko called from the kitchen.
"Hai?"
"Would you two like to join Coach Ryuuzaki and I in decorating the Christmas cookies?"
Sakuno's eyes lit up and excitedly answered, "I'm coming!" She started to walk towards the kitchen, but when she realized that Ryoma wasn't following behind her, she turned around and asked, "Ryoma-kun, aren't you going to decorate cookies?"
Knowing how excited Sakuno was for Chirstmas, he felt bad saying flat-out "no," so, instead, he answered, "Maybe later." Making cookies reminded him too much of the chocolates and heart-shaped sugar cookies he received from his crazy fangirls for Christmas.
Even though Ryoma had no interest in decorating Christmas cookies, he still stayed close by to eavesdrop on what they were talking about in the kitchen.
"Ryoma-kun said that he might join later," Sakuno told Rinko and Coach Ryuuzaki.
"Hm, figures," Rinko said.
"What do you mean by that?" Coach Ryuuzaki asked Rinko.
"Ryoma hates Christmas. Apparently his fangirls have ruined all the Christmas traditions for him, so he doesn't like to partake in Christmas activities anymore," Rinko explained sadly.
"Ah, I see," said Coach Ryuuzaki. "That's really a shame for Ryoma. He's going to be missing out on a lot of fun tonight."
Really a shame for me? Ryoma thought. It's not my fault I don't like Christmas, it's those crazy disillusioned fangirls. Che, stupid fangirls.
"Time to decorate the CHRISTMAS TREE!" Nanjiroh exclaimed, carrying in a box of homemade paper ornaments to the living room. The homemade ornaments were paper poinsettias that Ryoma and his parents had made when Ryoma was a kid. Ugh, red flowers, Ryoma thought. Any red flower right now reminds me of those stupid red roses that those stupid fangirls give me.
All the guests crowded around the Christmas tree and started digging into the box full of Christmas ornaments. Rinko, Coach Ryuuzaki, and Sakuno came in from the kitchen to join in on the fun. Ryoma, however, stayed in the back of the room watching the guests decorate the tree, well more like watching just Sakuno decorate the tree.
Nanjiroh looked back at his son and noticed that he was staring at a certain auburn-haired girl. "Ne, Ryoma," he said, wriggling his eyebrows, "don't you want to decorate the tree? Or are you getting a better view back there?"
Ryoma slightly blushed, but quickly brushed it off, saying, "Che, stupid Oyaji."
Nanjiroh just chuckled as he went back to hanging a paper poinsettia on the tree.
Once the tree was complete, Nanjiroh announced the next Christmas activity, "Time for the ad-lib letters to Santa!"
Like I want to read any more letters today, thought Ryoma. He was sure he had enough love letters that could compete against the amount of letters that Santa received every year.
However, everybody else cheered (except, of course, shy and quiet Sakuno) because this was their favorite part of the Echizen's Christmas party. Mostly because this was the time the drinks were handed out, so any ad-lib they prepared sounded funny to them no matter how ridiculously stupid it was. Ryoma walked into the kitchen to grab a Ponta while all the guests made their way to the basement to partake in their favorite activity, which would probably last for the rest of the night.
After gulping down his grape-flavored Ponta, he decided to check on the game down in the basement for awhile, just to see how Sakuno was surviving. He was sure that Sakuno would start to feel awkward once the guests started drinking. Making his way into the basement, Ryoma looked around, searching for Sakuno, but she was nowhere to be found.
"Ryoma," Coach Ryuuzaki asked, "are you looking for something?"
"Hn, where's Ryuuzaki?" he asked.
"Oh, she decided to go for a walk outside while we played this game. I'm surprised you didn't see her leave while you were upstairs," she answered.
Ryoma was surprised he didn't notice her walk by either—how could anybody miss her when she looked that good tonight? Then he realized that he must have been in the kitchen getting his Ponta when she left.
"Thanks," Ryoma said and then walked back upstairs. He quickly grabbed his coat and then briskly walked outside, trying to find Sakuno. He searched around the front yard behind every sakura tree, around the backyard on the tennis court, and, finally, in the temple.
When he found her, he stopped at the temple door. Panting and trying to catch his breath, Ryoma didn't even realize how quickly he went around the yard to find Sakuno. He stayed at the entrance for awhile, looking at Sakuno from a distance. She really is a beautiful girl. I wonder how many fanboys she has at school. Che, stupid fanboys, Ryoma thought to himself.
Ryoma coughed out loud to announce his entrance before walking in. Sakuno turned around and shyly smiled once she realized that it was Ryoma. Ryoma casually walked up beside Sakuno and looked out at the winter wonderland before them.
"It's so beautiful outside," Sakuno broke the silence. "I mean, the light shining off the moon making the snow sparkle looks like tiny little stars on the ground."
"Hn." Ryoma looked at beautiful girl standing beside him.
"Ne, Ryoma-kun, what's the thing you want the most this Christmas? It's a tradition between my grandmother and I to tell each other what we would ask for if we could have anything in the world."
"Hn," Ryoma responded, not sounding like he was totally listening.
Sakuno, taking that as one of Ryoma's responses he gave when he was bored, quickly answered, "O-Oh, I forget that R-Ryoma-kun doesn't like silly Christmas traditions such as these."
The truth was, however, that Ryoma wasn't bored by what she was saying; he was just preoccupied thinking of how he was going to bring up what their friendship was to him.
"Ryuuzaki," Ryoma started, "did you know today was my birthday?"
"It's y-your birthday today, Ryoma-kun?" Sakuno asked disbelievingly. "I-I'm sorry I n-never knew your birthday was on Christmas Eve! Happy birthday, Ryoma-kun!" she smiled.
Ryoma couldn't help but smile back at the girl who's eyes sparkled every time she smiled. "So, you asked me what I wanted for Christmas, but you never asked me what I wanted for my birthday."
Sakuno's eyes widened when she realized that Ryoma actually was listening to her and wasn't bored like she thought. "W-What do you want for your birthday, Ryoma-kun?"
"We've known each other for awhile now, and there's mistletoe right above us." Ryoma nodded upward for Sakuno to see that there was indeed mistletoe above them. He stepped closer to Sakuno, staring into her shining eyes.
Sakuno blushed and became nervous. "I-I thought R-Ryoma-kun d-didn't like Christmas t-traditions," she said, backing up a little to try to get out from underneath the mistletoe.
Ryoma smirked at her and said, "Mada mada dane. This isn't for Christmas—it's for my birthday." Then he grabbed her wrist and pulled her back under the mistletoe with him. Looking deeply in her eyes, he cupped her face with his hands, and kissed her sweetly and softly.