A/N: I put some Japanese words in this fic, because I'm that kind of otaku lol. Here's a list of them and their meanings:

souka: I see

yosh: okay

konban wa: good evening

ne: hey

nannano: what is it (what do you want)

onegai: please

ano: um (okay technically this isn't a word, but I like it)

desu: it is
hai, desu ka: yes, it is (that's so; it's an idiom)

baka: idiot

As Watanuki entered Yuuko's kitchen, his arms were grabbed from both sides and he felt a small kiss on each cheek.

"Merry Christmas, Watanuki!" Maru and Moro chorused, releasing his arms and dancing around him.

"What was that about?" Watanuki inquired, tying on his apron.

"Mistress has hung mistletoe," Maru solemnly informed him, pointing up. Watanuki followed the pointing finger and saw a spray of green leaves and white berries hanging in the doorway.

'If you meet someone under the mistletoe, you get to kiss them," Moro added.

"Souka," Watanuki said absently, already digging through the cupboard. "Well, Yuuko-san's Christmas party is due to start in a couple of hours and I have a lot of baking to do, so run along, yosh?"

Watanuki was so engrossed in his work that he was only marginally aware of the passage of time. He didn't realize the party was starting until Doumeki and Himawari came into the kitchen. HImawari smiled and said, "Konban wa, Wantanuki-kun!" Doumeki merely stared at him unblinkingly.

Watanuki said "Konban wa" back to Himawari, scowled at Doumeki, and shooed them both out of the kitchen. Himawari paused in the doorway to bestow a cheek kiss on each of the boys, then skipped off to greet Yuuko.

"That was just the mistletoe, you know," Watanuki said to Doumeki, glaring at the taller boy. "It didn't mean anything that she kissed you."

"Then it didn't mean anything that she kissed you either," Doumeki pointed out.

"Wh…mh…" Watanuki floundered in displeasure. "Go stand in the corner or something where you won't be in the way!"

Doumeki said nothing in reply. He merely looked up at the mistletoe above them, then turned a speculative eye on Watanuki, whose own eyes suddenly became as large as dinner plates and who hastily retreated to the safety of the kitchen. Doumeki snickered and wandered away.

Having been thusly alerted that guests were now arriving, Watanuki kept an eye on the living room as he worked. He noted that Yuuko had seen fit to invite several people he wouldn't have expected to see, including the oden-cart kitsune and the people from the drugstore where Yuuko got her hangover remedy.

/Or rather, makes ME get it for her,/ Watanuki thought, sprinkling sugar over a cake.

"WATANUKIIIII!" three voices shrieked in stereo. The bearer of that name yelped in startlement and dropped the sugar on the floor. Mokona and the twins bounced up to him, feet crunching in the spilled sugar.

'Watanuki must say konban wa!" "Konban wa!" the girls chorused. Maru towed Watanuki forcefully towards the doorway, and Moro gave him a hefty shove between the shoulder blades, causing him to overbalance and stagger into the person in the doorway.

Falling forward, Watanuki was unable to regain his balance. Wholly unintentionally, he found his mouth pressed up against the mouth of…who? Watanuki hastily pulled back, blushing like his head was on fire, and discovered himself to be face-to-face with an equally-or-more-so blushing Zashikiwarashi.

"Ah…ano…" Watanuki stammered, incapable of coherent speech. The Zashikiwarashi put her hands over her flaming cheeks and ran from the living room into the parlor, out of sight.

Watanuki suddenly realized, to his horror, that pretty much every guest at the party was staring directly at him. He fled back into the kitchen, where he stuck his pounding head into the freezer, in an attempt to cool his blushes and a faint hope that an interdimensional portal would suddenly open inside it and take him far, far away.

"Nice one," Doumeki said dryly. "I had no idea you were such a smooth mover."

"You just shut up!" Watanuki half yelled, half wailed. The party was over, and everyone but Doumeki appeared to have gone home. Even HImawari had left, wishing them both a merry Christmas. Doumeki was ostensibly helping to clean up, but in point of fact was playing with Mokona.

Watanuki was still upset about The Accidental Kiss, so much so that he wasn't even demanding that Doumeki get his rear in gear with the helping. The archer watched with interest as Watanuki, his mind clearly not on his work, put the clean dishes away—in the refrigerator.

"Ne, Watanuki-kun," a voice caroled sweetly.

"Nannano, Yuuko-san?" Watanuki called back.

"Come here, onegai," Yuuko sang. "The porch, to be specific."

Watanuki closed the refrigerator on the dishes and left the kitchen. Doumeki quietly followed, Mokona on his shoulder.

Yuuko was standing in the front doorway. She waved a hand to indicate that Watanuki should go outside. He did so, stepping into the glow of the Christmas lights Yuuko had made him string up all over the porch that morning. For a second he thought he was alone, the he saw that the Zashikiwarashi was standing there.

"Konban wa," she said shyly.

"Ano…konban wa," Watanuki awkwardly replied. "Ah, listen about, ano, about earlier, I'm really sorry…" He trailed off; the Zashikiwarashi was shaking her head. Was she…yes…she was—smiling a little, bashful smile?

"Yosh desu," she said softly. "I…didn't mind…"

Watanuki couldn't tell in the dim light whether she was blushing, but he knew by the heat flooding his face that he definitely was. Both of them stood there, fidgeting and looking sideways at each other. Watanuki cast frantically about in his mind for something to say, failed, cast about some more. Then his thought process failed as the Zashikiwarashi stepped closer to him.

She was very close, his mind babbled. He could feel the warmth radiating from her. She smelled nice, like vanilla. Watanuki could feel his heart beating very fast, not that there was any reason it should, just because a very pretty Zashikiwarashi was standing very close to him, looking in his eyes…

Then Watanuki stopped thinking altogether as the Zashikiwarashi set her hands on his shoulders and lightly kissed his mouth.

"Merry Christmas," she said softly, turning away with a wave goodbye and soaring up into the starry sky.

"Merry Christmas!' Watanuki called after her belatedly, straining his eyes to catch a last glimpse of her.

When he turned to go back inside, he was confronted by Yuuko, Doumeki, the girls, and Mokona, the lot of whom had somehow managed to wedge themselves into the doorway.

"You were watching the whole time?" Watanuki yelled.

"Hai!" Yuuko grinned. "After all, we had to make sure you didn't mess this chance up like the one I gave you earlier."

"YOU SET THAT UP?" Watanuki shrieked. "Do you even know the meaning of shame?"

"What is this shame you speak of?" Yuuko asked with another Cheshire cat impression. "Of course I set that up. You would never have gotten that far on your own."

"Hai, desu ka," Doumeki added, poker-faced. "You wouldn't have."

"I don't need your input! Baka!" Watanuki shoved past the bodies in the doorway and resumed washing dishes. Doumeki followed him again.

"Look on the bright side," the archer said. "You were totally humiliated in public, but now you have a girlfriend, hai?"

"You just be quiet! And dry those already!"

Days later, Watanuki was still debating whether he should thank Yuuko or take away her beer for a month.

fin