Light in the Window

by Tsuki no kimi

Rima thought she was the only one spending the holidays by herself, but maybe she's not the only one having a crappy Christmas. It's a... well, it's a Christmas Miracle. Oneshot.

"... Deck the halls with boughs of holly, falalalala, lalalala... 'Tis the season to be jolly, falalalala, lalalala..."

Bakatan, our cat, rolled onto his back and hissed loudly at the radio. Almost like he was booing the children's choir that was belting out Christmas music at the top of their lungs. I caught the hint and reluctantly got out from under my blanket to flick it off, and as I did, I passed the window. A thin blanket of snow covered my street, but with nobody here to fangirl about a White Christmas with, it really had no point for me.

Seriously. Where was my mom? Dad was in Kanazawa but maybe at least Mother Dearest could be bothered off her swivel chair to come home for the holidays.

If our housekeeper was here, she'd be killing me with proverbs by now – "When the going gets tough, the tough get going" "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" "Time is a great teacher; unfortunately, it kills all its pupils" – but even she's got the holidays off. Am I seriously the only one that has no life on Christmas Eve?

Ch'yeah.

That's it. I wasn't about to sit here and get all my brain cells slowly killed from holiday music. I started pacing, which is what I do when I get agitated. I started pacing the length of the living room. When that didn't work, I extended the pacing upstairs to my room. Room, stairs, living room. Room, stairs, living room. Room, stairs –

The telephone let out a shrill wail, and I fell from my place halfway up the staircase. I had the forethought to grab the phone off the table as I fell, and managed to land in a heap on the hearth rug. "Hello?"

"Rima-chan?" my mother's voice rang out of the receiver. "I'm sorry, but mama has to work late tonight."

"Wh-what?" I spluttered.

"Yes. Mr. Takeda wants me to redo my proposal, which will take all night."

Talk about A Christmas Carol. Mr. Takeda was a Grade-A Ebenezer Scrooge. If this were ER, Tiny Tim would practically be on the respirator already. "But... it's Christmas!!"

"What? Oh... oh yeah." I don't think my mother even knows what a holiday IS anymore. The passage of time is observed by the calendar in our front hall that has various business meetings and other work-like things scheduled on almost every square.

"So don't wait up for me, I'll be home around one..." Blahdady blah blah.

"Yeahwhatever." I said it in one long adolescent mumble.

"Rima." She was pissed off. "This isn't the time to throw a tantrum."

Oh? Who was the one who called up the Seiyo office and ranted for an hour when she discovered there was a Take-Your-Kid-To-Work-Day?

"Whatever," I grumbled.

"Look, Rima, I gotta go – " I heard a bunch of crashing and banging on the other end of the phone. Normally I would have slammed the phone down, but as I couldn't quite do that with a twenty-first century phone I just hit the END button very aggressively.

This was the last straw. No way was I going to spend my Christmas with Bakatan when I could go out and waste my worries away by wandering the streets aimlessly. I snatched my coat from where it had been lying in the front hall and took care to slam the door on the way out.

God. It was freezing. I had totally forgotten that it was minus-something outside; leave it to Rima to become too lazy to run back and put more layers on.

Grrrrrrrr.

I saw the bright lights and chatter of parties in the distance on the main streets, but now that I was out here I didn't feel in the least like celebrating a stupid Hallmark Holiday anyway. I began walking quickly, picking streets by how pretty and deserted they looked. It wasn't long before I came to a cul-de-sac of large houses, all with no decorations and the lights out. Perfect place to have a pity-party for one.

And that's how I ended up sitting on the corner of the street, feeling sorry for myself and my empty life while brightly coloured Christmas lights and loud laughing echoed in the distance.

"Hey, look."

I immediately glanced up and quickly became haughty. There were a bunch of men about twice my age leering down at me.

"It's a little girl. What are you doing alone on Christmas?"

If I were taller I would have totally beat them up. I knew I was right when I told my mom we should have traded in Bakatan for a Rottweiler. I decided that if I intimidated them enough they'd stagger off, so I stood up and displayed my full four-feet nine inches.

The closest one grabbed by arm. "Come on, princess, why don't you come with us? We'll show you a good time."

Arg. This was just like in those shoujo manga, where the cute little girl in the sailor suit gets hit on and then some bishounen comes in and kicks their ass. I don't think this actually happens in real life. Sadly for me, I didn't see any random hot stranger coming to chase the drunks away.

Boo.

"Let me go," I said, giving them my best Death Glare squinty-eyes and failing to get my wrist out of his reach.

He gave me a creepy smile, reminiscent of the Joker from The Dark Knight. "Oh... I don't think so."

Creepy. Next thing you know he'll be at it with the chainsaw. I kept pulling irritably but either he was really strong or really stupid because he kept me in a death grip. "Let me... go!"

They all started guffawing, like a chorus of manatees. Apparently this was raucously funny.

"I'm serious," I said, bracing my useless little feet against the sidewalk. "Shoo."

More laughter, and then suddenly it broke off.

"Actually, I think she told you to go away," said a voice, icily pleasant. Hooray! Here comes the pretty bishie now to kick their asses. Only I couldn't see them through the bulky silhouettes of Hippos, Incorporated.

"Oh yeah, kid?" they growled. This was getting more cliché by the minute. Next thing you know they would throw a weak insult about their appearance at them. "You're looking awfully girly for someone so brave."

Yup.

"That was a pretty weak insult," said the person, who sounded like they were enjoying themselves immensely. "And you're missing the point. Can you let Rima-chan go, please?"

"Oh, so you know her?" they all leered, chortling like a couple of elephants who just choked on molasses. "Who's she – you're girlfriend?"

And that's when they must have kicked the guy because he fell over awfully fast. I looked on with mild interest as they all got slowly picked off by flies and I got to see the closest guy who was holding me get his ass kicked.

I rubbed my newly-freed wrist ruefully as they shouted, "We'll get you for this!!" and ran off into the distance like Team Rocket.

"Are you okay?" the voice said kindly, and I looked up to see the last bishie I had in mind – Nagihiko Fujisaki.

*

I know what you're thinking. I really, actually do. It is something along the lines of this: Nagihiko!!! zoMG!! I luv Nagi!!!111!!! Maybe they'll realize they lurve each other now and blah blah blah fangirl blah blah blah Rimahiko.

Not quite, you rabids. Nagihiko will never fall in love with Rima the Ice Queen. He's a manipulative little good-for-nothing who will egg me on shamelessly to get a couple laughs. True, I hate his crossdressing guts but that doesn't mean I'm some kind of stubborn idiot who doesn't know when she likes someone. So, now that we've ironed that out, let's get on with the story.

"So what were you doing there, anyway?" I threw at him. We were walking, not really together but next to each other, on another deserted street. How we ended up this way, I have no idea.

In reply to my question, he shrugged vaguely.

"Don't be vague. Why aren't you eating some Tofurky, or whatever you Kabuki people eat on Christmas?"

"Actually," said Nagihiko, rolling his eyes, "My parents the Hopeless Romantics are out at some frou-frou restaurant eating their idea of a Western Christmas Dinner."

I felt a random surge of sympathy for the fellow abandonee of their parents, but it quickly faded when he said snidely, "And what were you trying do to — get drunk? Laid? Both?"

I really will kill him. I remember Amu saying once, Why don't you like Nagihiko? He's so nice! I wonder what she'd say to this?

I gave him a glare. "My mom's the Tooth Fairy. Tonight's a busy night for her."

"Fine then," Nagihiko said in his mock-hurt voice, turning the other way so that his hair swished. "Don't tell me. That'll fix me. Won't it?"

"Okay, I'll tell you..." I began, and he gave me a beatific look. "Is that all it takes to win you over?"

YOU CAN'T WIN WITH THIS GUY. To tell you the truth, this pisses me off. This little infuriating ball of manipulative cross-dresser is the only boy I can't get around my finger.

"Why are you so irksome?" I grumbled, trying for a big word that he wouldn't understand. Sadly, his intelligence is above the average idiot.

"Never mind that. Tell me," he said, walking so that he drove me against the hedge of a passing house.

"My dad's in Kanazawa on business, and..." I tried to steal my fair share of the sidewalk back but all I did was bump shoulders with the stupid drag queen. "... my mom's boss is a Scrooge."

"There we go," he said pleasantly, giving me the innocent Nadeshiko-beam. "Don't you feel closer already?"

"Only because you're stealing the entire sidewalk."

He looked at the sidewalk, where my small white boots were on the grass farthest away from the street. "Oh? Did I do that?"

I decided not to answer. Maybe the PMS-ridden teenager attitude will have an effect on him like it did my mother.

Nope.

He didn't seem too bothered by my lack of speaking. How annoying. Didn't he wonder why I was so silent?

"Fujisaki?" I started, glaring at him, but I decided that since he was my only companion as of now I should be a little nicer. NO, this still doesn't mean I like him, it's called Sucking Up Because He's Saved You From Being Kidnapped By Drunk People. "Err... I mean... Nagihiko?"

"Mmm?" He seemed totally lost in thought.

"Where exactly are we going?"

"... Ah." He smiled down at me, bemused. "It's 'we' now?"

"Well, clearly I shouldn't be going anywhere alone tonight, what with all the drunks around," I said stiffly.

"Fair enough." He stared ahead. "As for your question... I don't quite know where we're going."

"What – you – You mean, we're LOST???!!" I yelled, so loud that it echoed.

"Now, 'lost' isn't quite the word I would have chosen," he said amiably. "More like... I have limited knowledge of our surroundings."

"It's the same thing!" I cried, shaking his coat sleeve. "I'm going to die here! With an evil cross-dresser!"

He gently took my hand off his arm, but didn't let go. "Cheer up. We'll find our way back... Ah. See?"

I stopped. We were back at that accursed cul-de-sac.

"Yeah..." I made an odd sound of anger in my throat. "Good job, Einstein."

He just shrugged and continued smiling the creepy Fujisaki Smile that makes you think he's going to kill you.

"That's it," I grumbled, turning on my heel and almost falling over from the ice and slush. "I can find my way home without a creepy, grinning cross-dresser..."

"Wait." His hand caught mine before I could go several steps, not roughly like the Anti-Bishie creepers but quickly and more gentle. "Are you really going to go out alone?"

"Of course," I said nastily, throwing him a glare over my shoulder.

"You can't do that," he reminded me. "You're still a girl, and Death Glaring isn't going to keep you from... uuuh..."

"What do you mean, 'You're still a girl'?" I said, lowering my voice dramatically as a warning signal. "Are you implying that just because I'm a girl I'll get... or something...?"

"YES." Nagihiko said in an ominous voice, narrating his story with Japanese dancing fans pulled out of hammerspace. "You see, they call him the Supreme Overlord Santa, and every day on December 24th he walks the streets of Japan, pelting cornflakes at every blond under-nineteen that's outside after midnight!!"

"You're a liar." I said flatly. "And if I come to school after New Year's covered in cornflakes..."

"... You'll be sorry you ever doubted me..." said Nagihiko, grinning.

I combed my hair furiously with my fingers, staring. "Like Hell that'll happen."

We stared furiously at each other for a few minutes. Just when I was about to give up and blink he asked, "Why do you hate me?"

"Huh?" I squeezed my eyes shut. "I don't hate you."

And before you start yelling at me, I was lying. To tell you the truth, I was kind of annoyed that he had randomly sprung this question on me.

"Then, why do you keep being so stubborn?" he started walking and I reluctantly followed him. "Nobody's watching, you know. Would you like me to remind you of that whole big scene we got at the end of Doki! where you were all like..."

"NO."

"Well, you seemed to get along fine with me then." He was practically putting tildes after all his sentences, he was so smug now. "Could it be that you winded up having feelings for me or something? Ooo. Don't fall over."

I slipped on the ice from shock and Nagihiko ended up catching me, wrapping his arms around my waist so that I didn't fall forward.

Of course, predictably he just found this bloody hilarious, and when he finally stopped laughing he ended up huggling me like I was some kind of stuffed plushie. "Rima-chii, you're freezing... leave it up to you not to put more layers on."

I definitely blame Rhythm for this kind of creepy personality of his.

"I'm not cold," I lied.

"Your fingers are blue," he informed me.

I looked at my fingers with mild interest. They were kind of purplish.

Nagihiko curled his fingers around mine suddenly and I froze. I mean, sure I was frozen in terms of coldness already but I mean incapable of movement.

I looked up at him, and he started pulling me in a random direction.

"Where are we going?"

"Home."

Okay, by now you have probably guessed that I AM totally and irrevocably in love with a cross-dresser.

So sue me.

"This is my house, right?" I said skeptically.

"Of course it is!" Nagihiko insisted. I realized he was right after reading the address. Actually, he had found where I lived so quickly that I had suspicions about whether or not he had gone into school records and stolen my file. Not to mention the fact that we had been supposedly "lost" for an entire hour.

Stalker much?

The porch light was on, meaning that my mother was home earlier than expected. No doubt she was up in her office, typing away on her industrial stainless steel computer, doing something boring like accounting.

But for some reason, I didn't quite want to go home. I still felt like there was something unfinished.

"Aren't you going to go in?" asked Nagihiko testily, and I realized he was still next to me and I had been standing there gaping like a goldfish.

"Don't want to," I mumbled. I could practically feel the Concerned Parent waves radiating off the person next to me.

"Is..." he hesitated, but I didn't really want to hear Nagihiko's Great Hypothesis so I cut him off. "Whatever you were going to say, it's not that. It's just my mom's in there working and stuff so she probably won't even notice I'm home."

"Are you okay with that?" asked Mr. Concerned.

"No," I said honestly, and stared up to his face where snow was starting to collect in his dark hair. It glittered like sparkles and I couldn't help but think of craft glue. "Um..."

"...?"

"Thank you," I said quickly, and wrapped my arm around his neck and kissed him briefly. When I pulled back Mr. Concerned was looking more like Mr. Knocked-Over-The-Head-With-A-Frying-Pan.

"And don't you go telling Amu about that," I said quickly. "Or... she'll open up interrogation."

He looked at me with a funny look, twirling a piece of hair around his finger.

"What?!" I demanded. "Why are you looking at me like that?!"

"Oh, no reason." A grin appeared on his face. "I was just thinking we should try that again."

THE END!!!

... of this strange useless story that probably should have been longer.

Merry Christmas!

__________

Yes. Er. I'm sure this should have been longer, with more OOC glory, but.... ;___;

I liked writing it, but it was... hard. If that makes any sense.

Anyway, this is a Christmas present to every single Rimahiko fangirl in the world from the über-slacking-fanfiction author Kimi! Even if you're Jewish and don't celebrate Christmas. Then it can be a belated Chanukah present... DON'T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT, OF COURSE IT CAN!!

Speaking of which, I remember that when I was a kid I used to want to be Jewish because they got "eight days of presents, instead of just one." When I brought this up with my Jewish friend, she just looked at me blankly and said, "Well, it's more like we get seven small useless presents and then one decent one on the eighth day."

... I dunno, I still kinda want a menorah in my window It's WAY easier to light a few candles than decorate a tree, let me tell you. Especially when your mother is watching CSI: Miami on the couch and shouting, "IT'S UNEVEN!!" at you =_="

In other news? I've gotten back into RPing. Um, what I mean by past roleplaying experience is Harry Potter OC roleplay, but this is actually... relevant xD. Lina (yes, that evil beta I always complain about who is the reason this is up today) and Thumper from dA and I started a Shugo Chara Original Character roleplay~ D

Hrmm, and by original character we mean, you have to use your own character and not act for a character from the canon~ And, if you're wondering, this IS shameless advertising but... we are very crazy recruiters.

The group's quasi-headquarters is at deviantART, so you'll have to get a dA account if you don't have one to apply but it IS an awesome roleplay and it's worth it... well, in Kimi's opinion and you know what a great judge she is. Anyway, if you apply you get redirected to the forums where we've all spent the better part of winter break so far making it look pretty with multiple customizable skins xDDD

Okay crap this is getting long for a oneshot so Kimi... will... sign... off... now. And in closing. I AM working on Rima Can't Spell 52, HONESTLY I AM!!

- Kimi-nin~