Poorly Wrapped Excuses

The cold air attacked Kyoko the moment she opened the door to the outside. She instinctively buried deeper into her coat, pulling her scarf up to her nose. She was expecting the cold—after all, it was late December and well into the evening—but expecting it and experiencing it were two different things.

Not only that, but the snow had started falling around two days ago. For most of the day, the snow had stopped, leaving an inch-high coating of snow on the ground. Yet she could see the light flurries descending from the sky, illuminated a bright white from the nearby outdoor lights. Hopefully it wouldn't get too heavy tonight—she had places to be. Steeling herself, Kyoko set off down the path leading away from the student dorms.

The walk through the school grounds was quiet and calm, the silence only broken by her own footsteps through the snow. It wasn't surprising how abandoned it was, given the chill, the time of night, and what the date was. If she had the evening free, Kyoko would likely find herself within the dorms, sat in front of the heating with a warm mug of hot chocolate, surrounded by her classmates as they chattered the night away and she watched them interact.

"Kiri! You're here!"

But she did have plans. Plans proposed by a certain lucky student, currently stood next to a wooden bench with a lamppost next to it.

Their usual spot. Makoto would always drag her outside when she tried to shut herself away to focus on her cases, so she would compromise by sitting with him on the bench. Their more active classmates loved to spend time in the nearby field, so it accomplished Makoto's goal of socializing. However, it was just far enough away that Kyoko could sneak in moments of concentration, occasionally asking Makoto for his input—he was surprisingly intuitive and she enjoyed watching him keep up with her logic—and sometimes simply let herself be distracted by whatever the boy wanted to talk about.

Kyoko shook herself out of her thoughts and headed towards the boy. "Naturally. This is the time we agreed to meet." Her lips pulled into a thin line when she noticed him trembling. "Have you been waiting long?"

Makoto chuckled nervously, his woolly glove coming up to scratch his cheek in a familiar gesture. "Eheh… N-Not too long, I promise." He laughed again but the action caused his teeth to chatter. "I-I guess I was a bit excited… and got here early…"

Her frown became more pronounced and she removed her scarf. "You're shivering. You must be freezing."

"A-Ah, Kiri, you don't need to—"

He tried backing away, but she already snared him with the fabric. She looped it around his neck several times, making sure to cover his face, before fixing the ends at the front. Makoto hunched his shoulders, burying his face deeper into the dark purple wool, probably to hide the blush she could still see burning the tips of his ears.

"…Thanks," he mumbled.

"Of course," she replied smoothly.

Kyoko brushed the snow off the bench, her hands covered with custom-made winter gloves—a birthday present she'd received from Makoto a few months ago. They were perfectly sized to fit her hands, but she could also wear them over her usual pair of gloves, providing an extra layer of insulation, as well as allowing her to remove the winter ones without exposing her hands. She could still remember how Makoto's face lit up when he saw her wear them for the first time.

His face now mirrored that expression, excited when he noticed her wearing his present again. "I-I'm glad you like them," he said, making a vague motion towards her gloves.

A soft smile curled her lips. "Yes, it was a very thoughtful gift." Her smile grew a little wider when he took a seat and yelped from the cold. She sat next to him and continued, "I lost my previous pair earlier in the year, so it was rather fortuitous timing on your part."

Makoto smiled in return, but it was more of a wry smile. Usually it'd be a strange look on the optimist, but it was beginning to become familiar to the detective whenever the subject of his luck was brought up. "That'd be a first. My luck normally doesn't work in my favor."

"But weren't you accepted here as the Ultimate Lucky Student?" Kyoko pressed. Her tone held a hint of teasing in an attempt to brighten his mood a little. "You can't mean to tell me there isn't some truth to that title."

"Then explain how my bathroom is the only one with a busted door that the school still haven't fixed, or how I managed to be the only one soaked by the sprinklers during PE, or how my chair broke when I sat on it the first day and continues to break every time they get it fixed!"

"If I remember correctly, you got to miss out that lesson to dry yourself and find a change of clothes, while the rest of us suffered a workout so intense even Hina was starting to complain." Kyoko then smirked. "And you can't argue with the fact they give you a rather comfy chair to use during the interim."

"And my broken door?" he insisted.

Kyoko hummed and tapped her chin. "Perhaps the event where it becomes good luck simply hasn't occurred yet. You never know what the future could bring, after all."

Makoto pouted, but he couldn't hide the genuine smile sneaking through. "That's not fair. You're using logic against me."

"I fail to see how that's unfair of me."

"You're a super smart detective! Logic is your forte. There's no way I could argue against it."

Kyoko shrugged. "I suppose that means you have more training ahead of you."

Makoto looked down at his hands. That angle combined with the scarf briefly obscured his expression from view. "You make it sound like I'm your apprentice."

With only his voice to go on, it was harder to discern how he felt about such a prospect. A small frown worked its way onto Kyoko's face, a sliver of insecurity and doubt peeking through her mask. "Would that… be a problem?"

Makoto's eyes darted up and widened when they took in her expression. He exploded into motion, his arms frantically waving in front of him. "N-No! Not at all! I'd love to spend more time with you! I couldn't imagine anything better!"

His earnest words caught her off guard, and suddenly she was the one staring at him wide-eyed. Makoto's mind finished processing the words coming from his mouth and his face turned cherry red. "I-I mean, u-um, I-I… P… P-PRESENT."

He ducked down. He reached for the ground, but his movements were too panicked. His momentum carried him off the bench and he hit the floor with a muffled, "Oumph!"

Surprised, Kyoko reached over to help him, but he had already recovered, snatched something hidden under the bench, and presented it to her in a rush.

"Pres—Christmas present! F-For you," he babbled. He brought the brightly-wrapped lump close to his chest, moving one hand to fix his snow-dusted hair, and then shyly held it forward again. "Merry Christmas?"

The wrapping was somewhat reminiscent of its gifter: messy, hastily thrown together, covered in snow—nothing impressive to look at. And yet, at the same time, the copious amounts of tape that ensured it stayed together and the numerous crease marks that showed it was folded over and over again to make it perfect proved, beyond a doubt, how much effort Makoto had put into the gift.

Kyoko took it gently from his hands and set it down in her lap. She glanced one more time at Makoto, who'd returned to his seat next to her, and then carefully tore the wrapping paper apart. She expected the plain box within from the shape, but she had no clue as to what lay inside, so she lifted the lid to satiate her curiosity.

The lid nearly slipped from her grasp.

The item was small and nestled snugly in the white silk-covered foam. Kyoko reverently ran her finger over the item's smooth surface, taking in the how solid it felt, how real it was, how bright the red petals of the rose burned within the test tube.

How it represented the memory of an old friend.

An in-vitro rose.

Makoto nervously leaned forward to try and get a glimpse of her emotions. "Do you… like it?"

"It's…" A breathless laugh escaped her. There was no way he could have known. His luck was truly something else. "I'm speechless."

He shuffled in his spot. "So, is that a good thing, or…?"

A smile grew. "It's amazing, Makoto. I love it."

That drew a relieved laugh out of the boy. "R-Really?! I'm glad! I was worried that it—that you wouldn't… I'm glad," he repeated.

Kyoko glanced up from the piece of her past and took in her classmate. He met her gaze briefly and then looked at the box in her hands, smiling as he played with the scarf wrapped around his neck—her scarf that she wrapped there. His hair was flecked with snow, stuck there from the white-covered ground as well as the snow falling from the sky. His expression showed all his emotions on full display, such as the joy he freely exhibited and the hints of worry he failed to hide—a stark contrast to her own usual neutral mask.

A wonder it was that she found such an amazing friend in this average, optimistic, open-book of a boy. The one who hid her emotions, the loner, the recluse—and he brushed past all of that, determined to drag her out of her shell no matter what it took.

"It's a shame," Kyoko suddenly mumbled. "I've left my present back at the dorms."

"Oh, that's okay," Makoto smiled. "You can give it to me in the morning."

Kyoko's hand crept along the wood plank until it found Makoto's. He jumped when he noticed and looked at her in confusion.

"I can't very well leave you with nothing, when you sat here in the cold just to give me this," she whispered, leaning forward. "I'll have to think of something else I can give you now."

"O-Oh?" Makoto's face was very red at her proximity, but he made no attempt to move away. "D-Did… something come to mind?"

Kyoko gave him a warm smile. "Yeah… I think this will do for now."

And with that, she closed the gap and kissed him.

It was a short thing. Only a peck, really. One second, two… and then she moved back. Makoto blinked, startled, as if he had just woke from a dream and realized he'd slept through class.

"Merry Christmas," Kyoko whispered.

Makoto's mouth dropped open, as if he wanted to say something but couldn't find the words. And then, he closed his mouth and met Kyoko's gaze with a determined expression. "Hey, Kyoko?"

"Yes?"

His face flushed a little more, but he didn't hesitate when he said, "Could we do that again?"

"You want to return my gift?" she asked, beaming, teasing. "How bold of you. Didn't anyone teach you manners?"

"They sure did." Makoto's radiant smile matched her own. "But I'm not returning your present. This is my own gift to you. I did kinda get wrapped, you know, in that scarf of yours."

"You still copied my gift," she mock-argued, not willing to let the matter go immediately. Their foreheads met and she hummed. "Nevertheless, I suppose I may have lied when I said I didn't have any more presents for you…"

The two of them were pretty warm there, sat on a bench in the snow, late on Christmas Eve.

Hah, I forgot I had this lying around. I remember when I was writing it that I wanted the present to be something else cause I think the in-vitro rose was something I always saw included in fics, but none of the other FTE presents that Kyoko loves fit. Sooooo test-tube flower it is.

I hope the writing is still alright, I wrote this a year ago and it's never been beta'd. I remember writing it around Halloween, I think. I found a prompt to write something with three items: "a scarf, a present wrapped very poorly, a kiss" and it just fit so well with Naegiri at Christmas time I wrote it early.

And then posted it late.

Oh well, Happy New Years everyone!