YAY! Chibi-Tenken says writing this is okay! YAY! I've been OD-ing on Queen and David Bowie's "Under Pressure." This song rocks my socks…This is our last dance This is ourselves…under pressure…Anywho…On to the fic!!!

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"Harusame! HARUSAME!"

"Some one's calling your name, Harusame." Sojiro peered at the girl over the top of the book she had her nose buried in. She had been reading that thick, leather-bound book since she brought it home that morning. A light snow was falling outside and Sonomi was baking, leaving Sojiro in a state of extreme boredom.

"Hmm?" She looked up, brushing back a long strand of her hair.

"HARUSAME!" The "some one" barged into the room, springing at the girl with her book.

"Gesshoku!" Kamatari looked scandalized as he made his way in behind her. She had tackled Harusame much in the same fashion as she tackled him, knocking the other girl to the wood floor.

Sojiro looked at the older girl, clinging to her *~friend~* and talking excitedly. Aoiroten Gesshoku was such an odd girl and he distinctly remembered the last time he had been around her, when they had been searching for the scythe-wielding, cross-dressing ex-Juppon Gatana, who had been kidnapped by none other than Seijuro Hiko the 13th, for reasons the former Tenken couldn't remember.

He scratched his head, smiling his charming smile. "Ohayo, Aoiroten-san; Kamatari-san."

Gessho looked up. "Told ya. You don't need to call me that." She said, equally cheerful. She pushed her glasses back up her nose, straightened her clothes.

"Ahem." Harusame coughed.

"Oops." The older girl's face flushed scarlet when she realized that she had her *~friend~* pinned to the floor. "Sorry 'bout that." She said sheepishly, "I was excited."

"I could tell." Came Harusame's dry response. She sat up, rubbing the back of her head. She sighed, rolling her eyes. Now I'm going to have a huge lump on my head…Then she looked up at her *~friend~* "So, what's with all the purple, Gessho?"

"Well, you sent me that book about Christmas and I read somewhere in it that purple is a Christmas color-"

"No it's not! Red and green are!"

"Yes it is! I read something about lighting candles and they're all purple except one is pink and the purple stands for waiting. I'm really bad at waiting, so I thought maybe it would help remind me to be patient. I mean, we have 20 WHOLE DAYS STILL!!!" Gessho did an odd sort of dance around the room, as if she were trying to release pent up energy.

"Gessho-chan, please calm down." Kamatari face-faulted at his companion's rowdy behavior. While they were both somewhat loud and flamboyant, Gesshoku tended to be loud to the point of obnoxiousness. And she didn't know when to shut up either.

"Anything you say, Kamatari!" She said enthusiastically, albeit loudly. Then she clapped a hand over her mouth. "Oops."

"It's okay." Sojiro looked at her, the smile still on his face, "Harusame can be loud sometimes too."

"HEY!" Harusame bristled, then realized she was proving the former Tenken's point, "And anyway, Gessho's not loud sometimes, she's loud all the time."

Gessho folded her arms, sticking her tongue out at the younger girl. Then her expression brightened again and she reverted back to her usual, perky self. "So, where's Sonomi? Is she still here?"

"She's baking. You know how Sonomi likes to cook. We found a recipe for a Polish dessert called 'kolachi' that's a Christmas cookie and she wanted to try making them. They have nuts in them."

"Ooo! Nuts!" The older girl squealed with glee, then turned in the direction of the kitchen, "HI SONOMI-SAN!"

A muffled call of "Ohayo, Gessho!" followed by a string of what sounded like mild curses drifted out from the kitchen.

"I'll come help!" She replied, "Cooking is fun!"

"NO!" A collective shout from the three other bodies in the room stopped Gessho in her tracks. Kamatari grabbed her by the sleeve, Harusame by the other sleeve, and Sojiro had what appeared to be…a frown on his face. Or the closest thing to a frown the boy could manage, at least. His expression made him look slightly disturbed, but he was expressing displeasure.

"Nani?" Gessho pushed her glasses up again, "I'm not used to these things! Stupid Western contraptions…I could see just fine without them!" She ranted furiously.

"Darling, you were blind without them." Kamatari reminded her patiently, releasing her arm from his grasp, "And don't you remember what happened the last time you tried to help Sonomi cook?"

"Umm…" A thought crept forwards from the darkest recesses of Gessho's mind and she shuddered, quickly forcing back the memory, repressing it in the farthest depths of her brain. That had been a bad experience…"Okay, never mind…Harusame, are you decorating? I brought some stuff."

Harusame blinked her brown eyes, giving a suspicious look at the other girl. "What sort of 'stuff'?"

"Garland and candles and some smelly potpourri thingies and a wreath with some red berry things and those glass ornaments and a paper chain and *cough*mistletoe*cough* and some pretty paper snowflakes we made out of origami."

"Mistletoe?!" A horrified look crossed Harusame's face, "I hate that nasty weed! Why would you want to have that…I mean, who wants to…" She sputtered, "PDAs!"

"Oh, it's all right. It's tradition! I read up on it…In France, a long time ago, they used to use the stuff in some ceremony in the winter. It was really special!"

"You just want to kiss Kamatari!" Harusame accused.

"I never said that!" But I am thinking it…Gessho bared her teeth, attempting to mask her embarrassment, "I want it purely for the sake of tradition! We're going to do this thing right."

"No way! I won't-"

"Don't fight…" Sojiro broke in, "Isn't this supposed to be a holiday of joy and peace?"

Both girls turned simultaneously to look at the young man. Same genki Sojiro as always, that goofy grin plastered across his boyish face, his dark hair curling behind his ears. He fiddled with one sleeve, wondering if they were going to kill him for breaking up the fight or butting in.

"You want that evil weed here??" Harusame glared at Sojiro, her eyes narrowed to little slits.

"I see nothing wrong with it…" A slight blush spread across his nose and cheeks, causing him to look incredibly cute.

"You're lucky my sister isn't here, Sou!" Gessho broke into a wide grin, "You'd NEVER be safe if Nissho were here and the mistletoe was up. She just loves you to death."

This caused more blushing and more glaring from Sojiro and Harusame, respectively. Gessho's twin sister, Nisshoku, was fascinated by the Tenken and was always glomping onto him when she saw him.

"Where is Nissho anyway?" Harusame smoothly steered the conversation away from the dreaded mistletoe and on to a different subject.

"She had a bunch of errands to run…Then she was going to Tokyo to see Kenshin. Nissho doesn't like Western ideas much, so she doesn't want to spend a Western holiday with us." Gessho shrugged, "Oh well. We're completely different people any way. For twins, we don't have much in common."

"Oh. Well…Let's go find a tree before we decorate!" Harusame said cheerfully, glad they were no longer discussing mistletoe and the embarrassing deed associated with the weed, "I've been doing a lot more reading and we need to go find a tree. Kamatari, for once you have permission to cut a tree down!"

Kamatari winced, recalling the wrecking of a certain young woman's bonsai tree on the last visit to her house. Was it his fault that trees were perfect for scythe practice? He didn't think so. But then, Harusame hadn't killed him for that, so…"Gomen, Harusame, but I don't have my scythe with me. Gessho-chan said I wouldn't need it for anything so I didn't bring it."

"D'oh!" Harusame scrunched her eyes shut, slapping her hand on her forehead, "Sojiro, go get your katana."

"Hai!" The Tenken scampered off.

"You guys are coming to help, right?" She looked pleadingly at the other two. It still amazed her that Gessho looked more like Kamatari than she looked like her twin sister, considering the fact that Gessho and Nissho were supposed to be identical twins. It did amuse her that there was Gessho in gi and hakama, a purple scarf draped over her shoulders, and Kamatari dressed in his favorite silk kimono. It was so backwards, the two of them.

"Of course. Gessho is hyperactive. So she needs to destroy something before she destroys one of us." Kamatari said off-handedly, "Cutting down a tree and dragging it back here will use up a lot of her energy."

"YAY!"

Both turned to look at Gessho. She was running over to the window, where the snow was falling more swiftly. "LOOKIT! It's snowing harder! I love winter!" She hopped around impatiently, "When can we go back out?"

"Soon as Sojiro is ready."

"YATTA!"

Kamatari grinned. Gessho was so easy to please, unlike Shishio-sama. She got excited about the most insignificant things and fun doing almost anything. She was pleasant to be with and not at all demanding. He might have liked her if he weren't still suffering over the death of Shishio-sama. If he weren't still in love…But Gessho understood. After all, she was in the same sort of situation. He cared about her, but he just couldn't love her.

"We get to go back out in the snow, Kamatari!" She looked over her shoulder at him, her face positively radiating enthusiasm.

Harusame smiled to herself. Sojiro had told her once about an experience with Kamatari in the snow and she knew the cross-dressing man was not fond of winter weather. But he seemed ready to go out with his *~friend~* and make her happy. He was a strange man, this much was true, but he was good to the people he cared about.

"Okay! I'm ready now!" Sojiro came running back into the room, sheathed sword in hand. He had a sapphire haori and an even darker blue scarf on, along with that usual genki smile plastered across his face.

"Let's go!" Gessho grabbed Kamatari by the hand and dragged him towards the door, Sojiro and Harusame, who called a farewell to Sonomi, at their heals.

The foursome tramped through the town, heading towards the forest that had been desecrated by Kamatari and his scythe. The forest where they had searched for Kamatari when he'd been kidnapped by Hiko. That forest held weird memories for all of them.

Kamatari was staring up at the sky, watching as snow drifted down from the gray clouds. Weather like that was so gloomy; it depressed him. A small frown crossed his face, causing it to darken considerably. He hated being depressed. He hated- "Ack!" Something smacked him in the back.

Laughter came from behind. He looked over his shoulder, only to see Gessho in hysterics, a snowball in her hands. She grinned mischievously, her arm raised to loft that snowball at him too. He stuck out his tongue, making a face at her, and she giggled. "You wouldn't dare throw that at me."

"Wouldn't I?" Her smile widened.

He took a step back. "You wouldn't…" She didn't appear to be bluffing. That look had crossed her face, her eyes were glittering amber. Gessho, when she was plotting things, could be positively evil.

She lunged at him, tackling him for the second time that day, knocking him into the soft snow again. She was laughing, her cheeks and nose pink from the cold. Gessho in the out-of-doors was a force to be rivaled with. The young urôroni (AN: "urôro" means "aimless wandering." I just merged it with rurôni to make her and aimless wanderer, since she's not really any class of samurai/swordsman) reveled in being outside.

"You know, it's kind of odd how you can always get me flat on my back, even though-" Kamatari began, but Harusame cut him off.

"Excuse me," She muttered, "But I believe we're going to get a tree, not do…that."

Gessho's face turned a shade of red brighter than Kenshin's hair. "Harusame! I wasn't gonna…I…Ara…" She climbed hastily back to her feet, releasing her *~friend~* who lay dazed in the snow.

Sojiro offered Kamatari a hand to help him up, but the cross-dresser just stared up at the sky, his face a scarlet hue that rivaled that of Gessho. "Kamatari-san, are you alright?" He asked, blinking his blue eyes, the amused smile never leaving his face.

"That was…She…She's trying to kill me! Then I'll get to be with Shishio-sama!"

The older of the two girls glared sharply at this, her mouth becoming a tight line. Gessho had the pleasure of meeting Shishio Makoto only once, when her sister had tried to join the Juppon Gatana, and she severely disliked the man. She hated the fact that Kamatari was in love with him. In fact, she hated everything about the man. "Let's go. Come on. Harusame, let's go find a tree." She glowered.

"Right…" The younger girl frowned slightly, wondering what exactly had just happened. Gesshoku was in a dark mood all of a sudden and that was, well, scary. She tagged along behind the angry urôroni, wondering what could be done to cheer her up.

Sojiro looked back down at Kamatari. "You've made her angry, Kamatari-san."

"Well, yeah, but…She knows! She knows already. There's nothing I can do about it. I don't even know why she likes me." The older man sat up, dusting snow from his sleeves.

"Harusame-san says that people give presents to each other for Christmas. You should buy her something nice so she doesn't feel bad. You should be able to understand, ne? She's in the same sort of predicament as you." The Tenken suggested, "She really does seem to get worried about you and she really cares for you."

"That's a good idea. I'm going to go now while she's busy but don't you dare tell her, Sou!"

"I won't. I can keep a secret. It will make things more…interesting." The smile on Sojiro's face, if possible, grew even wider. He liked surprises. He liked seeing people happy. All of his life, he had been pleasing other people and it made him happy. "I'll catch up with them and try to calm Gessho down. You go on and have fun." He shukuchi-ed off in the direction the two girls had gone, leaving Kamatari standing in the snow.

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So then…Will the girls find a tree? What kind of present will Kamatari buy for Gessho? And what of Sonomi baking kolachi (which is the greatest cookie EVER!)? Will any one make Sojiro happy instead of him making them all happy? I suppose I'll have to write and you'll have to read! *cheesy grin*

Push the button! Ya know ya wanna!