Luna laid on the ground with her feet still under the kotasu. "I ate too much." She complains rubbing her stomach.
Shiemi lays down next to her. "Me too, but it was all so good."
"Come on guys let's go open presents!"
Luna hears Rin's voice as he gets up from the table.
"Shouldn't we sing some carols and bring out the sweets that Shiemi and Wilk brought first?" Suggests Yukio.
Luna sits back up with a little grunt. "I'll grab them and arrange them for us to graze on but I couldn't eat any right now. I'm far too full."
"I'll show you into the kitchen to get a platter." Rin motions to Luna to follow him.
As Luna gets up her hand grazes Suguro's. He had his hand leaning on the floor. He doesn't look up at her but he does rub his pinky finger along her hand and the corner of his lip curls into a smile. It was the little things that Suguro would do that made Luna's heart skip a beat. As she stood to follow Rin she could feel the electricity of Suguro's touch course up her arm. It was intoxicating. She looks down at him whispering. "Not fair."
He smiled a little wider and nodded with a chuckle.
Luna turns to Shiemi. "Where did you and Rin put the sweets?" She asks her as she still laid on the ground.
"Um… I think Rin already has them in the kitchen." Shiemi says sitting up.
Luna nods and follows Rin. She watches his tail wave back and forth as he walks. He now felt comfortable enough around all of the cram school students to have it out around them without shame.
Rin talks over his shoulder at her as they get to the kitchen. "So Wilk what did you get me for Christmas?"
"I can't tell you. It's a surprise."
"Oh, come on. Give me a hint at least."
Luna shakes her head. "Nope not even a hint. You'd get it right away if I said anything and then the gift would be ruined."
Rin folds his arms in front of himself and turns towards Luna. "Fine!" He then turns and grabs a platter from the cupboard. "Is this big enough? I think we have one that's a little bigger yet." He peers into the cupboard.
"No, this should be perfect." Luna grabs the box with the sweets and starts arranging them onto the platter. Rin starts to help her as they hear Yukio start to initiate Christmas carols.
"Do you sing Wilk?" Rin asks putting down one of the sweets on the platter.
"I sing okay I guess." Luna says shyly. "I've never gotten to hear myself but people don't run the other way or cover their ears when I start to sing."
Rin laughs. "They do when I sing. I remember Shiro always used to make us go to the services and sing in the choir. Yukio was really good at it but I couldn't keep up with the rest of the group."
"Maybe you are a soloist then." Luna says grinning up at him.
He laughs. "Nah, I'm pretty sure I'm just bad."
They hear Yukio start to sing. "Do you see what I see?"
Luna answers back knowing that there was an echo in that song. "Said the night wing to the little lamb."
She then hears Yukio's voice a little louder. "Do you see what I see?"
Rin smiles at her. "That's pretty good Wilk."
She smirks and nods her head. Closing her eyes she listens to Yukio and responds. "Way up in the sky little lamb."
She hears Yukio's voice and she matches it in pitch and tone the best she could. "A song, a song high above the night. With a voice as big as the sea. With a voice as big as the sea." The two of them sing the song to the end answering back and forth. Luna had kept her eyes closed the whole time focusing on Yukio's voice so she didn't get out of key. When they were done she heard clapping behind her and she jumped throwing the sweet she had in her hand.
Turning she realized that everyone was standing in the kitchen clapping for her and Yukio.
"Encore, Encore." Cheers Paku.
Luna puts her hands over her mouth. She was so embarrassed. "I don't know if I can with all of you guys watching me."
Yukio smiles at her. "Oh come on Wilk. You did so well. Let's try another one."
"Do another duet." Suggests Paku.
"Baby its cold outside." Takara's pink bunny motions up and down.
"I know the tune, but I'm not sure if I know all the words for that one. I'll have to look up the lyrics on my phone." Luna says.
Rin pulls his phone out of his pocket and hands it to Luna. "Here Wilk use mine."
She pulls up the lyrics and starts to blush when she sees the words. "I don't know if I want to sing this one with Professor Okumara."
"Oh come on Wilk!" Says Kamiki. "It's a great song."
Luna takes a deep breath. "Okay." She looks at Yukio. "Do you know the words?"
"I know the words for Michael Bublé's version."
"It looks like that's the one I pulled up." She shakes off her jitters and starts to sing. "I really can't stay."
"But baby its cold outside." Yukio responds.
"I gotta go away."
"But baby its cold outside."
"This evening has been,"
"I've been hoping that you'd drop in."
Luna starts to feel her face get hotter as Yukio takes a step towards her starting to act out the song. She manages to stay in key though. "So very nice."
"I'll hold your hands they're just like ice." He takes her hand into his.
Luna's face burns with embarrassment as the other students look on. She felt so exposed especially since she didn't feel this way about Yukio at all. She pulls her hand away acting out the scene hamming it up as much as he was. "My mother will start to worry."
As they end the song Shima stands over them with the mistletoe dangling over their heads.
"Where did you get that?" Luna demanded.
"I stole it back from Suguro's pocket."
"Hey!" Suguro grumbles.
Shima smiles looking back and forth between Luna and Yukio. "Don't you two think it's only fitting to finish a song like that with a kiss?"
Luna shakes her head. "No!"
Yukio pushes up his glasses. "I think the person holding the mistletoe is the one that's supposed to be kissed. Isn't it?"
"Nope, whomever is standing under it." Says Kamiki with a mischievous smile.
"Hey come on. No one's going to make any one kiss each other tonight. That's not fair." Suguro's voice is angry his cheeks red and brows furrowed.
Luna didn't think she could get any redder until Yukio leaned in and kissed her. She was so stiff not knowing what to do.
Yukio leaned back and nodded his head to the group. "There now." He looks over at Rin. "Let's go open presents."
"Woot!" Rin jumps at that grabbing the platter of sweets and carrying it out of the kitchen.
Shura, Lightening, Takara, and Shiemi walk out with Rin.
"Sensei Okumara and Wilk would be a cute couple. Don't you think Kamiki?" Paku says as they walk out the door together.
"Yeah, they'd have cute babies too." Kamiki says a little too loud for comfort.
Suguro stomps over to Shima and grabs the mistletoe. "Give me that. What's wrong with you?"
"Nothing!" Shrugs Shima. "I'm just having a little fun. What's your problem anyway?"
"Come on guys don't fight it's just a little mistletoe." Yukio says trying to defuse the situation.
"You stay out of this Sensei Okumara. What are you doing just kissing my girlfriend all willy nilly like that?"
Konekomaru joins in now. "Bon it's okay. Sensei Okumara didn't know."
"Your girlfriend?" Shima says looking back and forth between Luna and Suguro. "When did that happen?"
"Just after Luna's birthday. Right Luna."
She nods still red and shaken from kissing Yukio.
"I'm sorry." Yukio says. "I had no idea. I was just playing around." He shakes his head and pushes up his glasses. "I should have known better." He then walks out of the room.
"Man! He's lucky he's my teacher and wears glasses or I would…" Suguro punches his palm with his fist.
"Heh, heh, it is okay Bon. No harm no fowl right? I mean he apologized."
Suguro punches Shima's shoulder.
"Ouch!" Shima grabs at it.
"That's for picking my pocket." He then wraps his arm around Luna's shoulders brushing his thumb on her peeked cheeks. "Come on let's join the others and open some gifts."
Luna takes a deep breath nodding.
Suguro keeps his arm around her as they walk to the tree to meet everyone else.
Luna hears Konekomaru and Shima talking behind them.
"How long have you known they have been dating?"
"Bon told me after they got back from that mission they went on with Lightening right after Luna got back to the cram school."
"How come I'm always the last to know?" Shima says with a whiny voice.
Suguro leans to Luna's head resting his chin on her hair. "Are you okay?"
"Yes, a little weirded out but I'm okay."
"Good." He scratches his head and his hand lingers up over it.
Everyone looks at Luna and Suguro as they enter. Kamiki's mouth drops open and Paku just gushes with excitement.
Luna is confused until she looks up at Suguro.
His cheeks are pink and he has a smile from ear to ear as he holds the mistletoe up over their heads. "Can I kiss you under the mistletoe Luna?"
Luna smiles and nods her head feverishly. "Yes I would be honored to be kissed under the mistletoe by you." She then stands on her tip toes to kiss him.
The group 'oos' and 'ahs' over them.
"Kiss her once for me!" Lightening shouts.
Suguro tenses up. "What?"
Luna grabs his face before he embarrasses himself. "It is part of a song." She whispers. "Kiss me again?"
He does so and Luna feels breathless under the warmth of his embrace. He pulls away from their kiss. "I like you Luna."
She feels giddy and a little punch drunk. "I like you too Ryuji."
Paku gushes. "That's good luck! Now the two of you will be together forever."
"What?" Luna asks.
Suguro leans into her ear. "It's a Japanese Christmas tradition to tell the person you would like to date that you like them and kiss them before midnight on Christmas Eve. If you do that than your relationship will stand the test of time."
Luna smiles. "How cute. I didn't know you were a romantic."
"I have my moments." He smiles down at her. "Here Shima." He looks over his shoulder and tosses the mistletoe to him. "You can play with that as much as you want now, but I'm officially saying that Luna and I are a couple and we are off limits."
Luna nods. "Yeah." She puts her hand on Suguro's peck so that she can look over her shoulder at Shima too.
Rin chimes in by the tree. "Can we open presents now?"
"Yes let's open presents!" Shura says.
Everyone sits around the tree opening gifts. Thanking people for the gifts given and the thoughtfulness of being remembered.
Luna and Suguro saved each other's gifts for last.
Luna smiles at Suguro. "You open yours first." She dances a little.
Suguro meticulously pulls the tape off so not to ruin the paper. Unfolding each corner revealing the box underneath. "Oh so you were at the leather shop for me." He teases her. "Last minute shopper."
Luna smiles. "I wanted to make sure I got you the right gift so I was extra choosy."
"Hm." He chuckles and then lifts the top off the box to reveal the black leather gloves. Chuckling again he pulls them from the box and tries them on. "These are great, and they fit really nice." He pumps his fist a couple of times loosening the leather by his knuckles.
"I know that you hate knitted gloves because you can't work outside and do intricate things with them on. So I thought a pair of good leather gloves would be perfect for you."
"Thank you Luna. You open your gift now." He nods and shifts his weight sitting cross legged on the floor.
Luna shakes the present. It didn't make any noise but it was heavy. She removed the tape from each corner and revealed the box to the leather shop. She looks up from the box. "What did you get me from the leather shop?"
One side of his lip curls up into a smile. "Open it and find out."
She slowly lifts off the top of the box revealing the peacock blue leather fur lined gloves that she had tried on at the shop. Luna is so excited to see them again but she tries not to overdo it with excitement. "Did Shiemi tell you I tried these on?"
He nods his head. "I had asked her what you wanted for Christmas in the shop when she had went to go get her purse from the clerk. She said that you lingered over them longer than you did any other pair because it reminded you of something your mom had when you were a girl."
Luna nods. "A scarf that was that exact color." She looks down and the gloves at slides her fingers over the leather. "Thank you Ryuji they are beautiful." She takes them out and slides them on then looking up at Suguro she puts up her hands. "What do you think?"
"Kirei, and the gloves are beautiful too." He leans in and pecks her on the cheek.
"What did you two love birds get each other?" Asks Paku walking over to them.
Luna and Suguro both lift up their hands.
"You both got each other leather gloves? This has to be a sign that you're meant to be together!"
Suguro blushes putting his hand on his face and Luna giggles.
"Put your hands back up I want to take a picture." Paku says pulling out her camera.
Luna and Suguro both pose with their hands spread out next to their faces. Suguro then leaned in and gave Luna another peck on the cheek. As Paku took a second picture.
"Got it! This is going on social media right away!"
"Could you not do the one of me kissing Luna on it? My mom follows me and if you tag me kissing a girl she might get upset."
Luna giggles. "I want a copy of both of those pics sent to my cell though Paku. Please."
Paku nods. "You guys are going to be the cutest couple." She hugs herself dancing a bit before returning to Kamiki to chat.
"We should all take a group picture." Suggest Kamiki.
Everyone agrees and groups up next to the Christmas tree. Shura uses a timer on her phone to line up the picture and takes a large group photo while the students took selfies of each other with their gifts.
Luna couldn't remember the last time Christmas wasn't filled with sadness for her. It was nice to enjoy the holiday again. She leaned over to Suguro. "What's the best gift you got this year?" She waited for his response thinking maybe it was Lightening's gift of a signed copy of Regina Beal's 'Aria's and Death verses'.
He blushes looking into her eyes for a moment. "Getting to kiss you was the best gift this year."
Luna feels breathless and her heart races. "Really?" She says smiling from ear to ear.
He nods. "I've admired you for a long time." He then leans in and kisses her as the clock strikes midnight.
