Blanc's eyes strayed again to her table, where she knew lay a slip of paper small and thin and insignificant like a paper fortune. It was the name of the person whose Christmas present she would have to buy, but it had not moved ever since Blanc pulled it out of her own hat.

"What the heck am I supposed to get for Neptune?" she moaned, planting her face in a pillow.

Neptune was an impossible target at the same time that she was an easy clear. How simple it would be to buy a six-pack of pudding at the nearest corner store, or even go out of the way to purchase a more expensive version elsewhere, but two things stood in Blanc's way: her Oracle Mina and her own conscience.

Mina had caught her leaving the Basilicom the night before, and Blanc was forced to explain herself.

"You will not wrap packaged consumables for a Christmas present," the Oracle had chided. "Simply put, that is not the proper spirit of Christmas."

"I should've just left without saying anything," Lowee's CPU muttered now, nestling a bookmark between the pages of her read. Mina had been sitting at her desk studying as she usually did on quiet days. She had not asked a single question until Blanc announced that she would be stepping out for a bit. Then she had laid down the rules. Even for the goddess of Lowee, there was no circumventing the warning of the Oracle; Mina would have persisted until Blanc deferred to her will.

After making a wise retreat to her room, Blanc had become aware of yet another complication that had arisen in her plan: herself. For some asinine reason, she felt guilt after that encounter with Mina. It was not the first time that Mina had scolded her for such a thing—very often did she voice her disapproval of pessimism, profanity, and many other traits Blanc just happened to possess. However, this time the shame of admonishment weighed heavily on the CPU's mind.

The holidays came once a year, and with them a pervasive sort of sentimentality. They were a time of respite recognized by everyone, indiscriminate of race or origin. Cold as she was, even Blanc was affected; a Christmas gift should be thoughtful, not five hundred credits at the item shop. Refusing to respect a holiday tradition and agreement by her friends was... the worst kind of betrayal, wasn't it?

Now with her original idea in tatters, Blanc was left high and dry. Patron of the ever-snowy land itself, Lowee, she had no idea as to what to give to her longtime friend whom she had known for decades.

Blanc found Neptune to be incredibly, extremely, stupidly annoying. Nobody in the world was more unbearable than that girl when she was set on distracting Blanc from her books and her stories. She would to shut up, leave, or even sit quietly. Even when she wasn't intentionally trying to irritate anyone, her very presence was sidetracking.

But at the same time, Neptune was fun. Her antics never failed to amuse Blanc, who usually watched in the corner of her eye with taciturn amusement. There was a certain quality—good one—about the girl's intermineable sense of humor.

People like Neptune usually laid their interests out for all to see. It wasn't hard to see what they liked and didn't like. For Neptune, the go-to gift was sweets and desserts. Other things she liked were games and other related accessories, but that was an obvious penchant of all the goddesses—and the vast majority of Gamindustri. Consoles and games were readily available though, and it would be way too easy to order the latest hardware. Still, a gift was a gift..."

Someone knocked at her door, saving her from further thought. Blanc didn't even need to respond before the gilded doors creaked open to permit a two interlopers, one pink and one blue.

"Heya Blanc! We're here to play!" the pink one said.

"Is... Is that okay, Blanc?" the blue one said.

Her book already closed and hidden under a pillow—it was new, and she loathed the idea of losing it to the twins already—Blanc fixed her siblings with indifferent eyes and said to them, "That's fine."

With a cheer, Ram charged into the room, and Rom brought up the rear. Blanc was already starting to regret her decision, but she sighed inwardly and let it slide. Maybe she really needed a little R all the thinking she was doing recently could be stresssing her out.

Climbing onto the bed near Blanc's feet, the twins made themselves comfortable. Ram unloaded an armful of paperbacks, and they got to work with crayons and coloring pencils.

"Hey, watch it," Blanc warned as she pulled her foot away from a pile of coloring books. "You better not get crayon markings all over my bed, or I'll kick you both out of the house."

The threat went unheeded by Ram, although Rom immediately picked up all her pencils and held them in her other hand while she drew.

"We can just live with Vert," the left-handed twin said cheekily. "She said we're always welcome at her Basilicom!"

"Vert? Trust me when I say this"—Blanc lowered her voice for dramatic effect—"but you do not want to live with Vert. She's insane. Plutia levels of insane."

While not quite true, that warning seemed to do the trick. Ram looked like she remembered something unpleasant, but she did not share the memory out loud. Instead, she picked up her crayons and scribbled even more intensely in her book.

That was the scenario for quite a while. Blanc did not move from where she was lying on the bed, and the twins colored page after page of the books they had brought. They never ran out of material, partly in thanks to Blanc's own collection. Older books tended to disappear from the less visited shelves of her library, but she decided chasing thieves wasn't worth the effort.

Seeing an opportunity to ask for help, Blanc decided to get the input of her two younger sisters. One of them could give her the inspiration she needed so desperately. She sat up and, after making sure that the books in their laps did not belong to her, asked them what they would get for the CPU of Planeptune.

"Neptune?" Ram repeated, not looking up from her coloring. "What does she even like?"

"M-maybe games... and pudding," reckoned Rom. Her sister, ever the echo, nodded and asserted her agreement.

"Well, then get her games and pudding," she said. "That's easy!"

Blanc sighed. There was the simplest, plainest idea again. It was only inevitable that the twins would have come to the same conclusion initally, but it was no help to her.

"It needs to be something special," Blanc rephrased. "Food and games are things she already has. She can get those whenever she wants."

"So, it's not just like a birthday present then?" Ram asked. Blanc shook her head.

"Nope. Christmas is more important, isn't it?"

The twins fell silent for a little bit. Rom looked like she was giving serious thought to the problem. She put down her crayons, and her mouth was a deep frown.

"Get her..." Rom said after a while. But her voice tapered off until all was silent again. "Neptune likes games and pudding, so you can get her..."

Seeing her sister's distress, Ram coughed and took over. "It doesn't matter, does it? Just buy her a really cool game and some pudding. That's special enough, right?"

Both girls looked up at their older sister, their expressions apologetic. For the hundredth time that day, Blanc heaved a sigh. She was no closer to finding her elusive Christmas gift for Neptune.

Almost like an afterthought, she scooted closer to put an arm around the two, surprising them, and pulled them both into a rare hug. Rom made a startled sound at the sudden move, but she quickly forgot her surprise and made herself comfortable in Blanc's fur-lined embrace.

"Thanks," Blanc murmured and squeezed their shoulders. "I'll just have to think about it a bit more. But I appreciate that you two tried so hard to help."

Ram hugged her sister back and, unable to hide her excitement, whispered to Rom, "Hey! Blanc's actually hugging us!"

Blanc pretended not to hear.