Hello again! Patleon909 here with Chapter 3 of "Let Me be with You"! Sorry for the wait, but I've been busy, hahaha. Anyways, please enjoy the chapter, and I hope you all like it! Don't forget to read and review, and please remember, constructive criticism is best please! And I know it's strange that I'm releasing a Christmas chapter when it's not Christmas time, but… well, I can't really distort the flow of time in my fanfic now can I...? Well, I could, but it wouldn't be fair to the characters in the story. Anyways, here's the chapter, enjoy! Be sure to leave a review please!

Let Me be with You

Chapter 3: It's Winter Vacation!!

"Ugh. What time is it?" I thought, yawning. Suddenly, I remembered something very important. "It's winter vacation! WOO!!" I shouted, pumping my fist into the air. I quickly covered my mouth and checked the clock. "Phew. 9:11. I probably didn't wake anyone up with that."

I paused. I felt like there was something I had forgotten… something… important…

The buzzing of my cell phone interrupted my train of thought. However, the text massage that I had received quickly reminded me of what I had forgotten. "Crap. Yukari and I are supposed to go to Paulownia Mall and buy all the stuff for the Christmas party we're gonna throw…" I groaned. How could I have forgotten? We had been planning this since October, sending out invites and all that. We had only gotten permission from our parents because we agreed to take care of everything, snacks, food, clean-up, EVERYTHING. In the end, we decided to only invite Junpei, Fuuka, Shinji, Akihiko and Mitsuru. Well, I also decided to invite Aigis at the last minute too.

"Wake up. I'm ready to go, eat breakfast quick. Waiting till 9:30 then I'm going." The text message read.

"Short and to-the-point… that's Yukari-chan for ya…" I groaned. I quickly took a horrendously cold shower, dried off, threw on a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, sweater, jacket and scarf, then dashed out of my bedroom, nearly choked as I almost crammed down a piece of toast, and burst out the door.

"9:28. Good timing." Yukari said, who was reading a book on the bench next to our front door. "Shall we get going then?"

"I nearly froze in the shower since I had to rush." I whined, shivering. "I could have caught a cold. Why didn't you wake me up earlier?"

"Come on, you're a man aren't you? Suck it up." Yukari said as she rose from the bench and put her book in her purse. "Fine." She sighed. "I'll buy you a hot chocolate when we finish all of our shopping."

"Woo!" I cheered. "Let's go, go, GO!"

"Says the person who overslept and had to rush to get ready on time." Yukari said as we started walking to the train station.

"You could have woken me up earlier." I grumbled.

"I tried. Many, many times. I even smacked you on the head with one of your workbooks. You were out like a light. So, I just gave up."

"So then why'd you sent the text message?"

"I didn't want to bother going back into your room to remind you that we had shopping to do. So when I heard you shout, I just texted you a reminder."

"Meh. Yukari-chan's so mean."

"So that means I'm not gonna buy you hot chocolate then?"

I groaned in my mind. She had me cornered. "I think I'll drop the subject now…"

"Good boy." Yukari said, grinning at me.

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

After we got on the train, rode to Port Island station, and took the bus to Paulownia Mall, all of which took about 40 minutes, we finally arrived. "Ooh." I said, marveling at all the decorations that were set up in the mall.

"Wow, the Christmas decorations this year are really nice." Yukari said, gazing at the lights and other Christmas stuff that had been set up. "Now let's see… we need chips, dip, Christmas cake, tablecloths, napkins, trash bags, soda, brownies would be nice…"

I looked around as Yukari continued reading from the shopping list. "Christmas is so awesome…" I thought to myself. "The decorations, giving and receiving gifts, the awesome Christmas food…just the spirit of Christmas, it's all so… awesome… it gives me a fuzzy feeling inside… the vacation time's a nice little bonus too…"

My thoughts were interrupted when a rolled up newspaper smacked me on my head. "Are you even listening?" Yukari said in an annoyed voice. "So, as I was saying, we should try to buy what we need while the mall's not too crowded…"

"Ow… that hurt." I said, massaging the part of my head that Yukari had it. "I better not get a bruise…"

"You won't get a bruise from a rolled-up newspaper."

"With how hard you hit? I wouldn't be surprised."

My head-massaging was interrupted when someone bumped into me, which made me bump into Yukari, who proceeded to drop her purse, scattering her various belongings on the floor.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" the person said, panicking. "Let me help you pick up your belongings…"

The voice sounded… strangely familiar… "Ai-chan..?"

The person who had run into me looked up quickly, and lo and behold, it was Aigis, who was wearing a cream colored jacket, a light blue scarf, a white sweater and a pair of jeans.

"Oh! Uh, Minato-kun, Yukari-san! What are the odds, running into you here…" she said. "Ah! Well, uh, literally I guess…" she murmured, blushing.

"It was nothing, just pay more attention to where you're going next time." Yukari said, dusting herself off. "So what are you doing here? Shopping for gifts?"

"Ah, well, I already bought all the gifts that I needed to, so I was on my way to buy the outfit I'm going to wear to the Christmas party."

"Oh, well Minato-kun and I were on our way to buy the supplies that we need for the party, so if you want, you can come with us and after we get everything we need, we'll help you pick out an outfit for the party."

"Oh, okay, uh, sure." Aigis said a little nervously. "But won't I be getting in the way?"

"Nah, don't worry about it, we're happy to help." Yukari said, smiling at our blonde haired friend. "Come on, let's go. The first thing we need to buy is the snacks…"

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

We spent about an hour and a half running around the mall, going from store to store to buy what we needed. Fortunately, Yukari had already planned our route through the mall, so at least we didn't have to run back and forth across the mall. Finally, after spending… well, I forgot, I lost track after the first half hour, but we managed to get everything on Yukari's list. Oh, and I wound up carrying everything.

"Phew. That's everything." Yukari said, crossing off the last item on our list. "So how much money do you have to spend on your outfit?"

Aigis checked her wallet. "Well, my parents gave me about ¥15000 to spend on presents and my outfit, but I spent about ¥7000 on the presents so I have… roughly ¥8000 left."

"Oh, that's great then. I know this store here that sells really nice clothes at great prices. Let's go!" Yukari said, dragging Aigis and me by our wrists.

"Is Yukari-san always this enthusiastic when she shops for clothes?" Aigis asked me in a low voice.

"Yeah, she is. Heck, when she buys clothes for herself, she usually drags me along, and I end up carrying like a dozen bags by the end of the trip. Yukari really likes fashion and all that stuff, I really don't get why…"

"Me neither, I say 'Wear what works.'" Aigis replied. "Is that strange?"

"Heck no! I completely and totally agree with you. In fact, there was this one time that we spent an extra hour shopping because Yukari wanted this t-shirt in a specific shade of blue… ugh, that was a horrible experience." I groaned.

"You and Yukari-san hang out a lot, don't you?" Aigis said, giggling.

"Yeah. We're like brother and sister, so she drags me along as her slave monkey when she goes shopping, but afterwards she usually compensates me with a treat of some sort. For example, after we're done here, Yukari's gonna buy me a hot chocolate."

"Oh, I see… but what's a slave monkey..? You don't get treated like some animal, do you?"

"No, a slave monkey is… well, it really just means that I have to carry all the things Yukari buys, which is usually a lot."

"Ah, I see… so do you enjoy hanging out with Yukari-san?"

I paused to think about that one. "Well, it's kind of nice hanging out with her, even if I do have to carry everything… I'd probably enjoy it more if she helped with at least a bag or two… well, at least she usually buys me a snack after we finish…"

"I see…" Aigis murmured. Our conversation was interrupted when Yukari stopped in front of a clothing store.

"We're here!" Yukari proclaimed with a wave of her hand. Yukari herself had been to this store several times when shopping for clothes. I remembered that their selection was quite diverse, and the prices were also pretty reasonable. Its doorway had decorative snowflakes hanging from it, and the display windows also had numerous Christmas lights hanging from them.

"Wait here." Yukari said as we entered the store, forcing me onto one of the benches that were near the entrance of the store. "Aigis and I are going to pick out some clothes and…" she paused for a moment. "Actually, come with us, you can carry the clothes." She said, grabbing my wrist and pulling me up from the bench.

Yukari went down each and every aisle, grabbing whatever Aigis liked, which was promptly tossed to me for "safekeeping". After the stack of clothes I was carrying reached a foot above my head, Yukari finally decided that we had enough. "Okay, let's find the outfit that suits you. To the dressing rooms!" she shouted.

We walked over to the counter where the store employee was assigning dressing rooms. "Excuse me, do you have family dressing rooms here?" Yukari asked.

"Sure." The lady behind the counter said, handing Yukari a green plastic rectangle thing with a "#4" on it. "It's down that way." She said, pointing down the hallway that was closest to the desk. I looked to the left and right, and saw two additional hallways, which I remembered to be the male and female dressing rooms. "So that's what the middle hallway was for… I always assumed it led to an employee break room or something… heck, probably everyone that comes here assumes that… probably because they don't have a sign for it…" I thought to myself.

"Thanks. Come on, this way." Yukari said, gesturing for both Aigis and me to follow.

"Why are we going to the family changing rooms Yukari-san..?" Aigis asked a little nervously.

"So you can get both of our opinions without us having to walk in and out of the dressing rooms." Yukari replied as we got to Dressing Room #4, not that it mattered considering that the Family Dressing Rooms were empty except for us. "Now, stand out here, Minato-kun." Yukari said, pushing me so that I was beside the door of the dressing room, facing away. "Oh, and if you peek, I'll gouge out your eyes." She finished in a completely normal, nonchalant voice.

"Of course." I said coolly. "Do you really think I'd do that though?"

"I guess not. You're not that kind of guy." Yukari sighed. "It's just a precaution."

"It's a bit extreme though, isn't it?"

"Whatever, just stay out here and don't look in."

The outfit selection process worked like this: Aigis stayed in the dressing room, while Yukari would come out every few minutes and grab several pieces of clothing from the enormous stack in my arms. When Aigis was done changing, Yukari would lead her out of the dressing room and let me see Aigis. We gave our opinions, then, since Aigis didn't like the first dozen outfits that she tried on, she and Yukari went back into the dressing room. "Okay!" Yukari said after a while. "Try number… uh… is it 15? Or 17? I lost track…"

"Try number 16." I said.

"Okay! Try number 16! I think we've really got something here." Yukari said, with a sort of joyful tone in her voice. I set down the stack of clothes in my arms as Aigis emerged from the dressing room, with Yukari behind her. To say that she looked good would have been the understatement of the century. She was wearing a light grey jumper dress, which had a collar that cut off just below the collarbone, black leggings, and the skirt went just below Aigis' knees. Beneath the dress Aigis was wearing a navy blue turtleneck sweater, with the sleeves rolled up so that her hands could be seen, and the turtleneck's collar was rolled down so that only covered the bottom half-inch of her neck. The outfit itself was cute, but what made her look really, really cute was that she was blushing so much, and was trying to look away, even though Yukari was trying to get her to look up at me.

"Wow…" was all I could manage to say.

Aigis looked up at me nervously, and blushed even more when she saw the amazed look on my face. "Do… do I look okay?"

"Well, uh, yeah…" I said, scratching the back of my head. "You look really good… ah, I'm sorry that I'm talking like this it's just… wow…"

"Yeah, you really look cute in that outfit Aigis!" Yukari said, patting Aigis on the shoulder. "You've even stunned Minato-kun, and trust me, that's a good thing."

"R- Really…?"

I snapped back to attention after that. "Oh, yeah. Sorry, it's just that… you really do look cute Ai-chan… I was so surprised… haha…"

"…That's a good thing, right?"

"It is, don't worry." I said, laughing. "I'm serious though, you really look cute in that outfit."

"…Thanks…" Aigis said, blushing.

"Okay! Well, now that we have your outfit ready, let's go pay for it!" Yukari said, leading Aigis back into the dressing room. "Oh, and Minato-kun…"

"I know, I know, no peeking, eye gouging, all that." I said, rolling my eyes.

"Good. Now stay put." Yukari said before she disappeared back into the dressing room.

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

"Okay!" Yukari said after we paid for Aigis' outfit, "We still have some time left before we have to go home, so you two can do whatever you want. Just make sure to be at the entrance by 1 p.m., okay?"

Both of us nodded. "Okay, good." Yukari continued. "Well, I'm off to the bookstore, and maybe I'll buy some other things too… Oh, and Minato-kun? Make sure to keep an eye on Aigis-san so that she doesn't get lost okay? Oh, and here's some money for hot chocolate." Yukari said, handing me the money before she walked away.

"So… um… what do you want to do?" Aigis asked a little nervously.

"Well, for starters, I wish I could teleport home so I wouldn't have to carry all this stuff with me." I groaned. "But since I can't do that, wanna get a photo sticker?"

"Photo sticker? What's that?"

"Oh, a photo sticker is where… well… uh, basically, you take a photo, and then the machine turns it into a sticker. People either collect them or just stick them to stuff."

"Oh, I see. Okay, let's go." Aigis said.

I sighed in relief. I was glad that Aigis didn't ask me why I wanted to get a photo sticker. Actually, I wanted to get a photo sticker with her as part of my Christmas gift to her.

We spent about twenty minutes in the photo sticker booth trying various poses. After the sheets of photo stickers printed, I immediately found the picture that I thought would fit my present the best. "Hehe, perfect." I thought to myself as I put the photo sticker that I had chosen in my wallet. "Now all I have to do is cut it into a circle, laminate it and…"

"Come on, Minato-kun!" Aigis called out to me from the ice cream stand. "You promised me you'd buy me a hot chocolate!"

"Ah, right. Coming!" I shouted running over to where Aigis was standing.

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

"Oh, Minato-kun. Can I ask you something?" Aigis said while we were in the middle of finishing our drinks.

"Sure. What is it?"

"Well… um… was there any particular reason that you wanted to take those photo stickers with me?"

I froze. "CRAP." I thought. "Well, uh… it's kind of… well… uh… it's a secret, I can't really tell you now… sorry…"

"You aren't going to do anything strange with it, are you..?" Aigis asked in a low voice.

I almost choked on my hot chocolate when I heard her say that. "WHAT?!" I shouted, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, I would never-"

My panicking was interrupted when my blonde haired friend started giggling. "I know you wouldn't do something like that, Minato-kun. I was just teasing you."

I groaned. "Geez Ai-chan… don't ever tease me like that again…"

"I won't, I won't." Aigis said, smiling again.

"Don't tell me Yukari-chan's personality is rubbing off on you…"

Aigis laughed. "Don't worry, I just wanted to see you blush."

She was right, my face had turned red for a second there. But, her comment had inadvertently led to an awkward silence. "Ah… uh… I didn't mean it like that…" Aigis said, slowly realizing what her statement suggested. When she fully realized what she had suggested, her face turned that oh-so-familiar deep crimson. "NO, no, no, no, I didn't mean it like that, it's just, ah, eh, ahh…" she stuttered, panicking. After she took a few deep breaths, she continued. "Well, it's just that… you've teased me a few times before like that… and, well… I felt that… you know… it was my turn…"

"Oh…" I said, a little relieved. "Well, I guess you're right, I do tease you a little too much…" I sighed. "Ah, okay. I'll try and cut down on the teasing, okay?" I said, smiling at my friend, who blushed again.

"Thanks… and don't worry, I won't tease you like that again unless you give me a really good reason to."

"Deal." I said, shaking Aigis' hand.

"Oh, wait… what time is it?"

I glanced down at my wristwatch, which said that it was 12:47. "Oh, we should probably head to the entrance, huh?" I said, getting out of my chair and reaching for the dozens of bags that were beside my chair.

"Ah, wait." Aigis said, rushing over to me. "Let me help."

"Nah, it's okay. It wouldn't be very gentleman-like if I made you carry some of these."

"Oh come on, don't be stubborn. At least let me carry the bag with my Christmas outfit in it."

"Okay, fine." I said, handing Aigis the bag with the clothes she bought. However, while I was handing her the bag, she snuck over to my other hand and snatched a few bags away from me.

"What are you doing?" I asked, reaching for the bags she had taken. But to my surprise, and my puzzlement, she wouldn't give the bags back.

"Come on, Minato-kun. Let me help you." Aigis said, holding the bags she had taken out of my reach.

"I can't. They're our stuff, don't worry about it."

"I can't not worry about it! I want to feel useful, not that I'm just following you doing nothing. Besides, a burden shared is a burden halved, and I want to help you."

"Fine." I said, sighing in defeat, "Take only what you can carry, and don't overstrain yourself okay?"

"Yay!" Aigis cheered, picking up four bags in each hand. "And don't worry about me, I'm stronger than I look."

"Well, it's sort of unusual that you want to help me carry the bags. Most of the girls at school would jump at the chance to have a guy carry all their stuff."

"Does it make me weird that I want to help?"

"Well, it's not really weird, it's more… rare, I should say. It's a good thing though."

"Oh, okay then."

We got to the entrance of Paulownia Mall at 12: 53, and continued to talk until Yukari arrived two minutes later. "Hey, you two got here before me! I'm impressed."

"Yeah, so let's get going." I said. However, as soon as I started walking, Yukari grabbed the collar of my jacket.

"Hold it. Why is Aigis carrying some of the bags?"

Before I could say anything in my defense, Yukari pulled out the newspaper, rolled it up, and proceeded to hit me on the head repeatedly with it. "HOW COULD YOU MAKE AIGIS-SAN CARRY OUR BAGS YOU LAZY IDIOT!?" She shouted at me, striking me one on the head for every word she said.

"Ah. Wait, Yukari-san, please." Aigis said in the middle of Yukari's assault.

"Oh, sorry about Minato-kun making you carry some of the bags. If you want, I could make him carry you on his back to your house as punishment." Yukari said, not letting up on her attacks on my head for even a second.

I could tell that Aigis was very embarrassed by the idea of me giving her a piggy-back ride all the way home because she blushed immediately after Yukari offered the idea, not that I could see too well since I was cringing from how hard Yukari was hitting me. "No, no, no. Yukari-san, Minato-kun didn't make me carry these bags, I actually took them from him because he wanted to carry everything for me."

Finally, Yukari's assault halted abruptly. "Oh… really? Wow Minato-kun, I didn't know you were that much of a gentleman. Sorry about hitting you on the head so much." Yukari apologized, scratching her head embarrassedly.

"Nah, it's okay, I got used to it." I said, rubbing my head. "Damn, you hit hard though, even with a stupid rolled-up newspaper..."

"Well then, since we're all here, let's go. Minato-kun and I need to go get some things ready for the party." Yukari said, walking towards the bus station.

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

"Okay, we're here." Yukari said, as we arrived in front of our house.

"Okay then, see you at the party, Minato-kun, Yukari-san." Aigis said as she turned to leave. "It's on December 25 from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. right?"

"Yeah." Yukari replied. "Hey wait Aigis!"

"Yes?"

"Here." Yukari said, pushing me towards Aigis. "Minato-kun's gonna walk you home."

"Why? And why don't I have a say in this?" I protested.

"Because, she could get kidnapped, or run over, or she could fall into a ravine, or all of those together."

"And what are the odds of any of that happening?"

"… Just do it. Or I'll disassemble your TV and scatter the parts all over the house."

I knew that she could, and probably would, follow through with that threat, so I gave in. "Fine, I'll do it."

As Yukari grabbed the bags and walked with them to the house, Aigis and I began walking the relatively short walk to her house.

"Sorry to bother you like this." Aigis said after we arrived at her house about twelve minutes later.

"Nah, it's okay. Yukari-chan isn't really one to explain herself, but it's all right."

"Then why did you complain like that?"

"Well, I just wish Yukari wouldn't jump things on me like that." I said, scratching the back of my head. "It wouldn't hurt to let me know a little bit in advance, would it?"

"I guess you have a point… but was it really that bad?"

"No, it's just that… ugh… uh… gah… dammit I offended you didn't I..?" I said, trying to figure out how to say what I wanted to. "Damn, I can't think straight."

My mental suffering was interrupted when Aigis started giggling. "What's so funny?" I asked.

"Don't worry, I wasn't really offended. I know that Yukari-san probably jumps things on you a lot and it was probably just a reflex. Besides, I learned something new about you today."

"And that would be?"

"Well, Minato-kun has always been so cool and level-headed all this time, but now I know that even you get embarrassed and frustrated sometimes. It makes me glad for some reason… to know that you aren't completely immune to those kinds of feelings."

"Really…"

Our little chat was interrupted when my cell phone buzzed in my pocket. I had received a text message from Yukari that went like this:

"WHY THE HELL ARE YOU TAKING SO LONG!? STOP FLIRTING WITH AIGIS-SAN AND GET BACK HERE NOW!" – Yukari

"What's wrong?" Aigis said, peering over my shoulder to read the text message. However, after she finished reading it, her face turned red. "You're flirting with me?"

It was my turn to turn red. "WHAT?! No, no. Yukari always assumes the worst when it comes to me, so she's just joking, don't worry about it."

"Oh okay. Well, I don't want to keep you and risk increasing Yukari-san's wrath, so… I guess I'll talk to you later then."

"Make sure to call me if anything comes up!" I said as I ran off towards my house.

"I will! See you at the party then!"

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

What will happen at the Christmas party go? What will Minato's present to Aigis be, and why does it need a photo sticker of them together? Will Yukari and Minato really have to clean everything up by themselves? Is my end-of-the-chapter rambling getting annoying?! Find out in Chapter 4, coming soon to a near you!

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Whew. That's chapter 3. It was about as long as chapter 2, wasn't it? Anyways, thanks to everyone who's been reading this so far, so thank you very, very much! Don't forget to read and review, and I'll try to have chapter 4 up by next week!

Patleon909 =D

P.S.: I'm not exactly sure how widely celebrated Christmas is celebrated in Japan, but I've seen Christmas pop up in numerous mangas and animes that I've watched, and I found various articles saying that Christmas is celebrated in Japan (although for a few different reasons), so I'm assuming that Christmas is celebrated over in Japan as a holiday for gifts and partying and taking a day off and the like.

One more thing, a jumper dress is the kind of dress that Furukawa Nagisa wears, look it up on Google or something if you want to see what it looks like.

Oh, and FYI, apparently it's 95 yen per U.S. dollar, so I think 15000 yen is about $150, give or take.

Oh, and don't forget to tell anyone you know who's a Persona 3 fan or who enjoys romance/comedy fanfics about my fanfic! Please, I need feedback on this fanfic, and for that I need readers! Again, sorry to beg T-T.