The Perfect Present

Here we go! Fourth and final chapter. I wasn't sure whose point of view to go with but eventually decided to keep it fair and change to Yui. Hope you enjoy :)

Yui jumped as she felt herself snore in her sleep. Grumbling, she rolled over and tried to clear her bleary eyes by blinking. It didn't work well and she was forced to use her hands, disturbing the comfortable position she'd settled in. She yawned and buried her face in her pillow. She felt that something was wrong as she attempted to fall asleep again but with no success.

Yui thought for a while as she lay awake in her bed.

"Ah, I see." She mumbled to herself.

It was because she was in her bed, the last thing she'd remembered was… chocolate? She licked her dry lips and could still faintly taste the smooth sensation of chocolate. It was coming back to her slowly. Her brother had asked her to watch the concert on TV with him and she'd agreed. He'd brought her a hot chocolate and soon after that she must've fallen asleep. Checking her clock proved it was still only 11:30pm, not even Christmas yet. Yui sighed and once again ran her tongue over her lips, she decided to get something to drink before heading back to bed.

She swung out of bed and padded out of her room. She remembered that her family was probably asleep so she took care in making sure her steps were quiet. Keeping her feet to the edges of the stairs, she reduced the creaking to a minimum and once she got to the bottom she let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. Yui moved through the hall with ease even in the dark. She figured it was with years of practice. She doubted it would make a difference even if she had her eyes shut. She moved past the living room but stopped just after.

"Hmm?" There was light coming from inside. Was someone still inside? Slowly, Yui pushed the door open and music spilled out in to the hallway. The concert? Pushing the door open fully revealed her brother, still awake, watching TV. He heard the door creaking and turned with a raised eyebrow until he saw her and he smiled.

"I didn't think you'd get up again so soon." He commented. "You were pretty out of it. I had to carry you."

"Well, sorry for being heavy." She bit back. "Maybe I should go on a diet."

Yuu laughed and turned his attention back to the TV. Yui puffed her cheeks out in annoyance but she sat down next to him all the same.

"Why'd you wake up?" Yuu asked. The sudden question could her off guard and she stumbled on the reply.

"Well, I… umm-I just." She could see her brother holding back a grin and she flushed. "I came to get a drink of water."

"You could've had your hot chocolate but you fell asleep before you finished it. I had to wash it away. A waste of a good drink."

"Sh-shut up, stupid Onii-chan." Yui spat and quickly looked at the TV. "Is this still on?"

"Yeah." He replied like he hadn't even noticed he'd been insulted. "It's one of those big ones that goes on until midnight. Like those events at New Year's that count down to the next year, y'know? There isn't much left, I only wanted to see this next act anyway."

"You stayed up this late on Christmas Eve to watch an act that you could've recorded and watched later?"

Yuu thought about that for a moment and then grinned sheepishly.

"I forgot about that."

Typical Onii-chan, Yui thought. He always ended up doing something like that. At first he'd do something Yui thought was quite cool and her view of him raised a little, but then she'd be let down pretty quickly when she realised that it was all a stroke of luck. But unlike her classmates, she didn't feel upset when he let her down. She then felt that it was her time to shine. Her time to show him how much she'd grown. Maybe that's what she worked so hard for. She figured it had something to do with how close they were emotionally. She wondered if she could get this close with Yuuki-kun one day.

Her face flushed and she shook the thought out of her head. Yui hated how often these thoughts were invading her mind nowadays. Be it in the kitchen, at school or even in her dreams occasionally, he's there. It was bad enough that he was shameless when she was awake, but even in her dreams? That was going a bit overboard, even for her. The things she had to put up with, she doubted that she could just talk it through with someone. They would have no idea what it was like, how humiliating it was for Yuuki-kun to do these things "accidentally".

Doing these things with someone he actually cared about and purposely did them would be slightly better ethically. Although things like that should be done in private. What Yuuki-kun did in his private time was none of her business but she still wished that he could leave his bad habits at home.

"Really now." She mumbled to herself. Her brother must've heard something because he looked at her curiously but she shook her head. He shrugged and turned back to the TV just as Yui heard some knocking. "You hear that?"

Yuu muted the TV and listened intently for a few seconds and sure enough the knocking came again.

"Is that our door?" He asked as he got up.

"No, no." Yui pushed him back down. "Do they have any idea how late it is? How rude can you get?"

She was already at the door by the time a third set of knocking started and quickly unlocked the door. She swung it open ready to let loose on this uncivilised person but was instantly shut up.

The man at the door stumbled straight in to her, he must've been leaning on the door. Yui fell backwards heavily and the man fell on top of her too. She cried out as soon as she hit the floor and she heard her brother call her name. She struggled to push the assailant off her as he was a lot heavier than she was, but she managed to flip him over and she knelt on his chest. She was ready to smack this man but one look at his face crushed that notion completely.

"Yuuki-kun?" She gasped and quickly got off him with a crimson face. "Wha-wha-what do you think you're doing? Have you any idea of how late it is?"

Yuuki-kun knelt before her and struggled to get his breath back. Had he been running over here? He was shivering and had his arm inside of his coat as if shielding an injury.

"Hey, what's going on?" Yuu asked as he came up behind Yuuki-kun. He seemed to lighten up once he saw the boy on the floor but Yui could tell he was still very wary of him. "Yuuki? It's not like I don't like seeing you but what are you doing here?"

Yuuki-kun held up a hand while he took in deeper breaths and readied himself. He gathered his energy and picked himself up off the floor.

"I'm sorry that I charged you down, Kotegawa, but I couldn't wait any longer." He said with that same serious expression he used in her room when she was ill. She blushed even harder. He glanced down at his watch and saw it was 5 minutes to midnight. "Thank God, I'm still in time."

"Yuuki-kun, what is going on?" She asked. "I swear if this is some kind of a joke I will-"

"It's not a joke." Yuuki-kun cut in with. "I've been running around for the past 3 hours trying to find something. I had everybody else's sorted and delivered but yours… yours was difficult to find Kotegawa."

"What was difficult to find?" She butted in but he held his hand up again for quiet and Yuu took this as a sign to leave them alone as well.

"Nonetheless, I found the perfect present." Wait, present? He was looking for a present… for her? "Merry Christmas, Kotegawa."

Yuuki-kun pulled his arm out of his coat carefully and she wondered if he really was hurt. But no, in his hand, that he held out towards her was an animal. But not just any animal, he held a little, white, furry kitten. Her jaw dropped open and she just stared in awe at the cutest thing she had ever seen in her life. She could've fainted right there but she found she was even coherent enough for that.

"I-i-is that a k-k-ki-"

"A kitten?" Yuuki-kun finished for her. "Yes, he's a kitten. Just over a month old and his claws are as sharp as needles."

Yui only just realised that his hand was shaking from withstanding the pain. She quickly got a grip and very gently took the kitten from him. It mewled as her fingers touched it and she almost fainted again. She sat the kitten on her chest and ran a finger through its fur. It blinked up at her with brilliant golden eyes and mewled again before settling down in to her.

"Yuuki-kun, I don't know what to say." She was so shocked she was having trouble thinking straight. "I don't know if I can take him, I mean, it's a cat. No matter how cute he is, a cat is a lot of responsibility and I don't-"

"You? Kotegawa Yui, the most active member of the disciplinary committee doesn't know if she can take care of a single kitten?" Yuuki-kun shook his head in mock disappointment. "She single-handedly prevents every shameless act I've seen, she takes care of a mostly human toddler on an almost daily basis and still manages to keep her unwavering confidence."

"But this is-" Yui protested.

"What you've always wanted. I know you love cats, I've seen your room and it's bordering obsessive but you're still lacking the key source of it all." Yuuki-kun had had this cheeky grin the whole time but now he turned to the door and walked out momentarily in which Yui thought he was going to run but he came back in just as quickly with a large duffel bag. He dropped it at their feet and revealed its contents.

"Is that what I think it is?" Yui probed cautiously.

"In here is everything you could possibly need for taking care of him." He showed her various items as he rolled them off. "There's a basket, a litter box, a couple of bowls, a few cans of cat food, balls, feathers and pieces of string. I was told that cats actually have preferences to what they play with. I was also told that almost every cat loves an old key tied on the end of string. There are a few other things at the bottom, but I was assured that everything was in there. Oh, this as well."

Yuuki-kun rummaged through his pockets one by one until he found what he wanted and showed it to the girl with the cat. It was a collar, a blue one with a little gold bell attached. He saw that Yui had her hands full and took the liberty of putting the collar on it himself. Not too loose so it could pry it off, but not too tight to choke it. A couple of times Yuuki-kun's hands brushed against Yui's skin where her pyjama collar didn't reach. She blushed but it was more of a pleasantly happy blush that an embarrassed one. Yuuki-kun scratched the kitten's head before he took his hands away and Yui almost did want him to. Almost.

Yuuki-kun looked at her once more and asked plainly;

"Will you keep him?"

Yui looked at the cat sleeping contently on her chest and back at the boy. She pondered her answer for a while but Yuuki-kun didn't get impatient.

"Yes, I'll keep him." Yui said finally and it brought a smile to the boy's face. "After all, turning down a present you went to all this trouble to get me, would be pretty harsh of me."

"I knew I'd made the right choice in you." Yuuki-kun beamed.

"But I still have to choose a name."

"I think whatever you choose will be great. He's your cat after all."

"Yuuki." Yui stated.

"Yeah?"

"Not you, the kitten." Yui corrected. "I figured since his fur is white as snow, 'Yuuki' is an appropriate name."

Yuuki-kun looked at her sceptically like she had some kind of ulterior motive. But she just folded her arms as best she could with a cat in her arms.

"Don't get me wrong. I'm not naming him after you." She scolded. "I'm not mixing you up so I guess I'll have to start calling you Rito-kun."

"Eh? Are-are you sure?" Yuuki-kun asked. "I mean, not that I don't want us to be better friends or anything."

"Of course I'm sure." Yui said confidently. "But to not raise suspicion, I guess you should call me Yui too."

Yuuki-kun looked at her like her head had spun around but he tried to regain his composure even with the red tinge to his cheeks. They smiled at each other for a few seconds before Yuuki-kun sighed with relief.

"Well, that's 'Mission Complete' I guess." Yuuki-kun said kind of solemnly. He walked to the door and opened it to let himself out. He was about to close it behind him but he must've remembered something. "Oh, before I go, he'll need feeding three times a day, one can per day should be enough, they're pretty big cans and umm… I guess that really is it."

He walked back to the door and uncharacteristically bowed to her quickly. His awkwardness made her smile.

"I'll see you at school once the holidays are done." Yuuki-kun nodded. "Goodbye Rito-kun."

Rito-kun smiled, but just before she lost him to the outside she heard him say;

"I'll see you later, Yui."

Yui stood in silence, breathing the moment in before it was rudely spoiled by her brother putting his hand on her shoulder. She scowled at him but he was too busy wiping away the tears in his eyes

"I'm s-so happy for you, Yui." He blubbered. "You're finally taking your relationship somewhere."

"Stop being a drama queen, Onii-chan." Yui scolded with a smile at the corners of her lips. Yuu wobbled back in to the living room. Yui smiled and looked at her new family member in her arms. "Come on, you little monkey. Time for bed."