Read on, my friends!

Rio's eyes glimmered brightly, taking in all the surrounding lights and the Christmas decorations. She had been doing this since she had left in the morning to scour the town. Now she had started walking back to Eyes' place, and at eight o'clock at night her mission was still to be finished.

When Rio walked in the door to Eyes' place, she glanced around, searching eagerly for the young pianist. In doing so, she noticed the exclusive lack of Christmas decorations. Depressed at the lack of even a Christmas tree, Rio decided that not only was she going to go through with Hiyono's plan, she was going to play out her own. Her cute little smile turned a tad bit creepy as she quickly thought up her plan. Anyone who knew something about her plan would have been sympathetic to Eyes Rutherford in some way or another.

Now that Eyes wasn't home, it would be the perfect time to set her plan into motion.

---

"Narumi-san, what about this one?" Hiyono hugged a pine, watching for Ayumu's reaction with eager eyes and a puffed lip. Ayumu glanced at the tree, then at Hiyono, "Stupid girl, there's no way that thing will fit into the apartment."

Hiyono restrained a growl from her throat. She had to keep playing like everything was normal. Right now, it was Rio's faze of the plan, so Hiyono just had to keep it cool. It proved difficult, however, especially when her detective kept spoiling her plans and she had to keep controlling her urge to put him through more aggravation than just her hand puppets.

She sniffed at him and walked over to a more petite tree, about four feet tall, "What about this, Narumi-san?"

Ayumu stated flatly, "It takes up too much room."

Hiyono paused to place her hands on her hips, "Narumi-san, why do you hate the idea of a Christmas tree so much?"

When Ayumu didn't answer, Hiyono finally went up to a tiny tree that looked like a miniturized version of a normal tree. A bit annoyed, she pouted, "Seriously, Narumi-san."

He studied the tree for a moment, then raised his eyebrows as the corners of his mouth pulled into an almost-impressed mock frown, "Yeah, that'll do."

---

Ryoko sighed heavily, her arms crossed, tapping her foot on the ground, "You're doing it wrong, idiot."

"Ow, Ryoko!" the redhead whined as the athlete's foot made contact with his calf. Bending down to massage his leg, he glared up at her, "What do you mean, I'm doing it wrong?"

Ryoko took the Christmas ornament out of his hands and hung it correctly on one of the tree branches. Kousuke stood and leaned over a little to study what she did, adjusting his tinted glasses on his nose, "But, that's exactly how I-"

"Shut up." she chastised as her fist collided with the side of his head. Scowling and rubbing his head, he questioned, "Has it become an obsession of yours to keep beating me up like this?"

Ryoko aimed her next punch at his head again, but instead put her fist down and picked up another Christmas ball and hung it on the tree. Kousuke crossed his arms, watching her, "I don't see why you made me come over if you were going to end up doing all of it yourself anyway."

The brunette scoffed, "Just shut up, Kousuke, and get out the star for me."

With a heavy sigh of frustration, Kousuke reached down toward the back of the tree to pick up a box with the star inside. When he picked it up, he noticed a small bag tucked behind the tree. Curious, he put the star back on the floor and picked up the bag. He dug into the contents of the bag and pulled them out. His expression was of immense confusion as he looked at Ryoko, waiting for her attention to shift to him.

As she finished putting a transparent icicle ornament on the tree, she hissed, "If you're just going to stand there, then why don't you just go ho-" her statement was cut off when she actually looked over at him and the contents in his hands.

She was silent for a while, her face growing quite red. She stuttered, "Uh...umm..."

Kousuke watched her for a few moments before asking, "Ryoko, what were you going to use the mistletoe for?"

Ryoko took a few moments to recover and turned around abruptly, slowly regaining her pride, "It's just another one of Hiyono's stupid plans, that's all."

Kousuke gave a slight nod of understanding, one that could almost be taken as disappointment, "Oh."

He then used his free hand to stroke his chin in thought as he pieced the puzzle together, "So Jou-chan is going to use this stuff to sabotage Little Narumi?"

Ryoko turned to look at him, "What do you think?"

Kousuke's wonderment turned to mischevious satisfaction, "I'm in."

---

"I still don't understand why you didn't just get a fake one. They last longer and don't leave needles everywhere." Ayumu Narumi commented.

Hiyono stepped back to admire the cute little tree now standing on the dresser, her expression passionate and her eyes sparkling with what she called Christmas spirit, "Because, Narumi-san! You can't have real Christmas cheer with a fake tree! A real Christmas tree leaves the heart so light and gives the whole house the smell of Christmas!"

Ayumu simply scanned his eyes over the trail of pine leaves from the door, all around the house, and finally to the dresser. Hiyono puffed, "So, it makes a tiny mess, but it brings joy and happiness, Narumi-san!"

Hiyono sighed happily, "Now, for the decorations."

The Narumi raised an eyebrow, "You mean we have to decorate it?"

Hiyono growled, "Of course, Narumi-san! Haven't you ever seen a real Christmas tree before?"

Ayumu didn't answer. He knew that Hiyono would end up dragging him to her place and showing him the tree at her own house.

---

Sure enough, here he was standing in front of the Yuizaki Christmas tree. It was a nicely-sized tree, the perfectly-dubbed Christmas tree, about six and a half feet tall. It was covered in the brightest lights that one could find for a Christmas tree and the poor tree looked almost as if it was weighed down by all the ornaments on the branches. However, it did smell nice, to Hiyono anyway, and it did seem to have a homy feel to it. Hiyono grinned proudly, "His name is Jubilee."

Ayumu studied it for a moment, then commented, "Stupid girl, there's nothing on the top."

Hiyono crossed her arms in a pout, "I can't reach to put the crown up there. It's too high."

Suddenly, Hiyono gave a little gasp, "Wait a second, Narumi-san! If you didn't know anything about decorating a Christmas tree, then how do you know that there has to be something on top?"

The chocolate-haired young man didn't answer once again and eyed the top of the tree. He sighed, "Now where's this crown, you stupid girl?"

Hiyono gave a light squeal and plucked the crown off the desk and handed it to him. Ayumu took a few moments to look at it before he reached up to put it on the top. His height made him so close to the top of the tree, but it fell short by a couple inches. As he tried, in deep concentration, to put the crown on the tree, Hiyono stood by, cheering, "Go, Narumi-san! You can do it! Almost there! Yes, yes, yes! No! Yes!"

Ayumu inwardly growled as he tried one more time, nearly slipping the crown onto the crown of the tree. Hiyono exclaimed, "Yes! Narumi-san! You did it!"

Her exclamation threw off his concentration and caused him to temporarily lose his balance. When his arm got caught up in some Christmas lights, he reached out and easily found the desk for support. However, he had to reach around Hiyono, who in turn lost her balance and grabbed the Christmas lights wrapped around Ayumu's arm. To prevent from both himself and her falling, Ayumu clasped onto her hand and pulled her up abruptly.

Hiyono found herself merely two inches away from her best friend's face, her whole body a couple inches from his. Not only that, somehow they had gotten themselves, or she had gotten them, entirely tangled up in the Christmas lights, temporarily making them both unable to get out. Hiyono could feel the warmth coming to her face as Ayumu stared at her with a blank expression.

She gulped, able to feel his hot breath on her face. The lights, still shining, created a rather strange environment and ultimately a big distraction. Ayumu spoke, a bit quieter, "It was your fault, stupid girl. Now we have to get out. And just so you know, I'm not decorating that tree when you're around."

With that, he disentangled himself from her and sighed, knowing that he would probably be the one to fix the lights and the crown. As she tried to do something to fix the lights, he asked, "Why a crown?"

Ayumu never got his answer and his question was left to freeze. Hiyono was too busy thinking about her plan to even notice his question.

---

Rio sighed happily, stepping back to admire her work, just as Eyes walked through the door. He glanced at her and around the room before giving her a very suspicious questionable look, "Rio?"

Rio smiled and scampered over to him, "Look, Eyes! Isn't it beautiful?"

Eyes walked over to it and examined it for a minute, "It has no lights, Rio."

The silver-haired imp gasped, suddenly remembering what she had forgotten, "Oh no! I knew I forgot something! Ughhh..."

Eyes continued to study the Christmas tree before turning back to his loud little friend, "It's artificial."

Rio's eyes went to the ground, "I couldn't afford a real one, and it's much easier to put together."

The pianist watched the tree intensely, before admitting, "I suppose it's alright."

The young girl lit up, "Aw, thank you, Eyes! Oh, yeah, I just remembered..." she folded her hands together and pleaded, "Can we please use the ballroom for a Christmas party, Eyes, pleeeaasse?"

Tired again, catch you all tomorrow!