Bonds
Disclaimer: I don't own Oban, yada yada yada. If I did O would really speak through repetitive Ohing.
A/N: Sorry I took so long to update. You'll all be happy to know, I just finished Driver's ED, so I'm finally free again. The other reason this chapter took so long was because I was working on a one-shot JordanEva fic. I spent like forever on it.
Anyways, this chapter is going to be a sort of special. I was planning to write this story originally as a One Shot, but I later realized that it would be rather difficult to explain all changes I've done to the original story line without Bonds to back me up. So let us just take Bonds, jump through a plot hole to Christmas Time, place Aikka back on Nourasia, and call everything peachy, okay? I promise to return back to the original story line afterwards, but for now it's time for my Christmas Special!
Chapter Nine: Experiencing Christmas
Outside, the snow slowly coated the ground in a layer of frozen white in the blackness. With Eva's every breath, a layer of fog condensed on the window. She watched the flakes as the fell, one by one by one. Outside the white lights that clung to the roof illuminated the scene for her. Though Eva had hung the lights nearly a month ago, this must have been the prettiest she had seen them yet.
Downstairs she could hear rustling in the living room. It must be one of the boys placing their gifts for everyone under the tree. It was a ritual in the Wei household. Instead of spending Christmas Eve and morning by themselves Stan, Koji, and Jordan would spend the night and exchange presents with the Wei's on Christmas morning. It was one of the many things the Earth team did to keep together as a strong team.
Snowflakes drifted past the window. As Eva's wandering eyes followed the snowflakes in their eternal dance, she could feel her self begin to droop. An enormous yawn escaped her lips as she realized just what time the clock showed. Giving in to her fatigue, Eva crawled over to her bed and wrapped the blankets about her. Though her eyes were closed, she was not blessed with the calming sleep for an hour or two to come. There was a feeling of anxiety that kept her a wake, a premonition of what was to come the following day.
Christmas Day, to be exact.
When morning came, Eva grabbed a few fresh clothes, took a quick shower before racing downstairs to help Don Wei prepare breakfast. It was nearly completed when the sound of the three boys racing down the stairs could be heard. They flew past the kitchen, and into the living room beyond, where many decorative presents sat beneath the tree.
"Breakfast before presents, boys!" Don Wei called to the three who were already swarming the tree like flies.
"C'mon Dad! It's Christmas, breakfast can wait!" Eva declared joyfully, grabbing her father's hand, and dragging him to the boys. Stan and Jordan were at work dividing up the presents. Koji sat and watched with amusement as they tried to decipher each other's hand writing.
"This one looks like it's for Eva." Stan said as he squinted at the markings on the small tag.
"No, it says Koji. See?" Jordan attempted to point out.
"There is no way that curly mark is a K." Stan stuck with the evidence. Eva settled the dispute by taking the box to Don (who had been the one responsible for the small package) who deciphered his own handwriting to say "To Stan". From then on, Stan and Jordan let the manager pass out the presents.
"What about that box?" Koji replied to the question of whether everything was finally in correct order. The entire Earth Team turned their heads to look at a very large box sitting, half hidden, under the tree. As Eva bent over to examine it, she noted that it was remarkably large, large enough; in fact, it fit a medium sized human. Eva tugged at the box, realizing it was fairly heavy. In the end, both Jordan and Stan had to assist her in dragging it to the center of the room. The tag read: "For my dear Eva, I do hope you enjoy this." However, no one had signed the from space, and Eva could not identify the handwriting. It wasn't her father's cursive, Jordan's sketchy block letters, Koji's scribbles, or even Stan's liney capital letters.
"You should open that one last," Koji suggested.
"Yah, It could be a sort of finale," Jordan agreed.
"Why not?" Eva ended up agreeing. It made sense after all. Gift opening proceeded. Instead of the calm orderly opening of one present at a time that Don had suggested, the boys ripped out their presents in a massive furry.
Colored paper flew everywhere.
The living room carpet was covered in it. Don had given up trying to pick it all up, and just threw his arms up in frustration. Eva giggled with amusement. She knew they would all be forced to clean up the paper later, but she enjoyed the mess while it lasted. Finally, after many presents, and a thousand Thank yous, the only thing left to open was the giant present.
"Well, go on, open it," Don urged. Eva nodded, and began to rip the paper off to reveal:
A plain looking cardboard box.
Eva looked at it suspiciously before ripping off the tape that kept the box closed. To her surprise, there, laying in the box with a rather amused look on his face was none other than Prince Aikka. Eva let out a squeal rival to that of any fan girl and practically mauled Aikka as he tried to sit up. Don looked horrified. How could anyone be so evil has to hide his daughter's close male friend in a harmless looking Christmas present? Stan and Koji were laughing, while Jordan explained to them the fine details of how he had accomplished such a feat. Aikka, on the other hand, struggled for air.
As Jordan explained over breakfast, the ploy to hide Aikka in a Christmas present for Eva had not been accomplished solely by him; both Stan and Koji had been involved as well. Eva hugged them all for this. It had to be the best Christmas Present she had ever received.
After breakfast, it was decided that the snow outside would not be left to melt without some use. Everyone (excluding Don Wei of course) pulled on warmer clothes and headed for the door. Though Eva was at first worried that Aikka would not be prepared, she soon discovered that Aikka had not simply been shipped from Nourasia in a package. He had flown via space shuttle with his necessities and a few extra clothes, and had later been stuffed in a box and set under the tree. With that taken care of, the five were soon romping about in the cold white snow.
"This snow's no good for packing," Stan observed as chunks of white snow fell from between his gloves to the ground. "It'd be impossible to use this for anything except…" He grinned at Koji.
"SNOWBALL FIGHT!" The mechanics shouted in unison as Jordan fell victim to their first projectiles. Aikka and Eva immediately ran for cover behind the birch and oak trees that surrounded the Wei house. Eva had learned from experience that both Stan and Koji were amazing when it came to snowball fights. Whether it was because Koji (having a big family) had learned from his many siblings, or that the area they were both raised in was white nearly all winter long, the fact still remained that together they were nearly invincible when it came down to the snow.
Eva winced as a snowball hurtled inches from her left ear. If she didn't act fast, this was going to end up as a slaughter. She raced zigzag across the fresh snow, pausing only to grab handfuls of snow and toss it behind her as a sort of smokescreen. Once she had created substantial distance between herself and the skilled mechanics she began to form plan. It involved Jordan, Aikka, and a very large pile of snowballs. She shaped two snowballs before venturing out back the way she had come.
Aikka was the first to be found. Though he was holding his own against Koji, Eva noticed that his aim wasn't very accurate. This could possibly be because he had never actually thrown a ball of this particular weight before. Eva threw her own snowball. It stuck Koji's face, and Eva used this distraction to lead Aikka away. She explained her plan to him, and he agreed.
When Jordan stumbled into them, he was coated in a light layer of snow and his hair was wet. He looked rather disgruntled and bore a frown.
"Stan pinned me down from behind and they whitewashed me." He explained at Eva's questioning glance.
"You up for a little revenge then?" Eva took Jordan's misfortune as an advantage to fuel her little plan. It was simple, Jordan would be used as bait and lead them through the front yard and into a small section of trees where Aikka and Eva would be waiting to ambush them.
"Hey, why do I have to be the bait?" Jordan protested. It was beneath him, or so he thought.
"They'll follow you. You're obviously a weak target," Eva explained.
"What?!"
"You don't see me or Aikka getting whitewashed," She pointed out with a smug grin. Jordan grumbled and made a few further weak protests, but it was clear that Eva had won the argument.
Aikka and Eva moved into position was started making snowballs. Everything seemed to be working fine, until Jordan came running back.
"I can't find them anywhere," He explained. "It's like they're just not-" Jordan didn't get to finish his sentence, as all three of them were pelted from behind. Though Aikka and Eva escaped the snowball onslaught, Jordan was caught, and whitewashed, again.
With the malfunction of her first plan, Eva racked her brain for further plots, but these too, all ended up as failures. This cycle of planning, preparing, and running continued until Don Wei called them all in for lunch a few hours later.
Wet clothes removed, the five young adults plopped down exhausted in front of the fireplace in the living room.
"You guys did pretty good out there. No one's ever come that close to beating me and Koji in a long while," Stan explained to the others with a grin.
"But you appeared to always have the upper hand," Aikka reasoned.
"Just because we were always a step ahead of you doesn't mean we weren't coming close to out limits," Koji provided further explanation.
"What I want to know is why you kept whitewashing me." Jordan complained about the wrongs done to him. Koji and Stan looked at each other before breaking into laughter. "Well?" Jordan demanded.
"Entertainment," Stan finally replied.
"Plus you're the only one who would forgive us for stuffing snow down your shirt." Koji continued. Jordan scowled, partly because he was angry, and partly because he knew they were right. Before this conversation could further develop, Don came with cups of hot cocoa for all of them, and the topic was changed to other things. For example, Why wasn't Aikka spending Christmas with his own family?
Back on Nourasia, the holiday known as Christmas didn't exist. However, as Aikka explained, there was a similar holiday taking place at nearly the same time. But since Nourasia had a different orbit than Earth, and a different sun, they were currently in autumn rather than winter. Eva hugged him tightly and promised to visit him during his own holiday.
As Aikka explained, Eva's calico cat Plato ventured into the living room. Koji knelt down to pet him, and the cat traveled from person to person, accepting all the attention they gave him. As Aikka reached out a hand to pet the cat, Plato sniffed it uncertainly. Suddenly, as if a light bulb and gone off in his head, the cat hissed, and batted Aikka's hand away. Rather discouraged and disheartened, Aikka quickly took his hand back.
Jordan made Aikka feel worse with his teasing. "Looks like Plato doesn't like Princey. And I've heard that Plato is a good judge of character." The smug look on his face made Aikka reach for his dagger with anger.
"Don't worry about Plato." Stan patted Aikka reassuringly on his shoulder. "At first he didn't like Jordan either."
"Is that so?" Aikka returned Jordan's smug look with one of his own.
The time slowly ticked into mid afternoon, and Stan, Koji, and Jordan said their farewells. Jordan was spending the remainder of Christmas with his mother who lived in the country, and Stan and Koji were off to see their families (who, to no one's surprise, celebrated together). The Wei's also had something planned: they spent every Christmas evening with Rick and his family. Eva was exited to have Aikka meet her adopted brother, his teasing wife, and her little niece.
If Eva could have picked one word to describe Rick's house it would be lavish or magnificent. Though it didn't go over the top as many rich houses did, it was very nice with two stories (plus an attic and a basement) an indoor pool, and beautiful landscaping with frozen ponds and big trees. A smiling Rick met them at the large wooden front doors. His dark hair was pulled back in a horse tail, and he was wearing a pale green button up shirt and a pair of black slacks.
"I see your Nourasian Prince arrived." He commented upon seeing Aikka.
"Et tu1?" Don asked, horrified.
Rick snorted in amusement. "Who do you think bought him the shuttle ticket so he could come and visit Little Mouse?"
Eva hugged her brother. "Thanks so much, Rick. You don't know just how much I appreciate having Aikka here."
The ex-pilot smiled at her, and then winked at Aikka who turned bright red as he realized what Rick was hinting at. "I think I do."
Eva wasn't two meters in the house when a squeal rang out and her leg was suddenly caught in a hug.
"Onee-Chan2!" The girl cried. She was rather short, with her chin reaching just above Eva's knee. Her hair was just as black as Rick's and her eyes a soft blue. She was wearing a cute red and green Christmas dress, with matching red socks that had little green Christmas trees embroidered on the sides.
"Hey Blume!" Eva returned her affectionate little niece's hug. About this time, the final member of Rick's happy family entered the room. She was maybe a head taller than Eva, and wore her blond hair styled short. She was wearing khaki capris, and a white blouse covered by a brown pullover embroidered in a blue that matched her own blue eyes. She was known for her kind smile, good advice, and her constant teasing.
"Eva! Don!" She gave out one of these smiles now to her sister-in-law and father-in-law. "How are you doing?"
"Just fine, Risata." Don replied with a smile.
"So Eva, is this young Nouraisan the boyfriend I have been hearing so much about?" She directed her remark to Aikka, who until now had been standing quietly in the background. The couple turned a bright red.
"He's just my-" "I am only her-" They both began. "friend." They finished in unison, with the same word. Rick couldn't help but chuckle as they both turned a brighter red, if that was even possible.
"C'mon, Risata made us a big dinner. We should probably get to it while it's hot." Rick watched a feeling of relief wash over the two as her changed to a safer subject.
Just as Rick had said, the dinner was big, and nice. There was turkey, green beans, mash potatoes, cranberry sauce, yams and sweet potatoes, and many other various good foods. Aikka was determined to try a little of everything. Most of these foods were new to him, and all the new flavors and textures intrigued him. With each sample he would relate it to a Nourasian food, and was the main discusser in many of the table conversations.
When the food was eaten and the dishes all clean (courtesy of Aikka, who Risata said had to be one of the most well mannered young men she had ever met) the family wandered into the large cushy living room to talk the night away. Risata left upstairs to put a sleepy Blume to bed, and Rick and Don was engaged in some deep conversation about something or other. Eva was helping Aikka put away the clean dishes on the kitchen. As she was closing a cabinet, she glanced at the ceiling above the kitchen sink. To her horror, a small twig of a plant with small round leaves and white berries had been hung there, tied with a red ribbon.
Someone had hung mistletoe.
It wasn't embarrassing enough that Rick and Risata were teasing her and Aikka in front of her own disapproving father, but now she had to kiss him? There was nothing wrong with kissing the Nourasian prince. In fact, they had kissed rather often, but it was alone, where the prying eyes of their overseers couldn't criticize. Eva looked about. All the others were out of sight, in a different room. She prayed to the nearest entity that Aikka wouldn't know the Earth custom about mistletoe. However, the smile on Aikka's lips lead her to believe that there were no entities in the current vicinity, or that none of them were listening. He knew that she had seen the mistletoe; she knew that he knew what it meant. Before she could utter her protest, his hands were holding hers, and his lips gently brushed her own. His kiss was tender, and soft, as if he just wanted her to know he cared, and was thinking about her. When the kiss broke she snuggled against him for a short time. Even though she had dreaded it, Eva was glad it had happened.
They finally waved a goodbye to Rick and Risata and Don drove them back to the Wei house. He had already assured Eva, with much hesitation, that Aikka could stay in the guest bedroom until his shuttle was planned to leave in two days. When they arrived at the house Aikka and Eva settled on the couch, and spent the remainder of the night talking. When Don came to check on them before he went to bed himself, they were both asleep. Aikka was laying with his head against the back cushioning, and Eva's upper torso why laying across Aikka's lap with her head on the armrest, one of Aikka's dark toned arms reassuringly placed on her stomach. Don watched as it rose slowly up and down with her breathing. After a short period, Eva's father let out a long sigh. When he returned he placed a blanket over the sleeping couple, before turning of the lights and leaving for his own room. Plato slowly crawled up on the blanket, purring contently as he settled against Aikka. Eva's eye lids flickered as the lights of the dying fireplace danced over her sleeping form.
End
1 In Latin, Et tu, means 'You too?'. A large group of conspirators formed against the famous Roman leader Julius Caesar, and plotted to kill him. When they finally put their plan into action, Julius Caesar was killed. His last words were "Et tu, Brute?" when he realized that even his close friend Brutus was among the conspirators. He is often quoted in an attempt to mimic his feeling of ultimate betrayal.
2 Onee-Chan is Japanese for 'big sister'. Though I might have the spelling wrong.
A/N: The next chapter will be back to the storyline. I hope you guys enjoyed my little Christmas fic!
Also, I have some art from previous chapters up on my DeviantART page. www . puzzlepiece1343 . deviantart . com (without the spaces)
