Dark Chocolate, White Diamonds
By Dixxy
Epilogue: A Christmas to Remember
(Keisha)
"IT'S CHRISTMAS!"
The sound of Ria's sudden shriek woke the rest of us up with a start. Sam swore and threw a pillow at the offensive Senshi of Wildfire. Rona grumbled and buried her head into pillow. Sara blinked, opened and closed her mouth a few times, and promptly fell backwards back onto her sleeping bag. I sat up and stretched, and smiled.
It was Christmas morning.
Christmas was going to be hard that year, what with it not being quite a month since my parents had died. It felt weird knowing that I was in a different house and that my mother wouldn't be wheeling into my room to softly wish me a Merry Christmas, or that my father wouldn't be carving the big Christmas ham. But with the deaths of the Dark Wing, Talpa, and my grandmother, I truly felt at piece with the whole issue.
Still, that wasn't enough to convince the Senshi I was at peace. So, just like Thanksgiving, everyone was going to have Christmas at Mike's house for one gigundo sleep-over that had just about every room in the whole household full of people- well, okay, legitimate bedrooms and couches with pull-out beds. But it was a full house none the less.
The other Senshi had all spent the night in my room, where we gossiped, told stories, and just caught up on things for a few hours until Mike threatened to make us sleep outside unless we quieted down. Many snickers could be heard from Kento's room, where Sage and Cye also were. That resulted in the five of us sneaking into his room to beat the living daylights out of the boys with pillows. I don't think an inch of Kento's floor wasn't covered in feathers after Sara's pillow AND Sage's pillow both burst open. I think Mike just decided to stay out of that one for the sake of his sanity.
But soon, Christmas morning was apon us. Ria had gotten us all up early so we could utilize the bathrooms and get dressed so it wouldn't be so mad once everyone else started to wake up. Well, at least not for us. It seemed like EVERYONE got up an hour after we all did, but by that time, we were all good and just sat back and watched Sage and Kento wrestle for the bathroom as Cye just casually stepped over the two.
Around nine, everyone was finally ready and we all piled downstairs as one massive unit. We gathered around the WAY overstuffed Christmas tree, which was actually quite beautiful. Kento, Sage, Evan, Sue Lee and I had trimmed it together, getting lots of candy canes, garland, and ornaments on the tree. I myself wouldn't have minded a real tree, but there would be too many people with allergies to risk it. But still, plastic was nice.
"Look at all those gifts and decorations!" said Mrs. Lewis. She clasped her hands together and cooed in appreciation of the tree. "Everyone did such a wonderful job wrapping the gifts and trimming the tree! All of the pretty colors and bows and tags! Oh, I just LOVE Christmas!"
Mike plopped a Santa hat on his head, then grinned stupidly at his little joke (most of us rolled our eyes and groaned- Cara was giggling and clapping at Mike's pathetic excuse for humor). He was playing "Santa". "Now, unless otherwise noted, all gifts will be handed out randomly," he said.
I raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Unless otherwise noted? Mike, what does that mean?" I asked. The grin on Kento's face gave me a clue. At least a few people in the room were up to something, and Kento was, at the very least, one of them. And whatever he had planned had something to do with me.
With that, Mike started to hand out gifts. There was a nice assortment of gifts from all parties to all parties, like the golden wing necklace Sam gave Sage or the grand total of $203 in Orange Julius gift certificates for Anubis. But by the time Cye had opened his gift from Sam, I noticed I still hadn't gotten a gift from Kento. Was this was he was up to?
"Okay, now we have the 'unless otherwise noted presents'," said Mike. With that comment, Sage, Cye, and Kento all scrambled from wherever they were seated and sat under the tree. Sage yanked the Santa hat off of Mike's head and placed it onto his own. We all snickered and Mike looked at the hat forlornly. The last Flitteree balanced the hat on his huge tuft of hair, only to have it slide off once more.
"The three of us- me, Cye, and Kento- are not giving this gift as us-me, Cye, and Kento. We're giving it as the Ronin Warriors of Halo, Torrent, and Hardrock to the Ronin Senshi and the former Warlady of Darkness, Corruption, and Decay. Or, the Ronin Senshi of Winter," said Sage. "Kento? Will you please get the box?"
Kento nodded, running off down the hall. We heard him fumbling around in one of the closets (as well as a few loud crashes), but he soon returned with a nicely wrapped box. He placed it on the floor before him. "All chicks with armor powers please step up to the box," he announced.
We all laughed and did as we were told, unwrapping the box. Once we were done, we saw a normal brown cardboard box. We all opened the flaps together to see a massive wasteland of tissue paper. After getting through that, we saw six brightly colored metal bracelets with gemstones embedded into them.
"What are these?" asked Ria, looking over the red one.
"They're called 'power boosters'. They serve two purposes. One, they act as a sort of channel to project your magic through- makes them strong," said Cye. "Second, they can also store magical items such as spell books and, more importantly, your armor orbes. Makes it easier to carry them around, huh?"
"I made them, Sage and Cye filled them with little magical do-hickeys," said Kento.
"I put in a few magic herbs that can heal wounds and Cye put in magic water," said Sage.
"What does the magic water do?" asked Sara.
Cye shrugged. "Actually, I'm not sure myself."
Rona snickered. "So you could've given us an explosive and you wouldn't know it?"
"I doubt it's an explosive, Rona," said Anubis. He turned to his son. "Cye? You should let me have a look at that 'magic water' so we know what it is- it's useless to them if they can't use it. For all we know it's either magic armor polish or a highly potent aphrodisiac."
"Kento? Keisha? Stay-"
"TREVOR!"
Anubis bit his bottom lip. "Er. . . that was my fault."
"Next gift!" said Ella quickly, as she snatced the Santa hat off of Sage. Sage looked at the hat, quivering his lip. Mrs. Lewis and Sally joined her. Ella pulled six boxes out from behind a chair. "Sam, Sage, Kento, Keisha, Sara, Cye, Rona, and Ria, please step up." Once we complied (which we really didn't have to because we were up there anyways), Ella gave us each a box and told us to open them. "Sally, Marsha and I worked together to make these for you all."
"Made us gifts? Aw, you didn't have to do that! That was so nice of you all to do that!" said Cye, who had already opened the lid of his box. He looked in, went large eyed, and looked into the box in pure, unadulterated disbelief. "What in the name of the Ancient One?"
"What is it, Cye?" asked Sage. Cye looked into the box, still looking confused, and pulled out a stuffed about the size of a cat. It was of a girl who had blue hair, pink eyes, and a pink flower behind one ear. She was also wearing one of Sara's favorite outfits to boot. "That looks like Sara!"
Getting rather curious and giggly, we all got a little more aggressive with our own boxes. I discovered a Kento doll in my box with a large marble that was obviously supposed to be a crystal ball. I picked up it and smiled, then laughed. "Aw, this is so sweet!" I said, hugging the doll.
Rona and Ria each opened up a stuffed animal. "Wow," sad Ria, looking at her rabbit. It had long, floppy pink ears and a bit red bow tied around its neck. She showed it to Sage, who looked at the Senshi of Fire in questioning. "Hey, Sage? Is Ryo of the Wildfire a bunny?"
Sage looked at the bunny, then started to crack up. "No! He isn't!"
"But he would look rather amusing in a bunny costume," said Kento, holding a doll that looked like me in his lap. He cracked a wide grin, chuckling to himself. "Still, I can see it now. Ryo and Rowen on some little kids show in giant bunny and bear costumes."
Sam was looking over her Sage doll, which came with a pair of detachable wings. She was flying it around the area she was seated in, making funny airplane noises (which, sadly, is something Sage occasionally does when he's flying). "This is too funny," she said. "Thanks, Ella."
Another round of thanks came from the bunch of us. Trevor made another wise crack about Kento and me- this time much more crude- which caused Evan to call for his Staff, which he used to beat Trevor over the head with. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis exchanged the classic parental look of "Where did we go wrong?".
"Maybe I shouldn't have taught him how to call his Staff so soon," Anubis mused.
With that done, we all started back for our seats. To my surprise, Kento placed a hand on my shoulder. He looked at me, shaking his head. I blinked at him, wondering what I was up to. Kento just gave me a slightly nervous grin. Oh. This must be what he's up to. Guess I'd better stay up here, huh?
Kento helped me to my feet as Sage and Cye cleared out of the way. Nervously, he cleared his throat. "Before I go on with this, I have a few words I'd like to say," said Kento. Several sarcastic groans and many giggles emitted from the crowd. "Hey! Be nice to me! What did I ever do to you!"
"Give him a minute," said Cye.
"Thanks, Cye," said Kento, giving his best friend a thumbs up in approval of the defense. He turned to me and took both of my feelings. "Keisha, I just want you and everyone in this room to know that I love you more than anything else in this world and nothing will ever change that."
I smiled, blushing. "That's really sweet, Kento," I said. "I know you love me and I love you, too."
"I'm glad," he said, smiling. He put his doll down, then took mine so our dolls could sit next to each other. After looking at them for a few minutes, Kento looked back up at me with a slightly. . . sad, look, on his face maybe. "I just want to know one thing. Out of all the guys in the world, why me?"
I looked at Kento. "What do you mean, why you?"
"I mean. . . I never really had anyone who's ever made me feel this way in my life or had anyone seen so happy around me. Yeah, I've had other girlfriends before, but, none of them lasted this long or went so far. I've always thought that I wasn't special because of it, but. . . what is it about me that makes you love me?"
"A little bit of everything," I said, almost laughing. I went up to him, and started to play with his hair. "You're cute, for one thing, but that was just the initial reaction. You're strong, you're funny, and you sincerely care about all of your friends. Even Rona and Sam whenever they decide to torment you."
"Duck boy!"
"Like they did just now," I said dryly, giving Strata and Halo a look of death. "You care about me, and that's all I really want out of a guy. I've never been used to having everything because I grew up with next to nothing. It was hard sometimes, but it put a lot of things into perspective for me. All I need in this relationship is you, Kento."
Everyone went "Aww. . .".
Kento smiled at me. "Really?"
"Really," I said.
He nodded, then took in a deep breath. "Here's the hard part," he said. He started to reach for his back pocket, but never took his eyes off of me. "I know I want to spend the rest of my life with you, Keisha. You make me feel like another person whenever I'm with you."
"I guess I feel the same way about that, too," I said.
Kento smiled, then dropped down on one knee and revealed a small, velvet blue box. He popped it open to reveal a beautiful diamond ring that gleamed in the light of the room. Suddenly, I knew what was going on. From the gasps coming from my friends, I knew they knew what he was going to do as well. Kento looked up at me. "Keisha Narrlobi, will you marry me?"
I froze. The other females in the room were all making excited squeaks, Kento looking at me, waiting for my answer. I looked over at everyone else. All of the adults looked slightly surprised, though Cye, Sage, and Evan showed no real response, just smug smiles. I turned my attention back to my proposing boyfriend, who was beginning to look really nervous.
I started to cry. Not a sad cry, but I happy cry. "Yes!" I blurted out. Then I broke down and collapsed into Kento's waiting arms, taking comfort in him. Everyone else was cheering and screaming, yells of congratulations filling the living room. Kento pulled away from out embrace long enough to slip the ring onto my finger, then helped me to my feet. Wrapping our arms around each other, we kissed again, eliciting more cries of happiness from our small audience.
"I love you so much," said Kento, his voice sounding shaky. Taking a closer look at my boyfriend- no, my fiancé- I saw that he, too, was shedding a few tears. He cupped my face in his hand, feeling my skin under the soft pads of his fingers. He loves me. He honestly loves me!
"I love you, too," I said, staring into his eyes. I felt happy. I belonged somewhere. I was with the one I loved and nothing was ever going to get between us ever again. Someday, we were going to get married and spend the rest of our lives together. I don't think there are any words in my entire vocabulary that can describe that.
I chuckled, resting my forehead against Kento's. "I love you," I said.
"I love you, too."
. . . okay, now it's over.
Kento and Keisha's engagement is going to be VERY LONG TERM. Depending apon how far I decide to take the series (it could easily end after the groups meets up with Ryo and Rowen, which will happen within the next two stories), we may never see the pair actually married, but hey, depends on where this series decides to go.
I have no idea where I'll be going from here, though I do plan to release a MUCH more edited version of Consequences of Capture, and chances are it and a few other things will be coming out as I get ideas for the Rona/Ria story, Dragonia, and End of Innocence v2.0. So, be on the lookout for that, more Dragonia, and the story with the focus on Rona and Ria, though not as a couple (sorry Harry ).
Musou: Yup. It was. And now we'll TRY to work on Dragonia.
Harry: grumbles I hate it when you're right. Hey, I'll see what I can do and thank-you much! But, until I figure out what to do with my major RW projects, a lot of those alerts will be for my Chrono Cross stories.
Aynslesa: Well, he did come up with something nice, right? Hey, I only quite a story when I started writing it on an impulse and just ran out of ideas (i.e. Sehkment's Vacation, which never got much farther than the prologue). A Spoiled Princess might join the ranks of that one, and people familiar to my site will know the name Tragedies of Fate, which ironically enough turned into a comedy. Aw, thank you!
Yin-Yang: shudders Creepy. Well, now you know what they did and everyone's all happy and mushy. Mr. Binky is probably some sort of a bear- he may or may not make an actual appearance in the storyline.
Winter: Hey! I didn't think you were referring to that! I just started going off the top of my head! Thanks!
Kar-chan: Well, this story was written for Christmas, but both of its releases occurred at a time of year that was NOT Christmas. Er. . . wow. oO.
So. . . the comments for this will be in the Rona/Ria story, whenever that gets out. But like I said, I'm not sure where I'm going, but at least I'm not leaving you guys on a cliffhanger this time.
Dixxy
