MAKING MERRY
Chapter 6 - Giving and Receiving Departures
Tohru gave a little sigh of contentment. Dinner was over and everyone seemed to have taken much delight in the dishes she'd made. Especially the Christmas cake, which she had decorated with white frosting and some luscious red strawberries she'd managed to get a hold of. There wasn't a crumb left as everyone had happily devoured all of it among much boisterous conversation, the joviality of which was mainly due to Ayame, Shigure, Kagura, and Momiji. The only thing she could have wished for was to not have so many verbal disagreements break out among Kyou, Yuki, Hiro, and Uotani with brief comments by Hatsuharu here and there which only seemed to egg them on. Overall, it was wonderful that the party hadn't encountered any problems otherwise.
"Tohru, here." Hanajima's voice grabbed her attention.
Tohru turned to her friend only to find her pulling out a little gaily wrapped box from the black drawstring purse she had been carrying. Tohru's eyes grew bigger when Hanajima pulled out another and then another present, lining up the three boxes on the table before her. From her peripheral vision, she saw Momiji get up and leave but she was too distracted with what was before her to comment on it.
"For me?" she asked dumbly, looking to her friend for confirmation.
Hanajima nodded. "Yes. The purple one is from me. The red one from Arisa and the blue one from Megumi."
Tohru shook her head vigorously. "I can't accept this! It's too much," she said of the tiny boxes.
"Oh, go ahead and take 'em," Uotani said, waving away her protests, while Megumi inclined his head in agreement.
"But," Tohru looked upset and confused, "but I thought everyone said not to give presents. And Shigure-san said we wouldn't be exchanging gifts."
"That's right," said a smiling Shigure. "And it won't be an exchange if there's only one person receiving the gifts. An exchange is when more than one person gives something to each other, isn't it?"
Tohru shook her head again. "It's not right for me to take something without giving anything back!"
"Oh, my," said Hanajima. "That's not true. Tohru-kun has been a wonderful friend in return."
"But everyone has been so wonderful to me, too!" Tohru stubbornness at its best.
"Does Tohru not like it?"
Tohru turned around to see Momiji, returned from wherever he'd gone, leaning towards her in his usual manner, hands behind back with a cute woebegone expression on his face. It always meant that something was distressing him and never failed to tug at her heartstrings. She hated the thought of causing him any upset and wanted to do whatever it took to make up for it.
"That's not it at all," she protested.
"Then here!" From behind his back, Momiji pulled out a bulging paper bag.
"Eh!?" Tohru's eyes rounded once again. "What's this?"
"Presents from everyone! Me, Aya, Harii, Haru, Kyou, Kagura, Kisa, Shi- chan, and Ri-chan sent one too!" Momiji listed all the present givers excitedly. "Even Hiro gave you something!"
"Hey!" A slightly blushing Hiro shot a look at Tohru. "Don't think too much of it. It's just because everyone else was doing it."
"Hiro," came Kisa's soft voice. She hadn't known that he'd gotten Tohru a present, too. It made her happy and she gave him a tiny smile, causing him to redden even more.
Despite her pleasure in the fact that even Hiro had gotten something for her, Tohru really couldn't be such a glutton as to receive so many presents. What would Mother say? She protested a little more, "It really is too much for me to accept!"
"But Tohru did everything for the party!" cried Momiji. "We'd all feel terrible if Tohru didn't take our gifts of thanks!" His crestfallen features went straight to her heart. "And I was so happy when I picked out Tohru's gift. I'm sure everyone else was, too. That's why," he gave her his puppy-eyed patented look, "everyone will be so disappointed if their gifts aren't accepted."
From around the room, others added their support to Momiji's declaration. The guilt of causing so much disappointment by not taking the offered presents weight heavily on Tohru's shoulders. Deeply moved at this sign of everyone's warm feelings towards her, she looked up with unshed tears glimmering in her eyes.
"Everyone," she said emotionally.
The Soumas watched with varying degrees of bemusement, amusement, and envy as Hanajima and Uotani, obviously deeply touched by Tohru's sentimental expression, moved closer as they wrapped their arms around her in a warm hug. Hearts went practically flying everywhere from the feelings filling the room at this display of feminine affection.
"Tohru-kun" came Hanajima's voice, devoid of its usual passivity.
"Tohru," was the happy sigh from the tough-as-nails ex-gang member.
A smiling Momiji piped up, "So Tohru will take the presents?"
"Yes." Tohru's voice was muffled, smothered in the arms of her friends as she was.
"Yay!" he squealed. He opened the bag and spilled its contents onto the table. He picked up one of the presents, wrapped in a Santa hat wearing rabbit pattern, and held it out to her. "Open mine first!"
The next few moments were spent with Tohru opening her gifts while onlookers got to see what everyone else had gotten her. Momiji's gift followed the theme of the wrapping paper it came in, containing a bunch of chocolate pieces shaped as bunnies wearing Santa hats, and elicited a lot of from the girls. Kyou's gift, badly shaped cookies that were testament to them being handmade, resulted in more laughter and a blushing irritated glance from the giver. Yuki's present of long yellow hair ribbons with a strawberry printed pattern was received with warm smiles. Shigure's book and Ayame frilly dress, while garnering a bright smile from Tohru, was received with some concern among the other guests. Another book from Hatori on household remedies brought laughter and teasing since that seemed the best he could do in giving a girl a holiday present. Hugs were given upon revealing Kagura's cute mittens and Kisa's colorful handmade Christmas card. Although Ritsu's offering of a foot massager had drawn a lot of odd stares, Hiro's present of a wallet photo album had many grins directed at flushed Hiro. And everyone thought the presentation of gifts from her friends was done very nicely. It was obvious that the three had done their shopping together with the revealing of the silver jewelry that each bestowed on an awed Tohru. Silver was fashioned into butterfly and heart patterns as the small dangling earrings were from Uotani, the necklace from Hanajima, and the thin ring from Megumi.
But all good things come to an end and so the party wound down and the guests started leaving. Hatori led most of the guests out considering he was the one who had driven most of them in the first place. Although the departure was made a bit hectic with Ayame's words to his younger brother as the others filed out of the house.
"Yuki!" cried Ayame. "It's too bad we didn't get more time to talk. Although the party was fun, it was rather noisy so I didn't have much time to impart my brotherly wisdom upon you!"
You're always like that, Yuki thought as he sighed. He was tired and wanted everyone to leave already. He'd been so caught up in the liveliness of the party that he hadn't had a private moment to himself and get his thoughts together. He needed to think more on whether or not he should try to apologize to Tohru for the accidental kiss instigated by his brother.
"Yuki, you must listen to your older brother!" Ayame ignored Yuki's glare and continued on, "As my very own Christmas present to you, take this." He pressed something wrapped in tissue into Yuki's hand. "To inspire you to continue onto the path to become a man like me!"
"Aya!" Momiji appeared. "Are you coming? Everyone's already halfway to the car." Then he disappeared, following after the others.
Ayame gasped. "Tori-san! Wait for me!" He pointed to Yuki. "Yuki! Use that in the future and think of me, your loving brother." Then, like a flash, he was out the door before Yuki could give whatever it was his brother had handed to him back. Everyone left behind could only watch as long silver hair trailed behind the prancing figure.
"Well, it's been interesting," Uotani said.
"Yes. Interesting." A cool-eyed Hanajima looked at the three remaining Souma males, echoed with a similar look by her brother. "We should do this again next year."
Shigure started sweating again. "What?" At the concentrated dark-eyed gazes directed at him, he started chuckling nervously. "Certainly, certainly. It was fun, wasn't?" Weak smiles from Kyou and Yuki followed his remark.
"Well, then. See you later," said Uotani with a little wave as she exited, a silent Hanajima and Megumi going with her.
Once they'd left, several male sighs had Tohru turning to them with a questioning look.
"Is anything wrong?" she asked.
Shigure blinked. "Oh, no," he said. "Well, with all the excitement, we're just a little tired. Nothing to be concerned over." He blew out a breath. "I think I'll go to my room for a bit. You kids can continue having fun without me." Then with a little wave he was gone.
Kyou also exhaled noisily. "I'm going, too," he said moodily as he headed towards the stairs.
"Honda-san is going to finish cleaning up?" Yuki questioned once Kyou was gone. At her nod he said, "Then I'll help, too."
"Oh, no!" she protested. "I want to do this to thank everyone for their wonderful presents! I can't ask anyone to do anymore."
Yuki knew he should argue against that bit of logic, but he was too exhausted and knew from previous experience how long convincing her could take. Besides, when it came to cleaning, Honda-san was the best whereas he.well, he was something in the other direction.
"Then if Honda-san doesn't need anything for me to help with, I'll be going upstairs, too."
"Yes!" Tohru said brightly. "Don't worry! I'll have everything back to the way it was before I asked everyone to have a party." Then with a smile, she left to undertake the task of putting the house back in order.
Once in his room, Yuki sprawled onto of the bed and closed his eyes as the welcome quiet of the room seeped into him. But they popped open again when he remembered the small bundle still clutched in his hand. He sat up and stared at it, a little leery of discovering just what it was that his excitable older brother had passed off to him. Upon the revelation of the content nestled in the fragile paper, Yuki went still as a mix of embarrassment, pleasure, and lingering anger rolled through him.
But then a soft smile slowly bloomed across his features as he got up and went to his desk. Opening the drawer, he placed the green sprig of mistletoe near the back, next to a tiny box containing the remnants of Valentine's Day chocolate.
Maybe he wouldn't apologize again for that kiss, after all.
~~owari~~
AN: Yes! It's finally finished! Can't believe I wrote so much in just a few days but I met my deadline to get it done before the Furuba Fanfic Contest due date. My first complete fanfiction! need to move myself along on the others
Now I need a little break. I'll just go and read other people's fanfiction instead of staring at my own. (^^)
Tohru gave a little sigh of contentment. Dinner was over and everyone seemed to have taken much delight in the dishes she'd made. Especially the Christmas cake, which she had decorated with white frosting and some luscious red strawberries she'd managed to get a hold of. There wasn't a crumb left as everyone had happily devoured all of it among much boisterous conversation, the joviality of which was mainly due to Ayame, Shigure, Kagura, and Momiji. The only thing she could have wished for was to not have so many verbal disagreements break out among Kyou, Yuki, Hiro, and Uotani with brief comments by Hatsuharu here and there which only seemed to egg them on. Overall, it was wonderful that the party hadn't encountered any problems otherwise.
"Tohru, here." Hanajima's voice grabbed her attention.
Tohru turned to her friend only to find her pulling out a little gaily wrapped box from the black drawstring purse she had been carrying. Tohru's eyes grew bigger when Hanajima pulled out another and then another present, lining up the three boxes on the table before her. From her peripheral vision, she saw Momiji get up and leave but she was too distracted with what was before her to comment on it.
"For me?" she asked dumbly, looking to her friend for confirmation.
Hanajima nodded. "Yes. The purple one is from me. The red one from Arisa and the blue one from Megumi."
Tohru shook her head vigorously. "I can't accept this! It's too much," she said of the tiny boxes.
"Oh, go ahead and take 'em," Uotani said, waving away her protests, while Megumi inclined his head in agreement.
"But," Tohru looked upset and confused, "but I thought everyone said not to give presents. And Shigure-san said we wouldn't be exchanging gifts."
"That's right," said a smiling Shigure. "And it won't be an exchange if there's only one person receiving the gifts. An exchange is when more than one person gives something to each other, isn't it?"
Tohru shook her head again. "It's not right for me to take something without giving anything back!"
"Oh, my," said Hanajima. "That's not true. Tohru-kun has been a wonderful friend in return."
"But everyone has been so wonderful to me, too!" Tohru stubbornness at its best.
"Does Tohru not like it?"
Tohru turned around to see Momiji, returned from wherever he'd gone, leaning towards her in his usual manner, hands behind back with a cute woebegone expression on his face. It always meant that something was distressing him and never failed to tug at her heartstrings. She hated the thought of causing him any upset and wanted to do whatever it took to make up for it.
"That's not it at all," she protested.
"Then here!" From behind his back, Momiji pulled out a bulging paper bag.
"Eh!?" Tohru's eyes rounded once again. "What's this?"
"Presents from everyone! Me, Aya, Harii, Haru, Kyou, Kagura, Kisa, Shi- chan, and Ri-chan sent one too!" Momiji listed all the present givers excitedly. "Even Hiro gave you something!"
"Hey!" A slightly blushing Hiro shot a look at Tohru. "Don't think too much of it. It's just because everyone else was doing it."
"Hiro," came Kisa's soft voice. She hadn't known that he'd gotten Tohru a present, too. It made her happy and she gave him a tiny smile, causing him to redden even more.
Despite her pleasure in the fact that even Hiro had gotten something for her, Tohru really couldn't be such a glutton as to receive so many presents. What would Mother say? She protested a little more, "It really is too much for me to accept!"
"But Tohru did everything for the party!" cried Momiji. "We'd all feel terrible if Tohru didn't take our gifts of thanks!" His crestfallen features went straight to her heart. "And I was so happy when I picked out Tohru's gift. I'm sure everyone else was, too. That's why," he gave her his puppy-eyed patented look, "everyone will be so disappointed if their gifts aren't accepted."
From around the room, others added their support to Momiji's declaration. The guilt of causing so much disappointment by not taking the offered presents weight heavily on Tohru's shoulders. Deeply moved at this sign of everyone's warm feelings towards her, she looked up with unshed tears glimmering in her eyes.
"Everyone," she said emotionally.
The Soumas watched with varying degrees of bemusement, amusement, and envy as Hanajima and Uotani, obviously deeply touched by Tohru's sentimental expression, moved closer as they wrapped their arms around her in a warm hug. Hearts went practically flying everywhere from the feelings filling the room at this display of feminine affection.
"Tohru-kun" came Hanajima's voice, devoid of its usual passivity.
"Tohru," was the happy sigh from the tough-as-nails ex-gang member.
A smiling Momiji piped up, "So Tohru will take the presents?"
"Yes." Tohru's voice was muffled, smothered in the arms of her friends as she was.
"Yay!" he squealed. He opened the bag and spilled its contents onto the table. He picked up one of the presents, wrapped in a Santa hat wearing rabbit pattern, and held it out to her. "Open mine first!"
The next few moments were spent with Tohru opening her gifts while onlookers got to see what everyone else had gotten her. Momiji's gift followed the theme of the wrapping paper it came in, containing a bunch of chocolate pieces shaped as bunnies wearing Santa hats, and elicited a lot of from the girls. Kyou's gift, badly shaped cookies that were testament to them being handmade, resulted in more laughter and a blushing irritated glance from the giver. Yuki's present of long yellow hair ribbons with a strawberry printed pattern was received with warm smiles. Shigure's book and Ayame frilly dress, while garnering a bright smile from Tohru, was received with some concern among the other guests. Another book from Hatori on household remedies brought laughter and teasing since that seemed the best he could do in giving a girl a holiday present. Hugs were given upon revealing Kagura's cute mittens and Kisa's colorful handmade Christmas card. Although Ritsu's offering of a foot massager had drawn a lot of odd stares, Hiro's present of a wallet photo album had many grins directed at flushed Hiro. And everyone thought the presentation of gifts from her friends was done very nicely. It was obvious that the three had done their shopping together with the revealing of the silver jewelry that each bestowed on an awed Tohru. Silver was fashioned into butterfly and heart patterns as the small dangling earrings were from Uotani, the necklace from Hanajima, and the thin ring from Megumi.
But all good things come to an end and so the party wound down and the guests started leaving. Hatori led most of the guests out considering he was the one who had driven most of them in the first place. Although the departure was made a bit hectic with Ayame's words to his younger brother as the others filed out of the house.
"Yuki!" cried Ayame. "It's too bad we didn't get more time to talk. Although the party was fun, it was rather noisy so I didn't have much time to impart my brotherly wisdom upon you!"
You're always like that, Yuki thought as he sighed. He was tired and wanted everyone to leave already. He'd been so caught up in the liveliness of the party that he hadn't had a private moment to himself and get his thoughts together. He needed to think more on whether or not he should try to apologize to Tohru for the accidental kiss instigated by his brother.
"Yuki, you must listen to your older brother!" Ayame ignored Yuki's glare and continued on, "As my very own Christmas present to you, take this." He pressed something wrapped in tissue into Yuki's hand. "To inspire you to continue onto the path to become a man like me!"
"Aya!" Momiji appeared. "Are you coming? Everyone's already halfway to the car." Then he disappeared, following after the others.
Ayame gasped. "Tori-san! Wait for me!" He pointed to Yuki. "Yuki! Use that in the future and think of me, your loving brother." Then, like a flash, he was out the door before Yuki could give whatever it was his brother had handed to him back. Everyone left behind could only watch as long silver hair trailed behind the prancing figure.
"Well, it's been interesting," Uotani said.
"Yes. Interesting." A cool-eyed Hanajima looked at the three remaining Souma males, echoed with a similar look by her brother. "We should do this again next year."
Shigure started sweating again. "What?" At the concentrated dark-eyed gazes directed at him, he started chuckling nervously. "Certainly, certainly. It was fun, wasn't?" Weak smiles from Kyou and Yuki followed his remark.
"Well, then. See you later," said Uotani with a little wave as she exited, a silent Hanajima and Megumi going with her.
Once they'd left, several male sighs had Tohru turning to them with a questioning look.
"Is anything wrong?" she asked.
Shigure blinked. "Oh, no," he said. "Well, with all the excitement, we're just a little tired. Nothing to be concerned over." He blew out a breath. "I think I'll go to my room for a bit. You kids can continue having fun without me." Then with a little wave he was gone.
Kyou also exhaled noisily. "I'm going, too," he said moodily as he headed towards the stairs.
"Honda-san is going to finish cleaning up?" Yuki questioned once Kyou was gone. At her nod he said, "Then I'll help, too."
"Oh, no!" she protested. "I want to do this to thank everyone for their wonderful presents! I can't ask anyone to do anymore."
Yuki knew he should argue against that bit of logic, but he was too exhausted and knew from previous experience how long convincing her could take. Besides, when it came to cleaning, Honda-san was the best whereas he.well, he was something in the other direction.
"Then if Honda-san doesn't need anything for me to help with, I'll be going upstairs, too."
"Yes!" Tohru said brightly. "Don't worry! I'll have everything back to the way it was before I asked everyone to have a party." Then with a smile, she left to undertake the task of putting the house back in order.
Once in his room, Yuki sprawled onto of the bed and closed his eyes as the welcome quiet of the room seeped into him. But they popped open again when he remembered the small bundle still clutched in his hand. He sat up and stared at it, a little leery of discovering just what it was that his excitable older brother had passed off to him. Upon the revelation of the content nestled in the fragile paper, Yuki went still as a mix of embarrassment, pleasure, and lingering anger rolled through him.
But then a soft smile slowly bloomed across his features as he got up and went to his desk. Opening the drawer, he placed the green sprig of mistletoe near the back, next to a tiny box containing the remnants of Valentine's Day chocolate.
Maybe he wouldn't apologize again for that kiss, after all.
~~owari~~
AN: Yes! It's finally finished! Can't believe I wrote so much in just a few days but I met my deadline to get it done before the Furuba Fanfic Contest due date. My first complete fanfiction! need to move myself along on the others
Now I need a little break. I'll just go and read other people's fanfiction instead of staring at my own. (^^)