While you were sleeping

part 3 Merry Merry Christmas!

Summary: Anna by chance saves her prince charming from being throttled over by an oncoming train on Christmas day itself. She gets mistaken as his secret fiancée and gets accepted quickly by his family, something she never had. Pretending as his fiancée, she falls deeper in love with her comatose prince charming, and falls deeper into lie.

Yoh x Anna x Hao

Disclaimer: I do not own Shaman King. : P

It's now 12.01am, one minute into Christmas. I picked myself up and washed up the dishes in my sink. Finally I plopped in front of the three boxes and opened the biggest box first as suggested by Ryu.

'Oh my god!' I can't help but gasp in amazement. It was simply magnificent. A miniature Christmas tree just about my height. Among its prickly leaves hung a note with cursive handwriting.

'Like it, Anna-san:)'

Eagerly I opened the medium sized box. It was bursting with fanciful ornaments of all shape and color. Something simmered from the depths of the box. Sticking my hand in, I fished out a bright golden star, the crown of my tree. There was a note in the box too.

'Thought I was gonna just throw you a tree, didn't you? Haha! Have fun decorating!'

That Ryu. I feel like cobbering him at times yet he can be so sweet at times. Placing the notes aside I went about to decorate my Christmas tree, totally forgetting about my last box. I spent almost three hours decorating my very first Christmas tree with almost everything from the heap of ornaments I have. Finally I stood back, hands on my hips, admiring my lovely masterpiece. With the switch on, lights were flickering, crystal ornaments flashing, glittery snowflakes adding sparks to the dark rich green tree.

I suddenly remembered my last gift and retrieved from a corner. I placed it under the tree. It felt so right under the tree, where all the presents should be. Even though there was only one under my tree, it all looked so perfect. Unfortunately I had to tear my eyes away from the galore and pack up the place. I created a disaster area scattered with plastic wrapping and shreds of papers. That alone took me an hour or so to clean up the mess.

Finally everything was back to it original place, everything spick and span just the way I like it. I came out of the bath in my pj, fresh from the shower. In fact I was about to head straight to bed when once again I was attracted to the flickering attraction in my living room, like a moth to a lamp post.

Plopping onto a cushion in front of the tree, I stared at it for really really long. Never once had I thought I would own a tree of my own. To me, it was a waste of money and I didn't really have the extra money to get one for myself. Furthermore, there was no one to celebrate Christmas with me. It just wasn't worth it.

I don't know just how long I just sat in front of the tree staring into space. I decided to open my last and final gift from Ryu. I carefully tore off the glossy wrapping paper to reveal a delicate yet beautiful crystal ball. Inside the ball was a small couple figurine kissing, with snowflakes swirling all around them when I tipped it upside down. It was so lovely. Again there was a note in the box. It goes:

'Dear Anna-san, you have finally reached the last box. Merry Christmas! Hope you like the gift and sorry to leave you alone for Christmas. I gotta prepare my menu for the Christmas party goers! Anyways I hope that you can find your true love and spend the best Christmas you ever spent with him. Haha better still if your true love is ME! Will always be there for you, be it your listening ear or your compassionate cook.'

Ryu

'Arigatou.' I whispered as I watched the snowflakes within the crystal ball intently. Even though I have only known him for a year since I moved in, he has been the nicest to me, even though he had an ulterior motive in the first place. 'I really should get him something too sometimes.' I made a check on my mental list.

Realizing it's already nearing 6, I got to be at work by 6.45am. Bummer. I went to wash up, ready to start my day with the Christmas spirit.