Tachiagair Jakunen Written by: Fira Flame

I do not own these characters; they belong to their respective owners. Keeren belongs to me and Missy and Teri belong to Missy and Teri.

This is a re-written version of the original copy of Tachiagair Jakunen, which I had written in the fall of 2002. It sucked, really bad, so here I am, re-writing it...

Enjoy!

Chapter 17

Melissa slowly opened her eyes and looked around. The first thing that caught her attention was how cold she was, even with the two thick comforters wrapped around her in a tangled mess. The second thing she noticed was a stream of Christmas themes and music drifting up the stairs. She smirked. Christmas day.

She slowly sat up, her hair falling out of her face, she glanced in the mirror and saw her brown, lavender and sky blue hair was tangled into one mess on her head. She grimaced at the idea of brushing it. Even if it was Christmas, and at home, if her hair was that bad she'd probably brush it before she trekked downstairs. She reached her arms above her, yawned and stretched. She fell back and expected to fall back onto a nice warm chunk of man-flesh, namely Tasuki, but all she found was an empty right-hand side of the bed.

The healer immediately sat up and looked around for her flame-haired seichiseishi. He was nowhere to be found. She frowned. The one thing she wanted to do first thing on Christmas morning was cuddle with Tasuki, and maybe something else, which she has been DYING to do ever since she got pregnant. God she was going to die if she didn't get any thing even close to explicit nature. There were other ways to get pleasure without a cock inside of her.

She blinked. Wait, she wanted to get eaten out on Christmas morning?

(why not?)

(it's impolite)

(....so?)

(well what if someone walked in on you?)

(their fault then.)

(your kidding)

(should I be?)

Melissa sighed and scooted off the bed, her slowly growing tummy was starting to get in the way. She couldn't just roll off the bed like she used to. She walked over to her dresser and grabbed her brush and slowly started pulling out knots from her hair. A squeal from down the hall startled her and she accidentally ripped her brush through her hair. She dropped her brush and held her head.

"God damn it..." She forgot her brush and stomped over to her door. She pulled it open and glared down the hall at GT Trunks, who was trying to carry Keeren down to breakfast over his shoulder. She arched an eyebrow and returned to the safety of her bedroom. How come Tasuki never did something like that with her? Ignoring the topic, Melissa pulled on a pair of worn pajama pants and a robe.

Downstairs, Teri was already up and her and Nuriko were prodding around the tree, seeing how many presents they got. Chichiri, Chiriko, Legolas and Mirai were in the kitchen, working on the Christmas Breakfast. Melissa's mouth watered at the scent of sausages, bacon and omelets. Chiriko noticed her arrive and quickly informed her that nobody was to be allowed into the kitchen until the food was read. Melissa peeked in and saw Chichiri handling a wok with eggs and bacon in it. Her stomach growled. Chiriko quickly noted this and pushed her into the living room.

Melissa sighed, and carefully sat down in the la-Z-boy near the tree. She stared counting.

"nine... ten... eleven..." Teri counted under her breath, she looked up from the pile under the tree and began looking in the tree for smaller presents and cards. "...twelve... thirt--no, that's Tasuki's..."

The elementalist smirked when she glanced over a small wrapped package to Legolas from herself. Wrapped in gold, it glittered in the light beaming from the lights inside the tree. She glanced into the kitchen to see whether Legolas was looking out here. He wasn't, she shrugged and began prodding at a rather large box for her shipped from her mother and father back home.

Melissa reached for a small dish of candy that was laid out on the end table the night before and plucked out a small piece of chocolate. As she unwrapped it, Tasuki came into the room wearing a pair of loose pajama pants and a sweater. He looked a little chilly.

Though being introduced to Christmas over two years ago, the seishi were barely able to help themselves from acting like small children on the holiday. The way their eyes glimmered those mornings reminded Melissa of when she was a child, watching her baby brothers stumble into the living room dragging a stuffed toy behind them. Their eyes would light up like small baubles and stay that way until every present was unwrapped and properly strewn across the room. She smiled at the memories, but frowned at the idea of cleaning up after them. Tasuki looked at the tree and grinned, Melissa failed to notice his grin deepened when he saw a small red wrapped present sitting on top of the entertainment center.

"Alriiiight!" Chiriko called from the kitchen. "Breakfast is ready!!"

Keeren skipped into the room with a 'yip' and trotted into the kitchen, wringing her hands in anticipation of Japanese style omlets, bacon, waffles and puddles upon puddles of syrup. Melissa chuckled and stood, keeping an hand on her swollen belly to steady herself.

The kitchen swelled with the smell of food. The tables was laid out with a table cloth and place mats with a plate at each seat, each waiting with anticipation for a mound of food to be placed upon them. Across the table laid platters and pitchers of delicious looking food. Pancakes, waffles, Chichiri's special wok egg and bacon omlets, toast, bacon, sausage. At each end of the the table sat four pitchers of drink. Two of milk, one of orange juice and one of apple juice. One large pot of coffee was placed near the center of the table.

Melissa took her seat at the foot of the table, making sure for there to be a seat open next to her for Tasuki. Keeren at her other side, with Teri and Legolas near the head of the table. The rest of the house mates sat in various areas around the table, most sitting near their favorite foods. Melissa had made extra sure to sit near the large bowl full of bacon which would soon become a steaming mound of leftovers. Legolas opted to say something of thanks for the food they had. Though few at the table were religious in anyway, it seemed right to at least thank each other for a glorious holiday of friends, family, and, well, food and presents. One thing that Melissa had added to the list near the end, taking Tasuki's hand into her's....

Love.

The kitchen was left in a mess. Nobody really wanted to clean up. Even those most mature just wanted to get into that living room and rip apart those presents and see what they contained. Curiosity always got the best of everyone. With stomachs content with food, and spirits high, they all dove into the pile of presents.

Nuriko had gotten a silver chain necklace from Mirai, GT a pair of leather boots from Keeren to replace his orange ones, Teri an Elven robe and cloak from Legolas, Melissa a set of mystery novels from Teri, Chiriko a laptop from all three girls, Chichiri a 'singing fish' as a practical joke from Melissa (Tasuki couldn't keep himself from laughing when the monk pushed the little button under the plaque.).

Soon, the only thing they could see when they looked down, besides their own knees, was a thick carpet of wrapping paper and boxes that previously contained cheap gags or something else. Melissa looked across her portion of the couch, she had gotten a decent amount of things, Keeren had teamed up with Chiriko, Nuriko and Chichiri to get a custom lighter made for her shaped like the Tessen. Teri had given her a basket full of exotic oils and lotions. The healer had given her a stern glare before whipping a hand full of wrapping paper at her sister. Teri was still confused why she was so brutally assaulted with patterned paper.

She looked through her small pile of gifts and noticed there seemed to be too few. She counted over her fingers of the gifts. One from three of the seishi and Keeren, one from Teri, from GT, from Mirai and one from Legolas. What was missing? She looked across the room for who she was missing. Then she spotted him, sitting across from her on the floor, sipping from a fresh cup of coffee. Tasuki.

The blinked once or twice, going over reasons for why she hadn't gotten one from the flame haired bandit. Her trail of thought was disrupted when Chiriko stood from his seat on a pillow and went to the entertainment center, exclaiming that there was still one gift left. The young seishi reached up and pulled down a small item, wrapped in bright red wrapping and barely larger than a golf ball. It sat in his hand as he looked at the tag. He looked up and held it out to Melissa.

"It's for you." The teen said, walking over to her and placing it into her hand. Melissa cocked her head at it, and knew it could have been only from Tasuki. She carefully took the wrapping off and in her hand rested a small red velvet box. Her eyes glimmered with excitement, she barely noticed the entire room watch her, she didn't notice at when Tasuki stood from his seat across the room and went up to her. She slowly opened the box.

Inside rest a silver ring with a pair of topazes on either side of a diamond. The band was engraved with swirling designs with stars around the diamonds. Melissa's eyes lit up when she tilted it for the diamonds to catch the light. She was breathless when the light bounced off the diamond and reflected scattered rainbows across her shirt. A pair of tanned, strong hands reached into hers and removed the box from her hands. Melissa looked up to find Tasuki kneeling before her, holding the ring out to her. His eyes looked honest and sure, though just a little nervous. She noticed him swallow a lump in his throat before he spoke.

"The first time I met you... I knew you were a special one..." He started, looking into her eyes. "Just from th' way you looked at me, sittin' on those barrels back in Konan. In th' bar, th' way yeh drank sake, how yeh showed me that even a woman can beat a man in a man's game. I knew you were special." He took a breath, reaching up to cup Melissa's cheek. "It was soon after that I felt somethin' I had never though I'd feel. I felt something wonderful. I felt love, for th' first time. I was confused at first, but I knew it was real. I love you Missy, and that's why... and that's why I want to spend th' rest of my life with you. So, that's why I'm gonna ask you... will you marry me?"

The whole room was still, everyone was holding their breath, waiting for the answer. Melissa gaped back at Tasuki, eyes wide, brimming with tears, her mouth was dry, words caught in her throat. What was she supposed to say? If she said no, with everyone watching, she was unsure whether they'd think the same of her anymore. But if she said yes, it'd feel forced. What was that line she read in a book so long ago? 'Just do as your heart tells you'. Melissa grinned. She knew what her heart said. Her heart said yes, god-damnit.

Tasuki's eyes lit up when he heard Melissa squeak her response. In the back, Nuriko had to ask her to repeat what she had said. Melissa shook her head, shaking off her tears of happiness. She threw herself forward onto Tasuki, shrieking her reply so everyone in the whole forest could hear her. Tasuki grinned and helped Melissa sit up again, tears of joy streaming down her face. He took the ring from the box and slid it onto her finger. A perfect fit.

This truly was the greatest Christmas she'd ever had.

A/N:Well, not as long as I had hoped it to get, but I've got plans for tonight and I really can't think of anything else to add to this chapter, it's fine where I ended it.

And before any strict fans of FY come and slaughter me, I'll remind you that this is strictly AU, oh-KAY? Oh-KAY.