Chapter 4 - My First Christmas Present

Neolannia - To bad with the grade. I have 6 classes at my school (had 10 at my old school) and I have ...a grade I'm not sure of, F, B, A, A, A. Telling that to my mom doesn't work. She says "well, you're not everyone else are you?" and stuff like "you're above average!" C's are barely acceptable and anything lower, even a 70 C-) is reason to confiscate the computer. We're moving so until the connection to the computers is rebooted, I'll be off...again!

Lucia - Will continue. I've written the whole thing so I'll post A.S.A.P. I'm writing a Fruits Basket fic in my spiral folder at the moment.

"Fox."

"Yea?" Kurama asked absentmindedly.

"Fox." repeated the fire youkai with more push.

"What?" Kurama asked.

"What's going on? You're acting strange, kitsune." he said, giving Kurama a suspicious glance.

"Nothing wrong. I just have things on my mind." He said, staring at the sky.

They were in the park again. Hiei was standing near a tree who's leaves had long since fallen off. Kurama was standing next to Hiei. Why they were standing next to a leafless tree was unknown. Hiei gave Kurama a half glare and then had a surprised and confused look on.

"A girl?"

"Huh?" Kurama started. "Hiei. Why did you read my mind?"

"Because I wasn't getting any answers out of you by just asking." Hiei turned and looked straight ahead. Kurama glared at Hiei for the intrusion of his mind, but then didn't glare, just ignored him.

There was an uneasy silence now. It seemed that all the world had forgotten noise and was deaf. Kurama took a step forward, making a crunching noise in the snow. He walked towards the exit, the crunching of snow beneath his feet the only sound in the cold air.

Everyone was about finished with shopping. So no one was window shopping unless they were the type to wait until the last minute. Kurama walked along the snow covered sidewalk towards his house.

A girl walked along the sidewalk in town. This girl was a dark redhead. She wore a black scarf, black jacket, black pants, and black gloves and hat. Black captured heat and multiplied it, so this was an extra warm outfit. This girl was Ikken. Her thoughts were of a red head and his comment, 'It's a beautiful name.' Maybe he-

She heard the footsteps before she saw the person. Her head snapped up and she saw the bright red hair as he walked down the sidewalk. His head was down, he hadn't yet seen her. Ikken jumped into the small opening between two stores. He passed by without a second glance. She stuck her head out of the small area to look at his retreating back. He stopped and turned around, she jumped back in.

Kurama's long hair flowed across his shoulder and down his right front side as he turned his head to look back. No one was there. But he had heard something. A cracking noise sounded above him before a piece of the shop roof broke, dropping lots of cold snow onto the fox's head.

"Oh." he sneezed. "That's cold." Ikken shivered. "I'd better get home." he turned and left. Ikken wondered why she shivered, she wasn't cold. She couldn't care about some guy she had never really met...could she?

Ikken slowly squeezed out of the small area and then ran off towards her house. She wanted to do something she'd never done for another living creature besides her two fox before. She was going to give that boy, Shuichi, a Christmas present.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

'Oh! Welcome...Back?' Jasmine stuttered as Ikken ran inside and upstairs. 'Ikken?' she turned to Buster.

'How should I know what's up?' he muttered as he ate a snack he'd taken from off the table. Jasmine's eyes narrowed.

'Buster...where'd you get that?' she asked, clearly holding in anger.

'Huh? Off the table. Why?' he answered. He instantly wished he hadn't answered. Jasmine launched herself at him and attacked.

Ikken was up in her room. She was standing in her doorway, looking in. She had been so intent on getting him a gift, but she had no idea what he liked or what to get him. There were library books on foxes but she didn't think he would want anything that was in one of them. But...he was like a fox, sort of, so maybe...

She set to work very quickly. Ikken went to her dresser and pulled out some objects she had never really used before. Needle and thread. So she sat on her bedroom floor with a sewing kit she'd bought when she first came to the human world, and worked. When her fox friends began pawing at the door and yipping, she went and made dinner. After dinner she came back to her room and started working.

'Ikken? We're coming in. It's time for bed, but you didn't say anything to us, so we came up ourselves.' Jasmine said softly as she nudged the door opened. She gasped slightly at what she saw. Ikken was laying on the ground, on top of something, protective almost. She was asleep.

They put her head on a pillow and covered her up, laying her on her back. Jasmine had put the thing she was working on away, because Buster had wanted to chew on it. Buster and Jasmine then hopped into their beds and went to sleep.
- - - - - - - - - - - -

Kurama woke up the next day, no thoughts in his head (like me!). He got dressed and did his morning routine without having any recollection of the day before. He went down to the kitchen to get something warm to eat. While eating he slowly turned his head to look out the window.

The snow was falling in thick blankets, and outside it looked as if fairies from a book had popped out and begun to dance across the window. Dance...Her feet didn't leave marks in the ground and her clothing seemed to be a blanket of snow that surrounded her. She danced around like a ballerina on ice and it seemed she was flying.

Kurama snapped out of his daze after a moment. "Why did I?" 'Why did I think of her?' He answered his own question. "She's a good dancer...and she's beautiful too..." he was astonished at the words that left his mouth. After breakfast Kurama retired to his room and brought out the gifts he would give everyone. Christmas was only 3 days away, and even though Christmas wasn't a original Japanese holiday, they still celebrated it.

"Yusuke, Hiei, Kuwabara, Kayko, Yukina, Botan, Shizuru, Mom..." he checked his gifts. "Seems I have everyone..." Kurama then wrapped them each up in their own boxes. Each of them were brightly colored and tied with a traditional bow. Some of the wrapping paper had snowmen on them, wearing skis and skiing in the snow. Others had skiers dressed in white gowns that looked like angels without wings. "Angel without wings..." Kurama shook his head to knock the thoughts out of it. "But, the least I could do is to get her a gift...if she's a girl...and I might not even see her on Christmas, but whatever."

It just seemed to be his nature to get everyone he knew a gift or something. He was just kind, more around the holidays than other times. This Christmas should be no different, right?

He didn't know what to get her...him? Depending on the gender would most likely change the gift. Maybe something both would like...He thought and thought and thought, but only one thing kept creeping back into his head. It was something a girl would like more than a boy, but it would work, since he knew she liked the snow. Kurama got on his jacket, shoes, and scarf, then headed to the store. This was one gift he could not make, not without lighting hitting sand.

— — —
Ikken woke up around noon, then jumped up. "The time! I slept in! My gift!" She searched around, then Jasmine popped her head up from her bed, where she was sleeping late.

'W-what's wrong, Ikken?' she yawned.

"The gift I was working on! I can't find it!" she scurried around the room. The first gift she would give and it was missing.

'Oh...you mean that deflated bag? I put it over there...' she pointed sleepily to the bottom drawer of the dresser with her paw, that drawer wasn't used often.

"Oh. Thank you Jasmine." she went over and got it out. "If I'm going to be done in time, then I'll need to work fast. Seeing as how it looks like a deflated bag..."

'So, who's it for?' Buster was already up and bouncing around.

"Huh?"

'The gift. You wouldn't be giving something like that to us, we get little scarves and mittens for our paws, not...whatever that is.' he motioned towards the unfinished gift.

"Oh well..."

'It's him, isn't it? That guy we met. The one that seemed fox-like?' Jasmine said excitedly.

"Huh? Oh, yea...that's him." she said, blushing.

'Oh great. Love sick puppies! I swear!' Buster bounded out of the room. Jasmine ran out soon after, both to give Jasmine time to finish the gift and to go get something of her own.
- - - — — — - - - — — — - - - — — — - - - — — — - - - — — —

Days passed, it was Christmas. Kurama had personally put his gifts in the hands of their recipients. He had a large box filled to the top that was slowly diminishing in cargo size. He started at noon, after spending the morning with his mom, and finished handing them out at about 2. Now only 1 gift was left, and it wasn't in the box. There would have been suspicion if he'd been walking around with an extra box. He had the last one hidden in his oversized coat.

Kurama dropped the empty box off by the road near his house and went into town. There was no one here, everyone was at home with their families. But Kurama was sure that this person had no family. So he walked towards the park, where he'd spoken to her.

Ikken was walking through the park, she had her gift for this Shuichi boy wrapped and ready, now she had to find him. After looking around for a while, she sat on an ice covered bench and sighed.

"It's not like I was actually expecting him to be here. He does have a family, I guess..." she was speaking to the air. Jasmine and Buster had refused to go outside in this cold. It had gotten steadily colder each day.

At the moment she looked like the blonde girl that Kurama had spoken to. If she kept changing her appearance, it would be very strange. So she'd keep it simple. After 20 minutes, she slowly got to her feet. He wasn't here, she'd have to look around tomorrow. Then soft and slow footsteps caught her attention.

Kurama stopped walking. She was standing in the snow, with the same clothing as before. Her back was to him, but as he stopped, she turned around, her hair waving slightly. She gasped softly when she saw him. Kurama's gaze fell onto the wrapped present on the bench. She followed his gaze, then picked up the gift.

"This...this is...for you." she handed the gift to him, her head down and turned away. She was blushing madly, and she was nervous. Kurama smiled and let out one small laugh. She raised her head.

"Thank you very much Ikken." he accepted the present, then set it down. At first she was confused at why he set it on the bench instead of opening it, but then she saw him reach into his jacket and take out a box.

"How the heck did you get that in there?" she asked, inspecting his jacket with her eyes.

"Oh, well...I'm not sure actually..." Kurama sweat-dropped and laughed. Then gave her the box. She took it. She slowly started to open it, then stopped.

"Open yours too!" she commanded. Kurama quickly picked up the box and began to open it, somehow not ripping the paper at all. She smiled and continued opening hers. Now to find out what they gave each other!

Ikken gave Kurama a stuffed toy fox that she had sewn herself, it was a silver-ish colored fox, the eyes were yellow and the tail was tipped black. Ok, it was more of a white fox then a silver fox, but it had a gray-
ish tint to it that made it look silver! Kurama stared at it for a moment, it was well sewn and was actually kinda cute.

Kurama gave Ikken a glass figurine. It showed a girl with long hair dancing. She wore a skirt that sparkled even though the whole thing was clear. Her skirt ended halfway to her knees but a sash-like object around her waist hung lower. She was in the middle of a spin so the sash was flung out a bit. Her arms were up above her head and she was smiling. Ikken stared at it.

"Ikkensurunitariru!" she said in awe. Kurama looked up at her. She used her name to describe the gift. He smiled.

"This is nice." was his response to her gift. She had lowered her head after commenting on the gift. He wondered if something was wrong. "Ikken?" he put a hand out to put on her shoulder, but it never made it there.

Ikken raised her head, tears in her eyes, and leapt at him. She gave him a huge hug. "Thank you Shuichi. This is the first gift anyone's ever given me!" she cried. He was surprised and the fox fell to the ground, landing softly on it's feet.

This chapter was 4 pages long. So this is about where I started writing this story again. I began a lot of my stories a while back. So if the 'style' of writing changes, that's why.

I hope you enjoyed. Please don't threaten me if I don't update.

Inuc : Just because Blue's reviewers do that when she doesn't update doesn't mean yours will. They're nicer, right?

Yea...I guess. Thanks everybody! Have a nice life! I'll be at JACON in Orlando on the first two days! I'll be dressed as Jun Tao from Shaman King, only instead of a black dress with green, it's a green dress.

Inuc : And you wear glasses.

Shut up. Anyways, bye!