Shiori had never been a big fan of Christmas shopping.

In general she had never been a fan of Christmas. The idea of Santa Claus had always been more than a little disturbing to her when she had been a child. The idea of a person, not even a spirit but an honest to God person, watching her had been more than a little unnerving. When you also took into account that this person was some kind of immortal, all seeing all knowing, gift giver and taker away…and that he knew when you were sleeping or awake….it had been a lot for her to take in as a child.

She had been an odd child.

Or maybe it was just an odd story. She wouldn't be lying to her child like that. The shadow of the years upon years of lying had been enough to sour her on the holiday until she hit high school. Then the actual obligations popped up, parties and club work along with her parents trotting her out whenever they had company…and it had only gotten worse as the years had gone by. School had given way to work and work had given away to work obligations. There had been a brief respite from it all when she joined up with Jodo. She hadn't really mourned Christmas that much, the mourning had been mostly for Golden Week, and now…well since leaving she'd found no real reason to celebrate. Good food was always a joy, od course, but it had always been eaten alone.

Until now.

Touichirou wasn't too big on Christmas, or any holiday really. Where Jodo had insisted that the only holidays that mattered were the ones he thought up, Touichirou just didn't seem to care too much beyond basic social obligation. She'd never once seen him excited about a holiday, even the ones they'd spent together….not that she got very excited, either. There wasn't much to be excited about. Forced cheer, rampant commercialism, other such societal complaints…she didn't care.

She just wanted to get in and out, that was all.

"Watch it!" said a man as he bumped into Shiori. She gave a flick of her wrist and his coffee, wait no, his tea wound up all down the front of his shirt. He looked around and sputtered impotently before turning his attentions on the someone who'd had the misfortune to back into him. A fight broke out in less than a second. It began with a shove and ended with security being called.

Christmas brought out the absolute worst in some people.

Not herself, no, she would have done the same thing no matter what holiday had been coming up. That never stopped being hilarious. Part of her was still ten years old, she supposed, though she wished it were either three years older or seven years younger. Then she maybe could have been out of here by now. Alright, no more distractions. She just…she had to figure this out.

What in the hell were you supposed to get kids?

Touichirou's son had been easy to shop for. He liked art, he liked animals, and he was bad at taking care of fish. She didn't know much about him but she at least knew some basics. The other two were a mystery. She knew that Shigeko liked gaudy makeup, hair dye, and clothes that didn't exactly fit. Also drinking, smoking, and other such things that a thirteen year old girl had no right to be involved in. Shiori passed a gift shop. Maybe just a candle or something….something that teenager girls liked. What did they even like these days?

It had been a while.

When Shiori had been a teenager it had been all about Sailor Moon, Ohguro Maki, and that Time Shock reboot which in her opinion hadn't been nearly that bad…though she had been a very strange child or so she had been told. What did thirteen year old girls like nowadays? Stickers? Glitter? Kpop? Some kind of bizarre internet thing that she could not even begin to understand?

Maybe the toddler would have been easier.

She passed a toy store. When she had been three she had been all about that Heidi show, her dolls, and mermaids…there was a lot to kids, now that she thought about it. She could have just gotten anything, that would have been the smart thing, and it would have saved her time…but it was Sunday and it wasn't like she had anything better to do. Honestly it was a nice change of pace from the constant stalking and spying she had to deal with every single day of her life. It was almost relaxing.

Almost.

Someone else bumped into her. At least that moron had the common decency to apologize. Honestly. Was that really so difficult? People. She could see why Touichirou didn't like dealing with anyone. She wondered how he did it, shopped for three kids every single year….well he probably had people for that. Yeah, she couldn't see Touichirou putting up with this.

She couldn't see herself putting up with this either.

She pulled her phone out of her pocket. These were not her kids. She had no idea what they would have wanted. Touichirou must have had some kind of an idea…she checked the time and did some mental math. He was either asleep or just getting up…wait, hadn't he moved again? For all she knew he might have been in the middle of another fire fight. So much for peace on earth and goodwill towards men…he was probably fine, and if not well…gift cards? No, no, the only thing tackier than gift cards was a handful of cash. What was she? Their aunt?

Their stepmom…no, not that. The woman marrying, and currently calling, their father...that was all.

She put her phone back. She could figure this out on her own. They may not have been her kids but she wasn't incapable of Christmas shopping. She just needed to think…she needed…she was getting a headache. Tired. Dehydrated. That was it, she just needed a pick me up. Coffee…no, no, too much caffeine. It would just make her headache worse. She needed something else.

She still smelled tea.

She could have used a cup of tea right now. God help anyone who tried to knock it out of her hands. The walk to the tea place had been a short one, it was right next to the pretzel place…a giant pretzel sounded pretty good right now. If only those things kept. Kids still liked giant pretzels, right? Sho probably did, he got his eating habits from Touichirou, but Sho already had a present. There was no way in hell he was getting a Christmas present and a birthday present. If he had wanted double presents then he should have been born in another month, literally any other month, besides December. He was the easiest of the kids to shop for, she actually knew him. What did she even know about the other two? One was a toddler. She wasn't sure if there was anything to know about a toddler. The other was a teenager…but she wasn't sure if she wanted to know anything else about Shigeko. Learning about her would have meant actually speaking with her…spending time with her…

Shiori didn't know if she had it in her.

She didn't know if she could have done…this. That was what teenagers, teenage girls, liked…right? Going to the mall? Shigeko certainly seemed to like shopping, Touichirou complained enough about the money she spent, and this was what mothers did with their daughters. Shigeko wasn't her daughter, or her stepdaughter, or her…or her anything. She was just the daughter of the man she was going to marry.

Their lives, whether she liked it or not, were intertwined.

She pressed a hand to her stomach as she stood in line. Someone threw her a worried glance. She wasn't going throw up, she had no cause to. Hotel Shiori was currently unoccupied. She didn't know if it would ever be. She was forty one and she and Touichirou hadn't been together in weeks and weeks. She knew that when she had her own daughter, if she had her own daughter, things would have been different. No daughter of hers would have been so spoiled, so entitled, so insubordinate. No daughter of hers was going to drink and smoke and think that she had actual power in Shiori's organization. No daughter of hers was going to be walking around with painted up and her hair the worst shade of red…well Shigeko had changed her had back, Touichirou had said… no daughter of hers was going to wind up like Shigeko. If she'd had it her way she would have avoided Shigeko for the rest of her life…but it was difficult.

She was marrying Touichirou after all.

Her phone vibrated. She pulled it out…not Touichirou. Sho again. A picture of his hamster, one of them, this time with a little hat on. It was cute. She told him it was, and then she put her phone back. There. That was enough…that was more than enough. She wasn't his stepmom, she didn't want to be. She didn't want that kind of responsibility for children that weren't hers. She hadn't chosen to have them, Touichirou and his ex-wife had, and she hadn't asked for them to be there….but they were Touichirou's. He had his baggage and, yeah, she wasn't about to carry someone else's bags for them….but literal bags weren't alive. Literal bags didn't text her every single day with the irreverent details of their lives. Literal baggage didn't ask for her time or attention…she would have preferred literal baggage to a couple of teenagers.

But, no, she got the teenagers…plus a toddler, too.

Maybe 'got' was the wrong word for it. They were Touichirou's children, and two out of three were nearly adults. Hell, one of them thought she was an adult already. She didn't think that she had to, or was up to, doing any kind of mothering towards them. She didn't even know how she would mother her own children, if she had them. She didn't even know what kind of tea she wanted let alone what she was going to do with Touichirou's children.

She settled on black tea.

She needed the caffeine boost. There. At least one decision had been made. She hated this, being so indecisive. She had to figure this thing out. She hadn't felt so lost in years…she didn't like it. Wasn't wisdom supposed to come with age? What good was it being an old fruitcake if she didn't at least get some wisdom out of it? Kids…kids…what did kids like? What did kids these days like? What did Touichirou's kids, which of course weren't normal kids, like? She had to do something. Social obligation, trying to smooth things out now, the old olive branch…she and Shigeko didn't need to be best friends, or besties as Shigeko would have probably said, but if she was going to spend the remainder of her life with Touichirou and have his child then she at least needed to become less openly hostile with Shigeko….not friendly even, just civil. She needed to figure something out…she needed to do something for her rapidly growing headache. She took a sip of her tea.

It was hot water.

She had already walked away. She was not walking back. She was not going to walk back there and argue with someone who of course was going to deny that he'd made a mistake. She ran into this with her people all the time. Nobody ever wanted to make a mistake…she squeezed the cup too hard. Now she had hot water soaking through her glove….she let the water drip down to the floor. She didn't want to turn around, she wanted to get out of here, but she didn't want to quit….there was nothing worse than quitting.

Though asking for help was a close second.

She took off her sopping wet glove and shoved it into her pocket, making sure not to wet her phone in the process. The last thing she needed was to have to stop off at the phone store of all places. She just wanted this done with. She swallowed her pride, and what was left of the plain hot water, and called Touichirou.

It rang once.

She didn't need him for this, she could handle it on her own. She didn't need to talk to him…she wanted to, though, if just to tell him about the day she'd been having. But of course he was probably busy. She shouldn't have minded. She knew what she had been getting into when she started this thing with him, this serious relationship. She may not have intended for it to go this far in the beginning but here she was…and she was not going to fail. Shiori didn't fail and she certainly didn't whine, not even to herself. She didn't stand there whining wishing that Touichirou had been here with her not only because he knew his own children but because…because she missed him. She hadn't seen him in so long, before there had been snow on the ground, and…and she knew that she would see him again….

But that didn't change the fact that she missed him more than anything.

"Touichirou, hey. I'm glad I caught you." said Shiori. He'd caught it on the first ring, it sounded like…she ducked her head low and hid her smile. She shouldn't have been this happy. He should have picked up the phone, it was nothing to feel like she was going to walk on air or anything.

She smoothed her hair down.

"What's wrong, are you alright? Did something happen? Are you hurt-" said Touichirou. She was sure that if he had been there his aura would have been bright red. Actual panic seeped into his voice…her smile turned into a frown. She was fine and even if she hadn't been the first thing she would have done was take care of the problem herself, not call Touichirou.

"Aside from the fact that somehow they forgot to put tea in my tea I'm fine." Said Shiori. It seemed absurd now that she said it out loud. If Touichirou had been there she knew exactly what he would have done. He would have given her that perplexed look he got sometimes, the 'this does not compute' look. If he had been a computer than his cursor would have turned into an hourglass. She could just see it now…she wished that she could have seen it now. she wished for a lot of things.

"Wait…what happened?" asked Touichirou. There it was, that tone, and most likely the face that accompanied it. She heard someone in the background speaking a language that she couldn't understand. Touichirou replied in that same language…so she had interrupted him. The polite thing to do would have been to hang up and apologize…but she didn't feel like being polite right now.

"I know, right? It's one ingredient. Tea…or two, I guess, since you have to add tea to the water, but still." Said Shiori. There was a pause on his end…he was probably getting ready to hang up. He was busy, well they were both busy, but he was busy trying to take over the entire world. She was busy trying to rule a small, miniscule really, part of it.

At least she had time to do her Christmas shopping.

"Who did this to you?" asked Touichirou

"I don't remember the guy's name, it was just that tea place at the mall…well I know, you wouldn't, actually, since you've never been shopping with me." said Shiori

"Shopping is a woman's game." Said Touichirou. Shiori rolled her eyes as she walked. She got another look…well whatever. That guy was eating a plain pretzel, no salt even. What did she care what that deviant thought?

"Where'd you come up with that?" asked Shiori

"My father. My mother used to shop often when I was a child, I always found it tiresome and preferred to hide in the racks. Father said that it was normal and that shopping was a woman's game. Men hunt, women nest." Said Touichirou

"Or, women hunt too. Just for good deals." Said Shiori

"Oh. I hadn't looked at it like that, thank you." said Touichirou

"I would never ask you, though, to come out to the mall with me during Christmas. I swear it's like everyone put their shopping off until the week of…so I guess that everyone had my idea. You would have hated it here." Said Shiori

"You're right, I would have…disliked it. I find it difficult, though, to hate things when I'm with you. When we're together I find it difficult to accentuate the negatives in my life. You're just too much of a positive, which is mathematically impossible of course. A positive can never cancel out a negative unless they are of the same value….but I have no idea what sort of value I would add to you. You're infinite." Said Touichirou. Shiori stopped at a bench and sat down. She swore that her heart had skipped a beat…she felt like a teenager, swooning like that.

"Touichirou, I mean this as a term of endearment but you're a nerd…and I love you." said Shiori

"I…will take that as a term of endearment. Thank you, and I apologize for your tea. If I had been with you then I would not have let that happen to you." said Touichirou, once again being his overly dramatic self. Everything was life or death with that man. Sure it had been irritating but he didn't have to talk like someone had tried to kill her or anything like that. That had been last week and she hadn't walked away with much more than a few scrapes and bruises.

"Don't be so dramatic." Said Shiori

"I'm not being dramatic, I'm being realistic. I mean it when I say that I'll make sure that nothing like that ever happens to you again." Said Touichirou. She put her hand over her mouth and stifled a laugh. Overly dramatic Touichirou was one of the best versions of him. She imagined an orange cat arching his back and hissing at an empty cup of tea…he was so adorable sometimes.

But she could solve her own problems.

"My hero. Anyway, I need to ask you something." Said Shiori, cutting him off before he could get on with vowing even more revenge on her behalf. She could vow her own revenge, thank you very much.

"You can ask me anything." Said Touichirou

"What do you think your youngest daughter wants for Christmas?" asked Shiori

"Mukai? I have no idea." Said Touichirou

"You have no clue at all what your youngest kid wants for Christmas?" asked Shiori. How could he have not known? These were his kids? Sure he spent more time away from them instead of with them but he must have known something about them…right? Sho certainly loved to share. So far she knew that he had taken up drinking, not good, his new favorite movie was something about a man who got rats to do his bidding, he was taking baths on his own without having to be told, he was getting more into tattooing as an art form, and his favorite pair of socks had been lost at some point in the wash. She didn't know a lot of good things about him, if she had been his mother she would have had a thing or two to say about the tattooing and the drinking, but really the trick was getting him to shut up.

Though she was a hell of a lot nicer to him than Touichirou was…which really wasn't saying much.

"I don't. Normally Shigeko handles Christmas. She just puts my name on whatever she gets her siblings. Why?" asked Touichirou

"I'm at the mall right now and I'm trying to figure out what to get your kids. I already got your son a birthday present, and he's not getting a Christmas present. If he wants double presents then he shouldn't have been born so close to Christmas. For your other two I have no idea." Said Shiori

"You don't need to purchase gifts for my children, Shigeko can handle Christmas. She's very competent when it comes to something she cares deeply for." Said Touichirou. That didn't exactly sit right, Shigeko being in charge of Christmas…but Touichirou had a lot of faith in her and had no scruples when it came to nepotism. She didn't know what she would have done if she had a daughter capable of running the organization for her…if she was competent enough to run it then what did age have to do with…thirteen was still thirteen and her judgement wouldn't have been there. Not to run the organization, not to mother her younger siblings, and not to buy Christmas presents for her entire family.

"Well, I kind of have to since I already got one of your kids something. I'd rather not start this thing off on the wrong foot…anymore so than I already have. Though a lot of that is on your daughter." Said Shiori

"Start…what?" asked Touichirou

"Our family, what else?" asked Shiori, rolling her eyes. Did he honestly not get it? She may not have been ready to mother his kids but an olive branch was warranted…especially with what had happened with Shigeko. She had been out of line, of course, but Touichirou had been the one to let her get that way. He was incapable of actually raising his kids, it seemed, and also there was what had happened with Touichirou's lieutenant….she didn't even want to know how Shigeko was recovering from that.

The kid needed a little Christmas cheer in her life.

"Our…are you telling me that you're-" said Touichirou. He actually sounded hopeful there. Really, he wore his heart on his sleeve, that is if you knew what to look for. The slight changes to his voice, his aura when he was near enough for her to feel it, even the way he said her name…he really was a lot more emotional than he liked people to think. Normally it would have been a turn off but on him it worked…and, too, it wasn't like this wasn't something worth getting emotional about.

"It's been months, of course I'm not pregnant. I just meant it'll make being with you, and your family, a lot easier." Said Shiori. She felt her stomach. Nothing…of course nothing. She didn't know what she wanted. Yes? No? She was ready…but the logistics of having a child were still a lot. She would, essentially, be a single mother at least until this plan of Touichirou's came to a head. Either he was going to succeed or he wasn't…she didn't want to think about the outcome of either.

She just wanted to get this whole thing done with. That was all.

"You have no interest in being their stepmother, though. I recall you making yourself very clear." Said Touichirou

"You're right, I don't want to be their stepmother but I don't want things to be more difficult between us than they have to be. I don't plan on dying for another fifty years if I can manage it, that's a long time and I don't want to be fighting with your kids for all those years. Besides, Shigeko needs a little Christmas cheer after the year she's had…and I'd imagine the other two do, too." Said Shiori

"You're correct, it has been a difficult year for all of us." Said Touichirou

"So, yeah, just tell me something that they need or they'd like or they're into. I don't really know anything about your kids, Touichirou, aside from what drives you crazy about them." said Shiori

"I don't know very much about their personal lives, we haven't been in close contact lately, but…Shigeko's favorite color is blue, her favorite drink is milk, and she tends to favor sweet foods above all others. She also very much enjoys the ice queen series…Frozen, it's called. Her favorite of the characters is Elsa, though she also enjoys Anna. Anna is her favorite of the princesses, and Elsa is her favorite of the queens. It's a point of contention amongst my daughters, I've been told, which princess is the best. Mukai thinks that princess Rapunzel of Tangled is the best of the princesses. Shigeko disagrees and they have come to words of it, though in my opinion the best of the princesses is Merida, the Scottish one. She has a bow, she's much more interesting, though Princess Aurora does have the best film…but don't ever tell either of my daughters that I said that. The ice queen, I mean Frozen, is a good film but there is also a very annoying snowman that nearly ruins it for me. I have to move past his song, it's that irritating. My son agrees with me…it's one of the only things that we ever agreed on. Shigeko thinks that-" said Touichirou

"Princesses, got it." Said Shiori. She loved him, she really did, but when he was talking about something that he felt passionately about he could go on for literal hours. She had never imagined that princesses would have been on that list but it was said that you could never truly know a person…apparently not even a person who you planned on marrying.

"Yes, but queens as well. Also any female Disney character. I've noticed Alice and Mulan in the promotional materials for the princesses but neither of them are royalty. Alice is, at best, a member of the landed gentry and Mulan's family seems to be prosperous, though her feet were unbound and she had to see the matchmaker instead of the matchmaker coming to her. I found that part of the movie to be very inaccurate to the time period and-" said Touichirou

"Doesn't that movie have a talking dragon in it? I don't think that historical accuracy was high up on their priority list." Said Shiori. She hadn't seen that movie since it came out, it was alright. She shouldn't have gotten with the general's son in the end. He whined too much. A real general would have chopped off her head and then gone into the snow and killed any surviving Huns before bringing their heads back to the emperor. Of course it was just a kids' movie, not her demographic, though she was going to have to learn about these things later if she had daughters.

Or Touichirou could just write her up some notes.

Touichirou who was back to speaking whatever that language was…she listened closely. Not English, something close though. Not that her English was anywhere near fluent. She knew enough to get by…something else that she would have to worry about…something that she would leave to Touichirou. He was not going to be king in the castle when it came to their baby, she wouldn't let him. She wasn't going to let him put their child in charge of Christmas, either…she was going to have to be on him to actually parent their kid, wasn't she?

She could do this.

"Shiori, I love you but I have to go. I stepped out of a meeting and things…are not going well." Said Touichirou

"Wait, you left an important meeting? For me?" asked Shiori. He had done…what? Why?

"Yes." Said Touichirou simply.

"But…why? Isn't this just going to hurt you in the long run?" asked Shiori quickly.

"It most certainly will but I don't care, you're more important. If something had happened to you, if I had let something happen to you, then I don't know how I could possibly live with myself going forwards." Said Touichirou

"Nothing happened to me." said Shiori. If something had happened to her then he would have been the last person that she had called. She could deal with her own problems. She would call for backup from her own people before she called Touichirou…and she didn't even like calling for backup. She could handle her own life, why couldn't he see that?

"I am aware, and relieved, and also…also I wanted to hear your voice. I had nearly forgotten what it sounded like. It's beautiful, like the rest of you." said Touichirou. One of these days she was going to figure out how he did it, how he managed to make her feel like she was on top of the world right after making her feel like she wanted to burn the world down just to prove that she could.

"I love you too, now get back to your meeting before the world burns down. I'll call you back later." Said Shiori before she hung up. She took a moment to compose herself. It wouldn't do well to just go floating up off of that bench. She smoothed her hair down and put her phone in her pocket…and then snatched it right out. Right, her wet glove was in there…she'd deal with that when she got home. After she was done shopping.

She had the perfect gift idea.

Princess crowns for the two little princess obsessed princesses. Shigeko seemed to be a little too young for princesses and Disney but, really, princesses and Disney were better than drinking and smoking. Sho already had his gift…oh, right, Hatori….she knew him better. She'd get him something he needed, like some actual cologne instead of that cheap garbage he bathed in, or maybe a brush, or even something new to wear. Touichirou had been complaining about Hatori's clothing choices…seemed a bit backwards to worry about Hatori wearing ugly t-shirts and not Shigeko running around braless, but Touichirou was a puzzle wrapped in an enigma and dipped in chocolate. She wasn't up to figuring him out now.

She was barely up to Christmas shopping.