Taiga Aisaka had already had an exhausting day, but more exhausting were her feelings that had finally finished piling up inside her and were now threatening to crash down on her like a poorly organized bookshelf. Though their relationship had started out as a mutually beneficial affair, trying to help eachother be with their respective best friends, Taiga was beginning to realize that she'd been thinking about Ryuji Takasu a lot more than her own crush, Kitamura. It was mostly that she was trying to be a good girl for Christmas, trying to keep a facade that she'd always had someone watching over her and that she'd know it for sure if she simply dedicated herself to helping another, if she tried not to be so callous and rude to the world around her.

After practically blackmailing her best friend Minorin into meeting Ryuji at the Christmas party, she returned home to her sad, huge apartment where her fragile, tiny self could wait for Santa Claus to come and just prove to her that it'd been worth it. She only half believed in Santa at best, and probably didn't believe in him at all, but she was at least keeping herself occupied and out of trouble.

"I guess it doesn't count if you're only good around Christmas..."

She pulled her red muffler--Ryuji's red muffler--around her lower face and nose and found herself dozing off on this ugly, uncomfortable, western-style chair.

Suddenly, she heard a violent knocking at her bedroom window. A burglar? A murderer? She carefully approached the bedroom, grabbing her wooden sword and holding it at the ready before pulling away the curtains.

She was greeted with the face of a bear in a santa hat, dangling between her window and Ryuji's veranda.

'Figure,' she thought to herself as she opened the window and pulled the santa-bear inside.

She let herself play the game for a while, excitedly showing the bear her measly glass Christmas tree and letting him hold her and spin her in his arms. They fell to the floor in a heap, and before he could react she was grabbing at the bear's head.

"Thank you."

The bears head was on the floor.

"For everything. Ryuji..."

His sweating face flushed as he looked up at her sitting on his chest.

"W-what the hell? You shouldn't take Santa's head off!" he snapped at her, panicking.

"A fake Santa Claus for a fake good girl. I guess it makes sense."

"Taiga, I... you ran off from the party so quickly... a-and I wanted to make sure you were okay."

He had a way of always showing up when she needed him, whether it meant catching her when she fell down the stairs, trying to cheer her up by eating the shards of her terrible cookies, rescuing her from drowning (and embarasament)...

Etcetera, etcetera.

This was no exception. She had really needed a visit from Santa Claus this Christmas, maybe more than she had any year before. That didn't change the fact that his concern for her was going to ruin her plan to get him together with Minorin.

After all the fanfare had died down she'd sent him on his way, trying to put on her best facade of confidence. She wasn't worried about him, he couldn't do anything wrong, at least not tonight. She knew his feelings toward Minorin were reciprocated and that things would go well.

Her mask was mostly for herself, trying desperately not to put a wrench in things and ruin them like she believed she always did.

After he'd gone the big, empty apartment was empty and quiet and infinitely bigger once again. Her--Ryuji's--muffler lay on the floor in a heap and as she bent to pick it up she noticed that somehow it had gotten wet. She assumed that since she'd come home it had started snowing, and the water was just droplets from Ryuji's costu-

As her hand reached her cheek, she felt wetness on her fingertips. As tears streamed down her face, she felt like a dam had broken inside her head as her thoughts flowed out.

If Ryuji were to get together with Minorin, there would be no more packed bento-boxes, no breakfast at his house, no dinner with him and Yasuko, no more of the family she had come to be a part of. She didn't want that. The stream of words flying across her head finally reached her lips.

"I-I can't bear that," she whimpered as her feet took on a mind of their own, dashing for the apartment door as she tried desperately to run, to catch him. She sprinted, or rather scrambled into the hallway, down the stairs, out the front door, the cold sidewalk stinging her feet as she turned, searching the streets for his presence.

"Ryuji!" she cried, falling to her knees in a way she couldn't remember doing before.

"RYUJI!"

"RYUUUUJI!"

Santa wasn't real. there was nobody looking out for her, nobody who would come to rescue her, wrapping his arms around her petite form, supporting her. Still, she tried desperately to get him to hear her voice, screaming for him, her mind suddenly clear in this one moment of panic and fear. And still, she knew better than to expect him to hear.