Author's Note: In case you haven't noticed, the last chapter was considerably longer than the 4 before it. I realized that I could have just combined one and two, three and four, etc. and broken them up in the middle with a little ~~~ like I did in the last one, especially since I wrote them immediately after eachother anyway. I'm not trying to get burnt out on this story but it's hard to stop writing when I keep having ideas about how I want it to progress. Maybe I should be writing more professionally and making an outline or a draft, but I've never liked translating from one page to another, I much prefer just shooting hot loads of narrative directly at the readers!As always, let me know what you think in the comments and let me know how you like my literary bukkake!!~~~Taiga and Ryuji walked to the grocery store to get supplies for dinner, thankful it was open and less thankful for the many other shoppers who seemed to be desperately trying to gather their own cooking supplies.

"Ryuji, you forgot to get the chicken," Taiga tugged his shirt sleeve as they finally started to make their way to the checkout clerk.

"Ah, I decided to abandon the chicken so I wouldn't offend Inko-chan..." he admitted, adding, "I left out a cookbook with one on the front and I was afraid he'd die from nervousness."

"Hmmmm... alright," Taiga was as always confused by the family's attachment to that bird, but she could live without poultry for dinner. "But the beef in your basket looks lacking. We had better get more."

So, the two headed back toward the meat cooler and picked out a few more cuts of beef. The store's shelves were barren since a large number of customers had been scouring them since that morning.

Finally, after buying their goods they were back out onto the street, and they decided to find lunch somewhere since Ryuji already had a hefty cooking task ahead of him that night. On the way, Taiga asked if they could stop at a department store so she could buy some last minute gifts, and Ryuji agreed since he figured she was looking for a way to make up to Kushieda for promising her that Ryuji would meet her at the school and then causing her to be stood up.

Kushieda was something Ryuji had been trying to ignore, but it kept creeping up on him from the back of his mind. Truthfully, he was starting to doubt his feelings towards her. Could he ever have spent a whole day with her the way he was doing now with Taiga? He was far from sure.

Returning from his thoughts, Ryuji noticed that Taiga had gone off somewhere and he started to look around for her.

"Right here, Ryuji. You know, with that face of yours people might get the wrong idea about you searching around for a short girl like me..."

Taiga... Ryuji hated being made fun of for his face.

"It's not my fault. I got these eyes from that stupid father of mine, like I've told you."

"It's okay, Ryuji. I like them. They cover up a side of you that not everyone gets to see," she told him, looking down at her feet as they walked together.

"You might not be so happy about them if you had to live with them."

Ryuji noticed that she had a bunch of random items seemingly piled up in her basket, stuff that she didn't need and that clearly wouldn't be a good gift for anyone, like snacks and crappy Christmas cards. It was like she was trying to bury something...

Again, they made their way to the checkout line and while Ryuji drifted back into thought about the consequences of his night with Taiga, she paid for her items. They ended up stopping for lunch briefly at a cafe, and then returned to Ryuji's apartment.

On the table was a note from Yasuko and a plastic shopping bag.

"Ryu-chan, Taiga-chan,I finished my trip to the store and decided to meet with some work friends for lunch at a cafe! I'll be home in the evening for dinner. Looove youuu!!!!!!Yasu-chan"As Ryuji finished reading the letter he noticed Taiga had unpacked the bag Yasuko had left on the table and was holding something in her hands. Ryuji saw a box of contraceptives had been taken from the bag and set on the table by Taiga. Yasu just kept doubling down on this, didn't she?

Ryuji looked at Taiga's shaking hands. Rage? Embarrassment? He couldn't see her face to tell. He noticed then that she was actually holding two things... one of them was a...

"A pregnancy test!? Just what the hell is her problem?"

In the other hand was... a gift card worth 100 thousand yen to a store that sold maternity clothes. Ryuji hoped she hadn't bought something like that without making sure it wouldn't expire...

"Taiga, you okay?" Ryuji knelt down to get closer to her face. The expression was neither one of rage nor embarrassment, but rather a combination of the two.

"We can try to make her understand later on, but right now I need to start getting dinner ready. Why don't you go wrap those presents?"

Taiga wordlessly shuffled off, still clutching the test and the giftcard, and Ryuji hurriedly hid away the box of condoms before heading to the kitchen to get started. He'd be making a western style steak dinner for that night, and he needed to make sure to have everything ready so he could streamline cooking the huge amount of meat that Taiga would probably eat.

Eventually Taiga returned and turned on the small TV in the corner of the room. There was a decent while where there was little noise other than the sound of the TV and the beaten space-heater.

Suddenly, Taiga piped up.

"So, what are we going to say to Minorin? I told her you would be waiting for her at the school..."

"I've been thinking that myself. It's going to be awkward if she was expecting some kind of confession and we come back to school... you know..."

"Together?" she finished, "...more together than usual?"

"I guess."

"Maybe we should pretend nothing has changed until things blow over with her..."

"Yeah... I guess that'd probably work... The bachelorette would probably cut our pinkies off if she sensed any kind of PDA anyway..."

"Since when is she a yakuza-boss?"

"Well, I never met my dad, so for all I know..."

"Hm..." Taiga answered to Ryuji's joke. She was suddenly less sure of that plan. She'd finally found a decent relationship with Ryuji, and as vain as it might be, she wanted to show it off. She wanted to rub it in the face of that stupid chihuahua, Ami Kawashima, always flirting at Ryuji as if she was trying to bother her. Unfortunately that would have to wait for a while.

The silence resumed, but there was a new sense of relief in the air from having at least discussed the Kushieda issue.

Eventually, Yasuko returned, smelling slightly of booze, and later still dinner was finished. Ryuji set the table and had the extra steaks at the ready for when Taiga finished her first helping.

The three of them sat down, Taiga again sitting next to Ryuji. Inko-chan's cage was set at the opposite end of the table, and Yasuko instead flanked him at the right.

Conversation was considerably less awkward and less one-sided than it had been in the morning, and Taiga was soon standing up to get seconds.

"Merry Christmas, Ryuji," she said as she sat down again.

"Yeah, merry Christmas~!" Yasuko seemed to chant.

Ryuji smiled and answered, "Merry Christmas."

Taiga looked up at him with a smile and grabbed his hand under the table, squeezing it.

"I'm so happy to be celebrating with my family! I love you guys~!" Yasuko gushed again.

"We love you too, Yasu" Taiga and Ryuji both replied quietly. Her upbeat attitude was kind of intimidating at times.

After dinner was over and the three had had their fill, they decided it would be a good time to exchange gifts, so they each brought their wrapped presents out to the living room. Yasuko received from Taiga an expensive perfume and a tube of lipstick. Taiga had probably bought them because of their pretty packaging, since she didn't really use perfume or makeup of any kind herself, but she figured Yasuko would find it useful at work at least. From Ryuji, Yasuko received a new winter coat. Always a bargain shopper, Ryuji had spotted it for a huge markup at a department store--quite a while before. Ryuji also gave Taiga her own rice-cooker. It was a cheap thing from a no-name brand, but he hoped he could encourage her into learning to cook for herself. Yasuko had gotten her a pair of over-knee socks, while she had gotten Ryuji a blue sweater which he swore was identical to one he had already owned at some point.

Taiga awkwardly thrust a poorly wrapped package into Ryuji's hands. She was as clumsy as ever...

"Aren't you going to open it?"

"I was just admiring your craftsmanship," he replied sarcastically as he unwrapped a navy colored scarf similar to the red one he already owned.

He looked at the scarf slightly confused. Taiga obviously knew he already had a fine scarf, since she kept ending up with it for various reasons, so why was she giving him another one?

"I noticed you kept leaving yours with me, so I figured I'd get you another one so it wouldn't matter as much if I forgot to give it back..."

"Thanks, Taiga. I appreciate it."

Taiga gave him an annoyed look which then gave way to a small smile. "I'm glad you like it."

With gifts exchanged and stomachs full, they all decided to head to bed for the night.

'I wonder if Taiga's going to spend the night again...' Ryuji thought to himself. She was already dressed for bed in the next room.