Author's note: I have since realised that no, you can't see the little ASCII stars I've been putting in the dividers (at least not on mobile, which I use to write), and that all you see is "~~~~".Anyway, double digits, woo! Obviously the Christmas spirit has me again invested in my favorite festive anime (three holiday season episodes makes it festive) and I felt like writing some more! Hopefully you're still reading and enjoying the story in spite of the inconsistencies that result from taking several months off of writing.~~~~Taiga and Ryuji did their best to rearrange the dining room to make space for all the people who would be coming over that day, but the already sparse furniture left little to be done, besides putting the TV and its stand away temporarily. Slowly, classmates began arriving.

Noto and Haruta appeared first at the door, and noticing the lack of other people there, Noto started to gripe about their being unfashionably early.

Ami, Nanako, and Kihara arrived together next, and noticing that Noto and Haruta had beaten them, were all terribly disappointed that they couldn't be fashionably early.

Kushieda came soon after, unconcerned with the fashion of her arrival, followed by Kitamura, who was met with the rest of the group sitting gathered closely around the small table as Ryuji made a pot of tea.

"Hey there, sorry I'm late! I had to finish up some student council work, and it ran a little longer than I expected!" he explained cheerily.

Stepping through the door he remarked, "Gee, Takasu, I've never seen your house this packed before!" before catching himself and correcting, "Or rather, I've never seen your girlfriend's house so packed!"

He shot Ryuji, and then Taiga, an obvious wink which was noticed by everyone since he had made himself the sole point of attention in the room.

"Ha-ha, yep, small house for a small girl!"

"Kitamura, did you just say 'Ha-ha' out loud?" Haruta asked.

The group's focus returned to the project at hand as Ryuji sat down next to Taiga at the table and began pouring tea for everyone.

"All these example brochures are for the class trip last year to Okinawa, so it's not like we can just pilfer everything from them..." Noto sighed.

"We're supposed to be making our own brochure, anyway, these are just so we can see what a good one looks like," Kihara stated aggressively toward Noto as she unfolded a brochure in her hand.

"Sure, I guess, but don't you think we have it a lot harder? I mean, every class before gets to go on the same trip as the ones on the examples, and they don't have to go up to the mountains in the freezing cold. I mean, come on! Why would anyone want more snow?"

"Maybe some of us think the snow is really pretty, Noto!" Kihara snapped.

"Yeah, I kind of like the wintertime," Nanako agreed softly.

"You know I just realised I might have some paper and art supplies in my room let me go get them!" Ryuji suddenly interjected, then stood and started into the bedroom.

Taiga stood too, and said, "Right, let me help you look!"and raced in behind him, closing the door behind her.

"Wait a minute... his room?" Noto said, suspicious.

"Jeez, what's with those two going at it like that all of a sudden? What's going on between them?" Taiga remarked, standing on the futon as Ryuji halfheartedly searched his drawers.

"I might know... they've been at odds since at least before Christmas and this whole outburst might be our fault," Ryuji said, looking back over his shoulder at Taiga, "and get your feet off my bed."

Taiga walked over and put her arms around Ryuji's waist, resting her head against his back, "your bed... and what do you mean it's our fault? What did we do?"

"You're really huggy recently..." Ryuji observed, only to be met with a dry look from Taiga as he hugged her back, "and I mean like when we all got together to study at Johnny's. Didn't you notice how Noto and Haruta kept trying to set you and Kitamura up together?"

"Well, yeah, but I don't see what that has to do with Maya."

"Well, for whatever reason, she was really against it. She stopped me and asked me what I thought about it and told me she was 'rooting for me'. It was really strange, since even though I was trying to set you up with Kitamura myself it made me really jealous..." Ryuji explained.

"Jealous of Noto and Haruta, or jealous of Kitamura-kun?"

"I don't know," Ryuji paused, "In hindsight, probably both."

"I think I can explain it. Kihara has a huge crush on Kitamura-kun. It used to bother me so much when they'd all fawn over him."

"It doesn't anymore?"

"No. I have you to get jealous over," Taiga replied smugly.

"Now, let's get back out there before they start getting funny ideas."

"Right," Ryuji agreed. "And let's put this someplace secure before it creates more misunderstandings," Ryuji noted as he placed the plastic bag of goods Yasuko had brought them Christmas day in the back of his desk drawer.

"I forgot about those. You didn't get rid of them?" Taiga said, starting to blush from embarrassment.

"You never know." Ryuji answered coyly, leading Taiga to punch him in the side as he opened the door.

They were met by the piercing gazes of all their friends and classmates, save for Kitamura, who was pinned to the floor under Haruta's knees.

"We know what's going on here." stated Noto.

~~~~

After carefully explaining the situation to their friends--save for details about Taiga's father--the group looked haughtily at the couple.

"Y'know, there's clearly something more going on here than you're letting on." Noto accused.

"Yeah, what kind of impure things are you two doing in all this alone-time you have?" Haruta prodded, teasingly.

"Uhhhm..." Ryuji weakly began to protest.

"If our being a couple makes you all so uncomfortable, why don't you all just leave?" Taiga spat bitterly.

"Uh-uh, no way. We aren't letting you two lovebirds out of our sight." Kawashima proclaimed.

"Yeah," "That's right," "Agreed," spoke the rest of the group.

So, several hours passed as the group worked on their project and discussed school and exams and the trip, all the while enforcing a "hands-to-yourself" rule on Taiga and Ryuji. Luckily, the animosity between Noto and Maya had been forgotten as the new couple was the focus of collective joking and teasing.

Eventually the students started to file out, leaving only Taiga, Ryuji, Kitamura, Noto, and Haruta in the house together.

Suddenly, Noto's cell started to ring, and he picked it up.

"Hey... yeah... alright... sure... yeah I'll... sure... okay... see you soon."

"Sorry, that was my dad. I gotta split. I'll see you guys back at school."

"I better head out, too," said Haruta.

After they had gone only Kitamura was left, and he looked back sheepishly at the glares he received from the couple seated across from him.

"Sorry... all that was kind of my fault."

Met with silence.

"I don't really have anywhere to be if you guys wanted to hang out some more though."

Silence.

"You know I don't really care what you guys do."

"Did you want us to start making out or something?" Taiga answered wrathfully.

"I mean... if-"

"Go home, Kitamura." Ryuji replied coldly.

"Alright. See you two at school." Kitamura quickly spouted, then hurriedly left.

After he had finally gone, Taiga sighed and lay her head in Ryuji's lap.

"How exhausting..."

"Yeah, I don't know how that could have gone worse." he replied as he rubbed Taiga's hair.

"It's a good thing they didn't search your room."

"Oh, yeah. That would have been worse."

"We're never going to hear the end of this..."