A/N: I got a poll on my profile going right now. Take 3 seconds to hit a button if you could, I'd appreciate it. Vote once, please. I'm just trying to get a baseline of my readership.

There had been many a troubling times in the girls recent history, but one thing that they had all managed to agree upon with excitement, at the recommendation of the Tokiwadai girl's more Western influenced School Garden leanings, was decorating the house for the holidays. None of the girls were particularly religious, Kuroko especially felt the need to occasionally make a snarky comment in her very "Girl of Tomorrow" view born of Academy City, but after a playful jolt from Mikoto, better behaved herself.

And so, the girls had found themselves from the early morning decorating in a very generic, if somewhat Christmas-y, style across the house, with Maika having gone to the trouble to find some Christmas music for them that admittedly only a few of them understood the words to. Saten and Uiharu both confessed their English were not spectacular.

Mikoto had made a slight face when Misaki had arrived at the house, the girl starting to become more and more omnipresent. She spent a great deal of her time out of the house however, often on business or dealing with her faction.

"She's only here an hour or two a day, at the most, and occasionally stays the night in Uiharu's room. You're just over sensitive to her presence." Kuroko said as they worked together to hang up a wreath. With Kuroko having one arm, and Mikoto only having one arm free as the other was used for her crutch, they tag-teamed a great deal. Mikoto scowled at her girlfriend at the harsh words, huffing.

"I.. I am not."

Kuroko fixed her with a flat, half-lidded stare for a solid ten seconds before Mikoto's morale finally broke.

"O-OK, maybe a little…" She confessed, huffing in a manner Kuroko found quite adorable. They finished hanging the wreath above the fireplace before backing away, turning to where Uiharu and Saten were currently working on the tree.

"I told you, the book said that you're supposed to put a star on top." Saten insisted, standing on top of the latter and balancing herself in a way that was both impressive and wholly unsafe.

"B-but I think the angel is pretty too!" Uiharu insisted, pouting a bit. "A-and that's not safe, Saten-san!"

"No worries! I recently had an Indian Poker card of someone who could balance on anything!"

Mikoto and Kuroko smiled a bit at the pair before moving on to their next task of decorating, hanging up some lights around the perimeter of the room. Kuroko found herself lightly rotating her shoulder slightly as she listened to her friends bicker a little, sighing a bit at the soreness.

"So… No luck on that coin?" Kuroko asked softly as they continued to hang up the string of lights, bit by bit. Mikoto shook her head in response.

"I reached out with my electromagnetic senses and found nothing. That coin is gone, completely. No matter where I looked. I did the math, there is no way with the speed I shot it at that it could have richotched any further than where I looked." She explained, frowning a little, mostly in a thoughtful gesture.

Kuroko looked equally thoughtful as they continued their task, keeping quiet as they let their thoughts flow for a moment.

"Maybe my powers are still functioning… at least somewhat." Kuroko said quietly, a hint of hope in her voice as she looked up at Mikoto. Mikoto in an instant had already closed the distance between them, hugging her to her chest tightly.

"We'll find out. I swear we will." Mikoto gripped her tightly, tensing as she felt the grating, silky, heavenly voice of Misaki ring through the room as she strolled in.

"Maika-chan made us cookies!" The girl grinned as she walked in, carrying a plate of Christmas cookies that were still steaming from the oven, placing them down onto the center table of the room, grinning widely. Mikoto remained hugging Kuroko for a moment longer, calming herself from her unreasonable annoyance with the girl. Once the two let each other go, she let out a sigh.

"Thanks…" she let out a mumble toward the blonde, avoiding eye contact before returning to decorating and quietly talking with Kuroko.

"So maybe your power works on the subconscious level now… teleporting things without asking?" Mikoto asked Kuroko, who gave a bit of a helpless shrug.

"Without me calculating it?" She asked, frowning. "That I have never done. Like… how could I do that? And where could it go? I have a max range without it hurting me-" Kuroko cut herself short, blinking.

"...Hurting your arms." Mikoto muttered, finishing the thought. Arms that Kuroko no longer had. "Any phantom pain?" She asked softly. Kuroko shook her head. Curiouser and curiouser.

A soft tap on Mikoto's shoulder broke her out of her train of thought. Turning she saw Saten, who'd broken away from Misaki and Uiharu. The pair had sat down on the couch and were cuddling in a manner that Mikoto did not entirely blame her for detaching.

"Can I talk to you?" Saten asked softly. Saten looked a bit anxious, which made Mikoto herself anxious. Glancing to Kuroko, who gave her a nod as she pulled out her phone, which was buzzing.

"Go, it's the doctor. I need to take it anyway."

Saten and Mikoto had wandered over to a small nook in the corner of the living room, Kuroko out in the foyer on the phone, while Uiharu sat in Misaki's lap while she was being fed a cookie in a manner that was so sweet that it was somewhat nauseating.

"M-Misaka-san…" Saten said softly, in a whisper. Mikoto turned her attention back to Saten, feeling her long broad braid- which she now wore full time, having grown very fond of it- swinging behind her.

"Yes?"

"Did you…" Saten began, fidgeting, looking… profoundly guilty. "Did you ever figure out if Uiharu was being… you know…" She glanced toward Misaki.

Oh. Right. Saten had taken off and gone miss for over a week. They had never had this conversation. Saten looked up and saw Mikoto fidgeting in a manner that was clear that Mikoto was extremely uncomfortable.

"W-well… kind of…" Mikoto muttered. "You know Uiharu's flowers? She's got… electrodes in them. She installed them a long time ago, I guess. It's… uh…" Mikoto's face had turned into one of brick red blushing.

Saten was growing progressively more confused as the moment dragged on, getting more and more curious as to why Mikoto looked so embarrassed.

"...U-Uiharu consented to everything…" Mikoto said in a mumble, her face burning a brick red. Saten blinked at her repeatedly, and opened her mouth before a voice cut her off.

"What she means is…" A voice in her head began to speak, a voice that sounded heavenly and beautiful. "Is that when Mikoto-chan pressed the issue and Uiharu relented and shared the data in her flowers, she learned more about Haru-chan than she wanted to know. Would YOU like to know? We could trade bed stories." Misaki's voice purred in Saten's head as the dark haired girl felt her face burning red.

"T-thank you, M-Misaka-san…" Saten said quietly before quickly moving away, deciding to do everything in her power to flee this conversation. Something about that telepath's psychic personality intimidated Saten to no end.

Misaka quickly made her way toward the cookie plate to get something to eat and fill her mouth and distract from the embarrassment. Saten had made her way back to the Christmas tree, and Kuroko was still on the phone.

Then the doorbell rang.

Saten tried to scramble her way out of the tree. "I-I got it!" She tried to say, but was quickly getting tangled.

"Cool it, Saten-san, I got it." Mikoto smiled, turning away, not seeing the slight concern on Saten's face as Mikoto moved to the door and opened it.

"Good morn-" Mikoto began to greet in a friendly manner before that friendly personality stopped cold, her expression sliding from geniality straight into one of outright disgust in an instant.

There was a tense pause as the blonde that blinked back at her awkwardly cleared her throat. Frenda offered up a couple plastic bags.

"I… brought eggnog?" She said softly, part of her clearly feeling the intense negativity radiating from Mikoto.

"What are you doing here?" Mikoto whispered low enough so only Frenda could hear.

"...I was invited." Frenda responded in an equal whisper, standing her ground, her voice containing just a trace of… hurt?

"Frenda!"

Saten ran up and smiled brightly to the older girl, looking overjoyed. Mikoto forced her disgusted expression off of her face as Saten got close, her grip tightening on her crutch.

"I'm so happy you could make it. Come in!" She said with a bright smile, tugging Frenda into the building by the hand, Mikoto standing aside, suppressing her urge to smack Frenda with her crutch, instead just closing the door to keep out the chill. Mikoto glowered at the back of the mercenaries head hatefully, not trusting her with a single particle of her body.

A slight tug at her sleeve prompted her to look down toward her shorter partner, the smiling Kuroko who grinned up at her.

"Hey. You look like you've got a lot on your mind today. Why don't you help me do my hair and get it off your chest?" Kuroko offered, tugging her toward a small couch in one corner of the sitting room across from the others. Misaki and Uiharu were talking to Saten and Frenda, with Frenda playfully trying to push some eggnog on the tiny flower-headed girl, Misaki seemingly amused by this while Uiharu was doing everything in her power to explain the Academy City statue on underage drinking of alcoholic beverages.

"T-The statue c-clearly states that we are supposed to not-"

"Ah, but Haru-chan, what if we were to not remember at a convenient time that we ingested any form of alcoholic contents…" Misaki interjected in a philosophical tone, toying with Uiharu's hair as Frenda began pouring glasses with an ever-growing grin.

"B-b-b-b-but-!"

Mikoto looked to Kuroko, raising an eyebrow. "Shouldn't you…" She began to say, before Kuroko sat herself down cross legged, her back toward Mikoto.

"I'm not Judgement anymore." She said in a nonchalant tone. Mikoto nearly stumbled at such a flippant reply. What was THAT?

Mikoto sat behind Kuroko and began to use her fingers to comb through the strands, pondering how exactly to style it. Kuroko was always so… law oriented. This was… a departure from such a rigid part of her personality. From her personal code.

Mikoto… did have a lot to say. She just didn't know where to begin. It was pushing into the end December now… December 20th. That was today. So much time had passed so fast. So much had happened.

"Your hair's gotten so long. It's beautiful." Mikoto said in a very quiet, very embarrassed voice. Kuroko let out a chirping smile, wiggling underneath Mikoto stroking her hair, clearly restraining herself.

"K-Kuroko…" Mikoto said quietly, swallowing. "I… last year…" She began, Kuroko's head jerking up slightly in surprise as the topic shifted in a direction she wasn't expecting. "...I'm sorry."

"Last year, I mean… Mikoto you've already-" Kuroko began, but Mikoto shook her head.

"No, I haven't. I mean… at the beginning. If I… If I hadn't kept all of this a secret. If I had told you from the start what I'd found out, about the clones, about the project, about… about everything." Mikoto grimaced, the tension in her body and voice rising, but quiet enough that the others in the room could not hear them. Kuroko remained quiet for now, not interrupting as Mikoto finally opened up. She knew how hard it was for her.

"That night… that night you offered to help me. And I treated you like vermin for just trying to help. I knew I was wrong then, and I still did it and…" Mikoto had begun to tear up behind her, and Kuroko pushed herself backward to nuzzle her slightly to help calm her. "Shh… It's fine. Don't worry about it. It's nothin-"

"Is it?"

A voice echoed in Kuroko's head. Kuroko blinked and her eyes darted toward the only possible source. Misaki continued to talk and tease and play the social butterfly with the other three girls around her, even as the telepath maintained an entirely separate line of thought with Kuroko. A power Kuroko did not know she possessed, but in retrospect made sense- it made sense that Academy City's greatest telepath was capable of maintaining more than one entirely separate trains of thought.

"Do you truly believe it is a loving act to so casually dismiss this? She is pouring out her heart, I can only wonder how long she has let this build… I wonder how she would feel to hear how little her concerns matter to you…" Misaki's silky voice echoed through Kuroko's head. Misaki's eyes briefly flicked toward Kuroko as her advice rattled around the ex-teleporters head.

In return for the unsolicited advice, Misaki was repaid. By the sudden mental image of Kuroko imagining herself leaping up, grabbing a Christmas ornament, smashing it over Misaki's head and repeatedly stabbing her in the face with the broken shards.

Misaki's external facial expressions did not waver as she conversed and played the cool, calm, and perpetually serene Queen amidst the other three girls around her. But… there was a single drop of sweat that did trail down the side of her brow at the sudden burst of anger and "mind your own fucking business" that echoed in response from Kuroko's mind. There was just a slight hint of guilt behind that anger though… Misaki did have an- intensely irritating- point.

Mikoto had gone quiet, her hands still playing at Kuroko's long hair, its length now down to the back of her knee's… it was a bit unruly. Both of them had grown a bit attached to their longer hair… like it was a reminder of their struggles.

"Kuroko, I just… I'm just trying to…" Mikoto began to speak again, and it was clear that she was trying to suppress frustration. Kuroko was wincing and finding herself growing equally frustrated. Wasn't it the loving thing to do to be accepting and and forgiving?

"I'm just… I want to apologize…" Mikoto muttered quietly, sifting her fingers through Kuroko's hair more, continuing to style it however it was she was doing it. Kuroko couldn't quite see. Misaki's words bounced around in Kuroko's head once more and it was aggravating. Kuroko took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down

"Mikoto, love, I…" Kuroko began, sighing deeply. "...Look, you're right. Things would have been different, sure. I don't know if they would have been better, or worse, but they would have been different. And maybe not telling us was a mistake. I do wish you had let me help… I do wish you had told me." She nodded softly, turning her head, leaning back and softly kissing Mikoto.

"Thank you for saying so. I forgive you, and I just ask that we both try harder going forward… and try not to keep so many secrets from each other. OK?" She smiled softly.

Mikoto sniffled a bit, wiping her face and nodding softly, hugging Kuroko from behind for a moment before returning to her styling. "Y-yeah…"

"Promise?" Kuroko asked, smiling playfully, offering a hand over her shoulder to Mikoto. Mikoto took the hand.

"Promise."

"So, I have wonderful news!"

Mikoto found herself grimacing at those words before she even heard the rest of Misaki's words. Uiharu lightly swatted at Mikoto's shoulder, puffing her cheeks out at her. "Let her finish." She huffed.

The girls were all sitting around the wooden table that sat in front of the Western-style fireplace in the Western-style, now Christmas-decorated, sitting room of their home, with Kuroko and Mikoto having wrapped themselves up in a comforter together like some kind of adorable burrito. The fireplace crackled, the sound echoing in a very satisfying way, a pleasing sizzling noise.

"On Christmas Eve, Tokiwadai is hosting a reunion to celebrate the reopening of the school and the beginning of the term now that Academy City has recollected itself from the tragedy of Treefall." Misaki announced with a large smile, waving around a letter she had in her hand.

"And I went to the trouble to ensure that everyone was invited as my honored guests." She gestured toward the non-Tokiwadai students present- even Frenda, who seemed genuinely surprised.

"W-what, you barely know me?" Frenda blinked back, to which Misaki got a wry grin across her face.

"Would you really want to abandon poor Ruiko all by herself while the couples go to this event?" Misaki asked all-too-sweetly, which got Frenda to give Misaki a kind of half-lidded stare of mild contempt. For the briefest of moments, Mikoto felt disgusted kinship with Frenda.

Kuroko groaned loudly and buried her face in Mikoto's chest, Mikoto blushing intensely. "W-what's wrong?"

"I won't have arms!" Kuroko whined loudly. The whole room stared at that remark in surprise. No arms? What? Kuroko unburied herself and sighed.

"The doctor is taking my arm back to synchronize it with the second… I'm getting my second arm." Kuroko grinned broadly. "That's what that phone call was about-" Kuroko didn't get the chance to finish her sentence before Mikoto pulled her into a tight, nearly bone-breaking hug underneath the giant blanket, hiding them out of raw embarrassment. Mikoto was so thrilled but too embarrassed to show such raw lovey emotions.

"So cute." Misaki said in a teasing tone at the blanket lump. "Though a blanket doesn't qualify as privacy if you're going to be having passionate love-making." Misaki added in, the rooms light flickering as Mikoto growled angrily underneath the cloth at her.

Giggling erupted into the room a bit, a small sense of purity, as if nothing could go wrong. A moment of respite. Uiharu found her way over to Misaki, lightly leaning into her partner and smiling, closing her eyes and basking in the warmth of the older girl.

Frenda leaned back a bit as she watched the others, giving a slight smile to Ruiko as the younger dark haired girl grinned toothily at her before looking back at the shenanigans of the others.

The words of Mugino rattled around in her head as she watched the purity of what was in front of her. Find their weaknesses. Find Railguns secrets. Find anything she could use. Bring it to Mugino.

Frenda couldn't help it… She couldn't resist the involuntary physical motion. Her hand reached up toward her chest, gripping at it tightly.

Why… Why did her heart hurt so much?