Date number one begins now!

How sad had it been when I went poll-making, because four of my favorites never made it to the general public's top favorites. :(

Disclaimer: Maybe Level-5 will give the Inazumaverse to me as a Christmas gift. :3

2: He's Coincidentally the First

Really, whose idea was it to make a fake marriage booth in the first place?

The date today was December twenty-three. Mom just finished wrapping the gifts for the people in the soccer club, and our Christmas party was going to be tomorrow! Oh, man! I'm so excited I couldn't sleep at all last night!

Maybe some sakka's going to help. Yeah!

"Oi, Mamoru, where are you going this early in the morning?" Mom yelled, almost dropping the laundry as I ran past her to the door. "It's only seven, mom!" I yelled back. "I'm excited for tomorrow, so I'm going to calm down with some sakka!"

"But—"

"I'll be back before lunch!"

"That won't be necessary," A devious female voice stopped me from even leaving the gate. I spun around to see Sokudone, who was holding a piece of paper with her small hands. "Captain, I have a gift for you. Open it now, okay?" She said to me as she practically shoved said piece of paper in my chest before running off like the little weirdo that she was.

You know, sometimes I wonder what other things she picked up from being Kageyama's kid…

"Endou Mamoru:

You've been chosen by the great goddess of Love and Fortune. Your challenge today is simple.

(Of course, as the captain of a national soccer team, I'm sure you won't have trouble fulfilling your task.)"

"What am I even reading?" I whined aloud as I resumed the walk to the riverbank. "Just 'cause Megamino's a pun on her name…Sokudone, you're so weird!"

"It's Christmas, well almost anyway. Why not give some of your time to a special someone? A small meeting? A get-together? A date? Anything to make them happy.

'Tis the season to do my bidding, tra-la-la-la-la-la-la-la!"

"And I have to do this because?" I snorted. This was one of Sokudone's ways of trying to set me up on a date. Nooo-hooo way is this going to work!

"P.S., did I forget to mention that I am the daughter of one of the most successful businessmen in the world? Of course I can do anything I see fit. Like, oh, I don't know, remove goalposts, shut down sports centers and all related stores, and finally, rig all soccer balls to explode?

Merry Christmas, Captain. :)"

I swear she's crazy!

The moment I arrived at the riverbank, I found out the hard way that while she was crazy, she wasn't lying either. I couldn't find a single goalpost! And when I kicked my ball, it exploded mid-air! Agh, now I have to do her bidding…but who am I supposed to waste my time with?

I ran around Inazuma Town, ignoring the falling snow smacking into my face as I tried to find someone who could save me from the evil goddess' crazy antics. "Oh, is that Natsumi?" I asked aloud as I saw a familiar brown head of hair with its back to the glass of Sherry's Sundae Shoppe. "That's weird…who eats cold stuff in the middle of winter?"

"Sherry's has some hot desserts and drinks here too, you dolt." Natsumi scowled while still managing to look ladylike in the ice cream shop. I can't believe I'm admitting this now, but I always did find her pretty, but she's such a tsundere too!

I wonder how Nagumo deals with Suzuno…

"So what brings you here, Endou-kun?" She asked me again with her soft but silky voice, which was enough to pull me away from my thoughts. "At eight in the morning, I'd have expected you to be playing soccer despite the cold."

"Yeah, well, I would have wanted that too, but the goddess of misfortune sent her best wishes to me," I answered her as I handed the folded piece of scented paper. Natsumi immediately took it and read it with almost the same speed as Kazemaru's normal running speed – which is to say, pretty darn fast. What really surprised me, though, was when Natsumi started reddening in the face and her ears. She gave me back the paper, but she refused to meet my eyes! "Oi, Natsumi, what's up?"

She was shaking in that really scary way like mom does whenever she finds out I didn't clean my room.

"Fine!" She finally made eye contact with me when she said it. "If this is your odd way of asking me out, then I'll go!" She grabbed her coat and bag with one hand, and with the other she clamped her fingers on my wrist and dragged us out of the shop. For a second there, I thought I saw Sokudone's black ponytail peeking from one of the cubicles, but I didn't get the chance to check.

Natsumi ended up dragging us to the Prism Stars Fair, which just recently opened up. I heard Kazemaru and Max talk about the girl-band that was slowly making its name in J-Pop. But why a fair, though?

"Why are we here?" I asked Natsumi, whose heated face probably kept the rest of her warm enough to last the whole season. She looked at me with embarrassed tsundere eyes, then back at the entrance.

"I'm helping you with that stupid challenge of yours, okay? So man up!" She barked at me, although still softly, which confused me. But the paper just said to waste my time with someone if I wanted to play sakka again. "But the paper just said to waste my time with someone if I wanted to play sakka again…" I echoed my own thoughts.

Natsumi gave me a small are you serious look, before striding into the huge girl-run fair. Man, she's scary. I don't even know why I like her.

"Hello there, sweet cheeks," A short man with sleek black hair and violet eyes jumped out of nowhere. For some reason, he looked so familiar, and when I shared a look with Natsumi I knew she felt like she recognized him from somewhere too. "Am I interrupting something? I meant to advertise to you a cozy stall in the Prism Stars' Fair that you two might want to get into because it's pretty cold today, huh?" He grinned at both of us, which got both Natsumi and me still confused by his sudden appearance, so we didn't notice that we had been flocking after him as he talked and walked about his "cozy stall".

"But of course, there's a catch!" He kept that really familiar grin stuck to his face as we finally arrived at the destined stall. "The Fake Marriage Booth isn't cozy unless you two feel cozy!"

Behind him several couples were taking pictures in the bride and groom costumes, and sometimes there were couple outfits too. The people in charge of the stall were all wearing the signature Prism Stars color – which was a blinding hot pink – so you could tell who you could approach for help. One of them suddenly approached us and grinned.

"Japan's Soccer Captain is out here with Raimon's Pink Princess?" She grabbed our hands and led us to an unused cubicle. "I totally figured that you two were dating!"

"Wha—"

"Oh, Kami, no way," Natsumi was beginning to regain her composure after being embarrassed and shell-shocked a few moments ago. "He's too messy to be in my league."

"Hey!"

"Oh, but that's how the Princess and the Frog story goes." The Prism Starlet winked at Natsumi. I was going to agree with her but then I realized— "Did you just call me a frog?"

The two girls stared at me for a while, and then went back to looking for clothes. "Hey! I'm not a frog! And Natsumi called me a horse, once, too!" (A/N: This actually happened in the anime, during one of the earliest episodes of season one.)

"For crying out loud, I was calling you a horse that was persevering in training for soccer!" She smacked her forehead as she looked at me; funnily enough, she was blushing again…or maybe she was using so much of her breath that she was losing it and it was showing in her face? "But in the end you thought I called you an obstinate mule…"

"Oh, honey, I understand the horrors of dense boys." She patted Natsumi's shoulder sympathetically and handed us our outfits. Our brown-haired manager blushed again at the remark before she noticed me staring. "What?"

"You've been blushing a lot lately…"

"And you've been staring a lot lately," She snapped lightly at me. "Now get your own stall; I have to change." She finished as she pushed me out of her tent. "H-Hey!"

"Yes?" She was back to her smooth and silky tone again.

"Why are you even doing this?" I heard her mutter incomprehensively on the other side of the curtain. "I can't hear!"

"Oh for crying out loud!" Natsumi slid back the curtain, surprisingly really fast in changing – she wore a deer onesie to match my horse, which is really, really weird! "I'm trying to help you with your goddess invite here!"

I stared a little more at her clothing of choice. Can't help it, she looked so cute and it's pretty rare to see her in outfits like these.

"Ne, Natsumi, do you like me?"

"So, how did the date go?" Sokudone was sitting outside my house gate when I went home. It was still early in the afternoon, but Natsumi had a curfew to follow – and it was my fault she was behind her schedule. "Did you know baka is written with horse and deer in its characters?"

"Ah!" I yelled and fell on my butt when I finally connected the dots. "You were the short guy at the fair!"

Sokudone had a cheeky grin in response.

"Of course I do, idiot!" Natsumi pulled the outfit up to try to cover her face. "Why else would I help someone if I didn't like them?"

"This is a marriage booth."

"So?"

"You're usually more stubborn when it comes to these kinds of things," I've known Natsumi for a long time, and she usually hated doing things that weren't ladylike or risked her pride. "But that's probably the Christmas spirit getting to you. Thanks for coming with me!"

Natsumi sighed as a way to try to suppress her smile, but it was so huge, I took out my phone and took a snap of it. "You should smile like this more often; you're really pretty, y'know!"

"On the first date of Christmas, Endou gave to Natsumi a proposal to fake marry~" Sokudone hopped off her makeshift seat and handed me another folded piece of paper. "By the way, don't tell your date anything!"

"Dear Secret Santa,

If you grant me one whole day of spontaneity and being out of my comfort zone, I'd be so happy. Who better to spend that out of character day than with the hyperactive Endou Mamoru, right? Secret Santa, please make it look unintentional…"

"You're Natsumi's Secret Santa?" I looked at my short friend in disbelief. "No, I'm her fairy godmother." She rubbed her hands together and clapped them on my back. "And you're Prince Present. See ya tomorrow, Captain!" Sokudone's ponytail swished side to side as she walked away from my neighborhood.

I'm telling you, she's crazy.

But I better give her a gift of thanks too…

Fr: Raimon Natsumi

Merry Christmas to you too, idiot. Of course I kept the picture.

First of all, I've never written in first-person before, and certainly not in Endou's perspective. With the fact that he and his gramps have horrid penmanship and a funny vocabulary (i.e., "first he goes jan, then the other person goes dodong!"), I limited his use of words. This is Endou's POV, so he's the one talking, not me, the author. What do you think?

I bet I disappointed you. Reviews?

-Strawbeariiis