Author's Note: 'Ironya' is little Len's nickname for Iroha as a pun for her love of Hello Kitty (cats say nya).
Chapter Twenty-Three
For Christmas, I Want . . .
"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon!" came Yuki's repeated plea as she bounced from foot to foot at the apartment's door. Iroha closed the lid on a tin bento box and tucked it inside the purse she planned to carry as Rin made her way toward the child.
"Geez, just shush for a minute, would you?" the blonde groaned. Despite her tired words, when Iroha glanced toward her, she saw that Rin had kneeled in front of Yuki to check that all the buttons on the girl's coat were done up properly. "We'll go out when we're ready. There's no rush."
"If we don't go out soon, there won't be any of Christmas left!" Yuki argued, pouting at Rin. Iroha stifled a laugh and quickly checked that she'd turned off the stove's elements, pulling her purse over her shoulder when the job was complete and only stopping once more to check her appearance in the mirror.
"Christmas isn't going anywhere," Rin sighed. Then, with an audible grin, she added, "It's not like your boyfriend is going to be there, anyway."
Iroha tugged down irritably on a clump of her bangs that seemed determined to fly free. She'd gotten the rest of her appearance perfect, even the eyeliner she usually avoided applying. She'd gone for a darker pink lip gloss, hoping it suited her predominately red clothing, including the hand-knit muffler Len had made her back in middle school, but she looked at it now and wondered if she'd been too ambitious. She probably looked like a child playing dress up, given her infantile figure. With a sigh, Iroha acknowledged that there was nothing she could do about that.
"He's not my boyfriend!" Yuki exclaimed, her face going bright as her boot slammed against the floor. Acknowledging defeat, Iroha gave up on fixing those details and opted instead to pull a hat over her head to hold down her hair. "Pi-chan is just—"
Iroha knew that it was time to intervene before Yuki got too worked up and pushed herself over to the doorway, wondering, "So, are we going or not?"
But Rin refused to be swayed, grinning from ear to ear. "Pi-chan, huh? What does he call you? Yu-chan?"
"That's stupid!" Yuki argued, pouting at Rin. It made Iroha happy to see Yuki acting like a child, unlike the mature manner in which she usually held herself, but Rin acting like a child as well foreshadowed a long night. "Neru was the one who gave him the nickname, anyway! She and Haku use it all the time!"
Rin pulled herself up and opened the front door, her eyes closed gracefully before she peeked at Yuki with a teasing expression. "Yeah, but they're not in love with Piko."
Yuki's face turned the same shade as her favourite Cortland apples as Rin dashed out into the hallway, laughing. The girl chased after her, calling, "I'm not in love with him! Pi-chan is my friend!"
With a sigh, Iroha closed the door behind them and locked it shut, slipping the key into her purse and listening to it clang against the bento box and thermos of hot cocoa. She'd considered making café au lait, but she knew that Yuki still didn't find that sweet enough, though Rin might argue that hot cocoa was too sweet. Still, as a parent, the child had to come first.
She paused once she'd closed the door, echoes of Len sparking in her mind.
"Hey, Ironya, wanna go out for Christmas?" Len wondered. The aforementioned eight-year-old girl paused to consider his offer, coming to an abrupt decision the moment her classmates' whispers met her ears.
"I knew he liked her," came one.
"No, she likes him. He's just being nice," was the second.
"I think they'd be cute together, don't you?" was the last Iroha heard before turning on them with blazing eyes.
"So what if we like each other?" she snapped to them, even though she knew neither of them liked the other. "You're just jealous! Len-Len and I are gonna go have an awesome Christmas, so be jealous!"
She smiled fondly. She and Len had spent every Christmas together, even after he and Rin had gotten together. He'd force Iroha to tag along for at least half of the day, but she grew too jealous of seeing the two of them together to stick around for more than that. Couples needed their alone time, after all, and, since she was bound to stay single forever, she had to get used to Christmas alone.
This was her first Christmas without Len.
"Are you coming, Mama?"
Iroha jumped at Yuki's voice and looked to the stairway, where Rin and Yuki, both with a fresh layer of snow dampening their clothing, had returned to gaze at her. Iroha stared back at them, still stuck in her thoughts, until Rin's voice came through.
"Come on, Iroha. We have to go now if we want to be there when the snow starts falling."
The snow for the night was scheduled to start approximately two hours before midnight. While Rin and Iroha usually made Yuki go to bed much earlier, even during the winter break, the girl had expressed a strong desire to see the snowfall on Christmas, so they'd made an exception. Slowly, Iroha felt a smile draw up the corners of her mouth. Now wasn't the time to get depressed thinking about the past. There was nothing she could do about it, after all.
"Sorry, I'm coming," Iroha promised, following with, "I wasn't sure I'd turned off the stove and just wanted to make sure."
"Christmas is gonna be over by the time we get into town," Yuki was still insisting as she dashed down the stairs, turning to look back at her mothers when she reached the bottom as Rin awaited Iroha's arrival by her side.
"Calm down, Yuki," Rin insisted. "Where's your Christmas spirit? Christmas isn't over just because the clock said so. Why don't you run on ahead, and we'll catch up?"
Yuki's eyes sparkled with excitement, and she agreed swiftly, "Kay!" Turning her back to them, she dashed off, barely catching it when Iroha called for her to stay in the parking lot. Then, once she was gone, Iroha felt Rin take her hand in her own and looked to her curiously.
"It's okay," Rin said with a soft smile. It was reminiscent of the Rin that had existed with Len, making Iroha ache a little inside as she realized not for the first time that Rin would never be the same woman she had been then. "We don't have Len this year, but we have each other. And Yuki."
Iroha nearly jerked away, startled that Rin had noticed what she'd been thinking. After hearing it mentioned, Iroha felt tears spike her eyes and fought desperately to hold them back. All this work on her makeup hadn't been so that she could screw it up before they even left the building. She looked stubbornly away, knowing that seeing any grief in Rin's eyes would make her start crying instantly. "Yeah."
Then, still holding Iroha's hand, Rin let their hands fall between them and began to walk, saying to her companion, "Yuki's really restless tonight, huh? We should make this her best Christmas, okay? It's our first Christmas with her."
This could have been yours and Len's first Christmas as a married couple.
Iroha banished that thought quickly, knowing that Rin was probably thinking it too. It was a useless thought that had no place to be roaming in her mind, she reminded herself. Instead, she smiled, remembering the beauty of the Christmas season, knowing that sharing this with Yuki was more important than sharing it with Len's memory.
. . .
"Wow!" Yuki breathed, loosening her grip on Rin and Iroha's hands to rush into the town square, pushing past love struck couples in order to make her way toward the tree that stood in the middle, coated with twinkling orbs, tinsel, candy cans, and green and red lights. She looked back to her mothers, joy shining in her eyes, and beckoned them forward with a, "Hurry up, Mom, Mama! I wanna see the tree up close!"
"Go on without us," Iroha replied over the crowd, smiling at the girl. After giving a tiny pout, she agreed to go if Iroha and Rin promised to join her in a few minutes. With a word of consent, Iroha watched the child run off toward the tree and continued her leisurely pace alongside Rin.
"Hey, Iroha?" came Rin's voice among the conversations buzzing around them.
"Yeah?" Iroha wondered, lulled into a sense of comfort by the Christmas air around her. It had always been her favourite time of year; Len's, too.
"Don't you have someone you want to spend Christmas with?" Iroha almost flinched at those words, but she stopped herself and listened to Rin. "Yuki would understand, you know."
Iroha smiled guiltily and looked away, knowing she should tell Rin that there was someone she wanted to spend Christmas but opting instead to say, "I'm perfectly happy spending Christmas with you two."
Rin smiled and looked away, quietly saying, "I'm glad."
When she felt Rin's fingers touch hers, grabbing her hand, Iroha pulled away. Rin froze and looked at her curiously. Uncertainly, Iroha said, "Don't you think it would be odd for us to be holding hands on Christmas?"
"It'll be fine," Rin insisted, taking Iroha's hand more aggressively this time vague annoyance showing in her gaze. "Girls hold hands all the time. No one will look twice at us."
Hesitantly, Iroha agreed, "Okay."
Then, the two made their way toward the tree, coming up on either side of Yuki, their hands locked behind her head. Eagerly, she began cheering about the tree. Rin and Iroha smiled and agreed to everything she said, amazed that she could talk so much about one tree. She only stopped when the snow started.
"Wow!" Yuki cried out, ducking out from under Iroha's and Rin's hands and dashing out toward the nearest clearing she could find among the couples in order to spread her arms out and reach for the snow. "Look at the snow! Mom! Mama!"
"Yuki!"
It wasn't Iroha who called that out, nor was it the woman beside her, so the three paused to find the source. Almost immediately, they spotted the yellow-haired girl with a Christmas clip tucked into her long side ponytail. Alongside her were Piko, Haku, Lily, and Miki. With a large wave, Neru dashed toward Yuki, the others following more slowly.
"Yuki, come play with us instead of that evil woman!" Neru requested, obviously talking about Rin.
"Who invited the brat?" breathed Rin, just loud enough for Neru to hear so that she turned to glare viciously at the woman. Iroha stifled a laugh. Then, louder, Rin remarked, "It looks like you get to spend Christmas with your boyfriend then, Yuki."
By then, the rest of the group had caught up, and Piko's and Yuki's faces caught on fire as they cried out in unison, "She/he isn't my girl/boyfriend!"
"Yeah, yeah," Rin laughed, waving their concerns off dismissively.
"Yuki, why don't you join us?" Miki requested with a polite smile to the girl before looking to Iroha and Rin. "I think it would be nice to give the adults some time alone."
Iroha's face burned red at the knowing look in Miki's eyes, and she turned her gaze away, refusing to acknowledge it. Sure enough, Yuki was more than happy to join her friends, leaving Iroha and Rin alone to watch the couples around them in a peaceful silence. Then, Iroha decided to speak the thoughts that weighed on her mind.
"I bet you'd rather be spending today with Len, huh?" she laughed softly, trying to keep the pain out of her voice as she thought of her beloved childhood friend.
"Yeah," Rin agreed, but she looked to Iroha afterward with a smile and added, giving her hand a squeeze, "but you're a close second."
Author's Note: It's Christmas in July!