This story was finished by my co-author JNaegi and written by 4fireking. I wrote the chapter but it wouldn't nearly be as good without the help of my co-author. Thank you for your time and please review.
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The scene shifts place in a random bar in the early evening. The chill of the winter holiday (to the co-writers shock given he didn't pay attention to any kind of weather patterns) passed on the streets of the city as we see a some woman sitting and drinking her sorrows away; she had long ginger colored hair, nice legs and awesome rack to boot.
She drank down her beer and slammed the pint on the bar.
"Ahhhhhh, that was good!" She replied giving the barkeep a glance. "Can't you give me another drink?"
The bartender was a lean, suave guy with a stoic face and dark blue hair wearing somewhat casual clothing, answered the desperate woman in a cool fashion. "You've had too much to drink. This bar shouldn't even be open on Christmas Eve." He mumbled cleaning a glass and placing it behind the counter.
She grumbled in misery. "Tell me what I have to do to get more alcohol to forget about my loneliness and I'll do it!" The woman was plastered to the 9th degree.
"Come on get out of the bar so we can close! We open back up on January 5. Even we bartenders need to spend time with our loved ones and shit."
The ginger-haired woman got up almost tripping on her feet. "Fine, whatever; you don't get to be the man I will walk home with that." And she walked out like a hooker doing the walk of shame.
As she got outside she saw many couples walking without a care in the world. It made her somewhat bitter seeing all this happiness running rampant on a day that killed every single person in the world!
'Every Christmas I spend my time alone because I haven't found a man who wants to go home with me. I'm beautiful I know but their always scared of how I act. If I don't drink I feel lonely and if I do drink people don't go near me. I always have sleepless nights because a man isn't sleeping beside me. It must be the stench I have of working eight hours a day in an office?'
Tripping on her own feet the woman landed with a thud; the world was spinning. 'I wonder if I drank too much of that Jack Daniels?' she got herself up and continued her trek.
A short distance away the rich boy, Taichi Kou and Erina, the athlete with the nice b*** and long brown hair and blue eyes were finishing up an errand.
"Why did you throw that away, Erina?" The naïve heir asked his girlfriend as he carried some bags full of presents.
"Silly, Taichi not to worry. I'm sending the receipt to Santa so he knows what not to bring you for Christmas. Besides you bought a lot of stuff for the day tomorrow, right?" Erina responded with a smile.
Taichi gave an uneasy laugh. "Well it's not like I've had a lot of people at my house for the holiday previously along with Akagi is running herself ragged getting stuff prepped and the like. My Christmas's are always more about us forgetting the tradition and just getting busy for fun!"
Erina gave him a wondering glance. "Wouldn't it fill better waking up on Christmas morning and getting everything you've been waiting for?"
He thought for a moment about that; given he was rich and his father was always busy Taichi never worried about getting what he wanted. However this would be the first time someone could be giving him something from the heart.
"I'm nervous about what's going to happen on Christmas but I'm glad I get to spend it with you." Taichi gave his answer as he gently grabbed Erina's hand. The teen girl blushed as she squeezed back with the same kindness.
The tender moment would be interrupted though.
"Hello there handsome" The same ginger-haired woman from the bar drawled out as she gave him a lopsided smile. "How would you like to go home with me?"
The teenage girl looked perplexed of this cougar trying to nab HER Taichi-kun?
'I already have to deal with that maid getting involved and I won't let this tit sink her claws into him!' Erina thought as she asked the baffled heir. "Taichi, who in the world is this woman?"
The lanky figure shook his head in an abrupt motion as the woman kept giving him "f*** me eyes", and it reminded him of Sankarea at best. "I have no idea. I think she's just drunk?"
Soon the woman grabbed his other arm, to Erina's disbelief and started muttering about doing "this and that" to him which almost made Taichi faint until…
"She passed out!" Taichi exclaimed as she landed on the ground with a thud and soon on a snooze fest.
A crowed started forming around them wondering what happened to the poor woman. Taichi heard some women saying "Poor girl probably his jilted lover" which made him flustered until Erina got on the ball and had him hold her bags. "Carry the presents, I'll carry her."
"Are you sure?" Taichi asked seeing this was a job for a man but soon stopped; that was chauvinistic at best and he soon wondered if he was picking up Gero's bad habits? He instead spoke.
"I wonder who she is…and she smells like booze!" Taichi responded.
Erina got that impression with the amount of alcohol radiating from her pores as she checked her purse for some identification. "According to the I.D. her name is Mayama Amamiya."
The green-eyed teen bugged out and exclaimed out, "What are you doing reading her I.D?!"
Erina brushed aside his concern. "Seeing if there is part of the I.D that says where she lives, Taichi," She answered easily and frowned. "This I.D. doesn't tell me where she lives."
"Maybe we can go to the bartender who served her drinks. Sometimes someone in the bar has to drive them home if they are a close friend?" Taichi said being hopeful.
The blue-eyed teen raised an eyebrow. "How do you know that? You don't go to bars." She asked.
"Oh, Gero told me. He said his friend, Ian worked at a bar." Taichi answered.
Erina gave her own response. "But there are only three bars in the district and she could have gone to anyone of them. We don't have time to walk around ask every bartender while carrying her heavy body around."
The scrawny teen thought for some moments. "We could put her in a hotel? We can tell the clerk what happened and when she walks downstairs he can explain it to her."
"Hmmm…." Erina replied thinking.
"Erina…"
She snapped her fingers. "I have a better idea, Taichi! Why don't we just invite her to your house for Christmas?"
This made Taichi pause and throw out a "What?"
"You wanted to be in the Christmas spirit right? And doing this is an act of altruism along with being with a group of people could be good for her?"
Taichi wondered what Akagi would say? Granted she wouldn't be mad at him but she'd give hell for Erina for suggesting such a notion! 'However it's almost Christmas so maybe Akagi won't do anything?' He started shivering that wouldn't be the case.
"She has a cellphone so we can check her call list? Maybe she has a husband, an ex-husband, maybe even a wife."
Erina internally rolled her eyes about this woman could have a wife and found the cell. "Her call list is completely empty. It's like she has no one to contact."
Taichi gave into his girlfriend's previous request. He'd deal with the fall out somehow. "All right let's bring the poor passed out girl with us." 'And may God have mercy on all of us.' He gulped.
Erina soon held the woman up piggy back style as Taichi handed the bags and soon were heading back to the Kou estate.
Back at the Kou residence Gero was doing some decorations in the living and soon heard the door unlock and saw who came back. "You're back!"
Sankarea came to view as she wore a nice brown designer coat kick ass high heeled boots. "Yep and it was somewhat a bust; I didn't like any of the Christmas trees they were selling so we went to a wooded area and cut down our own tree."
Soon Sankarea grabbed the end of the tree to bring it in.
Gero whistled. "That is big. I love it."
Soon Aoshi hopped into the living room with a big smile. "Big sister was amazing Gero; she cut the tree down with her mallet with one swing and then she carried it all the way here!"
Gero looked at the gangster daughter with her attire and had to wonder how in the world she did all that? Mystery of the world it is.
"That tree is really big. We may have to cut it shorter with a saw." Gero suggested.
Sankarea agreed and declared, "It will fit in the living room." And with that she got the tree set along with Gero helping her cut some parts of the tree. Aoshi helped Gero carry the spare wood to the outside shed before coming back and decorating the tree with nice ornaments, tinsel and red/green ligts.
After all that Akagi came out with some hot chocolate to give them before returning to her own devices in the kitchen. Gero noted that he actually had 3 large marshmallows in his…she must not hate him as much as he thought?
Sipping her coco with whipped cream and cinnamon on top, Aoshi asked her sister a question. "What do you want for Christmas big sister?"
This caused the older girl to laugh loudly which garnard a concerned glance from Aoshi and Gero.
"Why are you laughing? I was asking a real question." Aoshi responded.
The long haired teen wiped some tears off her face from the laughing. "I know. It's just funny because I'm old enough to know Santa Clause isn't real." She saw Aoshi looking slightly sad before replying with, "But if he was real I would want an IPad and a new swimsuit."
This caused Aoshi to smile. "That sounds great. I want to have those too."
Sankarea appeared amused by this and drank her coco which she secretly slipped with some alcohol to make her nice and warm. She soon glanced outside. "Looks like the prince of the mansion and his girlfriend are back."
The trio finished their coco and headed to the entrance to see said prince and girlfriend come through the door with an unexpected surprise.
"Who is she?" Sankarea asked as they dragged Mayama inside.
"We don't know." Both replied at the same time.
Taichi started it off. "We found her drunk on the street and didn't know where she lived so we decided to help her. Can you help us put her on the couch?"
With that Gero and Sankarea helped carry the woman, who was weighed down by all the alcohol she drank and got her one of the couches.
"Thanks for helping us, guys." Taichi gave his gratitude. "What I don't understand is why she was drunk in the first place? It just doesn't seem to be natural to be drunk when it's Christmas Eve."
Sankarea had an answer for the naïve prince's question. "It's obvious why she was drunk on Christmas Eve."
Taichi moved his glance to the other big breasted wonder. "Why?"
This made Sankarea pause with disbelief. "You really don't know?"
Erina gave her own sigh at how Taichi was still so innocent with social norms before responding. "Tell him."
"It's because she's alone on Christmas Eve. She doesn't get to spend time together with family like all of us."
"Half of you aren't even family to Taichi and just using this as an excuse to stay here!" Akagi's voice rang throughout the living room as she was still in the kitchen.
Everyone didn't let it bother them; this has become a normal scenario that it was pretty funny.
"Poor girl." Taichi responded with sadness. "When she wakes up we should probably tell her she's welcome to come here at any holiday."
This caused Erina to wrap her arms around his neck and plant a kiss on the side of his cheek. "I always knew you were very kind, Taichi."
They waited for some minutes seeing if this woman would wake up soon.
Soon at the hall of the Hinata Apartments, the residence was doing their own prep work for the holiday.
The resident pervert, Ichigo, exclaimed happily at finishing the tree.
"We finally set up the tree." Ichigo stated with excitement.
The silver-haired smarty, Aimi replied. "And we have all the decorations we need to make it the perfect Christmas tree."
Daisuke walked out from nowhere with a can in his hand. "No one is putting on any ornaments until I spray the tree with a new anti-flammatory liquid. I call it No Christmas Terror." The stoic teen sprayed the tree for a couple of moments.
Aimi admired her lover's handy work. "The Christmas tree looks better with that thing you sprayed on it."
"Thank you, Aimi." He gave a nod. "I was thinking of spraying the entire Hinata House with it. Except I tested it out and after three days the Christmas tree will smell worse than Ian's old gym socks."
This made Ichigo shudder at the prospect wit Aimi looking indifferent but both felt sad about Ian.
"It's a shame there still hasn't been a single message about Ian." Ichigo stated somberly.
Daisuke rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I agree. This household just isn't the same without him."
"I wish I could spend Christmas with him as well." Aimi replied with her own sigh.
Soon the doorbell rang.
"Hey that could be him right now." Ichigo shouted like a kid and ran to the door to see who it is.
"IAN!" Ichigo called out before stopping and getting a look at the person in front of him. "You have got to be kidding me; Hoshiko?"
Hoshiko gave a polite bow. "Hello Ichigo, it's been awhile? Is it okay if I come in?"
The auburn-haired teen would have left this girl to freeze if not for the timely intervention of the dark man, Daisuke. "It's Christmas, Ichigo. Let the poor girl in."
Ichigo shook his head. "Dude she broke my heart!"
He shook his head and diplomatically said, "Christmas is about forgiving people who break your heart and moving forward. I'm sure she's here because she wants your forgiveness."
Hoshiko smiled at Daisuke and in passing whispered something to him; Aimi kept a close eye on her snatch.
Daisuke soon replied back out loud, after Hoshiko and Ichigo were inside, said, "I don't remember girls asking to have sex with me when they walk in through my front door."
Soon Ichigo took her upstairs.
"It's only a matter of time until he's done with her and then he'll ask her to leave." Daisuke replied seeing where this was headed.
Some minutes pass before the girl and Ichigo looked comfortable with each other.
"Aren't you going to ask her to leave?"
Ichigo had a rather lewd smile appear on his face. "Not this time. Hoshiko and I have done a little talking and…we're in love again."
This went over Daisuke's predictions but gave his congrats to the couple. Soon Yui, who was in the kitchen finally popped out and gave her own response.
"I guess even people like you can find love with people like her?" The blue short-haired teen stated with surprise.
Ichigo turned to the daughter of Shinobu. "I love you too, Yui."
Yui's eyes got wide. "What? But I hate you. I hate the way you treat women. I hate the way you smell. And I hate your lazy attitude." She said in quick succession.
Hoshiko gave her own wink to the girl. "Trust me. In one year you'll be very much in love with this great man."
Yui doubted that prospect but nodded none the less.
The doorbell rang again and Daisuke answered it.
"Hello Kaeda, I hope your travel here was undisturbed?"
The black-haired girl gave a firm nod. "Yes, thanks for asking Daisuke."
"Are you excited about Christmas?"
"I'm very excited about Christmas for one thing; my mother will be arriving in any minute." Kaeda said as she checked her twin swords attached to her sides "Today will be our final showdown and will fight each other to the death."
Ichigo made his way to the door as well. "But its Christmas Eve; can't you go one visit with your samurai mother without trying to kill her?"
She gave him a minor glare as she moved to the kitchen area where Yui was.
"Yui, do you know when my mother is showing up?"
The girl paused. "You mean Motoko?"
"Yes. When will she be showing up?"
She hesitated with saying the next thing. "Kaeda, I hate to tell you this but your mother is already dead."
Kaeda didn't know how to comprehend this; her mother was dead? The great Motoko Aoyama had perished? "What…?"
"There was a Ronin man hired to kill your mother. He's been trying to kill for the past two year and every time they would engage in a sword battle." Yui explained. "And every time the master who hired him would die so he would give up trying to take her life. Keitaro called and said she was killed by men carrying daisho's because the new man who hired him to kill her thought she could use a little help."
"I don't believe it." Kaeda stated as she didn't notice her body was shaking. " My mother could never be beaten by men. Our sword style makes us the ultimate warriors! She's not dead!"
Some tears spilled off the teen's face as she tried brushing them aside.
"Kaeda, I'm sorry for telling you this. Hmm, are you crying?"
Ichigo moved in to where the drama was. "She's actually crying about her mother's death and she was the one who always told us she wanted her mother dead. Who'd have thought?"
Yui comforted Kaeda as she weeped. "M-My mother is dead…" 'And I never got to tell her…that I…!
"Well, not really. We were lying." Yui stated as she brought up Kaeda's head to see a tall figure with long raven clad hair, brown eyes, alabaster skin, give a smile; it was Motoko Aoyama!
"Mom!" Kaeda raced and embraced her mother who returned the hug.
"Hello sweetie." Motoko responded with some tears in her eyes.
"Kaeda finally hugged her mother, it's a wonderful sight." Yui said happily.
"Do you think she'll stop trying to kill her now?
Yui shook her head. "I don't know. Hopefully she'll forget about that delusional past she has. I asked Motoko about it and she said she never did that. I didn't know if she was lying so I brought her to Chazona and she turned out to be telling the truth." She explained.
Soon the doorbell rang again and soon it was the blonde-haired daughter of McDougal.
"Rina!" Yui said happily.
"Hi Yui!" Rina said giving her a hug as they moved this conversation into the fancy living room full of Christmas decorations.
"Rina, I'm so proud of you for raising your grades. Ian would be so proud of you." Yui complimented on Rina's recent accomplishments in the past months.
Rina got all tsundere on her friend's butt. "I don't care what Ian says about it. He didn't help me raise my grades so I don't owe that jerk anything!"
Yui saw through the deception. "That's not true. When Ian disappeared you tried so hard to live up to him that you studied way harder than you usually do."
"Is it true whatever you're saying?"Aimi asked them. "No one has heard from Ian in such a long time?"
Rina responded depressed. "Yeah; why do you think we are talking about him being missing?"
Aimi appeared sad. "Ian is a good man. He's the only one I'm not afraid of, besides Daisuke. I'm sure he had good reasons."
"Yeah, he was stabbed and the person who was supposed to be taking care of him couldn't take care of him in the end" Rina muttered.
Seeing her friends depressed Yui asked Aimi something. "If it it's okay with you, Aimi, we would like you to join us for Christmas dinner?"
This made the girl smile. "Sure. Did you cook anything I can eat with my hands?"
I did all the cooking so yeah! It will be delicious!"
This made the girls pause; Yui did something in the kitchen?
"Y-You did all the cooking?" Aimi got out. 'Ian warned me about how awful of a cook Yui is but she doesn't know it so she still cooks…'
Rina gave a response to the hesitant girl. "I know what you're thinking, but don't worry. Yui is a much better chef than she was since Ian left. She's almost as good as my aunt Shinobu."
As the group started heading towards the kitchen Rina looked outside the window.
"I hope Ian is safe right now. I really want him to join us for Christmas…" She soon went with the others.
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With all this will Ian finally come back into the story? And what of Gero and the others with that drunk woman? Find out next time!