Duran-kun and Kiyo-chan's Omake Theater!
(featuring the Kuga-Fujino family pets!)
Snow drifted down through the air in large, lazy flakes. Natsuki shivered inside her leather jacket; she'd have to put the liner in when she got back home if she intended to keep wearing it through the season. She wasn't sure what she hated more, the cold of winter or the seventeen layers of clothing it took to keep that cold away.
Shizuru, of course, didn't seem to mind. Her white cashmere coat had somehow avoided getting a single spot of mud or dirt on it, and looked very elegant with her black leather boots and gloves and the violet scarf wrapped around her neck.
"So, you said you taught Duran a new trick?" Natsuki asked.
"Well, Duran and Kiyohime both."
"What was it?"
Shizuru smiled.
"To sit up and beg!"
"Wait, what?" Natsuki snapped. "Geez, that's so annoying when Duran does that at meals. I've been trying to get him to knock it off for nearly a year now—and you go and teach him to do it on purpose? Both of them?"
"Natsuki is in a bad mood," Shizuru observed. "Is the cold making her crabby?"
"No! Well—that is—I—" Partly it was because Shizuru was right, darn her, but more it was because the older girl's face had changed, the smile getting just a bit more plastic, just a bit more fake. Most people wouldn't have noticed, but Natsuki realized she'd hurt her girlfriend, then that was how she reacted when genuinely stung, while the pout and puppy-dog eyes only came out when she was pretending.
"Kannin na. I thought it would be a nice surprise for Christmas."
Ah, hell, now what? Natsuki thought as they rounded a corner...and came face-to-face with a surprise.
Duran and Kiyohime were sitting on the sidewalk, wearing Santa caps on all seven of their collective heads. Each of the hydra's six mouths was holding a handbell, and she was busily ringing out a Christmas carol. Duran sat up in the classic dog's "begging" posture, and a copper urn three-quarters full of coins and bills was between them on a stand. The steel wolf looked at Natsuki and woofed happily; she looked from him to Shizuru.
"They've raised over three hundred thousand yen for the homeless shelter," Shizuru said.
Natsuki dug out her wallet and tossed in a couple of bills.
"Make it three hundred and ten." She then grabbed Shizuru by the shoulders and planted a kiss square on her girlfriend's lips, not caring that they were surrounded by shoppers.
"Ara, ara; I think I just got my Christmas present early."
Natsuki grinned.
"Not 'til we get home, you haven't."
Sometimes winter wasn't so bad, she decided—when you had the right person to spend it with.