I felt bad that I missed Asuka's birthday, so I really wanted to do something for Christmas. Just barely made it. This takes place a good ways in the future for the timeline. They've been on enough dates that they've stopped counting and are well acquainted with each other's apartment. Merry Christmas.

Shhh! It's starting.

Asuka did not like the cold. Despite being technically warm-blooded, it still always felt like the cold air just sapped her energy.

Also, it was just plain inconvenient getting winter clothes that fit properly, let alone actually putting them on.

A sharp wind sent a shiver from the top of her snout to the tip of her tail. No, definitely not a fan of the cold. So, it was with great relief when she finally reached the increasingly familiar door to Shinji's apartment.

Asuka shifted her bags, freeing up her arm so that she could properly grasp her grabby arm to knock on the door. Following a muffled "Coming!" from inside the apartment, Asuka had barely let her grabby arm swing back down on its wrist strap when she was hit with a wonderful blast of warm air and a sight that stirred a different kind of warmth.

"Asuka!" Shinji was practically beaming as he opened the door, then quickly stepped to the side, and waved her in.

The young therapod eagerly rushed out of the cold and into the warmth of the apartment. After shaking the snow off her back and tail and removing her slip-on snow boots, she followed her boyfriend out of the entrance hall and into the living room, freezing mid-step as she was assaulted with sensory overload.

First were the smells; of hot chocolate Shinji had apparently set out for her on the entrance table in advance, of turkey, stuff and spiced with scents she couldn't name, of gingerbread and peppermint and- it was kind of making her dizzy actually.

Or maybe that was the explosion of color across what was normally a rather bare room. Stockings hung on the wall for lack of a chimney, colored lights covered the room, and in the corner sat an actual Christmas tree. An honest to goodness conifer, covered in shiny baubles and the source of all the colored light spots scattered throughout the room.

Asuka took a moment to blink and gather herself, before slowly reaching up to take off her Santa hat with her grabby arm, handing it and her coat to Shinji's waiting hands as if on autopilot.

'But they don't celebrate Christmas like this in Japan,' Asuka thought.

"I know it's a bit much," came Shinji's voice from behind her, "But since it's our first Christmas together, I wanted to make it special. So, I tried to do it like I read you guys do in Germany."

He walked around to stand in front of her, her hat and coat left hanging from the coat rack. He looked up to meet her eyes, before his own darted away as his nerves caught up to him.

"Did I do it right?" he asked, looking back up at her with a nervous smile. Dammit, he looked like a puppy.

"Raga," she smiled, "Grahgra ragra ra."

"Oh. Oops," Shinji said, smile fading a little, "I guess we just mix up Americanisms with "western" stuff-"

"Raga," Asuka bent down to gently tap his head with her snout, "Grahragra ragra grah."

"Oh. Okay. Well, I'm glad you like it." That stupid grin was back. And a matching one had spread across her own face without her noticing.

Asuka lifted her head and sniffed the air again, causing her eyes to flutter. She turned back to look at Shinji, but he answered the incoming question before she'd opened her mouth.

"I made stuffed turkey, sausage stuffing, chicken croquettes, sauerkraut soup, Christmas cake, and a whole Sika deer."

His grin widened just a hair; he was rather proud of being able to get his hands on the whole thing. Apparently, the effort wasn't wasted, he'd never seen Asuka so shocked that her jaw dropped. He nearly laughed when she shook her head to regain composure but couldn't stop the happy little stomping dance she did when she was excited. All the time and effort were worth it, if only for that sight alone.

"Let me take your bags and you go sit at the table. I'll bring the food out," he said, reaching out to take her bags.

"Gra rahragra rah garah," she said, extending her arm towards him as far out as it could go. She didn't need to as he could easily just slide it off her arm, but it'd become one of their little rituals; just savoring the contact of his hand brushing against her claws to take her bags.

"A present?" he asked.

She gave him The Look, the one that said, 'What are you, stupid?' He blushed. Right, it was Christmas. He'd gotten her a gift, why wouldn't she have gotten him one.

"Uh, so- I mean, oops?" he scratched the back of his head.

Asuka just rolled her eyes, then bent down and nudged his head with her own once more.

"Raga," she said with the slightest hint of exasperation before walking over to the table.

Taking only a moment to savor watching her walk to the table, he turned to put away her things. Putting her purse on the entrance table, he opened the other bag to find a rather flat box, naturally wrapped in red. He grabbed the hot chocolate Asuka had forgotten on the table, placing her present under the tree and then heading into the dining area to set her drink in front of her.

As Asuka walked to the cloth covered table, she was reminded of the more subtle things her boyfriend did for her. Like rearranging his furniture layout so that she didn't have to worry about knocking things over with her tail. Or the reinforced steel stool he'd set up at the table. She usually had to be so careful when inside, mindful of what was above and below her, lest she knock over the things on a counter or hit her head on the ceiling lights. The typical woes of being a taller girl.

She was snapped out of her musings when Shinji placed her previously forgotten mug of hot chocolate in front of her. Giving him an appreciative look, she was grateful that he'd quickly turned and walked into the kitchen. The smell was just too much, and she didn't want him to see her salivating.

Unfortunately for her, it was a lost cause. When he started bringing in the food, there was no holding back her excitement. Her tail was thumping on the ground by now, but she didn't care at this point. It looked soooo good.

It took everything she had to not just scarf it all down the moment he said to dig in. But she didn't, instead using her special utensils and eating with as much decorum as possible, making sure to talk and enjoy her company as well as her meal.

She still managed to finish her fourth helping before Shinji had finished his first. She'd felt a little ashamed of how she'd been eating, but his smile told her he was just happy she'd enjoyed it.

By the time the turkey was gone, she'd gone from ravenous to merely starving. Shinji quietly excused himself, clearing up the empty platters and heading back to the kitchen. Her head perked up upon hearing clanging of metal and grunts in the kitchen, but before she could ask what was wrong, Shinji was already pushing a large metal cart up to the table.

There it was! The deer! He hadn't been kidding, the thing looked like it had been killed just today. Asuka got up to help, but before she could reach to grab it with her powerful jaws, he had already managed to get it up over his shoulder before dropping it onto the table with a loud thump.

Asuka sat up straight, prepared to dig right in before she stopped. Looking up at him, she tilted her head, "Graraga gragrah ragra?"

Shinji shook his head, "No thanks, I'm saving room for the cake. Besides, I got it for you."

Asuka nodded, then looked at her utensils.

"Don't worry about those. Or the tablecloth."

She looked back up to raise a brow ridge at him.

"The tablecloth is disposable. I remembered this time."

Asuka closed her eyes with a happy smile and pleased hum, before returning her attention to the meal in front of her. Concerns abated; she wasted no time in tearing into her main course.

All too soon there was nothing left but bone, despite her best efforts to try and savor it. Seeing that she was done, Shinji got up and wrapped the tablecloth into a bundle around the remains, ignoring the femur Asuka was still gnawing on. After taking it to the trash bin, he came back to let her know that he was bringing the cake before heading back to the kitchen. Asuka noted the hitch in his voice but was too busy with her bone to call him out on it. She wasn't too busy to call out when she saw him walk out of the kitchen with a box and head straight to his room.

"Graraga rah?" she called; her voice only slightly muffled by the femur between her teeth.

"Just gotta get something ready, give me a second."

Asuka made a confused grunt, debating going after him but deciding to let him surprise her. This evening had been great so far, she was sure whatever was next would be amazing.

Her patience wavered after the first couple minutes passed. She could hear noises from his room, crinkling and grunts, but he hadn't said a word and it was starting to bug her. Plus, she'd already broken her bone and no longer had anything to distract her.

Just as she decided to get up and see if he needed any help, she heard his footsteps coming back to his door.

"Okay, here I come."

And that was all the warning she got before her train of thought came to a screeching halt.

It was Shinji. It had to be. But it was somewhat difficult to tell who was inside the inflatable T-Rex costume that stepped out of his room. So stunned was she that it took half a minute before she noticed he was carrying a cake. With candles. Wait…

"Raga."

"No, I'm a Bakasaurus," he corrected, voice tinged with pride.

Asuka blinked owlishly. A moment of silence passed before she snorted, chuckles bubbling up from the bottom of her chest until she broke out in a full-blown belly laugh. She fell off her stool, rolling on the ground as she broke down into a fit of honks and laughs to the point of tears.

Shinji didn't move, still holding the cake in front of him. He was pleased she'd like the joke, but he was not expecting this. It wasn't that funny.

Soon Asuka's laughing fit petered out, leaving her panting on the ground trying to catch her breath. After taking a minute to just lay there, she finally rolled herself to her feet and stumbled back onto her stool.

"Raga, er, Ragagrasus," she had to pause for a moment, "Gragra ragra?"

Finally, Shinji moved from where he'd been standing and came next to the table.

"Well, a while ago I realized that we'd never shared birthdays with each other. I asked Kaji about it, but he was pretty evasive about the whole thing. By the time I managed to get an answer out of him, it was right around the corner, and I couldn't think of anything. But I didn't just want to skip it, so instead I thought I'd take the chance to surprise you," he set down the plate in front of her, giving her a good look at the cake. On the top was a goofy looking T-Rex with a speech bubble that said, 'Have a Dino-mite Birthday, Asuka!'

"Grah," she paused, choosing her words carefully, "Ragragr rah graragra."

"I know you don't normally celebrate it. But, personally, I'm really happy that you hatched," he smiled hesitantly, "I hope that's okay?"

Asuka said nothing, just staring at him. He looked away, nerves catching up to him as he started shifting from one foot to the other.

Finally, she smiled, "Raga. Grah rah graraha."

Shinji let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. He reached his hand up to wipe his brow before realizing he was still in the suit.

"Huh, give me a sec to take this off, then we can cut the cake."

Asuka shook her head, "Grah ragra rah."

Shinji pouted, "I can't eat like this though."

"Raga," Asuka rolled her eyes before waving her arm, "Gra rahragra."

"Thank you," he said, beginning the arduous task of taking the thing off.

Setting the suit in the corner, he went into the kitchen to grab a knife and plates before coming back and sitting beside her.

"You wanna blow out the candles?" Shinji asked.

Asuka snorted, unintentionally blowing out all the candles.

The pair stared at the candles before simultaneously looking back up at each other. Without a word, Shinji broke away to start cutting the cake, gesturing to Asuka to indicate how big a slice she wanted.

The silence broke as they started eating and talking over the cake, in unspoken agreement not to bring up the candles. Before long the cake was finished, and it was time to open the presents.

Shinji pulled two boxes from under the tree, handing one to Asuka and keeping one himself.

"You go first, because I want to tell you about your birthday present next," Shinji said.

Asuka nodded before ripping open the wrapping paper using her grabby arm. Opening the box, she let out a squeal before pulling the gift out and setting it on the table.

It was a grabby arm, but much more elaborate. Its frame was metal, and it used springs instead of rubber bands for the grabby part. The grabby part itself was shaped like a Carnotaraus head, but painted to look like Asuka, right down to the red horn clips she always wore.

"Kaji said you had experience in the metal shop, so I thought that if you wanted to customize it it'd be easier to work with a metal frame."

Asuka nodded excitedly, babbling about all the things she could do with it. She then used her old grabby arm to put the new one in her free hand, waving them both around and cackling madly.

"Uhm,"

Her cackling cut off abruptly at the interruption. She turned to stare at her boyfriend, daring him to explain why he was getting in the way of her science moment.

"Well, there was still your birthday present. And I didn't know how long you were going to be, uh, going on for this time," Shinji explained, praying she'd accept the excuse.

Asuka's eyes lit up at the mention of her other present. She nodded eagerly, motioning with her new toy that she was ready.

Shinji took a deep breath. "You know that thing we did, the one I swore I was never doing with you again?"

Asuka's eye ridges crinkled in confusion as she tried to remember what he was talking about. Suddenly her face lit up in recognition, eyes glittering with mischief.

"Graraga ragra rah?" she asked.

"Yeah," Shinji nodded, "We can do that again. But just the one time."

Asuka rubbed the heads of her grabby arms together, chuckling with malicious glee. Then she froze, remembering what they were doing, and that Shinji still hadn't opened her gift.

Putting down her arms, Asuka's grin took on a different kind of mischief.

"Raga," she said, "Gra ra gra ragra?"

"Okay," he said, somewhat wary of the look on her face, "I'll open mine."

Taking care to unwrap his present without tearing the paper, he opened the box inside and stared at the contents.

"Uhhhh, I don't get it. What is this?"

He pulled out a thin, lacey piece of fabric from the box, holding it up in front of Asuka. As he let it hang from his hands, he started to get a better grasp on the shape of the cloth before he shifted his focus to Asuka, who was visible through a hole in the fabric.

She stared back at him, her smug grin widening, eye ridges waggling up and down suggestively-

"Oh."

timeskip

The next night found the pair packing up Asuka's supply bag. Tonight, they'd be fulfilling Asuka's birthday gift and she was practically trembling with excitement.

Shinji did his best to calm his nerves, the last time they did this had been quite stressful even if nothing bad actually happened. To them anyway.

"Uhm, Asuka?"

"Rah?" she answered, only paying half attention.

"Is there something we can do to make sure what happened last time doesn't happen again?"

Asuka paused. Her face scrunched up in thought for a few moments, before lighting up in the way it always did when she had an idea.

"Graragra ragragra rah!"

"Uh, okay, I see how that will work for me, but what about you?"

Asuka waved off his concern, "Grara, Raga."

"Okay, if you're sure," Shinji said hesitantly. But Asuka had already gone back to triple checking her supplies and making sure they were exactly where they needed to be.

The things he did for love.

"I can't believe I agreed to this."

"Graraga gra, Raga?"

"No, the plan went perfectly, and you were right about the disguises," he waved to the T-Rex costume he was wearing and the Groucho glasses on her face, "No one recognized us."

"Gragrara gra ragra rah?"

"Well," he looked back at the burning bowling alley, feeling the warmth of the blaze from several buildings away, "I'm just a bit worried I'm going to start getting used to this. I don't think one is supposed to get used to arson."

"Raga."