Work Text:
An atmosphere of positivity permeated the air, the lively environment it produced being accentuated by the legions of beautifully bright glistening lights, that flickered in all manner of magnificent colours, the rainbow they emanated painting the canvas of snow that covered the earth as far as the eye could see. Like miniature stars, snowflakes danced against the inky sky, the wind pulling them to and fro in a waltz of weather before they each eventually settled in among their brethren. This state of the world, this set of beautifully peaceful circumstances, could only come about this season. Christmas.
And despite how brightly all the stars and all the decorations glowed, despite how vivid the moon seemed among the blackness of the sky. One thing shone brighter than it all, Kokoro Tsurumaki. She was the sun compressed into human form, tens of thousands of nuclear reactions worth of energy within her. And, as it was Christmas, a lot of it was being released. “Misaki! Come on! The others are waiting!” she cried, sprinting over to the other girl and tugging on her hand, like an impatient child. “Why do you walk so sloooow?”
Misaki shrugged, adjusting her hat and appreciating the view. “It’s not like it’s a meeting. We can take our time.” she replied calmly, smiling softly. Although she wasn’t looking at Kokoro, she could sense that she was pouting, the way she always did when she wanted something and Misaki wouldn’t give it to her.
“Fine.” she mumbled, kicking some snow. She didn’t understand how Misaki wasn’t bouncing off the walls with excitement like she was. It was Christmas! They were going to spend it with the rest of HaroHapi! What more could you need to get you hyped up?
“You can go on ahead, y’know…” Misaki told her. “I know my way to the holiday home.”
“You do? But I’ve never brought you here before, have I? I only remember bringing Michelle and the others…” Kokoro pondered, the clunking of the gears in her head being practically hearable.
“M-Michelle told me.” Misaki said, stopping Kokoro’s train of thought before it even left the station. She had decided to let her enjoy the illusion that she and Michelle were seperate people, instead of ruining it for her.
“Even so, why would I leave you?” Kokoro beamed, taking Misaki’s hand in hers and walking beside her. “I like spending time with you.” she hummed, leaning into her at an extremely acute angle. It was a little bit uncomfortable, but Misaki couldn’t bring herself to protest against her. Her eyes shifted away, looking off at nothing in particular. But she smiled all the same, enjoying the warmth that Kokoro was providing.
“So, are we telling them today or in the morning tomorrow?” Misaki asked after a little while longer of walking. They had now begun up the slope, the final stretch of their journey to Kokoro’s holiday home just beginning.
“Tonight!” she replied boldly, making a display of clenching her first in determination. Misaki chuckled.
“Okay, but how?” she questioned, a small grunt between her words as the incline grew more steep.
“I dunno! We’ll figure it out when we get there!” Kokoro responded, walking up the hill much faster than she should have.
“Hey, Kokoro, be care-” before the last syllable could leave her mouth, Kokoro had collapsed, slipping on some snow and falling onto Misaki. The two of them tumbled down the short distance of hill they had gotten up. Thankfully, they hadn’t gotten very high, and the incline was smooth and soft on account of the snow, so no harm was done, except to their pride.
The next thing Kokoro knew, Misaki was on top of her. Arms on either side of her head. Suddenly, freeing them from their bewilderment, there was a familiar voice.
“My, my… Who’d have thought Misaki would be the more dominant one?” It was Kaoru. Of all the HaroHapi members that could’ve found them, it was Kaoru, the worst one possible for this situation. She chuckled, leaning over the couple. “It’s better to do things like this inside you know…”
They both scrambled to their feet, trying to seem as casual as possible once they were up “H-hello Kaoru.” they said, almost in unison.
“Greetings, my kittens.” she replied, a sudden gust of wind blowing her long coat and ponytail in a dramatic, princely manner. “I trust you were about to join us in our festivities?” she asked, holding out a hand to them.
“Yeah!” Kokoro exclaimed. They both ignored her hand, so Kaoru swished it to gesture to the house, pretending it was her intention all along.
“Well, follow me.” she ordered, turning and beginning to walk up far less steep route than the one they had taken.
“Wait a minute. Are these stairs?” Misaki asked, feeling the hard surface as her feet sank through the snow. “Kokoro, did you not know about these?”
Kokoro kept quiet and continued walking, either embarrassed of not knowing or not wanting to reveal that she had planned the whole thing where she fell on top of Misaki.
Once they were inside, Kaoru took it upon herself to dramatically announce their presence. “Fufufu, our guests have arrived! The lovely Kokoro and the beautiful Misaki!”
The two of them blushed a little bit and went to greet the others. Immediately Hagumi ran up to them, nearly winding Misaki with the force of her tackle. (It was meant to be a hug, but she had too much momentum.) Kanon walked over afterwards, still enthusiastic, but nowhere near the insane level of Hagumi. “Did you find your way over alright, Kanon?” Misaki asked, knowing how awful she was at getting around.
“Oh, I was okay. Thank you for your concern. My family brought me straight here, so there wasn’t a problem.” she smiled wide at her.
“You’re welcome.” Misaki smiled back.
“Hey! Everyone!” they suddenly heard Kokoro call, it came from upstairs, but it was loud enough to be heard all throughout the house. “Come here!”
The five of them gathered, walking over to the bedroom Kokoro was calling from. Immediately they noticed two things, the hatch to the attic was open, with no signs of a ladder, and there was a box, that had evidently been taken from it. Misaki rubbed her temples, clearly she had jumped off of the bed, scrambled up into the attic, gotten the box, dropped it onto the bed, and then dropped back down herself. As much as she cared about her, she wished she wouldn’t do such ridiculous things. “What is it?” Kanon asked, prodding the box but not daring to open it.
Kokoro flipped open the box excitedly, the sheer amount of energy she exuded causing Kanon to jump back in shock. “Christmas jumpers!” she cheered, taking them out and handing one to each member. “Sorry Misaki, you’ll have to wear Michelle’s, I didn’t get one for you.”
Kanon began to snicker, but Misaki silenced her with a glance. “That’s okay.” she replied, taking the jumper, it was made to fit on the colossal bear suit. It was pink, with white text stating “Bear-y Christmas!”, with a few simplistic bear designs adorning the sides for good measure.
Kaoru held up hers and grinned, declaring “Magnificent!” as she observed it. It was colour coded to her, purple. It depicted a woman on a balcony with pointed ears and a green hat, looking down at a snowman. Captioned “Snow-meo and Juli-elf.”
Hagumi’s was even more personalised than the rest. Having a picture of herself on it, captioned with “Hagu-Merry Christmas!” she squealed with excitement when she received it, getting into it as fast as she can, rushing and ending up with her arm in the head hole. After a bit of readjustment, she was in.
Kanon’s was rather basic but still effective, a jellyfish in a santa hat with the caption “Jelly Fishmas!” underneath it. Her eyes lit up when she looked at it, she looked between Kokoro and the jumper, tearing up a tiny bit with happiness. “Thank you, Kokoro-Chan.”
Finally, Kokoro put hers on. It said “Ho-ho-ho-koro” on it, and depicted a little version of herself wearing a santa hat and beard. “Oh wow, it’s even nicer than I thought it’d be!” Kokoro grinned, feeling the material of it.
“Yeah, these feel professionally made…” Kanon mused. “Did you buy these from somewhere, Kokoro-Chan?”
Kokoro shook her head. “Nope, my friends in the black suits just told me to check the attic when I got here.” she replied. “I never thought it’d be something like this.” she beamed, admiring all of their jumpers excitedly.
“Yeah, these are pretty great.” Misaki agreed, still only holding hers, not having put it on.
“Misaki, you’ve yet to put yours on? Why? Do you feel scorned because we’re dressing you in borrowed robes?” Kaoru asked, looking over curiously.
“Ah well. It’s a bit big, isn’t it?” she mumbled in response. While she appreciated it, she figured she would look pretty ridiculous if she actually wore it.
“Aw nooo, Misaki! You have to wear it! Please?” Kokoro pleaded. And at that point, Misaki knew she no longer had a choice. She put on the giant jumper, it hung off of her loosely, covering not only her entire body, but a good portion of her legs too. “Th-there.”
“My, my… It hangs loose about you like a giant's robe upon a dwarfish thief.” Kaoru commented, quoting another Shakespeare scene that none of the other girls had any semblance of knowledge about.
“Yeah! And it’s big too!” Hagumi added cheerily. Misaki smiled a little, Kaoru was right, the jumper eclipsed her completely. But despite that, it was surprisingly comfortable, being almost akin to a blanket rather than a piece of clothing.
Having changed into their new outfits, the group dispersed about the house. Kokoro and Misaki remained in the attic though, continuing to discuss their plan. “So, should we tell them all at the same time? Or all at once?” Misaki asked.
“At the same time would be better. We can do it when we watch Christmas movies later tonight!” Kokoro declared eagrely.
Misaki raised an eyebrow “Since when were we doing that?”
“I thought I told everyone…” Kokoro muttered pensively, going through her memory carefully until she arrived at the conclusion that, she had in fact told no one but herself. “Ah!” she gasped, storming downstairs to make the announcement. Misaki laughed to herself, meandering after her to see what the other members were up to.
Her first stop was the kitchen, where she found Kanon. She was musing over a recipe, a bowl and spoon in hand. “...Is this the right consistency?” she mumbled, prodding at the dough in the bowl with her spoon.
Without a word Misaki walked over, seemingly appearing out of nowhere from Kanon’s perspective. “Ah! Misaki-Chan!” she gasped, nearly dropping the bowl, thankfully catching it and managing to fumble it onto the counter.
“What’re you doing?” she asked, looking into the bowl and at the reddish-brown dough she was working with.
“Making gingerbread.” Kanon told her, a little smile on her face. “I’ve never made it before. I hope it’s good.” she added.
Misaki looked between the dough and her. “Well, you’re following the recipe, right? As long as you do that it should be okay.” she replied, giving her a supportive smile.
Kanon lit up, aglow with cyan. She nodded and returned to making the dough, more determined now that she had her friend’s expectations to live up to.
Misaki’s journey then lead her to the dining room, where Kaoru was setting up an extremely excessive amount of flourish. Candles, flowers, a miniature tree, things Misaki couldn’t even identify. “Isn’t this a bit much?” she asked,watching as Kaoru placed down a golden wreath near the middle of the table.
“Nonsense!” Kaoru whipped around, ponytail soaring as she did. “If anything it’s not enough!” she insisted, humming and looking over it once more.
“I’ll probably look better when all the food is on the table tomorrow, Kaoru.” Misaki pointed out. Kaoru hummed, thinking about what she said before nodding in agreement.
“You’re right. It’s going to look magnificent when it’s done.” she grinned, turning back around to Misaki.
“I’m sure it will.” she nodded, leaving the room with Kaoru in tow. When they entered the living room, they found Hagumi and Kokoro deep in a conversation. “Yeah! We’ll watch that one first!” Kokoro nodded.
“What are you discussing, my kittens?” Kaoru asked, striding in and inviting herself to the conversation.
“Elf!” they replied, turning and speaking almost in unison. Kaoru stood, taken aback for a moment. She didn’t really understand the connection between their previous discussion and the holiday creature that they had shouted at her. Were they calling her an elf? Were they planning to watch an elf? That was impossible, elves didn’t exist after all.
“They’re talking about the movie. That’s what they’re planning to watch first.” Misaki explained. By now she was fluent in Kokoro and her Hagumi was pretty good too, so she understood what they had meant perfectly.
“Ohhh, I see.” Kaoru nodded, as if she had understood the whole time.
Kokoro turned to the other two. “What Christmas movies do you guys wanna watch?” she asked, sparkling with excitement.
Misaki hummed, thinking for just a moment. “Die Hard.” she concluded.
“What? Die Hard isn’t a Christmas movie!” Kokoro retorted, looking at her girlfriend with utter dismay. “Why? How?”
“Well it’s set at Christmas…” she began.
“I really don’t think that makes it a Christmas movie, Misaki.” Kaoru cut her off.
“Yeah! Christmas movies are about, family, togetherness, gifts, that kinda stuff!”
Hagumi chimed in “Those are in Die Hard!” she said cheerily.
The conversation then devolved into an unending debate about whether Die Hard was or was not a Christmas film. It went on for at least half an hour, with each person hotly debating.
“Arghh. This is annoying” Hagumi complained. “Mii-Kun usually solves arguments and stuff. Let’s ask her.”
“No! Misaki is on your side!” Kokoro shouted accusatorily. “We should ask Kanon!” Kokoro decided, turning to find that…
Kanon was already with them in the living room, listening to the debate the whole time. The four girls stared at her. So caught up in expecting an answer that they forgot to even greet her.
“U-um…” she hesitated. The other four drew closer, awaiting her decision with bated breath. “I-I’ve never seen it!” she admitted.
Before they could even react to the anti-climax, a barrage of sound burst from the kitchen. A repetitive screaming siren blaring from the smoke detector. “Wh-what was that?” Kanon whimpered, picking up a cushion and hiding behind it.
“...You forgot about the gingerbread, didn't you Kanon.” Misaki sighed. Walking over to the entrance of the kitchen and looking inside. As she had thought, the innocent little gingerbread men that had been placed in the oven were meeting a fiery end.
“Don’t worry, kittens. If you’re feeling scared you can cling to me.” Kaoru told them, somehow thinking that would calm anyone down at all.
Misaki slowly approached the oven. Then turned it off. She opened the oven, more smoke billowing out from it. With a sigh, she leaned down and examined the remains, as expected, they were already beyond help. She rose to her feet and shook her head at the other members, signifying that they had lost them.
The smoke dispersed and the other members worked over, Kanon welled up, ready to cry at any moment. Misaki frowned and stroked her back, attempting to calm her. “Look, it’s okay. We can make more.” she told her. “Kokoro and I can help this time, if you’d like?” she shot Kokoro a glance, her smile shone with excitement.
“Huh? Why leave us out?” Hagumi asked. “I wanna make some too!”
“Okay, we’ll all make some then.” Misaki clarified, glancing over to Kaoru and ensuring she had no objections. She didn’t even seem to be paying attention, but she got the impression she wouldn’t mind, so Misaki noted her down as a yes anyway.
And so, the five set out to create a new set of gingerbread people. Kanon lead the group, hoping to make up for the previous batch. Kokoro ate about a quarter of the dough (Thankfully they had quite a bit, so it wasn’t too bad). Kaoru got far too into creating characters and personalities for each of the gingerbread people, forgetting that soon enough she would be eating them, Hagumi insisted on shaping them by herself, without using a cutter. And while they turned out wonky and odd, you could tell what they were, which was good enough.
Misaki did what you could call managing. Which was essentially nothing except making sure no one died. As absurd as it sounded, if anyone could die while making gingerbread, it’d be the members of HaroHapi.
Once the gingerbread was in the oven, the five of them decided to start watching the first of their Christmas films while they baked. As planned earlier, they started with Elf. They each defined their position in the room. Misaki sat on an armchair, Kanon and Kaoru sat on one of the sofas. And naturally, Kokoro and Hagumi would take the other sofa. Except this wasn’t what happened. Instead, Kokoro confidently strode across the room, slithered up through Misaki’s jumper, and sat on her lap, the two of them now huddled up inside the oversized garment. Everyone in the room reacted to this. Kaoru gave a dark, teasing chuckle. Kanon glanced over, blinked a few times to confirm what she was seeing, then looked away, embarrassed. Hagumi tilted her head, wondering why Kokoro sat there rather than on the sofa with her. She shrugged and just lay down, might as well use the space if she wasn’t going to.
Out of everyone, Misaki surprisingly had the smallest reaction, despite being at the centre of it all. She simply rested her head on Kokoro’s shoulder and kept watching the movie. She was used to Kokoro doing things like this, so it didn’t even phase her at this point.
Of course, it was Kaoru who decided to bring up the elephant in the room. “So what’s going on with you two?” she asked, amusement in her voice.
Misaki looked over, realisation hitting her like a truck. She was cuddling with Kokoro and everyone was watching. “Wh-what do you mean?” she mumbled, glancing away.
“It seems like you two have gotten closer lately…” Kaoru grinned, leaning forward, eagre to hear the answer.
Misaki glanced down at Kokoro. After all, it was her plan to dramatically announce it. She should be the one to decide how to respond to this situation. Kokoro grumbled something about her reveal being ruined before slipping out of the jumper and standing in the middle of the room, demanding attention from everyone.
“I have an important announcement!” she cried, going silent for dramatic effect. “Misaki and I are dating.” she declared, beaming and gesturing to her girlfriend overdramatically. Misaki sank into her oversized jumper. She didn’t think she’d get this embarrassed, but all the attention was a bit too much for her.
“Is that so?” Kaoru smirked. “Congratulations to the both of you.” she nodded with pride.
“Wow! Kokoron! Mii-Kun! That’s wonderful!” Hagumi beamed.
Meanwhile, Kanon was nearly crying. Her eyes misty and a hand covering her mouth. “Um, are you alright?” Kokoro asked, tilting her head and staring at her.
“Y-yes, I’m just h-happy for you two.” she said, removing the hand from her mouth and smiling at her and Misaki.
As expected, a barrage of questions came next. “How long have you been dating?”, “Who asked who out?”, “How far have you gotten?”, “What was the confession like?”.
Misaki sat back and let Kokoro answer, after all, she was the outgoing one, and she was the one stood up in the middle of the room. “Uhh, a month. I asked Misaki out! Kissing.” she answered with glee, before pausing to recall the exact events of the confession. “I just told her I liked her and she said I like you too!”
“That’s… Very boring.” Kaoru complained. “Misaki, is that really how it happened?”
Misaki shrugged. “More or less. She said it out of the blue and I said it back.”
Kaoru huffed dramatically. “Honestly, I’m amazed you managed to win her over like that. You should’ve put done more.” she explained. “Can someone help me demonstrate? Kanon?” she rose to her feet, glancing over to the other girl. She shook her head.
“Oh, I’ll do it!” Hagumi volunteered, leaping to her feet and standing before Kaoru.
“Fantastic.” she said, beginning her demonstration and going into full actor mode. She took Hagumi’s chin in her hand and lifted her head up to look her in the eyes. “My dear, I simply can’t hold it in any longer… I’m in love with you. Won’t you please accept my feelings?” she said, slowly and softly, absolutely milking all the emotion she could out of her voice. Misaki stifled a laugh. She was utterly ridiculous. After holding the position for a few moments more, Kaoru stood upright. “And that’s how it should be done.” she smiled and bowed.
“I think it’d be a bit ridiculous if I did that…” Kokoro said. “But it was really cool Kaoru!” Hagumi nodded in agreement. Misaki simply shook her head and laughed a little, returning to watching the movie.
From then on, things settled. The five watched movies, laughed, joked, ate the gingerbread they had all made together. and eventually they fell asleep. Hagumi was the first to go, curling up on the sofa she was lay on and drifting off. Kokoro was the next, having retaken her position with Misaki, she was too comfortable not to. Kanon, being a reasonable human being, went upstairs to one of the bedrooms and slept there. Kaoru followed her lead a while later. And finally, Misaki, with Kokoro in her arms, lost consciousness too.
Misaki woke up first, hours before the others. It was her job to place the gifts under the tree as secretly as she could. She had been waiting for this for a while, and she had fought hard to get to it. After all, she had to argue with Kokoro’s suited assistants for at least an hour to convince them to leave it to her, since it had been their duty for the last few years of Kokoro’s life. They eventually backed down when Misaki explained she and Kokoro were dating. The three decided they couldn’t get in the way of love and respectfully backed off.
The only problem with her plan was that she had an unconcious Kokoro lay atop of her. It was like when a cat gets comfortable on you. It wasn’t a situation she could easily escape. At first she tried to move Kokoro off of her, but she began to stir when she tried that. She tried to wiggle out and get away, but they were bound together by the jumper. In the end, there was no way for her to get out without waking Kokoro up.
After a short mental debate about whether to wake her up or to have no presents on Christmas morning. Misaki decided to just bite the bullet and do it. She moved Kokoro off of her and rose to her feet, and of course, Kokoro woke up. “Misaki? Why’re you up? Are you trying to catch Santa?” she perked up at her last question, excited by the prospect of it.
“No, no. I’m just going to the bathroom. Go back to sleep.” Misaki whispered, gesturing for her to quieten down, she didn’t need Hagumi waking up too.
Kokoro shook her head, looking up at Misaki expectantly. “Wh-what?” Misaki asked, glancing behind her. She wanted to get this over with quickly, and she couldn’t do that if Kokoro wouldn’t sleep.
Kokoro tapped at her lips and gave Misaki a sleepy smile. Misaki sighed and kissed her. “There? Can you sleep now?” Misaki asked softly. Kokoro nodded tiredly, already drifting off again.
With a content smile, Misaki began to work, going and gathering all the presents from the basement of the house. There were far more than expected (Most of them from Kokoro. Given her wealth it wasn’t surprising.) Ultimately it took about an hour for Misaki to move them all underneath the tree. She immediately regretted not letting Kokoro’s assistants help out, this was definitely work for three people. Not one.
By the end of it all, she was exhausted. She had only had a few hours sleep and she had just spent an hour doing tiring manual labour. But now it was all over, and she could get a little more sleep before everyone woke up and Christmas day began. She got onto the chair next to Kokoro, wrapping her arms around her and burying her face into her chest. Prepared to return to her slumber…
The next thing Misaki knew, Kokoro was shouting for everyone to wake up. Only it wasn’t the next morning. It was a mere few seconds later. Just her laying next to Kokoro had woken her up.
“Ah well… I don’t need sleep anyway.” Misaki told herself, only to collapse at the dinner table later that day.