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The dorm was an absolute mess. Karen hadn't gotten up on time, Hikari was nowhere to be found, Junna was still in the process of finding a tree, and Maya was hopelessly lost without her girlfriend. Mahiru had attempted to bring them all together and have orderly preparations for the surprise Christmas party, but clearly things were not going according to plan. Nana held back, wasting away in the kitchen and pushing out more banana flavored treats and dishes than the nine could eat in a week, and Claudine wasn't even supposed to know this was happening. But with the noise of the dorm at 3 am, it was a bit hard not to notice. Though it seemed they were really putting effort into keeping it a secret, so Claudine decided to go back to sleep and ignore it for the time being.
Maya had tried very hard not to give the party away to Claudine, and had often found herself in a state of panic when Claudine gave her that look. Maya had more plans than just the simple Christmas party, but if she gave away the party, her own intentions would be made clear all too soon. Not that she'd expected that her plan would be perfect with Kaoruko hiding behind every turn with a devilish smirk that ruined any romantic endeavor Maya had. Looking on at the chaos in the shared living area, Maya thought they'd have a semblance of organization with Mahiru at the hull, but their party was a ship that had sprung a leak in more places than one.
Mahiru was shaking Karen who had once again fallen victim to a sleep attack on the couch. “Karen, I am begging you to please wake up. Also, Hikari if you could step out of the shadows and put up some decorations, that would be nice. Nana, can you stop baking food .” A string of commands in which none were followed. Karen continued to accurately portray Sleeping Beauty, Hikari sunk deeper into the shadows, and the Nana machine churned out food at a faster rate than before. It was all going to shit, and Mahiru couldn't handle it. And they still didn't have a tree.
Then, Junna pulled a miracle. “I found a place open right now at literally 3 am.” She grabbed the nearest jacket she could find (Nana’s), and got ready to leave. “Nana, let's go.”
Everything in the kitchen cane to a screeching halt as Nana pranced after Junna, following her out the door to buy a fir tree and drag it back to the depths of hell, because even hell celebrated gift giving and winter sales on Steam.
Mahiru sighed with relief, that was one problem down. The counter may be filled with precariously balanced confections, but it was better than before.
Poor Maya was still lost without Claudine, only barely hanging on to the part of her that allowed her to function. She was mindlessly decorating the walls, muttering about her plans for Claudine after the party and about how much she just really wanted to leave and go back to her room where she knew Claudine would be waiting.
But then the the apocalypse began. Kaoruko had gotten past Futaba and been released into the living room.
Mahiru's eyes widened at Kaoruko's appearance, and it looked like the girl could take no more. She pulled Hikari out of the shadows and dragged Karen back into their room for ‘safety reasons’. Passing Futaba, she woefully muttered, “It was a good effort,” and locked the door behind the three of them.
Maya was now the only one left to face the devil's wrath, so deep in thought she didn't even notice her arrival.
“Tendou-han! What is going on? It’s 4 am on a Tuesday morning and Futaba played bodyguard with the door this morning.” Futaba had made an effort to grab Kaoruko's hand on her way out, but she easily weaseled her hand out of Futaba's half-hearted grip.
Maya's hands continued to mess with a command hook to put up the other side of dangling lights. “Ah, Hanayagi-san. Good morning.” She tried very hard not to make eye contact. Kaoruko could be very convincing if you gave her the chance.
Kaoruko took a quick glance at the boxes of tangled lights and ornaments that littered the floor, and upon seeing the monstrosity that was the kitchen counter, she knew what was going on. “Oh ho ho. You thought you could keep me out of a surprise Christmas party. Futaba, you sneaky woman. No wonder you made me watch 2 month's worth of Boruto last night.”
“It's a good show…” Futaba muttered indignantly, still attempting to preserve what little dignity she had left.
“We tried to, yes. Though it seems that Futaba's tactics couldn't keep you from finding out in the end.”
Kaoruko puffed her chest out in pride, before she noticed something that was weirder than the shoddy decorations around the living room. “Where's Kuro-han?”
Maya froze. She could stand Kaoruko “helping” with their “secret-but-not-so-secret” Christmas party, but if Kaoruko found out what Maya had planned for Claudine that evening, she'd never let Maya live it down. “She felt tired, so she went back to bed.”
“Without you, Tendo-han?” Kaoruko was suspicious if nothing else; Maya and Claudine stuck together like fucking superglue. Where one was, you could find the other within a 10-foot radius. If given the option, Kaoruko would have pressed the issue further, but Junna and Nana had gotten back with a fir tree that needed to be taken in.
Mahiru begrudgingly dragged Hikari and Karen out to help move the tree in with minimal loss of foliage, but quickly discovered it wasn't worth the effort. Maya was eventually set to the caboose of the tree to sweep up the leaves that fell off as the fir was roughly pulled through the halls.
“All right, on the count of three.” Upon reaching the stand for the fir, Junna counted down to make sure the tree would be set properly.
“One, two,” Karen began lifting the tree at two. “Three!” Everyone else but Hikari and Kaoruko lifted on three, and Hikari and Kaoruko lifted the beat after three. The tree was set a little slanted, but at this point, as long as they had a tree, Junna couldn’t care less.
“It’s slanted,” Maya very keenly observed.
“Karen, why did you lift on two?!” Mahiru knew Karen was bad at math, but she could at least dance to a beat and surely count from one to three. Maybe she didn’t understand her own native language?
“I was excited!” Of course.
Hikari looked at the tree silently with mild irritation, but she knew she was a part of the reason the tree was slanted and decided against mentioning her own issues with the fir.
Futaba was quick to scold Kaoruko though, “Why the hell did you lift after three?!”
“No one clarified whether we would lift on three or after it!” Kaoruko shrugged, “It was an honest mistake in my opinion.”
Futaba facepalmed, but went to drag Kaoruko towards the ornament boxes anyways.
Mahiru felt some semblance of coordination in the group once again even without Claudine, and decided that if there was a time when her friends needed her the most, it would be for decorating this Christmas tree. “Alright everyone, one or two personal ornaments each. Everything else has to be a normal decoration.”
Hikari was quick in her decision, grabbing one of her many Mr. White key chains to put onto the tree as the first personal ornament. Mr. White will have a good Christmas up on the tree, looking over all of us.
Mahiru seemed to have been a little offended by the fact that Mr. White was already on the tree and her beloved Suzdal Cat had yet to be placed on the tree, and ran off to fetch her own key chain. She hung the blank-faced cat a few inches away from Mr. White, just a little higher than him. Hikari looked at Mahiru with mild disdain, before moving Mr. White up the tree. Again offended, but too tired to care, Mahiru gave Hikari her win.
Kaoruko was scheming, but when she schemed, she intended to do it properly. No one could know of her schemes -- not even Futaba-han. Maya may be watching her warily, but it would be child’s play to get past her. Maya wasn't her intended target anyways.. Junna’s always been quite lost without her glasses.
Kaoruko snickered to herself, seeing Junna with her guard down after finally finding a tree for the living room. Her glasses were placed to the side as Junna had her head down on her crossed arms. It was well deserved rest for poor Junna, who definitely didn’t have anything left in her to deal with Kaoruko’s schemes.
The mission was simple, an in and out procedure. Kaoruko tiptoed her way to Junna, cautiously reaching her hand out to grab her glasses. In a practiced fluent movement, Kaoruko had taken Junna’s glasses hostage and gone to place them on the Christmas tree. Nana had made a face at Kaoruko, which the latter had willfully ignored, but found that she was laughing on the inside herself, and decided against stopping Kaoruko.
Futaba had seen Kaoruko’s plan play out perfectly, but didn’t have it in her to ruin Kaoruko’s surprisingly harmless joke. She shook her head, chuckling as she went back into their shared room to grab a plastic motorcycle model with darumas for wheels. She placed the decoration slightly over Junna’s stolen glasses and once again snickered at Kaoruko’s silly antics.
Karen had long since decided against choosing just one decoration. All the decorations were her favorite! She had found a use tossing garlands and variously shaped orbs into a random pattern on the tree. The best part of the experience was definitely stepping back to see your work come together.
Last to choose her personalized decoration was Maya. She had spotted a freshly made baumkuchen on the kitchen counter from Banana’s cooking spree and decided that if anything was more representative of her, it would be this glorious German “tree-cake”. She grabbed a clear gift bag and a plastic butter knife to cut into the fluffy pastry. A sizeable chunk of the snack was then put into the bag and perfectly tied close with a flowy red ribbon bow.
She placed the bag onto the tree with a satisfied smile, “Perfect.” There was still another three-fourths of the baumkuchen left, and Maya was not one to waste good food, so she finished it off. Considering her job decorating done, she began preparations for Claudine’s surprise after the Christmas party.
Maya was a hopeless romantic, instantly thinking that the Christmas night would best be spent outside on a picnic blanket, watching the stars. She’d asked Nana for a picnic basket and blanket earlier in the day and felt she was ready to make Claudine’s night. On top of that, Claudine couldn’t hate on Nana’s cooking, especially not her “Bananicest Macrons”.
Not long after, Mahiru had declared their work done, and the eight girls retired to their rooms at around 7 am. Nana heaved a sleeping Junna over her back and carried her into their room and lightly placed her down on their bed before getting in herself and pulling the covers over the both of them. Mahiru had no trouble bringing her two idiots back into their room, bodies hitting the beds and instantly falling asleep. Futaba had quickly put a stop to any last-minute snooping Kaoruko had planned and dragged her back into their room until noon when she would have the energy to deal with Kaoruko’s antics again.
Maya had it the hardest, trying to sneak back into her room without waking Claudine. They often fell asleep arms around each other, with Maya contently snuggled into Claudine’s hair. It was a miracle that Claudine hadn’t already noticed Maya was missing. Not that Maya knew Claudine had been up since the racket first started and already had an inkling of what was going on. Claudine definitely missed the warmth that Maya provided and took away when she snuck out, but as the door creaked open and then close, she was grateful for the return of Maya’s warmth.
Maya had tried so hard to be quiet, but in her nervousness for tonight, she had tripped over literally nothing and mentally cursed her inability to walk. She somehow made her way to the left side of the bed, and rolled into her usual position in Claudine’s arms. She sighed contently when she felt Claudine’s hands grip her body and breathed in the scent of Claudine’s hair.
Being that they all woke up at 3 am, no one woke up before 4 pm. Except for Claudine.
Claudine woke up at around 10 am, very much shocked by the kitchen counter and interestingly decorated tree. She smiled, as she recognized which decoration was whose. She giggled at Maya’s baumkuchen, thinking about grabbing a macron and placing it with the baumkuchen, but instead deciding to put an Eiffel Tower ornament on the tree.
Satisfied with her addition to the tree, Claudine went back to sleep as fast as she had woken up with much more class than Maya’s horrible attempt to be sneaky.
The party was much less of a surprise than Maya had originally thought it would be for Claudine. Maya was definitely surprised to find the Eiffel Tower ornament on the tree that wasn’t there 9 hours ago. Clearly, Claudine had been far sneakier than Maya in hiding her intentions.
Claudine had definitely smirked, after seeing the surprise on Maya’s face. She had one-upped Maya in the art of secrecy.
The party went as expected. Mahiru spent a lot of it making sure there was no mess left behind by the gift opening, Futaba once again had the energy to keep Kaoruko from producing mistletoes from literally nowhere, and Maya had spent all of her time in Claudine’s arms. Junna prided herself on finding the Christmas tree and had ended up in a situation not unlike Maya’s with Nana.
At around 9, the festivities had begun to die down and Maya was finally going to surprise Claudine with romantic stargazing and -- “So when are we gonna do something?” Claudine had asked Maya, completely unaware of the latter’s plans for the night.
Maya tried to hide her concern that her secret stargazing night had been revealed and confidently took Claudine’s hand, “Come with me, ma Claudine. I have something to show you.” Maya strode down the hall, grabbing her sweet-filled picnic basket before leading Claudine up the stairs towards the roof.
Confused, but also amused, Claudine asked, “Is this what you left to do this morning?”
Ah. She knew after all. “Maybe?” Claudine rolled her eyes at Maya’s dodgy answer, but still followed Maya anyways.
Upon reaching the door to the roof, Maya opened it to find Kaoruko waiting for them. “I knew you two useless lesbians wouldn’t just let this Christmas night go by.” In her hand, she held a small mistletoe over Maya and Claudine’s heads. “Pucker up, you stupid gays.”
Maya had very quickly turned the same shade as the berry on the mistletoe, and Claudine’s face heated up in faux anger. “Would it kill you to stay out of other people’s lives?”
“Probably,” came Kaoruko’s reply. “Either way, if you really don’t want to… I’ll just leave it right here on top of this doorway. If you ever need it, that is.” Kaoruko gave a mischievous wink and shut the roof door behind her.
Maya sighed with mild embarrassment still coloring her cheeks, before she set the picnic blanket on the ground, flattening the corners and holding them down with weights.
“Stargazing? I wouldn’t have pegged you for that.”
Maya paused, “I enjoy it.”
Claudine gave Maya one of those heart-melting smiles and sat down on the blanket. “Me too.”
Maya smiled, taking her spot next to Claudine and lacing their fingers together. It was peaceful, watching the stars dimly light up the night sky in the faint glow of white and light yellows.
The moon cast a glow onto Claudine's face that made her look all the more heavenly and made Maya want to kiss her. So she did. A chaste kiss to Claudine's cheek followed by Claudine's minor shock and Maya's warm smile. It was fairly cold outside that night, but all they really needed were each other to keep warm.
Sometime through pointing to all the different constellations formed in the sky and eating Banana's delicacies, Maya had felt the sensation of snow on her face. It seemed Claudine had too, by the look of wonder she wore.
“A white Christmas, huh.”
“It seems so,” Maya said, turning to hug Claudine and nuzzle her forehead. Their breathes mixed in the air in puffs of nearly invisible gas as Claudine turned to face Maya and return the hug.
“Thank you for tonight,” Claudine said, running a hand down Maya's hair and placing a kiss on her red-tipped nose.
“Anything for you, ma Claudine.”
Claudine's face still heated up upon hearing her pet name. “Joyeux Noël, Maya... Je t'aime.”
Maya pulled back to cup Claudine's face and bring her in for a proper kiss. “Joyeux Noël, Claudine.”
The wind began to blow a little stronger, and the two decided it was time to call an end to their stargazing. They quickly packed up the snow dusted blanket and plates, before rushing to the roof door, where Claudine remembered Kaoruko's mistletoe.
It was nice to feel the heat wafting from the floors down below, but looking at Maya's snow covered air, she couldn't help but kiss Maya again. But Maya decided she wanted another after Claudine had begun to pull back, so they continue kissing at the top of the staircase until they had both needed to pause to breathe.
Looking at each other's heated faces, Maya and Claudine laughed and embraced Maya in a warm hug. “Maya…”
“Claudine…”
Claudine suddenly took Maya's hand and dragged her down the stairs. “Come on now, I'm tired.”
Finding it very hard to say no to Claudine, Maya decided that the basket could be cleaned out tomorrow morning. The two fell into bed in each other's arms, “Bonne nuit.”
“Bonne nuit, Claudine.”