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The Suzuki Corporation throws a holiday party every year. It’s a big event, with weeks of planning and hundreds of guests. Sonoko can usually get away with bringing a few of her friends, but this year she wants something more personal. It’s her first Christmas with Ran as her girlfriend, and Sonoko wants to spend time with her and their friends, not a bunch of her family’s business associates.
So she doesn’t bring anyone to the big Suzuki Corp party. Instead, she plans her own. It’ll be a smaller gathering, held at her house. The guest list is short: herself and Ran, Shinichi and Kaito, Sera, Makoto, and some people she only knows through Ran or Shinichi: Hattori, Kazuha, Aoko, and Hakuba. Just ten people.
She does a little bit of minor decorating herself, and orders a modest amount of food to be delivered the day of the party. And that’s it. The low effort preparation is refreshing, in a way. Unlike more formal events, she can just make decisions as she goes along. They can play games or just sit around and talk, and she doesn’t have to worry about it.
Which gives her more time to worry about what to get Ran for Christmas. She wants her gift to be special, but she doesn’t know what it should be. Oh! She’ll have a secret santa exchange, then she can give Ran whatever she buys her at the party. She draws names from a hat for everyone else and texts them all the info. It’s only slightly rigged (she’s Ran’s secret santa, and she assigned Hattori as Hakuba’s secret santa because she’s heard from Ran and Shinichi how they fought when they first met, and she thinks it’ll be fun).
Now all she has to do is find the perfect gift for Ran. Which means she needs to go shopping. Which means she needs a shopping buddy. She picks up her phone again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Why am I here?” Shinichi sighs as Sonoko links her arm through his to drag him into the mall.
“Because you know Ran best, aside from me, and I need the perfect gift for her.” She declares as she waves goodbye to her driver.
“You know you’re worrying about this too much, right?” Shinichi pulls his arm free, but follows her into the mall. “Like you said, you know her, I’m sure she’d love whatever you pick.”
“Then think of yourself as emotional support.” Sonoko’s already familiar with the layout of the mall, so she skips the map and heads for an escalator. Shinichi follows, muttering about online shopping.
Their first stop is a jewelry store. Sonoko looks at necklaces and bracelets while Shinichi texts Kaito, offering his opinion when prodded. Sonoko picks out an aquamarine and 18 karat white gold necklace that’s perfect for Ran. So perfect that she can’t risk it being unavailable, so she has an employee put it on hold for her so she can shop elsewhere before committing to the first thing she’s seen.
Their next stop is the sporting goods store, at Shinichi’s suggestion. They browse the martial arts section, but Ran doesn’t really need any new gear as far as either of them knows. Sonoko has to drag Shinichi away from a “try me” soccer training ball display. He leaves behind a disappointed admirer or two.
They try a few clothing stores next, since Sonoko shops with Ran often enough that she knows her sizes, but nothing stands out as a good gift. It’s been a few hours by now, so they stop to eat at the food court.
“Why didn’t you just get the necklace?” Shinichi asks Sonoko in between bites of his burger. “That’s the best thing you’ve found so far.”
“Because that was the first store we went to.” Sonoko explains the obvious. “If I just buy the first thing I see, I might miss something better at another store.”
Shinichi shrugs, apparently not caring about her shopping process. Sonoko rolls her eyes.
“But as much as I hate to say it, you’re right. We’re going back to the jewelry store to get the necklace.” Shinichi just smiles in a far too cocky way.
They go back to the jewelry store, and Sonoko buys the necklace and has it gift wrapped. She asks if Shinichi wants to shop for his secret santa gift while they’re at the mall, but he says he has other plans, so that’s the end of their trip.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The day of the party comes, and Sonoko can’t help but feel like she should be doing some kind of last minute checking or arranging while she waits for her friends to arrive. It’s part habit from all the Suzuki events, part excitement.
Ran is the first to arrive, and Sonoko greets her with a kiss.
“I made sure to be here early in case you needed any help setting up, but it looks like everything is already done.” Ran says, looking around. “Where should I put my gift?”
“We’ll make a pile over there.” Sonoko decides, pointing out a spot. The pile grows as the others arrive, and she’s very curious about some of the gifts. She lets everyone stand around and talk for a bit before they get started with the gift exchange. Ran makes a trip to the table set up for the caterer and returns with a plate of food.
“Do you want me to get you anything?” She asks, and Sonoko shakes her head.
“I’ll eat later. More importantly, have you seen Sera-chan’s sweater?” It’s an ugly Christmas sweater with the plush head of a reindeer attached to the front. It’s hideous, and yet on her, it’s cute. Totally unfair.
“It’s certainly interesting.” Ran says, always tactful.
“I can’t believe she’s still cute in that.”
“Shh, Sonoko! She might hear you!” Ran nearly spills her plate trying to keep Sonoko quiet.
“Sorry, sorry.” She whispers. They’ve both liked Sera since before they started dating, but it’s only recently that they’ve started talking about it. Sonoko wouldn’t mind asking her to join their relationship, but Ran worries that they’ll make things awkward if she rejects them.
Sera doesn’t look like she heard them, so they can relax. Sonoko steals a bite from Ran’s plate and claps her hands together before Ran can protest (not that she would).
“Okay, everyone.” She speaks loudly enough to silence the conversations going on around her. “It’s time for the secret santa gifts! Make a circle, and Shinichi will hand out presents.”
“I don’t remember volunteering.” Shinichi says, but he starts handing out presents anyway. They go around the circle opening their gifts, so that everyone can see what each one is.
Kaito is first, and he unwraps a fancy deck of cards edged with gold leaf. He likes them, if the way he starts shuffling and springing them from one hand to the other is any indication. They turn out to be from Hakuba.
Next is a gift Sonoko’s been waiting for: Hakuba’s. She’d assigned Hattori to him, and she’s curious to see what he chose. Hakuba sets the tissue paper aside and pulls a book out of the gift bag. It’s some fancy Sherlock Holmes book, but not even one of the stories. It’s a book about the stories, or something. Sonoko wouldn’t read it, but Hakuba seems happy with it. It seems Hattori got a good gift after all.
Sera’s gift is a leather jacket from Ran, and she looks cool in it, even with the reindeer sweater. Sonoko turns to whisper to Ran while Shinichi opens his gift (a soccer ball from Kazuha).
“Maybe we should just go for it.”
“Now?” Ran looks over at Sera, who seems to be arguing with Hattori now. “Are you sure?”
“Not really, but I don’t think we should keep delaying. The sooner we tell her, the sooner we can all be together.” Or the sooner things will get over any awkwardness if she says no.
Ran considers it for a moment, then nods firmly. It’s settled, they’ll confess to her at the party. They’ve missed a few of the gifts being opened, but Sonoko is too busy thinking about what to say to care.
The gift exchange finishes with Sonoko’s own gift (a potted plant from Aoko) and the necklace she bought for Ran. The circle disperses as people chat and visit the food table. Sonoko does the clasp on Ran’s necklace for her, and pauses to admire it when she turns back around.
But perfect gift aside, it’s confession time. Sonoko takes a moment to psych herself up, and then they go to pull Sera aside.
“What is it?” She asks when they’re tucked away from the party in an empty hallway. Sonoko takes a deep breath, but Ran beats her to the punch.
“We like you.” She blurts out, a determined look on her face. “Both of us. We have for a while now.”
“And we want to ask you to go out with us.” Sonoko takes the baton. “We’d have to sit down and talk about everything so that we all have the same understanding and expectations and all that for a relationship, but we were hoping we could just start with a date.”
“Will you join us for a date?” Ran picks it up again, and they wait, hearts pounding, for an answer. Sera seems a little surprised.
“It seems like none of us have any experience with being in a poly relationship, so there would be a learning curve.” She says. “But one date is easy enough. Yes, I’ll go out with you two. We can see how it goes and take it from there.”
Sonoko squeezes Ran’s hand, beaming.
“Can I hug you?” She asks Sera, who nods and holds out her arms. Sonoko launches herself into that terrible reindeer head, squishing it between them as she hugs Sera.
“C’mere.” Sera takes one arm off of Sonoko and holds it out to Ran. “This is a group hug now.”
Ran joins them, and Sonoko has probably never been happier. This is definitely the best Christmas ever, she decides. The year she got her first cell phone has officially been downgraded to second place.
“We can arrange the details later, but I’ll be looking forward to our date.” Sera winks at them as she heads back to the party.