Chapter Text
They were all laughing when they returned to the SGS museum, even Sakura. Rosy cheeks both from the exertion of chasing Satoru and the snow made the Boukenger look even merrier, and the sparkle in their eyes didn’t disappear even as they plopped onto the couch and the stools and tried to calm down.
Natsuki had positioned herself directly in front of the Christmas Cake and was looking from it to her coworkers with pleading in her eyes. “Can we have cake now?”
Satoru smiled, and Natsuki jumped out of her seat with joy. Sakura began cutting it and putting it on plates while the others hovered around.
Natsuki was studying her movements with childish glee, until she noticed something. “Ah! There’s a strawberry missing!” It lasted only a second, though, before she whirled on Masumi. “Masumi! You ate it, didn’t you?”
Masumi fumbled for an excuse before Souta handed him a strawberry-less piece with a smile. He frowned, but didn’t complain, and the Boukenger began to sit as the cake was passed out.
Sakura handed a piece to Satoru before taking one herself and exchanging her serving knife for a fork. The two of them still stood next to the table while the others had begun a raucous conversation of their own, complete with Souta’s mischievous smile and Masumi’s dismayed face as he was teased.
“Isn’t it a little small?” Satoru said, eyes alight with private amusement.
“I can cut you a larger one.” Sakura began, but Satoru shook his head.
“I meant yours.” He knew she would have been much happier with a piece twice the size of the one she had cut, but was denying herself in some misguided attempt to keep her dignity or something like that.
She began to frown like she always did when he mentioned her secret love of sweets. She appreciated he hadn’t told the others yet, but that didn’t mean she had to put up with him teasing her. “Cake has large amounts of sugar and fat and it’s very bad for you.”
He shook his head. “It’s Christmas, Sakura,” he said, as if that should somehow be enough.
A comfortable silence settled between them, and Satoru’s eyes wandered towards the others as Eiji loudly declared the cake would be better with cucumbers. He smiled a small, private smile as he looked at them. “We have a good team,” he remarked to Sakura without his eyes leaving the other four.
“We do,” she agreed. A moment later she added, “It’s been a good year.”
Satoru briefly reflected back on their adventures this past year. They really had come a long way from the six very different people they’d been at the start of all this and formed a more cohesive team than they could have imagined. He briefly considered a light-hearted “I told you so,” but that would ruin the moment, and he really wanted it to last. The soft glow of their tree, the sweetness of the cake and the laughter, the strength of their bonds: all of it made for a perfect end to the year, and he intended to savor it while he could.
Surprisingly, it was Sakura who broke the silence. “I wonder if we’ll all be here like this again next year.” Her voice changed from its wistful tone as she continued, “This is much better than any date with that Santa would be.”
Satoru was surprised at her unwillingness to let the events of the day go. He knew he had plainly dodged her questions before, but that didn’t obligate him to say…whatever it was she wanted him to say. “It’s not like you to be jealous, Sakura.”
Her cheeks, which had been approaching their normal coloring, became scarlet again. “I’m not jealous!” she declared in exactly the right tone to tell him she was. “But what do we really know about that Santa, anyway? She had a very dangerous Precious, and she just gave it to a child, and—”
“Sakura,” Satoru interrupted as he tried desperately to keep the amusement out of his voice. “The reason she gave the Golem to that boy was because she’s even ditzier than Natsuki. There’s no way someone like her could have done that except without thinking about it first.” Humor crept back into his voice as he added, “Besides, even if she is evil, she’s cute.”
He almost thought he had said something wrong as a flicker of something like hurt ran across Sakura’s features before she summoned the indignation he expected. “Kaze no Shizuka is cute, but I don’t see you planning a date with her!”
Satoru put on an easy smile. “That’s because I wouldn’t want to get in Souta’s way,” he joked, but his thoughts didn’t match his tone. New Year’s Resolution: watch Sakura more closely. He had figure out just what that expression had been, and he never shirked an adventure.