Work Text:
It was cold in Japan. Wind blew heavily, the first flakes of snow falling down to the ground. In the background, there was the faint sound of bells ringing, probably from the night market. Carolers could be heard down there, belting out to some familiar songs, singing in unison. The grass that had been a lush green a few months ago was now slightly whitened, yet still overwhelmingly a muted green.
Families could be heard in houses, gathering all together. Richer families were curled up against the fireplace, exchanging gifts. There was a little girl in one house getting a barbie doll, another little boy receiving his favorite manga set. Other families were sitting at the dinner table, eating KFC late at night, indulging in fried chicken.
Teruhashi glanced outside her window at the snowy Christmas eve. It would be considered a perfect white christmas… ironic considering that “perfection” is not having a good day.
Teruhashi had finished her “perfect” girl duties today, mailing out everyone’s gifts and letters for the day, a feat that had taken her days to plan. Her 100 long letters, with over 300 short notes she had to mail out- it was exhausting. She had only gotten a few real presents, and those were for her friends. She had put a lot of thought into it.
“Mera would probably like some pocky… matcha pocky?”
“Maybe Hairo-kun would like some new armbands in red!”
And that was the thought process. However, one present was more difficult than the others.
“What would Saiki-kun like?” Teruhashi had wondered for days.
Luckily she made sure to deliver it before the clock struck 0:00 on December 25th. So he could enjoy his present.
Teruhashi leaned back on her chair, exhaling as she stretched her legs a bit. “I wonder if he will like it…”
—--
Good grief. Might as well check what she got me.
It was the first year that Saiki convinced his dad to not make Saiki Santa Claus, and this meant that after dinner, he was free to sit in the living room with the Saiki family (he couldn’t go into his room because it was “family time” and no one argues with Kurumi). He had foolishly peered into what Teruhashi was doing and heard her thoughts. But, Saiki wouldn’t lie and say he wasn’t surprised to see Teruhashi alone on Christmas.
Regardless, he got up from his seat on the couch to look at what she had given him.
As Saiki stepped into the frigid cold, he trudged through the snow, which had gotten considerably thicker. Normally, it was too cold to go into Saiki’s sweater/collared shirt combo, but you’re forgetting that Saiki is a psychic.
At reaching the mailbox outside his yard, he grabbed the stack of papers- and boxes- and hurried back into the house, not willing to be in the snow any longer.
He dumped all the papers on the table when Kurumi stood up from the living room. “Kuu~” she sang softly as she approached her son. “Did you get any gifts this year?”
“Obviously.”
Saiki gestured at the table and used his telekinesis to sort through it all. There was a modest stack of letters for Kurumi, one letter for Kuniharu and two for Kuusuke (probably from Grandma and Grandpa). The 15 or so remaining items littered the table. “Kuu! You’ve grown up so fast!” Kurumi reached over to squish her Kuu’s cheeks, pride in her eyes for raising a socially accepting son.
Saiki rolled his eyes are carried all his items via telekensis into his room, restraining himself from using his x-ray vision on the gifts.
After the whole meteor fiasco, Kuusuke had given Saiki a new pair of green glasses, ones where instead of having x-ray vision always activated, Saki would just have to focus on his surroundings to use it. Sounds like a minor difference, but now Saiki was able to actually see the world.
Saiki plopped himself on his bed, opening some of the boxes. Nendou gave him a gift card for a ramen shop (which Saiki will only use when Nendou drags him to get ramen after school), Kaidou gave him a few chain necklaces with a card detailing the “powers” of the chains that were infused with the energy locked within Jet Black Wings, Hairo had given him a dumbbell ( sorry Hairo. I’m afraid this is too light ), and Kuboyasu had given him a bat (why).
Saiki continued unwrapping gifts, stoic expressions as he internally grinned or laughed at the rather stupid presents. But they all had good intention, which Saiki respected.
At last, he saw a cardboard box, with the words “From Teruhashi” sprawled on it. Gosh, even in her rush, her lettering came out perfect.
Inside the box were gelatin molds, as well as a bracelet. There was also a note.
“Dear Saiki-kun.
Thank you so much for being my friend this year. I hope we will be friends for many more! I know you like coffee jelly, so there are some different molds if you wanted any different shapes. I also made you bracelet. I hope you like it :)
Merry Christmas,
Teruhashi Kokomi.”
There had been a lot of thought put into this gift, and Saiki was secretly thrilled at the prospect of eating coffee jelly but in the shape of a star. Saiki picked up the bracelet from the box, threads coming together in a blue and pink pattern. In the center, she had somehow snitched a coffee jelly into the bracelet, knotted within the threads. Saiki was actually kind of amazed. He slid in onto his wrist, surprised on how he liked the feel of the material on his wrist.
Saiki made his way back downstairs, sitting on the other side of the couch whilst his mom had put her head on Kuniharu’s shoulder on the couch.
Saiki decided to us clairvoyance again, wanting to see the blue-haired girl once again.
Her room was dark, and Saiki assumed she had went to sleep when he had heard soft whimpers in her bed. He tried focusing on her face and saw tears rolling down her cheeks, soaking the blanklet.
Saiki knew that he would tire himself out using telepathy and clairvoyance, yet he still felt the need to understand what was going on.
If I have so many followers, why am I all alone on Christmas?
Saiki felt bad for a second. He had never valued his family much, but could he live without seeing them every day? Aside from Kuusuke, probably not. He’d miss his mom, dad maybe not so much.
Saiki uncrossed his eyes before making a decision- albeit, risky.
“ I’m going out. I’ll be back soon.”
No one really responded to this, knowing that Saiki couldn’t get hurt, so Saiki went ahead and teleported himself to the porch of a house, ringing the doorbell.
“ Teruhashi. It’s me. I’m outside.” Saiki shot her a quick text from the phone he had gotten for christmas. It was highly useless, but helpful in this sitution, so Teruhashi wouldn’t accidentally let in a murderer in at night.
It was 11:58, almost two minutes before Christmas started, and the door hesitantly creaked open, a blue haired girl with slight bedhead at the entrance.
Her eyes showed no signs of emotional breakdown, and only her puffy undereyes revealed her secrets.
“Yeah, Saiki-kun?”
She was half asleep, so Saiki was save her obsessive thoughts about how she looked or how she wanted him to say offu-
She invited him in, yawning as she did. “Why’d you come?”
“Felt like you needed the company.”
Teruhashi smiled. “How’d you know?” She poured him and herself a cup of green tea, putting honey in hers to wake herself up. As she passed to give him the cup, she quickly fixed her bedhead. Taking a sip of the hot liquid, she quickly apologized, her brain overthinking. “Ah! Sorry for looking like that, it’s not really perfection so I hope you can erase that image of me-”
Saiki took a sip. “It’s fine.”
Teruhashi immediately relaxed. Sometimes, he’d calm her down like this, stopping her spiraling thoughts.
They made idle chatter, Saiki giving more responses than his standard nod and shake of the head, making himself feel more at peace too.
An hour had passed and Teruhashi sank into her couch, mentioning Saiki to sit next to her. Saiki oblidged after seeing that she had no malicous intent.
Sleep was in her eyes again, another yawn escaping her lips.
Offu.
Saiki covered his mouth, praying that the girl next to him didn’t hear that. Man, it should be illegal to be beautiful while yawning.
Saiki never liked the uptight and arrogant Teruhashi. He much preferred her now- Kokomi- the more relaxed counterpart.
“Saiki…” she said softly as she leaned on the boy’s shoulder. “Thanks for visiting me. I feel like I can be normal around you.” She fell asleep, her chest moving up and down during every inhale and exhale.
Saiki couldn’t help but fondly look at her. He didn’t mind this. He glanced at the bracelet on his wrist. That’s not my favorite present this year. It’s this.
Gross, Kusuo.