Work Text:
Inside a large house lay those who’ve survived horrors beyond imagination, all sleeping together in the living room during the morning of a certain holiday. The first one to wake was none other than Denden Misao, a young girl dressed in silky blue pajamas, rubbing her eyes from sleep and looking at the friends she lay with a smile on her face. Getting up slowly, the girl snuck across the room by the Christmas tree, dressed in nostalgic yellow lights and ornaments, the group spent about two hours putting up last night, with obvious arguments on where what ornament goes. By the Christmas tree lay Tamba Ruiko, a blonde with hair cut to her shoulders and a reindeer onesie on a recliner chair. Bringing her hand up slowly, Denden slightly shook the girl awake until both of the blonde girls were awake in the living room, and the rest of their friends were sound asleep. “Ruiko! Get the shaving cream…” Denden's hushed whispers were still filled with child-like excitement, as the other awake girl motioned to quiet down. The two left the living room and went into the bathroom on the side of the hallway. Tamba grabbed a can of shaving cream, and Denden grabbed a towel and wet it for the aftermath.
Sneaking back into the living room, the two girls went behind the couch where three people lay. On the left side was Tei Atushi with grinch themed pjamas under a blanket. On the right side was Ojima Takeshi, a guy with the most dad-like pajamas ever, cuddling with Hiroaki Nakamigawa, a guy with the most expensive silk-pink pajamas. Tamba lightly grabs his hand from over the couch and sprays… a generous amount of shaving cream on his hand before grazing her fingernails on his forehead, as predicted, Hiroaki started to move until he took his hand with shaving cream on it and accidentally hit… Ojima, who in response fell off the couch onto none other than Hirose Shingo, whose black pajamas now had some shaving cream on them. The two culprits of this mess looked at each other as the three guys started to wake up, startled, sand tarted to laugh. “What happened here…?” only to wake up a sleepy Tei in the process
Groaning on the floor, Hirose pushed Ojima off of him, “The hell?” he grabbed around the coffee table next to him to grab his glasses and put them on. Only to give an extremely unimpressed look to not only Denden and Tamba but also Hiroaki and Ojima, who actually somehow went back to sleep. Hiroaki, still slowly waking up, accidentally took his hand with leftover shaving cream and stuck his face in it, only to splutter and groan in annoyance after.
“You two!” Hiroaki sits up and peers over the couch to Denden and Tamba, who were now on the ground, still slightly giggling, “are the worst.” Hiroaki claims that before leaning over and snatching the wet cloth, Denden held and wiped his face and hands with it. Looking over the couch on the floor where Ojima lay with a fond yet tired look, he shook him a few times, “Heyy,” he trailed. “Ojima, wake up, you have shaving cream all over your face now.” Hiroaki rolled his eyes. While all of the commotion was happening, a little bit further in the room where Denden used to lie was Isoda Mion, who was sleeping next to Denden, wearing comfy, fluffy red pajamas, just watching the commotion happen, now wearing a purple pin on their sleeve.
“Were you awake for all of that?” Hirose turned to Isoda, asking, in response, the other just shrugged with a devious little smile on their face. Meanwhile, at the front of the house, the doorbell rang a few times, only for everyone in the house but Denden to groan. Denden, however, got up and ran to open the door where both Yanagi Shigeki, a blonde man with dark blue long-sleeved pajamas, and Yokoi Ruka, a girl with brown hair tied in two small braids and frilly pajamas with yellow bees and bows decorated around the shirt and bottoms, both of them had some kind of present in hand.
“EE!” Denden cheered as she ran back into the living room, where Hiroaki was complaining to Tamba and Ojima, who was now cleaned up. While Tei, Hirose, and Isoda were now sitting together and talking. “EVERYONE IS HERE!” Denden shouted with glee to the group, and in response got a few smiles back as Ruka and Yanagi stepped up from behind and put the two presents they carried under the tree. “Can we now pleaseee start gift exchange!”
Ojima just sighs before nodding, and the group moves to sit around the Christmas tree, while Tamba brings down a photo of a known albino girl whom Denden doesn’t know personally, Wada Masami. The photo was of her after escaping, where Hiroaki got his hands on her for about a day and dressed her up in a beautiful maroon turtle neck and a crisp new black skirt with a large black jacket around her shoulders. Tamba sets it down in front of the tree and places a tiny, tiny present near the picture, Hiroaki and Ojima following behind, then Tei and Yanagi, Isoda and Ruka, and finally Denden. Denden got Wada Masami a pair of wonderful ruby earrings that would’ve matched her eyes and framed her circular face so wonderfully.
After a minute or two of silence, “Alright, who would like to continue the gift exchange?” Yanagi spoke before Tamba frantically raised her hand
“Ooh! Let me go!” Tamba then leaned over and reached for a gift wrapped in green and white striped wrapping paper with a red bow on top and handed it to Isoda. As Isoda thanks Tamba, they open the gift to show off a sleek white box. Inside the box was a brand new, shiny, and sleek red eye. Isoda stares wide-eyed before looking up at Tamba, who looks embarrassed and shy but has a smile on her face, “I know you were saying earlier that it felt weird looking in the mirror sometimes… so I wanted to get you something that might let you feel a bit more like yourself.” In response, Isoda launches themselves over to bear hug Tamba with misty eyes. When the two calm down, Isoda reaches to grab a rectangular box wrapped in red wrapping paper with a white bow across the top left, and hands it to Hiroaki, who gives them a raised eyebrow and a smirk
When unwrapping the gift and opening the box underneath, Hiroaki saw a beautiful green coat, just a little darker than his eyes. Hiroaki paused for a second before giving a soft smile to Isoda, “I thought I could show you just how pretty green can actually be on someone,” was Isoda’s only comment to Hiroaki, who nodded to her. Folding the wonderful green coat back into the box so it wouldn’t get wrinkled, Hiroaki then reached out and handed Denden a gift
With a widening smile, Denden wasted no time grabbing the gift and tearing it open, with less care than both Isoda and Hiroaki combined. Inside the gift were two things, one of which was a brand new expensive set of ice sculpting tools that Denden had been speaking about for weeks now. The other thing was a brand new pair of cream earmuffs for Denden, along with a matching cream scarf with blue snowflakes that had Hiroaki’s signature at the bottom, “YOU made this for me?” Denden squeals while Hiroaki only gets more flustered as Denden practically launches herself over to hug the other
“Ugh?! Get off, get off!” Hiroaki complained in response, but only the giggles of the group were given back to him. When Denden finally unlatched from Hiroaki, she grabbed the gift she got before turning to… Tei? A Tei no longer wearing Christmas pajamas and smiling, instead a Tei distorted and static. Holding out Denden’s phone, Denden looks around the room, only to meet with expectant looks waiting for her to give Tei his gift. Instead, she put down the gift slowly and reached out to the phone, and when touched by her head started to ring loudly. Denden winces and backs up before Tei pushes the phone further in her direction.
When taking the phone fully in her hands, the ringing of it seemed to get louder. Looking down at the contact, Denden froze. Ice seemed to be ingested into her bloodstream. On the phone, the title name was Shoma Denden. Her little brother, her cute, wonderful brother. Her little brother is dead.
–BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP
A large gasp of air flows into Denden’s lungs as she bolts up in her bed, her eyes adjusting to the darkness of her sole apartment. Weary and bleary eyes, panicking as they jump around the room, not being able to focus on one thing for a long period of time. Until they finally land on the illuminated clock on her windowsill by her bed, ‘3:00 am’ on Christmas Day. Now, shallow exhales escape Denden as her heart continues to lump in her body; her perfect Christmas was a dream; there was no sleepover, no tree, no gift exchange, no Ruka, no Tamba, not even the group of survivors all communicating with each other. There wasn’t anything for Denden here.
It’s been a year and a half, it’s Christmas Day. Tei is still in a mental hospital. Doctor went back to school for medicine and lives with Hiroaki and Ojima. Isoda gave up on music and went their own way, where Denden doesn’t hear from them anymore. Ruka is still not answering any calls or texts, and she practically dropped off the face of the planet. Yanagi lives hours away and is busy trying to better himself, while Hiroaki isn’t getting shit-faced drunk anymore as he helps Doctor. Now she lives in this shitty one-bedroom apartment, the only good thing happening is her talking to a girl lately.
She misses her perfect Christmas.
Her perfect Christmas never even happened.