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The snow covered every inch of the ground outside, and lights of every color lit up the houses of whatever road you walked down. Lights that a certain Kokoro Tsurumaki sure was intrigued by, as Misaki was surprised they even managed to make their way home with how Kokoro inspected every single one of them with just as much glee as the one before. Multiple times, she had to grab Kokoro by her jacket to stop her from running into strangers’ lawns.
But somehow, they managed to make their way to their destination. It was Christmas Day, and Kokoro was standing in the hallway of the Tsurumaki residence, shaking the snow out of her hair like a dog and getting the entire hallway plus any person residing it wet.
Considering they had the whole place for themselves, it’s not difficult guessing exactly who got drowned in the flying snow.
“Kokoro, Kokoro—“ Misaki hurried up to her and grabbed her head to stop its movement. “You’re getting it all over the floor. Here.” She removed her glove from the hand not holding a bag, and smoothed it over Kokoro’s snowed-down hair, letting it all whip down on the carpet.
Kokoro’s face was glowing as she stood there, both with her seemingly-permanent smile and from the red hue created by the coldness outside. Misaki almost had to look away, heart beating way too fast. Did Kokoro experience the same thing, looking at her?
“Is it gone? Can I move now?”
Misaki nodded and almost got slapped in the face by waves of blonde hair as Kokoro spun around and bounced into the hallway. Apparently it slipped her mind to remove her shoes. Not that anyone would be mad at her, anyway.
“Where are you going?” Misaki called as she politely placed her own shoes on the shelf before hanging her coat up.
“Aaahhh!” Kokoro squealed with her arms in the air. “I don’t know! I’m excited for Christmas!”
All week, Christmas had been the only thing Kokoro spoke about. They were spending Christmas Eve together, and it was especially thrilling considering it was their first time as a couple. Somehow, Kokoro had managed to convince the suits to leave them alone for the day, but Misaki was positive they couldn’t be that far away for an entire 24 hours. They would never leave the Tsurumaki daughter to completely fend for herself, she thought, as she felt eyes in her neck.
Either way, she was happy they could have this day together.
Before Misaki got the chance to agree, Kokoro skipped to her and leaned forward, hands locked on her back. “And I know you have a gift for me in that bag. What is it, what is it?!”
“I… I can’t just tell you that!” Misaki put a hand on Kokoro’s face and pushed her back to stop her from grabbing the bag and sprinting away. Nothing Kokoro did would come as a surprise to Misaki.
“Aww…” Kokoro’s disappointed noise came mumbled against Misaki’s palm. She backed off. “Then, will you give it to me after you find your gift?”
“Of course— wait. Find?”
“Yeah!” Kokoro confirmed as if it was obvious. “Isn’t it a lot more fun to work hard for your present instead of having it given to you?”
“...Go on.” Misaki felt a mild oh-no-what-did-kokoro-do-now fear.
“It’s like the treasure hunt we did by the temple, except this time I deliberately placed your gift somewhere on the property for you to find!”
”Y-You’re telling me you hid my Christmas gift somewhere in the mansion? This… huge, huge mansion?”
“Yep!”
“Oh,” Misaki gazed over the hall which was already big enough by its own, “I see your gift for me is death itself.”
“It won’t be that hard.” Kokoro stretched her arms out wide. “I’ll even help you look!”
“Uhm, won’t that defeat the purpose—“
“Hmm, could it be by the swimming pool? Let’s go check! Come on, babe!”
Misaki screeched as Kokoro dragged her into the next room by the arm. Ever since they had started dating, Kokoro had been so very over-excited about using pet names, and it killed her every time. She had a big suspicion that Kokoro absolutely thrived on making Misaki as embarrassed as possible, even though she acted oblivious toward Misaki’s reactions.
She could never have prepared for just how vicious Kokoro would be in a relationship.
A few times, Misaki had tried using the pet names too, but it usually ended with her retreating (retreating , not hiding) into the Michelle suit for 30 minutes.
Before she knew it, they were standing in front of shimmering blue, and Kokoro was pointing right at the pool in the room.
“Look in there?”
“Are you telling me to physically jump into the pool?”
Kokoro only stared at her, and somehow that spoke more than words.
Misaki sighed. “I’ll look in the pool later, besides—“ She squinted— “It looks pretty empty from up here.”
“Theeen,” said Kokoro, “Why don’t you look by the sauna!”
With the playful tone of her voice, it became obvious that Kokoro was planning on acting as clueless about the gift’s location as Misaki was. Misaki smiled at her stupidly lovable girlfriend, and their joined hunt throughout the mansion began.
Within half an hour, she had been dragged from one guest bedroom to another, to a third, then into a dinner hall (where she placed her bag on the table), into a bathroom, and now they entered a fourth bedroom. Upon being prompted, Misaki opened the door to a closet, but shut it just as empty-handed as before.
When she turned around, all she heard was the bounce of a bed, Kokoros’ voice saying “look in the pillow”, and then all she knew was the void as Kokoro threw one in her face.
She grabbed the pillow before it fell to the floor, baffled. “Wha—! What was that for?”
Kokoro looked her over for a second as she continued bouncing on the bed, then shrugged slowly, smile bright as ever. Unluckily for Misaki, the Tsurumaki household tended to drown their beds in comfort, so all Kokoro had to do was bend down and grab another pillow from the pile and Misaki was left blinded for another second.
“Oh my god, are you pillow-fighting me? Nope, not happening—“ Her question was immediately answered without words needed, and Misaki gritted her teeth, taking a steady hold of the three pillows catapulted her way.
Kokoro shrieked as Misaki took a sprint toward her, and she jumped off the bed on the opposite side of Misaki. Misaki readied a pillow to throw at her for revenge, but Kokoro took position that showed she was ready to duck at any moment. They stood in stalemate for a second, before both took action simultaneously.
Misaki jumped up the bed with a plan to tackle Kokoro, but Kokoro was already midst diving underneath the bed.
“What! That’s cheating!” Misaki exclaimed, flopping down on the bed and hanging her head from the edge to peek Kokoro. What greeted her was the big grin on Kokoro’s face, and then a finger against her nose.
“Bop.”
Misaki looked at her in deadpan.
Then, Kokoro gracefully slid out from under the bed, only to snatch a pillow before Misaki could sit up properly, and cracked the pillow right across Misaki’s head. Misaki fell backwards.
“Happy! Lucky! Smile! Yay!" Kokoro punctuated each word with an attempt to hit Misaki with the pillow again.
Yes, Kokoro could be downright terrifying.
Luckily, Misaki had managed to brace herself with her hands waving in the air, ultimately saving her from the pillow-hits. She didn’t even notice how much she was laughing, but she was sure enjoying the sound of Kokoro’s laughter ringing through the room.
“Kokoro!” Misaki grabbed Kokoro’s wrist mid-attack, and somehow managed to pull her down on the bed. She scrambled to lie across her in an attempt to restrain her. “I can’t… breathe…” Misaki complained. Perhaps a bit over-dramatically, considering her stamina after having done so many performances with the band.
“I win,” Kokoro said proudly from underneath Misaki. Misaki lifted herself up with both arms on either side of Kokoro’s head, squinting down.
Then, she sat up and rolled Kokoro off the bed.
“Oof!” Kokoro emitted as she fell on the floor, grabbing onto the bed to cushion her fall. “That’s mean, Misakiii.”
This time Misaki grinned. “I win,” she echoed, and dropped a pillow on Kokoro’s head.
After the very impromptu pillow-fight, they left the bedroom and continued to hunt through the building. At one point, Misaki got so caught up that she forgot Kokoro knew exactly where she had hid her present.
She was having rather fun, after all, spending time with her girlfriend.
After about another 30 minutes of searching, they came to an exit that lead to the backyard. What greeted Misaki’s line of vision when they stepped out was the covered outside-pool they’d swam in multiple times this summer, high bushes that she’d convinced the suits to let her trim at one point (as an adamant thanks for letting her stay so often), and to the left, around the corner…
Wait.
“Y- You... got me a plane?” Misaki managed to wheeze out, frantically looking for the nearest railing to grab so she could safely pass out.
Right smack-dab on the snowed-down lawn, stood a perfectly shiny private plane that certainly hadn’t been there before. Questions flooded her mind. How did they land the plane here? When did they land the plane here? How would they get it to lift without a runway? Her head spun.
“No, you dummy! I didn’t get you a plane. Look inside.”
Slowly, while trying to recuperate from the five-second panic at receiving a gift she couldn’t possibly accept in any lifetime, Misaki made her way to one of the grandiose transport. She took a few steps up the stairs (of course Kokoro would leave it open , despite snow easily finding its way in), peeked in through the door and tried to not pay the incredibly fancy leather-seating any mind.
“What am I looking for…? Oh,” her eyes caught sight of a paper lying on one of the chairs, seemingly a bit out of place. Misaki fetched the mysterious paper, and made her way back to Kokoro as she read it (Kokoro was currently chanting for her to do just so).
First, she noticed the big picture covering half the printed paper, depicting a snowy mountain, illuminated by the lights of multiple residences. Scattered across the obviously googled picture were a bunch of speech bubbles, all spelling out the words “yay!” and “fun!” in a multicolored, bubbly font. Misaki couldn’t help but smile at the familiarly childlike design.
She skimmed over the paragraph of text below before looking at Kokoro. “Val Thorens? You’re taking me skiing?”
“Yes!!!” Kokoro exclaimed, visibly exhilarated at the prospect. “I want to do something fun with you over Christmas.”
“...isn’t going to a nearby cafè Christmas-fun?”
Kokoro pouted.
“I mean!” Misaki said, absently looking down at the paper again. “Of course we can go skiing. When were you— tomorrow ?!”
“Yep!”
Oh dear.
Misaki had always preferred to have at least a one-week notice before doing anything that took too much effort, but after having (rather unwillingly at first) befriended Kokoro, she had been forced to say bye-bye to that comfort. After more impromptu performances than she could count, Misaki knew spontaneity would be apart of her daily life for a very long time to come. Adding the fact that she was now Kokoro’s girlfriend, meant that she just had to get used to it.
And a year ago, she would’ve never guessed she’d come to hope this spontaneity would stay with her for the rest of her life.
“...Okay. I’m not even going to question that.” She didn’t worry about the arrangements, since the suits tended to fix things as soon as Kokoro spoke her mind, no matter how disastrous. She let out a breath, suddenly regaining the exhaustion from searching the whole mansion. She stepped forward and slipped her arms around Kokoro’s waist, resting her head down the crook of her neck. She spoke quietly in question, “Why’d you hide it in the plane to begin with?”
Kokoro played rather enthusiastically with the material at the back of Misaki’s shirt. “Because it’s the one I bought to take us to France.”
“Ah, there it is.”
Misaki comforted herself with the fact Kokoro truly hadn’t bought it for Misaki only. She leaned back and thanked Kokoro wholeheartedly for the Christmas present, before pressing both of their bright smiles together in a kiss.
Before Kokoro could get carried away, as she tended to do in a very... Kokoro way (which hadn’t been unwelcomed if they weren’t standing outside in the icy cold), Misaki offered her a piggyback ride into the mansion.
She didn’t expect anything else than the way Kokoro jumped her immediately.
-
“Now I wish I had bought something for you,” Misaki despaired.
“Don’t worry about that!” Kokoro practically bounced in the seat she had taken by the table. Both girls had a blanket wrapped around their bodies, as they might have gone out into the cold a teeny bit under-dressed. More than anything, Misaki just wanted to crawl under the covers, preferably with the warmth of Kokoro’s body pressed against her (she still felt a heat in her face at having such uncharacteristically sappy thoughts), but bringing two cups of hot chocolate to bed would never end well. “You being here is enough to make my Christmas the very, very best.”
Misaki leaned forward until the table pressed against her chest, head ducked down. “God, don’t just say things like that without warning. I feel the same… a- anyways—” She collected herself before she could receive a reply. “I did get you something, though.” She lifted the bag placed next to her chair. “I… don’t have that much money, nor talents, really, but I do know how to make one thing,” Misaki reached into it. “Here.”
On the table, she placed a red box. Kokoro’s eyes visibly shimmered.
“It’s beautiful!”
“You have to open it first—!” Misaki interrupted herself and sighed. “Either way, I swear, Kokoro, you’re so difficult to get presents for. Whenever anyone asks what you wish for you either say ‘anything’ or ‘for you to smile.’”
Kokoro’s head tilted to the side. “But those are the only things I wish for?”
“If wishing for literally anything that exists in the world is a limited option for you, I’m a bit frightened.” Misaki carefully pushed the gift further across the table. “Open it!”
“Yay!” Kokoro tore the paper up in what seemed to be five seconds flat, and Misaki flinched as it was almost discarded into her face, but landed on the floor instead.
When the gift was no longer hidden, there was a gasp from the other side of the table.
“Misaki! You made these?”
“It’s nothing special.”
Misaki didn’t even get the chance to lift her hand to her neck before Kokoro literally threw herself across the table. “Woah, woah!” She instinctively grabbed Kokoro’s shoulders to hinder her jaw’s descent toward the table.
Not paying the dangerous attempt she just made at a hug any attention, Kokoro casually seated herself on the table with her legs crossed, picking up the gifts again. “Aww, it’s us.” She looked down at the figures she was cradling in her arms like a newborn baby. “You even gave us the hats!”
Everything made Kokoro happy. There was not a single thing in this world that couldn’t make Kokoro look at its bright side and bring the most shiniest smile ever to her lips. But there was no doubt that one thing made her just a bit happier than anything else, and that’s why Misaki decided to make the felt dolls of every member in Hello Happy World. Of course, it wasn’t like she had too many options that would count as extra special to begin with, especially not anything that measured up to a ski-trip to Paris, but at least this could be considered a heartfelt option. She could even admit that a smile had been stuck on her own face the entire time she gave the dolls life.
“It’s nothing…” Misaki repeated almost automatically.
“These are everything to me!” Kokoro exclaimed as if she hadn’t even heard Misaki. “I’m gonna put them on the scene with our performances, so everyone can see them and smile even brighter. Wait! People won’t be able to see them! Misaki, are there any machines to increase dolls to human size?”
“Highly unlikely. Honestly, it’d be a bit embarrassing to show them to so many people but, if you must… display them on a table?”
“Hmm… I think my idea is better,” Kokoro decided, “I’ll talk to the suits later.”
“Oh god.”
“I’ll keep them in my room, meanwhile.” Kokoro placed them all except for her own down on the table, holding it in front of her with straight arms. “I wish you’d made a Misaki doll.” She pouted. Misaki glanced at the Michelle doll. “But I guess you would find it embarrassing to create one of yourself.”
“Yeah, that’s exactly it.”
“Buuut it’s sad, because I would’ve wanted to make them kiss!”
The thought of Kokoro happily pushing the face of two dolls made in their image together in a kiss made Misaki’s chest burst, and she fell forward on the table, hands over her head. “Why are you like this,” she mumbled.
She heard Kokoro move around on the table, until hands pressed against her cheeks to pull her up. Before she knew it, Kokoro was kissing her again, but pulled away before Misaki got the chance to react.
“But kissing the real you is a whole lot better, anyway!” she said, and pushed Misaki back by the shoulders, crawling down from the table right into Misaki’s lap. Both legs dangled from one side and she wrapped her arms around Misaki’s neck.
All Misaki could do was stare at her with lips tingling. Sometimes it took her by surprise just how lovesick she had grown to be for this blonde ball of chaos.
“Thank yooou for the gift, honey.” Suddenly Misaki was in need of her bear suit. “I love them so much!!!” She squeezed Misaki tightly. “And I love you, my bestest girlfriend in the world!”
“You’re welcome.” Her face was burning at the praises and because she had a partner who was too cute. Kokoro always made her feel so appreciated, and that really wasn’t too bad. “Only for my own best girlfriend?”
Kokoro cooed happily and pressed their lips together again.
“And I love you too,” Misaki managed to get out in-between two kisses, “Very much…”
The clock had just barely hit 5 PM, and Misaki could already tell they’d be spending a great Christmas Eve together.
Whether Misaki would survive the sudden skiing adventure the next day or not, was another story.