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“Nya? A Christmas Party?” The rotund cat looked over at Tanuma in what could best be described as some form of kitty confusion. “Why do we have to have one of those?”
It was Taki who answered even as she continued to hold him in her arms and cuddle the top of his head. Sometimes it was just easier to let the girl do as she wished. “Because we want to do something nice for Natsume-kun. Since Tanuma-kun and I can’t easily talk to the yokai, we figured it would be best to ask you to gather together all of Natsume-kun’s friends.”
It was an interesting choice of words given the literal book of friends that Natsume had but his two human friends didn’t know anything about that.
“Hmph, there’s nothing in it for me to do that.”
“I thought you might say that,” Tanuma was smiling, undeterred by Madara’s disinterest in this silly holiday get-together for Natsume. “You know, Christmas parties means a lot of food.” the young man began with a fake disinterested tone.
Taki nodded. “Oh yeah, lots of candies and sweets. Yummy meats and rich drinks. We were planning to set everything up at Tanuma-kun’s since his father is going to be away for the weekend and we're going to cook up a storm, but if you’re not interested…”
Blast these humans. Madara squinted at him, frowning and trying to keep his composure. He still thought it was foolish and silly. Certainly Natsume wouldn’t enjoy so much effort being spent on him. At the same time, the yokai couldn’t deny that getting the gang together sounded at least a little bit enjoyable maybe. Plus the humans offered some really nice gifts to the shrines in the area around this time since it was leading up to New Year’s. Madara could almost smell the christmas sake and all the food that Taki and Tanuma were promising to cook.
“Fine.” he finally relented before looking at them. “How do you plan to make a party for people you can’t see? You’re not making those circles are you?”
“Yup!” Taki replied chipperly despite the issues that arose when she first used them. “Tanuma-kun is going to help me make a giant circle around his place. This way there can be an inside and outside element to the party since it might be a bit too cold to be outside the whole time.”
“What? Do you really think that’s a good idea?”
“It should be fine. I’ll be sure to break up the lines after the party.” Tanuma assured him. “The two of us have already befriended you and we’ve met and helped some of the other yokai before like Misuzu-san and the little fox boy.”
Tanuma had a point but Madara was still hesitant. “Hmmm, I’ll ask around and see how everyone feels about it and get back to you. If they don’t like the idea of being seen then there’s nothing I can do about it.”
“Ahhhhhhh thank you Nyanko-sensei!” Taki cheered and started rubbing her face in his fur once more.
How in the world had he gotten himself involved in this mess?