trans_9 | T'was the week before Christmas... (Closed, Hikari and Sasami later)

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T'was the week before Christmas... (Closed, Hikari and Sasami later)

"Crap, crap, crap!" Devlin moaned as he walked through the City.

See, Christmas was great. He loved every minute of it, like most kids did. But there was just one little thing that made things hard: coming down to the wire and knowing you didn't have any gifts to give anyone. Especially when you had a girlfriend.

"What am I gonna do?"

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Likewise, Negi was hurrying through the city, intent on finding something, anything! Time had sneaked up on him and he was definitely in a bind.

Rounding the corner, he noticed Devlin with a similar expression and he jogged up to him. "Dev! What's up? You look like I feel."

"You forgot about Christmas too?" Devlin guessed.

He ran a hand through his hair. For all he fussed about people messing up his hair, he was starting to get into the habit of doing it himself when he was nervous.

"I know Hikari won't be mad if I don't get her anything, but I can't just not give her something!"

"Like I ever," groaned Negi as he leaned against the wall and buried his face in his hands as Devlin explained. "I know the exact same feeling. I want to get Sasami something too, but I don't know what! It's not like we've got a store here to browse."

"What were you thinking? A stop at the clothiers or something big or small?"

Devlin took a breath. He wasn't going to get anywhere by freaking out. Besides, every time he lost his cool, things didn't go well for him.

A couple more breaths, and he was able to focus. "Yeah, that might be a good idea. Rein might know something we can give them. I mean, I don't know anything about clothes, but maybe she's got jewelry or something?"

Negi thought about his experience with clothing, mostly Konoka forcing him into cute things, and shuddered. "Definitely not clothing. Let's go with jewelry. I'm sure there's some kind of magazine on board or something we can look through. Isn't there a couple of places like the smith or the Atelier we can go to?"

Devlin could easily figure out just why Negi was shuddering, and he added, "And you've mistaken me for your sister one too many times for me to go anywhere near girls' clothes."

But the suggestion was a good one. "Yeah, you've got a point. It might be better if we check out one of those places. Which one do you think would be better to try?" Since as far as he could tell, Daja's magic and Ed's alchemy both fell into the same category, he figured Negi would know better.

"Oh geez," snorted Negi as he rubbed his head. "But you have a point."

Folding his arms and putting the suggestion to thought, he said, "Well Daja works for a fee, something we don't really HAVE. And Ed, well, he's easier to deal with if you can catch him without Asuna-san. I'd like to get her something TOO but without her knowing if you get my drift."

"Looks like it's gonna have to be Ed," Devlin realized. After all, if they had anything for Daja's fee, they probably wouldn't be in this mess in the first place. Plus, they were just completely winging it from here.

"What if Asuna is there?" he asked. "I don't want to end up doing anything that's going to get us in trouble--not for a while, anyway." He was still a bit shaken from the whole Double incident, even though he'd long since healed and he'd gotten off easy in the punishment department. Self-punishment was just a lot more lasting.

"I doubt we'd get in TROUBLE, just that she wouldn't be able to keep it from the girls." said Negi, shaking his head. "She's not malicious, just, well, smug whenever I get into trouble at times or forget something important. Which reminds me, if we're in this same situation for their birthdays, remind me to get Chamo-kun to smack me."

A beat. "Where IS he lately? I hope he hasn't been ninjaed by GLaDoS."

"Yeah, that's definitely not what we need," Devlin agreed. "You think we'd be able to convince her not to tell? Or would we really have to pay for it?"

At the reminder of Chamo, he scowled. "Hopefully that's all that's happened to him." Nope, still annoyed at the ermine.

"I hope so," said Negi. "She takes a certain pride in my discomfort. I guess it's kind of like an older sibling being a meanie."

He nodded, still worried. "Well let's hope that's all that happened to him."

"Hopefully, he'll turn up around the same time the bus's bathroom does," Devlin said, trying to cheer Negi up a bit. "Come on, let's get those gifts."

An hour later, and several mis-fired attempts at getting what they needed, Negi cradled a thin box in his hands for Sasami, with Asuna's ~~bribe~~present tucked into his pants pocket. He had wanted to get something for his mom too, but wanted Asuna's opinion on it when they weren't pressed for time.

"Hope they like it."

Devlin had been worried about what to get Hikari, but he'd eventually settled on a simple metal hair clip design (http://www.brazinlady.com/3-HR-crystal_barrette_1.htm) that had turned out pretty well.

"Yeah, I know," he said. "But at least we did it. That's got to mean something, right?"

True, he didn't feel nearly as hopeful as he tried to make himself sound, but they just had to remember that Hikari and Sasami were understanding girls. As long as they didn't let on that they'd waited until the last minute, everything should be okay.

"True. And we shouldn't be too bad off right now," said Negi as he turned the box over in his hands. "This should be alright. I mean, it's nice, it's simple, and we did get things that match them."

"Yeah," Devlin agreed. "And..."

He stopped cold when he saw someone familiar coming closer, someone who really shouldn't hear about these gifts!

That someone? Sasami. It was probably pure coincidence that she happened to come across the two, but at the same time, horrible bad luck on the boy's part!

"Negi! Devlin! Nice to see you two!" Sasami said, smiling widely... before blinking and looking at the boxes they had. "Hey... what are those?"

"GAH!" exclaimed Negi, jumping as he scrabbled with the present and hiding it behind his back. "Nothing! Nothing at all! It's just a mirage!"

Okay, it was bad that Sasami was this close to finding out about her gift. But Negi freaking out? Hysterical.

"Right," Devlin answered, barely holding back the smirk on his face. "Absolutely nothing."

Karma, this is your cue.

"Hey Devlin, Negi, what's up?" Hikari asked, walking right by Sasami with a smile on her face. She blinked as she noticed that Negi was... well, not too composed at the moment. "... Okay, really, what's up? Negi seems like he's freaking out."

Devlin wasn't too calm himself now that Hikari showed up. He jumped about half a mile in the air, nearly dropping his present on the ground and breaking it.

"N-nothing!" he insisted. "We're fine!"

So this was what karma tasted like.

"Yeah that's right, you do not see these things in our hands!" protested Negi feebly, waving the present in his hand.

Nice going. A clear case of lolderpderp.

Sasami couldn't help but cross her arms over her chest and smirk. Nice try, Negi!

"Uh-huh... c'mon, tell us what's there!" Sasami said, moving to grab the gift.

Hikari blinked. "Umm... you're buying presents. And hiding them from us. And since Sasami-chan and I don't fail at keeping secrets, they're for us. So umm... why?"

Devlin gave Negi a confused look. He really didn't know anything about Japanese culture; the space colony he'd grown up on had been an American settlement.

"'Cause it's Christmas," he said. "Why? Did you not want us to get you anything?"

Was this some kind of girl thing? He'd heard other guys older than him back home talk about how girls said one thing and meant another.

Negi relented and presented the small package. "Yeah, um, Merry Christmas. We wanted to give them to you on Christmas Day but uhhhh, here."

He blushed and ducked his head. "Dev, in Japan, Christmas Day is a Date Night. Not present giving."

"Christmas?" Sasami said, blinking as she took the box. "Oh, my, is it really that soon? I've completely missed Startica!"

"But, ah... yeah... Christmas isn't that big in Japan..." Curiosity got the better of her and she moved to open the box.

Hikari giggled a bit, then blushed as she realized what was going on. "Oh... right."

Well, joy. Now she was going to have to get Devlin something, and fast.

This is Devlin.

This is Devlin turning about eight shades of red at his culture fail.

"I didn't know!" he protested.

Blush, Devlin, blush.

"Um, I guess..." He thrust out the box at Hikari. "Here. Merry Christmas."

The last was said at an extremely embarrassed mumble.

Hikari giggled and smiled, taking the box in her hands.

But before opening it she's hugging Devlin and pressing her lips up against his. "Thank you," she said, blushing a bit herself.

Devlin was his usual bright pink in the face, but he smiled and said, "You're welcome."

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T'was the week before Christmas... (Closed, Hikari and Sasami later)

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