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

[farfrom-tree.livejournal.com]

"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?"

Comments

[hisfathersstaff.livejournal.com]

"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."

[at-a-peak.livejournal.com]

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

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

[saint-sami.livejournal.com]

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?"

[hisfathersstaff.livejournal.com]

"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!"

[farfrom-tree.livejournal.com]

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.

[chosenlightchld.livejournal.com]

"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."

[farfrom-tree.livejournal.com]

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.

[hisfathersstaff.livejournal.com]

"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.

[saint-sami.livejournal.com]

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.

[chosenlightchld.livejournal.com]

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?"

[farfrom-tree.livejournal.com]

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.

[hisfathersstaff.livejournal.com]

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."

[saint-sami.livejournal.com]

"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.

[chosenlightchld.livejournal.com]

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.

[farfrom-tree.livejournal.com]

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.

[chosenlightchld.livejournal.com]

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.

[farfrom-tree.livejournal.com]

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