Christmas

"Are we finished here?" I questioned Faith as she finished decorating a batch of Christmas cookies. She placed the bag of bright green icing down and looked up at me. "We still have one more hour before we can leave." She stuck out her tongue and handed me the tray of cookies.

   For the past five hours, Shizuo, Faith, Mizu, Iris, Kane, Opal, and I were dressed as elves. We had to complete a request that involved playing the roles of elves at a festival known as Winter Wonderland.

I carried the warm, metal tray out of the kitchen and towards Santa's village. Multiple tables were set up and occupied by young children. Smiles were plastered on their faces as I approached. Santa sat in his chair occupied by the line of little children wanting to tell him what they want for Christmas.

  "The cookies are ready." I said with a smile. I'm not the most enthusiastic person, so this kind of job was a challenge. The cheers coming from the children were loud. They got even more excited when I placed the tray in front of them. "Remember to be good and only take one."

  I then left to meet up with my friends. It took a few minutes to reach the area they were all occupying, but when I did I was more relaxed. I lowered myself onto a bench, looking up at Shizuo who was standing next to Faith. They were actually the only two there at the moment.

   "You know, real elves could have done this job. I'm not sure about you, but I don't think I resemble an elf." I said, flicking my black ears and tail up a bit.

  Shizuo chuckled, looking at me. "Well, you're not wrong. Out of all of us, you stand out." Faith approached me and sat beside me, a smile present. "You never know, maybe there are Neko elves out there."

I looked at her, laughing a bit. "If I ever find one i'll be sure to tell you that you were right."

"Have you seen the others?" Shizuo asked, taking a seat on the other side of Faith. Conveniently, the others approached right as Shizuo finished speaking.

  "We can leave now, right?" Mizu asked, crossing his arms. He had an unamused look plastered on his face. "Yeah, it's about that time." Shizuo said, standing.

We all walked toward the parking lot. Shizuo had just arrived from collecting our reward. "We're still having that Christmas party later, right?" Shizuo asked, walking next to Faith with an arm wrapped around her. "Yeah, and didn't we plan to use some of our reward to do that secret santa thing?"

My question was then answered by Mizu. He stood incredibly close to me as we walked. "Yeah, we talked about this last week. I'm still up for it if you guys are." As we exited Winter Wonderland and walked towards our cars, we made the final plans for our party that was to happen later.

I placed the keys to my car in Opal's hand, looking at her with my typical serious expression. "I'm letting you drive back to GATE. I'm riding with Mizu. I trust you not to total my car." My tail flicked a bit as she closed her hand around the keys. "No problem,Falen. Although, I'm curious as to why you're going with Mizu. Are you finally making a move?" A sly grin formed on her face as she nudged me with her elbow. I shooed her elbow away from my side, looking at her. "Well, about that. I forgot to mention it until now, but Mizu and I are actually in a relationship." A sly grin of my own appeared on my face as I looked at Opal, waiting for a reaction.

  "Oh I see. Yeah i'll dri-" She suddenly paused, realizing what words had just left my mouth. She places her hands on my shoulders, looking at me with a shocked expression. "DID YOU JUST SAY YOU AND MIZU ARE DATING?!?!" She moved her hands from my shoulders to my hands. She held them, shaking them in excitement. "This is so great. I've been waiting for this forever. When did this happen??" She questioned, her eyes still locked onto my face.

   My ears flicked a little and a small smile formed on my face. "Around a week ago. Back when Mizu was in the hospital and when we went to hell." Opal nodded, accepting the answer with the smile and heading towards my car. "I see. Well, I'm going to let you go be with your boyfriend, and I'll make sure your car gets back to GATE safe." I watched her open the door to the driver's seat, wave, and get in. By that time, Iris and Kane had arrived at my car. I figured they would question why I wasn't driving, or getting in my car for that matter. I turned and walked in the direction of Mizu's car, leaving Iris and Kane to Opal.

   There he was, leaning against the back of his royal blue Corvette. "What took you so long?" He asked, a playful tone in his voice. "Oh hush. I took five minutes at most." I said, nudging Mizu with my elbow. I walked over to the passenger door and opened it, climbing in the car.

    It took us about half an hour to get back to GATE. After Mizu parked his car, we got out and walked towards Professor Cloud's classroom. Shizuo and Mizu had talked the Professor into letting us throw a little Christmas party there. I placed my hand on the door and opened it, revealing my friends sitting at desks, talking. Mizu entered behind me, closing the door on his way in. Opal looked up at me, smiling. "Falen! You made it just in time."

   My ears ears pricked up in interest. I was silent, occupied by my own thoughts. I couldn't remember what I could have made it just in time for, so I glanced up at Mizu. "I think they were about to start drawing names for the gift exchange." He said to me, glancing at the others curiously considering he didn't know if he was right.

  Opal nodded. The nod was followed by her shoving a red and white Santa hat into my face. "Pick, but no peeking."

   "Obviously." I said with a small laugh as I lowers my hand into the hat. The inside was soft, but the softness was quickly replaced by the feeling of crumbles paper. I rummaged around until I decided on a paper. I grasped it, pulled it out and opened it. "I'm buying a gift for...Mizu." I looked over at him with a small grin on my face, pocketing the paper with his name on it. I turned back to Opal. She has the hat in her hands and a sly smile on her face. "You're welcome." She whispered quietly before moving on to the others.

   Since the Christmas party was set to start in a few hours, I made the wise decision of leaving right after I found out who I'm buying a gift for. The streets were crowded with various vehicles. People seemed to be everywhere, on the sidewalks, the crosswalks, and in the buildings. "I've forgotten how busy it gets around here during the holidays.." I said to myself with a sigh. As I walked, I spent time looking in the window of each shop I passed. Most were filled with Christmas related displays rather than merchandise.

    What should I get him? I thought long and hard about all the possibilities. Whatever I decided on, it had to be special.

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   "Hurry up for the third time! We don't have all day!" Opal shouted at Mizu and Kane. The two males were stuck with the job of decorating Professor Cloud's room for the party. I continued listening to her attempt at bossing the two around. Iris was helping Faith move desks to the back of the room so I could set up the tables for the food. Opal's commands were interrupted when the classroom door flung open and hit her. On the other side of the door was Keita, Riku, and Shizuo. Riku was the one responsible for hitting Opal with the door. I laughed a bit as he realized what he done.

    "Opal, babe, I'm so sorry! I just opened it so Keita and Shizuo could carry the tree in!" I looked over to see Keita and Shizuo holding a large Christmas tree. I moved out of the way, giving the two room to set it up. "Did someone bring the tree decorations?" Mizu asked, walking away from Kane and towards me.