He ran down a familiar - albeit snow-covered - street which he’d been away from for far, far too long. A street which he had grown up on. A street which he knew inside and out. A street where he didn’t have to worry about anything supernatural. A street where he felt completely safe.
Tsukune stared down towards his house, and stopped just outside to stare at the front door. It felt good to be home for the holidays. He had fun at the academy. Really. He did. He had good friends and enjoyed himself, but anyone would feel the same way about any school. Sometimes you just needed a break from the workload, just had to unwind, relax and try to replenish yourself.
That was even before the various monsters trying to eat or kill him came into the equation. Yep. That rather did tip the scales more one direction than the other, didn’t it? Getting away from the craziness of the school for a little bit of a breather was certainly more than welcome, and Tsukune intended to enjoy -
His foot landed on something soft that was certainly not snow. He picked it up and sighed. A discarded Santa hat. It made him feel sort of… Sad, for some reason. Like it had been discarded unfairly. Tsukune shrugged and moved to put it on top of his own head, but then thought better of it and checked the contents first. Goodness knows what had happened to it, there might be something inside it if it had been left out long enough. Even if it was just snow, that would be far from a pleasant experience.
But no! It wasn’t snow. It was… paper? Little slips of paper. How strange. For a moment he thought about taking out a slip to see what was written on it, but he stopped. There weren’t enough people around yet. It wasn’t time. This didn’t make sense to him, or it wouldn’t have if he’d stopped to think about it at all, but it was enough to make him resume his journey towards the inside of his home.
Tsukune opened the door with mysterious Santa hat in hand, eager and ready to stop having to worry about the weird and wonderful world of monsters for just a little while so he could relax and unwind with his family.
“Tsukune!” a familiar voice called, mere moments before a very familiar sensation pressed themselves up against his chest. “Are you surprised to see me?”
“K-Kurumu?” he yelped, then glanced over the succubus’s shoulder to see Mizore with a certain expression in her eyes. “What are you - I mean -”
“Sorry for the intrusion,” Moka said, appearing out of nowhere and giving a cute bow while Tsukune extricated himself from the patent-pending Succubus Glomp.“We all decided to pay you a visit over the holiday!”
“My goodness, Tsukune!” his mother exlaimed, and he suddenly had a small urge to crawl under something and curl up to wait for death. “I didn’t realise you had so many… friends at school. Your father will want a word with you later on, I think.”
“Hm? I do?” his father asked. “Oh. Right, of course, of course!” he said, and the women all drifted off to the next room while his father nudged him in the ribs. “Well done, my boy! Well done indeed!”
“… Thanks? But it’s not what you-”
“Of course it’s not,” his father interrupted with a sage nod. “Those are good friends you have. Very pleasant and charming. Why, your school days must be a breeze with such close friends! They’ve been getting on with Kyoko as well.”
“Hang on, Kyo-chan is here?” Tsukune asked. His cousin was here as well? Goodness. He wasn’t expecting anything quite like this.
“Naturally. You know what she’s like. She couldn’t wait to, ahem, hang out with you! Seemed rather eager to hear about what you’ve been up to at the academy. She’s been chatting with them for the last hour. You really did take your time getting home, didn’t you?”
“I suppose I did…” Though how they had beaten him home by a solid hour was anyone’s guess. He thought he’d made really good time! “So… Is it just Moka, Kurumu and Mizore? Did the rest of the newspaper club arrive?”
“The rest of the club?” his father blinked. “No. Just those three. I think they mentioned that the others had commitments elsewhere and couldn’t come. Unfortunately, your mother and I have plans elsewhere, so it’ll be just the five of you for the next couple of hours. Don’t do anything silly while we’re gone.”
Five. The number made his hands itch for some reason. Five people, four of whom were girls. That seemed ideal, somehow. The thought resonated inside Tsukune’s mind until he didn’t even notice when his parents walked right past him with their coats. He didn’t even register the worried expression on his mother’s face. Five people. Perfect for play time. Perfect for playing with.
“Tsukune?” a shy voice said. Tsukune shook his head and found himself looking directly at Mizore, adopting a much more adorable expression than her previous one. “Your parents are gone. I found the perfect place for us to hide away and make -”
“Oh, no, you don’t!” Kurumu hissed, suddenly appearing right behind Mizore and pushing past her to try to hug Tsukune. “I was wondering what was taking you so long. Honestly!”
“Hey, what’s going on out here?” Kyoko’s voice called from another nearby room. The girl herself appeared, poking her head out of the door, followed by Moka. “Tsuki!” she called, first happy, then scowling. “Come on! Get your butt in here before I haveta drag you away from your girlfriends!”
“You heard her,” Tsukune said, rubbing the back of his head. The two rivals shot daggers at each other, and Tsukune sighed. “And remember,” he said, much more quietly. “We’re in the human world. Nothing… unusual. Got it?”
The two of them gave a begrudging nod, and then went right into the next room. Where there were now five people. Five people ready and willing to play the game.
“Say, girls!” he found himself saying, clutching the hat tightly enough to make his knuckles white. “I have an idea for a game.”
“Hm?” Moka tilted her head at him. So cute as always! “What sort of game?”
“It’s called ‘Secret Santa!’” Tsukune explained, setting the hat on the table. “We all draw a name from the hat, then give that person an anonymous gift at some point before Christmas day.”
“Yeah? What if we draw our own name?” Kyoko asked, and Tsukune didn’t have an answer for her. Somehow that seemed… Impossible. So he shrugged it off and, after a moment, she seemed to as well. “Ah, never mind! Sounds fun! I guess this must’ve been what you were doing before, right? Setting it up with all our names?”
“That makes sense,” Moka giggled, though honestly Tsukune couldn’t even remember putting the paper in the hat or writing anything, and he didn’t even have a pen in the first place. “I’ll start!” she declared, enthusiastically pulling a slip of paper out of the hat. “I’ve never played something like this before! It sounds like so much fun! Let’s see… I have to get a gift for - Ah! It vanished!”
“Whoa…” Kyoko exclaimed. “That was so cool!”
“Don’t tell us who it was on the paper,” Tsukune said, reaching inside the hat for his own slip. “Remember, it has to be anonymous.”
He pulled it out and stared at it. His own slip of paper, the person he would have to get a gift for. Have to. He <b>had</b> to get a gift for this person. Right this very moment. He had to find something for her, bring it back, wrap it up and give it to her in secret. The same mania seemed to be taking hold of Moka, if anyone cared to look in her eyes to see it… But instead their attention was all on the hat that they would soon draw a name out of.
As for Tsukune, he had to get a gift for:
- Moka
- Mizore
- Kurumu
- Kyoko
- Inner Moka
- Something else
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