Aoi woke slowly, breathing deep the smell of crisp morning ...



Aoi woke slowly, breathing deep the smell of crisp morning; she had left her window cracked during the night, since someone always turned the heat up too high. She sat up, folding over her thick blankets and pulling back the heavy hangings of her four-poster bed. She looked at the glowing numbers of her alarm clock; it was seven in the morning, and they were on their Christmas vacation. She was glad the weather had finally turned cold; it had been unseasonably warm all through November, and Aoi couldn't stand it if it didn't snow for Christmas.

Aoi had bought this house nearly eight months ago, but she never got tired of waking up here. It was like the dream house she'd had for her dolls as a child; so many rooms, so many people. People she loved and cared about and wished the best for.

The agenda for the day included putting up the Christmas decorations she'd bought the day after Thanksgiving. She had bought so much that she had to rent a truck to bring it all home--and pay someone to drive, since she was still only fourteen.

It wasn't hard being the youngest in the house; she was the shortest as well, but that didn't stop her from acting the most mature. Since she owned the house, she technically called the shots when it came to house-related issues, such as how much are too much Christmas decorations. In her opinion, there was no such thing.

She giggled to herself as she dressed in a blue sweater with a large silver snowflake on the front, a pair of white leggings, and a pleated denim skirt. She carefully wrapped her tail around her waist so that the leggings wouldn't bind it. It was really only the holidays that got her feeling feminine: something about always having dressed up to visit her relatives. She put a large snowflake barrette in her hair and matching earrings, and then left her room, pausing to put on her black house slippers.

She went across the hall to her best friend's room. Koumi had painted the door a color she called "Spice Green" which was really a deep forest, and had an antique-looking crystal doorknob. She knocked on the door, but when no answer came she entered anyway. What she found made her laugh out loud.

Koumi was buried under what had to be every single spare blanket in the house. Upon further investigation, Aoi also discovered that she was wearing flannel pajamas and a thermal undershirt and tights. She was awake, but looked downright miserable, the blankets pulled up over her nose.

"How do you people survive in this?!" she said, muffled.

Aoi, sputtering, sat down amid the comforters and wiped tears from her eyes. "Koumi, it does this every year!"

"Well I'm not coming out. You can keep your freezing weather. I AM A DESERT CREATURE,” she said, as if that explained everything.

"But doesn't it get cold in the desert at night?"

"YES BUT WE'RE NOT STUPID ENOUGH TO GO OUT IN IT." The Fremen girl turned on her side, toward Aoi, sulky.

Aoi put a hand on her head, stroking her violet hair slightly. "Okay, okay, I understand. But you did want to help me decorate for Christmas, didn't you? Come on, I'll make you some apple cider. It tastes like warm apples and cinnamon," she said, smiling.

"Cinnamon?" Koumi brightened. "You know I love cinnamon."

Aoi laughed. "Then come on! I bought you a really cute sweater, it'll keep you warm." She went to her room and retrieved it, which was forest green with a design of sparkling Christmas ornaments all over. Then she delved into Koumi's closet and came out with the warmest clothes the girl owned; a pair of bright red stockings, a knee-length plaid skirt, and a pair of tan boots lined with fur. "You get dressed, I'll make sure the downstairs is nice and toasty for you. Maybe I'll even start up the fire."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Aoi, as promised, started a fire and made a warm cup of cider for Koumi and some cocoa for herself. She then started hauling the large plastic bins in which she'd carefully stored everything she'd bought last month out of the attic and down the stairs. She had clearly marked each one, and smiled when she got down to the large cardboard box marked 'Xmas Tree.' This was what she'd been waiting for; her family hadn't ever put up a tree because it was too much work with her younger siblings involved. She sighed. This holiday season had been hard on her, but she would persist, to the point of distracting herself from the memories by making new ones with her friends--and Duo.

She giggled to herself as she wrapped her arms around the box and hauled it into the dining room. Duo was something else. He and his friends had come into her life three months ago, at the fall festival at the start of the school year, and my how things had progressed. Koumi and Heero were inseparable, and Jakki and Trowa were cute to the point of being revolting. Zechs and Faith were something special; he was nearly five years older than her, but he practically worshipped her. The fact that the four girls were very mature for their ages--Aoi was the youngest at fourteen, Koumi was fifteen and Faith and Jakki were sixteen--made the group feel like a large family.

But Aoi was having trouble getting her "family" to help with her over enthusiasm with holidays. Jakki abandoned them first chance she got, running off to the mall with Trowa. Faith begged off because she had winter homework (so did Aoi, but she'd finished hers days ago). Koumi had volunteered before her temper tantrum over the cold, but now she was becoming used to the colder weather, and she was eager to help. And so the two of them enlisted the help of their respective boyfriends--much to their chagrin.

Currently they were on the roof, hanging two kinds of lights--the large, colorful ones and dangling 'icicle' ones--along the edges. Duo had his braid wrapped around his neck like a scarf and a toboggan cap on his head, holding a coil of lights in each hand while Heero placed a small plastic bracket on the gutter and fed the cords through. Aoi was on the ground, half cheering, and half criticizing. Koumi had stayed inside next to the fire, unpacking ornaments and more lights.

"I still don't understand how we got roped into this," Duo grumbled

Aoi laughed. "Because you looooooove me!"

Duo snorted. "Sometimes I wonder."

"Hold still, Duo, or you'll fall," Heero said quietly.

"'Kay. But you're so in for it, Aoi."

Aoi waved, starting to go back inside, "Yeah, yeah. Promises, promises."

Duo reddened, and a rare laugh burst from Heero as Aoi closed the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When she came in, Koumi was half-buried in packaging with a card table literally coated with ornaments in front of her and a candy cane stuck in her mouth--cinnamon, of course. Aoi dragged the Christmas tree box over to the front window, then went back and got the ornate red metal tree stand she'd bought. While she was 'fluffing' and assembling the tree, the boys came back in to tell her that one, the lights were up and two, if she needed something else done she could do it herself thank you very much. Heero joined Koumi by the fire, shedding his coat and gloves and planting a kiss on the top of her head; she giggled furiously.

She went over to Duo and kissed him on his very red nose, having to get up on her tiptoes to do it. He smiled down at her. "You look really cute dressed like that, by the way."

"Yeah, well, don't get too used to it," she said as she fluffed another imitation tree branch. "After the holidays it's back to huge pants and tank tops."

He leaned past her to take a branch; as he did so, he whispered, close to her ear, “Then again, I think you look great in nothing at all.” He kissed her just below her ear, chuckling at the shiver that visibly traveled through her body.

“Ohh-hh you jerk!” she said mock-frowning at him. “Just you wait.”

“Promises, promises?” he said with a smirk as he added the branch to the light-wrapped base of the tree.

Aoi giggled, passing him the next branch. “Just a little bit of fun, my love. Want to help me finish this up?”

“Sure,” he said, as he arranged the branches already on the tree to look more realistic. “How tall is it, anyway?”

“Twelve feet. Just tall enough so that the angel doesn’t whack her head on the ceiling.” Aoi giggled, and soon he was boosting her so she could put on the top section of the tree. It was made to look like a Scott’s pine, with deep green needles frosted slightly in white. They wound lots of bright, colorful lights into the branches and, along the outside, clipped large lights and neat ones that bubbled once they’d heated up. She even had some that were fake plastic candles that, when lit, flickered like aflame.

“You’ve gone completely overboard, Aoi,” Duo said as they stood back to survey the lights.

“Oh, I don’t know,” she said with a sigh, looping an arm about his waist. “My parents never put up a tree, I wanted to know what it’s like. And besides, I wanted to get one that would last a while into the future.”

Duo chuckled. “Making plans already, are we?”

Aoi poked him in the ribs. “Nothing like that, silly. I just like having traditions, that’s all.”

“Uh huh. Want to go see if Koumi’s ready to put up ornaments?”

Aoi grinned. “I never thought you’d ask. You go get yourself a drink, I’ll start working.”

While Duo poured himself a stout glass of Eggnog, Aoi joined Koumi by the fire. The olive-skinned girl grinned at Aoi.

“Look at all this! Duo’s right, this borders on insane.” Aoi laughed, and Koumi went on, “I meant to ask, what’s with the picture frame ones?”

“I wanted us to remember this year, a lot has happened, you know. So I’m going to put pictures of us in them. The one with the bells is for a picture of all of us.” Aoi pulled a manila envelope from a nearby box. “I printed these out the other night, I hope you like them.”

She laid out five pictures: Aoi, in her school uniform; Faith, looking over her shoulder from her desk; Jakki, her arms laden with bags as they shopped for the house; and Koumi, during her first trip to the beach, wearing a large ring float and water-wings. Koumi laughed as she picked up the picture. “I can’t believe one of you took this picture. I’m so… awkward!”

“Yes, but it’s one of the best memories of this year, isn’t it? We’re all going to remember it.” Aoi took a pair of scissors and a plastic wreath frame, with a pair of large red poinsettias on the bottom. She trimmed up the picture and placed it in the frame, and set it aside. She did the same with her own picture, in a square frame surrounded by snowflakes, Jakki’s picture in an oval frame rimmed with holly, and Faith’s with a frame whose pair of candy canes formed a heart-shaped space. Then she took the white rectangular one with golden bells, and showed Koumi a picture of the four of them, standing arm-in-arm, on the day they bought the house (they’d had the realtor take the picture, she was very confused). Koumi nodded, and Aoi trimmed it up to fit.

“I want to do this every year. One of each of us if I can help it, but definitely the group shot in front of the house.” Aoi smiled wistfully as she went and hung the five frames in the boughs of the tree, making sure the larger one was well supported by the branches.

The sky was turning a fiery orange by the time she, Koumi, and Duo had finished putting the ornaments on the tree. She hadn’t bought enough to cover it completely, which was her intention. “I want to save room for down the road.”

While everybody else took a break for food Aoi, who wasn’t really hungry, wound lengths of lighted garland around the banister, and hung glittery snowflakes and ornaments between every other support rod. She also hung a wreath on the door that she had made herself, with two large poinsettias, two silver snowflakes, a bough of holly, a sprig of mistletoe, and a pair of plastic candy canes all along the bottom. Before she was done, she hung a sprig of mistletoe from the landing above, which overhung the front door and hall.

She went into the kitchen and washed her hands, feeling Duo’s hands wind around her waist. She giggled as she dried her hands. “You do realize Christmas is almost two weeks away, right?”

“Yeah, I do. I just like how festive it makes this big house look. And besides,” she said, turning in his arms. “I’m running out of excuses for us to be alone.”

“You mean your friends don’t know yet? About…” Duo trailed off, an eyebrow cocked at her. She shook her head, her cheeks flushed, and he chuckled. “You, who tells your friends everything?” Again her head shook. He smiled at her. She never ceased to amaze him.

“Let’s go on upstairs,” she said, twining her fingers in his. “There’s something I want to talk to you about.”

~*~

Up on the third floor, Aoi closed her door with a barely audible click as Duo crossed the room and sat down in the window seat, swinging one leg up to rest across the cushions. She came over and sat down, leaning back against his chest as his arms encircled her shoulders.

“I really like having you around,” she said, sighing. “I feel… less alone when you’re here.”

“What makes you say that? You’re in a house with your best friends. You’re never alone,” he said, stroking her cheek with the back of his thumb.

“Oh, I know that. I’m starting to feel like I have three sisters instead of best friends, actually,” she said, and giggled. “But that’s not really it. I know you know the stuff I had to go through to get here… what happened to my family. But when you’re here… I feel like I can finally start to heal. You understand, don’t you?” she leaned her head back on his shoulder and looked up at him.

He smiled, and she felt warmth course through her body and her heart constrict. “I think I do. I’ve told you about my past, too, you know everything my friends and I went through. I think you and I were supposed to meet like this.

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