Snowmen and Mistletoe

For Yosuke Hanamura being alone on Christmas Eve—or any time in December—was like your inmate in prison beating you to a bloody pulp. His parents—dragging poor Teddie with them—were currently traveling two hundred-and-eighty miles to the next city where they would spend Christmas Eve with his Aunt Konata. Yosuke hated Christmas with his aunts house. She was a cheek-pincher, her son-in-law was a drunk, her husband (Yosuke's uncle) had World War II on the brain and the dogs—Chance and Betty-Su—made it impossible to sleep nights.

Finally that year Yosuke made a stand. He told his mother straight out he wasn't going with them. Naturally this made her upset. She played the guilt card by saying his aunt would be hurt if he didn't show; but Yosuke knew better. He knew that his aunt was not only under the impression he was four years old, but also a girl.

So, hours and hours passed of dead silence and ultimate boredom in the Hanamura residence. His mom had called several times to make sure he was alright. Every time Yosuke saw 'MOM' on the caller-ID of his phone he regretted answering; the sweet, gentle and paranoid voice of his over-protective mother was enough to drive him insane.

At around 5 o'clock his mother called again saying they were at his aunt's house. She said first things in the morning they were coming home so they could spend Christmas Day together and to expect them back around noon. Yosuke wasn't too ecstatic about it but he wasn't completely dreading it, either. He had to admit to himself over and over again that he was actually excited to have Teddie with them at Christmas. It would be the stupid bear's first Christmas, he thought. He remembered back when they were all decorating the tree together. Teddie instantly fell in love with the golden lights.

At last 6 o'clock came. Yosuke groaned and rolled his eyes at the grandfather clock in the corner. The only company to him was the radio playing classic Christmas carols, most of which he was forced to learn in church when he was nine; now he couldn't stop humming them as they played on the radio and criticizing when the singer hit the wrong note.

He probably sounded like a demented elf.

Only one thing pulled him away from his boredom: the sudden knocking on the front door.

He knew with every bone in his body Souji was spending Christmas with Yukiko—his girlfriend—so that ruled those two out. Rise had 'kidnapped' (in the words of Kanji) Naoto and Kanji to go caroling with her and her family so they were a big fat 'no.' They only two other people he could think of were Chie and the killer, Namatame—only then did he remember they had apprehended him and he was now under police watch in the hospital.

The knocking continue, and the muffled sound of a girl could be heard calling out, "Yosuke, are you home?"

It was Chie! Yosuke couldn't help but wonder why she was on his front porch of all places on Christmas Eve. Wouldn't she rather be with her family? Nonetheless he decided he might as well have some fun and take some advantage of the situation. He walked over to the door casually and put his ear to the wood. "Who is it?" he asked sarcastically, holding back a laugh.

He could feel her icy glare even through the painted mahogany. He let out a small snicker.

"I'm Santa Claus. Who the hell do you think it is! Now would you open up? It's freezing out here!" Chie exclaimed.

By her command he opened the door for the frozen kung-fu loving teen. She shook off the snow and her shoulders and examined the warm and decent sized living room. "Who died?" she asked convincingly serious. She placed down a medium sized Tupperware container and started removing her jacket as Yosuke scoffed a laugh and walked over to the couch, taking a seat.

"No one." He said. "My parents and Teddie are over at my aunt's house, and I'd kill myself before I spent another Christmas there." He let out an audible sound of disgust as Chie rolled her eyes and chuckled slightly, removing her scarf, gloves and earmuffs. "So what brings you to his funeral?" Yosuke asked playfully. "This is a real emotional time, not a place for a lady, such as you."

She couldn't help but grin and roll her eyes as she removed her soggy boots. Chie grabbed the Tupperware container she had brought and walked over to the couch, sitting down a decent distance from Yosuke on the opposite end. "My cousins are over and they begged my mom to make cookies, complaining about starving Santa if we don't." she explained.

Yosuke imagined this and couldn't help but laugh; the thought of a starving man claiming himself to be Santa Claus had added onto the laughter.

"My mom had extras, by, like, a lot, so she thought I should bring some over." Chie went on.

"You know, our moms sure have been getting along ever since they started that book club." Yosuke added. "It's almost scary."

The two teens laughed at the thought of Yosuke's proper and paranoid mom and Chie's laidback and easygoing mom discussing the latest book they read. It was a funny thought since Yosuke's mom was responsible for TV-loving Mrs. Satonaka's sudden fondness for books. "Thanks anyway… Wait, you didn't help with the baking did you?" Yosuke asked with a sickened look on his face.

Feeling insulted, and the rage building up to her fists, Chie placed the container down on the coffee table once again and punched him—hard—in the shoulder. "Ow!" Yosuke shouted as he rubbed his shoulder in pain. It stung now, it would be sore in the morning. "Alright! I get it! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please. D-don't… hit me again."

Chie crossed her arms and turned slightly from him. "Serves you right." She said. After a moment of awkward silence between the two teens Chie sighed heavily in defeat. "No. My mom told me to stay out of the kitchen when I asked." She stated.

Yosuke couldn't help but grin; he was careful to hide it from Chie, for fear of being hit again overpowered him. There was more silence between them. Never had either of them imagined they'd be in Yosuke's house—alone—together. It was awkward; but at the same time, to Yosuke, it was somewhat comforting. Being stuck in a house alone all day with nothing but a radio playing Christmas carols over and over was enough for him to rip his hair out. Any company, even Chie's, was better than none.

His problem, however, now that he had someone to talk to he had nothing to talk about. He proceeded to blurt out the first question that comes to his mind: "Want to go outside and make a snowman?"

The look Chie gave him made him realize just how stupid he sounded. "Uh… what?" Chie asked with a raised brow. "A… snowman?"

He couldn't even look at her. She probably thought was a total idiot. Oh wait, he thought, do danger there; she already thinks that. "You're going to hit me now, right?" he asked as he braced himself for her fury.

"No." she said casually. When Yosuke looked over at her, since she hadn't hit him yet, he found her smiling, holding back a laugh even. "Come on." Chie said as she hopped off the couch. "I'm not ready to go home to a bunch of screaming six-year-olds, anyway. Come on, let's go outside!"

Yosuke couldn't believe it as he watched her pull her boots back on. In the midst of them putting away the murder case for good—not to mention they were too old to playing in the snow—they were actually going outside to build a snowman. He let out a laugh before getting up to look for his jacket.

When they were dressed warmly enough the two headed outside. They had fallen and the streets and yard were dimly lit by the lampposts. It was probably below freezing and snow fell gently to the earth below, landing on their heads, shoulders and noses.

They split the jobs amongst themselves: Chie would make the head, Yosuke's the torso and then they would work together to make the large, circular base of the snowman. The snow was cold and wet, and most of their laughter came from their complaining about it seeping into their clothes.

They couldn't remember the last time they had laughed, especially when it was just the two of them. It took them a good half hour just to make the base of the snowman. They hadn't done it in so long and the fact that they kept tripping on their patches of snow, ice or even Chie's scarf made them laugh, loosing their focus.

Eventually they put together a somewhat decent looking snowman. After staring at it for a few seconds Chie decided to take off her scarf, mittens and Yosuke's hat (which made his hair seem even more unkempt as she snatched it off his head). Yosuke had to run in the house several times to get some stuff for his face, details they so subconsciously forgot. A carrot for the nose, buttons for the eyes, and they even added his granddad's pipe. They soon realized Yosuke's hat didn't look right, so once again Yosuke had to run into the house; he grabbed his dad's old cowboy hat that he wore during Halloween

For the final touches Chie took the pins off her jacket and stuck them down one by one down the middle ball of the snowman, for reasons they had no idea why; they just decided it was natural and it looked good.

They stood there for a while in the freezing cold looking at their creation in admiration. For not building snowmen in years they had to say it didn't look half bad, although if Yosuke's neighbor's kids came out suddenly they'd probably start laughing; Yosuke was half tempted to bet on this.

Almost suddenly a small ball of cold, wet, powdery snow hit Yosuke on the side of face. He flinched on cue and shook the remaining frozen water off his face; he looked over at Chie who was whistling innocently and slowly turning his back to him. Grinning evilly, narrowing his brow slightly, Yosuke bent down and picked up a bit of snow, patting it down until it was deformed looking snowball; he threw it as hard as he could at Chie, hitting her square on the head; the snow exploded on impact just as quickly as she turned to him in a somewhat surprised look on her face, fighting a smile.

Yosuke chuckled as he imitated her face. He hadn't even noticed as Chie bent down and made another snowball, tossing it at his face; it exploded on impact. She busted out in laughter, remembering the joys of a good old fashioned snowball fight. She danced in a mocking manner as he wiped the snow off his face. "Oh, now you're dead." Yosuke told her with a smile as he bent down to gather more snow. "You are so dead."

As he stood up he wasn't too surprised to get another face full of snow. Chie, pulling a Yukiko with her laughing, darted away a good ten foot distance from her opponent. It eventually broke out into an all out snowball fight, and if you asked them how young they felt as they played around for what felt like hours they probably couldn't tell you; they'd be too busy laughing and chasing each other around the yard.

Chie had—unintentionally—made a few good shots to Yosuke's face and the back of his neck; she laughed when twitched uncontrollably trying to get the snow out of his shirt, but it always melted down his back before he could. She had also hidden behind large trees and even behind the chairs on the porch, so when he came around at just the right time she had attacked him with numerous snowballs; she was practically winning this war.

Yosuke had gotten revenge for Chie's evil schemes a few times by managing a few accidental shots to her butt. Granted, he found this hilarious despite it being totally unintentional; he was just glad she could laugh at it instead of punching him in the face or kicking him where it hurt.

It went on like that for a good few hours. When the lampposts lining up on the sidewalks went out the two teens got a pretty good idea of how late it had gotten. Finally tired of chasing Chie all over the front yard Yosuke finally collapsed onto the tattooed snow to catch his breath. "I give." He said. "You win."

Chie grinned, finding his exhaustion a little amusing. "Damn right." She laughed. "And don't you forget it." She walked over to him with her hands behind her back, looking at the beautiful winter scenery in the moonlight; she turned her back to him only to sit on him seconds later. "Ow!" Yosuke cried since her landing was sudden; of course she laughed at this.

"Was that really necessary?" He asked as he poorly hiding his amusement. It was so rare that the two were childishly civil to each other. Yosuke remembered that his mom would always tell him that Christmas was the time of year that revealed the best in people. Chie simply hummed her response as she nuzzled her head affectionately into his neck.

Yosuke found this very out-of-character. It was at this time of the evening he was glad his face was already red due to the weather; underneath the natural red he was pretty sure he was blushing.

It then occurred to him that she was just tired. He figured it was stupid to let her fall asleep in the cold, so he carefully wrapped his arms around her chest and legs and lifted her off his lap, off the frozen ground. He felt silly for doing this, and he would probably get the crap beat out of him for it later; but for the moment Chie didn't seem to care—let alone notice.

He carefully carried her inside where it was nice and warm and placed her on the couch. In a way he felt glad she was still somewhat awake, for when he tried to remove her wet jacket it was a pain to try and remove her arms from the sleeves by force. Chie yawned and stood up from the couch suddenly; only then did he notice how soaking wet she was; he was probably no better. "I can throw your clothes in the dryer, if you want." He told her. "You can borrow some of my sister's clothes. They don't fit her anymore, and she moved out years ago; it'll be fine."

Chie was too tired to argue. Yosuke figured her argument would be, "I can dry my clothes at my house." Nonetheless Yosuke quickly ran upstairs (which felt strange since his legs were still somewhat frozen) and disappeared into the farthest room on the right. Chie took that opportunity to explore the living room with what little consciousness she had left. She felt as if she were in her grandparents house; there were a few pictures frames on the walls and on the mantle of the fireplace (she was now under the impression that the Hanamura's lived in a pretty old house if there was a fireplace), and she found a few cat toys peeking out from underneath the recliner. Did Yosuke have cats? And if he did where were they hiding?

Just when she was about to plop down on the couch she noticed something on the coffee table she hadn't before: a small thing of mistletoe. She didn't think much of it at first; it wasn't like Yosuke had it there intentionally, right? She looked back to the stairs to make sure he wasn't coming. When he wasn't she grinned somewhat evilly a she picked the small piece of traditional Christmas. Chie had been messing with Yosuke's head the enter evening, so why not confuse him some more? She didn't see any harm in it.

Finally Yosuke came back down the stairs, nearly stumbling over the last few steps, with what looked like purple pajamas in his hand. She noticed what had taken him so long; he had already gone into his room and changed out of his cold and wet clothes. "You can change in the bathroom." Yosuke said as he handed her the foreign clothing. "It's through the kitchen." He pointed to a small entrance by the fireplace that led to the dining room and kitchen.

"Th-thanks." Chie accepted the pajamas and weaved her way awkwardly through the dining room and kitchen to the bathroom. When Yosuke was sure she found the correct room by the closing of the door he sighed heavily. Despite having warmed up a little ever since their retreat back into the house he was sure his cheeks were still red with embarrassment. He looked over at the clock; it read: 9:45 p.m. Had only three hours passed? It felt so much longer. He guessed time flew faster when you were a couple of teenagers acting as if you were five years old playing in the snow, hitting each other in the face with snowballs.

Yosuke turned his attention to Chie when she suddenly walked into the living room, her cheeks stained with a similar blush to his. She must have found the laundry hamper since her damp clothes were absent from her hands.

Yosuke's face must have changed into a darker shade of red as he tried to hold back his comments towards the girl standing only a few feet away from him. The pajamas fit perfectly—too perfectly—as they matched to her every curve, her chest and waist. Yosuke fell silent; dumbfounded.

"D-don't just stare at me." Chie managed to say awkwardly. "Say something."

The blushing boy was silent for a moment as he continued to stare at her. He quickly decided the best way to tear his eyes away from his friend's surprisingly beautiful curves was to slap himself and immediately change the subject. (He didn't see what the big deal was with her in pajamas; he's seen her in a bikini before, so what was so great about his sister's old PJ's?) "Hey, I have an idea! Since we're acting like total three-year-olds anyway, how about you look on TV for any of those crappy Christmas specials and I'll throw your clothes in the dryer real quick and make us some hot chocolate. How about that?" he quickly suggested.

He didn't even wait for her to respond. He wanted to get the hell out of there, so he quickly grabbed the remote off the entertainment center and handed to her, dashing into the kitchen soon after. Chie opened her mouth to speak but he had already disappeared into the kitchen; she sighed heavily, rolled her eyes and switched on the TV.

She sat down on the couch, putting up her legs against her chest and flipped through the channels. Almost every single channel she turned to had some Christmas special on, only that they were at the middle of the program or just ending. She rolled her eyes at this until she finally came to one that was just starting. Her face lit up; she used to watch this all the time when she was little. "Hey," she called in the direction of the kitchen, where Yosuke was making a racket about splattering boiling hot water all over the place, "is 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' okay with you?" she asked.

After another audible grunt of pain from the boy in the kitchen Yosuke's head popped out from the corner of the kitchen. "Doesn't matter to me." He said. "You're the one with the remote; I'm the one getting splashed by insanely hot water."

Chie rolled her eyes with a small grin and placed the remote on the coffee table. She noticed a small blanket over the couch; she grabbed it and wrapped herself in it, ignoring the awkward floral print to it. Just as the opening credits began to end and the narrator introduced Whoville to the viewers Yosuke walked into the living room with a mug full of hot chocolate in each hand, handing Chie one of them.

"Thanks." She said as she accepted it from him. Only moments into the movie, which they were surprised to find themselves enjoying, they were both actually—for the lack of a better word—stupid enough to take a small drink of their scorching beverages, only to spit it out a second later. Chie, finding this amusing, had to set her cut down almost immediately, afraid her laughter would cause her to spill it all over herself. "You think a guy would learn…" Yosuke mumbled painfully as he sat his cup down, as well.

After a while Chie ceased her laughter, but the amused grin stayed plastered on her face during the first half of the movie. They found themselves drawn into the movie and stayed silent through most of it; although there were plenty of times where they just had to make fun of it, especially the part when the Grinch was wrapping little Cindy Lou Who in wrapping paper.

Sooner or later during the middle of the movie Chie decided to execute her scheme against the boy sitting beside her. It was convenient since her eyes started to droop slightly as she yawned. She found herself lying her head on Yosuke's shoulder, which eventually came to her lying down on his lap, pretending to drift asleep; although, much to her chagrin, he was too tired to even notice this. Eventually the two actually fell asleep during the movie, completely unintentionally; only when the movie was over Yosuke slowly started to open his eyes again; the grandfather clock going off was probably the cause of this.

When he looked over the clock read midnight, and when he looked to the TV he realized it wasn't the credits to the Grinch that had woken him up, but the credits to 'Frosty the Snowman' instead. Two hours. They had been asleep for two hours; he wasn't surprised he hadn't heard the pounding of Chie's father on his front door yet, shouting, "Where's my daughter!"

Yosuke rubbed his eyes as he tried to sit up straight, only realizing Chie's weight pressing on his legs; he wondered how long she'd been in that awkward position, and did she know she was? His cheeks were hot and red again. "Ch-Chie?" he whispered as he shook her shoulder gently. "W-wake up. You should really be getting home. It's five passed midnight."

The only response he got from the sleep teen was a muffled, "huh?" Yosuke sighed heavily. He tried shaking her a bit harder but all he got was her turned slightly. He felt bad for trying to wake her (he didn't want to admit to himself that he thought she was pretty damn cute when she was sleeping; he felt like a creep) but he wanted to be able to feel his legs again, and he was pretty sure she didn't intend to be there for eight hours straight playing in the snow, watching a movie and then falling asleep in the middle of it, on his lap no less.

He thought this was all out of character for her and what happened next even more so. Chie suddenly lifted herself off his lap, raised one hand above his head with the mistletoe she had found earlier, using her free hand to hold his head in place as she unexpectedly pressed her lips to his.

Yosuke found himself frozen like that until Chie pulled away a moment or two later, grinning evilly. "Got'cha." She teased. Granted she had to admit to herself she had actually fallen asleep, but she was a relatively light sleeper so it didn't take much of Yosuke's shaking her to wake her, but it was fun messing with him, and she had to make it seem convincing if she was going to execute her plan accurately.

Yosuke's mind went blank and Chie sat up and stretched her arms after placing the mistletoe back on the coffee table. "You know you should've leave stuff like that around." She said as she stood up, placing her arms down. "It gives people like me the opportunity to mess with people like you."

She was about to walk through the kitchen to hunt down the laundry room, she was sure her clothes were done drying by now; but she let out a yelp of surprise after her wrist was suddenly grabbed and she was jerked back onto Yosuke's lap, his free arm wrapping around her waist, pressing his lips to hers unexpectedly; since her mouth was already open from her surprise it was easy for him to slip his tongue past her lips.

Despite her eyes being wide from her shock Chie didn't see the need to argue with anything. Her eyes eventually fluttered closed and she found herself returning the kiss for the next few moments it lasted, when the two had to break apart for the desperate need for air.

"Well people like you shouldn't tease people like me." Yosuke grinned. "Because people like me tend to think of ways for revenge fast." He stated this with pride, with what little Chie would give him. The girl grinned evilly as she kissed his neck playfully.

"Oh yeah? Well then I guess people like you fail at your revenge attempts miserably." She teased with a grin.

"Merry Christmas, bitch."
"You, too, jerk-off."

                                    The End

                                ~Merry Christmas~