⚔Christmas Special♡770Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI6yi9yVjdZ
The little issue of the rabbit's owner, the four- who claimed to be the pet's owner- made a truce to take care of the rabbit in alternative, weekly. Alphabetically ordered, Inoue took care of the rabbit on the first week, the second was Kuro on to the next week, and so on.
They also agreed that they can call the rabbit as they named it; Maher calling it as Zen the 2nd, Rizuki calling it as Chael the 2nd and, Kuro and Inoue calling it as Kuroue. They don't think the argument will end anyway.
In the third week, it was Maher's turn. After class, Kuro and Inoue walked their way to give the rabbit to him in his class. They saw Rikkun along the way. They were aware that lately he's been skipping class than he used to. Just like last time, and it's been 8 times this week, he ran off immediately before they could approach him. They don't know for what reason, but they're bothered that Rikkun has been avoiding them lately.
But for their first priority, it was giving Kuroue to Maher since it will be two weeks long for them to be seeing it again. Not to mention, how tremendously slow and hesitant they are to step forward.
Suddenly, both of their phones vibrated inside their pockets, drawing their phone out in unison. A text message from an unknown sender, both read:
[I'm an impatient dude, u kno. 5 mins & I still dn't huv him I'll t8k it by force, ya? ;)]
⚔
"If I see even a tiny mark on Kuroue, I'll sue you for animal abuse!" Kuro warned, but was ignored.
"Kyaaa~! Zen the 2nd you're finally in my arms~"
"If your girlfriend misunderstood that, you'll be pummeled." Rizuki remarked, not taking a glimpse at Maher rubbing his cheeks onto the rabbit's soft fur, and neither regarding the other two who stood beside her, wide-eyed shocked as a tarsier.
"Ma-senpai," Inoue exclaimed. "you have a girlfriend?!"
"What? Don't I look like the type to have one?" Maher questioned back with an eerie look.
Inoue raised her palms in defense. "Well, I didn't mean that you look single but-"
"So it's true then?! The rumors between you and Rizuki-chwan is actually-"
Rizuki shot Kuro a look that zip his mouth shut.
"Nah." Maher curtly said as he softly grazed his fingers through the rabbit's hair. "My girlfriend studies abroad, sadly. As for Rizzy here, she doesn't mind being the girl-shield against other girls as long as I bark off other people as well. It's a win-win~"
"So shady." Kuro commented.
"Not really. My sunglasses are better." Maher winked.
Not even one of them laugh.
"Oh, by any chance, have you noticed Rikkun acting strange?"
Inoue asked Rizuki, but in response she shrugged. "Didn't know. Don't care too."
"Isn't there something like," Kuro made a wavy motion at both sides of his head. "telepathy between twin siblings?"
Rizuki considered it for a moment, looking weary by the second. "If that's true, I will not survive long."
♡
The next day, their precious council president finally came back to school. "ARMIN!"
To everyone's surprise, Jean was the most teary-eyed out of all the class. "Armin! You don't know how glad am I to see you again! It was too much... it was too much...!"
"I had fair shares of being tortured myself..." Chael muttered. "When you weren't here to take care of them."
"What are they talking about?" Asked Kuro, Inoue answering, "Student council work stuffs. They're intimidating sometimes, especially when you have to go through alliance offers from other schools to make special programs and have to refuse."
Kuro frowned, as if confused. "That sounds fun than torture, why refusing them?"
"Try joining in, and you'll know." Inoue replied grimly.
"Glad your back." Annie told Armin, in utmost sincerity and Bertholdt reacted with this. "What?"
Reiner nudged him with a knowing stare, and in turn Bertholdt sighed in internal defeat.
Mikasa seemed to be glaring at Annie. "I am going to take that as caring words of a friend."
"... What else would it be?" Annie retorted.
"Now, now..." Armin chimed in, sensing the tension between the two, half attentive to what they're on about. "We should be more worried about something else."
"Yeah... the festival." Jean offered, his long face grew longer. "We haven't decided the theme, gathering of people, budget cuts and all..."
Jean paused, looking grim, before adding, "And then, Christmas is coming."
On cue, the council members shuddered.
"Ah, about that, we don't need to worry for Christmas. Just the festival." Armin told them, close to reassuring. "Hanji-sensei told me we should just have our own if anybody of us wants to."
Chael sighed in gratefully. "That's good news, very good news."
The rest of the council members preached to that.
"Welcome back, Arlet."
Their substitute homeroom teacher- Levi- entered with that said, and automatically they went for their seats. "In exchange for you I guess, another is absent. The tot's name Rikkun Crosse due to fever. Sad as it is, we have to move on to our lesson."
As obvious as it is as well, there was no sadness on their faces but for the two rivals; their faces fell.
"Well then, I'll make notes for-"
"I'll do it!" "I'll do it!" Jumping in for volunteering, Kuro and Inoue both raised their hands, intent looks toward Armin.
Then their intent looks faced each other.
Kuro got a say first, lowering down his palm as if making a defense. "Look, I know my hand-writing is pretty than the ones I've copied for my assignments with. And that's saying something."
Inoue looked doubtful, but not looking for another fight. "Prove it then."
Kuro handed out his opened notebook and Inoue studied it carefully, adjusting her glasses. She inspected, that the letters were smaller than the gap of the linings, but neat and impressively straight up, and never slanting, never cursive. Inoue formed an 'o' with her mouth, impressed.
She shrugged in acceptance to her defeat. "Alright, It's your win."
Kuro simply nodded in response. For the others though, they were gaping as if they need water for oxygen instead of air.
"It's a Christmas miracle. They do that to people." Chael offered rather positively, and the class silently nodded to that simpler explanation.
"Are you all about done idling?" Levi interrupted, his eyes more narrowed than usual, darting his gaze toward the gay, reacting with a flinch. "And you, Zaya, come to my office later regarding that copying assignments of yours."
Inoue imitated Kuro's Chesire's grin, looking ever so victorious. "Well, good luck with that too~"
⚔
The moment Inoue knocked on the senile-looking wooden door, she wasn't so sure anymore if she rightly followed the address given by Armin to her, even after checking the location twice. The building itself looked as if it was haunted.
The loud groaning of the opening door in front of her didn't help any better from thinking scary thoughts. She stifled a yelp and the instinct to run away.
"Who the heck are-"
Rikkun reacted in surprise after inspecting, as he squinted his eyes toward the same surprised Inoue. "You? Why-?"
Before he get to finish, Inoue pushed him back into his room and entered herself as well. Nonplussed, she scanned every corners and spots inside, only to see a futon beside a small table along the open laptop, and few boxes. The small light-bulb hanging from a chipped ceiling was off for productive reasons, being the small barred window at the front wall as the only source of light.
Inoue couldn't hide the disbelief from her face and voice. "This is where you live?"
"Look wherever I live is none of your concern but why are you-?"
Thudding footsteps and a person emerging from the open door interrupted Rikkun, again. "Sorry I was la-"
The intruder was Kuro who has a reaction like that of Inoue's.
"I know right, Kuro?" Inoue regarded the gay. "This is the ideal home for ghosts."
Rikkun cussed, pressing two fingers on the bridge of his nose. "My head is aching again..."
♡
After minutes of being chided from the intruders and handing out the conveniently-written lessons missed, Rikkun summarized an explanation after giving them something to drink. "I ran away from my parents, so that I'll be on my own terms without their them, get it now?"
Inoue was the one who reacted. "What?! That's... sad. How come?"
"I think so too," Kuro agreed with Inoue. "Isn't this a bit too far to be doing this?"
Calm and rather surprised, Rikkun raised an eyebrow facing Kuro. "I thought you would understand, considering you're also in the same terms with your parents. You begged to your uncle to stay with him, since you hated your parents too, right?"
Kuro winced at this as Inoue's nonplussed look was directed towards him. "Is what he's saying true, Kuro?"
"It's...." Kuro struggled for better words to explain, but all he could come up was one; "...complicated."
Rikkun nodded at this. "So is mines."
"So that's why you stood up for me that time." Kuro added with a hint of realization in his voice. "Because you know what it felt like. I mean, really... thank you."
Rikkun rejected flatly, confusing Kuro. "Actually... I have to say sorry that I was being nosy in your family affairs. Look what I did to you."
Seeming rather hurt, Kuro slowly stood up, placing a small plastic bag on the small table. "I... have to go. Bye."
"Ku-"
Despite Kuro ignored Inoue to leave the house, he was polite enough to close the door behind him. His footsteps can be heard outside receding into mute, the moment of silence between the rest of the two as similarly mute.
Too awkward to speak up, Inoue reached out for the plastic bag, rummaging of what's inside it. Rikkun attempted conversation, curiously asking, "What's inside?"
"They're... few medicines, bottle of energy drink, and mini-cookies." Inoue replied, her face grew soft. "So that's why he's late, other than the fact he was disciplined by Levi-seishou earlier."
Hinting Rikkun's silence, Inoue held the plastic with her as she stood up. "If you don't mind I'll use your kitchen. I'll make something for you to feel better. It's not just Kuro, I brought my own too."
"Rikkun."
It was not so long that Inoue spoke up with a stern voice that alerted Rikkun, making his head tilt up at her.
"I can only see instant noodles in there and more bottles of coffee and water in the fridge."
Rikkun blinked several times. "They're different varieties of instant noodles."
Inoue's face grew stern. "With those noodles, the only thing you have inside your stomach are flour, artificial flavors and sodium. You should eat something healthy like vegetables and fish."
"I have vegetable and seafood noodles-"
"Rikkun,"
"Y-yeah?"
"I'm going to get rid of them."
"What?!"
⚔
Grumbling over and over under his breath, Rikkun tentatively grab a spoonful of Inoue's rice porridge into his mouth, slowly savoring the flavor. He eyed Inoue, who was nervously shifting but also expectant.
Wetting his lips, Rikkun remarked, "I had this one once, and I remember the rice is supposed to be silky and soft-"
"It's my first time!" Inoue said defensively.
"-but I liked how you made it." Rikkun finished, taking another mouthful with a bite of the boiled egg. "Thanks..."
Inoue was pouting her lips. "I know you're doing that just to make me feel better..."
"I'm not. I prefer dry rice than anything else. Your boiled egg is heavily cooked too, the way I liked it."
"Rikkun, stop that sarcasm please. Anyone who says my cooking is seriously good means there's something wrong with their tongue."
"But, I'm serious." Rikkun replied, half-glaring and half-peering at Inoue. "So there's something wrong with my tongue?"
Inoue laughed nervously as she pushed the medicine and energy bottle to the table close to Rikkun. "Anyways~ Use this up, since Kuro gave this to you. And with his help, you should be feeling better tomorrow~!"
Silently eating, Rikkun stared at the said stuffs on the table.
"You know how I started to like you?"
Inoue's sudden question surprised Rikkun, frowning in confusion at her. "What?"
"I started to like you... when you said those encouraging words to me. Same season as now, I was in the clinic when I thought no one was around, and I just did what I have to do to make me feel better when depressed. But I was too depressed I thought I'll lose it, until you said,"
Inoue cleared her throat to try imitate Rikkun's smoky voice. ".... I think crying is also beautiful in its own way, like music too. Spill it all out in these little room or to the walls if you have to, until you feel better. I don't mind...."
She coughed afterwards, returning to her normal voice. "Or something along those lines. But I cannot forget how it made me feel, and how it turned my perspective around, in a good way."
Rikkun was silent for a moment or two, frowning. "I don't remember that."
Inoue chuckled, amused. "That's fine. But I'm only telling you this because I really am thankful for that. I may not know exactly what happened before then between you and Kuro, but I can tell he felt the same way as I do."
Inoue eyed Rikkun with a serious expression. A small meaningful smile playing on her lips. "So I personally think you should not be feeling sorry helping in that way when Kuro thought of it as a good turnabout for him. It may not mean to you at all or something you regretted doing, but deep inside it means a lot to him."
Inoue smiled wider, amused at Rikkun's open-mouthed expression. Sighing in satisfaction, she stood up. "I did what I have to do. Get some fluids and rest up."
She pointed rudely at the laptop on the table, suddenly looking so stern. "Don't even touch that until you recover. If you're absent tomorrow, we'll come visit you and it's not just any normal visit like we did today."
To the class nonchalance, Rikkun went to school right after that day, considering Inoue's words of warning greatly. To their relief and confusion, he was not specifically avoiding the rivals as much but tend to be silent. Still, days were normal. The class went on as usual, as the next, and so on. Then, Christmas had come.
Most Demi High students spent holiday season in their homes or karaoke bars. Loners huddled up together sharing their stories on how they got their hearts broken or simply negative stuff about Christmas itself, behaving like a drunkard when all they drunk were sodas that would surely give them stomachaches tomorrow.
As for few special ones, like Maher, he travel over and spent his holiday with his girlfriend for a week.
Maher sent a message to his friend. [Why did you give my gf a death note?]
Rizuki replied right away. [She requested it. Said that she wants the original copy from here for original reasons. Oh, I also gave her the lists of our female classmates who were forcing their way onto you, for good reasons.]
[._.]
[^^]
On the other hand, the teachers spent their holidays in their own way, including watching movies and other responsible adult things. But as for Erwin who was still resting in the hospital, few gifts and many greeting cards filled his space, reading and opening each of them, smiling.
"I'm starting to remember all of them, my students. Who knew, that the books I assigned for them for reporting, is actually effective for healing my amnesia?"
"Tell me about it." Levi said after sipping his tea.
"Thanks to that, they spent a quarter of their holidays to cram it up on submission." Hanji chirped.
"They do need a break." Levi replied.
"From your cleaning demands." Hanji retorted, nudging him at his side.
"Most of them couldn't meet my cleaning standards. Eren is still the best at cleaning."
"And, I almost forgot." Levi continued, after finishing his tea. "It's not my thing, but a student asked me to specifically ask you a question. Very important one."
Erwin looked confused and curious all at once. "What is that?"
Levi frowning, briskly said. "Are you the Chairman in Demi High?"
⚔
Upon a little holiday party crowding in Kuro's house, they didn't expect a knock on the door when Rikkun stepped inside, as if he's dealing something urgent. "I'll only waste few minutes of your time, so bear with me."
"Okei. We thought you weren't coming though." Kuro replied with a shrug.
Without any further ado, Rikkun gently handed out a gift bag to Kuro, then to Inoue with the same-looking gift bag. The rivals simultaneously eyed him. "Yes, they're the same gifts but with a difference."
While the two rivals were checking the mysterious gift, Rikkun proceeded to hand out a wrapped up gift to his twin, Rizuki. "Don't ask why, just take it."
And lastly, toward Chael, throwing it at his face.
"Mmfph! What in the-"
"Shut up and take it." Rikkun told him.
"I don't even know what you're..." Chael inspecting the gift thrown at him, he stiffened. "Uhm..."
Rikkun smirked. "You're welcome."
"Brother... what did you gave to him? And... oh." Rizuki inspected her own gift, looking rather visibly shocked before immediately putting it back on the wrapper with haste. "T...Thanks."
"Uh-huh."
"Woooooaaaaah~"
The two rivals reacted at the same time, fascinated at their do-it-yourself nebula bottle with glowing glitters installed with self-made lamp light at the bottom, making the glass light up in a translucent manner, and automatic slow rotation.
"Never expect you can be gay sometimes." Chael remarked.
"Make sure not to shake the bottle up, or you'll ruin its contents." Rikkun warned, but looking a little uncomfortable from the looks on his face. "Um, so... thanks to Inoue, I've come to clear my head a little. I'm sorry for saying cruel things to you, Kuro. I really am."
Kuro looked like he's about to burst out laughing. "Pfft, with this cool gay thing, how can I not forgive you lovely Rikkun-kun?~"
"I told you not to call me that..."
"Glad I've helped,I guess?" Inoue said with an uncertainty written in her face.
Sighing, Rikkun said, "By the way, is it my fault that something burns from the kitchen?"
♡
In the end, Rikkun was dragged into a groupie shot.
All simply because Chael suggested to. 770Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiiWFbJbUHE
