[HQ] Christmastime

Winter was always too cold for his tastes. The air felt sharp and bitter when breathing and snow just made everything a huge, soggy mess. Kenma had felt the same way about the winter for as long as he could remember. Once school was out and club activities finished, he would go home, drag himself as far under the kotatsu as possible, and play video games to pretend like the weather wasn’t abysmal.

Then again, he never really enjoyed summer, either. After all, summers in Tokyo were too hot to be bearable and there was only so much that could be done to alleviate that. Most of his summer days were spent inside, sitting right in front of a fan or air conditioner while playing a game on his 3DS. Frankly, there wasn’t much difference in his actions regardless of the temperature, but he would at least consider sitting outside in the spring or fall so long as he had access to an outlet to charge any of his devices should he need to.

Either way, he always managed to end up in the same place. While his routine was constantly interrupted by various people (particularly those on the volleyball team), it never dissuaded him from his goals of making progress in whatever game he had most recently gotten. Unfortunately, he had just finished the most recently bought game and did not have any extra money to get another one, and most certainly not the any that he had his eye on. Playing Bejeweled or Temple Run on his phone could only hold his attention for so long. Beating his high scores time and time again was starting to get a bit boring.

“Kenma~!”

The voice calling his name didn’t register at all in his head. Even if the little smart phone games were starting to get monotonous, he would always get fully absorbed in them and turn off any senses that paid attention to his surroundings.

“Kenma…?”

Once again, the female voice was promptly ignored, though it was not exactly on purpose. Even if he was waiting for someone, he wouldn’t fully register their presence unless his attention managed to be pulled from whatever it was he was doing.

“Kou-zu-me Ken-ma-KUN, you can look up from a game of Tetris for just a second to acknowledge that I’m here, you know!” The stress on each syllable of his full name was enough to snap him out of his video-game induced trance, though he did have the sense to pause the game rather than let himself lose. “Besides, aren’t your hands freezing? It’s so cold out here!”

Momo was leaning over him a bit with a visible pout on her face (though at this point, Kenma knew she really wasn’t annoyed and was simply playing the part), trying to get a good look of the phone screen he had been so absorbed in. She did have a point about his hands being cold, though. He had not considered bringing gloves for himself, since that would interfere with any touch screens he had. Her hands, however, were fully protected with a pair of red, wool mittens.

Still, at least she didn’t snatch the phone out of his hand. That was one of Kenma’s fears upon first meeting Momo. She came across as such a boisterous and overly energetic person when he first met her that he assumed she would be the type to not take being ignored very well and would likely retaliate if forced to deal with it. While the bit about her not liking to be ignored was true, she made no effort to shame Kenma for his love of video games and went so far as to take an interest in them herself so they’d have something to talk about. She never tried to snatch things from him, either. It was…kind of nice.

Of course, that didn’t stop her from dragging him around places at every opportunity if she could. In fact, that was exactly what was happening at that very moment, though she had neglected to share where exactly they were going and for what purpose. While Momo tugged him along the sidewalk by one hand, he fiddled around with his phone in the other to at least finish the level before stuffing the device into one of his pockets. She hadn’t made a single mention of what her plans were for the mid-afternoon, but Kenma found no point in asking; Momo did what Momo wanted to do, and while she was always willing to accommodate whatever he wanted, he never really bothered asking for anything.

After a short trip on a train and Momo tugging him along through groups of people walking along the sidewalks, the two arrived at a rather popular shopping mall. At least she hadn’t arbitrarily decided to drag him to some Christmas festival held outdoors. He may not enjoy crowds, but at least they were someplace with adequate heating. Being warm but surrounded by people was better than being freezing and having more breathing room. Since they were at a mall, though, that clearly meant that Momo intended on going shopping. Couldn’t she have called someone else to do that? Even one of her friends would have been a better choice. All that meant was that he would end up sitting outside of dressing rooms while she tried things on.

“Hey, Kenma, do you want something to eat? Or maybe a drink instead?”

With a small glance up, he lightly nodded before sitting down at a bench and returning to his phone. Who knew how long she would be gone to buy whatever drinks she intended on buying. She did these sorts of things regularly, so Kenma found no reason to dwell on any of it. He honestly didn’t notice anything strange about the whole outing as a whole, either. Everything fit into things Momo normally did in these sorts of situations. However, he lost track of time while playing a quick game of Bejeweled. Just how long had Momo been away? Surely it didn’t take so long just to grab some food or a couple of drinks, right?

Several more minutes passed, causing Kenma to grow a little more anxious with every passing minute. He wasn’t worried about Momo, though; she was much better at dealing with people than he was. Still, he felt uncomfortable being in such a busy place without her around for that very same reason. After a few more minutes, the girl trotted back over to the bench with two drinks in hand, though she clearly had a shopping bag thrown over an arm. She obviously stopped at a store before grabbing the drinks. Still, at the sight of her, his anxiety mostly dissipated.

“Sorry ‘bout that! The line was so long! And guess what, they had an apple pie flavored drink! Pretty neat, right?”

Kenma hesitantly took the drink from her, muttering a quiet thank you before taking a sip. Like she said, it did taste exactly like apple pie, which was his favorite food by far. She did always go out of her way to make sure he got things he enjoyed. It almost got to a point where Kenma felt a little guilty. After all, she consistently was the one to make sure he was comfortable while being extremely easy to please. She also tended to pay for things, which Kuroo ended up teasing him relentlessly about on a regular basis. That, in combination with Yamamoto complaining about how the Nekoma setter managed to get a girlfriend before him, made volleyball practice rather troublesome to deal with.

“So…” Kenma began to say, trying to avoid eye contact as he normally did, “why did we come here?”

“Hm?” Her response almost sounded confused. Did she forget entirely? “I just wanted to spend some time with you, that’s all!”

He was dumbfounded. If she just wanted to spend time with him, it did not require a trip to the mall! Momo may be a simple person overall, but there had to be something else going on. Of course, finding out what required confronting her, and confrontation was not Kenma’s strong suite. With any luck, she would share her true intentions with him later. She normally did, anyways.

“Let’s go home before it gets dark and colder, ‘kay?”

He nodded again, preemptively stuffing his phone into his pocket rather than have cold hands while on the trip back home. Besides, the battery was running low and he didn’t want to risk the chance of it dying before he got back to an outlet. With his attention not diverted by an electronic of some kind, though, he couldn’t help but notice a few oddities. First of all, Momo had made sure that he had no line of sight to whatever was in the bag. Secondly, she was acting oddly fidgety and was actually not talking about some random topic off the top of her head. There was, of course, no reason to ask her if something was wrong or not. If she wanted to share, then she would, and there was no point to try and pry something out of her that didn’t matter in the long run.

Eventually, the two made it back to where they had met up only a few hours before. The sun was going down, meaning that the two would be able to get back to their respective homes before nightfall without any issue. Before they could part ways, though, Momo handed the bag with whatever she had purchased at the mall over to Kenma.

“Don’t open it until you get home, okay?” She asked with a smile, getting a small nod in response. The agreement seemed to make her light up even more. After exchanging goodbyes, Momo practically skipped down the sidewalk in the opposite direction, leaving Kenma to wonder what exactly was in that bag. Still, he did agree to not open it, so he would not let his curiosity get the better of him. And so, Kenma made his way home, mentally making comments about how it was too cold for comfort.

Several minutes later, he was crawling under his family’s kotatsu as usual, making sure to plug in his phone. Checking what was in the bag would be a good time waster while waiting for his phone to charge.

The very first thing he pulled out was a Christmas card. Inside was a short paragraph in Momo’s handwriting surrounded by little doodles that she felt like adding in:

Merry Christmas, Kenma! Since my family will be going to spend the holidays at my grandparents’ house, I thought it’d be a good idea to go ahead and give you your presents! Sorry I couldn’t wrap them, though. We’re leaving tomorrow and I wouldn’t have gotten the chance to give it to you otherwise! I hope you like the gifts and find some use for them! Make sure to stay warm and have a nice holiday~

~ Momo <3
P.S. The trip to the mall and getting drinks as a cover was Kuroo’s idea, so blame him for it.

If Kuroo ever caught sight of that card, he’d likely call it sickeningly adorable and then deny any involvement. As such, he’d never know it even existed. Refolding the card and setting it to the side, Kenma nervously looked into the bag to see what exactly Momo had picked up. The first item he pulled out was a pair of fingerless gloves that had a piece to fold over into full mittens when necessary. At the bottom of the bag, though, was a slim box. It was a brand new game for his 3DS, and even one of the ones he planned on buying sooner or later. Kuroo must have shared that information with her, too.

He’d have to send her a text later with a thank you…and maybe send another one to Kuroo asking for ideas on what kinds of gifts to give to girls for Christmas.