A/N: Um…my last story has gotten 49 reviews…in a week and a half (published 2-16-09) o_o” I’m a little freaked out because people keep saying it’s the best ikarishipping fic they’ve ever read, and even someone who didn’t like ikarishipping liked it o_o” So…I’m glad you all liked it? Haha XD; Here’s another little something I made in about 4 hours.

Snow fell softly to the frozen ground in the quiet town of Tobari. A faint crunching could be heard, however, as one particular purple-haired boy made his way through the winter stillness.

He wrapped his black scarf more tightly around his face and stuffed his hands into his pockets. He looked around suspiciously, dreading the thought of…it.

Finally, he made it back to his home. He could see that the windows were dark and almost breathed a sigh of relief.

No.

It wasn’t time to relax just yet.

He hesitantly opened the door and stuck his head inside. He felt for the light switch, slowly flicking the living room light on…

“HEY! You’re home!” Reiji leapt out of what was once darkness, throwing his arms around his younger brother.

“Aniki, would you let me go already? This gets old REALLY fast.” Shinji shook his loving brother’s arms off of him. Reiji had been absolutely ecstatic when Shinji had come home stating that he was going to stay close to home and train for a while. He hadn’t even seen his little brother in years, save for phone conversations. Sadly, every time Shinji left home even for a few moments, Reiji found it completely necessary to try and scare the crap out of him and smother him with all the attention he had missed since he had last stayed at home.

“I missed you!”

“I was only gone for five minutes! All I did was go out to buy a pack of gum!” Reiji laughed. He couldn’t help it. Picking on his little brother was just so much fun.

He reluctantly released Shinji. Shinji ripped off his scarf and threw it onto a nearby hook. “There, now that you’ve calmed down,” Shinji stated evenly, “What is it that you’re so worked up about? Even you won’t normally get desperate enough to pretend you’re not home in order to surprise me.”

“Oh! That’s right!” Reiji pulled out a folded piece of paper. “I can’t believe I almost forgot.” He handed it to Shinji.

Shinji hesitantly opened the paper. “CHRISTMAS PARTY!” glared at him in boldface font. “Aniki, I’m not going to this.”

Reiji sighed. “Well, then, I suppose that you’re not going to be home that night.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Read the rest.”

Shinji looked at the invitation once again. Underneath the main message, it said: “Reiji and Shinji’s super special Christmas party! This Saturday! Make sure to invite all your friends! LOCATION: Reiji and Shinji’s house! TIME: Saturday, December 25th, 6:00 p.m.”

Shinji’s face was suddenly glued in a mixture of horror and disgust. He absolutely hated crowds. Why did his brother always try to push him to be social?

“You’re right. I won’t be home that night.”

“I suppose that Satoshi-tachi will be missing you, then…”

“And…I should care about that idiot…why?”

“That means Hikari-kun is coming, too!” Shinji tried to think back.

“Doesn’t ring a bell.”

“Aww, come on! You remember Hikari-kun! She’s the one with the cute white hat and the Piplup! Although I’m sure it’s evolved up to Empoleon by now,” he added.

Shinji thought harder. “Hm…Ah, I think I know who you’re talking about. Isn’t she that annoying girl with the really short skirt? The one who tried to attack me?” Reiji laughed. Shinji had called that day to let Reiji know he was coming to drop off some pokemon. He had mentioned something about having to see some stupid girl’s panties involuntarily and what a horrible day he was having. Even though it had been at least 10 years since then, the girl’s Teddiursa panties were bored into his mind forever.

“Yes, I suppose that’s who I mean.”

“Once again…why should I care?”

“Shinji! Don’t you miss any of them at all?”

“How could I miss them if I never had any fondness for them in the first place?”

Reiji glared daggers at him. “Shinji, I’d really like it if you stayed for the party…”

“What are you going to do, make me?”

“Actually, yes!” Reiji held up the invitation. “I sent these out to everyone. They’re going to expect you to be here, too.” Lo and behold, Shinji’s name blared brightly off the paper in its bright color font. “So you have to be here.”

“It’s not my fault you decided something for me. Again.”

“Shinjiiiiii…” Reiji broke out his ultimate weapon: the puppy dog eyes.

“…If you’re going to whine like a baby…then I’ll stay for five minutes. No later.”

“Thank you, Shinji!” Reiji captured his brother in another back-breaking hug.

“Just…one thing…”

“What’s that?”

“No more…hugging.”

Shinji angrily tromped through his living room as his brother decorated. He was certainly mad that Reiji had convinced him to stay for the party, but he was absolutely infuriated that he forced him to wear one of those stupid Christmas sweaters. It bore images of joyous reindeer dancing around, hanging up lights and decorations. Shinji decided Reiji liked it so much because it reminded him of himself. Reiji happily leapt around the room, hanging up lights and streamers without a care in the world.

Shinji stormed upstairs to his small room. He flopped down onto his bed, flat on his back, and closed his eyes. Why did his brother have to force him into things like this all the time? He knew full well that Shinji hated social events, especially parties. ESPECIALLY parties he was forced to go to and wear stupid sweaters.

Hm. He didn’t have to be home until 6:00. It was only 3:30. He had plenty of time to find some way to entertain himself until then. He snuck downstairs, knowing that if he was seen, he would have been pushed into decorating. He glanced into the living room from the small hallway leading to the door. Reiji was dancing around, just as he was before, this time wearing a stupid sweater himself. His was a counterpart to Shinji’s; the main design and color scheme were the same, except that there was a Santa preparing his sleigh with gifts instead of happy reindeer. A large Santa hat was also placed atop his head.

Shinji slipped out of his slippers and into his shoes and coat. He grabbed his scarf and quietly opened the door.

“Aniki, I’ll be out!” he quickly shouted before dashing out of the house.

Snow was falling a little more heavily than it had been previously. There was still no wind, however, so it didn’t bother Shinji to any extent. He sulked through the snow, trying to find something to do that had nothing to do with Christmas or his brother’s stupid party.

He glanced over to a nearby shop. Christmas lights and Santas everywhere. He looked at his usual bookstore. Christmas books on sale: “They make the perfect gift!” Shinji scoffed and kept looking. Even the Pokemon Center was covered in Christmas décor.

And that was when he saw the gym. Ah, a safe haven for anyone trying to escape the Christmas cheer. It sat darkly in its position on Main Street. No decorations at all.

Shinji dashed over to it, hoping that he could have somewhere to pass the time that had nothing to do with Christmas. He slowly opened the large doors only to find everyone at the gym having their own little party. The outside may have been plain, but the inside was covered in more decorations than even Reiji could have put up.

Shinji left thoroughly disgruntled. Did everyone have to be having some stupid party? Was he the only person in Shinou who didn’t want to be surrounded by idiots?

“Sh…Shinji?”

He turned his head to an average height girl. She had midnight blue hair reaching down to her lower back that she left untied. She was wearing a Christmas sweater, but it was normal (or as normal as Christmas sweaters get, anyway), bearing only a simple snowman in a Santa hat on a white background. Wrapped around her neck was a long, magenta scarf. For some bizarre reason, she was wearing an extremely short skirt.

“Shinji? Wow…it’s really you, isn’t it?”

“And…you are?” The girl was suddenly infuriated. She stormed up to Shinji, trying to look him right in the eye. She could hardly reach him, however, as he cleared her by at least half a foot.

“I can’t believe you STILL don’t remember me! …Although, I suppose the last time you saw me I was 10…” Her anger faded and a small smile came in its place. Shinji took a small step back.

“Stupid girl…?”

“Well…I suppose you could say that’s me…” She giggled. “I just can’t believe how much you’ve changed…I notice that you still haven’t lost your cold grimace since you were twelve,” she laughed.

It was true. Shinji’s hair was longer now as well, about shoulder length. He let it hang loosely down over his shoulders normally, swearing that he would never tie it back like his brother. Sadly, his face had matured and was extremely similar to his older brother’s. He was obviously much taller now. However, as Hikari said, his cold, apathetic demeanor had not changed.

“I suppose you’re here for Aniki’s party.”

“That’s right!”

“Hn. It’s nice to see that you’ve lost your stupid hat. Where’s the idiot and the breeder?”

“Satoshi and Takeshi are at the Pokemon Center, I think. We split up quite some time ago so I could do some of my own training, but I saw them there earlier.” She looked at the ground bashfully.

“I see. Remember to mention to them how I’d rather not associate with any of you so that you’ll all kindly leave me alone at the party.” Shinji turned to walk away.

“What? But it’s Christmas! Don’t you want to spend time with your friends and family?”

“I don’t need friends and the only family I have is annoying.”

Hikari angrily crossed her arms. “You know what?”

“What?”

“You’re going to spend some time with me, then.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m not your friend or your family. Since you seem to be against normal Christmas traditions, we’ll just do the opposite. You can hang out with your enemy.” She roughly grabbed Shinji’s wrist.

“Where are you taking me, stupid girl?” he shouted.

“We’re going to the party! It starts in a few minutes!” Shinji glanced at his watch. 5:53. He must have been wandering around town longer than he thought. Hikari dragged Shinji all the way back to his house. There was a large wreath hanging on the door with a sign in the middle saying, “Welcome!”

Hikari rang the doorbell. Shinji pushed past her and opened the door. “I live here, remember?” he said to her look of appall. She nodded, understanding, and followed him inside.

Everything was shimmering and Christmas music was softly playing in the background. Reiji had really outdone himself this time. Reiji was talking to a couple of guests and turned when they came in.

“Ah! Shinji, you’re back! And I see that you’ve brought Hikari-kun!” Reiji faked surprise as he looked up. “Oh, my!”

Hikari looked up and flushed a deep red. Shinji also looked up in order to see what all the fuss was about.

A single clump of mistletoe hung from the doorway. “Now how did that get there?” Reiji said absentmindedly.

Hikari glanced at Shinji. “It…it’s tradition, Shinji…”

“You should know more than anyone that I don’t care about tradition.”

Shinji started up the stairs.

“Hey, where are you going?!”

“My room. Reiji told me I had to be here. He never told me I actually had to deal with anyone.” Hikari looked around and saw that there were already a few people there. She dashed right up behind him, but Shinji barred her way. “Where are you going?”

“I’m coming with you. I told you, you’re going to spend time with someone this Christmas.” Shinji made a noise resembling something of a growl and stormed upstairs. Hikari followed close behind him, determined to make him warm up to the idea of actually socializing.

Meanwhile, Reiji stood at the bottom of the stairs. “Hm…this should be interesting,” he mumbled.

Shinji closed the door to his room close behind him, just barely missing Hikari as she slipped in behind him. Hikari looked around. Shinji’s room was very simple, as she expected. The only furniture it contained was his bed, a small side table, and a desk. A small lamp sat atop the desk. One wall contained a large window, big enough for someone to climb through.

Shinji flopped down on his bed. “Well, you insisted that you come with me, and here you are,” he grunted. “Happy?”

Hikari had to admit that she felt strange there. Even though it was Shinji’s room, it was still a boy’s room. She had never been in a boy’s room before that she wasn’t related to. She awkwardly stood in the middle of the floor until Shinji impatiently motioned for her to sit in the chair at the desk. She sat down slowly, as if she was afraid to touch anything.

It was silent for quite some time until Hikari decided to break the silence. “So…what do you usually do here? I find it hard to believe you just sit in your room doing nothing,” she mumbled.

Shinji shrugged. Some answer. Hikari tried not to get irked; she knew this was typical Shinji. “You’re the one who wanted to come up with me, remember?” he reminded her.

“Yeah…” Hikari sighed. “I guess I just thought that even you knew how to have fun.”

“If you’re going to whine about it…” Shinji stood up and went to the window. He opened it and stepped out.

“Sh-Shinji!!” Hikari leapt over to the window, thinking that Shinji had fallen to his doom, only to find him lying on the roof covering the first floor just in front of his window. Snow was still falling, but it was much lighter now.

“What?” he grunted. Hikari shook her head and tried to step out. Unfortunately, her legs weren’t as long as Shinji’s and she got stuck straddled on the windowsill. “Stupid girl…” Shinji mumbled. He stood back up and wrapped his hands around her tiny waist. He effortlessly lifted her completely out of the room and set her down next to him. She steadied herself on the icy shingles as Shinji closed his window.

“Do you do this a lot…?” she asked, looking over at him.

“This is where I get away from my brother when I have nowhere else to go.” Hikari looked out into the town in awe. Even though she was only one level up, she could still view a lot of the town she wouldn’t have been able to see on the ground.

Shinji stretched out on his back. Hikari wasn’t sure whether to stay standing or to sit down. She wasn’t fond of the idea of getting a lot of snow up her skirt, but she decided it would be better than looking like a dork. She eased herself down onto the cold snow that had collected on the roof.

“Aren’t you cold?” Shinji said incredulously.

“N-n-no, I-I’m f-f-f-f-f-fine.”

“You don’t sound too fine.”

“W-w-w-well w-what d-d-do y-you k-k-k-k-know?” Shinji sat back up and scooted closer to Hikari. Hikari panicked. Is he going to hug me to keep me warm? she thought frantically.

However, she felt nothing more than a soft movement of air over her legs. She looked down and saw that Shinji had tossed his jacket onto her lap. “Put it under your legs, stupid,” he snapped when Hikari did nothing but stare. She happily obliged, even wrapping the excess from the sides around the tops of her legs.

She couldn’t help but notice how…romantic the whole situation was. They were sitting alone on the roof, Shinji had given her his jacket, it was snowing, and he still hadn’t moved from his close distance. Hikari felt her cheeks warm slightly more than usual.

Shinji saw Hikari blushing next to him and said, “Are you still cold? You’re wimpier than I thought.”

“N-no, I’m fine.” Her stuttering certainly wasn’t going to help matters. “Just warming up.” Shinji reverted back to silence.

Another long silence befell them. However, it wasn’t in any way awkward. On the contrary, Hikari felt perfectly content sitting on the roof with Shinji. His jacket was very warm and he himself was warm. Had he sat closer to her to warm her up after all?

Hikari’s head snapped back up. She looked at the unchanging expression on Shinji’s face, horrified. How had she allowed herself to almost fall asleep on his shoulder?

“I-I’m sorry,” she stuttered, “I was just so comfortable…”

Shinji made no reaction. It really didn’t make any difference to him what the stupid girl did. At least if she fell asleep on him she could pay him back for the warmth he was losing by giving her his jacket.

The two of them watched more and more people come inside Shinji’s home. “Leave it to Reiji to invite everyone in town,” Shinji grumbled.

Hikari giggled. Yup, that was typical Reiji. Hikari glanced over at Shinji once again and noticed the atrocious thing he was wearing.

“Shinji…are you wearing a sweater with…”

“Don’t say a word. I’m not wearing this voluntarily.”

Hikari laughed. Also typical Reiji. “You know, you could probably go inside and change now,” she said in between laughs, “He’s not going to know if you’re out here.”

Shinji said nothing for a moment. Had that stupid girl actually said something compassionate toward him?

“You obviously don’t know Aniki.” She laughed again. “It’s not funny. In fact, he’s probably standing right behind us.”

“You must be psychic!” Hikari turned around with a yelp to see Reiji standing behind the now open window.

“But…how did he…?” Shinji shrugged.

“Just thought that I’d come and pick on the two of you. Hikari-kun, why aren’t you downstairs at the party? Satoshi and Takeshi are here!”

Hikari crossed her arms. “I told Shinji that I was going to force him to spend Christmas with someone, so it might as well be me.” Reiji chuckled.

“Good luck with that,” he said. “Oh, wait a minute!” He looked down at Shinji. “Shinji, why didn’t you kiss Hikari?”

“What the heck are you talking about?!”

“Under the mistletoe! You two were standing under it! That means you have to kiss her!”

“It doesn’t mean anything.”

“Pleeeeease…Shinjiiiiiii…Just one little kiss…” Reiji begged. Shinji groaned. If he didn’t kiss that stupid girl, Reiji would never leave him alone. He angrily grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face him. Hikari’s eyes widened as he smashed his lips on top of hers.

He ripped himself away just as quickly. Shinji couldn’t help but notice that he lingered and hoped that no one had noticed. Unfortunately, this was Reiji.

“Hm…thank you, Shinji. My Christmas spirit has been satisfied, now.”

“It’ll never be satisfied.”

“You’re probably right.” Reiji smiled slyly and closed the window. Shinji grumpily turned back around and slammed himself back against the wall behind him. How could he have been so stupid? Reiji was planning this all day! All he wanted was for Shinji to “realize his love for Hikari-kun.” Shinji had been swearing for years that there was no love to speak of. However, he was quickly (and unwillingly) rethinking that. Never in his life had he wanted something more than he wanted to keep kissing that girl. He had only meant to peck her on the lips to satisfy his demanding brother, but…

Hikari sat next to Shinji in shock. She could hardly believe he had actually kissed her. She would have thought him to punch his brother in the face before he would do something like that…

Reiji must have been more pushy than she thought.

The silence quickly became awkward. Hikari could feel the tension rolling off of Shinji like a tsunami.

“Shinji…”

“What?” he snapped.

“I-I’m sorry…” Shinji looked surprised.

“Sorry?”

“Yes…I should have seen the mistletoe. If I had seen it and warned you, you wouldn’t have had to…”

“It doesn’t matter,” he said quietly. “So stop worrying about it.”

“B-but I’m sure that you didn’t want to kiss me!” Shinji said nothing. “Unless…you did?”

Shinji remained silent.

“Shinji…did you…?”

Shinji’s hands swiftly moved to her cheeks as he gruffly pushed his lips onto hers once more. He was going crazy inside. All of the emotions he once thought were disgust and discomfort were suddenly haunting him. He had figure out if what Reiji said was true.

Or rather, he had to prove his brother wrong so that he would leave him alone.

Unfortunately, Shinji found that he was only turning more and more into mush. It only grew worse when Hikari began to kiss him back.

He broke away for a second, only to utter something indiscernible to Hikari. “Why?” He began to leave a series of kisses on her lips, each time he broke away whispering something.

“Stupid…troublesome…annoying…”

Hikari swore that she was in a parallel dimension of some form. Shinji was suddenly kissing her. Why? Hadn’t he always claimed that he hated her? And…why was he whispering those nicknames?

Shinji angrily kissed her over and over, each time saying what he thought of the whole situation. Finally, he broke away and stayed back. He slowly dropped his hands from her warming cheeks.

“Sh…Shinji…” Hikari choked out. “Does this mean…”

“Shut up.” The last thing Shinji wanted was to discuss his failure with that stupid girl—the one that started the whole thing. He sat back against the wall as if nothing had happened.

Hikari smiled. “I understand, Shinji.” She wrapped her arms around his chest and laid her head on his shoulders.

Shinji once again made a noise similar to a growl.

Mission accomplished, Reiji thought in his hiding place on the street (hey, isn’t he supposed to be at the party?).