Once Upon A December

DaQiao17: This is my first oneshot, ETP’s the one who got me into it. Same with SF4E.

Eidolon Twilight Princess: What?! I like writing oneshots.

Syrus Fanatic 4-Ever: (rubs back of head sheepishly) I guess I do go a little overboard sometimes.

DQ17: (raises eyebrow) A little overboard.

SF4E: Okay a lot!!

ETP: DQ17 doesn’t own any of the characters of Naruto just her own and this plot. She also has permission from SF4E to use Antaria and Tyler, Emblem Master to use Cameron and ETP to use Emerald. Her friends own themselves.


Once Upon A December

It was a cold and bitter morning in Konoha. Citizens dreaded to step outside their warm and toasty homes. Many didn’t want to risk frostbite but life goes on even though many wish it didn’t sometimes. As people headed out of their homes they stuffed themselves into coats and scarves, pulling mittens or gloves on their already frozen fingers and hats and toboggans onto their heads. One of the people walking the streets was a girl of seventeen. Her name was Sherry Jackson.

Sherry had shoulder-length, curly dark brown hair and hazel eyes with a pair of rectangular framed glasses on her nose. Like all the other people passing her she wore a thick jacket with gloves and hat. Sherry was heading to school even tough there were six inches of snow on the ground but a lot of snow was common in Konoha so the citizens are used to it and don’t cancel unless there’s absolutely no way to get to the school. As Sherry was walking down the street she was suddenly tackled by an orange blur.

“Sher-chan!!!” cried the hyperactive blonde now sitting on top of Sherry. His piercing bright blue eyes were laughing. The most peculiar feature of the seventeen-year-old blonde was the whisker marks on his cheeks, which made deep grooves in his skin when he was extremely angry.

Sherry smiled warmly, “Hey, Naruto. Can you let me up now?”

“Hehehehe,” Naruto laughed sheepishly, a hand behind his head while the other was helping Sherry up. “Sorry Sherry. Where are Elijah and Ronan?”

“They had to go in early for a Governor’s Cup meeting.” Sherry brushed the snow from her clothes as the two teens continued to the school. They could see the school just ahead through the dense snow falling. “How was your Thanksgiving break?” She watched Naruto’s expression carefully for he was known to hide the truth from his friends.

A shadow passed over his face before he looked at Sherry with a serious look in his eyes, which was so unlike him. “It was lonely but I didn’t spend my entire break alone. Iruka-sensei invited me to have thanksgiving dinner with him. It was a lot of fun.” He glanced away, a sad expression on his face. “My break was fun Sher, stop worrying about me so-” He was suddenly enveloped in a warm hug from the brunette girl. “Sher?”

“Naruto…” Sherry whispered sadly, her face buried within the folds of his jacket. Naruto wrapped his arms around. “Naruto…if you were lonely, all you had to do was come over to my house. We would have welcomed you with open arms. Because you’re so stubborn you always end up all alone during holidays. Don’t you know we worry about you?” Naruto closed his eyes as if he was pain. The last thing he wanted to do was worry the one girl, who was like a sister to him, to death.

“Sher, you should know by now that I can ta-” a fist slamming into his right cheek suddenly caught him off. Naruto was propelled backward and fell into a deep hole in the snow beside the sidewalk. “What the hell!! What’d you do that for, Sher?” Naruto looked up into the pissed off face of Sherry. Naruto swallowed nervously, a pissed off Sherry was the scariest sight he had ever seen. Even scarier than the first time he had met the fox sealed within him.

Sherry glared at the blonde boy. “Don’t you dare brush off the fact that you’re lonely!! If you would just open your eyes a little, you idiot, maybe you would see that you have friends that would do anything for you!! Just so they can actually see you truly happy!!” She turned away from Naruto, a look of shock on his face.

Naruto reached a hand to grab her elbow, “Sher, don’t be mad. I’ll make it up to you, I’ll do anything.” She whipped back around suddenly, smacking his hand away.

“You said you would do anything, right?” Sherry asked a glint in her eyes. When the blonde nodded cautiously, she smiled, “Great then you’ll be going to our cabin with us for Christmas.” She then proceeded to walk down the sidewalk towards her school as if she hadn’t just punched Naruto in the face and practically ordered him to spend Christmas break with her and her family.

Naruto sat there for a few seconds, still processing what had just been said. Then it hit him.

“EEEEEEHHHHHHH!!!!”


*Later, 1st Period*

“But Sherry,” Naruto whined, he had his head lying on Sherry’s desk as she sat in front of him reading. “I can’t spend Christmas with you and your family. It’s just not right.”

Sherry looked up from her book, “How is that? None of the others have any problems with it.”

Naruto sighed agitatedly, “Because, you’re supposed to spend it with your fam- what do you mean the others don’t have any problems with it?”

Sherry also sighed in agitation, “I’ve invited the others already to come with me and my family to our winter cabin. Everyone said yes. I was trying to figure out a way to get you to come when you offered to do anything to gain my forgiveness. It was perfect timing.”

“What were you gonna do to get me to come before that?”

An evil smile crept across the brunette girl’s mouth, “I was going to put the picture of you in a bunny suit on my Myspace if you weren’t going to come.”

Naruto gaped at her, “How the heck did you get that picture? I thought I burned them all!!!”

“You missed one.”

“Where is it now?”

“Tucked away safely.”

Naruto sighed in relief, “Thank god.” Then he remembered what Sherry said. “Just who exactly did you invite?” He had mischievous look on his face.

“Lets see, I invited Sakura, Sasuke, Hinata and her cousin, Rock Lee, Ino, Shikamaru, Choji, Shino, Kiba, and a lot more that I don’t feel like naming right now.” Sherry went back to reading her book, she was rereading the Harry Potter series and was on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and she had just started rereading three days ago.

Naruto leaned over the desk to peer at Sherry’s face to confirm whether his eyes were playing tricks on him of if Sherry was blushing. Though it may be common for Sherry to blush, it was usually when she was thinking about a certain red-head that she blushed so red that her face could be mistaken for a tomato, which was the color of her face at the moment. Naruto grinned widely, “You asked him didn’t you, Sher.” It was more of a statement than a question.

Sherry’s head shot up, her intensifying, “I-I…um...uh...” She looked down again, her eyes looking left and right as if making sure no one was paying attention to them before she gave a quick, “Yes.”

Naruto’s face broke out into a grin, “I KNEW IT!!!” This effectively brought the attention of everyone in the classroom, even the ones that were just arriving. Among the group arriving at that exact moment stood the redhead that the two teens had been speaking of, Gaara Subaku, Kazekage of the Village Hidden in the Sand. Or at least he will be when he finishes school on this May.

Sherry looked absolutely murderous when everyone’s gaze fell upon her and her loud-mouthed friend. “Na-ru-to!!!!” And she proceeded to chase the hyperactive blonde all over the classroom.

Naruto ran; panicked expressions on his face, as he jumped over desks and skidded around his fellow classmates, just to avoid the angry punches of his brunette friend. During this whole scene Naruto was heard exclaiming, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” over and over.

A girl with elbow-length raven hair that was slightly bushy and had violet highlights sighed. Barely reaching 5’4”, she was a year younger than the rest of the students. She blinked her dark forest green eyes as she took in the scene before. The girl exhaled loudly drawing the attention of the students standing in slightly in front of the door. “What did he do now?” She all but growled; a slight Irish accent in her voice.

A boy with side spiky light silver hair and dark purple eyes replied. He was small for his age of seventeen, only about the height of 5’3”. “Dunno, we came when Naruto yelled something that sounded like ‘I knew it’, Ani.” the small boy answered in a strange accent that sound like Greek but not.

Antaria Miyazaki looked over at the two running teens, Naruto had just jumped over Hinata’s desk, (which she was currently sitting at) and Sherry tried to help the pale-eyed girl, when she suddenly fell over from her desk in surprise.

She sighed but it sounded more like a growl, “They’re giving me a headache.”

“Those two are so troublesome,” came the lazy tone of the Nara clans’ heir; his heavy-lidded dark eyes taking in the scene before him, his dark brown hair pulled up to the top of his head in a ponytail. His heavy-set friend stood behind as they both had just walked into the classroom. “Somehow I get the feeling that it has something to with our friend Gaara here.” He jerked his head in the direction of the red-haired, turquoise eyed, Kazekage who stood beside Cyrus and was within hearing distance.

Gaara glanced over at Shikamaru as he heard what the lazy teen said. “What do you mean? Why would I be the cause of this?” Gaara said in his usual emotionless voice.

Shikamaru glanced at him from the corner of his eyes; “You really are oblivious to girls’ feelings.” It was more of a statement then a question.

“Again I ask: What do you mean?” Gaara asked, his trademark death glare making its way into his eyes. And it was directed towards the lazy, loose-mouthed adolescent, much to the others relief.

“Well it seems that our resident bookworm has a cr-Oof,” Shikamaru never got to finish sentence, as said bookworm came barreling at him when she heard he almost revealed her feelings for the red-head. Sherry landed a perfect roundhouse kick to Shikamaru’s cheek, sending him flying back out into the hall and crashing into the lockers.

Antaria shook her head in disgust, “Serves him right.” She walked over to the desk passing a slack-jawed Naruto, “Be happy that wasn’t you, Blondie.” She patted him on the head before taking her seat.

“Holy… shit,” Naruto let out the sigh of relief of no longer being the target of Sherry’s wrath. He quickly ran over to his seat, apologizing to the pale-eyed Hyuuga heiress as he passed, also avoiding the scathing glare of her older cousin, who happened to have the same first period class as her.

Sherry turned back to look at the occupants of the room, and found herself the center of their attention, Gaara’s as well. Gaara looked as if he had an imaginary eyebrow raised up in question. She only ignored them all and took her seat in between Antaria and Cyrus. And just in time too as the teacher took it upon himself to grace his students with his presence.

Their teacher had his brown hair up in ponytail and his black eyes had a stern look in them as he glared at the student who yet to take their seats. The most defining feature of their teacher was the scar running across the bridge of his nose.

“Hey Iruka-sensei,” Naruto yelled in greeting, some of his fellow students wincing at the volume. He was suddenly hit in the back of the head by a math textbook. He looked behind him to see a pink-haired girl who had a grumpy expression on her face. “Ouch! What was that for, Sakura-chan?”

“Can it, Naruto-baka!” Sakura Haruno exclaimed in irritancy.

Antaria giggled, “Naruto-baka…” She repeated under her breath, Sherry and Cyrus chuckling along with her. The raven haired girl suddenly stopped laughing when she noticed a particular female staring at her with eerily glowing emerald green eyes. Her barely shoulder length dark brown hair framed her face and her side swept bangs fell into her left eye. “Ojōsama…”

Emerald Kimana turned away from her protector and felt an unpleasant blush forming on her cheeks at the sight of Naruto. She didn’t know why, but every time she saw the blonde ninja or heard his voice, her cheeks were always turning red. Antaria smiled when she saw the blush on her Ojōsama’s face when she caught sight of the blonde ninja.

“Now why don’t we begin,” Iruka-sensei began the lesson for today, Naruto and Antaria instantly fell asleep 5 minutes into class. Sherry laughed silently, ‘Just like always.’ “Oh and Shikamaru: get back into the classroom. NOW.”


*Lunch*

“Skippin’ lunch again, Ani?”

Antaria glanced up from her book, Sins of the Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Sherry had gotten her into the series, and even though she wouldn’t admit it unless she was going to be forced to eat meatloaf, she really liked it. Blushing, she began to fidget in her chair, hastily shutting the book and shoving it into her school bag. Raising an eyebrow, Cyrus sat down in the seat across from her at the small library table.

“I-I already ate, Cy.” Antaria said softly, her cheeks turning red, and she noticed his were too.

“Did Sherry invite you to spend Christmas with her as well?” Cyrus asked, trying to make conversation.

She sweatdropped, “I’m kinda her best friend, Cyrus. I think she’d invite me.”

Cyrus blushed in embarrassment to be made to look like a fool, “S-Sorry. Um… so… how was your morning?”

“G-Good. I managed to stay awake through all of my classes this time.” Antaria weakly laughed, feeling really awkward and nervous. ‘Geez, Antaria, get a grip. Why is it you can’t suddenly talk to Cyrus?’

‘I need to calm down. I need to try and not act like a moron.’ Cyrus thought, blinking while staring at Antaria, who stared back. ‘Dang it! Why can’t I not talk to Antaria like I used to? What changed?’

“So… yeah… I… um…” Cyrus racked his brain to find something to talk about. Anything. “What book were you reading?”

She fidgeted in her seat, her face descending to a deep red. “Um… y-you wouldn’t like it…”

He began to ruffle his side spikey locks, “What makes you say that?”

“Sherry’s the one who got me into the series…”

“Oh…” His lips formed an ‘o’ before he smiled, “Lemme see it anyway.”

“Okay… don’t say I didn’t warn you…”


*Elsewhere, in the Cafeteria*

“Sher-chan over here!!” Naruto yelled from his seat at their usual table. The few people at their table so far winced at the high volume of the blonde's voice.

Sherry sighed as she took her usual seat beside the Naruto, “Naruto, I’m pretty sure I can find the place I’ve been sitting at for the past five months without having you to shout at me across the lunchroom.”

Naruto grinned sheepishly, “Sorry, Sher.”

A flash of white suddenly caught Sherry’s attention from across the room. A boy with ankle-length white hair with a pair of white wolf ears on top of his head in place of ears and amber eyes stood talking to Sakura. The two seem to be having a heated argument over something.

Sherry sighed in irritation, “Oni and Sakura are fighting again.”

Kiba, a boy with short spiky brown hair and slit-like pupil brown eyes, asked in disbelief, “Again? But they were just fighting yesterday!!”

“Yeah we know,” Shikamaru drawled lazily. He had his head down on the table trying to take a nap.

Oni slipped in beside Sherry with his tray of food, an angry scowl on his face. “Hey guys,” the wolf-boy growled, his fangs bared in a snarl. His clawed hands gripped his silver ware in a harsh grip.

Sherry shot a concerned look to her childhood friend. “Is everything alright, Oni?”

Oni shoveled some of his spaghetti into his mouth, “ Fine.”

“She thought you were cheating with me again, didn’t she,” Sherry said in a deadpanned voice.

“Yep,” Oni answered in a glum tone. The two childhood friends hung their heads sadly.

“When will she ever learn.” Sherry sighed in irritation. He looked back up to see two of her friends looking for seats. “Hey Naruto, look its Emerald and Rei.” Naruto’s head shot up from his bowl of ramen. The two girls had stopped in front a table close enough to theirs that they could hear what was said. Those sitting at Naruto’s table weren’t happy at what they heard next.

“Sorry, Ayunami, but you and your cousin can’t sit here.” Said a boy at the table the two girls had stopped at. He had a mean look to him.

Rei Ayunami, Emerald’s cousin and best friend, glared in rage. Her eyes were a dark leaf brown, her shoulder length layered hair light blue and her own side-swept bangs fell into her eye. Pointed ears stuck out from under her locks. Shyly standing behind the Elvin girl was Emerald.

“Why not?” Naruto glared too, before he patted the empty seats on the other side of him. “You can sit next to me, Emerald-chan! You too, Rei-chan!” Emerald blushed, getting nudged by Rei, before she took her seat. Sherry raised an eyebrow of surprise to see the dark brunette fidgeting in her seat.

“Thanks, Naruto-kun.” Rei said happily, glaring at the other table that had not welcomed them.

“Y-Yes, thank you, N-Naruto.” whispered Emerald; not looking directly into his startling blue eyes. She pulled a strand of her dark locks behind her slightly pointed ears.


*Library*


“You gonna miss your family?” Antaria whispered suddenly.

“Actually, to tell you the truth, I’d rather be with you guys than be with my nine crazy sisters, psychotic mother, and girl-crazy father.” Cyrus smiled at her. “What about you?”

“It’s just my dad… I think he’s not even gonna be home though. So… I’m fine staying with Sherry. I was gonna have to stay by myself and I’d rather not go through that again. Last time I was home alone for longer than a day, I read every single book in my house fifty times each.”

She began to tap her fingers against the table, her eyes traveling to her lap, and away from Cyrus’ dark purple gaze. She loved his eyes. In fact, Antaria loved a lot about Cyrus. His accent, his brains, his humor, his sensitivity, his smile, his laugh, his personality, himself… Antaria jumped slightly. She didn’t want to admit that. Because if she admitted to herself that she had feelings for Cyrus, what would stop her from admitting it to Sherry, or someone else? Antaria didn’t want to have her heart broken.

“You okay, Ani?” Cyrus whispered, suddenly seeing a flicker of fear in her dark forest green orbs. He reached across the table and took her hand comfortingly. “What’s wrong? You can tell me.”

Antaria’s lower lip quivered, “It’s nothing.”

Cyrus leaned across the table, tilting her chin, and forcing her to look him in the eyes. She blushed a bright red and she began to tremble slightly. He leaned a bit closer, his lips only a few inches away from her own.

“You can always talk to me about *anything*, Antaria. *Anything*.” He whispered softly.

Having been scared of girls most of his seventeen years, Cyrus had never been so close to one before. Sometimes he always wondered what it’d be like to kiss a girl. Just once.

‘Go for it!’ a voice inside him cheered. ‘Just lean in and kiss her…’ Cyrus was about to do so when the bell rang. Mentally letting out a curse, the barely shorter boy watched as Antaria quickly gathered her books, trying to force away her cursed blush. ‘Bad timing. Very, very, very bad timing!’

*Cafeteria*


Sherry had just finished part of her lunch when she heard the sound of laughter and sobbing. Whirling around, she spotted a girl with shoulder-blade length straight raven hair. Her parted bangs fell to her chin and the left part was braided. The braid itself was dyed an amethyst. The girl had tears pouring from green eyes, which were such a unique shade they seemed like ice, as she ran out of the cafeteria.

“That was Tyler!” Rei and Emerald exclaimed in unison.

Naruto and Sherry both looked over to see a boy barely taller than Tyler leap to his feet. His brown hair fell a little past his ears and was straight. Bangs fell into a pair of surprisingly warm brown eyes. It was Cameron Nelson. One of the few American students at Konoha.

“Tyler!” He shouted, taking off after the sobbing adolescent.

“Wonder what happened now…” Sherry whispered curiously, just as the bell rang. Rei and Emerald seemed to have disappeared in thin air as Naruto and herself headed down the corridor towards the Library. They passed a corridor and saw Tyler crying hard into Cameron’s shoulder as he held her comfortingly. “Poor girl… She’s having a hard time adjusting…”

Tyler Calvin was a transfer student that had run into Sherry, Antaria, Naruto, and Cyrus a few times. She was extremely nice, unless her temper was up, but anti-social and always seemed to be alone and most of the bullies target. Cameron had recently become her first real friend a few days before. Sherry had invited them as well to come and spend Christmas with her.

Naruto nodded in agreement before heading towards the library. Antaria and Cyrus met up with Sherry outside in the hallway with Naruto, “What’s wrong with you two?” Naruto asked, “Ani-chan looks as if she just spent an hour looking like a tomato, and Cy-kun looks like something was interrupted.”

“Nothing!” Both said in unison; avoiding each others eyes.

“Off to class.” Sherry said cheerfully.

Antaria let out a groan, “Not class!” They began to head towards their next class. Antaria glancing at Cyrus every so often. She soon lost herself in her thoughts, ‘What was about to happen? It looked like he was gonna… he was gonna… gonna kiss me!!’ She slapped herself mentally, ‘Don’t be a baka. Cyrus would never want to kiss you… No matter how much you want to kiss him…’

Cyrus sighed suddenly clutching his textbook at his side. Sherry and Naruto were walking a little bit farther ahead than the two unusually quiet adolescents. Sherry glancing over her shoulder every so often as they headed for their classroom. Antaria, despite the fact she was a year younger than the rest, had been put in their grade due to the fact she was incredibly smart… yet incredibly lazy. The work was too easy for her and they had transferred her into Sherry’s grade, yet she still managed to make C pluses in all of her classes.

“I need to talk to Ani.” Cyrus said suddenly, stopping short. He glared at Naruto before sending a pleading glance towards Sherry. “Alone.”

Naruto cringed at the glare. Cyrus angry was… rare… but terrifying nonetheless. Antaria blinked in surprise, before Naruto and Sherry were suddenly gone, leaving Cyrus and her alone in the nearly deserted corridors. Everyone else was already in class by the time the bell rang. They were both late, but that didn’t seem to matter at the moment.

“W-What is it, Cy?” Antaria asked, attempting to keep her voice steady.

“Antaria, you’re my best friend and yet I still find myself wondering…” Cyrus trailed off as he looked into her eyes. Blushing furiously, the silver haired youth was suddenly tongue-tied. “Uh… um…”

She raised an eyebrow, “Wondering what?”

He gulped, “J-Just meet me after school!” Cyrus cried out, before he took off running down the corridors, leaving a slightly confused girl behind.


*After School*

“See ya later, Ani!” Sherry called, waving, as she and Naruto headed in the opposite direction.

Having recently moved to Konoha, Antaria was still trying to remember her routes to get to the small apartment that her father and she lived in. She rubbed her hands together, trying to warm them through her amethyst gloves, and she began to rock on her feet, attempting to de-frost her partially frozen toes. She finally spotted Cyrus walking with Leo Dubrinsky, his oldest best friend since childhood. Cyrus and Antaria had only known each other since she moved to Konoha at the beginning of the year.

“Bye, Leo! See you then!” Cyrus called, waving to him, before he approached Antaria. “Sorry to keep you waiting, Ani, Leo needed my help with something, plus he saved me from those cursed fangirls.”

Antaria weakly smiled through her chattering teeth, “T-That’s quite alright, Cyrus.”

Cyrus suddenly looked very worried, “You’re freezing!?” He immediately took his scarf, and put it around Antaria’s shoulders, before he hugged her. “Let’s get you home.”

“I-I’m fine! R-Really!” She protested, as Cyrus began to steer her down the cold snow-covered street.

“This is so my fault. Please forgive me!” He kept on saying, completely ignoring her protests.

The soon reached the Miyazaki Residence. Leaving their snow-covered boots at the door, Antaria and Cyrus walked inside the quaint hallway, hanging their coats, scarves, gloves, and toboggans on the rack. She ran a hand through her slightly bushy raven hair, attempting to detangle it, as she walked towards the living room with Cyrus trailing behind her.

“Daddy? Are you home?” Antaria called. She frowned when silence met her ears. “I guess he’s working late tonight…”

Cyrus let out a mushroom breath of relief. He loved Antaria’s dad and everything but it was a habit to get nervous around Ryo Miyazaki. Especially when he started teasing them about how they were gonna end up dating sooner or later. Which after what happened in the library, Cyrus was starting to lean in that direction already.

“You said you were gonna be home alone during break?” Cyrus questioned. “Why?”

“Daddy has a business trip and has to go out-of-town. That’s why I’m going with Sherry.” explained the raven haired girl; she started to head into the kitchen. “You want some cocoa?”

Cyrus smiled, “That sounds good. You need help?”

He followed her into the kitchen and slid onto the stool, propping his head up with his hand, and watching Antaria working in the kitchen. He loved to watch her work. She may be a klutz most of the time, but some things she did gracefully. Cyrus could spend hours watching Antaria work. Or just watching her. He jumped when she suddenly turned and looked at him.

“You’re staring at me. Stop it. It’s creeping me out severely.” She teased.

“S-Sorry!” Cyrus tore his dark purple eyes away from her, and looked down, while blushing a violent pink.

Antaria set down a mug of hot cocoa in front of him, “Here you go, sweetie. We both need it after battling that weather!” She giggled, sitting on the stool on the other side of the counter. “I hate it when it gets really cold and icy outside. I like it when it’s light snow.”

His eyes landed on hers as he drank his cocoa. They were such a dark shade of green, like the color of a forest, and were filled with an inner warmth and innocence that made his blush get even hotter. Her raven hair caught the light, turning it violet for a second, and it fell elegantly over her chest and down her back, stopping at her elbows. Her bangs were hiding most of her face, but Cyrus had seen it enough times to know each and every delicate feature. He had never really noticed how pretty Antaria really was until now.

“Cyrus? Are you alright?” She whispered suddenly.

“Yes.” Cyrus answered quickly. Too quickly. Antaria gave him a knowing look and he sighed. “No…”

Antaria reached across the counter, taking his hand in her own, and giving it a small squeeze. “What’s wrong? Did you have a bad afternoon or something?” She smiled, proud of herself. ‘Atta girl! Just keep on talking to him like you normally would! Don’t think about the crush… don’t think about the crush… DANG IT! YOU’RE THINKING ABOUT THE CRUSH!!’

Cyrus began to awkwardly fidget on the stool, “R-Remember how I asked you to meet me after school?”

“Yeah…” She said slowly.

“I want to ask you something…” He confessed quietly.

“Go on.” Antaria prompted.

“What do you think about whenever you think of me?” Cyrus let out in one breath.

“You, obviously.” teased the younger girl.

Cyrus gave her a look, “Ani. Be serious here.”

Antaria put down her cocoa and looked down at the half-filled mug. He watched her thumbs brushing over the porcelain as she thought long and hard about her response.

She looked at him, “I think of how much happier I am whenever I’m with you. I think of all the times you’ve been there for me and all the times you’ve protected me. I think of how much I want to see you laugh and smile. I think of how much I want to… to…” trailing off, Antaria bit her lower lip in embarrassment.

“To what? How much you want to, what?” He prompted; his curiosity getting the best of him.

“How much I want to be the one girl that makes all of your troubles and pains go away…”

Cyrus blinked, suddenly having her hugging him tightly, her face buried in the shoulder of his shirt, and warm tears sinking through it. Cyrus embraced Antaria back, rubbing her back soothingly, and closing his eyes.

“You already do that, Antaria…” whispered Cyrus, pulling away from her, and cupping her face, his thumbs brushing away the warm tears spilling from the corners of her eyes. She sniffled, trying to swallow the lump in her throat, and she gently gripped his shirt. “You’re the only girl I’m truly not scared of. Sherry scares me a lot. Heck, even Hinata scares me!” She let out a weak laugh at that. Brushing her bangs out of her eyes, Cyrus smiled. “Hey, Ani?”

“Y-Yes?”

“If I wanted to do something… unexpected… would you let me?”

Antaria blinked a few times, “What kind of question is th-”

She was suddenly cut off by someone’s lips brushing against her own in a small kiss. Cyrus pulled away for a second, his eyes opening simultaneously with Antaria’s, and he saw the blush trying to creep to her face. The kiss had surprised them both. Closing his eyes again, Cyrus pressed his lips against Antaria’s once more, only longer this time. He felt her hands traveling up his chest and to his shoulders while he moved his own to her waist.

‘Wait! Pause! Rewind! Am I really kissing Cyrus in my kitchen? What the hell? Since when do my dreams become reality? Does this mean if I dream about getting a lynx, Daddy will get me a lynx? YAY! LYNX!’ Antaria stopped thinking and mentally sweatdropped. ‘Yup. The sugar in the cocoa’s getting to me. Definitely need to stop having any sugar.’

‘Wow… I never knew kissing someone felt so nice…’ Cyrus smiled through the kiss.

“Ani? You home already?” a voice caused both adolescents to fly apart, Antaria knocking her empty mug to the floor, and it shattering. Sweatdropping, Sakura appeared looking slightly confused. “Please don’t tell me you broke something else.”

Antaria quickly cleaned up the broken mug and stood up straight, looking flustered, and her face beet red. Cyrus was awkwardly coughing and keeping his attention focused on the floor. Sakura looked at them, a suspicious look in her mint green eyes, before she shrugged it away and entered the kitchen.

“Anyways, I brought you back your notebook. Thanks for letting me borrow it.” Sakura continued, before she slowly glanced around the small kitchen. “I’ll see you at school, okay?”

“’Kay.” Antaria nodded curtly, receiving her dark purple notebook, and she watched Sakura turn and leave. “Bye, Sakura-chan.”

“Later.”

Once the pink haired girl was gone, Cyrus finally looked at Antaria, “I-I better get going. Bye, Ani.” He was about to leave when Antaria suddenly stopped him. “What?”

Antaria whispered the one thing that would leave anyone hurt, “That kiss never existed, Cy. Not a soul will ever know. I don’t even know about it. Goodbye.” And with a pain-filled stare, the raven haired girl rushed upstairs and into her room, leaving Cyrus standing there… confused and hurt.


Fin

DQ17: Please read and review!!

SF4E: Next Chapter will be up soon.

ETP: Promise