“So explain to me again why you’re just sitting in front of the fireplace instead of having out with the others?” Sato cocked his head to the side at the question from Leiko, almost like he needed to make up an answer. He already knew why he didn’t want to go celebrate some old guy that supposedly breaks into their living quarters and leaves presents every year—who obviously wasn’t real— and use it as an excuse to eat, drink, and get gifts from others. There really wasn’t a reason for not attending the party that was happening literally in the other room that would please someone like Leiko Hamada, so he decided to not even bother with telling her his real reasoning.
“I guess I don’t have an explanation to give, Hamada.” He lifted himself from the floor, instead sitting down on the edge of one of the chairs nearby, and gave the girl a smile as warm as the fire before them. “I just had a shitty day today and I don’t really feel like partying around with people.” That, and he never did like the holidays. There wasn’t any traumatic event on Christmas one year, and there was never anything wrong with them at all. He just…
didn’t like the holidays. Christmas was just the biggest one and thus it was completely inescapable. His own mother had put up several decorations despite his many protests to it, even going so far as to call it a waste of time.
Leiko gave the boy a disapproving look, obviously calling out his lie. “There’s no way you could’ve had a ‘shitty day’ if you’d been asleep until three, and the only thing you did after that was watch movies until Rokoru dragged you out of bed and over to here, where you then hid away in this study.” Sato giggled to himself a bit. That was an exact description of how he had spent most of his Christmas eve so far. There was no forgetting the feeling of despair one gets when you’re literally dragged out of your house.
“Let it be known that Sato Hashimoto is not a festive person then.” The club president sighed a long sigh before standing up straighter. It was clear to her that there was no way to convince Sato to join the others willingly, so she simply disappeared from the room for a second before returning with Rokoru behind her. Upon noticing the new addition, Sato cursed under his breath as the strong-armed boy ripped him from his seat and into the main room. Leiko merely snickered to herself as she watched it happened; the sight of two third-year guys arguing about attending the party like a father to a child was comical to her. Though, if she didn’t know better, she thought it might be possible to mistake Rokoru as old enough to have a young child of his own… But who’d be the mother? She immediately shook off the thought and returned to her conversation with her friends.
'Twas the night (for some) before Christmas, when all through the OOC
Not a user was stirring, not even Sword;
The CSes were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Savo soon would be there;
The users were nestled all snug in their beds;
While visions of bara ships danced in their heads;
And Kissu in her b-ball shorts, and I in some British dude’s hat,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap,
When out on the IC there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
Away to RPG I flew like a flash,
Clicked open the thread and threw up the blinds.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen dailys,
Gave a lustre of midday to posts below,
When what to my wondering eyes did appear,
But a miniature sleigh and eight tiny co-GMs,
With a probably young user so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment he must be St. Savo.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name:
"Now, Cuco! now, Sho! now I_am_X and DiabolicalRaphsody!
On, Trix! on, Haru Nyan! on, Donner and Blitzen!
To the top of the main page! to the top of the thread!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"
As leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an dry-spell, mount to the sky;
So up to the OOC the coursers they flew
With the sleigh full of posts, and St. Savo too—
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The laughing and snorting of each little co-GM.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the subscriptions St. Savo came with a bound.
He was dressed all in yaoi, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with gaijin and yuri;
A bundle of posts he had flung on his back,
And he looked like an active user just opening his pack.
His pixels—how they twinkled! His hair spikes, how merry!
His cheeks were like everyone else’s , his nose like a nose!
His regular human mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the lack of beard on his chin was as non-existant as morals on 4Chan;
The stump of a pocky he held tight in his teeth,
And the souls of the dead, they encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a face and a human torso
That he used when he laughed, like all other body parts
He was average at best and nothing to think twice about, a right okay user.
And I didn’t laugh when I saw him, not in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the CSes; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all went off-line like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he went off of his account—
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all who are in the relevant timezones a good night!”