25I'm sorry about the long wait! I've been working on a Shokugeki no Soma Fanfic for a while now. Also, it's way too late for Christmas, but please enjoy!
TW: None
Episode XI - Interlude - Christmastime Is Here
Komaki thought about her childhood Christmases. Her mother would always try her best to at least buy her one gift. She didn't mind not having the newest toys like the other kids in her class. She always enjoyed their Christmases. They would decorate their little tree, bake a delicious cake with strawberries and white cream, and eat a box of KFC while painting with laughter and greasy fingers.
Then her biological father found them and she started to spend Christmas with his family after he had them move into his home in Hakodate. There were no more cute, tiny trees that needed to be covered in homemade paper decorations and simple curled ribbons, but now a massive tree in a living room larger than their small apartment, wrapped in strings of sweet honey breads glazed in sugar and shiny tinsel. Komaki no longer baked wonderful white, creamy cakes with strawberries with her Kaa-San. She now had a family cook to do it for her. KFC and painting with fingers coated in grease? Her stepmother, her father's wife, would've said something to make her cry.
Worst of all, Komaki couldn't celebrate Christmas with her mother. But she soon celebrated with her Babushka in Krasnodar.
She remembers how mouth-watering the house smelled when her and her grandmother were finished with cooking and set the table. A porridge of wheat and honey with hazelnuts, raisins, and poppy seeds. Babushka's traditional salad of beetroot, potatoes, pickles and carrots, drizzled in vinegar and oil. Several coulibiacs with layers of different fillings. Her favorite was a salmon filet in a brioche shell, stuffed with butter rice, buckwheat kasha, and spinach seasoned with several spices and dried bacon bits. Komaki was filling her plate with appropriate portions as her Babushka brought out a silver platter of a young, golden-crusted duck stuffed with honey apples and rubbed with a sweet and tart cowberry sauce. She grabbed seconds of everything, especially of the roasted duck and salmon coulibiac.
Komaki was surprised to know that her Babushka brought her some presents. She was branded as a troubled kid at that point and was only sent to Russia for, what was, supposed to be a punishment.
Her favorite present was a silver hairpin with a diamond in each petal that glittered under the living room's light.
Now she's in Tokyo with her beloved pryanichek.
"Pryanichek, stop eating-those are for the tree!" Komaki scolded, smacking his hand away from the plate.
Kazuma pouted, massaging his 'injury.' He looked like a squirrel that stuffed acorns in its cheeks, but instead of nuts, it was balls of pryaniki, a sweet honey bread from her childhood with spices.
He chewed the sweets and swallowed. "It's your fault. Don't make good food then."
"I can't help that I was taught from the best." Komaki said airily, threading another pryaniki through a needle and string. "I'm almost done, then you can stuff your face."
On the table part of their kotatsu was a cute, little Christmas tree with homemade paper ornaments of colorful snowflakes and sparkling stars that she and Kazuma made in the early afternoon. The spread of their Christmas Eve dinner was her Babushka's beetroot salad, a plate of coulibiac with different fillings, KFC's Party Barrel of fried chicken, their specialty lasagna with minced chicken, and a chocolate cake. Her Kaa-San's white cake with strawberries was beside the biscuits dipped in honey maple syrup from the Colonel himself.
The TV played A Charlie Brown Christmas. Charlie Brown brought the little sad tree he chose to the other characters at the auditorium. They laughed at him.
Kazuma shook his head, mumbling something in the lines of, "Kid can never catch a break," into his coffee cup filled to the brim of eggnog with spiced rum.
Komaki let out a snort. Kazuma's face was its usual neutral expression, but he looked so ridiculous in his ugly sweater. They were both wearing questionable Christmas sweaters that Kazuma swears will never leave the house. He chose her a black and red sweater with Rudolf's nose glowing in the center surrounded by puffy snowflakes that were more like giant cotton balls trying to eat the fabric. Komaki played along and the look on Kazuma's face when she chose his sweater was priceless. Santa was standing on his hands and twerking on the fireplace. 'Santa's Twerkshop.'
She coiled the balls of honeyed sweets around the little tree and smiled, taking a picture on her iphone. Komaki had stacks upon stacks of orders to finish for her art business that decorating the tree was the last thing on her mind. Kazuma didn't want to decorate their little tree without her. It became a tradition for them, even before they started dating.
Kazuma's former family deemed Christmas as unimportant due to tradition and it being a Winter holiday. At the time, Komaki was shocked to hear that he never received a Christmas present before. Even at their lowest, her mother would at least try to give a good Christmas with a simple, but thoughtful gift. Their sister showed them the beautiful lights and glowing decorations of her hometown as people sang classic carols in Cantonese. At that time, Komaki felt the warm embrace of being with the people she loved. She knew that Kazuma did too from how soft and relaxed he was. It was like being with her Kaa-San and Babushka again.
Komaki snuggled against Kazuma, muttering, "I miss them. I miss her."
Kazuma knew who she was talking about. He pulled her closer to him and said faintly, "I know...I miss her too."
The two sat in a comfortable silence with their warm mugs, watching the other characters on the TV gathering around the poor bare tree and making it beautiful. Glittering under the living room's lights was their own little tree, a little chaotic, but perfect for them.