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Ibuki had really gone all out on her Christmas party this year, seeing as it was the last Christmas party they would all have as a class before graduating.
As always, Hajime was included for no other reason except that he was very close with the class. They thought of him like a classmate, even if he really wasn’t because he was from the Reserve Course.
There was something about this party though that made Hajime wish that he hadn’t been invited to this one. Maybe it was the fact that Ibuki’s playlist included heavy metal Christmas covers at max volume. Or maybe it was because it seemed that she was providing fruitcake as a party favor.
Or maybe it was the fact that mistletoe covered practically every part of her house.
“Ibuki?! What the hell?”
He hadn’t even been past the front door of her house for half a second when he felt another pair of lips meet his for a moment.
He looked at her for some sort of explanation, and got one when she pointed up, a grin on her face, and Hajime saw the green plant hanging above them.
“Oh my god,” he groaned. Not only was there that one, but there was also tons of them hanging in her living room, and he could also see some in the hallway. “Why do you have all of these?”
“They’re Ibuki’s love plants!” she beamed.
He clung to the wall for dear life as he walked around. It was the only safe place so far. “It’s mistletoe,” he corrected.
“Nah, I prefer to call them love plants,” she laughed, as Hajime sighed. She wasn’t really wrong though.
One by one, other people showed up, became victims of the “love plants,” and got a face full of Ibuki.
It was when the Imposter came in that Ibuki ran to him, jumping up and forcing him to catch her with a grunt. “Ibuki has thrown herself into your arms!”
“Yes, I...can tell,” the Imposter struggled to hold her up. “Why?”
She pointed up gleefully, and the Imposter simply gave her a small smile, breaking character a little bit from his current disguise, who was Byakuya Togami. “Of course this is something you would do.” Then he leaned down to kiss her on the lips.
It made sense that she would want her kiss with him to be special. She’d told Hajime a while back that she had a small sort of crush on the Imposter.
Nagito was one of the few who seemed to have counted on this kind of thing happening. He opened the door and looked around before entering, seeing the mistletoe and maneuvering around it as best as he could. When he spotted Hajime against the wall, he joined him there.
“Hello Hajime,” he greeted him.
“Hey Nagito,” Hajime greeted back.
“So I can see that you don’t want to be kissed this evening.”
“Oh, I already have been kissed this evening, by Ibuki at the doorway, but I refuse to have it happen again.” He laughed awkwardly.
Nagito smiled at him. So he wouldn’t be alone at this party. It was slightly relieving to him. He remembered a time when he didn’t like Hajime, due to the fact that he was a Reserve Course student, but he warmed up to him eventually, just like everyone else, seeing him as a true friend.
Maybe he saw him as even more, but he would never be able to say that.
For a while they simply watched the others and enjoyed the food. Chiaki, who wasn’t watching where she was going, seeing as she was buried in her Game Girl, bumped into Mikan under the mistletoe, who’s face dusted pink. Teruteru purposefully pulled other’s under there with him, and managed to get a reluctant kiss from many of them. Fuyuhiko and Peko looked up in shock when they found themselves standing under the plant with each other. Hiyoko cheerfully pecked Mahiru on the lips, Sonia and Gundham kissed while Souda watched them furiously, and Nekomaru lifted Akane up to kiss her. To be perfectly honest, it made both Hajime and Nagito feel really weird.
“Uhhh, Ibuki?” Hajime got her attention for a moment. “Are there any rooms in your house that don’t have any mistletoe?”
“Well, let me think...” She pondered for a moment. “The bathroom doesn’t.” Well, there was no way that Hajime was going to go hide in the bathroom with Nagito. “And...the kitchen and...the patio.” That was perfect.
“Thank you Ibuki,” he said, grabbing Nagito by the hand, and taking him out to the patio, even while Ibuki protested and insisted they stay inside. Every moment they stayed in there was a chance that they would be kissed though. The two boys had to protect each other from such a thing.
The wind nipped at their skin as they stepped outside, but it wasn’t too bad, and they sat down at the table out there with each other. He didn’t know what to say, so instead he made small talk. “So, um, it’s been getting more and more cold lately, hasn’t it?”
“I would say it has Hajime.” They went quiet for a moment, before Nagito decided to speak again. “You know, I honestly don’t understand why you would want to spend time with someone like me out here, instead of at the party.”
“Well, as you can see, like you, I’m not really the kissing random classmates kind of person.”
“Well, yeah...I guess I could understand that.”
“Plus, Teruteru won’t try to rape us.” Hajime gave Nagito a grim smile.
“He wouldn’t do that,” Nagito laughed nervously, but then he paused, looking kind of serious and contemplative. “Or would he...?”
Nagito’s face as he considered that made Hajime burst into laughter. He was so funny without even trying to be. The laughter eventually died down a bit though, and the atmosphere was serious again.
“After all the time we’ve hung out, I still really don’t understand you that much. I mean, what is it with you and the way that you talk about hope.”
“Hope is extremely important Hajime. It is one of the most powerful virtues out there, sometimes more than any other.”
Hajime laughed a little bit, cracking a joke. “If you love hope so much, you should marry it.”
“I don’t see why hope would want to marry me though,” he said with an incredibly serious look on his face.
“See, you saying that kind of thing is the exact reason why we should get to know each other more. You’re...odd? But it’s in a good kind of way. I just kind of want to figure you out.”
“The same goes for me with you Hajime,” he told him.
They then delved into an extremely deep conversation about how it would be possible to marry hope, and eventually got hungry, heading back into the house.
They had gotten so completely engrossed in what they were talking about that they forgot about the mistletoe. Nagito remembered though as they stepped into Ibuki’s living room, when everyone turned to them in shock and looked above them.
Hajime wondered why Nagito got so flustered so suddenly. “What’s up?” he asked him.
Nagito, at a loss for words, simply gestured up, and Hajime glanced upward, spotting the green leaves hanging above them. He turned the same color as Nagito.
It seemed that the two people who had been working together to stay out of the way of the mistletoe had both ended up under it together in the end.
“I...” Nagito started. The room was completely silent. Nagito had never kissed anyone before, not even his parents. To do something like that for the first time in this kind of manner was certainly something.
“I-It’s just a kiss,” Hajime told him, cupping his cheek. “It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Yeah...just a...just a kiss,” Nagito repeated. Hajime pulled him in slowly, and eventually they’d reached the point where their noses were touching, their lips only mere inches away.
Hajime finally made the move that closed the distance, and then they were kissing. It was brief and chaste, but the whole time their classmates were whistling and whooping.
They pulled away for a moment, staring into the other’s eyes. This was it right? Now they were done with the kiss and they could move on, but they didn’t want to.
Instead of pulling away, they both went back in. This time though it was more forceful and passionate. Hajime was grabbing fistfuls of Nagito’s hair while the other moaned slightly into the kiss.
They had been kissing like this for a good amount of time when Hajime felt someone tap his shoulder and whisper into his ear. “Ibuki has a guest bedroom upstairs, if you two need it.”
It was then that Hajime knew that staying at this party was the best decision he had ever made.