ludic

Chapter Nine

It's the day after Izanami's slight injury, and the Seido baseball club is busy as always with practice, but when their lunch break arrives, Ryosuke brings up the idea of a Christmas party.

"A Christmas party?" Tetsu asks, "Would that be a good idea? I thought Izanami didn't like parties?"

"No, no," Miyuki pauses in his eating, "Rei-chan said no to surprise parties. Anyway, does Nami-chan even celebrate it?"

Ryo rolls his eyes, "Of course she does. She was raised in America. Besides," He sighs, "The reason she's so down and homesick because she won't be able to see her family until after the holidays. So I ran the idea with Rai-san, who said it was a good idea. He even said they'd send some stuff over to help with the party— as long as we get permission to throw said party."

"Send stuff over? Christmas is in a couple of days! What? They're going to ship things overnight?" Kuramochi asks, flabbergasted at the idea.

"Who knows," Ryo shrugs, "He just said to let them know as soon as we get permission or not."

Jun chuckles, "Ryo here has gotten pretty close with Rai-san and Aki-san here, you see? So if it involves Nami-san, Ryo's already on it."

"Oh, shut it." Lightly jabbing his friend on the side, he looks at the team who is resting for their break, "I thought we could have the party in our cafeteria, so anybody who wants to attend can. I'm well aware not everyone will go or want to since they're not close to Kat, or they will be leaving early for the holidays, which is fine. The attendance of everyone isn't important. The occasion is."

"... Christmas?" Someone asks nervously.

"No. The occasion is to make Izanami not feel like she's alone this year for the holidays. She's already living alone, and now she won't be able to see her family or friends back home until after the holidays. The least we can do is spend one day with her before we all go our separate ways back home for our break. Especially now, she needs to be on crutches for a week or so. She can't even use exercise as a means to keep herself busy."

The team is silent as they take in what Ryo said until someone breaks it, a small smile on their face.

"Well," Tanba smiles, "Let's do it then."

"Who's gonna ask Coach or Takashima-san for permission though?"

Before the upperclassmen even look at Kuramochi and Miyuki, Miyuki shakes his head.

"Oh no! You are not putting this task on me this time! It was your idea, Ryo-san, so you ask."

"Tch... well, you have a point there... Fine."

______

"Huh?" Izanami looks at her friends with a cute head tilt of confusion, "A Christmas party?"

"Yeah!" Kuramochi grins as brings over a bowl of chips before sitting down next to Izanami on the couch. "We wanted to do something with you before we left for the holidays. Are you up for it?"

"Hm..." Izanami makes a face, "Don't most of you not celebrate it, though?"

"We celebrate it a bit differently than you do in America, but that's not a problem. We just want to spend some time with you." Miyuki explains as he takes the seat on the opposite side of Kuramochi. "Besides, we already got an idea to do uh, what was that called again?"

Takako chimes in, "A secret Santa. We already figured out a small budget and got a list of people who wanted to join in."

"Really...?" Izanami goes quiet for a moment before she smiles, "That sounds like fun. Where would the party be, though?"