Uranophile

Merry Christmas

Hiii everyone!! Merry Christmas to all those that celebrate it! Since you all know I'm all out ideas for specials, this amazing idea was suggested by our one and only.... @H0LL_FL0WE so a huge thank you, my dear!!! I really cannot thank you enough for helping this poor, dumb child that is me...

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Now that you think about it, although you never had the chance to ever celebrate Christmas with any of your friends, you always took your time to get them an early holiday gift. As a way for them to remember you when you'd be away in Osaka.

But of course, that didn't mean you'd give it to them before you left. No, no... That would ruin the magic of Christmas! Instead, you'd have Shinichirō-niisan help you with distributing the gifts on the day of Christmas.

You never exactly believed in Santa. Maybe you did back when you were 2 or 3 years old, but the moment you began to live with your mother, you barely had faith left in anything that could provide with you with any sort of happiness. It was because [Mother Name] was very eager in destroying your childhood (props to her for having succeeded very easily).

But that didn't mean that you would steal the childhood wonder from your friends as well. After all, they were just a bunch of sweet kids that deserved the thought of a nice old man rewarding them for their year round good deeds (even though you wondered if the real Santa would consider anything that Manjirō did, to be good...)

Regardless, you tried to savour their fascination with the help of the elders of their families for as long as you could. But of course, the truth always comes out.

And the first one who realised that Santa was, indeed a con, was Ken. It wasn't even something you were surprised about, but more of the fact that he even believed in Santa in the first place.

Maybe the ladies at the brothel wanted to keep Ken as innocent as they could and preserve his childlike attributes.

Whatever the case was, you could recall when you were sitting in the park with him, in a cold night of early December. You both were busy stuffing your mouths with some steamed buns when he started, "Hey, [Male Name]?"

You hummed while chewing on the soft texture of the bun, "Do you think... that Santa's real?" There it was!! Ken was finally becoming an adult!! Now he was talking grown up!

I see, you've grown well, Ken!!

You blinked for a while before tilting your head in confusion. As much as you were proud that he had figured it out at such a young age that old man Santa was a lie, you still wished to let him stay a bit closer to his childhood for a little longer.

"I figured that if anyone would know about it, it'd be you, right? Cause you talk like a grown up! The ladies at the brothel don't tell me anything!!" You blinked once again. If the girls weren't telling him anything, then who gave you the right to do so?

You were about to shake your head to tell him that, no. Santa is real! He's realer than ever!! But the blonde shot you a boyish grin before you could mutter a single word, "Honestly, I've kinda always known that he ain't real. The girls just want me to act like my age a bit, so I played along. I know that you know about this too, so I just wanted to start a conversation. Don't bother with telling me to believe in a fat, old fuck who tries to break into a building full of young girls just so he can smuggle me some shady gift..."

You could only blink again as he started to bad mouth Santa. Yeah, you don't think you need to pretend around him...

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The second one who had found out, was... Mitsuya, of course!! There's no way there's anyone other than him, right?

It was honestly kind of surprising over how long he had lasted with his faith in the jolly old man. After all, you're surprised over how the purplette never questioned the fact that for some apparent reason, Santa was always broke when it came to getting him gifts.

The real reason did lie in the fact that his mother couldn't afford to get him any gifts, barely making ends meet. And it's not like you could have just magically helped him. After all, you met him when you were both 5. That meant that by the time you both had met, he had already spent 5 Christmases without any gifts, wouldn't it have been odd if for some reason the only year when he befriends you, Santa starts sending gifts.

It could have either make him realise that Santa was nothing but a figment of imagination, or make him believe that you were sort of elf that was really close to Santa, and your friendship is what made Santa reward Takashi.

Regardless to say, Takashi did not keep his faith in Santa for long. And he confirmed it by explaining about how he wanted his sisters to at least believe in him, unlike Takashi himself.

You cried upon hearing his heart moving resolve. What a good brother!!

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The next was, well... Kazutora.

He didn't exactly believe in Santa, but he was most definitely out for his blood. You know this because he'd proudly explain to you about how he managed to kill Santa cause he made sure to lay traps all over the living room for him.

Needless to say, you were worried when he stated that he even found blood around one of his traps. Did his mother get injured while getting up in the middle of the night?!

You were left with no choice but to literally tell him that Santa was a lie and he had left traps for his mother instead. The boy's face paled faster than you could blink.

You had to go with him to apologize to his mother, because he was scared she was going to disown him. With your sweet talking and gentle smile, the lady's anger had toned down.

You successfully managed to prevent your friend from spending Christmas without a roof on top of his head.

Kazutora decided to never bring that up ever again, and you both are the only ones who know of this incident. Other than his mother, of course.

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Next up was Keisuke.

He didn't want to admit the fact that he believed in Santa, so he would lie that he didn't care about those childish things. Of course, his mother would always let you know that the first thing he would do after waking up on Christmas was check for his gifts.

As he grew older, his testosterone levels made him more... aggressive. He was also one of the people who wanted to murder poor old Santa Claus.

But unlike Kazutora, Keisuke chose the arsonist route. Since his house had a fireplace, due to his apartment complex having a chimney, he decided to light it throughout the night.

In his head, he was probably next to Sherlock Holmes himself. He found the loophole to prevent Santa from entering his house!! And while Keisuke did like the gifts, he was too shy to admit that he believed in Santa. Instead, he said that the sole reason he was out for Santa's blood, was so that his mother might remain safe.

At least he's considerate?

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The only ones of your group that were unaware of Santa being a fake, were Haruki and Manjirō. The two were like sweet children, excited for Santa's arrival on the 25th of December, each year.

And so, you guys didn't find it in your hearts to ruin the fun for them, even at the age of 13.

Manjirō would always go to sleep extra early on the night before Christmas, for the sole reason of getting up early to open his present. While Haruki really didn't care when he woke up, so long as he got his gift.

As you all grew up, as people and as a gang, you guys continued to keep the magic of Santa alive, for both Manjirō and Haruki.

Who knows? Maybe one day, they'll finally realise that Santa is fake. Or maybe they'll still believe in him, even when they have kids of their own.

They'll probably share the same excitement with their kids.