Meeting the Higher-ups

Chapter 23 ~ Holidays

It was currently one week since the beach trip and only one week remaining before the full moon when the cast would have to go back. Over the past week, Jake and I have planned something pretty special for the cast to make our last week together special.

"Rise and shine, sleepy heads!! Santa came!!" I yelled throughout the house, Jake and I were dressed in Santa hats. We decided that since the cast most likely doesn't celebrate the holidays that we do, we might as well let them celebrate them once. For the past few days, Jake and I have been working to get everything together.

"Ugh, what time is it?" A groggy Levi walked out of the guys' room. Erwin and Mike followed out.

"Hey, Emma! What's all this about?" A rather excited-looking Hanji came out.

"It's Christmas!" I exclaimed.

"It's what?" Mike asked.

"It's Christmas." I repeated. "Today we'll be celebrating a few different holidays that I don't think you guys celebrate back in your world. The first holiday is Christmas where you give gifts to your family and friends and this character named Santa comes by in the middle of the night to deliver gifts to the kids."

"Creepy..." Levi commented. I giggled.

"Well let's get started! Come sit on the couch." I motioned to them.

Jake and I passed out the presents that we had given them. The gifts were under a small Christmas tree that we had set up. The room had some minimal Christmas decorations. We got Erwin some pretty amusable eyebrow cream, Levi some rare black tea, Mike some razors for whenever he needs a shave, and Hanji a custom-made t-shirt that said "Keep Calm and Love Titans". We also got them each a second present which was a photobook of all the photos that we've taken together since they've been here.

"And since Christmas is Levi's birthday, he gets an extra present." I said and handed it to him. He opened it up and although he didn't completely show it on his face, I could tell how much the gift meant to him. It was a framed picture of us that Hanji took while we were at the beach. He was hugging me from behind and I had my head bent back, me and him sharing a warm salty kiss.

"Thank you, I love it." He said and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

"Hehe, you're welcome." I replied.

"Okay, on to our next holiday. Thanksgiving!" Jake announced.

We walked into the Thanksgiving-decorated dining room full of food that Jake and I had cooked late the previous night and early this morning. There was turkey, mashed potatoes, macaroni-and-cheese, ham, sweet tea, and pumpkin pie. It was about brunch time so we went ahead and ate.

"Eat up! We have one more holiday to celebrate after this!" I told them.

"Ooh! What is it?" Hanji asked.

"You'll see." I winked.

Time skip

When we were done eating, we cleaned up and got ready for the next holiday.

"Okay, so our next holiday is Easter." I told them. "It has the same idea as Christmas in the fact that a character come to deliver gifts during the night. This one is called the Easter Bunny."

"Right." Jake said. "And we usually hide plastic Easter eggs around the place and whoever finds the most when time is up wins."

"So, where are these eggs hidden?" Erwin asked.

"Around the house. You have exactly ten minutes to find how many ever you can. And, go!" I said and Hanji took off. The others leisurely started looking around the house. Jake and I sat on the couch and waited.

It wasn't even half the time later that Hanji came bounding back into the living room, hands and arms full of eggs, almost all of them that were hidden.

"Did I win?!" She asked, jumping around, causing some of the eggs to fall down.

"You sure did. Congratulations." Jake said.

"Yay!!" She exclaimed. Erwin came in second place, Mike in third, and Levi in last, mainly because he couldn't reach a lot of the eggs that were hidden high up. Maybe we shouldn't have done that... Hehe...

"Well, that's all for the holidays. I hope you guys enjoyed it." I said to them.

"Yep, thanks so much, Emma!!" Hanji said and wrapped me into a bear hug.

"Hehe, you're welcome." I said while hugging her back.

"Yes, thank you very much, Emma, Jake." Erwin said and Mike and Levi nodded.

"I'm just glad you guys enjoyed it and had a good time." I smiled.

"Yeah, me too." Jake agreed.

And that concluded once again another special memory to stick with us all, even when we're separated.