A M A R Y L L I S《 My Hero Academia 》

⊰ 26 ⊱

Toya was trying to recall the last Christmas he had that was actually pleasant. It had to be back when Shoto was real young. Either way, it was Christmas Eve and Toya was having a rather good day. His father was gone for the week, he had plans to visit his mother later, and he couldn't help but be excited to give his siblings his gifts tomorrow. As for today, Toya was trudging his way through the snow to meet Amaryllis for a late lunch.

In his hands he held Amaryllis's gift, second guessing his choice for a present. Nonetheless, Toya was rather proud of his wrapping job. Pretty shimmery gold paper with a white ribbon wrapped around it, there was even a piece of mistletoe tapped in the middle as a replacement for a bow. It had been Shoto's idea and had climbed a tree to retrieve it, being yelled at by Fuyumi in the process.

As per usual, Amaryllis had arrived at the small cafe before Toya and could be seen through the window sitting in the very back. She looked pretty and warm in her sweater and scarf. She only noticed him when Toya entered the building, her red eyes sparking when she saw him.

"So, have any interesting stories to tell?" He asked making sure to stash the box away before she saw it.

"Oh, just a few," Amaryllis said with a sly smile. It was easy to tell that her mind was buzzing.

They sat there for a while, with Amaryllis ranting on about these strange stories and situations she comes across as a hero in training. Toya enjoyed her stories, and she always had some amazing way to paint a perfect picture. Toya couldn't help but be captivated by this aspect. This was a quality of Amaryllis that Toya has grown fond of.

There had been one story that had stuck out to Toya, most likely for the reason that he was surprised by the fact Amaryllis was even talking about it. She told him how she caught wind of some other hero's coming across a corpse of a black beast, very similar to the one that attacked them. All she could figure out was that it was decaying when it was found so the cause of death could not be found, along with its location being on the completely other side of town. This story had been stuck in the middle of all of Amaryllis's other nonsense so she quickly snapped back into another dumb story about a drunk villain.

It took Amaryllis a while to run out of stories to tell, or at least ones she wanted to share. "So," she finally said, "anything interesting in your life?" Toya thought for a moment, he had nothing as grand as Amaryllis's adventures, but nonetheless, he found himself something to hopefully kickstart a conversation.

"My math grade has improved." It wasn't a great conversation starter, but it was something to cling onto.

"Oh really?" There was a sharpe hint of sarcasm in her voice. "Now how did you pull that off?"

"I just got smart and started cheating off the guy next to me," Toya could feel his own smile of pride. Amaryllis's face was mixed with amusement and disappointment, but mostly amusement. Amaryllis laughed, "I can't decide if I should be proud of you or disappointed."

"Oh!" Amaryllis jumped slightly, she reached down under the table, looking to be sorting through a bag of some sort. She placed a small box on the table in front of her. It was wrapped in white paper with a flowery pattern and a red box on top.

She wore a soft smile across her lips. "You didn't do a very good job at hiding your gift," she remarked. Toya rolled his eyes without thinking about it, causing the smile on Amaryllis's lips to widen. Toya reached down and pulled out his gift, it was significantly larger than her's. Amaryllis pushed her gift closer to Toya, gesturing for him to open it.

Toya reached over and picked up the surprisingly light box. He held the box up to his ear, shaking it to annoy Amaryllis. There was an anxious look in her eyes, dying for him to open it. Toya tore off the paper and opened the small box, he was surprised by what he found inside.

Laying against a bed of cloth was a ring. It was mostly a grey shining metal, but a thick line of copper ran around the middle of the material. Toya was instantly captivated by it.

"I just eyeballed the size," Amaryllis said, "it fits my pointer finger fine."

Toya picked up the ring, holding it up to the light to admire it. It looked very well made, and even prettier out in the open. He found it fit best on his middle finger.

"It's also supposed to be heat resist," Amaryllis added, Toya's attention was all on the ring. "So it should be perfectly fine with your flames." She took a small pause, "Do you like it?" She sounded uncertain, almost upset.

"Yes," Toya blurted out, watching Amaryllis's face light back up. "I-I love it," he stuttered, his voice low. "I'm just afraid my gift won't be as great as this one." He said this with a small chuckle following, hoping to cheer Amaryllis back up. However, she seemed happy enough with Toya's previous words, with a soft smile as she pulled his gift towards herself.

"The mistletoe was Shoto's idea," Toya said as she plucked it from the box, staring at it with curious eyes. She smiled at this remark, tossing the small branch at Toya. She tore off the paper and opened up the box, looking as perplexed as he was upon seeing his gift. She removed a layer of tissues from the top and pulled out the glass figure. It was a pretty glass dragon, with its powerful wings stretched out and its jaw unhinged showing off sharpe glass teeth. Despite being mostly glass, there were streams of silver outlining certain parts of its body. Either way, Toya couldn't help but feel a pride upon seeing the gift out in the light once again.

Amaryllis picked it up to admire it, her red eyes glistened with admiration. "It's," Amaryllis looked to be searching for words, "Mesmerizing? Beautiful? I can't decide which describes it better." She took a moment, "Either way, I love it." She set the figure back down on the table, still admiring it with bright red eyes. "Thank you."

They talked a little while longer about miscellaneous topics before paying and leaving the cafe. Just like before, Amaryllis clung onto Toya trying to stay warm. They were relatively quite as they walked down the snow masked sidewalk.

Amaryllis was pressed so closely to Toya he could feel the rise and fall of her breathing, slow and steady. He glanced down at the silver haired girl, her red orbs seemed else where as she paced along side him. The more he thought about it, the more Toya realized how much he cared for this girl. Seeing her in this state, so calm and innocent, he wished to never see harm come to her.

"Hey, Amaryllis," Toya said, breaking Amaryllis out of he trance. "Aren't we technically a couple?" He watched her eyes for a reaction, she looked perplexed.

"I don't think friends make out every now and then," she said with a amused smile before switching her tone. "But I would suppose so."

"So," Toya went on, "I can call you my girlfriend."

Amaryllis was quite for a moment. "I don't see any reason not to."

Toya smiled, moving his arm around to wrap it around Amaryllis, pulling her as close as he could. "Good," He said, for it was about the only thing he could think of saying.

Amaryllis's phone dinged and she pulled it out. Toya just so happened to glance down and catch a glimpse of her fathers name on the phone. He caught the feeling that their time would be cut short.

"I need to be heading home soon," Amaryllis said, stashing her phone back into her bag. "I need to grab a few things. My father and I have plans for Christmas Day." Amaryllis forced herself farther into Toya's grasp, like she was giving him a quick hug before untangling herself from his grasp.

"I'll probably text you tomorrow," she said, but her mind seemed elsewhere. With a quick thought, Toya grabbed her shoulder to direct her attention back to him. He then bent down to place a light kiss upon her lips. It was only a brief moment that they were connected, but as soon as Toya pulled away he felt a hand grip his jacket to pull him back into a kiss. This one was a bit longer, and nicer than the last one. When they parted, Toya could head a soft chuckle come from Amaryllis.

"Rule number 1," she said, releasing Toya's jacket. "Little pecks won't do."