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It had been a fairly quiet period at the Yomikawa's household, december was coming and the antiskill agent was buzzed, it was the first time in many years she would spend christmas with her family.
The prior year she had been out all night getting drunk with some colleagues only to end up with one of the worst hangover of her life, it had been fun but also a little sad, being there with other single agents and watching miryads of people with their hands full of colourfully wrapped presents heading home.
Well, none of that now, this year she wasn't alone and she was determined to pass one of the best christmas of her life with the three kids she was housing and her old friend Yoshikawa.
And that was why she was currently explaining the story of Santa Claus to a very excited Last Order.
"So since Misaka has been a good girl for all the year she can asks for presents, says Misaka as Misaka tries to contain her happyness?"
"Yes, we can go to the underground shopping mall this afternoon so you can choose what you would like"
"Oh, but Misaka already knows, says Misaka as Misaka decides to state her decision"
"Really? And what is it?"
"Misaka wants this gekota set, says Misaka as Misaka points her wish on the catalog"
The girl was handing her a catalog of the newly opened gekota shop (apparently it had been an instant success, no doubt thanks to the sisters, who nearly emptied the shop on the opening week) and pointing at the "Complete Gekota Rain Set Limited Edition", which contained boots, an umbrella and a raincoat. The price was good considering how expensive this sort of merchandise usually could be.
"Ok then, i'll say to Santa Claus you want this one, what about you two?"
The other two kids weren't so excited about christmas, they've been lounging on the coach the whole morning but at least they looked at her when addressed to.
"What does the brat wants?" Asked the older looking clone, only to start laughing when the younger looking one showed her.
"Gekota is fine but a raincoat with smiling frogs it's definitely for kids!!! Misaka though you wanted to be trated like an adult since you're the control tower but then you make this kind of requests!!!"
"Stop with all this ruckus damn brat, you're just angry that thing isn't avaiable in your size!!!"
"The hell are you saying!?"
"Calm down you two, Worst-chan there's nothing wrong if you want something from this shop too, i'm sure we can find some clothes for you"
The clone nodded satisfied, grabbed the paper Last was offering her and then turned to the other person on the couch.
"And what about you Tou-san?"
"Dunno....."
"Oh, Misaka got it, you want something you can't ask for in front of the kid, you want Misaka's bo-"
"Shut up! What the hell is wrong with you?!"
"Now Tou-san, don't be so shy you just had to ask"
"You know it's kind of funny seeing you acting all grown up while skimming through a kids merchandise catalog"
"Come on, stop teasing her for her taste, you've been a kid too, jan"
"What did you asked for christmas when you were a child, ask Misaka as Misaka wonder?"
There was a long embarassed pause after that, usually these kind of questions were avoided because the white haired esper didn't really remember much before he was taken to academy city so it was kind of pointless (and usually prompted the already unsociable teenager to lock himself into his room and ignore them until supper) but from the look on his face the question didn't anger him.
"None of your businnes" he replied without making eye contact.
"Oh come on, now you have to tell"
After much prodding and some veiled threat to disconnect him from the network the clones and the P.E. teacher managed to make the reluctant boy speak. Apparently when he still lived with his birth family he had asked for a toy train of a very well known make, but hadn't got it since it was a bit costly.
"Well that was boring, Misaka was hoping for some kind of blackmail material"
Accelerator just glared at her.
"In the end none of the kids went with us"
"Well, it brings back some memories, just you and me in the shopping mall"
Two women were busily chatting while making their way out of a merchandise shop.
"Maybe it's better this way Kikyou, there are some interesting sales, we could buy something nice for ourselves"
They kept walking while looking at the various shops when the short haired woman noticed the window of an odd store.
"Oh it's still open, i though this place had closed down"
"What do they sell?"
"They just take old stock from other stores, you can find pretty much everything you want and for a good price too"
"Let's take a look"
Saying the store was well stocked would have been an understatement, apparently it had been in business for so long they still had unsold items from ten years prior.
"Look Aiho! This gown looks exactly like the one you wore at the higschool ball- wait, didn't yours had a mend near the hem too?"
"Ah yes, how strange..." 'Crap, i've got to distract her, who would have thought that gown ended up here?!'
"Come here, doesn't this seem familiar?"
"A toy train? Mmh... not really, it's still rather recent"
"The make's interesting though"
"What do you mean? And what are you smirking for?"
"Are these the last ones?"
"I think there are still some christmas light on the terrace, i'm going to put them away, you put these ornament in the broom closet, we'll take them in the garage tomorrow."
Yomikawa sighed before lifting the box from the living room's floor, celebrating christmas at home had been far more tiring than she had expected. And funnier.
Last order had been even more excitable from the day it started snowing, the whole city had been covered in snow since last week and the girl somewhat managed to drag the other two freeloader outside to play (for half an hour, apparently someone couldn't stand to be hit by a snowball before retreating into the apartment and flinging herself on top of the radiator).
Seeing them playing outside reminded her of when she was younger, she missed her parents and siblings, they lived in Osaka but never visited because they didn't like academy city one bit.
She briefly wondered about how they would react seeing her mothering these three little terrors.
The christmas day was a complete success, the girls were very happy with their presents (so much they had to convince Last Order not to sleep in her new trenchcoat) and Accelerator seemed content with the physics books they had bought him.
He was later handed another gift, he seemed cautious opening this one, maybe it was because of the strange wrapping paper or maybe because the adult in room were suddenly having a hard time concealing their laughter.
His face when he unwrapped the toy train of his childhood had been priceless, it took him a couple of minutes before muttering:
"It's a bit late though"
The idea was just to surpise him so at that point they expected the teen to hand the toy to Last, instead he took it to his room and nobody has seen nor heard of it ever since.
At last the living room was tidy, the antiskill agent felt satisfied, this year december had really felt different, she just hoped her colleagues didn't feel bad about being so few this year (she had the three pests, Ishikawa now had a fiancee and Uchida got married).
"Kikyou, go call the girls, we're going out to eat tonight"
"Ok"
She walked to the bedroom facing the girl's and opened the door finding the white haired esper reading inside
"Jan, we're going out, get dressed"
"Knock the next time, will you?!"
"Sure"
'Was it just me or there was a rail track sticking from under the book?'