[ic] Inbox

[diffidentive]

"You've reached Saihara Shuichi, leave me a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can."

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[gotyourbach]

[She snorts, then giggles. Being in the middle of something with Minato, more like Kaede incessantly nagging him to do something other than just nap in his room.]

I already gave him his present first thing in the morning, Saihara-kun. And I've already told you, you're never interrupting us!

I'll see you there!!

[When Shuichi gets to the music room, Kaede is of course already there, reviewing some handwritten sheets of music in front of the piano. Asking him to meet her in the music room already kind of ruined the surprise to begin with, but it's not like she was expecting it to be too much of a surprise, anyway.

Entirely focused on the sheet music, while she hears Shuichi's footsteps, she doesn't think to turn around and acknowledge him just yet. There's a chair set beside her piano bench, though, which she's intended for him to sit at.]

[diffidentive]

[Okay, that's a little odd. Not giving him his present first thing, that totally checks out. But wouldn't they do more than that?? Or are they fully celebrating Candlenights, rather than Christmas? Since that doesn't actually seem to be a couple's holiday at all, but something closer to the Western version of the holiday.]

[Weird.]

[Anyway, he shows up in half an hour as promised, walking slowly and quietly towards the piano...he doesn't want to startle her or anything.]

Um...A-Akamatsu-san?

[gotyourbach]

Oh! Right.

[She sits up straighter and hastily grabs the sheet music. She gives him a bright smile and clutches the paper close to her chest, as if 1) he doesn't know there's music involved and 2) it would somehow spoil it if he saw the notation. Neither of which are true in the least.]

Sorry, I lost track of time... are you having a good Candlenights, Saihara-kun? It's pretty different, huh?

[diffidentive]

[Yeah, Kaede, he can't read music. Most he could read is the title, if you wrote one of those. Silly.]

Ah...y-yeah it's...very different. [That's one way to put it. He scratches the back of his head.] I didn't realize it was so much closer to the Western version of Christmas than ours. I uh...wasn't expecting presents...

[A beat.]

How has yours been?

[gotyourbach]

Oh! Yeah... I guess I should have explained better, huh? I mean, last year when I had my first Candlenights, it was kind of the same for me. Oh, but we'd just finished our first mission, so it's not like I'd had any time to get presents for anyone then anyway..

[She's rambling, a little nervous, hugging the music close to her chest.]

It's been good! Everyone's gotten me really nice things... Mista-kun got me more hairpins, and Sayori-san and Wash-san got me brooches, and Aragaki-kun got me a music box... ummm...

[Notably missing is Minato, who got her exactly nothing for Candlenights. She trails off, takes a breath, fingers tightening around the edges of the sheet music, and then abruptly hands it over. Almost smacks him with it, really, as she blurts,]

I've been working on this for a really long time, and I wanted to give it to you! I'm sorry I didn't wrap it or anything...

[It's handwritten sheet music, penned in neat script. It looks like it was originally written in pencil, some pieces smudged out or erased, and then later traced over a final time with pen. There's no title, just a roman numeral I at the top and Akamatsu K. underneath. On the right of the title page, it reads For Saihara Shuichi.]