The Heart Does Go On

“Are you going to Yugi’s for Christmas?” Duke asked, twirling spaghetti around his fork before shoving it into his mouth.

Yugi had invited everyone over for Christmas lunch, which his grandfather will be cooking. As far as I knew, everyone but Kathryn (Tea, Joey, Tristan, Serenity, Bakura Duke and I) had accepted. Kathryn had to see her mother AND father’s family for lunch and dinner, so she couldn’t make it.

“Yeah I am. It will be grand.” I replied, stabbing my lasagne with a fork.

“Are you staying for supper also?” Duke asked.

“Nah. For once Seto is actually going to be home for Christmas. Because he has to give his employees time off around Christmas, Christmas is the busiest time of year for Seto.” I replied.

“Did you try telling him that everything quietens down around Christmas in the business world? No one else is working so it’s not like he’s allowing the competition to overthrow him, and the Christmas rush is over because people would buy products BEFORE Christmas, so there’s no harm in shutting down work for a week. Even I’ve shut down my shop until next Monday.” Duke informed me.

“Yeah, I did. He told me it’s better to stay ahead of competitors and work, than miss the golden opportunity and take time off. However he’s usually not seen from Christmas until New Years apparently according to Mokuba, so him taking half of Christmas off is a big deal. I also coaxed him to legally get a few of his key employers to work by paying them double time, and I told him I’d work for him too, so he can be seen a little over the next week.” I shrugged.

“What people do for love.” Duke snickered, and I hit him on the arm.

I had told Duke that Seto and I exchanged the 3 words on Wednesday, and he had been having a dig at us ever since. He found it hilarious that I managed to melt Seto’s cold heart.

“So yeah, Christmas night will be spent with Mokuba and Seto. What are you doing Christmas night?” I asked Duke.

“Spending it at Yugi’s, I have no family here and I don’t want to spend the night alone. I explained this to Serenity and she invited me to spend Christmas night with Tristan, Joey and her Mum but it would be waaay too awkward, imagine meeting her Mum ‘Yeah, I’m Duke Devlin. I was competing with Tristan over your daughter’s heart, but I was the loser. I could have been your son in law!’ yeah, awkward.” Duke explained, and I giggled and agreed with him.

“I’m glad I have no family here, and my Dad is back in L.A. for this business trip. I’ve always hated Christmas until this year. I hate my family, I’m glad to be spending it with friends and Seto this year.” I replied to Duke.

The topic began to wander back to our economics test, until the end of dinner.

“Have you finished your shopping yet?” Duke asked, after we paid for the bill.

“Nope, I was hoping to go after dinner to do my last bits of shopping. I’m bad haha. What about you?” I asked.

“No. I think we should go together.” Duke suggested

***

I sighed as I leaned my head on Duke’s car window. It was a happy sigh; I was remembering how my Christmases used to go.

I used to wake up as late as possible at my mother’s house, in the bad parts of L.A. My mum’s white trash family would be there, drinking at 10am in the morning. By about 2pm they’d be wasted, and be ranting and swearing about topics like rich people, people from other cultures and other things white trash rant about. Then they would bring out their fists and fight over each other’s alcohol, and then mother would get angry with me for avoiding this and refusing to get into the photos and pretend to play happy families.

Then father would pick me up and we’d go to his family. They would either be rude towards me or completely ignore, because the only time they ever saw me was at Christmas, and they felt I wasn’t part of the family and thought I was an intruder. One or two of the wives would feel sorry for me and talk to me, but everyone else would fawn over my cousin and how good she was, and treat me like something they stepped on.

Well, this Christmas I was spending lunch with all of my friends in a pleasant atmosphere, where we will talk and be merry.

Dinner would be spent with the man I love, and his awesome little brother who is also my friend.

So take that white trash family, I’m going out with one of those ‘rich people’ you’ll be bitching about today. And take that father’s family, I bet my cousin isn’t going out with the world’s youngest CEO.

Even though it was winter, I was wearing a strapless dress that went to my knees that was a floral pattern. I had my hair straightened, and a white headband in my hair.

Duke pulled up to the Kame Game shop, and we went to his boot to get the presents out.

Duke knocked on the door, and we heard loud banging’s and a very flustered Joey answering the door. He pulled both Duke and I inside, shut the door and steered us to the living room where everyone was seated.

“Everyone is now here! We can exchange presents now!” Joey said in an excited tone, jumping up and down.

“It’s up to Gramps, he’s the one hosting today…” Yugi trailed off.

“Presents! I love present time!” Gramps said, and so it was decided, we would now exchange presents.

I gave a pin-up girls calendar to Gramps (He loved it, he said he’d put it up in the toilet straight away)

A pink tank top to Tea (She squealed, I take it she likes it)

A box of Lindor chocolates to Bakura (I barely know him, I didn’t know what to get him)

I gave Duke a REAL leather studded belt and wrist cuffs (He immediately put them on, and gave me a hug – a rare action from Duke Devlin)

An apparently rare card for Yugi, which was fairly expensive (Which he confirmed, and said he’d put in his deck straight away, so his deck would contain some of my heart)

Some leather motorcycle gloves from Tristan (who was grateful as he said he always needs a spare pair)

I got Joey a gift card to Domino mall (So he could spoil that bitch girlfriend of his, I hate her, but I know Joey loves to show off, so this would be the present for him) and I got Serenity the same thing as well, because I didn’t know what else to get her.

What I got was pretty interesting though…

Joey and Tristan got together, and decided to get presents that went hand in hand. Joey gave me some lingerie, a black and pink playboy push up bra and a pair of very skimpy panties. He claimed that he bought these for me when we were going out, and never got around to giving them to me. I was unimpressed, I asked why he didn’t give them to his new girlfriend, Kristy and he squirmed but admitted that she wouldn’t have the boobs to fill out the bra. Okay, he said they weren’t her size, but I had a snicker at that anyway.

Tristan, wanting to be funny, added onto Joey’s present by giving me condoms and lube. I was even more unimpressed. I was going to throw Tristan’s present in the bin, I didn’t need it, but sadly the bra might come in useful because bras in my size were so expensive.

Tea was more thoughtful, and bought me a nice pair of low heels (Which was appreciated, I was too tall for actual heels)

Serenity bought me some strawberry tea, and a nice mug (I love drinking tea, so it was very thoughtful of her)

Bakura returned the favour of buying me chocolates, as did Gramps (Yummy! I love chocolate, but I don’t want to eat it all at once and get sick, or worse – put on weight)

Yugi bought me a starter deck so I could start practising duel monsters. (I agreed, but I don’t think I’ll ever pick it up! I don’t have the time to learn duel monsters. But the gift was very nice and very thoughtful of Yugi so I will treasure my deck like he treasures his)

Duke bought me some perfume I had been wanting for weeks, it was my turn to squeal and hug him.

All in all, I got a pretty good haul from all of my friends.

After we all packed away our presents, we sat around the living room. Duke and I sat on the floor as there was no room for us to sit, but we still engaged in all of the conversations and had a few laughs.

Then, one of the best parts of Christmas arrived. Gramps announced that lunch was ready, and everyone dived into the dining room to see a glistering feast before us.

There were loads of peas, potatoes, pumpkin, beans, tomatoes, gravy and turkey. Joey and Tristan immediately dived into the food, and we all waited impatiently for our turn to eat.

After we all ate to our hearts content and happily chatted amongst everyone, we all ended up back into the lounge room with a cup of hot chocolate and some Christmas pudding.

After a perfect day of catching up with friends, at 5PM I heard a honk in the driveway. I saw a limousine outside, and knew it was time for me to leave.

I hugged everyone goodbye, and wished everyone a merry Christmas.

After packing up my big bag of presents and jumping into the limousine, I gave a happy sigh and slumped contently in my seat before greeting Mokuba.

This had been the most perfect Christmas ever, and it wasn’t even over yet.