An Englishman in Castle Aincrad

Christmas Special - A Knight's Christmas

December 25th, 2022 - Floor 1, Town of Beginnings

''YAAAAWWWWWNNNN!... oww-rghhh'' - Last night had been... well, he was still working that out. Rain had kissed him, and that had thrown him into a spin, whilst he was still trying to work out his own feelings for his partner, and her feelings towards him. For all his faults, he had noticed some hints that Rain liked him... he was oblivious, not completely thick, thank you very much. But having that made completely obvious caused more problems than it solved. To summarise the infinite number of thoughts currently twazzing through Jet's mind, like boy racers and housing estates at 2am, Rain was nice, she was really nice, and kind, and he meant that, and he did think she was attractive... just that he wouldn't date her. Could he tell you why? No, but then again, he couldn't really answer that question in his own head either... which made it all the more of a problem that, at some point in the near future, he'd have to tell Rain that, and give her a reason, reassuring her that he still liked her as a friend, but nothing more. ''I feel like an absolute arsehole now...''

Then you had the other elephant in the room; his partner. That was a comparison he regretted making, even mentally... Last night had given him a chance to talk it over with people who'd been in the same situation before, and surprisingly, Strea was a decent person to do that with. Even at her most immature, she had been through all of this before, and so had the others... even if Klein's advice was probably a bit too risqué. He was pretty sure the Harassment Code would've sent him to Blackiron instantly if he did that...

Regardless of all of that, it was a new day, and for the first time in a few years, Christmas Day didn't feel awful. Well, once he drew a line under everything he'd discovered last night anyway. Just a nice, peaceful day, with people he cared for... that was the one feeling he did understand about Koharu. He cared for her, and that would never change, even once they escaped all of this! Getting out of bed, he looked out of the window, and to his surprise, snow was blanketing the Town of Beginnings. It made for an amazing scene, literally something you'd expect to see on a Christmas card, even down to the Robins on the fountain... It was stuff like this that made Jet actually accept that this world wasn't all bad after all...

Changing into something more suited for winter than his usual gear, or the bartender's get up he was still in, Jet went over to his partner's room, as he usually did, before the duo would head over to the restaurant for breakfast, and then over to the Teleport Gate, and up to the front lines on Floor 4. The usual, even if the weather was a bit more arctic than normal. Still, he had no doubt about his partner's mood today - so cheerful and sweet that you'd need a trip to the dentist afterwards, to deal with the inevitable cavities that would ensue. In fact, he'd been so sure of that fact that he'd bet a tenner on it. Unfortunately, he'd also made that bet with himself, so it held precisely no value whatsoever.

He was, in fact, spot on about the cheerful and sweet bit. What he hadn't expected however, was for his partner to open the door dressed in a Santa costume that left exactly the right amount to his imagination... which had now gone into overdrive. Unlike the connection between his brain and his mouth, which seemed to be running about as well as a Wi-Fi box in a blizzard... in Antarctica. What he thought, finally unraveling his feelings, was ''Holy crap, I'm in love with you, and want to spend the rest of my days with you.''... what came out however, was what could only be described as a stream of syllables. Individually, they'd make sense... combined, however - not so much. - ''Kuh... haa...''

''Not often I see you speechless!'' - Koharu grabbed her partner and pulled him into her room, before taking out a Record Crystal - ''Smile!'' - She leaned into him, pulling him into a hug, to fit into the fairly narrow frame of the crystal, whilst the still non-functional Jet stared slack jawed, at the crystal.