Fushigi Yuugi Fan Fiction ❯ Yui's Christmas Wish ❯ Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Fushigi Yugi. The original story and characters belong to Yu Watase. Any characters that did not appear in the original story are my own creation.

Rating: G

Notes: The story picks up shortly after the end of my last fanfic, "A Story Retold. If you haven't read "A Story Retold," you can still enjoy this one-shot fic, but make sure you read the info below first. (Warning: contains spoilers from the first story.)

Info to know: Yuiren is Yui's daughter. Like Tamahome, she has two selves, one who was born in the Universe of the Four Gods and one in the real world who has yet to be born. When Yui and Miaka left the book, Yui and her daughter had to be separated. Even though Yui knows she will see Yuiren again, she became very attached to her child while in the book and found it hard to leave her. Now all Yui wants for the holidays is to see her daughter again. Can Miaka make her best friend's dream come true? When you make your wish on a Christmas star, anything is possible.

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Christmas Wishes: Chapter 3
By Katrina Kadabra

Yui was awoken somewhat roughly the next morning by Miaka shaking her violently.

"Yui! Yui! Come on! Get up!" she said. "It's already quarter after seven! You want to waste the whole day in bed?!"

Yui sat up and tried to rub the drowsiness out of her eyes. Only quarter after seven. And what was Miaka babbling on about now?

"Come ON!" Miaka said again, this time yanking the warm blanket right off Yui's body. "It's Christmas Eve already! We've got to go to the mall, bake cookies, ect, ect…"

"Oh right," said Yui, finally standing up. She had almost forgotten. Everything they wanted to do today with Yuiren. And only until tonight to do it. Yui's mind raced as she quickly rummaged through her clothes to find something to wear. How were they ever going to do everything, she wondered. Yui shrugged her shoulders and sighed. It was Christmas, and here she was so uptight. They would have to just do what they could. The point was, she had the time with Yuiren, and she wasn't going to waste it.

"Yuiren," Yui said aloud. The name brought other thoughts to her head. "Miaka, you didn't wake her up already did you?"

"Sure I did, why?" Miaka asked. But before she had the chance to reply, Yui's daughter suddenly burst into the room, already dressed and ready to leave.

"Mama, are you awake now?" she said, jumping up and down. "Come on! Come on! It's Christmas! Miaka says you've got all this stuff to show me!"

"That's why," said Yui. She went over and patted Yuiren on the head. "I've got to get dressed right now, but Miaka will play with you until I'm ready."

"I'll do what?" Miaka asked.

"Oh, yah!" said Yuiren. She ran over and grabbed Miaka by the wrist, pulling as hard as she could towards the door. "Come on, Miaka! Come on!"

Miaka nodded and walked out the door, closing it behind her. Yui had to laugh to herself at the scene. Yuiren could sure be a handful, but she was a joy. Yui's thoughts drifted over all the past events. To think she would ever find herself in this position of being a parent, Yui would have scoffed at the idea a year ago. Now she guarded Yuiren as if it was second nature to her, and the thought of living of life without this little girl seemed empty.

Miaka's mother had been kind enough to let Yuiren stay the night along with Yui. Tetsuya still had work, so he would be coming along late tonight, so he said. Yui sighed and hurriedly threw off her pajamas. She had to get going. Yuiren would not wait long.

Miaka and Yui decided to visit the mall first, by way of the city bus. Like Tamahome when he had first arrived out of the book, Yuiren was totally fascinated by this machine that seemed to move so quickly and yet without any animal power at all. Yuiren stared spellbound out the window; she just couldn't keep her eyes moving fast enough.

"Your world... it's so amazing!" she gasped. Yui smiled and placed her hand on Yuiren's shoulders.

"That's just because you're here," she said.

When they arrived at the mall, Miaka quickly dragged Yui and Yuiren towards the center where Santa Claus was waiting to greet all the children here on the last day before Christmas.

"Come on! Let's go see Santa Claus!" said Miaka. Yui looked distastefully over at the line. It was atrocious to say the least.

"Miaka, there's got to be like a hundred people in a line," she objected. "We'll be waiting all day."

"You're not going to miss the one chance you have to take your daughter to see Santa, are you?" Miaka asked.

"Well, I, uh..." Yui tried to argue, but she wasn't doing a very good job. Yuiren tugged on her mother's coat.

"Who's Santa?" she asked. Miaka looked at Yuiren like the girl had gone insane.

"Only the coolest person ever!" she exclaimed. "You've just GOT to meet him!"

"Miaka, people are staring," Yui muttered, nudging Miaka in the side with her elbow. Miaka looked around her to find several of the shoppers had stopped to gaze at the girl whose booming voice was now echoing down the halls. Miaka sweatdropped. "Sorry."

Yui only laughed in response. "Silly Miaka. I think you're the one who wants to see Santa Claus." Miaka's sweatdropped grew larger and she kicked childishly at the floor. "Alright, let's get into line then," Yui said. Miaka's eyes lit up.

"You hear that, Yuiren?" she said, boosting the child onto her shoulders. "We're going to see Santa."

Yuiren waited unusually impatiently in line. Many of the other children her age were either whining that their legs hurt or they couldn't see, or something else. It was mostly the older ones who had complaints. The younger ones simply watching in wonder and enchantment at this thing called Christmas. Their eyes could not be deterred from the glistening stage at the front of the line.

As the trio waited, a few mall employees dressed appropriately as Santa's Christmas elves walked through the crowd, trying to stir some interest and excitement in the kids.

"Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!" they shouted, patting the small children on the head as they went by. Their outfits were elaborately decorated with tinsel and jingle bells, not to mention the pointy ears and red make-up smeared all over the nose.

"Sheesh, I'm glad I don't have to do an embarrassing job like that," Yui said.

"I think it would be fun!" Miaka replied. As one of the elves approached, Yui noticed he looked strangely familiar. Though it was hard to tell when this guy wasn't wearing his sunglasses.

"Tetsuya?!" Yui exclaimed. At the sound of his girlfriend calling his name, Tetsuya quickly turned around.

"Yui?" he asked. He pushed through the crowd a bit and made his way over to her. "What are you doing here?"

"Could ask you the same thing," Yui said, smiling as she looked over his outfit.

"Hey, I'm bringing Christmas cheer to all the little tykes out there," Tetsuya said very diplomatically. "It is my sworn duty as one of Santa's little helpers." Yui giggled. "Merry Christmas to you too," Tetsuya said. He looked over at the small child in Miaka's arms. "Hey, who's the kid?" he asked.

"That's Yuiren," Yui said. "My, um, close relative."

"She's cute," said Tetsuya, tickling Yuiren under the chin. Yuiren laughed and pushed his hand away. "So you guys waiting in line to see Santa?" he asked.

"Yes," Yui sighed. "And from the looks of the line, I'd say we'll be waiting for quite some time."

"Well..." said Tetsuya, looking over his mittened fingers in a business-like fashion. "If you ask me really nicely, I might just be able to get you in."

"Really?" Miaka asked excitedly.

"See, Santa's got lunch break from twelve to one. But he's usually back here by 12:45. If you get here a few minutes before that, there should be almost no line."

"Really?" Miaka asked again.

"Uh, yeah."

"Thanks so much, Tetsuya!" Yui said, reaching her arms around him and squeezing tight. "You're the best!" She turned to her daughter. "Come on, Yuiren, we're going to do a little bit of shopping first."

"Okay," Miaka lifted Yuiren on her shoulders and the small child walked over and took her mother's hand, or at least her fingers.

"We'll see you later, Tetsuya!" Yui said. "Bye!"

After a couple hours of Christmas shopping, and introducing Yuiren to the phenomena known as fast food restaurants, the trio returned to Santa's place. As Tetsuya had predicted, the line was almost gone, and they had only to wait a few minutes before Yuiren was finally allowed to step up to meet this large jolly man everyone had been talking about. Despite her excitement earlier, when Yuiren finally came face-to-face with the man in bring red suit, she suddenly turned her head and buried it in Yui's clothing.

"Yuiren," said Yui, kneeling down. "Come on, there's no reason to be scared. Santa's very nice."

Santa Claus was very warm and welcoming to the shy little newcomer. He reached into his pocket and pulled something out.

"For you," he said, holding it out. Yuiren curiously peered out to look at the object. It was a small red and white striped cane. Not quite sure what to make of the gift, she grasped the end of it and gazed up.

"Do you want to come sit on Santa's lap?" the man asked. Yuiren tightened her grip on the candy cane. He seemed nice enough to her.

"I'm right here," Yui said. "It's okay." Yuiren nodded and finally allowed Santa to pick her up and sit her down on his lap.

"Have you been a good girl this year?" he asked her. Yuiren shrugged her shoulders and looked back at her mother to see if she had the answer. Yui smiled and nodded so Yuiren turned back to Santa and nodded as well.

"I'm sure you have been wonderful," Santa said. "What would you like Santa to bring you for Christmas, little girl?"

"But you already gave me something," Yuiren replied, showing the candy cane in her hand. Yui giggled.

"Well," Santa stuttered, not quite sure what to make of that. "Would you like something else for Christmas? What if you could have anything you want?"

"Anything I want?" Yuiren asked, her eyes grew wide with disbelief. She thought long and hard for a few moments before finally answering, "I want Mama to be happy."

Yui gasped. The photographer took the opportunity to snap a picture of Yuiren on Santa's lap. But Yui was not thinking about photographs. If Yuiren could have any one wish, she wanted her mother to be happy. What did it mean?

"I'm sure she's already very happy with such a sweet girl as you," Santa replied, handing Yuiren back to her mother. "Merry Christmas!"