“Decorations are next,” Mai declared when they met an hour later. By now it was noon, with the party scheduled to begin at four in the afternoon. “Where do we get decorations?”
“We’ve got a lot,” interjected a voice. The girls looked up with twin looks of surprise.
“Captain Ukitake-san!” they cried.
“Hello, girls,” the white-haired captain replied, an easy-going grin on his face. He waved, as though his greeting wasn’t efficient by itself. “I found your note,” he said, digging around in his sleeve and extracting the slip of paper. “I thought I could help?”
“As long as you’re not straining yourself, that’d be great!” Mai chirped, grinning. The captain’s smile widened in response.
“Excellent. I’ll get my third seats to help me decorate the hall itself. Meanwhile, why don’t you girls decorate the entrances and set up some lanterns in the street?”
“Thank you!” the girls said in unison. They then followed Ukitake as he turned back towards his squad’s barracks.
It didn’t take long to get the supplies. Checking to make sure the coast was clear, Mai waved Captain Ukitake and his two third seats inside with their armfuls of Christmas decorations. They were immediately scurrying around the room, putting up strings of lanterns, streamers, things shiny or sparkly, (or both), white, red, green, silver and gold. The captain didn’t seem slowed in the least, and he had a constant smile, which was a nice sight to see.
“Alright, our turn, Mai,” Akiko said, evaluating the walls of the nearest entrance.
“Where to begin?”
“Saitou? Watanabe? What are you two doing here?” With simultaneous starts of surprise, the two girls looked up to see their captain, Hitsugaya, walking towards them with a confused look on his face.
“Captain!” Akiko exclaimed, ducking slightly behind Mai to hide the Christmas paraphernalia in her arms.
“The better question is, what are you doing here, Captain?” Mai asked, trying to distract him. He paused.
“I heard a commotion and thought I should check it out,” he replied, raising his eyebrows. “You two aren’t up to anything are you?”
“Nope!” Both said this.
“Okay, then, I guess I’ll go.” He turned and started walking away. Akiko lifted a Santa hat off the pile and went to pin it to the wall.
“Are you sure there’s nothing? I hear nois – Akiko, what’s that?” He’d turned back and was now staring at the fluffy red and white object in Akiko’s hand. Mai put on her best poker face, giving her captain a perfectly blank expression. Akiko stuffed the hat on her head.
“It’s my new hat!” she explained, as though it were obvious.
“Isn’t that a-”
“Nope!”
“Are you sure?”
“Yup!”
“Because it really looks like a-”
“It’s a fashion statement!”
“Oh. Well I guess that makes sense.” It didn’t make sense. Captain Hitsugaya just knew from experience that if Akiko didn’t want him to know something, he wouldn’t know, unless he had something to bargain with. He turned and left.
“That was a close one,” Mai huffed. Akiko wasn’t paying her any attention. Instead, she was covering the walls in decorations, humming a little tune to herself contentedly. All Mai could do was shrug, roll up her sleeves, and help her.
