Disclaimer: Characters & the original story belong to Studio Ghibli, I'm just letting my imagination mingle with theirs…

December 24, 1997...

The soft scratching of blades against ice muted out everything else in Shizuku's ears. At that moment, there was only herself and Seiji. Even surrounded by so many people, they were isolated in a moment of warm companionship. It would have been even better if Shizuku hadn't just fallen for the third time.

"You weren't kidding about being clumsy," Seiji said awkardly as he helped her to her feet, then brought her close to the wall of the ice rink so she could regain her balance. As she gripped the rail, Shizuku replied, "I tried to tell you! I can't even really ride your bike that well. I'm even worse here on the ice!" "But you've improved," Seiji told her, putting the silver lining on the situation. "Just a half hour ago, you couldn't even stand on your skates. We finished five laps around the rink just now - woah, easy!" Seiji caught Shizuku's elbow just as her foot betrayed her trust, preventing another fall. "I can't do this!" Shizuku insisted. Seiji only shook his head and replied, "For now, let's get a snack. Something hot to drink, too."

After the unseasonably warm day just a month or so back, the temperatures had promptly dropped to their frigid norms. Christmas was now only one sleep away, but it looked like there would be no snow. Shizuku was thankful for that - in typical bookworm fashion, she was the indoor-loving type who did their best to avoid uncomfortable temperatures, and that meant snow was definitely off the list. But that hadn't stopped Seiji from bringing her out for a Christmas Eve date.

The donut shop had Christmas themed snacks for sale, but Shizuku settled for a French cruller covered in chocolate and filled with whipped cream. Seiji preferred a plain honey-dipped donut, but both of them chose hot tea to pair with their choices.

"Is Italian hard?" she had asked Seiji as their snacktime began, and that had set him to talking about his independent Italian studies. Shizuku didn't mind; she always enjoyed listening to him talk passionately about his violin making, and this was no different. Once in a while she prompted him with questions, hoping she was some help, and he even pulled out a set of flip-cards to answer some of them for her. 'I wonder if I should try to learn Italian too,' she wondered. Maybe then she could write to Seiji in Italian and surprise him.

"That reminds me," Seiji said, halting in his recitation of days of the week. "My travel dates are set. I'm leaving two days after graduation."

Shizuku stood up in shock. "That soon?!"

"Now calm down," Seiji urged, waving a hand at her to sit down. "That's still three months away. We have time to figure things out."

She sat back down. He was right, of course. They had to nail down his approach toward her parents. Dating was generally discouraged among students, for the sake of their studies, so they were already walking on thin ice. "You know, you never did say what you'd do about your family," Shizuku ventured with a bit of worry.

Seiji ducked his head. "I'm really not inclined to care what my family thinks about this... Even if I end up having to come back and go to high school after all, I don't want my choice of bride to be in their power, too."

Both of them sat silently for a moment. Their cheeks still turned quite pink whenever they were discussing the topic at hand. Shizuku kept from fiddling with her hands by wrapping them around the warm teacup. "Should we just wait until graduation day?" she wondered aloud. "Maybe they would ease into it better..."

"And maybe they'd just take it for 'the frivolity of youth'," Seiji replied. "I actually feel antsy about this. I'd rather they know sooner than later."

Shizuku nodded in agreement, still rotating her teacup in her palms. She understood where he was coming from - she had no idea how her parents were going to take the news, but it was probably better if they just took the plunge. "We can do it after the New Year, can't we?" she asked. "Get the hustle and bustle out of the way and then sit down with them?"

"That's probably best," he said with a nod, and took another swig of his tea. The steam was dying off from both of their drinks now, and their treats were long since devoured. "Are you sure you don't want to try skating again?" he asked.

"No way," she insisted. "I've had enough skating to last me a lifetime. I bet the bruises don't disappear until after the New Year!"

Seiji smirked. "Then I'll meet with your parents after they're gone."

"What?!"

He laughed at her confused expression, and she harangued him in return as they finished their tea.

It had started to get dark already, and as they rode the train, Shizuku could see some of the Christmas lights start to pop into existence. Between that long distance viewing and the jostling of the rails, she was able to stay awake in spite of the exhaustion from her skating mishaps. She had thought she'd go right home once she got off the train, but surprisingly, Seiji had one more stop to make. In the Seiseki-Sakuragaoka station was a bookstore, an ordinary shop. Shizuku had passed it before, in favor of simply going to the library - her bookshelfs at home were almost full as it was.

It was into the bookstore that Seiji coaxed her, and at the front desk he gave his name. As it turned out, he had found and ordered for her the very book that he'd first caught her attention with - a book of fairy tales, of course - and though Shizuku protested the sudden Christmas gift, she couldn't help but grin happily.

Now they were ready to head home. It was a short walk to her family's apartments, and Seiji insisted on seeing her there. But while her subconscious noted the expected absence of moths from the wall lamps, Shizuku was also noticing a strange change in his demeanor, almost stiff and put off. Even in the bookstore he'd seemed a bit distant. She wondered if she'd done something to upset him on the train. As they mounted the steps, she asked him outright, "Are you thinking about something?"

"No, I'm fine," he claimed, avoiding her direct gaze.

'Then what?' she puzzled, and was sure she'd be left without an answer. But at the second to last stairwell, he suddenly stopped.

She took her foot off of the next step and turned back to him. "Seiji?"

"I... can I kiss you?" he blurted out.

Shizuku felt her cheeks flush against the cold air. "What?!"

"I want to kiss you," Seiji said again, with a little more determination. "I might... we might not get another chance before I have to leave." His face was reddening too, in the stairwell's light.

"You can't just ask something like that!" Shizuku scolded him. "It's supposed to be romantic!"

"I'm not worried about 'romantic', I'm worried about timing!"

"It's the same thing!"

Both of them fell into a stubborn and awkward silence, neither wanting to lose face. Shizuku started counting the puffs of breath she saw in the air to distract herself as she waited for him to say something, although she was perfectly aware he was waiting for the same thing.

Finally he muttered, "I was trying to be polite..."

That was it? He wanted to be courteous about a kiss? The absurdity of the notion forced Shizuku to crack a smile, and she struggled to hold back the laughter that wanted to follow it. "You're so corny sometimes," she told him. Then she added, "But I think I like that about you." Their eyes met again, and she shuffled closer to him. "Go on, then," she said, and with her cheeks aflame, she inclined her head and offered herself up to be kissed.

She had no way to witness his approach, having closed her eyes, and after five seconds she started to fear he'd chickened out. But then she felt the cool dry lips press stiffly against hers, almost pinching her upper lip against her teeth, and she also felt how he'd stooped slightly to meet her. In reply, she lifted herself up onto the balls of her feet just a little, to make it easier on him.

He had kissed her only once before, that morning when he'd asked her about marriage. It hadn't even been on the lips. 'So this is a kiss,' she thought to herself, and immediately decided that her sole internal thought had sounded just as corny as he had.

When the pressure of his lips disappeared, she allowed herself to open her eyes. He was still there, looking at her almost expectantly. The awkward silence reappeared, and a distinct new tension hung between them, daring them to break eye contact. Instead, Shizuku suddenly inclined her head again. Seiji picked up on the motion, and met her in the middle for a second try. This one was just as stiff as the first, but somehow it felt more natural to Shizuku to close her eyes and experience it.

The second kiss held only a few seconds longer than the first one, and they broke it more reluctantly. Shizuku couldn't stop herself from smiling sheepishly, her heart thudding in her ears and her face still burning. She saw his Adam's apple bob slightly at his throat as he swallowed, and he asked, "Well?"

And just like that, the tension dissipated, and left Shizuku oddly crestfallen. "What do you mean, 'well'?" she replied, and felt her red face start to cool. "You're not supposed to ask something like that after a kiss!"

"What am I supposed to say, then?" he said in exasperation.

"Anything but that!" she insisted, a pout tugging at her mouth.

"Fine, next time I'll say you kiss like a monkey!"

"I do not!" The silly threat did its job though, and her denial died away, to be reborn as giddy giggles. He started to laugh too, and they left the awkwardness behind in the stairwell as they continued on to her family's apartment.

Seiya and Asako were confused as to why their daughter was so quiet at dinner. Not only did she barely touch her plate, but she kept making soft little sighing sounds. "I had a snack earlier," Shizuku admitted, not realizing that her full plate wasn't the thing giving her away. Still, neither her father nor mother pushed the issue, and Shizuku was permitted to excuse herself to her room.

She slid the door shut and leaned against it heavily. That was her first kiss. It had been... well, it was no fairy tale kiss, for sure. For some reason, Shizuku had been expecting something more. What more meant, though, she couldn't quite put her finger on.

What she did know was this: it made her want to write.

As soon as she slipped into her seat, the pencil practically flew into her hand, and the notebook she'd started to write her blurbs in opened up hungrily. The words scattered like soot sprites over the pages, and for a full twenty minutes she wrote. She wrote about cliche confessions, tearful partings, happy reunions, and searing kisses. And when her pencil lead thought it must catch fire from pure friction and speed, she stopped.

She leaned back in her chair and stared at her ceiling blankly. She felt like an egg that had just had its contents cracked into a bowl, and now she was left a hollow shell with no substance. A deep, decompressing sigh escaped her nose, and then she chewed at the inside of her cheek, trying to reconnect with reality. Mid-chew, she lifted up her head and looked at the notebook. What had she even written?

She coaxed herself to sit forward and began to read her blurbs. It only took a minute or two of reading to close the notebook firmly. 'Very corny,' she decided. 'No one must ever know.' With that, she opened her bottom drawer and shoved the notebook into the back, intending to keep it away from the light of day until she felt brave enough to revisit its contents.

A/N: This chapter is brought to you by Twelve Shots of Summer - without their fun and encouraging prompts, this might have taken even longer to evolve. Thanks, T-saucers!