Look who it is! almost 4 months later...... my bad. I think this is the longest chapter to date, so I hope you enjoy!

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"Phew" you wiped the counter clean once more as another set of customers left the shop. It was empty at the moment so you had nothing to do until someone else came in.

It was lightly snowing outside again, the thought of your bike getting stuck in the snow wasn't too appealing so you prayed that it wouldn't get any heavier, driving on icy roads was already hard enough.

You pulled out your phone and scrolled through your texts. Tonight you were sleeping over at the quints place again, it was the first time in a while but you were excited. After work you would go home and get clothes and whatever to stay tonight and on Christmas night.

Nino had sent you a picture of her clean room where you would be sleeping. It was undecided if you were going to sleep on the floor or in bed with her but only time would tell.

There was lots of hustle and bustle outside the shop windows as people were doing their last minute shopping for Christmas. Someone as responsible as yourself already did your shopping earlier in the month, but with all 5 sisters, Fuutaro and Raiha needing to be bought for, you were ever more appreciative that you landed this job because you're bank account was taking some mega damage.

The shop remained surprisingly quiet until it was time for you to close up. Your manager even gave you a little bonus for being willing to work on Christmas Eve which was cool.

As you locked the shop up you began to walk to your motorcycle while calling Nino.

"Hello?"

"Hey Babe, I just finished up work. I'm going home to grab some things first and then I'll be over"

"Okay, we'll see you soon!"

"Is everyone there?"

"Yeah, all 5 of us"

"Great, I'll see you soon. Love you"

"Love you too" you hear her smooch over the phone which made you laugh.

She hangs up and you pocket your phone. "First stop.. home, then to the girls"

You'd actually gotten each of the girls a present. You'd all agreed that you were going to open them tomorrow in the morning. It had been a hell of a long time since you opened presents with a bunch of others. You also had to drop off Fuutaro and Raiha's presents but you were gonna do that sometime in the afternoon tomorrow.

"God it's cold..." you shiver as you slip on your gloves and take a seat on your bike.

You start the engine and begin to soar down the road.

----------

40 minutes later...

"Oh, good evening Y/N!" The pentagon receptionist calls out as you arrive at the building.

"Hey! how are you?" you lean on the desk.

"It's business as usual even on Christmas Eve" she frowned. "Are you seeing your girlfriend tonight?" she asked.

"I'm sleeping over"

"B-But don't 5 girls live up there!?" she questioned.

"He'll be fine" another voice entered the conversation from behind,. it was the cool ass Security Guard. "He's a man in his element"

"Exactly" you agreed, crossing your arms.

"Boys will be boys... no matter how old they are.." she facepalmed while simultaneously looking between you two.

You laughed and waved them goodbye as you headed up to the Quintuplets apartment.

---------

*Knock Knock*

The door swung upon almost immediately. It was Nino standing on the other side.

"Hey bab-"

Nino jumped into you for a hug, completely cutting off your greeting.

"Someone's excited to see me" you chuckled as you hugged her back.

"Sorry" she smiles as she breaks the hug and stands back on her own two feet. "It just feels like I haven't seen you in a while"

"It's only been a couple days" you remind her as you run a hand through her hair.

She smiles at you. "Well, come in!" she grabs your hand and drags you inside. The other girls are all together.

"Hey girls" you take a seat on the sofa and lean back

"Someone's making themselves at home" Miku remarks.

"That's nothing to say to the guy who's brought you some presents" you say as you shake the bag you were carrying.

The girls all suddenly take interest.

"Charming. Don't open them until tomorrow morning. I got each of you a little something"

"Thank you Y/N" Itsuki says, "you can put them under the tree" she points towards their Christmas tree by their stairs.

You comply and place each of the presents under the tree. Each one was wrapped in a different colour.

"So how was work" Nino grabbed your hand and led you to sit on the sofa with everyone else.

"Quiet, which was good. I just want to enjoy myself until the new year"

"Did you bring everything you need to stay the night?" Ichika asks.

"Yeah, speaking of which. I want to change into my PJ's already"

Miku looks at you as if you're dumb. "But... you would have been in your uniform. Yet you went home and changed.... just to get here and change into Pyjamas?"

"So?" you raised an eyebrow. "You want me to face the December cold in PJ's?"

"you can change in my room" Nino spoke up as she led you upstairs to her room.

"There they go..." you hear Yotsuba of all people say as you go upstairs with your girlfriend.

You enter Nino's room and she shuts the door behind you both.

"You want me to change in front of you?" you laugh.

Nino again runs into your arms and plants a kiss onto your lips. It caught you so off guard you toppled backwards onto her bed.

"N-Nino!" you cried out.

"Shut up!"

What the hell was happening

Nino sat up as you laid down, she sat just below your stomach, making some areas of the body dangerously close to each other.

"I-Is this your Dominatrix Arc?"

She leans down and kisses you again, basically laying herself on top of you.

"I-I'm just so happy to see you" she confesses.

"I'm happy to see you too. But slow down for a second" you plea

Nino sits back up. "You have to have some real good self control to not completely lose yourself at your beautiful girlfriend on top of you" she smirked.

"I guess I do" you replied.

"You've always been like this..." she smiled sweetly.

"Yeah. But you love it don't you?"

"Idiot" she smiles as she rolls next to you on the bed.

She wraps her arms around you and hugs you tight.

"I'm glad you're here" she says with her face pressed against you.

"I'm glad not to be spending Christmas alone for once"

"That, and I mean in general, I'm glad I met you" she smiles at you.

"Never would have guessed that the Tsundere I met a few months back would be the most adorable thing in the world giving me a hug...."

"S-Shut up! I was trying to have a moment!" she barks.

"Sorry" you laugh. "anyway, do you mind looking away, I wanna get changed"

"But I want to look...." she pouts.

You shoot her a look and she complies, turning around to face the wall.

"Hey so....." she begins to say as you take off your shirt.

"?"

"Was I really that much of a Tsundere?"

"Was?" you laugh

"Shut up! Answer the question!"

"You were a huge Tsundere. Like you were not honest with your feelings at all"

Nino laughs slightly. You slip on your PJ top.

"Good thing I like Tsunderes" you say

"But what about now?"

"Well you're not as Tsun as before, but it shines through every now and then, but I do prefer you now if that's what you really wanted to hear"

"You figure me out too quickly, it's honestly annoying.... Are you done yet?"

You finish changing as soon as she says that.

"Yeah. I'm available for your eyes to feast on"

Nino turns around to face you. "Finally. You take longer than Ichika!"

"I don't think there's a single person in the world who takes longer to change than Ichika" you laugh.

Nino opens the door to her room. "Let's go back downstairs"

"Lead the way" you say as she grabs hold of your hand.

"By the way" you turn to Nino as you walk downstairs. "Are you going to be cooking the entire Christmas dinner?"

"That's the plan" she replies

"Isn't that like... A truck ton of food. You're cooking for 6 this year"

"are you worried about me?" she teases with a cute smile on her face.

"Just don't overwork yourself, that's all... "

She kisses you on the cheek. "Who's the Tsundere now?"

You sigh. "Shut up. Can a boyfriend not care about his girlfriend?"

"No, you can. I appreciate it" Nino smiles. "But don't worry. The girls help me with the smaller tasks involved, it's not 100% me"

"That's good then" you say satisfied.

"There you both are" Ichika calls out.

"Sorry for the wait"

"It's fine, It's not like we're really doing anything"

We both joined everyone else on the sofa.

As you sit down, you only now notice their Christmas Tree

"How did I never see that..." you say looking at the towering plant in awe.

"Yeah..." Yotsuba bashfully rubs her head, "It took us ages to decorate it"

"We even had to put Itsuki on Yotsuba's shoulders to reach the top" Miku added.

"Really?" you laughed.

"Yeah here" Miku shows you a picture she took on her phone of Yotsuba desperately grabbing Itsuki's ankles as she tried to put the star on top of the tree. Nino was sitting idly by in the picture as was Ichika.

"You two really seemed to be carrying your weight in the situation." you said sarcastically. That earned you mean look from Ichika and a cheek pinch from your girlfriend.

"Miku was just laughing at taking pictures the entire time! So don't try and single us out!" Nino argued.

"She's lying" Miku bluntly countered.

"Not on Christmas Eve guys..." Yotsuba said in an attempt to diffuse the situation before the inevitable storm came.

Nino stood up off of you lap and marched over to where Miku was sitting, towering over her. Miku stared back up at her, not intimidated by her older sisters position.

"Are you idiots really gonna do this on Christmas eve?" you shout

Nino's attention flips back toward you. She crosses her arms and pouts, Miku does the same. Quintuplets....

"C'mere" you outstretch your arms for Nino to return to her place on your lap.

"I do have to say though, you guys did a good job on decorating this place no matter who actually put in the work for it to look like this"

"Did you decorate your house Y/N?" Yotsuba asked.

"I put a little tree on the windowsill in my room, that's about it"

"So you put in less effort than us..." Miku said under her breath.

"I heard that!"

Everyone laughed.

--------

The hours passed as you and the Quints talked about random things, people were starting to get tired eventually however, the plan was to have everyone up and downstairs by 10am. It was decided that it was time for everyone to go to sleep, it was a big day tomorrow so it was best to rest as much as possible.

After you said goodnight to all of the other girls, you and Nino went up to her room.

"Do you really not mind sleeping on the floor?" Nino questioned

"I told you, it's fine babe" you reassured her with a head pat. "Unless you have a rat or something living under you bed I think I'll be fine"

Nino crosses her arms. "What kind of girl has a rat under her bed!?"

"Miku probably"

Nino let's out a reluctant chuckle. "Shut up, don't talk bad about my sister"

You lay out the Futon on her floor and pat it down. "Looks comfy" You take a seat on top of the futon and feels it's softness below you.

Nino is looking down at you as she sits on the side of the bed. She flashes a mischievous smile.

"What are you planning?"

"Nothing" she coyly responds

"Ichika would be put to shame with your acting"

Nino looks directly into your eyes and crosses one leg over the other, dangling her foot in front of your face. "Massage"

You cock an eyebrow and look up at her. "What?"

"You heard me"

"No chance"

Nino does a circle with her ankle. "I know you want to"

"This really is your dominatrix arc huh?"

"Maybe It is" she teases.

"Well as happy as I am to hear that. This isn't what I had in mind"

She retracts her foot. "I really thought you would do it" she smiled.

"How down bad do you think I am?"

"For me? terribly down bad"

"Maybe so, but you have it even worse for me"

"No I do not!" she cutely protested.

You both laugh at the stupidness of this conversation.

Nino checks her phone. "Oh"

"What is it?"

She puts her phone down and joins you on the floor. She grabs a hold of your face and pulls you into a kiss. "Merry Christmas"

"Merry Christmas" you kiss her back.

Nino stands back up and worms her way under her covers.

You stretch and then get in the your futon.

"Goodnight, I love you" Nino sweetly smiles as she looks down at you.

"I love you too, goodnight Nino" you reply.

Nino flashes a smile that makes your heart melt before she turns over in her bed.

You can hear her breathing getting softer and softer and that makes you more tired as a result. before you know it you can feel your eyelids getting heavy as you slowly drift off to sleep.

---------

CHRISTMAS DAY

You rub your eyes as a big yawn escapes your mouth.

"mmm Good morning Nino..." you manage to say.

Looking over to the bed however, Nino was nowhere to be found, you panicked for a moment and your eyes shot open. But then you suddenly felt some resistance on your shirt.

At some point in the night, Nino had left her bed and slept next to you on the floor. She was cuddled against your side still peacefully sleeping. She brought her blanket and put it over the bother you while using some pillows underneath her as a makeshift mattress, this girl was too cute.

"Y/N..." she softly murmurs in her sleep.

Not having her long hair be brushing against you was nice. Her short hair look had grown on you by this point, she looked more mature now but way more cute.

You began to softly stroke her hair and she reflexively held onto you slightly tighter. The faint sound of shuffling was audible downstairs. At least one person was awake now. Scrambling for your phone, you manage to turn it on but the screen is a miniature flashbang this soon after waking up.

"9:09"

Nino seemed comfortable where she was so you held onto her for now, it was Christmas so there was no rush.

How the hell did you get such a beautiful girlfriend? It still totally boggled your mind to this day, she was literally a 10/10 in every manner and somehow you pulled her. Last year you sat miserably in your house in the morning wishing yourself a Merry Christmas, now things were different and you were happy. An actually merry Christmas for the first time in a while.

Your phone vibrates on your chest, a message from Fuutaro wishing you a Merry Christmas. Smiling at it is inevitable.

The plan was to go and deliver his and Raiha's presents sometime today but before that you needed get out of the clutches of sleeping beauty here....

You laid in peace with Nino for a while longer until you started to hear more frequent noises and the shuffling of feet outside. It was probably time to wake her up...

You gently shook her. "Nino..." you whispered. She grumbled a little bit but fell back into silence. Her breathing was steady and it was the only noise filling the room.

"Ni~no" you brushed her cheek with a finger. She reacted a bit more and here eyes slightly opened.

"Rise and Shine Ribbons"

"D-Don't.... call me...that" she groggily said. Her face twisted and stretched as she began to wake up. "What time is it?" she yawned.

"9:57"

Nino blew her hair out of her face and pouted. "I wanted to sleep some more"

"Tough luck buttercup" you stand up and offer her a hand.

"That was horrible" she giggled as she takes your hand.

The both of you get change into some regular clothes and head downstairs.

"Everyone's here but Ichika... how predictable" you sighed.

"It is Ichika after all" Miku said.

"Can you guys go and wake her up?" Itsuki asked you both, to which you agreed and promptly headed up to Ichika room and almost kicked the door down.

"Ichika! Wake up!" Nino sternly shouted as she flung open the door to her sister's room.

The noise of the door slamming open echoed throughout the apartment, Nino stood with her feet firmly planted on the ground, arms crossed looking down at her sister.

Ichika recoiled at the noise, she begins to sit up and you notice she's not wearin-

"No" Nino promptly covers your eyes with one of her hands. now all you saw was darkness.

"What a good girlfriend you are~" Ichika laughs as she lets out a loud yawn.

"Just get up! with have things to be preparing!" Nino taps her foot.

"Yes Ma'am" Ichika scratches her head and begins to get out of bed.

"And put some clothes on!!" Nino orders her before dragging you by hand out of Ichika's room.

She takes her hand off over your eyes and you can finally see the light again, "What are you looking at me like that for?" Nino pouts.

A small laugh escapes from your mouth as you smile at her. "Dummy" she says before going back downstairs.

Yotsuba emerges from her room as soon as you pass her bedroom door.

"Oh Y/N! Perfect!" Yotsuba glows.

"There a problem?"

"I need your help to carry my presents downstairs... if you don't mind"

You smile. "No problem" Yotsuba gives you a few presents and she follows you downstairs.

There were a lot of presents under the tree, a scary amount, everyone had got a present for everyone else in the apartment so there were around 30 presents in total.

"Ever thought of investing in a sleigh?"

Yotsuba laughs as she sets down a few more presents. "This is going to take forever to get through..." she says

"Well we have like the whole day after we eat so there's no rush"

Yotsuba notices you glancing at the big clock on the wall

"Are you going to head to Uesugi's now?"

You grab your bag which you left by the sofa.

"Yeah. I could fit Fuutaro and Raiha's presents in here luckily so I should be good to just go. I'll probably only be an hour"

"Okay Y/N, have fun!" Yotsuba says as she skips over to Miku and Itsuki.

The sounds of a door opening upstairs means Ichika has finally decided to join everyone.

"Y/N, Y/N!" you hear call out to you from the kitchen

Nino does a twirl, showing off her apron for you. She looked like a true housewife.

"I could get used to this look" you tease her.

"Maybe you will far into the future, if you can keep me for long enough"

You smile at her rebuttal. "Trust me, I plan on it"

Nino laughs "Idiot.."

"Are you starting the food now?"

She looks back at the kitchen. "Yeah" she let's out an exaggerated sigh. "It's gonna be a lot of work..."

"Well, you have 4 sisters with a combined total of 8 hands so I'm sure the job will get done. I'll even help you when I get back"

Nino can't help but smile, she interlocks her hands behind her back and leans forward. "I'll be counting on you then, dar~ling!" she says in a sultry tone.

You can feel your face getting hotter by the second "Don't do that in this outfit..."

Nino laughs. Knowing that she scored a point on the invisible teasing tally.

Moving towards the door, you turn back to Nino. "I'll be back in an hour or so most likely"

Nino smiles at you. "Chu" she blows a kiss and winks.

"Fuck, I love this girl" you mutter to yourself as you make your exit.

-----------

15 Minutes later

"Ah! Y/N-onii chan!!" a cute excited voice shouted out as the door opened before you.

"Heya sport" you knelt down and pinched Raiha's cheeks. "Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas!" she smiled back, she pretty much dragged you inside.

Fuutaro and his dad were both just sitting down talking.

"Yo" you greeted the both of them

"Yo" Fuutaro waved back.

"Hey Kid, nice of you to drop by" their dad Isanari said.

"I did last year, so I might as well start making it tradition. If you don't mind of course"

"Y/N you know you're always welcome here, you're like a long lost nephew to me" Isanari laughed

"Thanks I appreciate that" you smiled.

"So what brings you here, unfortunately we don't have enough food for you" Isanari said.

"Nothing but a short visit. I have somewhere I have to be soon"

"Where?" Fuutaro asked

"I'm eating with the girls. It's better than eating alone in my house like I usually do"

"Good point" Fuutaro laughed.

"Hey Hey! Y/N!" Raiha excitedly called you.

"Yeah?"

"Come check out what I'm cooking!"

"Sure thing" you indulge her.

Raiha was actually a pretty good cook, not Nino level but probably second best of anyone you knew, way better than Fuutaro would probably be...

"Damn Raiha, this looks really good" you rubbed her head.

She proudly put her hands on her hips and accepted the praise. This girl was too cute for your heart to handle sometimes.

"So how's school going Raiha?"

"Good! My grades are improving thanks to big brother!" she looked over at Fuutaro who was having a conversation with his dad.

"That's great to hear"

"Hey Y/N-Onii chan! I heard you got a cool motorbike"

"Oh yeah, I did. Want me to take you for a ride on it sometime?"

"Am I even allowed?" Raiha questioned.

"Good point. If you can, I'll take you somewhere sometime"

Raiha grinned and hugged you.

"Woah. It's no problem sport. I'll always be here for ya" you hugged her back. "One of these days I'll bring you out to an arcade or something, how does that sound?"

Raiha's eyes were sparkling "That sounds like fun Y/N-onii chan!"

She released herself and went back to preparing the food. So you went and sat with Fuutaro and Isanari.

"So how's the job going so far?" Fuutaro asked.

"Pretty good. Business is flowing. You gotta come by sometime. I say that to both of you"

"When I get some time to"

"It's a good place to study man, even Itsuki got some stuff done a few days ago and she said she'd come again in the new year.

"Itsuki's the one that came over before right?" Isanari asked Fuutaro.

"Yeah, the most annoying sister..." he grumbled.

"Oh come on, don't say that" you laughed.

"So who is the most annoying then?"

"I'm not answering that"

"You can't answer that can you because then Nino would kill you right?" Fuutaro smirked.

"Nino?" Isanari asked.

"oh, ummm. My girlfriend, Itsuki's sister Nino"

Immediately a smile appears on the mans face.

"Dad" Fuutaro stopped him "Don't start"

Isanari closed his mouth. "Well I'm happy for you Y/N. You just have to get him a girlfriend next!" he laughed while slapping Fuutaro's back.

"I don't have an interest in that type of thing" Fuutaro said as he flipped a page in his book.

"I didn't even notice until now but, are you seriously studying on Christmas dude?"

"So what?"

"So. It's Christmas Day. There's snow everywhere outside, let's go chuck snowballs at each other outside!" you try to encourage him.

Fuutaro seemingly debates it for a moment.

"Fine then" you say before he comes to an answer. "Raiha! do you want to go and play in the snow?" you call out to her.

"Really!?" she asks excited as she runs up to you.

"Why not? It'll be fun" you answer. "Is that okay?" you turn and ask Isanari.

"If she's fine with it then so am I. I'll keep a watch on the food Raiha so you go and enjoy yourself"

Raiha literally jumps for joy and runs to grab her coat.

"If you feel up for it. Join us outside" you nudge Fuutaro.

"I'm ready Y/N-onii chan!" Raiha waved as she stood at the door.

"Alright alright, I'm coming" you laughed.

Outside the world was covered in white. Snow was practically everywhere you looked.

"Watch your step Raiha" you hold onto her hand as you walk over to an empty area near the house.

Raiha scoops up a snowball in her hand and backs up. Without remorse she hurls the snowball in your direction and it hit you square in the face.

"GAH-!" you recoiled. Raiha was laughing at your expense, you could already see her preparing another snowball as you were wiping the damage off of your face.

"Oh, so that's how this is gonna be!" you challenge her as you begin to scoop together a ball of snow. Naturally your snowballs were bigger but even so, you didn't want to hurt Raiha.

"Take this!" you shout as you lob a snowball at Raiha. It scrapes by the side of her coat. "Shit" you say reflexively

"Was that a swear?"

"Shit..." you say again on accident.

Raiha laughs. "How about we build a snowman Y/N-onii chan?" she says as she already begins rolling a ball of snow.

Her enthusiasm was definitely unrivalled.

She rolls a ball of snow in your direction and you help her push it to gather more snow, eventually you have a pretty good base for the snowman.

"Raiha, do you have anything inside we could use for a nose and eyes?"

She cutely puts a finger to her chin before she exclaims and dashes inside.

You begin rolling what will turn out to be the head of the snowman, your hands were starting to get cold in the gloves but this was worth it for Raiha.

She soon runs back outside with a carrot in hand, at the same time she swipes a couple of stones off of the ground and brings them to you.

"Here!"

"Good job kiddo" you pat her head. "Help me put the head on the Snowman first"

Raiha does as instructed and helps you lift the snowman's head onto it's body.

She dusts off her hands, or snows off? whatever and grabs the carrot and firmly jabs it into the poor snowman's face.

An idea strikes you as you grab a couple of long sticks for the arms and a couple of shorter sticks for another purpose.

Raiha looks on at your curiously as you put the arms of the snowman on but still have 2 sticks left over.

"Can you put the eyes on the snowman for me Raiha?" She complies and places the eyes in. Taking it one step further, you adjust the two sticks you're holding above the snowman's eyes.

"Don't you thin k it kind of looks like your brother?" you nudge Raiha.

She begins laughing a lot, essentially cackling.

"What the hell is all the noise?" a third voice booms out.

You couldn't help but laugh of the sight at big brother Fuutaro appear out of nowhere in a puffer jacket.

"and what the hell are you laughing at?" he scowled.

Raiha was still laughing and it caused Fuutaro to take notice of his snowy likeness that we created.

"Are you serious?" he deadpans at us both.

"Oh come on man! where's that Christmas spirit?"

"It dosen't even look like me, this is so dumb" he frowns.

A snowball connects with Fuutaro's back. Raiha is standing there armed with snow ammo.

Fuutaro's face screws up but then he smiles deviously and begins mass gathering snow.

"Raiha! he's gonna attack!" you call out.

She runs to your side and the snowball war begins. For what feels like hours on the battlefield, snowballs are being lobbed and blasted between the three of you. Fuutaro was surprisingly accurate.

"H-Hey! Raiha!"

She grabbed onto you from behind and used you as a human shield which got you gunned down by the incoming fleet of snowballs.

After you spat the snow out of your mouth, the three of you went back inside to warm up.

"Oh. I almost forgot somehow" you reach into your bag and bring out a present for Fuutaro and Raiha.

You got Fuutaro that cool pen you talked with Miku about and for Raiha, you got her a stuffed animal she saw in an arcade one time when she was with you and Fuutaro. But because you were such a softie for her, you slipped in some sweets and money into her present too.

For a little while longer, you talked with the family before the creeping realisation that you had to get back to the Quintuplets place.

As you put your shoes on to leave, Raiha runs up to you and hugs you.

"Hey sport, everything okay?"

"mmhmm" she says cheerily. "Thank you for the gifts"

You rustle her hair, "Anytime"

"Hey Fuutaro, by the way are you doing anything on New Years?" you say to him as he approaches you at the door.

"We're going to our grandpa's so we're busy for the day"

Disappointed but understandable. "Hmm, okay. Well then I'll probably see you next year!"

"Dumbass" he fist bumps you and you wave goodbye to Isanari and Raiha.

"Don't crash!" he calls out.

You flip him off as you put your helmet on, then begin your ride back to the apartment.

---------

"Honey I'm home"

"I'm not your honey." Miku glares at you as she opens the door to see you.

"I thought you'd be Nino"

"I wished you were Fuutaro"

"Fair enough" you shrug.

Miku moves aside for you to enter the apartment, immediately the smell of food captivates your nostrils. Nino was in the kitchen cooking.

"Itsuki! Are the vegetables cut yet?" she shouted

"A-Almost!" Itsuki nervously responded as she frantically cut the vegetables.

"She's really into it huh?"

"When you have to cook for 6, you work hard" Miku responded.

"Are you helping?"

Miku looks away. You sigh and grab her by the arm. "Come on" you lead her over to the kitchen.

"Oh Y/N!" Itsuki says as she approaches the both of you. Itsuki was holding a large knife and looked ready to cry.

"I got this one to help" you shake Miku by the arm. Nino on the other hand hadn't even noticed your arrival, she was busy in her own world. "Is she being tough on you?" you ask Itsuki.

She looks at her older sister, "No, I know she just wants to get this right so I understand her bossiness is going to come back out, but this is still super stressful"

"Take a break for now, I'll do your share of the work"

"And mine?" Miku tries to add in.

"No"

She pouts.

"But you're our guest Y/N" Itsuki says.

"Just let me handle it, you go and relax for a bit"

Itsuki complies and goes up to her room, leaving you, Nino and Miku in the kitchen.

"Nino!" you call out to her, she dosen't even flinch or take notice, she was just in her own world.

"Nino!" Miku tries to call out in a quieter voice than yours.

"Screw this" you approach Nino from behind and hug her from behind.

Her ears go red and she jumps, luckily she wasn't holding onto anything. She swivels around and sees you.

"Y/N!? how long have you been here?" she turns her full attention to you.

"Nice of you to notice me" you say sarcastically as you kiss her.

"Sorry..." she frowned which kind of made you feel bad. "I'm just focused is all babe"

"Seems like it's coming along pretty smoothly though..." you say taking a look at what she was cooking.

"Mmhmm" she smiles. "After we eat, we can do the presents and stuff"

"Oh? you actually got me a present?"

"Of course I did dummy" she boops your nose. "What kind of girlfriend would I be if I didn't"

For the next while, you aided Nino in the kitchen with cooking, her bossiness didn't rub you in a bad way. Both of you worked to get the food done, the other girls also lent a hand it preparing everything, it took an entire hour for all of it to be done.

Ichika had the duty of setting the table as everyone else helped to bring the mountain of food in.

When everyone was finally settled, the quintuplets clasped their hands together and did a small prayer for their mother, you did the same as them.

The first to attack the food was Itsuki, she went into a frenzy with the amount she ate. You had a large plate too because this food looked insanely good.

Over the course of the next hour or so, the 6 of you ate, laughed, talked and just had a great time. It felt like the most semblance of family you'd felt in a while.

"Holy shit.... I'm full..." you groan out, rubbing your stomach with a hand.

"Considering how much you ate, you gave even Itsuki a run for her money" Miku laughed.

"S...Shut up" you tried to argue back.

Nino pats your head like how a mother would do to their child, comforting you.

"Itsuki... how are you doing?"

She looks dead. She was leaning back in her chair softly groaning.

"I think she's in an ever worse state...." Nino said.

"Give me a minute before we go to the presents, I might die if I stand up right now"

Nino huffs and then smiles. "Idiot... take your time"

Ichika, Nino, Miku and Yotsuba all seemed to have eaten as much as they could handle, it was just you and Itsuki who tried to push your luck.

"Nino... I might not make it..." you say dramatically to her, to which she flicks your forehead.

She grabs your arm and almost drags you off of the chair.

"H-Hang on!"

Nino leads you over to the sofa and you feel like a ship about to topple over.

She simply looks at you sternly and pats her lap as she sits down.

N-No way.... "What are you waiting for!?" she says impatiently. Complying with her demand, you lower your head onto her lap and lay your body across the sofa. Heaven.

"Is that better?"

"Very much so."

Nino laughs as she rubs your head, it was almost putting you to sleep with how comfy this was. Feeling Nino's bare thighs against your face after eating one of her 5 star meals was an amazing feeling.

The others opted to clear up considering you and Nino did a majority of the cooking which left the two of you some alone time.

"That food was amazing by the way"

"I don't think you need to tell me that" she cutely giggled. "It was made with love~"

Instinctively, you cringe but because it's your girlfriend saying it you try and hide it.

"Did you just cringe?" she leans forwards to see you under her chest. Her chest is hiding her exact facial expression but her tone of voice sounds deadly.

"N-No... of course not babe..."

Her head patting slightly increases in intensity. "Dummy" you hear her whisper.

"By the way babe, are you doing anything on New Years day?"

"We're going to the shrine, we do it every year. What about you?"

"..."

Nino sighs. "Be there at 10:30am, we'll meet you"

You wrapped your arms around her waist and hugged her.

"Okay!" Yotsuba's cheery voice called out from the kitchen as her and the rest of her sisters walked up to you both. "It's present time!"

It took a few minutes to set up, but everyone ended up having an assortment of presents in front of them.

The entire process of opening gifts took about an hour and a half.

In your spare time you just picked out something for each of them you thought they'd like or need. Like an alarm clock for Ichika and Earbuds for Itsuki.

Nino obviously got you a few presents, one of them being a new coat which was appreciated considering yours was showing it's age nowadays. She also bought the both of you matching bracelets with each other's names on them which was super cute.

"Here!" she clapped as she slipped the bracelet onto your wrist, she showed off her own bracelet and clinked them together.

"These are pretty cool, I gotta admit"

"Right?" it seemed like she was happy with your reaction.

"Now it's my turn" you handed her a small box, neatly wrapped with a red ribbon.

Nino held it, and examined the box before unwrapping it. Slowly and carefully she removed the ribbon and the wrapping paper to reveal an even smaller decorated box inside.

She looks up at you before opening it. "Go on, it's not going to jump out and attack you" you assure her.

Nino rolls her eyes before slowly opening the box which contained a necklace. Her eyes went wide and she delicately took it out of the box and held it up with one hand.

"I-I'm didn't know exactly what to get you but I remember we passed this on one of our dates some time ago so I thought it would be-"

Your rambling was interrupted by Nino kissing you on the lips passionately. "I love it" she smiled as she carefully put it on around her neck.

"Thank you"

"You're welcome" you say back.

After everyone finishes opening their presents, the mood relaxes and everyone does their own thing, hours go by and the sky darkens turning Christmas day into Christmas night.

A game of Mario party was played between You, Miku, Itsuki and Yotsuba.

Nino wanders off out onto the balcony alone at some point and you take notice, she was looking up at the stars. After the game finished, you headed out to her.

Upon hearing the door open, Nino turns around suddenly.

"Hey, everything alright?" you ask her.

She wears a warm smile. "How could it not? This has been the best Christmas in forever"

"Because I'm here?" you tease.

"Dummy" she hugs you tight, "of course"

You threw your coat over Nino to keep her warm. The two of you stood there looking out to the numerous stars littering the sky, your breaths were visible due to the cold air outside, but even if the temperature was low, you still felt warm beside her.

Nino rested her head on your shoulder.

"This kind of reminds me of the night of the festival" she says.

"When we walked home together?"

"Yeah. I think that was one of the moments I really started to fall for you"

"As much as I teased you, I have to admit I was nervous walking with you..."

"Really?" she smirks.

"Really."

She leans into you a little harder and you put your arm around her.

The snow started to lightly fall again, Nino held out a finger as some snowflakes broke apart upon her touch. The mood was romantic, everything at this very moment seemed perfect, like all the events in your life led you to this very moment.

"I hope next year we can do even more things together" she says.

"Me too. We'll be third years in a few months"

"Please don't talk about school" she whines.

"Sorry" you laugh.

"Do you think we'll pass the end of year exam?" she looks up at you.

"If we try hard enough, we won't fail"

Nino stays quiet for a moment. "Okay. I trust you"

"Don't worry. I'll make sure all of you pass guaranteed"

Nino shivers. "Alright, I'm finished out here" she takes her head off of your shoulder.

"Come on, I made a cake for us all"

"When did you do that?"

"While you were playing games" she smiled sweetly.

You couldn't help but be impressed. "Good Job ribbons, but it'll always lose to your naturally baked cake" you smile.

"Shut up Idiot!" she shoves you before she opens the balcony door.

The both of you walk back inside hand in hand as Christmas begins to come to a close...

------------------------------

Hey everyone!

I haven't talked to you guys since the end of summer. I can kind of explain what happened this time:

Essentially, I thought some good things were going to happen in September so I was going to relax on the story for a few weeks to adjust to a potentially changing schedule. Unfortunately literally 0 of the things I hoped for actually happened and I just kinda got stuck in a bad mental place for a while as everything kind of caved in on me. It's not until recently I've felt the motivation to write again.

I know I've taken a lot of long stretch breaks in the history of this story and there's not much I can do except apologise for letting you guys down again.

Funnily enough I noticed a few other Nino stories slow down these last few months, kind of a weird coincidence but maybe that's a trait us Nino writers share.

Anyway. I'm hoping to have chapter 30 out sometime around the New Year, no promises but I'm aiming for the first week of January.

Again, sorry for taking over 3 months off from this story, I still read all the encouraging and supportive comments you guys give me so thank you as always. So thanks to all the old and new readers who've discovered the story!

So yeah, that's it from me. I hope you've all been well and been taking care of yourselves and I hope to see you again soon! Bye!