The FD and the Tree
Posted on Wed Dec 15th, 2021 @ 4:42am by Captain Maho Takahashi & Commander Keisuke Takahashi 'K.T.'
924 words; about a 5 minute read
Mission:
Christmas Vacation
Location: Gunma, Japan
Timeline: Christmas 2392
It was Maho and Keisuke's second Christmas together. Over the course of the year leading up to the holidays, Keisuke had, on his off time, been taking Maho to the holodeck to teach her how to drive the FD, as she had never driven a ground car before, and was only familiar with air and hover cars, most of which were self-driving, and Keisuke over the course of the Myogi's annual winter layup was going to give Maho some lessons in the real thing.
However, when they had arrived at the Takahashi residence, the two of them had discovered that Keisuke's parents had yet to put up a Christmas tree. Something about Keisuke's commodore father being too busy with work, and Ryosuke almost never being home for Christmas. Regardless, Keisuke knew of a good local Christmas tree lot, and Maho had suggested that instead of beaming it, that they pick it up "the old fashioned way."
Keisuke, ever-naïve and wanting to spend some quality time catching up with his folks, as this was the one time of year he didn't need an LOA to see them, had suggested that Maho take the FD, as he was confident that she had learned enough in their holodeck simulations that driving the real thing should have been nothing.
What Keisuke didn't account for, as it dawned on Maho as she drove over to the lot, was that he had entrusted her with his pride and joy to bring home a Christmas tree with.
Regardless, Maho arrived at the lot and after some looking around, succeeded in picking out a good tree.
"I must say, Noriko-san:" Maho said as she brought her selection to the lot owner. "My boyfriend's not wrong when he says you've got some good-looking trees."
"Only the best;" Noriko, the lot owner, responded as he accepted the tree to begin tying up with twine. "Imported from Hokkaido."
"Is that so?" Maho asked. "I guess that's why they're so sturdily-built. Certainly nothing you'd find out in Kumamoto."
"Yep." Noriko replied as he finished tying the twine. "Anyhow, where do you want to beam this fine specimen to today?"
"Beam? Oh, no; I came here to pick it up and bring it home the old-fashioned way." Maho explained. "You know, drive out to a Christmas tree lot, load a tree into your car and drive it home."
"Very well." Noriko nodded. "So, where's your vehicle?"
"Oh, right over there:" Maho said, indicating the FD.
"You want to put this tree in that?" Noriko asked. "Well, it's certainly worth a shot; go ahead and pop the hatch for me."
Assuming Noriko knew what he was doing, Maho obliged him and popped the FD's rear hatch and they made several attempts to try and stuff the tree into the back of the FD before Noriko realized what they were trying to do was fruitless.
"Okay, this ain't gonna work..." He sighed. "Let me go get a little bit more twine; we're gonna have to tie this thing to the roof."
A few minutes later, Maho had the tree firmly tied to the FD's roof and was on her way back to the Takahashi residence, though Noriko had advised her to take it slow. The ride was quite cold, as the twine securing the tree to the roof passed through the FD's dirty, sticky, thistly cabin, and thus the windows couldn't shut all the way, and Maho had a cross draft through the vehicle.
As Maho crawled along at a snail's pace, she turned on the FD's sticky radio in the hopes to help get in the season by listening to some Christmas music on the radio. However, after a block of music, the radio station proceeded to give a traffic report:
"And if you live in Takasaki, expect a longer commute, as traffic is backed up for several kilometers, the cause of which appears to be a yellow sports car with a giant Christmas tree tied to the roof..."
At first, Maho laughed at the absurdity of the traffic report.
"Oh, what an idiot..." She giggled.
However, Maho then looked into her rearview mirror and realized that she was the idiot she was laughing at, for there was a long line of cars behind the slow-moving FD.
When Maho finally arrived arrived back at the Takahashi residence, Keisuke was at first impressed by the size of the tree until Maho got out all dirty with thistles sticking to her sappy clothing, and his heart sank when he saw the state of the FD's interior.
"My goodness, Maporin; what did you do??" He asked. "You know, if you weren't so damn cute, I'd have to kill you: I mean, now it's going to need an interior detailing and a good cleaning, and-!"
"I'd say worry about the car later, and for now, let's focus on getting the tree inside." Maho suggested.
Keisuke stood for a moment, dumbfounded as his girlfriend made her way inside to fetch a knife to cut the twine holding the tree to the car before he sighed and turned to follow.
"Next year, if you insist on picking up a tree this way, we're going to rent a truck for the job..." He grumbled as he followed Maho inside.
Posting by
Lieutenant Maho Nishizumi
Chief of Ops
Lieutenant Keisuke Takahashi
Second Officer
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