Work Text:
The ground was white, covered in snow. The darkness had already fallen about seven hours ago, but the city lights easily lit up the empty streets. The air was fresh and so cold that breaths could be seen as little white clouds that faded away after a short moment. Majima remembered how as a kid at similar weather he had played with his breath and pretended to have been smoking a cigarette. It was a very distant memory that almost felt like it was taken from someone else's life. He hadn't been a kid in a long time and had already reached a lot higher age than what he had at a certain point of his life thought would be possible. In honour of his life, or perhaps just in attempt to hide from it he had decided to follow his sudden idea to travel to Santa's home country to see reindeer. He had been there for a day now, but he hadn't seen any yet.
In the peaceful December night he walked towards the harbour to look at the lake that still hadn't fully frozen yet, until he heard karaoke singing from a nearby restaurant. He wasn't familiar with the song itself but something about that sound made him stop. Oh right, he had known someone who loved singing karaoke more than anything else, and he too liked to sing it every now and then. Just for the heck of it he decided to step into the restaurant, which was called 'Albatrossi' according to the text on the wall of the building.
At the coat check he could hear the singing clearer. He didn't understand the lyrics, because they were in foreign language, perhaps the local one. The singer didn't sound bad at all unlike how some drunken people sound like. His deep voice was pleasant and he stayed at the note. It almost sounded too familiar, but Majima knew that the though that had swept through his mind couldn't be a real possibility. Dead men don't sing karaoke.
But when they sing, they do it in a hawaiian shirt.
Perhaps Majima himself had also moved on to the afterlife, and just couldn't remember how he had died. Kiryu was standing in front of him, looking very much alive, holding a microphone, eyes focused to the screen that told him the lyrics to the song. He looked the same as ever. If this was the afterlife it seemed to be more interesting place than what Majima had imagined.
Kiryu finished the song and was rewarded by the crowd with a modest applause. Majima was clapping his hands too, for a longer time than the others, and so Kiryu finally turned to look at his direction. Their eyes met and for a minute Kiryu just froze from pure astonishment. Majima could see why. His own amazement was of course bigger, since Kiryu was supposed to be dead, but that didn't remove the fact that it was completely unexpected for them to show up at the same time at the same karaoke bar somewhere on the other side of the world. Majima was keen to ask some questions from Kiryu; for example why he was there and how was he even alive, but it was not like those answers really mattered at the moment.
Majima took the first step and walked towards Kiryu, who was standing still. That made him break the silence between them: "Majima-san, did you come all the way here to pick a fight?"
Majima let out a delighted hum, took the last steps neccesary and wrapped his arms around Kiryu squeezing him as hard as he could. "No, it's not that."
Kiryu returned the hug a bit cautiously. It seemed like there would be no fistfight this time. At least not yet.
Majima could feel his eye tear up from emotion. He had lived a couple of years believing Kiryu to be gone once and for all. Death wasn't a stranger in his world, but losing Kiryu had left him feeling somehow empty, and that emptiness was now finally being filled.
Kiryu relaxed as he started to see the situation more clearly. For a while they were just looking at each other, the familiar faces that they hadn't expected to see again. This time it was Majima who broke the silence. "What was that song you were singing, Kiryu-chan?"
"It's called 'Aikuinen Nainen', I have no idea what the lyrics mean for I don't speak Finnish, but I have heard it here several times and I think the melody is beautiful." Kiryu told. Some of the other clients of the place were looking at the scene silently and confused, because they didn't understand their speech. Despite that, one clearly drunken woman had decided to approach them and she started to talk with a bit stiff English: ”You sing very well. It is my favorite song. I like exotic men. You are handsome. Come drink with me!"
How dared she come to ruin their touching reunion, thought Majima. It was for the best to get rid of the nuisance right away. "Hey, he’s my boyfriend!” he exclaimed, which made the woman's jaw drop. She backed off muttering something unclear as she went.
”Oi, I'm not. Why did you say so?" Kiryu protested. He too could understand some English, after all."
”Ah, yes. You are not a boy anymore, you are already a grown man, Kiryu-chan." Majima corrected with a grin on his face.
"That's not what I meant..." Kiryu said while frowning deeply. It made Majima laugh. It just felt so good to see that familiar facial expression again. At the corner of his vision he could see the woman still gaze at them, so he took Kiryu by the hand and suggested they go outside to talk in peace. Kiryu shook his hand off but agreed, and soon they stepped outside to the fresh air.
It was very peaceful outside. Someone's singing could be faintly heard and somewhere a little farther away they could hear a single car driving past. There was no wind, all the trees were standing still. They walked at the harbour leisurely.
”You made quite a ploy, Kiryu-chan. You managed to trick everyone."
Kiryu was silent for a moment before answering. "It was the only option I had left. If you think that it was easy to make, you are mistaken, Majima-san."
Well, he certainly hadn't thought so. If he remembered correctly, Kiryu had a daughter and a grandchild as well, who was too young to even remember him. He wouldn't have abandoned them on light grounds, his heart was too good for that. "No, that's not what I thought."
Kiryu turned his gaze from the lake to Majima, whose jacket was open despite the cold. "Are you not feeling the cold at all, or is your hot head enough to warm up your whole body?"
Majima snorted. "It just makes me feel more free to have my clothes open." he said, but despite that stopped to zip up the jacket. He had had an idea from all the snow that was surrounding them and it would be a wiser decision to go along with it like that. He reached to the ground, scooped up some snow and gave it a few taps to make it firmer. Kiryu was just looking at him, not understanding at first what Majima was up to, and when he did understand, it was already too late.
Snowball thrown from such a short distance easily hit it's goal, Kiryu's face. As the snow fell off an even grumpier face than usual was revealed behind it. Kiryu's counterstrike was fast, but Majima knew to expect it and thus easily avoided it. But as he was getting ready for the second throw, another snowball hit his chest. He could see a glimpse of triumph on Kiryu's face. On the dark December night they continued to hunt each other down with the snowballs, and that moment made them feel 20 years younger. It was a moment without responsibilities, without the heavy burden of the past. There was only two old friends having some fun.