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Christmas in the city was a pretty big affair. Despite the existence of a "God", let alone a "Christ" being long abandoned, the blanket of snow covering the streets had always been a special time for everyone living in the dystopian metropolis, especially so for one particular sinner.
It hadn't really surprised Dante when Hong Lu had come up to him asking for some extra allowance. What did surprise him, however, was the reason behind his request. (If Dante had an eyebrow to raise, it'd be up in the air by now.)
Usually, as with him and a certain other gambling addict, the protocol would be to deny their request for additional funding. This time, though the assistant manager himself intervened, giving the sinner an extra 300,000 Ahn with no more than a tired look in his weary eyes, and warned the man not to spend it all in one place. While the sinner looked a bit disappointed at the amount given, the cheery smile quickly returned to his face, and during the next expedition to the fallen branch in district 11, Hong Lu snuck off for a while to visit the shopping street.
"Hey!" While the sinner was browsing a shop full of sweet candies, a familiar, annoyed voice came from behind him. It was Heathcliff. While Hong Lu always tried to get close to the other sinner, something about him always seemed to piss the other man off. Not like that was going to deter him, though.
"We were about to leave without you! Dante sent me to find you, I knew you'd be here." Heathcliff seemed less angry and just more impatient. He grabbed Hong Lu's shoulder, urging the male to return back in the direction of the bus.
"Don't you wanna explore the bazaar too?" Hong Lu took a hold of the other's wrist, which he could see the darker man cringe a little at. The market was decorated with festive lights, it being the eve of Christmas day. The streets were crowded, and going against the flow of the crowd to the entrance would probably be much harder than just making their way to the exit through the stalls.
"Fine. We don't have any expeditions tomorrow, anyway." Heathcliff sighed, following the other along as they continued through the fair. "Why're you here anyway?" He seemed genuinely curious, and the sinner couldn't see any malice behind his question.
"Ah, before I was employed- well, captured and forced to work at Limbus, Christmas was the second largest thing for me and my family!" The sinner's mismatched eyes seemed to light up as he described to Heathcliff the glorious feast that he and his extended family would have prepared for them every 25th of December. Though such descriptions of wealth and fortune were rather off-putting to the other, Heathcliff couldn't help but find the other sinner's excitement endearing.
"-and then at the end of the night, my 妹妹 (little sister) and I would open up the presents wrapped under the tree! I know that we don't really get the right to celebrate Christmas now that we're technically prisoners, but I want to be able to give everyone a little something. What did you do for Christmas back then?"
The question from his fellow sinner caught Heathcliff off guard. Did Hong Lu not realise how privileged he was? Such a brash question would have been taken for mockery if it had come from any other person's mouth.
His own Christmases were very much different. Up until when he was taken in by the Earnshaws, he didn't have a family to celebrate with, much less anyone to give him presents or cook him a warm meal. The chaos in the backstreets never stopped, especially on Christmas. Even after being taken in, he had always felt like an outsider.
The Christmas before?
Heathcliff had returned to the news of a dead Catherine. In his grief, he had lashed out at the only people he had known, bringing down the only place he had called home along with it. That was part of the reason why he had ended up under Limbus' employ.
To put it simply, Christmas had never really been a happy time for him. The other sinner was still waiting for his answer, though.
"Nothing much." He replied gruffly, hoping that Hong Lu wouldn't try to press any further. "It's never really been a big thing for me, I guess. Don't bother buying a gift for me, either. I don't care about that shit."
That answer seemed to satisfy the heterochromatic sinner, or he had caught on that he probably shouldn't be asking anymore questions if he wanted to get back to the bus in one piece, though he did seem a little disappointed at the man's rejection in advance of his gift.
The two went along the stores, Hong Lu every now and then picking up a trinket here and there, remarking on how one of their co-workers would like it. Though, after the second time the man paid way too much for a singular box of sea salt cookies, the darker sinner had to intervene. It was painfully obvious that the once-wealthy man had never been to these types of stores before, where sellers would set prices high, and buyers would have to haggle for a cheaper price if they were ever going to find a purchase worth their buck.
"You really think THAT was worth 20,000?" Heathcliff questioned, poking at the tiny box the sinner had in his hands.
"Well- They did say that was the price, wasn't it?" The confusion was obvious in the sinner's mismatched eyes, and Heathcliff would've laughed at the naivety of it all if he wasn't afraid that the other sinner would take offence to that.
"Only because you look like you have the money, and will believe them!" He laughed, unsure of whether it was out of pity for the man or just hopelessness. "I'll show you how to do it. Whatever catches your eye, tell me."
Hong Lu looked unsure, but nodded. The two continued through the stalls, Heathcliff managing to more than halve some of the prices with at times less-than-nice tactics. At the end, the two sinners exited the market with a bag full of gifts, ready to be wrapped and handed to the other sinners (and their managers).
"That's everything?" The polluted sky was dark, thick clouds reflecting the lights from the nests and backstreets alike. The moon was just barely peeking through the smog. "We need to head back, we're probably not gonna get any overtime for a shopping trip."
Hong Lu nodded, running a hand through his hair that had been slightly tangled up from the humidity. "Yeah, we still gotta walk quite a while. I heard something about 'sweepers' coming out at night?"
"Those are only in the backstreets, so you don't have to worry about that. How much do you really know about the city?" The realisation that the other sinner had been so detached from the reality of the city shocked Heathcliff, and while he still couldn't shake the resentment towards the other for being part of the group of people responsible for his suffering, he couldn't help but feel the need to protect the man, who knew so little about how dismal this world really was.
"Well, 爸爸 (father) never let us leave the house. They told me outside was horrible, and most of what I knew about the city was taught to me by my tutors. It's just- I never expected it to be this horrible." The other man sighed, looking at the bag of gifts in his hands. "I thought my life was pretty normal, but turns out I was living off the suffering of others, huh?"
The brunet was shocked at the man's sudden shift in mood and honesty, and at a loss for words, just took the man's hand, silently leading the way back to the bus.
"Heathcliff?"
"Hm?"
"Do you think the other sinners celebrate Christmas?"
Hong Lu was trying to lighten the mood, and Heathcliff gladly obliged. "You gotta ask them. Though, I don't think they'd mind a little gift either way."
That answer seemed to satisfy the other man, the lights of the abnormally shaped bus coming into view.
"One more thing." Heathcliff turned back to his fellow sinner, who was holding a mistletoe branch between the two of them. He'd probably picked it on the way back.
"Hong, I am not-" His face heated up,
with the hopeful look in the other's eyes, he found it hard to turn down the other's very bold advance.
"Fine. But we're feeding that to the bus right after." He rolled his eyes, though there was little to no malice behind them as he moved to cup the other's cheek.
"Esquire Heathcliff and Esquire Lu have returned!" The voice of a certain sinner rang through the snowy night, the two separating with a deep flush.
"Merry Christmas, Heath!" There was a deep blush on the heterochromatic sinner's face, as he rushed back to meet the overexcited Knight.
Heathcliff smiled. Maybe Christmas wasn't so bad after all.