Chapter Text
Old Rei was as (un)dead as a doornail – this must be distinctively understood. Or nothing wonderful can come of this story.
Shu watched Mika silently as he lighted the small candle at the window.
“And what do you think you are doing?” He hissed.
“Nnah?” Mika quickly turned around, the faint glow of the candlelight reflected in his golden eye. “But today is the death anniversary of yer former partner. I thought it’d be nice t’ light a candle in his name.”
Shu leant back, rubbing his temple, “As far as I can tell we have four candles burning in this room already. I would say, this is more than enough. Candles do not grow on trees. They have to be purchased. With money.”
“I know Oshi-san, but...”
“Would it be too much to ask that you to return to the work that I pay you for?” Shu grunted. “Without wasting any more of my resources?”
Mika nodded silently and headed back to his desk. The candle in front of him had nearly burnt down already, so he bent down over the table to be able to see. Shu was just waiting for the familiar smell of burnt hair. How often had Mika singed his bangs already because for some reason he always bent down when sewing. It wasn’t like it was totally dark – and didn’t the eyes get used to the darkness over time? He probably did it to annoy Shu, as everything else he did most of the time.
Shu’s store was a single office room, with an even bigger storage in the cellar. The office itself however wasn’t too big, and it wasn’t really comfortable, but it was sufficient for his work. His masterpieces were presented in the windows – blocking the sunlight from coming inside. It also blocked all the annoying people from staring at him, so it was a win-win situation for Shu. Of course he could have spent money to renovate this office: brighten up the coal stained walls, invest in more comfortable furniture, make more room for him and Mika. But it all cost money, and as long as they could still work like this, it was fine.
Shu turned back to his sewing machine. Nothing was going well today. It was one of those days when the thread constantly tore, the fabrics wouldn’t lie flat and when the sewing machine was petulant – for any unknown reason. He sighed angrily. Nothing could be helped but to push through it. It was just a normal day after all.
They worked in silence, as always. Shu couldn’t stand small talk while working. The focus should be on the work alone, not elsewhere.
Just when he was about to finish the collar of the coat – a very delicate and exhausting work – he got disturbed by a moving chair. Shu sighed, turning his head. Why did Mika have to get up now? Shu's concentration was gone now.
“What do you think you are doing? Sit down, and be silent!”
“But the fire ‘s goin’ cold, Oshi-san”, Mika pointed at the small stove in the corner of their dark office.
Shu rubbed his temple again, sighing deeply. “Come over here, Kagehira.”
Mika hesitated, before coming closer. Shu refrained from commenting on how awful the clothes were on him – the clothes that Shu had sewed for being worn with pride… not to be worn in chaotic layers like he did!
“What is this?” Shu asked, pointing at himself.
“A shirt.”
“And this?”
“A vest.”
“And this?”
“A coat.”
“These are garments, Kagehira. Garments were invented by the human race as protection against the cold. Once purchased, they may be used indefinitely for the purpose that they are indented”, Shu said coldly, “Coals are expensive. They burn. They are nothing but a fleeing moment in time. You understand me?”
“Yes, Oshi-san.”
“Now get back to work before I decide that your services are no longer required.” Shu turned back to his sewing machine. He couldn’t tell if Mika or the sewing machine was more annoying today.
“Merry Christmas!” The joyful words were said before the door had even fully been opened, and the cold from the street mingled with the lukewarm temperature of the dark office.
“Humbug”, Shu muttered, before he even saw the intruder. He anyway knew who it was.
“I said Merry Christmas, Icchan.”
“And I said humbug. Also don’t call me by this name, it’s a shameful past that I want to forget.”
Kuro sighed deeply, his smile slowly leaving his face. “Would you really rather forget our shared past?”
“If it keeps you from wishing me Merry Christmas, yes.”
Kuro shook his head, turning towards Mika. “Kagehira, Merry Christmas to you.”
“He he, hello Ryuu-kun-san! Merry Christmas t’ ya too!”
“Will you two stop this annoying chattering? Someone here is trying to work”, Shu hissed, turning towards his sewing machine again.
As Shu wasn’t paying any more attention to him, Kuro turned to Mika fully.
“How are you doing, my dear friend? I haven’t seen you in so long – it seems like all you do is sit here, day and night. You do happen to have a life, right?”
“Yer too friendly, Ryuu-kun-san! But please don’t worry ‘bout me, I’m doin’...”
“You are doing absolutely nothing”, Shu exclaimed, slamming his fist on the table, “If you two want to bond so naturally, please do so outside. And don’t bother coming back in. I do not need either of your presence around me.”
“Surely you don’t mean that”, Kuro sighed, as he took a step closer to Shu, “I know you are hard-working as ever, but it’s Christmas time.”
“What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, not an hour richer”, Shu snorted.
“I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come around, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; a time when everyone seems by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely to their fellow creatures. And so, Icchan, though it has never put a scarp of gold or silver in my pocket, I do believe that it has done me good, and will do me good.”
Mika applauded happily. Shu’s eyebrows shot up in annoyance.
“Let me hear another sound from you today, and you’ll celebrate your Christmas by losing your job!”
Mika immediately stopped, going back to sewing the tiny buttons on the lace, with panic and shock in his eyes.
“Na na, now don’t be angry, Icchan. Come, dine with us tomorrow. I will hold a big Christmas feast for all my friends and family. My late mother would have wanted you to be part of it. I promised her to look after you on her deathbed.” Kuro said in a softer tone.
“Good afternoon!” Shu didn’t bother to look up anymore, but was fixated on his coat.
“I am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so resolute. We have never had any quarrel, as far as I remember. But I have made the trial in homage to Christmas, and I’ll keep my Christmas humour to the last. So a Merry Christmas, Icchan!”
“Good afternoon.”
“And a Happy New Year!”
“Good afternoon.”
As Kuro left, he waved back at them. Shu didn’t react, and Mika just nodded ever so softly, not wanting to upset Shu anymore. Kuro hesitated, before he closed the door behind him, leaving them with nothing but another wave of coldness from the street.
The noises from the streets could be heard, much to Shu’s displeasure. He hated nothing more than those overly happy Christmas wishes by random people on the street. If only he could work in the cellar, but the chaos down there was something he did not like. When inspiration kicked in, he had no means for tidying up behind him. And for some reason Mika was even more useless in the dark cellar. After he had fallen down the stairs twice already, Shu had given up on the idea that Mika could be of any use down there.
The sewing machine spit out another thread, and Shu let out a big, long sigh.
“I see, nothing will work today, so I shall retreat.”
Mika looked up from his work – a weird look in his eyes that Shu couldn’t read. It annoyed him. So that he wouldn’t have to see that, he turned around.
Mika jumped up from his chair, reaching for Shu’s hat and coat to offer it to him. However as soon as he was standing, he was stumbling forward.
“Good grief, how clumsy can you be?” Shu shouted, more by surprise than by annoyance.
Mika was kneeling on the floor, his hands shaking violently.
“If you do not get up the next second, I will...”
“’m sorry”, Mika said, his voice unfamiliarly shaking. He got up, reaching for the coat and the hat.
Shu waited until he offered it to him, “If you have hurt your hands, you will have to search for another work.”
“’m fine, ‘m so sorry”, Mika muttered, “’m just clumsy, as ya said, Oshi-san. I can still work.” Mika’s eyes avoided Shu. His voice sounded weird. So unfamiliar and somehow weak? Shu didn’t pay much attention to it, though it did strike him as weird. Lately Mika had been falling a lot – was he not paying attention anymore despite being constantly scolded?
“And you will finish this piece today”, Shu said pointing on the lace, “I will need it next. So make sure you hurry up, or I can’t finish my work, which means I can’t sell the coat, which means you will be without pay. Was that clear enough for you?”
“Yes, Oshi-san.”
Something about him seemed off, but Shu didn’t bother to ask why. The whole day had been as annoying as it could have been. He just wanted to go home and escape that Christmas madness.
Oh right.
Christmas.
Just as he was about to step outside, he turned around to Mika again. “You’ll want all day tomorrow, I suppose?”
“If it’s convenient, Oshi-san.”
Shu snorted. “It’s not convenient, and it’s not fair. If I would hold back your daily wage for it, you’d think yourself ill used, right? And yet, you don’t think of me ill used, when I pay a day’s wages for no work.”
“Nnah, but Christmas only comes fer once a year, Oshi-san.”
Shu shook his head. How he hated that argument. “Christmas, hu. Just a poor excuse for picking a man’s pocket every 25th of December. But I suppose you must have the whole day. Be here all the earlier the next morning though to make up for it. And stay longer today.”
“Yes! Thank ya, Oshi-san! Yer so kind! And a Merry Christmas t’ ya, Oshi-san!”
“Humbug.”
Shu let the door fall close behind him. It was bitterly cold, and the whole city was covered in powdery white snow. Wouldn’t be so bad, if there weren’t all the people shouting and singing, from left and right; strangers wishing each other a Merry Christmas. Just what kind of weird nonsense was that. Shu hated talking to people, to strangers even more.
He dropped his gaze as he walked home – unfortunately he had to use the busiest streets of the city, so naturally it didn’t go as planned.
“Mr. Itsuki I presume?”
“Indeed you do so.” Shu looked up and met the gaze of two annoying men – he could tell they were annoying, because they stood right in his way and even spoke to him.
“You don’t know us.”
“Nor do I wish to.”
“My name is Kazehaya Tatsumi, and my partner, who is hiding behind the books right now is Ayase Mayoi, and...”
“Excuse me, but did I ask?” Shu muttered.
“Iiiiih!!!” The second man covered his face behind what seemed rather unpleasant books and shrieked in panic. The only part visible behind the books was his long, purple, messy braid.
However the first guy, with his annoying smile, seemed to be more of a problem. He took another step towards Shu, “In those joyful days we tend to forget that others might not be as blessed as we are.”
“Unfortunately you are here to remind me, right?” Shu sighed, finally realizing there wouldn’t be a way out of this. His harsh comment was met with the most annoying smile. Could nothing make that saint back down?
“Sir, I take you are busy”, Tatsumi finally said.
“That I am.”
“We don’t have to drag this on. If you already know the harsh reality that many children face in these cold winter nights, I will spare you from the detailed description of their pain, grief and misery. What deposit shall I put you down for?”
“Nothing.”
“Oh, you wish to be anonymous?”
“I wish to be left alone, since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don’t make merry myself at Christmas and I can’t afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments of prisons and workhouses, the treadmill, and the poor houses with my taxes – they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there.”
“B… but many can’t go there; and many would rather diiiieeee”, Mayoi finally spoke up in a shaking voice.
Shu snorted. “If they would rather die, perhaps they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”
Tatsumi’s eyes narrowed angrily, “Surely you don’t mean that.”
“With all my heart. And now you go back to your business, and allow me to get back to mine. Good afternoon, gentlemen”, Shu said, finally taking a big step around them.
What an unpleasant meeting on an unpleasant day. Was everyone out today to annoy him? He was glad when he could leave the centre of the city behind.
Shu lived in a noble villa, in the richest part of the city. It didn’t come to him from nothing. His family hadn’t been poor, but no one in his family had managed to become as rich as he was. Though he did have help from his grandfather’s inheritance, all his life he had been working hard. He knew what he wanted, and how to make profit. He knew his goal and how to walk towards it. He was content with his life – if only the people around him weren’t so annoying.
He lived alone, naturally. He never really cared much for company. He didn’t even know his neighbours. Luckily the richer part of this city was way more quiet than the centre, where his office was. But he needed the customers, so he had to live with the annoying side-effect of meeting people.
Shu smiled for the first time today when he approached his villa. He loved it. It was way too big for him alone, but that didn’t matter. He lived on the second floor, enjoying the view over the city, and enjoying the garden that bloomed in front of his house in spring. Of course he didn’t care for it himself, he paid others to do it – and to do it when he wasn’t at home. Luckily money could buy him his happiness.
He sighed softly as he walked closer to his door, finally ready to leave that awful day behind. Just enjoy a calm evening all by himself. He took out the key, when he faintly heard his name being whispered.
“Itsuki Shu!”
Shu rolled his eyes. Was there no peace for him today?
“What?” He asked in an annoyed voice and turned around. He was met with an empty pavement. His footsteps being the only one in the snowy path that lead to the main street.
“What an awful day”, Shu muttered, shaking his head. Everything must have gotten to him already.
“Itsuki Shu!”
This time his name was said louder and more prominent.
That couldn’t have been his imagination. But what else? A neighbour? They knew better than to play tricks on him.
Shu groaned angrily. The last thing he needed today was more company. He reached for the door handle, but froze as he did so.
The knocker on his door – the big golden lion knocker – had turned into a bat. Shu froze. This wasn’t right. He had a lion – not a bat. Who on earth would even have a bat door knocker? Was that a prank?
He leant closer. Nothing had changed. It didn’t look like it was installed just recently. The wood around it looked intact, and also no sign of his lion door knocker. Was it the wrong house?
But his key fit.
“Itsuki Shu!”
The voice sounded louder and clearer now. And finally, Shu recognized it.
“Rei?”