A/N: What's this? Fluff? From me? Well… Information credit goes to Wikipedia, which can be inaccurate, so if anyone well-versed with Norse mythology or mistletoe in general would like to correct me, that'd be great. Especially since I'm not sure if witch's broom-causing mistletoe grows in Japan, or if the Japanese kiss under mistletoe…
Disclaimer: Yuusei Matsuei owns everything. Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro related that is.
---Mistletoe---
"…I bet that guy from the music department is going to win the drinking contest again this year," an intern groaned.
"Hey, who knows? Maybe some dark horse will appear and beat him," suggested another.
"Beat him? The guy's a black hole for alcohol! I'm surprised his liver hasn't given out on him yet."
"Is it that impossible?" It was a new student, completely unaware of last year's occurrences.
"I've never seen him drunk but he carries around a bottle every time I see him, you tell me."
"The neurology department's hosting this year's party, home field advantage maybe?"
"No way we have a dark horse."
"Says who? How about you, Setsuna? Are you any good at this?"
The girl by the window laughed. "Me? I've got about as much alcohol tolerance as my dad, which is to say nearly none. Do you know why people always treat him to drinks?" She leaned conspiratorially, "He always gets so drunk after one cup he starts thinking he's a character from some story and acts the entire thing out. It's like going to a theater for free."
The intern giggled. "Wait till my brother hears this, he absolutely idolizes him."
"Oh? I don't suppose he's ever attended one of his lectures on cardboard then…"
"Ugh, I heard the last one lasted for ten hours."
"Fifteen, actually," corrected the student who had attended said lecture.
"Fifteen?! What can you talk about for fifteen hours?"
"Plenty, if you're my dad. I'm pretty sure he'll be giving another one of those lectures tonight if no one slips some alcohol into his drinks."
"Ah, so you're spending Christmas Eve at home then?"
"In my room, yes."
"Why don't you stay for the party? You're welcome to."
"That's alright. I can already see the headlines reading 'Christmas Eve Massacre at the prestigious Sakuba University'."
"The chances of that happening aren't that high, right?"
"More than you think. I've spent less time in a fit so far today than I normally do."
"Let's call it a Christmas miracle."
"I'm not quite optimistic enough to think that." She turned to the man who was sitting in the corner, looking over papers with a cup of coffee (his only fuel these days, it seemed) in hand. "How about you, Professor Harukawa? Are you planning anything?"
He glanced at her briefly before turning his attention back to the papers. "Work."
"Work? Well, that was predictable." Setsuna said, shaking her head nonetheless, "But how about taking a break for one night? You could use it for important things."
"Such as?"
"Sleep, for one. Your skin is sallow and I swear that there are too many bags under your eyes for even my dad to calculate. You're practically a walking zombie."
"There's too much to be done to waste time sleeping," he replied shortly.
"Ah, Professor Harukawa is a lost cause," the intern said with a mock look of sadness. "So, let's turn our attention towards things that aren't lost causes, for example, making this place presentable."
"What?" a student in the corner straightened. "We are decorating? But it starts in an hour, and well, look at this place." He moved his hands out in a sweeping motion, "There's nothing. I thought it was just going to be like this."
"Of course not."
"Someone was procrastinating," grumbled the student.
"Oh, shut up," the intern snapped. "It's not that hard, someone's already taking care of the catering. Just push the tables together and throw some clean cloth over them. It shouldn't take that long to put up a few strings of lights either. Some mistletoe too, and not the store-bought, ribboned up stuff, I mean fresh mistletoe."
"I don't think a lot of people know what fresh mistletoe looks like."
The intern smiled slyly, "Exactly."
"Where do you propose we get some?" asked a young man in a somewhat bored tone.
"Uhh…"
"There's quite a bit infecting one of the old trees in the forest," Setsuna said, "I could get some if you like."
"That'd be great. Get enough to stretch all around the ceiling."
A few quick calculations later, "There's enough on the tree, that's for sure, but there'll be more than I can carry by myself. Professor, do you mind helping?"
"Me? Why not ask one of them," he gestured to the several students and interns around the room, "They have nothing to do, I'm sure."
"Because I highly doubt that they need a break from work as much as you. Besides," she said, amused, "you've been staring at the same the page for over an hour now. A change of environment helps if you're having trouble finding the answer to a problem."
Harukawa stayed silent, slightly embarrassed. "Come on," Setsuna tugged at his arm. "It'll do you some good, mentally and physically."
He sighed and set his papers on the table next to him.
It was bitterly cold when they stepped outside. Every breath out meant a puff of steam trailing away from the face. There was no snow, it wasn't cold enough for that, but there were plenty of winds which whistled loudly through the various bare branches of the trees in the forested area behind the neurology building. A few stray leaves took the place of snowflakes falling in the air. The grass, however, was still green, although in a tired sort of shade.
Harukawa stuffed his hands deeper into his pockets and hunched over even more than he did naturally. Setsuna somehow managed to clamber up a tree with apparent ease. "This is the tree, Professor," she called from a few dozen feet above. Stiffly, he managed to tilt his head up while his body remained in its hunched position.
The tree, unlike many of the other trees at that time of the year, was green (it was an evergreen tree after all). Not with its own leaves, but with mistletoe which seemed to cluster and cling to every branch. There were many branches--so many in fact, that they seemed to trip over each other and in the end formed a large, hairy knot with a few straggly twigs stuck out in awkward angles. The poor tree seemed nearly too top-heavy to keep itself upright.
Setsuna, perched on one of the sturdier branches began to pull at some of the green clusters of leaf-like structures. "Here, catch," she said before throwing down a bundle.
Too stiff to react, Harukawa let the mistletoe fall to the ground before bending to pick it up. Meanwhile, he found that another bunch had landed on his back. He gave a small glare to the culprit. "Sorry," the offender said from her seat above, not looking very sorry at all. "Catch it properly this time."
"Childish," Harukawa muttered as he caught the cluster of mistletoe.
"I know," she chirped in reply before throwing yet more towards him.
After Harukawa had enough mistletoe in his arms to obscure his face, she swiftly climbed down with her own bundle tucked under an arm. "Here, I'll take some," she said, taking half of his pile. She frowned a bit at the verdant bunches she carried, "I don't know why people would want to kiss under these parasites…"
Harukawa drew himself up a little, "It's of Scandinavian origin. After having her son killed with a mistletoe spear, the Norse goddess Frigga decalred the mistletoe sacred and that it should bring love instead of death to the world. Kissing under mistletoe is to celebrate her son's resurrection."
"Oh really, I never knew—"
"Mistletoe is very diverse and grows in over 900 species within one family alone."
"That's interest—"
"The dwarf mistletoe is the one which causes the abnormal growth of the tree's structure, colloquially called 'witch's broom' due to their resemblance to the tail ends of the brooms traditionally attributed to western witches."
"Uhh, professor," Setsuna said, somewhat peeved, "That's enou—"
Harukawa continued, not hearing her, "This can result in death for the host tree—"
"Professor!" she shouted, cutting him off abruptly, "I get it already. You can stop."
"Oh," he hunched back down.
"Really," she sighed, "You're just like my dad in that respect."
"Which one?"
"Once you start a lecture, you can't stop it," she replied bluntly.
"I wasn't giving a lecture..."
"Nevermind," she said quickly.
They walked silently for a few minutes. "You don't particularly like mistletoe, do you?" Harukawa commented suddenly.
"Hmm?" Setsuna glanced at him briefly before staring down at the mistletoe in her arms, thinking. "No, I don't think I do. It's like a disease that drives the tree insane. Makes it lose its 'self', I suppose you could say. For its own needs, this parasite tricks the tree into supplying more nutrients to the areas where it is infested. I'm sure you already know, but that's what makes the witches brooms, its uncontrolled growth from the sudden increase of nutrients. Then the healthy parts become malnourished. And…like you said, the host trees can die." She turned her head to look back at the tree they had left and shook her head. "That tree will be dead by next year."
"…Mistletoe infections aren't impossible to cure."
"Of course not, but the mistletoe has already spread too far in that tree. The only way to get rid of the mistletoe now would be to kill the tree."
"They're finding new ways all the time, the tree will be saved."
"Maybe one day, and then that will benefit all the other trees infested," she agreed, "But no matter how hard anyone tries, that tree will be dead by next year."
"You don't know that," he said quietly.
"Death isn't necessarily a bad thing, professor," Setsuna said brightly, "The dead tree will provide nutrients for the rest of the forest, and even the mistletoe itself has its purpose. Those witch's brooms make excellent bird nests, I heard."
"But it'll be missed."
"Life goes on."
"If someone strives for just that one tree, it's possible," he said persistently.
"I suppose," she laughed, "But who would try that hard just for one organism?"
"You would, if you could, I'm sure."
"Ah, well, that's the idiotic side of me."
"Most humans are idiotic like that, it seems."
She laughed again. "Very true. Even so, I would take a break and relax. A single day isn't lethal."
"Try saying that after you discover a breakthrough cure the very day after it's too late," Harukawa retorted dryly.
"What are the chances of that sort of coincidence happening?"
"Enough. It seems more common the more desperate one gets at the end—"
"We're back," she said hastily. Harukawa blinked. He hadn't noticed, but they were. "That walk served you well," she had changed the subject, "Color came back to your nose."
"That's from the cold."
The intern had come running towards them, happily taking all the mistletoe. "They'll go up all over the room. Practically everyone will be caught at least once…"
Harukawa stopped listening and instead sunk into his own thoughts.
The intern continued to jabber on about things he didn't hear for a few more minutes before Setsuna cut her off, pointing at her waving father waiting beside a car parked outside, and bade her goodbye. "I'll see you in a few days, professor!" she called waving. She had started to leave when Harukawa reached out and stopped her. "Yes?" she asked, confused.
"Why aren't you coming tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow? Professor, tomorrow is Christmas, even you must be resting on that day."
"I'm not."
"Aren't you visiting your family?"
"…that's not important for me."
She smiled sadly. "You're a particularly big idiot, it seems." Then, more cheerfully, "Why don't you come to my house then? I'm sure you wouldn't mind listening to my dad talk until dawn, you'd probably even vie with him for most things to say."
"No, there's too much to be done. Maybe next year."
"Alright then, although I'm not that optimistic." She waved jovially, "Merry Christmas, Professor Harukawa."
Harukawa watched her leave before retreating into his office.
There was no bustle of activity this year as over-excited interns and students planned out their Christmas Eve, only silence. Harukawa slumped over his papers, working, as usual. This year, however, he had changed offices, moving out of the neurology center and into his own lab in the basement of the computer science building. It was much better suited for his current line of work. He rubbed his eyes sleepily. Yet, no matter how well-suited the environment, if the answer could not be found…
A change of environment helps if you're having trouble finding the answer to a problem.
He decided to put that theory to test.
Harukawa walked alone this time up the hill that led to the forested area spread around Sakuba University. The air was still bitterly cold, but a thin sheet of ice now covered the trees from the rain that afternoon. The cold was strangely refreshing, and helped wake his tired body. It was silent but for the wind, even louder than he had remembered it. It cleared his mind, although it still made him hunch up. Well, the hypothesis held true so far. He wondered if it could be made more effective, perhaps by increasing the distance from the accustomed area?
He had let his feet wander and they had decided to take him back to that mistletoe infested tree. The branches were even more entangled than he had remembered and the trunk, sicklier. It wasn't upright anymore.
That tree will be dead by next year.
He took a deep breath and let the smoky vapor seep into the air.
Sometimes, he hated it when she was right.
A/N: What's this? A fic entitled mistletoe without any kissing? Why yes, so it is. Pretty short compared to most of my recent works, but with these sorts of dialogue-y pieces, I have trouble making them less bare. I'm not sure how I feel about this, but the idea had been nagging me ever since I heard the guide talking about mistletoe during a trip to Alaska…in 2008.
The music student mentioned in the beginning was actually sorta based off of Yusei Matsui, who, according to a manga he made a cameo appearance in, can really hold his drink.