"Why haven't you gone to sleep yet, Kid?"
Teito almost jumped when he heard that voice. He turned his head to the place where the voice's owner stood, and hid himself under the thick blanket further. "Got a nightmare… Can't sleep again since that…" The boy muttered softly. His hands, which were grabbing the blanket, trembled in fear. Not because the man's presence in his room, but his nightmare that still haunted him since… well… a week ago, maybe?
The tall man with bandage over his eyes sighed. "What a brat. Follow me, I'll go get you something so you'll not passed out when you go training tomorrow."
With his little but strong feet, Teito descended from his bed and did as the man said. They walked in silent until they arrived at the kitchen, where Kurena could be seen tidying something on the table. The mute servant blinked in surprise, since the scene where Karu and Teito walked together outside battlefield was so rare to be seen. Especially if the little boy dragged his blanket all along, not too far behind the dark-haired man.
"Make him some warm chocolate—he needs to be taller (Kurena could see Teito's head frowned slightly when Karu said it) and forgot his nightmare."
After giving Teito a pitiful glance, Kurena went to get all the ingredients needed to make what Karu asked.
"Oh—two glass of it. I think I need it too."
That statement almost made Kurena and Teito gawked—did they just hear that this man needed a glass of warm chocolate? Not tea or coffee like he usually drinks?
Oo—O—oO
Midnight Snow and Chocolate
Oo—O—oO
Genre: Friendship – Hurt/Comfort
Rate: T
Warning: grammar mistakes. Can't avoid it, even though I've checked many times. =_= Oh, and like my other fics that contained Landkarte & Ea as characters; shonen ai hints, of course. #Smile
Disclaimer: 07 Ghost belongs to Amemiya Yuki & Ichihara Yukino.
Oo—O—oO
"May you appear in my dreams tonight..."
[Setsugekka ~The End of Silence~ © Gackt]
Oo—O—oO
"Why do you suddenly wanted a glass of warm chocolate, Karu?" Teito asked curiously, voicing what Kurena couldn't say since she had lost her voice. He hold a glass of warm chocolate with his little hands, different with the bergleitter who just let the half-filled glass (he had drank the chocolate right after Kurena handed him his glass) stood still on the table. Sometime, Teito couldn't help himself wondering what did the man have in his mind.
Um, correction: in his rather eccentric mind.
"Does it matter to you?"
Checkmate. Teito's tongue felt like it was being frozen by the snow outside after Karu said it.
"…I just want to drink it, anyway. It's good to see falling snow while drinking some warm chocolate like this."
…was the man in front of him really the Karu he knew since Teito came to this estate?
"Don't just gape at me like that—drink it and go to sleep. If you don't wake right on time when they arrive to pick you up, you'll be beaten to death just like last week."
Sweats hung itself on Teito's cheek. /Yep. It really is Karu—maybe he's just getting possessed by unknown spirit and acting like that. That's the most logical reason here. Fixed,/ he said mentally, and then drank his chocolate slowly. "Thank you for the chocolate. I'm going to sleep now."
"Hmm."
Teito huffed softly. He covered his small body with the thick blanket he dragged from his bed, causing some part of it nearly made him fell when he stepped on it. While walking like usual to his bedroom and leaving the man behind right on his place, he thought that he's still sleeping and got another nightmare.
"Good night, then."
Even though the green-eyed boy didn't step on his thick, long blanket, he fell instantly when he heard that greeting came out from Karu's mouth.
/My forehead hurts. I'm not dreaming,/ he thought frightfully, rubbing his reddening forehead that touched the floor first when the gravitation pulled him forward. What was he supposed to do? Turning his head back and gawked at Karu or…
"…good night too, Karu."
…yep. He did choose the right choice.
.
Not too far behind him, the man with Ea symbol on his right hand smiled gently.
#
It's not the first time he saw snow fell in his life; it's just the first time he saw the beauty of it outside the cage his 'family' made for him.
Sitting alone on the fountain border, he thanked the God mentally that his current body had higher tolerance to cold than before. He looked at the night sky with his melancholic amethyst eyes, hand repairing the shawl's position around his neck, and continued to watch the falling snow alone outside his room while everyone has been wandered to their dreamland.
Well, there's an exception for a certain Ghost who was just got back from his job at far place, by the way.
"Why haven't you go to sleep, Ea?"
Ea startled. He almost fell to the frozen fountain when the owner of the voice appeared suddenly in front of him. He was too concentrated on the night sky and the cold snow until he didn't realize that Landkarte was standing in front of him since five minutes ago. If Landkarte didn't pull his hands immediately, Ea's sure that he'll be a frozen Ghost later.
"It's not good to sit alone in a cold place, you know?" Landkarte said innocently, ignoring the fact that the reason that made his friend almost fell to the fountain was he himself.
Ea, on the other hand, could just stared at him like was staring at a strange scene (like one he gave when he saw Zehel was reading a Bible last week).
Landkarte pouted. "Stop looking at me like that! It makes me feel like I'm an alien!"
"Well, I do think you're one of it…"
"You're so mean, Ea!"
Seeing that horrified face Landkarte made, Ea chuckled unconsciously. "Welcome back, then. Have you finished your job outside, loafer?"
/Gentle question with mean nickname; it's just Ea's trademark way of speaking,/ Landkarte sighed mentally, still pulling Ea's hand further from the dangerous fountain. He didn't want his friend to fall inside and frozen till spring came, anyway. "Yes, I've. And actually, I do want to ask you a question—I'll not ask for permission, you know it." Ea just stared blankly at him, and Landkarte huffed loudly. "Really, you need to eradicate that annoying, stoic face of yours. If not, wrinkles will grow on it and—"
"Just tell me what you want to ask, will you? And don't even try to speak about wrinkle—I'm sure you don't want your cheek turn to red like last month."
"—um, well. Just wanna ask about what you've done right before I came, Ea. Did you hurt your head or something like that? I think you need to heal your head and go to sleep now. And I'm not talking about wrinkles—I'm talking about the black circle around your eyes."
"That's equal question to wrinkles stuff, jerk." Ea's spare hand hit Landkarte's shoulder, but the Extinguishing Spirit just chuckled amusedly. "The answer to your question is: no. I didn't hit my head with Profe's vase or something like that. I didn't fall from my bedroom window nor hurt my valuable head. I just want to sit here and watching the snow falling from sky; I rarely could see it before."
This time, Landkarte blinked in surprise. "You've never seen snow before?"
"I've. But not this close," Ea answered shortly, then return to his place and gathered several snow in his palm. "Before I'm here, I can just see it from behind window. My family wouldn't allow me to do what a child usually do; they taught me that I have to achieve higher position than other."
"Simply put, you've never played snowball fight before."
"Hm-mm."
"You've never made snowman in your life as human."
Ea nodded slightly, still focusing his attention at making rabbit with snow in his hand.
He didn't realize that a playful smirk has formed itself on Landkarte's lip, by the way.
"And you've never knew what does it feel when snow has touched your face, haven't you?" Now, that's a strange question. Ea raised his head to ask what did Landkarte mean by that, but before he could tell him about his question, a snowball has hit his face first—right on his face.
Gift from Landkarte as a payment for last month's punch, maybe.
"Take that, you old man!" he shouted loudly, preparing for the next attack while Ea still stunned on his place.
It didn't take a long time for Landkarte to receive a rabbit attack—right on his face too, if I may add—from Ea, who was smirking arrogantly like a warrior who've won the war. "That's the price for throwing surprise attack on me, you foolhardy."
Landkarte sat silently on his place.
And Ea felt bad for that.
"…Landkarte? Are you okay?" The asked one didn't answer. He just kept silent with a trembled shoulder; his hands grasped his robe's end. Ea blinked his amethyst eyes. Somehow, he felt bad for that attack. "Uhm… Are you angry?" He walked to place where Landkarte sat carefully, avoiding a risk of being slipped and hurt his head like what Landkarte's said before. The teen in black kneeled in front of his bowing friend, guilt can be seen clearly on his face. "Hey, I'm sorry if I've done mistake. You know that it's just a joke, don't you?" Landkarte still shut his mouth, and that made Ea felt guilty more than before.
"Hey, Landkarte—"
'SLAP!' and a snow attack has hit him successfully again right on his forehead.
When he could see everything clearly again, the first thing he saw was Landkarte's wide smirk in front of him.
"That one is for my mission to eradicate that annoying wrinkles on your forehead and black circle around your eyes. No offense intended, okay?" And he smiled innocently like a child, again ignoring a dark aura spreading fast from Ea's back.
"Y-you jerk…"
"Ahaha~ All is fair in love and war, dear Ea~!"
"Take this, you jerk! Payment for tricking me!"
"WAAAH! EA'S GONE BERSERK! SOMEONE, PLEASE HELP MEEE!"
They spent that night throwing snowball at each other, and ended up covered in thick blanket at midnight after Zehel caught them almost freezing in hallway in journey to reach their bedroom.
"What a brat." Zehel shook his head, while Fest just smiled pitifully at the two youngest Ghosts in front of them. "How does it feel? Taking a snow bath in nighttime… Really, how low your senses of caution could be?"
Ignoring Relikt's annoyed and sarcastic question, Ea and Landkarte just changing glance at each other. Landkarte laughed and Ea chuckled instantly after that, didn't care at the slightest about Zehel and Relikt's questioning glances. When Profe arrived at room with a tray of two glasses of hot chocolate, Landkarte stood up immediately and saying, "The last one won't get Profe's special handmade hot chocolate!"
Ea jumped from his place (literally—he really was jumped when Landkarte ran to Profe to take their chocolate), shouting, "Don't drink mine too, you rubber stomach! Yours is enough to make someone full without eating any cake, you know!"
"Don't care about it!"
"LANDKARTE!"
Fest laughed amusedly when seeing that scene. Ea's expression was priceless—if only someone had a camera to record his face…
It was a night that Ea would never forget in his life; the first time he spent a snowy night with warmth from people around him.
Snow was cold, and chocolates that Profe made for them were hot and delicious. But it's nothing in comparison to the warmth he got and sweet memory he had whenever he's with them; the previous generation of 07 Ghost.
That, until that tragedy happened and took away Ea's precious sight from him:
Landkarte betrayed them all with sinister look on his face.
#
Snow fell beautifully from the sky. It's cold, yet hiding a secret that nobody knew perfectly for ten years—even Ea didn't realize it until that tragedy happened.
.
He laid himself on his bed, covered in thick and warm violet blanket. Even if he had lost his sight ten years ago, he could see snow falling perfectly in his memory; and that smile too, which was always appeared in his mind before he went to sleep.
["That one is for my mission to eradicate that annoying wrinkles on your forehead and black circle around your eyes. No offense intended, okay?"]
"Mission to eradicate the annoying wrinkles and black circles…" Ea—or like everyone called him now; Karu—chuckled softly. "What kind of mission is that, huh, loafer?"
There'll be no answer for that. The one he asked to wouldn't appear in front of him again until death came to take him away, anyway.
"Good night, Landkarte."
.
.
The End.