(This was originally intended to be my New Year's offering, as well as my offering to Saitou-san. That didn't happen of course, since this is the first time you're seeing it, and it is most definitely not January 1st, by any stretch of the imagination. But, I've kept what I originally wrote out, since aside from the first part, everything still applies. And as it is technically my first new offering of 2011, I consider it my first piece of the new year. So, in addition to wishing you a Merry Happy New Year, and Saitou a Happy—if belated—Birthday, I also wish you a happy White Day, and also add that I may be posting an actual White Day offering this week. Who loves you, baby? :D)
Merry Happy New Year, Faithful Readership! And a very Happy Birthday, Saitou-san!
And what better way to start the new year off than revisiting everyone's favorite office almost-couple? I am constantly surprised at how often people ask after this version of Tokio and Saitou, and in that spirit, I had decided this would be my New Year's gift to you all, and my obligatory Saitou Birthday offering (just tryin' to keep the Big Bad Wolf happy).
So, as has become the pattern, I give you Part 3 of what I have recently dubbed the Office Series, centered around yet another holiday near (if not always dear) to our hearts. I'm thinking the Series'll be wrapped in one more one shot. We'll see.
Enjoy guys!
Also: the Authoress' Mood Music for this one was "The Lengths" by the Black Keys. In case you wondered, after the most recent chapter of Ugetsu Monogatari.
Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize belongs in any way, shape, or form to me.
New Year's
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December 24, 2010
"What are you going to do for New Year's?"
Tokio's eyes flew up from her food to tangle with the intent amber gaze of one Saitou Hajime, her current dining partner.
It was an arrangement that had begun last Christmas, although she hadn't realized at the time that it was more than a one-off. For her part, though she had absolutely treasured that night with her boss—what girl didn't love spending the most romantic night of the year with the man she was head over heels for, even if it was just dinner at a greasy noodle shop a few blocks from your office building?—she had resigned herself to its equally absolutely likely outcome of never being repeated again.
Until this year, that is, when once again, she had found herself alone at the office with Saitou, who had once again asked her to dinner. And she had accepted because she wasn't an idiot, and just because it had happened again this year didn't mean it would happen again next year.
She wasn't sure what to make of it, though. Surely the man realized the message he was sending? Saitou wasn't a young guy, exactly, but he wasn't that old, either; Christmas Eve being for lovers wasn't a recent development by a long shot. He had to at least be peripherally aware of it…or maybe not. Because even though they were eating dinner together on Christmas Eve, and they were calling each other by their personal names, and they were talking about more personal things than they would have been discussing had they been at work, there wasn't anything particularly romantic about any of it. About the only thing approaching romance at this point was that they were at the same greasy noodle shop they'd had dinner at last year, and that had less to do with romance and nostalgia and more to do with the realities of that restaurant being the only thing close that was still open this time of night.
Practicality was never very romantic, as a rule.
Still, she was—for a record-making second year in a row—spending Christmas Eve with the man she was in love with.
And that trumped atmosphere in her book by a mile, at least.
"New Year's?" she repeated, absently resting her chopsticks against her bottom lip. "I'll be going home to Aizuwakamatsu Thursday after work. My family lives there."
One of Saitou's eyebrows shot up.
"Aizuwakamatsu?" he asked.
She watched him cautiously, wondering what she had said wrong.
"Well, yes," she said, setting her chopsticks down carefully. "Why?"
"I have an aunt there," he said after a moment. "She's the only family I spend New Year's with."
The oddness of that statement struck her immediately: he hadn't said she was his only family, just that she was the only part of his family he celebrated the New Year with. The distinction was both very small and very huge, to her way of thinking, but Tokio knew better than to draw any attention to it.
She had not become his indispensable secretary by being an empty-headed twit.
And then what else he was saying filtered through, and she started:
"You go to Aizuwakamatsu for New Year's, Hajime-san?" she asked, surprised. "I didn't know that! What shrine do you go to?"
"We don't go to a shrine," he said, shaking his head. "My aunt has a bad hip, so walking is difficult for her. We stay at her apartment and watch NHK, mostly."
Tokio grinned. "Which team do you go for, Red or White?"
He smirked, amber eyes warm with amusement. "Red."
"White."
"We can't all be perfect, I suppose."
Tokio laughed; Saitou watched her, smirk widening.
"What a funny coincidence, that we should both have family there," Tokio said once she'd recovered.
"Coincidences are often funny that way," he agreed, tucking back into his soba. "What do the Takagis do for New Year's?"
"We go to the same shrine we've been frequenting since I can remember and wait for midnight. There's a big Buddhist temple a ways down, and the cold air makes it so that when they ring the bells, the sound carries so that you think it's closer than it really is. We offer our prayers to the gods, get our fortunes for the year, and I always buy a charm. Then, we go home, go to sleep, and then wake up to see the first sunrise of the new year." She shrugged her shoulders, smiling bashfully. "Typical stuff, you know."
"What charm do you buy?" he asked, and Tokio fumbled her chopsticks.
"I'm sorry?" she asked, shooting him an anxious look.
"What charm do you buy?" he asked, a smile playing around thin lips, and her cheeks pinked.
Every year Tokio bought a love charm, in the hopes it would change her romantic fortunes. She wasn't sure that she had gotten anywhere in particular in that department, not even with that fateful White Day two years ago, but it had been a kind of progress (she hoped, anyway). In light of that flicker of potential, she had picked out her love charm more carefully next time, hoping for continuing progress (of a kind), and the year after that (which had been positively chock full of progress, much more than she had ever dreamed was possible). This year, because it seemed to be working in her favor, she planned to be just as particular as she had been in years previous, since it seemed to have worked wonders.
But. There was no way she was comfortable telling Saitou which type of charm she bought every year without fail. It would be far too embarrassing.
Especially since the man stubbornly insisted—to her secret delight—on giving her that elaborate, beautiful giri-choco for White Day.
"I, er…that is…I just, uhm…"
"Never mind," he said with a knowing look, and her face heated.
"Yes, well," she murmured into her udon, deciding to hide in the guise of intense concentration of her food until she stopped blushing like a schoolgirl.
Saitou, gods love him, allowed her to do just that without a word, and her heart flopped over in her chest at the indulgence.
The rest of their dinner conversation was free of peril—for her, anyway—and when they left the noodle shop after the proprietor had been hovering near them for an hour, making pointed gestures to the sign that said he should have closed at 12 a.m., they walked toward the train station very closely together.
I'm far too old to be getting butterflies in my stomach, Tokio thought, pressing a hand to her belly in a gesture that did nothing to soothe the jittery feeling.
The reminder of her age likewise did nothing, and if she'd been alone she might have sighed miserably over her own hopelessness.
"Will you be going to Aizuwakamatsu as well, Hajime-san?" she asked instead, trying very hard not to look or sound too desperately hopeful at the idea.
"Yes," he said, his arm brushing against hers. "I'm pretty much all the family my aunt has. Michi-ba's...well, she's special."
"Special?" Tokio asked, wondering at the oddly amused emphasis he'd put on the word.
"Special like me," he said with a smirk, sending her a knowing look, and she smiled back.
"You're not so bad," she murmured.
"You might be the only person in the whole building who thinks so," was the amused reply.
"You aren't," she said. "You may behave a little badly every now and then, but you aren't a bad man. You're just a little impatient and abrupt."
"You're very kind, Tokio," he said, laughing a little. "It's one of your best qualities."
She ducked her head, smiling, and they walked to the station in companionable silence after that, breaking the quiet only to bid each other goodnight when she stepped off the train at her stop.
She turned to watch the train roll on its way, and saw Saitou standing by the window, watching her. His lips quirked and he raised a hand. She raised her own, smiling faintly back at him, and she watched the train zip quietly off until the lights were pinpricks in the distance.
All in all, not a terrible Christmas Eve at all.
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December 31, 2010
Coming home was always a double-edged sword for Tokio.
She missed her family terribly when she was in Tokyo: her father's bad jokes and the little wisps of hair that hung tenaciously onto his balding pate and refused to be tamed by brush, comb or hair product; her mother's perfume and cooking and that by turns gently chiding and warmly accepting manner; her brother's uncanny understanding and goofy sense of humor; her sister's mothering, despite the fact that Tami was the younger sister, and the way she always knew the absolute right thing to say to make her feel better. She missed the house she'd grown up in, and the town she'd grown up in, and all the people she'd known all her life who never seemed to change.
What she didn't miss, and would have been more than happy never to experience ever again, was the way everyone asked her when she was going to get married.
Her father was the worst, surprisingly. Tokio thought he might be honestly worried that she was going to end up an old maid. Her mother wasn't as pushy, and Tokio suspected it was because her mother liked the idea of Tokio's being the one in charge of the direction of her life. She even thought sometimes, when she told her mother about her life in Tokyo and watched the fierce, excited light kindle in her eyes, that her mother was living vicariously through her, living through her daughter the life she would have wanted to live herself if she hadn't married so young. Her mother never voiced any regrets, if she had them, and Tokio never asked. For Katsuko's part, she seemed just as happy with the life she'd led for the last fifty-two years. But there were always, even for the happiest of people, a series of once-was and wishes, and Tokio thought that for Katsuko, it might be her eldest daughter's independent lifestyle.
But her father, though a good man, was very much a product of the times he'd been born and raised in. And those times said a woman got married to a nice man, had a few children, and looked after her husband and children. Tami had followed that path, getting married after high school to her high school boyfriend and promptly producing two sons. Morinusuke had likewise found himself a nice girl to take to wife, and they were expecting their first baby around March. And Tokio was very happy for her siblings, and loved her nephews and was just as eagerly awaiting Morinusuke's child as the rest of the family. She just hadn't gotten around to that particular milestone.
The fact that she had a huge crush on her boss probably wasn't helping, and neither was the glacial pace that particular relationship was going at. But Tokio wasn't a forward person by nature, and she knew any progress was going to have come from Saitou. As modern as she was, she was as much a product of her childhood as her father was of his, and she had grown up hearing it was the men who did the chasing and the courting. It was a little hard to shake something so ingrained, so much a part of her conception of what love was.
"Are there no nice boys in Tokyo, Tokio-chan?" Kojuro asked at dinner.
Tokio sent her brother a long-suffering look.
"Dad, leave Sis alone," Morinusuke immediately said, like the good little brother he was. "Besides, we wouldn't want her going around with a boy. She'd need a man."
Tokio winced at her brother's unfortunate choice of words, because it was going to get her father pontificating on his favorite subject of late: the type of man his eldest daughter should marry and have children with.
And sure enough:
"A good man to take care of her," Kojuro said with a firm nod. "Then she could stay home with the children, like your mother did with you three."
"I can take care of myself, Dad," Tokio said.
"Well of course you can," Kojuro said immediately, patting her hand in a way he didn't probably mean to be patronizing, but was nonetheless. "But a man would take care of you better."
"Kojuro, eat your noodles," Katsuko said. "You'll hold us up from getting to the shrine on time."
Tokio rolled her eyes, irritated. Beside her, Morinsuke patted her back.
"He's just old and worried," he murmured.
"I can't wait until we go to the shrine," she muttered back, swirling her cold noodles with her chopsticks. "I'm taking Tami's kids and escaping to take them exploring."
"She'll be glad for the break," Morinusuke said, leaning over to kiss her cheek. "Don't let the old man get to you, Sis. He means well."
"I remember when I used to tell you that," she said with a frown.
"Ah well: now the shoe's on the other foot," Morinusuke said, affecting a sage demeanor, and Tokio snorted and elbowed him. "Ouch! What was that for?"
"You're a snotty brat, but I love you, Mori-chan."
"Some thanks I get," her brother said in an undertone, and Tokio grinned.
The little snot had always been able to tease her into a better mood.
Thankfully, dinner passed quickly, and soon the family were on their way to the shrine. Tokio helped her nephew Ken get bundled up, while her other nephew, Koji, made a nuisance of himself and hopped around her and Ken, begging her to help him get into his mittens and scarf. Ken's expression—the way he slanted his little brother a look of reproachful disdain—made Tokio laugh and hug him, then haul Koji into the hug too and kiss then both on their cheeks. She finished with Ken and attended to Koji, and then allowed the boys to each grab one of her hands as they joined the family on the walk to the shrine. Kojuro apparently took this as further proof that Tokio needed to get married and have children, as he went back to the thread he'd lost at dinner when Katsuko had redirected him to food, and Tokio rolled her eyes and pretended not to hear him.
"Tokio-ba?" Ken asked.
"Hm?"
"What's Grandpa talking about?"
"Oh, he's just being silly, Ken-chan, don't mind him. It's an adult thing."
"He says you should have babies of your own like Mama and Papa and Mori-ji and Kimi-ba," Koji said, hopping to keep pace with his aunt and brother; Tokio shortened her stride to accommodate him, and Koji beamed up at her.
"He does, does he?" Tokio murmured, shooting her father's back a glare he didn't see. "And what do you think, Koji-chan?"
"You're our Tokio-ba," Koji said. "Right Brother?"
Ken nodded solemnly, and Tokio's heart warmed.
"So no cousins from Tokio-ba for you two, is that it?" she asked.
"We're getting one from Mori-ji," Koji said. "One's enough."
Tokio laughed, delighted with the child's utterly unrepentant tone, although a pang went through her all the same.
She loved her sister's children, and she was sure she'd adore her brother's child just as much, but one of her own...
"Everyone's farther ahead of us," Ken said, his gaze pleading, and Tokio smiled.
"Don't worry, Ken-chan," she said. "We'll get there on time. Promise."
Ken sent her one of his solemn little old man looks, then shrugged.
"Okay Tokio-ba," he said, and she squeezed his hand, then asked if either of them wanted to race to catch up to the rest of the family. As they both wanted to, they caught up that much more quickly.
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The boys were the ones who found him.
Tokio and her nephews had been all over the shrine, and they were making their way back to where the Takagi family always stationed themselves to listen to the Buddhist temple ring in the new year. The three of them had already bought their fortunes, and Tokio had promised the boys they would get their charms before they reached the family, so they had stopped at the display for the charms. Tokio was already eyeing the love charms, trying to make out the stack she wanted to hunt through for the one that spoke to her loudest, when Ken tugged on her jacket.
"Hm?" She looked down at her nephew, who was looking elsewhere.
"That guy's looking at us," he said, and Tokio's head jerked up to see who Ken was talking about, and got the shock of her life when she saw Saitou wave; stupidly, she waved back.
"Do you know that guy, Tokio-ba?" Ken asked, looking up at her.
"Yes," she said weakly, eyes huge as she watched him make his way toward her.
"Hello Tokio," he said.
"Hello Hajime-san," she said. "I thought you didn't go to the shrines or temples for New Year's."
"We decided to try something different this year," he said, hands in his pockets.
"We?"
"Me and my aunt," he qualified.
"Where is she?"
In answer, he turned around and pointed back the way he'd come, and Tokio saw an old woman with a cane who resembled Saitou quite a bit, as a matter of fact, seated with a few other elderly people, chatting.
"The steps were a challenge, but let it never be said that my aunt didn't enjoy a good challenge."
"She sounds formidable," Tokio said, looking up at him and giddy to find him standing much closer than he had to be. "What made you pick this shrine?"
He shrugged. "Seemed like a very nice shrine to spend New Year's, if one was going to venture out."
"It is," Tokio said, and Saitou grinned.
"Who are these young men with you? The Takagi family's warriors?"
"We're Watanabes," Koji piped up, appearing suddenly at Tokio's elbow and forcibly reminding her that she was not, in fact, alone. "But Grandpa says we're good warrior stock 'cause we're Takagis from Mama, so it's okay."
"My father says lots of things," Tokio said, a little horrified her father had spoken so out of turn in front of the boys, and hoping to the gods that her brother-in-law Susumu hadn't heard that.
"Like that Tokio-ba needs to get married so some guy can take care of her," Koji supplied helpfully, and Tokio felt her face flame when Saitou raised an eyebrow.
"These are my nephews," she said, hoping that ignoring her blush would mean it went away quickly. "Ken is the quiet one."
Saitou laughed, and gave Ken a bow, which the boy returned with a thoughtful glance at Tokio.
"And your other, less quiet nephew?" Saitou asked, smirking as he turned his attention to Koji.
"I'm Koji," the child said, sketching his bow with the same panache that got him into trouble at school.
"A pleasure to meet you both," Saitou said, bowing to Koji. "I'm Saitou Hajime. I work with your Tokio-ba."
"Cool," Koji said. "I didn't know Tokio-ba had friends."
Tokio shut her eyes in despair as Saitou tried and failed to hold in his laughter.
"Children are brutal on the ego," she said wearily.
"I see that." Saitou said in obvious amusement, and Tokio opened her eyes and sent him a weak smile. "I take it you're here with your family, then?"
"Yes, we were just getting charms before we head back to where everyone's waiting."
"I got mine," Koji said, holding a blue luck charm. "Tokio-ba, the lo—"
"Ken, did you pick out yours?" Tokio asked frantically, sending Ken, who was the more astute of the boys, a warning look.
"Not yet," Ken said, getting the message loud and clear. "Could you help me, Tokio-ba?"
"Absolutely," Tokio said.
"What charm were you looking to get?" Saitou asked conversationally, sending Tokio an odd look that she couldn't quite decipher before giving Ken his full and undivided attention.
"One to help me study," Ken said seriously. "I'm starting middle school this year."
"Ah," Saitou said, nodding. "Handy charm to have, then. Let's find you one."
"But what about—" Koji began.
"Why don't we help Ken find his charm, Koji-chan?" Tokio said, taking hold of her youngest nephew and maneuvering him over to where Saitou and Ken were perusing the student charms.
The boy was diverted, thankfully, and soon he was lobbying for his brother to get a green colored study charm. Ken eventually settled on a red one, saying "I like red," in his serious little old man way.
Tokio paid for her nephews' charms, and then she and the boys accompanied Saitou back to his aunt.
The older lady was round, and Tokio knew it wasn't an illusion of the warm clothing she was wearing. Her hair was the color of pewter, cropped short around her round face. She had very few wrinkles, a still very clear complexion, and very intelligent eyes the same color as her nephew's.
"There you are," she said, thumping her cane impatiently. "I was wondering where you'd run off to, ungrateful whelp."
"I ran into a coworker, Michi-ba," Saitou said. "This is Takagi Tokio-san, and her nephews, Watanabe Ken-kun and Koji-kun."
The old lady raised an eyebrow, then sent Tokio an assessing look. She apparently didn't find any fault with what she saw, because she murmured, "How fortuitous."
"I thought so too," Saitou said, and his aunt sent him a smirk that Tokio recognized from having seen it on Saitou's face...just before he threw Sano out of the office.
"I'm Yamaguchi Michiko," the old lady said, jerking her head. "So, you're a coworker of my boy's here, are you? Is he a good section manager?"
"Oh yes," Tokio immediately said, nodding for good measure. "Hajime-san's a very fair section manager."
"'Hajime-san,' eh?" Michiko asked, sounding amused; the speaking look she sent her nephew had him glaring at her.
"Quiet, old hag," he said.
"Feh, the youth these days," Michiko said with a sniff. "No respect for their elders. What's the world coming to?"
"I couldn't agree more," Tokio said, sending Saitou a reproachful look.
"What?" he asked.
"That was a terrible thing to say about your poor aunt," she said.
"Feh, she's a meddlesome old—"
"Michiko-san, my family and I have a very nice spot all picked out to listen for the bells to ring in the new year," Tokio said, ignoring Saitou to smile at his aunt. "Would you and your nephew care to join us?"
Michiko watched her, and then that same wolfish smirk that her nephew was so fond of using spread on her face.
"You're a very sweet child, my girl," she said. "I believe we will. I'm curious about the company my boy keeps when he's not here visiting."
"Help your aunt, Hajime-san," Tokio said, and Saitou frowned.
"You've gotten bossy since you came home, it seems," he said.
"You're not the boss here," she pointed out, and he shrugged.
"Where are you all set up?" he asked, helping his aunt up off the bench she'd been sitting on.
"This way!" Koji said, darting off in that direction.
"Don't run too far ahead!" Tokio called after him, then sighed as his dark head bobbed away and then disappeared. She looked down at Ken, who sighed too.
"I'll get him," he murmured.
"Thank you, Ken-chan," she said, watching him weave through the crowd after his brother.
"Your nephews are energetic," Michiko said, and Tokio looked around and saw the old lady had her arm looped through her nephew's.
"It's been an exciting day for them," she said, smiling. "I'm their favorite playmate, and they've had me all to themselves for most of the day."
Michiko smiled, then thumped her cane and looked up at her nephew.
"You were a holy terror when you were a boy. Wasn't a tree you wouldn't climb, a fence you didn't try to jump. I was sure you were headed for prison."
"Jumping fences isn't so bad," Saitou said mildly.
"It is when you were trying to steal fruit off of the neighbor's trees, whelp," Michiko said. She turned to Tokio and grinned. "Luckily, he grew out of it."
"Luckily," Tokio agreed, leading them to where her family waited.
As they made their way there, Tokio learned a few more things about her boss she'd never have guessed: his aunt had apparently raised him for a good bit of his growing up years, before he'd gone back to Tokyo to live with his parents. Michiko mentioned a bit of unpleasantness once, but never elaborated on it. Tokio gathered, however, that it was the reason why Saitou never spoke about his parents, or the brother and sister she knew he had, because he'd mentioned them once or twice in passing. And apparently, since then, Saitou had been spending his holidays with his aunt, traveling quite a bit out of his way even though he had family right there in Tokyo he could go see.
She got the feeling that it had been a long time since he'd seen hide or hair of them.
Tokio didn't have to make any introductions when they reached her family; Koji had thoughtfully taken care of that for her, and Tokio was actually grateful to the little terror for his presumptuousness. At least that way, she wouldn't have to worry about getting tongue-tied when she introduced Saitou to her family.
It wasn't until the bells had started ringing over at the Buddhist temple down the way that Tokio found a quiet moment with Saitou. He ended up standing next to her, one hand in his coat pocket.
"They do sound close," he said, and she smiled up at him.
"The sound carries very well on cold nights like these," she said, and he nodded. , then spared a look for her nephews and laughed low in his throat: the boys were dead asleep, sprawled against their father, who was likewise dead asleep against the fencing surrounding a sacred tree.
"Your monsters have tired themselves out, it seems."
"My monsters are wonderful, and I'll thank you to remember that."
He made a sound of apology. "My mistake, my mistake." Pause, and then his pinky brushed gently against hers. "Happy New Year, Tokio."
She felt that light touch as if he'd branded her; the sensation reverberated up and down her arm, made it tingle, and for a moment she felt lightheaded.
"Happy New Year, Hajime-san."
"Hajime," he murmured, brushing his pinky against hers again.
"Hajime, then," she said with a contented sigh.
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Tokio was still floating around on those soft touches the next day.
Saitou and his aunt had left before the bells had finished ringing 108 times, Michiko apologizing but saying her hip was bothering her too much to ignore, and it was time to go home. Saitou and Michiko both had thanked the Takagis for allowing them to crash their time together, and they'd both thanked Tokio for her hospitality.
Her parents had liked her boss very much, and her father had asked if he was married. Thankfully, he had waited until after Saitou and Michiko had taken their leave, or else Tokio was reasonably sure that she would have died of embarrassment, or barring that, thrown herself into oncoming traffic.
Her father had just been glad, apparently, that she did, in fact, know some nice men in Tokyo.
"Now you just have to date him," he said, in what he probably thought was a very reasonable tone of voice.
"Mom, make him stop!" Tokio moaned, covering her eyes.
"Kojuro, stop torturing your daughter," Katsuko said.
"Saitou-san was a very nice man," Kojuro said.
"She heard you the first eight times," Tami said dryly, rolling her eyes.
"This isn't funny anymore," Tokio said grumpily. Then she frowned. "Actually, this was never funny. It's always been awful and demoralizing."
"Dad's specialty," Morinusuke added.
Kojuro sent his only son his most withering look. "Quiet you," he said.
"That's quite enough out of everybody for tonight," Katsuko said. "Not another word about Tokio-chan or how much anyone thinks she ought to date Saitou-san. I'm looking at you, Kojuro."
"I'm just saying that he'd be a good man for Tokio-chan..."
The conversation had continued in that vein all the way home, and Tokio had tuned it out, choosing instead to focus on those precious few moments she'd had alone with the man. It made her much easier to deal with, as she now had a surefire way of ignoring her father.
Around mid-morning, the doorbell sounded, and Katsuko asked Tokio to watch the stove for her while she answered the door. The boys were feeling feverish, and Katsuko was making them some soup in the hopes of warding off the cold they had building. Tokio, as dutiful eldest daughter, had taken it upon herself to help her mother. Also, as cute as her nephews were, they were pretty gross now that they were getting sick, and she wasn't as keen on being around them; Koji had a tendency of using people's sleeves as tissues, and Tokio didn't want to be his next victim.
She heard her mother very enthusiastically greet whoever was at the door, and Tokio wondered who their first visitors of the New Year were.
And then she heard a familiar murmur that sounded deep and commanding, and when she poked her head around the wall, she saw Saitou and his aunt, and nearly fell over from shock.
"Tokio-chan! Saitou-san and his aunt are here," Katsuko called, and Tokio pinched herself very hard just to check that she wasn't dreaming.
The pain and red spot on her arm told her that she was very much awake.
"And I didn't even get to buy a charm last night," she muttered. "So much for that theory."
She plastered a smile on her face and went out to greet her guests.
"Hello again," she said. "Happy New Year."
"Happy New Year, my girl," Michiko said. "We decided you and your family would be out first visit of the new year."
"It's a great honor," Katsuko said, smiling. "Please, come in. We were just going to have lunch."
"Oh we won't be staying that long, I'm afraid," Michiko said, as she allowed Katsuko to lead her farther into the house. "We have quite a few people to visit, you see, and I tire so easily these days that we'll have to go through them quickly..."
Tokio waited until her mother and Michiko had gone into the living room before she turned to Saitou and raised an eyebrow.
"How did you know where my parents live?" she asked.
He smirked. "Your father likes me," he said, and Tokio stared at him for a moment before his meaning filtered through, and she groaned and covered her face with her hands.
"Oh gods in hell," she said, and Saitou laughed.
"I like him myself," he said, amused. "He's an honest sort."
"He's also a meddling old coot," Tokio muttered, feeling her face flush.
"I like to think he's a good judge of character," Saitou said mildly, and Tokio rolled her eyes. He laughed again, and said, "You're very different here, in Aizuwakamatsu."
She considered that, then looked up at him thoughtfully.
"I'm not your secretary here," she said at long last. "I'm just plain old Tokio."
"I can think of a lot of ways to describe you, Tokio," he said warmly, "but not one of them is plain or old."
Her flush deepened.
"Hajime-san..." she began.
"Just Hajime," he said quietly, and the flush got worse.
"Hajime," she murmured, and he nodded in approval.
"We really came here so I could give you...well, something like a New Year's present, I suppose." he said thoughtfully, rocking back on his heels, hands in his coat pockets.
"A present?" she asked, eyes going wide.
He nodded, and she was suddenly apprehensive.
"Oh Hajime-san, I didn't...I don't have anything for you, I wasn't expecting—"
"I know you weren't," he said. "That's all right. I got it for you because I had a feeling we'd kept you from it."
She blinked, confused now.
"Something you kept me from getting?" she asked.
"Uh-huh."
"What in the world could that possibly be?" she asked, and he grinned, then took a step closer, while also taking his hand out of his pocket...
...and there between his thumb and forefinger swung one of the nicest love charms the shrine had been selling last night.
It took a moment for her to figure out what he was holding, but as soon as she did her face went red and she swiped the charm from him, and hid it behind her back. It was an incredibly stupid reaction, being as the man had not only already seen it, but had been the one to buy it, but panic and embarrassment were never exactly rational anyway. Saitou's response was to burst out laughing, and Tokio had a moment where she really wanted to hit him, or kick him, or both.
But since the man had brought her a present of sorts, that was probably rather ungracious of her.
She couldn't bring herself to say thank you, though. It was so humiliating, and Tokio thought she might start crying. He must have got a sense of that, because he stopped laughing or smiling and instead stood before her very solemnly for a moment, before he reached out and took hold of her arms and gently pulled them from behind her back.
"I wasn't laughing at you," he said quietly. "I just wasn't expecting that reaction, and it caught me off guard."
"Okay," she whispered, refusing to meet his gaze.
"Tokio," he murmured, and she peeked up at him through her bangs.
His eyes caught hers and held.
"I wasn't laughing at you," he repeated.
She stared up at him, then nodded, once. "Okay," she said, and this time she meant it.
When she looked back down, he was holding the charm out to her.
"I had a thought it might be a little presumptuous of me," he said with a rueful half smile. "But your nephew very quickly disabused me of that, and then I decided you probably wouldn't want to buy one in front of me, so I stuck with you and them."
"You'd already bought it," she said, suddenly understanding why he'd been at the table even though he hadn't said anything about purchasing a charm of his own.
He nodded.
"And I didn't want to embarrass you in front of your family by giving it to you in front of them, so the old bat and I cooked up coming here to visit. She's keeping them all entertained for us."
"Oh," she said quietly, her heart warming at all the trouble he'd gone through. "Thank you, Hajime-san."
His lips twitched, and then he sighed, pressed the charm into her hands, then leaned down and brushed his lips against her cheek.
"You're welcome, Tokio."
Her brain shut down the second his lips touched her cheek, so Tokio didn't get to enjoy the sensation of her first kiss from Saitou Hajime. In fact, Tokio was pretty sure her brain was permanently offline, broken and forever unfixable, and it was all Saitou's fault.
She didn't come back to herself until Michiko, Katsuko and Kojuro accompanied Saitou back from the living room.
"Wha?" she asked her mother.
"Saitou-san and Michiko-san are leaving," Katsuko said, looping her arm through her daughter's. "They've got quite a lot of visiting to get through before the day's out."
"Oh," Tokio said dazedly. "Okay."
Wait a minute, Tokio thought, her brain suddenly coming back online. No, that is not okay. That is definitely not okay at all!
Saitou was already on the walkway with his aunt when Tokio barreled out of the door.
"Hajime-san!"
Saitou and Michiko looked over their shoulders at her; Saitou looked surprised, where Michiko only smirked.
"I'll wait in the car," she said, hobbling off toward the dark blue model parked just beyond the fence.
"Something wrong?" Saitou asked, cocking his head to one side.
"Yes," Tokio said, nodding once. "Yes, something is very, very wrong."
His gaze narrowed and went over her, clearly wondering what it could possibly be. Tokio walked right up to him and said, "I don't think it's fair how you're always getting the upper hand, Hajime-san."
"The upper hand?" he asked, eyebrows shooting up.
"You heard me," she said. "I'm not very spontaneous, or even very brave when it comes to men, and especially when it comes to you, but I've had just about enough of you always leaving me dazed and confused."
"I do?" he asked, with a funny sort of smile on his face.
"Yes, you do," she said, "and it's my opinion that it's my turn."
The smile fled, and he looked alarmed now. "Your turn?"
"Yes," she said, and she stepped right up to him, leaned up on tiptoe and was just barely able to buss his cheek.
The poleaxed look on his face was, Tokio decided with a certain amount of satisfaction, priceless. And what a feeling, to know she'd managed to knock him off his guard the way he was always doing to her. There was a certain amount of power to the knowledge, Tokio decided. Perhaps that was what made it so satisfactory.
"Thank you for my charm," she said, stepping back from him.
"You're welcome," he said faintly.
"Be careful driving."
"Right."
She smiled at him, then turned and skipped back to the door, where her mother was watching her with her mouth hanging open and her father was cackling with glee. A thought occurred and she stopped and turned back to Saitou, who hadn't yet moved, and possibly had forgotten to breathe.
"Hajime?" she called, and he shook himself out of his thrall.
"Yes?"
"Happy New Year."
He stared at her for a moment, then smiled so warmly that it made her heart flop over twice in her chest.
"Happy New Year, Tokio."
And so far, she decided as she watched him walk to the car where his aunt was waiting, looking very smug, it certainly was.