Title: A Winter's Tale
Chapter Title: December 21
Author: Nina/TechnicolorNina
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh!: GX
Genre: Humour/Romance/General
Pairing/Characters: Jyuudai, Yubel, Asuka, Fubuki, Johan
Word Count: 1 865
Spoilers: Post-series.
Story Rating: PG-13
Chapter Rating: PG-13
Story Summary: The folks with nowhere else to go all gather at Asuka's for Christmas. It transpires that Yubel doesn't know what Christmas is, Asuka's pile of term papers just keeps growing, and something odd is going on with Fubuki and Johan . . . who just wants to get away from jet lag and Edo Phoenix.
Chapter Summary: Folks arrive. The madness begins.
Notes: None
Feedback: There may be something out there that's better than a review containing concrit, but if there is, I haven't found it yet. So if you have two minutes and you wouldn't mind? Please? Arigatou. (And concrit is cool. Flames are not.)
Special Thanks/Dedications: For everyone over the years who tried to bully me into writing comedy again. YOU ASKED FOR IT.
A winter's tale, can't get enough
Through driving snow, we're on our way home
To the party, all the colours shining on her smile
She takes your breath away . . .
-- "Spirit of Christmas Past," Mostly Autumn
"And so this is Christmas—I hope you have fun," some popular singer expounds from the radio on Asuka's kitchen counter, competing with the clicks and clacks of coffee mugs moving gently back and forth beneath the water in the sink. "The near and the dear ones, the old and the young—"
"Hi, Asuka!"
Asuka isn't startled by Jyuudai's voice from the living room of her small teacher's flat, although there's enough snow on the ground outside to bury a full-grown man to the waist and she has heard no sound of a door opening or closing. It's simply the way things happen when Jyuudai is around.
"I'm in the kitchen," she calls, and when Jyuudai walks in there is not the slightest hint of frosty colour in his face, nor any trace of snow on the worn and beaten blue jeans he is wearing. Still—there are more pressing matters, like the tight hug he pulls her cheerfully into before even shucking his jacket.
"Did you find the bus station?" she asks. Jyuudai shakes his head.
"Snowed in. I came out of your closet instead," he answers, hanging his jacket carefully over the back of a chair before leaning against the fridge. "Fubuki's not here yet?"
"His plane was rerouted and he told me not to wait for him at the airport. He thinks he's going to rent a car in this weather," Asuka answers, putting a freshly-washed coffee cup on the towel by the sink. "I think he's out of his mind. Do you want coffee?"
"Coffee'd be great," Jyuudai answers, and in his voice Asuka can hear just the slightest hint of tiredness. Of course—any time is a good time to try working on those who think they are alone, but she imagines the Light has a much easier time at those points in the year that emphasize family and togetherness. "Hear from Johan yet?"
"Not since he left Heathrow, but the weather advisories on the news said to expect delays up to six hours for planes leaving New York. Milk and two sugars, right?"
"Yeah. You know, Asuka, you don't have to clean the whole place from top to bottom. It's just us," Jyuudai says, as Asuka puts his cup down on the table and then sits with one of her own.
"It's only a few dishes that wouldn't go in the dishwasher, Jyuudai," she tells him. "And it's Christmas." She smiles. "It's good to see you."
"You, too," he answers, and then takes a large swig of coffee. "Mmm."
The radio stops playing a song about pretty paper and pretty ribbons of blue and starts playing an ad for the local mall. Asuka considers getting up to shut off the stream of commercialism and decides she likes the chance to talk to Jyuudai in person too much to interrupt it.
"Where were you before here?" she asks, paying only marginal attention to the radio as it tells her that everything she really wants this holiday season is at ASM Jewelers. Jyuudai shrugs.
"Around. I visited my parents last week. They've got my dad's mother there now. Mom quit the hospital to stay home so they wouldn't have to hire an aide, so I saw her a lot." Jyuudai takes a sip of his coffee. "I guess Gram had a fall and they didn't want her living alone. And then last week I stopped in Trondheim for a couple of nights—"
"Wasn't Johan at North School last week?" Asuka breaks in. Jyuudai nods.
"Yeah. He said last year I could crash there if he wasn't home and I needed somewhere to go. I get a bed to sleep in and he doesn't have to worry about having someone come in to check his messages and water his plants," Jyuudai explains. Asuka can't keep from rolling her eyes just a little. Only in Jyuudai's world is it perfectly normal to stop and stay at a friend's when the friend is out of town. "And then I went to see O'Brien. Did you know it's summer in Johannesburg right now?"
"That's what Fubuki said when he was in Africa," Asuka says. "Their seasons are reversed." She pauses. "I'm worried about him."
"Who, O'Brien?" Jyuudai also pauses, looking at her quizzically over the top of his cup. "Because when I was there—"
Asuka shakes her head. "Not O'Brien. Fubuki."
"Is he sick?"
"I don't know," she admits. "He sounded all excited when he found out there were people coming, but then I told him it was going to be you and Johan and he . . . " she shrugs. "I'm not sure if he's not thrilled about sharing a bed or if he's sick and doesn't want me to know or if it's something else. He keeps changing the subject when I try to bring it up."
Jyuudai frowns down into his coffee. "That is weird." Then he looks up. "Want me keep an eye on him?"
Asuka's return smile is nervous, but genuine. "If you wouldn't mind. I think he's all right, but—"
"With all the weird stuff that happened at the Academia you never really want to place bets on that," Jyuudai finishes for her. "I understand."
Asuka opens her mouth to answer. Then the song on the radio picks up all at once, and what she planned to say is lost as the words tumble over her thoughts—a winter's tale, can't get enough, through driving snow we're on our way home. Then the front door does open, and a male voice rings through the apartment.
"Through hardships untold and dangers unnumbered I have fought my way for the fair maiden of this city! I require water for my horses and wine for my men!" Fubuki's voice calls, and Asuka laughs even as she rolls her eyes.
Some things never change.
"Name any six zodiac signs."
"Easy," Fubuki says. "Aries, Aquarius, that one with the twins . . . . er . . . "
"Gemin—" Jyuudai claps a hand over his own mouth. Fubuki ignores Jyuudai's chagrined look.
"Yeah! Gemini! Uh . . . " He sinks back into thought.
Jyuudai is ready to call time when Fubuki speaks again. "Aries, Aquarius, Gemini, dragon, horse, and snake!" he says, rather brightly. "Those are zodiac signs too!"
Asuka gives him a look. "Fubuki . . . "
"Hey, you didn't say which zodiac, you just said zodiac signs," Fubuki points out. Asuka looks at Jyuudai.
"Do you want to accept that?"
Jyuudai's answer comes slowly. "I don't know. He is technically right, but I think—"
"Hello?"
Asuka does not jump from the table exactly, but she is still on her feet in an instant, and in the living room before Jyuudai can even finish his thoughts. Then she calls back into the kitchen.
"Johan is here!"
The party, such as it is, moves immediately into the living room, where a rather windswept Johan Andersen is waiting to greet them—first Jyuudai with a bear hug to match his own, then a slightly awkward nod to Fubuki in the manner of people who are friends more by association than actual experience.
"I think that was the worst plane trip I've had since . . . ever," Johan finishes, stripping off his jacket. "There were these two kids in the row behind me who were—what?"
He's looking at all of them, but it's Jyuudai who speaks.
"I'll bite. Johan, what are you wearing?"
Johan looks down at his button-down shirt and suspenders somewhat distastefully. "I got conned into being a chaperone at the holiday dance before everyone went home and some smart aleck had the bright idea to theme it 'Days of Yesteryear' instead of doing something actually, you know, Christmassy. I didn't have time to change after cleanup. It was straight from the gym they held it in to my room and from there to the airport." He stretches, then yawns widely and tries to smother it with his arm. "At least it was decent to fly in. I wouldn't have wanted to be some of the girls."
"Where's your bag?" Fubuki asks; there is only one bag in Johan's immediate vicinity, a scuffed canvas backpack that surely is not big enough for five days' worth of clothing. The look on Johan's face as he turns in Fubuki's direction is both long-suffering and irritated.
"They don't know. They think it might have been on the plane I was supposed to be on that went to Atlanta instead of Chicago. I was going to just go out tomorrow and get a couple of clean shirts if they don't call by morning to say they found it, but—" he looks out the window. "I kind of get the feeling nobody's going much of anywhere tomorrow."
"Probably not," Asuka admitted. "They're calling for another fourteen inches tonight. It's all over the news as 'The Blizzard of The Century.'"
Johan sighs and picks up the backpack. "I guess I'll—"
"You can borrow my stuff!" Fubuki cuts in. "Term's out, isn't it, sis?"
Asuka nods. "We can use the washers for free right now."
Johan's smile is tired, but still clearly relieved. "Thanks."
"No problem." Fubuki reaches for the strap of the backpack and shoulders it. "Second door, right?"
"Is that the room with the bookshelves? Asuka told me to put my stuff in there," Jyuudai cuts in, and then he glances at Asuka as Fubuki and Johan first glance at each other and then off in opposite directions.
"I thought it might be better if you had a bedmate who doesn't kick hard enough to leave bruises," Asuka says, and Fubuki gives her an odd look.
"How do you know whether or not Johan kicks?"
"Because he stayed with me for four days while we fixed Manjyome's old bed and I told her," Jyuudai cuts in. "He doesn't kick, he just makes noise. All night long. Sometimes he even makes sense."
"I'm too tired to make noise all night long," Johan mumbles. "I can just stay on the sofa tonight and we can figure it out tomorrow?"
"I spent half of last week sleeping in your bed," Jyuudai cuts in. "I'll take the sofa."
"Half the time you don't have a bed. Take one while you've got it."
"Fubuki, is it really going to kill you to share for a night?" Asuka breaks in, and Fubuki shrugs and shakes his head.
"Not the one with the idea to stick him on the sofa, sis," he points out, and seats Johan's bag more firmly on his shoulder before adding in a manner that seems almost reluctant: "It makes more sense if he's with me if he's borrowing my clothes anyway." He indicates the hallway. "Come on. You were on that plane how long?"
"With all the delays? More than a day," Johan answers. "I think if you add in airport time it's been close to thirty hours."
Fubuki puts a hand on his shoulder to guide him down the hallway, and behind his back, Asuka and Jyuudai share another one of those glances.
Definitely odd.
