Four bundled up figures that go by the name of Kurosaki walked along the snowy cobbled streets of London, carrying a large pewter bowl that contains a concoction of ale, wine, cider and apples called wassail. It might seem strange to find a family with a name like Kurosaki in the heart of the English empire, but they had emigrated from Japan a little more than a year ago. They could not stay there anymore, they're sympathies for the Western nations made them unwelcome in their homeland, so they were forced to move and chose England as their new home.
It was not an easy move; the English were a proud nation and at first had a hard time accepting a Japanese family as one of their own. But the father, Isshin, opened a home clinic and offered aid for people of every station. That, plus the fact that he was very skilled, made him the doctor of choice for many families. As such, the family was well off financially, they weren't as prosperous as the rich, well to do nobles, but they weren't scrimping and saving just to get by either.
They kept with their own national traditions, but also adopted many English ways as well. After all, when in Rome, do as the Romans right? So on occasion you might find them in their traditional kimonos and yukatas, but for this year, they've decided to enjoy an English Christmas, which is why they were bundled up in thick warm English attire, and going wassailing; an odd tradition to go from door to door to friends that was originally meant to gain help for the poor, but now was used to express good will to others, and also to exchange small tokens of affection to each other.
By this time, their wassail was mostly gone and they were heading home, smiling and laughing with each other, enjoying this wonderful time of year. They were close to their home when one of the smaller figures paused looking down an alley way.
"Karin, what are you looking at?"
One of the taller figures had noticed one of his little sisters had stopped and turned back. She didn't seem to hear him and started walking slowly down the alley way.
Karin couldn't say exactly why she had looked down the alley at that particular time, she tended to avoid the allies since they hid dangerous predators, and while she could take care of herself, it was no use in drawing that kind of attention. When she looked down this particular alley, instead of a tall dark figure, she saw a small cowering figure shivering under what looked like a light brown blanket.
And instead of answering Ichigo, she walked down the alley, being careful since the person might be faking it. The figured turned towards her hearing her footsteps and she gasped a little from the shock of seeing white spiky hair coupled with turquois eyes, that she was sure that under normal circumstances were sharp and bright; but right now they were dull and hopeless.
"Are you ok?" she asked in English.
He just kinda scowled at her and then turned away and started walking away.
Karin was a little startled at his reaction. Who did he think he was? She was trying to be nice and he just blows her off like that?
She opened her mouth to give him a piece of her mind when she heard Ichigo call out to her.
"Karin, be careful."
The figure stiffened at the sound of Ichigo's voice and turned his head back towards them, "You guys speak Japanese?"
They looked surprised at the stranger. "Are you Japanese too? You certainly don't look it." Her eyes glanced up at his white hair.
He scowled again and turned away, "Why do you think I'm here in this giant hell hole? Nobody could accept that I was born this way and have no say on my hair or eye color so I stowed away on a western style ship then worked as one of the crew till we landed in England. I couldn't understand their language, but we managed by them showing me what to do."
Karin looked at him rather sadly, even though the circumstances were different, they were basically the same. "We were practically forced out of Japan as well, but for different reasons." She looked at him carefully, "Do you have somewhere to stay, out of the cold?"
"Heh, no one here would bother with a Japanese vagrant like me."
"Why don't you come with us?"
"Karin, you shouldn't just go and ask anyone from the street to come home with us. You should at least ask dad."
Then as if he heard his name Isshin came bombarding down the alley way, "Why of course he can come home with us! Masaki, Karin has expressed interest in a boy! I'm going to have another son!"
Red ticks appeared on both Karin and Ichigo's head as Ichigo yelled at him to not just go making assumptions and Karin sighed.
"C'mon, my family can be crazy sometimes, but they are good and mean well."
The stranger's face had paled almost to the shade of his hair when Isshin yelled all that stuff about having another son, then he looked at her a little suspiciously.
"Please, no one should be cold and hungry on Christmas."
"Christmas?" the look on his face was complete confusion.
"Oh right, most Japanese wouldn't know that holiday huh? How about you come with us and we'll tell you about it. It really is a lot of fun."
He continued to look at her suspiciously, and then he sighed, "Fine, it'll be nice to get a decent meal anyways."
At first Toshiro was wary of the family, even though they were Japanese he wasn't sure he could trust them. Neither the Japanese nor the English had ever shown him much kindness. There were also plenty that at first was nice to him, but then it turned into a trick to humiliate him some more. He was willing to trust them to a point, but it was always a good idea to be on the guard.
But it was kinda hard to stay wary when the brown haired girl smiled a gentle smile at him and chatted shyly with him. And even harder when the black haired girl talked with gusto, and laughed a somewhat boisterous laugh. There was just something about her that put him at ease.
But any suspicions of the family was momentarily forgotten when they unlocked their house, opened the door and invited him in. He just stood in the doorway gapping in awe. He had thought that since they were Japanese he would in at least a somewhat familiar setting. But what met his eyes was totally alien to him.
Cuttings of strange green plants decorated the walls near the ceiling with a deep red fabric loosely strung in between them. In the middle of the room was a large round table, with a green fir tree sitting in the center. Wrapped around the tree was a string of white puffs of something that he would later learn was called popcorn, along with some candy and cakes. Hanging on the various branches were what appeared little presents, along with some real fruit, miniature fairy furniture, and dolls of both men and women. And under the tree were boxes wrapped in brightly colored paper.
Something very astonishing was the fireplace. Sticking out of the body of the fireplace over the grill that kept cinders from falling out was a large log that extended several feet out of a merrily burning fire.
Were these people crazy? What the hell was going on?
While he had stood there gaping, the rest of the family had taken off their coats and other garments to stave off the cold and put them in what appeared to be a small room with a stick across it to hang their coats on.
The black haired girl approached him wearing a dark green dress. "What's your name by the way? We haven't properly introduced ourselves."
"I'm Hitsugaya Toshiro."
"I'm Kurosaki Karin," she pointed to the other girl, "That's my twin sister Yuzu."
"Wait, twin?"
She rolled her eyes, "Yeah, yeah, I know. We don't look or act anything alike. But she really is my twin sister." Then she pointed at the younger man with a shock of bright orange hair, "That's my brother Ichigo." He just kinda scowled a little as he nodded his head. "Don't mind him, he's just a little grumpy sometimes."
Then the older man with black hair and a light beard jumped at him, "And I'm Isshin, but you can call me daddy."
Karin closed her eyes and grimaced, "And that is my stupid goat chin of a dad," To Toshiro's horror, the man kept coming, but before he could back away Karin punched him in the face.
Toshiro sweat dropped, what was wrong with this family? They were just plain crazy; he started to edge towards the front door. But before he could reach it Kurosaki Karin pulled the cloak off of his shoulders then stared at it in dismay.
"You were outside with just this ragged piece of cloth to keep you warm?" She looked at him then her eyes rose even more.
He sighed as he knew what she saw. Only very thin pieces of cloth that the English liked to call trousers and a blouse that were baggy on him were the things keeping him clothed. And even with those clothes, you could still see parts of his skin through the holes in random places. Thank goodness there were no holes in any embarrassing places though. He had to abandon his Japanese attire because they had torn beyond all repair before he had even reached England. The sailors had thrown them at him because that was all they had. They were too big for him, but he managed and he had always been rather small for his age anyways.
"They may not be much, but it's all I can get. Even if it's to save my life, I refuse to steal. I haven't been able to try and work since no one knows Japanese and I haven't been able to talk to anyone to even be able to pick up English."
He saw her eyes soften just a tad when he said he wouldn't steal, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Ichigo's shoulders relax a little. Seemed like he was concerned about him stealing, but that wasn't honorable. He still had his pride as a human, and if he lowered himself to a worthless thief, how would he face his parents in the next life?
When Ichigo finally looked at him and saw his clothes he sighed. "Come with me, I've got some better clothes than that. They'll also be too big for you, but I think that would be preferable to a woman's dress."
Toshiro was astonished, he wasn't expecting that. It was obvious to him that the older brother didn't want him here, but since he offered some clothes without holes, he silently walked after Ichigo to get changed.
When they came out the light haired girl named Yuzu was setting a table full of food that made his mouth water, even if it was entirely English food. Give him some good amananattō any day. Those candied beans were better than anything an English mind could think of.
The night was rather uneventful, except for a couple incidents. Dinner, despite him not particularly liking English food, was wonderful. And when he said so, Yuzu blushed a very dark shade of red, and said to him that she had made it all. He could see that in the kitchen was a lot more food, but it didn't appear that they would be eating it tonight; he wondered why they would prepare so much food ahead of time.
After dinner they went back into the living room and they each put up one of the little garments that the English wore that were called stockings, and nailed them up to the mantle of the fireplace. They proceeded to explain about this magical entity called Father Christmas dressed in red would come down the chimney during the night and leave presents and candy just because they were good this year.
The girl called Karin had even tried to get him to pin one up, but he refused. What was the point? She had pinned it up for him instead. They then brought out a bowl of what they called posset, it consisted of hot ale with spices, lemon, sugar, oatcakes and bread. Everyone received a utensil called a spoon and everyone took turns to take a sip from their spoon. And they seemed to be rather excited about something in it too and he wondered what it could be until when he took a sip he felt a hard round piece of metal in his mouth. When he took it out he saw that it was a plain silver ring. Yuzu squealed a little when she saw it and proceeded to compliment him on his good luck.
Isshin also adjusted the giant log so that it would burn alright. They explained that it was called a yule log. They had brought it in earlier that day and was meant to burn for the Twelve Days of Christmas as he called them. When January 4th arrived, the Twelfth Day of Christmas, they would keep the charred pieces of the log to start the yule log next year.
The family decided to go to bed at that time. They provided him with a few blankets and a pillow for him to sleep on the floor in front of the fireplace.
The next morning Toshiro woke up to the smell of bacon, and eggs. Yuzu was in the kitchen again cooking breakfast. When he moaned a little then sat up and stretched he saw her head pop out of the doorway, "Happy Christmas Hitsugaya-kun."
He raised his eyebrow at her still wondering what this Christmas was about, they said they'd explain everything later, but he was still left wondering. When he looked at the fireplace he was astounded to see that the stockings that the family had put up last night were now full. He supposed that the father called Isshin had come down while he slept to fill them. They each contained little gifts that he could see corresponded with each person's personality; though he did notice that the stocking that they put up for him really had more candy and fruit in it than the others. He supposed that they couldn't have figured out what kind of gift they could give him in such a small amount of time.
Karin came down the stairs from which he guessed was the family's bedrooms and looked at him, "Did you sleep well Toshiro?"
A red tick appeared on his head, he didn't allow anyone to call him by his given name, not unless they knew him quite well. "It's Hitsugaya-san to you Kurosaki."
"Well my brother and I aren't big on honorifics, and call me Karin. It'll be confusing as to which Kurosaki you're trying to talk to because everyone here is named Kurosaki you know."
He scowled at her as the rest of the family soon came down and breakfast was revealed to be grilled rashers, poached eggs with muffins and baked mushrooms. Strange breakfast he thought but it tasted fine anyways.
After breakfast they bundled up in their warm attire again and started walking to a church. On the way there they finally told him what the holiday was about. Apparently on this day the Son of the One God in Christianity was born of a virgin, and they continued to celebrate his birth even though it was over 1800 years since it supposedly happened. They said Christianity believed that the Son will come again and bring peace and happiness to everyone. They explained that they weren't sure if Christianity was true or not, but that the spirit of the season was such a beautiful time of year that they decided to celebrate as well.
Toshiro had never believed in any gods, so he didn't believe in the Christian God. But he didn't want to offend the family that had been so kind to him, so he kept his opinions to himself.
Though he would say that even though he didn't understand what was said in the church, or even know the words to any of the songs that were sung, there was a very nice, calm peaceful feeling in the building. The music was also beautiful and he enjoyed listening to it.
By the time the religious service ended it was afternoon and the family traveled home and Yuzu started the final preparations for the Christmas dinner as they called it. After only about ten minutes she called everyone in to eat. When Toshiro came into the dining room, he stopped in the doorway, stunned. Any dinner that he has ever had paled in comparison to the feast that laid before him.
There was a bird that was cooked till it was lightly brown in the center of the table. Surrounding it were dishes of vegetables, along with some bread like dish, and potatoes and light brown liquid. As the family sat at the table they explained that the bird was a Christmas goose, and the bread was called stuffing. They explained that it was called such because they cooked the goose with the stuffing stuffed inside it, interesting way to cook. And the liquid was called gravy and was made from the drippings of the goose.
In between each plate was a piece of rather thick paper rolled up to look similar to some of that wrapped candy he's seen people eat. Were these giant pieces of candy? As the family sat down he examined the paper and apparently Karin, who he happened to be sitting next to, saw him and grinned as she picked up the one that was sitting between them and held it in a way that one end was pointing at him while she held the other.
"These are called Christmas Crackers. Take the other end and pull and you'll see why."
He looked at it dubiously at first, then took the other end in pulled. And all of a sudden a loud crack filled the house and he jumped and almost fell off his chair while the family laughed at his reaction.
"What the heck was that?"
Then he noticed that stuff had fallen out of the paper. It was mostly more paper, but the biggest sheet of paper was in the form of a crown. There was also some candy and little plastic toys.
Karin's eyes glistened with humor, "It's part of the fun, now we wear the hats that fall out of it."
"What? Why would I do a silly thing like that?"
"Because, as I said it's part of the fun," she then practically shoved the ridiculous thing on his head and he groaned as the others pulled their crackers and put their hats on their heads. Toshiro guessed he really didn't have any choice in the matter. If he were to take it off, the little devil called Karin would just put it back on and if he tore it up, the family probably would be offended, and that's no way to treat a host. So even though he was grumbling to himself, he kept the crown on.
Toshiro ate at least a little of everything, and enjoyed it. But he thought that the best part was actually the stuffing, he didn't think that he'd like it, but he did. The vegetables were cooked perfectly with just a slight crunch still to the bite. The goose was a bird he'd never had before, but it practically just melted in his mouth.
And the dessert, even though the ingredients were a little odd, it was one of the greatest things he's had before. The Plum Pudding consisted of eggs, fruit, bread crumbs, and something they called beef suet. Apparently it was mostly fat. Definitely an odd combination, but it actually worked. It was also topped with a sugar and water sauce that complimented the taste of the pudding.
After dinner was over, they went back into the parlor and gathered around the tree. This part of the Christian holiday seemed to be the climax as both the girls were very excited. Isshin behaved rather calmly for him and passed out the brightly wrapped boxes under the tree on the table. Toshiro wasn't expecting anything for himself since he had only come last night, but the father handed him a small box wrapped in a blue and silver paper.
He gapped at the man for a few seconds, and a smile climbed onto Isshin's face after a few seconds. "This was Karin's idea, she thought you might like something from Japan, and Yuzu made it."
He looked at the package again then slowly took it from the man's fingers. Isshin smiled and went back to his seat and started opening his presents with his usual energy.
Toshiro looked at the package for a few minutes turning it around, examining it from all sides. Why would the family give this to him? They had no obligation to him at all; he was going to be leaving them tonight anyways. What were they up to? Did they want a favor from him?
He looked up and saw that Karin had paused in her gift opening to watch him expectantly. Everyone else was chatting with each other not paying attention to him or her. He received an uneasy feeling under the scrutiny of those dark grey eyes so he unwrapped the paper that was around his gift and opened the box, then stared at the contents in astonishment. It was amananattō, but it didn't quite look right, then he realized it was the beans, they weren't made from the right beans.
"I know it's not quite the same thing, there are no azuki beans here in England, but we used soybeans, which is the closest thing to them as we can get. I don't even know if you like amananattō or not, but it's the best thing we could do under short notice." Karin said that all tentatively, as if she was afraid that she had upset him or something.
He looked up at her, "Why are you guys doing this? Taking me in, giving me new clothes, and feeding me, then giving me this gift, what is in it for you?"
Karin looked surprised, then she frowned at him a little, "It's because we want to, that is the spirit of the season here in England. This is a time to be sharing, thankful, and giving. The Christians believe that their Savior was born this day, so they need to show their respect and thankfulness to him by being unselfish and kind. Plus, we know how cold it is out there, and how awful it is to not have a home in a strange country. Remember we went through the same thing last year. And even though you don't look Japanese doesn't mean you aren't; after all, my idiot brother doesn't really look Japanese either. Also, we may live in England now, we still consider ourselves Japanese in every way and we can't leave a fellow countryman out there alone with no friends."
He thought about this for a while, he's never had anyone except his grandmother, and another girl that he considered his older sister, be at all kind to him. His personality and looks made him an outcast in Japan. Now that he thought about it, this is the first time anyone outside his family show him any kindness at all. Here in England he was treated with contempt as well. It took the combination of his fellow countrymen, and the English tradition for him to be treated as a human being.
All of a sudden a warm feeling started in his chest and spread through his body, for the first time he felt a true smile spread across his face. He felt tears prick at the very edges of his teal eyes, but he did not allow them to show. He reached down and took a bean in his fingers then brought it to his mouth. He could barely taste the difference in flavors from the real thing. It was delicious, and as Karin had thought it was nice to have some Japanese food again.
The rest of the afternoon went quickly. After everyone opened their gifts they visited with each other while experimenting with their new stuff. And something that surprised Toshiro was that the heads of some of the dolls on the Christmas tree came off to reveal what they called sugar plums. It was a treat only eaten during the Christmas season, and they stuffed them into the dolls on the tree.
They then had their afternoon tea in the dining room that consisted of both mince pies, and Christmas cake.
Toshiro decided it was about time to leave then. He didn't want to get too used to staying with them, he needed to make it out on his own. Now that he knew that there was someone kind in this country, he decided he was going to really work on his English, and get a job somewhere that wouldn't mind his looks. Eventually he hoped to be able to live at least somewhat comfortably, and for that he needed to improve himself.
The family followed him to the door and Karin handed him a nice warm coat as he stepped to the doorway and opened the door. All of a sudden Yuzu squealed and clapped her hands. "Look, you're both standing under the mistletoe."
Mistletoe? What's that? He looked at Karin curiously to see her blushing hotly and looking up. He looked up as well and found a plant with long rounded leaves and a single silver berry. Karin tried to jump back away from him but Isshin pushed her towards him. "Nuh uh, it's tradition. You guys have to kiss now."
What? Kiss her? Just because of a tradition? He looked over at the family and saw that Ichigo was fuming, but Isshin and Yuzu looked excited.
"No way, I'm not kissing him," Karin said as she folded her arms. He felt the same way and tried to hurry an escape outside, but Isshin caught him by his elbow.
"No you don't youngster. It's tradition, and it's not like you think my daughter is ugly right?" Toshiro looked up at the older man like he was crazy and saw a kind of fire burning in his eyes, just daring him to say that she was ugly. He gulped and looked at Karin and saw that she was being restrained by her twin. He could see that there was no getting out of this; Isshin wouldn't let him go, and he's seen how close the two girls were and that they would do anything for each other.
Toshiro and Karin looked at each other then with a sigh he stepped up to her as she did the same. He could feel heat creeping up his face as he leaned in and quickly kissed her on the lips then pulled back.
With her face as red as a tomato, she reached up and plucked the last berry from the mistletoe. "There, now there are to be no more kisses in this house." She then left the room and went to her bedroom extremely embarrassed.
As Toshiro was leaving, he smiled a little. He knew he'd be back, if only to see that black haired Kurosaki girl again.
A/N: Oh my gosh, this one took me forever to write. I started this at the beginning of the month, I don't usually take that long on a one shot that I've worked on for several days. Usually if it takes me a month to write a one shot or a single chapter it's because of writer's block. This time I just had to try and write it in a way that it would make sense and have some HitsuKarin moments in it too. Sorry if it didn't have enough of those moments for you guys.
Anyways, I wrote this for a contest on DeviantArt called "A Timeless HitsuKarin Christmas" we were to write a story or draw a picture of them in a different time frame and the traditions they had then. I chose an English Victorian Christmas since that is the origins of most of our Christmas traditions in America as well as England. I did a lot of research on this, which is part of the reason it took me so long to write. All of these traditions came after Prince Albert married Queen Victoria around the 1860's. If you want some more information about those traditions, pm me and I can give you some links for that information.
Also, around that time the Japanese did not like the Western countries at all and so a family like how I described the Kurosaki's probably would be shunned and forced to move. Just putting that in, lol.
Hope you all enjoyed this fic and a Merry Christmas to you all.