Miharu wasn't usually someone who put too much thought into the world surrounding him. He could have easily lived his life without high expectations - taking the days as they came, going to school, helping out at his granny's okonomiyaki shop - all the while trying to avoid getting himself too involved with people. And vice versa.
But unfortunately, this wasn't how things would turn out for him.
Whatever Kumohira-sensei, Aizawa or Raimei did or said when it became obvious that Miharu was the bearer of Shinra Banshou, the secret art of the World of Nabari, it still didn't quite drag him out of the little world he had carefully created for himself over the past ten years. He clung to his indifference, trying to push everyone away, not wanting to be pulled into something, a war of sorts, a world he wasn't yet part of. And he fostered no wish to become part of it.
Yet, when Miharu travelled to Fuuma village, hoping to find a way to get rid of the shadow lurking within him and thus going back to his everyday life, and met Yoite for the first time, something inside him changed.
Miharu wasn't immediately aware of anything being different; their first encounter left him first and foremost confused and drained. He was still at a stage where he needed to wrap his mind around the whole concept of being Shinra Banshou's host and its implications, as well as the no longer hidden world of Nabari and his supposed role therein. Yet, the changes, as scarcely perceptible as they were just then, became more apparent over time. He just needed to pick up on them and then accept them.
Which happened relatively quickly after their first encounter, especially given Miharu's general aloofness. Which he still tried to maintain concerning pretty much everything that happened around him. As long as it didn't involve – Yoite.
Things were instantly different as soon as the older teen was involved. Miharu acted differently whenever Yoite was involved, he felt differently.
And while Miharu probably would never even considered planning something for his own sake, he was quite willing to give something rather Miharu-unlike a shot for Yoite's sake. Especially if his carefully set up plan would work out and that it would show a desperate teen, who wished for nothing else than to have his whole existence being erased, that there were actually things worth living for.
And thus, Yoite found himself sitting next to Yukimi in a rather cramped car with Raikou, Gau and Yukimi's sister, Kazuho, who were all occupying the backseat. They drove all the way down to Banten village during the early morning hours of December 31st. Judging by Yukimi's constant cursing of a certain ‚secretive, yet extremely convincing, litte green-eyed devil' under his breath, this fun little trip was apparently happening on Miharu's request.
When they finally arrived in Banten village, Yoite led the group to the small okonomiyaki-shop which was also home to the remaining members of the Rokujou family. He could admit to himself that he was kinda curious what scheme Miharu had come up with this time, as he knew from past encounters that the other teen was always good for a surprise - good or bad was anyone's guess - and knew how to play people quite well if need be.
Yoite could only stand and stare as the door opened, revealing the shop-keeper and her grandson, Kumohira-sensei, along with Aizawa, Raimei and Hanabusa-san. He wondered what Miharu had had in mind when he'd come up with an idea that involved members of two antagonizing clans meeting up in one place.
It had nothing to do with fighting though, as Kumohira-sensei's first reaction to the Kira-user's appearance was squelched right in its beginnings by an overly sweet and dramatic ‚Kumohira-sensei, don't you ruin my special day. I... I would never be able to recover from such a thing'. The words were perfectly emphasized by big, green puppy-dog eyes looking tearily at the person they were addressed to, and Yoite was not for the first time impressed at how easily Miharu could wrap people around his little finger.
x*x*x
After they'd settled their sleeping arrangements for the night and the Kairoushuu members had dropped their luggage in their assigned rooms – Miharu had cleverly arranged for Yoite to stay in his room - they went to the village. A small New Year's festival was taking place in Banten village, and various booths had quickly been set up in the streets around the old town center during the past few days. That's where Miharu planned to take the group.
They roamed the streets as a group for a while, but started splitting up after an hour or so. The Shimizu siblings stopped at an antique weapons' stall joined by Gau and Aizawa, Kumohira-sensei and Hanabusa-san disappeared into a tea-shop, Yukimi and Kazuho just slowly fell back – leaving Yoite trailing Miharu.
Which Miharu had been waiting for. He strolled from booth to booth, searching for new things he'd like to show Yoite. As he had a hunch that Yoite probably had never before visited a festival, he thought that this was a perfect occassion to reveal some yet unknown goodies to the other teen. And Miharu had no problems finding food, drinks, sweets or games Yoite didn't know.
By the end of the afternoon Miharu had introduced Yoite to yakitori[1], oden[2], mochi[3], ramune[4], amazake[5], sweet potato and chestnut ice-cream, chocolate bananas and sugar-coated strawberries.
Yoite ate and drank it all. At first a bit reluctantly, but soon he was looking out for food himself, quite eager to discover something new. And at some point not only food piqued his interest, but other things caught his eyes too. Like wind-chimes. Or old coins.
As they were heading back to the okonomiyaki-shop, Yoite sauntered to a basin full of tiny goldfish. He stared at the children who where trying to catch one of the goldfishes with something that looked like a round fan made of paper on a long, thin stick. Really, really thin paper.
Miharu followed Yoite to the basin and grinned. He gave a few coins to the booth-owner and then handed Yoite a fishing-stick and a small bowl, keeping one of each item to himself.
Yoite looked at Miharu quizzically, but observed the other teen closely as he bend down and carefully went about hunting a small fish with the paper-fan.
He had never done this before, but Miharu had watched the other children and kind of guessed what to do. He chose a small fish, slowly put the fishing-stick behind it, forced it carefully closer to the surface – and then hauled the tiny creature into the bowl with a swift movement, using mainly the edge to do so. He looked up at Yoite, smirking.
Yoite eyed his own fishing-stick and bowl. Then he too bent down, chose a small fish to begin with and mimicked Miharu's approach. When he succeeded, he shyly smiled at Miharu.
Miharu nodded his approval, smiling himself now, before eyeing the basin again, looking for his next catch. As soon as he got his prey, Yoite did the same. They could take six turns each, before the thin paper-fans finally broke, making them the owners of five goldfishes each.
When Miharu and Yoite finally got back to the okonomiyaki-shop, their catch swimming in plastic bags dangling from their wrists, everyone else had already returned and was helping with setting up the tables for dinner.
Miharu's granny took care of their fishes, while the boys joined the others with the final preparations.
When everything was set up, they sat down and enjoyed a traditional New Year's meal in a companionable atmosphere, with kelp rolls, simmered black beans, rolled sweet omelets, mashed sweet potato with sweet chestnuts, fish cakes, pickled daikon and carrots, simmered vegetables and herring roe.
Soon after finishing their meal, Miharu excused himself, heading for his room, Yoite following him shortly afterwards. A few of the people remaining downstairs grinned and exchanged meaningful looks at the boys' retreat, but no one said a word.
Upstairs, Miharu was getting ready for bed, telling Yoite to do the same, as he had planned something for early next morning and they'd both be glad to catch whatever little sleep they could get.
Yoite stood in the middle of Miharu's room for a moment, reluctant about complying yet again without knowing what exactly the younger teen was up to. But when Miharu came up to him, squeezing his hand tenderly and batting his eyelashes, Yoite knew all too well that he wouldn't get anything else out of Miharu and sleeping would be the best option. As he settled down to sleep, all he could think off of his roommate for the night was: secretive, little devil.
x*x*x
It was early in the morning when Miharu woke from a rather light sleep. He stayed under his blankes a few more minutes, listening to Yoite's soft, even breathing, enjoying the other's presence so close to him, before he eventually crawled out of his warm bed and carefully padded closer to the older teen.
In the dimly lit room Miharu could barely make out Yoite's features at first, but as his eyes adjusted to the soft moonlight shining through the windows, he almost felt sorry he had to wake up the obviously peacefully sleeping Kira-user. But it had to be done and, albeit hesitantly, Miharu gently shook the still sleeping boy and softly called out Yoite's name to wake him from his slumber.
Yoite drowsily opened his eyes, taking in his surroundings. As his gaze fell upon the window, he noticed the darkness outside and glanced questioningly at the shyly smiling boy next too him. His sleep-addled mind couldn't quite figure out why he had been woken just yet. Or what exactly Miharu was up to this early in the morning.
Instead of answering the unspoken question though, Miharu just stood up and offered his hand to help Yoite to his feet. Once both were up, they silently dressed and left the house, Miharu leading the way.
The air was cool and crisp as the boys climbed up the hill to the village's shrine. Miharu eagerly climbed the stairs, sometimes walking ahead of Yoite, but regularly returning to the other's side.
As they got closer to the top, Miharu couldn't hold back any longer and grabbed Yoite's hand, pulling him up the final few flights of stairs. As they arrived at the beginning of the shrine's pathway, both of them had to catch their breath under the torii[6].
Miharu recovered faster from their final spurt, but they still had plenty of time to get to their final destination in time without hurrying.
Coming up to the shrine had only been a minor part of Miharu's plan for the morning and as soon as Yoite's breathing became steady again, he continued his walk across the shrine's ground, heading for the slightly smaller eastern torii. The forest path leading away from that torii branched off into several smaller trails, of which Miharu chose to follow the most overgrown one.
Yoite followed Miharu, barely registering anything they passed on their way, his eyes were fixed on the boy that walked in front of him. He hadn't missed Miharu's erratic mood since they got up, changing from relaxed and happy to skittish and then to something more serene again, and was pondering the reason behind it.
Eventually they ended up standing in a small clearing. Almost in the center stood an old, massive temple bell, tendrils of various vines climbing up its socket and twining around its framework. Scattered around the bell were seven weathered hokura[7] in varying sizes.
Miharu walked around the bell, tracing its surface with his fingers. He came to stand on one side, resting his hand against the cold metal and looked ahead.
Yoite followed Miharu's example, walking around the bell to the other side. He also touched the metal, but withdrew his hand quickly, staring at the glove which prevented him from really touching anything. Sighing, he let his hand fall to his side, and instead followed Miharu's gaze.
They stood where they were for quite some time, mesmerized by the sight in front of them. The trees had thinned out towards the sea and thus they could see the endless blues of ocean and sky meeting in the far distance, drawing a line on the horizon. Soon the colors started to slowly change from darker hues to brighter, hazier tones, the stars dissolving into the brightening sky as sunrise was approaching.
Miharu tore his eyes away as he noticed from the corner of his eye that Yoite was slightly shivering, despite wearing his thick turtleneck, coat and gloves. He closed the distance between them and softly touched Yoite's arm.
Yoite flinched slightly at the sudden touch, but upon seeing the concern in Miharu's eyes, he relaxed again.
A small smile flickered across Miharu's features and he quickly disappeared somewhere behind the bell, coming back with a huge bag in his arms. He set down the bag, taking out two pillows and placing them on the socket right next to each other.
Yoite watched Miharu, tilting his head. The question from where the younger teen just had procured that bag from was on the tip of his tongue. But when Miharu unfolded a huge, fluffy blanked, threw it over him and steered him carefully to sit down on one of the cushions, the words died on his lips.
Miharu tucked the blanket into place around Yoite, pulling on a corner here and smoothing out a couple of wrinkles there. Only when he was finally happy with the arrangement did he join Yoite under the blanket, sitting down close to him, but not too close.
They sat like that for another few minutes, anticipating the sunrise which was about to begin any given moment.
And as the sun started rising, Yoite snuggled closer, tentatively wrapping his arms around Miharu. And as Miharu's arms immediately snook around his waist, he started imagining, that maybe, just maybe, there might be something worth living for after all, even for a Death-God.
[1] yakitori: transl. grilled chicken; Japanese type of skewered chicken
[2] oden: a Japanese winter dish consisting of various ingredients, such as egg, daikon radish, or konnyaku stewed in soy-flavored dashi soup
[3] mochi: Japanese rice-cake; traditional New Year's food
[4] ramune: Japanese lemonade, the one with the marble as ‚bottle top'
[5] amazake: sweet drink made from fermented rice, mainly offered during winter
[6] torii: A gate which marks the entrance to a sacred area, can be found either at Buddhist temples as well as Shintô shrines. They can be found in different place within a shrine's precincts to signify an increased level of holiness.
[7] hokura: also called hokora. A very small Shintô shrine. Can either be found on the precincts of a larger shrine, dedicated to folk kami, or on a street side, enshrining kami not under the jurisdiction of any large shrine.
A/N: Lots of love and many, many thanks to hippo-pillow (aka novembersmith) for beta-ing the entire fic, especially on such short notice. Thanks also to presentpathos and perculious, who beta-ed early parts of it. *hearts*