How Buchou Found the Christmas Spirit

Chapter 2: Construction

A/N: I really hope I get this all posted by Christmas, but I'm in the middle of moving, so it may be delayed. In any case, got chapter 2 polished in time, so Merry Christmas!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"She wouldn't tell me anything," Fuji growled by way of greeting as he met Tezuka outside the school gates. He'd said it wasn't safe to talk on the phone and demanded Tezuka meet him in "neutral territory." His breath came out in angry puffs of white as he continued, "But I got my father to tell me that our mothers went to the same high school and were on the dance team together. Apparently, your mother was a freshman when my mother was a senior, and there was some competition between them. He wouldn't tell me anything else, though."

Tezuka nodded. "I thought as much."

"Did your mother tell you anything?"

"No. Just that they were teammates."

"No one in your family's big on elaborating, are they?" Fuji asked, raising an eyebrow. "No matter. We'll just have to do some further investigation."

Tezuka frowned. "Why?"

"So that our mothers don't 'accidentally' electrocute one another during this whole Christmas decoration thing, of course! I haven't seen my mother that mad since my father bought her a set of cookbooks for her birthday."

"This competition is pretty ridiculous," Tezuka admitted, leaning against the school gate.

"Absolutely ridiculous," Fuji agreed, moving to lean next to Tezuka. "I think our electricity bill as gone up at least 5000 yen just from from the practice runs.

"Ours is at least 6000. And I've probably strung ten meters of lights on the roof alone.

"Try twenty. And don't get me started on the animatronics."

Tezuka shuddered, remembering the snowmen in the store. "Animatronics are disturbing. My family's only using still statues."

Fuji raised an eyebrow. "Good luck scoring points in the originality portion if you don't have any moving pieces then."

"Originality is more than gimmicks," Tezuka protested.

"Animatronics aren't gimmicks. They give displays a sense of motion and --" Fuji stopped in the middle of an expansive gesture probably meant to imitate a waving Santa Claus. "What are we doing?"

Tezuka blinked. The argument began out of nowhere that he could discern-- as natural as one of their rounds of serve and volley. "Debating the finer points of holiday displays."

Shaking his head as if to clear it, Fuji continued, "You see, this is why we need to investigate."

"Agreed. I'll ask my father as soon as I get home." Tezuka moved to leave, but stopped when Fuji's gloved hand grabbed his sleeve.

"Ne, let's stay here for a bit. I don't want to go back to the war zone just yet," he said smiling. Flakes of snow drifted down from the trees they stood next to, dusting Fuji's hair artistically before melting away. The illusion was disrupted when the weight of snow gave way dumping a good three inches down the back of Fuji's parka and making him let out a "Gack!" of surprise.

Tezuka tried to maintain his stoic image, but failed.

"Or we could go somewhere warmer," Fuji muttered, trying to reach backwards to pull snow out of his hood. Thick sleeves made this task awkward at best

"Hold still," Tezuka managed, once the snickers subsided. Fuji did, letting Tezuka dust off his jacket and remove the clumps of snow near his neck. He noticed Fuji holding his breath while he did this and was glad he could blame the flush on his cheeks on the cold. He took a quick step away as soon as he finished.

Fuji thanked him, his usual smile back in place. "Now I'm freezing. Come get some hot chocolate with me?"

Deciding he didn't feel like going home yet either, Tezuka agreed.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tezuka's father dodged his questions for half an hour before Tezuka got him in a position to talk. That position was clutching at the roof's shingles while holding a screwdriver in his mouth and attempting to affix a tasteful white sleigh to the top of the house.

"Tou-san, what is wrong with Kaa-san?"

Tezuka-san took the screwdriver out of his mouth, "Hold the sled straight, Kunimitsu, I can't get these screws in a stable position."

Tezuka readjusted the sled while trying to keep his weight evenly distributed. He wasn't afraid of heights, but that didn't make the ground look any softer. Satisfied neither he nor the sleigh was going to topple over the edge, he repeated his question.

"It's not important."

"If it's not important, why are we risking our lives for this monument to commercialism?"

Tezuka-san sighed, looking his son in the eye. Coming to a decision, he said, "If I tell you, you cannot let your mother know that you know or she'll know that since I'm the only one who knows that I told you. Understood?"

His father was one of the many reasons Tezuka preferred short sentences. "Understood."

Tezuka-san readjusted himself into a sitting position, checking below for signs of his wife before continuing. "Your mother always loved to dance. In middle school, people called her a prodigy. She was... flawless, amazing..." His eyes took on a wistful, faraway look. "I wish you could have seen her back then."

Tezuka waited patiently for his father to get back on the subject.

"In any case, she started high school and everyone was blown away by her skill. She joined a championship team, the captain of which was a girl named Aiba Yoshiko."

"Fuji's mother."

"Yes. She was also world-class, had won Nationals with her team two years in a row and was looking for a third. However, with your mother on the team, the attention spilled over to the new prodigy. The team divided over the two of them, divisions that kept them from even qualifying for Nationals. I don't know all the details, but I heard it was pretty ugly. Your mother blamed her. She blamed your mother. The rivalry continued throughout the rest of the year... and I guess through today."

Tezuka blinked. He'd seen his mother's old dance trophies, and he knew he'd inherited his competitive streak from somewhere, but the story still seemed rather far-fetched. "If that's true, why is she always so nice to Fuji?"

Tezuka's father raised an eyebrow. "You've heard of crocodiles letting birds sit in their mouths to pick up any leftovers?"

"Yes..."

"They only do that until they get hungry."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The days passed, and the monuments grew.

Tezuka's mother selected the theme of "Arctic Christmas." Aside from a blinding amount of colored lights lining the roof and every window, the yard now hosted a menagerie of plaster forest animals in various stages of decorating a series of small, aluminum trees. Bathed in alternating red and green lights stood reindeer, squirrels, penguins (despite Tezuka's protest that penguins did not live in the Arctic)... all frozen while climbing the side of the house, darting to cross the path, stringing garland around pink, minature trees. Everywhere. Inescapable. The polar bears, however, were the worst. There were four of them-- two parents and two cubs--each wearing a santa hat and serving as the nauseatingly adorable centerpiece to the whole display. Tezuka deeply resented the naming of one of the cubs after him.

Still, as disturbingly cheerful as his house now was, Fuji's was monumentally worse-- largely due to the plethora of animatronic elves. Working from the theme of "Santa's Workshop," the Fuji's had filled their yard, roof, windows, and every other available surface with various figurines crafting toys or loading the garishly red sleigh. A waving Mrs. Claus bid farewell to a Santa that bellowed "Ho, Ho, Ho, Merry Christmas!" every three minutes. And the snowmen. Tezuka couldn't even look at the snowmen with their sunken, hollow eyes and their twig arms brandishing candy canes like machetes. No. Tezuka now only traversed the three blocks to Fuji's house when forced to gather updates for his increasingly competitive mother.

Six days, twelve hours, 39 minutes and Christmas would be over, Tezuka reminded himself on his way to the store, realizing he was starting to sound like Inui.

"And your mission today?" chirped a voice from behind him.

Tezuka slowed his steps, allowing Fuji to catch up. "Gold garland. She wants to line the garage door, now. Yours?"

Fuji shook his head. "Classified. If I tell you, I'm disowned."

"It's another one of those snowmen, isn't it?"

Fuji laughed. "What's wrong with the snowmen?"

"Nothing," Tezuka grumbled, mentally adding, until they become sentient and revolt against their makers.

Fuji studied him for a moment. "What did you do to your ankle?"

"Nothing. It's fine."

"Then why are you favoring your right foot?"

"I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

Tezuka sighed. "I slipped off the ladder and caught my anklet. It's fine."

Fuji nodded. "I got my coat hooked on the gutter and wrenched my shoulder." He rotated the arm arm a few times, wincing. "If they keep this up, we're both going to be benched for next tennis season."

"Don't joke about that," Tezuka warned, shutting his eyes in frustration, naturally just before approaching a patch of ice on the sidewalk. Tennis reflexes kicked in about an eighth of a second too late as Tezuka felt his feet slide forward while the rest of him flew backwards, only slowed by Fuji catching him under the arm halfway down. Unfortunately, Fuji caught him using his injured shoulder, and the two of them both ended up on the ice anyway.

Laughing, Fuji brushed ice crystals off of his pants. "Told you. Be a shame if you had to default the Christmas match due to injury."

"Even if I did, everything's more or less finished. We just have to wait for the judges," Tezuka grumbled, picking himself up.

Fuji arched one amused eyebrow, not bothering to get up. "So you think you'd win if the judging was today?"

"Depending on the judges' tastes, it's possible."

"Tastes?" Now Fuji drew himself up, his voice entering the dangerously polite register.

"Our families are appealing to different audiences."

"Only one of which is tasteful?"

There it was again. Every conversation the two had had over the last week always twisted this direction soon enough. Tezuka knew he should let it drop, particularly since he didn't actually care about the damn competition. Yet he still heard himself saying, "If the judges are using traditional standards, I believe my house will win."

"And if they have a degree of imagination, I believe mine will win."
Tezuka did think the Fujis' display had imagination: dark and deeply warped imagination, but imagination nonetheless. "We'll find out soon."

"Indeed." Fuji's voice had gone as cold as the melted snow soaking Tezuka's clothes. It was ridiculous how a supposed genius could get so worked up over this feud. It was ridiculous how Tezuka couldn't bring himself to back down. "I need to get these errands finished," Fuji finally said. "Good luck, Tezuka."

"Fuji..." The tensai stopped, turning around with a haughty expression only slightly marred by the purple penguins adorning his scarf. Tezuka wasn't sure what he'd wanted to say after that, so he settled for, "Good luck to you also."

Fuji nodded and swept down the sidewalk. Tezuka decided he'd buy the garland another time.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The EllipsesBandit...'s commentary

1. Fuji's mum's maiden name is Aiba due to reason's very clear to any fan of Tenimyu 2cd and now 3rd cast. Aiba Hiroki can be Fuji forever!