p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Christmas for Nijimura is different for him in Japan than it was in America. There weren't any lights, music, or even loved ones to celebrate with. When they had first moved for his father's treatment, his younger siblings quickly got into the festive move and his mother followed in order to ease the tension in the house after those long sessions his father had to deal with on his road to recovery. It wasn't much, but it made them happier. He didn't have that since moving back to Japan, and while he has missed it, he had missed Tokyo even more. His mother had sent him some lovely gifts and he had talked with his younger brother and sister earlier in the day, but it certainly wasn't the same./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Christmas was the same the past 7 years - a shift in the police station and cheap takeout from the restaurant not too far from his work. However, today is a little bit different and he isn't sure how to react to that, because Haizaki is sitting across from him and eating with a bruised lip and a black eye./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The younger man had seen Nijimura come out of the station and has just decided to follow him down the bright and snowy streets of central Tokyo. They were quite the opposite of each since Nijimura was wearing his black coat with slicked black hair and Haizaki was wearing a brown bomber jacket with crazy gray hair peaking from underneath his beanie. They walked in silence to the restaurant and it wasn't until he neon light hit Haizaki's face the right way that the former Teiko captain saw the extent of his injures, but didn't say anything until they were halfway done with their respective meals./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""How did you get those?" he asked without missing a beat, though already forming a lecture in his head./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Girl, boyfriend, fight," is all Haizaki answers back with, clearly lying but Nijimura can't get the lies cleared as easily as when they were teenagers. He has tried a dozen times before in order to know what Haizaki was doing in his life. So, he mumbles and simple span style="font-style: oblique;"stupid/span as the young man struggles to eat with a stitched lip./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"There aren't any gift exchanges or familial words, but under the neon lights Nijimura certainly feels this is best Christmas he has had in quite awhile./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Christmas was the same the past 7 years - a shift in the police station and cheap takeout from the restaurant not too far from his work. However, today is a little bit different and he isn't sure how to react to that, because Haizaki is sitting across from him and eating with a bruised lip and a black eye./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The younger man had seen Nijimura come out of the station and has just decided to follow him down the bright and snowy streets of central Tokyo. They were quite the opposite of each since Nijimura was wearing his black coat with slicked black hair and Haizaki was wearing a brown bomber jacket with crazy gray hair peaking from underneath his beanie. They walked in silence to the restaurant and it wasn't until he neon light hit Haizaki's face the right way that the former Teiko captain saw the extent of his injures, but didn't say anything until they were halfway done with their respective meals./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""How did you get those?" he asked without missing a beat, though already forming a lecture in his head./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Girl, boyfriend, fight," is all Haizaki answers back with, clearly lying but Nijimura can't get the lies cleared as easily as when they were teenagers. He has tried a dozen times before in order to know what Haizaki was doing in his life. So, he mumbles and simple span style="font-style: oblique;"stupid/span as the young man struggles to eat with a stitched lip./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"There aren't any gift exchanges or familial words, but under the neon lights Nijimura certainly feels this is best Christmas he has had in quite awhile./p