Silent Storm
It's the last day of the year.
"Young master Karma! Where are the keys!?"
Inside the residence of Akabane was a warm and lively morning, contrasting the blizzard outside. At dawn, awake and bored, Karma got a brilliant idea to hide the keys of the rooms in the manor.
"Not until you cook me hotcakes with strawberry jam and chocolate," Karma sang, skipping into the great hall and climbing the sofa. "...And honey and—and ice cream on top of it, and I want pizza, and hot hazelnut milk!" he huffed, rolling down from the cushion, two servants trying to catch him. "Oh, and I want Yuki's PBs sandwich!"
"Young master, those are not healthy for breakfast..." one of the maids warned, cautiously approaching with hands ready to catch the rascal.
The red-head hummed, laying on the floor nonchalantly. "We use the best ingredients, how can it not be healthy?" he rolled under the sofa right before the maids caught him, letting out a mischievous laugh.
"Young master!"
Karma popped out from the other side of the sofa and ran out of the hall, leaving echoes of his quick steps. The manor was relatively thinning in human source; many servants had taken several days off, and the only ones staying were those who didn't have any plans for New Year, or other place to go.
In the end, the mischievous young master got the breakfast he wanted, the servants deciding that they should let him off the hook since it's New Year's eve. Karma returned the keys each for his breakfast orders.
"...Here's your hot hazelnut milk," the chef served the steaming hot hazelnut milk, to a cheering seven year-old.
"Awesome. Here's the laundry room's key," Karma threw the key to the servant behind him.
"And the brewery, sir?" the man pleaded.
"Where's my PBs sandwich?" Karma smirked maddeningly.
The servant and the chef exchanged troubled looks. The servant looked at Karma in guilt. "We're very sorry, young master...but Yukihiro-san has taken the day off. If it's alright, the chef can make one, albeit it won't be the same as Yukihiro-san's..." he trailed off, upon seeing the slow change of Karma's expression.
The red-haired boy stared at his plentiful of sweet breakfast with an empty smile, one hand was holding the brewery key. The chef let out a sigh and returned to his post. The servant forced a wry smile, thanking in a whisper and took the key from Karma.
Karma began to cut his hotcake and ate a piece.
"Mm! Tastes so good!" he said to no one.
The noise from the blizzard outside filled the silent kitchen.
~.X.~
He could...set this place on fire.
The thought had been hanging in Karma's head as he was aimlessly walking inside of his spacious house. The prospect of mayhem and seeing frantic servants, then the arrival of the firefighters seemed very inviting. However, considering the blizzard, the chance of keeping the manor standing didn't seem as high.
Even for being mischievous, Karma was smart enough not to be reckless. He knew boundaries, but not because he cared for the sake of others. He had to estimate how much he would lose.
The boy stopped by a window, approached it and stared at the branch knocking from outside due to the blizzard. Animals and plants, how do they live without boredom? Plants mostly stay in the same place until they rot, but it would take a long time. Animals didn't go to school or aspire to be a doctor, but they kept living despite having no real purpose or anything to gain but food and survival.
"Being ignorant seems fun," Karma mumbled to himself, making a small part of the window glass covered in the mist of his breath.
When he watched TV, it's mostly Christmas-themed family movies that irked him to no end—or crowded places that held count-down party. If he played online games, most of them were Christmas-themed as well and they would probably held a year-end count down tournament.
If he study...Ha!
In earlier years, Karma had spent New Year's eve with Yukihiro. It wasn't the most comforting thing, since the boy knew, Yukihiro might be putting up with him and trying to entertain him out of pity—maybe compassion as well, but there ought to be pity there. After all, Yukihiro had his own family; Nagisa and his wife, he hadn't spent much time with them. Karma thought about how it's logical if Nagisa hated him for taking up so much time from his father.
The boy opened the box in his room, revealing a collection of fireworks. Maybe he should set the place on fire.
There were some knocks on the door of his room. A servant excused himself to come in.
"Young master, you have a guest," he stepped back, letting in the guest. Karma raised his eyebrows, and his mercury orbs shrunk in surprise.
"H-Happy New Year, Karma-kun," Nagisa greeted, teeth clattering and his head covered in snow powder, cheeks red, holding a wrapped box. "Sorry for the intrusion. My father sent me here..."
"Huh?" Karma scowled, his cheeks reddening, still unable to determine what to feel. "What is Yuki thinking...? Why did you agree to come, anyway? Don't you want to spend time with your father or something?" he stopped, seeing gloom crossing his friend's face.
"I'm moving house...again. I haven't seen tou-chan since yesterday. He's with kaa-chan, setting up the new house. I had to take the train, and it's quite far...my new house, that is," he let out a small chuckle, bowing to the servant, and entered the room. "It's never good when they're together, so I decided to come here instead. Sorry...Did I interrupt you?"
The red head was taken aback; it took him several seconds late to answer. "I...nearly set the house on fire."
"Young master, please don't." The servant pleaded. "Excuse me." He said, before exiting the room. "Please don't set the house on fire." He added, and the door clicked close.
Karma laughed, and Nagisa only dared to let out a low chuckle, unsure to take it seriously or not. The red head told the shorter boy to sit anywhere he wanted, but then Nagisa remembered the gifts in his arms.
"Right! This is for you. I hope it's alright if it's for your Birthday-Christmas-New Year gift," the bluenette said awkwardly, handing away the box of gift wrapped with red paper.
Again, the red-head was very surprised and was mentally exploding in happiness. It's the first and only gift he had received from someone this year! Karma just wanted to hug his friend and jump off the roof from the inexplicable joy he gained, but those emotions weren't shown on his face. His face was all filled with shock.
"For me?" he couldn't even move his fingers to take it until Nagisa shoved it to him. He looked at the bluenette's face, searching if there's any trickery in his eyes. "Really?"
"Uhm, please don't laugh or mock me...it's quite hard to think of a gift for someone like you, Karma-kun," the bluenette said this with a shy grin on his face, scratching the back of his head.
"No way," Karma said, dropping himself on the floor, folding his feet, and began to unwrap the gift. Usually he'd tore the wrapper, but since he knew that Nagisa ought to spend some money for the wrapper, he didn't. Inside it was filled with various things, which Karma had seen but never own. "Oh, wow, what is this?"
Karma had picked up a glass jar filled with a curious fluffy green ball floating in the water.
"That's a marimo, Moss Ball," Nagisa pointed out, seemed happy that Karma didn't know what that is. "I bought some from Hokkaido during class trip, I thought you might have some already, but...yeah, I decided to give one to you."
"I didn't really remember about Hokkaido," Karma said with an irritated look. "I went to many places, but in Japan it's always quick visits so I never looked around. Whoah! This is some impressive wood-carving!" the red-head had taken out a bear wood carving. The bear was catching four salmons.
"That's also from Hokkaido," Nagisa said, and then peeked into the box again. "Oh yeah, this is what I bought. Tou-chan said you didn't have one." He pulled out a stack of cloths.
A dark-red male kimono for kids, completed with dark brown sash and white rope. The kimono had fireworks pattern on the edges of the sleeves. As someone raised in westernization, with parents who were rarely in-country, Karma never even thought of buying a kimono.
He did. But then, thinking about his parents or how he's mostly isolated during holidays, Karma lost interest. He never went to the shrine or have anyone to go with that he'd wear a kimono. He looked at Nagisa, wondering if the bluenette had been on many occasions of wearing kimono with his family. Yukihiro ought to, he thought.
"I brought mine, too," Nagisa said, taking off his small backpack and pulled out his dark-blue kimono. Karma noticed that it had no patterns, and wondered if Nagisa had bought something more expensive for his gift.
"Then, what do you do with them?"
"Hmmm...Usually kaa-chan and I go to the shrine wearing these..." he faltered a little, blushing for some reason. "Th-Then we drink amazake and waited until it's twelve o-clock. After that, we pray at the shrine and take out fortune paper. Next we go home to eat New Year rice cake. Some others usually play kites and stuff," he shrugged.
Nagisa gulped upon seeing Karma's unimpressed face. The red-head glared at the blizzard outside, and the bluenette could only let out a wry laugh. He didn't expect the blizzard would be worse this year; Nagisa heard from the news that many New Year's events were canceled due to the blizzard.
"What do you usually do during New Year's eve, Karma-kun?" Nagisa curiously asked, and began to worry if it was a wrong move, since Karma had such a flat expression.
"I would've blasted all of my fireworks collection for the year outside. Then, build something with the snow...maybe watch some classic movies?" Karma grabbed the marimo jar and leaned his back to his bed's foot. "Sometimes my parents took me overseas for a business party. It's much more fun than being stuck in here, though," he hummed, admiring the curious moss ball.
Nagisa listened quietly. Karma began to go on about the kinds of party and places he'd been with his parents. He had seen various Christmas trees, different sun rises, eating unique cuisines and experiences different New Years for most of his life. Yet, in the recent years, the frequency had declined. Even when he went with his parents, they paid not much attention to him. He would rather wait in the hotel room to explore on his own.
"...And when I was going up to the Eiffel tower, the old man behind me suddenly screamed, because he—" Karma paused, realizing that Nagisa had fallen asleep. He was nodding off, still sitting in the same spot. A scowl formed on the red-head's face. "Hey! I'm still talking, don't fall asleep on me...!" he flicked the bluenette's forehead with his fingers.
"Ow! Ow, sorry..." Nagisa told the taller boy that he only listened until the Chicago part. Karma huffed, crossing his arms indignantly. Though, to be honest, Karma couldn't stay angry at Nagisa for longer than three seconds. He suddenly stood up.
"Karma-kun?"
"I haven't given you any gifts, right?" the red-head said, opening the cabinets below his bed. "It's not wrapped, but..."
"You don't have to push yourself for that," Nagisa quickly said, embarrassed.
"You can't refuse," Karma said in a decisive tone. "...You have no choice, okay? Here it is."
"Is it really okay to accept this? Isn't this expensive?" Nagisa was shivering when Karma handed a neatly-kept Swiss army-knife.
It's an authentic piece Karma had bought when visiting the country; the one he gave Nagisa was a spare. Karma told him to consider it as a memento, something that Nagisa should hold onto for Karma. Reluctantly, Nagisa agreed and carefully slipped it into his backpack.
They talked some more, until Karma stated that he's getting hungry. It's way past noon, yet no servant had come in to remind them, probably afraid to interrupt them. The red-head then got an idea to cook meals on their own, and Nagisa lightly agreed, apparently had learned a bit about cooking.
"What do you eat on New Year?"
"Kaa-chan usually makes hotpot. Sometimes when we're in a hurry, she'd cook riceballs. I can make riceballs," Nagisa shrugged.
Karma himself had basic cooking skills, especially cutting. However, he had rarely eat Japanese or Asian food. His chef was Italian and wouldn't cook rice unless necessary. They had to find the rice cooker first and it took sometime. Fortunately, the fridge was completely stocked with necessary ingredients. They had fun making rice balls more than the excitement of eating them.
First, they dipped their hands in salt water before taking a handful of rice in one hand. After putting in the filler (Karma decided on caviar and tuna, Nagisa asked if he could put in sweet scrambled egg), they covered it with more rice and began to shape it. Covering a part of it with dried seaweed and dipped their hands in saltwater again, continue to shape it into the iconic rice ball.
"Mm, sweet egg is actually good," Karma said after taking a bite of Nagisa's creation. Nagisa took a bite of Karma's.
"Ahh!" he gasped, sticking out his tongue, tearing up. "Kaama-kun, ith hoh!" Karma cackled.
"I forgot to tell you about the wasabi."
"Uuugh!" Nagisa had to get a glass of water whilst Karma continued to eat.
~.X.~
On the door opened in the veranda, where the blizzard was held by the direction of the building, Karma and Nagisa were sitting on the snowy floor, watching sparklers shining in their hand. Karma had a wide collections of fireworks, but he didn't remember ever playing sparklers. He tended to underestimate the impact and the size, but now that he's sitting there with Nagisa and holding and watching it, Karma took his words back.
There was something about watching sparklers that made Karma felt warm. It's beautiful, and because it's small, he could take in the beauty in detail and long period, compared to the big fireworks that were mostly distracting, but bright-colored.
"Hey, Nagisa-kun," Karma suddenly said, "School's starting soon, but...can I ask you to come and play with me? Just come when you have time, or something," he felt slightly embarrassed for asking. "It's not that I'm lonely or anything, I just...well, you're quite fun to have around,"
"I can?" the surprised tone got Karma glance at the boy beside him. Nagisa's blue eyes were wide and glimmering in hope. "It's okay?"
Karma laughed. "I thought you didn't like playing with me!"
"I never said that," Nagisa said, smiling at his sparklers. "I'm sorry, Karma-kun...I was...jealous of you because Tou-chan always talked about you." Karma flinched, and again, looked at Nagisa. "I thought he liked you better than me...I mean, who wouldn't?"
A frown made its way on Karma's face. "Why?"
"You're smart and funny, and everyone likes you, and—and listen to you," Nagisa shrugged. "And then Kaa-chan, she actually wants a girl...and more stuff. Sometimes I think you're lucky,"
Lucky? Karma scowled. Was he really lucky? He had a lot of things, but he couldn't get what he really wanted, and it was something as simple as having his parents sit down for dinner together, a birthday greeting and the likes. How could this boy, said that he was lucky?
"Oh, right, so celebrating your birthday alone is lucky?" Karma coldly said. "So you think I like being locked up in here?"
"I didn't say that..." Nagisa sensed hostility from the red-head, and tensed. "And no one locks you up, you can always go, right?"
Karma scoffed. "Always go? I can't always go. Are you forgetting who I am?"
"N-No, I..."
"This sucks," Karma stood up and threw his sparklers onto the snow, turning away and into the room again. Nagisa felt really agitated as Karma continued to pray to become a commoner.
"I'm sorry," he quickly said, unable to hear more of Karma's sarcasm. As if he was a puppy with droopy ears, Nagisa hung his head down, sticking the dead sparkler into a lump of snow that made its way onto the veranda.
Karma felt bad now that his friend didn't say anything anymore. He didn't want Nagisa to be afraid of him too! But then...Nagisa was afraid of him, like everyone else...just because of his tantrum. He felt a bit disappointed, and angrily poked the dead sparkler onto the icicles forming on the fence before them.
Suddenly, Nagisa snapped.
"But you got it all easier," he pouted, frowning at the snow, "I mean, shouldn't you feel happy? I guess it sucks, sometimes, but when you're bigger, you can do anything you want, right? So you can buy expensive knives and get on a plane around the world, and you're a little lonely, then you say everything sucks...Well, isn't that a bit of karma for what you've had?"
Karma dropped the dead sparkler in his hand, and then scowled. "What are you saying!? It sucks! At least you see your mom and dad often than I do!"
"I'm saying that you're kind of a big baby," Nagisa puffed his cheeks. "It's not always fun if your parents are home. And isn't that the same for you?"
Karma agreed to this, but not the earlier statement. He pouted, and stood up.
"I'm not a big baby! You are!"
"I'm not!"
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
They began pushing each other. Moments later, Nagisa cried for mercy because Karma had taken him down and was pulling his hair, sitting on the bluenette's back like a wrestler. He demanded Nagisa to take back what he's said, but the boy stubbornly refused, even though his eyes were tearing up from pain.
"I demand thou to submit!"
"Never! Not even in thy wildest dreams!" Nagisa looked up to glare at Karma, and they glared at each other for several seconds, before the red-head snorted. The two blurted into laughter, and Karma got off Nagisa to let his friend sit. They returned into his room and closed the door.
When Karma turned to see Nagisa was approaching the fireplace, his eyes fell onto the blue-sky hair, mesmerized. Nagisa flinched when he felt Karma's cold fingers were once again, combing into his hair.
"Why is your hair so long?"
"I told you," Nagisa rubbed his hands together, "Kaa-chan wanted a girl, so she wanted me to grow my hair out. Once, sensei at school talked about this, but Kaa-chan refused, and there was nothing we could do about it," he shrugged.
"Then just cut it yourself!"
"No way! Kaa-chan will be angry," Nagisa shook his head with a fearful frown, "Even Karma-kun would cry when you see her angry."
"No way," Karma snorted, "I'm not a baby. My mom and dad sometimes yelled at me when I do something fun, but that's exactly what I want, you know?"
"What you want?"
"Yeah, I like it when they screamed at me. So funny,"
"What did you do?"
"I once aimed a gun on my head and they screamed, and I was all; yeah, I am going to pull the trigger! It was so hilarious, my mom and dad cried and promised me to buy anything I wanted. Then I told them it was a water gun that looks like a real gun."
Nagisa nervously laughed, because he could actually imagined Karma doing that—and he couldn't imagine doing that to his own parents, in fear that his mother would just jump at him and screamed his ear off.
"Then you got anything you wanted?"
"Nah, they yanked my ear off and told me to shut up and eat my brocolli, so I tried to eat my brocolli with my mouth shut, and they were all; Oh stop it you cheeky lil brat! Eat your food but don't talk. And no video games tonight!"
"That sucks..."
"Totally! Good thing I have my 3DS and I played under my blanket, and then my dad found out, then he took all my consoles for a month. I thought I was going to die."
"That's horrible! How can you live like that!"
"I...didn't know how I went through that month either."
It's simple for boys to bond over the tragedy of not being able to play. Karma decided that they should make a fort on his bed . After piling books and whatnot, the fort was completed, and they got under the blanket fort and played Pokemon for some more hours.
"Nagisa-kun, I got Eevee again!" Karma whispered excitedly, elbowing his friend. "Let's exchange...Hey? Oh, you always fall asleep on me!" he sighed and dropped his head to the side, his 3DS pushed away somewhere in the realm of the bed. The red head stared with a bored face than gradually grew mesmerized as he watched his friend asleep quietly.
"Na-gi-sa-kuun..." he whispered, his index finger poking on the bluenette's nose. "Hey...Nagisa-kun..." then his finger went to poke on Nagisa's lips.
"Mm..." Nagisa suddenly did the most suprising; he chomped on Karma's index finger, causing the red head to grimace and gasped.
"Eee...! Gross! Let it go!" Karma cried, flushing in bewilderment, pulling his index finger out of his friend's mouth. "Nagisa-kuuuun! Wake up! Wake. Up!" he impatiently stood and messed up their fort in his attempt to wake his friend. He tried to jump around, and it seemed it was working, because Nagisa went to hug a pillow and turned away.
"Don't pretend!" Karma huffed, and knelt beside his friend, who was trying his best to keep up a straight-sleeping-face, shaking the bluenette.
An idea popped into his mind.
"I'm going to kiss you if you don't wake up,"
Nagisa jolted awake and in his surprise, he fell off the bed. Karma laughed at him mockingly.
"Haha! You should've let me kiss you!"
"No way, that's embarrassing!" Nagisa protested. "Boys shouldn't kiss boys!"
Karma fell silent in an instant, and he said nothing when Nagisa began to collect his 3DS and said that his mother would soon pick him up. The red-head felt a pang of disappointment about his friend's words.
Boys...shouldn't...kiss boys.
He didn't understand why, but more than rules and norms, he was more hurt by Nagisa's refusal. Karma snapped out of this secret gloom, though.
"But you look like a girl, so it's okay!"
"I'm not a girl," Nagisa whined shyly, and put on his backpack. The servant from earlier entered to announce that his mother had arrived to pick him up.
Before he left the room, Nagisa stopped and turned to Karma with an honest smile.
"Oh yeah, it's too late, but, happy birthday, merry Christmas, and happy New Year, Karma-kun," he said, laughing at his own words. "Haha, hope you're always happy,"
Karma's eyes widened, his mercury orbs trembled. However, he hid that with the widest and happiest grin he had, as that would be the first time someone congratulated him on three holidays at once and hoped that he would always be happy.
"Thanks, Nagisa-kun," Karma waved, and was responded with the same gesture. "Come play again, okay? But stop falling asleep on me!" he followed Nagisa, intending to take him to the entrance. Nagisa laughed weakly.
"Yeah, sorry about that...I'm so sleepy when it's cold,"
"Next time you fall asleep on me, I will totally kiss you, so beware," Karma warned, his eyes glancing away, his face blossoming with red.
With that, the old year had ended, and the world welcomed a brand new year. With the blizzard outside, it didn't feel that anything had changed.
But it did, with Karma. And his feelings to his friend, that had taken to a different turn. Though he still didn't understand what it is. The little boy was like a red apple, ripe before the proper time. Unfortunately, the target of his emotion might be one of the latest flower to bloom.
Karma you better take up your game since Nagisa is a late bloomer, or both of you can't be a happily gayed couple forever.
Kindly review if you have the time