Title: I'll Be Home For Christmas

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: AU. Set in the 1990's, in a large city.

Couple: SANO x MEGUMI

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the song. However, the plot is mine and no one is allowed to take it without permission. 'Kay?

I'll be home for Christmas
You can plan on me
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents on the tree

The golden locket said, "Until the music ends: 1991." That was seven years ago when love was forever and lust was passionate... when the music played without end. The stunning, lying necklace was swinging from a small nail in the wall. The small office was cramped, with a desk that was too large for the room covered with files. Ants and spiders crawled up the rotting walls; cockroaches hustled over the wooden floor. Cabinets outlined the walls, threatening to break under the weight of the dusty portfolios. There were cases of influenza, pneumonia, and ear infections, but in the last few years there were mainly gunshot wounds, bloody stabs, and drug overdoses. And these were the patients of a pediatrician. A very lonely, broken pediatrician...

"It's Christmas Eve," the midnight-haired woman sighed, looking out the small window at the dirty street-filth. It was snowing an acid shower tonight, and the local homeless population was scampering for shelter. Bon- fires were burning in trash cans, but they only held a lingering warmth. Her clinic would stay open tonight - so many muggings, burglaries, knifings, gang wars, and rapes happened during the holidays...

It was terrifying when you realized that this lewd metropolis had even soiled the world's most loving holiday. The sharing spirit was still intact, though - they shared gunshots, knife wounds, needles, liqueur bottles, cigarettes... So many caring people out there, she thought wryly. The irony of her job tonight was bitter and cruel. No sugar plums tonight, just many bloodied children.

But this was what she choose to do... This was her life...

Christmas Eve will find me
Where the lovelight gleams
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams

Knock. Knock. The pounding continued until she cautiously opened the door. A young man, probably nineteen at most, was breathing shallow, raspy gasps of air, leaning against the door frame. His left arm was clasping his side, pain mingling in the sweat that poured down his face. Another gang shooting, no doubt. Another kid left to drown in their own crimson life blood. He was near death, but she didn't treat young adults, just children. And yet... if she didn't treat him, he would have no where else to go. The hospitals were too apprehensive of young men and women. They didn't want the hassle of the trouble those young people could bring. Every other clinic was probably closed...

The icy sweat poured down his face, as cinnamon eyes looked down on her. That tall and that skinny - he probably hadn't eaten in a week or so. Obviously homeless, braving this defiled world on his own. His short, ragged chocolate hair stood up on its own, waving in the chilly breeze. His white coat was made of the lightest cotton and didn't button or zip up to cover his firm, milky chest. God knew he was cold... His pants were much to short to fit him and he shoes were deteriorated. Bandages covers his wrists and ankles. Some saw this as a fashion statement - the doctor saw this a concealment of bad wounds.

"Can I...?" the rough, street-smart voice murmured.

She nodded, helping him in.

I'll be home for Christmas
You can plan on me
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents on the tree

The wound was deep, jagged. It took some work, but she was able to pry the fiendish bullet from his waist. Then stitches were required, but she had some difficulty administrating them as the young punk was entirely suspicious of the needle and special thread. After it was done, though, she brewed them a batch of hot cocoa with candy canes, as she waited for her next patient.

They sat in her office, listening... to gunshots, police sirens, foul-mouthed gangs, store alarms, children's screams, women's pleads, men's curses... A endless hymn of dying values. This was the end of the golden age of humanity. They were all slowing running each other into the ground... Soon there would be only one of them left standing, gun in hand, and he'd be standing a graveyard of corpses. And then what? Would the bloodlust come again, yet this time, no solace could be found for such an instinct? Then would that hapless body turn the gun on their own head, just so they could see the blood spill out...?

"Humans are pitiful creatures," she whispered out loud, shivering at the sound of another shrill bullet in the night.

"Hmph," was the reply from her silent companion. Such intelligent talk did not suit the boy. Besides... he was busy admiring the locket on the wall. After a long pause, he suddenly questioned, "'Until the music ends?' A gift from your husband?"

The beauty started, then turned to him, staring firmly at the gangster. Then her hard, indifferent gaze went to the dismal locket. "That," she stated in a cruel, malevolent voice, "is a trifle that was given to a pathetic, half-witted girl who once loved a Walk-Away-Joe."

"Oh."

"The said music personified the 'love' this man felt for her," she explained to the illiterate urchin. "It was suppose to be 'endless.' But..."

"It ended?" he finished for her.

"It had never began," she murmured dryly, a scowl on her radiant features. "Mother was right... That boy was really just a Walk-Away-Joe..."

Christmas Eve will find me
Where the lovelight gleams

"Hey," he asked, getting up and beginning to leave. "Whassyur name?"

"Megumi."

"Hmmm... Megumi" He rolled it over on his tongue. "I'm Sanosuke, friends call my Zanza. See ya 'round, doc."

As he closed the door, she quickly took the locket in her pale fingertips and hurled it at him. "Take it! I don't want it!" The sparkling gold hit the wood door, its 'clank' joining the sounds in the filthy, putrid streets outside. Zanza cracked the door open and reached back to claim the necklace. Then he was gone...

I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams

The golden locket said, "Until the music ends: 1991." That was seven years ago when love was forever and lust was passionate... when the music played without end. The stunning, lying necklace was swinging from a small nail in the wall. The small office was cramped, with a desk that was too large for the room covered with files. Ants and spiders crawled up the rotting walls; cockroaches hustled over the wooden floor. Cabinets outlined the walls, threatening to break under the weight of the dusty portfolios. There was one woman, crying and shivering in the frostbitten night. It was three in the sleepy morning...

"Merry Christmas, Megumi," she sobbed.

If.. only..in..my...dre...ams...