Title: I'll Be Home For Christmas
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: AU. Set in the 1990's, in a large city. Spoiler on Saito having a wife, I guess.
Couple: SAITO x TOKIO
Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin. I really wish I did!!! Anyone willing to buy them for me?! Anyone?! Anyone at all...? And I still don't own the song.
I'll be home for Christmas
You can plan on me
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents on the tree
A kitten calendar had fallen off the wall. It read 1996, but it was truly two years past the date. The hospital room was too cramped, and a wilting bouquet was dying near her bedside. A soft-cover book laid on the table. It was snowing acid white pillows outside the window. The cold, cruel man sat stroking a soft, sleeping woman. The IV was stuck in her right hand, pumping. The man's hand traveled up and down the angel's feathery hair, petting her. She breathed softly. His hands were struggling to keep from wandering down to his cigarettes.
'Don't smoke...,' he told himself. 'Tokio always hated the smell.'
It wasn't the hospital's red signs that decreed "No Smoking!" or the various lung cancer patients in the ward... it was the woman's face that kept him from giving in to the addictive crave.
"I'll visit you tomorrow. Merry Christmas, Tokio." The tall, lean man stood, sweeping himself away from his post. Then, with a tip of his hat, he strolled out of room. His blonde partner stood waiting for him.
"I'll drive," the blonde suggested, but was met with a glare of disapproval.
"I'll walk, Cho."
The cold policeman let his hand stray up to his black, jagged hair, ruffling it in a very unusual manner. He placed his hand on his hip. The blonde stood aside, letting the wolflike man stalk out of the hospital.
"Saito," groaned the blonde, sighing.
Christmas Eve will find me
Where the lovelight gleams
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams
Saito walked home, but once he reached the small, cozy apartment building, he just kept walking. He went through his entire pack of cigarettes on his way to nowhere. But every time he decided to light one and place it between his lips, he just ended up throwing it into the dirty snow.
He heard the yells of neighborhood punks teasing another hapless victim.... The sounds of store alarms and car alarms and random alarms... The screams and gunfire and shrieks of cars.... The roaring subways and crying children... The school bells and police sirens... All of it went by in a clap of thunder. The neon flashed and the music played - hard rock, country, hip-hop, and jazz all sounding at once in the clashing melody of the city. There were crimes polluting this fiendish pool of waste that they call the big city, but Saito could care less.
"I'm not on duty tonight," he told himself. And he wasn't...but that didn't make ignoring the world's problems right. He knew that. And he didn't care.
Two years. She had been in the hospital for two years. After an accident he couldn't prevent. Coma, that's was the doctors called it. Saito called it unfair. Tokio was his wife - the only person who he cared for. The only person who cared for him.
Coma... It was like sleeping, just for a longer time...
I'll be home for Christmas
You can plan on me
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents on the tree
"If I were to fall asleep, would anyone notice?" Saito mumbled to himself. He had found himself sitting in the snow, under a cherry tree, snow up to his waist. He shivered. "Maybe I should just sneak into Tokio's bed and sleep next to her for eternity. Then the hospital could close off the room and let us sleep 'til we die."
Saito reached down to light another cigarette, but instead found his gun. He hadn't even noticed that was still in his uniform...
"If we sleep forever, Tokio, will kami allow us to meet in our dreams?"
He pulled out his gun, stroking it with his nimble, gloved fingers...
"Or would just feeling your warmth be enough for this tired, old wolf?"
His hand slipped out of the white glove...
"If I could just slip next to you..."
Numb fingers wrapped around the gun, fingering the trigger...
"I hate being awake," he stated dryly. His vision blurred for half a second before returning back to an amber glare. "I hate being awake. I hate being awake. Being awake is overrated. Why can't I just sleep? Why can't I just fall down and sleep?"
The gun brushed against his raven hair....
"I WANT to sleep tonight. Too many nights of coming home late and lying in bed to wait for morning. The bed is cold - the house is cold - the street is cold - the hospital is cold," he growled. "And she's cold. She's always cold."
He stood up, his gun still next to his head....
"I WANT HER TO FEEL ME!" he shouted, all of his pent-up anger voiced in his tone. "I WANT LIFE'S TOUCH TO STIR HER IN POUNDING EMOTION! I WANT HER TO WAKE UP! JUST WAKE UP, TOKIO! WAKE UP!"
His hand began shaking...
"WAKE UP! WAKE ME UP FROM THIS COLDNESS!"
...and Saito collapsed.
Where the lovelight gleams
"Poor, Tokio-san," the doctor sighed. "That woman has no family. Her husband barely survives paying the medical bills."
"And there's no chance at all that she'll ever wake up?" the nurse questioned, biting her lip.
The doctor waved an impatient hand. "No, not a chance. The coma is rather severe."
"Oh," murmured nurse, brushing back a lock of hair. She peered through the window that stared into Tokio's room. "It's nice that her husband is so devoted. If he left her, she'd probably never survive. Not in the state she's in, anyway."
"Yes, and he visits her every day after his work, even though it's clearly making him depressive. Today he told me that if it wasn't for the fact that he was needed to pay her bills, he'd just lay down and die," the doctor murmured.
"Die? Isn't that a little harsh?" she gasped, hand flying over her mouth.
The old doctor sighed. "Not at all. He's alone, she's the only thing he has left. I really don't blame him for wanting to die either." He paused, weighing his next words. "If I lost my wife, along with everything else in this world, I would have already commited suicide..." A soft smile. "Look." He pointed into Tokio's room. "Even after all the stress and emotional abuse, he's still here every day."
"But isn't visiting hours over, sir?"
"Yes, but tonight's New Year's Eve. He deserves to make his new year wishes with his love. Especially after all the pain of last two years." The aged doctor smiled. "Who knows? Maybe she'll wake up this year."
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams
A kitten calendar had fallen off the wall. It read 1996, but it was truly two years past the date. The hospital room was too cramped, and a wilting bouquet was dying near her bedside. A soft-cover book laid on the bedside table. It was snowing acid white outside the window. The cold, cruel man sat stroking a soft, sleeping woman. The IV was stuck in her right hand, pumping. The man's hand traveled up and down the angel's feathery hair, petting her. She breathed softly. His hands were struggling to keep from wandering down to his cigarettes...
It was hard...
If.. only..in..my...dre...ams...