Title: I'll Be Home For Christmas
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: AU. Set in the 1990's, in a large city. Spoiler on Kamatari's gender...
Couple: None. Just a bunch of rowdy friends.
Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin... I do not own the song... I do not own Denny's... Blah, blah, blah...
Author's Notes: Welcome, ladies and gents, to our last short tale of woe and misery.... A tale of friendship to the bitter end... Enjoy...
I'll be home for Christmas
You can plan on me
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents on the tree
The boy was talking idly in the graveyard, unaware that he was being watched. Christmas night, 1998. No matter how much time passed nothing changed. This defiled piece of grim that they called a city only became more enraptured with misery each year. That chocolate-haired boy was rambling about all the 'changes' of this new year. They weren't changes - they were repeating scenarios. One girl died... another boy got shot... someone's sad and crying... someone's going crazy at the emptiness in their soul... Always the same. The only thing that changed was the faces and names... Even this cheerful boy was locked in this cycle. Talking to the graves of loved ones, how much more pitiful could one get...?
"What in tarnation! How'd Soujiro get here already?" awed a country accent. "Dang, he's fast!"
The first man who had been watching the boy turned to see second gentlemen. He was abnormally tall, but the fact that his blinding blonde hair was spiked up to Heaven's gates added to that illusion. A deep red trenchcoat covered up a policeman's uniform and reaching down to his worn boots. Dancing eyes watched... and waited.
Christmas Eve will find me
Where the lovelight gleams
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams
"Cho," acknowledged the other man in a velvet purr. He had silky-black hair that normally shimmered in the daylight. His cinnamon eyes watched the country blonde with surprise. The long-sleeved, midnight top was ordinary enough, but the fact that he was wearing a long, silver skirt was... unique. High-heels were torturing his toes, as he stood behind one of the few trees in the graveyard. "What are you doing here, Cho?" sniffed the cross-dresser.
"Nothing much," replied the blonde, sighing. "Poor Soujiro, he really misses those two."
The said boy hadn't noticed the two presences, and, at the moment, was happily licking some gourmet candy canes.
"Kamatari...," whispered Cho, studying the other man's face. "Why don't we pick up the kid after his done and go out for some Christmas dinner? Whaddya say?"
Kamatari didn't answer, but was mesmerized as Soujiro revealed an evening gown and wrapped the dress around the woman's tombstone. He wished he could act so kindly towards the dead. But he couldn't...
How dare they die in that fire! Who gave Shishio and Yumi the right to die? Why did they have to leave? All around Kamatari, everyone was leaving... That Kaoru chick was mad now... Kenshin Himura was dead... The doctor lost her love and was slowly crawling in a metal shell... The gang leader Zanza was close to death... The thief down at the school was ready to be picked up by Child Welfare's Services.... That child-hooker was gone... That police officer was falling into a maddening depression... His wife was as good as dead... Kamatari's love, Makoto Shishio, was gone... His enemy and fellow rival Yumi was just ashes... Their secretary Houji was dead as well... Cho had ran off to the other side of the city and got a new job... The kid Soujiro was working his way through college without anyone's help... And Kamatari... he was falling to pieces in the filthy snow.
And he blamed them all for leaving him, knee-deep in sorrow and frost... They should have stayed... They should have lived...
He didn't even notice when the blonde left his side to search out the boy. Cho and Soujiro would plan a Christmas dinner at some local Denny's or something... They would pathetically sing carols and tell tales of a jolly Saint Nick... But in the end, the void they all felt couldn't be filled with some stupid Christmas merriment. It was just another day that people highlighted on the calendar, but after all the highlighting and shopping, it was still just a normal day. Nothing changed on Christmas...
Heck, Soujiro was living proof of that. No matter how many times he visited these graves, their occupants never came back... No one ever came back...
I'll be home for Christmas
You can plan on me
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents on the tree
After they had been seated by a weary waitress, they ordered a round of French fries and milkshakes. Kamatari wasn't amused when the two other boys started belting out some warped version of "Frosty the Snowman." Then it became the war of the milkshakes. Grabbing spoons, the immature boys started catapulting the frothy shakes at each other. The cross-dresser ignored them, until they hit him square in the face.
Laughter roared through the restaurant, vibrating the building.
Before he could fight back, the manger came and yelled at Cho and Soujiro, threatening to kick them out if they didn't behave. Honestly, you'd think they were dealing with five-year-olds...
"I'm going to go play a song," Kamatari muttered stiffly, opening his designer purse. He had spied the jukebox when they had first made their grand entrance, and the need for music had been irritating him like a scratchy dog-collar.
But when he got up with his quarter, Soujiro jumped up and grabbed the coin out of the older man's hands.
"HEY!" snapped Kamatari, but the boy just rushed off to the jukebox and swiftly punched in his song's number. "SOUJIRO -!"
But the insult died on the ruby lips... A familiar tune was starting to fill the air... A harmony that was a part of the season's good tidings...
"Merry Christmas, Kamatari," murmured the smiling boy.
Kamatari's memory played back their last Christmas all the together. Twelve years ago and only the closest of the Juppongatana had be invited. That meant that only Shishio, Yumi, Houji, Soujiro, Cho, and Kamatari had be there, celebrating. It was then that Shishio had had Houji have the band play this song...
Christmas Eve will find me
Where the lovelight gleams
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams
The three men were dancing in the restaurant, unaware that they were being watched. Christmas night, 1998. No matter how much time passed nothing changed. This defiled piece of grim that they called a city only became more enraptured with misery each year. That chocolate-haired boy toasted the new year, hoping for 'changes' for the better. They weren't changes - they were repeating scenarios. One girl died... another boy got shot... someone's sad and crying... someone's going crazy at the emptiness in their soul... Always the same. The only thing that changed was the faces and names... Even the three men - the cheerful boy, the country man, and the melancholy cross-dresser - were trapped in this never-ending cycle.
But tonight that didn't matter, and the jukebox cooed out the carol's last line:
"If.. only..in..my...dre...ams..."
A/N's: Arigato to all those people who have put up w/ my slow updating. Yes, this really is the last story. Sayonara for now! Love&Later, DJ