Reposted mere hours later...
Wah! I forgot to proofread this in the Document Manager, and then I went back and realized that I forgot the thingamabobs, so everything was scrunched up! So, I had to do that export thingamabob! Gah!
Disclaimer: This authoress claims no part of Yu Yu Hakusho. ::sob, sob::
Chapter 11: Eggnog
Hiei sat in the living room of his house, contemplating the presents under the tree. There were some from friends and a few from relatives, but his mother still liked playing Santa and put them under the tree at around midnight.
Speaking of his mother, she'd gotten in her car and driven off to tell other relatives the news, leaving him and Yukina in the house alone.
Or at least he was in the house alone.
Yukina was outside, on the snow-covered porch, crying her eyes out. Hiei knew he should probably call her back in before she froze to death, but he just couldn't bring himself to tear his eyes off of that one little package in the very back of all the rest of the presents.
It was wrapped in heavy brown paper and twine, and it had no doubt been wrapped in some kind of postal outer covering before that.
That was the type of present that Dad had sent last year.
"Just shut up," Hiei muttered to the images that were flashing in the back of his mind. "Just shut up."
He got up and walked out the door, not even bothering to put on a sweater over his t-shirt, sitting down next to Yukina.
"Hiei… what are we going to do?"
"Like hell I know." His eyes flashed to his sister, who looked rather terrible, to tell the truth. Hiei sighed and put an arm around her.
"We'll be fine, Yuki (1)."
His twin sighed, too, and nodded, leaning against her brother for support.
"Hey, sis, what was up with Yukina's mom?" Kazuma asked as he glanced up from his comic book.
"Why should I tell you, baby bro?" Shizuru asked, flicking the lighter cap on and off.
"Would you stop making that click-y sound?! Jeez! But… could you tell me, pleeeeease, Shizuru?"
"'S not my secret to give away."
"But still! I wanna know if something's wrong. Like… you know."
"Like, I don't know, Kazuma. Hey, don't you have some homework or something?"
"Shizuru! It's Christmas Eve!"
"Do I look like I care?"
Suichi clicked on a link.
"Hey. Hey, Yoko. Look at this."
Said twin jumped up off the floor and stumbled (too much eggnog, perchance?) over to the computer.
"What?"
"That."
"Oh."
It took Yoko a few minutes to read the entire article.
"Yeah, so?"
"Put three and three together. What do you get?"
"Nine."
Suichi sighed. Definitely too much eggnog.
"A major suicide bombing in Iraq. Three American troops were killed. Hiei's mom comes to the volleyball game sobbing. Do you see anything overly obvious?"
"Well, yes, I do. I just like pissing my brother off."
Suichi sighed again.
"Doesn't mean one of them was Hiei's dad, though."
"Yoko, you're being overly-logical. Given the information, what can you assume?"
"If you assume, you make an ass out of you and me."
Suichi sighed for the third time.
"Okay, then, Smart One. What happened?" the red-head asked, finally giving up.
"It's none of my business what happened."
Suichi gaped. His brother… wasn't curious?! ...APOCALYPSE!
"Listen to me, Suichi. Two-thirds of the eighth grade lives with one parent. And more than half of that two-thirds is missing a father. We're included, remember? So whatever happened to Hiei's dad—it isn't our business."
Man, even on eggnog, Yoko was really, really logical.
"Mom?"
Atsuko, sober for once, looked at her son.
"Huh?"
"Love ya."
Atsuko stared for a moment.
"Yeah. Same." She paused. "But you're not getting into the liquor cabinet."
"MOM!"
"SHUT IT! DON'T PRETEND THAT WASN'T WHAT YOU WERE THINKING!"
"IT WASN'T! Jeez, you try to have a nice moment and then it just BLOWS up in your face. Screw it, man, I'm never doin' that again."
"Yeah, yeah."
The night was dark and the moon was full. And eleven teenagers slept, dreaming not of sugarplums and fairies and presents—but rather, of the way things had once been.
Dream
The Christmas music played softly over the speakers as the children chomped on chips and chattered incessantly. This was the Christmas party.
"Ho ho ho!" came the jolly chortle. Shrieks erupted all over the auditorium and a figure in red and white was glomped—literally GLOMPED—by a mass of hyperactive children. He made his way up to a chair on the stage and sat down, waiting for the children to sit on his lap and recite to him what they wanted for Christmas.
Yoko and Suichi made their way up there first.
"Ho ho ho! And what are your names?"
"I'm Yoko and this is Suui and we're twins and we want LOTSES and LOTSES of candy and presents and—"
"What kind of presents?"
"Um… shiny stuff!"
"And… and I want… a lot of plants and flowers and a garden," Suichi put in.
"Ho ho ho! I'll see what I can do, then!"
A picture was taken, and the next children went up. This continued for a while, until Yusuke got sent up.
And what did Yusuke do?
"MAAAAAAAH!" he yelled, a sort of war cry right before he pulled down the Santa beard. And then he really screamed.
"SANTA! IT'S—IT'S—SANTA'S BOOTLEG!"
Everything erupted into pure, unadulterated chaos as children scattered everywhere, yelling at the top of their lungs, running for their mothers and fathers.
"COOL!" Hiei yelled above it all. "Look, Yuki! Daddy's Santa!"
End Dream
Hina wasn't back in the morning, but her sister called the house to tell the twins that everything was okay, and that their mother wouldn't be back for a long while.
"Hiei. Hey, Hiei," Yukina said softly, shaking her brother where he lay on the couch after having fallen asleep there last night. "Hiei, do you want to open the presents?"
"Wha—?" he asked groggily before: "Oh. Sure."
Together they went through the gifts quickly, in silence, exchanging 'thank-you'-s every so often. And then they were at that final package, the one wrapped in heavy paper. Both stared at it for a moment or two before Hiei got up and snatched it.
He tossed it into the wastebasket.
"Hiei! What did you do that for?" Yukina asked, looking as though she wanted to dig through the garbage and look for the package.
"That's probably the last thing we'll ever have from Daddy and you just threw it out! Why?" The tears threatened to flood Yukina's eyes.
Hiei shrugged, barely repressing a sigh.
"The past isn't worth living in," was his answer.
Yusuke sighed.
Atsuko, passed out on the floor, sighed in her sleep.
Oh sure, so she didn't even bother to lay out the goods before she drank herself silly. That was wonderful, just wonderful. Not that he was expecting all that great gifts, anyway. Atsuko had probably gone shopping, like, the week before and hadn't even gotten around to wrapping the presents. For the record, Yusuke had, in fact, bought, wrapped, and hidden her gift (because Kayko was being a nag, but that was beside the point).
"Merry Christmas, Mom."
Notes: (1) Yuki. As far as I've seen, there are quite a few fanfics that use this as Yukina's nickname. Bobby: It works fine as long as you don't mix it up with Eiri Yuki from Gravitation. Now THAT's a scary thought. Like, 'Hiei sighed and put an arm around him. "We'll be fine, Yuki."' Hmm, now, that doesn't sound like a bad idea… ::ducks the rain of tin cans and tomatoes thrown by readers:: HEY! IT WAS JUST A SUGGESTION!
Yes, this is the last Christmas chapter. Sorry if I overloaded any/all non-Christians out there with my fanatic Catholic traditions. I'll stop now. Plus, it would probably be beyond my level of writing skill to actually write a chapter for the current holiday. I have to be at least a month or two in advance… ::rolls eyes::
Uhm, well, if you want to see more of any specific character, canon or (gods forbid) OC, just tell me—PLEASE! I don't want anyone to be unsatisfied because I neglected your fave charrie.
And, finally: If ever you're waiting for me to post up the next chapter of either this or Trick Questions, then just look on my profile. I update it a LOT. At the very bottom of my bio, usually I'll have up a 'diary' section. There's useless stuff and then there's the status of the fics I'm writing. Just check up on it if you're feeling antsy.
Anyway, thanks to all who reviewed (too…lazy…to…check…again…). I'm really sorry to that one person who asked about the picture… I lost it! I searched long and hard and found… nothing! If I find it again, I SWEAR I'll give you the address (unless you miraculously find it before I do…).
Please review?