HEY! Yea, I'm moving on in my fanfic career… So here's something for Shaman King FANS! This IS AU, it's cute, fluffy, though Ren is COMPLETELY out of character. I apologize if this offends anyone, but if you flame me, I will be mad and write no more. So be careful~! AND NOW, TO THE STORY!
Chapter 1: The life of no one special
There he stood, alone, helpless but so proud that no one would know what he felt. Snow fell around the short Chinese boy and the wind blew by, turning his tears to ice. The bridge where he stood was old and made of cold steel, much like his heart. Below the river was moving with blocks of dark ice in it. They just drifted along, nothing neither touching them nor stopping them from the waterfall that lay 13 miles ahead, where they would split and shatter on the rocks below. Some how, the boy felt as if he were one of those blocks of ice, just caught in the flow of every day life, untouched, unmoved, uncared for. Nothing was stopping him from just jumping off the bridge on this cold winter night and joining the frozen water below as just another mound of ice. And yet, the boy turned from watching the river and began walking back across the bridge to his home.
It's a pure rule that life is lonely in the big city, especially around Christmas time. People busily walk in and out of stores, spending money on things they'll give to someone else and never see again, and most of it will be thrown away or forgotten, or given to yet another someone. People were happy and families were drawn together once again just for them to leave a week later. It was cold, lonesome, depressing, and it made the Chinese boy feel like he was once again singled out.
As he walked by houses, Christmas lights lit up his golden eyes. Red, green, gold, and white, it was just a gimmick to pay more on your electric bill. He looked in on house windows, into living rooms covered in snowmen, holly, wreathes, and (of course) a Christmas tree covered in decorations. On the floor where parents wrapping gifts for their children. After all, they needed to be ready for the holiday at the end of the week. And it was only Monday; Christmas was still a full 5 days away.
The crunch of snow under his black leather boots was the only sound that filled his ears as snowflakes fluttered around him, covering his hair, shoulders, and wool jacket with a thin powder. The tears had stopped coming now and all that remained in those gold eyes was a strong feeling of emptiness, as if somehow he had missed something, but he couldn't have. Tao Ren never misses anything.
The doorknob was cold and if not for the leather gloves, his hand would have been stuck to the brass. With a heave, the short and nimble Chinese boy forced his front door open, reminding himself to oil the hinges in the morning. There were no lights on, no tree, no decorations, just… the house with a few scattered pieces of furniture, because it wasn't like he had anyone to expect.
Closing the door again, he shed the wool coat, the leather gloves, the black boots, and the knitted scarf as he walked up the stairs to the second level.
It wasn't that he was brought up without Christmas, because he was. It wasn't that he didn't like the holiday, because he did. And it wasn't that he didn't have enough money to buy anything, because he had tons of it. The only thing was that he had no one special to share it with. No one seemed important enough to him to get a present for. So he made up excuses here and there to get out of parties, gifts, and buying stuff. Ren was sure though, that this charade would soon end, because he did work in a Bon Marché, and people were getting suspicious.
It was past midnight, and he had to get up at 5 tomorrow, so the tan skinned short boy climbed into his bed. Indeed he was a boy. He was 18, but still so young and innocent it seemed, and everywhere he went it seemed like he was carded, because he just looked… young.
Soon, his breathing was slow and deep, as he closed his gold eyes, not bothering about his deep purple hair, which always stuck up like a horn. Under his down comforter, he felt like crying but couldn't bring himself to again. He wanted to give up but didn't know what. And his troubled mind turned to the matter of setting up that new window display tomorrow, a matter that would affect him.
