Weihnachten Fotographie
"A photograph is nothing but a memory frozen in time."
Chapter 13
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Last Time: The rest of the night went by quietly, but the next day wouldn't be so blissfully quiet, as the holiday would finally be upon them.
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The morning came surprisingly loud to the blonde. One moment he was sitting by the lake-and the next some little buggart was jumping up and down on him. Sure, right before he had retired to the room that he had taken to calling his own(Even though he shared it with Dark), Emiko had debriefed him on the more rambuncious members of the Niwa bloodline.
Still, he hadn't expected it to be this rambuncious, especially first thing in the morning--Well, may not first thing, as a quick glance to the clock to the side of the bed told him otherwise.
"Tobi! Get the heck out of there! I don't think Krad will appreciate you waki--", Emiko had started chastising the young Niwa relative for disturbing the blondes' slumber when she realized that said blonde was already awake and glaring at the young one. Not quite a good first impression in Emiko's opinion. Then again, Dark had first encountered Krad when he had stolen from the baker, maybe Krad was as forgiving as her son. Emiko only hoped.
"Well, I see that you're awake. Everyone's downstairs if you care to join us.", The wheat-haired woman said as she led the little boy back to the festivities of the holidays.
Krad growled softly in his throat after the two had made their retreat. He really, really disliked little kids, for some reason that was beyond even his comprehension.
Grumbling slighty to himself about how if all of the Niwa relatives were as little, or younger, than that buggart-Tobi, was it, he'd probably feel really awkward in the room. Scratch that, he'd feel awkward even if it were a bunch of senile old crones with Alzheimers who couldn't distinguish a pickle from a human. They just weren't his actual family, and that made it feel like he was intruding, he already felt that way and all he had done was stand up and remove his shirt to don a newer, cleaner, one. But, he had already crossed the Rubicon when he made the decision the other night to stay. He couldn't turn back now.
Lucridly, he picked up a comb that had been sitting on the nightstand right next to the clock relaying the time, somewhere past nine in the morning. Not bad if you considered his past track record with sleeping 'til noontide on his first night, he was getting better at waking up earlier, even if most of the times he was woken by some outside force rather than his will to reunite with the waking world.
With a pre-conceived idea of how the situation would turn out he cautiously tried out the comb on his hair. Many curses and a few comb teeth later the blonde had his hair relativley presentable, no longer all messed from sleep. Wondering lazilly where his brush was, he had always carried one with him--he was quite sure of that, he put the comb back and tied up his hair in the familliar high pony tail and then left the room, hoping he was ready to face Dark's family.
---
Krad had been told by Emiko that their family was pretty big, which to him translated to around eight to ten people. What he had not been expecting was thirty seven people, not including himself, Dark, and Emiko crowded around the lower area of the apartment-Which was really just the kitchen and living room.
He suddenly felt very clausterphobic, as the walls seemed to be closing in closer and closer on him, but he resisted the urge to throw a faint as he had done in previous situations. Then again, those times he had been alone and considerably younger, and at the moment he had all the eyes of the company on him, staring at him as though he were some outlander from another planet, only two, besides Emiko and Dark, weren't phazed in the least by his presence.
Krad wasn't surprised at the people gawking at him, he had to be at least the second shortest person in the world well, the room, but as far as the blonde was concerned the room at the moment was the world to him. Not to mention his hair colour was rather odd compared to the various shades of brown and reds in the room (And a couple were even purplish), there were only two people among the group who had 'unatural' hair for Niwas, one's was a bright silvery-gray, the other, a light cerulean blue.
"Ermm...Hi?", He asked, golden eyes being met with basically a whole room of defiant amber-eyed Niwas. Yeesh, didn't these guys think of how creepy they'd look if they all basically looked the same when they were floating around in the gene pool? Obviously not., The blonde mused as he looked at the 'drones', as his mind had so readily supplied him with a word to describe their un-unique-ness. On second thought, perhaps 'clones' would have been more accurate.
"Hello!", A couple of the little ones replied eagerly, not caring about the contemptous glares from their parents for 'fraternising with the enemy'...Or just talking to a stranger. Krad just forced a smile, he really did not like the little ones.
"Hi.", Said the icy cerulean-haired boy, while his red-headed 'partner in crime' replied rather bouncily, "Hi!Hi!Hi!", His arms flailing about for an added affect.
"...Hi...", Krad said, a bit weirded out by the hyper compulsive disordee red-headed boy and his icy blue-haired friend. Seriously, that kid was equated to ice in everything, his tone, his voice, his eyes, even his mannerisms were frigidly cool.
"Naaa...Creepy boy, Daisuke, stop scaring the poor guy. He's only been here a few days.", Dark had mysteriously appeared on the blonde's right, unnoticed until he spoke up.
The red-headed one was incredulous, "Daaaaaaark! A few days? Do you even know who he is?"
Dark grinned, amethyst eyes flashing with some emotion unrecognisable to the blonde. "Of course I know who he is!You act like I'm stupid Daisuke, he's a great friend and soon-to-be apartment mate!"
Luckily, the blonde did not hear that last part,He'd only heard up to the point that identified the red-headed boy as Daisuke, as he had been too busy learning the silver-haired girls' name. Towa, Towa Shirube-She had intermarried into the Niwa family but had refused to take their surname. Her husband hadn't cared too much, as he wasn't marrying for children, as Towa couldn't have any, but out of his love for his wife.
Krad thought it was an interesting tale, but it seemed a little familiar to him...Where had he heard it before? Oh! That was right! He'd heard it before from every other married women, which had been two-Freedert and Mio, that he'd come aross in the periods of his life that he could remember.
Towa had gone back off to the kitchen to help Emiko, and a few other women, finish the preparations for dinner while catching up on the latest gossip.
--
Hours passed, and the blonde had been introduced to most of the family by an over zealous Dark when dinner time had come around.
The table was lavishly decorated with a faded white lace table cloth and a menangerie off foods sprawled across it. After a few relatives had heaped food on their plates and returned to the living room area Krad finally realized that they weren't going to eat in the kitchen.
--
Dinner was a rather warm occasion. People made small talk about the grades their kids were getting, the new movies that were coming out, what they hoped they revieved from others the most and more as they shoveled food into their mouths.
Even though Krad ate relativley slow, he was still done before the rest of the group as he had no circle of conversation to distract him; Not that he would have talked much even if he did. It was then that he saw Towa and Dark making their way towards him.
"Hey, Krad. We need a break from in here, Goin' outside, wanna come?", The emerald eyed woman asked as they headed for the exit. Krad nodded and followed suit, neatly depositing his paper plate in the bin as they passed.
--
"I really, really hate this...Our apartment is too small.", Dark said, breath coming out in little puffs of white.
"Yeah, but your mom's doing everything she can. Y'know that ever since the divorce things have been tight on you guys.", Towa replied, sparkling emerald eyes contemplative as she recalled those days from long ago.
"Divorce?", Krad asked before he could stop himself, it wasn't really his place to ask. Family matters should be kept with the family, not relayed to outsiders such as himself.
Dark ignored the question, defiantly glaring at the road. "Ahh...Yeah, Emiko and Kousuke got divorced a while back.", said Towa, earning a glare and a half from Dark.
"Divorced? He freaking left us! No goodbyes or nothing! Then just returned out of the blue and says , "I want a divorce.", The idiot!", Dark practically yelled, incredulous.
Krad raised an eyebrow and looked at Dark's aunt, "Does he always act like this?", He whispered, watching with some half-formed interest as the violet-haired teen went off on a tangent about his father.
"Only around this time. He's actually here...", Towa trailed off fowling the blonde's line of sight and stifling a laugh.
"Oh...", Krad murmered, That must be hard on Dark. I wonder which one's Kousuke?, he briefly wondered, casting a glance to the window with Dark's thirty-six other relatives talking and some even getting drunk, as the pink flush on their cheeks indicated.
"Yeah... Kouskuke left Emiko a couple days before Christmas, and then showed up a year later and asked for a divorce, and custody of their youngest child--"
"--Daisuke.", Dark grunted, glaring at the snow. If looks could burn, there'd of been a hole all the way through the center of the Earth down to China.
"Yes, Yes. Daisuke. He got both without too much of a fight."
"Oh...I see. I guess that's the reason why he wouldn't tell me why he hated this holiday so much. But I guess it's because you so abruptly went from a family to something's missing at this time...I-I'm sorry."
"What for?", Dark asked.
"T-That your family got broken up around Christmas."
"Don't be, it's past. Can't change it, so why think on it? Ooooh! C'mon! Let's go inside,Presents!", Dark practically yelled as he took Towa and Krad by the arms and dragged them inside, without earning any protests as they had all begun getting cold standing out there doing nothing besides talking.
--
Krad watched the present exchange in disinterest, and fell asleep leaning on the armrest of the chair somewhere around the middle of it, at about eleven in the evening. The next thing that his mind registered was Emiko gently shaking him awake somewhere around three in the morning, and seeing the last stragglers of the extensive Niwa family going through the door.
"Wake up sleepy head... You've got a present to unwrap...", She crooned softly.
"Nnn...Wha?...Presen'?"
"Well...Actually two presents, but one of 'em wasn't wrappable.", Dark chimed in. "So, wake up already!"
"Okay, Okay...I'm up...What do you want?", Krad asked Emiko, who hadn't stop shaking him the entire time and his brains were starting to turn into jell-o.
"Here.", Dark said as he thrust a small wrapped package at the still slightly disorientated blonde.
"And this is for...?"
"Read the tag."
"...Me?"
Dark nodded vigouresly, "Yup! Open it."
Krad did so. "A...Camera?"
"Ehh...I had no idea what to get you so I just thought--"
"It's great. Thanks." Dark blushed slightly at that.
"You're welcome."
"And Krad, I have a sort of goft for you too.", Emiko said, holding out a paper to him.
Krad took it and scanned it. Confusion immediatley engulfed his features, "Y-You want me to live with you?"
She nodded, "Yes, we do. So, if you'll just sign the tenant list I can make it official once I give it back to the landlord, so what do you say?"
"I-I don't know what to say."
"Say yes, and sign the paper.", She said, smiling as she put a pen in his right hand. Almost immediatley he switched it to the left.
Laughing lightly to himself he signed it neatly, the only indication that he was left-handed was a gentle rightward slant to his signature. "T-Thank you. You guys have been so kind.", He said as he handed the paper and pen back to Emiko.
"You're welcome.", She said as she left the apartment to show the new tenant list to the landlord.
--
Many hours later she returned to the sight of the two boys sprawled out on the floor, asleep. Krad's head was on Dark's lap, and the amethyst-eyed teens' arm was wrapped protectivley around the blonde.
Smiling deviously to herself Emiko picked up the camera. "I've frozen this moment in time.", She said softly as the flash went off, unoticed by the other two occupants of the room.
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Ck: The End. Thank you for sticking with me. Do you all understand the quote at the top of the page now? This is LONG, it took me nearly six pages. There will be a sequel, this was "Christmas Photograph", there will be one called "New Years Photograph"...I hope. Have a safe holiday, if you're drinking designate a driver, and most of all--HAVE FUN!