Family Christmas

Old Fiat

A/N: Tezuka will be referred to as Kunimitsu to avoid confusion. Also this chapter is PARTCIALLY based on the 'My Life'-verse. Not the divorce or the wee sibs, but his mum is French and his family is pretty rich.

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The Tezukas

Rrrring! Rrrring!

Kunimitsu bounced slightly to keep warm in the biting cold. His hands were covered in leather gloves, his torso in a woolen coat, and his legs in jeans but the frigid weather still crept in to his skin. He held a small cardboard box under his arm; small holes were pocked in it.

He pressed the doorbell again, this time more urgently. His cheeks and nose were starting to turn pink from cold when the door opened.

Mrs. Kikumaru looked taken aback. "Tezuka-kun, right?"

"Yes," he bowed. "I have a present here to Eiji from the team."

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"Kuni-chan?"

"Mmmmm…" Kunimitsu groaned. He felt his mother shaking him. "What?"

"Kuni-chan," she smiled—he thought she did anyway. The world was a mass of fuzz and blur-- and tossing her long blonde hair over her shoulder. "It's Christmas."

"Oh…" it took a few minutes for the sentence to reach his brain, then longer for his mind to process it. "Oh!" he said, sitting up as his brain finished telling him the meaning. He snatched his glasses from the bedside table and put them on

"Joyeux Noel, Kuni-chan. Come down stairs. Your father and grandfather are getting impatient."

"Right mum," Kunimitsu smiled. His father, grandfather, Fuji, and Oishi could coax a smile out of him, but his mum could do it in seconds. He got out of bed and put on a bathrobe.

"Put on slippers," she reminded him, tweaking his nose. "We don't want you getting sick!"

"Right," he put them on and followed her down the stairs. The wood creaked a little. Kunimitsu's hand slid over the fairy lights his mum had wrapped around the banister. His feet sunk into the soft, white carpeting with every step. They turned into the living room.

The bright colors all around the room stung his eyes and for a moment Kunimitsu stumbled. The presents, all wrapped in different colored paper, were stacked haphazardly around the bottom of the tree. The tree was strung up with bobbles, tinsel, lights, and other decorations in wild, mix-matched colors. The windows had long paper chains he had made ages ago hung around the curtain rods. The over-head light had small Santa Claus ornaments hung from its cover.

His father and grandfather sat on the couch. His father's hair was a tousled mess and his smile spread from ear to ear. His father always seemed to be more excited about Christmas than Kunimitsu did.

"Kuni-chan!" he jumped up and pulled his son into a great bear hug. Then he let him go and held him at arms length. "Come on! We have to get cracking-- Open my present first!"

He ducked down and handed Kunimitsu a soft package wrapped in red and gold paper tied with a red, velour ribbon. He tore aside the paper to reveal a white warm-up jacket. The collar, cuffs and along the sleeves and zipper were black stripes. On the upper-left, near the collar, was embroidered K.V.T., his initials.

"I really hate that gray one," his dad explained. "I thought this would look so much better."