Yuki
"What," said Yuu, "is that?"
The object in question could only be described as an upside down, oversized boot, open at the toe and painted bright red, set in the middle of the kitchen table. Next to the table, Yuki fidgeted nervously, not meeting anyone's eyes.
"Um, it's… it's a Yuletide thing I used to do with my grandfather," he explained. "I… I thought it might be nice to try doing it here."
"Aha!" said Ryo Hagane, peering in around Tsubasa. "A family tradition! Those are always good. Tell me more."
Reassured by Ryo's interest, Yuki stopped fidgeting and stood up straight. "It's… well, I used to call it the Yule Clog."
"So… a joke on Yule log?" Tsubasa asked.
"Yeah!"
"It's not a clog, though," Yuu said, confused. "I've never seen anything look less like a clog."
"Yeah, I know. I was a kid and I thought it was funny and Grandfather liked the name so it sort of stuck."
"So what is it?" Yuu asked again. "And why is it on the table instead of breakfast?"
"Breakfast's through here, Yuu!" That call came from Gingka, leaning in through the kitchen hatch from the main canteen. "I saved you a croissant before Kyouya ate them all and - whoa, Yuki, that thing looks even weirder than it did last night."
"You've seen it before?" Tsubasa asked.
"Last night," Yuki said. "I got it out to ask if he thought it would be alright to show to all of you."
"Traditions are good things to have," Ryo said. "They tie you to the good things of the past. I think it's a wonderful idea to bring a new tradition in now that the world has changed so much. Besides, there's lots of people here at the moment, traditions are always best when lots of people know about them and carry them on."
He was right. Whilst the fall of Nemesis had been a number of weeks ago, most of the Legendary Bladers and their friends still had not returned to their own homes, with the exception of King, who had gone to America with Masamune. The remaining eight, along with the others who had been on the island that day, were still all staying in the WBBA Tower. Privately, Yuki had been wondering at their apparent reluctance to leave, considering how comparatively little they knew about each other. Even famously anti-social Kyouya was still there.
But then Gingka, with unusual clarity of vision, had pointed out that apart from Kenta and the Beylin Fist bladers, who had other reasons to stay, none of them really had other homes to go to, let alone families. King's Greek island home had been swamped by a tsunami, Yuki's grandfather was long gone (as was his observatory, crumbled in the earthquakes), Dynamis only had his empty temple, Tithi had been alone for years, Chris lived out of hotels, and the rest were… well, it was just nice to stay together a bit longer.
So the WBBA Tower had been a bit busier than usual in the run-up to the first Christmas since the Nemesis Crisis.
"So go on," Yuu said, scrambling up onto the side and reaching through the hatch for the croissant Gingka had saved for him. "What's this weird clog-boot got to do with Christmas?"
Yuki took a deep breath. Now to see if it would all be worth the trouble of going to get it. "It's a bit like that American tradition Masamune told us about the other day, the Santa Secret?"
"Secret Santa?" Tsubasa asked.
"Oh, yes, that's its name. Yes, like that. Everyone put their name into the clog and then the rest of it was filled up with sweets. We all sat around the fire with hot chocolate or tea or coffee, and all the lights were out except the fire and some candles. Everyone pulled out a sweet and a name. If you got a toffee, you had to tell everyone a story about something you did with the person whose name you had in the past year. If it was a chocolate, you had to tell everyone about somewhere you'd like to go with that person in the next year, or something you thought they'd enjoy doing. And if you got a mint or a truffle, you told everyone about something you learned either from or about your person in the last year." He looked down at his hands, willing them to stop shaking. There was no need to be so nervous here, where he knew everyone and knew they cared about him. They wouldn't think it was just some silly idea. "Grandfather always used to say it showed that everyone could learn something from everyone, no matter how young or old you were. It values everyone in the family equally, and all their knowledge and understanding and experience."
"That's a really nice tradition," Ryo said after a moment. "I'd definitely like to do it. Gingka, do you want to ask the others if they want to join in? We can do it this evening, I'll go out and buy some sweets this afternoon."
Yuki swelled with happiness. He'd been dreading having to go through Christmas without his grandfather, but maybe, just maybe, this might be the thing that made it okay. "Grandfather used to be able to get sweets that you couldn't tell what they were until you ate them, but I don't know what they were, I never asked him… and it's too late now."
"I'm sure I can find something," Ryo said comfortingly. "And in the meantime..."
Suddenly he looked very mischievous. Gingka frowned suspiciously. "Dad, what are you planning?"
"Nothing, never mind, never mind!" Ryo said innocently, not that anyone was taken in for a moment. "Now, did I hear someone say something about croissants?"
.
The evening was wet and windy, and even Kyouya seemed glad to be inside. By the time that dinner was over, it had blow up to a proper storm outside, and only Kenta, who had been suffering from a cold, was not huddled down in the living areas near the fire.
"Now, just before we start," Ryo said, when Yuki had brought the filled Clog out, "I have something to do first. Yuki, you've been kind enough to introduce us to a new tradition, so now let me introduce you to one of our traditions, a very old one. I know your grandfather had some history with Koma Village, Yuki. It's your birthright to know about this."
And from under the table he pulled an enormous bowl, made of a strange, silvery wood and covered in dozens of detailed carvings of constellations, beys, houses, people, animals, mountains, rivers, forests – everything that surrounded the little village in the mountains that Gingka and Ryo, and Yuki's grandfather, had called home.
"Dad," said Gingka, and only those who knew him very well could tell whether his voice was warning or terribly excited. "Is that the Koma Village Solstice Punch Bowl?"
"Yep." Ryo sounded very proud of himself.
"The actual punch bowl."
"Yep."
"You… you stole the punch bowl. Dad!"
"I'll take it back for the Summer Solstice, don't worry!"
"You stole the punch bowl."
"Hokuto gave it to me!"
"You… you know what, I give up. I'm not going to bother arguing with you." Gingka threw his hands up, but he was smiling and clearly wasn't that upset. "Go on. You tell them how it works, I'm going to go and root Kenta out of his room. I don't care if he's ill, I'm not letting him miss this."
Yuki put a hand out to touch the beautiful silvery bowl, then hesitated. "Can I?" he asked.
"Of course!" Ryo said, smiling. "It's yours too, after all. You're part of our family now, part of Koma Village."
Yuki felt a chill run down his spine at the words – a happy feeling, fizzing and wonderful like the moment his telescope sharpened on a new star. His. He let his fingers run over the bowl, tracing the dozens of designs cut into the wood. Such a beautiful thing was his.
"So how do we do this one?" Chris asked, elbows firmly planted on his knees where he sat in the armchair by the window. "Yuki's is pretty cool, but this one looks good too."
"We're making punch," Ryo explained. "But not the way you might expect. Look over on the side, there are thirteen different juices or spices – and before you say anything, Tsubasa, I know Tithi and Yuu aren't old enough for alcohol, it's all fruit juice so stop worrying! Everyone gets one item that they can put as much or as little of as they like into the punch bowl. Once everything is in, everyone drinks from it at the same time."
"There's two ways it can go," Gingka said, reappearing with a sleepy-looking Kenta in tow. "Okay, three. You can either all talk about it in advance and compromise, so everyone's reasonably happy. Or you can just go for it and either end up with something weirdly delicious or absolutely terrible." He looked at his father. "For some reason, it never seems to end up in the middle."
"And of course, it means you can never replicate the recipe again," Ryo explained. "Because every gathering of people is unique and special and they all bring something to the table that no-one else can. Even if all the people are there again, they're not exactly the same as the first time, because they've learned more or seen more or know more. It's like your grandfather said, Yuki. Everyone has something to offer, and everyone together is more than the sum of the whole. I thought that might be something else good for all you Legendary Bladers to remember."
Yuki nodded, not trusting his voice. He'd wanted to have people to share his tradition so that it didn't fade away into nothingness with no more Mizusawas to carry it on with. But just because he was the last of his family didn't mean that he had no family at all. And now there was a tradition that was new to them and old to him, and one that was old to them and new to him.
"Here," said Tsubasa, catching his attention and pulling him out of his thoughts. "I'm afraid you got left with the star anise."
Apparently, everyone had gone for the 'go for whatever you want' option, rather than discussing it. Yuki had no idea what had already gone in, but judging by the number of empty juice cartons, most people had just opted for putting in everything. A handful of cloves and some slices of orange bobbed on the top of the liquid. Feeling rather self-conscious, Yuki tossed two of the star anise in. Hopefully that wouldn't overpower anything. Punch was always tricky to get right.
It was the work of only a few minutes to warm the punch up enough to mull the spices, during which time it became clear that no-one had any kind of coherent plan behind their input, and most of them had no idea of what punch should taste like anyway.
"This is beginning to sound oddly familiar," Tsubasa muttered to Yuki. "Remember how the Legendary Bladers didn't really have a plan until it was too late?"
"Don't remind me," Dynamis sighed from Yuki's other side. "I think that is also going to be something of a tradition with this group..."
Ryo handed out the glasses, already filled. Aguma gave his a slightly suspicious look, but waited until everyone had one. Yuki had managed to get one of his star anise back, along with a slice of orange. The cup was warm in his hands, the liquid a strange orange-y brown.
"Well, here goes," said Chris.
Everyone drank.
And then almost everyone started coughing helplessly.
"Who put the cinnamon in?" Kyouya spluttered as soon as he could catch a breath, and Tithi raised a hand nervously.
"Was it too much?" he asked. "I put three big spoons in because there was a lot of juice and I like cinnamon."
"That… might have been a bit too much," Chris wheezed. "Ow. That burns."
"I quite like it," Hikaru said, raising her cup and grinning. "If you can't handle it, boys, all the more for me."
"I never said I couldn't handle it," Kyouya snapped, but for once there was no malice in his voice. "It just doesn't taste of anything except cinnamon."
"Cinnamon's great!" Yuu chimed in, but he was also coughing. "Yeah, maybe not quite so much next time, Tithi. Bit too spicy."
"Ignore them, Tithi, it's spiced things up nicely," Bao said, and moments later a surprisingly good-natured argument had broken out where most of the exchanges seemed to be based on cinnamon-related puns.
Yuki looked around at the twelve people gathered close around him, hearing their laughter and seeing the smiles at the shared disaster. Sure, in a few minutes they would be in the middle of his own tradition, but in this moment it didn't matter whose it was. It was just as Ryo had said – the two traditions were so similar in their meaning even if they were different on the outside. Hadn't that been the very thing that tied all of the Legendary Bladers and eventually the whole of the world together against Nemesis? That things could be so different on the outside whilst the heart wished for the same thing?
He was looking forward to hearing all the stories about the people he had now been living with for nearly three months, looking forward to learning what they could teach him and what they had taught others, looking forward to seeing them as part of his family.
But for now, he was just happy to be a part of theirs.
A/N: This one was... interesting. Halfway through, the characters decided they didn't like where the story was going and yelled at me until I realised they were right, and then had to rewrite most of the second half. Also, it was weirdly difficult to fit these two words into a single story, all things considered.
