Kyouya
Kyouya got the impression that most of his fellow bladers didn't really like the cold. When winter started creeping in and the nights arrived earlier, he usually found himself the last one to leave the outside training dish in the park to head home for dinner. At first he'd assumed that he was just that much more disciplined than they were, that much more determined to train and get better regardless of the situation, but in summer everyone would stay much later, well after the sun had disappeared.
Then he had discovered that going 'home for dinner' meant going to get food and then heading straight back out to the inside training dish at the WBBA headquarters. At that point, he figured it was because they didn't like being cold.
Kyouya loved the cold. Being in Africa with his team was great, but the heat wrapped around his head like a wet blanket and he could never quite think straight there. But back in Japan, in the winter when the temperature plunged? That was his element. His head was clear, his hearing picked up every tiny crackle of frost, the air smelled fresh and clean and full of promise, and he could have sworn he could see further.
Part of it was toughness too, of course – being able to pull a ripcord with freezing fingers or hold an attack line against a winter gale was part of training to be the best. But a lot of it was just that Kyouya liked winter more than summer.
He had been outside most of the day, training with Kenta and Tsubasa and Benkei, but whilst they disappeared at five pm it was close to eleven when he finally called Leone back to him and set off for his house, hungry and tired.
The walk wasn't far, but it led past a couple of rows of trees that he always slowed down to look at. They were bare of leaves and petals now, their many-fingered branches gently holding the stars in place, or standing out clear against the clouds. Some of them had been decorated by the city authorities, each branch lined with tiny lights, but Kyouya's favourites were the ones that were on the side-road that led to his street – just out of the way enough that the city hadn't covered them in lights.
Instead, dozens and dozens of icicles hung from every branch, almost like weird leaves themselves. When the wind blew, several dozen would snap off and shatter into razor-sharp shards on the ground, only to be back again the next morning as the dew crystallised on the remaining stump. It was Kyouya's favourite part of winter, the proof of fragile beauty that could still cause such damage if it fell on someone's head, or even on their car if it was a larger one. It reminded him to respect everything, no matter how delicate it looked, and never underestimate anyone no matter how powerful he thought he was in relation to them.
Tonight, the stars shone frostily through the branches, their light refracting endlessly through the frozen water. Kyouya wandered home slowly, watching the rainbows dance in the dark trees, and laughed to himself that the others hated the cold so much that they missed this. It was his to treasure alone, his own private art that changed every day. The danger of it just added to its beauty.
When he finally got to his front door and looked away from the trees, he got quite a surprise. On his doorstep was a large cardboard box.
This was very odd. He had not ordered anything, nor was he expecting gifts. It wasn't very heavy either, when he finally managed to wrangle it through the door. He dumped it in the middle of his mostly-bare front room, next to the single chair that was the only piece of furniture he currently owned. Puzzled and secretly very curious, he settled down on the floor to open it.
First, of course, he had to get through the packing tape that had been wrapped all the way around it. Fingernails proved useless, so he had to get up and head through to his equally threadbare kitchen to find the sharpest knife he had. That cut through it relatively easily, and he was able to pull the top flaps of the box open.
Inside the cardboard box was another cardboard box, also sealed with tape. This one was red.
Kyouya sighed, and tipped the new box out, tossing the larger one to one side. Then he dug the knife under the parcel tape again and opened the second box… to reveal another box, this one gold with a silver ribbon.
Kyouya frowned. Now he was beginning to doubt whether this was a surprise gift at all. Just to check, he opened the third box, to reveal as expected a fourth box, in blue and green stripes.
Scowling and deeply suspicious, Kyouya went back to the first box to look for a return address. It took him a while to spot it, written on the bottom flap.
"I should have known," he muttered to himself.
Then he went back to opening the boxes.
.
When Nile arrived a week later, the first thing he did was look around, and then stop in shock at the sight of Kyouya's new Christmas tree.
"What is that?" he asked. Kyouya glared.
"You know exactly what it is," he said. "You sent it to me."
Nile laughed and held up his hands. "Guilty," he admitted. "But that really wasn't what I expected you to do with it."
Kyouya looked at his 'tree', which in reality was nothing more than a stack of nine gift boxes of descending sizes, wrapped with tinsel he'd 'borrowed' from Tsubasa's supply and a string of lights that had originally belonged to Madoka (Gingka had bought her some that were beyblade-shaped, so she hadn't needed this set). "What exactly do you mean by that?"
Nile shrugged. "Well, you know they say lions are just really big cats. I kind of expected to find you'd made a den in one of them."
Kyouya opened his mouth in outrage, then closed it, then opened it again, then closed it at Nile's half-contrite, half-amused expression. "A den." he said flatly. "You expected to come into my home and find me sleeping in a cardboard box like some pet house-cat?"
"And that time in Kenya?"
"THAT WAS DIFFERENT."
"Not the way I remember it… I'm teasing you, Kyouya, stop acting so serious all the time! I sent you the boxes because you said Benkei had run out of boxes to put people's presents in and wanted some more, and the ones in the marketplace are the loveliest I've ever seen. I didn't really think you'd turn them into a den."
"Then why didn't you put a letter or something in the box to tell me what it was? Especially if it was meant to go to Benkei."
"I take your point. I didn't realise how fast the post was, I was certain I'd be here before the parcel."
Kyouya looked at his 'tree'. "Guess I should take this down, then, if it's actually Benkei's." It was a shame. He'd actually grown quite fond of it. It had livened up his front room no end.
Nile shook his head. "Nah. This is the most 'you' Christmas tree I've ever seen. I don't know whether it's just because it's so unique or because you're you and cardboard boxes are for cats and don't give me that look Kyouya, I'm teasing you again. Keep it. I can get my brothers to send more boxes over no problem." Then he grinned. "In the meantime, I can make you a proper lion's den out of the big box they came in."
"Nile."
"I'm joking!"
