Kyo no Kara no Christmas

by Yo-yo-san

  They had reached the end of the tour and gone their separate ways for the 
moment, bidding each other goodbye in ways that ranged from close (Toshiya’s 
fond goodbye kiss to Kaoru had lasted at least a minute and a half—Kyo had 
counted), to almost unfriendly (Die’s smack on the shoulder had stung, just 
a little, but enough to make a point). And then there had been Shinya, who 
had slipped a card with his home phone number on it into Kyo’s back pocket 
with a shyly whispered, “Please give me a call sometime.”
  Kyo had long since decided that he wouldn’t call, trying to deliberately 
convince himself that he lacked any concern for Shinya (who had been shyly 
hitting on him for weeks) through prolonged neglect. A week later, he began 
to regret it.
  No one was paying him any attention. He hadn’t gotten a phone call from 
anyone, he hadn’t gotten any presents, and, perhaps most annoying, he hadn’t 
even gotten any fanmail. The world seemed to have elected to ignore him, 
despite the season. Christmas. What a load of crap.
  He ended up staying in bed a lot, sleeping through the frigidly cold, 
dismally gray weather as much as possible, and tramping around his apartment 
like a cranky bear wrapped in a down comforter when he wasn’t.
  Thus it was that the phone call, late on a Tuesday, found him sacked out 
in bed, hibernating his vacation away in dreams.
   Six rings. Seven rings. Shinya rolled his eyes, but waited patiently for 
Kyo to wake up. Sure enough, after the fourteenth, a low growl greeted him 
with the most friendly, “This had better be pretty fucking important,” 
possible.
   “Hey, Kyo. Meet me in the park near your place?”
   The soft, amused voice disarmed him completely, and the invitation 
smacked the sleep right out of him. Bleary eyes blinked at the digital glow 
on the desk.
   “What, NOW? Why?”
   “No, in an hour, mm. Make it two. Meet me in the park, under the biggest 
cherry tree, around two a.m.”
   Curious, Kyo agreed. And then successfully fell out of bed, inciting 
fitful giggles from the other end of the line.
   “See you in a bit, ah, Kuma-chan.”(1)
   He got up, disentangled the blankets from around his legs, stumbled into 
a pair of baggy sweats, and dragged himself to a mirror.
   “...Thank God I’ve got two hours. I need a shower, and a shave. Badly.”
   The shower, cold, and coffee, hot, got his energy up enough to feel human 
again, eventually, though he wasn’t completely his usual cheery self until 
he’d succeeded in smoking three cigarettes in under a half an hour. 
Disgusting, but well worth it, in his mind. He dressed nattily, as though he 
were going out to meet a lady, and not just a (cute. sexy. utterly 
resistible. HA.) bandmate, in a sharply cut black suit, neatly tailored 
white dress shirt, trademark stringy tie, and cute white gloves. He ended 
his ensemble with a heavy overcoat, which killed the effect, but maintained 
the body heat, pulled on some boots that, while lower than he would have 
liked, had enough traction to fight ice, should it appear, and still looked 
good, and trundled himself outside.
   The walk to the park was not long, but it was slippery, dimly lit, and 
perhaps a little scary. Fortunately, Kyo was Kyo, and thus made it to the 
appropriate meeting place unmolested, and with five minutes to spare. Shinya 
was nowhere to be seen, so he sat down to wait. He stared up at the solidly 
grey sky, wondering.
   At exactly two a.m. Shinya crunched his way up the frosty hillside, a 
thick purple scarf wound around his head to prevent a chill.
   “Go on, you drummer, explain to me why I got out of my nice warm bed to 
come out here and freeze my ass off waiting around for you?”
   “You didn’t have to sit down, you know.”
   “Irrelevant. Talk, woman.”
   Shinya burst out laughing, and justifiably so. “WOMAN? Kyo...you’re 
fuckin’ hilarious. I called you out to give you a-“
   “Challenge?”
   “No, you nit. A present.”
Kyo was intrigued by this, and leaned forward just a bit. “A...present? 
Indeeed.”
   “Yes, a present. Close your eyes. And no peeking.”
   “Ohhhkaayyyy...” He shut his eyes tightly. There was some rustling, and 
then Shinya took his hand, spread it out palm-up, and put something on it. 
He closed his fingers around the tissue-paper wrapped box. Then Shinya took 
his other hand and placed another box, plain cardboard from the lack of 
crinkling, in it’s palm. Two boxes, two presents?
   “I get to keep both, right?”
   Shinya’s voice came from behind him, “Yep. Okay, open.”
   Kyo stared down at the boxes. The one in his left hand was wrapped in 
iridescent tissue paper and had a sticker on it that said, “Heart”, while 
the one in his right was, indeed plain, vividly scarlet cardboard, and 
labeled, “Lungs”. He stuffed the wrapped one in the pocket of his overcoat 
and flipped open the top of the red one. Resting on a bed of soft cotton 
batting was a silver Zippo lighter. He pulled it out and flipped it over. 
Painted delicately in black and red was a little devilish-looking figure. He 
recognized it immediately, and his eyes gleamed.
   “A dancing Warumono! Where’d you find this! I’ve never-“
   “I had it specially made. The artist’s name is on the side.” Kyo looked. 
A messily scrawled signature indicated that...Toshiya?! Shinya had asked 
Toshiya to paint this for him? He felt something in his chest crack with 
absurd joy. “Go on, open the other one.” He could feel Shinya’s warm breath 
on his half-frozen ear; Shinya’s gloved hands on his shoulders. Somehow, he 
didn’t mind too much. Carefully repacking the lighter, he carefully placed 
the box in his pocket and pulled out the other one. He ripped off the 
sticker, all but shredded the tissue, and opened it. Inside, a tiny stuffed 
Warumono held an even smaller box and a business card. He glanced at Shinya, 
who smiled. “Keep going.”
   The business card wasn’t. It read: “The bearer of this card is entitled 
to 2 (two) showers ahead of the giver(s) (Kaoru, Shinya, Die) after the next 
2 (two) lives, and a nap instead of 1 (one) practice and/or recording 
session. And that’s all. You’ve been great, Kyo, but we aren’t going to let 
you get away with shit anymore. Love, D. S. K.”
   Kyo chuckled, low in his throat. “Ah...You guys are the worst.”
   “Yeah, yeah. There’s still one more thing. Aside from the doll.”
   Kyo lifted the little thing out, grinning delightedly at its fierce 
scowl, and unstuck the taped-down box from its hands. It popped open 
obligingly, revealing a very baroque honey-yellow brass pin, and a little 
glass snowflake. The pin suited him very much, being rather pointy and 
dangerous looking, but the snowflake...?
   “Kyo...Kyo...Look!” An excited whisper in his ear made him glance up, 
despite his puzzlement. Shinya was pointing at the sky. It was shedding 
little white specks that grew larger and larger until suddenly it 
was...snowing. Shinya wrapped his arms around Kyo’s shoulders and shook him, 
bizarrely happy. Kyo barely managed to stuff everything back in the box and 
put it safely away in his pocket.
   “Be careful! You almost knocked over my presents! Break them and I kill.”
   “...You like them...? I’m so happy...”
   “Yeah, well...They’re really, really, well, perfect. I can’t imagine 
better presents. You must really know me well, or something. Maybe just a 
lucky guess?”
   “Shut up, noisy monster. Listen to the snow.”
   Kyo cocked his head. “I’m not hearing anything particularly interesting, 
Shinya.”
   “That’s because you’re being a pain in the ass. Just...look at it! It’s 
so pretty. We don’t get snow often enough to be jaded about it.”
   “That’s a point. Are you going to keep draping yourself over my 
shoulders? Because, if you are, then I’m going to move, ‘cause, damn, for 
such a skinny guy, you sure are heavy.” He wriggled out of Shinya’s arms, 
somehow uncertain how to behave. Shinya stood there with his arms out for a 
moment, then dropped them slowly.
   “Kyo...do you hate me?”
   “No. Why would I hate you?”
   “You just aren’t very...that is, you don’t seem to like me very much. You 
ignore me, you say mean things about me during interviews, you won’t call 
me. It’s true you don’t tease me so much, but that’s just Die’s way of 
showing he cares, in one way or another. You—oh, never mind. I can’t do this 
right now. I’m going home.” Feeling tears threatening, he turned to leave, 
but Kyo caught his coatsleeve.
   “Wait a second.” He wanted to say something, but what to say? What could 
he say? “Just, just hang on a minute, Shinya.” They stood there for a 
moment, staring at each other. Shinya’s breath misted out in sharp puffs, 
betraying his hurt feelings.
   “What’s up? Are you going to insult me some more?”
   “No. I thought that perhaps I ought to thank you. For the presents. And 
for kicking me out of my funk. You know nobody’s called me in the last week? 
No one.”
   “So I called you, and you felt so sorry for yourself that you came out to 
see me? Thanks, Kyo.”
   “Quit it. I’m not attacking you. Why are you so defensive?”
   “Why are you so insulting?”
   “Because. I. Can. Be.” Kyo took a deep breath and tried to calm down a 
little. Shinya was starting to seriously snap his nerves. He glared up at 
the drummer just in time to see a single tear sparkle down his cheek. 
Shinya, crying? Too strange! “Shinya...?”
   The curious tone in his voice was enough to make Shinya draw away from 
him, wrapping his arms around himself in a loose despair.
   “You don’t understand.” What was that tone in his voice? Why so upset 
over nothing? “You always complain that I won’t let anyone get close to me, 
but when I try, you don’t see it. I’ve known you for a long time, and you’re 
the blindest bat I’ve ever SEEN.”
   “Eh?” Kyo was decidedly puzzled. “Shinya, am I stupid, or are you just 
insane? Yeah, we’ve known each other for a long time, but this is the first 
time you’ve ever, well, called me out after midnight to give me Christmas 
presents.”
   “I just didn’t want to, before.”
   “Before what?”
   Shinya’s cheeks flamed with some sort of embarrassment.
   “Nothing. Just...nothing.”
   “If you insist.”
   “I do.”
   “Okay.” Silence. They looked at each other, looked away, looked again, 
and somehow Shinya started giggling.
   “The snow must be getting to me. I’m sorry, Kyo. Let me explain, because 
that’s my New Year’s Resolution. To be more straightforward, that is. I 
called you up because I heard it might snow on the radio and I wanted to 
share it with someone special. (That’s you.) You’re an utter weirdo, but I 
like you, probably unreasonably so, and I wanted to give you some presents. 
That’s all.”
   “ohhh...” Uncertain as to what to say, Kyo flushed cutely, and Shinya 
couldn’t resist fluffling his hair a little.
   “I’m sorry. I probably just confused you more.” He hesitantly wrapped his 
arms around the vocalist and gave him a short squeeze. “I’ll just go on home 
and go to sleep. See you!” But before he could turn to leave, Kyo’s arms 
slipped around his waist, and he froze. The vocalist rested his head on 
Shinya’s chest, burying his face in the plush purple scarf. Then he spoke, 
directly into the scarf, so his voice was muffled. It sounded like he was 
laughing.
   “Waff ffat a confeffion?”
   “A confection? What?”
   “No, a confession.” Kyo looked up, an expression of pure, delighted evil 
on his face. Shinya tried to extricate himself from the embrace but 
couldn’t; Kyo was holding him in a deathgrip. “Was that a confession?”
   “I suppose you could call it that.”
   A sweet grin broke over Kyo’s face. “Yay.”
   “That wasn’t exactly enthusiastic.”
   “Indeed, but I’m not letting you go, am I?” Shinya supposed that he 
wasn’t, if anything, he was holding tighter. “Then where’s the problem?”
   “Kyo...are you implying that you don’t mind my interest...?”
   “What a way to put it.”
   “Why are we standing out in the snow at two, no, two-thirty in the 
morning, talking? Why aren’t we inside somewhere, sleeping?”
   “Because we felt lonely. Admit it. And because you wanted to confess your 
::snicker:: love for me.” Shinya thumped him on the head with one elbow.
   “I never said that.”
   “You wouldn’t. Neither would I. We don’t do things like that.”
   “No.” Shinya found his fingers drifting up to smooth Kyo’s hair. “We 
don’t.”
   The snow hushed down over the park, filtering through the trees to land 
on the two men standing together beneath the largest cherry tree, surrounded 
by the strange beauty of the frozen tears of heaven.

(1) Do you get this joke? If no, then let me explain, and for those who    already get it, don’t read. A) Shinya is pausing, “ah,” thinking what to   call Kyo. B)”Kuma-chan” is Japanese for “Little Bear” or “Darling Bear”, or   “Some-sort-of-diminutive- affectionate-thing Bear”. C) Akuma is Japanese for   devil or evil spirit. D) Kyo is being called a cute little bear. Or perhaps   a little devil. ^-^ --------- chuuuuchuuuchuchuchuuu!

yo-yo-sandechuwich

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