Day 1, Clover, Ran, Gingetsu (maybe a little /) (G)

[ciircee]

Twelve Days of Christmas fics? Hell, I'll give it a shot. Thanks much to chellesama for posting this for me while I'm away for the holidays.



And a Bluebird with a Fir Tree

"Sooo," Kazuhiko spun his chair around, whipping a dizzying circle.

Gingetsu ignored him. Ryuu generally liked to be annoying and intrusive unless it was a serious matter. In a friendly sort of way, which he appreciated. He studied his report and frowned.

Kazuhiko spun his chair back the other way. "Soooooo," he said again, humming slightly under his breath. "You and the boy-toy got plans?"

He spared a moment to flick a brief glance at Ryuu, raising one eyebrow slightly.

Ryuu stopped his chair's motion by the simple expedient of dropping his feet to the floor with a clatter. "Christmas?" he asked. "Romantic holiday? Tomorrow night? You? Jailbait? Plans?"

Gingetsu looked at Kazuhiko and frowned slightly.

"Since I know you didn't forget," Ryuu said, shaking his head, "I can only imagine that this is the reason why you've decided on having a child."

"Ryuu," Gingetsu said.

"But," said Ryuu ticking up a finger warningly, "even your little boy isn't going to put up with not getting something special for Christmas. He'll wander off and find another sugar-daddy handing out candy canes." And he gave him a friendly leer.

Gingetsu tossed him the reports. "Sign off and go home."

He picked up the next set of reports and began to read even as Kazuhiko made good his escape. After a moment he put it down again and opened a line to his home. "Ran?"

It took a moment before he answered, his round little face filling the screen. "Sorry," he apologized. "I was looking at the lights outside."

"I won't be home tonight." He didn't mention the reams of super-sensitive documents he had to work on.

Ran nodded, his small smile still hanging onto his lips. "Okay."

"You'll be all right?" Damn it, he'd told the General that it'd be inconvenient.

"Yes." Ran's smile widened fractionally.

He reached to disconnect the call. And paused. "Is there anything you want for Christmas?" he asked impulsively. Christmas was for children and not just for lovers.

Ran's smooth face fractured with small frown. "Huh?"

"Never mind." Gingetsu disconnected the call. Ran was neither lover nor child. His body might have been ten years old still, but Ran was at least eighteen years old by the clock. And the cages aged the soul for all the years it couldn't age the body.

***

"You didn't get him anything, did you?" Ryuu was back to spinning his chair.

Gingetsu didn't look up. "I was working last night." He handed Ryuu a sheaf of papers. "File those."

"And it's your first Christmas together, too," Ryuu said, taking the papers and wandering out.

***

Kazuhiko's words haunted him throughout the day, however, and Gingetsu did the unprecedented thing and left early. He headed for the market.

***

"Welcome…home," Ran's cheerful greeting faded on the last word as his eyes went round. "It's real," he said, backing up.

Gingetsu moved past him and into kitchen. "The stand is in my pocket," he said gruffly, holding the tree stiffly in front of himself as Ran dived into his pockets and came up with the small, square stand. "Where do you want it?" he asked.

Ran blinked at him as the stand unfolded itself in his hands. "It's real," he repeated.

"It's heavy," Gingetsu sighed.

"Oh! Um. In the living room, I guess." Ran was frowning. "Is…isn't that right? That's where they go?"

Gingestu had never celebrated the holidays, not even before he'd become a part of the Project. "Wherever you'd like," he said and followed Ran out of the room. He dropped the tree into the stand and grunted in relief when the stability field kicked in and grabbed the tree from his hold. "The shop said it would need water," he told Ran, glancing down at him.

"I'll get it." Ran's eyes shone up at him for a moment before he padded back the way that they'd come.

Gingetsu used the time he was gone to pull the packages of light from his pocket and tried to stop feeling like an idiot. Ran came back in with a teacup. "Is that enough?" he asked him.

Ran slid under the low branches of the tree on his stomach, head and shoulders disappearing under the evergreen. "I checked with the stand," he said, voice muffled. He slid back out, his hair slightly mussed. "It's enough for now."

***
It took several tries to get the lights onto the tree in such a way that they didn't slide directly back off, but Ran had giggled so Gingetsu didn't mind as much as he might have.

"Can—can we turn off the lights?" Ran asked quietly once the lights had been plugged in "For a little bit?"

"Do what you want," Gingetsu said, sitting down.

The lights clicked off without either of them moving. The tree began to twinkle red-yellow-blue-green in a shifting array. The lights painted Ran's face with darts of lights and shadows. "Can we have hot chocolate, too? There are real chocolates we can use. You've got some in the cupboard. If you don't mind using them, I mean."

Gingetsu looked at him.

"That's what real people do for Christmas, right?" Ran asked softly. His face was shining. "They have a tree and they have the lights off and they have hot cocoa, right?"

How the hell should he know what 'real' people did, Gingetsu thought. He was a Clover, just the same as Ran. Just Clovers, playing illusions at being normal. They could both see through it, even if they didn't want to. "Do what you want," Gingetsu repeated.

Ran nodded and came to him where he sat on the sofa. He hesitated for a bare second and then climbed into Gingetsu's lap, his arms wrapping loosely around his neck as he hid his face in Gingetsu's shoulder, in the midnight blue of the military uniform. "Thank you for the tree, Gingetsu," Ran said, clinging to him.

Gingetsu put one arm lightly around Ran, his hand resting under the warm, dark spill of his ponytail. The room smelled sharply of pine, the scent fading softly into Ran's hair from when he'd been watering the tree. Gingetsu titled his head just slightly until he could feel the soft warmth of Ran's head under his chin. He didn't say anything.

They were Clovers. There would always be cages. Always illusions. But they could still have something real.