(Takes place some time soon after the end of the anime)

…

My Gift To You

...
I desire you in friendship, and I will one way or other make you amends.
- The Merry Wives of Windsor 3.1.133

I poked at the gifts despairingly. I could smell that one box contained something that made my taste buds want to rip into the paper and devour whatever helpless dish was on the other side.

The only issue was that our great manager was watching me closely and Licht was off somewhere, dealing with fans that had paid extra money to come talk to him after the concert. Why they did that, I hadn't a clue. Licht wasn't the easiest person to talk to. How that didn't lose him more fans than it gained him was a miracle.

"Lawless…"

"I know. I know. Hands off." I lifted my hands into the air. As of the last few weeks I couldn't take on a street thug, let alone a man trained to handle me at my most powerful – who liked to carry several pints of holy water around with him at all times.

"They need to be checked by someone now. Usually I wouldn't mind if you did it but we know you won't heal any faster than the rest of us if something hurts you – not to mention if it's potent enough to kill you."

"If someone were to send Licht something deadly, they wouldn't exactly be a fan. Musicians don't really go around making enemies either." Usually. While I wouldn't claim the current mess we were in as 'my fault', it was far more on my side of the court than the angel's.

And there was nothing I could do to fix it.

That also meant that, if there was one enemy out there after my life, there were likely more that were tied to him as well. Why anyone would come after me, I hadn't a clue. I didn't start this fight but I was damn well ready to finish it, if I still had my power that was. This was the first I was even let out of Mahiru's house in a while.

"This is so boring I can't stand it!" One hand went into my hair, my nails slightly too long. I'd need to cut them at some point soon. "I'm used to doing whatever I want and going wherever I want and touching whatever I want and-"

"Lawless!"

I quieted my voice, realizing my anger and my fear were making it so it would be hard not to hear me down the hall. "Right. I'll be a good little vampire and shut up. Hell no. That's just not me."

The 'oh so important' manager sighed before closing the door, no obvious weapon in his hand as he did. "Lawless, I'm not punishing you. As of right now you haven't done anything wrong. Keep it that way, won't you?"

"And what's so wrong if I have a peek at a few of these? I'm bored."

"They're not for you and Licht needs to learn that he can't ignore his fans all the time. I'm happy he agreed to a few 'meet and greets' as it is. Vanishing from the public eye left a lot of people to make accusations about what happened. We also don't know what the enemy plans to do with the both of you."

"So if they sent something like a bomb and you didn't let me look through these gifts and it goes off and kills us all it'll be your fault."

There was a long tired sigh from the man. "Very well. Licht doesn't care about them. Just make sure any names or cards stay with the presents? I don't want you to make my job any harder than it is."

It was something to ease the boredom. If he had let me have my DS this wouldn't have been an issue to begin with. Why in the world would I play it during the concert? Oh well.

The dessert I smelled was some kind of layered white cake with cream cheese frosting that I couldn't resist taking a few bites out of. Licht didn't really eat anything prepared for him. He had to have a taste for it beforehand. I doubted he'd even notice it was gone by the time he came back there.

The flowers I was bored enough to get vases for. I think I had more fun with it because there were several dozen of them that I had to place either on the floor or the bed. I ran out of room so much I had to partially open the door and place one up there it was so bad.

Smiling to myself, I went for anything wrapped. There were a lot of cards and cards were boring. They were mostly letters from women who were in love with him because of his music or from men who wanted to take us away from the manager we already knew how to deal with – for the most part.

Who would give a teenage boy a teddy bear? There were a few of those. One of the stuffed creatures was a dog with tickets in its mouth to a little boy's performance that coming weekend. That wasn't happening.

After throwing all the plush creatures in a pile, stacking the boxes of chocolate in a tower fashion, sweeping all the letters together in a pile with my foot, and keeping the desserts from either melting or being crushed (because in all likelihood I'd be the one getting those) I sat back and waited for the angel to return.

Sadly enough Kranz, the illustrious manager, came in first and spilled the poor vase's water all over himself, hurting a few of the flowers, cracking the vase with his head.

I couldn't help smiling at the fact that it was so funny though.

"Lawless…" There was some anger there, under the surface, as he took in and let out a breath.

Licht simply grabbed a flower from where it was barely managing to cling to the man's shoulder, holding it up and smelling it before walking over to me as if I had just ended the world. My smile drew back a bit.

"I don't care when you break anything they give us here, but this" he pointed the flower at me as if it were a sword, the odor kind of nice, now that I had a second to smell it. It wasn't as pretty as a rose, which I noticed for some reason too. "This came from someone who had the hope that it would make me happy. These other people all shared the same want. What makes you think that I'll let you get away with screwing around with their dreams?"

"Licht, really, it was just a few gifts and I kept them all together. Nothing is broken." I held my hands up placidly. In my condition, Licht might actually be able to kill me. "I promise. I wasn't trying to destroy anything. I even kept the names with them like your great manager asked me to."

Licht's eyes narrowed slightly as they strayed over the other items. He couldn't argue the fact that I had left them as they should be (for the most part) and that none were getting damaged.

He could, however, hit me in the side of the head for no reason when he came up to me.

"What the hell?! You know that wasn't a tap!"

"I know you're a idiot. Why'd you have to make a mess? If they were all in a pile it would easier to deal with them. Now I feel like I'm taking on an enemy hoard."

"I was bored." Not really a defendable position but a true one.

I winced a little when Licht picked up the cake.

"And this?"

"I was hungry."

"You're a vampire. You don't get hungry."

"I do too! Kind of! I mean, it's nice to eat certain things and it does give me energy like it does you… besides, it smelled good."

"It wasn't yours."

"You weren't going to eat it!"

"That's not the point."

"Then what is the point?" I put my hands out to the side, getting angry fast and more than a little confused. Licht and I had different tastes and he'd never gotten angry when I'd had parts of his meals before.

"It was for me and they expected me to eat it. What if I liked it? What if the person who gave it to me came up to me later and asked me how it was? I'm not going to touch it now that your filthy hands were on it so I'm going to have to upset them and I hate upsetting people."

"You don't seem to care about upsetting me," I snarled back a little stronger than I had anticipated. Licht just had a way of bringing out the worst in me.

"You're not 'people'. You don't count."

I wanted to punch him. It was how I always got my anger out. My hand stayed fisted at my side, tight enough for my nails to prick at my skin. Instead I found myself crying which was embarrassing beyond all measure and I had to use my other hand to wipe my tears away, able to see Licht watching me while I did.

"This you is so annoying."

"Bite it."

Instead of responding back like he normally would have to my aggression, Licht simply turned and walked back out of the room.

The manager sighed once more when he was gone, having retrieved all of the fallen flowers and scattered them throughout the other vases. "Really, Lawless. I gave you permission but I wasn't expecting all this."

"I'm not some type of dog for you to order around either!"

"Keep your voice down." The man peeked around the corner and down the hallway. "In any case, get ready to leave. I know you won't help me with this so just… stay out of trouble."

"I wasn't in trouble! I didn't do anything!"

"You know what I mean."

"No, I don't!" I didn't. I did what I said I would do and even asked before I did it! Maybe I wasn't seeing whatever Licht was trying to explain to me, but at that moment I didn't care. I was out of the seat in only a few seconds and down the hall, feeling my scarf try and tug me back the way I had come.

In a few more seconds I was out the door and getting hit with the cold wind of the night around me, whispers of people still lingering around in the night around me. I walked forward, no idea where I was going, and barely feeling the 'pull' as I went outside the range of distance Licht and I were allowed to get from one another. If I was only gone a short while neither of us would even notice.

Or I could just kill the bastard and go wherever the hell I wanted.

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. I wouldn't do that and the bastard probably knew it by this point. He was the closest thing I had to a 'friend' in a long time, and I barely considered him that. He was more like a little brother I had to look after. Couldn't kill my little brother now, could I?

Ended up at a theater. There were movies playing and, after checking my pockets, I had enough cash to pay for one. I'd sneak in under normal conditions, but that part of my power likely didn't work any more than the rest of them.

I picked a seat on the end, fifteen minutes too early to the next movie that had a show time. Closing my eyes and leaning on my hand, I let out a breath. I just had to get away from that guy sometimes.

The movie played, starting out with something to do with a woman and her child. Where it went I wasn't sure. Sleep stole me away some time right near the beginning and didn't let go until I was watching a burning building with a man I had never seen before holding the same child from the start. Whatever daring adventure they all went on was lost to me as the end was only a few minutes off and everyone got their happy ending.

It was likely a pretty exciting movie. For some reason I just slept through it, even not being tired.

Laying on the side of the road like some bum and shivering as I tried to tie the scarf better around my neck (when it got cold out I really should have gotten something thicker than the thin mixed material it was made out of for show and not comfort) I wondered why I even left the theater. No one would have noticed if I sat through another showing.

How I could fall asleep while shivering, I had no idea. Maybe it was my vampire blood. How it kept me different from any other human on the street at this point, I couldn't be sure. I sure as hell didn't heal any faster than them. My ribs were stilla bit sore, more so in the position I found myself sleeping in.

Licht woke me. How he found me was yet another miracle. Maybe he was an angel. Maybe. Or maybe his deluded mind was just so focused on finding me like it was on every other task in his life that he simply was able to follow me through sheer willpower and luck.

"Get up you idiot."

"Not like I can catch a cold. I'm not 'people', remember?" I bit back as harsh as I could, finding the words far more quiet and painful than they should have been, which was enough to have me clearing my throat and my eyes widening. Maybe I could catch a cold.

"No, idiots are too stupid to catch colds. You're just blocking the sidewalk."

I don't know why I found that funny at the moment. Maybe it was because it was partially true and maybe because he really meant what he said and that in itself was funny. I laughed through my teeth, trying to hold in my amusement. "You can walk around me."

"I could, but you're an inconvenience. I'm sure you're bothering others too, Halloween reject, now get up."

The words rang through me, making my put a hand to my head. How he still held that bit of power over me when all my other powers were gone put me in the worst position I could be in.

Standing on stiff, frozen legs, I shoved my hands in my pockets and got as far out of the way as I could. "There. Happy?"

Licht didn't answer, walking past me and shoving something at my chest. I reached out on instinct and held the light, soft, wrapped oject in my hands.

"You want me to carry your gifts now too?!"

"No." Licht answered for that, going as far to stop and turn to look at me. Where his other gifts were, I wasn't sure. "I get enough. That one is for you."

"For me?" I looked down at it before sqeezing it a bit, finding it as soft as it felt. I held it up, looking for some sort of tag on it. "Who would send me a gift?"

"Just shut up. You wanted one, didn't you? They should rename you Jealousy."

I growled in my throat, unwrapping the gift anyway. Inside was a sweater. It looked warm, though the color was a light purple and not near anything I would have picked out for myself. I found myself throwing it on anyway, warpping the scarf back around me to protect me what little it could.

Licht started walking away again and I silently followed after his footsteps. I had never really been given a gift before, aside from the one I had tricked him into getting for me, and this didn't feel like some re-gift from his fans.

"You have poor fashion sense."

"You should stop dressing like a witch."

I laughed again, lightly this time, and pulled the material a little closer in my hand. "I'm not going to say 'thank you.'"

"I didn't ask you to."

"Good." Licht knew how to put me in the worst spots and I clenched my teeth together, the fleeting anger that ran through me gone in a few seconds and I found myself smiling. "But I'm going to say it anyway. Thank you."

Licht said nothing in return. That ass.