Title: The Twelve Days of Christmas
By: Kibethan
Disclaimer: I can finally say I own Gravitation!!!!!!! Or...at least, the first dvd...I got it for Christmas!!! I'm...so...happy!!! I can't say I own the Gravitation idea though, it belongs to Maki Murakami...
Summary: better name for this would probably be "The Birds". Or "The People"...Oh Gods...The people!
Half-warning: This chapter is still funny...but is a little bit more serious than the other chapters...it's still good though!!! I promise!!! It's a lot longer too...about 3x the size of a regular chapter...
The Twelfth Day of Christmas
…On the twelfth day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Twelve drummers drumming
Eleven pipers piping
Ten lords-a-leaping
Nine ladies dancing
Eight maids-a-milking
Seven swans-a-swimming
Six geese-a-laying
Five golden rings
Four calling birds
Three French hens
Two turtledoves
And a partridge in a pear tree.
On the twelfth day of Christmas, Yuki received twelve drummers drumming, eleven pipers piping, ten lords-a-leaping, nine ladies dancing, eight maids-a-milking, seven swans-a-swimming, six geese-a-laying, five golden rings, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtledoves, and a partridge in a pear tree.
The end.
Just kidding!
Now, onto the real chapter…
Yuki woke up in the morning with a giant smile. He was insanely happy. Why you may ask? It's because he wouldn't be getting anything new today! He was so happy that he rolled over in bed and gave Shuichi a giant kiss on the cheek.
Shuichi's eyes shot open. Something was wrong.
"Eh…Yuki? Are you alright?"
"Of course I'm alright!" he said in a sing-songy voice. "Everything in the world is right today! I will be getting no new presents!"
Shuichi closed his eyes. Suddenly he felt very ill. Yuki was probably going to hate him once he found out that today he would get the most presents that he'll have gotten on one singular day. He was not looking forward to the moment that he found out, that's for sure.
Shuichi felt a little bit bad too for misleading him, but he wanted the twelfth day to be a surprise. After all, it was the last day. He was also going to finally tell Yuki the reason that he had been doing this. He only hoped that Yuki would accept it.
All of the presents for the day were coming early too, before lunch. He had wanted the rest of day to just chill out and relax. It had been pretty hard on him too. You try living with all these birds. If Yuki wanted to keep them –which Shuichi highly doubted- then he would live with them, but if Yuki wanted to get rid of them, that was absolutely find with him.
He was so sick of them. They ate so much for just being birds and it was starting to get more than a little bit expensive.
Yuki bounced out of bed, and right onto a bird. He didn't even care that its beak went into his foot. Even through the blinding pain, he was smiling. Nothing could ruin his mood today. Or so he thought.
There was a knock on the door.
He froze. The little dance he was doing was momentarily forgotten. He looked at the door anxiously. Why was there a knock? He wasn't getting any present right? The last day was yesterday.
Shuichi had frozen too. Yuki wasn't sure whether to take that as a good sign or as a bad sign.
Slowly, painstakingly, Yuki walked to the door. Shuichi followed close behind him, eager to see what it was. All of the things were supposed to be there till later. It was only 9:00 a.m. Were they here early? He certainly hoped not. He didn't want Yuki to be angry with him all day.
Yuki opened the door.
There in the doorway was the mailman. He handed Yuki a rather large package.
"This is a big box and wouldn't fit in the mailbox. Have a Merry Christmas." The mailman walked away, continuing to deliver the other mail. Yuki watched as he walked away and then looked at the package in his hand. It was addressed to him and was from his father.
Yuki and Shuichi both let out a huge breath. Yuki hadn't gotten his presents yet. Shuichi was safe…for now.
Yuki went into the kitchen and started to make breakfast, while Shuichi walked into the bathroom and started to take a shower. There was another knock on the door. Yuki turned to the door, wondering what it was. Shuichi was still in the shower so he didn't hear it.
The person at the door knocked again. Yuki furrowed his eyebrows and walked to the door. As he got closer to it, he heard drums. They were loud and they were annoying. He also heard what sounded like pipes. His eyes widened. No. No way! I just couldn't be. It had ended yesterday. Shuichi had told him himself and Shuichi never lies.
He opened the door. His eyes met with a load of people. I mean a load of people. Yuki doubted that that many people would fit in his apartment, what with the birds and everything. Actually, he wasn't going to let them in. This had ended yesterday. Perhaps the people just hadn't gotten the memo.
Closing the door on them would probably get rid of them. Hopefully.
He started to close the door, but the drummers just started marching in. Yuki glared at everyone, but eventually every single person and animal that had been outside was in his house.
And I say "house" too instead of living room because there were fifty people in his house. If he had had a deck of cards he could've handed every single person one card, including Shuichi and himself. It was absolutely insane. Especially since the eight maids had eight cows again.
Luckily though, like yesterday, they just milked their cows and left. The other ones people, however were still in there.
He was starting to get a headache from the drummers; it was incredibly loud and they weren't playing any particular beat. They were just hitting the drums randomly. It was quite annoying, to say the least. Hey, at least the pipers were playing a tune. It wasn't one that he recognized, but at least they were playing something. They were a bit hard to hear over the drums, though.
Shuichi walked out of the bathroom.
"What is that racket?" he asked loudly while walking down the hall. When he saw all the people in the house, he turned around to get away. He figured out what it was, and he had a feeling that Yukihad figure out what it was too.
Unfortunately for him, Yuki spotted him.
"Oi! Get over here!" he yelled at Shuichi. Shuichi started shaking, he knew that he was going to get it now. Lying to Yuki had been a bad idea and now he was going to reap the consequences. "What's going on?" Yuki asked him with his voice dangerously quiet.
Shuichi had no idea what to say. He was pretty much damned with anything he said. He could lie, but that's what got him in this particular situation in the first place. He could tell the truth, but there's no way that that would go over well. He decided to tell the truth anyway.
"Um…Happy Twelfth Day of Christmas, Yuki…" he said quietly.
"TWELVES DAY OF CHRISTMAS!" Yuki screamed. "You told me that it would end yesterday! You…lied to me?" Shuichi felt horrible. He had only wanted to give Yuki his love but it was blowing up in his face.
"I…I'm sorry…" he started apologizing.
"Sorry isn't going to cut it, Shindou," Yuki interrupted. Shuichi looked up, devastated. Yuki called him by his last name. Yuki did hate him. Yuki really, really hated him. Tears filled Shuichi's eyes, but this time Yuki was not going to relent. "I want you to get out." The tears that had filled Shuichi's eyes were now running full length down his face. He had screwed up, but he didn't think that he had screwed up that much.
"B-but, Yuki…" he started protesting.
"Out."
"Yuki!"
"Out!"
Shuichi hung his head in shame. He had been kicked out. It had happened before, but he wasn't sure if Yuki would forgive him this time. All of the other people in the house had stopped what they were doing and were watching as Shuichi had been kicked out.
It was a shock for them too, they had seen Shuichi when he had asked them to come and he had seemed like he could never be depressed. It was like a complete 180. They wanted to speak out on his behalf, but were too shocked to say anything.
Even the birds looked sad.
Shuichi walked towards the door. He didn't even bother going to get his things. He could have Hiro pick them up later, or maybe Yuki would just throw them away. He didn't care. Yuki didn't love him so nothing mattered to him anymore. He walked dejectedly out of the house, his head hung low.
Yuki was so mad that he was almost shaking with anger. Shuichi had lied to him. The pressure of having so many things in the house had taken their toll and he had finally lost it. He felt a little bit bad for kicking out Shuichi, but not that bad. Shuichi had places that he could go. Hell, he could even find his own apartment. As long as he wasn't with Yuki, Yuki didn't care.
Yeah, he was pissed.
"I want all of you out," he told the people who were occupying his house. "And I want each of you to take four or five birds with you." Much to his dismay, they didn't leave. Nope, they just stayed put.
"We're not leaving," the head of the drummers, said, "until you apologize to the kid."
Yuki was about to protest but then noticed the size of the man he was talking to. He wasn't about to pick a fight that was twice his size and could flatten him like a pancake with one step.
On the other hand, he was not going to apologize to Shuichi. Shuichi was just going to have to put up with living somewhere else.
"Leave. Actually, no don't. I want to know first why I was getting you all these gifts. Do you know why?" he asked the drummer.
One of the pipers brought out a c.d. player with a c.d. in it. He plugged it in and pressed play. Instantly, a song started up.
"On the first day of Christmas…" a cheery voice started to sing. Yuki listened with wide eyes. He finally understood why he had gotten all of the weird gifts. And, of course Shuichi had given him gifts that went with a song. He was a singer! Yuki was curious as to why Shuichi had wanted to do all of this for him. He wasn't about to go find Shuichi and ask him though. Maybe the people who were in his house would know.
"Do you know why he wanted to do this?" Yuki asked all of them. They all shook their heads. Damn, he was so curious. But, he wasn't going to go after Shuichi. Nope, there was no way in hell.
"Okay, I still want all of you out. Please, leave," he tried, trying to be civil. They all looked like they didn't want to leave, but one by one, they slowly filed out the door. All except for the big drummer, he stayed behind. Yuki was a little bit happy; each of them had taken four or five birds with them. They said they would release them to the wild.
"I'm not going to leave," the drummer said again, "until you go apologize to Shuichi."
"Then you're going to be here for the rest of your life," Yuki said, shutting the door behind the rest of the people.
"I don't care, it's not like I have a family that's going to be looking for me. I live alone," he said.
"Then maybe you can understand why I want to be alone for a little while," Yuki countered.
"Nope. I would never want to be alone on Christmas," the drummer said. Yuki faltered. He had completely forgotten that today was Christmas. He regained his confidence though; Shuichi was not going to come back.
"Whatever," Yuki replied. The drummer just plopped down on the couch. One of the pipers had taken the swimming pool, saying that his kids would just absolutely love it once it had been cleaned out. The only thing that was left from what Shuichi had bought was a lot of milk, eggs, twelve pear trees and a great deal of food in the kitchen. The house needed desperately to be cleaned, though. "As long as you're here," Yuki started, finally realizing that he was never going to get rid of the man, "you can help me clean up."
"Not going to happen."
"Please?" Yuki tried. He didn't want to do all of this by himself.
"Not until you're going to get Shuichi."
"For the last time, I'm not going to go get Shuichi."
"Then I'm not going to help."
"I'll make it worth your while."
The drummer narrowed his eyes.
"How?"
"I'll pay you." The drummer raised his eyebrows.
"How much?"
"I'll give you a hundred dollars if you help me with the entire house."
"A hundred dollars?"
"A hundred dollars."
"Okay, I'll help." Yuki practically gave a yell of joy.
"We'll start with the living room, since we're already here." Yuki went into the kitchen and grabbed two mops and brooms. Since he felt like he was in the spirit of cleaning, he had even grabbed two aprons.
Needless to say, the drummer hadn't put it on. But Yuki had. He was in a great mood. He started to mop up all the messes that the birds had made. There were giant messes everywhere, but Yuki didn't care. He was just cleaning it up; happy that eventually it would get clean again.
There were still four birds there: the original partridge, a turtledove, a French hen, and a calling bird. There were no more geese. Yuki had looked outside when he got rid of the people and the cats were following all of the people. That meant that the cats were gone as well.
The drummer was mopping up the mess in another corner. They had to get all around the couch and much to their surprise, underneath it as well. Yuki had just lifted it up for fun, kidding around, but underneath it had been a huge mess. There was a dead bird underneath their too, much to their disgust.
"You throw it out."
"No, you throw it out."
Eventually Yuki had thrown it out, the drummer saying that not even one hundred dollars was worth touching that nasty thing.
Shuichi walked out of the house. He had forgotten to bring his coat, so he was freezing cold. He started walking to the first place he thought of. Hiro's apartment. It was the perfect place to go. Hiro would still take him in, even if Ayaka were there.
It took a while for him to get there. He was absolutely freezing by the time he cold there. His teeth were clattering and he was shivering really badly. Yuki's house had been warm because there had been so many people there, so he had worn a t-shirt.
He knocked on the door. Nobody answered. He knocked on the door again. If Hiro wasn't there, he was screwed. He didn't know where else he could go. He couldn't go to Tohma's; that would just be awkward; besides, he couldn't get Tohma leaping in tights out of his head.
Once again nobody answered. He yelled into the house.
"Hello? Hello? Is anybody in there? It's Shuichi!" he called again and again. Once again, nobody answered the door. Either they were ignoring him or nobody was home. It had to be the latter.
He sat down right by the door. Maybe he would come home later and at least the apartment building blocked some of the wind that was coming by.
"Hiro! Please come home soon!" he yelled out into the frigid air.
After they had mopped everything in the living room so that it was perfectly clean Yuki gave a yell. It still smelled a little, but hardly, and they still had the air freshener.
They next moved into the kitchen. The kitchen was bad. The first thing they needed to do was to get rid of all the stuff that had accumulated over the day.
"Do you know anywhere that will take milk and eggs? And pear trees?" he asked the drummer.
"Maybe the local food shelter. I bet if you told them your situation they'd help you out."
"Okay." Yuki picked up the phone. Luckily someone was there and they answered the phone. After explaining their situation, they agreed to take all of the food. They were actually happy to take it. Yuki was worried that they would be suspicious of the food being tampered with and wouldn't take it, but they weren't at all. He suspected that they were test the food when they got it.
While Yuki was going that the drummer was mopping up the mess. The kitchen wasn't that big and luckily it didn't take him that long. Next, he wiped all the dirt off the kitchen table. By then Yuki was done talking on the phone and was helping him by washing the dishes.
When they got the dishes dry they put them in the cupboards. The local shelter wasn't very far away and they were very anxious for the food so they got to the house in five minutes.
They knocked on the door and Yuki was hesitant to open it. His experience with opening doors was horrible and he was probably going to have a phobia of opening doors for the rest of his life. But when he opened it and people dressed in tights with pipes and with drums didn't pop out, he felt much better.
The shelter saw all the food and about had a heart attack. It was so much and they were very thankful for it all. Yuki even gave them all but one of the golden rings; they could sell it somewhere to make some money. Yuki was happy to give it away. Everyone was so happy.
Except for Shuichi.
Shuichi was still sitting on the steps two hours later. He didn't know what to do. Maybe he could go to K's house, but that would be a bit odd. His family didn't really know him that well. He didn't even know where Suguru or Sakano lived.
Going home didn't even cross his mind because his family had moved a while ago. He would catch a train and go to their house, except he wasn't one hundred percent sure where it was. He could call, but their phone number was in a book in Yuki's house.
He was essentially all by himself. Rather than sit in the same spot and cry, he decided to get up and walk. He found himself at the park a few minutes later. He cleared snow off of one of the swings and sat down at it. Gently he swung himself back and forth, trying to figure out what to do.
He was completely out of ideas. He could go back to Yuki's, but Yuki would probably laugh in his face and tell him "no". He started to think how it had all happened. He had only wanted to show Yuki how much he loved him. When Ryuichi had showed him the song had been ecstatic. It had been the absolute perfect way to show Yuki that he loved him, because in the song "my true love gave to me," and Shuichi liked to think that he was Yuki's true love.
But maybe he was wrong. Heh. He was obviously wrong. If he hadn't been wrong, then maybe he would be back at Yuki's completely warm and out of the cold.
Not for the first time, tears started to make their tracks down Shuichi's face.
The kitchen, after they had gotten rid of all of the food that was in it, was very easy to clean and before long even it looked absolutely gorgeous. They made their way through the house, room-by-room cleaning up. Every once in a while they would come to something completely gross –like a dead bird- that neither male wanted to clean up, and always in the end Yuki had to be the one to do it.
Finally, the house was almost sparkly clean, except for one room: the study. Yuki was dreading going into that room because out of all the room that's the one that most of the birds had been in. Yuki closed his eyes and walked into the room.
It was an absolute mess, completely disgusting. They weren't even sure where they wanted to start with cleaning it. Eventually they decided to start at the back and work their way forward. They mopped up the floor and cleaned the desks. It was a task that was way easier said than done.
When they were close to the front of the room the drummer opened up a drawer. Inside was a little Christmas present. He was a little bit confused.
"Yuki? What's this?"
Yuki stopped what he was doing and looked at what the drummer was holding. His heart almost stopped when he saw what it was. It was the present that Yuki had gotten for Shuichi. He had completely forgotten about it.
It was a promise ring, a ring that promised they were be together forever. When Shuichi had been so hurt that Yuki hadn't gotten him anything, Yuki had bought that to tell him that he would always love him. It was a way to cement it.
He could hardly believe that he had forgotten; it had not been cheap, but Yuki had figured that it was worth it. Especially when Yuki would get to see the look on Shuichi's face when he finally did get it.
It looked like Shuichi was never going to receive that present.
"Just, throw it away," he started to say. But then he started to think. Surely Shuichi hadn't thought that giving him all those gifts would turn into such an affair. He probably didn't even want to lie to him, but needed to. Anyone would've wanted something to be a surprise and Yuki had finally figured out that he was going to be getting so many presents a day. He had picked the last day to make a surprise.
It made so much sense, why had Yuki been mad at Shuichi in the first place? Guilt started to raid through his system. He needed to find him. He needed to apologize. If he didn't he would probably feel guilty for the rest of his life.
"I need to apologize to Shuichi," Yuki said quietly to himself. The drummer looked up in surprise.
"Damn straight you do. Go find him, I can keep cleaning up here."
"Thanks."
Yuki grabbed a jacket from the closet and ran out the door. The only place he could think of where Shuichi would be was Hiro's. Luckily, he had been to Hiro's place once before and knew where it was. It was close enough that it was actually faster to walk there than to drive there, so that's why Yuki did.
Only instead of walk, he ran.
He ran so fast to there that he got there in half the time that Shuichi had. He knocked feverishly on the door. Hiro opened the door. Hiro looked surprised when he saw Yuki.
"Have you seen Shuichi?" Yuki asked him.
"Um…no…should I have?"
"Damn! Where else would he have gone?"
"Gone? Gone where?"
"Shuichi is gone. I kicked him out and now I know that I did the wrong thing, so save me the speech. I'm just trying to find him to apologize to him. Do you know where else he would go?"
"You kicked him out on Christmas? Don't give me that look. No…I'm sorry. I don't know where he could go. Do you want me to help?"
"No! I need to find him myself. I'll find him eventually don't worry."
"Give me a call when you find him, okay?"
"Okay, I can do that."
Yuki left Hiro's house and took off looking for Shuichi. He could be anywhere. Yuki had no way of knowing where he was.
He was looking for an hour and was having absolutely no luck. He finally got the idea to think like Shuichi. Where would Shuichi go?
Duh. The park! Shuichi was so childish; of course he would go to the park. Anybody would go to the park. It was just a place that people go to regroup. By the time that he actually got to the park that he thought that Shuichi would have gone to, it was dark. He searched around and couldn't see anything.
Finally, he spotted what looked like a shape sitting on one of the swings. The closer he got the more he realized that the figure had pink hair.
It was Shuichi.
Of course, Shuichi couldn't see him, because Yuki was behind him.
"Shuichi!" he called out.
Shuichi turned around, faster than hell when he heard his name being called. He looked for the person who had called him. He spotted Yuki but couldn't recognize him from their distance apart.
Yuki came running up to him and wrapped his arms around him. He had found him. He had finally found Shuichi.
Shuichi had stiffened when he felt the person put their arms around him. When he smelled Yuki's cologne though, he let out a sigh of relief. Yuki had come for him. Yuki had looked for him.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Yuki whispered continually into Shuichi's ear.
"It's okay," Shuichi said. He was always the forgiving type. "I'm so cold."
"Here's my jacket," Yuki told him after they had broken apart. "Let's go home."
"Okay."
Hand in hand, with Shuichi wearing Yuki's jacket, they walked home.
When they got home they opened the door. Yuki was a little bit anxious because he had forgotten to ask the drummer for his references (in other words, had he gone to jail for stealing), but thankfully when they opened the door everything was still there.
Shuichi was in awe. The house was absolutely beautiful. It was sparkling clean. The drummer was sitting on the couch in the living room, looking exhausted but completely satisfied.
"Hey! You made it!" he said, "I was beginning to think that you guys would never get back."
"Hey! I found him, give me some credit!"
"Have you given him his present yet?" the drummer asked Yuki. Shuichi was surprised. Yuki had gotten him a present? He had said that he hadn't.
"Nope, let me go get it." He walked into his study to go get it. He returned with the little box.
Shuichi took it out of his hands and ripped it open. It opened the box and saw the ring sitting there. He started crying for what seemed like the twentieth time. This time, though, they were tears of joy.
"Thank you! Thank you so much! I have one question," he said while admiring the ring, "Where did everything go?"
"Are you mad?" Yuki asked him.
"Nope! I'm just curious." Yuki let out a breath. He had been so worried that Shuichi would be mad at him for getting rid of the animals.
"I gave them to the people. All the food went to the local shelter."
"Wow…you were in a giving mood."
"Yep."
"That's so sweet of you." Yuki made a gagging noise. The last thing he had wanted to be was sweet. But, whatever, at least Shuichi wasn't mad at him.
"Merry Christmas," he said to Shuichi.
"Merry Christmas," Shuichi said back, giving him a kiss on the lips.
The drummer looked on in amusement.
"And a Happy New Year," he added quietly as he slipped out of the house, leaving the two of them with privacy.
End: "The Twelfth Day of Christmas"
End: "The Twelves Days of Christmas"
It's over!!!! Oh my Gosh!!! I actually finished it. This has been a long 12 days, but somehow I managed to write a chapter every single day. WOOHOO!!! I hope that you liked the ending. Now!!
Onto the review of reviews:
Kiyuu: I know, I know, but for the sake of the story, it seemed better to make it start on the 14th...I think I put it in my authors notes on the first day..., Kitsune Thief: I'd review, you don't have to worry about that! Thank you again for the idea!, Aoi Umi: That is really ironic and absolutly hilarious!, Notta Writer: He is VERY fine and he's loaded with talent!!!, robuddi: You go up to the person and say "Hey, I'm doing something for Yuki, could be a lord-a-leaping?" and then they give you a weird face. You then give them the puppy dog eyes that they can't resist, Elements: I reviewed your story, and I loved it!!!! I'm going to miss your reviews..., blacksapphiremillenia: Tohma dancing in tights is a funny sight..., Tricksters Girl: I've already killed off Tohma once...don't really want to do it again, God-Damned: It is a little bit scary, isn't it?
Oh my Gosh!!! That's it!!! I can't believe I'm finished!
I'm going to beg, are you ready? Please, please, please, please review!!! I want to know how to thought of the ending, and if there are any questions that I kind of left unanswered. If there are,I might do a one-shot about them.
I'm also curious as to how many people read it, fanfiction doesn't have a counter!!!! So...please review...as a christmas present to me....please!
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
That's it for now,
Ki-chan