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Notes-This is a mini story based off of a drawing I am working on. This is the first shonen-ai/yaoi story I ever written. Rate M, though nothing graphic.



It was a cold winter’s night, it was now Christmas Eve. Karasu just walked into the cozy apartment that he shared with his partner Shinsetsu.

“Man that was a long day.” Karasu signed as he entered the building. “I am glad all the shopping is over with now, it is freezing out there!” The crow that always seemed to follow him around, flew off Karasu’s shoulder and into the night as he seemed to have plans to spend Christmas Eve else where.

“You don’t seem to mind it when I use my icicles. Besides it is your fault getting the gifts until the last minute.” Shinsetsu replied back, chuckling a bit as Karasu’s started to turning red from blushing at the memory about what they did a few nights back.

Karasu went into bedroom to change into a warm thermal yukata, as the sweater he wore as he out shopping earlier became soaked from all the snow that melted. A few minutes late, he walked into another room and set down the gifts and shortly began to wrap them. While he was wrapping the presents, Shinsetsu was in the kitchen, happily humming as he made some hot cocoa.

“Kara-kun” Shinsetsu spoke from the other room. “Why not come into the living room and take a break, we could cuddle by the fireplace.”

After Karasu finished wrapping the one of the presents, he entered the living room and started the fireplace before he took a seat next to it. Shinsetsu went over to him and sat down on Karasu’s lap as he handed him a cup of hot cocoa.

“You’re body feels so cold Kara-kun” Shinsetsu commented. “I’ll hold your hands, they're just like ice.”

Shinsetsu smiled as he set down is cup for a moment, as he took one of Karasu’s hands in his own. Karasu gave a brief smile, before he took a sip of his own hot cocoa; holding the cup with his free hand.

“Say, what's in this drink?” Karasu asked after taking a few sips.

“Oh nothing, just some spices that Kakashi-papa gave me awhile back. He said that it would give it more flavor.”

Before he knew it, all Karasu could think about was making love to Shinsetsu. He wrapped his arms around the other boy’s waist, pulling Shinsetsu closer to him. Just holding Shinsetsu in his arms as he sat on his lap was enough to start getting aroused. Outside, the snow was still falling, creating a beautiful scene like one you might see in a painting.

“Karasu…” Shinsetsu whispered softly, before kissing him”

Karasu smirked as he loosed the obi that was around Shinsetsu’s waist, opening the yukata that Shinsetsu was also wearing. “Baby its cold outside.”

The night was filled with heating passion. Early that morning both were sound asleep, with only an afghan blanket wrapped around them. As Christmas morning slowing approaches, the two boys began to stir from their slumber.

“Merry Christmas” Shinsetsu said as he kissed Karasu on the lips. This Christmas was already promising to turn out to be a great one indeed.

In The Bleak Midwinter

The desert was quiet as the white-haired youth looked up at the stars from his vantage point on the dune, a sight that would have been thought strange by most passer-bys on this winter’s night, if there were any people of the Free Tribes left, they would have run in terror, thinking the pale boy to be a harbinger of death.

In truth, the monsters and terrors of the Demon Sands, as this area were now known, weren’t his doing at all. Giri had no idea that any of Kaze’s experiments had actually escaped until the first time he had come to this laboratory a little over three years prior.

The wind shifted, and the sand parted as a small door opened in the dune he was sitting on, a dark haired man with blind eyes looked towards him, “Master Giri, you asked us to let you know as soon as he got he…” Hideki blinked as there was a white blur rushing past him, “We’ll just await any other orders that you might have then,” he muttered to himself, running a hand through his hair before turning around and closing the door, leaving the desert night to it’s own devices.

Giri ran through the halls, barreling into Doku, “You came!” he said happily, “After what happened I was so worried!”

“I had to lose some guards,” he said, “How is…”

“He’s still in the lab,” he gestured, then pointed to his friend’s outfit, “That’s really…”

“I know,” he whined, looking down at the anbu vest and pants, “Stupid Kabuto made me wear this!” he glared at Giri’s failed attempt to hide his laughter, “I’m not going back.”

That sobered his friend up, “That bad huh?”

“They want me to…” he chewed his lip, “I’m not sure actually. I haven’t even seen Dad since the fight and Kimi-haha’s missing too. Kabuto’s been getting ready for the last part of Sero’s plan, that’s why he made me wear this, I was supposed to be the one leading it.”

“So he did have a hand in how that turned out,” Giri looked over to the hallway leading to one of his laboratories, “I guess we better tell him…”

“It can wait,” Doku said quietly, “You wouldn’t happen to have some of my old clothes here would you?” he blinked as his hand was taken.

“This way,” the white-haired youth smiled, “There’s something else bothering you isn’t there?”

“Giri… I was really scared the last few weeks,” he followed his friend to the private quarters, “What happened to Yoru, it was wrong, it wasn’t anything at all like he kept describing.”

Giri nodded, his grip tightening around Doku’s fingers as he tried not to think about the fight between the Uchiha brothers… what happened afterwards…

Taran still hadn’t left Yoru’s few remains that he had carried here, and even that was a forced escape, Doku had begged him to get to safety, promised to follow as soon as he could.

He shook his head, best not to think of it now, and he turned back to his friend, “We’ll talk about it later,” he said, opening the door to his room, “Do you want me to get you anything?”

“Help me out of these?” Doku pulled at the vest, “I’m not used to wearing anything so…”

“Masculine?” teased Giri, his fingers unzipping the vest and pushing it back as he kicked the door closed, “I dunno, you do look kinda cute…”

“It’s too tight,” Doku complained, “And not comfortable at all,” he pouted, “And entirely too hot,” he raised his hands over his head, “Hurry up!”

“You know I’m not one of your father’s servants right,” Giri asked as he pulled the green turtleneck off of him, “And maybe you wouldn’t find yourself in this predicament if you weren’t such a spoiled brat.”

“I’m not spoiled,” he argued once his head was free of the clothing, and placed his hands on his hips, “I can’t help it if Dad’s followers worship me. Besides, you like undressing me.”

“Won’t argue with that,” he breathed as he leaned in, capturing the dark-haired boys lips with his, “You don’t really want to put anything on right now do you…”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Taran spun the empty bottle, staring at the covered remains that were oh so carefully preserved almost as soon as he came to this place, now it was possibly one of the greatest puppets ever made instead…

He blinked back tears, wanting to scream at how wrong this all was, that this wasn’t what Yoru had wanted at all.

Had he known back then what would have happened, would he have tried to stop him? Tried to talk some sense into the Uchiha, honor and all that be damned?

All he wanted now was for Yoru to hold him, tell him that it was all a bad dream, like he did so long ago after his parents were killed, when Arashi had died saving him…

“You promise, you remember me. It’s all pointless if you break your word on this.”

“I’m remembering,” he growled, reaching into the crate for another bottle, “I’m going to do nothing but remember, you made damn sure of that.”

He popped the top on the bottle and took a swig of the strangely warm liquid, wanting very much for the world outside this room to just end in a violent and immediate event, just to place everyone out of their misery.

On the fifth bottle, he was vaguely aware of someone coming into the room, hushed whispers as there was some sort of conversation over his head, and suddenly all was dark as he fell into the only peace that he had left, the oblivion of a dreamless sleep.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Just drink the damn waters!” the prim young girl snapped at Yoru, “There’s no point in…”

“Lethe,” commanded a voice, and the girl turned to the richly dressed woman with dark blue eyes and midnight haired that flowed down towards the middle of her back, “There are others who need your peace. This one has already made his choice.”

Yoru glanced over at her, “Weren’t you a kid when you died?” he asked quietly as he turned back to the river.

“I didn’t exactly die,” she placed her hand on her hip, “So why are you moping around, I thought you did want to.”

He shrugged, and she blinked for a moment before her eyes widened, “Don’t tell me… after all of that,” she covered her mouth, “You lost!?”

“Haven’t you already seen my brother?” he growled.

She scratched her chin, “Actually no, he hasn’t came by the rivers yet, but that may not mean anything, he could have a one-way ticket to Mama’s realm,” she frowned, “But that’s too easy. I’ll have to look into this, there was a case before I got here of souls being held back in the mortal plane. And I think that your Master had a bit of a hand in it.”

He snorted, and she sighed, “Man, if you’re going to spend eternity throwing a temper tantrum, then I’m just going to not offer the nice present I was going to give you and Taran to make this a bit easier on him at least. In fact, I’ll go get Lethe back and force her waters down your throat and send you on to your next life myself if you keep this up.”

“What the hell would you be able to get us?” he raised an eyebrow, and she gave him a crooked smile.

“Something that took me a while to get done,” she said proudly, “And it’s something that might give Taran a bit more reason to live than that crappy ‘remember me’ thing you did. You stop this nonsense, and you can have the second half of the present,” she reached into her kimono and pulled out a mirror, “I have to do it on the night of the Wild Hunt, but other than that, it’s all ready.”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“What are you doing?” Doku asked Giri as he watched him pour bottle after bottle of sake over his parent’s shrine.

“Getting rid of it before Taran drinks himself into another coma,” he said, “You’d think that immunity to poisons would work on alcohol tolerance…”

“Can you blame him?”

“He doesn’t get it together, I’m going to have to break my promise to Dad about giving him the good stuff,” Giri chewed the inside of his cheek, “I hope this appears in bottles or something on that side.”

Outside the winds howled across the desert, and Doku looked towards the window, “Did you hear horns?” he asked.

Giri followed his gaze, “It’s Yule… seems like the Hunt’s riding early tonight. But I thought that the gods had all gone away.”

“Eh?” he blinked in confusion as Giri placed down the bottle and ran down the hallway.

“Is everyone accounted for?” he demanded of Akira as the scorpion-man came out of a doorway.

He nodded, “Just a few of the experiments are out,” he crossed his arms, smiling at Giri “Just like Kaze-sama, he got paranoid about all of us this time of the year…” his voice trailed off as the two went past him.

“What’s going on?” Doku whined as he followed his lover, who stopped and placed a hand to his ear, “What hunt?”

“It hadn’t gone on in years,” he said as he climbed up to a window, “And it was never the right Shi that led it, it wasn't the one that carries the book, and if he caught you then even an immortal would die.”

He covered his right eye, peering out into the desert to see the dust billowing beneath the hooves of the demon horses, straining to see the face of the cloaked figure was at the head of the party that rode them.

Doku shivered as the horns sounded again, “Please tell me that was just the wind!”

Before he could answer there was a pounding at the door, “No one answer that!” he yelled hopping down, “I won’t have anyone being taken so easily!”

Elsewhere in the keep, Taran rubbed his eyes as he sat up in the bed, “Coming,” he mumbled to the knocking, slowly getting up as a small part of him wondered why it was so quiet in the laboratory, usually there was at least some sort of noise, now there was only the howling of the wind.

In the bleak midwinter, frosty winds made moan. Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone.

He paused, a small part of him recognizing the woman’s voice, then shook his head as the knocking came again on the door, blinking as he realized that he was at the keep’s entrance, and shrugging to himself, reached to open to see who was outside.

Giri and Doku rounded the corner a moment after that, both stopping suddenly as they stared at Taran who was standing in the open doorway with a bundle in his arms. “What…” Doku started as Giri rushed to look outside.

A lone rider stood in the sands across from him, “But his mother only, in her maiden’s bliss, worshiped the beloved with a kiss,” the strangely serious voice came across the wind, and he watched as a slender hand rose to lift back the hood, “I can’t raise him in my realm, so I leave it to you Taran. Yoru would be best remembered if there was a lineage to pass on his legacy.”

The horns sounded again, and Arashi rode off, going to join Death in the Wild Hunt and he turned back at the sound of the infant’s cry as the first breath of life entered his lungs, a sad smile on his face as he watched a bit of the light that had vanished from Taran’s eyes come back.

Even in the bleak midwinter, when night is darkest, there is always a small bit of guiding light, waiting to reach out to those that have given up all hope of ever seeing life again.