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 Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2023 5:22 pm
Quote: Prompt 13 (Winter Rainbow): Winter weather is usually fairly predictable–clouds, rain, snow, and a sunny day if you’re lucky. It’s unwise to predict anything in Destiny City, though. Lately, there’s been an uptick in unnatural rainbows. The sky almost regularly seems to be covered with some sort of pastel shimmer. The clouds have a rainbow sheen to them during all weather, and more than once you can even make out a rainbow from just the moon’s beams. Scientists claim there are just many water crystals in the air–and that checks out. During the frequent snows, it’s common to observe soft rainbow snowflakes that catch the light like tiny suncatchers. Even fallen snow seems to have an iridescent sheen to it. It’s not a common occurrence, but it’s happening often enough that you're likely to see it at least once this season.
This had worked out quite fortuitously because Reiki had been in the middle of preparing gifts that he wanted to give to some of his magical friends out in Destiny City, and Fang……had presented a conundrum. One idea, Reiki felt pretty certain would go over well (Cheez-Its, while not the same as Actual Cheese, would probably satisfy Fang’s love of snacks and they had the benefit of not going bad as easily as cheese itself did).
Another idea, Reiki hoped would make Fang happy (a scarf crocheted by Reiki himself, in an orange shade that he thought would look nice with Fang’s fuku, or match with a lot of possible outfits when he was out and about as his civilian self. Additionally, Reiki had purposefully made all of these scarves with love and affection, but not much in the way of genuine identifying marks, so they couldn’t be used to trace people between their powered and civilian identities).
But other than those two things……Reiki wasn’t certain what Fang might have liked. Worse, a lot of his ideas felt like they could easily have been patronizing or insulting, and he never wanted to do that to Fang, who was such a kind-hearted person and such a good friend. Better to just ask Fang outright what he might have liked as a gift, whether because he had a practical need for something or because it would’ve made him happy. Anything that Fang could’ve asked for, Reiki would do his best to get it in a way that Fang would like.
Fortunately, Fang had asked for something very easy for Reiki to find.
Not something particularly cheap, but with all the various loyalty points, coupons, and assorted discounts Reiki had racked up at every craft store in town, the endgame cost didn’t end up being that outrageous. Especially not for something as exquisite as what Reiki had ultimately managed to find for Fang: a bundle of silk embroidery floss, like Fang had asked for, with a whole eleven colors for him to pick from (pink, red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue, purple, black, brown, and white). Excitement bubbled in his chest every time he thought about getting to give Fang his gift—about hopefully seeing his face light up in unreserved joy, the way that Fang did so easily sometimes—and tonight, under a cascade of iridescent snow, Reiki finally got his chance.
He was milling around the hilltop picnic tables in Palisades Park, doing very little in particular but grateful for how well-lit it was. From Reiki’s current vantage point, the lights made it easy to see any potential trouble—or, such as the case was with Fang, to clock the familiar swishy tail and the fluffy-collared jacket that Reiki knew so very well. Noticing his friend, Reiki hopped down off the picnic table where he’d been perched and took off down the hill. For now, the gift-bag stayed in his subspace; he could take it out once they’d greeted each other. More polite to say “hello” first than to make it seem like he was buying Fang’s affection with presents.
As he got closer, Reiki stopped running in favor of a more casual approach. Waving to his friend, he called out, “Fang! Over here!”
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Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2023 4:26 pm
Fang loved the gift-giving spirit of the season, if nothing else. The cold, the dead plants, the mostly missing animals that went south for winter—all of it sent off the alarm bells in his head and he disliked that. Nearly every day he had to calm himself from a panic attack, and it worried him, given it had barely begun. There were still a few months left—but if he stopped thinking about it... He let out a soft breath, clutching the little package in his hands. He'd made Murikabushi a gift. He was waiting for his friend so they could hang out and he would give Muri his gift. It was a happy time. Even if his tail wasn't wagging and his ears slumped against his head from the depression funk he was slowly slipping into, it was a happy time. It had to be. When he heard Murkabushi call out and approach, Fang's tail immediately began wagging harder than a storm door in a tornado. His ears perked straight up and he whipped his head around to stare at his friend. "Muri!" he greeted loudly as his tail picked up even more speed. He wanted to hop and run and dance, but he held still. His package had to be handled carefully, after all. "Muri Muri Muri!!" Gods, how he wanted to burst into circles with excitement, all dregs of the earlier mood forgotten.
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Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2024 1:50 am
It did Reiki’s heart good to see Fang perk up like that. On one hand, the fact that Reiki had……admittedly not been his best self with someone who’d clearly meant a lot to Fang (even if Reiki hadn’t known that about Michel at the time when he was mouthing off to said Saturn Knight).
On another hand, Fang had, on a different occasion, gotten stuck in the middle between Reiki and Lete while he’d pieced it the ******** together from bun’s magic that Lete had been the specific Mirror senshi who’d attacked Amsvartnir for no literally reason several months prior. Aside from how stressful it had been for Fang to get caught in the middle of all that to begin with, he’d also been trying to speak up in Lete’s defense about the situation that had been more immediately at-hand, which Reiki hadn’t not heard him about? But he’d definitely gotten on a major case of tunnel-vision on figuring out what the ******** Lete’s problem was. Not really having context for why Reiki had been so upset couldn’t have been easy for poor Fang.
So, as he got closer to his friend, Reiki couldn’t help but smile in bright relief. That soon gave way to good-natured, happy laughter. Yes, he and Fang had had a bit of a stressful year, as friends. But both of them were still kicking, and more importantly, they still liked each other. As he rocked up into speaking distance with Fang, Reiki held up his bag for Fang.
In the middle of all the Christmas cheer, a bag Reiki had gotten in the after-Halloween sales looked more than a little out-of-place. Even so, the orange paper of the bag matched Fang’s fuku very well, and for decoration, it had a papercraft design of a little wolf-man eating a slice of cake. Unlike so many of the American wolf-men that one tended to see, though—the kinds where the face and body were all hairy—this wolf-man was more like the kemonomimi sort……wolf ears and a wolfy little tail. Not entirely unlike Fang himself. Not entirely the same, either, but still, closer than the American sort of wolf-men.
“How have you been? Has winter been treating you okay,” Reiki asked, holding the bag out for Fang to take. He could open or not at his leisure, but……well, hopefully, he wouldn’t take too long. Reiki really wanted to see his reaction to the embroidery floss.
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Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2024 2:38 am
Fang tilted his head at the offered bag for a long moment, before realizing that of course Murikabushi had gotten a gift for him, too. And the little picture looked like him! Fang grinned, and held out his paper-wrapped little box. Inside sat the third plushie he'd ever made—a black and purple flop-eared bunny. It was a little lopsided, and far from perfect, but Fang-as-Todd had done his best to follow the pattern's instructions. He felt good about it. "Merry Chrysmees," Fang said. "Winter, bad. Bear-a-ball. Still scary. Pack good." He took the bag from Muri, stroking it reverently. Then he opened it and carefully removed the scarf, staring at it in silent, wide-eyed awe. He wrapped it around his neck one-handedly and then removed the box, absolutely enormous box of Cheezits. "Muri!!" he exclaimed quietly. "Cheese! Scarf! Thank you!!" He shifted the bag, and realized there was still something in it. He frowned curiously and dug it up— Silk embroidery floss. He could... He could sew his plushies more fancily with this stuff. "Muri..." He couldn't speak, emotions swelling up in his throat.
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Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2024 5:07 pm
Trading the box for the bag went easily, but Reiki’s smile still softened into something more restrained at Fang’s answer to how he’d been. Considering what he’d gone through with Chaos coming to his home-world, of course it made sense that Fang had so much trouble with winter and the deprivation of it. “I’m sorry it’s still upsetting for you,” he told Fang gently, “but I’m glad Fang has a strong pack to help see him through the winter.”
A pack that, if he was honest, Reiki wanted to be a more proper part of. Maybe, like, in the same way that Jason Todd would be there for everybody else in the Batfam, and could rely on Tim Drake and d**k Grayson and Bat-Dad to have his back if he ever needed them, but remained his own entity and space as Red Hood, where he could be as edgy as he liked and pretend that he didn’t care about all of his Bat-Dad’s assorted ethical practices and rules about not dead-a** murdering people, even the Joker.…… Not the most ideal setup, in Reiki’s mind, but causing problems for Fang or upsetting him by having Personality Conflicts with his Michel would have been infinitely worse. Unforgivable, even.
All of which would be Future Muri’s problem, just as soon as he purified.
Thinking about all that made Reiki’s chest ache as he watched all of Fang’s unreserved joy over the presents. “Cheez-Its, yeah,” he told Fang brightly. “I was gonna get you more normal cheese, but I didn’t know when we’d have time to see each other and I didn’t want the cheese to go bad. But crackers will keep longer, and they use cheese in the flavor, so I hoped you’d like them.”
Not as much, however, as he’d hoped Fang would like the embroidery floss kit. Nodding gently, he shifted to stand beside Fang, rather than opposite him. “You said you really wanted some silk embroidery floss, right,” Reiki said with a shrug, as though this were just the most simple, self-evident thing. “All the craft stores in town know me in my non-Muri life; I’m in there all the time. And I had a lot of saved up bonuses that I hadn’t had a chance to use to get you something nice.”
He looked up at Fang with a soft, warm smile. “You sounded so passionate about it when we talked before, I just……really wanted to get you what you wanted. So you could feel your best about your crafting work.”
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Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2024 2:06 pm
Fang's tail wouldn't quit wagging. "Fang appreciate very much. Like that Muri knows Fang well," he said, leaning in for a brief hug. "Now, Muri open gift, please!" His tail wagged even faster with anticipation as he pulled back, giving Murikabushi the most excited look he'd probably ever mustered in his life.
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Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2024 1:47 am
Even though it was brief, the hug was warm and earnest, and a rush of soft, happy feelings flooded Reiki over it. This was one of the things that he loved best about Fang. Not just the affection that he could give so freely when he liked somebody—though Reiki was, in his heart of hearts, hungry for people to like him and affection from friends was ever one of the best way to make him feel that—but the fact that Fang was always so fully and completely himself, at all times, never trying to be anybody or anything but exactly who he was.
That kind of realness was too hard to find among humans sometimes.
As he unwrapped the paper, Reiki moved with care, grateful that his half-finger gloves made it easier to feel his way around things, easier to tell how much force he was or wasn’t exerting. He held his breath as he opened the box itself, and when he saw the plush rabbit, that breath came out as a quiet little, “Oh……”
Reiki took extra care as he lifted the bunny out of the box.… Black and purple—“Oh, the colors are perfect for me,” Reiki said with a dewy-eyed smile—and the floppy ears were both soft and wonderfully adorable.…… Even the lopsidedness in the construction was endlessly charming, because so much like Fang, it was uncompromisingly itself and full of love. Handcrafted things like this had so much love in them to begin with, but the fact that Fang had worked so hard without making himself or the bunny fit somebody else’s overly restrictive definition of perfection, that cut straight to Reiki’s heart in the best way.
“Fang, thank you……so much,” he said, looking to Fang and holding the bunny close to his chest. “I love her. I’ll treasure her and take such good care of her.… I’ll need to name her too, I’m sure I’ll come up with something. Unless you had a name in mind?” Giggling a little bit, he added, “She’ll be such good friends with a plush one of my aunts made me, when I was small. Just—thank you for making her for me, Fang. She’s perfect.”
The Aunt Naoko-fashioned Usagi-chan would indeed look wonderful next to the bunny Fang had made. But Reiki could deal with that when he got home.
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Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2024 2:01 am
Fang's tail slowed down a bit as Muri unwrapped the paper, the anticipation nearly making his heart stop. He wanted Muri to like it so badly... And then, the first comment— the colors are perfect—kicked his tail back into high gear. He rose up on his toes a little in excitement, heart absolutely soaring at the simple fact that Murikabushi, one of his most trusted friends, loved something he made. "Fang happy," he said with a toothy grin. "Happy that Muri is happy. Fang work very hard. Not name bunny, is for Muri to name. She is... number three, of Fang plush. One for Fang, one for Michel, one for Muri." He held up three fingers for emphasis.
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Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2024 2:11 am
On a different day, under different circumstances, the mention of Michel might have made Reiki’s face crack. Might have made Reiki get the internal feeling of drunkenly wrecking up an unjustifiably lavish and expensive room at the Plaza Hotel with a wild-a** hair metal band circa 1985. But, today, he took a deep breath, gently rubbed at his plush bunny’s back, and let anything else he felt about the Saturn Knight in question go.
“The hard work you put in really shows,” he said, still smiling at Fang, still looking touched by such a beautiful, personal, and thoughtful gift, because he was. “I’m sure that Michel really liked the plush you made for him, too. He cares about you a lot—and I can’t blame him for that.”
Saying too much more about Michel carried too great a risk of Reiki being unfairly mean, and worse, doing it to the exact wrong person. Anything between himself and Michel was between them, and neither of them had any right to make Fang suffer for it. Getting over himself was something that Reiki ever needed to work on.…… Once he purified out of the Court, he’d need to work harder on it with Michel. Maybe that was Future Muri’s problem for the moment, but Reiki still owed it to Fang to find ways of getting along with Michel instead of forcing Fang into some terrible position, stuck in the middle between them.
Still……Reiki was only human. Could only handle so much at one time. So, for right now, he simply leaned in to Fang’s shoulder and affirmed, “Fang is a good friend. Should have a life full of people who care about him.”
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Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2024 2:15 am
Fang's tail slowed once again, to a gentle wag of pure happiness rather than sheer excitement. He nuzzled at Muri's hair as they hugged again, feeling content. "Fang have many. Thank, Muri."
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