[Fanfiction] KidLaw - Christmas
Posted on 2021.12.25 at 23:38Current Location: Paris
Summary: Kid and Law celebrate Christmas
Words: ~800
NSFW: no
Tags and Warnings: modern AU, Japan setting, religion, branching off law's canon catholic-adjacent upbringing
Law takes one look at Kid and snorts.
"What," Kid says, tugging uncomfortably at his pinstriped dress shirt collar. "You said I had to dress nice."
"Hmm. I didn't say you had to dress like you're in the yakuza."
But Law appreciates the effort. He didn't expect Kid to come decked out in a suit, even a polyester one that looks like it was the largest size on the department store's 8th floor clearance rack despite still failing to contain Kid's massive chest, but he's never seen Kid dress up before, and it's nice. Overkill for a church service, even a Christmas one, but nice.
They'd met outside the train station, half under the drizzle and half under the shuddering overpass. Law nods at Kid to follow him under the overpass, which he does, still uncomfortable.
"Yeah, well, it's what I wore to the temple for my da's wake. If it's good enough for him, it's good enough for, uh, Christ. I guess."
"Yes, that's the guy. Clearly you've done your homework."
Kid looks even more awkward at that. "I know you have to say "amen". Anything else?"
Law bites off yet another remark about how he didn't ask Kid to come. He knows that Kid knows. Kid knows that Law's not religious, knows that he's somehow also made it a tradition to attend Christmas mass ever since he moved to Tokyo, and maybe he even knows why Law's doing it, which Law doesn't know. Something about remembering his childhood, maybe. Either way, Kid decided to be a part of it starting this year, and though Law greeted this decision with much bitching, once he got used to the idea, he found he liked it.
He tries to express that by teaching Kid the sign of the cross on the rain-soaked way beneath the elevated train tracks, which Kid finally gets the proper order of after the fifth try.
The church is a completely nondescript building between the stations of Uguisudani and Ueno. The gray concrete building with a shoddy access ramp and heavy sliding windows could be any community hall, if it weren't for the big cross visible from the street, and the noticeboard announcing services in Mandarin and English. The several-storied modern churches Law sometimes came across in Tokyo gave him the irresistible urge to spit somewhere, but something about this one had him coming in while he was wandering the streets wondering what to do on Christmas day his first year here, and coming back the years after.
Kid nervously follows Law as he crosses the courtyard, completely in the shadow of the two much taller buildings it's stuck between. They nod at the woman handing out the mass booklets at the entrance and sit on a bench near the back pretending not to hear a kid loudly whisper, "Look, mom, a yakuza!"
The church isn't any more grandiose on the inside than the outside, though the one stained glass window offers a triangular sliver of colour on the gray-carpeted ground, between the sparsely occupied steel chairs. His church in Nagano was built in the European style and had a couple older-looking relics in alcoves, but they didn't do much for Law either.
He's never sure what he's looking for exactly here each year. If it's familiarity, he finds it, if it's an echo of his sister's babble in the children's choir, he doesn't. If it's the history of how his little catholic community ever found itself implanted in the mountains of Nagano or how it was left to die out, well, he gave up on ever figuring that one out. But there is something, once the drone of the priest's sermon has gone on long enough that it stops raising his hackles. Once he's too tired to be annoyed, and relieved to recognize that the service's inching towards its end once the queue forms up for the communion bread. The choir starts up again, and his heart feels a little full, and his shoulder a bit warm next to Kid.
Kid lets Law stretch his knee to touch his.
---
By the time they reach Penguin's tiny suburban apartment the KFC is already out and the floor is strewn with their friends staying in town for the new year, only half of whom are sitting properly, mostly Law's group. Kid's friends seem mostly drunk and start shouting their ribbing as soon as they see him in the doorway.
"Oh no, it's the yakuza!"
"We don't have protection money, please don't break my kneecaps!"
"So are you religious now? Are you going to go live in the mountains?"
Kid rolls his eyes and prepares to join in the fray but before that pulls Law in to squeeze his hand and kiss his temple.
"Merry Christmas, love."
Law feels warm enough to melt.
Words: ~800
NSFW: no
Tags and Warnings: modern AU, Japan setting, religion, branching off law's canon catholic-adjacent upbringing
Law takes one look at Kid and snorts.
"What," Kid says, tugging uncomfortably at his pinstriped dress shirt collar. "You said I had to dress nice."
"Hmm. I didn't say you had to dress like you're in the yakuza."
But Law appreciates the effort. He didn't expect Kid to come decked out in a suit, even a polyester one that looks like it was the largest size on the department store's 8th floor clearance rack despite still failing to contain Kid's massive chest, but he's never seen Kid dress up before, and it's nice. Overkill for a church service, even a Christmas one, but nice.
They'd met outside the train station, half under the drizzle and half under the shuddering overpass. Law nods at Kid to follow him under the overpass, which he does, still uncomfortable.
"Yeah, well, it's what I wore to the temple for my da's wake. If it's good enough for him, it's good enough for, uh, Christ. I guess."
"Yes, that's the guy. Clearly you've done your homework."
Kid looks even more awkward at that. "I know you have to say "amen". Anything else?"
Law bites off yet another remark about how he didn't ask Kid to come. He knows that Kid knows. Kid knows that Law's not religious, knows that he's somehow also made it a tradition to attend Christmas mass ever since he moved to Tokyo, and maybe he even knows why Law's doing it, which Law doesn't know. Something about remembering his childhood, maybe. Either way, Kid decided to be a part of it starting this year, and though Law greeted this decision with much bitching, once he got used to the idea, he found he liked it.
He tries to express that by teaching Kid the sign of the cross on the rain-soaked way beneath the elevated train tracks, which Kid finally gets the proper order of after the fifth try.
The church is a completely nondescript building between the stations of Uguisudani and Ueno. The gray concrete building with a shoddy access ramp and heavy sliding windows could be any community hall, if it weren't for the big cross visible from the street, and the noticeboard announcing services in Mandarin and English. The several-storied modern churches Law sometimes came across in Tokyo gave him the irresistible urge to spit somewhere, but something about this one had him coming in while he was wandering the streets wondering what to do on Christmas day his first year here, and coming back the years after.
Kid nervously follows Law as he crosses the courtyard, completely in the shadow of the two much taller buildings it's stuck between. They nod at the woman handing out the mass booklets at the entrance and sit on a bench near the back pretending not to hear a kid loudly whisper, "Look, mom, a yakuza!"
The church isn't any more grandiose on the inside than the outside, though the one stained glass window offers a triangular sliver of colour on the gray-carpeted ground, between the sparsely occupied steel chairs. His church in Nagano was built in the European style and had a couple older-looking relics in alcoves, but they didn't do much for Law either.
He's never sure what he's looking for exactly here each year. If it's familiarity, he finds it, if it's an echo of his sister's babble in the children's choir, he doesn't. If it's the history of how his little catholic community ever found itself implanted in the mountains of Nagano or how it was left to die out, well, he gave up on ever figuring that one out. But there is something, once the drone of the priest's sermon has gone on long enough that it stops raising his hackles. Once he's too tired to be annoyed, and relieved to recognize that the service's inching towards its end once the queue forms up for the communion bread. The choir starts up again, and his heart feels a little full, and his shoulder a bit warm next to Kid.
Kid lets Law stretch his knee to touch his.
---
By the time they reach Penguin's tiny suburban apartment the KFC is already out and the floor is strewn with their friends staying in town for the new year, only half of whom are sitting properly, mostly Law's group. Kid's friends seem mostly drunk and start shouting their ribbing as soon as they see him in the doorway.
"Oh no, it's the yakuza!"
"We don't have protection money, please don't break my kneecaps!"
"So are you religious now? Are you going to go live in the mountains?"
Kid rolls his eyes and prepares to join in the fray but before that pulls Law in to squeeze his hand and kiss his temple.
"Merry Christmas, love."
Law feels warm enough to melt.