Made Perfect

17

(YM)

Christmas was never like Christmas to me. Who doesn't love the delightful chaos of last-minute shoppers fighting over the last overpriced trash? The endless loop of nauseatingly cheerful songs and the forced gatherings with relatives you barely know - Pure bliss, really. Yep, nothing quite like Christmas to warm the depths of your heart with pure, unadulterated dread. Disgustingly soft feelings and the same talks about family or relationships were enough to turn me away from it, yet I was cursed with a whole other problem - It was her birthday.

Back in our hometown for the holidays was just the sappy sort of thing a cheap romcom would set up. A 2 hour train ride from Tokyo to Chiba let my mind wander. Just fantastic. Staring at all the familiar buildings covered in lights would be nostalgic for the glass hearted homesick, but I was caught up on something else. As stupid as it was, I kept thinking about how this was the first year Mukuro would be back home. Things with us hadn't returned to how they were before she disappeared. How could they? 3 years as a child soldier would definitely screw with your head. Maybe now she'd stand up to her evil twin, heh. You know, it's funny. As a kid, I always thought she was the coolest of the sisters, although I probably just liked that a girl was into something violent. Ironic, I know. Last year was a disaster without her. Junko started a scene with that Oscar-worthy fake crying after her mom casually mentioned how we went to different schools. Funny since we were at least in the same town back then. I never knew how these birthdays would go. If Junko would invite a lot of people or just me was as consistent as anything else in her life.

Getting to my stop, I had to take a breath. There was never a solid way to prepare for this no matter what I got told. I wasn't some amazing predictor like the rejects in my life. The unpredictability was exciting for some, yet I'd much rather stick to what I know and actually have a good time, thank you. I step out of my train in a crowd of other annoying holiday travelers to see them both there at the station. The twins in matching sweaters with a huge, sparkling sign. 'Merry Christmas, Yasuke!!' written in big glittery characters. I could tell who controlled the design on that thing. A middle schooler would make something with more class. Walking over to them, I couldn't stop myself from smiling. It was like my group of childhood friends were reuniting after years. Guess I was getting grossly sentimental just because I hadn't seen Mukuro much since she came back, and here she was smiling with a big green sweater on.

"You guys didn't need to make a sign. Were you trying to blind me with all that glitter?" I said to Junko with a grin. During her time off, she was sure to have all those charms and accessories to go with her outfit, even if it was just a regular red sweater. Without warning, she hugged me tightly. Both the presents I held made it difficult to hug back even if I wanted to curse the world with PDA. "You didn't like our sign? We worked so hard on it and everything!" She spoke in a sing-songy voice as she continued to squeeze my life force out.  "We? Looks more like your handiwork than hers." I took another look at it. Yeah, definitely all Junko's idea. "Well, I did do the writing." Mukuro added as she held it. The silver glitter got all over her gloves, gloves she wore the last time I saw her. "Oh, so that's why I can actually read it." Junko nudged me as she let go. Eyeing both of the bags I brought with an innocently curious look in her eye.

"Junko's handwriting is way prettier than mine, haha." Mukuro replied in a way that reminded me how she didn't get my sarcasm most of the time. Especially if it was directed towards her sister, she had to think on if I was being serious or not. I debated on adding another comment, but figured it wouldn't go well. "...Yeah, well. What's the plan? Since it's your first birthday back home, is there anything special we're doing?" I watched both of them, yet mainly focused on Mukuro. As pathetic as it was, I desperately wanted to get her to talk to me again. In grade school, we'd talk about a lot of things. How accurate video games were to what she read about the military, different types of weapons, how cool it was that my dad was a veteran, and, of course, about her batshit family. When Junko wasn't around, Mukuro would talk to me like a human being. When Junko was around, she kept quiet. Understandable since the bottled blonde had always been the loudest. I wanted to make sure she was included, although the dynamic has changed so much in her absence and I knew it would be unrealistic to expect her to stay the same.