33 candles make a lovely light
author's note:
just because I was prone to gladly accept any distraction from writing my essay about children and juvenile literature in GDR...
even though this is one of the corniest stories I ever wrote, I like it a lot...
simply came across the title and couldn't refuse...
XD
to auris, as a welcome home present...
proceeding to:
33 candles make a lovely light
Kamijo had been relieved when it was time to leave the record studio he and the rest of Versailles had been practising in. It was his birthday but no one had bothered to remember and when he had asked them to go out for a drink with him, they had told him that no one had a free afternoon and that all of Versailles were supposed to mind other businesses. Kamijo hadn’t named this occasion feeling utterly disappointed and so had bidden farewell to everyone, wondering if they had forgotten his birthday on purpose.
And now, as he took the elevator to the story floor he lived in, sadness enveloped him for this totally ruined day that could have been such a nice one because thinking about it he had decided that, since they were his friends, he expected them to remember and therefore it wasn’t his fault at all.
He fumbled a little with his keys, then unlocked the door and stepped over the threshold. Dumping his shoes he realised how sweaty his T-shirt felt after that long and hot day that had finally turned into a warm cloudless night. But when he made for the bathroom to have a nice cool shower he suddenly noticed a soft light coming from his living room. He froze and mentally went through the possibility of having forgotten to turn out the light before leaving for work this morning, for he lived alone, so there was on one else to blame, but a second later he felt certain that that definitely was not the case and it felt quite suspicious to him. So he abandoned the thought about cold water on his skin and trying to remember how to tackle an intruder best he silently crept to the living room door to make sure, assuring himself again that no one except him had a key to his flat. The door made the soft squealing noise it always did when he opened it a crack but instead of finding himself face to face to an unknown intruder he saw Sanaka standing behind it, obviously waiting.
“What are you doing here…?”, he asked, taken aback, still in the doorway and threw the other man a widely confused look.
“Ah, there you are, Kamijo… Thought I heard something…”, Sanaka replied.
“I was wondering when you would be coming home…”
Sanaka’s face was spread in a wide and welcoming smile and he embraced Kamijo, who still felt confused but slowly returned the greeting, though.
After Sanaka had unlocked his arms around Kamijo he held him at arms length observing his features and then his hand finally outstretched to guide him into the living room. He smiled broadly when Kamijo made a few steps but then ceased and stood very still.
“Happy Birthday, my dear…”, he heard Sanaka whisper from behind.
Kamijo looked around in awe.
Sanaka had adorned almost the whole available space with candles, which emitted the soft glow, that Kamijo had seen from the corridor and on the little table in front of him lay a large cake with blue and golden frosting, on top of which he could count fourteen little candles flickering in the soft breeze from the open window. He turned and regarded Sanaka again, who still smiled widely.
“What…?”, he began but left the sentence unfinished and just frowned. In return Sanaka cocked his head and made him sit down on the couch in the middle of all the golden light.
“I just thought I’d give you a birthday present…”, he retorted.
“That nice old Lady from next door let me in; I was ringing your doorbell but you hadn’t been home yet, and she told me she had your second key… Just in case, as she put it…”
Kamijo blinked his eyes and then remembered giving the key to her so that she could care for his flat when he was on concert tour. He smiled at Sanaka, who now sat next to him.
“But how did you convince her that you were not here to nick my belongings…? She doesn’t know you…”
Sanaka chuckled.
“I can be very charming at times…”, he told the other man and made himself comfortable.
“But why…?”
“Because it’s your birthday and I thought you’d want to celebrate it…”
“Well, at least you remembered; Hizaki and the others totally forgot about me…”
Sanaka chuckled again.
“But I didn’t…”
Lowering his gaze so that Sanaka could not see him blush slightly Kamijo said:
“No, you didn’t…“
Then he again regarded the room and paused, the frown back on his face.
“Hang on… Why did you put fourteen candles on that cake when it’s my thirty third birthday…?”
He saw Sanaka’s smile falter and a serious look appeared within the other mans eyes.
“Oh, it’s not just fourteen candles; you forgot about the rest…”, Sanaka replied and pointed through the room, taking in everything.
Kamijo made a second attempt and that proved Sanaka right.
There were thirty three candles in the room, towering on the book shelves, the piano and even the window sill.
“You see…”, Sanaka explained, suddenly twisting his fingers nervously.
“The cake would have looked too crowded, so I thought it would be nice if I’d just adorn the whole room… Because thirty three candles make such a lovely light…”
Listening to these words Kamijo felt a sudden rush of deep affection for the other man; his heart almost skipped a beat, only to continue beating more rapidly after a second. His lips parted to the most dazzling smile, his eyes full of moisture.
“Thank you so much, Sanaka… I am really happy…”
“Even though I kind of caught you off guard…?”, the other man teased.
“When you do such… wonderful things like that for me you can catch me off guard whenever you want…”, he seriously retorted.
With these words Sanaka opened his arms and snuggling Kamijo to his chest they tightly embraced again. Then Kamijo felt Sanaka kiss his hair and suddenly he didn’t feel disappointed any more about his other friends having forgotten about him at all for if they hadn’t he would have missed the surprise Sanaka had prepared for him and he lay very still, deeply inhaling the scent of the other man and felt so overwhelmingly at ease that a little tear finally welled out of his eyes to drop onto Sanaka’s arm holding him to dry there…
c‘est ca
(28/7/2008, 1:47 p.m.)
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Stay tuned for the next crime…
