A Shinigami Christmas - part 1

A Shinigami Christmas

Chapter 1
  "Deck the halls with bells of holy, fa la la la la la la la la~!"  
Ronald Knox bounded down the hall of the Shinigami Dispatch Society headquarters, several Christmas decorations in his arms as he rushed around making the offices bright and festive.  It was Christmas time and even though they were all extremely busy, the shinigamis all seemed to be getting into the Christmas sprit.  Ronald stopped outside of an office to hang up a wreath on the door just as its occupant walked out and nearly collided with him.
Eric Slingby neatly sidestepped the young reaper outside of his door as he walked out, on his way to the neighboring office. He grinned as he saw the newly decorated hallway.
  "It's beginning to look like Christmas in here." He remarked as he surveyed the green and red ribbons and paper snowflakes neatly pinned to the walls. Ronald smiled, pleased at his work then suddenly remembered about the flyers that he had put up an hour before.
  "Ah! Eric-sempai, don't forget about the Christmas party after work on Christmas Eve! William-sempai said we could have one this year."
Eric chuckled.
  "Of course! It's rare that the boss is willing to celebrate with us, so Alan and I will definitely be there."
He paused.  Saying the name Alan suddenly reminded him why he had come out of his office. Patting his fellow death god on the shoulder, he praised him again for the decorations and headed off down the hall to the next office.

Alan Humphries sighed as he finished writing up another report on a soul that had been collected earlier that day. Placing the finished report on top of the "finished" stack, he reached out his gloved hand for the next report to be written up only to be overcome by a sneezing fit.  Blinking after it had passed, he sniffled, then gently rested his head and arms on top of his desk as he closed his eyes. He was feeling rather under the weather and had spent the day stuck in the office doing paperwork which was now starting to feel a bit monotonous.  

Shivering slightly in the cold winter air that filled the office, he glanced out of his window to the rain falling outside.  He smiled.  Soon, that rain would turn to snow.  Alan loved seeing the fresh white snow blanketing the ground as he walked to work in the morning.  It seemed to sparkle in the sunlight and reflected the soft light off the ice so it made the mornings brighter.  He snuggled into his arms at the thought, a faint smile appearing on his lips.

Another sneeze, however, brought him back to reality.  Sighing, he straightened up and began writing up the next report.  As beautiful as he thought the snow was, he couldn't deny that it wasn't all that great for him with his already fragile health.

   "Shi no Toge…the thorns of death." he let the name slip out of his mouth.  It was a rare disease that only affected shinigami.  When a shinigami went to collect a soul, on a rare occasion a soul might embed itself into a shinigami's body after being released from its own body.  The soul would then slowly burrow itself into the shinigami's being like a thorn until it pierced the heart and the shinigami would die.  Alan unconsciously grasped at his heart as his mind defined his illness yet again.  Besides being cut from a shinigami's death scythe, it was the only thing that could kill a being like him.  

Alan bit his lip as his grip on his pen faltered.  It seemed rather strange that he would feel uncomfortable about death. He was a death god, after all, whose job was to collect the souls of humans who were on the list of the dead.  He collected so many of them each day, reviewing their cinematic records to see what sort of life they had lived.  He did his job calmly and emotionlessly, but when he was faced with the unsettling truth that he too would someday be on the list of the dead, he felt a pain in his heart that was not caused by that thorn of a soul.  

Alan was awakened from his thoughts as he heard a slight knock upon his office door.  Clearing his throat, he glanced up as his best friend walked into his office.  Eric smiled at the small man behind the desk, then handed him a steaming cup of tea as he placed a gentle hand on his forehead.
  "How are you doing?  The fever seems to have gone down since this morning."
Alan gratefully accepted the tea and took a sip.
  "Well I can't say I'm good, but I'm at least better than I was earlier." He smiled at his friend, then lowered his head as he cradled the warm cup in his gloved hands.
  "I'm sorry I couldn't do any field work today.  You had to do my share as well as yours again didn't you….." he bit his lip.  Because of his underlying illness, he was already hindered from working full out on his job of collecting souls, often having no choice but to leave Eric to finish up the job for him.  

Although Eric didn't seem to mind this, Alan always felt guilty that he couldn't finish out his work properly. He chewed on his lip before forcing a smile on his face as he patted the stack of finished paperwork on his desk.
  "I was able to finish up a lot of paperwork today though. Some of it had been stacking up for days without being worked on. William-san will be happy I think…." He trailed off.  Being able to do paperwork sounded really inferior to chasing down souls.  

He sighed, taking another sip of his tea to fill the time.  Although he strived to reassure others and mainly himself that he was strong and able to do the work like the rest of the group, he knew in his heart that he really couldn't.  However, Eric seemed to sense his feeling of guilt and gently started stroking his back to comfort his depressed friend.
  "Don't worry. As soon as you're feeling better you'll be able to go back to field work."
He smiled down at him and pat him reassuringly. "Alan, I know you're upset, but everyone catches a cold once in a while. It's not your fault."

Suddenly, Eric chuckled and teasingly pinched the younger reaper's cheeks.
  "And besides, what's with this grumpy face?  It's almost Christmas! Don't let me catch you being the holiday scrooge."
Alan smiled as much as he could with his pinched cheeks and laughed.
  "Yes, yes…." he grinned widely as Eric let go of his cheeks and suddenly wagged a finger at the blonde man. "Speaking of Christmas, what are you doing slacking off? Do you want to spend Christmas day doing paperwork? Get back to work!"

Eric laughed at his playful co-worker, then gave his shoulders a slight squeeze.
  "Don't work too hard here now.  As much as I don't want to spend my Christmas working, I don't want to spend it with you sick either."
Alan nodded, then cheerfully started in on another report as Eric turned to leave. Just as Eric had a hand on the door, Alan glanced down at his empty teacup and smiled.
  "Eric?"  He grinned, a happy blush appearing on his face. "Thanks for the tea."
Eric gasped in surprise at the sudden thanks and smiled.
  "You're welcome. Glad you enjoyed it."  He waved, then shut the door behind him, leaving Alan alone with his stack of slowly dwindling paperwork.