Happy Holidays haru_ran! Exchange fic: "The Longest Night" (Part 1)

[jhdetox_mod]

title: The Longest Night
rating: R
genre: vampire AU
warnings: blood and humans being kept as living blood banks although nothing graphic
summary: The Solstice is a celebration of coming of age. All the stories say it used to be so much more, but no one has been chosen by the masters in a century, long enough that people have begun to doubt
that it happened at all. What or who might really be under the cloaks of the strangers who attend the Solstice celebrations?
author's note: Oh god. Um. This fic. It was supposed to be, like, 3k? And then it was, like, 10k? And then it was this. orz I hope it's enjoyable, and I hope it's vampire-y enough. I would have put in more porn, but then it would have been even more ridiculously long, and my fingers would have fallen off, so I hope it's okay. ^_^
25122 wc

Happy Holidays haru_ran!

Jaejoong hurried down the quiet street, cloak pulled close around his neck. It had started snowing on and off three days ago and didn’t seem likely to stop any time soon. The elders were saying it was an auspicious omen, the world preparing to start anew together with the newly Chosen on the Solstice.

A different shiver ran through him, one not caused at all by the cold. The Solstice was in two days, and the feasts and balls leading up to it had been going on for nearly a month already, leaving him and his age-mates exhausted but impatient for the new lives they would enter once they were officially adults.

His eyes automatically looked up, searching for the imposing shape of the castle on the mountain, but the falling snow through the pre-dawn gloom made it nearly impossible to catch a glimpse of anything beyond the dim street lanterns. The castle had stood there as long as anyone could remember, as long as even their stories and legends went back. No one alive knew much about its inhabitants. No one spoke much about them, at all, referring to the masters in only the most hushed of tones.

Two of them had been at every event so far, and while the rich, hooded cloaks they wore hid almost everything but their heights, he was nearly positive that one of them had been the same each night. They never spoke or took part in the eating and drinking and dancing. They only sat apart, watching. Jaejoong was sure he’d felt their eyes on him more than once, but he didn’t dare say so out loud. To speak about your expectations for the Solstice was supposed to bring bad luck, and bad luck on the Solstice was the last thing anyone needed.

~

Both luckily and unluckily, Jaejoong’s family’s lower status meant they lived farther toward the outskirts of town than most of his age-mates did. As he turned onto the side street that led to his home, the streets had already emptied of revelers on their way home from the last of the open balls that marked the month of the Solstice. It gave him a moment to appreciate the near-silence that overtook the town after the night of noise and lights and busy crowds, but it also meant his elaborate Solstice clothing, lovingly sewn by his mother and sisters out of the best fabrics they could afford, was nearly soaked through by the time he reached his own door. The lantern left burning in the entry for him was a welcome warm beacon in an increasingly cold morning as he finally slipped inside.

Today was supposed to be a day of rest and contemplation, although most would use it to gossip with friends and family about everything that had already happened and more things that might. Tomorrow would mark the final day and the final feast and a new beginning. But right now, all he looked forward to was sleep.

Soft voices filtered out from the home’s main room, his parents, most likely, and whichever of his sisters had decided to stay up to wait for him. It wasn’t uncommon for families to gather at the Solstice, especially when one of the children was at the age to be Chosen, but for a family as large as his, fitting everyone in the same place at the same time grew more difficult each year.

He hung up his cloak near the entry hall’s small stove, thankful that he wouldn’t need the finery until the night of the Solstice now. It would probably take that long just to dry. He turned down the lantern that had beckoned him home, leaving it glowing softly as a welcome to travelers, as was customary during the last nights leading up to the Solstice. He was about to unlace his boots when a soft sound behind him alerted him to an imminent sneak attack, and he was able to turn just in time to catch his attacker and toss him up over his shoulder.

His oldest nephew squealed and squirmed, laughing even as he begged to be let down. Instead, Jaejoong took advantage of the eight-year-old’s helpless position to tickle him mercilessly. At least, until his sister finally followed the sound, smile attempting to break out past her stern expression. “The two of you are making enough noise to wake the dead. Put him down.”

Jaejoong grinned unashamedly. “I can’t. He’s a shameless cur who attempted to take an unsuspecting traveler unawares. He must be punished to the full extent of the law.”

The boy somehow made more noise over that, but Jaejoong’s sister just rolled her eyes good-naturedly, giving up any pretense of unamusement. “Be that as it may, he’s also a cur that needs his sleep. Give him here. Putting him to bed should be punishment enough.”

From the disappointed sound he made over the announcement, it would be. Jaejoong handed him over anyway. At least it meant he could finish taking his boots off. “I’m surprised you let him stay up.”

“You remember what Solstice was like when you were young. He wanted to stay up, so I said he could wait until you got home.” She grimaced playfully. “He’s going to be a terror all day tomorrow, but I suppose for one night, it’s worth it. Mother set out a snack for you in the kitchen. She said you had to at least say hello before you went to bed.”

He nodded his understanding and soon found himself alone in the entry once again. His family had all been doing that more and more lately, giving him more space and privacy than he could remember having the entire rest of his life. Perhaps it was to remind him that not everyone lived in a house filled to bursting with people. He thought it might be having the opposite effect, though, as it just made him realize even more how much he would miss them in the coming month.

He slipped on his house shoes and padded into the kitchen. As promised, a small plate and a cup of tea sat on the table waiting for him. He briefly considered just taking the tea and going up to bed, but it wouldn’t be fair not to at least thank whoever of his family had stayed up so late waiting on him. Instead, he took the food and the tea into the sitting room, smiling slightly when his family immediately made room for him. Only his parents and two of his other sisters were still up, but it felt like home.

Half an hour later, with the food gone and having nearly nodded off in his chair, his mother herded him off to bed like he was still five years old. Sometimes, he wasn’t sure she realized he’d ever grown up.

The full weight of the day hit him as he closed his door, making his feet feel like lead and the mere thought of changing into nightclothes almost unthinkable. He settled for pulling off his outer layers and draping them carefully in his closet before blowing out his light. Tomorrow would be his last day as a child. Today, really. Outside his window, the sky was already starting to lighten. He’d only have a few hours of sleep at best before he needed to be awake again.

He dropped onto his bed with a grateful moan and didn’t remember anything else.

~

The sound of voices combined with a more persistent than usual sunbeam woke him late in the morning. He yawned, considering going back to sleep, but judging from the angle of the sun, the midday meal should be ready soon, and even during the Solstice celebrations, missing two meals in a row with his family could only end poorly.

Despite knowing that, it still took at least ten minutes before he convinced himself to roll out of bed, feet immediately finding his slippers to avoid touching the floor. No matter how warm his bed might have been, he knew from experience that the floor would be freezing this time of year. Since it was a day for relaxation, he didn’t bother with any of his fancier clothes, tossing on only a pair of well-worn but warm pants and a plain shirt that had probably belonged to at least three of his older cousins before it got to him. It was a bit threadbare and not quite the color it had been when it was new, but as with everything else his family owned, it was well cared for.

It was only when he reached the bottom of the stairs that he realized that one of those voices that had woken him wasn’t family at all. Not in any traditional sense, at least. He very seriously considered turning around and going back to bed, but unfortunately one of his sisters had caught sight of him by then, and it was too late.

He was all but dragged into the kitchen, rolling his eyes fondly at the not-uncommon sight he was greeted with. “Don’t you have anywhere better to be at this time of the morning?”

Changmin, unfortunately, had only been one of his best friends for all of forever and was well versed in completely ignoring anything Jaejoong said. “It’s nearly noon. How was I supposed to know you’d be this lazy?”

For a moment, Jaejoong had to fight down the urge to rub Changmin’s nose in the fact that by the day after tomorrow, Jaejoong would be an adult, and Changmin wouldn’t, but the knowledge that Changmin would only turn the statement against him somehow held him back. Instead, he settled in at the table, helping himself to the spread of food that would be overly large in any other household, but was only moderately sized at best in this one. “It’s Solstice Eve. It’s supposed to be a day about home and contemplation and eating with your own family for once.”

Changmin snorted as derisively as only Changmin could. “I did. But your mother is an amazing and thoughtful woman who realizes that growing boys need plenty of food. Not that you would know.”

He should have seen that one coming, too. “Brat.”

Finally, Changmin looked up at him, one eyebrow raised in challenge. “You just woke up. Are we really going to play ‘whose vocabulary is larger’ in front of your family? I’d feel terrible if I crushed their dreams that their only son is actually a competent member of society.”

“Why am I friends with you?”

“Because no one else would ever put up with you and Yoochun at the same time. Speaking of which, we’re supposed to meet him later.”

Most likely ‘later’ was supposed to mean ‘sometime in the afternoon’ but knowing Changmin, he would turn that into ‘immediately following lunch’ in his never-ending quest to con as many people out of food as humanly possible. Not that Jaejoong could entirely blame him. Changmin hadn’t been completely wrong when he said he knew more about growing than Jaejoong did. Changmin had shot past his and Yoochun’s heights years ago and still didn’t show any sign of stopping.

Jaejoong had resented him for it for months, until he realized it was much less work just to kick him in the ankles whenever it got too annoying. He just had to remember to move fast enough to keep Changmin from kicking back.

“Define later.”

He knew the words were a mistake the very moment they left his mouth. He didn’t even need to look up from his food to know Changmin would be radiating pure evil. “Later. It’s a word meant to indicate that something will happen following a period of time of indeterminate length.”

He gave up and dropped his head to the table, tuning Changmin out, as was normal. The rest of the family had been suspiciously silent during the exchange. It was only a minor effort to turn his head enough to glare sideways at Jinhee, his eldest sister and most often the one responsible for humoring Changmin. “This is your fault. I told you not to invite him in.”

She laughed, patting him teasingly on the head. “The way you say that. He’s not a vampire.”

The gesture as well as the undeniable call of so much food just waiting to be eaten forced him to sit up, if somewhat reluctantly. “Close enough. Just being around him, I feel like he’s sucking out my soul.”

“Vampires suck your blood. Not your soul. Don’t be stupid.” Changmin pointed a chicken leg at him. “Not that they’re real either way.”

From farther down the table, Jaejoong’s mother leaned forward to fix Changmin with a soft frown. “You shouldn’t say things like that. You never know-”

“When the masters might be listening, I know.” Changmin’s expression was just shy of petulant, but he liked Jaejoong’s family too much to actually press the point. At least, not much. “But you can find reasonable explanations for everything they’re supposed to do. We don’t know anything about the people living in that house. Anyone could be up there.”

Jaejoong’s father cleared his throat. “I think we’ll leave the speculation for some other time.”

Even Changmin knew that meant the subject was closed. He’d spent enough days with their family to be an unofficial second son. Sometimes, Jaejoong thought his parents were handling their baby growing up so well because they still had one more year with Changmin. Silence fell over the table until slowly conversations picked back up here and there. Only Changmin stayed suspiciously quiet, forehead creased in thought.

It wasn’t until they’d left the house an hour later that Jaejoong was finally able to ask him about it. His parents were from an older generation, one that listened far more to the stories than his own did. Changmin had spoken like it was an old argument. “You really think the masters aren’t... real?”

Changmin shrugged, hands deep in his pockets. When he looked up at the castle on the mountainside, only slightly more visible through the snow than it had been the night before, Jaejoong’s eyes automatically followed. “I think they’re real. I just think they’re people, like us.”

That wasn’t actually blasphemy, but it was certainly close enough for some people. Jaejoong glanced around uneasily, wondering if anyone was close enough to overhear. “That’s a stretch even for you, Min. Where’d you get that?”

“I’ve heard my father talking about it with some people.”

They walked in silence for a bit until Jaejoong was sure Changmin wouldn’t say anything more on his own. “And?”

That drew a reluctant response. “Just... saying things. About the tithe, and about the Solstice. I probably shouldn’t have said anything.”

The tithe and the Solstice. Two of their oldest traditions, and both tied closely to the masters from the castle on the mountain. Both had been practiced for centuries, at least. These days, the Solstice was a coming of age for all the youth in a given year, but history said it had started as a way for the masters to choose the best among them for... the stories never said. But no one had been chosen by the masters in decades or longer, enough that people had begun to doubt that it happened at all. No one knew what or who might be under the cloaks of the strangers who attended the Solstice celebrations. What if they were only human, and the Solstice only a holdover from a superstitious past?

The tithe was more clouded, its origins less clear. Once a month, those accused of crimes were sent into the woods around the mountain. The innocent returned. The guilty were never seen again. Sometimes, especially in more recent years, animals were driven up the mountain in place of people. None had ever found their way back down. Some said it was pure luck, who returned and who didn’t, or that the ones who never came back had merely run afoul of a large predator which wasn’t uncommon in the woods at night. Sometimes, even Jaejoong wondered.

There were some people, Jaejoong knew, who objected to both practices, saying they were outdated customs that had no place in the modern world. Some were likely indifferent, but an equally large faction, like Jaejoong’s parents, believed strongly in tradition and the weight of history. If Changmin’s father was becoming involved in the movement to end them... “Be careful, Changmin. Okay?”

Changmin glanced at him, startled as if he had been expecting an admonition instead of concern. “You make it sound so serious.”

“No, it isn’t that.” He stopped, forcing Changmin to turn and face him. “There are enough people who care strongly enough about tradition that I don’t think going around telling people they’re wrong about those things is the best idea. And since I won’t be here to keep an eye on you...”

The moment stretched out between them until it was just on the edge of becoming uncomfortable. Then Changmin snorted derisively and turned to keep walking. “Like I need you.”

Better. “Brat. You don’t know half the things I do for you.”

This time, Changmin only made a disbelieving sound, not even gracing him with a proper answer. Jaejoong punched him in the shoulder, fully expecting the inevitable retaliation and just glad that his Solstice clothing had very long sleeves.

~

Yoochun met them outside his house. Jaejoong was secretly glad, because he was fairly sure a distraction was the only thing that would make the punch war stop, and he’d lost feeling in that arm ten rounds ago.

He would never admit it, but Changmin actually did punch a great deal harder than he could.

Something of his relief must have shown in his expression, because Yoochun shook his head, as if despairing over Jaejoong ever being a real adult instead of just pretending. “Why do you always start things you can’t finish?”

“I don’t! I didn’t! I...” He bit his tongue and glared warily at Changmin, ready to move in case the punching started again. “Well, I guess I did, just this once, but he started it spiritually.”

“Really? Spiritually? That’s the best you can do?”

He almost punched Changmin again before his arm twinged, reminding him how spectacularly bad an idea that would be. “Sometimes, I feel like you two would be happier if I just left you alone to make out or something.” The retaliatory punch was completely worth it, that time.

Yoochun just laughed. “Like I’d kiss anyone that violent.” He did finally step away from his house, though, joining the two of them on the street, huddling deep inside his coat. “So what are we doing?”

What they were doing turned out to be wandering the streets slowly, talking and watching people go about their days. The unspoken knowledge that this would be the last time for them to do this, certainly as carefree as they were now, quite possibly the last time ever. It was so normal and so final, and Jaejoong did his best to commit every moment to memory.

They ducked in and out of shops and food carts as they pleased, eating and drinking as they walked, until they finally ended up in the small inn that they’d claimed as their favorite years before. The barmaid knew them well after so long and waved them to their usual table.

As so often happened between them, Jaejoong broke the growing silence before Yoochun’s eyes could go beyond suspiciously misty to anything more. “So... where are my presents?”

He’d luckily had the foresight to pick his feet up off the floor, a precaution he was glad to have taken when Changmin’s foot thudded against the leg of his chair. “Maybe I didn’t get you anything.”

“That’s a lie, and you know it. We all know it. Don’t we, Chunnie?”

Yoochun looked reluctant to get involved, but only because their fighting always tended to amuse him more than it should. “It’s true. Sorry, Min.”

Changmin huffed, turned to dig through his bag, and slammed two small packages on the table hard enough that Jaejoong vaguely hoped nothing in them was breakable. He decided to take it as a truce, though, and produced his own gifts, just as Yoochun pulled two very flat packages out of an inside pocket.

Technically, they shouldn’t be giving these on Solstice Eve at all. Solstice Eve was for families and lovers, not best friends since practically forever. With two of them coming of age on the Solstice, though, there won’t be time the day after for their usual gift exchange. Instead, they’d all agreed that after so many years, they were all nearly family, anyway. More than close enough for it not to count as breaking tradition if they exchanged gifts early.

There was a moment’s shuffle as packages were rearranged until they were each in front of the proper recipient. Jaejoong’s fingers twitched with the desire to pull open the ribbons keeping each gift closed, but the three of them had settled into a routine long ago of making Changmin go first at everything, if only because it amused Yoochun and Jaejoong to see him put out over such a simple thing. They certainly weren’t going to break such a sentimental tradition now.

Jaejoong made a triumphant sound as Changmin started on his present first and stuck his tongue out at Yoochun. Tomorrow, he would be an adult, but tomorrow wasn’t now.

Unsurprisingly, perhaps, Changmin opened Yoochun’s gift first. Because the Solstice was all about ending one year and beginning the next, it was considered bad luck for Solstice gifts to be anything essential or that a person might actually need. In the past, the idea may well have been to sidestep bad luck by showing that a person already had everything they could ever need and could afford to be gifted frivolous things by their friends and family. Whatever the origin, though, the custom had stuck, and the three of them had prided themselves on finding ever more useless gifts each year.

Jaejoong leaned half out of his seat to look over Changmin’s shoulder at his present from Yoochun. He snickered, immediately moving to open his own, order be damned, because he needed to know if his and Changmin’s matched.

They did, and they didn’t. Inside the two packages were a pair of small, polished wood tiles, and painted on the tiles were elaborate illustrated maps showing all the landmarks of their childhood. They were bright and colorful and exactly the sort of sentimental silliness that Yoochun would throw himself into. “Where did you get these?”

Yoochun shrugged. “I made them.”

Jaejoong and Changmin shared a glance. Changmin found his voice first. “Since when could you paint like this?”

“Since I took lessons, okay? It’s a useful skill, and I thought...”

Sometimes, as difficult as it was when they had known each other as long as they had, it was time to let the teasing go. “I love mine. And Min does, too, he’s just stupid.” He flailed at Changmin before any ideas of kicking Jaejoong again could crop open. “Now mine! Open mine!”

For once, he’d skipped his usual tradition of a new baked good every Solstice. It felt too impermanent, too easily forgotten this time. Instead, inside was a small woven doll, a traditional symbol of good luck, but one without the normal decorations of coins and bright shells, shiny objects meant to attract and hold the attention of the fickle goddess Fortune. He’d chosen to make these two more personal.

Around the neck of Changmin’s hung a necklace Jaejoong’s youngest sister had given him years ago as a gift for some holiday or another. He’d worn it for ages until the clasp broke and he’d never repaired it. While Changmin’s look of surprise was gratifying, when he didn’t immediately respond, Jaejoong flailed equally at Yoochun to open his own.

Years ago, Jaejoong and Yoochun had discovered an ancient ring near the river and wove a story between them that it had belonged to a princess or a pirate or a princess who ran away to become a pirate when her true love was killed, and she’d lost her ring, and it had washed straight to them. Now, of course, it was obvious that it was only an old piece of gold that was barely worth being melted down, but Yoochun’s eyes still went predictably misty when he saw it. “You two will need all the help you can get without me to take care of you.”

Yoochun sniffled something that sounded suspiciously derogatory before he pulled open the ribbons around Changmin’s present. Changmin colored slightly. “I know it’s not-”

He was interrupted by a laugh, loud despite being slightly damp. Yoochun held up a woven necklace. “Friendship necklaces, Minnie? I didn’t know you felt that way.”

“Oh, shut up.” Changmin waited until Jaejoong had opened his own to find a similar, rough-woven necklace studded with clay beads inside to pull a third out of his own pocket. “I found it in a book, okay? You wear them until they break, and they’re supposed to make one wish come true when they do.”

“...It’s a friendship necklace.”

Jaejoong kicked Yoochun’s leg before Changmin had a chance to, because Jaejoong knew he wasn’t mad enough to try to break any bones. “I think we’ve outdone ourselves with sappy presents this year. Congratulations, everyone.” He held up his glass for a toast. “Here’s to next year being even worse.”

~

He finally managed to escape and make his way home as the sun began to set, his presents tucked carefully inside his bag. He likely wouldn’t have even managed that, but as untraditional as Yoochun was, his family still believed in following the celebration of the Solstice, which meant he had to be home in time for the night’s festivities. And so did Jaejoong.

He nearly changed his mind when he was commandeered into watching all of his sisters’ children the very second he stepped foot in the door. They were busy, they told him, preparing food for everyone, including him, to eat, so the least he could do would be to be a good uncle and keep the children entertained for a half hour at most. How was he supposed to argue with that?

Three games of toss, a dozen stories, and countless ponyback rides later, he was sure his sisters hadn’t done this out of any actual need, but purely out of a desire to see him subjected to it one last time before he left the house.

His mother came to rescue him moments before he decided to cut his losses and quite possibly fled into the night. She clapped her hands and cheerfully announced that dinner was ready and there were Solstice cookies for good luck. No sooner had the words left her mouth than the room was empty apart from the two of them, the sounds of a tiny stampede fading down the hallway. He was just levering himself to his feet to follow when she shook her head and gestured for him to sit next to her instead. Of course, he did. “Mom?”

She pulled him into a tight hug. “Oh, my Jaejoong. What am I going to do without you?”

Suddenly, the air became harder to breathe. “It’s only for a month.”

“But who will be my little boy, then?”

He could hear the smile in her voice before he pulled back to see it. “Well, there’s always Changmin. Not that he’s little.”

“Oh, you.” She combed her fingers through his hair, smile tightening just a bit. “I know we’ll all say goodbye properly after dinner, but I wanted a few minutes of my own. You won’t hold it against me, will you?”

“Can I tell them I’m your favorite?”

She mock-growled at him, hugging him close again just because she could. “I should send you to bed without any supper.”

He made his eyes as big as they would go. “And make me miss my last night of your cooking?” The moment the words left his mouth, he regretted them. Of all the things he didn’t mean to remind her of...

But she just laughed. “That would be horrible of me, wouldn’t it?” She stood, holding his hand tightly. “My baby boy, all grown up and almost a man.” Once he stood beside her, she kissed his cheek. “I’m proud of you.”

He blinked quickly, because men didn’t cry. “Mom?”

She tugged him toward the kitchen. “Food before presents. We’d better go eat before the children come make us. I remember you threatened to tie Sunhee to her chair one year if she didn’t stop keeping you from opening your gifts.”

He blushed but didn't protest. It hadn’t actually been that many years ago, but she’d been deliberately taunting him with his gifts all day, so who could truly blame him?

The dining room was warm and bright, lit with colorful Solstice lanterns burned only one night a year, on Solstice Eve. The conversation was as loud as only a family as large as theirs could be, but a seat was waiting for him as always, and when he slid into it, it felt like home.

~

His family’s celebration stretched into the night, long after the children had been sent to bed. For the first time of the entire holiday, all of his sisters were in attendance, although none of their husbands were. It felt much like he remembered the Solstices of his childhood had felt, full of family and home. They’d exchanged small gifts immediately after dinner, small trinkets of the season with little value beyond the sentimental. The rest of the night was spent in conversation and easy companionship, Jaejoong sitting at his parents’ feet for what was quite likely the last time. The next time he returned to this house, he would be an adult.

Eventually, of course, the end of the night was inevitable. They each hugged him in turn, sharing quiet advice and farewells before he took himself up to his room. He sat on the edge of his bed, listening intently to the soft sounds of his family settling in for the night in other parts of the house, and looked around his room one last time before he put out his light. Those shoes that were a gift from his father at his last birthday. The plush horse with its velvet worn off that had belonged to at least half his sisters before him and would likely be given to one of his nieces or nephews soon. It was his childhood, and he was about to leave it behind forever.

He fell asleep slowly and dreamed of nothing that he could remember. He awoke in mid-morning to the reverent quiet that governed the day of the Solstice. Most people kept to themselves or their immediate family during the day, leaving those facing their Choosing that night plenty of time to reflect, for better or worse. Jaejoong spent his morning packing, carefully picking and choosing the few things he would be allowed to take with him to his new life. His Solstice gifts from his family, of course, and those he’d exchanged with Yoochun and Changmin earlier in the day. Clothes and necessities would be provided for him, just as they were for everyone, so in the end, his bag was surprisingly light.

He took it with him as he left the house, just in case. While protocol dictated that no one could be taken early, not everyone believed in following protocol. No one said anything as he left. They’d all had their goodbyes the night before. To them, Jaejoong was already a stranger or a ghost of the holiday.

He headed for the temple district. It was noon, or perhaps a bit after, and the final banquet would start promptly as the sun set. The snow had finally lightened enough that it was no more than a dusting over the latest cart tracks in the streets, although it still fell steadily. The vendor stalls were closed and silent, and the shops he passed shuttered. Here and there, others walked quietly about their own errands or talked in small groups.

It was only once he reached the outskirts of the temple district that the city became alive again with people and activity. Here, unlike elsewhere in the city, people bought and sold tokens of luck and love, both those to be kept for the coming year and those to be burned as a Solstice offering that day. Jaejoong kept his head down to hide a smile as he passed a group of women clustered around a stall with dolls said to bring them a new love in the new year. Judging from their excited chatter, they would waste no time putting the totems to good use.

For a while, he let himself just be lost in the crowd, nodding occasionally to those he recognized and those among his age-mates who were on similar errands themselves. Eventually, he found himself standing on the steps of the Temple of Fortune. It wasn’t the largest or the richest, but it was certainly one no one overlooked when they needed things to go their way.

Inside, the atmosphere was only slightly more solemn than it had been outside. Jaejoong was sure that more people would visit the temple district this week than the entire rest of the year. He made his way quickly around the edge of the room, leaving the main dais, dedicated to the goddess’s facets of luck and chance, to those who needed it. Instead, he headed toward a smaller shrine set back into a recess of the main temple.

Luck, his father had always told them, was what you made it. Jaejoong had taken that to heart, for better or worse, and so it was to this specific aspect of the goddess that he most often felt himself drawn. There were other gods who governed wits or charm or any of the other things that could make a person successful, but the ability to recognize when Fortune rolled her dice in your favor was what made the rest worthwhile.

He tossed his coin in the coffer and took a stick of incense. It was only the first of many he would light today, but somehow, it felt significant. He glanced behind himself at the large statue of the laughing goddess in the center of the main room, scales in one hand and a pair of bone dice in the other, ready for a game, win or lose. In front of him, the smaller statue was smiling instead of laughing, one of her dice in each side of the scale, but it still didn’t balance. Weighted dice instead of blind chance. He grinned back at the statue. Tonight, the winds were changing, and he was ready.

~

As the sun finally touched the horizon, all around the city walls drums began beating. For now, they were a slow staccato counterpoint to the bustle of the people in the streets, but Jaejoong knew from past years that they wouldn’t stay that way for long. The city’s war drums, normally used to call soldiers to the walls to defend them, were played like this only on the night of the Solstice. It was the signal for final goodbyes and partings, for everyone to be tucked safely inside or to make their way to the Solstice banquet.

Jaejoong, being part of the latter group, found himself threading his way through the crowd like a fish swimming upstream. Every few steps, it seemed, someone offered him a smile or encouragement or a pat on the arm, recognizing easily what his fine clothes meant, especially tonight.

Outside the doors of the banquet hall, Yoochun was waiting for him, which he’d expected. What he had not expected was that Changmin would be waiting with him. At least his friend had the good grace to look nervous about being there. The drums had grown steadily faster, nearing the fever pitch that would signal the start of the last night and the welcoming of the Solstice. He frowned even as he pulled Changmin into a hug, ignoring Yoochun for now. “What are you doing here? You’ll never make it home before the drums stop.” There were punishments for that sort of thing, and Changmin knew it.

“I’ll make it. I can run, unlike some people.”

He felt Changmin twitch when Yoochun flicked him in the back of the head as revenge and jumped in quickly before any argument could start that would cause Changmin to actually be late. He let Changmin go, swatting at him to make him step farther toward the road. “Well, you’d better. Go on. We’ll have all kinds of stories to tell you in a month.”

Changmin frowned the frown that said he was thinking everything through ten times too hard. “You’d better.” He hesitated until Jaejoong was almost ready to yell. “Good luck. Both of you.”

The drums hit a simultaneous beat, and Changmin’s eyes widened a second before he finally took off at a sprint down the street. Jaejoong stared after him worriedly even as Yoochun slung an arm around his shoulders to guide the both of them into the crowd packed inside the entry hall waiting to be let in. “Do you think he’ll make it?”

“His own fault if he doesn’t, but yeah, I think he will.”

Jaejoong barely had time to nod his agreement before they were being tugged this way and that by the hall’s stewards, arranged and rearranged into lines and groups until everyone was just where they should be. The doors to the outside shut slowly, drowning out the final beats from the drums. Inside the entry hall, everyone spoke in hushed voices, waiting for the doors to be opened and the banquet to begin.

Tonight would be more of the same as they had already experienced that month, but at the same time, he knew they all expected it to be somehow different, somehow more, like everything before had only been a shadow of what tonight would bring.

Beside him, Yoochun grinned. “Think they learned their lesson?”

He rolled his eyes, nudging Yoochun’s side with his elbow. There were very proper sit-down banquets during the Solstice celebrations, if only because of the amount of mingling required of those coming of age and those looking to choose apprentices from among them. The last one that had had assigned seating, though, had ended with Jaejoong and Yoochun stationed across the room from each other, and the two of them spending half the banquet seat-hopping until they were next to each other again. “Probably.”

Just then, a clear chime sounded from somewhere inside the banquet hall, and the doors slid open silently, despite their size. The hall servants began seating each of them one-by-one, and a wave of gasped breaths spread through the crowd as they caught sight of what awaited them inside. Thanks to Changmin, Jaejoong and Yoochun were far enough back to have plenty of time to speculate before they entered the hall. When they did, though, Jaejoong’s breath was stolen from him just as surely as if he’d had no time to prepare at all.

The hall was lit with a thousand small lanterns until each shadow was cracked into a dozen pieces that wavered and danced independently of all the others. Above the main floor of the hall, an observation balcony stretched around three walls, the large stained glass windows in the fourth wall at the far end of the room cutting what little light remained into a multi-colored glaze over the surroundings. No lights lit the balcony at all, although the few small movements he caught from it made him think that perhaps it was intentional. This final banquet was supposed to be closed, open only to the year’s Chosen, but certain people would have an interest, wouldn’t they? Perhaps...

The crowd ahead of them cleared, and his attention was pulled away from the balcony or indeed anything else. Silhouetted against the backdrop of the dying light bleeding through the stained glass, the two cloaked figures, the masters, sat in their chairs on the podium just as they had at all the events so far, lords of the celebration and yet completely separate from it. A servant gestured Jaejoong forward, and he found himself having to tear his eyes away from the two, as if he was drawn to watch them. The tiny hairs on the back of his neck stood up as he was almost sure they were watching him, too.

The stewards had, indeed, learned their lesson. Jaejoong and Yoochun sat next to each other, watching as the last stragglers were taken to their seats. Jaejoong shivered as he felt the weight of unseen eyes still on him. If only Changmin were here, he would see why Jaejoong could never believe his theories.

~

Dinner was as expected, the food delicious and rich, the company good, and the mood light. In between courses, entertainers performed, dragon dancers and acrobats and jugglers and singers. It was only as midnight approached that the mood grew more solemn, the singers becoming poets who recited epics and histories, the shadows seeming to grow more solid as the night wore on. Finally, the plates from the last course were removed and the last entertainers took their bows, leaving the room as the hordes of servants returned.

No matter what stories they may or may not have heard, the first sight of the tightly wrapped parcels made more than one of Jaejoong’s age-mates catch their breath. Jaejoong would never admit to being one of them.

There were probably a hundred Chosen seated around the massive tables, but each package that he saw was completely unique, the colors obviously carefully chosen and meant to suit. The size and shape varied only slightly, and he knew that each cloth contained a lacquered box containing a symbol of some sort. The boxes and symbols should well have cost a lifetime’s worth of gold, but he’d heard it said that being asked to create one was an honor and being skilled enough to do them every year was enough to name a craftsman a master in his field.

He’d seen both of his parents’ boxes on occasion and the precious treasures they guarded. His mother, a midwife, had received a small statuette of a young fawn, carved so masterfully from a single jade piece that it looked practically to have been born that way. His father’s smith token, while not nearly so intricate, was just as masterfully created, a dozen different metals forged and beaten and twisted into a miniature anvil that shone like the inside of a shell. Tonight, each person would be directed into the profession that would suit them throughout their life, and that alone, that acknowledgement of skills and abilities unique to each person, was worthy of the highest respect, no matter what the role. For one night, all were equal and equally treasured.

The cloth wrapping Jaejoong’s box was the deepest emerald, matching his Solstice clothing exactly. His eyes went to the balcony again, and the shadows of people shifting within it, and yet again he wondered who might be up there, if his parents were there, if they’d had any hand in this decision.

From the balcony, his eyes slid to the podium where the cloaked figures sat, leaning close to each other and seemingly paying no attention whatsoever to the excited conversations of those waiting to discover their futures.

The clear chime sounded again, just as it had to call them into the room. The servants began to withdraw as the last token was handed out, and the head steward climbed the podium, bowing deeply to the pair seated there. Jaejoong thought they might have nodded in return or it might have been his imagination. Before he could decide either way, the chime sounded again, and the steward turned, hands raised until only silence greeted the third chime.

A clock, Jaejoong realized, just as it struck four. The chime was a clock, and it was counting to midnight.

His eyes met Yoochun’s, and he was sure the same realization had come to his friend. But still the steward only stood there, as five chimes sounded, and six, seven. At eight, he bowed deeply to the room, and at nine, he stood. “Welcome,” he said, at ten, eleven, “to your future. Welcome, Chosen.”

The twelfth chime sounded, and silence overtook the hall yet again. Their future. The ripple of understanding raced through the room as the silence and stillness broke in the face of opening their tokens.

The first thing Jaejoong noticed, of course, was his box. While not as individualized as the wrappings, he imagined some thought must have gone into them. His was not the same as Yoochun’s, and only similar to half a dozen of the many around them. Yoochun’s was possibly even more unique, the light blond wood the only one of its kind that Jaejoong could see. His own was solid, oak or something similar, and so finely made that he couldn’t see the seam of the lid until he managed to open it.

Something stilled his hands before he could open it all the way, though. He didn’t have time to examine the uncertain hesitation before Yoochun whooped loudly, drawing Jaejoong’s attention, and half of their table. He felt like he was suddenly waking up, just now aware of similar sounds of joy and surprise coming from the tables around them. He leaned closer to Yoochun to see what he’d gotten, and Yoochun helpfully turned his box to show off the token inside. On a lush purple cushion lay a tiny, perfectly formed herald’s staff and scroll.

Jaejoong laughed, the mood broken as he nudged Yoochun’s shoulder with his own. “They realized they could never shut you up.”

Yoochun nudged back harder. “You shut up. What’d you get?”

“...I don’t know?”

Yoochun looked at him like he was either crazy or stupid. He felt a little bit of both.

“What? I haven’t opened it yet.” His brain clicked over a second too late to make any excuse believable. “I wanted to see what you had first. Best friend. Supportive. And things.”

Yoochun’s look turned into a derisively disbelieving snort. It was okay, though, because Jaejoong hadn’t believed himself, either. “Well, now you know, so open it!”

Easier said than done. Jaejoong steeled himself to open the box, running his thumb across the smooth wood where he knew the seam was hidden. The future seemed too close, just for a moment, before he took a deep breath and forced his hands to move.

“Oh.” Every other token Jaejoong had ever seen had been a miniature. Each one, even within the same profession, was unique to the individual, handcrafted and original. But each one also held a similarity to the others of its kind, something that connected its own to every other that had come before.

All of which only made opening his box to find a rose in bloom that much more unusual. He touched it, his fingers running across the cherry-red petals before he could stop himself, expecting an exquisitely done wax carving or ceramic, but the petals gave under his touch, like fine silk, and Jaejoong jerked his hand back. It was real.

He looked up to find Yoochun watching him, confused expression likely mirroring his own. He held out the box for Yoochun to look at more closely. “It’s a rose. But it’s the middle of winter.”

Yoochun just shook his head. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Nor had anyone seated to either side of them. As far as anyone knew, this token was one of a kind. The memory of eyes on him made him look up, away from the small crowd that had gathered around their table, his own eyes bright with dawning excitement and expectations that he was only beginning to understand.

But the two figures on the podium were gone.

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