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Subaru sat down at the table assigned to him by the waitress of the small coffee shop he entered. Winter had began recently and the cold was getting to him, but thankfully the small business seemed to have some form of central heating, however unlike the usual place back at home, this place was purely heated by magic.
Observing the limited cafe décor, he noticed a few paintings of who he assumed to be past owners, along with a large oil painting of a few patrons, the current waitress and also a purple haired mop, who he recognised as none other than Julius Juukulius.
He sighed, looking down at the empty wooden table. Although he missed his home world, he couldn't help but find some comfort in the dark oak tables that vaguely resembled a cafe he used to visit with his parents for Christmas... Wait...
“Holy shit! It's Christmas time!” Subaru yelled suddenly, making the waitress next to him promptly flinch. He yelped in return, not even having noticed her approaching, but cleared his throat while his cheeks reddened. “Sorry about that, forgot that it's around Christmas time probably.”
The waitress went blank, staring at Subaru with an unreadable emotion, before tilting her head and raising an eyebrow. “Christmas? I don't think I've ever heard that one. Is that some Gustekian holiday?”
Subaru went silent, his grin falling. He blinked a few times, trying to process the words that came out of the waitress's mouth. “W-wait. What? You don't have Christmas here? Ohh, wait. Obviously, Jesus Christ doesn't exist in this world.” He muttered quietly, but it was just loud enough for the waitress to hear.
“World?” She studied his appearance for a few seconds before her eyes widened suddenly. “Black hair, scary eyes, knight outfit... You're Sir Natsuki Subaru!” She screamed out in shock, a blush appearing on her own face.
Subaru frowned at this. Scary eyes? Come on, they're not that bad.
“That would be me, yes. I wasn't aware that I was such a celebrity.” He realised he had just contradicted her, implying that he was a celebrity would mean he would've been instantly recognised. And the way she reacted was more as if she had just encountered a myth.
Wait, what if the population believes that I don't exist, and that Natsuki is a name for people to believe in, so that they feel safe. It is true that it almost sounds implausible for one man to appear out of nowhere and take down two calamities, along with several important members of the Witch Cult...
“-and my son is a massive fan of you! He even begged me to dye his hair black so he could become a knight like you!” It was Subaru's turn to blush at this. One, he had barely listened to what she said, and two, someone's son clearly admired him. Am I some new Reinhard or something?
“-so I wanted to ask you sir, would it be possible if you come here again? My son admires you so much and it would be the greatest gift for him to meet you.” The waitress knelt to the floor, prostrating herself. “I beg of you sir.”
Subaru blinked a few times with a blank expression, staring at the way she had prostrated herself before him just to ask him something he'd have done without hesitation. Christmas isn't real here huh... No Christmas Dinners then. God I miss turkey... Wait a minute.
An idea popped into his head, forcing a grin to appear on his face. “I will do that for you m'am, on one condition.” He tried to keep a neutral expression, but failed miserably as he kept breaking into smiles. “Back in my homeland, we had this yearly tradition called Christmas. We would exchange gifts with young ones, meet family and eat this large meal. If you allow me and my friends to eat lunch here tomorrow at 1pm, I will come here.”
He was rather proud of the way he had spoke without any nervous voice cracks or whatever, but quickly threw it to the side when she had thanked him from the bottom of her heart.
“Do I really have to wear this?” Felix asked, pulling on some weird clothes Subaru had asked to be made for the four of them. For Subaru it was a familiar sight, a simple Christmas sweater. But for Felix, Julius and Reinhard, it was quite the unfamiliar sight.
Subaru grinned, putting on his own Christmas sweater with a star on it. He glances at the remaining two, noticing the Reindeer sweater fitted Julius perfectly, almost making his facial features and body shine – then again, it was Julius, everything did – which made Subaru almost jealous.
Reinhard wore a plaid sweater, but it was just one sight too small revealing his body's features ; mostly muscle, but a tad of belly fat from their so called 'group adventures', which had really just consisted of them going out and trying sweets.
But that's besides the point! Right now, Subaru was enjoying the sight of Felix being clearly uncomfortable in a sweater just too big for him, almost drowning in it actually. Meanwhile Julius checked himself out in the mirror (Subaru wondered if he'd give himself a boner if he stared too long, but then quickly discarded that thought when he realised he doesn't want to know what his frenemy does in front of the mirror).
“I thank you for the clothes, Subaru, but what causes your kindness all of a sudden?” Reinhard asked. Although he knew that Subaru would most likely treat Reinhard or Emilia or even possibly Ram to a gift, he knew for sure that he wouldn't even consider doing such for Julius. In fact it was such a surprise he'd done it that he almost thought about making sure it was Subaru with some divine protection.
Anyway- where were we? Oh right. Subaru was leading them to the cafe he had scouted out the day before, the cold was a lot more tolerable now that they were in these so called 'sweaters'. Although none of them knew exactly why they were going to a cafe, since their usual outings were at markets, they refrained from questioning their otherworldly black haired friend.
He'd surprised the three of them on so many occasions they'd lost count. From slaying a calamity to leading their take down of an underground mafia to even having figured out their entire 'soul swap' thing. It was inevitable that they'd begin to trust him and his judgement.
Before they knew it, they had stopped in front of a small 'coff' shop on the corner. A sign was next to the door, where was written “Reportedly the smallest caf in Lugnica” in big letters. The three glanced between themselves, trying to figure out what was happening before Subaru promptly turned around with a grin on his face.
“Back home, we had this thing called Christmas where we exchanged gifts, saw family and ate a really freakin' big meal at the end of it. Although it was too short of a notice to get gifts and stuff, I thought we could all eat together.”
The three pulled a blank at the information. A holiday dedicated to gifts and eating? Reinhard pondered the story behind it, what battle could they possibly celebrate by eating?
Sensing their confusedness, Subaru spoke up once more. “Back where I'm from, a lot of people believe in this thing called Christianity. Where some powerful god created the world and his son, Jesus Christ, was born on Earth on the 25th of December – which is the final month of the year by the way. Anyway, they celebrate his birthday by doing that. I'm not entirely sure why, but it's become such a big holiday that even people who don't believe in that God celebrates it.”
It was illogical, truly, that people who didn't believe in something, celebrated it, but they shrugged it off as a problem for a different world. Instead, they followed him inside the building where the scent of freshly cooked turkey and an array of vegetables lingered in the air. A nice warm fire resided in the fireplace, and a demi-cat waitress stood at the head of the table.
Her head shot up as she heard the quartet enter, only to glance between them as her eyes widened. “S-sir Reinhard, Sir Julius, Sir Felix, I- I didn't know you were coming.” She said quietly, and reverting to her Gustekian accent out of nervousness.
Subaru chuckled a bit, scratching the back of his head. “Ha, I forgot to say that didn't I. But oh well! The more the merrier.” His grin came back as he approached the table, sitting down in one of the four seats.
The remaining trio followed him, all taking a seat beside him. The waitress promptly delivered plates of turkey, parsley, roasted potatoes, these strange cup shaped things which Subaru insisted were called 'Yorkshire Puddings' along with some other vegetables.
Their mouths watered at the hot food in front of them, but all stared at Subaru to see what exactly they're supposed to do ; it was a holiday, Christmas, surely there was some tradition to how you're meant to eat it.
“Merry Christmas.” Subaru voiced, proceeding to fill his plate with masses of food before him. The others glanced at each other, but then shrugged. The sounds of forks clinking against plates was proceeded by a chorus of :
“Merry Christmas”
“Merry Christmast?”
“Marry Chrystmast...”
Frankly, they'd eaten so much they weren't sure if they were going to survive. Feeling the lining of his stomach about to burst, Felix collapsed onto the now empty dinner table. Their meal had been followed by this desert (that no one was really sure if they actually enjoyed it or not) called 'Christmas Pudding', and then came the shots of really strong alcohol.
Subaru obviously didn't drink, the trio believed it to be part of his ideals, when in reality it was a massive fear of accidentally mentioning Return By Death and killing everyone in the room (except Reinhard, he's built different).
Meanwhile Subaru was babbling away about some Christmas traditions whilst Julius and Reinhard listened happily, they had no idea what he was talking about, but they enjoyed seeing their dark haired friend so bubbly for once. In the two years they knew him, they'd only seem him (truly) smile once, and that was when he had gotten knighted by Emilia.
The warm in the air mixed with the digestion of food took a hit to their stamina, as Felix began to fall asleep. Reinhard was, obviously, unaffected by it, but even Julius began to drift off.
Leaving Subaru and Reinhard as the sole people awake in the room. Reinhard knew what he wanted to say, but wasn't sure if he wanted to ruin the mood that Subaru had installed in the room. The smile on his face was so real, and it melted his heart.
I'll ask him another time, about what I saw when we swapped bodies... Merry Christmas, Subaru.
