A Story a Day Until Christmas Day by kaoruhana
The App for Grandpa
A/N: As mentioned, a story a day until December 25th. I'm a day behind, and will have to post stories 2 and 3 tomorrow, but enjoy the read. I dislcaim any and all references to real life stores, places, and people in my story. Not beta'ed or proofread thoroughly.
Set in London, England (again).
Prompt: Character A doesn’t feel the Christmas spirit but Character B, who lives above them, keeps playing Christmas carols really loud.
Word Count: 1,822 (according to Word)
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Sesshomaru sighed as he shut his apartment door, glad to be inside and away from the blustering cold outside. Chicago may have been called the “Windy City,” but London was not above trying to compete for that title today.
At least it wasn’t raining. For that at least, he was grateful.
As he made his way up the stairs to his apartment on the first floor,* he distinctly heard music coming down from the uni* girl who lived up on the second floor of this townhome turned apartment complex in Hounslow. It would have, he supposed, been soothing to hear, but he was sick of it and it was only December 5th.
How long would the girl continue with her overexcitement before she tapered it down? Soon, he hoped. Honestly, he wasn’t sure how the elderly Punjabi couple who lived on the ground floor and rented the apartments even coped with it. Mr. Singh wasn’t one for such frivolity as far as he knew. Then again, he’d only lived in this apartment for six months while the uni girl had been a dormer here for two years now.
It had been a ridiculously hectic day at the office since his choice of a neutral arbitrator had been denied by the opposing counsel. And his boss had not been happy about it. Realistically, Sesshomaru knew that it was near impossible to find the neutral arbitrator since the opposing counsel wasn’t exactly one known for cooperating. Even his colleagues had told him such. But, it still didn’t help him in the current situation where he was being scolded by the boss.
Rubbing his temples, Sesshomaru unlocked his apartment door trying in vain to block out the sounds coming from above. Hopefully, it would be quieter in the apartment, and he could get some of his work done in peace.
* * * * *
December 10
Sesshomaru turned around in his bed, attempting unsuccessfully to smother his ears with his pillow to gain back some of the quiet he’d been enjoying. He’d managed to fix the neutral arbitrator issue, at least temporarily, and was now on the relatively easy duty of working on the client’s case without needing to communicate with opposing counsel. It was why he was in bed on a lazy Saturday morning, intending to sleep in, before he ran out to get some groceries from Tesco and Sainsburys.
Was it too much to ask for some peace and quiet at 9:30 A.M. on a Saturday morning?
It apparently was.
Grumbling, and giving up his sleep as a lost cause, Sesshomaru ambled over to his bathroom and got ready for the day. Emerging, freshly showered and a little more awake, he dragged himself over to his dresser and pulled out the least demanding outfit he could find: joggers*, an old t-shirt and a sweatshirt. Dressing, and ignoring socks for now, he walked out of his bedroom into the open living and cooking area of his apartment.
It seemed American Christmas songs were the theme today, the sounds clearer in this area of his apartment than his bedroom. As Bing Crosby crooned the lyrics to another song, Sesshomaru slammed his fridge door shut, scowling at the meager contents.
And then, just for good measure, he glared at the ceiling.
Sesshomaru didn’t hate Christmas per se, but it was never a holiday that he much cared about. He found mince pies disgusting because orange and lemon peel did not belong in pies, thank you; and he dreaded the day he received stollen from his stepmother at a pre-Christmas meal.
Not to mention, the gaudy Christmas lights that some people chose to decorate their homes and business with when they were perfectly fine the rest of the year. It was as though the entire country suddenly became overly cheerfully and excited overnight. Where were these people the rest of the year?
As if to mock him, the sound from upstairs increased. He glared at the ceiling, silently fuming as he clearly imagined his neighbor “Rocking around the Christmas Tree.” If she kept this up, there would be no “rocking” since he might just threaten to silence her if she kept at it.
Grumbling, he walked back into his bedroom, pulling on some additional outerwear, before walking into the kitchen and yanking his grocery tote bags from the walls. If he couldn’t get away from this racket, he might as well get his shopping done. He just had to avoid the ridiculous mince pie displays in the stores as he did so.
* * * * *
December 17
That’s it! He was done! Sesshomaru sped right past his apartment, his laptop bag swishing precariously on his arm as he thundered up the stairs. He had no idea how Mr. Singh put up with the girl's music, but she had to stop now!
Arriving at the second floor apartment that was hers, he rocked back on his heels for a moment, before taking his gloved hand and knocking harshly on the door. There was no response. Cursing her loud music and faulty hearing, he formed his hand into a fist and pounded on the door this time, certain it would catch her attention.
And it did, since the music lowered in volume for the first time in days. A moment later, the door opened and the uni girl stood behind it.
She was dressed in joggers and a tanktop with a overly large cardigan thrown on to keep the cold away. Her feet were encased in dark green socks covered in candycane print and a pair of glasses rested precariously on her nose. Pushing the glasses up, she leaned against the doorjamb.
“Hi?” She asked clearly confused as to his presence.
“Can you cease your racket? Or at least keep your music to a tolerable level? Not everyone likes to hear Christmas music blasting every hour at increasingly intolerable decibels.”
The girl raised an eyebrow. “Wow, no greetings then. I know we’ve only met a few times in passing Sesshomaru, but you don’t have to be such a tosser.*”
“Not everyone shares your need to play Christmas music at all times in increasingly loud levels Kagome.” Sesshomaru countered with his arms crossed against his chest now. Really, he just wanted to take a shower and go to bed. He was due to start his Christmas holiday tomorrow, and he’d be damned if this girl and her infernal music ruined it.
“Look, it’s for my project at uni. So, tough luck. Besides, Mr. Singh and Aunty Simran agreed to let me work on it at home.”
“A project at uni?” Sesshomaru clarified. He had been out of uni for at least six years now, but surely things hadn’t changed so much that there were classes centered on loudly played Christmas music?
“Yes.” Kagome huffed, and then moved away from the door inviting him inside. Reluctantly, Sesshomaru followed her into her apartment.
It was messy compared to his. A plate containing leftovers of what he clearly recognized as Mrs. Singh’s deliciousl homemade Punjabi food sat on a desk next to a computer that was plugged into some sort of sound device. They were speakers, but that was as far as Sesshomaru’s knowledge ran. A monitor near the computer showed a secondary display and what Sesshomaru quickly realized was a code of some sort.
He’d always meant to ask what Kagome studied at uni. Now, he knew.
A tablet was connected to the stereo with a wire and it was to this that Kagome headed. Curious, Sesshomaru toed off his dress shoes and walked over. Kagome grumbled and unplugged the tablet, moving to her computer and stopping the music from playing. She fumbled around with some parts of the code, and then her tablet, before setting the tablet down and addressing Sesshomaru.
“I’m in a class at uni where we have to create codes for apps that help those who are hearing or visually impaired in their lives. I found out that those who are blind don’t have an app that directly translates Christmas carols into braille. I mean, we have apps for everything today, and not one gives the visually impaired a quick and easy carol guide.” Kagome pointed at her tablet.
“That’s what I’m doing. I mean, you and I we can go around and just google these lyrics, but they have to try to navigate their phone. I know, there’s apps that are meant to help you get to google, but wouldn’t it be great, if all they had to do around this time of year was ask their phone to open this app and they’d have the braille lyrics ready to go so they could follow along?”
Sesshomaru simply stayed silent for a moment.
“So, the reason you blast this Christmas music is to check if the code you are making for your app works?”
“Yes.” Kagome smiled, and her voice became a bit shy as she continued talking. “It was actually inspired by my grandfather up in Birmingham. He just moved here a few years back; well mum brought him because he ended up losing his sight to old age. Mum mentioned that he kept humming these Christmas songs. She asked him why, and he said he didn’t know the lyrics but he liked hearing these songs. He also wants to go caroling, but he can’t 'cause he can’t see the lyrics. And I want to try to give him the chance to do so.”
There was nothing that Sesshomaru could think of to say to her statement, so he remained quiet. After a few moments though, he reached forward and turned up the volume on the speaker near him. It wasn’t at the highest level, but it would still be quite loud and more than likely be the background noise in his apartment again.
But he could live with that.
He may not like Christmas, but he had to admire Kagome’s project and wondered if his late mother would have enjoyed an app such as this. She had always liked to hum along to the songs on the radio and more than once had made Sesshomaru recite the lyrics to her so she could follow along.
She would have enjoyed learning the lyrics to all of those Christmas classics she loved to listen to when she first moved to England.
Straightening himself up, he glanced at Kagome who had been watching his actions. “I suppose, if it’s for your project, I can bear with the noise.”
Without waiting to hear what he had to say, he walked out the door and back down to his own apartment.
Five days later, after he returned home from an afternoon jog, he found a note taped to his door.
Thanks for being understanding. App works! Passed the class and Grandpa can use it when he goes caroling with some neighbors on Christmas Eve.
x Kagome x
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A/N: Pretty sure an app like this exists (I'm no expert though!) Inspired by the DDR game for visually impaired children that my roomate had to code in undergrad and which I tested out way back in 2012.
Joggers are sweatpants, uni stands for university, and a tosser is more or less a jerk. Also, in the UK, the ground floor is the bottom floor of a building, first the American equivalent to a second, etc.