🎧

And maybe that scarf Kanji made.

Yeah, he thinks, both of those would be good right now.

It's too bad he didn’t think of it before he left; the fuzzy faux fur lining of his jacket isn't cutting anymore after being dampened by snowflakes.

Yosuke is hit with a welcome gust of warm air when the door rattles open a few moments later. Yu’s smile right behind it, easy and fond, is welcome too. He's grateful for both.

“Come in, it's cold,” Yu says, reaching to take the bags in Yosuke's hands.

Yosuke kicks as much snow off of his boots as he can before he steps inside and closes the door behind him. A shiver tickles the back of his neck as he responds, “Pfft, you're telling me! I'm gonna be thawing out for the next freaking hour.”

“It's not that bad.” Chuckling, Yu plops the bags down on the kitchen table. A string of tricolor tinsel garland, red, green, and silver, spills out of one of them. “You brought more decorations?”

Off comes Yosuke's boots. Then his coat. “Yeah, so we can make the tree really cool and fancy for Nanako-chan, you know?”

“Mmm.” Yu nods. He takes a better look at the contents of the bags. There's an assortment of round ornaments in every color of the Christmas season – some small and glittery, others shiny and big enough to cover his palm; more garlands; half a box of peppermint candy canes; a large, sparkling silver star; and a hastily-bundled length of multicolored stringed lights. The lights partially uncoil the instant Yu picks them up. “These look expensive.”

“They're not,” Yosuke says, moving to join Yu at the dining table. He sidles close, shoulder to shoulder, helping himself to Yu's body heat as he takes over the short work of unbagging. “Well, I mean, they probably are, but they're what's left after decorating the tree at work.”

Yosuke then looks up at Yu, somewhat bashfully. “I, um, didn't think you'd mind too much where I got them since they're nice.”

“You're right, I don't,” Yu confirms. He gives Yosuke a quick, chaste peck on the cheek and another one of those secret, tender smiles. “Thank you, Yosuke.”

The kiss is barely anything, yet Yosuke's face becomes warm and tingly in the wake of it. He's still getting used to this… thing between them and the affection that comes with it. Yosuke's stomach does some kind of pleasantly weird shimmy too, amplifying his bashfulness as he says, “You don't have to thank me, partner. Besides,” he adds before Yu can deflect, “she's basically my little sister now too, right?”

Yosuke's sentiment earns him a wider smile from Yu and pride blossoms in his chest. Yu’s expression is possibly the brightest one since everything with Nanako began weeks ago; Yosuke's simply happy to be the one who helped make it so – with the truth, no less.

(Because, truthfully, Yosuke adopted Nanako the moment ‘whoa, Junes? I love Junes!’ squeaked out of her mouth. He was charmed; what else can he say?)

Yu drops another quick kiss on Yosuke's cheek, closer to the corner of his mouth, and says, “Really, Yosuke. Thank you.”

Fighting his blush back would be impossible, so Yosuke doesn't try to. Instead, he grabs a heap of garland.

“So, what do you say we get started, huh?”

  *

The artificial Christmas tree Yu digs out of Dojima's storage closet is much larger than Yosuke expects it to be. The placement of it partially obscures the living room TV and, although stored in pieces, it’s taller than both he and Yu once they snap the parts together, fluff it out, and make it look something like a real tree again.

Yosuke stands back to assess it while Yu crouches, making minor adjustments to the bottom-most branches.

“Looks pretty good already. Bet all the ornaments’ll fit,” he says, eyeing the tree from bottom to top. “Might need a stool to put the star up, though.”

Yu stands abruptly, pushing his sweater sleeves up to his elbows. “Oh! I think Uncle has one. Let me get it.”

Yet before he can whoosh past, Yosuke grabs Yu's wrist. “Wait a minute, we have to put the other stuff up! The star goes up last, you know?”

“It does?” Yu pauses thoughtfully. “I… didn't know that.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

As he glances over to the tree they've just put up, the quizzical expression on Yu's face fades. It becomes something soft, forlorn, and – for just a second – far away. “I've never really decorated a Christmas tree before. My parents don't like it.”

“Dude, what!?” Yosuke nearly shrieks in disbelief. He can't possibly have heard Yu correctly. He tugs on Yu’s wrist to make him turn back to him; Yu does but avoids meeting his gaze directly. “Your parents don't celebrate Christmas?”

“They kind of do,” Yu says quietly. “I get gifts. Clothes. Books. Things like that.”

Looking at everything but Yosuke, Yu punctuates his statement with a shrug. The downshift in his mood is palpable and Yosuke frowns, mentally giving himself a swift kick in the ass for his outburst.

They've talked about Yu's parents before, of course, but only in vague terms and short, clipped sentences. Yeses and nos; maybes and sometimes – hard-won answers, all pulled like teeth. It didn't take much for Yosuke to get the hint from their conversations that the topic is a touchy one, so even though he wants to know more about Yu's life, his pre-Inaba years, he resists the recurring urge to pry.

He just can't help his own surprise sometimes.

The Narukamis are weird, to say the least.

“Hey, well, at least I know what not to get you for Christmas next year,” Yosuke replies with a wink, pivoting into damage control mode. Time for a distraction. He steps away from Yu towards the sofa now cushioning their mass of ornaments, scoops up a few of them, and offers them to Yu. “Right or left side?”

Accepting Yosuke's offer, Yu makes a contemplative noise. He stares at the blue and silver baubles in his hands, at his distorted reflection in them. Ultimately, blandly, he says, “You pick.”

“C’mon, partner, I asked you first! Help a guy out here,” Yosuke mock-complains. He folds his arms over his chest, adding a dramatic sigh and pout.

It's super effective!

“Okay, okay,” Yu answers. The renewed smile tugging at his lips is small yet contagious, compelling Yosuke to mirror it back. “Left side.”

Yosuke's grin widens and he winks again. “Got it, right side it is.”

Yet, in mere moments, they fall into an easy, tranquil rhythm that has nothing to do with ‘sides,’ and everything to do with ‘vibes’; Yosuke winds up not hanging a single ornament himself. Instead, he lets Yu pick where each one goes, simply handing over new ones as he's asked for them.

For a few minutes, he simply watches his partner dedicate the same quiet focus to the Christmas tree’s decor as he does to everything else. From top to bottom, each bauble Yu hangs is mindfully and gently placed, and double-checked for security. None of them break, which is better than Yosuke's record – he shattered two before he even made it out of Junes.

Once the final ornament goes up, looped over a middling branch, Yu moves away and over to Yosuke's side. With a hand on his hip, he asks,

“What do you think?”

Yosuke looks up from checking his messages – and worrying about the fact that Chie’s settled on bringing cake for Nanako tomorrow – to give his opinion.

Yu's design is a tidy, simple one, with ornaments of like colours grouped in alternating rows of red, blue, green, and silver. Hardly any of the Christmas tree itself is visible beyond the clusters of ornaments; it's almost perfect as-is.

“Wow, partner, I'm impressed,” Yosuke says, folding his arms over his chest. He shoots Yu a playfully skeptical look. “You sure you've never decorated a tree before?”

“I'm sure… but I'm glad you like it,” Yu says, still wearing that small, pleased smile. Then, in a display of uncharacteristic shyness, he continues with, “tell me what comes next?”

Yu's eyes, voice, and statement all radiate a soft sincerity – and vulnerability – that makes Yosuke’s heart miss a beat. Who else in Inaba knows that Yu has never done something so simple as decorating a Christmas tree? Probably no one.

Mildly flustered, Yosuke turns in a full circle before actually stopping in the direction of the remaining decorations.

“Um, well.” Scanning what's left, he reaches for the heap of Christmas lights. “These, let's do these.”

With a nod of agreement, Yu takes them when given. The section that unraveled earlier turns out to be the only untangled portion of the bundle; the rest is knotted up like someone did it on purpose.

Angrily.

Yosuke grumbles the entire time – pretty sure these weren't like this earlier, what the heck? – it takes to detangle them, which is twice as long as it takes to neatly spiral the lights around the tree. And three times as long as it takes to add the sparkly garland.

But once that's done, and there's nothing left but candy canes (tossed aside) and the star to top the tree, Yu disappears to retrieve the necessary, aforementioned stool. As he places the stool and steps on it, steadying himself, he finds himself chuckling again at Yosuke's over-the-top cheer of, alright, partner, moment of truth!

Yu also finds that the stool doesn't give him quite enough height to reach the top of the tree. In hindsight, it's obvious that it was designed and purchased for Nanako – but since it wobbles some as he pushes up onto his tiptoes, maybe they should get a better one?

He thinks about that while he arranges the star on the tree, making sure the branch fits snugly inside the stem. He catches Yosuke hunting for an unused electrical outlet when he steps down but Yu already knows there isn't one, so as he sets the stool aside, he says, “you can unplug the TV for now, it's alright.”

“You sure?”

Yosuke pops upright to look at him; there's a faint look of concern on his face. The house will be quiet without the TV. For the second time today, Yu answers, “I'm sure.”

“Okay.”

Yosuke swaps the plugs and then backs away; once again, he and Yu stand in front of the Christmas tree to survey it in full. Plugged in, the Christmas lights twinkle and flicker as they come alive. Colour scatters over the ceiling and the floor and the room becomes cozier, and warmer, in their wake.

The Dojima house feels like a home again.

“Do you think she'll like it?” Yu asks softly, glancing up at the star topper.

“Like it?” Yosuke bumps their shoulders together, following Yu's gaze. “Dude, she's gonna love it, promise. It's great.”

“Thanks to you.”

Yosuke's only a millisecond away from downplaying the compliment when Yu's hand closes loosely around his own. The gesture makes him look over to Yu, whose smile and pink cheeks are easy to see, even from the side. Rethinking his response, Yosuke laces their fingers together and turns back to the glittering tree they decorated – together.