Disclaimer: I do not own Wolf's Rain and am not making any profit from this writing.

Dedicated to my Chihuahua, Sully, who inspired this fic with his Christmas shirt that reads "Meet me under the mistletoe." (Yeah, I dress him up. I can't help it, he's adorable.)

For those curious, I wrote this while listening to Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You." I also wrote it between 9 pm on Christmas Eve and 1 am on Christmas morning, and I've only re-read it once in that timeframe, so there may be some grammar issues and such that I still need to fix. I need to go to bed now, or else I won't be able to get up at 7 am (and my little sisters will kill me because it's Christmas), but I'll edit it later if needed. If you notice any mistakes, or OOC-ness, please let me know so I can fix it.

Set mid-series (no specific location/time). I'm taking a few liberties and assuming that in the post-apocalyptic world that Wolf's Rain takes place in, they still celebrate Christmas. Going by canon, they probably don't, but whatever. If you are offended by Christmas or by shonen-ai (it's not actually yaoi, per se), now would be a good time to utilize your browser's "back" button. Otherwise, please continue.

Mistletoe

Snow covered the ground, the buildings, and the trees. Snowflakes fell daintily around the wolves. This was all well and good. Kiba understood snow. It was part of nature, and he rather liked it, if only because he finally blended in with his surroundings. In any other weather, his white coat practically glowed, but in the snow, he was nearly invisible.

No, it was not the snow that puzzled him. Something else left him raising an elegant eyebrow and looking curiously at his pack mates, wondering if they knew something about the strange city. The city was covered with lights, strung up along rooftops and around trees.

Gold, white, blue, red, and green – any multitude of colors shown from strings that seemed to loop around everything. It was strange, to say the least. Moreover, glancing in windows as they passed by, Kiba noted that the humans had placed trees in their shops and homes. The trees were decorated even more bizarrely – not only were they looped in lights, but various trinkets hung on them, and several had a star at the top.

It seemed that Kiba was the only one surprised and confused. Tsume was scowling, shooting death glares at all of the decorations. Hige was smiling faintly, looking around in a way that was more appreciative than curious. Toboe was beaming, and pressing his face against shop windows as they passed. He had also taken to spinning in circles with his arms extended, catching snowflakes as he laughed.

Kiba did a double take. What the hell was the puppy doing? Did he not realize how utterly ridiculous he looked? And what was he so happy about anyway?

He finally concluded that the best way to get an answer as to what was happening, without admitting that he was completely ignorant to something the rest of his pack was obviously familiar with, was to ask Toboe. He forced a patient half-smile to his face.

"What are you so excited about, Toboe?" he asked calmly. The puppy turned to him with that same ridiculously happy expression.

"It's Christmas!" he said excitedly, "I celebrated it once with Granny! It's this holiday when the humans celebrate the, um," he hesitated, "Birth of someone, I think. Something like that. But they decorate everything, and give each other presents, and everyone always has to be nice on Christmas!"

Kiba stared at him blankly. What was wrong with people? They celebrated someone's birth with stupid lights and decorations, and being "nice" to everyone?

The other wolves seemed to understand his confusion. Hige laughed slightly, throwing an arm around his shoulders. Kiba briefly considered shrugging him off, just on instinct, but decided against it. It wasn't like he particularly minded the touch, after all.

"Humans are really weird. It doesn't make much sense. But it's a great holiday!" he assured him, "The humans get really into it. They're all about the 'spirit of giving' right now. And they have a lot of wacky traditions."

"Besides the trees, you mean," Kiba responded dryly. Hige smirked in a way that made him just barely suppress a shudder.

"Besides the trees. I'll show you later."

Kiba wasn't sure he liked being out of the loop. He looked over at Tsume, who had been silent thus far. Tsume's smirk mirrored the stocky wolf.

"Mistletoe," he answered, casting a sideways glance at Toboe, who reddened.

Why did Toboe know about these things, when Kiba didn't? He opted not to ask again, not wanting to admit that he still had no idea what they were talking about. They probably already knew, but there was no reason for him to confirm it.

Hige saw his scowl, and decided to elaborate.

"Mistletoe, my dear friend, is the human's greatest tradition ever to be invented. You see, when two people happen to step under the mistletoe together, they have to," he smiled widely and winked suggestively, "Well, you'll find out. Let's just say it's something human mates do." Now it was Kiba's turn to blush, looking pointedly away from the heavier wolf. Tsume snickered.

"Tsume, be nice!" he heard Toboe whine. The grey wolf ignored him.

"I-is there something you all wanted to do here then?" Kiba asked, trying to change the subject and get over his embarrassment. Toboe smiled, bouncing up to him, forgetting all about the previous conversation.

"Really?" the puppy asked, rocking on his heels in excitement.

"Sure." He'd do anything to get Hige to stop looking at him like that, making his face heat and his heart race.

Anything, including making snow angels. His inner wolf grumbled at the indignity as he lay down in the snow and moved his arms and legs back and forth, copying Toboe. The only thing that made it bearable was that Tsume was doing it too, albeit reluctantly. The grey wolf had not been able to say no to those wide, pleading brown eyes. Kiba wondered if it was worth it to him. Judging by the way the older wolf's own amber eyes softened when Toboe smiled and chattered about how it was "the best holiday ever," it was entirely worth it.

Hige, for his part, was unbothered by their ridiculous game. He made his angel and then rolled over to look at Kiba. The white wolf raised an eyebrow, hoping that his obviously upcoming suggestion wouldn't be too outlandish.

The other wolf just shook his head, smiling slightly. He silently grabbed a fistful of snow and compacted it between his hands. Kiba frowned a bit, confused. Then he yelped in surprise as Hige launched it a few feet forward into his face. He blinked rapidly to clear his vision, scowling.

"What was that for?" he asked. Alright, so he wasn't really angry, because it hadn't hurt, but he was a little putout. Not so much because Hige had thrown the snow at him as because Hige had actually managed to hit him. The white wolf's guard was down.

Hige just smiled mysteriously. Wordlessly, he gathered another snowball. This time, Kiba was ready, and he tensed, fully prepared to dodge. It wasn't necessary after all – Hige wasn't aiming for him.

Instead, the snowball broke apart against the back of Tsume's head as the older wolf sat up. He whirled, shooting him a death glare.

"You really wanna do this, Porky?" he asked threateningly. Hige smirked.

"Oh, I really do," he answered, and then, "Snowball fight!"

When the wolves finally stopped launching snowballs at each other, Kiba was still no closer to finding out what mistletoe was actually for. His knowledge of humans was limited to his experiences living with the tribe, and it wasn't like he paid attention to what they did with their mates. Regardless, the tribe had never celebrated Christmas, at least not while he was with them.

Whenever mistletoe came up, his pack refused to explain what exactly it meant. Toboe would blush and look at his feet, Tsume would shake his head and look at Toboe, and Hige just gave him that damnable smirk. Kiba almost felt like pinning him down by the throat and demanding an answer.

Intellectually, he knew it probably wasn't a big deal. Hige always got a kick out of silly jokes, and Tsume clearly had some sort of plot regarding Toboe, which Kiba decided that he really did not want to know about. Hige liked nosing around and keeping tabs on them, Kiba did not. The white wolf was above simple curiosity.

So why couldn't he shake the stupid mistletoe from his mind?

He was so focused on trying to not think about it, that he paid no attention to where he was walking. When Hige suddenly grabbed his wrist, effectively stopping him, he blinked in confusion. The other wolf gave him that infuriating smirk again.

"Hige, what –" he started to demand, but he was cut off by a pair of lips on his own.

Hige was kissing him. His thoughts disconnected. He should have pulled away, shouted at him, made him understand…

Understand what? his traitorous thoughts asked. He kissed him back.

Kiba wasn't sure how long it was before Hige pulled away. Seconds? Minutes? Hours? Time had stopped. He could have stood there for days and thought nothing of it.

"And that," Hige said quietly, "Is what humans do under the mistletoe."

Kiba looked up, and saw a little green plant hanging above them, tied with a red ribbon.

"Oh," was all he said, in the softest of whispers. He was quiet, before realizing – he almost forgot that they hadn't been alone. Then he turned scarlet, and whirled to face where Tsume and Toboe stood.

Or rather, where he thought they had been standing, before Hige kissed him.

"Where did the others go?" he asked, hesitantly. The other wolf shrugged.

"There's mistletoe all over the plaza. Tsume dragged the runt away a while ago. You didn't notice?"

"No." He turned back around to meet the other wolf's gaze. There was something compelling about Hige's red eyes, staring down at him warmly, with a hint of worry. Kiba was silent for a moment, considering.

"Kiba?" Hige finally prompted, when the silence had gone on for too long. The white wolf noted his stiff posture, and knew what he was thinking. Kiba could be a little oblivious, but he wasn't totally clueless. So he smiled.

"I think," he reached out to fist his hand in Hige's sweatshirt, "The humans aren't so crazy after all."

The other wolf would have laughed, if he weren't so preoccupied with kissing him.

Merry Christmas everybody!