It wasn't until Kei walked into Sakanoshita, the giant, offbeat konbini a few blocks from their apartment that employed old-school shop clerks, that he realized he had no earthly notion of what a proper Christmas consisted of. He had a few memories from when he was a kid—before he'd moved to Tokyo for school and lived on his own. Memories of eating Chinese mooncakes with his brother on the longest day of the year, his mother running him a bath with yuzu fruit, Tadashi singing Christmas carols on their walks to primary school.
But nothing consisting of glitter and glass balls and this itchy, spangly crap called tinsel. If Bokuto and Akaashi had meant his current attire as some form of guideline or waypoint for his endeavor into 'holiday spirit,' then Kei thought that maybe he'd rather be lost.
Just then, the automatic sliding doors caught his scarf behind him. As the red and gold pom-poms constricted around his neck, Kei could practically see Keiji's threatening glare and the words FIX IT whispered across the frosty air.
"Welcome, sir! How may we serve you?"
Kei glanced down, feeling chastised as he loosened his scarf. And then glanced down some more. A sprightly little thing with a blond bob and one pigtail was beaming up at him. She was decked out a little too convincingly as an elf; Kei couldn't decide which part of her outfit was more overwhelming, but it was probably the pointy, bell-topped boots that ring-ting-tingled with every step.
Kei took a bracing inhale. Kuroo is worth it.
"I need...help."
Another high-wattage smile. "Of course! What are you looking for?"
"Christmas."
To her credit, the store clerk only blinked a couple of times at him before nodding (like his request was perfectly normal) and said, "Sure thing! Let's start in the decoration aisle. We have a whole winter display! I'm Yachi, by the way."
Kei was trying to remember from various holiday lore whether or not elves were contractually obligated to rhyme their words as they entered the bowels of the Sakanoshita Winter Department.
Kei's first impression: Akaashi and Bokuto were such liars. They'd draped him in all sorts of Christmas colors, but at least those colors followed a certain theme.
"I thought Christmas was just supposed to be red, green, gold, and sparkle?" Kei asked Yachi, thinking, for some insane reason, that she'd actually be helpful.
"Aw! You consider 'sparkle' a color? I love that!"
Kei would have retorted with something, but he was too busy suffering from sensory overload.
Christmas lights were hanging across all the aisle tops and entrances, and twisted around every wall, pole, or fixture - yellow lights and red lights and purple and blue and sometimes multi-colored, blinking and stuttering all at once like some kind of spastic alien message. It reminded him of this trash-lord he knew from high school, what was his name-Oikawa.
Great. First this store tries to strangle him and then it goes and reminds him of high school disasters named Oikawa.
"I figured you wanted to check out the lights first," Yachi was saying. "Since you seem like a fan." At Kei's blank stare, she continued. "Because...your sweater lights up?"
"This sweater lights up?"
Yachi motioned towards a lump under his sweater collar that Kei had been convinced was just a quick-onset tumor and he discovered that the heap of wool and tinsel he was wearing could, in fact, 'turn on.'
At the sudden array of blinking lights spanning across his shoulders, Kei decided that Christmas (a) sucked, and (b) was for Satanists. He rolled his eyes heavenwards and blinked when his glasses caught the glare of fairy lights strung up along the ceiling. Unlike the flashing baubles in the rest of the lighting department, these lights were teensy, spare, almost...whimsical. Glowing a warm gold offset by thrumming red. Nekoma red, Kei couldn't help but notice, suddenly reminded of Kuroo's old highschool club colors.
Yachi noticed his interest. "Those are in our Christmas Classics collection, although the red is limited edition!" Sensing Kei's weakness, Yachi threw in, "If you buy two packs, you can get the third half-off."
He sighed in defeat. "Guess I'm a Satanist then."
"Um…"
Kei swiped three boxes of the red-and-gold into his basket. "Alright, Cindy-loo-hoo, where to next?"
They visited the ornament aisle, cookie dough and candy cane section, a whole corner display on inflatable snowmen and lawn reindeer ("Who has space for all this in Tokyo?" "You'd be surprised what dedicated citizens will manage!"), and then, finally, the gift section. Toys, tech, appliances, books, and clothes. There was even a gift-wrapping station bursting with wrapping paper and huge curlicues of ribbons manned by an extremely angry-looking youth. Yachi dipped into a quick bow, "I'll leave you to it! Kyoutani here is the on-duty staff member. Say hi, Kyoutani-kun!"
The angry kid with black stripes dyed into his blond hair scowled magnificently and said, dripping sarcasm, "Hi, Kyoutani-kun." Kei felt his blood pressure raise a tick higher.
Christmas is an opportunity. Akaashi's voice tethered him to his sanity.
"I was thinking about getting a present for someone," Kei managed, tugging at his pom-pom scarf.
The guy, Kyoutani, pursed his lips and said, "Well, when you decide if you are, I'll be here to wrap it."
This little…
"I'm getting a present for someone," Kei tried again. He had a sudden urge to squeeze an ornament between his hands until it shattered. "Someone special," he added, willing his palms to unclench.
Kyoutani crossed his arms. "Well, where is this special present? I can wrap anything, all for a flat fee."
Now Kei was at a loss. Here he was, at a gift-wrapping station and he had no idea what to get for Kuroo. "Uh...well. Erm...I don't know yet. I still need to get it." At Kyoutani's overwhelming stare, Kei added, "I don't really-I mean that, well, I don't really know what to get this special person."
Kyoutani raised a brow at him but asked quite patiently, "What does this person like?"
"Uh…" This fucking sweater was starting to make him sweat. "Lots of things. Volleyball. Cats. Riling people up."
The kid was now looking at him like he was crazy. "...Yeah. You can't wrap those things. Haven't you ever given someone a Christmas present before?"
Kei tried to choke back an embarrassed cough, and bit back, "I thought you said you could wrap 'anything.'"
Kyoutani looked at him for a few beats longer before tilting his back towards the ceiling with a great sigh, like he was the one dealing with someone difficult. "Alright then, volleyball, cats, and riling people up. I'll see what I can do, Krampus." Kyoutani disappeared into the back storeroom, yelling over his walkie-talkie for Yachi to come babysit his station.
"Thanks," Kei said, as he watched Kyoutani grumble to himself but look honestly thoughtful as he muttered 'volleyball, cats, riling up' under his breath. Wait. Kei blinked. "Krampus?"
"He's a Christmas legend!" Yachi piped up from behind him. No one wearing bells on their feet should be that good at startling someone. "He's half-demon, half-goat."
Okay, so now he wasn't the Grinch, or the Scrooge, but some sort of weird, demonic Christmas Satyr. Kei mentioned as much, only for Yachi to smile and reply: "Actually, I think you're a nice little mix of all three."
"Looking cute and smiling doesn't make something a compliment," he snapped. As usual, the girl seemed to ignore all relevant information and focus on the least significant part.
"You think I'm cute?"
Kei heard a clicking noise in his head that he hoped wasn't his glasses cracking from pressure-buildup.
"WHERE ARE THE CHRISTMAS TREES?"
"Right this way, Krampus."
While Kyoutani was in the back cooking up some sort of 'perfect gift' like a particularly surly elf, Kei and Yachi headed towards the biggest section of the Sakanoshita Winter Department: Christmas trees.
The scent of juniper and cinnamon and pinecones was overwhelming. A veritable forest had taken over. Every available surface was stuffed with trees, some dripping sap and others tipped with fiber-optics that gleamed in a trillion colors. Fake pines and real firs and even strange pink monstrosities that looked like metal traffic cones.
"Aluminum," Yachi supplied helpfully when Kei rapped his knuckles against one and a somber gong rang throughout the store.
"Gross," Kei grimaced. "A real Christmas tree should be, like, green and full and smell like sap." It should look wild, he thought, thinking of the unpredictable tufts of Kuroo's hair.
"That's the spirit!" Yachi said. "You have a classic taste in trees. Charlie Brown would be proud."
"Who?"
He could tell Yachi was gearing up for another dose of Christmas lore education, but just then, Kei saw it.
It. The perfect tree.
Tall and icy, it nonetheless radiated that pure, spicy aroma of a live tree. Its needles were short and dense, giving it a plush look, and boasted a tinge so silvery it looked blue. It jutted proudly against all the other trees around it, standing straight and tall as an arrow, looking like it was pressing away all other inferior trees. It wasn't even decorated, yet clearly needed no additional ornamentation. Maybe just a touch of something...a handsome tree stand, or a sprig of white flowers, or maybe just a delicate star-
"Again, you have lovely taste," Yachi said, voice sounding softer. Somehow Kei found himself right in front of the tree, caressing those blue-hued bristles. "That's a Blue Spruce. Ten feet, one of our tallest."
"It's…" Kei rasped. It's perfect. It's…lovely. "It's too expensive."
He wasn't looking at Yachi but he could practically feel her raised brow in the sound of her shifting foot-bells. "You haven't even looked at the tag. And everything is priced rather fairly in our humble shop."
Kei cut a glance at the little blond elf at his side, who was proving to be more mischievous than he'd first expected with her innocent, sugarplum looks. Yachi grinned. Already she had roped him into lights and baubles and five packs of gingerbread men. His basket was already weighing down his arm and Kei was worried about how his gift card was going to cover all this holiday cheer. Let alone a whole ass tree.
We should decorate a tree together.
Kuroo's voice. Tetsurou's voice, warm and soft, raspy with a hint of what Kei now realizes was vulnerability.
We don't even need to call it a Christmas tree. Yuletide arbor. Ye Olde Pine.
That perfect, real smile. That Kei loved. Loved.
That Kei ruined.
But not forever. Kei wouldn't let it be forever. Tetsurou was worth it, worth everything, the itchy wool, the gaudy tinsel. Worth freezing his toes off at close to midnight on Christmas Eve, dressed like a demented snowman in the middle of a konbini filled with Santa's crazed helpers. And this tree…
This tree was worth it too.
"Oi." A tinny crackle sounded at Yachi's hip. "Ask the guy if the person this gift is for is his boyfriend or girlfriend."
"He's my boyfriend," Kei said, vision swimming for a dizzying moment. His voice did not crack. He was not crying.
Yachi translated his response with far more poise and dexterity into the walkie-talkie, before ever-so-gently pressing a hand against the small of Kei's back.
"I'll get this wrapped up and delivered to the front of the store, Customer-san," she spoke as soft and sweet as a spot of molasses. Kei felt the shopping basket that was digging into his arm lifted away from him. "Same with the rest of your items, including the parcels Kyoutani-kun is wrapping up for you now." Kei could only nod numbly as Yachi began to steer him towards the front of the store. "Now, there's only one thing left you need for a proper Christmas," she said, as they approached a tiny on-the-go Cafe counter in the middle of the store.
A blond, red-nosed youth with crazy, gelled bangs dyed black was manning the counter. He was nearly as tall as Kei, not counting Kei's antler headband, but seemed to shrink as Yachi approached, the redness of his nose blooming across his cheeks and down his neck.
"Two gingerbread hot chocolates, to-go, Koganegawa-kun!" Yachi beamed. "And I have a bit of a favor to ask you, if you don't mind," she added as the kid poured the dark, steaming liquid into two to-go cups. The blond gulped, adding a touch too much whipped cream to one of the cups.
"Of c-course, Yachi-san," he stammered. Kei suspected that this Koganegawa would tear down the very walls of this store of Yachi had asked him to. His thoughts were only confirmed when Koganegawa steamed a brilliant red when Yachi laughed and said, "How many times do I have to tell you? You can call me Hitoka."
Only Kei seemed to notice how Yachi herself seemed to flush at this admission, hidden by the brightness of her smile.
"I need you to help our Honorable Customer-san, here," Yachi continued, grabbing the two steaming cups and thrusting them into Kei's mittened hands. "He needs help transporting his purchases, including a ten-footer spruce, so it would be lovely if you lent him your strength and your transport-dolley."
Kei blinked. "Oi, wait a second-"
"O-of course Yach-Hitoka-chan," Koganegawa declared, red-nose twitching, already coming around the counter and untying his apron. Oh, good grief. Kei knew that look. She may as well have asked him to undertake a sacred mission.
"Great! I'll cover your spot here while you're gone. Do you mind escorting our customer to the front register?"
"Hold on, just a-" Kei started before Koganegawa hooked his hand around Kei's elbow and practically dragged him. This kid was stronger than he looked, and now he had the burning fuel of Christmas Spirit driving him - something Kei was becoming more and more terrified of.
He was whisked away to the front of the store, a pile of already-bagged items waiting for him. There were his lights, the ornaments, the gingerbread men, the stockings. Even his beautiful spruce, wrapped up to within an inch of its life in netting and leaning against the automatic doors of the shop. Even grumpy-looking Kyoutani was there, holding three wrapped presents, each done in brilliant crimson paper trimmed with glittery gold ribbon. And behind the counter, feet kicked up, a wreath of smoke around his face, was Santa.
Or at least, he was meant to be Santa. The shearling-trimmed red coat was there, and a bouncy, white beard (though it was clearly fake and hanging around the man's neck, besides). But the cigarette perched in his fingers - or for that matter, the smirk perched on his young and handsome face - was decidedly un-Santa-like, as was the spectacularly bad dye-job that was his hair. Kei was mildly disturbed at how the man, only a handful of years older than Kei it looked, pulled off the badly bleached blond hair, dark roots strong at his sideburns and temples.
Kei scowled and yanked his elbow from Koganegawa's grip, glancing first at Kyoutani and then at the hot Santa-ahem, the bad dye-job Santa. "Why is everyone at this crazy store so blond?"
Dye-job Santa blinked at him, tapping his cigarette against an ash tray. "Pardon me, good sir, but you are also blond."
Oh...Right.
"And we affectionately refer to this 'crazy store' here as Sakanoshita. Or at least my mom does. Dad's still petitioning to name it the Ukai-Shōten, but if you ask me, that's just asking for trouble," the dye-job Santa said, finishing with a wink. "Now, our bright, young Yachi has informed me that you're in a bit of a Christmas pinch, is that right?"
Kei snapped his eyes to the wall clock behind the counter, suddenly sweating underneath his blinking sweater and pom-pom scarf. "Am I too late? How long was I here for?"
12:15.
Past midnight.
Kei's heart stopped, "I missed it. I missed Christmas."
Blond Santa frowned. "Now there, it looks like you've got Christmas all ready to go right here. You've got your stockings, your lights, your presents. I wouldn't despair just yet. Even young Rudolph here is transporting all this precious cargo, isn't he?" He gestured to the red-nosed, snuffling Koganegawa. "All that's left is payment, and I got a call not too long ago by a concerned young man-" Akaashi, Kei thought. "-who informed me that you had a gift card."
Kei numbly removed the card from his wallet, "I can't see how it would be enough-" If Kei sprinted, he'd maybe make it back to the apartment by 12:30. He'd just need to put four bags on each arm, tie the tree by its trunk to his waist, but wait, how would he carry the presents…? Damn it, the tree was going to be too heavy. His heart fell even further when he saw he might not even be able to get the tree. As the store owner rang up each of his items, he saw that the gift card - generous as it was - was going to fall just short of the tree. And it was a magnificent tree. Probably cost the same as all of his other items combined.
How was he supposed to explain to Kuroo that not only had he missed midnight with him as Christmas Eve turned to Christmas, but he didn't even have a tree to show for it? Honestly, how was he supposed to explain any of his coal-hearted Scrooge actions to Kuroo at all?
Just as Kei felt the humiliating press of tears against the back of his eyes again, Kyoutani cleared his throat and shoved the three presents into Kei's hands.
"These are your gifts. For your boyfriend. The first gifts you ever give are always free." Kyoutani's scowl couldn't quite hide the color in his cheeks, pinked in embarrassment. "Christmas tradition," he explained. Kei wasn't really in any place to say what was Christmas tradition or not, but he was pretty sure a charity on this scale was overkill.
"I couldn't-"
"And Yachi buzzed me a bit ago to apologize about the sorry state of the tree you had to settle on," dye-job Santa continued. "We at the Sakanoshita are truly embarrassed that you were forced to purchase such a spindly, sickly tree," he said. Kei swiveled slowly to his spruce, leaning against the doorway. Its trunk was bending against its own great weight, full, healthy branches straining against the netting. "We couldn't possibly ask you to pay for such a reprehensible tree. In fact, you'd be doing us a favor, taking it off our hands."
"Ukai-san," Kyoutani prodded quietly.
"Ah! Yes!" The store owner, Ukai, fished something out from under the counter - a sprig of plants or something, tied together - and leaned towards Kei. Someone who smoked so frequently had no right to smell like apple leather and cinnamon. Kei was so distracted by this handsome guy dressed as goddamn Santa Claus leaning towards him, that he didn't even notice Ukai was stringing the bundle of plants around one of Kei's antlers.
"There, you're set. Rudolph!" Ukai gestured to Koganegawa who snapped to attention. "The tree!"
Kei found himself looking around at all of them: the surly Kyoutani like an angry, one-man gift and toy workshop; Koganegawa standing there with his red nose, looking like he was ready to swing a ten-foot tree over one shoulder and into the night; all on behalf of the mischievous Yachi, still somewhere in the back of the store, an elf disguised as a cherub and missing only her pointy ears; and then there was Ukai, this strange shop owner dressed like a mall Santa Claus, smirking around his cigarette.
"A miracle…" Kei whispered, under his breath. "This piss-poor excuse for a holiday really is a miracle."
"Better get going," Ukai said, glancing towards the wall clock. 12:25. Oh shit. Kei swept the presents up in his arms, snagging every shopping bag along the way. Koganegawa had already rigged his spruce to a transport-dolley.
"Thank you," Kei managed, breathless, standing before the automatic doors to the Sakanoshita as the frosty air nipped at his nose. He glanced back at them, these insane people, his helpers, his saviors.
"Merry Christmas!" Yachi's sugarplum voice sounded over the intercom. Kyoutani ducked his face away, trying to twist a smile into a scowl.
Dye-job Santa Ukai winked at him from over the counter. "Ho, ho, ho."
A/N: TBC in Part 3! Please ~please~ leave a review if you enjoyed. Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!