Maki stood to the side of Company 8's Christmas tree, her baggy sweater dress brushing her knees. She watched as the lieutenant set down platters of his own food creations, which were immediately attacked by Arthur and Shinra.

"Maki, do you want anything?" Hinawa asked her.

"Yeah, sure."

She watched him pile a plate high with goodies for her before leading her to a secluded corner.

"I couldn't get a room at the inn for New Year's, but I got something better," he told her.

"What, another room with one bed?"

"Nope."

"Um…" Maki wracked her brain to try and figure out the lieutenant's puzzle. He was buzzing with excitement that came off of him in contagious waves. Or maybe that was the flute of champagne in his hand. "Another inn had an opening?"

"Nope. The old man's inn is the only one there."

Maki reached and grabbed the small flute from his hand. "Then what is it?"

"I got in touch with the guy that's been taking care of my family home until I can fix it up and sell it and we can stay there for New Year's."

"Wait, you have a family home ?"

"Yes."

"How far from the hot spring is it?"

"It's within walking distance."

Maki looked at the lieutenant's face as a loud peal of laughter came from the room. She took him by the elbow and guided him to the hall.

"Are you sure you're okay being around everyone else?"

"I'm fine, don't worry."

Maki studied his face. He had missed a spot while shaving, and a small patch of light brown hair was barely visible on his skin. She reached up and ran her thumb over it absentmindedly.

Hinawa leaned his cheek into Maki's palm as he brushed his fingers across the top of her upper arm. His simple gestures were much more intimate than Maki's own.

He moved his hand up to her cheek as she dropped her arm. He noted the small spattering of freckles across her nose and wondered if she had freckles on her shoulders as well.

"No, I'm not okay," he admitted.

The joy, the merriment, it was all sickening to him. He hated Christmas every year since he was eight. The whole idea of a holiday where you decorated a tree and put up strings of lights to celebrate the birth of a figure that most people didn't believe in and probably didn't even exist in this era was stupid.

"Come on. Why don't you show me what your family home looks like."

"Not now. Not… this day, or this time of year."

"Oh."

Hinawa remembered how when he was eight, he didn't even open his gifts. The wrapped ones stayed under the tree, and the ones that still needed the gift wrapping sat in their bags, collecting dust until his father yelled at him to "open the damn boxes" in May of the following year. He never touched the toys, the books, or the clothes.

His father was useless when he was growing up, being sterner on him than he would have been otherwise.

I guess I got my sternness from him, Hinawa said.

Maki lightly touched his leg. "I know a place we can go," she said. She grabbed his hand and led him to the front doors of the cathedral.

Hinawa allowed Maki to be his guide. He didn't feel like going anywhere on his own accord, and he trusted Maki more than his own self-conscious right then.

"Here," she said, stopping outside a small coffee shop. "It's small and secluded, and no one will ask questions."

She reached to open the door, but Hinawa stopped her. He pulled the door open and held it open. Maki bit back a small grin.

"Just go in," he told her.

Maki giggled as she walked inside and sat down in a booth near a window. Hinawa sat down across from her, uncomfortable at being in such an unfamiliar place.

"Here's a menu, order whatever you want. I'll pay," Maki said, placing a small, plastic-covered menu in front of him.

He glanced over the menu. Coffee, tea, cake, cookies? Definitely a menu Maki would like.

"Can I take your order? We have a Christmas special for couples, two coffees and a small Christmas cake for — " their waitress said.

"We'll take it," Hinawa said, cutting her off.

Maki looked from the waitress to the lieutenant, scandalized. She swore she saw a few tears in the poor waitress's eyes.

"Lieutenant, you know you could be a bit nicer to people," she said.

Hinawa sighed. "I can be nice all I want and nothing will change."

He unrolled his silverware and laid out a knife, spoon, and small fork on his napkin. He watched as Maki did the same, setting the fork on the side closest to her.

"Aren't you cold?" he asked suddenly.

"What?"

"We came straight here without getting our coats, and you're wearing a dress. Your legs have to be cold."

"It's a sweater dress, and I'm pretty warm."

Maki couldn't ignore the fuzzy feeling in her chest. Yes, her nearly-naked legs were cold. She stretched her sweater dress to meet her knees and growled quietly in frustration when it bounced back to her mid-thigh.

Just cover me, she begged of her clothes.

She crossed her legs at the ankles and tucked them to the side. She tried once again to tug her sweater dress to her knees and smiled gently as she was finally able to pull it over her knees.

Hinawa stretched his legs out. Maki looked down and saw his legs on either side of her own, a small wave of warmth radiating from his clothes.

She curled and uncurled her toes within her high-heeled boots. He was trying to warm her up even though she had already lied and said she was warm.

"Here, put my sweater over your lap," Hinawa told her. He unzipped his beige sweater and began removing it.

"I'm not cold," Maki said.

"Your legs feel like icicles."

She sighed. Hinawa handed his sweater over the table to her. Maki spread it across her lap, instantly feeling her thighs warm from the remnants of Hinawa's body heat on the sweater.

"Here are your coffees and your Christmas cake," the waitress said, finally reappearing. She set two cups of coffee and a small cake down between them and scurried off to fill her tray with another order.

Maki pulled a cup of coffee toward her and began sweetening it to her liking. The bitter liquid was warm, and perfect for a cold Christmas night. She picked up her fork and cut off a small bite of cake.

"It's so good!" she said happily.

Hinawa drank deeply from his cup of coffee. "I haven't had a Christmas cake since I was seven."

Maki choked on the piece of cake in her mouth. "Oh damn, I forgot!"

"I-I'm sorry I'm bringing your cake eating down," he told her. "I'll finish my cup of coffee and leave."

"No, stay. I have an idea."

"What?"

"How about you go visit your mother and father for Christmas? Put some Christmas flowers on their gravesite?"

"No."

"No, hear me out," Maki said. "It'll give you a chance to get away from everyone, and everything."

Hinawa sighed. "While that would be good, I just… I don't know. I don't think "visiting" them would be a good idea right now."

"Really?"

He couldn't look her in the face. He could go and get away from the whole idea of Christmas at his family home but then he'd be facing his own childhood demons there.

He could still hear his father's sharp voice, telling him to hurry up and get ready.

"The cup, Lieutenant, let go of the cup."

He could barely hear Maki's gentle voice as his father's got louder and louder in his head. He lifted a hand up to put a finger in his ear.

It was Maki's cool fingers trying to pry his other hand off of the cup that brought him back to his senses. He released his tight grip and flexed his fingers before pushing his almost empty cup aside.

"I can't stay in that house," he said.

"I'll be with you," she told him quietly. "Everything will be okay."

"No, it won't. I can't. I won't."

Maki watched him stand up and head for the door. She tossed down enough money to pay for their coffee and cake and ran after him, slipping her arms through his sweater.

"Lieutenant, stop!"

Hinawa felt like vomiting. All of the memories he had long since suppressed of his father threatened to boil over at any minute.

My dad never hit me, Maki.

He remembered telling her that just a few weeks prior. He never told her that his father tended to discipline him with words, not actions, on a near-daily basis. A tiny voice in the back of his head nagged at him: "Verbal abuse is still abuse."

He heard Maki's heels before he actually heard her, the damn things clicking up a storm like a laptop keyboard. He turned to look at her and saw her wearing his sweater, and his heart rubber-banded in his chest. She looked beautiful in his plain beige sweater, with her red sweater dress brushing the tops of her knees. Her high-heeled boots made her stockinged legs look even longer.

He did his best to hide his obvious feelings for her as she approached, out of breath from running.

"I — pant — won't make you go — pant — back to your home." She clutched a stitch in her side and breathed, in through her nose, out through her mouth, slowly. "But you have to explain to me what's going on."

Hinawa sighed. "I think it's something best left as a private discussion."

"Where, though?"

Hinawa glanced at her. She sighed.

"I thought you didn't want to go back."

"Best place to start the explanation."