Yukina was just as pleased as Kurama that Hiei was joining the Christmas Festival Committee, if not more so. Hiei suspected that she believed he was really getting into the Christmas spirit, when really he was just doing his duty as her brother to fill in for her, and of course to make it up to Kurama for not being the nicest back at their business lunch. So a few days after that disastrous little incident, Hiei found himself heading to Kosetsu Park for the initial Christmas Festival committee meeting.
Kurama, Yusuke, and Kuwabara were the only people Hiei knew on the committee. The others looked familiar, as Hiei had seen them walking about or in stores, but he didn't know any of their names. Thankfully, Yomi wasn't on the committee—not that Hiei was surprised, but he was glad for it nonetheless.
Hiei expected the committee meeting to go like any other meeting, so that was how he prepared for it. He brought his briefcase (containing his laptop for taking notes), dressed in a decent business suit, and prepared himself to look at a PowerPoint presentation and listen to a superior talk about the marketing funnel or end-of-fiscal-year smart goals or new campaigns or any of the other things Hiei heard about on a regular basis, being a part of the marketing team.
So he was quite surprised when he walked into the meeting room and found that there was no PowerPoint projector or screen. There was no long meeting table, no hard plastic chairs. Nobody else had a briefcase, and everyone else was wearing jeans. They were nice jeans for the most part, with a nice sweater or perhaps a winter coat, but still, Hiei was as out of place as a celery stick on a plate of Christmas cookies. Everyone was sitting in big, cushy chairs or bean bag chairs, and there was one small wooden table, several pieces of paper, and a pencil for everyone. There was a coffeemaker in the back of the room, and everyone was drinking hot chocolate.
"Hiei!" Kurama got up and walked over with a smile on his face. "Everyone, this is Yukina's brother, Hiei. He's visiting her for Christmas."
Everyone waved and smiled, some of them saying hello as well. Hiei waved back, but this still wasn't what he had in mind when he thought of meetings.
"You want to explain how things work around here?" said Kuwabara, giving Hiei a small nod in greeting.
"Sure." Kurama sat down in a beanbag chair and gestured for Hiei to sit on one, too (which he did, albeit very reluctantly). "Yukina isn't able to help this year, so I've been promoted to acting head of the committee. But I feel that when it comes to committees, everyone should have an equal say. In this meeting, you're free to raise your hand and volunteer any new ideas, and these pieces of paper are here for us to write down our best ideas, lest we forget them. I also have a general plan of all the things we always include, like the Christmas tree lighting and decorating, the snowman-building contest, and of course, the finale of the festival—the Christmas Ball."
"What do you need me to help with?" Hiei was debating whether or not to take his laptop out. On the one hand, it would certainly be conducive for planning, but on the other, it would make him look like a freak. He didn't want to stand out.
"Well, we definitely need someone to help with the decorations," said a woman with short, dark-brown hair, sitting in an armchair next to Yusuke near the back of the room.
"Good point, Keiko," said Kurama, smiling at her. "Maybe Hiei can help with that."
"I-I'm not that good at decorating," Hiei admitted, deciding not to tell these people that not only did he skip decorating his office around this time of year, but he had never even gotten so much as a wreath for his apartment's front door. If he told them that, they'd probably set him on fire for blasphemy.
"What kind of things are you good at?" said Kuwabara.
"Well, I have a bachelor's degree in business, and while I was interning at my company, I went to school online and got a master's in marketing," said Hiei. "I've been on the marketing team at Five-Star Hardware for five years, and I've been with the company for eight years overall. I've run many a successful ad campaign over the years, and I've been an asset to the company."
"You need to relax, Hiei," said Yusuke with a laugh. "This isn't a job interview."
"That's just what he does for a living, Yusuke," Kurama said calmly. "Kuwabara did ask him what he was good at, after all."
"Maybe he could help with the food," Kuwabara suggested. "Do you like to bake, Hiei?"
"I make some great microwave ramen," Hiei told him nervously. "But that's about it."
"Yukina and I will show you how to bake," said Kuwabara. "It'll be fun. We always do it a day or two before the festival starts, so there's no time rush."
"And we can show you how to decorate," Keiko added. "This is my first Christmas in Kosetsu, too, but I've been put in charge of the decorations."
"My wife is really good at being in charge of things," said Yusuke, lazily leaning back in his beanbag chair. Keiko just rolled her eyes.
"Baking, decorating…" Kurama ticked them off on his fingers. "Naturally, I can provide the floral decorations. There's also the Giving Tree."
"What's that?" asked Hiei.
"On the big tree in Town Square," Keiko began, "the less fortunate are invited to write down what they need on a Christmas card, and place that card in the tree. Just take a card from the tree and buy whatever the person is asking for—a hat and gloves, a book, a gift card, usually something along those lines."
"Oh, right, my office usually does something like that," said Hiei, and then he wanted to smack himself in the forehead. Stop talking about your office! Nobody cares! But that was better than the mental image of a needy child on Christmas, the lonely child he had been for the first fourteen years of his life.
But Kurama seemed to really want to include Hiei, for some reason. "Great!"
"It's custom for guests or newcomers to light up the Christmas tree on the first day of the festival," said Keiko. "Would you be interested in doing that, Hiei?"
If it's her first Christmas in Kosetsu, why can't she light the tree? Hiei thought to himself, but he didn't say it. Instead, he shrugged in as nonchalant a manner as he could.
"Sure," he said. "I can do that."
…
Not only did Hiei agree to lighting the Christmas tree, but he also agreed to decorating and baking. Since the baking wasn't going to be done until closer to the day the festival started, they could hold off on that, but they had to get started decorating right away.
The biggest event of the festival seemed to be the Christmas Ball, so that was where they began. As he looked around the huge room they used for the venue, Hiei wondered what he was going to do at the Christmas Ball. It didn't seem right somehow to just not attend, not if he was on the committee and had helped organize it, but standing by the punch bowl and eating cookies all night didn't seem the way to go, either. The problem with the Christmas Ball, Hiei decided, was that it involved dancing and socializing, two things he didn't particularly enjoy doing.
You won't know how you feel about dancing until you've given it a try, said a nagging voice in Hiei's head, but at the same time, he knew he wouldn't give it a try. He'd skipped all of his high school dances and he'd never attended an event like this in college. With a chill, he realized for the first time that this would be his first dance ever.
"Hiei?" Kurama was heard saying, approaching him with a poinsettia in a pot. "There are a few more poinsettias on a cart over there. Why don't you put one on each table?"
There were a few tables for people to sit at while they weren't dancing, as well as a long table that would hold the food so they could serve themselves buffet-style. Hiei knew Kurama was giving him a clear-cut, simple job because he was a novice at decorating, and while that was a bit embarrassing, Hiei was also thankful for it.
"Sure." Hiei shrugged and walked over to the poinsettia cart. "They're nice flowers."
"Interestingly enough, they're actually plants, not flowers," said Kurama. "It's the leaves that bloom and turn red."
"You call that interesting?" said Hiei, but Kurama just gave him a small smile and walked off to place his own poinsettia. Hiei watched him carefully, almost lovingly place the plant on one of the tables. Who would have known that this man was facing a lost lover, a bitter man who wanted to be his lover, and the threat of bankruptcy? Everything he did was just so graceful and refined. If Hiei was a broken mirror, Kurama was its smooth, polished, shining surface. And since Kurama clearly deserved someone equally whole, Hiei knew he was doomed to spend the rest of his life alone as a mess of shattered glass.
…
"Wake up, Hiei!"
The sound of Yukina's voice hit Hiei's ears squarely, just like the sun hit his eyes when someone yanked open the shades.
"Too early," Hiei mumbled, sticking his head under the covers.
"We're going ice skating today!" Yukina insisted happily, as Kuwabara pulled the covers down again. "Well, you're going ice skating. But I'm going to watch."
"I've never ice-skated," said Hiei, rubbing his eyes.
"I'm sure you'll be fine," she replied.
"And if you slip, it'll be hilarious," added Kuwabara, though Yukina and Hiei both glared at him.
Yukina insisted that a business suit was not the right choice of clothing for ice-skating, but that was the only type of outfit Hiei had brought that was acceptable to wear outside, so he ended up wearing his dress pants and one of his button-downs. Luckily, he'd brought a coat, at least. Yukina also let Hiei borrow her skates, since they were the same shoe size.
"Yusuke and Keiko are coming too, with their son," Yukina continued as they waited outside for the Urameshi family to pick them up. "I mentioned him, right? Yusuke Jr.? He's about seven now. It's his first time ice-skating too, and his dad's. Keiko says she took lessons for a couple of years, but the other two have never tried."
"At least I won't be alone, then," said Hiei with a shrug. "Is Kurama coming?"
Shut up! Hiei told himself, but it was too late; the words had already slipped out. Yukina, though, just gave Hiei a smile.
"Of course," she said. "In fact, he was the one who suggested it in the first place."
That was strange, but Hiei didn't question it any further. It was a short ride in Yusuke's car to the pond near Kosetsu Park (normally they would have walked, were it not for Yukina being mobility-impaired), so Hiei didn't have to worry too much about making conversation in the car, especially with Yusuke's kid sitting there chattering away. As soon as they got there, they all put on their skates, and Kuwabara set up a folding chair so Yukina could sit in it and watch.
"Yukina tells me you've never been ice-skating before," Kurama said to Hiei. "I was surprised to hear that."
Hiei just grunted and shrugged off Kurama's attempt to make conversation, trying to make it sound as noncommittal as possible. If he was going to get into the Christmas spirit, he would do it kicking and screaming—figuratively speaking, of course.
"Skating is fun, Hiei." Keiko went onto the ice and circled gracefully around the pond. "You should try it."
"Yes, it's always been one of my favorite things to do in the winter," Kurama agreed. Hiei couldn't help but be impressed; not only did he clear a perfect figure-8 around the length of the frozen pond, but he showed off quite a few other complicated moves as well.
Is there anything that bastard ISN'T good at? Hiei wondered, still reluctant to step out onto the ice himself—not because he was afraid he would fall, but…well, he didn't know what he was afraid of, exactly, but he didn't want to do it.
"Come on, Hiei, get out here!" Kuwabara insisted, waving but also almost stumbling in his haste to get Hiei onto the ice.
"There's plenty of room," Kurama added with a smile.
"Oh…all right," Hiei grouched, and he sailed out onto the ice. It didn't surprise him that he got the hang of it quickly; when it came to anything involving his feet and the ground, he had always been fairly talented. He'd paid for college with a track scholarship, after all.
"Not bad," said Kurama with a smile. "But as for Yusuke…"
Yusuke had stepped out onto the ice as well, and promptly slipped and fallen on his butt. Yusuke Jr., the spitting image of his father, cracked up laughing, while Keiko skated over to help her husband up.
"I want to learn to skate like Kurama," said Yusuke Jr., pointing.
"Well, I'll help you," Kurama said kindly. Hiei watched him glide across the ice flawlessly to the edge where Yusuke Jr. was standing. "It takes a lot of years of practice to get good, though."
Hiei started working on a figure-8 like Kurama's, but at the same time, he couldn't help but notice that not only was Kurama a great ice-skater, but he was a good teacher, too. He showed patience and kindness while helping Yusuke Jr. learn some simple moves. The seven-year-old nearly slipped a few times, but Kurama caught him, and he clapped and cheered when Yusuke Jr. finally managed to turn around in a clumsy circle.
"What about you, Hiei?" Kurama called, flying past Hiei on the ice. "Want a skating lesson?"
"Not particularly," said Hiei, speeding up to skate beside him. "But what did you have in mind?"
"Want to try a twirl?" Kurama offered, holding out one gloved hand.
"Well…" Hiei hesitated, warning himself not to get too close to Kurama, but at the same time, he was already wondering what that hand felt like without a glove, and if he would ever find out. It was as if some other external force was controlling him as he reached up and grasped Kurama's hand in his for the first time. "Okay."
Kurama lifted up his arm, raising Hiei's own arm above his head. Hiei held on and executed a fairly smooth twirl, but by the end he stumbled. Kurama caught him, though, and kept him from slipping.
"Let's try that one more time," he said, grinning.
Upon the second attempt, Hiei finished the twirl perfectly—and ended up right in Kurama's arms, staring up into his face. That teasing grin had turned into a gentle smile that spread all the way to his beautiful green eyes, leaving Hiei feeling warm despite the cold, an intoxicating rush of heat that surged throughout his whole body and finally came to a pleasant rest in the pit of his stomach. The only sound his mouth could make was a soft, involuntary, "Oh."
And then something very heavy and solid came their way. Kurama was the one to fall on his butt this time, though Hiei managed to glide out of the way. There was Yusuke, down on the ice, too, having crashed into them at exactly the worst time. Kurama got to his feet and reached out one hand to help Yusuke up, too.
"You know," said Yusuke, as he clumsily attempted to catch his balance, "the two of you should really look where I'm skating."
...
Over the next several days, as he helped prepare for the Christmas Festival, Hiei found himself too preoccupied to think too much about Kurama. The committee sometimes gave them different jobs, so that while they were both working on the committee, they didn't see each other hardly at all. Hiei was glad that he didn't have to be confused over the strange feelings he experienced every time he interacted with Kurama, but at the same time, he missed them. As weird as they were, they were still a good kind of weird.
But then something happened that involved Kurama directly, and Hiei knew there was no way they wouldn't bump into each other.
"I think we've put it off long enough," said Kuwabara one evening while they were watching TV. "If we don't get a Christmas tree soon, there won't be any good ones left."
"Now, now, Kazuma, every tree is beautiful," Yukina gently chided, but Hiei felt his stomach disappear. Christmas tree? There was only one place his sister and her husband could possibly have in mind.
…
According to Yukina, Kurama was right about taxis taking a long time to arrive, so she scheduled one in advance for the very next day. She said she missed walking places, but she hadn't been able to walk very well since the third trimester started anyway, so the broken ankle didn't have much of an effect on her life.
"Except, of course, bringing you home for Christmas," she said fondly, patting Hiei's shoulder. Hiei couldn't help but smile at her positivity; Yukina saw the silver lining in every cloud.
As it turned out, Kurama's Christmas tree farm was on the very outskirts of Kosetsu. The land he had inherited from his father was comparably small for a Christmas tree farm, only about five or six acres, but that was still quite a lot of ground to cover. They had gotten their Christmas tree a little bit late, but Kuwabara's fears of finding a subpar tree seemed quite unfounded, as Yukina said there were plenty of wonderful trees to choose from.
This was Hiei's first time picking out a Christmas tree. In the institution, they never had anything resembling Christmas, but even after leaving, Hiei had never gotten very involved in the holiday season. So he had no idea what they were supposed to be looking for.
"Well, well, look who it is."
"Kurama?" Hiei turned around to see the owner of the farm walking towards them, holding a saw in one hand and pulling a sort of sled along behind him with the other.
"The very same," he replied with another effortlessly dazzling smile. "Thank you for choosing Minamino's."
"Where else would we go?" said Hiei, thinking of Yomi, trying to steer customers away from Kurama when he already knew how much money Kurama owed the bank. Just to spite the bastard, Hiei decided he would purposely buy one of the most expensive trees he could find.
"Yes, you're an old family friend," Yukina agreed. "And even if you weren't, this is the only place to get a Christmas tree."
"Do you need any help picking one out?" Kurama asked.
"Sure," Yukina said brightly. "We want a big one, so we can put all our ornaments on it."
"Oh, and it should smell good," Kuwabara added.
"What species of tree?"
"We want an evergreen," Hiei said quickly, eager to pretend that he knew what he was talking about.
"Yes, but there are many different types of evergreens, Hiei," Kurama said with a pleasant smile. Hiei felt his cheeks flush with embarrassment. "For example, do you want a pine tree? Fir? Spruce? Cypress? Cedar? And then there are all the different subtypes—Balsam fir, Douglas fir, white pine, blue spruce…"
"All right, now you're just showing off," Kuwabara interrupted him. "Which trees smell the best?"
"If you want one with a strong fragrance, you might want to get a Balsam fir, which is my most popular type of Christmas tree," said Kurama. "It also has strong branches, which is good for decorating, and it can grow up to 66 feet tall." He grinned. "To put that into perspective, that's about eleven Kuwabaras."
"And probably at least twenty Hieis," Kuwabara added with a snort of laughter.
"I don't know what's more flawed, your limited understanding of math or your short people jokes," Hiei said back.
"Well, at least I don't think there's only one type of Christmas tree," said Kuwabara.
"Now, now, you two, please stop fighting," Yukina said kindly. The one thing Kuwabara and Hiei shared in common was that they wanted to please Yukina, so they shut up. "Would you show us the Balsam fir trees, please, Kurama?"
"Of course. Follow me."
Kurama led the way, with Kuwabara helping Yukina walk and Hiei bringing up the rear. Hiei had to admit that it was a little fun being at a Christmas tree farm. He had always loved nature, despite living in the city, and it was nice to feel his connection to the earth. The tall, majestic trees towered above him, each one beautiful in its own way, and it smelled great!
"How will we know when we've picked the right tree?" Hiei asked nobody in particular.
"I guess it's sort of like finding your soul mate," Yukina answered, looking lovingly at her husband. "You just sort of…know."
"And it has to smell good," said Kuwabara for about the third time.
Hiei couldn't believe his sister could compare finding a Christmas tree to finding your soulmate, but then, he had never been in love, so how would he even know? And he didn't think he believed in soul mates, anyway. Maybe certain people were more suited to each other than others, but actual soul mates? No.
"Ooh, that's the one!" said Yukina excitedly. "Look how big and full it is! And there's a pointy branch on top where we can put the star."
"It smells like a Christmas tree!" Kuwabara proclaimed, after sticking his nose in the branches. "Come smell it, Hiei!"
"No thank you," said Hiei.
"This is important when picking out a tree, you know." Kurama smiled and sniffed the tree, too. "Don't you do this while you pick out your Christmas tree back in Tokyo?"
Hiei didn't want to admit to Kurama that he'd never had a Christmas tree before, so he said, "Sure, but I don't really want to do it now."
"Come on!" Yukina took a deep sniff of the tree and exhaled happily. "Christmas trees are one of the smells that don't make me sick during pregnancy. I'm sure you'll love it as well."
"Oh, all right," said Hiei finally, stomping over the tree and getting a good whiff of it. The tree actually did smell amazing, and when the intoxicating scent filled Hiei's brain, he felt a lot more in touch with the holiday season all of a sudden. "Yeah, we can get this one."
Kurama may have looked delicate and beautiful, but he was certainly no weakling, Hiei learned as he watched Kurama saw the tree down for them. Then he strapped it onto the sled, and Hiei helped him pull it to the road, so that they could call another taxi.
"When the farm closes tonight, Kurama, would you like to come over and help us decorate the tree?" Yukina asked. "We'd love to have you there."
"That sounds lovely," Kurama replied. "I'll be there around seven."
On the taxi ride home, when Kurama was out of earshot, Hiei leaned across Kuwabara to look at Yukina. "Why do you have to keep inviting him places?"
"Like I said, Hiei, he's just an old family friend," she said peacefully, and leaned back in her seat.
…
When they got home, Hiei helped Kuwabara set up the tree while Yukina took pictures (she said she wanted to document every moment of Hiei's first Christmas in Kosetsu, which was also his first Christmas ever). That gave Hiei something to do for about an hour, but after that he was so nervous that he couldn't even sit down.
Hiei didn't want Yukina to wonder why he was acting so strange, so he shut himself in his room until seven o'clock. He took a shower, used his cologne and antiperspirant, brushed and flossed his teeth, kept his mouthwash in his mouth for the full recommended ninety seconds, and dressed in his very best business suit. Then he wondered if that might be overdoing it, so he took off the jacket and his tie, trying to go for a more casual look.
Around seven, when Hiei heard the doorbell ring, it felt like there was some sort of hopping creature in his stomach, the way the nervous jolts kept coming as he headed downstairs.
"Hiei," said Kurama, waving in greeting. "Are you ready to decorate the Christmas tree?"
"As I'll ever be," Hiei replied as nonchalantly as he could.
Kurama volunteered to put on the lights, and Yukina insisted that Hiei help him, while she took pictures and Kuwabara went down to the basement to fetch the ornaments. Watching him make three trips, bringing one big container up each time, Hiei figured they could have gotten two trees and still not have enough room for all of them.
"This is the last box," said Kuwabara, winded, setting the box down on a chair.
"Where did you get so many ornaments?" Hiei asked.
"All sorts of places," said Yukina. "Some were given to me by Rui when I moved out. Some are from Kazuma's family. The rest are more recent, ones Kazuma and I have given each other, or some we got from relatives—although you yourself have never given me an ornament, Hiei!"
"Sorry," said Hiei, not knowing whether to feel guilty or not, but she was smiling.
"Every time we decorate the tree," she continued, "it's like opening a box of memories instead of ornaments. Every year we discuss their origins, and it never gets old, especially as the collection is constantly growing."
"I agree," said Kurama. "I feel that way when I decorate my own tree."
Believe it or not, Hiei enjoyed the decorating much more than he thought he would. As soon as Kuwabara opened the first box, the memories did seem to come out for him and Yukina. It was kind of nice how Kuwabara helped Yukina stand so that she could hang some, too. Hiei pretended to recognize the ornaments Yukina got from Rui, because he still didn't want Kurama to find out the truth.
Kuwabara was about to open the second box of ornaments, when Yukina said, "We always open that one second, Kazuma. Why not try the third box?"
"Good idea," he said, and opened that one instead.
This one seemed to bring up even more memories than the other one, because there were older ornaments in this one, more ones from Rui, ones that Yukina had forgotten, and Kuwabara had never even seen. She exclaimed over the memories that came flooding back.
"What about you, Hiei?" said Kurama kindly, looking over at him. "You've been a bit silent. Which ones do you remember?"
But before Hiei could open his mouth, Kuwabara answered the question.
"Hiei wouldn't remember any of them," said Yukina's idiot of a husband. "They didn't grow up together."
"So he was adopted by someone else?"
"Hiei was never adopted," said Kuwabara. "Didn't he tell you that?"
"No, he didn't." Kurama sounded shocked, and Hiei could feel the redhead's gaze on him. At the same time, his whole body was steaming hot, especially his face. And all of a sudden, the situation was too much for him to handle.
"Could you…could you excuse me for a minute?" said Hiei, and before anyone could say anything more, he left the living room and headed for the kitchen.
As soon as he was away from the other three, Hiei turned on the sink and ran his hands under the cold water, pressing his wet fingers to his cheeks to cool them down. But that couldn't stop the burning he suddenly felt in the corners of his eyes and the tightness in his throat. It seemed embarrassing, somehow, even shameful, that everyone else got to grow up in households where they were loved and wanted, and he had been shunted aside. Yukina would have said it was nonsense, but for as long as he could remember, there had been a voice in Hiei's head telling him that he would have been adopted if he'd just been more…well, adoptable. He didn't want Kurama to know about that Hiei, the person he'd been before he left the institution. But Kuwabara had to put his stupid foot in his stupid mouth and spill it in the worst possible way.
"Hiei?"
If anyone was going to try to bring him back, Hiei expected it to be Yukina. But he was shocked to hear Kurama's gentle voice instead.
"What do you want?" Hiei mumbled, turning his face away.
"Yukina's busy scolding Kuwabara," Kurama replied, "and she told me to come in and check on you."
"Well, she didn't need to, because I'm fine," said Hiei, even though he was anything but. "You'd be better off going back into the living room and helping her yell at her fool of a husband."
"She's not yelling, just discussing it with him," said Kurama. Instead of leaving, he came to stand next to Hiei at the sink. "I'm not going to ask why you didn't tell me, Hiei, because I know this is none of my business. But at the same time, you know…It's nothing to be ashamed of."
"Easy for you to say," Hiei snapped. "Would you enjoy living in an institution for the first fourteen years of your life?"
"Of course not, and I don't think anyone would," said Kurama. Hiei hated the pitying look in his green eyes. "I'm sorry, Hiei. When Yukina told me she was adopted as an infant by a woman named Rui, I suppose I assumed that you were, too. Aren't they supposed to keep siblings together in those places?"
"They're supposed to," said Hiei, scowling. "But when Rui made it clear that she only wanted Yukina, I guess they figured one baby being adopted was better than none, even if it meant splitting us up."
"Why? What adoptive parent wouldn't want you?"
The question was meant to be rhetorical, but still, Hiei knew the answer.
"Don't you think I asked them that?" said Hiei. "Rui apparently said that all boy babies grew up into violent, abusive men, and that not only would she never adopt one, but if she gave birth to one, she would give him away."
"That's horrible." Kurama shook his head. "And it's also wrong. It's possible she might have been in a bad relationship or two in the past, to make her think something like that—but it's still no excuse. Every baby deserves a chance."
"Just because you think I deserved a chance doesn't mean I got one," Hiei said flatly. "My mother died the day I was born. She delivered at the institution and, as they told me, lived just long enough to name us. And this is my first Christmas, too."
"Your first Christmas?"
"When I was growing up, that place never did anything to make it easier on the kids, especially not anything Christmas-related," Hiei told him. "And after that, well…I guess I just never saw the point."
"Oh, Hiei, that's awful," said Kurama. "I promise I'll make your first Christmas the best it can possibly be. Like I said, nobody does Christmas like Kosetsu."
"Well, thank you," said Hiei. "But that won't make up for whatever I've missed the past thirty years."
"I know it won't," Kurama replied, looking sad. "But at least you'll finally get to experience the joy of Christmas."
"Maybe, but I've never expected anything to be great." Hiei shrugged. "I've only reaped what I've sown in life. When I was fourteen, I emancipated myself and went to high school with all the 'normal' kids, although I had to pick a boarding school so I would have somewhere to live. I guess they felt sorry for me, because somehow I got the financial aid I needed. I ran track in high school so I could get a scholarship for college." He forced himself to laugh, trying to make light of the situation. "I'm pretty fast."
But Kurama didn't seem to think it was funny.
"Hiei, I'm really, really sorry," he repeated. "Nobody deserves that."
"Oh, there were some kids at the institution who were probably better off staying there," Hiei said darkly. "But that's not something we need to get into."
"No, it isn't," Kurama agreed. "You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to, Hiei."
There was something about the way he said it that made Hiei think twice. But he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was, so he decided to just ignore it.
"I don't want you to feel sorry for me," Hiei said finally. "I mean, I'm doing fine now."
"And that's what's really important." Kurama nodded. "You're stronger than your past. Do you want to go back into the living room and finish up the decorating?"
"Sure," said Hiei, and they did. It was a little awkward, and they mostly hung up the star and the rest of the ornaments in silence—until Yukina, digging for the finishing touches in the oldest ornament box, let out a gasp.
"What is it?" said Hiei, looking in her direction. She was holding something shiny and small that was tied to a string.
"I forgot about this," she breathed. "It belonged to our mother, Hiei."
Hiei walked over and saw what she was holding—it looked like a sterling silver cocktail ring, but with the stone missing. Only one little blue shard remained.
"This was the ring she was wearing when she died," said Yukina. "They gave it to me when I was a baby, when I was adopted. When I was young, it was too big for my finger, so instead, I put it on a string and put it on my bulletin board. And every Christmas, we hung it on the tree. I guess when I moved out, we put it in that box and I forgot about it."
"What…what happened to the stone?" Hiei asked.
"I'm not sure," said Yukina, looking at him. "They found the band on the floor after she died, they said, and there was a little piece of paper attached to it that said, 'For Yukina.' So they gave it to me. But I never heard what happened to the—"
"Wait a minute," said Hiei. Suddenly, his heart was pounding so hard, he feared it would beat right out of his chest. "Is this the stone?"
Yukina's eyes widened as Hiei took out his wallet, reached in, and, with shaking hands, pulled out a blue topaz stone with a chip in it. Tied around the stone was a thirty-year-old piece of paper.
"It says, 'For Hiei,'" Yukina breathed as he unrolled it for her. "In the same handwriting."
"Apparently they found it in her pocket," said Hiei quietly. "It's the one thing I have that was hers. I always keep it in my wallet."
"Maybe she broke the ring on purpose a few days before you two were born," said Kurama, "so that each twin would get to have a part of it."
"Must be," said Kuwabara, looking dumbfounded at the whole thing.
Yukina handed Hiei the ring, and he slowly placed the stone inside. Not only was the blue shard left in the setting the exact same color, but it matched up with the chip in the stone that had been given to Hiei.
"Well, now we've put it together," said Kuwabara. "I'll get the glue, and we can—"
"I don't think so." Yukina was smiling, and there were tears in her eyes. "Our mother wanted Hiei to have the stone, and she wanted me to have the band. I think that's how we should keep it."
"You're right," Hiei agreed. "But maybe we could tape the stone in for Christmas, so it will look whole when we hang it on the tree. It'll just be a temporary thing."
"That's a good idea," said Kurama. "I'll go get the tape."
When he got back, Hiei and Yukina let him tape the little blue stone back into the setting. Once the ring was securely taped together, Kurama handed it to Hiei.
"Oh, no thanks," he said quickly. "I'm sure Yukina will want to—"
"I hung that ring on the tree every year I had it, Hiei," she interrupted. "You can hang it this year."
"You sure?"
"I'm sure." Yukina nodded. "I think that's what would have made our mother happy."
Speechless, Hiei headed over to the tree, acutely aware of every step. He picked the best spot, one where everyone could see it.
"For you, Mother," he whispered, swallowing hard, and hung his mother's ring, and her stone, on the tree.