3rd Day of Christmas
Theme: Hot Springs for the Holidays

Steam rose from the contact point where the geothermally heated water met the icy air. Fai stuck a curious toe into the water before easing the rest of his body in to follow it. The water was almost scalding hot after the sprint through the snow from the main building, but his body welcomed it gratefully. Feeling that had frozen out of his fingers and toes slowly returned. He slunk down far enough to submerge his shoulders and felt his way carefully across the roughly hewn rock floor to the opposite side of the pool.

With Mokona's earing now in control of their leaps between worlds, time seem to shift even faster than it had during the search for Sakura's feathers. It had been the middle of a blistering hot summer in the last world, and they'd all just gotten comfortable with the heat only to be dropped in a sub-zero frosted world that was locked in the depths of winter.

In this world, it was also Christmas. They'd encountered the idea of Christmas enough times previously that they understood the general principle.

Gifts. Gifts for the people that you love.

Fai titled his head back against the edge of the pool. He truly wanted to get something for Kurogane, who understood the tradition as well as he did, but would undoubtedly splutter and bluster at whatever Fai got him. Fai liked to believe that, deep down, Kurogane would be happy to receive it.

But everything he considered paled in comparison to what Kurogane had given him over the years. Hope, life, and, perhaps most importantly, a reason to keep on living. Nothing would ever repay Kurogane, and nothing could ever symbolize the importance of having Kurogane in his life.

A splash at the far end of the pool drew him out of his thoughts. Kurogane's unmistakable outline waded through the steam.

"Mage?"

"Come on in, Kuro-tan! The water's fine."

"I'm already in." Kurogane growled back at him, sloshing through the water towards Fai's location. He emerged slowly out of the fog and would have looked like the villain from some bad horror story if not for the bathtub ring of red skin around his waist from where he'd submerged himself deeper into the hot water before moving.

Fai hid a smile. Only Kurogane - dangerous, deadly Kurogane - could look so completely out of place in a hot spring. This couldn't possibly be his first time in a hot spring - Nihon must have had something like this - but it was hard to tell from his awkward movements.

He stopped several feet from Fai's location, still only waist deep in the water.

"Come on, Kuroi." Fai crooked a finger at him. "There are benches carved into the wall here. You can sit down and relax."

"Here's fine. The water's too hot to go any deeper."

"You're going to get cold." Celes had a multitude of springs like this, and Fai had spent enough time in them to know that the body would adjust to the heat, but that the cold air removed warmth far too fast to be healthy. It was deceptively easy to allow one's core temperature to plummet and that was almost entirely unnoticeable until it was too late. "It's even snowing." He held up a hand to indicate his point, catching a fat snowflake in his cupped palm and watching it melt on contact.

A certain set to Kurogane's jaw combined with the fact that he hadn't budged an inch suggested that he was not going to take Fai's advice. Fai let out a dramatic sigh - he was very comfortable - and scooted off the bench.

One disadvantage to natural-floored hot springs was that you were highly likely to bash your foot on an unseen rock. Fai had moved across the pool slowly earlier to avoid that exact occurrence. He did not use that caution this time - Kurogane's torso had been exposed to the frigid air long enough to have chilled him to dangerous levels.

The first two steps went fine, but the third was cut short by a very obnoxious and pointy mound in the floor that effectively halted all forward motion of his leg. His body, however, continued on its initial trajectory.

Kurogane caught his upper arms, taking a step back to brace himself. "Oi!"

"Sorry." Fai gasped, struggling to get his feet properly underneath him. He finally planted both hands on Kurogane's chest for balance. "Sorry."

Only when he'd righted himself did he realize just how close they were standing. Fai rarely passed on opportunities like this - between Syaoran and Mokona, they were seldom alone, and while Fai was certain that both knew what was going on between himself and Kurogane, blatant displays of affection might be more than Syaoran could handle. He wasn't worried about Mokona.

He snaked his arms around Kurogane's neck, pulled his face close, and kissed him softly. The words came completely unbidden to his lips. "Merry Christmas."

"Idiot." Kurogane snorted, but the smile on his face had none of the edge that his words implied.

Fai had long since become completely fluent in Kurogane's tones and implied meanings. That word really meant, 'Merry Christmas to you too, idiot."