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For a reason that Touya has never fully understood, everything looks more beautiful under the soft, golden halo of Christmas lights. In a dark house, with nothing but the tree illuminated, it ought to be the same sort of dark that one lamp in a room creates: shadowy and solemn, with one spot of light. Somehow, it's not. The Christmas lights aren't any brighter than that one lamp; they don't send their soft glow over any more space.
The light that they shed is simply, and inexplicably, more beautiful.
Touya associates a lot of different things with Christmas, and Christmas lights: the lights reflected in Sakura's eyes as she passes out gifts on Christmas morning; the fact that their father makes pancakes that he swears are elf-shaped, but look more like snowmen; going for a drive to see all of the houses illuminated by beautiful patterns of outdoor lights; visiting their mother's grave to lay a small gift there and give their Christmas greetings. Christmas is a time for family, and for love, and for remembrance.
A new ritual has been added to Touya's Christmas happenings, for a number of years that Touya doesn't care to remember beyond. For the warmth it holds, it's been all along.
Touya buys gifts for very few people, each Christmas: his father, Sakura, the owner of the shop where he works, and Yukito. He buys his father something he thinks he can use, and a few trinkets for Sakura that he knows she's been wanting, and he's orchestrated for no similar gifts between himself and his father. The shop owner he buys a new apron, every year, with a different quaint saying. Yukito, he buys two gifts. One for Christmas, and one for his birthday.
When he first knew Yukito, he made sure he separated the two gifts, giving one on Yukito's birthday, and the other on Christmas day. As the years passed, he made it into a game: one year, he would get them both on his birthday, the next on Christmas day, and one year he gave him one gift on each day, but told him that the one on the 24th had been his Christmas present, and the one on the 25th his birthday present. Yukito always laughs, thanks him, and hands him whatever Christmas gift he has picked out for Touya. Somehow, Yukito always picks out the perfect gift.
This year is the fifth Christmas since Touya gave his power to Yue. The sixth Christmas since he realized that he was in love with Yukito. The fourth Christmas since they started dating.
Touya always spends a great deal of time selecting the perfect gifts for Yukito. He agonizes and drifts from shop to shop, wondering. Sometimes, he has an idea of what he might like to buy; other times, he waits for inspiration to smile at him from some shelf. This year, Touya knew precisely what to buy for both Yukito's birthday and Christmas.
Yukito has had a drawer of clothes at Touya's apartment since Touya moved out of his father's house. Throughout those two years, he has mentioned on four separate occasions that he really ought to purchase himself a bathrobe to keep there: he can never seem to remember to bring his own back and forth. For Christmas, Touya found a plush blue robe that he has already hung from a second hook in his bathroom.
For Yukito's birthday, Touya bought a plain, white-gold band that he had engraved with, For all the rest of your years, I will be here. The ring, he wrapped and placed underneath the Christmas tree at his father's house, where they will all be celebrating.
Touya would like to see Yukito put the ring on, under the illumination of the Christmas lights. He knows that it will be something he can add to the list of things that he will always associate with Christmas.
Everything is more beautiful beneath Christmas lights. Touya doesn't know why, or how, this is, but he knows it is. He wants that memory to last.