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The cold winter air was nipping at You Watanabe’s cheeks as she hurried her way down the street. She had a hat on, and a scarf pulled up over part of her face, but they were only doing so much to protect her from the frigid air and biting wind. Her work uniform was neatly folded up in the bag slung over her shoulder, along with some other spare clothes, but she was now changed into an outfit that was far more suitable for the weather, with a bulky coat layered over a sweater and thick warm leggings protecting her from the elements. Still, she was looking forward to getting back inside.
It had gotten dark long ago, but the streets were lit up nicely- not only from the normal lamps that lined the sidewalks, but from the Christmas lights that seemed to be everywhere You looked as well. It was around seven pm on December 24th, which meant in only a few more hours it would be Christmas day itself, and that holiday cheer was putting a little extra skip in You’s step. It definitely didn’t hurt that she was on her way to spend Christmas Eve with her beautiful girlfriend either.
A few more twists and turns through the streets of Tokyo and You was arriving at her destination, looking up at the familiar apartment building where Eli Ayase lived. They had been dating for around two months now, and You had been over to Eli’s apartment enough times that it was starting to feel familiar to her. They had only spent the night together a small handful of times before, though, but You always enjoyed it when they got the opportunity to do so. Even waking up in her own tiny apartment felt a lot warmer when there was someone else beside her.
As you approached the building she took her phone out of her pocket, wrestling one of her gloves off so she could actually type out a message: “I’m outside”
“Be right there,” Eli replied, and You put her phone back away, stuffing her hand into her pocket to keep warm while she waited. After a minute or two she saw movement inside the lobby, and peering through the glass she could see Eli approaching the door.
“You look cold out here,” she said as she opened it up.
“Very,” You replied, before stepping forward and lifting herself up onto her toes just the slightest bit to kiss her girlfriend. Eli felt warm against You’s lips and nose- and, from the soft giggling You heard, Eli noticed that as well.
“You feel cold out here,” she said as she broke away, before stepping off to the side to usher You into the building. “Come in.” You was all too happy to oblige, and from there Eli lead her across the familiar lobby and up the familiar flight of stairs, until they were reaching the familiar door to Eli’s familiar apartment.
The first thing You noticed, when Eli opened the door, was the delicious smell coming inside, followed by the sight of the Christmas decorations that had been strung up around the space. Lights were hanging on the walls and wrapping around the edges of the room, and there was a tiny tree standing in the corner. It was festive, and even if it wasn’t much it made You happy just to see it.
“I bought us some dinner,” Eli said, walking past You and over towards the kitchen counter. As she reached it she picked up a container and tilted it for You to see, and through the plastic lid she was able to make out an assortment of pieces of fried chicken. That explained the delicious smell.
“Nice, I’m starving right now,” You replied, putting a hand over her stomach for emphasis. It had been a while since lunch, and the walk to get from her job to Eli’s apartment was longer than the walk to get back to her own.
“We can dig right in, then,” Eli said, laughing softly as she opened the container up and grabbed plates off the shelf. “We can put something on the TV if you’d like as well.”
“That sounds good, yeah,” You agreed. She dropped her bag on the floor a little bit away from the foot of the couch, then flopped down onto the soft, worn out cushions, scooping up the remote and turning the TV on while Eli approached with the plates and the food. Eli took a seat beside You, handing her a plate and placing the food between them. It was clear from looking at the container that the chicken had just been picked up from a grocery store, rather than anywhere name brand, but You didn’t mind. At this point, she was hungry enough that she would eat just about anything.
“It smells good, doesn’t it?” Eli asked. “It’s been a test of my will the whole time I’ve been sitting here waiting for you to show up.”
“Aww, you could’ve dug in early,” You snickered back. “I wouldn’t have cared.” But Eli shook her head.
“No. Even if it’s not much, I wanted to share this with you.” You didn’t say anything in response to that, but it was still enough to make her smile. She and Eli sorted through the different pieces of chicken, divvying them up before You turned her attention back to the remote and the TV. She flipped through the channels for a minute, looking for something that caught her interest, until she ended up landing on what appeared to be some sort of variety show that was doing a special Christmas episode.
“Is this good?” You asked.
“Sure, it’s fine with me,” Eli replied. Content, You set the remote aside, slumping back against the couch as she started to eat. The chicken was absolutely delicious; even if was a generic store brand, the flavor and the texture were still exquisite, and the meal was perfectly satisfying the growing hunger she had been starting to feel. Neither of them spoke much as they ate, too busy chewing, and the noise from the TV filled most of the silence anyway, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Something about being able to sit next to Eli and enjoy being there, even if they weren’t saying anything to each other, was pleasant to You. She was happy that it felt so easy to relax in Eli’s presence.
“Hey,” she eventually said, scooting a little closer to Eli until their shoulders were bumping up against each other. You could see Eli looking over at her out of the edge of her vision, but she was still keeping her own eyes forward on the TV rather than looking back at her. “I’m really glad that we’re getting to spend this time together.” There was a small moment of silence after she said that, and then You could see Eli nodding.
“Yeah,” she agreed. “I am as well.”
“For the past couple years… Christmas has been kind of a bummer holiday for me,” You admitted, laughing softly at herself. “It’s nice to be able to enjoy it again for a change.”
“I think… I think I understand what you mean,” Eli replied, and a moment later You felt a hand coming to rest against her own. That finally prompted her to look over at Eli, who was staring back at her, wearing a gentle smile on her face. “It’s good to get back to spending this night with someone I care about.”
Those words carried a bittersweet weight to them, as was always the case any time the subject of Eli’s past was brought up. Nozomi was a strange, difficult topic to approach, but it was never one they had tried to avoid either. Eli talked about her often enough, whenever something came up that would remind her of Nozomi, or of some moment or funny story worth sharing. The photograph of Eli and Nozomi still sat on the shelf, just a few feet from where they were sitting. Eli didn’t seem to want to forget Nozomi, and You didn’t want her to do that either. She didn’t want to think she was a replacement to Nozomi, and she didn’t think she would ever be capable of becoming that even if she did want to. Nozomi was a part of Eli’s past, just as Chika was a part of You’s, and neither of those were topics they shied away from, no matter how difficult they could be to talk about sometimes.
“Yeah,” You ended up agreeing, nodding slowly while she kept her eyes on Eli’s. “It is.” There was another small pause there, and then You was glancing down at her bag, sitting on the floor a short distance from the couch. “Hey. I actually… Got you a little present,” she said.
“Oh?” Eli replied, lips curling up into a small smile. “I got you something as well. Should we do this right now?”
“Yeah! Let’s go for it!” You nodded enthusiastically as she got up from the couch, setting her now mostly finished plate of food on the kitchen table so she could crouch down and dig into her bag. There were a handful of other items in there, such as her work uniform and spare clothes for the next day, along with a couple of toiletries she had decided to bring. Down near the bottom, though, she eventually found a small box, nearly wrapped up in paper with a little bow on the top. The bow had gotten crushed slightly from having so many other things piled on top of it, and You did her best to push it back up into place, wanting the gift to look nice. While she was doing that Eli had also gotten up, briefly disappearing into her bedroom before coming back with a box of her own. Eli’s box was much larger and bulkier, which immediately captured You’s attention and made her curious as Eli sat back down on the couch and put the box beside her.
“Open mine first,” she instructed.
“Alriiight?” You replied, raising an eyebrow as playful curiosity got the better of her. She carried her gift for Eli with her as she returned to the couch, but kept it to herself for the time being. The box in front of her seemed almost daunting now, and You was starting to worry that Eli might have outdone her on the gift giving front, whatever it was. She lifted the box up, noticing that whatever was inside was decently heavy. Like any person who had ever received a wrapped present at any point in history You then gave a few small shakes, listening for the sound it would make, only for Eli to immediately shoot a hand out to stop her.
“Don’t!” she blurted out, before collecting herself and laughing sheepishly. “It’s, ah… It’s probably better if you don’t shake it.”
“So it’s fragile, huh?” You replied, curiosity growing ever stronger. Not seeing a point in delaying it any longer, though, You hooked her fingers under the edge of the paper and started to tear through it.
As You ripped the paper away she could quickly tell that whatever the gift was seemed to still be in its original packaging, as opposed to something that had been tucked inside a reused box, though it took her a moment longer to figure out what that packaging actually was. Eventually, though, she had peeled back enough of the wrapping to see the full print of the box and realize what she was looking at: a sewing machine.
It was a small model, and definitely one of the cheaper ones available- which was good. If You had been worried Eli had spent too much money on her, she would have felt terrible about it. Still, it had been a while since she’d actually laid hands on a sewing machine at all, and for a couple of seconds she was just dumbstruck as she stared down at it, holding the box out in front of her and trying to find something to say.
“You mentioned that you haven’t really kept up with sewing since high school,” Eli said. “I thought this might help you get a fresh start.”
“I… I love it,” You replied. “Thank you.” It was only after she had spoken that You started to realize she was tearing up a little bit. She wasn’t really sure why, or where it had come from, but suddenly her vision was clouding over, and she ended up having to reach up to wipe her eyes dry with the back of her hand.
“Are you alright?” You heard Eli ask her, and she quickly nodded.
“Yeah, I’m alright,” she promised. “I just… I really like it. Thank you.” She offered up a smile, reassuring Eli that she was okay, then held her own smaller box out towards her girlfriend. “This is gonna seem kinda lame by comparison now, but…”
“Nonsense,” Eli replied, delicately taking the box from You. “I’m sure I’m going to love it.” You certainly hoped that would be the case, and she looked on with a bizarre combination of nervousness and excitement, blending together into an anxious ache in the pit of her stomach. As Eli tore back the wrapping a small white box was revealed, the sort jewelry looked like might have come in, though that wasn’t what was waiting inside. Instead, as Eli lifted the lid off, two small rectangular pieces of paper became visible: tickets, to a local ballet company’s production of The Nutcracker . This time, it was Eli who almost looked like she was in shock.
“I know you used to dance ballet,” You explained. “So I figured, maybe… It’d be nice to go to this together. I tried to get us good seats, and I picked a night I knew we’d both be off from work… Does that sound good?”
“It sounds wonderful,” Eli replied, nodding while still keeping her eyes on the tickets in her hand. As You watched her, she started to realize that Eli was the one who seemed to be tearing up a little bit now. “I haven’t been to see a ballet in… A while.” Eli didn’t specify how long “a while” was, but she didn’t need to. You already knew.
“Are you sure you wanna go?” You asked, suddenly starting to second guess herself and her choice of present. “I mean, if you’d rather not, I-”
“No,” Eli interrupted, lifting her eyes to make contact with You’s. “I’m positive. This sounds like a lovely way to spend an evening together.” There was still a little bit of nervousness in You’s stomach, a tightness in her chest, but she knew Eli well enough by now to know Eli wouldn’t try to lie to her about something like this. So, pushing those last bits of hesitation down, You nodded, and a grin stretched over her face.
“Alright. I’m glad,” she said, before resting her hand on the sewing machine box. “Maybe I’ll even be able to whip us up some fancy new outfits to wear.”
“No offense,” Eli replied, “but I’ll be quite impressed if you manage to make two full outfits in three days’ time.”
“Yeah, fair enough,” You snickered back. Eli laughed a bit as well, but then she was moving forward on the couch, reaching out towards You’s face and leaning in. You followed the silent guidance, letting Eli’s hand cup her cheek as she leaned forward in return, until their lips softly pressed against each other’s. The kiss only lasted for a moment before it was broken, but even after that the two of them stayed leaning forward, letting their foreheads rest against each other. They were quiet, but You could see Eli smiling, and before she realized it she was smiling as well.
“Merry Christmas,” she said.
“Merry Christmas,” Eli replied.
“I’m really happy we’re getting to spend this time together.”
“As am I,” Eli said, reaching out to take You’s hand in her own, interlacing their fingers. “Christmas finally feels… Like Christmas again.”
“Yeah,” You agreed. “It does. How about that.”