When Kido looked up to the bare branches of December, there was Mary's pink nose pressed up against the glass, moisture fogging up the panes as her eyes shone unseasonably bright in the reflection of white.

The rumble of a moving van from behind surprised her, and she hastened up the stairs, the luggage rattling as her boots plodded up. She really didn't know how Seto managed to even go up and down the stairs to work, these days, the steps were treacherously slippery, and her feet wobbled at the top.

Puffing white at the top, she peered wanly down at the moving van, and they seemed to be hauling in boxes upon boxes of shiny red aluminum cans. They seemed to be getting a lot of neighbors after Mary had come, and two had already come in- one on the bottom floor, and the other two doors next to them. Kido's head lowered to try to get a peek inside, but as soon as she thought she could make something out, Seto had opened the door and welcomed her in.

"New neighbors?" Kido nodded at Seto's inquisitive eyes, and she smiled, if not a little grimly, as she dropped the grocery bags onto the kitchen counter.

"Kano's not going to be pleased."

...

"The queen wants to go shopping," Kano yawned, and Mary's head behind the newest BL book Kano had managed to procure for her stiffened a little. "D...No, I don't!" Seto simply laughed from the kitchen, pouring a cup of tea for Mary and one of coffee for himself.

"Sure," he took a sip and began to pull on a winter jacket, and Mary hid her face further into the book, flustering. "B-But..." she tried, stumbling over her words, "But you have work!"

He shrugged the words off, boots in one hand already, and he flashed a grin at her as his hands wound a scarf around his neck. Kano laughed and carelessly laid his feet onto the other side of the sofa, his eyes never moving from his magazine, and he waved his hand at Seto's boots. "I don't have work, so I'm exempt."

Kido appeared next to him on the couch, to the surprised squeak of Mary, and smacked him upside the head with the magazine. "We're going," she ordered, black pupils hard as usual, and he winced, rubbing the back of his head. Her eyes moved to Mary, and she hurriedly hid her white head back behind the smutty cover. Seto emerged at the doorway, wrapped in a generous amount of jackets and a thick winter hat on his head, the winter boots that Mary so abhorred wearing fitting somehow endearingly on him.

He pulled down the scarf, cheeks flushed, and his smile was as summery as ever under a thick green turtleneck. "Ready?" They watched Mary fidget, the tips of her ears red from behind the flaps of the book, and after a long wait, she stuttered, shyly, "Thank you."

A hint of what could've been called a smile cracked at Kido's face, and she helped the small albino girl up. "Well," her eyes briefly darted to Kano, and he gave out a long sigh before shoving his hands (and the magazine) into his pockets, a cat-like grin flashing across his features. "I don't mind either. Besides," he quipped with a mischevious grin, "I might be able to get that game that Kido said she would get me for Christm-ugh!"

Kido foot met his stomach, and she dragged both of them to the door, giving Seto a placid look then a small smile. "Let's go."

...

"What's this?"

Mary curiously held up a lacy bra ("Not this again-" Kido struck it to the other side of the store with Kano red handed along with it. "How do you even get lacy bras in the vegetable section?"), and Seto smiled nervously, arms full of trinkets that they had found and decidedly kept, Kido eyeing the baskets apprehensively, sifting through them every once in a while whenever Kano dropped something in.

"Well," Seto started, a little flushed as Mary's rosy eyes questioningly landed on him, "when a man and a woman love each other very much-"

"I found it!" Kano burst in with a 20 foot pine tree in tow, a huge grin on his face. "Seto, help me get it into the basket before Danchou sees it-"

Kido got there first, and he was thrown face-first into a basket of freshly picked grade A tomatoes. Mary picked up a roll of cheese and threw it into the basket- "In case your bike gets a flat tire!" she beamed at Seto- and a newly married couple was watching them apprehensively, whispering, from the potato section.

Kido simply spat and eyed the back of the blond's black and white (and tomatoed, now) spotted hoodie, and coldly observed the 20 foot pine at her feet. Seto ran up to her, 2 rolls of cheese ("Because sometimes both tires blow out at once," Seto had resolved, and Mary approved a second roll to be added to the mix) and a dozen blow-up balloons and a 6 pack of red and black diet cola stacked on at least a dozen lacy skirts and bras with Christmas specials holiday card prints for 'Your beloved daughter,' in his arms inside a grocery mart plastic basket.

"Kido!" he called, waving his hand brightly, and Mary's eyes shone as she proudly held up a pair of lingerie in the middle of the vegetable section. The married couple was definitely staring at them weirdly now, and they had begun to creep away into the dairy section, refusing to meet any of their eyes.

"Do I really want to be associated with these people?" Kido sweat.

Mary ran up to her, tugging on her sleeve excitedly as she held the panties into Kido's face. "Isn't it cute?" her rosy eyes shone in excitement, her feet bouncing up and down a little, and she giggled a little. "I thought it would look really cute on you, Kido, the lace is cute but it shows off a cool kind of aura! I thought it would be nice ribbon for you."

'She thought it was a ribbon,' Kido considered in horror, and a family of 5 had arrived at the vegetable section and had turned around and quickly left the scene.

"Er," Mary's excited rosy eyes were downturned now, and she dug her toe into the tiles, "Seto told me that it'll be Christmas soon," her white curls bounced up, and she beamed at her, "and Christmas was a time of giving, so I thought, 'Kido will love it!' And Kano said that you liked to wear these kinds of things a lot, too, so..."

She trailed off at the look on Kido's face, and her arms went slightly down. "You... don't like-"

Kido snatched the panties out of Mary's hands before she could finish and forced on a bright grin, ruffling her white head. "No, no no no, you're right, I love it! You were right, I do like to...wear this kind of... stuff... all the time!"

Mary's eyes brightened, and she resisted the urge to look at the black and white jacket trembling with laughter in the tomato section, and she gently ruffled her head again, turning her lips into what she hoped was the kind of reassuring smile that Seto always would give her. "So you don't need to worry, ok?"

She nodded obediently, and Seto beamed at her as well, though she was sure it wasn't out of mockery for her choice of clothing ("I wear this kind of stuff all the time!" Kido felt like screaming and promised to check Kano's recordings later in the day), and he slapped her back. "If you're really into that kind of stuff," he supplied, brightly, "I can get you one too-"

Kido shot him a smiling glare when Mary wasn't looking, and he shut up. "Well," he rifled through the basket, and, an item hanging on the tree catching his eye, he tossed that into the basket as well. "I think we're mostly done here!"

Kido let out an exhausted sigh and dragged Kano out of the pile, Mary bouncing back behind Seto, checking that their list was all good. Kido smiled strainedly and ran a hand through her hair, and hissed through her teeth at the fondly smiling Seto staring at Mary, "What did you put on there? We're taking so long!"

Seto tapped his chin, eyebrows furrowing together, then whispered back, a little sheepish grin tugging at his lips, "I, uh, just put on a lot of stuff I thought Mary'd be into. We don't really have anything to buy?"

Kido was on the edge of kicking Seto into the tomato section too before Mary popped up with a pair of sunglasses and then they popped that into the basket, too. She looked uncertainly back at the 'unconscious' Kano who was playing games on his phone, and stopped them.

"I'll be back soon!" her voice disappeared at the corner, and when she came back, Kano looked up from his phone, grin wide. "I knew you could do it, Mary!" he cheered her, and she stared pleadingly at Kido, her arms wrapped around a 20 foot long pine tree. "I'm not sure if we can fit this into the cart," her voice wavered uncertainly, and Seto smiled and took the trunk of the tree and went to grab a new grocery basket.

Kido facepalmed.

...

"You know, I think we may have overestimated the size of this tree," Kano laughed nervously, half of the tree bowing over the kitchen entrance, ornaments hanging down the edges of the branches.

"You think?" Kano wisely stayed far away from Kido's punching range, his arms and face covered in bruises. "But we can't return it now," he quickly backed away, laughing nervously, hands up, as Kido approached, "I mean, this was Mary's Christmas present to me and all, she dragged it all the way through the vegetable and the dairy section so it could come here to our little humble apartment- ow ow ow-"

Seto took a glance to the albino girl, who was proudly admiring where she had placed the star on the top of the tree (which bending to the floor, so at least she didn't have any trouble reaching there), and he nudged her. Her rosy eyes looked up at him, soft and an unseasonable rose in the white of December.

"How's your first Christmas?" he asked her, quietly, and the rosy reds only hesitated a moment before beaming up at him. Her hand unexpectedly grabbed his and squeezed it, turning his face red inside out.

"I love it."

A/N: because it's christmas and who needs plot advancement when it's christmas i just want bonding and 20 foot trees in my heart ok