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Humans are complicated. Keith is hit with the thought once again when he hears the twins discussing in hushed voices in the living room. It seems none of them have heard Keith arrive —with the thick layer of snow outside the little cottage they live in is very troublesome for Keith’s comings and goings to the forest every day so he barely ports in and out their doorstep. He had meant to melt it out with a sunlight spell to ease his path, but Shiro had almost begged him to not do it, insisting that it was very natural for winter to be snowy.
The key word had been ‘natural’ seeming that Keith was very adamant to defend everything to go to its natural course. And seeming that Shiro was right and snow was very natural to fall when the weather was cold and the air was humid enough to make the droplets of rain to freeze up, Keith had obliged and just applied a warmth spell inside the house.If it had been Keith’s decision, though, he had gone for spring all year long.
“But, Shiro-”
“Let’s just see.”
Keith tilts his ear closer to the discussion, giving them a look from around the corner of the hallway. They seem very passionate about what they’re talking about, their hands gesturing around them and in front of them. That’s when Keith catches the mess these two have in the living room —there’s glittery balls everywhere in the carpet, many golden and silver stars thrown over the center table and a few red bows with gold lining over the couch.
Keith frowns.
“Is everything alright?” Keith asks when he decides he can’t keep hidden and half-listening to their discussion. Both of them flinch, and look over to him, blushes across their faces.
“Keith, you’re home!” Kuro says, throwing a glance over to his brother, who coughs into his fist, “How is everything out there?”
“Cold,” Keith answers, pulling off his tunic and perching it beside the door, “What are you doing?”
Shiro exchanges glances with his brother, and then sighs heavily.
“We’re decorating,” he answers, and Keith frowns, “For Christmas!”
Keith tilts his head, his braided hair falling loose around his face, and stops his steps beside the couch, eyeing the mess on it. There’s also some white plastic snowflakes and a glittering star.
“Who is Christmas?”
Kuro snorts and Shiro slaps his arm, at least the good one.
“It’s a celebration,” Shiro starts, Kuro chuckling but keeping the joke to himself, “about family and spending time with your loved ones.”
Keith looks between them both, and then to the empty space they had apparently made moving away their furniture.
“Okay,” Keith muses, “But what are you doing?”
They exchange glances, and then Shiro sighs.
“Thing is that Christmas is sometimes celebrated with a pine tree inside the house and...” Shiro goes quiet, wincing.
Kuro pats him in the shoulder.
“It’s a cut-down tree in most cases,” Kuro finishes grimly, making Keith startle, “But we know that it isn't okay to do so and it will be very upsetting for you. We don’t want this festivity to be troubling for you.”
Keith blinks, opening his mouth and then closing it. Humans are weird, and complicated, especially because Keith can’t understand how uncaring most of them are for nature when she gives them all they need to live.
“That’s why I was researching about a spell to grow one here instead,” Shiro explains, walking closer and caressing his hair when he senses Keith’s distress, “We don’t want to upset you.”
“We love you,” Kuro chides in, stepping closer to them and brushing away a white bang from Keith’s face —white hair is the only thing that physically connects them, their souls being tightly threaded together ever since Keith saved them—, “We care about you and we don’t want to do something that would make you mad or sick.”
Keith stares at him, then at Shiro, and finds in their eyes how honest they really are. It’s not that they have never been honest with him, but it’s always such a wonder how different they are from common humans.
“We won’t try anything if you don’t want to,” Shiro murmurs, and Keith turns to him.
He looks over his white hair, overly short to what Keith’s accustomed to see, then to Kuro’s white bangs over his forehead, all his hair almost as long as Keith’s.
Keith reminds how he had met them, how both twins were on the brink of death in the middle of the woods when Keith had only been a novice in curative magic. Keith had saved both their lives, somehow transferring part of his fae soul into them to stitch up the human parts they had been deprived of.
Both of them have part of his magic in them, part of his soul, only Shiro being a little more soaked in it to do little spells here and there. But even when they’re connected so deeply, Keith has never felt that connection has forced the relationship they had.
They both care for Keith. And Keith cares for them.
“I could help you,” Keith murmurs, “If you want.”
The twins’ faces bright up, and both lean over to kiss Keith’s cheeks, nose and up to his pointy ear, making him giggle.
‘It’s a celebration about family and spending time with your loved ones,’ Shiro’s words echoing in Keith’s head.
They are his most loved ones.