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Six was absolutely ecstatic about something. And Mono couldn’t tell what. In fact, he couldn’t tell how there was anything worth being happy about at that moment: it was deep into winter and the snow was getting heavier, the nights were longer and colder, and food was harder to find. But somehow, Six managed to radiate a positive energy. Mono didn’t understand how.
“What are you so excited about?” Mono asked as he reinforced their little hideout with more pillows and blankets.
“It’s almost Christmas! …I think,” Six answered, raising her arms joyfully at first before they fell back to her sides after her confidence deflated. “It’s really cold and it’s really wintery.”
“What’s Christmas?” Mono’s head tilted with confusion. Six lit up at that.
“The best holiday ever! Where we give presents to each other!”
“Oh. That’s it?” His head then tilted the opposite direction.
Six nodded. “It’s really fun!”
“Okay. Then let’s do Christmas.” Six cheered, making Mono feel fuzzy inside. But then a question popped into his mind. “When is it?”
“Soon!” She looked outside from her spot in their base as the snow fell across the City. “I can’t keep track of days like when I was home, but I know it’s soon.”
“So when do we wanna do it?”
“Once we get everything together we can do it!” She beamed with a determined smile, which furthered Mono’s fuzzy feelings for her. “We need food and presents and decorations.”
From under his bag, Mono frowned. “How are we gonna find that stuff now?”
Six grabbed his hands, which were cold in contrast to her warm palms. “We’ll figure it out!”
His frown turned into a smile. Whatever made Six happy was bound to make him happy too.
“Okay.”
The first day of work was getting the decorations. Six had stressed the importance of them and how they completely changed how their little home would feel. Mono hoped it would — because so far, their fort of pillows, blankets, boxes and crates, tarps, and poles to keep things up was… not very exciting.
“What are we looking for?” Mono asked as he wrapped his coat closer around himself. Six, on the other hand, seemed completely undeterred, marching onwards in her fluffy jackets and three layers of pants.
“String lights, ornaments, ribbons, and maybe even a tree!”
Mono did a double take upon hearing that last one. “A whole tree?”
“It can be a little one,” Six compromised, falling back to hold Mono’s hand.
They spent the day gathering up things and putting it in a spare box they found. The string lights surprisingly still worked, as long as they had batteries. Six was able to convince Mono to use the almost-dead batteries back at home. The ornaments and ribbons were in what looked to be a former decorative store. It was easy to find what they needed there since the apocalypse didn’t call for sparkly spheres to hang off of trees.
They found their little plastic Christmas tree in the storage of that store. Mono had to carry it back since the box was full and was starting to get a little heavy, almost more than what Six could carry. But the two made their supply run and came home safe and sound, ready to start decorating.
“What’re these for?” Mono held up the box of ornaments. Six carefully opened it and began setting them on the branches of their little fake tree.
“You put them on like this!”
“And these?” He retrieved the roll of lights. Six gladly picked them up and strung them from pole to pole in their hideout then stuck the batteries in the packet. The lights shined dimly, most likely because of the weak batteries, but the lights shined nonetheless.
“They make everything shiny!”
“What about these?” He held up the small laces of red ribbon, some of it overflowing onto his arms.
Six simply grabbed a long lace and tied it around his middle. “It makes you look pretty,” she said with a smile. Mono blushed under his bag.
The ornaments were put on the tree, with plenty left over since the branches were all so tiny. Six put a glittery star on the very tippy-top of the tree, then declared their work done. By the time they were finished, the world had turned darker and colder. Mono had to add a bit more fuel to their fire near the back to keep them warm. The countless bundles of blankets they had helped, but Mono wouldn’t risk Six getting sick.
The two huddled in the little sleeping-nest they’d made with their comfy material, tangling up into a cluster of cuddling. Six nuzzled close to Mono’s ribbon-tied tummy as he curled around her.
“Goodnight, pretty Mono,” she yawned. He pet her hair.
“Goodnight, pretty Six.”
The food was tougher. Winter made food tasteless and harder to find, what with snow burying everything. But Mono was determined to make this holiday good for Six. He made a plan.
“I have a bunch of papers about the Pale City before things got bad,” he explained to Six.
“Why do you have those?” He nodded to the fire. Six’s expression lifted upon understanding. “Ohh.”
“There should be a big warehouse near the shore. Maybe it’ll have a lot of food.”
So another day of journeying began. Mono led the way and Six stuck to his side, carrying their box which was now empty again. Though the sky was cloudy, there was no snow, but there was an ungodly amount of wind, nipping their noses and ears. Six nuzzled into Mono’s top-layer coat and he kept it open for her, leading them to practically shuffling to the warehouse.
The big building sat by a dock to the ocean. It was even windier by the shore than in the City, which was enough to make the two of them run into the warehouse.
There were countless rows and shelves of crates, to which Six frowned. “How will we know which one has our food in it?”
“Maybe it’ll look like that.” He pointed at a crate that had a picture-label on it, displaying oranges, cherries, peaches, all sorts of food.
With the box left on the floor, Mono climbed the rows and helped Six up with him until they were face to face with the box. He tried to lift the top but it was no use — the wood was nailed shut.
“We’ll have to push it off.” The duo started to shove at the box, moving more and more of it off the shelf until it fell and hit the floor with a loud CRASH.
Tons of little metal cans spilled out, all with different labels that indicated which food was inside. Six climbed down faster than Mono could keep up with. He loved his friend and her food-driven heart.
She started to put cans in the box, fitting as much as she could. By the end of it, it was too heavy for her, so Mono was the one to carry it home. Six took with her all the cans that she could fit in her arms. When they put everything down on the floor of their home, Six’s eyes were shining like stars.
“How much of this do we eat on Christmas?”
“All of it!”
Mono stared at her. “ All of it?! But— we still need to eat after Christmas!”
Six pouted. “Fiiine. We’ll only eat the best stuff.”
Mono noticed her eyeing a can of strawberries and he felt his heart beating fondly for her.
Then they were getting presents. Six had said to just go to a toy shop then split up there to keep the gifts a surprise.
“What about when we’re coming home? We can’t carry our stuff and it’ll still be a secret,” he’d pointed out.
“Put it in the box!” She’d lifted the box they kept using to carry stuff, but Mono had still been frowning.
“We’ll see each other’s gifts in the box.”
Six had shook her head. “I don’t need a box to hide your gift!”
So now Mono was in the store, box in hand, as he searched for the perfect gift for Six. He knew exactly what to get her: a ducky toy. Six loved ducks, it was the only thing Mono could imagine her loving more than him. She probably wanted one that was fluffy and squishy. Her palms were scraped from all the rough textures the two handled on a daily basis — something soft would be perfect for her.
Mono was curious though: what would she get for him? In all honesty, he wasn’t a very material person. He didn’t care about toys. He just liked spending time with Six. She was cute, sweet, passionate… Mono adored every second with her. So what would she get for him? He’d feel bad if she got him a toy that she thought was just the present for him and he had to pretend that he loved it.
Aha! He finally found a nice plushie for Six. It was big, fuzzy, and round. Its wings and feet were just little ovals of fabric stitched to its sides, and the face was adorned with a smile on its orange, soft beak. He knew she’d love it. He stuffed it in the box and walked back to their decided meet-back spot: the front of the store.
He waited there for no more than five minutes, then she was there too. It didn’t look like she had anything, which both relieved and saddened Mono. Even though he didn’t want a toy, he was still kinda hoping she’d try… With how excited she’d been for the past few days, it’d kinda rubbed off on him.
“I’m ready to go!” She linked her arm with his, almost making him drop the box. But he kept it in his hands and he started to walk the two of them home.
“Did you get your thing?”
“Mhm!” She patted her pocket and Mono smiled.
When they got home, Mono was about to open the box for her, but she slammed her hands down on it, thoroughly shocking Mono.
“We do presents tomorrow!”
Mono blinked. “But… we have everything now.”
She nodded. “But it’s already the afternoon. We want a full day of Christmas!”
“Oh. Okay.” He let Six take the box and put it under their tree. She pulled a tiny box out of her pocket and placed it next to Mono’s present.
“Now we can relax,” she sighed, melting into a cuddly puddle next to Mono. In return, he leaned against her too. He was exhausted from all the work. Getting to relax sounded amazing. The fire crackled a few steps away from them, keeping the two warm. He wrapped his arms around her, not caring how his bag crinkled against her.
Tomorrow was Christmas.
“Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!”
Mono was awakened by Six shaking him around excitedly. His eyes blinked open and he was forced out of his drowsiness by her urgent tone. “Huh? Wha…?”
“It’s Christmas!” Six had never looked so happy. It was even easier to see all her excitement when he didn’t have his bag on.
“Oh… yeah.” He stretched his arms over his head until they shook with the strain. Then he moved the blankets (that had been notably kicked up by Six when she’d first woken up) followed her over to their tree.
“You should open yours first,” Mono suggested, pointing to his box. Six didn’t need to be told twice — she tugged it into her lap and opened the box flaps to reveal her plushie. She gasped in awe.
“It’s perfect!” She wasted no time hugging it tightly, nuzzling her face into the fuzzy fabric. Mono smiled fondly, his heart warming at her joy. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
“Mhm.”
“Now you open yours!” She gestured to the little box under the tree. Mono reached over and picked it up. It fit right in his palm, making him wonder what it could be. He lifted its top off and looked inside.
It was a little gold heart-locket necklace. Mono didn’t know how to feel about it. On one hand, he thought it was very sweet. On the other, he didn’t really care for it…
“Open it,” Six said. He noticed a little button on the back of the heart and the locket clicked open.
Inside, there was a little drawing that he instantly recognized to be from Six. It was of him, bag mask and all, and her holding hands. Above them were the words “I love you”.
Now he knew how he felt about the locket. He loved it.
“Where did you get this?” Mono’s voice was softer than usual, due to the awe and emotion filling his chest.
“There were teddy bears with lockets. So I took one and made it for you!” She cupped his hands with hers, giving him that smile he loved so much.
“Thank you. Thank you so much.” He put the item around his neck, the locket resting on his heart. He shuffled closer to her until he could hold her face and kiss her sweetly. She giggled past their lips, her voice like the sound twinkling like a bell.
“This is…” Mwah. “…the nicest thing…” Mwah. “…anyone has ever done…” Mwah. “…ever.” Mwah!
“I guess the mistletoe works,” she laughed.
“The huh?” He gave her one more kiss for good measure.
“The mistletoe.” She pointed up, where a little plant was hanging from their string lights. “You’re supposed to kiss under it.”
“Can do.” And he kissed her again.
Six eventually shied away, face completely red and flustered. “Okay, okay! Let’s eat, I’m hungry!”
Mono handed her the canned strawberries after popping the top with their canopener. He got his own can of peaches to enjoy. They sat by the fire, snuggled together under the lights. Six had her new plushie in her lap and Mono wore his locket by his heart.
Mono found that he liked this holiday.